Southampton

Today we spent most of the day apart. I went to work at the Datacard UK office. It was a great experience - very different setup than the Minnesota office. Everyone was really fantastic. It was nice to be able to put some faces with names of people I've been communicating with via email since I started there last June. Brandon was going to spend the day out sightseeing in Southampton, but opted to stay in since it was raining. Once I got back, we went into Fareham for dinner at an Italian place called Villa Romano. We got there at 530, and the place didn't open until 6pm, so we went down to a local pub for a drink. It was a quaint little place, but obviously it gets pretty rowdy there because they had about 20 shots "on tap". Definitely something I've never seen before. After that we headed back for our Italian dinner, which was really good. It was a nice change from English pie and pub food. We got back to our hotel and started packing up. Our week in England went by so fast - hard to believe Brandon's heading home tomorrow. We've really enjoyed our time here together.

The second phase of my trip is about to begin! Kristen gets in around lunch time tomorrow, and we have our first class get together tomorrow night. Then it's off to Paris for the weekend, and back for class on Monday!

Please continue to pray for our safe travels, especially Brandon's flight home tomorrow. He's excited to be home in time to watch the Packers on Saturday night. I'm a little bit jealous, I won't lie :)

Our First Rainy Day

Today was much more low key than the last two days have been. We slept in, got ready and headed down to St. Paul's Cathedral. It was absolutely gorgeous. Of course, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but it was amazing. The rich colors and architecture were fascinating. We both lit candles in remembrance and prayer next to the holy altar. Here's a picture of part of the outside:

 After that, we met an old friend of mine, Jon, and his husband David for lunch. I hadn't seen Jon since high school, but it was like we never missed a beat. It was really great to see him and meet David. We had a wonderful lunch at Nando's in the ritzy part of London.

 After lunch, we headed back to our hotel, grabbed our bags and jumped on a train down to Southampton. We passed Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, House of Parliment, and the London Eye on our way to the train station. I can't believe we spent 4 days in London and didn't see them until today! Anyway, we made it to our hotel, and have been hanging out this evening. I'm going to the Datacard UK office for the day tomorrow while Brandon ventures through Southampton. We're looking forward to celebrating our last night together in Europe tomorrow night. Hard to believe it's coming to an end already!

Windsor Castle, Stonehenge & Bath

Today was a fantastic day of sight-seeing! One thing I forgot to mention about our hotel. We learned that a "deluxe king bed with pillowtop mattress" really means "two single beds pushed together with a fitted sheet over them and a down comforter" :) We were both pretty tired so sleeping wasn't an issue. We were up early again and off to a day full of the wonders of England. Our tour took us through Windsor Castle, up to Stonehenge, a break in the town where a few Harry Potter films have been made for lunch, and lastly onto the City of Bath.
Our first stop was Windsor Castle where we entered through St.George Gate. The view was amazing! The next few pictures were just from walking around the grounds.

 The picture below shows the round that Windsor Castle is famous for, but it's really an oval. The traditional flag flying means the Queen is not in residence there. The garden leads down to the moat, which has always been dry. It has never held water because the surroundings are made from chalk.

The next picture is of St. George's Cathedral, home to the tombs of many kings and queens. It was beautiful inside - no photography allowed, of course. Outside we watched the changing of the guards too.

 After that, it was onto Stonehenge, our second stop of the day. It was literally in the middle of a HUGE field, surrounded by nothing but rolling hills and sheep.

It was amazing to walk around because it looked so different from every angle, especially with the sun coming in and out from behind the clouds. Again, I had to check it out in panoramic mode. :)

 Next we were onto a smaller town for lunch. Here is a picture of an original thatch-roofed house in the area known as the Cotswolds, home of Shakespeare. 200 years ago there were over 2 million houses like this. now there are only 24,000. (Nerdy math people think thats a pretty cool stat, fyi)

 Once we got to our lunch destination, we had to walk through the village. I fell in love with this cottage! Our food was fantastic yet again, and it was hard not to take an afternoon nap on the way up to Bath.

Once in the city of Bath, we made our way into The Roman Bath. This is a natural hot spring that stays at 116F all year round. This part of the bath is in a Heritage site to preserve the Roman temple around it. The other part of the bath sits in a famous spa nearby.

This is a view of the Bath Cathedral, commonly known as the Bath Abbey. It can be seen from inside The Roman Bath Heritage Site, and from all over town. The front side was pretty spectacular too, but we didn't get a chance to make it inside.

And of course, after a long day outside, we grabbed some Starbux in Bath for our bus ride home.

Another great day of sightseeing in! We're excited to sleep in tomorrow. Brandon actually passed out at about 930pm tonight, so we'll see how late he sleeps!

We hope your week is going well and that you are enjoying our posts!

Edinburgh in Pictures

As promised, here are pictures from our day trip to Edinburgh. We started out on the train from London at 7am. We went through many towns including Newcastle, seen here.

The trip was about 5 hours, and we saw everything from rocky coastline to quaint british towns and even a castle. Once we arrived in Edinburgh, we heard bagpipes and were greeted by beautiful buildings like this one:

We got our tickets, jumped on our tour bus, and made it to our first destination: The Castle! Here is what we saw as we walked up the cobblestone streets and through the archway.

It was spectacular! We grabbed our audio-guides (yes, we're nerdy like that) and headed on in. But not before testing out the panoramic feature on our new camera on the view from the castle wall

It is absolutely amazing. The city of Edinburgh is beautiful, and yes, those are snow-covered mountains off to the right. We spent the entire day walking through all of the buildings; The Great Hall, The Scottish War Museum, St. Margaret's Chapel, and to see the Scottish Crown Jewels. The picture below is in the upper-level of the castle centre plaza.

 

We ended up spending all day at the castle, and just made it out in time to catch the last bus back through the city. The bus tour was pretty good, and the sites of Edinburgh at night were beautiful!

All in all it was a fabulous day in Scotland. We got back to our hotel at 11pm, excited, somewhat rested from the long ride, and ready for another busy day to follow!

A few things I should comment on from the day: 1.Yes, they do have Starbucks in Edinburgh, Scotland. 2.Scottish pounds are not the same as "Sterling" British pounds. Don't expect to break big bills in Scotland and get Sterling pounds back, without asking :) 3.Bathrooms cost 20 - 30 cents per use. Always keep change in case the change machine is broken (this applies for all of the UK) 4. I still kick butt at Crazy 8s (the card game) 5.Hot Chocolate is the most amazing drink in Europe in January. I've drinking more hot chocolate than Starbucks in the last three days, which speaks for itself. :)

Edinburgh

Today we spent the day listening to bagpipes and checking out the Scottish countryside. We're still on our 5 hour ride back to London - definitely a long day. In true UK fashion it was dreary and damp, but it couldn't keep us Minnesotans down! We took a bus tour of Edinburgh, and spent most of the day at the castle. I will try to post pictures soon! Tonight we won't get back to our hotel until 11pm, and we have to be up bright and early for our trip to Stonehenge, Bath, and Windsor Castle. Hopefully sleep comes more easily tonight too! We slept thru the Packer game, woke up around midnight (just in time to find out they won!) and were up til 230am. We left at 6am this morning so now we're doing our best to stay awake until we get back to London. Hopefully it pays off tonight!

We hope your week is off to a great start! We'll be posting pictures tomorrow!
~ Joan and Brandon

Greetings from London!

We made it! Safe and sound.. and tired. I slept pretty well on the plane, but Brandon did not. We took a cab to our hotel, and I was so confused when the driver put our luggage upfront.. on the left side! It was weird being on the other side of the road - probably more entertaining since we were so tired. Anyway, we got to our hotel a little before our check-in time, and our room wasn't quite ready, but the guy knew we had just gotten in and offered us a free upgrade so we could go relax. Our room is really sweet - and the view is even better! This is the entrance to Hyde Park on the famous West End of London, out our window!

We spent some time this afternoon walking through Hyde Park - temps in the 40s and green grass! This is one of the only sunny days we're supposed to have, so we needed to take advantage of it! After our walk through the park, we stopped for some hot chocolate and started our trek down the West End strip - comparable to 5th Ave in New York City. We had some fun looking at all the shops (and Starbux!) along the way.The buildings are fantastic - here are a few!

One of the best parts about Europe is all of the old buildings - so beautiful! After that, we figured we should eat some dinner (and come back to the hotel for hats, mittens and the camera flash) so we asked our conceirge for a recommendation, and were pointed to The Three Tuns, a local pub. It was perfect - quaint with a glowing fire to beat out the winter chill.

The food was fantastic! I had a steak and ale pie with mashed potatoes, carrot and green beans. It was absolutely amazing! Exactly what I was looking for after eating airplane food for the last 2 meals. Brandon had a spicy burger, and it must have been good because I didn't even get a chance to try it. :)

Tonight we're staying in and taking it easy. We've got a big day ahead tomorrow! Up at 5am and off to Scotland! We'll have lots to share once we return.

Hope you enjoy the pictures! Please continue to pray for our safe travels. :)

~ Joan & Brandon

Here We Go!

We're at our gate waiting to catch our flight across the pond. Our suitcases each weighed exactly 50lbs, but more of the contents were definitely mine :) I think it's completely justified because I'll be there twice as long. We've got our new camera and our Flip videocam so we'll be posting pictures and video clips this week! Our flight is about 8 hours so we're both hoping to catch a few hours of sleep and avoid most of the jetlag. Wishful thinking i'm sure ;) We did a lot of sitting today on our way to and from Eau Claire to drop off Mocha and Murphy with Brandon's parents. Thanks again for watching them!!

We get in Sunday at noon, and our main objectives are staying awake, and finding a way to watch the Packer game at 930pm local time. Go Packers!! Monday is a big day - onto Scotland!

That's about all for now. Please pray for our safe travels. We'll be in touch soon! :)

Sweet Dreams,
Joan & Brandon