Check it out y'all! There's a Mrs. Giraffe and we're on honeymoon! I aquired my wife at an exceptional bargain: just three chickens and a good milk cow. A real steal since she's already house trained and can even read and write.
All kidding aside, Katie and I were married on 20 June 2010. She's by far the best out there so to all you other fellows: Game over, you lose, no woman can match my Kate.
We flew into London overnight on the 23rd and have been keeping a journal since. Let me fill you in. We were both totally shatterd on the 24th after our long flight, but our room (a guesthouse above a bar called "The Windmill" in Acton Town) was easy to find. A little coffee went a long way, and that afternoon we took the London Underground to Westminster to see Big Ben, Parliment House, and Westminster Abby.
Katie wrote in the journal: "Upon finding our way out of the train station my jaw drops as busy Londoners and tourists rush around us, sometimes nearly bowling us over. The sound of the majestically resounding bells of Westminster Abby carry over us. Something profound reaches my heart hearing that sound. It's joyous yet dissonant, and echos between the lofty Abby and Parliament."
We wandered past the London Eye looking for dinner and wound up in a wholly unique beer garden under the shadow of an enormous inflatable purple cow, udders high in the air above an astroturf pasture.
The next day, we went to the Tower of London. A beefeater gave us a very entertaining tour and the Crown Jewels were stunning. Katie was impressed by the size of Henry VIII's armor which included an enormous special armored compartment for his man-bits. (Do you suppose that he's compensating for something? None of the other armours had this.) We tried to visit St. Paul's Cathedral but it was closed, so we went to the Globe Theater hoping to catch a performance but that was sold out. Instead, we went to St. Martin-in-the-fields for dinner in the crypt (our first experience with mushy peas). After dinner, we heard Rachmaninoff's Vespers in the church, which made the peas seem worth it after all.
We left London by train, after two nights, for Keswick in the Lake District, but not before sending some postcards. So, check your mail! (If you want a postcard, e-mail me your address!)
The Lake District is one of the most beautiful spots I've ever seen. Fluffy sheep run around everywhere and the people are charming. The landscape is incredibly wild and the tops of the mountains are stark and rocky. Well-traveled footpaths lead you everywhere and anywhere you want to go; the perfect place for an adventure! Katie and I checked into the Camping and Caravaning Club in Keswick, which is a UK-wide camping organization with sites everywhere (except S. Ireland). They're really great and we recommend them if you're ever in the area. If you'll be staying for more than six nights, be sure to get a membership! It would have saved us a few pounds.
In Keswick, we bought a large-scale map of the Lake District and "Twenty Linear Walks in the Lake District." If you buy this book, I advise you to put it down a garbage disposal at your earliest convinence, and certainly before walking anywhere in a linear fashion. In the first place, the maps in it are useless. On the first page of the book (which we didn't initially read) there is a disclaimer amounting to "This book is based on out-of-date information, conjecture, and probably will leave you lost and/or dead." Oblivious to our peril, Katie and I choose a nice "10-mile" walk that should have taken us from Keswick to Buttermere, a tiny village the next valley over. We walked and walked and climed and descended for almost nine straight hours. Around 4:00pm, the winds were so strong that they were actually pushing us over and poor Katie was so exhausted half-way through the route that she was crying. I wound up having to carry both packs for the last few miles just to get us through. In the end, we didn't arrive in Buttermere and had to pitch our tent at the end of a narow valley with a stream. In spite of the exhaustion, it was a beautiful spot:
After our night in the wild, we walked around the mountain into Buttermere (finally!). We were so happy to get some hot food from the pub.
We stayed only one night in Buttermere because the camp site there was a bit of a money trap and there was no grocery. So, we took the bus back to Keswick and got a better map. This time we bought the Ordinance Survey map (denoted OL4 for some reason). This map said our 10-mile linear hike was actually a 17.5 mile hike involving four non-trivial peaks and was pretty much the hardest way possible to get from Keswick to Buttermere. Note to readers: buy the Ordinance Survey map. It's all you need.
The next day, we did a really lovely "fell walk" (British for hiking up a mountain) up Skiddaw Peak. It was a bright and sunny day as we walked through mossy woods and fields of lambs to the base of the peak. Along the way, we met a nice couple named Ian and Anika. At the top, we rested on some stones and feasted on olive bread and fresh cheshire cheese as we enjoyed fresh mountain breeze. We could see all the way out to the ocean and the Isle of Mann. We descended by a very steep way at a toe-busting clip. We returned to Keswick on a long abused and abandoned public way still marked on the map (We had to sprint across a highway and it was covered in nettles). Luckily, we cooled off with delicious ice cream back in Keswick.
Our last night in Keswick, we played "Obstacle Golf" in the rain and went to the Theater by the Lake for a performance of Northanger Abbey, which was fun and fascinating not the least because they didn't have to fake their accents. That night, Katie was attacked by nasty biting bugs the likes of which have not been seen since the Jurassic. The bites raised quarter-sized welts all over her body, but she took it in stride with only a little whining and some calamine.
From Keswick, we traveled by bus and train to Ravenglass on the coast of the Irish Sea. The town used to be a busy trading port, but nowadays it's a tiny sea-side village connected by rail to Eskdale and the rest of the world. It's a quaint little village with views of rolling farmlands, ocean and sand dunes with mountains in the distant mist. We stayed in another Camping and Caravaning Club site, the cleanest and nicest we've been to yet.
The train to Eskdale is an unbearably cute miniature narrow-gauge steam-powered contraption installed in the late 1800s to access the iron mines. The cars are open to the air and the 40 minute trip up the mountain was lots of fun. From Eskdale, we hiked to Burnmore Tarn (a lovely mountain pond), up a valley, and the over the hills back to town. On the way, we saw three ancient stone circles and (of course) many sheep. Back in town, we wandered into a pub for cream tea and beer and got to watch Germany clobber Argentina 4-0.
The next morning was rainy and windy but despite the weather we walked to Muncaster Castle, an old estate still inhabited by the same family, the Peningtons, from the 1200s. The castle contained a strange mix of old artifacts and new: large illuminated leather-bound books shelved next to modern paperbacks and 14-century tapestries surrounded by family photographs. Katie was put in stocks for gossip and chocolate biscuit theivery.
The weather cleared while we were in the castle leaving the garden terrace especially lovely in the afternoon. Additionally, the World Owl Center is located at Muncaster and we were able to see many species of owls and learn about their rehabilitation.
The next day, we traveled by bus and train to Edinburgh. Now we're staying in a backpacker's hostel right next to Edinburgh Castle.
That's all for now folks! Hopefully we'll update more frequently, but our next stop after this is Dublin and then it's back to the wilderness. We'll be hiking down the Wicklow Way and then, if all goes well, the Dingle Way, before flying from Ireland to Bonn, Germany. See you then!
