Land of Kilts and Bagpipes

Scotland was amazing! The end.

Ok, here is more details. The train ride up their was more beautiful countryside, absolutely green fields everywhere. Once arriving in Edinburgh we found it way less confusing than Paris. Everyone in Scotland decided they would speak english and write descriptions in english...thank you Scotland!

First stop was the Edinburgh castle, which can be seen in pictures 1 and 4. If you want more nerded out facts, we are pretty sure this is the castle that inspired Hogwarts, but don't trust us 100% on that one. The castle was set on top of a rocky hill that overlooks the city. We decided not to pay the 12 pounds to get a tour and did our own castle touring.

Up next was Lunch at a place called The Deacon House. The smell of soup brought us wandering into this great find. The restaraunt in where Deacon Brodie used to work, he is the man that inspired the book "Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde." We had potato and leek soup and a sandwich, oh and of course some scottish short bread.

Up Next St. Giles Cathedral (I am sure you can pick out which picture above is the Cathedral). We were able to go in for free, yay! The inside was breathtaking, and nice and quiet which was relaxing and more enjoyable to take everything in.

We ventured down the Royal Mile street to see Parliment and the Queens Palace. There, we found a big hill. And I of course wanted to venture up the big hill. DeAnn and I began our journey up and the top of the hill was the most amazing view of the city. We are pretty sure we spotted Nessie in the Lake. Unfortunately, we did not spot William Wallace. We both agree that the hill was our favorite part of the day.

We are both tired and ready to be done traveling and to see all of you guys again! This will be our last day here, so this is our last blog to you. We will show you even more picture and share more stories with you when we return!!!

Things we learned:

-Scots are nice! Openly friendly (from what we gathered)

-The maiden (don't be fooled by the nice name) is the Edinburgh guillitine that ended the life of James VI (responsible for KJV Bible) fathers murderer

-Touristy sites close at 5pm!

See you all very soon,

Ape and De

That's so Posh...

Monday was our day of posh.

We woke up and had a nice leisure morning. I (April) had tea and crumpets...it was great. We then left to meet Claire at her work which was a nice 30 minute walk. We got there early so we found us some coffee and a book store. Oh, I should describe what we were wearing! Since we were going to "posh tea" later in the day we had to look nice, so we did. But we also need comfy shoes beacuse we were walking all day. So we were both in our tennis shoes and I put our nice shoes in my gigantic purse. We looked pretty silly and not very posh.

Once Claire got off work, it was starting to rain. This was really our first rainy day while in the UK. We walked to the local fish and chips store for lunch and we had a side of mushy peas (they looked mushy). After this, Claire took us to her allotment. This is their garden where they grow tons of fresh fruits and veggies. Ok, now on to the poshness...

We went to this place called Hale where supposedly a lot of the football players live. All the girls there dress fancy and have lip injections. The houses are a lot bigger than the normal british home and they don't normally share a wall with anyone (that means it is nice). We had a cup of coffee and did some people watching.

POSH TEA: Claire treated me to posh tea for my birthday. We got on a tram to go to Manchester to this fancy hotel for our tea. It was so nice! The tea room was beautiful in every way. The waiters put our napkins in our laps and brought out the tea pots. Ok, now when they started bringing the food out it was truly amazing. First, little sandwiches (salmon, cucumber, ham, tomato...), followed by scones with clotted cream and jam (I think this was our favorite, that clotted cream was great), followed by dessert. We felt like little ticks after we were done eating, but it was a great and fun experience. As you can see from the "after" picture, we finished everything on the table!!!!!

The night ended with some wedding talk and more of Paul and his awesome american accent. Enjoyable day.

Up next the Scotland tale...

Ape and De

Ahhhh, the Country Side...

Hey all,

Yesterday we got on the train for Manchester to see Claire and Paul! The train ride was amazing, absolutely gorgeous country side. I was like a little kid pointing every little thing out to DeAnn with an "ooohhhh, look."

We came to Claire's apartment to drop off our stuff and have a cuppa tea with them before heading out. The apartment is located outside of Manchester in Altrium. The first thing we did was go to a place called Dunham Massey a beautiful park! There was an old house, tons of trees, swans (that Katie discovered might be killer swans on her trip down here), deer, mallards, and green grass. Paul took his remote control airplane and demonstrated his most excellent flying skills.

After this, we went for some Indian food. It was really really really good. We had a lot of stuff, but I can not tell you what it was! It involved lamb, chicken, prawn, and varying spiciness of curry.

Today is Posh tea with Claire and more exploring. Tomorrow is Edinburgh, which we are looking forward to greatly.

Things we learned:

-The Queen owns all the swan

-You can bring dogs into country pubs with you

-April gets train sick

-British people think Americans live in Mansions

-April was being "daft" yesterday according to Paul

-Paul can do a really good American accent

Cheers,

Ape and De

The Geeked Out Day!

Yes, the title says it all...there were a lot of "geek out" moments yesterday.

We hit two museums yesterday. The first was the Natural History Museum (which is the second picture). It was an amazing building, with a long line to enter. Any long line and my grandfather equates it to Disney Land, and some of it was. I (April) began to geek out immediately. I was very excited to see the Biology and Darwin exhibits. The first stop though was through Dinosaur land! This was exciting, and slightly scary for DeAnn, who thought she just might be eaten. They had lifesize robotic dinos, it was great. On to Biology now, where most of the time was spent. It was DeAnn, me, and all the little kiddos. Darwin exhibit was disappointing, they did not even have a picture of him or any info, oh well.

Next Victoria and Albert Museum (third picture from the inside entry). This was no disappointment. We saw amazing art work-Michaelangelo and Rodin. The European artifacts towered over us, and were breathtaking. It was hard to take everything in.

Ok, here is the geekiest moment of the day. Brace yourselves. Are you ready? We ventured over to Kings Cross Station. This is where platform 9 3/4 is. Ring a bell? Ok, it is from the Harry Potter books, where Harry leaves the "muggle world" to enter into the "wizarding world". DeAnn, and I stood in line to get our pictures taken, the other 13 year olds there shared in our excitement.

Last Geeked out thing of the day, which was fun, was riding on the double decker bus. We of course were on the second level, and were perfectly fine making "ooohhhh" and "awwwww" sounds as we drove around.

We ended the day with cappucinos from our favorite coffee place, Neros. Then for dinner Fish and Chips...yummy as predicted.

Things we learned:

-We are Londonites now, and did not learn anything new, that is how well adjusted we are.

-Oh, we have not completely conquered the bus system, so we just got on and got off at a random stop.

We are about to catch a train to Manchester, so the adventure continues.

We love and miss our families and our church family very much. You guys are in our prayers!

Love,

Ape and De

Two Videos:

Victoria and Albert museum...

Yesterday...the day of Rest.

Pictures: Thanet hotel (where we are staying), the rest are in front of the Lamb and the Flag.

Howdy (being Texan today),
Yesterday there was a great amount of rest happening for us. Here is the breakdown, and it is all centered around food!!

Breakfast:
April had scrambled eggs and bacon (the bacon is basically a slab of ham, love it), yogurt with amazing granola (yeah, I did not know granola could be amazing either), brown toast with honey, and about four cups of coffee.
DeAnn had scrambled eggs and bangers (sausage), white toast with some jam, peaches and yogurt, and she matched April with four cups of coffee...Go DeAnn, you were tired!!

Lunch:
We decided to have a traditional English lunch, so we thought a pub would be a good place to try.
The Lamb and Flag Pub was not a disappointment, not to mention 96% of the boys there are good looking. :)
April: Chicken and Mushroom pie, with a side of mash and peas and carrots. Thats all the info you get, you try to picture the food. It was GREAT!
DeAnn: Fish and Chips with a side of peas...yummmmmm. That one I am sure you can picture, unless you are thinking potato chips in which case you are wrong.

Dinner:
We went to a chicken place called Nandos, it was a little too hip for us, but we managed. (ooops, DeAnn said she was super hip there, guess it was just me). There was a fire alarm that went off twice, but the food did not taste burnt!
April: Hot chicken, Velvety Mash, and Garlic bread
DeAnn: Medium chicken, Garlic bread, and chips

Sleep after that...and some nertz in which DeAnn reclaimed her title...Dang.

What we Learned:
-20-40 year old men hang out at pubs for lunch, not many women
-if you plan a day around reading outside, London will decide to rain on you
-if you think you know how to navigate around London, you are being too ambitious and will end up lost.

We are posting again this evening after our final day in London!
Until then, Cheers!

Ape and De

Did you know that Pharaoh lives in Paris?

Hello Again,
We made it back from our epic adventure in Paris. It was great.
We left at 6am to catch our Train to Paris and go through the Chunnel...DeAnn survived it! Once we got to the station in Paris, we felt a little overwhelmed (which is expressed in the video below). Who knew everything would be written in French? We got our metro tickets and DeAnn the amazing map navigator got us on the metro to our first stop the Lourve. After this, we walked to Notre Dame. The walk was really fun, and relatively quiet on the streets, which I think we both enjoyed. We got to Notre Dame just in time to hear Quasimodo ring the beautiful bells. We also discovered that we could go in for free, yes we took advantage of free. The inside was amazing, beautiful architecture and stain glass windows. We were slightly disturbed by all the money exchanges going on within the church though, especially when a service started (we decided it was time to leave)! Next stop, a beautiful Opera house, where we were harrased by Pharaoh for some spare change. We learned that if you are asked if you speak english, the best response is shaking your head no, or saying you are from the Czech Republic. We ate lunch at a very crowded restaurant where we had pasta with a dove egg in it and some sort of meat...it was very tasty though. From here we ventured to the Tour Eiffel, which was very fun to see and we walked around the park area for a while. Last stop back to the Lourve to actually go in and explore. Oh, and before leaving we had to get some crepes! YUUMMMM.

Today, we plan on having a really easy day. We are both pretty tired. We are thinking some place local for some reading and coffee. Tomorrow we will be tourists again. And Sunday we leave for Manchester to see Claire (April's college roommate and friend)!

Things we learned:
-French smoke way more than English
-If you go to a French Cafe at rush hour you will be seated at a table with someone else and share their food.
-It is ok to walk around in fountains and steal the Euros that other people have thrown in
-If you say you speak english you will be handed a letter to read about a family moving to Paris from Bosnia.
-Pharaohs are really really popular in Paris and very creepy.

Au Revoir,
Ape and De

Two videos:

Another Day, our feet hurt

Hello friends,

This morning started off with another wonderful breakfast, we are getting spoiled. Today we ventured to the London Tower and to see the London Bridge (the first one is in Arizona, FYI). Then we went across the Millenium bridge to see the Shakspeares Globe. We did not go inside, but we got the gist of it.

Yesterday evening we went to the St. Pauls Cathedral for the evensong service. It was amazing, and I think a huge highlight of the trip so far. The inside of the cathedral is breathtaking although no pictures were allowed, so we can not share that with you.

Elizabeth-we got Tube pictures for you!

Grant and Tyler-we are still trying to track down Prince William to take a picture of him for you!

Jadyn-Hi sister! I will show you all of my pictures when I get home.

Carrie-We saw a boy in the tube station yesterday that looked just like Harry Potter-messy hair, glasses, tie, vest...it was awesome. Also, the millenium bridge we crossed today was the bridge the Death Eaters destroyed in the 6th movie! hehe.

John-we saw Oscar Wilde stomping grounds and thought of you-got a picture.

Homefellowship-we missed you guys very much last night!!!

Things we Learned:

-pizza does not get cut into slices

-you have to be specific when you say you want coffee, or else you will be treated with rudeness

-there is a lot of "snogging" that takes place in the tube

Tomorrow we go to Paris to eat some snails and smelly cheese!

Until then,

Ape and De

P.s. Last night I beat DeAnn in Nertz, that means something to a few of you!

Day 1 and a Half.

We arrived in London Yesterday, very very exhausted. The first stop we made once settling into our wonderful hotel room was the Texas Embassy (ok, stop laughing). We had "authentic" Tex-Mex. yummmm. We visted the Westminster Abbey and House of Parliament, and we saw Big Ben, or as someone very special to us calls it "Big Bend". We went to bed at 8, and woke up at 2:30am ready to start the day. Today we are mainly getting used to the tube and getting ourselves oriented with this crazy city. We are fully aware that we are being typical tourists, and are very happy with that.

Things we have learned:
1) It is okay to be up in a stranger's personal space if you are trying to get onto a crowded train.
2) Everyone is skinny because they walk everywhere.
3) If you are outside of Buckingham Palace, you are a tourist.

Some pictures attached.
Cheers,
Ape and De

Make like a tree and Leave...

Today is the day we pack up and head to London! We are beyond excited and ready to share some pictures with you. We have our airline itenerary and our train tickets to France and Scotland! Stay posted, we will be in London Monday for afternoon tea.