Blogs from United Kingdom, Europe - page 2963

This morning Graham and I got up early and joined a large group from our residence hall in a hike up Arthur's Seat. This is one of the mail hills overlooking the city, scituated at the bottom of the Royal Mile near the Scottish Parliament building. I do not have much experience when it comes to "hill climbing," but it seems to be a big pasttime here in Scotland, so I was excited about the opportunity to experience it. I thought I was going to die. I am in pretty good shape -- but this was insanity. Graham seemed to be enjoying it though. The early part of the hike was nothing -- it actually took us all the way down the Royal Mile. But as we approached the hill, I looked at the peak from ... read more

Motorhome News from Europe 36 Orkney 13th September Orkney - Isles of History The morning sun shone in greeting as we approached the grey exterior of Kirkwall, Orkney’s capital. But once inside the town we were stunned by an unexpected air of affluence. The red sandstone Cathedral of St Magnus stands proudly above Broad Street, bright with hanging baskets on smart Victorian buildings and elegant modern shops. Shrubs, trees and flowers adorn the town’s gardens and mature sycamores surround the ruins of the Earl’s Palace behind the Cathedral. The shops portray immediate evidence of Orkney’s successful craft tradition; it is famed for its jewellery, knitwear, glass, art and textiles. At first sight, the mainland of Orkney is a green continuation of the shining sea, with broad fertile pastures, cows and sheep and fields of barley rising ... read more

Well the other day I had to put more of a structure to my itinerary as my doctor wanted to inject me with loads of meds and vaccines. Not a big fan of the needles and stuff but I spose a man's got to do and all that jazz. So here is the list of the countries I intend to visit on my first leg of my round the world travel plans (in no particular order). Australia New Zealand Indonesia Borneo Thailand China Japan Phillipines Malaysia Singapore Cook Islands Papua New Guinea That should keep me entertained for a year or two ;) Still waiting on my visa from Australia though so getting anxious now that may not be able to set off in October when I attended. Will keep you posted Hambo... read more

Wellll I havent updated because i have too much to say, and I don't have time to write it all down. In fact, I've been quite sick but just too busy and excited to feel it or even care. Lets just go through the interesting things. Thursday we left for London and went to see pericles at the Globe Theatre. It was awesommeee. Although it wasn't the traditional performance, it was still very good. The whole atmosphere was sooo cool. It was mainly kids my age from everywhere that just wanteed to hear some Shakespeare. Everyone was leaning on the stage and drawn in like the couldn't get close enough to the action. I had seats in the gallery, but I stood in the yard closer to the stage because that's the way it should be ... read more

Most everyone departed this morning but 3 of us stayed behind to explore a bit (Meaghan Molloy, Taylor and I). We didn’t do much today because we waited around half the day for Maggie to show up and bring Taylor’s key card back….in the end Taylor will just have to pay 5 pounds for it. Oh well. Later in the day we checked out Shakespeare’s Globe and the Thames Festival. We tried to get tickets to the Globe but they were sold out so we got groundling tickets for Sunday afternoon at 1pm. We also went to about every electronics store to find the correct adapter for Taylor’s computer….word to the wise: make sure that your adapter WILL work in the UK for your computer so you don’t spend twice as much money on something that ... read more