Traveling in Circles

Fri 6/20/2008

 

Up and out early. Wrong turn at the Royal Mile, but I eventually get to the meeting place for the tour. We went head out and arrive at the Rosslyn Chapel just as it is opening. Pictures were taken as permitted.

 

Interesting facts:

The chapel was painted with a concrete slurry to preserve the building. (I think it made everything looks more blunted and blurry.)

 

The concrete allowed water to buildup inside the concrete so they have scaffolding and a “hat” that sits atop the Chapel that is absorbing all the moisture.

 

The almost diamond shaped boxes that line the arches at the front of the chapel were studied by a music scholar and translated into music.

 

After a quick trip around scaffolding and through the gift shop we were off to Hadrian’s Wall.

 

We stopped at the England/Scotland border and the proceeded one the better maintained section of the Roman wall. It was near the Sycamore Gap where the “Robin Hood” tree was.

 

We walked along a section of wall and down a sloping hill. Then we went up a damn cliff.

 

After struggling to the top, a couple of us enjoyed the (windy, cold, rainy) view and then headed back. The rest trooped dutifully over to see a tree that was in a movie a few years back.

 

My ankle and I came to the agreement that our guide’s idea of a wee “bit of an incline” and ours were quite different.

I returned back to Alex’s in one piece and we went to Monster Mash for dinner.  We watched some more Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps as well as Little Britian.

 

 

 

My kind host is Mike, an online friend who takes pity on the wandering American. He is willing to be dragged around to tourist stuff, offers up his place as a base camp of sorts and lets me tinker in the kitchen with stir fry dinners.

Saturday morning there were two alarms clock failures. Mine was the phone set to vibrate–my old phone would still use the ringtone assigned. This new phone won’t ring. =/ So no Stonehenge today. Instead the New Forest Tour bus (double decker natch). There were horses and cows wandering the area, they stayed mostly off the road.

Great sign on the roads: Please reduce your speed, not our animals.

Sunday June 15th Mike and I go for a walking tour around Lymington. This one is the wavy wall tour. Afterwards we fortify ourselves with prawns or pea fritters and chips. Then off for a boat tour of the colored needle cliffs and a quick train ride over to Bournemouth. As we head to the cinema I run across a huge UNISYS building. My dad’s company, maybe I’ll suggest he put in for a transfer.

We went to see the Incredible Hulk (the comic based movies seem to be getting better). A tourist moment was when I found out they serve salted or sweet popcorn here; neither with extra butter or salt added on top. Sweet is just like kettle corn, but both are a bit bland and dry.

Afterwards Mike heads back to Lymington and I head to the Bournemouth Airport.

I got the Oyster card in London so I can run around there freely (ok...easily, not freely) on the subways and buses. The tube is certainly the way to go, although the steps going down and down into the underground ... [Continue reading this entry]

In April there was plenty of time... Ticket bought? Check Pair of walking shoes? Check. Idea of where to go? Working on it...