Falling behind

I'm reaching that point in the trip where so much is happening it's getting really hard to keep up with this. But I'll do my best. Sorry if this is a really long post; I don't know when I'll have a chance to sit down at this again.

Edinburgh.
Unbelievable city! Not only a ton of history, but a ton of Christian history wrapped up in here as well. John Knox... David Livingstone... George Whitfield... Eric Liddell... all had a presence here at one time or another.

We took a tour through the Queen's Palace, on the opposite side of town from Edinburgh Castle; and though I'm not much for monarchy and the elevated status it puts on normal humans, I must admit I am impressed by a lot of the history, traditions, and protocols surrounding it.

There is a monument to Sir Walter Scott in Edinburgh that is not only enormous, but amazingly ornate. And the best part? Stairs to get to the top. Ben was taking my name in vain the whole way up because there were 287 steps, but I think he enjoyed it, too. :) But wow... what steps. Spiral stairs all the way up because it saves space, but near the top, I have several friends I'm not sure could have physically fit through... my shoulders were brushing up against either wall near the top. It was a bit of a squeeze for Zach and Ben. But the view at the top was well worth it.

Okay, catch-up on the "Ack!" post. I planned to find a hotel the night before, but we got busy, I figured I'd take care of it in the morning. All is well, finally, but I had a little trouble finding a hotel in London. And this after we had the train there and the plane back already scheduled and paid for. Apparently hotels in certain areas of town (namely, where we were going to be) fill up pretty quickly, and pretty far in advance. We found one that I'm not quite sure is worth what it costs, but it's a place to stay, it's only for a couple of nights, and it's easy to get to.

Oh! And getting to Stirling to hop our train to London. The original plan was that the Coxes were going to stay in Stirling Tuesday night, so we got a train out of Stirling at midnight so we could spend more time with them (also cheaper). Turns out they couldn't because everything was booked! So we tooled around Edinburgh again on Tuesday, supposing that buses ran as often from Edinburgh to Stirling as they do from Glasgow to Edinburgh.

They don't.

I got to the bus station to check on times about 10 minutes after the last bus left. Fortunately, a city bus of sorts still ran, and was able to get us to Stirling (albeit with an hour's more travel with all the stops) in plenty of time for the train.

My first real aggravation on the trip was the train ride from Stirling to London. I very specifically looked for a sleeper train; not for a berth, but for the seats that fold down into a bed, and by all accounts, that's what I was getting. Nope. Regular seats, and not crazy comfortable at that. So I got a 7-hour train ride in the middle of the night that I should have been sleeping, sitting up. Can't do it. I probably saw London the first day on an hour or so of sleep.

London
London is an absolute zoo... but it's fascinating! I didn't realize how old it is... established in 43 AD (I believe) by the Romans, London proper is only one square mile... the rest is actually the city of Westminster; the entire monstrous city is referred to as London. I guess that's like people saying they're "going to Phoenix" to refer to anywhere in the Valley sometimes.

We've done a LOT of walking. A mile, mile and a half walk is no big deal here. With the possible exception of when we're carrying our luggage, I really don't mind. I don't get to walk much in Phoenix! But even in one day we've seen quite a lot. Took a boat tour down the Thames, got a lot of the obligatory shots... Big Ben, House of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Tower of London, and so on. Zach really wanted to see the Churchill War Rooms. I probably wouldn't have picked it as a destination if I was by myself, but it was a really good call on his part... amazing. Almost information overload, but amazing. It always gives me pause to see how close Hitler really came to winning that war.

We have a two-day London Pass... ridiculously expensive, but then everything in London is; and this pass will allow us to save some money on the stuff we want to see. One of the things we're planning on today is to go to St. Paul's Cathedral—somewhere I've always wanted to see anyway, but apparently there are stairs up to the very top where you can look out on the city! Just under 600 steps. Eat your heart out, Ben. :) If you don't see any more posts, it's because the stairs killed me.

Double decker buses. You know, I always thought they were more a novelty than anything... a nice little representation of London that don't actually feature in daily life, like igloos in Alaska. Turns out I was wrong. They're everywhere. Obviously a good public transit system if so many people use it that they have to stack the buses!

Man, these folks have a brutal history. The tour through the Tower of London was quite instructive. I'm sure it's an exaggeration (at least I hope), but it seems like in the Middle Ages, they couldn't get through a day without torturing or executing somebody. And boy, were they ever creative.

But there were some neat spots, too. The Tower of London also contains the Crown Jewels, as well as the regalia and history behind who wore what. So it wasn't all torture and death (Henry VIII notwithstanding).

That should do it for now. So far I haven't had any luck uploading pictures; I've got a spotty connection that Picasa is really having trouble with, but I'll give it another shot before we leave here.