Homeward Bound

Oregon Coast here we come!

We are off to the Pacific Northwest to visit friends and family for the first time since August of 2008! Deacon is already on his way and our flight leaves tomorrow morning. It's only a short visit this time, but the plan is to return home for good at the end of August. We'll post an update when we return.

-Stacie & Kyle

A Clan Gathering

As part of 'Homecoming Scotland' we attended an event this weekend called 'The Gathering'. During 2009, Scotland is celebrating what they're calling 'Homecoming Scotland'; a series of events to celebrate the Scottish culture. One of these such events was 'The Gathering'. This weekend all the Scottish 'clans' gathered in Edinburgh to celebrate their ancestry. Some of the festivities included Highland Games, Highland dancing, Pipe bands, lots of Scottish food and just general Scottish stuff (i.e.- lots of kilts, swords, capes, etc). The event was held in the field behind Holyrood Palace.

The Gathering

The official Patron of the Gathering was His Royal Highness, Prince Charles. Kyle & I were pretty excited to see some official royalty up close and personal.

Prince Charles

One of the events that I mentioned they had is called Highland dancing. Highland dancing was derived from the Scottish Highlands and is done to accompanying bagpipes. The dancing itself looks similar to a very athletic ballet. It's quite impressive really.

Highland dancers

Another event was the Highland Games. Highland Games are a series of events celebrating the Scottish culture. The most exciting events are called the 'Heavy events' or the 'Strong man events'. One such event we saw were the men trying to lift up heavy stones and placing them on top of a whiskey barrel. They had to see who could get all five stones on the barrels and who could do it the fastest. The competitors came from all over the world including America and Australia.

A few of the 'strong men'

Here is a video we took of one of the events and a Pipe band in the background. The announcer was actually quite amusing.

In the midst of the games, they also had a tug of war competition going on. I never realized their was a technique to tug of war, but apparently there is. We got to see the world champions in tug of war (I can't believe there is a world champion- who is judging this kind of thing?).

Tug of war

Aside from the really cool stuff that we got to see, we also saw some pretty funny stuff. One of my favorites was the line for the Tea Pavilion. Normally you have a long line for the beer garden (which did also have a long line) but only in the UK do you also have a long line for the tea pavilion- where you can actually go inside and be seated for tea and biscuits! I love it! My second favorite sighting was the babies in kilts. Really, you cannot get much cuter than a baby in a kilt.

The Tea Pavilion line

Baby in a kilt

Another baby in a kilt

Last but not least, they had a stage set up for Pipe bands to perform. Kyle & I were fortunate enough to get to see a very lively, entertaining band called the 'Red Hot Chili Pipers'. We had seen their CDs for sale around town, so it was funny to get to actually see them perform live. Here's a video of them:

Quite the Scottish weekend!

-Stacie

Highland Highlights

This past weekend Stacie and I took a tour of the Scottish Highlands. Originally we planned on renting a car and taking a day trip on our own. Decent plan in theory. The reality would have involved me white knuckle driving on the opposite side of the road and car, Stacie and I bickering as I refuse to follow directions... you get the point. Hello hired tour!

The tour started at the Hermitage, a nature reserve on the River Braan within the Craigvinean Forest.

Enjoying some sun in the Hermitage

Pathway and foot-bridge in the Hermitage

Nature is precious, alway bin your rubbish!

Next we went to the town of Dunkeld (Dun means Fort, Keld means Celts in Gaelic). This was a town that sprang-up around its cathedral and was far enough inland that it was protected from Viking attack... at least for a little while. The Dunkeld Cathedral dates to the 13th century but the town itself was leveled in the 17th century during the Highland rebellions.

Dunkeld Cathedral

Dunkeld Cathedral, Abbey Ruins

Dunkeld sits on the River Tay, crystal clear water perfect for distilling some Highlands scotch. Stacie and I didn't get to tour a distillery but we did stumble across a good chippy shop and savored our Haddock fish 'n chips. The tour lasted all day and we got to enjoy beautiful views of the Scottish Highlands. We were lucky to pic one of the few sunny days of the summer as well.

-Kyle

Sale's rollin dubs...

Kyle & I are always on the look out for vintage Volkswagens. Kyle's first car was a 1974 Beetle and in High School I always dreamed of driving down the road in an old VW Cabriolet.

Volkswagen spotted in Edinburgh

Poor Deacon having to pose by the Bus!

Kyle has dreams (that I try frequently to squash) of driving a VW bus across the country while camping inside.

Bus spotted in Tallinn, Estonia

Before leaving Seattle in the fall, we sold both of our cars. So, we recently decided we would need to purchase a vehicle for our return. What better car to buy than a VW? Meet Bailey, the newest edition to the Sale family:

Beetle Bailey

-Stacie

Cruise Report: Tallinn & St. Petersburg

The first port we stopped in was Tallinn, Estonia. Tallinn is located on the Gulf of Finland and boasts a population of 400,000- about 40% of which are Russian. The city itself has been invaded and attacked multiple times- it had a bit of a run-down feel. But it also had some amazing sights and a lovely 'Old Town' area that has been well-maintained despite it's tumultuous history. Our first stop on the tour was the ruins of an ancient nunnery. We were told that Ivan the Terrible used the headstones from the graveyard of the nunnery as cannonballs during one of his attacks. He also burned the church down, which accounts for it current state of ruins.

Kyle & me at the nunnery ruins

The Old Town area of Tallinn was beautiful and boasted this amazing cathedral:

Cathedral in Tallinn

From the Old Town area you could also get a great view of the entire city of Tallinn.

Here we are at the look out point

After our day in Tallinn, we set sail for St. Petersburg. To get into Russia, you have to apply for a visa. So, to bypass this little obstacle, Kyle & I took an official cruise line tour. The tour lasted 9 hours and took us to the Hermitage Museum, Peter and Paul Fortress, a traditional Russian lunch and general sightseeing around the city. The Hermitage Museum was the most impressive thing we saw during our whole trip. The museum includes a series of six buildings including the Winter Palace. It also boasts over 3 million pieces of art, the largest collection in the world. Needless to say we were quite impressed. The Winter Palace put any palace we've seen in the UK to shame.

Inside the Winter Palace

An interior room in the Palace

The royal throne

Cuckoo Clock

Kyle & I thought the cuckoo clock at the Hermitage was really impressive. It is hard to tell here how large it is, but it was amazing and still in working order. We were disappointed to find out that it is only started up for Heads of State and very privileged guests.

Peter and Paul's fortress is the original citadel of St. Petersburg and was founded in 1703 by Peter the Great. The fortress houses an impressive cathedral with the burial tombs of royal family, including Peter the Great himself.

Inside Peter & Paul's fortress

Tomb of Peter the Great

Part of our tour included a traditional Russian lunch. The food itself was fairly bland and normal- chicken and rice, cabbage soup and a tomato and cucumber salad. However, lunch started off with a shot of Russian vodka- can't beat that!

We got to get a view of the city as well. There were quite a few amazing buildings but also quite a few buildings that reminded you of Russia's past. There were a lot of concrete, run-down buildings that fulfilled all my visions of what communism must have looked like.

Amazing Russian architecture

One of the most interesting buildings in the city is called the 'Church on Spilt Blood'. It was given this name after Alexander II was murdered on the site in 1881. His son built the church as a memorial to his father on the exact site of the murder. Because of this fact, part of the church hangs over the canal.

Church on Spilt Blood

Canal the church is built over

One of the few remaining Soviet symbols on a building

One interesting Russian tradition that we got to experience on our tour was wedding season. It is tradition for most weddings to take place in the summer and after the ceremony for the bride & groom to drive around the city, drinking champagne, and taking pictures of themselves by local landmarks. We counted about nine brides during our tour.

Well, our touring of Europe has come to an end. This was our last trip while we're living here. We feel really blessed to have gotten to see so many different places and cultures and we feel very appreciative that we were fortunate enough to be born in America. I would say without a doubt- the greatest country on earth.

-Stacie

Cruise Report: Stockholm

Last week Stacie and I took the opportunity to indulge in gluttony and exploration throughout Scandinavia aboard the Vision of the Sea. A cruise wasn't actually our first choice but it was the easiest way to get into Russia without excessive visa preparation. Plus, once you're on the boat it's all you can eat, so really who's to argue.

Stockholm was our port of departure which meant that we got to spend time exploring the city the day before and after the cruise. This was lucky happenstance because we both favored Stockholm to the other cities we visited (Tallinn, Estonia and St. Petersburg, Russia).

For anyone who is familiar with flying Ryanair you know that they take you to an airport close to, but not actually in, the city you're flying to. Fortunately the 90 minute bus ride gave us an opportunity to see some of the beautiful Swedish countryside. It actually reminded me of parts of Western Washington. Stockholm is loaded with great architecture, historical sites, museums and friendly people.

Speaking of people, after we rode the bus to the city and found our hotel it was around 10pm and we were hungry! We found a street vendor selling hot dogs and sodas but she didn't speak English ( I'm pretty sure she was a Spanish or Portuguese immigrant to Sweden). Anyway, we ordered and ended-up helping a French couple decipher the Swedish menu then translated their order to the vendor (by translate I mean say the same thing over and over in English but get louder and use grandiose hand gestures). When we got our hotdog it had two scoops of mash potatoes on it!

Enough rambling, here's some pictures. Stockholm is built on many islands, one so small it holds only one house. The waterways are beautiful and it was sunny for us so people were out and about on their boats.

Like most ancient European countries Sweden has a figure-head monarchy. We strolled around the palace and watched the guardsmen in their bright blue uniforms with pointed metal helmets. Here's a shot of the palace entrance.

Palace Entrance

Palace Guard

Gamla Stan is a historic district of Stockholm that is home to boutique shops, cafes, restaurants, artists... you name it. The Gamla Stan area is it's own island as well.

Gamla Stan

Stockholm is home to Alfred Nobel, inventor of dynamite and namesake of the Nobel Prize. The building below is named after him and houses Stockholm's city hall. It is also where the annual Nobel prizes are awarded (except the peace prize which is awarded in Oslo, Norway, at Nobel's request).

Nobel City Hall

Who couldn't resist snapping a cheesy love-bird shot with a Swedish gnome?

Stockholm was very impressive. My only regret is that we didn't have more time to explore but I'm glad we got to see what we did. Stay tuned, we'll post pictures of Tallinn and St. Petersburg soon.

-Kyle

Cruisin'

We're off today on our last European vacation (while in Edinburgh)! We're flying to Sweden and then boarding a cruise for Estonia & Russia. It's a short 4-night cruise, so we'll be back in the UK on Monday night. We'll post an update when we get back!

-Stacie & Kyle