After the forest and legends came something a bit more meaty. We stopped at Stratford upon Avon. This is the place of birth (&death) of none other than William Shakespeare. It seemed a bit touristy to me but I am sure that some people eat this place up. We didn’t pay the admission into his birthplace but Chris at least made some silly poses outside.

By early evening we were back in London. “Sigh” Our week of Wild and Sexy Haggis had ended. We loved this tour company though and would recommend it to anyone. If we had had more time we would have loved to add on one of their Scottish Highlands tours to the Full Monty that we did. Oh well, it will have to be saved for another trip!

We were back on the London Underground by 6 P.M. and on our way to spend the evening with Ryan & Natasha again, who graciously agreed to host us again. We also were surprised and thrilled that they let us share their Canadian Thanksgiving feast with them on our last night in the U.K.! Yeah!!!

• the real Sherwood forest
• a Chris
• a green hat with a bird’s feather

You get a very sexy Merry Man! Or so says Becky.

Even though the tales of Robin Rood are fictional, Sherwood forest is real! I was surprised when our tour bus came upon Sherwood forest which is located next to the actual Nottingham in England no less. Cool huh? In the forest there is an 800 year old oak tree called “Major Oak”.  It is so old it has tree crutches. Robin was one hip guy. He was stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, plus getting the chick. Not to mention, he was also drinking with a bunch of “merry” friends in the woods. What is better than that?

Next up was the town of York. York was originally founded in 71 A.D. by the Romans. It was the northernmost city of the Empire. Constantine was actually proclaimed emperor here in 306 A.D. During the time of the fall of Rome, York was briefly Christian, but then came the Vikings who conquered it and renamed it Jorvik. After them were the Normans who first destroyed and then rebuilt the city with an amazing wall that still stands today. Oh to be on a island and have lots of invaders. We didn’t have long in York as it was only a couple hour stop over as we were staying in a nearby town for the night and not in York itself. There was lots that we could do. We could wander around the city walls, traverse the old streets in an area called “The Shambles”, go to the York Minster, go to the Castle Museum which had a replica of a 19th century street and lots of everyday objects from Victorian times to the present, etc. There was so much to see and so little time.

For the night we drove to the neighboring town of Beverley and stayed at a 600 year old Dominican friary that was turned into a youth hostel. I found out later that it was supposedly haunted although I saw nothing at the time. It was great fun eating chinese food and getting drunk by the fire with our Haggis tour mates.

For the evenings festivities, we went to The Real Mary King’s Close. This is a historical tour of several of the Closes that have actually survived from the 17th century. When the building above these closes was built (The Royal Exchange – now the City Chambers) instead of completely demolishing the existing houses, they used their bottom floors as a foundation. The closes were forgotten about until recently and then opened up again (in 2003) and you can now basically walk down several of these closes (most notably Mary King’s Close) just as people did back then. It is all kinda spooky. A guide dressed in period clothing leads you through the rooms and closes and tell you the historical data along the way, like how they dealt with the sanitation problems, what wages were like back then, how people lived, that Mary King actually was a notable business woman that lived on this close, what happened when the plague hit from between 1644-1646 and killed 1/3 of the town’s population, etc. You are also brought into a bit of the paranormal in that psychics have also claimed that this area is also a hot spot for ghosts. One of the ghosts is Annie and she was supposedly abandoned in her house by her mother 300 years ago with her doll when she was dying of the plague. After her death though she “woke up” to find her doll was gone and this made her very sad. So, today many visitors now bring her dolls to keep her company and let her restless soul be at peace. I enjoyed this tour immensely and it was probably my favorite part of Edinburgh. I love the history and trying to imagine myself in someone else’s shoes!

We arrived at Edinburgh, Scotland in the middle of the afternoon and Ped took us all on a tour in the bus. Quite an impressive city. Lots of old buildings and it’s built on a large hill which at the top is, of course, the castle. The Royal Mile in the old quarter is the main road and has been since the city was established. Around this road, the city was built. After getting our fellow travelers checked into their hostel for the night, we decided to go on an early ghost tour before meeting up with the guy that we had decided to couch surf with (see below).

Anyway after wandering around the royal mile, we decided on Auld Reekie Ghost and Torture Tour (Auld Reekie was Edinburgh’s nickname when it had hideous sanitation in the 15-17th centuries – more on that below). We met at their starting destination and were a bit startled to see only 2 other people and the guide. But no worries, four was the minimum needed for a tour and we were off. Our guide was of course dressed in black to play the role and talked of how the city began and basically over the centuries became overpopulated, as did alot of other cities in medieval Europe. One of the major problems seemed to be that the city was landlocked by a large defensive wall that was built to keep out the English. It did not allow the city to grow outward, so people tried to rectify this by having the buildings grow upwards. Apparently Edinburgh was one of the first cities with medieval versions of skyscrapers where the tenement houses would span over 10 stories high. The first few levels were stone and then after that they were wooden. The buildings were all very close together and only a small footpath called a “close” separated the buildings. Even to be rich in these situations would be dirty by today’s standards but in those times, life was much worse. To be poor meant sharing these apartments with many others (20-30), and remember, there was no indoor plumbing. This was the dark ages, for some reason we had forgotten all that ancient Rome had to teach us about sanitation. All waste, be it kitchen scraps, urine, poo, vomit, etc. was collected in a bucket and then twice a day hurled out the window by one of the kids after screaming “gar de l’eau” to land in the center of the street where gravity then allowed it to “flow” into the Nor Loch (one of the lakes at the bottom of the hill – today it is a park with flowers! hmm I wonder why). The Nor Loch also just to let you know was where the drinking water came from. Can anyone say cholera and typhoid? Anyway add that to the fact that as time went on the buildings started to become dilapidated and start to collapse into one another and left many homeless and you have a hideous social structure. Edinburgh to try to solve the homeless problem in the 17th century then decided to make homelessness illegal and then the poor were forced to live underground in vaults beneath the city buildings, under the streets, with even worse sanitation and no lighting. Crime and disease was rampant. A curfew was strictly enforced at 10 P.M. and the police then herded all the homeless back underground. Per our guide (and remember I don’t know how much she is exaggerating for effect) the average lifespan after entering the vaults was 18 months for children and the elderly and 3.5 years for average “healthy” adults. She also spoke of some of the fears that circulated at the time and how Edinburgh was one of the leading cities in the hunting, torturing and slaughtering of “witches”. To be accused of witchcraft by a mob was basically a death sentence. They would torture a “confession” out of you and no matter what you said, you were basically thrown into the Nor Loch with your thumbs nailed to your kneecaps (or so she said) and if you sank you were innocent and if you floated you were a witch and were then retrieved and burnt at the stake. How lovely! So after all that wonderful talk we then spent 30 minutes (30 minutes too long if you ask me) wandering around the dark vaults beneath the city where supposedly lurks the South Bridge Poltergeist. Of the three chambers we entered they just kept getting spookier and spookier and our guide just kept talking louder and louder. I saw no ghosts but was very happy to be back above ground enjoying a cider at a pub when the tour ended.

After that excitement, went to a Mexican restaurant, yes a Mexican restaurant in Scotland shocked me too and I would have sworn I was in the U.S. had it not been for everyone around me eating with both their fork and knife at the SAME time. Anyway, after dinner went to find the flat of Steve L. He was a Kiwi now living in Edinburgh who had agreed through couchsurfing to host us for a couple nights. He was great fun to talk to and had this soft and wonderful bed that I sank into and slept for what felt like forever.

Our goal for today was to get to the Lake District in Northern England. In the process, we took a quick pee break at the town in Wales with the longest name (see picture) and also lunch in Conwy with Conwy Castle. It is strange. As an American I am not used to seeing castles, but over here in Europe, they are everywhere. Chris explored Conwy pretty much on his own after he deposited me in a cafe to have some hot Earl Grey tea which actually helped my throat mucho. You’ll have to ask him about what he saw. The day was a bit of a blur to me.

Leaving Wales, we ended up in the Lake District and met with some intense swans who were out for blood at one rest stop. Just trust me, after I saw one lady fighting with one for her sandwich, if they chase you, just give them whatever they want. They may look all pretty like some supermodel, but they sure like to hiss and bite. Tonight after getting to Ambleside, I went to bed early. Sleep was much needed to try to heal.

After the Abbey went to Llangollen and Dinas Bran Castle. Chris climbed to the top while I decided on shopping and some much needed ice cream. Oh it is my weakness. No matter now cold, no matter how hot, forget the chocolate, bring on the ice cream! One shop I passed by proudly displayed this sticker (see picture). Heathens!

After meandering through the countryside, arrived at our retreat for the night at Tyddyn Bychan Bunkhouse in Northern Wales. It was wonderful. Great big bunk beds with fluffy comforters. Linda, the owner had already picked up the meat that we had preordered for our BBQ and Ped had picked up various odds and ends to make roasted potatoes, pasta, salads, roasted veggies, chips, dip, etc. All of us had also stocked up on wine and liquor. Lots of food and great fun for the bunch of us. It was very cozy getting to know one another by the wonderful fire of the Kota BBQ House, although sometimes a bit smokey. Eating roasted marshmallows was also an experience. There are no graham crackers in the U.K., no one had ever heard of them, so we had to settle for ginger cookies and chocolate squares and marshmallows to make our smores. The funny thing about the marshmallows though is that they come in other colors over here and taste different. The pink ones kinda tasted like a strawberry/cotton candy blend. Very weird.