Wednesday, May 29, 2019

England - Our Final Seven Days of the "Carol Ross" Adventure

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Having resolved, for the moment, the rental car damage issue, we were treated like royalty by our next rental car company with whom we rented another car for the English portion of our journey.  Our last five days would include two days in Birmingham, two days in Stratford-upon-Avon, and three days in London.  

It was a long six hour drive from Edinburgh and we reached Birmingham early evening.  It was a four and six lane motorway the whole time and at 70 mpg, thing passed quickly.  We checked into a nice new city apartment for two nights and went to work evaluating Carol's research on her family history, the sole purpose of our visit here.

We got up early and headed out to the church and cemetery.  There we wandered the grounds until finding the headstone of her ancestor.  An aunt from the late 19th century who also owned and operated the inn across the street.  Carol treated us to lunch.  We chatted with locals the whole time.  It was a lot of fun.


Then we headed into the city center...by now pouring rain.  We wandered downtown for a bit before calling it a day and heading back home.

The following morning we drove to Stratford Upon Avon, stopping in Warwick to take a photo of an old family home for Carol.  This time it was the childhood home of an uncle who worked as a gardener at the castle.  Unfortunately the house has been renovated again and again and did not resemble in any way a home from the mid 1800s.  We found our cottage in Stratford and settled in for the night.  A great place behind a manor home that Queen Victoria once slepted in...smile.

We spend the day touring...I should say watching Carol tour Stratford Upon Avon.  It is a small place, all about Shakespeare, and we had been there two years earlier.  We booked a Hop on Hop off bus and got on and off throughout the day.  Trinity Church, Ann Hathaway's Cottage, and Mary Arden's Farm.


We departed a day later for our last leg of the trip, and into London.  The traffic was a mess, as expected, and Ms. Google decided to take us on a full sightseeing trip of central London and instead around the chaos.  It took us almost three hours to get from the far west to the far east side.  Carol enjoyed the adventure passing all of the notable sites along the way.

We found our Airbnb easily and met the owner to be let in.  Another great apartment on the Isle of Dogs across from the Royal Observatory and 20 minutes to the city center by metro.  We had three full days left and

Our first day was spent visiting the observatory again, more of the walk under the Thames and through the park, than to see the site.  Carol tour the observatory and we wandered the grounds.  Next was a metro ride into the city to visit the Tower of London.  Once again Carol toured the site and Bobbie and I found a local pub in which to hang our for three hours.



For our next day Trump's UK visit disrupted most everything.  There were road blocks everywhere and thousands of police barricades.  Not a lot of spectators...at least not to see him.  We used the metro to get into town and around the chaos and eventually reached the Churchill War Rooms exhibit.  We had been here two years ago and thought Carol would enjoy it.  She did.



We had hoped to get a close up of Buckingham Palace and Westminister Abbey, but both were closed off as well.  We eventurally worked our way north of the area and into Coverntry where we had booked Carol to see "The Book of Mormon."  While she we in the theater we wandered around, took in a movie and had dinner.  She was thrilled of course and loved the show.
For our last day we visited the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew.  It was supposed to be a few hours followed by Windsor Castle.  However the park was so big and so full of things to see and do, we opted to give Carol the whole day.  She took advantage of it while we took a nap in the car.  That night we checked into our airport hotel near Heathrow.





We said goodbye to Carol that night.  Her flight left very, every early the following morning and she taxied to the airport on her own.  We drove to Gatwick a bit later, returned the rental car and boarded our flight to Norway.

This thirteen week adventure was probably Carol's last world tour and she made the most of it.  It was quite a time and we are glad we got to spend it with her.

Scotland - Glasgow - Our last days in Scotland

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The drive down to Glasgow was quick and easy...just two hours from Ardentinney, and we located our apartment with ease.  We had a grand, huge, modern renovated unit for two nights.  Upon arrival, since we were to early, we visited the Kelvington National Museum and Gallery.  We were there two years ago.  This was Carol's first visit.  It was a well spent three hours.



On our full day in Glasgow, we visited yet another historic home...this one full of 16th century Spanish paintings.  The house and grounds, as usual, were grand.  In the afternoon we opted for a movie.  "Rocketman," the story of Elton John's career did not disappoint.

We departed Glasgow early...after a harrowing hour-long search for the misplaced car keys and headed off to Edinburgh to return the car.  Upon arrival we once agaoin got scammed for damage that we honestly don't believe we created.  There was some damage to one of the tires that was truly there and visible on the photos we took on our first day.  They worked really hard with a magnifying glass to find a scratch on the doors edge.  There is no reasoning with these people...this is our second time in three months...they have your deposit and they don't give it back if they can marginally justify damage...which, except for the tire, they will never repair.  We will be dealing with a $600 claim on our insurance.  Picture of the HUGE scratch below.

Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Scotland - Isle of Mull

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The Isle of Mull is the least populated of the major Hebridies.  We boarded the ferry for a noon time crossing and arrived with a few hours to kill before we could check in to our cottage.  We chose to visit the MacClean Castle...one of the MacClean clan.  The last Chief of the clan was the founder of the Scouts...as in the Boy Scouts and all scout organizations all over the world.  Very cool.  It was a beautiful day and a great way to spend some time in the sun...not to mention the really cool castle...maybe our 50th by this point...smile.























We opted for a three night stay far away from the tourists and were able to secure a sweet cottage on the north end of the island, quite isolated and perfect for a quiet and restful few days.  The girls went out a few times for walks and to visit a local nursery where Carol could as a thousand questions about Rhododendrons...I spent the entire time...and quite a bit of it alone...painting and enjoying the quiet.