The Weekend's Adventure!

Josh and I arrived in London and decided to wander the city for a while, both recalling that there are lots of trains running between London and Glasgow. So, we took the tube (subway) a few times, but walked A LOT. The tube now costs four pounds per ride (that's $8!). Around 1:00 we decided to grab some lunch and get our train. So we went to the train station and found that the tickets were going to be $120/person just to get to Glasgow! We went to an internet cafe and discovered that the cheap tickets had to be booked way in advance. I really wanted to go to Scotland, as you could tell from my post last week about the exciting blog posts to come, so I suggested we research renting a car. Turns out it was cheaper to rent a car than to take a train (with gas it probably ended up being a little more expensive), and we'd be able to get all the way to Oban that day. The train would have required finding a place to stay in Glasgow for the night. So we rented a car and drove 9 hours from London to Oban. We got there at 3 in the morning, and everything was closed except a gas station. So we used the bathroom at the gas station and slept in the car. The next morning we found a cute bed and breakfast with a view of the ocean from our room. Over the next few days we traveled all around Scotland, experiencing much more of the region than we would have been able to without a car. On Monday we drove back to London, flew to Bremmen, Germany, and took a bus from Bremmen back to Groningen. I'm VERY tired, but it was definitely worth it! Enjoy the pictures and posts, there are probably 5 new ones, so keep scrolling down!

For my sister, the former Krispy Kreme corporate employee, guess what is in the Stanstead (London) airport?




No trips on the agenda until the end of the month when we're going to Vienna. We may try to get over to Berlin for a day or two before the weather gets much colder. Oh, and I have homework...

London

This is a sculpture in the British Museum. The picture was taken in a courtyard at the museum that is covered with a canopy, kind of like the Louvre (but much better according to Josh).



Big Ben. Yeah. I didn't think I cared to see these British iconic monuments, but I turned into a tourist seeking out Big Ben like everyone else.



Westminster Abbey. I had no idea it was so beautiful, especially the open arches in the front. I've never seen anything like it!



Statue in Piccadilly Circus. Piccadilly Circus reminded me a lot of Times Square in New York. There are even those gigantic electric billboards.



Finally, a pair of British phone booths. They're red, so of course I was drawn to them. And like I said, I found myself taking pictures of every clearly "British" thing I could find.

Oban

Downtown Oban.



A church and youth hostel in Oban.



The Oban distillery. We gave it the old college try, but wow, Oban whiskey is unpleasant!



View of Oban from Isle of Kerrera.

Isle of Kerrera

Pictures from around the Isle of Kerrera.






Note: these sheep were very snobby and wouldn't let Josh pet them.

Argyll and the Isle of Seil

"Hairy coo" with her baby. We were perpetually intrigued with these strange cows.



Loch near Connell. There is so much water in Scotland. This is just your typical, run of the mill, breath-taking lake view!



I was proud of this picture. It's the same loch as the previous picture. Josh is making me into a photographer.



"The Bridge Across the Atlantic" We heard about this bridge and were curious about what such a bridge would look like. It's really small and in the middle of nowhere. Crossing onto the Isle of Seil.



Isle of Seil. There are sheep on that mountain. Well, there are sheep on every mountain. I was entertained because they will go anywhere, even on the steepest mountainside. I can't do that. I'm impressed.

Adventure...

You're asking yourself "what is THAT?" It's a clootie dumpling, which is a traditional scottish desert. It is a sort of boiled bread that has fruit and nuts in it. It tastes a lot like bread pudding. We both liked it quite a lot. Hard not to like something when it's floating in cream!



This is not a picture from the Western United States, it's from the Cairngorm mountains. Who knew the Scottish highlands were so high?



This is Kilchurn Castle. It's in ruins and you can't go inside, but it's quite pretty. We had to walk through a sheep pasture, complete with sheep poop, to get there.



St. Conan's Church, as viewed from Kilchurn Castle. It's beautiful, but we were both (strangely) disappointed that the building is less than 200 years old...



The shore by Kilchurn Castle. I just thought this was a pretty picture.

Loch Ness and Inverness

When we realized we were only 78 miles from Inverness, I couldn't resist the opportunity to go THAT FAR north in Scotland! Not to mention, we got to see Loch Ness! The first picture is Urquhart Castle, a castle ruins on the shores of Loch Ness. It was technically closed by the time we got there, so this was the best picture I could get. The second picture was taken from the shore of Loch Ness. Unfortunately, "Nessie" (the "monster," but she doesn't like to be called that) is shy around cameras. The third picture is just a pretty shot in the Loch Ness area.

Carlisle, Cumbria County, UK

We stopped in Carlisle on the way from Oban back to London. For those of you from Pennsylvania, the similarities are interesting: 1) Carlisle, PA is in Cumberland County, Carlisle, UK is in Cumbria County; 2) Both places have/had Constables, Carlisle, UK's "Cumbria Constabulary," and Carlisle, PA "Hilary and Elizabeth Constable" :)

BRACE YOURSELVES

Tuesday of next week there will be a new post: Josh and Elizabeth's Adventures in SCOTLAND!

I wanted to give you all a heads up, this is going to be an exciting one!

Our weekend in Paris

Paris was so awesome! We were staying in a hotel about 5 minutes from Montmartre. Josh had the LSAT on Saturday, so I spent that day walking around by myself. I decided not to speak English for the entire day, which was fun and exciting because I haven't taken French in a really long time. I managed to do it though!

Surprisingly, I found myself most excited about art museums. I do enjoy art, but I didn't expect to like spending hours in museums. I've posted a bunch of pictures (see below). I saw several Van Gogh pieces, Monet, Renoir, Cezanne, etc. It was actually a little overwhelming to see so many great, classic pieces. It also made me want to go to Amsterdam to the Van Gogh museum!

We were sitting on a park bench eating panini and I learned something new about French children: they love to terrorize pigeons. They chase them and kick at them. It seemed: 1) cliche and 2) very evil.

Sites of Paris

Some of my favorite paintings from La Musee d'Orsay and La Musee de L'Orangerie