A Bend in the River

The English sun slips in below the floral blind illuminating our bags, now split and scattered over every surface (please tell me where all this stuff has come from) of our small room.  We are back at Courtney's place to regroup and shed some weight before we fly to Norway on Sunday morning. We are only taking one check-in bag so it should be interesting getting everything we need into it.

We finally left Scotland on Monday. The family we  were staying with moved to Bedale, in Yorkshire, so we went along for the ride thinking this would at least get us closer to London. After saying our goodbyes on Wednesday we caught a train to the city of York. We had a really great time there confirming our desire to be back on the road and travelling.  York has so many incredible cathedrals and churches all connected by winding medieval laneways, Roman walls and canal-side walkways.  The weather was kind and in the evening, exhausted from our wanderings, we enjoyed a cider or three by the river; accompanied by a brass band, playing top 40 hits, and a lot of drunk people (as our visit happened to coincide with the Ebor horse racing festival).

York train station - for a city the size of Hamilton it is very impressive

Hana defending the Tower/taking ages to get down the hill

Sunshine and ciders by the River Ouse

Shamble shenanigans

York Minstrel and Hana

As it turned out we were also up all night, not to 'get some' but because a man in our hostel room snored like a troll and the bunk beds wallowed and rolled like we were back in Wellington (but what can you expect for $60 a night I suppose).

Yesterday we got a bus from York to London, navigated the underground at rush hour with our backpacks (such fun!) and surprised ourselves when we made it to Courtney's without taking any wrong turns.
So off to Scandinavia we go, where we are meeting up with some friends from Hamilton (there's going to be five of us all together) and plan to drive around Norway and Sweden.  I say work smirk - for now anyway...

- David

The Philosopher's Stone

Hello,

We have returned to Black Clauchrie House after a weekend away to Edinburgh and the beginning of the Fringe Festival.  We had an amazing time going to shows, watching live music and enjoying a few 'points' in the sunshine; all while surrounded by the most beautiful city in Britain.

We managed to go to nine shows in the three evenings we had. Six of them were free shows but all were very entertaining.  Some of the highlights were the Wellington Ukelele Orchestra (I know, half way round the world and we go to something from Wellington), Shakespear's Much Ado About Nothing (with the additional comedy technique of one very drunk cast member, it was Claudio for those interested, which was hilarious) and a comedy music show by Rachel Parris. We also saw a magical/gameshow/comedy show called Piff the Magic Dragon and a rather intense one-man play by an alcoholic, homosexual, american man (just about sums it) who wrote a musical called Desperately Seeking Susan which flopped on broadway a few years back.

We also managed to squeeze in a bit of site seeing. We went to the Scottish Parliament buildings and chanced upon the Press Photography Competition as an added bonus. 

We had our One Day moment up on Arthur's Seat (with about 50 other people).

There were huge crowds along the Royal Mile where all the festival buskers are playing and performing.

Edinburgh Castle

While in Edinburgh we also had our first taste of couch surfing.  A very nice Italian called Paolo let us sleep on his flat's couch for three nights which saved us a lot of money.  He is doing a Phd in Artificial Intelligence (again, summage) and lived in New Zealand for the whole of last year coincidently.  His flatmates were actually quite cool and we ended up going to a few shows with them and hanging out a bit which was fun.

So now we are back at the country house for another 10 days. There is a wedding here on Saturday so it's all a bit hectic right now.