On the buses

Today we drove in the bus around Glasgow.  Twice.  We got on the Hop on Hop off bus that does a circuit.  We hopped off to go to the Cathedral which is a bit like the Tardis.  Looks small on the outside but was quite big on the inside (speaking of the Tardis, saw two more of them today).  I think that was due to the quite large undercroft that had a number of chapels inside it.  It is the home of St Mungo, patron saint of Glasgow and probably the best named saint ever.  It was all stone, vaulted ceilings and stained glass as we have become accustomed to seeing over here.  All just magnificent.  I will update and post photos once I get faster internet.

After the Cathedral we got off to see the People's Palace.  It had an exhibit by the 'Big Yin' (aka Billy Connolly) that was interesting.  Not sure I like his art but it is in an interesting style.  The Palace also overlooks the Glasgow Green which was the site of Glasgow's public hangings once they left the Tolbooth.  The last thing that they saw before they died was Nelson's Column and sparked a saying 'You'll die facing the monument' meaning that you'll hang.  We also got off to go to the Science Centre but, once we got in, it didn't really appeal so we went back to the bus.  We had to do some running otherwise we would have had to wait for the next bus in half an hour.  In the rain.

Speaking of rain, today we got some rain.  There was quite a lot overnight apparently but I did sleep through some of it.  There was some that sounded like a plastic bag rustling in the room.  I thought it was a ghost but I was told in the morning that it was rain.  Between the first and second times going around the city, the Clyde river rose.  The tide was also coming in so that didn't help either.  There are quite a few bridges over the Clyde and we went over a couple of them and saw a couple of others including the Squinty Bridge, so nicknamed because it turns as it goes over the river.  Apparently the Scots like to nickname things.  The Clyde Auditorium is called the Armadillo because of its architecture.  We also went under the M8 which is one of the UK's busiest motorways.  It was designed for 20,000 vehicles a day and now takes 10 times that number.  Yet another of the fun facts we listened to in the commentary.  On the second time around we listened to the ghoulish commentary which is aimed at children.  It talked about the ghosts and cemeteries and battles and was really interesting to listen to.  It was a pity we didn't listen to it first as it would have encouraged us to go to the Hunterian Art Gallery and Museum.  As it was we were a bit cold and hungry by then (seeing as it was nearly 4 and we hadn't eaten since breakfast) so we decided to have some food.  Pizza from up the road which was great and which we inhaled (apart from the pieces we have saved for supper).

So that was today.

Is it cheating if it's sugar free?

Scotland's other national drink

Pootling around the Ayr-ea

Today involved driving around the Ayr area while Alison explored her Scottish roots.  We went to Paisley, Straiton, Muirkirk and Ayr.  We had decided that we would download the directions so I could read them off the ipad to avoid getting lost.  Worked pretty much all of the time except for when coming back in to Glasgow.  I don't know what it is about this place but we have got lost both times coming back in, despite having instructions.  Next time we will not be so scottish and will invest in a GPS.

One of the best moments was the chick in the Town Hall information centre in Paisley telling us there  was nothing to see there apart from the Abbey, which we couldn't get into anyway as it opened at 2 and we were there at 11.  I was a bit surprised that someone in that position wasn't that enthusiastic about selling their town!  We at least got to look around outside anyway.

Lunch was Haggis which was on my to do list while here.  We dined at The First Edition in Kilmarnock and I had the Balmoral Chicken as described below.

And here is what it looked like.  The haggis is the bit in between the brown sauce and the chicken.  I'm pleased I tried it as one must try the food of the land when one is in it, within reason of course.

More tartan carpet

And now some photos.  

Ooo weeeeeeeeeee ooooooooooo weeeeeee oooooooooooo

Dun dun dun de dun de dun......

And tartan carpet

I would walk 500 Miles...

Before heading west to Glasgow, we went up to the Castle for a look around.  Pretty spectacular views of the city centre.  The roads are all cobbled and the buildings front on to the street.  Quite warm today, 11 C, as opposed to 5 when we were wandering around last night.

There was a piper piping at the bottom of the street so we stopped to have a listen to him and then popped in to St Giles Church for a look around.

I did some shopping as you can see below.  I got this stuff from the Heritage of Scotland shop which also has the mills on the third floor down.  As we walked into the shop part on the second level down, they were playing The Proclaimers 500 Miles which was pretty cool.  I found the Scottish really coming out when negotiating for breakfast.  Alison wanted a Continental and I wanted a hot and it turned out that you could get both options for £10.  So we did that and also took some pastries and that was lunch sussed.

Anyone see the theme here?

Anyway, in Glasgow now and going to go out for a walk before it gets too dark.

O Flower of Scotland

Have arrived safely in Edinburgh after a drive up from Whitby.  Not sure what Scotland looks sure as we drove through in darkness and it was still dark when we went down for breakfast this morning.

I made sure I sang Flower of Scotland as I crossed the border.

Below are some pics of yesterday.

Our accomodation for the night, the middle dormer in the Abbey House

Hilda's Abbey, founded in the 7th century and ruined by Henry VIII

Whitby

Windswept and interesting on the 1200 year old ruins of the Abbey wall, as you do

Outside Durham Cathedral

Inside Durham Cathedral

Drove past Chilton

This sign is for dad

Detours and posh roadkill

Today we drove to Whitby.  Via Norwich.  Which isn't the usual route but we didn't yet have a map.  Nowhere we have stayed or the car hire place gave us a map, even though it would be a really good idea.  We did pick up a map book at a Shell near Norwich which is where we discovered we had gone slightly off course.  No worries though as we had all day.

After a bit of map reading skill by yours truly, we ended up in York.  We went up to the Minster for a look around.  What an amazing building.  We got in for free because Alison showed them her vicar card and I told them I was the friend of  an Anglican Priest.  And it worked!  The choir were rehearsing for Evensong and they sounded beautiful.  It seems to have worked out to be a church per day over the last week!

It turns out that our detour may have been quite fortuitous as there has been some weather up here.  All the way up the A1 it said the A64, which is the route we needed to take, was closed after York and we assumed it was because of flooding as severe weather was forecast for this area.  And certainly there was evidence of some heavy rain.  If we had been a bit earlier then we probably would have been caught up in it all.

On the way up we passed nuclear power plants, solar farms, wind turbines, signs for stags and pheasants squashed on the road.  Howposh is that for roadkill? Now I am tucked up in the Youth Hostel next to Hilda's Abbey relaxing.  I did take some pics out the car window and I have been assured some of them have turned out ok.  I may edit this post and put them on or I may just do a new one.  Let's see what happens.

Tomorrow is another full on day with a drive to Scotland.

Unicorns, sparklers and Widor

Christmas day has been a bit fractured.  A day of two halves in fact.  It started on Christmas Eve for me as I spoke to my bro, sis in law and the kids on their Christmas morning.  Had a bonus chat with dad too as my bro called him while I was there.  Niece was a bit cheeky about 'old' people and technology, but I blame the distance!

After that it was down time before bed and Christmas morning take two!  It was silent outside, noticeable due to the absence of noise.  Everyone is off doing christmas stuff and there isn't even any traffic.  It was also cold.  5 degrees.  No snow though unfortunately.  Alison and I ended up at Great St Mary's this morning for their christmas day communion service.  Lots of carols again and a great sermon that I actually listened to!  And a unicorn on the end of the front pew.  Towards the end the Vicar broke tradition because there had been a wedding there in the previous couple of days and they had donated a whole pile of sparklers.  We got to light the sparklers and wave them around in the church.  During the service the heavens opened and I thought we would get wet again but it had cleared up by the time the service finished.

After a restorative coffee we decided to go and listen to the girls' choir rehearse for Matins and thought, what the heck, we have nothing else to do so stayed for Matins.  It was a lovely service with a bonus of having the Widor played at the end at breakneck speed and from memory by the organist and choir master.

After exploring the other end of the street we found a little Chinese restaurant that was open so Christmas dinner was Chicken Fried Rice and Chicken Chow Mein. It was really nice after a long morning and we knew that later in the afternoon we had an invitation to coffee and dessert from Elgy who had stood in line with us yesterday.

Christmas dinner

Gifts from kind strangers Elgy and Sonia

Christmas but not really

Have arrived back from King's College and all the facebook messages are saying Merry Christmas but for us up here it is still Christmas Eve.  Cold and clear tonight and a beautiful full moon.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Check this out!  (Click on this, it's a cool link, thanks Shane!)

Merry Christmas Eve from King's College Cambridge

Jam Sandwiches and Queueing

This morning started early.  There appeared to be some sort of kerfuffle down on the street and all the words were flying about.  I think someone looked at someone else funny.  I was able to go back to sleep after that and was later told it was about 2 am that happened.

This morning's outing was to King's College Chapel for Nine Lessons and Carols.

This is THE service which the Beeb broadcasts live.  The service is at 3 pm so we made sure we were in the line for a ticket with plenty of time.  7am we arrived to queue.  And we weren't the first.  How it works is you queue outside the gates to be given a ticket for entry.  When I say ticket I mean an information sheet.  They then open the gates and let you in at about 7.30.  Once in, you queue until the service begins.  They have a set number of sheets they give out and then they close the doors and no one else comes in.

The queue outside

So we queued.  It was quite a multicultural queue.  There were people from Virginia, Colorado, Cambridge and, of course, New Zealand.  There was even an Aussie guy with his Wallabies scarf. We were all happy and having a jolly nice time until about 11.30 when the heavens opened.  There was hardly any shelter to be had but we did manage to find a space under an archway but too late, I did get a bit wet.  Luckily it dried up and we rejoined the queue.

We were let in at about 1.30 pm after the sniffer dogs had been through.  Service started at 3 pm and had all the usual carols Once in Royal David's City, God rest you, merry gentlemen, O come all ye faithful and Hark the Herald Angels Sing.  The choir sang a mix of carols I  knew quite well and some commissioned specifically for King's choir over the years.

The queue inside

The choristers arrive

So that was today.  Most of it spent in a queue.  Started off in the dark and concluded in the dark though with a gorgeous full moon once we cam out of the service at 4.45 pm.  Jam sandwiches were had for lunch made with the jam I had souvenired off the plane.

It rained

Artistic shot from inside the chapel

Jam

The Christmas Jumper is not a myth

This post is dedicated to Hayleigh.

Over here, they go a bit crazy with their Christmas Jumpers.  The girl at the B n B here had one on yesterday that had a carrot sticking out of the front of it.  I believe it was from Frozen.  I am trying to spot Christmas Jumpers now as we walk through the crowds.  So far I have seen a reindeer, a penguin and various types of snowflakes.  The chick on the news who does the business news this morning was even wearing a Christmas Jumper blouse.  It did not make the business news any more exciting I can tell you!

I have seen this one on a person

And here is the Frozen one

And apparently there is even a Christmas Jumper day!

Having said that, they all paled in comparison to those famous jerseys from the 90s!

I'll try not to chunder and you try to not pull your muscles

And I hope that is an interesting enough quote for you all.  It has a good story I think, for those that are patient.  If not, just skip down a bit.

A bit of background to start us off though.  I have decided to go on a holiday to visit a couple of places of significance for my family, namely Scotland and Poland.  And have thrown in a couple of other places from my bucket list for good measure (Auschwitz and Pompeii to name a couple). 

The adventure starts in the lovely Palmerston North on Monday morning at 10 am.  Very excited to be getting underway after having planned to do this over a year ago.  First plane ride to Auckland is uneventful despite having to be in Auckland (dear Auckland, you are not my favourite place, love me and the other 3/4 of the population).  One thing you could do better Auckland airport is your internet.  Seriously, half an hour free?  Can you spare it?

Three ish hours later we are off.  Next stop Hong Kong.  11 hours.  We are flying Cathay Pacific and I can recommend Premium Economy.  Larger seats, better food, more movie selection, more leg room.  On my movie watching list was 'Entourage' but I got stuck in the TV section.  I did rewatch some of the first season of 'Entourage' (Adrian Grenier, am I right people?) in preparation for the movie but decided that my attention span wasn't going to last movie length so stuck to TV. 

Watched a bit of 'Episodes' as well.  And some other stuff but I can't remember.  Also had to watch some ads until I realised you can fast forward through them.  Managed to get some sleep as well, thanks Premium Economy bigger seats and better reclining and more leg room.

Arrived bleary eyed in Hong Kong at an ungodly hour for another few hours stop over.  The air there has an unusual smell.  We were a bit hungry so headed to Maccas for some food.  I won't bore you with a blow by blow description of the food (you can thank me later) but will try to post a pic of it.

One very poorly made cheeseburger

Hong Kong airport has much better internet by the way.  We made our way to our gate and proceeded to wait.  Alison, my travelling companion and tour planner extraordinaire, needed a couple of winks so I babysat the bags.  I am grateful to be travelling with a seasoned traveller as, when the flight leaving before us was announced as being late, she mentioned that might mean a gate change.  And it was so.  All the way to the other side of the airport.  We were certainly doing well on the wandering round aimlessly stakes, 18 hours of travel so far would do that for you I guess.

Boarded and back into Premium Economy for the next part of our journey.  This time on the

opposite side of the plane.  I had the aisle this time as I had had the window last time.  Sleep was the main priority on this leg and I reckon I got about 10/13 hours (there's some maths for all you maths lovers out there!)

Fast forward about 13 hours and, after a flash breakfast of some sort of frittata thing, tomatoes, bacon, a sausage, pineapple yoghurt, a croissant with a cute little pot of jam (that I souvenired) and some coffee that would put hair on your chest, we had arrived in London.

Next stop was Central Bus Terminal to catch the bus to Cambridge.  Free wifi with no time limits, just saying.

Sorry about the state of the picture but I am not a photographer.  Side note where I will show my age:  back in the olden days, when we used film, getting the developed film back was a nerve-wracking wait to see if there weren't any that were blurred or had fingers in them.  Out of a roll of 12, I was lucky if I even got 3.   

Bus ride to Cambridge was 'interesting', we shall say.  We left on time which was great.  The driver started off ok when we were on the M something (didn't pay enough attention as to the number sorry, had been travelling for 30 something hours) but he did toot at a couple of cars.  That proved to be a sign.  We had sat ourselves up the front which I thought was so we could look at the view but, no, it was because Alison gets motion sickness.

Here is our first stop, after he had to be directed to the new bus stop.  To be fair, I think this was the first time he had gone to this stop and there was someone there in a yellow vest to direct him. Here I used some free BT internet I had located.  I love free wifi. 

Next stop Luton airport. It looks like it is a work in progress.  We pulled up next to the orange EasyJet building (interesting minute detail and fun fact alert!) and waited for some more passengers.  This stop's free wifi was provided by Luton airport.

There is an Easy Jet plane in the background, just for context.

It was just after this that we were asked to swap seats by someone else who was sweating and looking green and feeling sick.  So we swapped and Alison took the window seat.  The driver by now had turned into a boy racer.  He was hooning around corners and hauling on the anchors rather erratically.  Alison at this stage had also started to turn green so I swapped and gave her the aisle.  Then, while we were stopped waiting for a train, whilst on the road, the driver decided to take a wee break.  Luckily we didn't hold up the traffic for too long.

Next stop Cambridge and a walk to The Castle B n B (this is the bit where the title will hopefully start to make sense).  About 2 K.  Ordinarily not a problem with a suitcase because they have wheels right?  Well, when I boarded the plane at Palmerston North mine had two of them. Worked perfectly well thank you very much.  When I collected my suitcase at Heathrow it was now mono-wheeled.  Not amused.  Had to drag and carry said suitcase the whole distance.  We were quite a pair I think, Alison trying not to chunder and me trying not to strain anything.  I am now the proud owner of a new suitcase that was half price and slightly bigger than my old one.  My biceps are certainly feeling it this morning.

Here is the view out of the window.

And here is our room.  I took this in the morning after we had spent the night.  We were good and made our beds.

I managed to stay awake until about 8 pm in order to try to beat jetlag.  I slept quite well and our room was warm enough despite being concerned it might be a bit cold as the heaters didn't seem to work.

And, a picture of the first item I have been requested to bring back.  I now have 'Monster Mash' stuck in my head every time I look at it.  Thanks Dianne!

 I think that's about all for now about day 1.  I'll just add some pics of Clare College which is where John Rutter used to be head of music and also a pic of a cute bottle of ketchup I also souvenired from the plane.