TR - Shuttergirl does Castles, Kilts, Craic and Croissants - Photos up to Day 10

[Aussie Wendy]

I confess I am not a P&P person either Zanzibar.

 

[gogo65]

Fantastic update MS shuttergirl,
Your writing definitely has me laughing out loud, must remember to not read your updates at work

 

[Toy Story]

Love, love , love your updates. You are certainly filling your days - not due how you thought you would squeeze your TR in.

 

[Andona]

At last! Wonderful update, Shuttergirl . I'm enjoying your trip report soooo much as your travels are taking over the ground we covered on our first trip to the UK. It all brings back great memories

My DD and I adore P & P and got the same thrills you did! Also loved Avebury and British Museum .

Looking forward to the next installment...

Andona

 

[dabecs]

Lovin' the updates!

We visited stonehenge when I was a child and all my mum ever says about it is it was too cold and windy.

On the point about bringing crockery back - I brought home several pieces of Wedgewood Sarah's Garden (including a teapot) from my last trip to Ireland. Amazingly everything survived!

I am not usually one for tours but you have had so many great stories I think I might be coming round

And glad the MIL is fitting in well!

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

We are back, whew. I am exhausted but of course can't sleep which is the biggest irony of course.

Sorry for the lack of updates whilst away, I was just so tired every night. I couldn't bring myself to write anything but I look forward to boring you all with the minute details over the coming weeks.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

We are back, whew. I am exhausted but of course can't sleep which is the biggest irony of course.

Sorry for the lack of updates whilst away, I was just so tired every night. I couldn't bring myself to write anything but I look forward to boring you all with the minute details over the coming weeks.

Welcome back.
I can't believe how quickly time flies. It feels like just a week or so ago that you left.
Looking forward to seeing your beautiful pics once you get the chance to upload some.

 

[gogo65]

Welcome back

 

[PrincessInOz]

Welcome back.

 

[Caroline NZ]

Looking forward to seeing your photos Ms Shuttergirl

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Wow-back already!! Glad you are all home safely and had a brilliant trip. Looking forward to the detail..especially any helpful tips for Scotland-no pressure or anything-we have 2 weeks til we leave

 

[zanzibar138]

Welcome back! We don't mind that you didn't update us every night - the important thing is that you enjoyed your trip

Now that you're back though, the pressure's on to get those updates up

 

[Miss Red]

Welcome back

 

[Minniemum]

Welcome home Ms Shuttergirl. It's good to hear you arrived home safely.

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

Wow-back already!! Glad you are all home safely and had a brilliant trip. Looking forward to the detail..especially any helpful tips for Scotland-no pressure or anything-we have 2 weeks til we leave

Wendy we absolutely adored Scotland. It was our favourite. Everything is cheap there, esp food and drinks. Edinburgh was a stunning gothic style city. We did 2 bus tours and I could highly recommend those companies if you need recommendations. We ate at a couple of nice places, not sure if they would be near where you are staying though.

The people were insanely friendly, you will have a fabulous time.

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Thanks! We are staying in New Town, about 10 mins walk from Waverley Stn. So will get a heartstarter walking up the hill each am to get to all the main sights. Hiring a car to tour around ourselves though I would have liked to have done the borders tour you went on. Still you may have covered some things in the Inverness tour we can include in our self-do one! Good to hear how friendly everyone is. Can't wait!!

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

Day 9 - Westminster Abbey etc etc

This morning we headed out to Westminster Abbey. I had booked us on a private verger tour the day before and the lady in the office said they were so busy at the moment that it was taking people up to an hour to just get inside the Abbey. This put me on high alert because we all know how my man likes to line up - and asking the sweet prince to line up to go to "church" well it just ain't gonna happen.

So with this in mind I had us up and out the door early. We got to Westminster Abbey quick smart and were in the doors within 15 minutes which was great, but that threw our timing out for the verger tour so we scrapped that and did the audio tour which I have to say was pretty darn good. The funniest thing about these big churches is they really are just like a graveyard with a roof. There are just lots of dead people in there, and you are kind of walking over plaques in the ground etc and I can't quite shake the feeling that I'm walking on graves which doesn't feel right.









I also get frustrated because you are in these awesome buildings with stunning architecture and you aren't allowed to take photos. In my head i understand this, it's disrespectful yadda yadda yadda but the photographer in me just wants to capture it all haha.

I loved the architecture of Westminster Abbey because it is pretty much all carved stone. The mind boggles as to how the craftsman managed to do this amazing intricate work so long ago. Another example of how they just don't build em like that these days. I don't see anyone marvelling at the buildings we create now.













We all actually enjoyed wandering around here and as I said, the audio tour was surprisingly good. Afterwards we wandered past Big Ben and took about a bazzillion photos. I don't know why I needed some many photos of something that didn't move and was captured in the first 5 frames but it is just so iconic London, I just had to keep taking Ben's photo. He's so handsome.

We walked across the Westminster Bridge with the London Eye in our sights.













By this time it was 11am so I felt we were probably being pretty optimistic about the crowds and I was right. There were hundreds, if not thousands of people lined up to go on it. I didn't care enough about it to wait that long but asked the others what they wanted to do and everyone of course opted to skip it and head for an early lunch. It's funny, even though it was only just before 12, it feels funny ordering a beer before 12. I mean really what is the difference between 11.55am and 12noon? Nothing right but somewhere in the archaic recesses of my mind i feel a twinge of guilt about having alcohol before noon. Fortunately I managed to get over said ridiculous thoughts and soon had a cold beer in my hands.

We had lunch at this trendy restaurant called All Bar One, great menu, nice decor, lots of people but the service, man o man, the service was appalling. It's no secret I love good service which is probably why I love the US so much. You have to pay for good service there but I dont mind, I love good service that much. Well this lunch spot clearly didn't value good service. So incredibly slow I wanted to poke my eyeballs out - or better still reach across the bar, grab the Mr. Bean impersonating barman by the throat and scream. It was like I was being punked, I kid you not.

We eventually were served but apparently at 11.55am I couldn't order off the 12 noon lunch menu. I'd waited at the bar for more than 15 minutes to give said order and the dude was going to send me away over 5 minutes. I said "ummm, nonono" you'll take my order and can just hand it to the chef (using the term loosely) in 5 minutes and in my mind I added "you idiot" or maybe I said it aloud. At that point I couldn't be sure. Needless to say he got where I was going with things and eventually saw it my way.



After a lovely yet slow lunch we kind of didn't know what we would do with the rest of our last day. After much discussion it was decided that DD, MIL & DD (the shoppers) would head to Oxford Street for some retail therapy with DH given strict instructions to behave and not break the bank. And DS and I (the non shoppers) were to head home to begin the packing process.

DS and I headed to the tube and there must have been an issue with our line because the train just wouldn't come. Now did I mention that I had partaken in beer over lunch? Yes well I had partaken in 2 pints over the whole lunchtime experience and we all know how my bladder works. The problem is, with the train not coming I was wondering how this scenario would play out in terms of my bladder and it's non ability to retain anything. Eventually I just couldnt' stand it any longer so told DS mummy was going to have to find a toilet. Of course this was less than desirable on many levels. Firstly, ewwww dirty tube station toilets and secondly, I was a mummy alone with an 11 year old son who positively refuses to enter the female toilets now he's a big boy. What to do what to do. This scenario is at the top of my scary list, leaving my son outside toilets when there are lots of strangers aka freaks roaming around. All of my extensive Law and Order and CSI training came into play on this one .

Eventually after what felt like trekking the Himalayas we find said female toilets and to add insult to "getting in and and out quickly" injury I had to pay a toll to get into this fine establishment. So I situated DS right near the turnstiles, inside the womans toilets foyer (oh he loved that lol), told him not to move a muscle, to not make eye contact and mummy bolted and visited the bathroom like I was the Bionic Woman. Noone has gotten in and out of there so quickly, the guiness book of records should've shown up because I broke land speed records. Whew came out, DS still safe and alive and we raced back to the train station platform, jumped on and proceeded to take silly selfies all the way home.





Packing after 9 days of our family spreading out through the apartment presented some challenges but for someone with my high level of packing skills it was a piece of cake. A long drawn out piece of cake but I got there in the end.

For dinner we headed to our new little local, The Old Swan Pub and had some more yummy pub food then home for a good night sleep before heading to Scotland and a new adventure the next day.



To sum up our time in London - it has been fabulous. What a great city. Not sure if I love it more than my beloved NYC, but I adored all of the beautiful architecture, loved all of the terrace homes, the black cabs were super cool, tube was easy, food and drinks so cheap, people very friendly and just simply so many wonderful things to see. I loved the countryside we saw on the bus trips and was so happy to see so many places I had dreamed of seeing my whole life. It really was an amazing start to the trip.


Highs – Westminster Abbey, Big Ben
Lows – bad service and dodgy bladders.
Temperature – high 9, low 0
​

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

Day 10 - heading to Scotland

So today was something completely outside of my comfort zone. Catching a train to another country. Everything about this had me nervous but probably the biggest thing was my worry over our luggage. A. Getting the luggage onto the train, B. making sure noone stole the luggage while on the train and C. getting the luggage off the train. Fortunately only one of these items was of any concern on the day.

So we were catching the train to Edinburgh at the Kings Cross Station, this station of course made famous from the Harry Potter movies as it's where Platform 9 3/4 is located that Harry and the kids use to jump through the wall and get on the Hogwarts Express. And of course lets not forget it's original fame - Monopoly!!!! I've bought and sold that place many times haha.

This station had recently undergone a renovation and was very nice. Lots of hustle and bustle and it took us a few minutes to get our bearings and work out where we needed to be. With a massive suitcase each and a cabin bag attached to the top, we were quite a luggage loving sight. There were massive boards with trains listed with times and platform numbers etc. This ended up becoming a very funny "people watching" experience. It took us a few train arrivals to work out what was going on. Lots of people were just standing there looking at the big screens, then a train's platform number would be announced and people would run, I'm not kidding, run through the gates and towards the platform. It was like being at a Boxing Day Sale at Myers Department Store. We eventually worked out it must be so you can fit your luggage in the very small and few and far between luggage storage spots available. And whilst we had allocated seating, perhaps not everyone did.





And so the competitive person in me realised, we were going to have to do the big run. But alas grandma isn't so quick with her suitcase in tow so a game plan had to be worked out haha. And add to that, our train was delayed, grrrrrr, so the crowds around us started growing bigger and bigger, everyone watching and waiting for the platform number. Eventually the game plan we worked on was DH and DS would go through the gates, along with Grandma so that they could be ahead of the crowds. I told them what carriage number we were seated on and DD and I were going to wait back and watch the screens. As soon as the platform number came up we were to signal DH and they were going to head off at a run haha. I wondered if some people would be trampled because since the train was delayed, everyone was kind of on edge, looking sideways at each other, snarling, stamping feet, getting ready to beat people back to get the good spots hehe.

And finally the platform number appears and we were off and running. The signal was given and mass hysteria ensued. I kind of wish I was joking, it wasn't a good example of human behaviour and I can't say our family handled themselves any better than others haha. I might have trampled an old lady if she got in my way, fortunately I didn't have to make such an important decision. As predicted Grandma was the slow poke of the group so I had to stay behind her, geeing her along with the occasional whack on the backside to keep her moving haha. I didn't really whack her backside but in my mind I was.

We finally found our carriage and got our luggage situated which was a big relief since our luggage pretty much took up most of the space. Whoops, sorry fellow travellers who were now going to have to sit on their cases (you should've run quicker, suckers).

So we go find our reserved seats and I got confused very quickly because the layout of the carriage didn't match the layout of the online seating plan and our seats weren't all together as had been booked. It took me a while to realise there were less seats in this carriage. The one I had booked for had 2 rows of 2 seats and this carriage had 1 row of 2 and 1 row of 1 and the numbers were all over the place. This made for some anxious moments, thinking perhaps we had gotten on the wrong carriage. You can imagine how well DH was coping with this possible development. I wasn't keen to try and move luggage since everyone else on the other carriages would have used other spots up so we decided to sit where we thought we were supposed to be and would discuss with the conductor. When he eventually came along he explained they had swapped a first class carriage with a regular one hence less seating. We said we were concerned about this because there were many more stops along the way to Edinburgh and we didn't want to be taking anyone elses seat but that we had children and it just wasn't an option for us to be split up. He took other peoples booking slips off the back of our chairs and said stay put, these are your seats now and send the new people to me.

What eventually ended up happening was kind of a debacle, for everyone new hopping on, not us fortunately. There had been other trains cancelled out of Kings Cross as well and the travellers had been told to just jump on our train (very efficient system, not). So by the time we landed at a few more stops tons of new travellers were hopping on with nowhere to sit. The aisles of the trains were packed with people, all glaring at us with our fancy first class seats with a table in between us lol. It was pretty disorganised but I am just thankful we got on so early. Eventually they bumped alot of the standing people further up carriages and the crowds dispersed but it left a bad taste in our mouths and ruined the fun of the train ride to Edinburgh a little.











Once we pulled into Edinburgh the real fun began. Because all of the luggage space had been taken up, familys had just dumped their prams in the foyer parts of the train where the doors are. Which is perfectly fine until someone wants to get off. And when that someone is a family of 5 with a bazzilion suitcases it gets a little tricky. I had been nervous about how we would get the heavy cases off anyway and this just added a level of complication I wasn't sure how to handle.

We were so lucky though. I jumped out of the train and DH passed me down a case but we were very conscious that we had to get everyone off quickly before the train took off again. Yikes!!!! This lovely man who was trying to get on the train but couldn't because our family were trying to get off ended up lifting all of the suitcases down for me and helping the kids and MIL off hahaha. He was like an angel sent from heaven I tell you. Not sure how that was all going to pan out without him. Whew.

We found the cab rank and ended up needing to take 2 taxis, even though the taxis were massive. Our taxi driver was awesome. I felt like he gave us a guided tour on the way to our B&B. His accent was delicious and he pointed out so many wonderful things along the way, gave us amazing tips and tricks - it really reminded me about how important taxi drivers at an airport or train station are. They really are the ambassadors of your city and this man certainly started off our Edinburgh experience so well. DH said his taxi driver was lovely also and I really commend Edinburgh on their taxi service.

Our B&B was truly the stuff B&B dreams are made of. Here is the link if you want to check it out:- http://www.23mayfield.co.uk/.















The decor was just so rich and warm and "expensive". Ross the owner and his wife were so accommodating and I felt like I was staying with friends rather than paying to stay at an establishment. They sure know how to treat people. The only small downside was we had 2 rooms here, but they were situated quite a long way apart. You had to go up separate staircases to reach the rooms and so since our cases are packed with everyone's things mixed throughout the cases (to prevent issues if 1 case goes missing as has happened to us before), this meant i had to unpack everything, fill a case with what the kids were going to need to stay in the room with Grandma and then drag it down 2 staircases again and unpack it again. Once that was sorted though it was all very smooth and for the first time ever on a holiday DH and I had our own room. But ever the nervous nellies, we missed the kids once they were tucked into their room with grandma hehe.

The owner recommended some lovely places to eat nearby and so we headed off to find the first place he suggested. It was a fancy pub called the Salisbury Arms, see it here:- http://www.thesalisburyarmsedinburgh.co.uk/.

It was about a 15 min walk from where we were staying and it was so great to wander through the suburban streets, looking at all of the beautiful houses as we wound our way to the pub. We had one of our favourite meals of the trip at the Salisbury Arms. The decor was lovely, the wait staff so super friendly and funny. It was absolutely the most fabulous evening and we all relaxed after what was a long twisty turny kind of day and just allowed ourselves to get excited about Edinburgh.













We strolled home later that night with very very full bellies and couldn't wait for the next day. Especially me because we were going on a bus tour and you all know how I love those haha.



Highs  absolutely everything about Edinburgh so far and our B&B
Lows  the train seating debacle of 2013
Temperature  high 7, low -5
​

 

[areweindisneyyet]

Loved Westminster too. The architecture amazing.

 

[zanzibar138]

Wow that train sounded like a bit of a nightmare! Now feeling pretty lucky that we had such great experiences with trains in Europe

Such a shame you couldn't take photos of Westminster Abbey. I would love to see it through the eyes of an actual traveler, not just in official portraits. Sounds like a lovely last day in London anyway.