Day 4: We weren't ready to leave York just yet, so we took a cab to the train station, checked our luggage and toured the National Railway Museum. I used to love trains when I was a child, but the museum, for whatever reason, just didn't do it for me. There was plenty to see and I liked the general sense of nostalgia, but after an hour we didn't see any need to see more.

We took a train to Newcastle and a connecting train to Haltwhistle. A friendly woman at the Haltwhistle tourist information office called for a cab, which took us to Housesteads Museum. As I mentioned in a previous post, I enjoy Roman history so I was very interested in seeing Hadrian's Wall and the ruins of the fort at Housesteads. I thought the Housesteads Museum did a good job of explaining the lay-out of the fort and, although the ruins are not much to look at, I was able to imagine what it might have been like for those soldiers stationed at the fort. The weather was cold and very windy - it felt like the wind was blowing right through me. We stayed until the museum closed, then took a bus back to the Haltwhistle train station.

Eventually a train to Carlisle appeared and, after arriving in Carlisle, we took yet another connecting train to Edinburgh. Once we pulled in to Edinburgh, we walked directly to our hotel, the Jurys Inn, which is only about a block away from the station, and called it a day.

Day 5: We woke up early to meet our scheduled Heart of Scotland highlands tour bus on Princes Street. Our tour guide / bus driver was a friendly Scotsman named Bill who was very energetic and, you could tell, enjoyed talking about Scotland and its history. The tour took us to Glencoe, where the MacDonald clan was massacred, as well as a tourist trap gift shop, complete with the requisite Scottish Highland cow named Hamish, for pictures. We made a couple of other stops for picture-taking and ultimately made it to Fort Augustus, at the edge of Loch Ness, for lunch. We had lunch at a local restaurant where I tried haggis, which I had sworn to do on this trip. The haggis didn't smell too great, but the taste was tolerable. Definitely not something I would care to try again, though.

While we were eating lunch, it began to snow heavily and unfortunately this affected the remainder of the highlands tour, since some of the planned stops were not available. Still, the snow was beautiful and overall, the tour was worthwhile since we did not want to rent a car on this trip.

PatrickLondon : LOL ! (Burly Chassis)
And if what I read is true, she's still going strong, 'GooooooldfinGAAAAA' and all.

Great report so far, SoonerRed, thanks for posting. Keep it coming!

Am enjoying your trip report and haven't finished reading; but I just had to say how much my husband and I enjoyed the "Viceroy" in York on our recent trip in September. Good service and they stayed open late.

We all know that Europeaans dislike Bush and with good reason but let's continue with the report. I miss England.

A lot of Americans dislike him just as much.

Keith

Day 5: After we received a wake-up call two hours earlier than we requested (thanks, Jurys Inn!), we packed, checked out of the hotel and left our luggage there while we toured Edinburgh. We had breakfast at a diner along the Royal Mile called the Rabbie Burns - big shocker, it was full of Robert Burns memorabilia. But the food was good and afterwards, we hightailed it up to Edinburgh Castle. To an extent, my memory of Edinburgh Castle is colored by my great appreciation of the Tower of London, which we would see two days later, but I will say that the castle is definitely worth seeing. The views of Edinburgh from the castle are excellent, and I enjoyed the exhibit leading to the Scottish crown jewels and Stone of Destiny. On our tour the day before, our guide told us of a rumor that the Stone of Destiny which was taken by the English and now resides in Edinburgh Castle was not the real Stone, but was in fact a sort of toilet lid from a latrine. Probably not true, but who's to say? At any rate, it made us look at the Stone in a different light.

After Edinburgh Castle, we walked down the Royal Mile to Bagpipes Galore, a store that sells - you guessed it - bagpipes! I had a great conversation with the gentleman who owns the store and bought a bagpipe chanter to practice with. When I told the owner where we were from, he said he once performed the theme to the old American TV show "Dallas" on the bagpipes for a wedding in France, which is really hard to envision.

For lunch, we ate at a pub off the Royal Mile called Frankenstein's. The decor of the place was fun, although I could have done without the TV screens showing the Kenneth Branaugh version of Frankenstein while I was eating fish and chips. Following lunch, it was time for my date with destiny ... it was time for me to publicly denounce my nemesis, Greyfriars Bobby.

An explanation is in order: I have known of the legend of Greyfriars Bobby for a long time and have never believed it for a second. I would believe in the Loch Ness monster before I could believe a dog would never move, except for food, from the unmarked grave of his deceased master for 14 years. I love dogs and always have, but every dog I've ever had would sell me out in a second for a Milkbone. So, once I found the hilariously large tombstone for Bobby, I publicly professed my disbelief in the legend. Luckily, nobody was around or I probably would've been beaten up.

Crossing the street, we spent an hour or two in the Museum of Scotland. I really had not heard much about the museum prior to visiting, but I greatly enjoyed it. Since we were running out of time, we went back to the hotel to get our luggage and took a train to London. From King's Cross, we took the tube to busy Charing Cross, where we checked into the Thistle Hotel and prayed that we would not get an early wake-up call again.

Hang on to your hanky, SoonerRed, I believe there's a film due out about Greyfriars Bobby.

Day 7: Mercifully, we did not receive an unwanted wake-up call, which allowed us to sleep in for a change. We wanted to start off the day at Westminster Abbey, but once we got there we learned it would not be open for tourists until 1:00 p.m. Rather than wait around for two and a half hours, we took the tube to the British Museum. The museum is somewhat overwhelming, but due to construction/renovation of some areas, several galleries were closed to the public and allowed us to focus more on the galleries which were open. Rather than planning which galleries to go to, we wandered around, primarily through the Greek, Roman and Egyptian areas.

Shortly before 2:00, we left the museum to get to the Holborn tube stop, where an Original London Walks tour of "Legal and Illegal London" was to begin. The tour took us through the Inns of Court, Ede and Ravenscroft (a specialty shop which sells barristers' robes and wigs), a few Charles Dickens landmarks, Temple Church and ending at the Royal Courts of Justice. At the Royal Courts, I popped in for about ten minutes of a hearing, which was fairly interesting. Mrs. SoonerRed stayed behind at the gift shop.

After returning to the hotel to freshen up, we ate dinner at an Indian restaurant in Soho before attending a performance of the musical Mary Poppins. My wife and I both loved the film version as children and enjoyed the play as well. Although some characters, such as the children's mother and the bank president, were significantly different from the film version, we were grateful the show was not a 100% faithful translation. The special effects/stunts were amazing, but I better not say any more than that for fear of spoiling some of the show for those who might see it in the future.

Next: The Crown Jewels and Henry VIII's Armor.

Day 8: Our last full day in England started with breakfast at a nearby Pret a Manger. These restaurants were all over the parts of London we visited and have a good selection of menu items. Once we had finished breakfast, we popped in to the National Portrait Gallery, where we had several moments of, "I've seen that portrait before." An hour was just about right for us to get our fill, and we subsequently took the tube to the Tower Hill stop for a visit to the Tower of London. We wandered around the castle on our own, checked out the crown jewels and the armory (just thinking about the oversized codpiece on Henry VIII's armor makes me laugh) and voted for who we think killed the two princes (Richard III, all the way). Afterwards, we joined a beefeater's tour. The beefeater had a great speaking voice and pronounced the letter "r" with a proper roll of the tongue. The Tower lived up to its reputation and I highly recommend it for anyone spending any time in London.

After the tour concluded, we went to the British Library to take a look at the Treasures exhibit there. I greatly enjoyed the exhibit, even if the Magna Carta was temporarily not on display. From ancient Bibles to Beatles lyrics, the exhibit covered a broad range of subjects and was well-presented. While we were there, a temporary exhibit of Mozart's original works was on display, which was interesting to look through.

After the British Library, we returned to the British Museum to finish looking at a few galleries we did not have time to look at the day before. While we had originally hoped to take a Jack the Ripper tour of London this night, we were both tired and the prospect of walking for two more hours did not appeal to us, so we opted to take it easy at the hotel instead.

Day 9: We checked out, took the tube to Victoria Station and the Gatwick Express to Gatwick Airport. The international terminal thankfully wasn't too busy, so we had time to look through the small Harrod's store in the international lounge and grab some lunch before departing back to the U.S.

I greatly enjoyed the trip. The weather was frequently cold and windy, which we had anticipated, but it didn't rain that much. The vast majority of people we met were very friendly, particularly those outside of London.

To address some of the feedback on this message board: some posters were critical of the fact I was offended by anti-Bush posters and insinuated I was either unaware of the worldwide view of him or foolish for visiting a country known to be unhappy with him. I knew the general opinion of Bush prior to us leaving and in fact was in Italy during the last U.S. election. I had also heard Tony Blair was on his way out because of his support of the Iraq invasion, so the fact that a large protest occurred in London was not surprising to me, but the level of animosity was. Again, I recognize the protesters were certainly entitled to express their opinions; in my trip report, I merely wanted to convey the feelings I had as a visitor. Regarding my disappointment in the scenery around Gatwick airport, I did expect to see some countryside on the ride into London, although not rolling hills and cottages, as a poster suggested. Thanks for reading!

SoonerRed

Thanks for the trip report SoonerRed. We're going to London for four days in July and I picked up some great ideas. We're making it part of a 27 day European trip. I'm glad to hear the Tower was worth the trip, we will probably skip Harrods and the changing of the guard. We want to get to Trafalgar Square, Picadilly Circus, Westminster Abbey, a London Walking Tour and the typical bus stops (Big Ben), perhaps Bath for a day trip. We're flying out of Gatwick to Rome. SOunds like the bus will suit our pocket books and time frames!

Thanks, SoonerRed, for the articulate report on England. Isn't the Treasures exhibit at the Library wonderful? Obviously, I wanted to see the Beatles lyrics, but I remember being especially touched by Lady Jane Grey's prayer book. No, the anti-American feeling you experienced at the demonstration was probably not a surprise. But being in such close physical proximity to all that anger can be quite disconcerting to anyone, especially if you are new, and experiencing jet lag.

Thanks, Sooner. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your trip report. Will you be returning to London for more adventures?