Northern Tour: Scotland and The Lake District

And this is the Lake District!

Ambleside was great.  This is the Lake District where all the poets lived.  Potter bought up some land here to keep it from being built on and she also saved some type of sheep from going extinct.  I guess it doesn’t taste as good and its wool is multicolored so it is hard to dye etc.  I can see why it might go extinct if you were a farmer trying to make money.  We hiked around this beautiful area.  My pictures do not come even close to how beautiful it was.  I was grateful for at least one sunny day while we were there.  It was nice to be able to sit out in the hills and not get wet.  And I always enjoy seeing the sun.  Makes me happy.  

Hillary and Katie

Natalie, Laura, Karen, Katie

The hostile we stayed in at Ambleside.  The fire alarm went off about five times that night...  very weird to be dead asleep and wake up to that.  Glad it wasn't for reals, just some problem with the system.  Then we came home to the London center and had the same thing happen around two in the morning... glad that one wasn't real too.  But I don't like being woken up to that!

On my morning walk before breakfast I saw this house... There was glass milk being set out for them!  It wasn't there when I came back either. 

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This was the winder mere.  Mere means Lake!  On our hike we went up above it so we could look down on it.  This was in the morning- where Karen and I walked to.

This is Edinburgh.....

Karen and me on our way to Edinburgh Castle

We went to the Castel of Edinburgh on Wednesday the 14th.  It sounds like they were always under attack.  The castle was not as impressive or nice as Chatsworth.  It was what I imagined castles to be like though.  I would have hated to be a prisoner there.  There was also a monument to the war there.  I think in all towns in England there is a war memorial. 

The church at the castle

I loved all the stained glass everywhere

the outside of the castle

The Elephant house is where JK Rolling started writing Harry Potter.  This is the café where she worked and had inspiration I guess.  It was a nice warm place in the Scottish cold.  

This is the Writers Museum...

After the castle, Karen and I spent the rest of the day going around to museums.  We were only supposed to go to three but we ended up getting mixed up and went to the national Scottish Museum instead of the National Scottish Gallery so we ended up booking it around Edinburg to see everything we were supposed to.  It was nice to see all the work.  I wished, as always, that we weren’t so rushed.  It was good though.  Felt like a really full, productive tourist day.  And they were all beautiful Museums.

An Angle...  cool statue on the road

Hadrian’s Wall was made because the Emperor of Rome/ Hadrian was more concerned with defense than expansion.  It goes from cost to cost- 73 miles of land.  It was made right before his visit to Britten.  It was 8 feet thick 12-15 feet high.  Now it hardly exists because the rock was often used for other building in the area.  So those stones are probably making up the churches and things around where the wall was.  It was complete in about 6 years.  122-130 AD.  Most of what we saw were the remains of Roman brackets and such.  It was cool looking at the layout and especially the raised floor.  They had heated floors so they raised the height of the floors up to allow for the heated air to be pushed underneath the floor.

Arthur’s Seat cannot possibly be where Arthur went to sit and contemplate… it was SOOOOO windy!  Good view of the area though :) so maybe on a nicer day it would have been okay.  I have never been in such strong wind.  It was amazing.  I am very glad that no one got blown off the top…  But it let us see Scotland and the English Channel.  

It was super cold in Scotland that first day.  The next day wasn’t as windy and the sun shone so it was nice.  I liked the city of Edinburgh a lot.  It was smaller and so I liked it more than London.  I don’t think that I am really a big city girl.

This was a monument to the poet Richard Scott... I am not sure if that is his first name... He was in the writers museum.  after he died they wanted to build this for him.  I guess he was pretty cool huh?

Tony Cragg had a show up in the Scottish Modern Museum.  His work was really beautiful.  I took some pictures before I got in trouble.  I didn’t see any signs saying I couldn’t--- but I couldn’t :) 

This is the lawn outside the modern museum 

Sometimes I am just surprised by the rooftops...  can you imagine if all those chimneys were blowing out coal smoke?

This was our first hostel in Osmotherly 

morning walk in Osmotherly

walk from our hostel to the bus...

I got up early at Osmotherly and went on a walk before breakfast.  It was very nice.  Everywhere you look is a picturesque view.  So green.  You felt like one of the good old romantics.  I can see why they painted what they did.  This would have been Tuesday the 13^th and we stopped at Hadrian’s Wall and then later entered Scotland and in Edinburgh we climbed Arthur’s Seat.

I am pretty sure this is Edinburgh still.  My pictures are a little out of order... but it takes so long to load anything here that I don't really care...  Sorry!

This is William Wordsworth home in Dover

This is Emily... the sweetest girl ever.

I asked this Asian woman if she would like me to take her picture in front of this amazing view (next picture) but of course we couldn't understand each other so she ended up taking a picture of me and Emily instead!  After that she got a picture with Emily too :)

A beautiful scene in Wordsworht's garden...

It rained all day this day...

I now know why the English have tea time.  It rains and is cold here and all you want to do is get inside someplace warm and have a nice drink to warm you up.  Makes sense to me!  

The last few were his next home a few miles away... with gardens as such.

In the Lake District we stopped at Wordsworth grave and his Dove Cottage and then later to Rydal Mount his house after he was made poet lauret.  A much nice home.  Garden was beautiful and the house was bigger and had large windows where the light could come in.  A much better place to live than his dark small cottage.  

This was a picture of the view at Ruskin's house

We also saw Ruskin’s home in Brantwood.  I walked around his gardens by myself and quite enjoyed them.  I was very grateful for my rain gear so that I could enjoy being outdoors.  His house was cool too.  I like them when they have windows with awesome views and that let the light in.  I got to play the piano here too.  Not as nice as at Chatsworth.  But I really shouldn’t compare anything to Chatsworth- because nothing can compare to that beauty of a place.

My favorite colors even exist in England....