Tintagel and Cornwall

So our first Wednesday in England, we continued our journey south west from Dartmoor and hit up Cornwall.
We started our morning with a full english breakfast again (its really not a choice at this point, its just what they feed you). Then started the drive to the coast. Our main and first stop was to see Tintagel Castle, a 13th century ruin which had been built upon an even earlier medieval settlement. Commissioned by Richard, Earl of Cornwall, Tintagel seems to take most of its tourist draw from its association with King Arthur (as it was said it was there that Uther Pendragon slept with Arthur's mother) and associated legends. Geoffry of Monmouth can be mostly blamed for this. Other legends include the naming of a sea cave under the castle as the haunt of Merlin. The actual ruins are interesting as a combination of 13th century castle walls and staircases mixed with what is left of the even earlier medieval house foundations. There are huge swaths of wild flowers that grow around the ruins giving them a sort of secret garden feeling and you can walk right up to the sea cliffs that the ruins sit on (the British aren't much for putting up protective barriers at dangerous sites, just "Please be aware of..." signs). Overall the ruins were pretty, very remote and a job and a half to walk around because of the elevation involved.

After walking around the castle, we stayed in the area and had our first Cornish pastie from a local baker. We tried both a beef and a onion and cheese pastie, both were fantastic. Also, in the same village area was a post office that was actually a 14th century house that was turned into a post office in the 19th century.

After Tintagel, we headed to the B&B we were staying at which was about four miles south of tintagel in the tiny village of St. Teath and went to the town center to find a nice pub for dinner (we went to basically the only one called The White Hart). One of the things we have noticed (and enjoyed) about England is that there are dogs everywhere, including in the pubs. As it were, this pub had the meeting of black dogs going on as just about everyone seemed to have a black lab with them.

We each had a fish related meal, fish pie for Evan and haddock fish cakes for Andrea, with a sticky toffee pudding for desert.

Full of dinner, we headed back to the B&B (one of the nicest we had been in so far) and crashed for the night.

So.. about the posts.

Well its been a pretty fast paced few days... and sadly with little internet available and even less time to type up posts and such. We are in Paris now... and have internet at the hotel. So hopefully we'll get the posts caught back up and with some pictures included. We did actually get back to the hotel this evening really early and had the intent to start typing... then we both feel asleep for about 5 hours. Thankfully the little store down the street was open still when we got up and so we made a slightly better version of a hodgepodge dinner than we did last time. Anyway, off to bed so that we can start again tomorrow nice and early. Adios.

No internets tonight or tomorrow...

Hotel we are at doesn't have the internets. I'll see if I can type up the missing posts and get them posted tomorrow when we hit wifi, but no promises. Today we are in Edinburgh, tomorrow we are off to find Highland Moo Cows in the lowlands as I'm not sure we'll have the time to get all the way up to the highlands. Tomorrow night we are back in Edinburgh and the next morning off to the Lake District.

Of books, and cheese and mummies, too.

London, Day One: Rainy....

DEAR CHARLEY:—

Does it not seem strange that I am here in London? I can hardly tell what to write about first. I stand at the door of our hotel and look at the crowds in the streets, and then at old King Charles, at Charing Cross, directly across the road, and when I think that this is the old city where Wat Tyler figured, and Whittington was lord mayor, and Lady Jane Grey was beheaded, and where the Tower is still to be seen, I am half beside myself, and want to do nothing but roam about for a good month to come. I have read so much concerning London.... (Letter Four, Young Americans Abroad, 1852)

Even mid-nineteenth century Americans had the initial awed reaction of being in London for the first time. So many of the cliched landmarks most of us know are located there; some of these places live up to their fame, others not so much.

We took a morning train from Stevanage (where we were staying with Vrinda and family) to Kingscross station, which was only about a 25 minute trip. While taking the tube into London would have been cheaper, the train was faster and, heck, we don't get to take trains places very much :)

From here we went to the British Library to see their rare books and manuscripts that are on display. They had the original handwritten copy of Jane Eyre and Jane Austens reading glasses, along with illuminated manuscripts, maps, some of da Vinci's papers, early religious texts, etc. Evan even got to see a special exhibit about Science Fiction literature, which I think he enjoyed.

Next we headed to Borough Market...omg...we would move to London just for that place. Its basically a giant farmers/food stall/butchers/pastries market in an area sorrounded by restaruants and shops. Seriously, this place is a foodies dream. We had a duck sandwhich and thai fish curry for lunch and picked up some chocolate, bought cheese (Glouschester, cheddar, a blue and a sheep's milk) from Neil's Yard Dairy and got drinks from an Italian coffee shop that seemed entirely staffed by Italians and made one heck of a good espresso. We could have spent hours here!

Wandered next to the Thames a bit and saw the outside of the Tower of London (didn't feel like paying the entrance fee) and saw and touched a section of the orginial Roman wall that surrounded Londinium and enclosed medieval London. There is something really awesome about making contact with a peice of something that old, something that saw all the changes London has gone through.

British Museum: interesting, pretty, but still a museum. I think I (Andrea) had some sort of magic vision of this place in my mind from childhood, but while cool, it is, in all reality, a really big museum. Saw the Rosetta Stone, some mummies, Sutton Hoo items, etc. and headed out to Oxford Circus to do some clothes shopping. I picked up a bright pink dress and a super short darker pink dress I have to wear tights under, lol. Meanwhile, British sizing for clothes is different then ours (which I knew), but it does nothing for a girl's ego after she loses 23 pounds!

From there we headed back to Vrindas, planning to return the next day.

London, Day two: Rainy again.....

Off again on the train to London, this time to see the Victoria and Albert Museum, Camden Town and Covent Garden.
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After taking the tube from Kingscross to Convent Garden, we hit a pub for food and drinks, and most importantly, to avoid the soaking rain. The place was crowded, but after the rain started hitting really hard it became standing room only.

Covent Garden is neat, largely expensive stores, random stalls selling the typical clothing, tourist stuff and old women's jewelry, and food places. We didn't stay for long here and headed off to the Victoria and Albert museum to check out furniture, clothing, random items of historical value. I really wanted to see the historic fashion exhibit, but its being remodelled until Spring 2012...sad Andi :( Meanwhile, they have whole sections of rooms, house fronts, staircases, etc. from medieval and tudor homes, pretty cool.

We went off to Camden Town, a popular college/teen/goth/punk hangout. We had a yummy mocha, some curry and jerk chicken and wandered around the stores. Apparently we missed some sort of large antique area, which we found out after we got back to Vrinda's, but oh well, that can be for the next trip.

We had a slight adventure getting off track on the tube back to Kingscross, but found our way there and headed home for the evening.

Next post: Scarborough

Because we missed our station, we are doing a post one stop out of order.

So this is a post to say that we are skipping a post about Tintagel and Cornwall, which we will get to tomorrow after we've got the big camera downloaded to the tablet. Cause a post without pics is hardly a post at all.

Ponies and Sheep!

Tuesday already... needed about 4 more hours of sleep.

Work up in the hostel (Sparrowhawk... forgot to mention that from the previous post), showered, packed and ready to go around 10am. Trucked the backpack and gear back to the car (trip number 981 or there abouts) and headed out on a search for a hearty breakfast (still slightly famashed after our oh so amazing dinner the night before). Found a local cafe which had, much to our amazement of course, Full English Breakfast. For those of you who aren't familiar, this consists of sausage, bacon, hashbrowns, eggs, beans and tomatoes (sometimes with black pudding, sometimes thankfully without). What this really means is 2 grease covered slabs of canadian bacon, 1 or 2 (greasy) tasteless sausages, 2 (greasy) over easy eggs, heinz beans (for breakfast... wtf (Plus they are swimming in grease from the previous two entries to the plate), stewed or pan fried tomatoes and a blood enfused bad tasting brownie. Most of it either isn't good or shouldn't be for breakfast. Like seriously, how hard is it to mix in some spices when making sausage. Does everyone order the little triangle of hashbrown form the exact same distributor? At some point in time in the history of England was there this huge huge huge surplus of Tomatoes that they just had to get rid of and figured that they would make an excellent addition to an already weird breakfast... and then created a tradition out of it to make sure the surplus never happened again? And its everywhere. I sometimes think to myself how I would kill for some variety at some breakfast places when its always pancakes or belgian waffles for 90% of the menu... but now having had english breakfast (pretty much an exact same copy of the exact same breakfast in 3 different places), I would kill for a damn waffle or pancake.

Anyway.. rant over. English breakfast is amazing. I'm looking forward to what I'm assuming is going to be another version (read copy) of it tomorrow morning from yet another source (the B&B we are staying at tonight).

After breakfast, we purchesed two bagets from the cafe, went on the other side of the wall from the cafe and got an Ordinance Survey map and a couple of books, stopped by the store again and picked up some lunch supplies, stopped by a local fruit seller to get some peaches (which ended up being from Spain) and headed back to the car. Full bellies and lots of supplies in tow, we headed out to the Moors (Dartmoor).

So far I had pretty much either been on an M or A level road or in a small town where I expected the roads and streets to be cramped. Little did I know of the adventures I was in for driving wise. Andrea had picked out a few places she wanted to see, our first was a grave that was at a crossroads just a little before the Tors we were going to be climbing. What we didn't know was that it was 4 miles on a single lane road.  A single lane road with 10ft hedges on either side. A single lane road with 10ft hedges on either side that is so twisty and turny that you can see maybe 20 feet in either direction. A single lane road with 10ft hedges on either side that is so twisty and turny that you can see maybe 20 feet in either direction that locals like to drive about 40mph on. Its ok though right... how many of these roads could I possibly need to navigate for Andrea to see all the little odds and ends she has picked out.... (5 days into the trip, 3 of which a large portion was 1 lane roads just like this).

So anyway.. grave was nice.

Then it was out onto the Moors. We started by climbing up a few of the first Tors into the Moors and checking out an Iron Age village site. On the way up to the site and on the way back along the road, we were actually able to get really close to some of the Dartmoor ponies that inhabit the Moors (they roam all over them) and some of the local sheep that use it for grazing. Thus fulfilling 2 of Andrea's items at the same time. Had our lunch (bread, cheese, fruit and nuts) at the top of the higher Tor that we climbed and started our way back to the car.

Next on the list of activities for the day was to hike into Wistmans wood. So, 40 minute drive, 10 minute pee break at the hotel just off the entrance to the path, 40 minute hike in and OMG PRETTY TREES. Seriously one of the most beautiful stand of trees I have ever seen. Hell, one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in the world. Sitting there just 20 or so feet into this little forest, eating a small snack and just soaking in the beauty. It was just amazing. And then 40 old and out of shape German tourists show up... all ambiance had vanished. Pretty trees... full of talking people. Lots of pictures taken... lots of pictures missed as we were running out of time and there was just too much there to shoot. Headed back out of the little forest and back to the car as it was getting late in the afternoon and we had plans to actually get to bed one night before like 1am to get a good nights sleep.

Got back to the car, mapped the directions to the next B&B and headed out. Got in about 7:30, got freshened up, had dinner and got to bed about 11 or so after getting everything ready for the next morning. Sadly, neigther this B&B or the night before's Hostel had internet access, so posts are a bit behind. Also, the toliet was some sort of monster from the the 80's, the room was warm but somehow the window wouldn't bring in a breeze and there was maybe 10% of normal shower presure the next morning when a nice hot and powerfull shower would have felt great... but they did have English Breakfast, so that was pretty awesome.

Well, it is 12:14 am here and I'm tired. I haven't proof read this much and I know there are some errors, but its pretty early state side. So I'm just going to post this and let you guys read it as is... tomorrow morning I'll have Andrea go back and fix everything for me and we'll repost it for those of you who haven't already read it. For those of you who to read it before fixes... I don't care if it doesnt read well and needs a 3rd grade english teachers touch... its late and I'm tired. I'm also still a day behind. But there are pictures! Hopefully the blogger app posts them in some sort of way that makes sense and actually posts them for that matter.

More (and hopefully catching us up and making us current) tomorrow.

Monday... the first day out on our own.

So on Monday, we said goodby to V, George and Percy until next weekend and headed out on our own to start exploring. After grabbing some supplies and breakfast from Asda (the British version of Walmart), we headed out on the road down to Somerset (Hi Carol and Quillhaven family.. from Somerset, PA) where we started our day touring around Glastonbury Abbey and its surounding grounds. After looking over the Abbey we climbed up on top of the Glastonbury Tor (tor is a hill) where the wind was actually stronger and more constant than in WY...  we were impressed. The story of the Tor is that it used to be surrounded by water and was the point from which King Arthur threw his sword back to the lady of the lake. Andrea doesn't buy into it, but I think we should look around the hillside just in case.

After looking around the Abbey, scaling the Tor and back we headed off to Moretenhomatoeoadndeakkzkdy (Mortonhampstead). We got there about 8pm. After finding parking, finding the hostel, going back to the car to get our clothes for the next day and hiking back and forth between the car and the hostel about 8 times (slight exageration, but they weren't close to each other so it seems about right) we finally started to get ready to snag some dinner for ourselves before being ready to drop off to sleep. It was now about 8:50. We started looking for places to eat online and found a few local locations. We called the first one to start to get an idea of what they would be like. Well first, they didn't serve dinner that night and second, they and all other resturants in the area stopped surving dinner at 9pm. It was now about 8:55 pm. I quickly called the store that we had visited on one of our 30 trips back and forth to the car to get 2 toothbrushes (we couldn't find ours from the day before) and they also closed at 9:00 and the lady who answered the phone didn't think I would be able to get there in time before closing to get anything (also implying she wasn't willing to stay open long enough for me to accomplish the task either). After taking an inventory of our food stocks, we enjoyed a nice dinner of sliced carrots, an apple each, about 8 tea biscuits each, a tart to split, a snack size bag of sun chips each and a few glasses of tea. It wasn't hugely filling, and tea biscuits are just about tasteless (Andrea disagrees and thinks they taste like animal crackers)
... but we didn't go hungry, so there's that.

We did have a long day of driving, a full day of climbing and a bit of picture posing... so after our wonder dinner, sleep was happily accepted from the matress gods.

Sadly, all of the pictures so far had been taken in a .raw file format which means they'll have to wait till we get back to convert to .jpg in order to post online. From here on though we've been shooting the pics in .raw + .jpg, so we'll have pics to post in the following blog posts, if I can figure out how to get the blogger app to correctly post pictures.

Driving in the UK.

I've found that the best way to drive in the UK is to find some crazy local driver who halls ass down the roads and doesn't seem to give a damn about possibly hitting the person from the apposing lane. That way I can follow behind, see when to break and have the other drivers forced into their side of the lane a little further instead of riding on the line. The ultimate is to find the crazy lorry driver who's willing to go near or over the speed limit with his huge truck in these tiny ass roads. Then I don't have to worry about anyone being near my lane (to an extent) and yet still go fast enough to get somewhere.

To give you an idea of what I'm talking about;  I used to think that the cross country drive, during road construction, with a Jersey barrior on one side and an 18 wheeler on the otherside, at night, while raining, after 7 other hours of driving, and with 2 cats in the back seat was the worst type of driving ever. Now I clearly know that the worst type of driving is actually any time of day (even just after breakfast and a nice night of sleep), during any type of weather (even a nice clear sunny day),  while on anything of "A" level road or smaller. Its like these people have a death wish for at least thier side mirrors if not the entire damn car. Any road thats labeled as 2 lanes is actually lying to you, its at max a 1.5 lane road. Now thats not an AZ 1.5 lane road where each car has about 1.5 lanes of room with which to wander around in before crossing any lines; it's 1.5 lanes for you, 2 sets of wall height hedges, a few sign posts, oh and a full size shipping truck coming at you at 50mph with little regard for your or your car's life (all of this while doing pretty much only short to medium size turns with about 20 feet of visual warning before coming across said truck, god forbid they design or implement a straight road here).

Driving a stick shift (manual) car again is fun though.

England... day 3?

Ok so I think today is day 3 but I'm not 100% sure. So much done, so much to do and so much driving.
So far, we've flown on a very nice flight with no incidents and landed at Heathrow. Once off the plan we snagged our bags and changed into some fresh clothing. While taking our backpacks out of their duffle bag cover thingies I found that the TSA doesn't like Aunt Jemimas Syrup being in your bag as they took mine apart to find it and didn't really bother putting it back together again. They pulled lots of stuff out of the backpack and only kind of just stuffed it back in the duffal outer bag thingy instead of back into the backpack proper. Once that was all cleaned up and put back together, it was off to rent the car. Tiny little car... but it keeps up with traffic, holds all of the bags with ease and so far has had great gas milage. After about 4 minutes on roads around Heathrow to get used a stick shift again and driving on the left, it was onto the M25 and on our way to Vrinda's house.

We got to Vrinda's house pretty much without incident about an hour later, said hi to everyone and brought in our stuff. This is Saturday by the way... about 2:30pm by the time we got the car and drove to V's house. Once settled, George took us to an old Roman Amphatheater (at St. Albans) and ruins area where we looked around and spent some time in the dedicated museum. All of it was pretty interesting and they had some beautiful  mosiacs and stuff that was recovered around the site. After that closed down, we went to get some dinner. We ended up at a mexican resturant of all things. So while I wouldn't go so far as to call it mexican, it was pretty good none the less. I do think that will be our first and last mexican meal while in the EU area. After that it was off to home, and I think setting up a bed and getting into it, but I don't really remember as I was pretty much a zombie at that point.

The next morning (Sunday), we went off to an outdoor mall to get some supplies and a cell phone. After a few hours shopping we had needed supplies and a brand new 5GBP cell phone and 20GBP worth of minutes (not sure how much that actually turns out being, but we'll find out if we run out of them). After shopping, we went back to Vrinda and headed off to a cool little shopping area called Hitchens. Quaint little alley size streets and about 4 pizza places all within a 2 block radius. Sadly most places were closed because of it being Sunday, but we did end up going to one of the pizza places and it turned out being really good. After lunch, we went to a castle ruins area and also visited an old church (for Percy, Vrinda and George's five year old son) and its graveyard (for Andrea). Once everyones questions were answered and many a gravestone inspected, it was back home for a quick dinner, an inflating of the bed again and then sleep.

Today we did a road trip by ourselves, but thats a story for tomorrow. Also, pictures tomorrow. Anyone know of an android app that will allow me to open up Raw file format pictures?

Anyway.... adios for tonight, more tomorrow.

New post on a new tablet!

So, typing up my first post on the new asus transforer tablet. Even without the keyboard its not too bad. Not for short stuff anyway. More later.