UK August-October 2013- Stratford Upon Avon

The last stop on our way back to Dan's hometown of Newbury, was the Historic market town of Stratford-Upon-Avon. Stratford-Upon-Avon is most famous for being the birth place of playwright, William Shakespeare. As both a literature and theatre lover, visiting Stratford-Upon-Avon was a must-do destination for me.

Not that it is reflected in this particular picture, but when we arrived at noon on a Saturday, the town was bustling with tourists.

We didn't want to visit Shakespeare's Birth Home on an empty stomach, so we set off in search of a local lunch spot.

We walked down a glass covered arcade called Bards Walk ...

And found a cute cafe called Bensons.

Bensons was a real find. I had a prawn and mayo sandwich, a UK discovery that needs to become popular in America. I crave it! Dan ordered a roast beef sandwich made on fresh french bread and served with thick cut chips. We washed down our meal with champagne and shared two desserts, a strawberry custard and a house-made warm brownie. The meal was decadent.

Full bellies and feeling slightly tipsy, we made our way to Shakespeare's Birth Home, which along with other homes of Historic significance (Anne Hathaway's Cottage) is managed under the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. The price of 22.50 pounds gave us a year pass to the five homes managed under the trust. Not a bad deal!

We only had enough time to visit Shakespeare's Birth House, but I look forward to coming back and really exploring the town.

Almost there...

Finally, we stepped inside the house where William Shakespeare was born!

The tour of the house was self-guided with informational placards and docents in most of the rooms. The docents were very knowledgable and quick to answer any Shakespeare or period related question.

We spent about ten minutes listening to this docent tell us about the bed where Shakespeare was born. As a baby, Shakespeare would have slept in the little bunk attached to the side of the bed and his parents would have slept sitting up, propped by several pillows, as it was considered dangerous to sleep flat in case evil spirits attacked. Small children were considered the best targets for evil spirits and the backing evidence was the large number of children killed by plagues.

We spent about an hour touring the house, which consisted of two floors and encompassed two buildings with a garden in the middle.

In the garden, we found two actors performing a scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream. The actors were performing Shakespearean pieces upon request.

Even if Stratford-Upon-Avon had nothing to do with Shakespeare, it would be a lovely town and would warrant a visit. However, the literary roots of this town make is a must-do when visiting England. It was one of my favorite stops on our trip and I look forward to returning in the future, hopefully for a few nights.

UK August-October 2013- Edinburgh Castle

Dark and foreboding, Edinburgh Castle presides over the city with a theatrical flair. Edinburgh Castle demands to be visited on a overcast day. If you happen to visit the city when it's experiencing warm temperatures and blue skies, go elsewhere and return when you can tour with the right ambiance. Luckily, we experienced the castle at dusk in the rain, giving the Historic Landmark it's proper tone.

The castle is built on top of an extinct volcano and archaeologist estimate that humans first settled on it during the late Bronze Age or early Iron Age. It is the oldest continuously occupied piece of land in Scotland. The castle was built by King David I around 1130.

We arrived very late in the day, giving us less than two hours to explore the castle. This is nowhere near enough time. If you visit, allow a minimum of half a day. In any case, we worked with the time we had and did a speed tour of the castle.

We took a few interior pictures of The Great Hall. The hall was enormous with high ceilings and filled with colorful stained-glass windows.

The walls of The Great Hall were adored with weaponry. We liked this sword/sunburst thing that looked straight out of A Game of Thrones.

It looks more intimidating when it's in focus.

Our time at Edinburgh Castle was a blur. We quickly ran to each section of the grounds in an attempt to take it all in.

My strongest memory was The Scottish War Memorial, housed in a building in the center of the castle grounds. The building is a new addition, having been built in 1927, but it is designed in a way to blend in with the rest of the castle. The interior feels like a church, with many small alcoves providing quiet spots for prayer and reflection. There are huge books that list military members that have died in combat. These books are sitting on stands and available for visitors to flip through. The building has different sections for the various branches of the military. The Scottish War Memorial is free of charge to the public if you contact the office in advance, otherwise it's part of the admission to the castle. I thought that this was a great perk, especially for military and military families.

We saw the Scottish Crown Jewels, which were a lot less showy than the English Crown Jewels. The collection contains the coronation jewels for Mary Queen of Scots.

The castle is purported to be haunted and although it was plenty creepy, we didn't see anything noting the superstition. Surprisingly, the prison area was the least creepy thing that we visited.

After touring the castle, we did a little bit of exploring on our way back to our car. I took a picture of a store called The Mutt's Nuts, because that's an expression that Dan frequently uses!

Out of all of the wonderful places that we visited on our UK trip, Edinburgh is my top place that I would want to visit again. We only spent a handful of hours in the city and it wasn't nearly enough to feel like visited it. Edinburgh was the mutt's nuts!

UK August-October 2013- The Drive to Edinburgh

Next to Loch Ness, Edinburgh was the place that I wanted to visit most in Scotland. I had even begun reading Alexander McCall Smith's 44 Scotland Street, set in Edinburgh, as a way to theme my trip. I highly recommend picking your literature to theme around your vacation. It gave me a glimpse of the city before we arrived.

Unfortunately, Edinburgh is expensive and we were not able to find a reasonably priced hotel. We booked our night-stop in Lockerbie, but planned on having dinner in Edinburgh and visiting the castle.

We left John O'Groats early in the morning, to give ourselves ample time for stops on the road.

Our first stop was for a snack at ASDA.

ASDA is another UK supermarket chain that I can add to my list. ASDA has a little cafe that offers a cheap, quick and decent meal. We had a pot of tea and scones.

After a long stretch of driving, we encountered a pretty town that reminded me of our local mountain communities back home. There were camp grounds,hotels and a main street with boutique stores and restaurants. We saw a sign for a funicular and took a detour.

A ride on the Cairngorm Mountain Funicular is just over ten pounds and is Scotland's only funicular railway. We bought our tickets and waited in line.

The waiting area had many sculptures made out of wood.

We waited thirty minutes and even saw a funicular go up empty. Since it was cutting into our time for Edinburgh, we ended up skipping the funicular ride and the staff kindly gave us a refund. It's a good thing too, because when we returned to the parking lot, clouds had rolled in and the visibility was low.

The view from the funicular parking lot.

It was lunch time. so we headed back to the cute village of Aviemore and picked an Italian restaurant. There is something about cold, rainy days that make me crave tomato sauce.

La Traverna Ristorante was excellent. We shared a large pizza and left completely stuffed. If this restaurant was in my home town, I would be eating here frequently. It was a food highlight of our trip. Beyond the food, the restaurant was really warm and cozy, which was perfect as we sat by the window and watched the rain pour down outside.