Scotland

We are on day 3 in Edinburgh as we arrived thursday afternoon after traveling from 8:30 am till 4 pm. The rest of our time with Ben was really enjoyable and now we are bugging Ben to come to Canada. We are now with Ben's brother Tim and his wife Katie. They live in the suburb part of Edinburgh in a beautiful home and we've had a blast with them so far. Yesterday we went and explored the town by walking the streets and enjoyed the gorgeous sunshine before meeting Tim for dinner. We then hit the bars. One of them called "the Dome" was an old bank that had been transformed to a bar and it was not a bank you would see at home. The floor was a detailed mosaic; there were marble pillars, and the celling was a beautifuly architectural dome - hence the name. Our night ended at 4 am when we finally hit the pillow and it has been a slow recovery day. To say it was fun is an understatement. After nurses ourselves we climbed the hill in the Pentlands and enjoyed the gorgeous city view. For dinner tonight we are going to have haggis for the first time. Tomorrow the plan is to hit up St. Andrew's. Monday we depart on a threeday haggisadventure tour to see more of North Western Scotland.

Side Note: the phone is not being delivered. Something happened with the ordering and it ended up being refunded. We found a store in town that cells Quad Band phones for cheaper than the online place so we are going to pick one up - unfortunately it won't be waterproof as we had hoped. Oh Well. But very soon we will have communication again.

Moving on

We are now in Wotton-underedge - which is not too far from Bath. We had a wonderful stay with an absolutely amazing family at eco-bloomfield during our stay in Bath and we would have loved to stay longer. We are now staying with Ben, and it has been a blast. On Saturday we went to a polo match - which was really neat. WOW can ponies run. It is neat how the match stops so the "fans" can go fill the holes made by the stampeding ponies. Sunday we went to Avebury and spent most of the time running through the hills with Millie (Ben's adorable 8 year old daughter who is an energizer bunny). Today we tackled the laundry and grocery shopping before we went on a long walk through the farmers fields. We are still sorting out our plans for the rest of the week - but it will be great!!

Bath

Bloomfield Bath has been amazing! Yesterday the trio (us and Will) hit up Thermae Spa for 3 1/2 hours soaking in the natural hot spring water and indulging in the steam rooms. Everyone was pretty wrinkled at the end. The day before we went on a free walking tour and learned some of the amazing history of Bath. We tried to find Johnny Depp with no luck! Today we are taking it easy around the house since the weather refuses to be nice. Saturday we get to meet Ben and he is going to take us to a Polo game! Should be fun! A few nights out, and a couple days of work - life is good.
- The phone situation is solved - we just ordered a WATERPROOF and SHOCKPROOF cellphone - so lets keep our fingers crossed this one can make us through the trip :)

Time to get back to the cricket game!

xox

one of the only photos with the 2 of us -- chillin on the London Eye!

phone?

TODAY we head out to Bath, Somerset for a week. Its a bitter sweet since we don't want to leave Joyce's - our stay here has been amazing and Joyce has been absolutely awesome. The problem being Mike accidentally left the cellphone in his shorts pocket when it went into the wash and we are not sure if we have a phone anymore. UGH. S*** happens. Other than that hickup things have been really good. Friday we met Will Bunda when he arrived in London and helped him get settled for most of the day before getting some lunch and hitting up Abbey Road. I think he's learned that if you want a place to sleep, for cheap - book ahead. lol. It took over 4 hours to get him sorted but we managed! woot woot. Yesterday we went to a theatre play - The Mouse Trap - it is the oldest running play going on 59 years. It was really neat.

Breakfast time! xoxox. 

summer?

The weather continues to be less than ideal - but we are not letting it slow us down. Yesterday we hit up St. Paul's Cathedral and the London Museum. We went to the Eucharist and the Evensong - the quire was absolutely amazing. Goosebumps. Today we went through the Westminster Abbey before spending the afternoon in Covent garden enjoying the food and watching the acts! Some were really good! Of course Sam was pulled into one of the acts. We finished the day with the London Dungeon which was really really well done and we had a good scream. Mike went up a few times at the London Dungeon and was tortured before being sentenced to death (because he was Canadian). haha. Tomorrow we get to meet up with Will and spend one of our last days in London!

Truly loving life

We send lots of love

The Tourists

HEYA

We've been busy little tourist bugs! Today we hit up the London Tower and the London Bridge Experience. The second one was a haunted re-enactment of the history of the London Bridge and they did a Halloween style horror scream walk through the Tombs - very much like Cedar Point in Ohio as Gabe and Bunda will remember! Screams and jumping were our thing! We went and had an amazing dinner with Joyce, Heather (her daughter) and Benny and we are now stuffed to the maximum. On the weekend we went to a Highland festival and got to see traditional dance and some Highland games activities. We went to a pub in St. Albans and we were able to bring the dogs (3) of them INTO the pub and they had dog treats and everything. They were a real ice breaker and we had a great night. Things are going great - we are def. racking up the miles on our feet walking everywhere. We've mastered the tube and love the double-decker buses. The crowds can be daunting but we now know how to manoeuvre through the crowds.

Mike and Sam

Chilling out

I guess for most of you your saturday is just starting but right now we are prepping dinner - stirfry night!! Today is a chillout day and later we are heading to the local pub :). We visited St. Alban's Abbey today it was absolutely gorgeous with very rich history. We went to the market again and topped up on groceries - and the milk was NOT forgotten on the bus this time haha. Yesterday was another London day and we saw Buckingham Palace and a few other sites (first we got lost). The line for the Westminster Abbey was huge so we decided to that another day. Instead we went to M & M World - CRAZY - four levels of chocolatey goodness. We are going to have super strong walking legs after this trip because we are walking everywhere!! -- pictures will come soon :)

Officially Tourists

G'mornin!

Yesterday was our first day into the city of London - it was quite eventful. The weather did not want to cooperate but we made it work! We saw the Imperial War Museum and it was absolutely jaw dropping with the amount of artifacts and information about numerous wars and crimes against humanity.  We also wandered the streets in no particular direction and took the typical tourist photos but had a blast doing it! Our legs are exhausted from walking but we cannot wait to go out and do it again this morning!

Loving life, but missing family xxx

The Beginning

Heya!

We are still coming to the realization that we've left home but are really enjoying ourselves. We arrived in St.Alban's at about 5 in the morning local time after spending a night in the Sheraton because of a flight delay. The flight was a little rough since we had a baby and a child sitting behind us that thought our seat was a punching and kicking bag. The day with Bill and Tania was really nice and they took us to dinner at our favourite restaurant - the Vagabondo. We thought we would stay awake all day and avoid jet leg - but we we were so tired we slept for 3-4 hours AND slept 12 hours at night. Joyce is amazing and her dog Maggie is really sweet. The camera arrived today at 10am as well! Today we went and explored the city of St. Alban's - bought some groceries, went to the market and took the bus for the first time! Mike forgot the milk on the bus so that was a funny adventure. It was really fun. We went for a run this morning and all I (Sam) could think about was Danny Bhoy and his Canadian running jokes!! haha. We are about to head out with Joyce for an evening festival thing which sounds like fun and we are going to hit up London for the first time tomorrow!
Anyways we are about to head out but we are hoping to use this blog as a way to keep you all informed about our daily adventures!

lots of love xxx