Coming Home

Today is our last day in the UK. We've just about managed to eat through all of our spare groceries, the fragile gifts are all bubble wrapped and the last of the laundry is hanging in the sun (and has been for 24 hours already, so it should be dry by tonight!).

On first assessment I'm fairly sure all of our things will fit in our luggage. This has been of some concern to Russell, but we did bring an extra duffel bag and didn't need to expand our luggage when we came, so we have plenty of extra space for the extra things we've acquired.

I'm off to take books back to the library, buy snacks for the flight and tickets for the bus to the airport. Then its just pack, pack, pack.

Cardiff

As it turned out, there was rail work between Cardiff and Reading last night. This meant our train was diverted, so what would normally be a two hour trip lasted three and a half. We got home around 11:30 and after two days of running all over the place we pretty much just fell into bed.

The exhaustion was worth it, though. We had a great time in Cardiff (though we could have easily devoted another day or two to it.) We got off to a slower start yesterday so we arrived in Cardiff around lunch time. After eating, we went to the central attraction of the city: Cardiff Castle. Cardiff Castle has been around a very long time. It was originally built over a Roman stronghold and has been added to and expanded since then.

To give a sense of the layout, when we first entered the stone walls surrounding the grounds, we were met with a view of the keep on the hill. This, as you can see from the picture, is the most "castle" looking building on the grounds. To the left was the much larger Cardiff Castle itself. I'm sure you can guess which one was lived in by the king/nobleman, and which one was lived in by the imprisoned older brother who was rightful king.

The keep was fun to walk through. There was an endless flight of steep stairs that took us to four or five rooms stacked one above the other. For the most part, however, the keep is just a well maintained relic. The real attraction is Cardiff Castle. I rather like how Wikipedia put it: "In the early 19th century the castle was enlarged and refashioned in an early Gothic Revival style for John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute by Henry Holland. But its transformation began in 1868 when the 3rd Marquess commissioned William Burges to undertake a massive rebuilding which turned the castle into a 19th century fantasy of a medieval palace."

"Fantasy of a Medieval Palace" is an understatement. Burges was apparently known for his extravagant architecture, and for going over budget. Way over budget. It was not uncommon for a bill to come to 10 times the bargained amount. Apparently, a good number of Burges' works were cut short because the patron simply couldn't afford the growing expense. Luckily, however, the Marquess of Bute had a fortune that could keep up with Burges, and the result is stunning. We weren't allowed to take pictures on the inside of the castle, so I'll just have to give a few meager descriptions and encourage you to someday go see the castle for yourself.

We went to the smoking room, which was a strictly men's only room with the days of the week depicted in each stained glass window, the four seasons painted on each of the four walls, an intricately detailed cathedral ceiling (in gothic style). It also boasted the face of the devil coming out of the ceiling above the door to scare off any women who might want to wander in uninvited.

Next we visited the children's nursery, which had beautiful paintings encircling the whole room depicting fairy tales and lanterns that hung from the ceiling with reliefs of nursery rhymes illuminated on each side. The paintings on the walls were a common theme revisited in the great hall. These paintings, however, were being refurbished, so several of them were hard to see. Apparently within the last 30 years, someone got the idea of varnishing the paintings in hopes of preserving them, but used a terrible varnish that almost destroyed the paintings. That varnish is now being removed (its suppose to take 2.5 years.)

We also saw the women's tea room, with high Turkish ceilings and wooden window panels (I've forgotten the name of such panels) that are so intricate no one can see in the room, but anyone inside can see out. There were also carved parrots encircling the room to remind the ladies not to gossip.

The Marquess (John)'s room was not to be overshadowed by the rest of the building. It featured an ornate ceiling with a grid of dark wood surrounding rectangular mirrors. On each beam of wood, the name "John" was written in various languages so that when he was in bed he could look up and see his name reflected thousands of times in the mirrors. The room was also surrounded by carved guardian angels' faces. They were done so that none of them, no matter where you stand in the room, ever focus on you. However, the eyes of one in the corner follows you wherever you go in the room.

The castle kept going and going and becoming more and more ornate. We went up a left-handed spiral staircase to get to a roof-top garden patio with drains (for the almost constant rain) in the shape of a Celtic cross. There was also a dining room that featured a gorgeous round table with a hold in the middle that was apparently designed to allow a grape vine to grow up through the middle. In the dining room there was also a carved monkey along the wooden wainscoting. It turned out that if you pressed the nut in the monkey's mouth, it triggered a bell to call the servants.

Finally, we finished the tour in the library. While the overall library seemed more sedate a first glance, the bookshelves were intricately carved and each featured an exotic animal from one of the countries the Marquess had stakes in. This included a duck-bill platypus from Australia, Beavers from Canada, some large lizard from Australia, and a variety of others.

To help imagine these rooms, think of how ornate Victorian architecture could get, then imagine putting a fanciful architect, who is smoking a great quantity of opium, in charge of the design. I'm so glad we got to see it.

After the Castle, we tried to visit the Natural History Museum of Cardiff, which I had heard very good things about. It was open, but many of the displays were closed to the public because they were preparing for their centennial and a visit from the Queen. We wandered through what was open and then collapsed into a highly comfy leather couch in the lobby and took turns trying to convince each other to get up again. At this point, we were both very tired from all the adventuring and we considered just heading home early. I still wanted to at least see the bay, though, so we looked up the bus schedule and hopped a bus.

The bay was beautiful. We didn't have the energy to really walk all around it, so we just kept to the more touristy "Mermaid's Quay" which hosts a great deal of fancy restaurants and up-scale shops on the water. In the picture, you can see Russell standing next to a tower of steel with water cascading down it. It made a very impressive centerpiece at the entrance of the waterfront. We ducked into a fancy, fancy pub and each had a pint of the local Brain's beer. Russell had the bitter and I had the dark. Both were among the better beers we've had in England. The dark, especially, gets very high marks. It had a nice round stout taste but was more the consistency of a heavier ale.

We ended our day at a Turkish restaurant on the water. We both had outstanding meals, and got to try honest-to-goodness Turkish delights for dessert. Let me assure you, they are FAR tastier than the suspicious little candies Cadbury makes of the same name.

And the winner is...

Matt! He called it right on - we've just returned from Cardiff, land of rarebit and indecipherable signs. He wins our prize, which is TBA. But I promise it will be good.

Re: Your V1agra S0ft T4bs 0rder #0546176

As seen in Cambridge last weekend. I forgot to post it earlier.

Saturday in Oxford...

Both Nicole and Matt were right so far. We had to make one more trip to Oxford and stop for a bite to eat at the Eagle and Child. Russell had his first encounter with Fish and Chips and I had Sausage and Mash. Pub Grub!

We managed to fit in everything we had been hoping to. We started the day early at the Oxford Press Bookshop. Russell wasn't as impressed with it as he was with the Cambridge Press Bookshop, but Oxford was much better for teaching materials. I took Russell to see the Bodleian Library, where we found out that all of the white vans in the streets were part of filming for a movie (we think it's the next Harry Potter... but we aren't sure). We also FINALLY found the Natural History Museum. That's where we met Charlie (not stuffed). It was pouring when we finished at the museum, so we camped out just inside the door until the shower passed.


We ended our sight-seeing at Magdalene College. This is another of the oldest colleges in Oxford. When we first went in, everything seemed to be closed. Even the tea shop was closed (even though there was a sign set up saying it was open). We almost left after a quick tour around the first quadrangle, but luckily we read through our tour pamphlet more closely and discovered the one open door that took us to the rest of the university. There was plenty to see after all. There were several more quadrangles, an expansive trail behind the buildings and a field BRIMMING with hungry deer.

We had another lovely Malaysian meal at the restaurant where we went on our last trip to Oxford, and we rounded out the evening with a choral performance in the Sheldonian Theatre. The Oxford Bach Choir was performing (composed mostly of city members and students). It was fun to watch.

Where will we be off to tomorrow?

Guess The Weekend Adventure

Hello Everyone!

Russell suggested I post our "Guess the Weekend Adventure" Competition as its own post, since many of you may not have made it to the end of the Cambridge post, where the competition was originally put forth.

So here is is:

Guess the two cities Russell and I will visit this (our last) weekend in England. The hint? One city we have been to before, and the other is new to us.

A super awesome prize will be mailed to the first person to guess both cities correctly. There may be hints posted throughout the week (in the comments). Feel free to guess up to once a day.

Cambridge

I think Russell and I must have been inspired by the wonderful adventure we had Saturday, because we decided to venture out into greater England once again Sunday. I had mentioned that I wished I had had a chance to go to the Cambridge Press Bookshop, but I assumed it would be closed Sunday, like the Oxford Press Bookshop. Russell made me look online, though, and I'm so glad he did. The Cambridge Press Bookshop, as I'm sure you've deduced, is open Sunday afternoons, so we grabbed an early train and made our way there. It was a bit farther than we anticipated (about 2.5 hours because it was Sunday and the direct trains weren't running) but well worth the trip.

For once, we remembered to take our tourist book with us and see what there was of note in Cambridge (other than the bookstore and university, of course). We learned that we could attend the Evensong at 3:30 in King's College Chapel, where to find all the good food, and the details of punting.

Of course, we started at the bookstore, and I must confess we will be returning to Oregon heavier laden then we came. I spent all of the time we had in the English Teaching section and Russell wandered upstairs and returned with a book on Abstract Algebra, which he has been buried in ever since. This means that I, too, am learning about such things as "sets".

We left with enough time to make it to the Evensong. By going, we were not only able to see the inside of King's College Chapel, but enjoy the renowned boy's choir as well. The choral music was beautiful. The chapel was divided in half by the organ cabinet, which allowed the chapel to supply separate seating for the devout and the curious. We were tempted to sit on the devout side (closer to the choir) but in the end we chickened out and sat on the far side of the cabinet. In some ways this was good, because everyone around us was equally glued to their "Evensong Guidebook" but it did dampen the music a bit. Even so, it was quite enjoyable, and the chapel was gorgeous. (Alas, I couldn't bring myself to take pictures while people were filing in for the service.)

On leaving the chapel we made our way to Fitzbillies, another tourist book recommendation. Fitzbillies is apparently known for its baked goods, and specifically its Chelsea buns and chocolate cakes. (A Chelsea bun, as it turns out, is a cinnamon roll packed tight with raisins and such.) We had hoped to have tea with our baked goods in the adjoining restaurant, but we were informed on entering that business was so slow the staff had decided to go home and they would soon be closing. Instead, we took our cakes and walked towards the Backs.

The Backs is essentially strip of woodlands and gardens with a path that runs along the river Cam. There are bridges over the river into various colleges of the University. On first pass, we overshot the Backs and had to eat our cakes on a park bench we found further up the road. As we returned, however, we did manage to find the path and made our way along the river. The Backs really makes for a beautiful stroll. Everything was lush and green and there were gorgeous views of the university on the far bank. There were also views of silly tourists punting (or at least trying their best) along the river. A punt is a long flat boat and punting has to do with guiding and propelling this boat along the river with a pole. You can hire a local student to do the punting for you, or you can opt to do it yourself.

After a brief stop in to a pub and a nice long sunny lounge in a local park, we ended our day with dinner at a Chinese restaurant. It was some of the best Chinese food Russell and I have ever had. We ordered tea to go with dinner, but it took us a while to figure out how to get the tea to stop coming. At first we thought that if we left tea in our cups, the waiter would stop refilling our teapot. This was not the case, however. If the pot even approached empty (no matter the state of the cups, it was refreshed. If our cups dropped past half full, they were refilled for us. We finally had to leave the cups and teapot full or risk a very wakeful night.

Only one weekend left before we come home, and that means two more days of full adventure. A prize to anyone who guesses the two cities we plan to visit next.

(I'll give you a hint: Saturday we'll be going to a city we've already visited, and Sunday, we're off to a city we've never been to before.)

A Few Cute Things from Salisbury

In my post on Salisbury I forgot to post a few things. And yes, they're both cute.
The first are these fluffy cygnets (ours in Reading have grown past the "cute, fluffy" stage and into the "gangly adolescent" stage):

The second took place while we were in the cathedral. We were wandering past the votive candles and this little girl (she was just old enough to be running in an awkward fashion) streaked up to the votive candles, climbed up on the kneeling board and blew with all her might (as though blowing out birthday candles.) Russell and I were both horrified at first, but the innocence of it quickly made it the funniest things we had seen all day.

Salisbury

Russell and I didn't know much about Salisbury, but since the bus was going there, we were quite keen to go there, too.

Ann, the professor who invited us along, referred to Salisbury as a "Cathedral Town." Somehow, that seemed apt to me. The central focus of the city, as I'm sure you've guessed, is the cathedral. The spire is visible from quite a ways off and is emblematic of the city. As cathedrals go (and I've seen quite a few over the years) this one was one of the better ones. It had a more open feeling, was less dank and was less cluttered with dead people.

On our way out, we stopped by the Chapter House (a side room off of the interior garden). In it, we were quite surprised to discover one of the last four remaining copies of the Magna Carta (and apparently the best preserved). The Magna Carta, if you don't know or are racking your brain to remember, is the document written up by King John and the Barons of England outlining the laws of the land. To give a tiny bit more background, King John had been focusing all of his attention (and the country's money) on the crusades and had been neglecting the country. The Barons were furious and on the verge of civil war. The Magna Carta included a list of agreed-upon rules (related to fair trials, what to do if you died while in debt, that the king couldn't take your land without permission, etc.) King John promptly refused to honor the document, and I believe England did erupt into violence. What's interesting about the Magna Carta, though, is that it was an important model of a number of other governing documents around the world, including the U.S. Constitution (though we left out the bit about women not being alowed to bring charges in court unless related to the death of her husband).

After the Cathedral, Russell and I went to lunch. Ann had told us about a famous pub in town, The Haunch of Venison. We decided to give it a try. The restaurant and pub seem to be separate from each other (the pub is on the bottom floor, the restaurant goes by the name "One" and is on the second floor). It was a cool old building, though. Everything was tilty and lopsided with low door frames. The stairs were treacherous, too, but not as treacherous as the floor on the second floor. The picture I took illustrates just how slanted the room was. Some of it is due to perspective (I was seated) but mostly its just the room slouching away from the center of the building. I tripped and nearly fell on my way to our table because I wasn't expecting the floor to drop so quickly, and Russell did likewise on the way out. The food was very good, though, and the atmosphere excellent.

Once characteristic we have been finding about Cathedral towns is that they are often old and full of shopping. Salisbury is no different. The shops tended to be more recognizable standards rather than boutiques, but the sheer number was impressive (and there were a few boutiques thrown in for color). There was also a large open air market.

Stonehenge

Russell and I took off this morning with a bus load of students from all corners of the world. Our first stop was Stonehenge.

I wasn't sure what to expect. I had heard rumors that it is just a tourist trap now and not worth seeing. Others said it was well worth the trip... if it was a nice sunny day. Oh, and the forecast called for rain, rain and more rain.

As it turned out, though, the forecasts were wrong. We had a lovely sunny day (if a big humid) and I'm very glad we went. I will say that if you are expecting to hike off into the hillside and stumble upon a mystical pile of stones with an eerie mist hanging low around their base, you'll be disappointed. There are two highways that go right by Stonehenge and a huge parking lot across the highway from it. There were also (as you can imagine) many many tourists there to see this famous attraction. In order to protect the stones (and perhaps the people), the actual henge is roped off. You can walk all around it, but only at a distance. You can't get close (note the photo, that's as close as you get). This certainly detracts from the experience, but there is still plenty to learn and see.

Currently, little is known about who built Stonehenge or why they built it. What was fascinating, though, were all of the old legends about it that are completely baseless. I assume you have already discarded any rumors you may have heard of Merlyn or the Devil moving the rocks by magic as merely hearsay. But ever heard that druids were connected to Stonehenge? Thought it was somehow connected to Ireland? Could swear there were sacrifices performed there? None of these are true. In fact, the sacrifice rumor got started because the outer rocks of Stonehenge have a high iron content in them and when they are on their sides they turn a reddish color. Must be blood!

The things that are known about Stonehenge is that it was the third henge build on this location. The first was dug into the ground and had wooden posts (and you can still see a groove in the grass where it used to be - it almost seems like a mote around Stonehenge. The second henge was composed of smaller blue stones from Wales - a number of which are still standing and are essentially integrated into the third Stonehenge. This last henge refers to the largest stones around the outside that are most visible. The stones for these came from somewhere nearer by. It has also been noted that in June, the sun shines through the center "arch" of the remaining enclosure of stones. In July, the sun shines though the next arch and so on until the Winter Solstice, when it would come back around. So there does seem to be some sort of calendar connection.

Stonehenge isn't the only interesting thing to see in the area. All through the hills where Stonehenge is located there are barrows - ancient burial mounds. There is one right next to the Heel Stone at Stone Henge and there is a cluster of them about half a mile past the parking lot. You can see three of these mounds in the photograph. Apparently there is an abnormal density of barrows around Stonehenge. I think there may have been some that were communal burial sites, but most were for an individual person. The barrows you see in the photo are quite large, probably around twice the height of a person. As we drove away, Russel land I were able to spot several other barrows scattered around the countryside.

Upcoming Adventure

The building next to the Language Resource Centre at Reading University is finally being torn down. That was a interesting to watch. When I arrived yesterday there was a huddle of instructors standing mouth agape at the fence watching this dinosaur-like piece of machinery biting its way through the steel girders holding the roof up. There was a great flurry of picture-taking as well. All through my tutoring session I could feel the ground vibrating from the demolition. They still have about half of the building to go. I wonder if there will be anything left when I get there this afternoon...

As for the upcoming adventure, Russell and I were invited to go along with the students on a field trip to Stonehenge and then Salsbury. These were two places I had wanted to see but didn't think I would have time for. It should be a lot of fun. I've heard rumors of nice weather too...

Pictures!

I wasn't too sure about loading pictures to the blog from Internet Cafes, so all of our posts were naked (as I'm sure you noticed). Needless to say, however, we were taking pictures. For today's post I'm just going to put up some highlights with titles:

Martes de Campo

With My Host Family.



My Host Mother Pouring Sidra



Russell About to Enjoy a Tortilla Sandwich



Oviedo

Russell and... Woody Allen? Huh?



A Box of Very Happy Hippos That We Enjoyed on the Bus to San Sebastian



San Sebastian

A View of Concha Beach and the City



A Door in Down Town San Sebastian (Apparently the city has quite the Art Nouveau Past)



An Impressive Rock Formation Around the Corner from Ondarreta Beach

Back Home... Or... Well, Sort Of

Russell and I got back to Reading late last night. Our flight was delayed out of Spain and we delayed ourselves to get dinner once we arrived in London. We rolled into Reading around 11:00 at night.

Russell was noticing how we are about to go through a progression of "going home" events. First, we were all tired out from running around in San Sebastian, so returning to Oviedo felt a bit like we were coming home. Then we left Spain and returned to Reading, which felt even more like coming home. Our next homecoming is in two weeks, when we leave the UK for Oregon. Since we'll be staying with my dad until we find a place to live, though, we'll have one more move after that (hopefully the last for a while).

For the time being, though, it is nice to get back to our adopted routine. Russell grumbled off to work this morning and I unpacked, got started on a mountain of laundry, restocked our kitchen and made my regular trip to the library. This afternoon I'm going to go try and pick up where I left off at the University. Unfortunately, I got a message saying that the schedule for the university is all shifted around this week, so I don't quite know what to expect when I get there. (Something about a grand opening? Huh??)

Sleepy in Oviedo

Russell and I got up much too early this morning and made our way to the bus stop. Since we were running to catch the bus to San Sebastian, we wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to make it for the bus back. We got up two hours before the bus, were out the door 30 minutes later and had walked the mile and a half to the bus station with more than an hour to spare. Better than running in a panic, though.

The bus back was uneventful. We briefly considered going out to Gijon (a neighboring city) for a change of pace the rest of the day, but in the end we decided a nice long lunch and being lazy sounded better. For lunch, we had fabada. Fabada is a bean dish with chorizo, morcilla (blood sausage)and ham. Its really tasty, but not one of your lighter cuisines. After only five hours of sleep the night before and a belly full of fabada, we both crashed. After a quick nap, we forced ourselves to leave our hotel and enjoy Oviedo while we still can.

Needless to say, I´m not going to be writing much longer.

We are meeting up with my host sister this evening, catching a quick lunch with my host mom tomorrow, and we´ll be back at home tomorrow night.

Last Night in San Sebastian

This is my last post from San Sebastian. Russell and I are killing the "middle of the day lull" by playing on the Internet. Many of the shops and sights shut down between 2:00 and 5:00. Of course, they are then open late into the night, so it all works out.

Today we went to the San Sebastian Aquarium. It was fairly small, but really well put together. They had a good number of interesting fish, the displays were well set up, and there was an underwater tube you could walk through. Russell and I really enjoyed it. Since it was a particularly wet Saturday, the aquarium was full of children. This had the drawback of being incredibly noisy, and the advantage of being quite entertaining in terms of eves-dropping. It was interesting how some kids could be completely fascinated by the fish, and others could be utterly terrified.

After lunch, we also got Russell a haircut. We had spotted a nice barber shop the day before, but it was closed Saturday. Instead we found another place nearby. I think more hair came off than stayed on. He was badly in need of a trim.

Tonight we're going to go Tapa hunting again and probably end things early. We have to leave for the bus tomorrow at 6:00am. Bleh.

Greetings from Tapas Land

Russell and I made it to San Sebastian. It took us a while to find the hostel we were staying at. I had looked it up on a map, so I had a vague notion of where it was, but when I went to mark it on our more detailed, tourist map, it wasn´t included. The little tourist map we had only showed the beaches and old part of town. Pretty much nothing else. Not even the bus station in down town. I asked a very nice pharmacist for directions and she showed me a faster way to get where we were going. That wasn´t on the map either, but it worked great.

Today we are vaguely following the tourist guide of sights to see, but we got bored of it after a while and now we´re just wandering aimlessly. One thing we knew about San Sebastian before we came was that it was known for its tapas. Tapas, in case you haven´t heard of them, are like little appetizers. Traditionally, you get a small but free appetizer with your glass of wine or beer at the bar. It might be a little cup of peanuts, a slice of cured ham, a bit of cheese, or something similar. The story goes, that at some point a fellow asked the bar tender for a cover to keep the flies out of his wine, and the bar tender gave him a slice of cured ham. The tradition apparently stuck. In some cases, though, the tapas are more spectacular and you have to pay for them. That´s how it works here.

We have been walking around the old part of town and have seen just how fancy a tapa can get. Russell had one composed of a slice of baguette, two slices of hard boiled egg covering it, a roll of smoked salmon with crab salad stuffed inside and a sardine over the top. I had one that that also started with the bread, had crab salad piled up high, and was decorated with some sort of green herb and a shrimp on top. We´ve seen even fancier tapas since then. Tonight we plan to go tapas sampling. They seem to range from one to two euros.

For lunch we played the lost Americans and went to eat too early (1:00). The restaurant had just opened and was absolutely empty. The next couple didn´t arrive for another half hour, and the third couple came just as we were leaving at 2:00. We knew better, but we were hungry. Coffee just doesn´t hold us until 2:00. We also ordered the cheap wine. We´re generally used to cheap wine. It doesn´t phase us. In fact, we tend to relish it. But this was the cheap wine king. The waiter tried to warn us, but since it was 4 euros for the small bottle of wine, we weren´t too worried. It tasted vaguely of watered down grape juice.

A New Adventure

Everything is going well in Spain. It has been fun to spend some time in Oviedo again. Even so, Oviedo is a small place, and we´re getting antsy to do something new, so today we´re off to San Sebastian.

San Sebastian was on my list of cities to see when I was in Spain before, but it was the only one I never got around to visiting. I´m looking forward to going. Its on the north coast very close to France. Apparently, the thing to do in San Sebastian is drink wine and eat fancy tapas. I´m pretty sure we´ll do just fine.

Other than the wine and tapas, though, I know very little about San Sebastian. I know its a very old city and has many many things to see, but I don´t know what they are yet. I bought a tour book yesterday and I plan to read about the city and its sights while we´re on the bus.

Before we leave we´ll have lunch with my Host Mom. Lentils and Chorizo. My personal favorite.

Martes del Campo

Russell and I are surfing the Internet at the local video arcade to kill time before round 4 of the food fest. I thought I would use the time to describe the festival yesterday.

I timed this visit to Spain to coincide with Martes del Campo. I´m not completely sure what this holiday is about, but my impression is that it is similar to Labor Day but only for the Municipality of Oviedo. There are other festivities leading up to the last day, but on Tuesday (Martes) everyone gets off work (providing they work in Oviedo - sorry, Host Dad) and heads to the park/countryside to have a picnic.

The traditional food to take with you on this picnic is the Bollo. The Bollo consists of a Chorizo sausage wrapped in bread and baked. They are delicious but quite rich. Now-a-days, it is common to bring along a variety of foods, but the bollo is always included. You see lines of people outside the bakeries on Tuesday morning waiting to buy their bollos.

Since it had rained all week, my host mom and sister were worried about eating in the grass. They thought it over and decided to take us to a park in a neighboring city where there were lots of tables (and farther from the center of Oviedo). We left early (1:00) but to no avail. All of the tables were taken. We did manage to get one of the last benches in the park, though, and we set up our picnic there.

Now came the food.

My host mom explained that we should try a bit of everything she had brought and then circle back through and pick at what was left. Here´s the basic cycle:

Bollo:
We started with the bollo (of course). We had two, so for the first round we just cut one into four small pieces. It was delicious.

Sidra:
Next my host mom poured us some Sidra. This is somewhat like a hard apple cider, but lighter and must be poured from above to get air bubbles in the liquid. You then slug it back quickly before it goes flat. So we had our gulp of sidra and then moved on to the tortilla.

Tortilla:
Spanish tortilla is nothing like South American tortilla. It is essentially a potato cake with onions and held together with egg. Its absolutely delicious, but cooked in olive oil, so its really a meal by itself. We got nice fat slabs of Tortilla made into a sandwich with baguette bread. Delicious and filling.

More Sidra

Chicken Fillet Sandwich:
My host mom had fried up some chicken breast fillets and veal fillets. We got to pick whichever we wanted and that was also served in a big chunk of bread.

Last of the Sidra; switch to water.

Manchego cheese:
Its possible to get Manchego cheese in the US, but its nowhere as good as it is here. Its a hard-ish cheese with a creamy light flavor. Its made of sheep and cow´s milk and its just divine. Espeicially with quince paste (membrillo). We nibbled a slice of this.

Repeat!!!

Yeah right, Host Mom. We struggled through tiny portions of tortilla sandwich and declared we could eat no more. About every hour after that we were invited to have more, but couldn´t eat anything for the rest of the day. Literally. Not even dinner. Not even at midnight. We settled on Camomile tea and antacids.

So Much Food...

I´m almost out of time at the Internet Cafe, so this will be a short post.

My host mom is trying to kill us with food! I think she´s trying to make up for lost time... five years of lost time.

So much...
Never ending...
But so very very tasty...

We´ve just invested in a nice big box of antacids.

Desde España

We made it safe and sound to Spain. Our travels went fairly smoothly. We got up early in order to navigate London and get to our final destination - Luton Airport. Luton is about 40 minutes north east of London. Once we flew into the Asturias airport, we were unlucky enough to discover that the bus had left ten minutes before our arrival and there wouldn´t be another one for two hours. Alas.

By the time we got to Oviedo it was probably about 6pm. Other than a new bus station, it was very much as I remembered it. All of my old haunts are still here. Yay! It was interesting to me how I could find my way around even though I don´t have a clear memory of what streets to take to get from place to place. I could just trust my feet and go.

We had an eventful Asturian evening. Well... I should qualify that. We did many very Asturian things, but a real Asturian probably wouldn´t have done them all at once and at night. First we went for a walk. Russell was game to come along, though I think he was about ready to pass out (we only had 4.5 hours sleep the night before). The main goal of the jaunt was to find a pay phone so I could let my host family know I had arrived safely. The first one we found worked but no one was home, so we continued wandering (reminiscing for me) and eventually found another phone to call from. That time I did get a hold of them. While we were walking we saw the University, the Cathedral, the Indoor Market, and one of my favorite coffee shops among other things. Once the phone call was taken care of, we set off to find dinner.

I wanted Russell to have an authentic meal, so we went to the Sidreria Asturias on Calle Gascona (Carolyn will know what I´m talking about) and we had an excellent Asturian meal. I had Fabada, a bean stew with chorizo and various other Spanish meats in it (so tasty!), and Russell had grilled shrimp and a nice slab of Cabrales blue cheese (a local specialty). Of course, we accompanied this with two bottles of Sidra. The waiter watched the Soccer game while he poured the sidra. Very authentic.

After dinner we walked around a bit to take in the night life. Saturday nights were always the big party nights when I lived here. I wasn´t much in the mood for a real night out, but I did think it would be fun to try and find some of the bars I used to frequent with my host sister and her friends. We used this as the aim of our next stroll, and I was able to find most of them even though I was never sure of their location when I lived here before. The streets were pretty empty, though. I think the university must either be on vacation, or people are away for the holiday this weekend. Normally around midnight you have to push to get through the crows on certain streets. Last nights there were groups of people at regular intervals, but nothing so crowded. After our walk, we topped our gluttonous evening off with churros and chocolate. We slept quite well.

Today we were invited to lunch at my host family´s house. My host mom made paella (one of her special occasion specialties). We arrived a bit early and chatted while she was cooking. The house looks exactly as it did when I was here before (5 years ago! Ack!) Juanamari (my host sister) was still out. She had gone to visit her boyfriend, who just got a job in Galicia. The two of them arrived shortly after us, though, ontime for lunch.

We started the meal with paella, bread, and wine. Now, this is a big meal, but if you´ve had a Spanish lunch (the big meal of the day) you will know it is foolish to believe there will be only one course. Or rather, you should know. I picked up on the courses to come, but too late to warn Russell. My host mother forced another half plate of paella on him before I could warn him that the meal was far from over. Next was a pan-fried steak and salad. Very good, but starting to be much more than we had planned to eat. Finally, we topped the meal off with a selection of pastries and coffee.

Following this meal, Russell and I took to the couch. We didn´t move much for the next hour. At that point, my host parents had to go out and vote in the local elections, so we took our cue and rolled home.

Gotta love that Spanish home cookin´!

We´re invited back tomorrow afternoon.

Off to Spain

Its about 11:25 at night and Russell and I are scurrying around the apartment trying to get things together for our trip to Spain tomorrow. We were both under the impression that we could make a leisurely start to the day tomorrow, but on closer inspection of time and location of our flight realized we would need to leave home tomorrow at 6:30 am. Could be worse, but certainly not what we had imagined.

I am, as we speak (I write?) being hailed from the kitchen to help dry dishes.

I will try to post while we are in Spain, but I may not get a chance until we get home June 4th.

A Blow to the Cheese

Some sad news: Russell has decided it is unfair to rate cheeses against each other as the lower rated cheese will invariably have its feelings hurt. He has therefore withdrawn from the experiment. Alas.

I haven't decided if I'll continue posting ratings or not, but there's just still some really interesting cheese out there... In the meantime, here are the cheeses we've sampled over the last few weeks:

Mull Cheese (from the Isle of Mull)
This seemed most closely related to a swiss, but it was mild and just a little sweet with a consistency just a tad softer than parmesan.

Jaci:❍❍❍❍
I generally avoid Swiss-tasting cheeses like the plague, but I really enjoyed this one. Now to see if I can get it in Reading...

Davistow Mature Cheddar:
Nice and sharp, with a sweet aftertaste.

Jaci:❍❍❍
Perfectly reasonable cheddar, but I found it a bit too sweet.

Norwegian Jarlsburg:
Very mild, lightly sweet and nutty.

Jaci:❍❍❍
Tasty, and yet, hard to taste. This one had such a delicate flavor it had to be eaten unadorned to really be enjoyed. It was quite good, but the slightly rubbery texture dropped it to three cheese wheels. If you tend to shy away from stronger tasting cheese, I would highly recommend this, though. (❍❍❍❍❍ for the name).

Kicking Back

I don't have much interesting to post. We spent the weekend at home relaxing. Russell was recovering from a pub crawl Friday night with the guys from work, so he wasn't too interesting in venturing out. We did go out for a picnic on Sunday and a stroll around the downtown. The weather has been very nice over here. We've had a few light showers, but mostly sunshine and light breezes. Can't beat it.

Some Random Notes

I don't have any big things to tell, but I hate to go too long without posting, so I'll just post about a few little things.

A while back (around the time Nicole visited) I noticed a pair of swans sitting on a nest along the Kennet bank. The other day I was walking home and as I was going over the Kennet I saw a swarm of fluffy baby swans fighting the tide to keep up with their parent. They were very cute. I took Russell out to see them a few days ago, but I forgot my camera, so no pictures.

Tonight we are going to dine adventurously. I walked past a menu board outside a restaurant announcing a Thursday special: A seven course Ethiopian meal for £7.50. I haven't had Ethiopian food in ages. I'm really looking forward to it.

And to continue with the culinary bragging... the other night we had a rather fancy meal as well. A nest of sauteed green beans with a bed of brown basmati rice in the center, a narrow salmon fillet on top of that with Bati curried butternut squash over the whole thing. Soooo good.

I just got home from the University. I did some more observing and lead a conversation group in the afternoon. We mostly commiserated about how hard it is to learn English and the different ways everyone studies. It was interesting, but I think they were a bit disappointed that I couldn't give them any magical advice.

Keeping Busy

Last Thursday I was given a schedule of classes I could attend in the Language Resource Center at Reading University. I was also asked if I would be willing to help tutor one student on the side in pronunciation and help during open study hours (maybe start a conversation group). I'm now several days into this schedule, so I thought I would share.

I was mostly set up in Reading and Writing classes (I had mentioned that this was of interest to me) and I may be helping out in Jonathan's Listening/Speaking class on Speaking days. I just found out today that I will be teaching Level 6 (Advanced Reading and Writing) this summer, so I'm especially interested in picking up any ideas I could apply in my own classes. The teachers here have been working together for many years and have developed their own curriculum - no outside textbooks.

I tried to help during open study hours today, but there was an IELTs (similar to TOEFL) presentation going on at the same time, so most of the students who are usually studying were absent. With only two students to look after, the teacher in charge sent me home.

The girl I'm tutoring is from Taiwan and she is really struggling with pronunciation - especially long words. She wants to work in International consultant, too, so being able to speak clearly is rather important. As it turns out, she studied American pronunciation in Taiwan, so she is rather relieved to be paired with me. I have a feeling that I understand her a bit better than her English professors.

The Bird and Baby

Our last destination took a bit of effort to find. We had read on a posting in the first museum that there was excellent fare to be had at the pub that CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien used to frequent: The Rabbit Room. We noted the address, looked to see where it was on the map, and then filed it away in our memories as a dinner location. When dinner came, however, we walked up and down the street listed and saw only two pubs: The Eagle and Child, and the Lamb and Flag. No Rabbit Room. I asked around, and was told that the two pubs we had seen were the only two on that street.

Sad that we couldn't find what we were looking for, we decided to stop and have dinner (some of the best Thai food we've had). We borrowed the restaurant's phone book when we had finished and read through all of the pubs in Oxford. Nothing with Rabbit in the name. Next we looked for any pubs on the street we had investigated. Russell felt sure the address of the Eagle and Child was close to the address we had seen on the posting. On the off chance that the name may have changed, we set off for the Eagle and Child.

Inside, the pub was well kept and comfortable. We ordered a couple pints and sat down in a cozy corner by the fireplace. While we were sitting there, I noticed a photo on the wall labeled "JRR Tolkien" and a plaque next to it explaining that JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis (among other writers) had formed a group they called "The Inklings" that met at this very pub. The back of the menu had the rest of the story. Apparently they always used to meet in a back room called the Rabbit Room (aha!). They had dubbed the pub itself "The Bird and Baby." Among some of the memorabilia in the pub, there was a letter from the Inklings to the owner saying they had enjoyed themselves thoroughly that day and had remembered to drink to his health. The letter was signed by everyone in the group.

While we were sitting in the pub, Russell noticed a shelf above my seat. There was a collection of bottles of various spirits lined up along the shelf and each had a label. Russell began reading them to me:

MacAllen: "Check for the Chocolate"
Oban: "Explore the Trifle"
Talisker: "Find the Seaweed"
Glenfiddich: "Hunt for the Honey"
Lagavulin: "Sample the Nougat"
The Balvenie: "Investigate the Marzipan"
Del Whinnie: "Discover the Biscuit"

We have no idea what this was about, but we found it quite amusing all the same.

Incidentally, I have to apologize for the quality of the pictures. We were experimenting with unobtrusive photography (no flash, fast shutter, over the shoulder, behind the back, etc.) and the results leave something to be desired. Oh well.

Sunday in Oxford

After devoting all of Saturday to learning how to play Civilization (an old computer game where you have to build your civilization from hunter-gatherers to interstellar settlers) we decided we needed to get out of the house.

Oxford was the easiest destination - lots to do, plenty neither of us had seen, and not too far from Reading. Russell hadn't ever been to the city, so we tried to walk around a bit, but the weather was not cooperating. After buying an umbrella we fared better, but we were both still anxious to get out of the rain, so we went to the Ashmodean museum.

A funny thing we've noticed about England is that it seems to have a great many of the world's treasures. This is the direct result of colonization, of course, and the most famous of these treasures are in London. There are plenty of amazing artifacts to go around, though, and the English don't seem too keen on returning the items to their rightful owners. At the Ashmodean, for example, there was a fine collection of Roman statues and pottery (more elaborate than what you typically see in history textbooks). They also had everything found in some particular Egyptian tomb, including statues, carved stone paneling, all manner of meaningful gifts and trinkets, canopic jars and the mummy himself with all four layers of his sarcophagus on display. This was all just on the ground floor. The rest of the museum artifacts were by and large of English origin - though parts of the museum were being changed or updated and could not be accessed.

We took a break from museums to go tour Christ Church College, which I had failed to get into when I visited before. It was quite impressive. Its hard to imagine how so much attention to architecture could be lavished on any building, and not a cathedral, but a university. It really is on par with many cathedrals and abbeys I've seen. In the picture you can see the ceiling above the staircase to the Dining Hall. I can't even imagine the time and money that must have gone into it.

The Dining Hall was impressive as well. I'm glad I waited to go when it was open. The hall contains three long rows of tables, all set with lamps, silverware, glasses and side plates. They run the full length of the hall to the head table on the far end. The walls are lined with paintings of accomplished graduates of the college; prime ministers, bishops and the like. This building, like the Bodleian Library, was used in the filming of the Harry Potter movies.

Next we went to the Museum of the History of Science. For some reason I had decided this was the museum of Natural History (which had been recommended to us) but I was confused. As it turned out, however, this was an excellent choice both for content and time. It was a smallish museum (three modest floors) but it was absolutely packed with devices used for early mathematics, physics, chemistry, astronomy, medicine - science in general. They had hundreds of astrolabes from all over the world, including the only known spherical astrolabe known to have survived to present times, abicuses, slide rules, microscopes, the old inner workings of a number of local church clocks, telescopes, vacuum bulbs. All manner of things. Some of the highlights included a chalkboard that Einstein had written on when doing a lecture in Oxford (it had been taken down and preserved afterwards) and the containers that were originally used to develop penicillin. The penicillin containers were interesting because of their variety. England was at war, so the university didn't have access to the metal containers they would usually have. Instead they used sheep dip cans, bedpans, biscuit pans, whatever they could get a hold of. They still have the originals, rigged up for scientific experiments.

Our last stop was by far our favorite, so I will devote a special post to it.

Language Resource Center

Last Tuesday, I finally got the chance to go talk with John at the University of Reading Language Resource Center. He seemed a bit skeptical of me helping at all in any of the classes, but thought I might be able to observe a few. Since Wednesdays are lecture days (all the students in the English program attend a lecture, take notes, and then complete a project related to the lecture) he invited me to come back Wednesday to observe and meet a few teachers.

Wednesday was great. I was sent to observe Jonathan's class. There was an hour prep class to introduce vocabulary and get the students thinking on the topic (family structure in the West), then everyone was herded to a lecture hall for a two hour lecture. The fellow who gave the lecture is a university professor in London, and it was definitely not toned down for language learners (though the topic itself was accessible).

During the break following the lecture, I went to get a coffee with two other teachers. It was really nice to actually sit and talk with people. I learned more about the program, too. Apparently the majority of students who enter the program are planning on starting a post-baccalaureate program (Masters or PhD). The current session is a pre-session designed to get students who are accepted at the university up to speed with academic language. At least, I think that's what the story is. I'm still not completely clear - I just know this program is not their regular language program.

After coffee, I met up with Jonathan again and sat with one of the groups as they compared notes and tried to recall details and answer questions that had been prepared after the lecture. It was nice working with the students, and I got to see a SmartBoard in action. A SmartBoard is like a white board in appearance but it is connected to the computer. You can project the computer screen on the board and use your finger on it like a mouse, or write on it and save the image so the writing scrolls up and down. Its hard to describe, but we just got one at OSU and we were just getting lessons on how to use it when I left for England. Seeing them in action is giving me all kinds of ideas for when I get back, though.

There has been some talk of setting me up as a pronunciation tutor outside of classes, but I don't know if that will happen or not. I joked with Jonathan that I was surprised he would let an American teach pronunciation, to which he responded, "well, its not like you have a Texas accent." I'm going in again this afternoon to observe/help in Jonathan's Listening/Speaking class and afterwards, John said he would have talked with the other teachers and put together a list of classes I could attend. I should have my schedule figured out by this evening. Hooray!

Holyrood Palace

Holyrood palace was an unexpected treat. I had read that very little of the palace was open for viewing because it is still used as living quarters by the Queen during the summer, and they aren't going to let tourists traipse all through it. As it turned out, this was misinformation, and we traipsed to our hearts' content. Of course, there are large parts of the palace where we weren't allowed, but we went through the bulk of the second story including the rooms that had belonged to Mary Queen of Scots (the old part of the palace.)

We learned all about how Mary was crowned queen as an infant but then sent to France our of fear for her wellbeing. At 16 or so, she married the French King, who died a year later, at which point she returned to Scotland. There she married again, but shortly thereafter she was rumored to be having an affair with her advisor. One night, while she was having dinner (and she was extremely pregnant at the time) her husband tore into the room, upended the table, dragged Mary to the adjoining room, where the advisor had been brought, and proceded to stab him to death in front of her.

Within a year of this, Mary's husband was killed (strangled?) and the building he was in was blown up. It was rumored that the culprit was Mary's new lover, and there was speculation that she had been involved in plotting her husband's demise, but there was never any evidence to that effect. Mary married the lover, which raised a great deal of ire and she was eventually forced to abdicate the thrown to her son. My knowledge of what happened next is foggy, but somehow Mary's infant son is taken away from her on grounds that she will corrupt him (he later united Scotland and England) and Mary escaped to England where she hoped to gain the support of her cousin, Elizabeth I. This proved none-too-wise, and Mary was immediately imprisoned. It seems she had more of a claim to the English throne in some eyes than Elizabeth did. Mary wrote many letters begging her cousin to free her, but it was all in vain. Eventually Elizabeth accused her of conspiring against the throne and had her beheaded.

Real life can be so much more dramatic than fiction...

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is really a fascinating city. I mentioned before that it was built on a hill and surrounded by a stone wall. Since everyone was worried about invasion, they all stayed inside the walls - which quickly lead to rather cramped living conditions and architectural innovation. Apparently, the tail of land that slopes up the cliff the castle rests on is made of sandstone. Because sandstone was so easy to dig into, it was actually easier to dig into the side of the rock face if you wanted a basement rather than down under your building. Pretty soon, there was a rabbits warren of basement tunnels being dug into the rock below the city. As the city filled, these basements were rented as (horribly awful) living quarters. At the same time, the city was getting taller and taller and the the buildings were becoming closer and closer together. By the 1750s or so, most of the buildings had reached 14 stories, which was unheard of in those days, and not at all safe. Between buildings, there was often only a three or four foot wide alley, or "close." A number of these still exist. You can see one in the picture. They usually had a gate on either side, which would be closed at nighttime for security.

Eventually, the political climate calmed down enough that people were willing once again to build outside of the walls. By this time, Edinburgh was leading the world in engineering, and they decided to build four (five?) bridges spanning out from the city. Of course, it was the wealthy that went to live in the new parts of the city, so the center of town (still as crowded as ever due to a new wave of immigration) became a slum. Inevitably, I suppose, a fire broke out and most of the central city burned down. The current city is still rather densely packed, but not anywhere near as much as it once was. Many of the basements were filled in, but not all of them, and there are still pockets of underground city that are discovered from time to time.

We never found time to visit it, but one pocket of underground city is Mary King's Close. The story goes that when the Black Plague hit Edinburgh it was so quickly widespread, that the city decided on a lock-down. They locked up all the closes and wouldn't let anyone out for 14 days. At the end of fourteen days, they hoped anyone who was going to die would do so and everyone else would be safe. Mary King's close was especially hard hit. No one survived at all, and the scene was especially grisly when they were found. No one wanted to move into the close after that. Rumors of hauntings and visions of ghosts by those who did try to re-inhabit the building kept everyone else away. When the city finally failed at giving away living quarters there for free, they decided to build a government building over the top of the close. It was forgotten for quite a while, but was rediscovered at some point and there are tours of it today.


Russell and I had one full day to wander around the city and see the sights. We started with the castle. The main attractions at the castle are the crown jewels of Scotland and the Stone of Scone. The crown jewels are considerably older than those of England and were lost for a time. They were re-discovered not too long ago in a chest hidden in one of the towers. The Stone of Scone is the stone slab all Kings of Scotland have been crowned on. I've all of the sudden gone blank on the date, but the stone was stolen by England at some point and built into a throne that was used in their coronation ceremonies. The throne is still in Westminster Abbey, and is still used for the coronation of the British Monarchs. At some point in the recent past, however, Scotland asked for the stone back. England agreed, so long as Scotland would lend it back to them for coronations and that's how it is today. I believe this whole agreement took place after Elizabeth II was crowned... so it hasn't had to be sent back yet, but presumably it will be. Incidentally, the Scotsman who gave us the tour of the castle was very careful to point out that in Scotland, the current monarch is Elizabeth I, not Elizabeth II, and all their coat of arms are labeled in that fashion.

Russell and I never got a chance to hear it, but apparently, every day (accept Sunday) one of the large canons at the castle is fired at 1:00. Our guide mentioned that people often ask why they don't mark the hour at 12:00, like most everyone else does. The guide answered that this is Scotland, and if they marked the time at 12:00, it would cost 12 shells. Very prudent.

Among other places, we also stopped for a coffee at the Elephant Cafe - famous for being the cafe where most of the first Harry Potter was written. It was a comfortable place, and had a beautiful scenic view of the castle.

Not Just a Bed, but a Breakfast

Keeping with the food theme, our breakfasts deserve a post to themselves.

Our hosts explained when we arrived, that there was always cereal, tea or coffee, and rolls at breakfast, but we could also have eggs, bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes (and some number of other things I've forgotten) if we let them know the night before. The first night we decided to just stick to the basic breakfast and not trouble them for anything fancy the next morning. This greatly distressed our hostess who offered to at least make us a fruit salad. I said this would be wonderful, and it was.

The next morning, we were presented with a bowl full of kiwi, grapes, apples, and melon all chopped up into delicate bits and left to sit overnight in juice. It was quite a treat. In the middle of the table there were Scottish pancakes (much like US pancakes, but sweeter, denser, and served cold). There was also a back table with a selection of cereal, yogurt and grapefruit slices. Shortly after sitting down, we were presented with tea and a basket of warmed buns, and we had two selections of jam - Elderberry and something that looked like apricot, which Russell warned me against.

It was the very definition of tasty.

Breakfast was in the dining room. The table was set with a full china service and we were sharing the table with two other couples, a pair of ladies from Canada and a couple from Denmark. Our hosts ate breakfast in the kitchen nook, so we were left to socialize with each other as we could - which ended up meaning not at all, unfortunately. At one point, however, we heard our hostess yell to her husband from ustairs:

"Is Buddy with you?" (referring to their elderly golden retriever)
"No, dear" and
"The door to the room is open, I'm afraid he's gone Walkies!"

The Danish fellow nearly choked on his toast. The expression had us all laughing. The escape artist was soon found wandering around across the street and was quickly ushered back inside.

Back from the Highlands

We're back!

Russell and I took to train to Edinburgh, Scotland for the bank holiday here and it was a fabulous trip. I'm planning to spread this post out over the next day or two, though, since there's so much to tell and my camera is in Hungerford with Russell at the moment.

First of all, while the excitement of an adventure will get you pretty far, it abandons you somewhere around the fourth hour of a train ride. The scenery was beautiful - especially when we caught a glimpse of the sea late in the journey, but both Russell and I were very happy to escape the train after the 6 hour ride to Edinburgh.

In the interest of frugality, we chose a Bed and Breakfast a ways from the heart of the city. I had looked into backpacking hostels, but Russell and I would have to sleep in separate dorm rooms and in the end, it was actually cheaper to go to the bed and breakfast. We were worried about finding the place, but our hostess' directions were very clear and precise, so we found the place with no problem. It was about 20 minutes from the city center by bus, but there was lots to see on the way.

We were staying in the downstairs apartment the couple had originally set up for their mother. Now, they usually rent the downstairs apartment out during the week and only the two upstairs guest rooms on the weekend, but since it was a long weekend and no one else was using the downstairs apartment, they made an exception for us. The apartment was laid out in a straight line: Kitchen, Bathroom (off a narrow hallway), sitting room, bedroom. It was very clean and bright and the couple were quite friendly hosts. The husband seemed absolutely frightened of anything having to do with the business side of the B&B (something I learned early on when making the reservation - he passed the phone to his wife while she was in the shower rather than book the room himself). His wife, on the other hand, was so full of energy that she could barely finish telling us about one thing before rushing on to the next. As I'm writing this, it sounds like I'm criticizing them, but I really don't mean to. They were both very welcoming and put a lot of effort into making sure we were very comfortable.

We arrived at the Bed and Breakfast around 4:00, so most of the sights in the city were closed, but we ventured back in to find dinner and explore a bit anyway. Even though many of the stores were closed, the pubs and restaurants were brimming with people and the streets were still full. We were getting very hungry by the time we arrived in the center of the city, and after walking uphill to the top of the Royal Mile (just outside the castle entrance) we were both very ready to find food. Somehow, however, we couldn't seem to get excited about any of the food available. There were plenty of places to eat, but they were stuffed with people and a bit intimidating. Some seemed a bit seedy, others too expensive, and all of them standing room only. We meandered down the mile (its all downhill from the castle) pulled towards one pub or restaurant and then deciding against it. If any of you have had the "pleasure" of watching Russell and I try to make a decision under our own power, you will have a sense of what this endeavor looked like. We got about 3/4 down the mile, probably passing 30-40 pubs, and then just both seemed drawn to one in particular. Who knows why. I had spotted it and thought it looked interesting just as Russell started walking towards it. There was nothing special to set it apart from the other pubs, but when we went in, there was a fairly empty restaurant nook separated from the lively bar and we were seated right away.

Off our feet and pleased at the prospect of having finally decided something before wasting away in the streets, we took in our surroundings. The pub was called "Worlds End" and the back of the menu explained why:

The castle was originally built on the top of the cliffs because it was easy to defend. Drawn to the strength of the castle, people quickly started building a city next to it on the land that sloped up to in on one side. At some point a wall was built around the city and connected with the castle walls to add protection. In 1513, however, James IV (the king of Scotland at the time) decided to help the French (who were attacking England from the South) and attacked from the north. He was quickly defeated and Edinburgh (which was at the southern border of Scotland) realized two things: 1. Everyone who might otherwise protect them had just be slaughtered, and 2. the English had the firepower to annihilate the old wall around the city. Not to mention, a number of wealthy people had ventured beyond the wall to settle further into the valley, and there wasn't even a thin wall between them and any invading army England may now choose to send. A new, bigger, larger wall was now built (and quite quickly). Out of fear of invasion. No one dared build outside the new wall and for 250 years it staid that way (you can imagine how cramped Edinburgh got - I'll try to post more on this topic soon, as I've been reading up on the subject). In any case, everything beyond the new gate became known as the World's End, and very few people of Edinburgh ever ventured beyond it. The pub we were eating at was located just inside where the wall used to stand, next to the site of one of the gates. The wall is largely gone today (though remnants remain here and there).

Getting back to the pub, it was a lucky find. The food was the best I've had in the UK. I ordered fish and chips in spite of the fact that I had every intelligence to the effect that this would be regretted. I was fully expecting the greasy fare I had been warned of, but these fish and chips couldn't have been better. They weren't greasy at all. We also tried a sampler of Haggis. I had some vague memory of being repulsed by the contents of Haggis, but I couldn't remember exactly what they were, so I held firmly to my ignorance and dove in. It was absolutely delicious. It reminded me very strongly of the Polish breakfast sausages my grandfather used to make. I remember being told I didn't want to know what was in those sausages either. The Haggis was accompanied by "Tatties" and "Neeps." This was harder to unravel. Tatties were clearly mashed potatos, but what were Neeps? A day or two later, we read that they were pureed Turnips. We were both pleased with our culinary adventure.

More to come!

Oxford

Inspired by Nicole, I decided to make a trip to Oxford. I don't know why, but I wasn't really expecting much. I knew that Oxford University was comprised of a multitude of independent colleges spread out around central Oxford and I didn't really know of much else to see there. I tried looking online, but didn't find much else. With the vague notion that it would at least be worth it to check out their ESL books, I headed out.

On arriving, I stopped in at the tourist office and picked up a few brochures. Three brochures, actually, and that seemed to be the extent of them. Once I had opened the brochures, however, I found a great deal listed. The brochure for the University included University sponsored museums (musical instruments, Science, etc), libraries, bookstores, and a botanic garden. In addition, they had a lovely walking map and gave visiting hours and costs for each college of the University.

Perhaps because Nicole and I had spent so much time trying to find gardens, I decided on the botanic Garden first. To get to the garden, I had to walk through central Oxford. This was quite an impressive walk, full of interesting architecture. This all boded very well. The garden itself was interesting, but would probably be better either earlier in the spring or later in the summer. Most of the spring flowers were wilting, and the majority of the gardens were just starting to sprout. The gardens are designed in cooperation with other botanic gardens around the world to preserve rare plant species. The gardens are connected to the University, and contain university projects. One such project was the collection of all known species of lupis. They also had a Yew tree that dated back to the 1600s.

Next I tried to get into Magdlen College, but it was closed until 2:00. This turned out to be a theme. I ended up walking out accross a large field towards Christ Church College. I believe this is the oldest of the colleges in Oxford University - though I'm not positive about that. It is the college that Lewis Carroll (of Alice and Wonderland) went to, as well as some notable number of Prime Ministers. If you look at the photo, Christ Church looks like a long narrow building, but its deceiving. Apparently (though I never got in) there is a "Quadrangle" behind it (or large square courtyard) surrounded on all four sides by buildings such as this one. I believe there have been some other buildings added onto it as well. From the pictures outside, it appears to have some amazing interior structures, but when I went to take a tour, they told me only part of the building was open because the students were eating in the great hall until 2:00. The great hall being a point of interest, I decided to come back later and never made it back.

The collection of musical instruments was also closed until 2:00, so I went and got lunch, sat on the lawn and read until 1:00 when I was more than ready to do more exploring. I went for a walk around town and decided that one corner in particular looked promising. It contained the Bodleian Library, Museum of the History of Science and Sheldonian Theatre. All of them were closed until 2:00 as well, though it was getting closer to 2:00, so I just kept circling through little alleyways (which was quite fun in itself) until the appointed time. I decided on the Library first. I had no idea what I was going to, but libraries seem like interesting places, so why not? I'm so glad I went! We started out in the sacristy (that's the picture I have posted) and it was even more impressive in person. Our guide was an older gentleman who had received a PhD from the university. He had a tendency to go into great detail about some specific story and then forget what his larger point was and have to pause for a while until he remembered. At one point, he was in the middle of telling us how the Midieval books were bound, and then suddenly remembered that Harry Potter had been filmed in the library and then couldn't remember what his first story had been (though he got back to it eventually). I really enjoyed listening to him.

Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures in the upstairs (Midieval) library. If you've seen the library in Harry Potter, though, you've got a good idea. Anyone can look at the books, but they have to prove they have a good reason for wanting to (tourists, in general, aren't allowed). One of my favorite stories from the library had to do with a row of paintings depicting the library founders. Apparently the idea for the paintings came up long after the founders were all dead, so the artist rounded up a bunch of local people of import and had them sit as the founders. So the paintings are of real people, but not the people they are labeled for.

Our guide also explained that the Bodleian Library was the first copyright library in England. That means a copy of every book published in England is sent to the library. They get a truck load of some several thousand books every Wednesday. In the 1700's the library was already too full, so they dug up one of their courtyards and installed a storage area going several feet underground (and then restored the courtyard). By 1910, however, that, too was overflowing, so they bought some property across the way and built an 11 story building there (three stories go underground). Out of the more than 7 million books they have stored away, only about 700,000 are in the original library, the rest are in the extension. Its a rather big place. We could see the extension building from the Bodleian library, and our tour guide confided that he was quite disappointed that the extension had just gotten protected status, so they couldn't do anything to make it more attractive (that's the photo I've posted - it is a bit plain).

I made a quick trip to Christopher Wren's Sheldonian Theatre. It absolutely floors me how many buildings that man had his hands on... In London you can't hardly throw a stone without hitting a Wren building. This is certainly no slight to the architect, they are striking buildings- but talk about prolific. Finally, I ended the day with a perusal of ESL books in the Oxford University Press. I've got all sorts of fodder for my wish list.

In other words, my early skepticism towards Oxford was most poorly placed. There was, in fact, so much to do that I wasn't able to even scrape the surface. Hopefully, Russell and I will get a chance to go back and see more in the future - after 2:00, of course...

Oh, and apparently Monday is a Bank Holiday here, so Russell and I booked a B&B in Edinburgh. Hooray! I probably won't post again until next Tuesday, after we get back.

Russell and Jaci in Bath

Originally, Russell and I had planned to go to Bath together, so when I went with Nicole, I was also scouting for things to do with Russell. The first part of the day was mostly an echo of what Nicole and I had done the previous Tuesday.

First, we went to the Roman Baths. I thought I had done a fairly thorough tour on my first trip, but I discovered new things the second trip as well. One notable example was a small case Nicole and I had missed with gemstones in it. The curators aren't sure whether the stones were themselves offerings to the goddess, if they had come out of jewelry that had been thrown to the goddess, or if they had fallen out of rings when people were using the baths. There was a pile of around thirty or fourty of the gems, however, and each one had a unique carving on the top. Some had zodiac signs, others had animals or sceneries. Keep in mind that these were modest sized gems. They wouldn't call attention to themselves if they were set in a modern woman's ring - the etchings were tiny. Apparently, the Romans set these stones in rings and used them for wax seals on correspondence. I had seen this sort of thing before, but the rings were much larger and the seals weren't nearly as fine and detailed. I wish I had a picture to post.

Next, we went for a walk, up the hill to the circus I mentioned before and off to the edge of the downtown area where there was another curved building of note. We wandered back to towards the center of town and saw that the Assembly Rooms were open this time. We ducked in for a look around. I don't know that the rooms would be all that impressive to the average observer. They are large enough for dancing, have pretty chandeliers and attractive wood floors but they are fairly simple in decor. I had read Northanger Abbey by Jane Austin not too long ago, though, so it was fun to see one of the places she had been describing. It was fun to envision the story taking place in that particular place.

After lunch, we ventured into a cafe we had spotted earlir, the "Cafe Rouge." This had caught our attention earlier because of a sign out front announcing Strawberry Beer. The novelty was too much to pass up. Russell couldn't bring himself to order one, but he had a sip of mine. It was quite good, but seemed more like a light punch than a beer. I imagine thats the draw.

After a bit more wandering and poking around in shops, we stopped in for a Sally Lunn's Bunn (forgot to take a picture again) and then headed to the main activity of the day: The Thermae Bath. I had looked it up online after hearing about it from our neighbors at Sally Lunn's earlier that week, an it was too tempting to pass up.

There are five levels at the Thermae Bath. The basement has a large amoeba-shaped pool with futuristic looking columns rising out of it to support the floor above (think upside down "Sorry" game pieces). The pool had a light current running through it so if you just floated it would push you around the pool. On one end, there was also another circular pool within the pool that bubbled. The temperature was about bathwater temperature. Not as hot as a hot tub.

The next floor had the dressing rooms, and next came the saunas. The sauna room was the best part. There was a shower in the middle - water rushing straight out of the ceiling and into the grate in the middle of the floor. it was big enough around that four people or so could stand under it at once. Around the shower were four glass cylinders, each with a stone bench curving around the inside whhttp://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifere you could sit. Each cylinder was its own sauna and could seat about 10 people or five laying down. Each sauna had steam coming from under the benches and from the ceiling and was scented with a different perfume. I wasn't too sure about the scents, but they weren't too bad. There was Frankincense, Lavender, Eucalyptus Mint, and a fourth I can't remember. I avoided Lavender like the plague. Bleh. Each sauna was also a different temperature, ranging from 37C to 50C. There were also cold water showers off to one side for when you were finished.

The next floor was designated for "treatments" (meaning massages, hot stone treatments, etc. that you could add to your package) and had a cafe. Finally, there was a roof pool. It was outdoors and had a beautiful view of Bath and the surrounding hills. This certainly isn't the sort of thing we normally do, but it was well worth it. If you want to see pictures of the Thermae Bath, go to: http://www.thermaebathspa.com