Just Mulchman's WordPress weblog
Since I had some site outages recently, and because I never make backups, I’ve decided to move the blog over to Wordpress’s site. (There are also some other reasons but those are the main ones.)
Anyway, you should start checking here for updates. The new location is http://mulchman.wordpress.com. Additionally, all the content that was here is now at the new site, too.
A couple of days ago, almost when we first got to London, Kathy had a sore throat for 2 days and then a running nose for 2 days.
Shortly after that Amber came down with the same symptoms and the same timeline – she’s currently at the running nose stage
Now it’s my turn -> I’ve had a slightly “rough” throat for 2 days. Hooray.
We had a decent breakfast at the B&B and then we were off – pretty early for us, too – to Scotland!
Quite early on the way we hit up Castlerigg stone circle which is a smaller stone circle out in the middle of nowhere. It was okay; I took a series of photos for a 360 degree panorama while standing in the middle of it.
Next we continued driving… and driving… and driving… and driving. We drove all day stopping only for “services” (food, coffee, toilets) at various exits along the way. Finally, after many miles and many miles through construction areas, we arrived in Inverness at probably the best B&B of this trip (and certainly for the last trip).
This place looks good and feels good.
At each place we get two rooms: one for Amber and I and one for Kathy. Kathy’s room is huge with a giant (compared to other B&B’s) bathroom. You could probably fit 10 people in Kathy’s bathroom whereas with a normal B&B bathroom you’re lucky to fit just yourself.
Our room is slightly above normal because it has places to actually put stuff instead of stacking things in the middle of where you want to walk and such which is how it is at other B&B’s.
Back to the bathrooms – the main complaint we have about B&B’s is about how small the showers are. At some places you have just enough room to take an annoyed and angry shower and at others you have just enough room for yourself inside the shower which makes one even angrier. In the latter case if you drop something it’s too bad -> you’re better off getting completely out of the shower and picking it up than to try and squat or bend over.
Anyway, our shower in this place is nice and is even big enough that one can dry off completely inside of it. This is way above the standard the other B&B’s have set on this trip thus far.
Back to the actual trip recounting – once we got settled in to the B&B we walked through some rain to a local hotel lounge where we ate dinner. It was pretty good and I got to try two Scottish beers. After that it was back to the B&B and off to bed.
Beer tallies (20 total)
P.S.: This B&B also does laundry (for a small price) which means I don’t have to do it in the sink! This earns them even more points!
Hey England: have you heard of sheets?
There’s a sheet covering the mattress and then some skanky thing that encases a down blanket. This has been the case at two different places in England thus far. Where’s the sheet that goes above the mattress cover and whatever top-blanket is in use? What if the down blanket thing is way too hot because it’s a freaking down blanket?
Hey UK & Ireland: why 2 taps?
I’ve got this new invention where you can combine hot and cold water to create any temperature water you like! Seriously; these bathrooms with two taps are so annoying because you either get ice cold water or burning hot water and neither are what you ever want. Ever.
Our first morning at a B&B here in the UK and I got the English breakfast. I wanted to give it a try at least once – and at least it doesn’t have weird stuff like the Irish breakfast (black & white pudding *shudder*) – and it was good: scrambled eggs, bacon (always love the “rashers”), tomato, mushrooms and sausage. After that we were on our way; we had a lot of driving to do.
While heading out of Salisbury we stopped at Old Sarum and spent a lot of time walking around the grounds and taking pictures. I took a ton of photos for panoramas. One, totaling 44 images, took 55 minutes to generate control points and another 10 minutes to complete the final picture; this netbook is sloooow!
When we arrived at our next B&B in Morecambe we hung out in the community TV/lounge room and surfed the web and updated blogs and such then headed out for dinner. I went to a local hotel and ate in their restaurant place and Amber and Kathy found random food stuff at Tesco Express.
I had a new beer from the Thwaites Brewery -> Lancaster Bomber. It was more bitter than the Best Bitter from yesterday but still very good; I had two.
After that it was laundry and bed.
Beer tallies (18 total)
For the remainder of the trip our access to the internet will be spotty at best. The B&B’s we’ve booked allegedly have wifi but our access to it may be limited.
In short, don’t expect the post frequency to continue as it has thus far.
Day 8 started heading to Heathrow to pick up a rental car. The tube ride and rental car process went smoothly and we were on our way towards Stonehenge.
Driving on the left side of the road was barely a shock this time – in Ireland that first stretch of road on the ‘wrong’ side was wicked – and I fell back in good form in no time.
On our way to Stonehenge we hit up another stone circle that’s 16 times bigger than Stonehenge and also about 600 years older -> Avebury. It was cool to get to walk around the stones and such but the town that’s right in the middle of the circle is a bit of a buzz kill.
After that we drove into Salisbury to find the Salisbury Cathedral but ended up driving around all over trying to find a place to park. We finally found a place in a garage that was closing in about an hour so we had to rush to check out the cathedral. It was worth the stop; the cathedral was cool.
Next we went to our B&B and checked in and then went to a local place for dinner. I got a pint of Ringwood Breweries’ Best Bitter and it tasted awesome. I like bitter beers, and this certainly wasn’t the most bitter one I’ve tasted, but it was good. If I see it in a pub somewhere else I’d definitely get it again.
We then went to Stonehenge where we had an appointment – with about 20 others – to get a private viewing of the stones. This meant we got to go past the normal viewing areas and get right up close and personal with the stones. We got to walk in the circle and sneak in touches when security wasn’t looking. I got a good panorama right when we got there – as Amber was actually walking FAST to get there first – and we had an awesome hour with the rocks while the sun set. Kathy got some awesome photos as well and even some with wicked lens flares.
After that it was late and time to head back to the B&B, do laundry in the sink, and get to bed.
Beer tallies (16 total)
Toilet flush button has two “modes” – big flush (on the left) and small flush (on the right). Or just press both when you’ve taken that colossal monster and are worried it won’t go down.
We wanted to do breakfast at some crepe place but it was closed when we went out to check it out so Amber made eggs and we ate more crumpets and such. We also found a new bakery and got some pastries/bread products.
I’ve been trying chocolate doughnuts – or bread-y things covered in chocolate – but today’s was no thrill unfortunately. (There were some in Kenmare, Ireland that were awesomely awesome.)
Anyway, we then had a really long ride this morning out to the Greenwich Observatory (actually had to take a bus part way there due to construction as they apparently choose to do this work exclusively on the weekend). The Greenwich Observatory is where “time begins” or some other such arrogant statement due to it lying on the prime meridian => 51°28′38″N 0°00′00″E. It was kind of cool but it started sprinkling and, while I have a jacket, I hate to get wet so that kind of ruined things for me.
We ventured back to the town of Greenwich and had lunch in an open-air market-y place. I got an AWESOME brownie after 2 servings of chicken gyoza and some really spicey (I spell spicey with an ‘e’), but good, caribbean chicken curry. We then hopped back on the tube after some walking around.
Then it was off to the pub for the last time. I watched some rugby and drank some Guinness.
UK Guinness count: 15 – Total beer count: 15