Scotland - Day 4 – The race to get back

After a lovely evening overnight in Fort Augustus we had to make our way back to Aberdeen for our flight. We knew we had to make at least one more Scotch Distillery tour so we planned our route through the Speyside region. A few days back we drove past the idyllic Glenlivet Distillery and it was on this we set our sights. We passed back up through along the west side of the Loch and of course did a few select caches. It was again another beautifully clear day and made the loch drive all the more memorable. We passed through Inverness, picked up a teacup and dish, and made tracks for the winding roads of the Speyside and Cairngorms. We truly loved driving through this area. You can tell it has fallen victim to heavy logging over the decades due to the abrupt line of dense forest against barren hill face. We passed through a tiny valley with a single house sitting in the corner of two pine forest covered hills. There were two kids playing in the backyard of this house with the pine forest covered hills starting not more than 50 feet away. A perfect playground. Not far away from Glenlivet we saw a sign for a 15th century castle and we were obliged to stop. It turns out this castle is on the Glenlivet smugglers trail. Yes, the trail is a smugglers trail, for smuggling scotch whiskey specifically. The castle is called Drumin Castle and was owned by Alexander Stewart, the “Wolf of Badenoch.” We noticed how the immediate area was easily defendable- situated in a remote valley on a steep but short hill and surrounded by two rivers. Historians think there were fortifications there since the Iron Age, but The Wolf’s son built the current crumbling castle in the 1400s.
Only 5 minutes away was the Glenlivet Distillery and we of course took the tour. Before the tour we tried some of the Glenlivet infused vanilla ice cream; very delicious with sweet bits of malted barley and perfect for a milkshake. Glenlivet’s tour and facility is more polished than Cardhu and unlike Cardhu, the tour covered a lot about the smuggling of whiskey throughout Scotland in the 1800’s. Glenlivet Distillery was perfectly situated in the remotest part of the Cairgorms, especially in the winter, so it was easy to distill without law enforcement intervening. Glenlivet took its name from the river that supplied the water for the distillery, the Livet. We got out of the tour at 5pm and we only had 3 hours left till our flight and we were a ways away from Aberdeen. Leaving this part of Scotland behind, we hoped we would be back and for much longer.

Scotland

Scotland - Day 3 – I know Nessy’s out there. I just know it.

We made good on our promise and drove back to Braemar. The weather was quite unique-extremely windy, random blankets of blown rain and teasing moments of sun. A double rainbow greeted us upon entry into Ballater. Matt picked up a lovely brown wool hat. Our adventure continued on to Inverness, Fort Augustus, and of course, Loch Ness. No trip up north is complete without an attempt at seeing Nessy; water horses grant wishes if they let you see them, you know! We stopped quickly in Inverness and it was quite like other minor metropolitans-thriving pedestrian centric shopping laden downtown. Some Subway in the car and off we went. Once through Inverness you can tell the North Sea is just stone’s throw away. Inverness sits at the top of Loch Ness so it took no time to drive down the west coast of the Loch and stop at the Loch Ness Exhibition and Information Center. It would seem that any visitor center or learning experience about Loch Ness would be a tourist trap but this place wasn’t particularly so. Yes, the gift shop was about 2000 square feet of chachkis but the educational part was, believe it or not, educational. A group of people were escorted through various rooms that explained, through Disneyland means, the different stories and facts of the Loch Ness hunt. Remembering some of those facts this far past it is proving difficult so we suggest you just visit yourself. However, I do like the idea that the Nessy tale was started by a sighting of a North Sea sturgeon who in the early 1900’s made it’s way, by accident, into the Loch during mating season. Beckie particularly liked the idea about the mirage effects the high wind and atmosphere can have on the wind whipped waves. After taking some opportune photos at the center (see photos) we moved onto to Urquhart Castle for some caching and Scottish rebellion lessons. Urquhart Castle sits on a bluff overlooking Loch Ness and played an active role in the Scottish uprising against the English crown. There are just ruins now but are a magnificent tapestry of regional strife against a mystical legend. We left Urquhart in our rear view mirror and continued down the west coast of Loch Ness with the intent to finish in Fort Augustus. We HAD to do some caching along the way and of particular note we found a cache that was a man made tree fungus. Beautiful! We made the mistake of going off path for another cache through some bracken. Well, don’t do that in the autumn because ticks of all sorts are out in force, we emerged from the trail COVERED in them. It took us 45 minutes of tedious clothes shaking and picking at each other like monkeys to be confident we removed them all.
Fort Augustus is the entry point of the Caledonian Canal into the southern Loch Ness. The town is quite small and quaint. It took a while to find our B&B but we finally did-a nice house in the woods. Love it. Dinner found us traversing through Fort Augustus during sunset; we watched the sun slip behind the five locks and stars ignite in the sky. A lovely and leisurely dinner and off to slumberville—just like me after posting this.

Scotland

Scotland - Day 2 – The Games

The host at our B&B was hopefully to serve a full Scottish Breakfast in a kilt. Well, he didn’t. Oh well. He was fantastically welcoming, however, and ran a great operation. This was the day of the Lonach Highland Games at Bellabeg (home of acting personality Billy Connelly). Bellabeg was close. For locals, this meant a Land Rover ride through white water rapids, spearing Highland Elk and drinking 60 drams of scotch. Bellabeg is a tiny town in a small valley of the Highlands and this was the place to be in a 50-mile radius. The Highland Games had a slight county fair feel due to the many truck vendors stationed throughout the grounds. Not knowing what to expect and wanting to ensure good views of the caber-tossing, we bought our tickets ahead. Although very enticing the “Meat on a Stick” truck did not quite whet our appetite. We took our seats and watched the games. The games had multiple events happening at the same time on the same field. There was Scottish dancing, piping, hammer tossing, a fun run, tug-o-war, weight toss, caber-toss, long jump and sprints. Notice: lots of tossing. Of course, no good Scottish warrior would be without whiskey on the day of a battle. So in the morning, the Lonach Highlanders set off marching through Bellabeg, enticing the residents to give them drams of whiskey as they made their way to the field. Around 1pm the games welcome the marchers into the arena and to our bewilderment at least 200 men in kilts and bearing spears enter the field to the accompaniment of their bagpipe escorts. Needless to say, they are a little full up on drams, especially one elderly gentleman who passed out directly in front of us. The oldest marcher was a 97-year-old. After two circuits around the field, the Highlanders dispersed and the games carried on. Overall, the games had a deep community spirit and emphasized the importance of familial ties (see picture of little boy in kilt). The rain came and went and supplied a stereotypical backdrop for what to us seemed to be a very successful visit to our first Highland games. The games ended in the afternoon and we decided to drive over to Balmoral but unfortunately the Queen was in residence so it was impossible to get close. The town next to Balmoral is Braemar- a small town but definitely catering to the tourist. We stopped in a hotel pub and reminisced upon the day’s events, making the decision to come back here in the morning. Beckie is always on the lookout for additions to our tea service and there were a few shops here that would be open then.

Scotland

Scotland - Day 1 - Look at all the lonely scotch barrels.

We’ve been waiting to take a Scottish holiday and finally the time had arrived….via a 7:25am flight out of Heathrow to Aberdeen. However, we would have to wait a little longer since our flight was delayed by an hour and half. It was a perfect day for flying since the approach to Aberdeen presented a spectacular view of green countryside and the Highlands and Heather in the distance. The airport was empty and we breezed to the rental car facility where, once again, I was eager to take on the UK driving adventure. Beckie, as usual, had a whole plan worked out for our visit; we burst out of the rental facility gates on our way to find some Pictish Stones. The first stop was at a shell of a church about 15 minutes into the Aberdeen countryside. The Pictish stone dates back more than 2000 years and was located inside the church shell. Despite being exposed to the elements and a lot of relocating, the stone carvings were still very clear. The church and yard were located on a quiet hill overlooking a serene, subtle river valley. The sun lit the landscape like a painting; it was perfect and very fulfilling. We could’ve stayed there for hours but there was more to see.
Our next stop were some more Pictish Stones in a town we’ll just call the Niles, OH of Scotland. It was a small town and seemed very working class. We opted to stop for an early lunch in a local café where the drink of choice is IronBru. Let’s see, how to describe IronBru… imagine Tang irradiated with Americinium and packaged like Coors Light. EVERYONE in the café was drinking it. Needless to say, we did not try it because Beckie feared for the safety of her unborn children and I don’t drink liquids that would phosphoresce under UV light. The town had a Pictish stone in the middle of a suburban green space and could easily be missed. In the middle of modern tract-like housing there was a millenniums old stone observing the suburbanization of its holy site. We passed through this town with the intent to make our way to Ballater in the Highlands, but our enthusiasm and excitement had us wanting to chase every historical marker sign we saw along our drive. One in particular caught our attention: “The Maiden Stone.” We screeched off the A-road and careened down the B-road a few miles to a tall stone vertically perched on the side of the road. The carvings on it were magnificent; it was only us and a few cows hanging at the site. Oh, and a well hidden geocache. We declared no more stopping because we had some distance to drive but we weren’t sure how long it would take. Well, that was abandoned once we entered Malt Whiskey territory. Instead, we decided to make every attempt to get ourselves to a whiskey tour. Afterall, this is what Jameson hates the most…whiskey made by the Scots (the proper way). Success was met at Cardhu and we managed to get a spot on the last tour of the day. Cardhu is the single malt supplier to Johnny Walker and one of very many distilleries owned by Diageo. Initially, Cardu was illegally distilled and founded in 1824 by Helen Cumming and sold to Johnny Walker and Sons in 1893. With some samples consumed and a bottle of the Reserve purchased we finally made the push to Ballater. Driving through the Highlands was beyond imagination. The weather was perfect, the heather abundant, and the locale dream like. Despite modern advances the area seemed preserved in a cleanliness only known prior to the industrial revolution. I’m sure that’s not the case but purity overwhelmed us. Maybe it was the smell of the fresh rain, the pines, and the purple heather sea but it was truly magical. We passed by the Glenlivet Distillery and quite magnificently they were malting barley. The steam rising from the malting barn filled the entire valley with the smell of scotch. Beyond that a drive full of climbs and brake-torturing declines brought us to Ballater and our B&B: where a completely different experience awaited us.

Scotland

Ireland in 5 days: Day 5, Galway girls... and guys

After a filling full Irish breakfast and some confusion regarding the bill ending with Matt going off to look for a cash machine, we began our drive back to Dublin (the quicker way). Before setting off in that direction, we once again attempted to appease me and find a bloody teacup. Now, it is important to note that I had become so consumed with this that I was very tempted to ask the B&B owner if I could buy one that we had used at breakfast. Given the confusion with our bill and discussing what ‘wireless internet’ meant, I decided not to bother. Unfortunately, this teacup hunt would only lead us to a charity shop in Galway where I purchased a lovely teacup... that was made in Czechoslovakia. It’s fine! It’s fine! Let’s get it and gooooo!!
There wasn’t much time to stop on this drive back to Dublin despite it being a shorter journey. What’s amazing is how many ruins you can see just driving along the way. Take a peek at our pictures and you’ll see what I mean.
Once again, Matt raced us back into the car rental parking lot at the airport, not before stopping in the town of Swords for petrol. We checked in for our flight and enjoyed one last drink in Ireland at the airport pub/cafe. And back to London.
Next time I think we'll stop in Waterford for a crystal teacup!!

Wales & Ireland

Ireland in 5 days: Day 4, Southern tour

Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey! This day could have won an award for ‘most sites sighted.’ Instead of travelling the direct route from Dublin to Galway which would have taken about two hours, we had mapped out a 7- to 8-hour route that took us south toward Tipperary, Cork, and Dingle. Sadly, we didn’t get as far as Cork and Dingle, but we did see:
The Curragh. Wow, with a name like that, it was bound to be a sight! Well, not really. It’s basically a pretty field best known for battle scenes from Braveheart. But wasn’t he from Scotland? Yeah. As we drove along attempting to find the Curragh, we came up to a long line of traffic and having spotted some orange cones up ahead, we thought we ought to turn around to avoid construction. We found a different route to bypass the construction. However, when we finally came to that area, we realised that what we thought were orange construction cones were actually someone’s sheep! They had been sprayed orange (owners do this to tell whose is whose). And the delay was simply all of these orange sheep crossing the road to the other field. What a sight!! I dare say better than the Curragh.
A few pictures and we were back in the car to make our way to the Rock of Dunamase. This is one of the few ‘free’ sights on our journey and it’s actually one of the most historic in Ireland. First settled in the 9th century, the castle was built in the latter half of the 12th century. I think I can speak for everyone when I say, it was one of the most enjoyable and beautiful sights we encountered on this trip. I strongly encourage a look at pictures.
By this point, we thought it was about time for a pub stop. We popped into a lovely and certainly ‘local’ pub. Just a swift half with the three locals in the pub and we’d be back on the road. Next on the agenda was the Rock of Cashel. Also known as the Cashel of the Kings, it was the traditional seat of the kings of Munster for several hundred years prior to the Norman invasions. While we did have a look at the outside and followed the ‘path of the dead’ a bit, we opted not to spend the money to go in. Instead, we had a lovely traditional lunch at Ryan’s Daughter cafe. It was the perfect warm and cosy setting since by that point it had begun to rain again. When our food came out, we knew we had chosen well... each plate only had the colours of the Irish flag: green (peas/celery), orange (carrots/yams), and white (mash) along with whatever meat dish we had chosen. Grande.
Irish spring is a maker of soap, tour-guide grandma was a seller of dope, at Castle Cahir, I did hear, the hung them both by a rope.
As you may have inferred from that bit of talented writing, Matt Metras began entertaining us in the car with some spontaneous limericks... After all, we were headed for Limerick. We didn’t stop in Limerick, but Matt Metras did recite one of his own as we drove through the city.
One last sight to see on our drive to Galway and this was definitely not to be missed. The Cliffs of Moher in County Clare are a well known tourist destination, but certainly one of those that really should be seen. Matt whipped the car along the winding and dipping roads through the rain in a frenzy to get us there before dusk. Once again, we defied death and made it just in time. Despite a few moments when I could feel my fear of heights getting the best of me, we managed to snap some really amazing shots of the cliffs and the sea far below.
We reached our B&B in Oranmore, a small town outside of Galway. We quickly dropped off our bags and went out in search of supper. Despite the size of this town, we found an incredible Indian restaurant. It was the most delightful Indian food I have EVER had. Once full and noticeably exhausted, we went back to our B&B and, as Metras said, “... to our surprise, there were no wifis, so we snuggled up cosy and warm.”

Side note: No where along this 7-8 hour drive was there a place to find a teacup. Foiled again! Tomorrow is another day?? Maybe?

Wales & Ireland

Ireland in 5 days: Day 3, Temair na Ri, Newgrange, and the power of light

I had really been looking forward to the itinerary for our third day of this trip. This would be the day we were visiting the Hill of Tara [Temair na Ri]. Ah, that magical, faerie-inhabited hill of the ancients. Seat of power of the High Kings of Ireland. An archaeological complex near the Boyne river. An altogether beautiful field of perfect, Irish-green grass with wisps of buttercups.
With all the wind and tiny, unidentifiable insects attaching themselves to our clothes for shelter, it was easy to keep the mystical world of the faeries in mind. To enter the site, we passed through a cemetery (of course, finding a geocache as we went along) and made our way over the hill, passed the Stone of Destiny (I had thought about putting my feet on it to see if it would roar, but reconsidered as it might be a bit embarrassing), and through the circling mounds. Glorious. At the bottom of the hill are a few very interesting, prickly trees. There had to, just HAD to be another geocache hidden amongst the thorns and twisted roots. During the cache search, we also came across the ‘faerie tree,’ a place where visitors could leave gifts for the faeries. Apparently, most people found it appropriate to leave trash attached to the tree as a gift. We opted not to add to the rubbish, but said a few kind words of thanks and allowed those little insects to remain sheltered on our shirts until we got back to the car.

Next stop was Newgrange, a passage grave built during the Megalithic period around 3200BC. This too felt to be a magical experience (to me!). When waiting for our tour, we even saw a double rainbow!! That was definitely a favourable ancient omen, wasn’t it? Yes, I’m sure it was.
Our guide was a wonderful storyteller; she explained that though referred to as a passage grave or tomb, no people were actually buried within the mound. Instead, it was thought they used it for ceremonies for the dead, a kind of passage for the soul rather than the body. The tour included a journey through the short, narrow passage (even I had to duck at times) into the small chamber topped with slabs of heavy stone and earth. Admittedly, I was a bit timid given my claustrophobic tendencies. I persisted and was happy I did. Once inside, our storyteller went on to describe what it was like for those ancient peoples. The tomb is absolutely barren of all light, not a flicker of daylight reaches the inner room. In fact, the only time light enters the tomb is during the Winter Solstice when the passage is perfectly aligned with the sunlight of dawn for exactly 17 minutes. This was thought to be the only time a soul could pass from the physical world to the Afterworld. Our guide recreated this dramatic experience for us within the tomb with a string of modern light bulbs. It was easy to feel the enchantment and mystery this must of induced in a time when the sun was still a deified presence.

It was difficult to leave this wondrous mound, but being the last tour of the day, the site officials were eager to hurry us out. The storyteller had certainly peaked our interest by mentioning other passage graves. These passages, however, were aligned to different times of the year. Northeast of Newgrange lies Dowth with a passage aligned only with the setting of the sun on the Winter Solstice. To the northwest, Knowth had two passages, but light only ever passes directly into the inner chamber during dawn of the spring equinox. At no other times of the year did light enter any of these chambers (kind of limits how often you could bury your dead, huh?).

We enjoyed the winding roads and caching possibilities on our drive back to the hotel. We even stopped briefly at the sight of the Battle of the Boyne (not much to see, but we did take a picture). Finally, we made it back to the hotel grabbed a bite to eat for dinner and... SUCCESS! We made it to the pool/spa/sauna/steam room in time despite having an in depth conversation with the attendant about swim caps and regulations. It was a lovely end to a lovely day. Ahhh....

Wales & Ireland

Ireland in 5 days: Day 2, Dubh Linn

We started the day with breakfast at the hotel, then a 45-minute tram ride into the city and straight to the Jameson whiskey distillery. We were among a 20- or so-person group for the first tour of the day. Before it began, the guide asked for volunteers to participate in a taste-testing session following the tour. The crowd was a bit slow to respond except, of course, for four of us who promptly raised our hands. Eventually, the guide coerced a few others into it. Perhaps it was the fact that it was 10:30 in the morning and not a typical time to have whiskey, but this was Ireland and there is no ‘wrong’ time for whiskey in Ireland! The tour was educational even if a bit ‘Disney-fied’ and certainly expressed their contempt for the Scottish whiskey makers. The tasting session at the end comprised of small amounts of three whiskeys: Jameson (Irish), Johnnie Walker Black (Scottish), and Jack Daniels (American). Our guide explained the differences in distilling each and attempted to guide us toward favouring Jameson. Of course, my Matt just HAD to complicate things by telling our guide his favourite whiskey was still Scotch above the Jameson. This would have been fabulous if it led to more tastings... but it didn’t.
We left the distillery happy we had had a full breakfast and made our way into the centre of the city for some geocaching, sight-seeing, and souvenir shopping (with a tea cup at the top of my list!). Geocaching was difficult given all the ‘muggles,’ but mostly successful. Sight-seeing led us to discover the questionable history of Dublin Castle. A castle? It looks like a castle and it was during part of its history, but only the Record Tower remains visible from the medieval fortification, even the battlements atop the tower were added in the 19th century. The ‘castle’ was also the seat of British rule in Ireland until 1922 after which it served as the temporary Courts of Justice for the new Irish Free State. Now, it’s mostly just a tourist attraction, though it does boast a newly refurbished conference centre and was used as “The Vatican” in the Tudors series. In the courtyard near the castle, we found amazing sand sculptures on display. Take a peek at the pictures to view the talents of the artist of the day. After a quick outside view of the castle and sand sculptures, we headed for a nearby geocache. This would be a special cache because it would mark the beginning of the Metras’ geo-coin’s journey.
Saving the best for last, we headed for the town centre and the Temple Bar (of course, this doesn’t mean we didn’t patronise at least two other pubs throughout the day!). This pub was especially fun thanks to the live musician who took requests. Matt Metras requested “Whiskey in the Jar” to which the singer begrudgingly responded, “I’ve already done that,” but sang it anyway. Unfortunately, but entertainingly, he repeatedly sang ‘whiskey in jarK’ rather than ‘whiskey in the jar.’ And I’m pretty sure it wasn’t his accent.
Our energy was teetering out by the end of our sing-song (likely due to the amount of alcohol intermittently imbibed starting with our morning whiskey). Matt and I decided we should set off to pick up our rental car and Matt and Jess could go back to plan our dinner. On the way to find our bus, we stopped for another musical interlude from a street band, quickly picked up their CD, and tried not to fall asleep on our bus ride to the rental facility. With the car sorted, we arrived back at the hotel to find the Metrii and sort some dinner – pizza was the consensus! That should be rather quick, easy, and leave us some time to go down to the pool... NOPE! Missed it again! Ug.
Oh, and by the way, all attempts at finding a tea cup were also unsuccessful. I thought these islands were full of tea-drinkers. I guess tomorrow is another day...

Wales & Ireland

Ireland in five days: Day 1, Taxi, Ferry, Bus, Tram, Sleep

This was to be our longest day of travel yet for Matt and I. It began with an early morning taxi ride from St. David’s to the ferry port of Fishguard. Though it was ‘rush hour,’ we barely noticed any other cars on the road. We were sure to leave plenty of time to check in and find a comfy seat on board. Well, it was certainly enough because they weren’t even open when we arrived. In fact, we had to wait over an hour in the lounge area which consisted of a few hard plastic benches with a separate room for an abandoned snack-bar, two early 1990’s arcade games, and three other foot passengers. We eventually found our way on board and settled into our corner table with four attached-to-the-floor chairs. Luckily for Jess, it wasn’t too bumpy a ride. Overall, the 3-hour ride was rather uneventful though we did witness a giant Curious George propose to an older Irish woman with a gummy-ring (Wow, it was weird typing that sentence).
Once we docked at the Irish port in Rosslare, we waited another 30 minutes for our bus that would take us to Dublin. This time, it was a real bus and the ride wasn’t as harrowing as the one in Wales. However, it did feel a bit tedious and certainly longer than the 3 hours it actually took. We all dozed in and out as we wound our way up the eastern portion of Ireland through back-road towns until we reached the major motorway 50km outside of Dublin. We arrived in the city only to find more transport to take us to our hotel. It took an hour and a half to travel 4 miles on Dublins’s Lua Red Line. So tired...
By the time we had reached our hotel and checked in, we all decided we would rather just have dinner at the hotel and tuck in for the night. Tomorrow would be another day and we wanted to be rested for our adventure in the city. Perhaps, a bit of time in the pool/spa would help relax us. Well, maybe it would have, but it wasn’t happening for us that night! It was closed by the time we gathered ourselves and our swimsuits. Yep, tomorrow would be another day...

Wales & Ireland

Ireland in 5 parts...er, days: Day 0, Wales

In addition to my affinity for the Queen, anyone who knows me well will likely know that when I travel, I like to pack in as many things as possible, especially historical landmarks. Therefore, we decided to make the most of our time and see a little of Wales along our way to Ireland.
We began our trip via train from Paddington station (think: Paddington Bear when he arrived from Darkest Peru). Our first taste of adventure came when we couldn’t collect our train tickets due to some credit card changes. Note to future self: always call the train company if you lose the card you purchased your tickets with. What seemed to us to be an easy “Matt can just go up to the customer service desk and collect them via his identity card” turned into “You must first call the security phone number and alert them to the change of card, wait for them to change it in the system, then come back to this desk where I will need to see your new card, your reservation numbers, and your identity card.” It’s a good thing we were an hour early for our departure because it took 45 minutes to collect the tickets. Ah, red tape.
Finally on the train, we chugged along through the English countryside toward Haverfordwest, Wales. Just one change of train, comprised of a manic dash across the tracks and down to the other platform, and we arrived at the tiny, rural train station by 3pm. We waited [somewhat] patiently for our bus to arrive which would take us to the lovely village of St. David’s. We had no idea of the exhilarating, sometimes death-defying, journey we were about to embark upon... and how travelling to St. David’s meant you should also be praying to him along the way. The bus was not so much of a bus as it was a glorified van, though it did have plenty of seating for the 8 passengers getting on. The driver masterfully (or fortuitously) negotiated the sharp curves, steep drops, and narrow lanes of the rural roads at a fear-inducing speed. Sometimes he stopped in the middle of a highway to pick up another passenger at some unmarked bus-stop. It was a strange ride, but about 40 minutes later, we were in the centre of St. David’s – home of St. David’s Cathedral, a site founded in the A.D. 580s by St. David (obviously), the patron saint of Wales.
We quickly checked into our hotel, which was just across the street, and raced down toward the cathedral to get our peek inside before it closed. As noted, St. David is the patron saint of Wales (apparently, I was born on St. David’s day and, therefore, should have been named Davina, but no matter). He was a native of Wales, was well-known for his asceticism, and was buried on the site of the monastery he founded (now the cathedral). Though the cathedral has now been around for hundreds of years in various versions, the city was just officially given ‘city’ status by the Queen in 1995 [NB: In the UK, you need to have a cathedral in order be deemed a ‘city’ – picky, picky]. St. David’s cathedral is certainly a grande and beautiful cathedral. I’m not sure any of our pictures convey its true personality.
After seeing the cathedral, we thought we might want to mark the day with a geogache or two. We soon realised that this would be nearly impossible without cellular service, but Matt Metras came to the rescue with his non-cellular-based GPS device. However, we still needed the phone to actually look up the coordinates. Eureka! I was so overly organised, I had actually written down coordinates of possible geocaches we could hunt for on the trip. Yep, it’s grande travelling with someone like me. ;) With a little teamwork, we found the tricky little cache and set out to find some food. Before the food, we found some very amazing ice cream. This was special ‘Welsh’ ice cream made with clotted cream and a range of liqueurs... mmm.
Real food meant pub and of course, it was quite yummy; between the four of us we had what seemed like a feast of ‘stick-to-your-ribs’ comfort food, perfect for preparing us for one last geocache. This one took us down a narrow footpath that followed a high hill/cliff down to the shoreline of the Irish Sea. The path was easy enough in the daylight, but proved slightly tricky as the sun set and the field became darker and darker. Sadly, the dark completely overtook us with yet another mile to go and we just couldn’t manage it. We made our stumble-trip walk back to the hotel and prepared for our trek to Ireland the next morning.

Wales & Ireland

The Metraeii visit

We’ve been looking forward to this for a while: The Metras’s visit! We planned to go to Ireland and Wales with them for a combined six day trip. Beckie took it upon herself to plan this trip in exquisite detail and no one seemed to have a problem with it.
The day they arrived I immediately took them into the city and marched them around the Kensington area. We stopped by Harrods and then meandered through Kensington and Chelsea. We walked to the nearest pub, The Tea Clipper and then up through South Kensington. We passed through Kynance Mews, Saint Mary’s Church and somehow found our way to the South Kensington station. I took them some bizarre alley route that didn’t quite pan out. They were quite tired at this point, since they didn’t really sleep on the plane, so we went back home. Then had some pies at the Red Lion.
We loaned them our membership cards for their tour around the city and let them enjoy themselves. Of course there was the obligatory stop at Crazy Homies for some tequila!
The day before we left for Wales and Ireland we all went to Windsor Castle, which would be Beckie’s first time as well. Along with visiting the castle we took a tour of royal kitchen. Let’s just say the castle kitchen was quite huge, well stocked and friggin' clean. The copper cookware was stamped with the initials of the palace it was originally made for. It was raining off and on so we took time out for tea at The Crooked House of Windsor…the Metras duo really liked it. We strolled through the rest of Windsor, did some caching along the Thames and made a quick stop for a pint, or was it a half, at The Royal Oak. We left the next morning for Wales and Ireland so made our way back to Ealing so we could have a relaxing evening.

Metraeii Visit

Cambridge

Next on the University tour circuit is Cambridge. It was kind of a last minute idea, last minute being about 2 weeks, and we only went for the day. As with most of the travels around the UK, we took the train up to Cambridge on a rainy morning. Amongst the many things there are to do in Cambridge (most of them being museums), we definitely wanted to go on a punt tour. We decided to go take the tour before 11am while it was still raining and keeping the hordes away. Luckily, right when we started off on the tour the sun broke out. The tour was strictly relegated to the River Cam through “The Backs.”
For those who don’t know Cambridge is a university town and the River Cam travels through the backs of the many universities whose property entails the river. The university properties are closed to the public, or walkable for a fee, and therefore the general public doesn’t get to see the picturesque landscape. The physical footprint of the universities is rather small so when traveling the traditional backs, one can easily pass through 10 universities. The tour guide was quite splendid and knew a lot about all the different universities and shared some delightful stories. One story is about the pranks of the mountaineering society at Kings College. In addition to climbing the bridges over the River, they fancied climbing the spires of the chapel and placing items on top. One year a traffic cone was placed on top of a spire and the college spent two days building scaffolding to get near it; the next morning, they found the cone on another spire further away. Halfway through our tour, many more people decided they wanted to be on the water. Unfortunately, the vast majority of them were inexperienced and playing bumper punts in the water. The schools along the water had private use punts the students could take out. It was nice to drift down the river and imagine going to university here. There was a definite school-town energy about but trumping all of that was the centuries of history these schools emitted. The sheer stature, architecture, and age of the universities conjure romantic images of college life. As we passed by Trinity College one of the many facts shared was it multi-billion dollar endowment.
After the hour-long punt we were dropped off at the Anchor Pub, where Hawking frequents and Pink Floyd used to play, and had lunch. The sun was out to stay and people were flocking for the punts. From there it was off to just explore the town. As mentioned, there are quite a few museums there and a lot of them catering to many academic pursuits, but we made the tough decision to steer away from them. Visiting one would have us wanting to visit all of them. There were plenty of people here on a Saturday so walking through the town market and center proved very entertaining and hard to not be in someone’s picture. There were a fair amount of tour groups floating about the city as well as campus visitors. We stopped into Mr. Simms Sweet Shop and picked up some munchies for the walk around town.
Although bicycle-centric, the town didn’t seem as nearly so as Oxford. Outside of St. John’s there was a small craft show where we picked up a small hand made milk carafe for our tea set. Unfortunately, all the colleges want to charge for walking their grounds but understandably so because otherwise their small campus would be hounded by flocks upon flocks of tourists. Unlike Princeton where on reunion weekend (comprising of over 60 years of reunions) their humongous campus swallows up everybody and doesn’t look the worse for wear.
We made a stop into a tea shop for tea, meh, and moved on to check out more nooks of the city. We were fascinated by the sheer size, design, and history of the chapel at Kings College so we made sure to stop inside. Construction on the chapel began before the War of the Roses and was completed by Henry VIII. It has the largest fan vault ceilings in the world and, like a proper university, had a complete demonstration on the physics of fan vaults. Also inside is an organ Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn donated with their initials all over it. Purchasing entrance to the chapel allowed a limited walk around the small campus. During our walk, we heard students talking about how broke the college is but despite that it certainly isn’t bankrupt on scenery.
After being funneled off the campus we strolled around the city some more and made sure to stop into some pubs-Baron of Beef, The Eagle and The Salisbury’s Arms. The Eagle was pretty special due to the RAF bar in the back (where WWII RAF crew burned emblems onto the ceiling with their zippos) and also Crick and Watson made their DNA announcement there. We made our own discovery that despite getting to town early it was getting fairly late and we needed to find our way back to the station. We weren’t sure how long it would take to walk the meandering mile plus through town to the station. Like most places we visit, we could’ve spent at least another day there.

Cambridge