Monday May 12 - Tuesday May 13 My last traveling of the year took me back up to Scotland. I really wanted to see the Orkney Isles and found that the easiest and most cost effective way was to go with a tour group. And then I would get to see some of the Highlands as well instead of just from a train window. So I booked with a group called Wild in Scotland and hoped for the best. On Monday, about 16 hours after I had got back from London, I boarded a bus bound for Edinburgh. It was a [View Full Entry]

---

---

On Friday it was back to London for a weekend of theater with Kia. After our arrival in London, we made our way out to our hostel and then back into London where we took our pictures at Platform 9 3/4 and then went to the British Library. We spent quite a bit of time marveling at the Treasures of the British Library which included Shakespeare's First Folio, the Magna Carta, music by Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, and the Beatles, Leonardo da Vinci's journals, a Gutenberg Bible, Dante's Divine Comedy, and a copy - the real one has been taken off display [View Full Entry]

---

---

Yesterday Siri and I were up before the sun to go to London and watch our final two performances by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) in the History Cycle. We saw the sunrise from the bus which was really cool. The sun was huge and a beautiful red-orange with a ray shooting straight up. After a long bus ride and a quick journey on the Tube, we arrived in Camden and in front of the Roundhouse theater. We were perhaps a bit excited. Okay, we were extremely excited. To be able to see this cast perform two more plays was amazing. [View Full Entry]

---

---

On Friday morning, the twelve of us piled into a van and car and headed to the Lake District for our last flat trip.We began the day by outlawing the words "last" and "final" as the day of our departure is fast approaching and none of us feels quite ready for that yet. Our first stop was 2 hours down the road in the little town of Haworth in West Yorkshire. It is here that the Bronte Parsonage is located, which has been turned into a museum of the Bronte sisters and their family. The church, which is literally out the [View Full Entry]

---

---

Answer - to seek Camelot! My continued Quest for King Arthur was resumed on Thursday as I set off for Glastonbury and Tintagel. Thursday was spent on public transportation, trains and buses, because the train doesn't run to Glastonbury. My hostel was just down the street from the old Abbey and amidst many New Age shops. I was up bright and early Friday to board yet more buses to ride to the not-so-distant hamlet of Sparkford. It was only 11 miles as the crow flies, but it took at an hour and a half and two different buses to get there. [View Full Entry]

---

---

I also considered "Hey, mac. Wanna buy a sundial?" as a title for this blog. With all the street vendors it would have been appropriate. Both quotes are from the Disney movie Hercules, by the way. April 6 - 12 Sunday April 6 On our first full day in Athens, we decided just to wander a bit and get a feel for where everything was. Our first stop was the National Archaeological Museum. The highlight is Agamemnon's Death Mask which was, of course, surrounded by a ton of people. We were also plagued by a tour group that was either right [View Full Entry]

---

---

April 4 - 5 Friday April 4 After a great breakfast, provided by our hotel, Kia, James, and I ventured out into the rain that was coming down on Thessaloniki. We made out way to the Archaeological Museum and spent some time there looking at the statues and jewelery. The jewelery was so amazing and intricate. And the fact that it had survived for thousands of years was unbelievable. Of course, we had problems reading the signs as they were all in Greek, and Greek not only is a foreign language but uses a totally different alphabet. This could make anything [View Full Entry]

---

---

Wednesday April 2 - 3 - Italy to Greece April 2 and 3 were very long days. I arrived in Bari and made my way down to the docks and got a place on the boat to Patras, Greece without a hitch. I needed to get out more money and had about 4 hours to waste, so I headed back into town to find an ATM or Bankomat as they are called in Italy. I found one about 15 minutes later, stuck my card in and waited. It didn't come back out. Neither did any money. I am nearing panic mode [View Full Entry]

---

---

March 31 - April 1 Monday March 31 On Monday I left Rome and made my way to Naples. Once in Naples, after finding my hostel, I didn't feel like doing anything as I was really only in Naples to see Pompeii. So I made myself some lunch then went and sat on my balcony and read for the rest of the day. It was wonderful. Tuesday April 1 On Tuesday, I boarded a train for the ride to Pompeii. The title of this blog comes from a quote by Plato about Atlantis, but I thought of it as I walked [View Full Entry]

---

---

March 26 - 30 Wednesday March 26 My train ride to Rome was not bad at all. I had a (narrow) bed and they even provided breakfast! Upon arriving in Rome, I dropped my stuff off at my hostel and went to go see the Ancient ruins. The Colosseum was the first stop. I took a tour that included a tour of the Forum which I thought was interesting. The proper name of the Colosseum is the Flavian Amphitheater as it was built during the Flavian dynasty starting in 72 AD and finished in 82 AD, and was built after the [View Full Entry]

---

---