Wandering Where We’ll Be

We begin this blog on a somewhat dreary Sunday getting off a train in light rain and being met by Stephen who is picking us up.  His reddish car buzzes us through the streets of Cumberland and Llandissilio.  He is used to driving on , to us, the “wrong” side of the street and navigating his way about this country side.  There is some small talk as he brings us down the last road to the farm.  The road is narrow and to either side of the car is a “wall” of grassy ground about 6-8 feet high.  Some trees are growing here and there on top of these banks and they create a “tunnel” of green in some areas.

At the farm, we park just behind a long house/barn with rockz walls.  Part of this is a guesthouse.  In front of us is a mill which Stephen is refurbishing so Bettina (the other part of this duo) can have a spinning and craftworking workshop in the upper floor and stephen can do woodworking in the lower floor area.  Their 2-floor house was nearbz and we got to sleep in a room with an attached bathroom.  It was very nice.

Over the week, we discovered how self-sufficient Bettina and Stephen were.  They had goats which gave them milk, cheese, yogurt, and meat.  They had chickens which gave them eggs and meat.  They had sheep which gave them wool and meat.  They had a garden with many different vegetables at different times of the season.  They had fruit trees and blackberry bushes.  They had honey from bees.  They made wine and beer and jams, apple cider, and woolen products.  And, above all that, they heated their house with firewood and have their own well.  They also make their own candles.

 Now, on to our itinerary.

Sundaz evening:  We were given a tour by Stephen around the farm and things they are doing there.  Bettina was away in Germany visiting familz and friends so we would not meet here until Tuesday evening.  Stephen made dinner for us.  It was all verz nice.  We did some dishes afterwords then went to bed after chatting for a bit. 

Monday: Brambles.  Stephen and Bettina own this one area that is FULL of blackberry bushes.  This area is bigger than my parents whole yard including the house!  These blackberry bushes can and do vine outward and are very full of thorns.  They are so thick, you cant see through them or under them.  They, in some places, are so interlooped and vined over, they are about 7 to 8 feet high.  I dont mean they just grow to that height.  I mean the vines, which in some places can reach about 20 feet in length, are building an igloo type mound of vines that lay over (and hook together) each other.  Tim, a week later, was just recently still pulling small thorns out of his hands.  Both of our arms were all scratched up as if we had fought a wild and bestial city cat that was in a bad mood.  Tim mostly used a tool called a “slasher”.  Think of a 5 foot baseball bat or thick stick with a small, 1 foot long or so, half scythe on the end that wasnt too sharp (it is not meant to be).  I used the lopper (I called it Cyndi Lauper) to try and thin this bramble knot and take out the bases of these vines in tough areas (like a hill next to this area).  We would occasionally switch tools and also yank out/dig out roots and burn all of the stuff we had cleared.  This clearing was a slow process.  After we had cleared some of the area, we called it a day.  We had dinner and were on the computer a bit (bit is something they say alot around here.  If you have some potatoes or whatever and they are on the counter and you want someone to get them for you, you saz “please, can you grab those bits over there for me” while pointing at the potatoes).  Then bed time.

Tuesday: Brambles.  Today we tackled some of the hill next to the big area we somewhat partially cleared yesterday but nowhere near the whole area we have to do.  Did I mention that beside the blackberry brambles there are also wild rose vines with altogether different thorns.  As if the blackberries werent enough, the wild rose vines acted like a net to hold all these vines of all types together.  They were thinner and ropey.  If the blackberry brambles were alone, they would be easier to handle because they are thicker and by cutting a few at the base and yanking the whole vine out, it seems to go relatively quickly.  Add the thin wild rose vine and you might as well tie it all in knots and have to cut the vines about three times each to dismantle the knot and be able to clear it.  The wild rose vines were prolific on the hill and more and more of them grew in the main area as we continued to clear.  We started burning cut brambles today.  The piles were high.  After this, we went in and had dinner.  Bettina arrived home later on.  We discovered she tends to be the “talker” in the relationship.  Stephen is not silent by any means and I dont mean Bettina is an endless blatherer.  She just has an easier time with seamless conversation.  By the way, tea time is a constant about every 3 to 4 hours.  We would have 2 cups each at breakfast (about 9 am), lunch (about 12-1), after brambles (about 4:30-6), and at dinner if there wasnt homebrew beer or wine.  I personally like it with 2 cubes of sugar or equivalent (I emptied their sugar bowl only once) and milk or cream.  The rest of Tuesday went about the same as Monday.

Wednesday Itinerary: Brambles and rain.  We continued, in the main area, today to cut brambles and after about 4 hours, the rain started being a constant.  We went in for lunch and tea , hoping the rain would stop.  Nope.  We cut up some apples (lots).  Some for apple crumble (I liked how Bettina said this word) and the rest for freezing or other fruty deserts or whatever.  It was still raining and Tim and I would have still gone out for more brambles but Bettina said we had done enough so we read, went on the computer and various other stuff til dinner and bedtime.

Thursday Itinerary…not brambles.  We went to Tenby on the coast.  This town/city was really cool.  It is on a 100-200 foot cliff or maybe taller.  Walls face the ocean on top of the cliffs with steps which look weathered from ages of being lashed by storms and winds leading down to a sandy beach tanners would kill for on a sunny, warm day.  We had clouds and wind with slight bits of rain.  It was sunny at the end of the day though.  We wandered the narrow, winding, hilly streets.  Went up (literally) a narrow alley and ate at a place called “The Plantagenet”.  It had good food and wine.  Had tea later on, at another place.  Breads and cakes go with it if you are English/UK oriented so we did those as well.  Yummy.  Tenby was really fun to wander around.  After that, back to the farm to eat and sleep.

Friday…Itinerary…Brambles.  We slashed and lopped our way to finishing about 1/3 to 1/2 the area that needed clearing. 

Kill wild rose vines and mow down anything seen that even resembles a blackberry bush (raspberry bushes look extremely similar) trying to take hold is still my first impulse when I see these plants and probably will be for quite some time.  I faced a new plant today.  Stinging nettle nailed my arms.  I might as well have collected the honey from the bees Stephen and Bettina have without any protection on my arms.  Lumpy, swelling, yuch!  After all this, we went in and had a nice comfortable evening as usual.  Tim even did some wool spinning on a drop spindle.  If you dont know what a drop spindle is, think of an old wooden top that spins when kids spin it with their fingers as a toy.  Now make the wooden dowel part the kid actually spins about 1 foot long and make the round part wider and that is a drop spindle.  I never knew they existed.  I just knew about the spinning wheel.

Anyway…

Saturday morning itinerary: Pack up, eat, take a picture of Stephen and Bettina, ride to Clunderwen train station and begin the next part of our trip.

Thanks Stephen and Bettina for letting us wwoof at your place.

Dan

Hello all,

We are in Bern, Switzerland — just arrived late this afternoon from Antwerp, Belgium.  I only have a minute or so, but wanted to give a quick update.  Dan and I both have entries that we just need to type in.  Write more soon,  Tim

Oh-my-gosh! Every where I look it’s green!

Only…it’s not what you think.

It’s green jerseys! There are crowds on the street on Sunday night that rival New York, Times Square! A game must have gotten out and we showed up right at party time! There’s a street/area called Temple Bar that has many pubs on it. All of them are loaded…the people as well as the pubs. Live music fills the night from many doors. We even saw a guy dancing while balancing a full glass of beer on his head. He didn’t spill a drop even when he somewhat ran at people and stopped before he and they had a beer bath. Our hostel was in the Temple Bar area and our ear plugs and blindfolds for sleeping are the best buy we made.

After that night, things were more normal if still highly crowded. What a city. St. Patricks Cathedral is huge and old. Its’ inside looks like an ancient, heavy keep…no bright colors anywhere. We got to hear evensong service here. It is beautiful. Christ Church Cathedral (how many Archbishops do they need here?) isn’t as big but has a huge crypt. I briefly got lost in it (more disoriented than lost I guess). Kilmainham Gaol (jail) was very picturesque and forbidding. It has been used as a set for some movies. “In the Name of the Father” with Daniel Day Lewis was one of them.

What can I say, After that visit, we had to go to the Guiness Storehouse. It is a museum as well as a beer hall. That is misleading. there is a round sky-room at the top floor which looks out over the city. We both had a beer here. The floor below had more of a big beer tasting place than a beer hall. It had many types of guiness to try. Some of these types we had never seen before and I don’t think are sold in the USA. I could be wrong. We didn’t try any others, we had more Dublin to explore. As a side note, we were told by Robert Dunn at the Scotland farm (Ardna Mushrooms) we worked at to try Guiness for sure in Dublin since it is “unpasteurized” here. It tasted thick and great as Guiness always does but since I am not a brew connoiseur, tasted the same to me.

Later, after we had went to Kilkenny and were on the way to Wexford, we had a brief layover between trains. During this time we went to the Ireland National Museum. It was a smallish museum and we went through everything we wanted to see in an hour. Yes, a museum in an hour. It was fun to see and we did take time to read things but compared to London Museums and even Minnesota Museums, it was small.

That’s it for Dublin. On to Kilkenny. (“They killed Kenny…”–Southpark Quote just for fun)

What a fun little town.

It has a castle in it.

Of course we went to it. It was recently refurbished and is very Victorian in its design even if originally way-back-when it wasn’t. The Butler family owned it for hundreds of years and changed it over time to fit their tastes. It is now government owned. I loved the library, drawing room, and the huge west wing art hall. The ceilings were tall and ornate and although there was a lot of Victorian furniture and “foof” Victorian stuff on the tables and walls and such, it didn’t seem heavy with decoration or claustrophobic with furniture. It seemed spacious and clean.

You’d still have to pay me 3 million dollars to dust it all but what-the-hey.

The next day we spent at “The Rock of Cashel”.

WOW!

A ruined Cathedral with small castle with a chapel and possible upper floor scriptorum with a house of Vicars with a very old graveyard covered in giant Celtic crosses! All this on a huge hill overlooking the town of Cashel. The day was blustery and sometimes rainy.

IT WAS PERFECT!!

This could be a moody, movie set. Near it was the ruins of Hore Abbey.

Did I get your attention?

It is named after the grey robes the monks wore there. The grey was supposedly the same color as hoarfrost.

Whew! Sigh of relief that I’m not getting naughty on this blog.

We didn’t pay to get into the Abbey. It was an open ruin we crossed a field to get to. It was once a Cathedral-like church with attached monk buildings. Now, it is a high-walled ruin; open to the sky.

After we explored Cashel a bit, we went back to Kilkenny.

Sidenote; even though the Rock of Cashel is only 30 miles from Kilkenny, the bus ride, because of side stops to different towns and round about roads, takes about 3-4 hours one way.

Alright, so we make it back to Kilkenny. That night, we go to a local pub and listen to some fantastic Irish folk music while drinking a locally brewed beer called Smithwicks.

Couldn’t ask for a better day!

Write later,

Dan

“Dan… We have five minutes for breakfast!”

Breakfast — included with a stay in our London hostel (St. Paul’s YHA Hostel) — was served from 7:30 – 9:30. I had just woke up and looked at my watch, and it read 9:25!! We threw on some clothes and stumbled upstairs to the dining room to grab our breakfast just before it closed…whew! I hadn’t set the alarm on my watch because we woke up fine the first morning, but we also had taken a four-hour nap the day before that first morning. We went out last night for a couple drinks, but didn’t stay out very late; I think we were in bed by midnight. The hostel had a great breakfast buffet, and missing breakfast would also mean missing what was essentially a free lunch because we would save the muffin or croissant, packaged bit of cheese and apple for — or to go with — our lunch. Then, we would just eat the cereal, toast, hard-boiled egg, drinkable yogurt and juice for breakfast.

Hostels take a bit of getting used to, and each one is different from the next. Actually, Dan and I have never traveled using traditional hotels (we’ve always camped), so — except for the lack of privacy — hostels are really a step-up from camping. You get a clean and generally comfortable bed, a toilet, sink and shower in or near the bedroom, and a kitchen with stove, sink, refrigerator and kitchen utensils for making quick meals. Sometimes, breakfast is provided.

Apart from the farms where we have stayed and worked, we’ve stayed in hostels and one “guest house,” (in Glasgow) which was more like a budget hotel with a full Scotish breakfast. Three of the hostels have been run through the Hostelling International organization, and the rest have been privately run. In all cases, one pays upon arrival and, therefore, checkout consists simply of turning in your room key and saying “goodbye.” No extra charges; you get exactly what you’ve paid for.

Dorm rooms vary greatly from hostel to hostel. The rooms at Brodies Hostel in Edinburg, Scotland had the most character, with A-frame bunkbeds with blue and green tartan, flannel sheets crowded into a room with white-plastered/painted stone walls. THis hostel was also the most fun, with other guests hanging out in the common areas, waiting to use the computer for free internet access, making meals in the kitchen, reading or listening to music. We met a guy there who had been a WWOOFer (worked on an organic farm, like we soon would) in Spain. He gave us the contact information for the farm in case we wanted to work there. We haven’t made plans to WWOOF after our two planned farms (in Scotland and Wales), but we also haven’t ruled it out. We also met a young woman who was going to do some WWOOFing in Europe and was asking us questions about our WWOOF experiences (in Canada). Oh…back to the rooms… The nice rooms have some kind of shelf or cabinet to put your things. If not, you just put your backpack under or near the bed. Some rooms have a sink and mirror. Some have an adjoining bathroom/shower. Others have separate bathroom/showers off the hallway.

Breakfast has been provided at about half of the hostels we’ve stayed in and vary greatly from cereal, toast, juice, tea, coffee and fruit to a full English/Scotish breakfast, which generally includes breakfast meats, fried/scambled egg, fried tomato, some type of baked beans, toast, juice, tea, coffee and fruit. Yes, it is a lot and, thus, the reason for saving what we can for lunch or to add to our lunch. And, actually, we often eat our mid-day meal out because of better deals with lunch menus and, then, eat food we have saved or bought from markets/stores for our later meal.

Eyeshades and earplugs have been our friends, especially in hostels with a lot of younger folks who stay out much later than we do and go to bed at 2 or 3 in the morning. Or, for the loud snorer in the bunk right across from you. Most hostellers are very respectful of others when they come “home” late or get up early, but there are the occasional few who, for example, set their “talking alarm” to go off at 6:00 and, then, hit the snooze several times until they get up a half-hour later. “Time to get up. Time to get up. The time is six-fourteen,” coaxes the digital, but gentle, female voice.

We have alread met quite a few very nice travelleres at the hostels we’ve stayed at — including folks from Australia, Japan, U.S., Canada, Ireland and France. We will, undoubtedly, meet many more.

Well, we had a bunch of our photos transferred from the memory cards to a CD, and we were able to upload the London ones to our Flickr site www.flickr.com/photos/timdan2. We’ll try to get more of them uploaded soon.

Also, I’ve created a map that shows where we’ve been, so far. I’ll try to keep that updated as we move along.

Tim

Scotland… sounds exotic, with lots of plaid tartans, bagpipers and whiskey, right? Well, from where I’m sitting right no, it seems pretty “normal” — well, mostly normal. The dog I just heard slurpng down his water dish is now standing in front of me, wagging his tail and looking for attention. It’s evening, so I look out the window to darkness; soft ceiling lamps brighten the room. A guitar leans against the wall behind a music stand with a music book on it. A piano, also with an open music book resting on its stand, sits in the corner just over my shoulder. I hear the faint theme music from a movie that Dan is watching in an adjacent room. I have just set down a book by Bill Bryson called “Notes from a Small Island,” which had been suggested by one of our hosts, Robert, as appropriate reading for travelling in the U.K. Then, there are comfortable love seats and chairs on a wood floor with area rugs. And, CDs on a small shelf spill over onto the top of the nearby piano. And, behind me is a hutch with photos of smiling children and nicely dressed adults.

What in this room reminds me that I’m not at home — in fact, that I am probably far from home? One of the most mundane things: the electrical wall outlets are wider than they are tall and contain an on/off switch for each of the two outlets. And, the outlet itself doesn’t accept the typical two vertical and one round prongs that we have in the U.S. Rather, it accepts a plug with three rectangular prongs, two horizontal and one vertical. Hmmm… what else? Two fiddles sitting on a table in the corner. The two oldest boys are taking fiddle lessons. Sam (the oldest boy) began by taking classical lessons, but switched to traditional because he enjoyed the music more. And, let’s see… the wood burning stove. The house in which our hosts live is heated with wood in the winter. And, by the way, they’re working on rigging up a big metal drum to convert used deep-frying oil into bio-diesel to fuel their cars.

So, who are the hosts we are staying with? They are Robert and Justine and their four children, Hazel, Sam, James and Angus. Hazel is 15; angus is 4; and I’m not quite sure of the ages of Sam or James who are somewhere between. They live in the beautiful Scotland highlands near Strontian, Scotland on Loch Sunart.

Hazel is a very bright girl (soon to be young woman) who takes pride in her various arts, crafts and photography projects and wants desperately for the family computer to be back online after an upgrade, so that she can “talk” with her online boyfriend, who lives in England.

Sam, with dark, wavy hair, plays fiddle, a bit of piano and a bit of guitar. He also plays Shinty, a sport, a sport somewhat similar to field hockey that’s popular in the Gaelic regions of Scotland.

James, also with dark, wavy hair, is a very bright young boy who — based on hearing his attempts — and his mother’s urgings — to complete a writing assignment — seems to be too impatient with the act of putting pencil paper to put his thoughts into writing. He is also the child (of all the Dunn children) to be pegged by a neighbor as having “high hohpes” of being a true capitalist despite his parents’ left leanings.

Angus — little Angie (said AYN-GEE, with a hard G) — the first of the kids to greet us. The blonde, four-year old Angus, naked as a jay bird, ran out to meet us, grabbed Dan by the hand, and led us upstairs to see his “new” room.

So, where are the kids now, you ask? Angus is already in bed, and the others are in town for either sport or youth group activities.

[Entry finished at a later date]

Dan and I are sleeping in a caravan (that’s what they call a camper in the U.K.) owned by the Dunn’s. It’s very comfortable, with electricity, water and a heater. However, we eat meals, shower and hang out in the house. We grab and eat our own breakfasts and lunches in the kitchen, but we eat suppers with the family around the table. The food is always excellent, and the wide-ranging discussions at the table are fun and informative. (We’ve learned quite a bit about British pop culture!) Although, James thinks the discussions are boring: “We’re just talking again,” he’ll groan as he grows impatient withthe inactivity.

So, what kind of work are we doing? Well, the Dunns began a mushroom-cultivating operation earlier this year, so we’ve seen and helped with most of this process. Very simply, bread-loaf-sized blocks of the mushroom-growing medium, including sawdust and wood chips, are sterilized by heating, inoculated, sealed in a specialized plastic bag and held at about 80 degrees F. Later, the blocks are remmoved from the bags and placed in a special, climate-controlled “fruiting” room. (No, that’s not where Dan does his impression of Jack from “Will and Grace.” ) There, the mushrooms grow, and we harvest them using a small knife. For more detail, check out their website: http://ardnamushrooms.co.uk/

The Dunns also have a vegetable garden, six pigs and several chickens, so we’ve helped a bit with the garden and with feeding the pigs. The other small tasks we’ve helped with include picking up the drum for bio-diesel conversion and “turning” a compost bin that is part of a community composting project.

When we weren’t working, we did several short biking and hiking trips in the neighboring highlands. But, Friday was a beautiful day, so we did a longer hike to the top of nearby Beinn Resipol, at a height of 2772 feet. Since we started essentially at sea level, we hiked up nearly every foot of those 2772 heet. The trail was very wet and muddy along most of the route, but the 360 degree views at the top were MAGNIFICENT!! Robert drove us to the starting point, and we hiked to the top and, then, improvised our way down the opposite ridge, ending up — after much mud and brush — back at the Dunn’s. The entire hike, including a short lunch break on the slope, took just under six hours. Upon returning, we washed up,, had an excellent curry supper (Thanks, Justine!) with the family and, then, participated in their “family movie night” by watching the eerie film, “Godsend.” It was a great way to top off our excellent stay with the Dunns!

Ever see three-story buildings on both sides of a street the size of an alley?
I bet the answer is “yes”.
Now imagine these buildings to be hundreds of years old and sagging/leaning over the small street as if they will fall within the month. I’m not done yet. Now imagine those same buildings with three stories, each story about 2-ish feet larger than the story below it, closing off the view of the sky; their sagging and larger top floors so close, a person could shake hands with his neighbor across the street from both their 3rd-floor windows. This is a street in York called “the shambles”. Way back when, it used to be the street of butchers. Some of the buildings still have hooks above the windows where meat and game were once displayed. The surrounding streets, while not as saggy, seem or are just as old. Walking through the town is almost like walking backward in time if it wasn’t for tourists and tourist shops abounding everywhere. On a tour we took of the town, our tourguide said during Roman times, York was the central hub of the U.K.. Now it survives on tourist dollars. There is a mostly intact wall around the town which Tim and I walked on. Great views surround you since the wall is very tall in places. This wall is complete with medieval gates with portcullises and barbicans. Very, very cool. One of the other great sites was York Minster. It is the largest Cathedral north of Milan, Spain. It is HUGE! Being from Minnesota, of the churches I’ve seen and I’ve been all over the USA, parts of Canada and some of the U.K., I could stuff at least 8 USA churches or 5 Canadian churches (or maybe 4 Oratories of St. Joseph) or 3 to 4 London churches into 1 York Minster. Unbelievable! (Yes, people could and will dispute this, I’m not infallable and could be entirely wrong on my church stuffing estimations and I haven’t seen every church; it’s true) The “feel” of York is very medieval romantic. Cobbled winding streets, called “gates”, ancient walls (the gates through them are called “bars”), old bars (taverns, pubs) create an ambience a writer would kill for in a setting for a story. I recommend visiting this city highly. ON TO THE NEXT CITY, Edinburgh, Scotland! What a fun place to explore, especially at night! Everything is lit up in the most picturesque way. First of all, Edinburgh Castle. This castle is a fortress. It stands on one end of the royal mile (a nickname for several streets right in front of the castle). It is on a hill/mountain of volcanic rock. One grassy side to the south of which is covered by an army of rabbits nibbling greedily at night-time. The castle is intimidating to look at and if I was a beseiger in medieval times, I’d run away. Inside the castle is an ancient church (a 1-room building) from the 1100’s, a medieval hall, an old prizon area, ruins from a tower toppled by cannon fire, the Scotland crown jewels, and lots of other neat old, old, buildings. Next, on the royal mile itself is every kind of touristy shop with Scottish flavor. Kilts! Kilts! Kilts! Whether you wear them with underwear or not, there’s one here for you. St. Giles Cathedral is also on the mile. It is very old and ornate and undergoing a refurbishment at this time to update and repair. On the way down to Holyrood ( a castle we didn’t go into) at the other end of the royal mile (YES, you heard me..DAN..didn’t make it into every castle :*() there is/are several pubs as well as other impressive churches. Near Holyrood is a mountain called Arthurs Seat. We went up the steep side, discovering the other easy way when we had reached the top. We saw some ruins to the north but still on the mountain and went to them. It was the ruins of an old monestery. Not alot there but very cool anyway. The pubs/taverns/bars in the city are very nice here. Many of them have live music of different types playing almost nightly. The one we went to had Scottish folkmusic that night and we could barely find a seat. One night we just walked the city snapping pictures.
During the day, as a side note, when we walked through the “not so touristy” areas, the buildings and streets struck us as very “cold and unfeeling”. The buildings were tall and cement colored blocks of rocks laid very bricklike and everything else uniform. It reminded me of an old movie called Metropolis. There are no trees or grass or even plants (very occasionally plants) on these streets. Also, very few people walked or drove in these places…deserted…creepy.
In any case, both York and Edinburgh are very nice places to be in September.

Write more later,

Dan

Wow, so much of what I learned in 11th grade World History is coming back to me now that I’m seeing some of the places that I “learned” about back then. We took the train out of London to York today, and went on a two-hour walking tour of York, England.

Sunday, we went to the British Museum, “Speaker’s Corner” in Green Park, and attended an organ recital at Westminster Abbey. Monday we went to the Palace of Westminster (better known as the Houses of Parliament). It was very cool and interesting; then, we watched the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace.

We’ll be here in York two nights, then three nights in Edinburgh, then on to our first farm in northern Scotland.

Hello All.. It’s Saturday evening, and we walked past an internet place, so I thought I’d write a quick bit. We flew into London Friday morning, checked into our hostel, and walked and bussed around London. Then we went back to the hostel and SLEPT! Neither of us got much sleep on the plane, so we were very tired. We slept for about four hours, and then went out to find a bite to eat at a nearby pub. After eating we walked around a bit more a stopped in at a couple more pubs.

Today, we went up in the London Eye; essentially, it’s a huge bicycle wheel that acts as a ferris wheel — only the cars are big glass bubbles that hold 20ish people. The thing ran into a bit of a problem apparently, and after waiting in the car half way up to the top for a half hour or so, they had to reverse the wheel and bring us back. They told us we could get a refund or come back later. We were going to get a refund, but the line was super long, so we decided to come back later. When we did, the line for the wheel was really short, so we did the full ride. It was pretty cool, being way above Big Ben and being able to look over London.

Dan taking over this next part…
We then went for a boat ride on the Thames. On the way to this boat ride (we rode the bus there), we saw a farmers market. It was jammed with people. We would later come back and buy some stuff for lunch here. The sights on the boat ride were fantastic with every kind of architecture imaginable. The “tour” was mediocre. The guy barely spoke at all. Anyway, after that, we went back to the market and then on to the Tower of London. It is really expensive to get into it. I contented myself by walking almost completely around it and getting a map at the giftshop.

The next stop…The National Gallery at Trafalgar Square. Lots of art for FREE. Deal!! It was a very nice exhibit.

On to Soho! We stopped at a couple of bars and found a bite to eat in this area. Very trendy and cool.

We’ll be in London until Tuesday morning, when we take a train north to York. The plan is to stay a couple nights in York, a couple nights in Edinburgh, Scotland, and then work on an organic farm through the WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) program in northern Scotland for a week. We’ll travel to and spend a week in Ireland before heading to Wales to work a week on a farm there. October 1st, we’ll leave the British Isles for Belgium.

Tim

Dan left yesterday for GenCon, a role-playing gaming convention in Indianapolis, and he’ll be there until next Monday. Not sharing Dan’s enthusiasm for gaming, I opted to stay in Shakopee with Jake.

Since returning from Chicago, our inbox has been filled with emails from fellow Team Band members reflecting on their experience in Chicago and sharing a ton of photos. Today I received an email from Team Band’s director for our Opening Ceremonies performance on Soldier Field. She had written to all of the newspapers and media groups who covered the Opening Ceremonies, and her writings were published on Planet Out and Gay.com websites, and I thought I’d share them here:

http://www.planetout.com/fitness/article.html?sernum=3866&navpath=/topics/fitness/gaygames/

http://www.gay.com/fitness/article.html?sernum=3866&navpath=/channels/fitness/gaygames/

Now, looking ahead…

Last week Dan and I booked our flights to London for our six-month trip through Europe. We fly out of Minneapolis-St. Paul on August 31. We have a list of about 10-12 countries and a few specific places that we’d like to visit, but no set itinerary. So, we’ve been busy doing research on where we’ll go and when, getting our finances in order, picking up a few last minute items to bring, and beginning to gather our gear, which will be packed into our approximately 40 liter backpacks.

I’m at the Shakopee library right now, and am on a one-hour time limit at this internet workstation, so I’ll close here so I can finish going through our emails and, then, check out the library’s travel section.

Tim