Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Grandpa's quilt

Again I'm interrupting my blogging about my trip to bring you a craft project that I finally finished!  This one has been in the works for a little less than a year.  Which is practically no time in Bryn crafting time.  This quilt I started in California, finished in Kansas, and is going to reside in California.  This one is for my Grandpa.
I was inspired by fall.  The colors are a little less bright than normal but still fitting of the season.  I made the back with the leftovers from the front plus more of the charcoal that I love.
The back is a quilt in itself.  I really like both sides.
Well that's it for now.  I'll be back on the blog in about a week or so.  I have another vacation to go on.  This time it is California, my home for the past 3 years.

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Late Night at the Phog

I'm interrupting my blog posts from my trip to Europe to post something else for a day.  Yesterday I went to Allen Field house for Late Night at the Phog.  For all you non college basketball lovers out there every year KU kicks off their basketball season by introducing all the players and finishes off with the first scrimmage of the season.  
And it's free!
 We got there about an hour before the festivities started and I'm glad we got there that early.  It was announced that the turned 2,000 people away.
 They gave away free clapper things that had a light in them.  When they turned down the lights everyone turned the clappers on and they glowed throughout the stadium.  
After all the basketball players performed their skits, the halftime shows and the coaches talking it was finally time to watch the scrimmage.  I was so surprised to see so many people leave early.  For one they now scrimmage at 9:30 when it used to be midnight.  And isn't this what you came for?!  I guess it is hard to cheer for a team when both of them are your team.  
It was a fun evening and free!  And I enjoyed spending the day in Lawrence with my mom buying more fabric for projects that will happen eventually!

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Day 4 Edinburgh Festival Time

Wow, what an amazing city.  We started the day with a Scottish breakfast consisting of beans, ham (which they call bacon), tattie scone (potato scone), scrambled eggs, pan seared tomato, and sausage.  The tattie scone was probably my favorite.  Kinds like a lighter hash brown, not quite as greasy.
After breakfast the whole group boarded the bus and made our way into town.  We started with a short walking tour of the town around the princes garden.  Our guide Tim pointed out a couple of the monuments around the area and their history.  Around the city there are monuments and historical buildings about every 
block.  It does make remembering all of them a bit difficult but all my photos will jog my memory.  
Edinburgh Scotland
After our short tour a group of about 8 from our 24 went up the hill, which there are many, towards Edinburgh Castle.  Some people decided not to go because it cost 16 pounds to get in.  
Edinburgh Scotland
It was totally worth paying to get in.  I mean how often are you going to be able to walk around a 800 year old castle.  We started by going on an included guided tour around the castle.  I loved listening to our guide's accent plus he had lots of info that we would have not seen or read around the castle. 
Edinburgh Scotland
From the tour our next stop was seeing the Scottish crown jewels which include the crown, sword, sector and the Stone of Destiny.  The stone supposedly is where the monarchs of the past 1000 years were crowned upon.  England stole it from he Scottish 700 years ago and built a throne over it for when they crowned their monarchs including Queen Elizabeth.  It was returned to Scotland in the past 15 years or so.
At the top of the hill next to the crown jewels building there was an amazing memorial that was dedicated to those who lost their lives in WWIand WWII.  The amount of lives lost in WWI was pretty large for Scotland.  They had books around the memorial divided by the different branches of the military.  The books listed all the names of those lost from the first world war to current wars.
Edinburgh Scotland
The final stop at the top of the hill was the great hall.  The hall was lined with weaponry from various battles over the years.  We primarily went in to watch two performers talk about pikes and muskets.  Unfortunately it was raining outside so they were not able to shoot them off.  And of course I took a photo with both guys.  Very important.
Edinburgh Scotland
The last stop at the castle was watching the 1 o'clock cannon shot.  It was used by sailing ships in the bay area to set their watch to.  They shoot only a blank from the cannon.  If it were a live bullet the cannon has a range 10 miles.  On the way out of the castle I stopped by the soldier who shot the cannon and took a picture with her and the blank.  That was a very large blank.  About the size of a gallon jug.
Edinburgh Scotland
After the castle we grabbed lunch and wandered a while around the new town area.  Mostly higher priced shops that most of us where not interested.  So myself and Jackie started back up to the royal mile.  I had looked into going to the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo after learning a little bit more about.  The ticket office was on the way to the mile so we stopped by to give getting a ticket a try since Jackie already had hers.  I went up and got the last ticket for the night.  They told me that they had been sold out all day and one ticket had just come back.  Score.
Jackie and I walked back up to the Royal mile, picked up some flyers from all the performers from the fringe and decided on picking up tickets for one of them and headed down the the show hall.  Now keeping in mind that there were about 250 show halls around the city and some of them were on the upper level streets and some on the lower.  Ours was on the lower street while we were trying to find it on he upper streets in an on and off rain.
We finally found our show which was a 3 man team playing multiple characters about finding pirate treasure, finding treasure again and everything in between.  It dragged a bit and there were too many characters. If they would have cut about 15 minutes of the show it would have been pretty good.  Well at least it was only £6.  And it burned some time before the highlight of he trip.
Edinburgh Scotland
After dinner we headed back up to the castle where the Tattoo was.  The seats were set all along the esplanade.  My seat ended up being in the area where all the American tour groups were seated.  Very strange.  I had a nice time talking to he lady next to me from Cincinnati until he announcer started talked about 30 minutes before he show.  I thought he was just saying a couple messages but he ended up talking the entire time.  And then it was time for the show.  
Edinburgh Scotland
300 or more bagpipers came streaming out of the castle gates.  My mouth was literally open in awe.  Holy crap!  There were great acts from around the world including a US navel band.  There were too many great acts for me to even write down.  Some of the highlights were the Highland dancers doing a number about Whiskey, the drill team from Norway with the most amazing and precise movements and an incredible drum line.  
Edinburgh Scotland

Edinburgh Scotland
The end of he show brought every band together in front of the castle.  Oh and a sequence from Brave.  I just can't get away from Disney!
Edinburgh Castle
Even if I wrote 10 pages about the show it would not be enough to describe how amazing the show was.
Well it was back to the hotel to sleep to night away and look foreword to my day alone to find out all that Edinburgh has to offer.

Monday, October 8, 2012

Day 3 Getting to Edinburgh

From York we drove north to cross the border to Scotland to Edinburgh.  But before crossing the border we stopped for a little history.  Our first stop of the day was at Hadrian's wall.  
Northern England
This was the wall that created the northern most border of the Roman empire.  The wall still exists in many places along the border.Our stop was where the officers outposts and barracks were located along the wall .
Northern England
Not much of the original building was there but the base rocks are still there.  They built at the top of a hill so there were fantastic views any ways you looked.  The wall traveled off into the distance east and west.  Lots of hills to climb and puddles to step in.
Northern England
We had about an hour to walk around the site which had sheep moving throughout.  They would run away of you if you got too close.  Too bad, I wanted to pet an English sheep.  Sheep poop was a definite difficulty about walking around the site.  It was everywhere.  And I took way too many pictures of sheep.
Totally worth it.  After all the pictures and some sore calves we boarded the bus to head across the border to Scotland.
Our bus made a short stop at the border.  No stamp for the passport the border but there was a bagpiper.
It was the perfect way to enter Scotland, minus the lack of stamp.  Poor sad passport.  It was a quick stop at the border before continuing our drive into the city.
Topdeck Tours
We did make a short pitstop for break from sitting on the bus for hours on end.  There was tons of crap to buy of course and I'm afraid to say that I have non buyers remorse.  Why didn't I take this little guy home.
Oh that's right, I thought I could only take a carry on and being on day 4 of 25 I thought they may be more important things to bring home.  Mistake!
Because of traffic we arrived a bit late into the city.  We only had 10 minutes to get settled in our rooms before our bus took us to the Royal mile downtown.
Edinburgh Scotland
I ordered Haggis, tatties (potato), and neeps (turnip).  The Haggis had a texture similar to browned beef.  All the ingredients were stacked on top of each other so you didn't taste anything singularly.  I actually enjoyed it very much.  For dessert I enjoyed a whiskey  cream and raspberry concoction.  It wasn't very sweet and only had a touch of whiskey.  
Edinburgh Scotland
After dinner most of the tour group went to get tickets for a Fringe Festival show.  The festival happens every year in August for 3 weeks.  Someone in our group suggested a comedian from the festival so most of us bought tickets.  We headed into a church apparently for a racey comedic show.  His name was Jim Jeffries.  Someone mentioned that he was going to have a standup on Comedy Central soon so I expected him to be good.  And he was.  Lots of strong language but it was all part of his style and stories so it worked.  Great show with lots of great bits.  I would see him again.
After a long day many of us were tuckered out and hailed a cab back to our hotel.
My next adventure was staying in probably will be my favorite city of the tour, Edinburgh, for two more days.

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Day 2 The Tour Begins

After a full day in London it was already time to leave on my 2 week bus tour.  I slept well which made adjusting to the different time zone much easier than I usually do.  6 hours is more than I have ever had to adjust to.  I grabbed my breakfast to go from the front desk, checked out of my hotel room and sat down in the lobby to wait to check in with the tour.  I met a couple girls who were also on the tour in the lobby and struck up a conversation.
We checked in, got our bags and ourselves on the bus and off we went.  We started with an introduction of the bus, the rules of the road, procedural stuff, including no Crocs, and courtesies  and expectations.  
Our first stop after about an hour of driving was Oxford.  We only spent an hour there wandering around the city.  The nice thing about being on a tour is getting a little info before heading into town on your own.  The main hall at Oxford University was the inspiration for the Great Hall on Harry Potter.  Harry Potter whoo!  But of course we where there during Sunday services so we where not allowed because of services.  No!
  But there were great looking buildings all over with gardens surrounding them.  Can you imagine going to University here, or as the Brits call it Uni.  So much history and beauty on the campus.  
After our short stop in Oxford we headed north for another hour to the home town of Shakespeare called Stratford-Upon-Avon.  We started at his birthplace which is situated in the middle of the shopping area in town.  I have a feeling the shopping came in after Shakespeare time, just a hunch.
Stratford-Upon-Avon England
Around the city of Stratford-Upon-Avon they have all the iconic white and brown inlayed wood which is what his first home looked like too.  I suppose it is what you think England would look like and it actually is.
From his birthplace we headed to his adult home with his wife Anne Hathaway and no, it's not that Anne Hathaway.  The house at the time was the second largest house in town.  Currently there is a dig site at the back of the house where you can dig for a treasure from Shakespeare's time.  We didn't have enough time to visit the house or the dig site unfortunately.   It was another short stop.   From his home with Anne we walked down to his final resting place.
I did not go into the church because you had to pay a little bit and I was still not able to get any cash out of the ATMs.  Up to that point I had tried 4 different machines and none of them wanted me to have cash!  But I still enjoyed the outside of the church and all stained glass.  Plus I discovered right away that the cemeteries  in each town were different.  
The girls that I had met at the hotel in the morning and I ventured back to the main street.  We walked along the river side where people were enjoying a impromptu performance of a Shakespeare show.  Only in Stratford-Upon-Avon I suppose.  
There were also boat hires all along the riverside.  If you loose close enough to the picture below you can see all the boats are named for female characters in Shakespeare plays.  
We found a British pie shop on the main street where I had a traditional pie, not Sweeney Todd style.  I enjoyed the pie which was like eating a beef stew inside a pastry. Who could complain about that.
Not too much to in the city but shop or drink but it was worth stopping to see the house styles and get your dose of Shakespeare history.  It is a bit of a one and done kind of town.
Our final stop for the day was York.  We had some free time before dinner so I headed into town alone.  From out hotel the city walls were only a ten minute walk.  It was the first day of the tour and my first time heading out with out any of the tour mates which would be a trend that would continue.
In the center of the city there is the most amazing cathedral.  It is massive.  I walked around the entire grounds and just kept walking around and exploring the city.
So much so that when I got lost not too much later.   I used the cathedral to reorient myself.  And did I ever get lost.  I suppose that you get to know the city well by the time you figure out where you are. 
I found a couple mates from the tour and we headed back to the hotel to meet the group for dinner.  
We walked back into town and found our way into the restaurant   I got a hard cider at the bar to go with dinner that was very good.  We had 3 courses to choose from.  I had a nothing to write home about tomato soup, it was tomato soup.  As it was Sunday I ordered the Sunday Roast.  The roast came with a Yorkshire pudding which was pretty much bread with not much taste used to sop up the gravy.  But hey, now I can saw that I had Yorkshire pudding in Yorkshire county.  After about another 20-30 minutes, and about 10 minutes after everyone else had their dessert mine finally came.  It tasted great but I only had about 5 minutes to eat it so we would be on time for our ghost tour.
York is supposedly the most haunted city in England.  Our guide, or ghost host, was fantastic.  Great mix of serious and funny.  We heard 5 different stories around the city while walking through narrow and dark alleys.  It was a great way to bond at the beginning of our bus tour.  Plus it was fun scaring the one girl in our group who was afraid of ghosts.  Plus we found out who would be the punching bag of the group on the trip too.
At the conclusion a couple of us went back to the shambles which inspired Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter films.  I thought that it looked like when I was wondering around lost so I was happy to have my inclinations confirmed.  Yes, super Harry Potter fan along with my Disney problem.  I'm seeking a cure by visiting more sights to expand my knowledge.
York England
After getting a little lost again the group that I had wondered off with after the Ghost tour finally found the cathedral in thanks to my being lost in that area earlier in the day.
We made our way back to the hotel for the night to be off the next morning to Edinburgh.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Day 1 It's been a while!

It's been a while since my last post.  I had planned to discontinue blogging but a few of my friend, and really one in specific, still look at it so I thought I should start it up again.  So hello everyone!  During the last couple months I have been doing a lot of traveling.  I decided about 3 months ago that I should travel more so I took a big dive into that idea booking a 3 1/2 week trip to Europe only 13 days before my plane took off.  And during my travels I wrote a travel blog.  I found that I took special care to remember my day to write later it was much easier to recall the day.
So for a good while this blog will be dedicated to my adventures around the world as I share those travel blogs to the entire internet (or those who use the internet and are a friend of mine)!  So here we begin with my traveling adventures starting with my flight over to London and my adventures around a part of the city.
And of course there will be lots of photos.  Over the 3 1/2 weeks in Europe I took over 4000 photos!  Thank goodness for digital!

Day 1 Getting to London
I left Kansas City for my first international flight ever at about 10am.  It seems a new tradition for my mom and I to head to First Watch and enjoy a potato and egg scramble.  So good and a great way to start a very very long day.
The first flight to Atlanta was just fine.  I got to the airport way too early thinking that I needed a lot of extra time for an international flight compared to a domestic flight. Not so much.  All I had to do was slide my passport through the scanner and done.  It put a little note on my boarding pass that said that my passport was valid.  Easy going.  The first flight was almost full.  Thankfully I had a window seat and a small lady next to me so it was no problem.
The second flight to Detroit was equally uneventful.  This time I had an isle seat on a 777.  I hadn't been on a plane that size for a long while.  9 seats across.  I suppose that is what happens when you go from one airline hub to another.  Short and sweet with individual screens on each seat to busy myself while crossing parts of the country.
I had a pretty long layover in Detroit so I took it upon myself to walk the entire concourse. After getting to one end I took the tram back to the center next to my gate.  I also stopped by the currency exchange store front.  What a rip off!  The rate lately has been one pound to 1.57 but she said the exchange was 1.77.  Ill admit I laughed a bit by what they were pulling over on people.
I sat down at the gate and a nicer older woman sat close by so I struck up a conversation with her.  She had lived on the US for 43 years but was originally from London.   She was heading back to visit some family.  Her name was Iris.  We had such a great conversation that she hoped that we would be on the same flight back.
I got on my first international flight with no problems at all.  I was moved from middle to the isle seat and then no one sat in my original seat.  So seating was great but the red eye not so much.  I even took a sleeping pill and I could still not fall asleep.  Just like Avenue Q it sucks to be me.
The flight was not too bad.  They had screens on each headrest so I watched a couple movies.  Two not so great movies and one that I already watched so I knew it was good.  And continued to try to sleep, no luck there.
Once we arrived around 11am I headed to customs.   You had to fill in the card on the plane so it would be ready by the time you walked through all the corridors which felt like miles after a long flight.  I finally made to the line which most people said it could be a nightmare but it only took 5 minutes to get through.  Once I got to the agent he asked how many days I was spending in the UK, which I figured was about 17 days.  He asked if I was a vacation which I responded how did you guess.  Was it was tshirt and track jacket.  He laughed and said most travelers staying for that long were on vacation   He stamped my passport, my first stamp on a passport ever, and off I went!
I took some pictures inside the airport because there was cool Olympic stuff.  Everywhere!  And ambassadors handing out various maps and guides.  I always grab that kind of stuff on vacation because you never know what you are going to find inside a guide.  Plus I always hoard all my paper on vacations for craft projects in the future.
I found the underground, bought my oyster card, which is the underground travel card, and headed into underground.  It was very easy to get into the underground as it is connected into the airport so you didn't even need to step outside to get onboard.  It only took about 40 minutes to get into the city and about a 10 minute walk from the station to the hotel.  I made friends along the ride that were also from the states who took the photo below for me.  PS the underground is totally a misnomer because it not all underground.  False advertising!
I stayed at the Umi Hotel in the Paddington area.  It is the home base for Top Deck, the tour company I took, and it is certainly not fancy.  I had read a lot online about the high prices in London and how small the rooms are even with the high prices.  I can say that I agree plus my hotel did not have air conditioning and at 90 degrees outside it was a bit tough to be indoors.
I took about an hours worth nap, which was not much considering I had been up since the previous day.  And I was off my own time zone by 6 hours!  But that was probably a good thing to help me get onto to new time zone.
Because it was my first time traveling internationally and alone I got nervous about heading out.  
 I argued with myself for a bit, got a little nauseous from my nervousness but convinced myself to leave my room and head into the city.
I started by taking a 5 minute walk to Hyde park which was due south from my hotel.
It was the hottest day of the summer, they hit a record high that day, so there many people out enjoying the park.  Bikes all around, groups enjoying a picnic, Frisbees flying and kids playing on the playgrounds.  I walked around the park for a out an hour.  It was the perfect start to my solo trip.
I stopped by Kensington palace which was the favorite palace of Diana.  The gardens around the palace are beautiful. I would return to with my London Pass later after the tour.
London England
Out in front of the palace sits Queen Victoria.  She also called Kensington Palace home during her 60 year reign.  Quite stately, but it is England after all.
London England
 I continued around the park until I found a gold statue of a king with huge statues around him.  Talk about being impressed with himself.
Across the road was Prince Albert hall.  A round performing arts hall with plenty of details to look at.  I had already learned that in London everything has history and details a plenty.  Some of buildings in the area were truly a sight to see.  I've never seen anything like them before.  
I wondered around a bit more and ended up in one of the museum areas.  On one of the buildings there was a dedication wall to remember the damage that was done during the blitz of WWII.  History was around you everywhere.  They really embrace their history and share it with everyone who visits.
London England
I decided to head into the Victoria and Albert museum.  That place is huge and it is free.  
I only saw about a quarter of what it had to offer.  Beautiful sliver and gold pieces, the biggest tapestries of all time which were about 40 feet across, 
London England
collections of jewelry from 2000 + years ago to current plus paintings that hung everywhere.  You could easily get lost in there easily.  In fact I asked on of the docents there and he said that recently one person who had worked there for five years got lost inside.
London England
My final stop in London was to Harrods.  What a crazy place that is.  I thought it would be a lot like Halls in KC and boy was I wrong.  It was the most expensive, decorated, over the top places that I had ever seen and it was swarming with people.   
London England
Each room was themed like a theme park would be.  The quality of everything there was top of the line.  They had everything, chandeliers, jewelry, housewares, clothing and every other thing you could think of is inside.
London England
There was also a Harrods themed shop that just had stuff with Harrods on it for all the tourists.  And even that stuff was expensive.  Ten pounds for a reusable bag, aka 16 ish dollars, I don't think so.
London England
Craziness!  One of the biggest draws for the average tourists were all the food halls and restaurants.  They had every type of cuisine you could think of, including a tea room!   I bought a sandwich at one of the food courts to say that I bought something at Harrods.  
I took the underground back to the hotel since I had wandered pretty far away.  One thing that I was not expecting in London were the street signs to find your way around.  They are all the walls of the buildings.  Not on street corners or traffic lights.  Sometimes they were a bit difficult to find or they just weren't there or around the corner on another wall.  A bit odd for me but added to a different experience.
London England
I made it back to my hotel after a long day of travelings and a good afternoon around the city.  I ate my sandwich from Harrods and watched a bit of BBC in England.  Yes BBC, not BBC America, sweet.  After staying up as long as I could I tucked in for the day for my tour departing the next morning.