We're Home

The 10 hour flight wasn't too bad. Isabelle slept through four hours of it, which was a blessing. She's a busy baby now that she crawls and pulls herself up. She can stand, but only for about 5 seconds. Michelle pouted on the way home. She didn't want to leave Europe.

Temp nearly had a heart attack when Doug walked through the door. He seemed very happy and well taken care of while we were gone. Thank you Doug (our neighbor)!


Temp hanging out at Doug's house with Maggie and Sandy

The girls dove into their homework that was due the next day. After a hefty meal from Pizza Hut, we all fell asleep about 7:30pm (3:30am London time.)

The next morning, the girls dressed in their new clothes. Michelle looked like she was from Paris, and Arielle looked like she was from London.

Mummies and Crown Jewels

We left the castles in Scotland and drove straight through to London. Scotland slideshow We were at the same hotel that we stayed in before.

We woke up early. The girls and I took the Tube to the British Museum to check out the mummies while Doug fixed the car tire, washed the car and turned it back in to the rental place. He met us at the museum.

Michelle's Favorite - Mummified Cat


The Rosetta Stone


A well preserved mummy


Click here for the British Museum Website

We, as these things seem to happen, ran out of batteries for the camera right before we went to the Tower of London, so we don't have any pictures inside of the crown jewels or the dungeon.

Tower of London


Click here for the Tower of London site

We all tried to go to bed early, but we were a little excited about going home. We had an airport shuttle coming at 7:30am.

London slideshow coming soon.

Kennedy Castles

We were sad to say goodbye to our Scottish rental. It was so warm and comfy. We were off to Prestwick, just south of Glasgow to visit some castles. I'm facinated with the Scottish Kennedy Clan because somewhere on my centuries old family tree I have a branch that links me to these people.

Our first stop was at Culzean Castle. I wanted to visit this one the most because I've heard a lot about it, and the person who built it, David Kennedy, shares my father's name.

It's very grand, and now belongs to the Scottish Heritage Trust.


The Castle


The Carriage House


The Battery

Next, we visited the first Kennedy Castle at Dunure. It's just ruins now. It was originally built in the 1200s.




The family history is intriguing. Here is a brief history.

Urquhart Castle at Loch Ness

We finally made it back to the Urqhhart Castle when it was open. Isabelle and I only stayed out there for 10 minutes before I took her into the gift shop cafe because it was so cold and the wind just sliced through us. She wasn't very happy. I did manage to take a few pictures before I handed the camera to Arielle. She had a lot of fun with the camera with help from her dad.


Urquhart Castle


View from the Guards Watchtower


The Kiln

To see the rest of Arielle's and Doug's pictures click here.

Thurso

We traveled two hours north to visit where Doug spent his pre-teen years.

The street where he lived


His school


His favorite toy store


For a slideshow of Thurso, click here.

Loch Ness

We had our cameras ready when we went to the Loch Ness, sure we were going to catch Nessie the monster. We had a false alarm that turned out to be a duck. We were deeply disappointed, but we soldiered on.


Doug and Michelle looking for Nessie


A bagpipe show at the Loch Ness visitor center

We went to visit the castle at Loch Ness, but it was closed. We are going to try to come back in the next few days when it's open.


Urquhart Castle at Loch Ness

We stayed in for the clock striking 12, and we all had a glass of champagne to celebrate 2009.

Inverness

We finally arrived in Inverness. There was a heavy frost everywhere and it was -5 degrees Celsius. It was so pretty.


Our rental house was so nice and comfortable. Some pictures...


The Lounge upstairs


Michelle and Arielle's room


The driveway with our little rental

The next day we took a holiday from our holiday and stayed in. We had a power outage and had to light candles and we played Uno. Our neighbors (and the rental's owners) kept checking on us and gave us a candle and updates until the power went back on. It was -3 C outside, but it was warm and toasty inside. It was lots of fun.

Nottingham

Our little Peugeot barely fit us five and our luggage. We had to leave a suitcase behind at our hotel. (They are holding it for us until we get back for our last night in London.)

Driving on the wrong side of the road took a bit to get used to. Doug slammed the left side of the car into a curb and popped a tire. He quickly changed it and loaded up the car.

Once we were all squeezed inside, we were off for Inverness, Scotland. We had a little detour in Nottingham. We had to go see Robin Hood’s castle.

Here is the gate that leads to the castle



And the castle



It was a lot of fun. They have tours, but like most of England, they were shut down for the holidays.

A statue of Robin Hood in the little garden before the castle gate


For the official history of Nottingham Castle click here


After a little shopping, we stopped at a B & B for the night. It was very nice and very purple. The breakfast was really good. It was a traditional English breakfast with fried bread and some kind of sausage potato muffin thing. I wouldn’t want to eat like that every morning, but it was fun to try everything.

We were off to Inverness…

Buckingham Palace and Portabello Road

We had two places to visit before we moved on to Scotland. Buckingham Palace and Portabello Road market place.

We hit a few Boxing Day sales before we headed out to Buckingham Palace. Unfortunately, it was dark and closed, but we did get a few good pictures and we had a nice walk. We did the Princess Diana Memorial Walk which has plaques with roses and arrows along the sidewalks and through a park.



The next day, we went to Portabello Road Market. It's like a giant swap meet, and it's featured in Doug's favorite movie "Bedknobs and Broomsticks."



One of my favorite movies, Notting Hill, was filmed here too. Here is the travel bookshop that was used in the movie. The famous blue door that led to Hugh Grant's flat was auctioned off a little while ago. Only a plain black door is in it's place.



We rented a car, then we were off to Scotland.