Jen and Rebecca Hit the High Points of Edinburgh

R: Jen and I donned our colorful new rain coats (both purchased for this trip) and dashed across the street to have scones and tea for breakfast at a lovely church cafe this morning. We're both very glad to have nice raincoats, though turns out Jen forgot to pack an umbrella. We later remedied that, but not til after the rain stopped and I had poked Jen in the eye a hundred times by walking too close to her.

The first high point we hit was everyone's Edinburgh must, Edinburgh Castle. The rain had mostly subsided by the time we hit the parapets, so we were able to enjoy all the old stone walls in relative dryness.

J: We wandered aimlessly for a bit around the walls and cannons and happened to run into a couple from my Denver to London flight. Unfortunately, they were stuck on the Manchester route and didn't make it to Edinburgh until 9:30 last night. Thank goodness the nice BA lady in Denver hooked me up! The castle was filled with kilts, swords, bagpipes, and other war memorabilia. Since we had a lot planned for the day, I got to hurry Rebecca thru a couple of the rooms.

R: It's true. The National War Museum was possibly my fastest English-language museum ever! The other castle highlight was the crown jewels, plus the lovely views from our perch on the hill overlooking the city and the firth. Next we headed down the Royal Mile. We were sidetracked by a few churches, lunch, and a tartan weaving mill, but made it to Holyroodhouse Palace at the end of the road to tour the Queen's official residence in Scotland. Good thing we aren't here next week when she'll be in residence greeting the Pope on his first official state visit to Scotland.

J: We spent some time in Holyrood exploring the State Rooms currently in use, as well as more historical sections once inhabited by Mary, Queen of Scots. She caused quite the scandals in her time...murder, intrigue, it was all there! Just outside of the house lay the remains of the Abbey - it provided much photographic entertainment, plus, Rebecca was spotted photographing Shaun by non-toy carrying tourists. She wandered off before being forced to explain herself. Once we had finished practicing our artistic photography skills, we decided to hike up to the top of Arthur's Seat - the highest point in Edinburgh. Unfortunately, we didn't read the park map and the trails aren't marked. So, we ended up climbing Radical Road (a trail built by unemployed laborers - so named because of their political beliefs) instead. It still provided us with some extraordinary views of the city though.

R: I've learned that the first path you see, despite how invitingly rocky and steep it is, isn't always the path you want to take. Ah well. We next headed Calton Hill, the third of the high hills in Edinburgh (a town that has a lot hillier streets than I'd imagined...). There Jen took my photo with the National Monument, which looked like it should have been Greece's national monument, much to the amusement of those looking on. We finished off the day with a tour of the underground Mary King's Close--I love my underground tourist sites! We learned about how filthy the streets were in the 16oos, how the street eventually got covered over to build a government building, and how Mary King and others still haunt the Close. Oooooo. Spooky.

Jen and Rebecca Check in and Walk About

R: Thanks to Jen’s Diamond Status with Hilton, which is in turn thanks to her 6 months of work travel to Houston, our Edinburgh hotel is “Double Deluxe” fancy and overlooks Edinburgh Castle. We’re very happy with our view!

View from hotel window

After stashing the luggage and changing out of our travel-icky clothes, we headed out to wander the street of Edinburgh, and to fine some much-needed dinner. I was pleasantly to see that the sun is still out past 7:00—I guess I worried that being further north would mean it would be dark a lot later.

Another side of Edinburgh Castle, on the walk to dinner

J: We found a little pub called the Last Drop. Not named as I originally thought in reference to the drinking of alcohol, but rather in reference to the location’s former use as the site of the town gallows. We also discovered that one of the ghost tours Rebecca wants to take departs from this bar (and the literary tour she wants to do leaves from a pub 2 doors down).

R: Leave it to me to pick a pub with historic significance. But they had good steak and ale pies too! After our leisurely dinner and a pint, we decided that a good night’s rest would ultimately make us happier than staying out late, so we wandered through some of the area streets—full of people, half of which had American accents—and by the castle at night back to the hotel to sleep off jet-lag. We’ll be ready to tackle Scotland with full strength tomorrow!

Jen and Rebecca While Away the Time at Separate Airports

R: I’m in Scotland! But I’m entering hour number 2 of sitting in the Edinburgh airport, which is a decidedly un-fun place to be spending your first evening of vacation. My travel plans went off without a hitch—I dashed off to the last few “here is what to do while I’m gone” work emails at 5:00, hopped on the lightrail to the airport, shared my traditional airport dinner of McDonald’s with Shaun (Mc—that’s got to be Scottish, right?), and boarded the plane on time.

After a few hours’ layover in Amsterdam, during which time I confirmed that the Verizon people were not, in fact, big fat liars and my Droid indeed does not function in Europe, I had another uneventful and nap-filled flight to Edinburgh that even arrived 10 minutes early. I was unreasonably excited to hear my first Scottish accents of the trip on the flight.

Jen’s flight was supposed to arrive an hour before mine, so I expected to see her smiling face waiting for me on the other side of customs. Sadly, no Jen. She had let me know she was concerned about the less-than-hour-long window to clear customs in London before catching the Edinburgh flight, though, so the lack of Jen wasn’t entirely unexpected. I wandered through the UK Arrivals Hall, in case she had caught the next flight which was her back up plan. Still no Jen. Plus she hadn’t emailed me any updated flight status as she said she would if necessary (as I learned from a pay internet station, not my phone, thank you very much.)

Shaun looks about as forlorn as I feel waiting for Jen.

The British Airways counter was at least a little helpful. They confirmed Jen’s flight was delayed out of Denver and so she must have missed the connection; however, all the flights from Heathrow were booked solid, so getting a stand-by seat could be tricky. Ack!
So Shaun and I waited at arrivals for Jen to magically appear. And I can’t believe there’s no bar to wait in! No beer! No whiskey ! I admit I had looked for a bar in part because I thought that’s where I might find Jen…

J: I had intended on meeting Rebecca at her baggage claim, but the fine folks at British Airways had other plans for me. The plane we were set to leave on had a bit of a bumpy landing on its way into Denver, so my flight to London was delayed by 2 hours. This, of course, meant that I was going to miss my planned connection to Edinburgh. However, the very nice gate agent booked me on the next available flight to Edinburgh from London (the rest of the passengers on my flight were content to follow directions and let BA take care of that while they were sleeping…silly travelers). Contrary to Rebecca’s beliefs, I did email her to tell her that I would be about 2 hours late. Once I finally arrived in London, I went straight away to the BA ticketing counter to receive my ticket for the later flight. I was one of the lucky ones because everyone else headed to Edinburgh got to make a stop in Manchester first. And, still attempting to be a good friend and travel companion, I asked the ticket agent if he could alert Rebecca to my new arrival time. He promised he would and even offered to call her for me (which thanks to Verizon, wasn’t really an option). But, either he failed to deliver on his promise or Rebecca failed to hear her page because she did not get the memo. Never fear though, I arrived a mere 3 hours later than originally intended and found Rebecca patiently (?) waiting for me in baggage claim.

R: Let the fun begin!

Jen and Rebecca Prepare for their Next Adventure

Now that we finally posted some final half-assed blog entries from our last trip written 7 months after the trip ended, it looks like Jen and Rebecca are free to embark on another one. We're heading across the pond to Scotland. It was really hard to resist a stop in our favorite international city, London, since we'll be on the same island and all, but in researching the trip, we realized how many awesome things there are to see in Scotland. So we're flying into Edinburgh, renting a car, and driving through the Highlands and the Hebrides. We're super exited to see castles! And distilleries! And sheep (the source of yarn! Rebecca has already scoped out a yarn shop for the itinerary.) Plus, it's an English-speaking country, which might come in handy when, you know, speaking and reading menus.

Hopefully we'll be able to post regularly and keep you posted on our Highland adventures.

Our trip buddy Shaun the Sheep surveys Rebecca's packing disarray.

Jen and Rebecca Reflect on Their Galapagos Voyage

R: Frankly, because we’re lazy, we finally finished updating this blog 7 months later, on the eve of our next trip. We’ll try to do better with this next trip! So in a nutshell, here is a list of things I actually still remember about the Galapagos trip, and things I learned:

1. Taking photos with a silly finger puppet is fun and must be repeated on future trips.
2. Sleeping a lot on vacation should not make you feel guilty, especially when you don't feel well. It is what vacation is all about.
3. Snorkeling is pretty fun!
4. Make sure to schedule your travel clinic appointment well before you leave for your trip to far-flung areas so that you don’t miss it in the mad dash to leave town for Christmas in a snowstorm and then aren’t paranoid about eating something that might make you sick.
5. For every group of 13 new people you meet, there are probably going to be at least 4 you like.
6. Looking at wild life is pretty fun!
7. Seasickness eventually goes away, but next time pack higher dosage drugs.
8. Despite the fact that in our circle of acquaintance we are some of the most-traveled people, Jen and I were probably the least-traveled people on our boat. Which just made us feel like we have a lot more of the world to see.

Jen: I agree with all of Rebecca’s vacation take-away items (especially number #4 – no fear of undercooked food here! I planned ahead). A few additional things I learned:

1. It’s okay to let someone else plan your schedule every day. It’s actually pretty relaxing.

2. Swimming with rays is fun – but they’ll beat you every time.

3. It takes a lot of practice to take a decent underwater photo. Hovering over fish without spooking them is not as easy as it sounds.

4. You can make fruit juice out of anything – who needs apples and oranges when you have watermelon and cantaloupe? Hmm…I miss my morning mystery juice…

5. We have a lot more of the world to see!!

Jen and Rebecca Take Far Too Many Pictures of Orchids (1/8/10)

Today is our last day in Quito! We really didn’t have any activities planned, so when we wandered by Ecuador’s Government Palace and realized that we could take a tour, naturally we decided we must do it! We took our places in line and filed in for the 1pm tour. It was the first time I’ve ever been on a tour when I couldn’t understand a single word. The artifacts were impressive, however. And actually, it was nice to be able to just take in the scenery without feeling like you had to pay attention. Who needs to ALWAYS be learning things? (Yeah, yeah, I know you're all thinking, "Rebecca.")

After the tour, we decided to head to the botanical gardens to see the orchids (a major export of Ecuador, by the way). We took this opportunity to learn more about the macro feature on cameras – it resulted in some interesting orchid shots – and improved Jen’s mood immensely! We also made a new friend in the gardens. A little stray cat followed us on our tour and only left our sides when we returned to the greenhouse (its home, or at least that was our assumption).

We learned, however, that we didn’t need another full day in Quito. We were pretty well exhausted and ready to go home, yet had to fill the entire day—plus our flight was delayed. What a joy! But finally, it was time to head to the airport and catch our flight back to the States. Airport security was pretty tight – we were x-rayed at security and then patted down before going to the gate. If a passenger left the gate area to use the rest room, he was patted down again upon his return to the gate. But security was a little lax when it came to checking through all of a bag’s pockets. Rebecca saw someone’s knitting needles get confiscated, but fortunately the dizzying array of zippers on her bags was too much for the security officer, and she didn’t have to leave hers in Ecuador. Granted, we were so tired from our long day in Quito that there was no airplane-knitting. Only sleeping. And movie watching.

Yeah, we did.

Jen and Rebecca Face the Equator's Challenges (1/7/10)

For today’s adventure, we arranged for a ride to view a village built in the crater of an extinct volcano and then to take us on to the Equator museum. The village site was pretty, but there wasn’t very much to see or do there unless we wanted to take the time to hike down to it. So, we took a few photos and then headed off to the Equator museum. In addition to information on the equator, the museum also had exhibits on Ecuadoran culture and history. It was in one of these exhibits that we learned that in addition to being a national delicacy, guinea pigs were also used to sense bad spirits (since they were calm when we entered the hut, we’re assuming that means we’re good spirits).

There are multiple “official” equator sites, but based on the tests we were put thru, we decided that we were indeed at the official one. The first test our guide completed involved water going down the drain. Just a few feet to the north or south of the equator, the water spun as it went down the drain. After he moved the sink over the equator line, the water flowed straight down! Our second demonstration was one of human strength. Jen was the volunteer for this one. A few feet north of the equator, and she was able to resist the guide as he attempted to pull her arms down. On the line, no matter how hard she tried, her arms failed her and came down when the guide pulled. The most fun (and frustrating) test was balancing an egg on the head of a nail. After 3 tries, Jen finally got hers to stand up! (Rebecca, not so much, which frustrated her to no end because as we all know, she hates losing. Or not being good at something!)

Once we arrived back in Quito, we went to the Teleferico (our last Quito must-do). The Teleferico is a cable car ride 2500 meters high into the Andes. Rebecca was glad Jen was a good sport about it, as Jen is not a fan of heights. (And therefore Rebecca has made it her personal goal to find all things involving heights to make Jen participate in!) We spent several hours wandering about the mountain top (where it was chilly!), enjoying the city views and trying to identify the various mountains (we know we saw Cotopaxi – just not sure exactly which one it was).