the starrs

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Scotland

We took a road trip up to Scotland while Thomas had some time off and LOVED it! We loved it when we first drove in, even though we were in the industrial part of the city! We spent the first afternoon exploring Edinburgh. We had dinner at Deacon Brodie's Tavern, which is named after the man who inspired Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Our gas stash so we didn't have to fill up on the economy ;)

The drive was so pretty!

View form our hotel/apartment

Me in Edinburgh

Thomas and I at dinner at Deacon Brodie's

Edinburgh Castle

Saturday we took a coach tour that went all over Scotland, it was amazing. We took in so much information, our tour guide was great. Our first stop was in Pitlochry where we had some breakfast, and drove on up to Loch Ness. We went on a boat tour at Loch Ness and really enjoyed it - the tour guide on the boat was a scientist who's been researching "Nessie" for 30 years, so he had a plethora of information to tell us. It was nice to hear some of the science behind "Nessie" and not just the folklore. We drove all through the Highlands and Glencoe, where a massacre happened in 1692 - sad, but fascinating! We finished the day with a "ghost tour" in Edinburgh - it was a little lame, but now we know! :)

Pitlochry

Thomas on our little hike

Gate house to one of the queen's properties

Loch Ness

Part of Glen Coe

The Highland Cows, so cute!

Ghost Tour we did in Edinburgh - lame.

Sunday we had some river activities planned. First was river bugging - we'd never heard of it, but it was really fun! It was just us and two other people, so we had a nice small group. I didn't get any pictures since we were in the water, but we had wet suits, helmets, flippers, everything! We got to go down the rapids, and when we were done we went cliff jumping too! Well, I jumped off the baby cliff, and Thomas did the real cliff ;)

The river where we went river bugging

This is what the river bugs look like - that's not one of us though ;)
Source

Our last day we met up with our landlord who lives in Edinburgh, and then we went to Edinburgh Castle. The castle was very impressive, we liked learning about the Scottish history. We had so much on our little road trip - we have been wanting to go to Scotland since the day we got here, and we finally made it! :)

View of Edinburgh from Advocate's Close

Edinburgh Castle

Inside the castle

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Lavenham & Bury St Edmunds

When Thomas got home from his deployment he got a couple of days off work, so we decided to explore some places close to us. First on our list was Lavenham, which is an old medieval town about 45 minutes from our house. The houses are so old and many of them are crooked - it was so cool to see! We had a nice lunch at a little pub on High Street and enjoyed walking to St Peter & Paul Cathedral.

A week or so after we went to Lavenham we were watching Harry Potter 7, and we noticed that the part that was "Godric's Hollow" looked a lot like Lavenham!! So I looked it up online, and sure enough they filmed those scenes in Lavenham! We were pretty excited, I love me some Harry Potter ;)

Thomas in front of the pub we had lunch at

There was a violin on the ceiling!

Crooked houses - so cool!

St Peter and Paul Cathedral

Beautiful landscaping outside of the cathedral

We also went to a Beer Festival in Bury St Edmunds with our friends Shannon and Chris. We had a great time tasting beer and whiskey - well the whiskey wasn't so great - and walking around the beautiful town. They have pretty gardens and an old abbey that we finally got to see! Usually I just go to Bury for the shopping ;)