Day 9: Scotland things.

Today we flew to Scotland!  Before that I had to fix my suitcase so that it would survive the journey. 

Mission accomplished. 

We had a bit too much fun last night and are regretting some of our life decisions. Luckily we are just flying to Inverness today. Not a lot of sightseeing. 

We got to Inverness and the countryside is looking very promising. 

Short blog for today. Tomorrow we are heading to the Isle of Sky for a couple days.  Going to do some hiking and probably find some scotch to sample. 

Cheers. 

Day 8: Our hosts run out of whiskey.

We don't have any big plans for the day.  Just hanging out in Cambridge with the Hamiltons. After eating breakfast and drinking coffee we went walking around the town. 

We stopped in at Kings College. It was very peaceful and the stained glass was incredible.  

A lot of people were out "punting". Basically hanging out in these boats and having a guide push them up and down the river that goes through town. It was particularly amusing to watch the people that didn't hire the guide, but just rented the boat. There is a trick to steering those things, and these people did not know it. 

We visited a couple bars, I finally found some beer with some hops. They sell wine to go at the store. It's hilarious. Just a wine glass that is full of wine. With a plastic top that you peel off. 

We ended the night back at Aaron and Esther's house with another couple that is staying with them. Good food, great wine and way too much whiskey.  

Tomorrow we fly to Inverness, Scotland. 

Cheers. 

Day 7: Tons of British in London.

Hello. I'm tired. It's been a long week. We woke up this morning in Cambridge and jumped on a 45 minute train to London.  We started off by going to the London Tower which was pretty cool.  We were given a tour of the area and it was super entertaining. The tour guide called Americans "tax dodgers", which was amusing. 

I get really bad service in London. Which makes it very hard to do the important things. 

Also, this happened:

 

Not impressed London. That name is tainted. 

After the London Tower we started wandering through the city. Unfortunately people started getting off of work. There were British people everywhere!  I would go so far as to say they make up the majority of London. Unbelievable. 

From what I can tell, The locals get off work and go directly to the pub. There are so many people drinking they spill out onto the sidewalks.  It was a rather unpleasant experience trying to navigate through all of this.  Also, our feet are tired and ready for a break. 

We grabbed some dinner and headed over to Parliament and Big Ben but it was already dark so the pictures aren't great. 

Neither of us love London. Too many people for our tastes. The architecture was amazing but we are ready for a bit of down time. Which just so happens to come tomorrow!  We are still in Cambridge for the next two nights. Currently we have zero planned activities.   So if the blog is just blank tomorrow you will know why. 

Cheers. 

Day 6: That cow had it comin.

Before I get into the events of the day I'd like to have a real discussion with you. Let's talk about the sinks in England. 

This is your standard sink. On the right you have cold water. On the left you have hot water.   This is very convenient. Say for example you would like to simultaneously burn your left hand while cooling your right hand. Well you are in luck. Maybe you would like to alternate between cooling both hands and burning the shit out of both hands. England has got you covered. 5/5 stars. Would burn again. 

After burning my hand we set out on our last day in the southern portion of England.   We went to a small bridge crossing the small river in Oxford. 

The water is crystal clear and amazing. If you look close you can see a decent sized fish in the sun as well. They were everywhere, but not as big as the drunk bar patron had told us they would be. 

We drove down the street to the Bombay Saphire Distillery. 

I don't care for gin, so that's the last we will speak of it. 

We left our little Home of Oxford and drove south to Winchester.  It is an adorable small town, which is becoming a recurring theme. I LOVE the small towns we have visited so far.   We wandered around until I spotted the cathedral through some trees. 

Except it turned out that it was just a church. We are dumb tourists. We did eventually find the cathedral. 

It was ok. Jane Austin is in there. So there's that. After lunch we set out for Cambridge!  This is an exciting part of the trip because we are staying with our friends, Esther and Aaron.  After a few hours we got to their house and it is fantastic. 

After dinner we poured some beers to go and set out for the local pub. We arrived at the pub but had not finished our beers.  Aaron asked us if we wanted to see the cows, like the good Americans we are we said yes.   So we walked across a park, and there in the middle of the park are grazing cows.  No fence, no barrier, just cows.   This is when things got tricky. 

Aaron pulled up some grass and started walking towards one of the Bulls. Now, I assumed that he knew what he was doing. Maybe this is part of the gig, maybe he feeds the cows for all of his guests. It seemed to be going pretty well. 

 

It was at this point that the cow decided he didn't like Aaron, or his stupid grass.   He kind of slammed his head into Aaron's hand and started to chase him a little bit. 

It was at this point that I realized that Aaron was in over his head.  It seems that this was not "part of the gig".  I would be prepared to back Aaron up if a human was chasing him.  But he is on his own when it comes to bovine defense.  Luckily for Aaron he survived the encounter and we carried on to the local bar.  It would have sucked if we would have died.  Then the Naylors would have been known as the the people that watched the cow kill Aaron. 

So far Cambridge seems pretty great.   We are staying here three nights, but tomorrow we will be taking the train into London. 

Cheers. 

Day 5: These stones didn't set themselves.

Today we woke up to breakfast being made for us downstairs. The lady that we are staying with made bacon, eggs, coffee and toast.  We ate breakfast with a beautiful view of the backyard. The Hawk was missing but we did find out that her husband takes it out regularly to go flying. That's just a thing that he does....you know...take the pet hawk for a fly. 

We got on the road pretty early because we needed to be at Highclere Castle when they opened.  For those that don't know, Highclere Castle is the castle from the show Downton Abbey.  

As you enter the grounds you drive up a small road that winds through thick trees. It opens up to show the open countryside with sheep grazing. It is really amazing. Then you turn the corner and see the castle itself. It is stunning and feels like a castle out of a story...or a hit TV show on PBS airing Sunday's 9 eastern. 

We toured through the inside of the castle. There was an amazing library that I could spend a lifetime in. No pictures allowed, sorry. 

After Highclere we got back on the road and drove to Stonehenge. This was pretty low on the list of things I'm excited about. More of a box that needed checking. 

Box checked. It was more interesting than I had expected. A girl had a selfie stick that she was using to constantly fix her hair and take selfies. Another guy was taking pictures with an iPad. This is a personal favorite of mine. Then he asked a stranger next to him to take his picture. So the stranger was then using the iPad.  I want somebody to ask me to take pictures with their iPad sooo bad.  

After Stonehenge we drove to Salisbury to see the Cathedral. Again, my expectations were pretty low.  Again, expectations exceeded. 

All in all it was a petty good day. Annie and I were both kind of tired though.  Hoping to get some rest tonight, we head to Cambridge tomorrow. 

Oh and we went to some pubs. So many pubs, everywhere I look.  Trying to taste every cask conditioned beer I can find. 

Day 4: Complimentary birds of prey

Hey everyone, today is a travel day so the blog might be light on adventures. Do not fear, I have planned for this.  

We are staying in a ladies spare bedroom, in her apartment on the docks. 

The room is tiny, but we have a view of this big ole ship. So far we have watched it float at the docks during the day. Then we watched it float at the docks at night. 5/5 stars, will watch again. 

I have been using the same suitcase for about 16 years. It has had a good run, but this morning something horrible happened. 

It is hard to see, but the seams are splitting. I am really hoping it makes it through our flight today. Then I'm hoping that our friends in England have Duct tape...or something to remedy the situation. 

On our way out of our apartment we saw this sign by the stairs. 

As somebody who avoids confrontation, I completely support this passive aggressive sign. 5/5 stars, will read again. 

We did some last minute touring of the city and began our commute to the airport. Then we got distracted by a city, then we realized that we were going to be late to the airport.  Here's the thing, being late stresses me out. More than the average person. Annie is the exact opposite in this regard. So things got a little tense.  I am happy to announce that we made it through this trying time. I'm also happy to announce that today is our 8 year anniversary.  8 years!  5/5 stars, would marry again. 

During our flight Annie found this rogue eyelash growing on my face. Hopefully she thinks it is sexy, but it is hard to get a read on her thoughts on it. (The eyelash is on the inside part of my eye, towards my nose, it kind of looks like a wrinkle. But I don't get those.)

 

I wrote up to this point in the blog all throughout the day. Planning on having about one paragraph at the end and ending. Unfortunately(fortunately?) we had a very exciting evening. 

We drove to Overton, which is a very small town in England. We are staying at Mallards, which is some older couples house. They just rent out their bedrooms.  This place...well let me show you. 

 (On the way in)

(Backyard)

(Pet bird of prey)

This house is ridiculous. There are birds everywhere.  A crystal clear river in the backyard. Apparently you can see huge trout swimming in it. Ducks just wandering around. Oh and a pet hawk. What the hell. This place is awesome. 

Then we went to dinner(it was fantastic), and afterword we stopped in at a pub for a drink. Fast forward two hours and we have made quite a few English friends.  Some old guy shows up and starts telling stories. Then the lady that owns the joint shows up and starts telling us how the silk for Princess Diana's dress was made here.  One couple has told the bar tender that they will have just one more drink for three drinks.  The older gentleman is going on about Scotland.  It was great. That is all.   Tomorrow we head to Heighclere Castle and Stone Henge. Which I recently learned from my English friends should be bulldozed. 

Cheers. 

Day 3: Horse Races

Hello. I slept until 10 am because Annie and I had a bit too much fun last night people watching. We were on the patio of a pretty amazing bar called the Tigh Neachtain. We ended up on the patio drinking Guiness and watching people walk by. Oh boy were we rewarded. There was the young couple that had a reasonably serious fight in front of us, then a super sexy make up. Then they went off to really make up I guess. Then a drunk girl walked by screaming at us to "Never go to Murphys"(we went by Murphys, it looks alright).  We enjoyed ourselves quite a bit but went to bed rather late. 

So we woke up and needed coffee ASAP. 

Instead we got tea. It was an enjoyable and adorable experience. Thanks Ireland?

After tea we set off for a castle! But then we got distracted halfway there and stopped in at a small pub in a tiny town.   The food was amazing, the Guiness was excellent as well. Our experience so far has been that the small town pubs are gems. 

We did get to the castle eventually. I was a bit disappointed. It was cool but not as grand as I would like. It's like a poor persons castle and that is just the worst. 

After the castle we drove to a farm that was not open. The cows in Ireland look super happy. They are like laying around in incredible looking grass. I'm jealous of Irish cows.   Except for the whole, "they are going to kill me for my meat" thing.  Sorry cows. 

After the farm we were heading back to Galway to a pub that I wanted to go to. 

We saw a sign for horse races! No brainer. We went to the horse races.  It isn't like any of the horse races I have been to. There are about 30 people representing different booking companies. They are all on stools yelling out odds. Very intimidating. After a few races we made a bet on number of 11. Number 11 lost and owes me 5 euros.

After the races we went to Bierhaus, which is a pub that carries a bunch of craft beer. It is real great.  An old guy was upset that they didn't carry Budweiser and had some stern Irish words with the bar tender. 

That's pretty much our day. Tomorrow we say farewell to Ireland and head to England. We will start in the south and then we will be at our friends house in Cambridge about mid week. 

Cheers.