Atherton Family Notes

I am starting to have car butt. You know when you have been doing too much car travel when your butt winces at the thought of sitting in the car seat and you swear it has taken on the shape of the seat. You have to massage it, caress it, and trick it into getting back in. The kids are having car butt syndrome as well. I lost count of how many times I heard “I am tired of sitting in the car.” and “I don’t like riding in the car so much.” But I am getting ahead of myself. Let’s start with the morning.

The night before we had made our plans to see the city in a whirlwind kind of way. Our frustrations started with the fact that because it was Sunday, things did not open until 10am. This was a late start when you are jamming a load of fun into the day! Our first stop was the National Railroad Museum. It is the biggest in the world. It was, in fact, neat but Ken was much more excited about it than I. The girls had a great time, though. One of the things that stood out the most for me was the royal train. They had the original train that the kings and queens of Britain had traveled on in the olden days. They have since been retired here and a new train was built for the queen sometime in the 1970’s. Just looking through the windows gave me a feeling like I was taking a peek into their lives. My imagination ran with the thought of royalty traveling in that manner. I could just see the servants in waiting and the royals resting. I am sure the highlight of the kids’ day was being able to have a Thomas the Tank Engine box lunch. Those big impressive trains and all that history have nothing on Thomas!

We decided to hoof it to the cathedral and it turned out not to be as far a walk as I feared. We have now surpassed the value of that second stroller ten fold! With all 3 kids strapped in, Ken and I were able to get to the center of town within minutes. The York Minster was an awesome sight to see. The size alone shocked me but once inside, my jaw dropped at the stained glass and the stone work. The Minster is the largest cathedral in Britain. No amount of words can even come close to describing the beauty of the church and I only hope the pictures do it any justice at all.

Ceiling in York Minster

We were quite shocked to fine that most of the stores downtown were open. It was a Sunday after all and that is just not normal in Europe! We walked around and peeked into a few stores but nothing major. The sight of all the familiar names like Subway, Boarders, Clare’s Boutique, Pizza Hut, and even TWO (yes TWO!) Starbucks, along with Sunday hours made it feel like we were back in America.

I had planned that our trip to Edinburgh would take about 3 hours to drive. Now we have already seen what happens with my “plans” on travel time and this was no different. I just can’t get used to the highway system here. There are roundabouts in the middle of the highways that slow you down, only 1 lane in which you are sure to follow a tracker for 10 miles, and a reduced speed through towns that make you wonder why this is considered a highway. So, the lesson for driving in the UK is to take whatever time you THINK it will take and just double it! That should get you there close to on time.

Along about 8:00, we realized we were still a fair distance away from Edinburgh. I gave the B&B a call to let them know of our location and to inform them we will be rather late. I do know that one of the drawbacks of staying in B&B’s is that you need to be there at a decent hour to check in. With a hotel, the check in time really does not matter. What I had not expected was the guilt trip the man laid into me. I felt guilty enough but to have him pile more on was about to break my spirit. I had almost become afraid to look this man in the eye when we did arrive. When I mentioned I thought we were another 2 hours away, he informed I was at least 3 hours away. To make the situation worse, the kids were cranky, tired, sore, and our DVD player picked THIS MOMENT to die! Was there some saint or person of power that I ticked off back there at the York Minster? Were they getting even with me?

My stomach was in a complete knot! I wanted to just get to the B&B! It was a dark drizzly night and it felt more like 11pm than 9pm. I just kept praying that we would not get lost and add more time to the hunt. Someone smiled down on me and we found it on the first shot and even pulled in right at 10pm. (the exact amount that *I* said to the man on the phone! I was right, he was wrong. NANA-NANA-NANA!) But in all fairness, I do realize we were very late and I apologized profusely! Now I just hope this pit in my stomach eventually fades and allows me to get some sleep tonight. I also hope I do not have to many guilt stricken dreams.

Technorati Tags: carissa, cathedral, celia, driving, edinburgh, england, ken, national railroad museum, national railway museum, rome, royal train, sadie, sandi, vacation, wales, york, york minster

Local Tags: carissa, cathedral, celia, driving, edinburgh, england, ken, national railroad museum, national railway museum, rome, royal train, sadie, sandi, vacation, wales, york, york minster

 Format this post for printing

I am not sure what to tell about today. We made our way to the downtown area which took about 20 minutes to do, then walked down the Royal Mile and back up it. We walked over to another street called Princes Street and back to the hotel. I would say we walked at least 5 miles today. We shopped for 5 miles! Talk about shopping until you drop.

The first sight we saw was the castle perched up on the hill. It looked more modern than the others we had seen but I am sure if we would have toured around it we would have found the older parts. This is where our Royal Mile walk started. It ended at the Holyrood Palace which is the residence of the Queen when she is visiting Scotland. Directly across the street from this palace the new Scottish parliament building is being finished up. We walked around it and looked inside. We were intrigued by the horror story behind the building of it. It was 2 years late on the finish and ten times over budget. It was supposed to cost 4 million and to date they are at 40 million!! The official opening is to be in October but they are far from ready. There is still a lot of duct tape holding things together, or maybe that is part of the budget and design, who knows!

Edinburgh castle

Parliment building

There was plaid everywhere! All the stores had a selection of something plaid. It was like they took the same old teddy bears and souvenirs and added plaid and bagpipes to it. The truth is that out of the thousands of people we passed today, we only saw 2 blokes dressed in traditional Scottish dress. One of those worked at a hotel as a door man. The stores pack in the kilts, advertise the heck out of them, and make it sound as if the tradition is coming back into everyday dress. To be fair, I do believe the kilt is more of a dress code for the highlands than it is here in the lowlands where we are.

Even though there was an over kill of plaid around, I still did not find any plaid for me. I found great wool blankets but the colors were wrong. I found great colors that were beautiful but nowhere to put them in my house. I found fantastic skirts for me but none looked good on. And I found breathtaking cashmere sweaters but none in the price range that Ken would not have a heart attack over. So at the end of the day I had no souvenir from Scotland unless you count the sweatshirt we had to buy ken to wear around today. It was very cold and I forgot to pack his coat so we found the first shop selling Scotland sweatshirts and grabbed it. I know he will never wear it again so it will become mine to wear around on cold days at home. Believe it or not, it has not an ounce of plaid on it.

I did purchase 2 books on Mary Queen of Scots and now I have so many books to read I am not sure where to start and how I will ever get to them all. The story of Mary sounds so interesting to me and I could not pass them up. She became queen of Scotland only 5 days after her birth, fled to France to live, married a Frenchman at age 15, and widowed at age 17 she returned to Scotland. She married Lord Darnley, had a son, and murdered her husband. Three months later she married again, Scotland was outraged and she had to flee to England. She was imprisoned for 19 years before being executed at the command of her cousin Queen Elizabeth. How’s that for an epic story? Sounds like those soap operas get their scripts from history!

The only funny thing that I can offer you today is this: on our walk we passed by a clock tower several times. Each time we passed it we saw people taking pictures in front of it. We grabbed some fish and chips for lunch and sat to eat them on a park bench which happened to be right by this tower. Again, we saw several people taking pictures of and in front of the tower. We looked through our tour book but nothing was listed about this tower of wonder. We looked at the buildings all around it but none gave any clue to its mystery. So what did we do? We took a picture of it!

[Editor's note:  Ken would like to point out that he has, infact, kept the Scotland sweatshirt, and he wears it on a regular basis, particularly in the winter when it's cold in his office.  He's wearing it right now, even, on the day this post is being reuploaded to our site, February 13, 2009.  So there. Ha.]

Technorati Tags: carissa, castle, celia, edinburgh, holyrood palace, ken, princes street, royal mile, sadie, sandi, scotland, scottish parliament, vacation

Local Tags: carissa, castle, celia, edinburgh, holyrood palace, ken, princes street, royal mile, sadie, sandi, scotland, scottish parliament, vacation

 Format this post for printing

Late last night I realized we missed one of the attractions I was looking forward to the most, The Tartan Weaving Mill & Exhibition. This is the mill where you can watch how they make the wool and kilts from the start of shaving the sheep to the end product. I talked Ken into doing it this morning. I found it very interesting and loved looking at all the heavy and very loud machines weaving the plaid material. I was able to even try my hand at working a real loom for a few minutes. I paid a small fee and a man took me to the machine, showed me how it worked, explained the definitions on what constitutes hand made and brand quality, and then let me have a go at it. It works by pumping petals similar to riding a bike. The pedals then work the machines that pull the threads up and down while it also operates a hammer that shoots the bobbin across between the threads that are pulled. The bobbin shoots so fast that you can barely see it go, but the man had eagle eyes and stopped me just as it was emptying and reloaded it. The colors change by the process of links running down the side that change the bobbin shooting through. I weaved a small yellow, blue and black piece and was told I did a wonderful job pumping the foot petals and even made about a half yard of material in the 5 minutes I worked the machine. All I can say is that the people who still do this (and I am told there are) must have fantastic leg muscles and keep themselves fit. If I could do for exercise, I would be the size of a toothpick and have some serious multi-tasking going on! Working, exercising, crafting, maybe even throw in a bit of TV watching in there! Sounds like my kind of work!

some of the bobbins for 1 machine

I fell in love with an angora hair throw and did a little sweet talking to Ken to buy it. I came away with the mother load of souvenirs from Scotland. It is a purple, tan, and sage green plaid that will go perfect in my bedroom.

We arrived in Blackpool around 5pm and the weather was not what I would call cooperative. The wind was so high that it about knocked us over. The hotel was right on the waterfront and on the main drag of the entertainment. We decided on going to the tower for the few hours we would have here but found it closed because of the high wind. There were several other things in the tower to do and I told Ken to go ahead and pay the fee to get in. Have you ever had those moments of regret that happen not even 5 minutes after you do something? When traveling in Italy we chose not to go up the Tower of Pisa because the price seemed so expensive (and we could only go up one at a time, because the kids weren’t allowed). We have regretted that decision from the moment we left Pisa. Today was the opposite side of that feeling. Within seconds of walking into the tower in Blackpool, I regretted paying 28 pounds to get in. There was a circus but it was full, there was a dinosaur roller coaster for kids but it had just closed for the night, the tower was closed, and the ballroom was filled with the elderly out for a night of dancing. The only things to do were to walk through the aquarium, shop at the gift shop, play video games (where you had to sink more money into it) and play at the large playground that was not very well lit. I was in a pretty sour mood and it was hard to have fun. I think we stayed a total of an hour and a half, so that is 60 cents a minute for the kids to play on a jungle gym!

The sad thing is, we had more fun outside. By the time we left the tower, the wind had really picked up and the kids ran around having a good time. Then, it began to rain! I would have sworn we were in the backend of hurricane Ivan that is hitting the Caribbean right now. The water stung as it hit your face and there was saltwater and sand mixed in. At one point Sadie ran the other way screaming in fear and Carissa was screaming because she could not even walk forward through the wind. There was no way we would be able to walk back to our hotel so we caught the tram back.

The storm rolling in made for an awesome sunset!

I guess I can’t say I enjoyed my time in Blackpool. Maybe if the kids were older and could do more of the roller coasters and games it would have been more fun. Maybe if the weather had been nicer to walk the town in and see all the lights lining the streets. Who knows! The real point of Blackpool was a stopping point to break up the drive back to the ferry. Tomorrow should be an all day ride in the car down to Brighton. What fun! Calgon take me away now!!

Technorati Tags: blackpool, carissa, celia, england, ken, sadie, sandi, scotland, tartan, tartan factory, vacation, weaving mill

Local Tags: blackpool, carissa, celia, england, ken, sadie, sandi, scotland, tartan, tartan factory, vacation, weaving mill

 Format this post for printing

I received a gift from Ken this morning. He had gone out last night in search of milk for Sadie. While he was out, he checked a few places out. Along one of those fun routes, he found little bubblegum/toy dispensers. You know the ones kids like so much, where you put a coin in, turn the crank, and out pops the prize. Only this one did not dispense toys (at least not for kids) instead, it shot out pasties! Yep! You read that right! The funny thing is that this cracked Ken up so much he reached into his pocket, pulled out a coin, and turned that crank. He was cracking up still as he gave them to me. I tell you this story not to completely gross you out or make you want to poke out your minds eye, but because it sums up the whole feel of Blackpool. A seedy Los Vegas feel. (I am saying this without ever having been to Vegas!)

This is in sharp contrast to the place we are staying tonight. Brighton is the upper class vacation spot. The Prince of Wales who became George the IV in 1820 married and built a home here. He was famous for his parties and as they became more extravagant, he had his farm house transformed into a lavish Oriental palace. This is on the agenda for tomorrow and judging from the pictures, it should be quite a sight to see. There is also what is called the Lanes. These are a series of streets that were the original streets but now are a maze of antique shops. We only have until noon before heading off to catch the ferry back home. So it will be an early morning.

Our car is packed solid and it is getting increasingly harder to see out the back window. I think we have reached the limit of our vacation. I am not sure why after living 3 years without Campell’s cream of mushroom, chicken, or celery soup, I felt the need to buy my weight in it. We also have a good stock of Pop tarts, saltine crackers, Tim Tams (a cookie from Australia imported to England) and various sauces. Why England gets these yummies and not France I find hard to understand.

As far as those pasties you had finally forgotten about… I kept them. Who knows when I may find something big or expensive I just have to have and now have a tool to use to weaken Ken’s wallet or maybe just give him a good laugh. Just be thankful I did not include a picture!

Technorati Tags: blackpool, brighton, england, ferry, France, house, ken, pasties, sadie, salt, sandi, vacation, wales

Local Tags: blackpool, brighton, england, ferry, France, house, ken, pasties, sadie, salt, sandi, vacation, wales

 Format this post for printing

Day 14 (yeah it’s over!)

Wednesday, September 22, 2004 4:02 PM

From: Sandi

Brighton was a disappointment. The town was passed its prime and showing signs of its age. I could tell that this used to be a beautiful town about 30-50 years ago but not anymore. Like an old house in a college town that has seen to many young people who do not care about the upkeep. The houses here were very pretty and interesting architecture but they were overgrown with weeds. What the town really needed was a good scrub, new paint, and some gardening. Even the water fountains were filled with nasty looking water. There were homeless and elderly people talking to themselves everywhere that added to the feel of being old beyond its years. It was one of those towns where if you looked at it with rose colored glasses, you would be in love with it. But seeing beyone the dirt, trash, and weeds is hard to do.

The palace that I was so excited to see was the same way. The gardens were unkempt and other buildings were built right up next to it. The whole thing lost some beauty when you could not tell where the palace ended and the pizza joint began. (No joke!) And what confuses me most is the guide book that shows the palace reflecting off a pond and you can even buy postcards with this same picture, but nowhere around the palace is there a pond today. Must have became overgrown and filled with grass.

The lanes were nothing more than designer stores with coffee shops 4 to a corner. Needless to say, we abandoned Brighton pretty quickly in search for something better.

The biggest fear and laugh we had today was reaching the ferry docks only to discover that our tickets were for TOMORROW!!! I debated all of about 30 seconds of finding a hotel for the night and looking around a bit more. My senses came back to me and I told myself we were out of clean clothes, shampoo, energy, and patience. It was better to get home before someone went mad (referring to me here).

We are now on our way back home and this feels weird. I keep expecting Ken to drive the other way around the circles and to turn into the other lane. Seeing the French signs and hearing French on the radio was a sharp realization on how quickly you get used to things while on vacation. One thing I can’t get used to is the food. I am looking forward to some home cooking and even to some salads. I have a nauseous feel right now that I am not sure is from the boat or the crap we have been eating for the past 2 weeks. I also can’t wait to get home and do laundry! I know! Sick, ain’t it?

Well, cheerio, England and see you again in about 2 weeks, when we hit London with Ken’s parents.

Technorati Tags: brighton, england, ferry, France, ken, sandi, vacation

Local Tags: brighton, england, ferry, France, ken, sandi, vacation

 Format this post for printing