Letter from Burntisland, York and Stratford-Upon-Avon

Hello All:

So, here is our first 'on the road' update! We're going to do our best to get a minimum of three cities in each update......we shall see if that works out!

Our first stop was Burntisland. It was a great place to get to with travel on a ferry, then a bus, then a ferry, then a train, then another train, then another train!!!! But we arrived safe and sound at the train station in Burntisland, tired, but ready for our 20 minute walk to the hotel.....20 minutes, yeah right! We headed up the hill and after asking directions from a nice man in the park, made the 3 kilometre trek to the hotel. As we approached the hotel, it was exactly as Katie had remembered from pictures and video from when her Dad was here 14 years ago! Other than the fact that there had been several renovations since that time, the character of the building has remained the same. We checked in and headed up to our room (thankfully in the back of the hotel as we find the noise difficult after being in quiet Iona for so long). After showering and changing, we had dinner in the downstairs restaurant (we were the only ones there!) with a great view across the Firth of Forth to Edinburgh. It was beautiful with the Castle all lit up! After dinner, it was an early evening to bed as we were exhausted. Before going to bed however, Katie opened up the window to have some fresh air come into the room. Apparently, this was a bad idea as a HUGE spider decided to join us in our room. When she woke up around 3 am, Katie looked across the room and there he was on the wall. His fangs were so big, that she could see them from where she was in the bed!!!! Dan tried to dispose of the beast for her, but sadly the first attempt failed. Thankfully, however, he found him in the bathroom and got him outside, closing the window, as the spider's nest was right outside the window.

After the drama of the morning we headed out to see the wonders of Burntisland. We explored the cemetary where the Johnstones are buried. They were still there from last time :) Off to the village we went to visit the barber (brush cut for Dan), the bank (pay for the tour) and of course an ice cream. We also sent some stuff back to Dan's parents to lighten our load a bit. In the afternooon we asked Catherine and Rankin Bell (the owners) about Katie's family friends Norman and Daphne, who had given Katie's Dad, Pops and Aunt Grace a tour 14 years ago. To our surprise they are still around and still having a great time with life. We met up with them that evening and had a great time exchanging stories and laughs. They insisted on showing us the parish church the next morning, which is conveniently near the train station! Norman is the curator so is VERY knowledgable about the church and its history. We had our tour with a quick song on the organ, tales of the baker, the butcher, and the shoemakers, and the stolen bible. We also were given a copy of the hymn books that were donated to the church by Katie's Pops and Aunt Grace after their visit with the dedication written inside......very sweet of them.

We said goodbye to Daphne and Norman and boarded the train. We headed to Edinburgh to switch trains to York on a beautiful day! Upon arrival in York, we walked up to the Mickelgate Backpackers Hostel for our one night stay. After checking in, we decided to head to the Minster.....Dan was in awe!! It was amazing, beautiful and incredible:) We were in luck too because the organist and boys choir were warming up for the evensong while we were there, so we were treated to lovely music while we explored the church. Definately a highlight (which you can tell by the numerous pics that were taken here:) Afterwards, we headed to a 400-year-old pub, where we had authentic Yorkshire pudding (appropriate:) and Lasagna (not so appropriate:). The next morning, we got up nice and early and went for a walk on the York wall. Who knew that you could walk on the wall! For free!!! Scooter even made the trip (as you will see:). Then, we boarded the train for Stratford-Upon-Avon.

We had to switch train stations in Birmingham, which was interesting as our good luck with the weather was faltering slightly. We boarded a much older train and enjoyed the 45 minute ride to Stratford. Upon arrival, the train was bombarded with teenagers heading for Birmingham (which is the second largest English city and seems like a huge big box store mall.) They were slightly rude as we were trying to get off the train with our big bags, but oh well, life goes on!:) We walked into town to find out that our hostel was 5 kilometres outside of the city!!!!!!! As the weather was still crappy, we decided to wait for the bus. We paid £3.80 for the one-way ticket (which is almost $8 Cdn) and decided that after this, we walk into town! We arrived at the hostel, had a great pizza dinner in the hostel restaurant (very convienient and economical) and went to bed in our seperate rooms.

The next morning, we decided to sleep in a bit, have breakfast and then walk into town. It was a very nice day with sun and cloud and a nice wind to keep us cool. When we arrived in town, we saw the Shakespeare monument, visited his birthplace (pretty neat), and then bought tickets to see 'A Midsummer's Night Dream'. They were super cheap tickets, so we figured that our seats wouldn't be very good. After that, we walked to the church where Shakespeare is buried, walked around town, watched the swans and other birds on the Avon, and had dinner. Then we watched the swans some more and headed to the theatre. Katie's seat was in the centre of the very top row in the whole theatre! Dan's was off to the side a bit and behind a bar. The show started and it was awesome! During intermission, Dan was able to move beside Katie which gave him a much better view of the stage. It was an absolutely hilarious second half! Then, we walked back to the hostel and it was off to bed.

This morning, we got up, threw our backpacks together and headed back into town (remember 5 kilometres, with 30 lb backpacks on....took a little longer than the first day!). We found the free internet (hooray) at the library and here we sit until it's time for us to catch the train!

So, enjoy the attached pictures, there are many more (especially of any type of Stratford bird you could ever see!) and we'll be sure to keep sharing with you.

Letter from Iona - #15

Hello All:)

So, the end has come and now the real adventure is beginning!!!!! We have only 3 more days left on the isle of Iona and then we're off to see Europe!

We've had a couple of adventures this week with ice cream machines and power failures, as well as house parts in our front lawn and our housemate moving out, but all in all, it's been a nice week.

What happened with the ice cream machine you ask? Well, it was very funny if you were there and will probably lose something in the telling, but we'll try. Basically, there is a large soft ice cream machine maker in the kitchen which we use for desserts at dinner time. Katie was making dessert for somebody and was in a large rush, so she didn't check to see if the machine was turned on. It's only funny of course, because the machine was not on and rather than nice soft ice cream slowly exiting the machine, when she pulled down on the lever, cold, sticky, ice cream formula sprayed everywhere....all over her!:) Pretty funny, but again, you might have had to be there:)

As for the power failure, Dan has been really good about getting up early to get our laundry finished before we leave (as who knows when we will be able to wash our clothes again for free!). So, he was up early yesterday and then woke Katie up around 9:15 am, saying that the power had shut off and he couldn't get it back on with the pound coin turny thingy. Usually, we have to wind up the power in the house with a reusable pound coin, but that wasn't even working. This meant no shower, no light in the bathroom at all, no more laundry, and no fridge power. The fridge was okay because we don't have much food in there anyway, but the bathroom was difficult to see in. So, Dan had a bath for the first time in who knows how long and Katie was treated to some lovely singing (something about a rubber ducky?):) One for the books, that's for sure!

The house parts are in our front lawn because Paul (Sheila's brother) is building his own house on the island and needed somewhere to dump his stuff off of the truck until the rest arrives. Made a big mess though:(

And, Donna, the Yorkshire roommate, has left us to move into the flat. She won't be staying in the blue house all by herself and thought it would be good to get out now while the getting was good.

So, our adventure starts on Sunday with leaving Iona and heading to Fife. We hope to be able to send out weekly emails/blog updates still and keep you all in the loop of what we (and Scooter) have been up to.

Anyway, have a great week and we'll see you soon!

Letter from Iona - #14 - One more week to go!

Hello All:

So, the time is drawing near.......and we have news to share!

This week we decided that rather than organize all of our own travels after we leave Iona, that we would prefer to try an organized tour with a reputable company. This method will save us cash and energy and will give us a more in depth experience for our money. So, after much exhaustive research and with huge thanks to Katie's brother Chris for his research, we have come to a conclusion. Here is our tour...........................................................


Europe Heritage


Highlights:
Dover, Amsterdam, Cologne, Rhineland, Heidelberg, Strasbourg, Lucerne, Liechtenstein, Innsbruck, Salzburg, Vienna, Venice, Rome, Florence, Pisa, French Rivieria, Monte Carlo, Nice, South of France, Barcelona, Madrid, Lourdes, Pau, Biarritz, Loire Valley, Paris

We're so very excited about this.....it's a 24 day long tour with all hotels, all breakfasts, and half our dinners included. Plus we got a super duper deal on the price and so, it's just worked out really really well. (By the way, can you tell who's typing?)

So, that has been our major activity for the week. Plus we've been busy getting excited about moving on and starting the next leg of our journey. Even Scooter got into the spirit....as you can see from his pic here, he's busy resting up on his travel pillow and chewing some lovely peach flavoured gum.......believe me, it was quite the fight to get it away from Dan long enough to take the pic!!

And so, we leave you now with only one more letter from Iona to come. As always, we hope that you are all doing very well and have had a wonderful summer. By the way....we need to send a shout out to Katie's sister Julia who turns 19 today.....look out world here she comes....Happy Bday kiddo!

Letter from Iona - #13

Hello All:

Less then 3 weeks now before we head to the mainland for the start of our European Trek! We've been busy finalising our plans of where to go and how to get there. So far we've decided to use rail mostly but to also include at least one flight! The chunnel is quite expensive so a flight from London Luton to Paris CDG looks like the best choice (yay!!)

Not much has happened on Iona for us to tell you about. We had a quiet day today due to the weather and Katie' not feeling 100%. A nice break from our usual whirl-wind pace. We've invited our Aussie friend Katherine over for an evening of a video and a card game or two. She finishes at the restaurant this Saturday. However, on Sunday of this past week, Katie had the opportunity to brush up on her one-manual electronic organ skills. The Parish Church (whose service is led by our friend Syd) is without an organist right now as Harold (the usual organist) has been away sick. So, their regular backup was unable to make the service and Katie got a call to play. It was worked out with Sheila and both of us were able to attend the service on Sunday. It was a very nice service with lots of talk about TeamWork and Accountability. We really enjoyed it and hope that we can attend another before we leave.

A topic near and dear to our hearts is the wildlife on Iona. You've heard about our close encounters with the corn-crake but we haven't told you about our 6 and 8 legged friends which share the house with us. The odd spider has been found (much to Katie's dismay) so we shan't discuss that topic. The 6 legged ones are far more entertaining anyways! These 'Jenny Long-Legs' or 'Squishy' as we sometimes call them (to quote the Dory, the cartoon fish in Finding Nemo). These insects only form of self-defense seems to be to dislocate a leg! Almost like some lizards lose a tail. Sadly, one such insect lost 4 of his legs during a rather horrific attempt to free him to his outside domain. I fear he has since become bird or bat food, which we have plenty of on the island.

While I (Dan) am a naturalist at heart my beloved fianceé is a bit rougher on insects. If I'm not around these 6 legged friends usually find their death with a rapid shoe or book attack. I hope some of our self-help books have not been used in such fashion... oh the irony (see attached picture, featuring our friend Scooter in his perch).


More news to share next week... for now we'll sign off. We're continuing to think and pray for all of those affected by Hurricane Katrina. Thank you to those who have sent emails, letters and packages... any word from anyone is greatly appreciated!