Josh's European Adventures

London

2009-07-21T09:23:00.000-07:00

Whew! At the beginning of our trip we were so excited that we got to go on 11 airplanes. Now it was mostly a hurdle to jump over to get to our next destination. Thankfully, we got our big break, and got to ride on a train!!!! Who knew trains could ever be better that airplanes? Anyways, we took the Chunnel (an underground train that runs under the English Channel) from Paris to London. Let's say our London hotel wasn't nearly as nice as our Paris one. Finding a dirty Kleenex under the bed was not very pleasant for Mom. But it was better that sleeping on the streets, and we were glad to be in London!

Outside our hotel balcony--not quite as nice as Paris with a view of the Eiffel!

One of the highlights of our sabbatical was seeing the show Wicked in London. It was spectacular. Wicked is a story of the 4 witches of Oz, before the time Dorothy got picked up by the cyclone in Kansas.

They didn't allow cameras while the show was on, so I had to settle with taking a picture of the specially set up stage.

St. Paul's Cathedral at Midday. We had great weather in London, contrary to its rainy reputation.

The famous Big Ben clock.

One day we had a picnic lunch at Trafalgar square, with all of our very nice friends the pigeons. A story we heard somewhere was that all the pigeons in Trafalgar square were slowly disappearing........until they found out that a local Chinese restaurant was secretly capturing them and cooking them!

One of the things we just had to do in London was the changing of the guard. The changing of the guard takes place around 11 o'clock when the old guards take a break and the new ones come in. We had a tour guide that took us around to see the best parts of it. For instance, most people don't know that there is a horse changing of the guard that takes place right before the marching changing of the guard (above).

The beginning of the changing of the guard. You can't imagine how many people were trying to march with them and take pictures at the same time.

One of the new guardsmen. A thing you should know is that the guards are actually in the army and not just for show. They could be called back into service at anytime.

A Queen Victoria statue outside the changing of the guard. Her original nose was knocked off by a ladder, so they had to give her a nose job.

How expensive could really nice cake cost? Well at Harrods, we saw one. Want it? It's only 5000 pounds (about $8000).

At the Tower of London, we got a so called "Beef-eater" as our tour guide.

Outside the Tower of London (I used special effects to only make the flag have color).

It just so happened that Tom Cruise was in London the week that we were there! Or...at least something like him. We went to Madame Tussuad's wax museum on our last full day in London, where Tom Cruise and all other famous figures were expertly made with wax.

Leaving London, we visited Stonhenge. We listened to an Audio Guide while we walked around the great stones.

We wandered the streets of Oxford, but because it was late we couldn't get in to visit any colleges.

Next we went to go stay with Todd and Rebecca Cook who are missionaries in Birmingham (about 2 hours away from London).

Birmingham is the starting place of the chocolate company Cadbury. It's a lot more popular in Europe than in the US.

A free beach located in the middle of Birmingham. Why go to the coast when you can get a tan right in the middle of the city??

At a American-like store in Birmingham, we got for the first time in 10 weeks...... *drum roll* ROOT BEER!!!!! Yes, they usually don't have Root Beer in Europe (people think it tastes like medicine). It was good to get a taste of America.

Paris

2009-07-14T01:21:00.001-07:00

After a great time in Norway, we took another plane (it was getting boring fast!) to Paris. We were very excited to find that our hotel room was a 2 bedroom suite with kitchens and all. We also had a great view of the Eiffel!

The Eiffel tower from our hotel room.

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The next day we took the metro to a free Paris walking tour.

Inside the metro. We found the Paris underground to be really easy to navigate. When you were on a platform, the same train went there and came back every 2 minutes.

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For our first meal in Paris, we enjoyed delicious crepes and a jumbo hot dog.

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After lunch we got on our free walking tour with our tour guide Theo. He was hilarious, and it was a great way to see most of the main monuments of Paris.

A rugby player in one of Paris' many parks.

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To get this picture I potentially "risked" my life. As the green signal to walk came on, our tour crossed over the Champs-Élysées . My mom and I stopped in the middle of the street (where there was a small island thing) to take a few pictures, only then to discover that the green signal was off and that traffic was running.

Metro passes--200 Euros
Crepes-15 Euros
Stopping in the middle of the road--priceless.

A fountain along our tour.

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It was mom's birthday that day, and we decided to celebrate at Tribeca, a restaurant very near the Eiffel Tower (she shared the cake :) )

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These classic metro signs always told us we weren't too far away from our hotel.

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Although not captured in this picture, the same bird was a couple inches away from hopping into our hotel room (from our balcony).

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This is the main entrance to the Louvre, a very famous art museum, home of perhaps the most famous painting in the world. Originally the architect wanted this glass pyramid to be almost invisible. Many Parisians want it torn down, but they've never quite gotten around to it.

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The Louvre is so huge that if you spent a few moments at each painting it would take you a month to see the whole museum (without eating, drinking, or sleeping). But most tourists come to the Louvre to see the original Mona Lisa.

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We hoped to see the most famous exhibits in the Louvre before 10 o'clock, when it said it closed. But at 9:30 the guards started pushing us out of the museum. "No time for pictures, the museum is closing!!!" they commanded us. After also visiting other attractions, we now have learned that Parisians like to push you out of attractions early, I guess so that they can get back home sooner.

We rode on this Ferris wheel after we got kicked out early.

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A statue praying in Notre Dame.

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Candles in Notre Dame.

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Settled on a hill, Montmartre is an area where artists paint portraits and restaurants sell crepes. A man called my dad over and asked him if he wanted his profile done. He said the first family member profile was free, and after he cut dad's silhouette out of a piece of paper, we all decided to get ours done. We also got our portraits painted.

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One of the more impressive street performers at Montmartre.

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Ah, our friendly neighborhood toilets--with no toilet paper. One of the little points of travel that made life a little more stressful!

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This is the Eternal Flame burning at the Arc de Triomphe. Despite popular belief, The Eternal Flame has been put out once and abused another time. One drunken man relieved himself on it, and two Australians decided to have a short "barbie" one time. Info thanks to tour guide Theo.

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The Arc de Triomphe connects about 10 roads into one humongous roundabout (you can see the beginning of the roundabout at the bottom of the page). This roundabout is so dangerous that no insurance company will insure you while you're on it. It's no surprise--there are no lane markings and an accident happens every 30 minutes!

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Finally, we went to see the Eiffel tower. We were all very tired on our last day in Paris, and we had to wait at a 45 minute cue before actually getting on the elevator up. After being cramped in to elevators and finally getting to the top (where it was just as squished with people) when unanimously decided that besides the nice view, the Eiffel Tower is much better viewed from ground level then on top.

The Eiffel, towering about 1000 feet above us.

Norway

2009-07-09T02:57:00.000-07:00

We had to wake up at a very very early hour (5:30) to catch our plane to Norway. For those who don't know, our trip to Norway was added for Annie to be the flower girl and my dad to be the pastor in J-leigh and David Haaland's wedding. After packing up as fast as our zombified bodies could take us, we left our house with...17 pieces of luggage. Returning our car and taking a taxi to the airport, we got to the Edinburgh airport only to find that our first plane was delayed 15 minutes. Not good. You see, we had two planes to catch--and between the first and second was a 45 minute layover. Now with only a 30 minute layover, it would be really hard to make the second plane!

We arrived at Oslo, Norway, only to find that our second plane was gone. The people at the airport were able to get us on a different plane near to the Haaland's house, though. While we waited the airport gave us 1000 kroner to eat dinner (about $160!). But money in Norway doesn't go nearly as far in the U.S. We had Biffsnaders (translated in norwegian : beef snack) and killingwok for dinner. It was pretty good, but for about $30 each meal, it was definetly not what you would get for that much in America.

Biffsnader

We were very happy to see David and J-leigh waiting for us at the last airport. They drove us in their van to their house, and with them living on fjord (small peninsula-type thing) we had to take a car-ferry to get across.

Our first glimpse of the beauty of Norway! This picture was probably taken near midnight (when its the summer in Norway, it never gets fully dark).

The next day, all of us hopped on a bus to go see a glacier. Who knew Norway was so beatiful?

The glacier, melting under the heat of the sun.

Melted water from the galcier.

We got to go swimming on a beautiful beach on the North Sea the next day. We saw a red jellyfish (the bad ones that can sting you) three feet away from us. You couldn't stay in the water for more than a minute until your feet felt numb, though!

Sand thrown up in the air.

Back at the Haaland's house, we skipped rocks on a dock made of large stones.

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David and J-leigh's wedding

It was what the Norwegians would call a "mild wind" day and what Americans would call a "strong wind". As you can see, my dad was struggling with his papers.

Jump! After the wedding.

Annie, the flower girl

Everyone in the wedding party.

J-leigh and David, just married.

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After the reception we went to see the beautiful Norwegian sunset at 11:30 PM. It was by far the best sunset I had ever seen.

Final Days in Scotland

2009-06-29T10:39:00.000-07:00

Loch Ness. The legendary lake large enough to submerge the earth's population 3 times over. And possibly able to inhabit the Loch Ness monster. After Skye we came back to Stirling, and after sleeping a night back there, we headed towards Loch Ness, in hopes of seeing the monster. After a long drive on a winding road (Scotland's roads have no shoulder, and a lot of them have blind corners at every turn--kind of freaky when you're going around a corner with a bus taking up more than its share) we arrived at Urquhart Castle on the banks of the Loch Ness.

Urquhart castle is a castle that was destroyed by a fire and is now in ruins. Above is the view from the top overlooking Loch Ness.

A hippie vehicle parked in Urquhart castle parking lot.

After seeing Urquhart castle and an exhibit about the Loch Ness monster...we got to travel on an armed battle cruiser on a mission to destroy the monster!!!! (not really--but that would have been awesome!). We enjoyed an Earl Grey inside the Jacobite Spirit while casually gazing out the window in search of just a neck protruding out of the water...

We didn't. But we still have phony web pics to humor us!

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The lake taken from atop the boat. It does look mysterious, doesn't it?

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After seeing Loch Ness, we stayed in a castle-youth hostel that night. It was an cool place to stay.... with lots of artwork placed along the walls. We slept normally, considering the fact that the place was "haunted".

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That morning we got up and rode in the car to Oldmeldrum, where the Scottish Highland Games were taking place.

The hammer. With the objective of trying to throw it as far as possible, a participant will throw a weight with a stick attached. How do they do it in kilts?
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Throwing the hammer is painful!

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Probably the best-known event, the Caber toss involves turning a log upside down--it's kind of hard to explain. Here's a very short youtube video demonstrating how a correct throw is done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujpfCRpqkFs

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This tug-of-war is quite different from ours. About ten men crouch at each side, each team waiting for the other team to start tugging. It's a great feat of endurance, and it was so intense that this guy was unable to pull his pants up!

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The stone put is kind of like the hammer, except with a chain instead of a wooden stick.

More pain!

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This is some sort of baton toss...the drum majors have to flip their batons over the banner and then catch it.

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The grand finale. Although it might not be traditional, the parachuting was the best part of all. The plane flew above us 4 or 5 times (were they trying to make our necks sore, or what?) and then finally dropped the three parachuters that landed right in the playing field.

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Back at home, we walked a couple miles down our road to get delicious strawberries!

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On Thursday, my mom and I got to do a really cool high-wire zip-line course called Go Ape. Unfortunately I couldn't get any pictures because I didn't want my camera to fall while I was on the UK's longest zip line. It was loads of fun, and on the way back we stopped at a gas station and saw an interesting flavor of chips for only 10p (about 16 cents). We wondered why it was so cheap and decided to get it....was it the name or the taste that made them put it on clearance?

Cajun Squirrel. Enough said.

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Yesterday we took a tour at Stirling's Old Town Jail, a horrifically fascinating place. We had a great actor as our tour guide---he could do at least 3 different accents, and when he looked at you, one eye would not look the same way as the other, creating a freaky effect. The picture above is a typical jail cell.

The Old Town Jail got 5 stars for its loo's cleanliness....

This flower is on the outside of our house, and I used special effects to make it appear as if only it had color.

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We said goodbye to our church in Scotland, the Falkirk Free Church, on Sunday. On arriving the first Sunday, they welcomed us right away. I'm sure we'll miss them and they'll miss us. We've invited the pastor there to come to our church and preach sometime also.

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This will be my last post in Scotland. I hope to keep up this blog when we are traveling through Europe. If I'm lucky I might be able to post a post after we visit each country.

Here's our trip itinerary through Europe :

July 1--We take a plane to J-Leigh and David Haaland's wedding in Norway.

July 6--We take a flight from Norway to France, to stay at Euro Disney in Paris.

July 8--At a hotel in Paris.

July 13--We take a train from Paris to London, via the Chunnel (a train that goes under the English channel) then stay at a hotel in London.

July 18--We take a flight from London to Spain, staying at a hotel in Barcelona.

July 22--We arrive in Zurich, Switzerland, via a plane from Barcelona.

July 28--We arrive at a place called Waupun, Wisconsin, located somewhere in the mid-west of the United States (a.k.a home!)

The Isle of Skye

2009-06-26T04:30:00.000-07:00

Right after the West Highland Way, we rented a car to drive to the island of Skye, a larger one of the many islands off of Scotland's west coast. We arrived at the car ferry just in time to catch the 3 o'clock. The ferry sailed us across the salt water of the Atlantic, and we landed on the magnificent Isle of Skye (just the name sounds cool, doesn't it?).

Ahead is Skye, with its towering Munroes (mountains over 3000 feet).

In the distance is the island of Rum.

After getting off the ferry, we started driving again. We had to drive a couple hours to reach our accommodations in the village Port Na Long. We stopped for dinner along the way.

Near the place where we had dinner.

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At last we parked the car at Skye Walker Hostel, a cleverly named youth hostel with the a bit of the Star Wars theme. It was a great place, but was obviously different from the Bed and Breakfasts we had stayed at along the WHW.

If you look close enough you can see that Darth Vader is wearing plaid underwear.

To snap the above picture, I had to fight the midge. Having to survive them was worth it. Even though I had to run back and forth and snapping pictures as I went, I was able to get at least 1 good picture without getting more than 100 midge bites.

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The next day we went to drive around the the outside of the island, stopping at places as we went. The first place we drove to was a giant drop off with a lighthouse at the bottom (that's the best way I can describe it at least).

We walked down the hill and got to see the the coast, along with a beautiful rocky beach.

I could have stayed at the rocky beach all day--taking pictures of course.

I never realized how many drops of water come out after a wave crashes against rocks.

This was a place where they found dinosaur bones I think.

This place was described to us as, "Something out of the Lord of the Rings".

After visiting Skye, the next morning we drove to the train station. We got on a train headed toward Striling.

At the train station, we paid for a toilet for the first time! Cheap skates...what if you run out of change and you really got to go?

West Highland Way---Days 9 and 10

2009-06-24T06:20:00.000-07:00

DAY 9

The second to last day of the West Highland Way. We couldn't believe how fast time has gone past. After eating another full Scottish breakfast (it was getting old), we left Kingshouse and like a routine started hiking. After about a mile in, we met Marigold, a woman who was also walking the WHW, and started walking with her.

After hiking up the Devil's Staircase (not nearly as steep compared to other parts) we got more great views.

After last nights rain, there was a bunch of dew.

Hiking down into Tyndrum, we saw the motivated Caledonian Challenge walkers coming towards us. The Caledonian Challenge is a 45 mile walk in 24 hours. The Caledonian people walk the same path as the WHW, and end at about somewhere around the middle. They walk in teams and each team walks for a different cause.

One of the Caledonian Challenge checkpoints was in Tyndrum where we were staying. RBS stands for Royal Bank of Scotland, the bank that's funding the event (and from what I've heard going bankrupt?).

Marigold actually walked with us the whole day, and she left us when she had to go to her campsite in Tyndrum.

DAY 10

We couldn't believe that the West Highland Way was almost over. At same time, we were also ready to go home (Stirling home...the closest like Waupun home!). Today was supposed to be the hardest day of all, but we were broken in and it was long, but not too tough.

We stopped for lunch at 3 PM. You see, we have this thing about stopping for lunch at very scenic places; we don't like to stop at a bad lunch spot, in other words. At around lunch time we couldn't see any good lunch spots, because we were in one of those cut-down-pine-tree- forest things. We were starving after we finally arrived at the top of a hill and away from the ugly old forest.

On the outskirts of Fort William was an intriguing forest.

About 3 miles away from Fort William, there was a light rain. Not the most welcoming welcome, you would think...

But with rain brings a rainbow! Maybe God was promising us, "You shall never have to walk 95 miles again."

The last mile : a small road leading us into Fort William. We were almost there. If anyone broke their leg now, they would be dragged to the end. Seeing the sign in sight, we half ran. Then we could clearly make out the words. Then we touched it. We had officially finished the West Highland Way. The world was applauding for us. A lady in a car passing by gave a thumbs up.

We did it.

Officially the end.

West Highland Way---Days 6-8

2009-06-22T05:56:00.000-07:00

One thing I forgot to mention--on day 5 at the Drover's Inn we tried Haggis. Haggis is a famous Scottish dish which is composed of sheep innards wrapped in stomach or something. Believe me--its nothing special! It tastes like old meatloaf with a sickening texture. Who would eat this stuff? Thankfully they had Haggis offered as an appetiser, so we didn't have to waste our money on a main course. We all tried it, and, in my opinion, its not as bad as black pudding.

Haggis served with "tatties" (mashed potatoes).

DAY 6

A very old graveyard we saw along the way. Apparently some of the graves date back to 500 A.D.

Water from waterfalls was fresh and cold--better than the water we carried along on our Camelbacks (a backpack thing that enables you to have easy access to water--the only downside to it is that the water gets warm after a while). In our guide book is said that it was safe to drink spring water from Scotland.

Another one of the many beautiful mountains of Scotland.

Highland sheep were absolutely everywhere.

DAY 7

We had to hike 10 moderate-grade miles today, and were starting to get blisters. Even with our excellent footwear (hiking sock liners, hiking socks, hiking boots) our feet were wearing out. Fortunately, Moleskin came to our rescue. Moleskin is a thick, band aid-like thing that helps hot spots from turning into blisters. It was a great aid to our aching feet along the WHW.

Since we hardly saw anyone this day, we had to be creative. To take this picture I set my camera on a rock and set it for self-timer.

On good days the military does practice flights with their fighter planes, and occasionally we would see them zoom past at a supersonic speed. In fact, we saw them quite a bit--for we were blessed with great weather along the WHW! It was already 7 days in and we had barely had any rain. And for Scotland, that's not normal.

The sheep like to walk the WHW too.

DAY 8

Day 8--Rannock Moor, the most desolate stage of the Way. Unlike the other parts of the WHW, there are no towns or shelter along the trail. Its extremely barren, and in bad weather you could be in big trouble. And today we had a hard time believing that we had such good weather! Without a cloud in the sky--we began our 10 mile walk.

Although the girls did not enjoy the heat very much, I thought this was the most beautiful part of the Way.

Barely able to see with the naked eye, these deer could been seen on one of the peaks along Rannoch Moor.

This mountain is the most photographed in Scotland (if only i could remember its name!). It greeted us as we approached Kingshouse hotel (where we were staying).

Kingshouse hotel, just a few meters away!

West Highland Way---Days 3-5

2009-06-21T06:24:00.000-07:00

DAY 3

Waking up after a great nights rest at Bay Cottage, we packed up all our stuff and were ready to head to breakfast. This was the second breakfast we have had along the WHW, and it was almost exact as the last one. It was called a "full Scottish breakfast" and we would later find out that every single place we stayed at made a "full Scottish breakfast" for breakfast. Usually the breakfast included : toast, eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms, sausage, bacon (more like ham), tea, beans, and black pudding. A super-delicious breakfast mostly. But wait-- you ask what's black pudding? It's a crispy round thing that's made out of pig's blood. I can officially say that I tried it. And I can also promise that I won't try it again!

We got beautiful views at the base of Loch Lomond today. For a break we stopped at a rocky beach in the afternoon and fed some ducks. There was a mom duck and her ducklings which gobbled up some of our croissants (although I doubt they tasted the difference from normal bread) and eventually more ducks wandered over to the feeding frenzy. Then we saw a swan coming to join the party. Soon all our croissants were gone.

The same swan on Loch Lomond.

Some of the ducks.

We had a great time hiking and gazing at the views of Loch Lomond.

DAY 4

By day 4 we had got our hiking down to a system. With less breaks than the first three days, we were able to arrive at our destination much faster. We were also alot less tired, and could enjoy the walking much more. We arrived at the Inveroran Photography lodge at 2:30, when we usually arrive around 4 0r 5. The photography lodge was a really cool place--it's a place where photography students may come to take photography classes taught by various teachers. Mom and dad had a great view from their room.

Arriving at Inveroran, we thought we were almost there! But we weren't....we still had 1/2 mile climb to reach the photography lodge!

Having many birdhouses, the photography lodge was a cool place to see birds.

We saw these kind of flowers all the way along the WHW.

DAY 5

After another full Scottish Breakfast, we were off to blaze the trail again, and today was the only day labeled, "strenuous" by the guide book, and it was right. We had to, "scramble" a lot around a bunch of rocks, and without our great foot wear we might not have made it. Also, forest + calm = midges, so with that into the equation, this day was pretty hard. But we were rewarded with some breathtaking views.

A shrine--honoring red bull? Lol!!!

The place where we had a midge-free, beautiful lunch.

P.S. If you want to enlarge one of the photos, just click on it.

West Highland Way---Days 1 and 2

2009-06-18T02:03:00.000-07:00

DAY 1

We woke up at 5:00 A.M, on Friday, June 5, to leave for the West Highland Way. With our backpacks on our backs, our hiking boots on our feet, and the luggage on our laps (we couldn't fit everything in the trunk) we left in our rental car and headed for the train station. After riding on a train and switching trains, we finally arrived at the entrance to the WHW. Even though we hadn't started the 10 day-95 mile trek through the highlands, we were already a bit weary from the traveling. We handed our luggage to the luggage transferers (AMS baggage) who transfer our luggage to our various accommodations along the WHW. Our first day was rated easy--we only had to walk 12 miles. Little did we know how hard this day would actually be.

Us at the official start of the WHW. A Scottish man took our picture.

In this map you can really see how long the West Highland Way is! It starts at Milngavie (near Glasgow) and ends in Fort William.

We left Milngavie and immediately the path led us into a small forest along a river, where we saw a strange orange stuff--clay I guess??

After a few miles we were led into a vast and amazing wilderness. It was a great surprise to us, since we were just in a forest. Beautiful mountains surrounded us while we hiked. Beautiful mountains surrounded us while...while we went commando. Contrary to our belief, there are no port-a-johns on the WHW.

A lone tree on the horizon.

Hungry and weary, we at last reached our designated lunch spot, Glengoyne distillery. Munching our lunch in a sheep's pen outside the distillery (we were too hungry to care) we satisfied our stomachs. After eating, we paid a visit to the distillery.

A tube-thingy in the distillery. We decided it looked like something out of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory.

After 4 more miles of hiking, we reached a sign that said, "Drymen-2 miles". Drymen was the place where we were staying. It was somewhere around 5:30, and we were overjoyed.

But the sign was the most deceiving sign EVER! Two miles felt like it was tripled. But when we finally reached our Bed and Breakfast, called the Hawthorns, we were so happy and so tired at the same time, the two almost balanced each other out. We ate at the Clacken Inn, which claims to be the oldest pub in Scotland, then we effortlessly fell asleep in the Hawthorns.

DAY 2

Day 2 was -to our great relief- only 7 miles. The map said we would travel through forests and then hike up Conic Hill. But what it failed to mention was the midges. Some might compare midges to mosquitoes, but they are actually quite different. First of all, midges are tiny. Really tiny. A lot tinyer than mosquitoes. Second of all, they travel in packs/herds. They only live 4 hours. But one thing mosquito's and midges have in common........is the evil desire of sucking your blood. Yes, and they have perfected that skill very well. But the midge has one weakness. No, its not insect repellent. No, its not nets (although these two things do help). Its just walking. Midges are two slow to keep up with you. Thats they're weak point. Today we met the midge. And the midge met us.

The first part of our walk was in conifer plantations, the midge's favorite feeding ground.

This is Scotland's version of the slug--one of the medium sized ones.

On our trip we had decided to memorize 1 Corinthians 13, trying to memorize a verse a day. This is the day that we started it. Wide forest paths are perfect for memorizing verses. It's wide enough to hear everyone, and the midges keep you moving.

After exiting the forest, we started the steep climb up Conic Hill (the name should really be Conic Mountain, this is no hill people!). And we were rewarded with the great views of Loch Lomond (loch means lake) below.

These cool looking flowers were a sign that we were almost to our B&B. When we reached our accommodations, Bay Cottage Bed & Breakfast, we were not nearly as tired as yesterday, and this place even had---a hot tub!!

Wallace monument

2009-06-04T09:55:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday we saw the Wallace monument, a pretty cool tower honoring William Wallace. The tower was built in 1869, with 246 steps spiraling to the top. We hiked to the top of the hill and was just in time to see William Wallace himself and a soldier in his army at the base of the tower. Except--William Wallace wasn't there!! What a rip off (lol). Anyways, we got to see a soldier in his army and he explained personally the various battles and details. After that we took a picture with him (to my reluctance--I like taking pictures, not getting my picture taken) and started the climb it the top of the monument. We stopped along our way up to take a look at the various exhibits they had--not realizing that it was closing in a few minutes. We finally arrived at the top and saw the spectacular view, and took more pictures (...) and soon after that a guy told us to go down because it was closing. It was an amazing view -we actually might have seen our cottage from the top- but it wasn't enough time for me to get a good pic from the top.

The Wallace Monument taken from Stirling Castle.

From the base of the monument.

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In Edinburgh we saw the statue of Grey Friar's Bobby, a police dog that, after seeing his master die, sat on his grave for 15 years. He collected sticks and put them on his master's grave. Nowadays people put stuff on Bobby's grave--including stuffed animals, sticks, flowers, and sometimes pretty weird stuff (including an envelope packed full of bus tickets). His statue, a few feet high, is the most photographed in Scotland.

The statue.

Part of Bobby's master grave.

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We may be on the other side of the Atlantic, but we still share the same moon!

I'm not sure what he's doing, but I found it interesting.

The back of our new Cottage, Rossburn Lane.

Scotland really does provide some cool sunsets!

Please note : We will be leaving tomorrow to start our journey on the West Highland Way! The West Highland Way (or WHW as we call it) is a 10 day-95 mile hike through the highlands of Scotland. They take care of our luggage and drive it to our lodging spots, while we hike. It's pretty sweet. But don't plan on a blog post for about 2 weeks, because right after the WHW we'll be going to the island of Skye for a few days, and on the WHW we can't bring a computer. But I'll be sure to write a long post after we're done.

British phrase terminology

2009-05-28T07:53:00.000-07:00

Even though the UK speaks English, there are quite a few differences in the terms Americans use and Britain uses. So, for fun I've provided a translation which you can use in America to confuse people.

Cookies = Biscuit

Bathroom = "Loo"-if you're casual-, or "toilet"-if you want to be polite-

truck = lorrie

beautiful = braw

thank you = cheers

dinner = tea

dessert = pudding

hello = hiya

This Saturday attended a "Party at the Palace", a sort of Renaissance fair like event, in which four clans fought against each other in jousting tournaments, archery, and hand-to-hand combat. We learned from people in the 14th century about different arrow types (regular arrows, horse arrwos, fire arrows, arrows that are hard to pull out, and others--who knew that people in the 1500s had so many different kinds or arrows?). We also discussed making gold with an alchemist, learned court etiquette from a countess (blah), and watched a joker perform.

The king in all his---uh, kingly splendor....

An archer releases his arrow at the tournaments.

The window in the Alchemist's room.

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Above is the ceiling of the cafe we spent some of the day in on Wednesday. We ordered coffee or tea and studied, read, or wrote. There we also had lunch.

Thought this sign was kind of interesting....

A lot of cities in Scotland have sections called the old town and new town. The old town would include things like the castle, historic buildings, or old houses; while the new town would be more modern. We hike around the old town on this road called "The Back Walk", and it led us to the top of this hill, with a cool view below, as it appears above.

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Near to our cottage is a man who flies his plane very often. We saw him doing flips and loop-de-loops over our cottage one morning. Eleanor, the lady who runs the cottages, said he has been known to take people up with him. Hopefully, if we go up, it won't be stormy!

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Here are just some cool flowers/plants I've photographed so far:

A usual week with the Knowltons

2009-05-25T11:43:00.000-07:00

A short post right now-just wanted to tell you guys what we usually do each day.

Monday-Friday : My dad usually gets up relatively early and goes to a coffee shop to study and pray or goes on a prayer walk or something. The rest of us---well, we sleep in, then write in our journals, read the Bible, and blog (me) or play computer or something. In mid-morning my mom will read a book to us and we'll learn French with Pimsleur (it's a program that we listen to on our mp3 players, you just hear things and repeat stuff and its simulates learning a language as a baby). My dad will come home at lunch time, and we'll all go on a hike or visit a castle or monument. A couple times a week we'll go out to eat. Then we might watch TV or a movie at home.

Saturday : Saturday is often the time we do all-day stuff, like go to a bagpipe competition or all day event.

Sunday : We go to church (Falkirk Free Church) at 11:00 a.m. and after that we like to stay home and play board games and take naps. This past week there was a fellowship lunch, and we enjoyed 3 varieties of soup and many "puddings" (which means dessert in Britain).

This is all just a rough outline of what we do, often it will differ.

Bagpipes, a wheel, and a rainbow (plus more hiking)

2009-05-21T04:55:00.000-07:00

On Saturday of this past week we had planned to go to a play in Edinburgh, but we were disheartened when we found out it was sold out. We didn't know what to do....until we found out there was an international bagpipe competition in a city near Glasgow! It was a neat experience and free. 20-30 people were in a band and the instruments played were the bagpipes, tenor drum, snare drum, and that huge drum that you attach to your stomach (bass?). Anyways, bands came from around the world to perform and there were also amusement park rides and food (kinda like a fair). There was also highland dancing--it looked exhausting.

There was a very wide age range of people competing for the same prize. Old and young alike were often in the same band.

Every band had there own uniform. Even the girls wore kilts, and a lot of bands wore these ribbons on their socks.

A judge reviewing a band.

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After church we rode on the Falkirk Wheel, an amazing engineering feat which connects two waterways and replaces eleven locks. A boat can enter the wheel and in four minutes it will be up in the canal. It's pretty complicated and I won't go into it now, but we got to ride in it.

This high-tech lift cost 17.5 million pounds, about 26 million dollars.

The Falkirk wheel in action.

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Finally, rain is a good thing! On Tuesday I saw the best rainbow I had ever seen (though I have yet to find gold at the end).

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We "bagged" our first munroe yesterday (and possibly our last). A Munroe is a mountain over 3000 feet, and there are about 240 in Scotland. At 7:30 A.M. we got up and started to get ready, packing our raincoats, lunches, cameras, emergency equipment, and everything we might need. We arrived at Ben Vorlick at 12:00, in hopes of an estimated 5 hour climb up the mountain and down. As we were almost to the peak, it started too--guess what? Rain. Of course I stopped snapping pictures, and we began the steep climb to the summit. It was pelting rain and freezing when we got to the top, and all around was fog. We could barely make out the various mountains all around us, and we could not really enjoy the moment of "bagging" our first munroe. Wet, miserable, and cold, we started down the mountain, not realizing that we were taking a completely different path. After a while we realized we were coming down the opposite side of the mountain, and went off trail to find the original trail we were on. Bad choice. We ended up going around the mountain, and finally found our first trail! What a long day--at least we got home to watch American Idol on DVD (thanks to Pam Hron!) and enjoying fish + chips and pizza.

Ben Vorlick from the beginning of our hike.

Ben Vorlick inhabited quite a few waterfalls.

A picture I took on a really fast shutter speed, just to try it out.

12 Days and Counting

2009-05-16T12:49:00.000-07:00

Its been 12 days and so far its been awesome. Waking up at 10:30 every day is nice, lol. And we have found a free church here in Scotland (unfortunately they don't have musical instruments with their worship--they just sing psalms) but other than that its pretty normal. With our slightly-higher-than-dorm-fridge we have thrived (barely). And we have also done some new sightseeing.

These are some pictures from Stirling castle, which personally I think beats Edinburgh castle.

The cemetery at Stirling castle.

In the great hall room or whatever in Stirling castle, there were a bunch of detailed stained glass windows like this one, which represented some duke or earl and also the king and queen of Scotland.

The "light shadow" of a window in Stirling castle.

Yet another window picture. All my good ones were of windows, I guess....

A business man in a kilt? Patriotic, to say the least.

We went to the Blair Drummond Safari park just down the road on Thursday. This is my mom on one of those zip-line things. They had a bunch of cool stuff, a drive-through animal habitat place, an aster glide, and an awesome bird of prey show.

A thoughtful-looking lemur.

This was a cestral we saw at the Bird-of-Prey show.

My mom and dad are apparently both "otters" in a personality quiz. We found an otter statue and I guess it was a good excuse for them to kiss.

2009-05-12T06:17:00.000-07:00

The last two days have had very nice weather (compared to last week where it would rain at least once a day). Yesterday we hiked the mighty mountain Dumyat, the largest in our area. It was a steep climb, and unlike the previous hike it was very treeless.

Unfortunately there is no root-beer in Scotland!!!!!! I guess we won't see our favorite soft drink for 3 months! The cheese here is really strong, and everything has an expiration date that we must watch constantly. Not to mention a lot of things are from different countries : South Africa pears, Kenya green beans, oranges from Israel, peppers from Holland, plus British potatoes and much more too. The fish is cheap here also, so we'll probably come back with bigger brains. :)

Our hike at Dumyat :

My mom took this one. It looks like I am jumping off of a cliff, but there was a large ledge beneath it, which you can't see from this angle.

We saw many highland sheep on Dumyat.

If you look at the skyline on this one, you can see a line of clouds above the city of Stirling. An interesting wagon thingy I found around the field at our cottage.

In the foreground of this picture is some strange fountain. In the background is Edinburgh Castle. Edinburgh castle is atop a large rock formation, which would be very hard to climb (and still live with arrows showering down on you). It has only been taken by siege, and never by force. In it we saw the royal Scottish honors (crown, sword, and scepter) which we were not allowed to take pictures of for security purposes.

In Scotland it only gets fully dark at about 10:30 P.M. This picture was taken at about 9.

A walk In the Highlands

2009-05-08T12:53:00.000-07:00

The last few days we have been recovering from jet-lag and getting settled in our cottage. Wednesday we went shopping at Tesco (the local wal-mart/piggly wiggly combo). We also went to a cool pub in the town of Bridge of Allen (no, we didnt try haggis yet!). Thursday we went through our first hike through a mountain in Callander called the Crags walk, which was labeled as the hardest level of hiking walks. Tomorrow we are exploring the world-class city Edinburgh.

Pictures at our house (some have names and some don't):

The front of our cottage. In 2 weeks we will be moving to a new one.

"One of Many"

"Into the Horizon"

Pictures from our walk:

"Threesome"

There were tons of moss on the trees. Some were completely green, even.

"Different"

Our Journey Begins

2009-05-05T11:49:00.000-07:00

These last two days were very confusing and stressful, but also fun.

At 10:00 AM on Monday, our grandparents came to pick us up at our house and take us to the Milwaukee airport. We arrived there in time to catch the 1:40 PM bus to Chicago O'Hare airport for our 6 PM flight. After arriving at around 4 PM, we had to put tags on all 17 of our luggage pieces and check them at the baggage check thingy. At 5 we still hadn't eaten lunch, so we decided to get popcorn at some gourmet popcorn place. Around 6 PM there was the call for, "Families with small children may board now" and my dad asked the guy at the counter if we qualified for the exclusive group. The man glanced at us and did not hesitate to say, "no". So we waited in line with everyone else. The 7 hour flight from Chicago was very nice--we had our own personal TVs! SCORE! We landed at Heathrow, near London. It was 9 AM but it felt like 3 AM to us (I did not sleep on the plane). We took a plane from Heathrow to Edinburgh in Scotland, which took about 1 hour (I slept on that plane!). After we got off the plane and answered some nosy questions at the commons, we saw a friendly-looking man holding up a sign the read, "Knowltons". He introduced himself as David. David took us from Edinburgh to Stirling and as we drove through the spectacular Scotlandian scenery (it totally proves the big bang wrong) he was like a personal guide. We finally arrived at our Cabin at around 5 PM Tuesday.

Here are some pics :

Playing Sorry! in the Heathrow airport.

This was a long hallway with a slow moving treadmill to stand on in the Chicago O'Hare. Above were some pretty neat neon lights.

Security cameras were abundant in all the airports we were at.

My room in our house in Stirling (MUHAHAHAHA! TWO BEDS TO MYSELF!)

Here is the front of the car that our driver David took us from Edinburgh to our Cabin in Stirling. We had 17 pieces of luggage, and we were surprisingly able to fit it all in the Grand Caravan.

Above is our wireless Internet modem at the house (thank God!)!

Looking down from the airplane in Heathrow, near London. The photo does not do the view justice, you have to see it for yourself!

This is what UK licence plates look like. Weird.

a nice view from above the clouds...

When flying into London, we had to wait our turn to land. We flew in circles for quite a while, then finally landed at what seemed a supersonic speed.