England & Scotland June 12-July 5, 2002

--writing with Apple laptop--

--Becky writes unless noted by Marilou--

--Marilou takes most of the photos--

Monday, June 17, 2002

Howdy all,

On Wednesday, about 9:00a, we were approaching Manchester, England. Scattered clouds floated between us and the very green land below. A few sandy beaches dotted an otherwise rocky shore. This being our second English city to fly into (London last Oct. was the first), I noticed that it must be a British thing for everyone to live in row houses in the cities. Manchester is just a smaller version of London with it's row houses all lined up; some going this way, some going that way, all looking mostly the same from the air.

The first car we put all of our stuff into turned out not to have a full tank of gas so the rental company upgraded us to a slightly larger car and after moving all of our stuff over to it we were off. Driving on the left is always quite something to get used to and being jet lagged with minimal sleep doesn't help. Marilou drove first as we left Manchester, with me reminding her to "stay left". We headed east towards Leeds.

We are on our way, over the next few days, to mid Scotland. We have no set plans before Sunday when we are scheduled to check into our timeshare stay, other than to stop at a seaside village called Seahouses on the northeastern coast of England very close to Scotland. There we hope to take a boat out to some small uninhabited islands where Puffins nest during this time of the year.

So, we drove to Leeds, through rolling hills pastured mostly with sheep. Stacked rock walls or hedgerows instead of wire fence separate the flocks. Small patches of forested areas stand out like dark squares in a quilt of varied greens. Spits of rain every once and a while test the automatically adjusting windshield wipers (a first for us and really a
nice feature) our Citroen has.

In Leeds we found a B&B, after many wrong turns and seeing parts of the town we didn't want to see, at least not at that time. All we really wanted to see was a bed to recline on and the back side of our eyelids. It had been two nights ago that we had slept reclined and now it was about 1:30p England time on Wednesday. The first day is always rough!

We got to our room, napped for an hour or so, and then had a very good pizza near the local college. At 8:00 we found some friends of Bill's. I celebrated 10 years of knowing Bill that day. Life is good.

Thursday I drove us towards York. Several friends of Bill's had raved on about York being the most beautiful town of northern England, so we thought we'd have lunch there and see.

Yes, it is a nice town. Lots of old stuff to see and to those of us from the States it's quite amusing to hear something's age referred to as modern when it's a couple hundred years old. At lunchtime we had some roast beef with Yorkshire Pudding in York of Yorkshire ... couldn't pass that up.

After lunch we drove on to Seahouses. To get there one has to take the back roads and if it's not a MAIN road, it's a SMALL road, as in tiny,
like scary. A white dashed line down the center means they think it's two lane and I'm positive our car is hanging over each side of our lane by three feet and there is on-coming traffic hardly slowing down as they drive at breakneck speeds. Man, what roads!!! "Makes our dirt roads in Fannin County look pretty darn good from here", she said with her Georgia accent slowly playing out the vowels of each word. The weather had been pretty good for the day, so at least we had that going for us.

Seahouses is a very small fishing village on the North Sea coast of
England. We stayed in the village's first farm house built in 1745 and it became licensed for public use in 1812 and continues today as a B&B/Pub. It has been added onto through the years and remodeled and so forth. And again we hear that term "modern" used by the proprietor and we smile.

On Friday it was rainy and windy. Temps in the 14c/58f range. At breakfast Marilou had the traditional eggs, bacon, black pudding, mushrooms, and toast. I had poached eggs on toast with bacon. Bacon here is our sliced ham. I did try the black (blood) pudding and it tasted much like sausage to me; same bunch of spices and I assume not as much "meat".

Afterwards we signed up for the boat ride out to a cluster of islands
known as the Farnes Islands. Seals, Puffins, and several types of other water birds gather on these islands to bear their young. On the bigger
of the islands, man has had a presence for centuries due to building and manning lighthouses for the ships. This has been the only intrusion, so the critters keep coming back to nest.

Lately, licensed guides can take small groups of folks out to the islands and actually let us walk on controlled pathways amongst the nesting critters. Black Headed Terns defend their cliff nests by dive-bombing our heads, actually touching us with their claws. A female Eider Duck unaffectedly sat her nest as we walk by within inches. Puffins stand by their borrows until we were within 10 feet and then rush down into the dark hole, totally disappearing and then pop back up as soon as we were 10 feet past. Quite comical. There are hundreds of Puffins. They borrow just feet apart from one another. The scene of so many of these odd looking birds standing, walking, or hunkered down by their borrows is almost laughable and yet amazing. Their markings give them a look of confused contentment with a touch of royalty.

The rain paused long enough for our ride out to the islands. As we drove out of Seahouses later that afternoon it was pouring.

All the while as we drive through the countryside we see castles standing and in ruins. Much like what we saw in Spain, just the land is much greener. The historical element can be hard to grasp for us Americans.

From Seahouses we drove west to Melrose, Scotland, just across the
border near Galashiels. In the upper Tweed valley this area is higher
with hills approaching our Appalachians in size though there's much less forest and more pasture. Melrose is a small town, pop. 2276, with a big Abby in ruins dating back to the 1100's.

Devastated by the English many times in the 1300's, the Abby was rebuilt by Robert the Bruce, one of Scotland's great heroes, and then much later repaired by Sir Walter Scott in the 1800's. Robert the Bruce's heart is buried there. It was a custom for that time period that if you died somewhere else, such as in a distant battle, you could request your heart to be returned to your homeland for burial along side your loved ones. Maybe that's where the phrase "Home is where the heart is" comes from. Well, maybe.

Our first hotel choice was full, so we walked down the street to other hotels and found a room in the King's Arms Hotel on the main street of the little town.

Parking is always a trick where there is more than twenty buildings and especially when those twenty buildings were built centuries ago. Back then, you rode in on your horse, left it at the livery stable, and walked around town. Cars today just don't fit the scale of those old designs. And yet, folks seem to make do with what they've got. If you can squeeze a car in, then it's a parking place. And if you can't, then just park it in the street and traffic will have to deal with it.

The next day, Saturday 15th, after breakfast we walked to the Abby which was just a few blocks away from our hotel. In this part of the world it's late spring and the rhododendron is in bloom along with foxglove and other things. The Abby's grounds and for that matter, everywhere, is very colorful. Scattered showers have been the rule since we've been here, so things are looking lush. A fairly large garden specializing in dried flowers for sale (they grow what they dry) is next to the Abby. While sitting in that garden/orchard we saw several new birds.

From Melrose we drove to Edinburgh, a much larger city of 409,000
people. It's the capital of Scotland and built on the shore of a huge bay called the Firth of Forth. We checked into a hotel not far from the Edinburgh Castle, napped (tourism is hard work), and then walked up the street around 7:00 to a restaurant for supper.

The next day, Sunday, we took the city bus to the castle. Walking up the Royal Mile to the castle one passes many old churches with their tall spires, state buildings with their statues of notables, and shops with their trinkets.

At the high end of the street, built on a volcanic core providing a sheer foundation already quite tall on which to build stone walls, the castle today is a large impressive fortress. First recordings of fortifications here are in the 6th century. Much of what we see today is from the 16th through the 18th centuries. From inside the castle up on the wall's walkways one can see a great view of the city and the bay. The Scottish Crown Jewels and the Destiny Stone are on display within the castle. Lots of Scottish history has taken place here.

Later that afternoon we drove west 15 miles out of Edinburgh to
Linlithgow, one of Scotland's oldest towns. There is Linlithgow Palace,
begun by James I in 1425. Several hundred years later James V and Mary, Queen of Scots, were born in the palace. Along about 1746 the palace burned and never was refurbished, so it remains as a wonderful example of period construction. The banquet room is 100 feet by 30 feet with a fireplace at one end that's 20 feet wide. Now that's a dinning room!

The palace is set next to a lovely lake where half of it was being used
by many fishermen, two to a boat. The other half had many brightly colored small sailboats going about. On this half by a picnic area about 100 Mute Swans were congregated, part in the water and part on the land, hoping for hand outs from the people. Mute Swans aren't mute. And they are huge creatures. Each of their webbed feet are as big as my outstretched hand. An angry one can be very formidable as we found out when one just feet from us hissed at us, flapped it's wings, and moved towards us. We backed up quickly.

We also identified several new ducks at this lake.

We drove back to Edinburgh to cross the Firth of Forth on the Forth
Bridge, an expansive suspension bridge similar to the Golden Gate
Bridge. Then we headed north through Perth. Past Perth were more of those darn small roads, which we had to drive in order to get to our timeshare in Craigendarroch right outside Ballater which is about 30 miles west of Aberdeen. The small roads went through farms, tiny (wee) villages, over big hills, and a pass in a mountain range where folks snow ski in winter.

Down the other side of the range brought us into a wooded valley and we followed the River Dee, which is about the size of the Ocoee though not as steep in it's decent. Some miles later, we found the Hilton Craigendarroch Resort. It was about 7:30p.

After checking in we drove the 3 minutes into Ballater and got a few essentials like coffee, milk, and laundry detergent. Tired and hungry we ate supper in the Club Room, the less formal dinning room at the resort. Then turned in.

Today we slept until we wanted to get up, 12:30 I think it was, our first lazy day. We did some more serious grocery shopping and then back at "home" Marilou washed clothes, I wrote on this email, and we enjoyed a meal that Marilou fixed just before sunset which happens around 10:30. It's 1:30a now and there's still some light in the sky.

It must not get totally dark at all. We've seen some light still at 3:00a, too.

Sorry about this being a book. I'll try to get these off at a faster pace from now on. Hope you enjoyed it though.

Love to all,

Becky and Marilou

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Saturday, June 22, 2002

Howdy all,

When we got to our stay in Craigendarroch back on Sunday and were walking up to the door of our condo for the first time, there was a young rabbit on the front entrance that didn't seem to be bothered much by our presence. We could have almost touched it. It did finally move on into the shrubs at the edge of the brick walkway as we continued closer to the door. We've seen it several times since in the same shrubs. Older bigger rabbits as well as other small ones are everywhere throughout the countryside. Thus the inspiration for Peter Rabbit, which was written by a Scot.

The first "morning" (12:30p),as we sat looking out onto the beautiful
view, we had the glass sliding doors open enjoying the breeze along with some coffee and biscuits (in the US they'd be known as cookies). A robin lit on the railing of the balcony and seemed to say, "Well, where's mine"? It then hopped down to the decking very close to the open door and asked again. I tossed a piece of biscuit towards it and in lightening speed the robin had the piece and flew away.

European robins are much smaller than American robins, big eyes for their size and they have a little less of the "red" breast. In our opinion, they are cuter than our robins and that's just our opinion. Later that same day as I sat again with the doors still open, the robin came back and this time lit right on the door's threshold and looked at me. I didn't
have anything for it this time and told it so. It flew away.

On Tuesday 18th, we went into Ballater for lunch at a Tea Room we've
become fond of. They serve a great roast beef sandwich. Then we took a walk along the River Dee just out of town. There are several marked trails in the area. This one took us about 2 hours with stops to check out birds (5 new ones) and take pictures and such.

The weather has been mostly clear with occasional sprinkles and breezy with occasional strong gusts. Temps around 19c, though with the constant wind it feels cooler.

Wednesday, we packed an overnight bag and headed off for several sights on the way to Inverness. The first sight was not planned. It was a red squirrel. They say they are fairly scarce these days.

The first planned visit was to Leith Hall & Garden, south of Huntly, about 40 minutes drive northeast from our timeshare. It's a home originally built by a big land owner several centuries ago. The estate covered 15,000 acres. Each succeeding son added something onto the house until it reached today's largeness. The last addition was made in 1902. The last widow lived there until her death in 1965. She had given the entire house including all of it's contents to the Scottish National Trust sometime before and continued to live in part of the house. Most of the land had been bought by the tenant farmers through the years. The remaining grounds are still quite extensive. The garden and orchard are beautiful.

The second stop was just on the north side of Huntly; the Huntly Castle. Again, a wealthy man, though much earlier, built a house. Actually he remodeled a smaller wooden structure into a much larger 4-story fortified stone castle in the 1500's. It is today only partly still with us. Much has fallen down. What is standing gives good hints of it's once glory. There is recorded history about the opulence of the decorations on the walls, the fine furnishings, and his over the top lifestyle. He was seen as a threat to Mary, Queen of Scots, and actions were taken to defrock him of some of his power. So, in retaliation he planned to kidnap the Queen when she was supposed to visit his home, though that plan didn't pan out. His fortune crumbled as did his castle.

Clava Cairn, a pre-history burial spot, was our last planned adventure
for this day. This is just east of Inverness. Dated to 4000 years old,
it consists of about 2 acres with 3 mounds. Each mound is about 50 feet in diameter. First the ground was built up about 4 feet then large rocks were moved into a circle to form the foundation and collar inside which smaller stones were piled up to about 10 or 12 feet high. Two of the mounds have entrances/corridors into the center area which has been left open. The third mound has the center open, too, though without an entrance to it. The mounds, if seen from the air, would look like donuts with two of them having a thin slice taken out on one side. Each of the mounds then have much larger stones, 9 to 11 of them each, standing evenly spaced forming another circle about 20 feet further out. The centers have been checked for contents and cremated human bone has been found. This is one of the oldest known burial mounds in Great Britain.

On the little road (I'm getting much better with driving them) to the
mounds we saw a country house B&B which we went back to hoping to stay the night and found them full. The lady of the house asked us to wait a minute while she called her friend who also ran a B&B to she if she had a room left, she did. The first lady said get in our car and follow her. She drove with us following to her friend's B&B maybe 5 miles away, still in the country on the hillside overlooking Inverness. She saw that we got there, waved and left. The lady of this house welcomed us in. When we said we were interested in having supper and since it was getting pretty late, she said her husband would drive and show us the way to a nice pub close by. He drove with their dog hanging its head out the window and we followed in our car to The Fluke. Sure 'nuf a nice pub and we got there within 10 minutes of supper ending. Now that's hospitality!

This B&B had cats, too. Ones we could pet. We always miss our kitties and dogs.

We've been finding the food good here in Scotland. Breakfast at the B&Bs, most of the time, have been a cooked meal; eggs, bacon, toast, waffles, potato cakes, and the likes, as well as fruit, cereals, some sweet breads. And of course, tea and coffee. Black (Blood) Pudding doesn't have blood in it, or so I was told. Perhaps sometime way back when it may have (I'm just guessing about that). Today it's just special odds and ends from the butcher shop with spices and seasons to each family's taste that has it made.

The pubs for us are just places to eat, since we don't drink the alcohol
stuff. And we've found them to be very friendly, even family oriented
places. Usually the menu and the kitchen are serious, as opposed to some places in the States that just do enough food to satisfy the law in
order to serve booze. AND we've noticed non smoking areas! Even
establishments that are entirely smoke free. Hoorah!!! There are full restaurants, coffee & tea rooms, and fish & chips places, too. In the cities are American fast food atrocities. Mostly wherever we go there are mom and pop places and that's where we usually have our meals.

Thursday was again a beautiful day of scattered clouds, lighter winds,
and mild temps. We had another wonderful cooked breakfast and in a
change of plans, we headed for Dunrobin Castle about 50 miles north of Inverness, up A-9. This a spectacular structure in very good repair. It is still being lived in by the Countess of Sutherland and a son. In the
1800's the Duke of that time period owned 1,300,000 acres. Now that's an estate! Part of the house is now open to the public. The gardens between the house and the North Sea are great examples of Victorian formal. The castle has pointed round turrets ... reminds me of the Disneyland castle. Very classic castle stuff.

An unexpected surprise at Dunrobin Castle was a bird of prey keep there on the grounds. A fellow (don't know his name) takes injured or
otherwise unfit birds like eagles, hawks, owls, falcons, plus some others and nurses them back to health and trains them to fly for him ...
to come back, more importantly. I never knew another bird's feathers can be implanted on a bird that is in need and be able to use them to fly until it's own grows back. And that it can take years for some feathers to grow back. We saw a wonderful display of flying by a falcon, the fastest living moving thing in it's dive at 100 mph; the strength and size of a Brazilian Blue Eagle; and the absolute silence of a Barn Owl's wings. It was a real treat, totally out of the blue (pun intended).

Next, about mid afternoon, we drove south back to Inverness and took the A-82 down the west shore of Loch Ness. This had been our original plan and now that we'd finally gotten to it the day was getting long and
Urquhart Castle was already closed.

So, in Drumnadrochit, the town nearby, we found a great B&B up on a farmed hillside near the Loch (lake). We'd visit the castle the next day.

In the morning, as we looked out our upstairs window we saw a female Pheasant going up the fence line path by the house with about a dozen very young chicks running this way and that behind her.

And guess what's in the pasture ... sheep ... believe it or not! Ha! Scotland is ALMOST as bad a New Zealand with it's sheep population. NZ has 15 sheep per person. I don't know Scotland's ratio. Must be pretty high as well.

Urquhart Castle was built right at the water's edge in the 1100's. It has played an important part in Scotland's history which I won't go into here
and is now mostly in ruins. The Loch Ness monster story actually began in 1276 with a monk here who supposedly barely survived the jaws of something in the Loch. The water is eerily black. Across its surface reflections and ripples seem to come from nowhere. It is very mysterious. It is over 700 feet deep. It does stir one's imagination.

We drove back up A-82 to Inverness and headed southeast on A-9 to a bird sanctuary near Boat of Garten off of A-939. There we walked about one & a half miles through a pine forest and along two small Lochs. We saw 3 new birds and talked with some other birders from England -- just where we are going to be during our last week on the island. They gave us some good tips on where to go for bird sightings at that location. From there we went to another site within the same sanctuary and saw an Osprey and several more new birds.

By now it was 6:00p, we were getting hungry and being out in the middle of nowhere, so to speak, we thought it would be good to head on home and find supper in one of the small towns we'd pass through.

In Grantown of Sprey we stopped at a large hotel and their dining room was already booked up. They suggested a restaurant further in town. They, too, were booked up. They in turn suggested another place on the square and we thought they said Tidy as it's name. We walked up to the square and only saw a place named Tyree. Well that's Scottish for you, it was the place indeed and we had a fine meal there.

I suppose the reason restaurants here, as in probably most of Europe, don't have you wait for a table is that supper is treated much differently than in the States. Here supper can be an all evening affair. So, the restaurant doesn't expect tables to turnover very fast as their counterparts in the States do. Thus, they willingly suggest another establishment for one to try when theirs is full.

Our drive home on south A-939 was about one & a half hours, through farmed valleys, tundra covered hills, winter snow ski slopes, river glens, and along even narrower roadway. At least they acknowledged this section (maybe 5 miles) to be one lane with a sign and there were pull outs every so often. This road must not be used by many and especially a 9:30 at night. We met 3 cars in the narrow part and had to make use of the pullouts.

What was planned to be an overnighter, for Wednesday and Thursday,
turned into a 2 nighter away from Ballater. Today is Saturday and we are washing clothes and have a walk planned later today. Mostly we're getting ready to pack up, drive to Aberdeen tomorrow, visit a Castle on the way and then fly to London.

Here's lots of pictures by Marilou. Hope all is well with you. We are having a great time. Folks here are wonderful. The land is beautiful, despite the photos looking cloudy, there is blue sky in rather large patches sometimes. After all, this is an island.

Love to all,

Becky & Marilou

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Monday, July 1, 2002

Howdy all,

On our way to Aberdeen, Sunday 23rd, after we left our stay in Ballater, we stopped at Crathes Castle along A-93.

Viewing yet another fortified home built in the 1500's, I begin to noticed the similarities: 5 foot thick walls, small windows, and spiral staircases, all to withstand attack. The style of the day was basic protection with as much ease of living as the pocketbook of the owner could afford ... still happens that way today, doesn't it? The personality of each owner shows itself in the floorplan and the decorating. The quality of the masonry work differs from building to building. Throughout the ages disrepair and repair occurred. Sometimes I'm not sure of what time period I'm seeing in the handy work.

I learned at Crathes that often when a castle was being constructed the larger pieces of furniture had to be built inside each room because of the small doors, windows, and staircases. and thus today that same piece of furniture is still in the same room.

The small windows, doors, and stairwells aren't small because they didn't know how to make them bigger. They're small to make it harder for intruders to get in or upstairs. A charging person wielding a sword would have a difficult time of it in cramped quarters. Smart folks.

After visiting Crathes Castle we drove on to the small airport at Aberdeen (I love small airports), left the car there in the pouring rain, and caught our plane to Heathrow in London. Flying into London from the north doesn't give the same expansive picture of London's size as I saw when we flew over London coming from Berlin last October. Still, the row house style of neighborhoods were lined up one after another; the further out of town the more the rows break into individual homes, just.

From Heathrow we got on the tube and made our way to Golders Green, a northern suburb of London where we found the B&B we had arranged online several months ago. (The internet is a great tool.) Arriving around 9:30p, we turned in. Our breakfast was at 8:30a on Monday. It was the first B&B that did not offer a cooked meal. I was a bit disappointed. All the others have spoiled me. There was a good spread of meats, cheeses, cereals, juices, yogurt, coffee, tea, toast, and others things ... a fine breakfast buffet in it's own right. I'm still yearning for poached eggs, though. :-)

After breakfast we rode the tube into the city to Leicester Square where the half price tickets are sold each afternoon for that evening's
available performances. From the selection of plays, we chose a thriller, The Woman In Black.

Then we had planned to go out to Kew Gardens and while we were walking away from the ticket booth we saw a movie theater showing the new Star Wars: The Attack of the Clones. Just so you know, this area of London is the entertainment center of the universe and most of it is top notch. Knowing that Star Wars was "filmed" with digital cameras and produced entirely in the digital realm with the intention of being projected in DVD equipped theaters, we thought if there was to be a DVD theater in London, it would be here. We checked it out and, yes, it was! We changed our plans and saw Star Wars that afternoon. The digital projection is truly great, absolutely clear, and the movie is good, too. So ... Star Warsie. The great thing about digital projection is that the 2000th showing will be as clear and clean as the 1st showing. No more splices. No more scratches.

After the movie and before the play at 8:00p, we rode the tube back home to drop stuff off and freshen up. In the neighborhood where we are staying, as in just about any area of London, there are many ethnic restaurants from which to choose. This evening we ate at an Italian restaurant. Very good. It was different from the Italian restaurants in the States, not that they aren't good, too, just different ... no American influence. Perhaps there is British influence instead, I don't know, haven't been to Italy, yet.

The Woman In Black is a two man performance (except for the very brief eerie appearances of the woman in black) playing in a tiny old Victorian playhouse. Most all the playhouses here are old Victorian ones, just some smaller than others. The play was quite suspenseful. A good spooky story that had us jumping several times.

On Tuesday 25th, we had a date with Astral Travels for a tour west of
London, out to Avebury circle and Stonehenge. The National Trust, who's care these historical sites are under, allow small groups special access to Stonehenge after public hours. Astral Travels has the Trust's consent to take people past the ropes, right up to the stones. This was something we had set up online months ago. We met the small tour bus above Earl's Court tube station in London and with 13 other people were driven out of London on the M4 into the gorgeous Wiltshire area. All the while the driver was imparting history, theory, and his own insight concerning where we are and where mankind has been.

First we visited Silbury Hill which looks like a steeply sloped grass
covered hill and is actually a pyramid built from the chalky stone of
the area around the same time as the pyramids in Egypt were being built. Not much is known as to why this was constructed. Nearby is West Kennet Long Barrow, a very long manmade cave built above ground on a natural hill probably for burials and other ceremonies. I think I remember the guide saying it's older than Avebury or Stonehenge.

Then we walked around Avebury, a large diameter circle of huge stones that a village later grew within. Many of the old rocks were used for construction of local buildings throughout the ages because the material had been brought from far away and is "proper" stone. Chalk stone is the natural "stone" of the area and is not a good building material. The big stones would be pushed down, dragged away, heated, and broken up.The pieces can be found in the buildings of Avebury now.

Alexander Keiller, in 1934, took it on to stand up some of the stones that had fallen over and buried by time and also, going by drawings made back around 1700, added markers where there used to be stones that don't exist anymore. Anyone anytime can walk among the Avebury stones, just close the gates behind you so the sheep don't get out.

Crop Circles are common events in this area. Six or seven happen each year. It's a mystery. The latest one was still visible in the
pasture next to Avebury. People had walked in it, so it wasn't pristine
anymore. We talked with a man in one of the shops who proclaims himself to be the know-it-all on the stones and the crop circles. He's sure we've been visited by creatures from other worlds ... I'm not saying anything one way or the other ... he was very interesting to talk to. I don't think I've ever had a conversation with anyone quite like this man.

Then we moved on to Stonehenge. When all the public access visitors had been cleared from the site at closing time our group was allowed to go in. It was about 7:30p, partly cloudy, and chilly. Remember, here
(southern England) the sun doesn't set until about 10:15. We went right up and touched the stones. After seeing them from the road last October, I was glad to finally be passed not only the fence, but the ropes, too. Our guide continued to be very informative. Every year someone new writes yet another how, why, and who about Stonehenge. I think Murrary, our guide, reads them all. His take on the situation is thoughtful and at times possibly original. Leading tours here for five years is bound to provoke some good theories. We had an hour to be there. I can't say I had any profound thoughts. I can say some of those rocks are big and it's a fact that they are indigenous to an area 200 miles away, so how and why IS a really fascinating question. And yet, having an answer isn't necessary in order to stand there and just be with the scale of the thing. Loved it.

Wednesday 26th, after breakfast we went to Kew Gardens, the 300 acre Royal Botanic Gardens southwest of London. Much was in bloom, unlike last October when just a little color was left during our visit. This
day was partly cloudy and slightly breezy, great for walking around in a
beautiful garden. Actually the word "garden" is misleading, especially
for Americans, as to what Kew Gardens is all about. This is more like a planned estate or a landscaped forest. The collection of trees is one of my favorite parts. Great trees, tremendous trees, from all over the world. Acres of them. Young ones coming along, too. Then there are the huge Victorian glass houses for climate control. They themselves are a sight in their own right as well as the plants in them.

Several ponds and lakes are on the property with many Coot families in progress and other water birds taking up residents on the water. We IDed a bunch of new ducks and geese. A peacock was in a tree, then on the ground and strolled along with us among the ducks. A family of Mute Swans swam all in a line to the bank near us and brought the six downy chicks who are bigger than the ducks out to sun and nap in the grass. We had such a grand time with the water birds that we didn't get to some of the other plant houses that we had planned on seeing before closing time came upon us. Oh well, it was another wonderful day at Kew.

Back in our neighborhood of Golders Green that evening, we ate at a Chinese/Thai/Buddhist restaurant which served only vegan food, buffet style. We were putting things on our plates that we had no idea what it was. It all turned out to be very good. And I still don't know what I ate.

Thursday 27th, midday, we went to an exhibit entitled Body Worlds. It is in what once was a brewery and now is a gallery near the Whitehall area (Jack the Ripper haunt). From the tube station we walked up Brick Lane through little Bangladesh (our name), a neighborhood of Muslm Indians. This brought back memories of our trip to India. We stopped in a sweet shop ... they love sugar (who doesn't) and do great things with it.

Anyway, back to the exhibit. A German (perhaps Swiss) concern has created a new plasticizing technique to preserve body tissue and aims to put on these exhibits for education, general awareness, and artistic exploration. What they've done is asked for people to donate their deceased bodies to the organization and then the technicians prepare the bodies so as to show the muscular, cardiovascular, nervous, and/or organ systems. More than a medical cadaver display, these presentations are thought provoking, even artistic in their arrangements. The show was much more than either of us thought it would be and extremely professional in the level of work performed for each display. It is very difficult to explain what we saw. There are many people upset by the exhibition. They either have problems reconciling some religious beliefs or just misunderstand the intent of the show.

Later that afternoon we went over to the Kenningston area to find a
garden that Marilou had seen on a BBC America show a few months ago. It is on top of a building. This garden has large trees and a pond along with shrubs and flowers, a tea room, too. We found it and it was closed to the public that day. Bummer! So, we went to a nearby Angus Steak Restaurant for an early supper. As we sat there eating and watching all the people walk by on the sidewalk, I suggested that we ride the bus back to our B&B in Golders Green instead of the tube so that we could see more of the city above ground. Marilou said, "We'll have to find a bus map to figure out which one to take". We had a week pass to the tube that included buses. We didn't have a bus map with us because we had been using the faster tube. Right then a bus came by with our destination's name on it: Golders Green. From that we knew we were already on the right line for home. Amazing.

After our early supper we simply walked up the block to the next bus stop and hopped on the next bus. The bus meandered it's way in the direction of Golders Green. Stop after stop, gradually the city fell away behind us. In and out of neighborhoods, one after another, the bus showed us the people of this metropolis. London goes forever. There are multinational residents. Finally, after more than an hour we arrived at the Golders Green stop, the end of the line. The tube would have taken maybe 25 minutes from where we were to home with one transfer, though we would not have seen all we saw.

That evening we turned in early at home. Watched some TV. I wrote some on this email. Can't seem to write as fast as the days are going by. Often when we get home at night, I'm just too tired to write. It's the
days we turn in early that I try to catch up on this, which means I'm
usually writing about events that happened days ago.

Friday 28th, we took the train for a day trip to Brighton, a town on the shore of the Channel south of London, about an hour's ride. We went to see the Royal Pavilion, an Indian/Oriental styled palace. They call it the Taj of the west ... it has a long way to go to challenge the Taj Mahal, though it is interesting.

What's more interesting is that last month at home in Fannin Country, through some friends there we met a lady who lives in Brighton while she was visiting in the States. So, while we were in Brighton we called Jenny and got together with her for supper. She was very kind to take us out to a Thai restaurant. Brighton is a happening beach town. The one problem is that it's large beaches haven't any sand, just tiny round pebbles. More difficult than sand to walk on.

Saturday 29th, back in London, we checked out of the B&B in Golders Green, took the tube a few stations in, picked up a car we had reserved, drove back to the B&B to gather our bags, and then headed out of London north on the A-1. Driving for about 2 hours to Rutland county we found our next stay in the Barnsdale Country Club, a timeshare trade.

We are now on an old hunting estate turned Country Club next to a lake in rolling hills farmland. More specifically we are in the stable mews. I'm not sure what the "mews" part of the name is about ... the building we are in, which has been refitted with apartments, was once the stables of the estate. This is the largest timeshare accommodations we've ever had the pleasure of occupying. We are well pleased.

That evening at supper time, four young Mallard drakes came waddling onto the patio with their little quacking sounds. They saw Marilou in the kitchen window and gathered around. She called me to come look. We had bread and took some out with us to the patio. They seemed to know the routine and waddled over towards the door as soon as they heard us move the latch. They gobbled down the pieces of bread as fast as we tossed and would come within two feet of us to get it. They left afterwards and we didn't see them until the following day, at supper time again, when five of them showed up. Then on Monday morning two of the drakes came for breakfast.

Sunday 30th, we slept late ... ah. Always nice to do that when we can. Then we got up, fixed coffee and watched the football (soccer) finals -- Germany vs Brazil. Brazil won as expected. When we were in Scotland a couple of weeks ago, all the talk was how well England was doing in the playoffs, as was the USA team. Then USA lost and England lost. Korea was the surprise of the event. Though it all came down to Brazil taking the cup in a hard fought game of 0 to 2, with both scores coming in the final minutes of the game.

After the game we drove into Oakham, one of the small villages near our stay. Being Sunday most of the stores were closed and not many people about. We were looking for a grocery store and missed it being open by 5 minutes. So we walked around town some and then drove to Stamford just 15 minutes away where we had found a large grocery store the day before and today missed it being open by 20 minutes. So we walked around Stamford some, seeing some wonderful Georgian architecture. Had afternoon tea (I usually have coffee) at an old hotel. Then came home. I wrote, almost catching up.

This morning, Monday July 1st, we went to the 10:00 meeting that RCI's timeshare staff usually do for folks who are new to the area. This is where one can sign up for tours or other activities if one desires. We
have chosen a small group tour for Tuesday and Wednesday. Will tell more about them afterwards.

Later today we are going to explore the Nature Reserves (bird watching) at the lake and go to the grocery store.

Love to all,

Becky and Marilou

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Wednesday, July 10, 2002

Howdy all,

Monday, July 1st, was partly showery, windy, and on the cool side of
comfortable. Rutland Waters is in-between two small villages; Oakham to our west and Whitwell just east of us, and south off A-606 about a quarter of a mile. This little resort is in a countryside of rolling hills.

After lunch we drove west around the lake to a Nature Reserve. I was pleasantly surprised to find a nice two story building with displays of local habitat and pictures of it's occupants and with observation decks on both levels that look out onto a portion of the lake where many of the feathered residents reside. There are other blinds, or hides as the Brits call them, in many spots along paths around the lake.

Cold rainy weather eventually convinced us to leave the hides and the Reserve, so we drove into Stamford to pick up some groceries and had tea in an old hotel there. Stamford is said to have a lot of Georgian style buildings. All I can say is that I saw are some neat old buildings. I love the tremendous oldness of things here and all together it becomes a bit overwhelming for me. Too many centuries of differing styles. Perhaps with more visits to these aged places I'll begin to acquire an better understanding.

Monday evening we ate supper in our wonderful apartment at Barnsdale Resort next to Rutland Waters, watched some telly, I wrote on the travelog, and we turned in early.

Tuesday began with breakfast in our apartment and then meeting the tour at 9:00 at the reception hall in the old hunting lodge of this estate.
Five tourists, including us, and two guides: a nice group to be with for the day in a small coach. While Susan, one of the guides, did the driving the other did the talking. Robert was the one informing us of all that we were seeing. He is quite a character who seems to know a huge amount of local history and the overall lay of things. His training
is in geology and is a lecturer at colleges. He looks to be in his 60's
and has traveled much of the world in performing his geology work. He is the classic absent-minded professor. He's very thoughtful with long pauses while searching for just the right word and wonders off to the next point of interest while we are still looking at some ancient building in front of us, pondering all he's just told us.

This day we covered about 150 miles with stops every now and again to see a particular cathedral or other building/ruin on Robert's agenda to show us Roman, Saxon, Viking, and Norman influences on the countryside. Some of the towns/villages we passed through or stopped in are: Grantham, Newark-on-Trent, Lincoln, and Gainsborough. We walked through a mansion of a house in Gainsborough built in the Pilgrim days. This is the very house in which the battered Puritans took refuge just before they shipped out to Amsterdam seeking a place to live their convictions. In Amsterdam they experienced the same harsh treatment, and thus went on to America.

We returned home at 6:30p with 4,000 years of information swimming in our heads. The day's weather had been mostly kind to us, just a little bit of rain and not too cold.

Wednesday we also toured with Robert and Susan. The group this day
consisted of different folks, all Americans, except for one English lady
who had toured with us the day before. Robert's task today was to give
us a sense of Robin Hood's day and time. Again while covering many miles, all stops were keyed on buildings of the 1070's to 1120's, or there about. With also a ride into Sherwood Forest and a walk to the Major Oak where it's said Robin Hood and his Merrymen hid from the Sheriff of Nottingham. Actually this oak is considered to be about 800 years old which makes it too young to have big enough for anyone in the time of Robin Hood to have hidden in. Nevertheless, it is a huge tree and possibly an example of a tree Robin Hood climbed. And further, there's very little substantial historical evidence that Robin Hood actually existed. In any case it was absolutely a fun day exploring that time period. Robert is such a grand man. We didn't get home until 8:00p that evening.

Earlier in the week we had made plans for Jenny, our English friend from Brighton, to ride the train up from Brighton to visit us at Rutland Waters. She had never seen this part of England before. She arrived 11:30p Wednesday night at Bedford's station where we picked her up in our car. Bedford is about an hour south on the A-1 from Rutland Waters. After returning to the apartment around 1:00p, we were all tried and soon turned in.

Thursday July 4th, we slept until 10:00a. It was nice to catch up on
some zzzs after the long days of touring. Coffee from a French press, raspberries, cherries, and clementines was our breakfast that morning in the apartment.

In the early afternoon we three went to the Butterfly & Aquatic Center at Rutland Waters. There a tremendous collection of real live fluttering butterflies is kept in a hot, moist climate controlled atrium. Plants, small ponds, some tropical birds, and five large Iguanas occupy the space with the butterflies. The keeper let us "pet" one of the Iguanas. In an adjoining room, behind glass, is a small collection of exotic insects and reptiles from different parts of the world. After spending a couple of hours in the damp heat, the cool breeze outside felt real good.

From there we went back to the apartment for coffee and then took a walk by the lake. This lake was actually made in the 1970's by damming a small river to serve as a reservoir for the area's water supply. Some farmland and a village were lost in the filling of the lake. Now many fish, Mute Swans, Canada Geese and other water birds live there. Some fishermen in small boats were fishing out on the lake. The swans and geese floated in large segregated groups. Great Grebes here and there dove for food. Pairs of Mallards paddled along close to the shore and Coots with chicks grazed for bugs in the grass on the bank of the lake. A few sheep were in a pasture next to the path.

Back at the apartment after our lakeside walk, Marilou fixed supper.
Wimbleton was on the telly and we three talked and laughed until
bedtime. It was nice to have Jenny with us, to ask all those questions
we'd stacked up about English stuff; like what's knackered?

No fireworks for July 4th in England. Sort of felt odd to not have any excitement going on that day. The Brits have a very different point of view about the date.

Friday July 5th, we three drove into Oakham for lunch. It was raining.
We were planning a visit to a museum in Oakham; a hotel that had once been the stopping place for many Royal folk. A tradition began a long time ago that with each visit, the Royal would leave a horseshoe on the wall. The last one left was by Queen Elizabeth in the 1980's. We didn't make it to see the horseshoes. We went into a store in Oakham to look at some wonderfully painted cows. They are about 7" long and reminded us of the life-size bears we had seen in Berlin last year. Each painted a different pattern.

While we were looking at them, one (Elvis) fell against the other (a clown) and broke a few legs and other parts. So, Marilou acquired some cows to bring home. Luckily they were the two she actually liked the best and the breaks will mend easily. To the store clerk's surprise Marilou was a good sport about the situation and so she reduced the price considerably. The clerk said she felt guilty and that it just wasn't "right" because Marilou hadn't gotten mad about having to pay for the breakage. To help make her feel more "right", Marilou put on a tantrum. We had such a good laugh with the clerk. By the time the cows were wrapped for travel it was time to take Jenny back to the train in Bedford.

We said good bye to Jenny about 5:40p that Friday and drove back to our apartment to have supper and pack.

Saturday 6th, we got up at 4:30a to leave by 6:00a to drive to Manchester to catch our 11:40a plane to Atlanta. There was daylight at 4:30 which made the task easier.

The flight's path went so far north that we got to see Greenland for the
first time. It's only mountains and snow. In the ocean south of the barren land was thousands of icebergs. I could just make out the one that the Titanic had a run in with.

Walking out of the Atlanta airport was a bit of a shock. We had
forgotten what hot weather felt like. Great Britain had been cool to
cold, except indoors. Sometimes shops and restaurants in the UK would be so warm to us that we'd be quite uncomfortable and glad to get back outside.

Anyway we are back home and getting back into the swing of things here. There are appointments to keep, clients calling, and a house to maintain.

Love to all,

Becky & Marilou