Kilts, Castles, and Cannons

So my parents got to London in the early afternoon and we got lunch at The Black Horse, a pub next to my flat. They came up and looked around my flat and then we went out to walk around. Last Saturday was the Pride London Festival with the main event taking place in Soho Square...Against my warning my Dad went down the wrong street and we were all very amazed by the interesting t-shirt slogans. You learn something new every day. That night Mom and Dad bought pizzas and wine and put on a little get together for my friends at the flat. It was really great. They headed home early to recover from jetlag.

The next night I met my parents at Billy Elliot the Musical. I went into the thing with very low expectations, but it was really great. Laugh out loud funny, incredible production, some heart wrenching sad moments, and overall one of the best musicals I've seen. The 11 year old kid danced like crazy the entire 3 hour show. I hear it is coming to New York City. I highly suggest you see it.
This is a real picture of the monsoon that hit London. I was walking to Spamalot when this hit. I bought a really nice umbrella and the metal physically bent from the freakish wind. It was insane.

Spamalot was great. The first half included mostly old stuff from the movie, but the second half had quite a bit of new stuff. It was a great time.

My parents came for lunch on Wednesday at Parliament. It was really fun to show them around. Sergio came with us. We showed them all we could and then the Member of Parliament I work for offered to take them for tea and a tour.

We walked all over Westminster with him and discussed all sorts of things. We then had tea with him in the members only tea room. It was very nice. He then took my parents up to the gallery to watch the House of Commons. It was really special to get to show them where I work and what I do.

That night we took a "Jack The Ripper" tour. My parents nearly missed the bus, but I got the tour guide to wait a bit longer. It takes a long time to get around London especially at 5 PM. The our took us on a river cruise and then a bus took us to Whitechapel. We walked around and saw the different places where the gruesome murders took place. The tour guide was excellent and talked us through the different theories of who was the Ripper. Above you can see the bar the women left before they were murdered. Not a very happy time, but very interesting.

It was the 4th of July and I told everyone at work Happy 4th of July, but I don't think they were quite as excited as I was. We went to the Texas Embassy after the tour and enjoyed Margaritas and some Texmex. My friends here in the end enjoyed the 4th.

On Thursday I went to campaign in Ealing for a bi-election i was quite an experience. I knocked on doors and passed out a survey. No one commented on my American accent. That night my parents and I had drinks with two prestigious Tejas alumni. It was great talking about their experiences. After drinks, my parents and I rode on the London Eye. You have probably seen it in pictures. It is the giant ferris wheel. It is 15 pounds for a ride so I was very happy my parents wanted to go also. The view is extraordinary. It is a must in London! I unfortunately forgot my camera for this...I'm a genius. We then walked along the bank of the Thymes and had dinner. It was a beautiful evening and we had a lot of fun.

The next morning we flew to Edinburgh, Scotland. This was my first time to visit Scotland, home of my ancestors. Edinburgh was beautiful. We heard bagpipe music everywhere and my Dad found the perfect hotel within walking distance of everything. The first thing we did was take the bus tour. It was a great way to get oriented to the city. The guide was really funny, not trying to be, but he was. His Scottish accent pronounced "Pay" as "Pee." Here is one example of the many hilarious things he said: "In order to climb the stairs you must pee 3 pounds." He was right next to us in the bus, but I couldn't help laughing.

After the bus tour we went to The Edinburgh Dungeon. It is basically a haunted house slash fun house slash silly experience. It was well worth the 5 pounds we spent. We then ate at Deacon Brodie's. Deacon Brodie is the person it is believed Robert Louis Stevenson based Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde on. Deacon Brodie was a very respectable gentleman during the day, even elected to Deacon, but a horrible person, gambler, and thief by night. He was eventually hung by the gallows he built for the city.

After dinner we went on the City of the Dead ghost tour.

The tour was excellent and we got to spend some time in a mausoleum with a poltergeist that has done many violent things with tourists on the tour.

It was a fun experience. The Grey Friar Graveyard has some incredible history. If you are a big Disney fan you might remember the movie about Greyfriar Bobby. It is about the dog who stayed on the grave of his master until the dogs eventual death 14 years after the owner. The ghost tour guide shared with us that the grave the dog sat at was actually not his owners and interestingly enough there was a butcher shop right across from the grave and a bench where the dog could stay out of the rain. The book about the dog was written by someone in Chicago. It might just be another Disney fairy tale. There are some really funny kids notes at the dogs grave.

We walked home from the tour right past one of the coffee shops where JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter. It interestingly enough looks out over the graveyard and the castle.

One of the graves in the graveyard is that of one Mr. Tom Riddle...where do you think she got that name?

We walked back to the hotel around 10:30 PM and it was still light outside.

The next day we got up early and enjoyed a full Scottish breakfast at our hotel and went to tour the castle. It was incredible. We saw where Mary Queen of Scots lived. The views from up there were great. Here is a picture from behind a cannon aimed a our hotel. Basically, if it shot, we would be done for.
Here is a picture of the rents...
Here is me in the prison in the castle. Many American sailors were imprisoned here for some years after the Revolutionary War.
We then went shopping on the Royal Mile. My parents really wanted to take a picture in Scottish costumes...I had no choice in the matter so we did. The pictures look pretty ridiculous. Luckily I don't have them to put up here.

After that we went to the Scotch Whiskey Experience. It was a very in depth tour of how whiskey is made including a sample and tasting lesson at the beginning. Scotch takes at least 3 years until it can be sold. It's a very patient craft. My ancestors are from the island of Jura where there are only 200 people now, but a working a pretty well known distillery. We got to enjoy some of the whiskey from that distillery. The funny thing I found about Edinburgh is that there are tons of advertisements for Jack Daniels Whiskey. Why would you drink that in the land of real whiskey? It beats me.

We took another ghost tour that night. This one went underground where a Poltergeist supposedly lives. A British TV show, Most Haunted did a show here and found it to be very haunted. I took a picture during the tour that showed an orb. Check it out:
The next morning we had another full Scottish breakfast and headed across the street to the Sir Walter Scott Memorial.
The memorial is quite tall and had well over 200 winding claustrophobic steps. My parents had done this in a past visit and decided they would let me go by myself. Here are some pictures from the top:



It was a very tiring walk, but I really enjoyed it. We then took a Literary tour of the city. The guide was a published travel author and had many interesting facts to share with us. We saw where the first library was, the medical school where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle based Sherlock Holmes on one of the Professors and where Robert Louis Stevenson met a friend who he based Long John Silver on. We also saw the pub Robert Louis Stevenson frequented very, very frequently. We also got to see the law school where Sir Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Darwin attended. It was a great tour.

From there we headed to the airport and said goodbye to Edinburgh. I said goodbye to the rents and thanked them for an incredible week. I got back to the flat and crashed. It isn't easy to work all day and tour all evening. It is good to have a breather, but the rents are missed.

Today I campaigned some more in Ealing and talked to an animated window washer. He gave me an earful about the conservatives and how they want to tax his hard earned beer. I assured him I was not working for a conservative and we had a nice chat after that. I will let you know how the election goes... I hope everyone is doing well! 5 weeks to go and I still have so much to do. A good friend Stephen from Tejas is coming to stay this weekend and then Anna comes next week. There won't be too much downtime here for a while.

Harry Potter on Thursday!!! Look for me waving out the window of Westminster when they fly by it on their brooms. Goodnight!