Random little lanes

During our travels in the UK, I have grown to appreciate all the random little lanes that branch off the major roads. There's something peaceful and intriguing about these narrow passage ways. Here's a few that caught my eye...

EdinburghInverness
London
St Andrews

Food

If any one is trying to eat well these days, I apologize for tempting you with these photos. However, I do want to share with you some of our food experiences in Scotland.

First--the often asked about--Haggis!! My adventurous friend Jenn was brave enough to order this from a pub in Edinburgh. I had a bite and it was actually quite good! Although, we cannot claim we've tasted TRUE haggis because, well, this version was vegetarian :)



My personal favorite--sticky toffee pudding! Its just fantastic...can't explain it. Usually served warm with either ice cream or pouring cream.


From the Sand Dollar (favorite place to go for a late breakfast)--the picture really says it all...but notice that the bacon is a bit more like ham than what we're used to...but soooo good.

Caramel squares--You can find one of these at most bakeries. You'll definitely want some milk with this!

Favorite Park

These are some shots from my favorite park. The day I took the pictures was actually quite warm...but now most days are rainy and in the 50s...which actually sounds colder than it really feels. Hope the flowers brighten your day!!

Paris Churches

So we thought it was time to continue our update on the trip to London and Paris. I've been blogger-chastised for blog-neglect, so hopefully this will make up for it, and hold you over until the year in review blog...tune in Sept. 27 for the one year mark of kelli's and my trip to Scotland!

Anyway, this blog takes us on a tour of Paris churches. The first is Sainte Chapelle, built after the comedian Chapelle was canonized by the church for his work on comedy central...just kidding. This church was actually built to house relics, most particularly the crown of thorns.




As you can see, the stained glass in the church was pretty awesome. Each section told the story of a different book of the Bible, and there was statues of the disciples in between each one.


From Sainte Chapelle it is only a short walk to Notre Dame, which is pretty incredible. They are both on an island of sorts, with the River Seine splitting to go around them.





There is only so much you can say about Notre Dame. It is pretty awesome. Not only is it massive, but it has some incredibly intricate work as well - hence this awesome doorway.


Now, at first glance, you might think this is another angle of Notre Dame, but you would be wrong. This church is what I would like to call the "poor man's" Notre Dame. This is St. Eustache, which is one of the coolest churches in Paris, and yet is much less known than Notre Dame (but in my opinion, much cooler). Sadly, it isn't taken care of nearly as well.


Here is a shot from inside St. Eustache at a statue that had of Christ and Mary.



Well, that's it. We saw more churches like the Dome Church, St. Severin, and the Pantheon (used to be Sainte Genevieve), but for the sake of time and a lot of pictures that would look pretty much the same, we have spared you.

Tune in next time for a blog about the churches of London...as far as I know...

Arthur's Seat

Arthur's Seat is the highest point of Holyrood Park in Edinburgh. This 251m summit is a remnant of a long-extinct volcano. Apparently this was the former hunting ground of Scottish monarchs. The climb up actually only took about 40 minutes, and the view was beautiful!
Pictured above is the national emblem of Scotland--the thistle. Off in the blurry distance towards the right is Edinburgh Castle.
Here we are at the top!! It was cold and windy!!
Fortunately we did not experience any falling rocks!

"Its good to hear people laugh!"

Imagine Jenn and I sitting on the bench pictured above, laughing hysterically about something I now cannot remember (obviously it was important!). Then a women walks past us, turns around and stares at us and then turns back and continues on her way. Jenn keeps laughing, I stop because I think we're disturbing the peace or something, the women keeps walking, but then turns back around to look at us again, and then says "its good to hear people laugh". It was cute.



There was much laughing during Jenn's 10 day visit. I specifically laughed when she decided to walk to the front of the boat (pictured above) while we were on a tour of Loch Ness. Yes, it was very cold, and she was crazy enough to get herself soaked!

This is me trying to be Mary Poppins. I'm looking at River Ness. The picture was taken by Jenn, standing near the church pictured below.