Zoom zoom!

I would just like to preface this entry with two bits of wisdom. One. If you are traveling through Inverness make a point of staying longer than just one night. It's not a huge city but it has a lot to offer in the way of history, sight seeing, and shopping. Two. Driving in Scotland is not for the faint of heart. Having said that it was literally the most beautiful drive I have ever been on. Now if only my husband knew how to drive a stick shift so I could have been in the passenger seat haha. If you find yourself driving in the highlands remember two things. Keep breathing and you really aren't driving all that slow but the Scottish drive at ungodly speeds on their single lane roads that are nothing but twists and curves. Finally be prepared to stop repeatedly. Either for you to calm down after narrowly avoiding going off the road when you let someone pass, or just to simply take in the breathtaking beauty of the Scottish Highlands. 

Inverness we arrive.

It was a really long trip from London to Inverness. The train ride was decent but by the time we were on the bus I was ready to pass out. In fact I did pass out for about an hour and then Tim was shaking me to wake up as we were pulling into Inverness. Our hotel was adorable. We were booked into the Glenmoriston Hotel which when you first walk through the front door has the appearance of a five star hotel. Upstairs the room was complete with tartan throw blanket and pillows but what I was most excited about was the tub. After dinner at Wetherspoons I sat and luxuriated in a hot bubble bath. In the morning we pick up the rental car to drive up to Bettyhill! Not gonna lie I am utterly terrified at this notion. 

This photo above is the view out our window the following morning. I highly recommend the Glenmoriston. The staff are friendly and your reservation comes with free breakfast and it's not just cereal. 

Onwards to Scotland!

This morning was our last in London before heading to Scotland. We repeated our motions from our dry run and got out to Kings Cross by about 945am. With our train leaving at 1145 we decided to get some breakfast at Fullers Pub there at the station. When we walked in and got seated we were two of their five guests in the whole place. They came and took our drink orders and then proceeded to forget and ignore us and seated and served and took meal orders from about four other couples in our area. It wasn't until I was like, Helloooooooooooooo that we got attention. The other couples that ordered right before us had their food within fifteen minutes. We didn't get our food until after I went up to tell them we were leaving we would pay for our drinks but our train was due any minute that they instantly showed up with our food. We quickly scarfed down our breakfast and left thinking it was like transport in the United States where you have to be a minimum of a half hour early. Nope. We didn't need to be ready till fifteen minutes before hand. Oh well. We are now on the train headed to Stirling where we catch the bus to Inverness! 

A fabulous Italian dinner and a bust of a gay bar.

While in Soho we stopped in at a little restaurant called Made in Italy. It was small, quaint and definitely a romantic atmosphere (despite the couple on a date next to us that didn't seem to be going very well). It had a traditional fire brick oven which they cooked our delicious Italian pizza in and cheap wines. I give Made in Italy five stars. After our fantastic and filling dinner we decided to pay a visit to one of the highest rated gay bars here in London. G-A-Y bar to be more precise. Honestly I was rather disappointed. It was neat looking yes and filled with people from every walk of life, but it was overly loud with tv blasting as high as they could for the Xtra Factor which was on tv last night and people loudly trying to be heard over the music and tvs. There wasn't even a dance floor. But at least we didn't have any issues with the bouncers not letting us in as that was one of the reported complaints of people who have gone to this bar. But we still had a wonderful night overall.  

Americans are such prudes.

After our short visit to the British museum  we walked through Soho. Soho is also the center of gay life here in London as best I can tell. Specifically Old Compton road. From the burlesque shows to peep shows, gay bars (one of which is actually titled G-A-Y) to sex shops; it was abuzz with life and filled with more people than we had seen since the circle lines and district lines closed down tube service for two days. Being in the neighborhood I decided to take Tim to his first European sex shop. I have been to many during my previous travels ( you wouldn't believe the things they sell in German sex shops) and so it didn't even phase me, but Tim looked like he was ready to run out the door! The doors to the shop were wide open and they had large windows displaying their goods to the whole street. It was definitely something he wasn't used to, but it was clean and the staff were all super friendly and seemed as if it was second nature that they worked at a shop where they sell dildos and leather bondage gear. Americans are so prude when it comes to things of a sexual nature in comparison to the culture here. We don't even have tv shows where you can get women naked. Lol. 

A continued day of botches

So to continue our day of mishaps we figured since we were here an extra day we might as well try to squeeze some extra sights into the schedule. We hopped back onto the bus after watching some British tv for a little while to go to the British Museum. Only to get there and be told that they were closing and pushing people out the door. This was one of those exasperated sigh moments. I checked their website literally four times and it said they were open till 8pm. So I wasn't really sure why they were suddenly closing. We were told that we could walk around for a few minutes but that we wouldn't be allowed into any of the galleries. We managed to squeeze our way into the Egyptian gallery but only to be ushered back out into the main hall thirty seconds later. Oh well. What we did manage to see seemed pretty nice. I suppose it's something to do in the future. 

Successful dry run

Yesterday we woke up early, packed our bags, dropped the key into the mail box for check out, went to breakfast at the Shakespeare, and hopped on the train to Kings Cross Station. Only to get to Kings Cross Starion and realize that the date wasn't October 26th it was only the 25th. We had packed up and left a day early for our train to Scotland!! So back onto the underground we went and made our way back to our apartment. Luckily the key was sitting on top of a pile of mail and Tim was able to grab it from the mail box. With that successful dry run we'd made it all the way to Kings Cross and back and still had a half an hour before our train would have left!

Safe travels

One of the most terrible and terrifying things that can happen to a traveler happened to us on Friday. We went out for breakfast and discovered that my debit card, our complete means of financial support while on this trip, was gone. It was one of those moments when your stomach just plummets and you go icy cold with fear. I'm pretty sure I smoke more that day than I have any other here with how high my stress and anxiety levels were. Luckily I have an awesome bank that was willing to work with me to make it possible for my mother in law to withdraw money from my account and put it into my husbands account. They also let me know that in the future I need to make a trip to the bank to talk to them as they can give me a travelers card which is a back up debit card that they can transfer all my funds to as well as some emergency travelers checks. Moral of the lesson. Stay calm and make phone calls to get everything resolved. Also make sure that you have someone in your natural country that can help out and visit your bank before leaving to find out what their options are. 

Metro, Herero, or homo?

So this post comes at a request from the husband. Here in Europe in general the men tend to be much more fashionable than in the United States. From the well groomed in their crisply ironed suits, to the hip young fashionable gents in their designer shoes. This being said it's almost always impossible (aside from those where even a caveman would know) to determine what men are gay and what men are straight without literally walking up to them and asking. How awkward would that be? So be sure to enjoy all the well dressed and manicured men here in London. We sure do. And here's mine 

To be the tourist or not to be the tourist? Part One

Personally I am an off the beaten path traveller. Like any tourist I enjoy going to all the big things that everyone else does like the Eiffel Tower or the Great Pyramid of Giza, but over the years I have learned that I Despise (with a capital D) being around other tourists. I'd much rather spend my days in the life of those that inhabit the country I am visiting. That being said today was our tourist day (along with about an hour yesterday haha). Today we took a trip to Kings Cross Station to pick up our tickets to Salisbury and Bath as well as our tickets for Saturday to Inverness for the Scotland part of our trip. While there Tim posed at Platform 9 3/4 with the half vanished trolley. He stood in line for about twenty minutes just to get to the front to have the photographer walk away. Good thing my phone has a really decent camera. Honestly here's my advice on this. It's essentially the holy grail of locations for die hard Harry Potter fans like my dear husband, but the photo they take of you costs 10£. For comparison that is more expensive than a day pass to the transit system (off peak of course) and the flash on the camera they use is terrible. So with that I would say go up and have someone with another camera stand at the side and take the photo as their photographer does and save yourself 10 quid. 

To be the tourist or not to be the tourist? Part Two

After our jaunt to Kings Cross we hopped back onto the tube and shot down to Westminster Station. Here we went out and were awestruck by the sheer beauty of the Parliament building and Big Ben. Despite its massive size it's honestly one of the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen. It has a wonderful gothic look to it, something fit for Quasimoto, but at the same time it's elegant. And then as Tim stood there for his photo the clock tower rang out! It was perfect. Now, we didn't take the tour of the parliament building as the tour we really wanted was the combined parliament and Big Ben tour. Unfortunately for us though, the Big Ben tour is only offered to UK residents. So next we hopped back onto the jubilee line and got off at The London Eye. We did The London Eye ride, and to be completely frank with you, it was a waste of money. Yes it was neat being able to see the whole city from so high, but it cost us £40 and we were stuck with a group of German tourist kids that either took up the entire bench or crowded all the best vantage points for photos. My recommendation is that if you have the extra cash to spend buy yourself a fast track ticket with the private ride upgrade. Then you can have the bench to yourself and plenty of photo opportunities. 

The Wonderful World of Marriages

Today my husband made me travel the whole way across London to find himself some Mountain Dew. That is all for this post. 

The early bird gets the worm they say...

Waking up at a ridiculous hour courtesy of my husband doesn't serve one well here in London. At least not in the Battersea or Clapham junction area as none of the restaurants open for breakfast until about 7am at the earliest. Also the buses in our neighborhood don't start until about 530am so you are pretty much stuck either walking or catching a taxi which are also far and few between at that hour. However I suppose a positive will be that we get breakfast at Jacks before anyone else. More bottomless English breakfast tea for me! I think I'm going to try the sausage for breakfast today! And an excuse to wear my new scarf from H&M!

Schmoozing with Shakespeare

For dinner after Wicked we walked back up to Buckingham Palace rd to dine at The Shakespeare. It's was a large pub style restaurant filled with dark woods and leather seats. Outside up front along the windows there was seating to drink your pint of ale and catch a smoke while watching the tourists pass by on their way to and from the palace and Victoria Rail Station. The outside even has a painting of Shakespeare himself to add the the character of the place. I had yet another pie for dinner. This time the Venison pie with mash. It was deliciously rich and sweet made with a port sauce and onions. Of course I did what any good Englishman would do and mixed the mash right in! 

"170 to Victoria"

The public transportation is starting to become ever more clear as to how it works. One thing I will say is that it is exceptionally efficient. The buses run much later than those of Cedar Rapids running till after one am and during the day most routes have busses coming to each stop nearly every five to ten minutes. It puts most public transit systems in the United States to shame. Our most common bus that we take is the 170 line to either Victoria station or Clapham station. We are staying in the Battersea park neighborhood. And I can honestly say I am happy we are. We are a little off the beaten path and its most locals in our neighborhood so the foot traffic isn't too bad and we have a bus stop literally on our front step. My general experience when traveling abroad is to steer clear of tourist hotel destinations and I am glad we have done that. Overall it's a nice area and free of the hassles of being a tourist. 

"Are people born wicked, or do they have wickedness thrust upon them...?"

It's always hard for me to see musicals that are on tour somewhere when I have seen them on Broadway with the original cast. But I can honestly say that the British cast and crew of Wicked did an amazing job. It was a return to the land of Oz that I enjoyed very much. I give it five stars! Also I have to say that the Apollo Victoria Theatre was the perfect venue for this show. The interior was almost designed with this production in mind. 

An English Breakfast

Good morning from Clapham! We weren't really sure where to go for breakfast this morning so we headed back to Clapham Junction as that's the nearest shopping and restaurant district to us. We wound up at Jack's which serves breakfast all day. It was small but a great cross between modern and rustic. I had a traditional breakfast of eggs Benedict over ham on English muffins with hash browns and BOTTOMLESS English breakfast tea. I highly recommend Jacks forbthebgreay food and the bottomless tea and coffee. Those make it with the 15 gbp for two people! On to the tourist traps!

The stories are true....

Pie. Sweet, delicious, and hearty pies for dinner here in London help keep you warm. From chicken and mushroom to venison and mash, the pies are many to be had and I have to say that they are super delicious. They are definitely stick to your ribs food and will definitely be one of my favorite things to eat while we are here. 

Naive American

I'm I want to share a lesson I am fast learning here in London. Don't ever doubt that you can get lost on a bus that has a specified route. They don't make rounds and circle back. Nope you have to go on the bus going in the opposite direction to get to a prior bus stop. Also be sure to download yourself a copy of the bus routes and the underground (tube or subway whatever) maps as they each cost about 3 gbp here. 

New beginnings.

Hello world! I know it's been quite awhile since I last wrote, but there have been some big events going on in my life and I feel it's time to share. First off I got married! I am so happy it's silly and I am waiting for my husband to freak out at me for all the staring I keep doing towards him. While we legally got married over ten months ago it hasn't really felt official till now! I will post a few photos of the wedding as I get them from the photographer. Now on to some other fun news. For the honeymoon we are traveling in Europe! My husbands first time out of the country and my first time in over five years. I have decided to blog about our adventures and share our joy with the rest of the world. They just called our boarding group for the plane. First stop London!