July 14 Tuesday

The plan was to stay 2 nights in Glenrothes, Scotland and explore Edinborough, but it didn’t feel right.  I called ahead to the B&B we were scheduled in for the following two nights and asked if we could stay a third night.  No problem, so after a complete Scottish Breakfast, (same as the English, as well as haggis and black pudding) drove across Scotland at the narrows between Edinborough and Glasgow.  Our final destination was Gretna Green and the Barrasgate B&B.   The address for Barrasgate B&B was Scotland yet we passed a sign welcoming us to England BEFORE we arrived at the B&B.  Were we in Scotland or England?  Apparently, Barrasgate B&B  lies in what is called “The Debatable Lands.”  When Britain and Scotland were separate kingdoms, this land, about ten miles long from north to south and 4 miles wide, was run by local clans who refused to follow the authority of England or Scotland.  They held onto this land causing havoc for over 300 years and becoming very rich in the process.  Our host, Alan, is a Graham, one of the local clans.  He was a small and gentle man and we all had to smile to think of him as a Scottish warrior!  It was finally resolved in 1603, but up until some years ago, the it still caused problems for the people who live there now.

Our room was fine, but small.  Once we had all our luggage and bodies in the room, the host looked at us and asked if we’d like to move downstairs into another room, with more space and a conservatory.  Oh yes.  

Ate at a local inn in Gretna Green. In England 1754, you had to be 21 and have both parents permission to marry. However, Scotland still allowed marriage at 16 and no parental permission was needed.  Gretna Green was this first Scottish town you entered after leaving England and it became the center for runaway marriages.  So far great disappointment with the food.  (Despite this, we all came back to Sweden feeling “thick.”  Too much time in the car and too many sticky toffee puddings.  I have the recipe.  Prepare yourself.)

July 15, Wednesday

We had been planning to see the new Harry Potter movie in England ever since we realized it was opening while we were there.  This morning we went into Dumfires, Scotland and bought tickets for Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. I talked to some kids who had been waiting since 10 am for the 1 pm show.  ( I remember as a kid cringing when my dad talked to everyone we met, all strangers.  Now I am doing the same thing and my kids are responding the same way.  However, they are more vocal about their embarrassment then I ever was!)   Nice, orderly lines waiting for the doors to open and when they did, all rushed for the open doors and up the stairs.  We still found great seats.  The crowd obviously loved the characters and the movie.  All ages present, including a leathered motor cycle man and his woman.  It was as fun as we thought it would be, seeing the movie in England.

We found a store that sold over 700 types of whiskey. The owner and his son, spent a good 45 minutes with us, teaching us about whiskey, complete with props. The finale was a visit to their back store room where we saw a sherry cask.

We sampled another type of cider (another reason for the "thick feeling") in The Globe, a pub that Robert Burns frequented.

July 16^th Thursday

Actually in England, Carlisle Castle (Carlisle takes it name from a celtic camp or caer) was built by the Normans. Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned here for a short time and in the dungeons you can see where other prisoners licked the stones for hydration.

Lanercost priory, founded in 1166. Today the nave is used as a Parish church and the rest is in ruins. This is the tomb of Thomas Dace or his wife who took over the priory as a private home after the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536, by Henry VIII.

Parish church at the priory.

Hadrian's wall stretches 73 miles across England and was built 2,000 years ago as the border of the Roman empire. We saw it at the Birdoswald. A Roman Fort was built here and is a heritage site.

We left Scotland and headed through England and the Lake District into Wales.

July 17, Friday

Our hostel in Wales, Danywenallt. We stayed two nights here and finally washed our clothes! We were all thankful.

The view towards the hostel. I am standing on a damn built at the base of a lake.

The hostel is located in Brecons Beacons National Park. A small park that runs 15 miles north to south and 45 miles East to west and holds four mountain ranges.

July 18^th Saturday

We visited the visitor center and hiked up to an overlook. The Black mountains are behind us.

This was the view looking the other way.

Lily neighed in a horse and confused the poor thing. As we walked away the horse continued up the hill looking for the other horse.

Magical.

Kurt found several species of damselflies, one the same species we have in Minnesota.

Finally, good food. The Star Inn is Wales Pub of the years and it deserves the title.

Beer labels: merlin's Oak, Witching Hour, Holy Cow, Ashe Vine, Nutty Broomstick, Old leg Over, Keel Over, Figgy's brew, Hunny Bunny, Demon's eye, Davy George Crocker, Christmas Fairy, Titanic Lifeboat, Bucky's Best Bitter, Horse Tonic, Guzzer, Embalming Preparation, Little Squirt, Bran Wash, Steam Hammer, Sheep Remedy, Cat-A-Tonic, Bearly Literate, Hidden Potential, Tangle Foot, Black Bess and ... Piddle in the cold.

July 19^th Sunday

We traveled down to Bath (Persuasion) and had a cream tea at Sally Lunn's. There has been a tea house on the site since the 18th century.

Sally Lunn bread with lemon curd and a pot of clotted cream.

The Romans Bath museum is one of the world's best preserved roman baths. The industrious Romans constructed a complex to take advantage of three natural springs. A young man fell in and crawled out covered with algae. They provide an audio guide free with the price of admission that offers adult and children versions. It added so much to the experience.

July 20^th  Monday

Ifracombe is a coastal town on the Bristol Channel. We spent the day here, chilling and decompressing after....

a large van in the middle of a narrow country road forced us into the hedge covered stone wall. Crud.

July 21 Tuesday

Really needs no title does it?

Our last day as tourists in the UK.  We stopped in Salisbury and then continued on for what should have a 2 hour journey.  Traffic in the UK is intense!  We were traffic queue 15 miles long and were delighted to get to our hotel, located several miles from the airport.  Again, we were given two rooms as their family room was experiencing flooding. Ha!  Our flight in the morning left at 7 am and given Ryan Airs disorganization we wanted to be there by 5am.

July 22, Wednesday  

6:30 pm arrival in Arvika.  So good to be back in Sweden.  

Images from the UK:

The secret garden view through a looking glass set in an old metal gate on the Cambridge campus.

I am preparing this travel blog on a rainy day in Sweden.  We have just returned from picking vin, röd  and vit bär, (black, red and white currents) from Mulberg and will help make saft (fruit concentrate).  Two cars, three trains and two busses later, Anders picked us up at train station last night and our traveling came to an end.  It feels wonderful to be back home in Sweden, and the realization that we will be back in Minnesota in 1 1/2 weeks is just plain…unbelievable.  A whole year we’ve been gone?  

I had thought to write this travel blog AS we traveled.  But, nope.  Didn’t happen.  So here goes:

 July 11, Saturday

After our rainy day at Lisberg, we flew out of GSE, Goteborg’s smallest airport, formally a military base that is now home to Ryan Air. Despite the low cost, I don’t think we will be flying Ryan Air again. Unorganized, poorly designed process, uptight staff and customers.  We get to walk on the tarmacs on and off the plane, though!

Going through customs in England was a bit intense.  All had to fill in paperwork and we were asked where we were going and where we were spending our first night.  Good thing we had a place lined up for the first night.  We had planned to find lodging as we traveled but decided against that once we arrived.   We chose to sleep at B&B’s, believing we would get a better sense of the country.  We did!  Using the lonely planet Great Britain guide and the mobile phone we rented,  each evening  the first couple of days in the UK, I set up lodging.   Our trip was a loop around the UK (not Ireland).  With one exception, all of our B&B’s were interesting.

We picked up our rental car at the airport, and was upgraded slightly to a better car because there were some problems with the car they had for us.  The new car was slightly larger.  This may have been an unfortunate upgrade due to what happened later in the trip.  (Read on,  dear reader)

Drove north from Stansted Airport, (located an hour or so north of London) to Leicester and the B&B for our first nights lodging, the  Campbells house.   Met Ruthie and Paul and their several small children when we knocked on the door.  That’s the last we saw of them, except Paul bringing a cot to the girls room at 10 pm, as their room only had one bed..   Ruthie, our  host asked us, apologetically, if we minded sleeping in TWO rooms vs one family room.  You can imagine the joy the girls greeted this news with!  I think it must be challenging to run a B&B with a family. 

The stairs in most of the B&B's were narrow and difficult to navigate with suitcases. At the Campbell House we navigated two sets of steps, the one pictured and another dressed in green.

July 12 Sunday

We ate a sad breakfast, no bowls for the cereal, and left.  We were still eagerly awaiting our first complete English breakfast.

Driving is challenging.  Wrong side of the road, round abouts on top of round abouts and impatient drivers.  By the end of the trip, we had been honked at 13 times, one roundabout got us two!  This challenge on top of navigating proved too much and today we waited at the ASDC, (Wallmart)  until it opened at 10:30 and bought Jane, our Navigator.  She saved us from certain death.  (Lily became concerned about the close relationship Kurt and Jane developed.)  She started charging us a quarter every time we called her “Jane.”

We drove to Cambridge which is celebrating 800 years as a college town and wandered the town. Sadly,  Kings Chapel was closed for day, as there was a ceremony of some sort taking place.

Cambridge is in the county Cambridgeshire and the River Cam runs through the town. It was very funny to watch people trying to maneuver the punts.

The "Backs" are the parklands that line the river behind some of the most famous colleges. There are 31 colleges in the town.

We continued on to the  town of York, arriving about 9pm at our B&B, the Romley house.  Our host was Bruce, a former Alaskan fisherman who met his English wife on a singles web page.  He talked up his waffles, English breakfasts and the town of York.  He did so well with the York sales pitch that we decided to spend the next day exploring it.

The Romley House in York

July 13, Monday

Our first several English breakfasts were wonderful! However, there is some truth in the saying "too much of a good thing," and we switched over to cereal. Wheatabix! Can you get them in the states?

Bruce was a loquacious and garrulous man. We enjoyed and appreciated his welcome.

 We are so glad we chose to tour York as it was magical.  We took a tour with Pat, a passionate volunteer who loves her town.  The tour was free and scheduled to take 2 hours.  2 hrs 45 minutes we were in awe of her passion and knowledge.  Kurt and I were still hanging in with her, but the girls were ready for lunch.

She really was fab. She told stories, personalized it and other tricks of the trade.

The small city center of York is encircled by a 13th century wall, which you can walk the entire length of as you look down on the spider web of streets.

York Minster is England's largest medieval cathedral and one of the world's most beautiful Gothic buildings. Six places of worship have been built on this site, starting with a wooden chapel in 627.

This street gave you the sense of a medieval street with overhanging buildings and many tourists. Shambles street takes its name from the Saxon word shamel, meaning slaughterhouse. We are planning to hang this photo in Lily's bedroom!

This young woman played electric guitar in the square as we ate lunch.

Among all the history we also learned:  200,000 Kit Kat candy bars are made a day in the local candy factory.  Cadbury started as a apprentice at a local chocolatier  in York.

 After we left York, we traveled late into the night through the rain dark and road work to a hotel in Glenrothes, Scotland.   

continued tomorrow…

Before we left for the United Kingdom, we spent the day with Camilla, Anders and Leia at Lisberg’s Amusement Park in Goteborg.  Great fun in the rain!  We stayed at Hotel Gothia, a snazzy dazzy hotel directly across from Lisberg.  The breakfast buffet is to die for.

The view from our hotel window. (note: just checked our visa balance and life WILL not include good drink and Toblerone chocolate once we return home!)

I chose not to do this one! Not pictured is the roller coaster called Balder, made of wood and awesome. Ask to see the photo of the Meads on Balder sometime! The Kannon, another roller coaster, went from 0-70 km an hour in two and a half seconds.

Camilla won a large chocolate for Leia.

Kurt, the man. Ring the bell, all the way to the top. He could choose between Uncle Sam and a Russian soldier.

This statue is in in honour of someone, just can't remember who...

Grown men cried on the Swedish radio when they talked about Michael Jackson. Michael's hands and signature at Lisberg.

The Lisberg bunny! We left on Saturday, July 11th for the United Kingdom. Anders drove us to the airport and the car ride to the airport was as exciting and hair raising as the roller coaster at Lisberg.

We took the express, Stina Charisma from Goteborg, Sweden to over to Frederikshavn, Denmark. No customs. The boat has a full restaurant and duty free shop. Kids under 12 eat free and can "fish" for a free gift. The trip took 1 1/2 hours.

We started our summer travel adventures with a trip to Denmark with Camilla, Anders and Leia. Prior to leaving for Denmark,  we moved out of our apartment on Saturday, Juli 4th and spent the night at A/C/L house.  Kurt and I went back on Saturday to clean and Sören, (works for Indian AB) moved in several hours after we left.  His daughter, Emily, is delighted to be living there, as she has a horse in Camilla’s barn.  Moving was a stressful process, family dynamics and all…  BUT it is done and over. Yeeha.  The pain was eased by a hot bath and a gin and tonic, courtesy of Anders.  

We left for Denmark on Sunday.  The initial plan was to leave 5 am and catch the 9:30 boat in Goteborg, however, we decided to take the 12:30 ferry across to Frederikshavn, Denmark.  Much nicer!  

Several years ago, a car drove off the bridge into the water..

We stayed at Gronhoj Feiricenter, with 140 rental units. Anders had stayed here as a 6th grader and again with his family. The North Sea beach was 400 meters from our apartment.

Yarrow won at mini golf (by one point!)

We traveled from Gronhoj (nearest large town Lokken) on the West coast to the Skagen area and visited the Nordsoen oceanarium (The North Sea). Here Lily makes a friend of a harbour seal.

This shark had been attacked by an Orca. This was on the beach near our apartment. We spent a lovely time on the beach, collecting shells, swimming and sunbathing.

At times we felt that we were in the desert. This picture is of A/C and L in "The Sand -covered church." Built in the 12 century on the flat ground midway between the two most important settlements of the parish. It was closed in 1775, when the maintenance and the shifting, growing sand dunes proved to much for the parish. Parts of the church were removed and others still lie under the sand. All that remains is this tower, registered as a ancient monument.

Our right legs are in the North Sea and our left are in Baltic. Look at a map of Denmark, we are at the very northern tip!

Near Rubjerg, north of Lokken, on the North sea, are 100 foot sand dunes that stretch for miles. Here, there was a lighthouse that was slowly claimed by the sand and abandoned. The wind was wild and the sand flew into eyes and ears.

Artsy fartsy shot taken from the abandoned lighthouse.

Elizabeth and Mathias will marry August 1st.  We have extended our stay by several days so we can be part of the celebration.  Camilla and Anna planned a bridal shower for Elizabeth and  grooms party was planned for Mathias.  Kurt had a migraine and missed Mathias’s party.  Anders shared the details:  red devils suit with a flabby belly, towed on a rubber ring from town to Ingestrand, selling hotdogs in the park to Arvika festival goers and a game of mini golf.  I joined the bridal shower:

We found a dress for Elizabeth at the Red Cross second hand store and tights and bridal veil at a party shop.

We played a game of football golf together at Elizabeth's bridal shower. Swedes play soccer from birth and my lack of skill was evident. Perhaps playing barefoot was a mistake.

The bridal shower group at the football golf course.

The owner of the course met us at the last hole. He was a character. We went a picture to Mathias with this text: Sorry! Elizabeth has chosen a new groom. He served Elizabeth a Jagermeister shot wearing a wig.

Elizabeth's game gear.

Elizabeth's task was to sell strawberries in town. That girl is something else. Not only did she sell all the strawberries, when she ran out she sold the pair of second hand shoes we had bought her.

Second hand shoe blow out. We ended with a meal at Oscar Hotel and a wander through town.