Great Britain: Edinburgh

Welcome to Edinburgh - our first view from the train station. What a tall, grey jumble. (I really like the unique Crown Spire of the cathedral.)

Part of Edinburgh Castle.

At the gate of the castle; Daisy and Chris are flanked by statues of Robert the Bruce and Sir William Wallace. We really liked seeing the "Honours" and the Stone of Scone, but weren't able to take pictures.

In the Great Hall of the castle, period instrumentalists and dancers put on a great show, and Daisy and I had front row seats. It made me wish that I could have that job! Apparently, this is the kind of event that Daisy can sit through.

Listening to the amazing bagpipe and drum corps in the New Town.

Our visit would just have not been complete without the beautiful, sunny hike around the Salisbury Crags, below Arthur's Seat. We enjoyed a "Scottish Highlands" experience without having to leave Edinburgh!
Snowy peaks could be seen in the north and south.
Muah, I love you!
Yes, bonding with my new scarf.
A nice family photograph.

Great Britain: Scarborough

We had talked - joked - about coming to Scarborough for a long time. We are so happy to have seen it. It's a great little city with a historic castle, a lighthouse, and 2 beautiful bays - the carnival-like South Bay and the less built-up North Bay. Here is one of our first views of the castle wall on top of the hill, as we were walking into town from the train station.
We really liked our bed and breakfast on top of the cliff, steps from the castle and with a view over the North Sea. The owners were super, bringing Daisy special kid dishes and serving us a private afternoon tea in the parlour. We all enjoyed our furnishings - I began to think that Daisy might be ready for The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe.

After our breakfast (with a cute "7 Dwarfs" toast rack for Daisy...she concluded that Snow White must be around somewhere, too, and from then on called the vaguely similar woman decorating the hearth "Snow White"), we made our pilgrimage to the castle.
It felt very huge and ancient. We learned a lot about the history of the castle, which I can try to condense here, especially for those of you with Scarborough blood! Experts have dated pottery found on the cliff to 2000 BC, and they display other artifacts that suggest two distinct periods of habitation, 800 BC and 500 BC. There are remains of a Roman signal station (380 AD), where they lit those fires that could communicate disaster up and down the coast. Vikings were here and Scarborough ("Skardi") is mentioned in several Icelandic sagas.

The castle has ties to royalty! In 1154, King Henry II decreed that all royal castles become his, and he invested huge sums to build up Scarborough's tower, the keep. In the early 1200's, King John spent more on building projects in Scarborough's castle than on any other castle in the kingdom. In that time, kings were mobile and would move their entire possessions around their lands to different cities and homes. John, Henry III, and Edward I used Scarborough Castle as royal lodgings several times. The last king to stay here was Richard III in 1484 while he was busy assembling a fleet to resist the invasion of Henry Tudor, later Henry VII.

In the Civil War (1640's), Scarborough became a Royalist stronghold against the Parliamentarians and there were terrible battles here.

Later, the castle was used as a prison, and a notable prisoner was George Fox, founder of the Quakers.

After this, Scarborough became known as a fashionable spa town and resort, and sea bathing was the new "in" thing.

Early in the First World War, Scarborough's town and castle were fired upon by German warships arriving through the thick morning fog. 17 civilians were killed. "Remember Scarborough!" became a rallying cry across the nation.



Unexpectedly, we were able to tag along with part of a Good Friday procession through the castle grounds. Our voices chimed in with the other lusty ones in an unfamiliar hymn. A good memory.


Anne Bronte is buried at a cliff-side church's cemetery near the castle. I read Agnes Grey in preparation for our trip. I really liked it, especially since I knew her sister's Jane Eyre so well, and could compare the stories of the young governesses.


The Beaches:
Here's a picture of us walking on the North Bay. All this sand was covered with water in the morning, and it would quickly go out during the day. Though we are no strangers to beaches, the army of seagulls, diving and screeching, had us in giggles the whole weekend. We saw families playing cricket, lots of dogs, and bundled up kids.

Beach-side Huts:
A landmark of the beaches were these adorable rainbow huts you can see behind us. People apparently rent these and can store stuff like grills, chairs, bikes, whatever.


And I forgot to mention: fish and chips! We had quite a lot of that, too, sometimes even with tea.

Great Britain: Castle Howard

Oh yes...the unexpected, long train ride...
Castle Howard - another misleading use of the word "castle." It is a huge estate, a noble family's home since the 1700's, and the Howard family still lives there (get this: the kids' names are Merlin and Octavia!). They have some great art, porcelain, and library collections displayed, but the main draw is just the amazing harmony of the beautiful architecture and the vast, serene landscaping. Not to mention the peacocks. They also do a lot of farming and gardening on the property. I read that it's over 1,000 acres.

Brideshead Revisted, a book turned movie about a wealthy family who lives in a large home called Brideshead, was filmed here. We made sure to watch it before we visited. So it was almost like REvisiting.



In every room, friendly guides told us about what room we were in and what was special in it. It seemed really personal.


We saw at least 5 peacocks roaming the grounds - and we heard even more squawking to each other over the fields. I got so excited and took about 100 pictures of one who gradually shook open his feathers and spun in a circle for us!

Great Britain: York

Cheers! We went up north (brrr) to Great Britain on an extended Easter holiday and spent 2 nights in York, 2 in Scarborough, and 2 in Edinburgh. The highlights:

• We got to speak English. Not that we were always understood, but the possibility was there!
  
• We now have more of a context for British history: seeing abbeys that Henry VIII destroyed, being in the room where Mary Queen of Scots birthed James, and seeing where Cromwell's Parliamentarians had laid siege to Scarborough Castle!
  
• Daisy's new favorite food is baked beans. They are part of the traditional English breakfast. In the mornings, she would gobble up her portion and we'd end up giving her ours, too! She'd also have them with dinner. I just bought a can and served them this morning, much to her delight.
• Chris' new favorite food is scones with cream and jam. He has been talking about various job possibilities in England and Scotland, but I know that really his mind is on the teatime tradition. (ha)
• By train, you glide by fluffy green grass spotted with fluffy white sheep. But we also had a springtime bonus: hundreds of frolicking baby lambs!!! Oh my.
• We heard some great live street music, including a huge, talented drum and bagpipe ensemble on Easter Sunday.
  
• In Scotland, I bought a cashmere tartan scarf that complements my red wool coat, and we also got a nice red wool throw blanket. I love them.
• On the subject of souvenirs: Scarborough. Final count: 3 posters, a "Scarborough Castle" souvenir guide, 2 bookmarks, a souvenir plate, a magnet, a patch, 3 pencils and a pen.
  
• Scarborough was better than we imagined; a very fun seaside resort, with a changing tide like I've never seen! It was actually the first such resort in the UK, beginning in the 17th century. (Now, though, there are cheap airfares to the Mediterranean islands.)
• Not quite sure if I want to call this a highlight, but rather a memorable (painful?) experience: We took a wrong train. Not just any wrong train, but one that was an express, nonstop service to London from York. 2.5 hours there, 2.5 hours back, and then we continued with our original plan. (How did this happen with English over the loudspeakers?! We were on the right track for our train, but this express train had been delayed by an hour and a half and zoomed in on our track minutes before ours was supposed to arrive, and we just didn't check. Grrr.) We were wondering if this was the worst travel mistake we'd ever made, but then Chris brought up the time we had driven to Canada, and we were halfway through Michigan before he remembered that his passport was still at home! Yep, that was worse...
  

Here are some York pictures with explanations. Scarborough and Edinburgh are coming soon. (Later, I will also post a link to a larger picture collection.)

YORK

York Castle Museum: This is on the site of the 13th century castle, but does not really have anything to do with a castle. Instead, it is a wonderful collection of English civilization from the 17th century to the present, filled with furniture, appliances, clothes, toys, all presented in a very clever and engaging way. Daisy was unleashed from her buggy and we all explored the recreated rooms and streets. For example...

A recreated Victorian street with changing weather and times of day
and costumed guides roaming around or sitting in their "shops."

A recreated Victorian parlour. You can't see the stuffed doggy or the fireplace,

but those were Daisy's favorites.

A collection of swimming attire - notice the Scarborough ads featured on the wall?

(We bought a print of the one on the right.)

The Heslington Baby House, circa 1715, one of the earliest dolls' houses in the country.

(Some of the tiny pewter plates are stamped "1695.")It was made for the Yarburgh children, who lived near York. I loved imagining children playing with these wood-and-wire

little dolls, also from the 1700's...

Ruins of St. Mary's Abbey

An old street called The Shambles.

York Minster: We toured this in the afternoon, and then later came back heard an exquisite rendition of Psalm 88 by the choir during the Evensong service. Sadly, the coloring book then lost its charm and we had to go.

We walked on the old city walls and finally got some
reasonable views of this huge cathedral.

The pretty heart window on the facade.

Constantine was in York when his father died and the Roman troops declared him

Roman emperor here in 306 AD. (In 312, he legalized Christianity,

and in 314, the first bishop came to York.)

National Railway Museum: wow, there are a lot of old trains here. We didn't see much, but did enjoy seeing the first Japanese "bullet train" and Queen Victoria's fancy royal train. They actually filmed part of Chariots of Fire here, as well as a few places in Edinburgh. We'll have to watch that movie again.

Part of our afternoon tea. Daisy had chicken tenders, baked beans (surprise) and hot cocoa. (But she calls it Kakao, or, actually, "cow-cow.")

So fun! More to come...

London

We took advantage of Chris' first four day weekend over Easter and went by train to London. It was our first time to England, so we loved seeing the famous sights and consuming as much scones, tea, and ales as possible. Daisy kept begging for more tea and saying "mmm" after each sip!

Our hotel was in Notting Hill and we spent 2 full days and 2 half days in the city. During our weekend, we visited St. Paul's Cathedral and toured Shakespeare's Globe theatre, went to Westminster Abbey for church on Easter morning, went to the Tower of London and saw the Crown Jewels, and checked out the National Gallery (Van Gogh, Monet, Raphael!) and the British Museum (ancient artifacts, including the Rosetta Stone). We walked a lot, enjoying the Embankment of the Thames river, Trafalger Square, and the beautiful parks. The parks and gardens were in full spring bloom, and it was amazing to see places we've heard about like Big Ben, Buckingham Palace and Downing Street. We both came away with such an increased interest in history.

An English-speaking country after 3 1/2 months...It took about a day before we lost the urge to speak in German in public. I loved feeling free to talk unashamedly in English. People often make nice comments about Daisy, and I've gotten used to just smiling and nodding...it was wonderful to be able to understand and make my own comments back!