Recap

Jackson wants me to post something positive. A bit more of a "recap."

We left London on Sunday morning. We took a train to Edinburgh. We sat next to an interesting English girl and quizzed her about her life here. She was kind of odd, but nice enough. She had a crush on some boy and turned bright red when we asked her about him. I found that humorous. She also had bad things to say about Obama (who has yet to send an airplane for me...) so that's always nice. Anyway, she was a history major at "uni" (University for those of us in the know) and didn't know a darned thing. I was especially disturbed that she had NO idea about their tax structure. SIGH. Anyway. That was our train ride. There were some pretty sights, but the ride was supposed to be 4 hours and was about 6 due to some "signal errors." (I think the Conductor was snoozing.)

So we get to Edinburgh (the COLDEST place inhabited by human beings on the face of the planet) and walk to our hotel. The hotel is pretty awesome. Get this: you walk into the lobby on the 5th floor and your rooms are in the basement! It was like sleeping in a cave (it was usually quiet with a occasional screaming, bratty child making all kinds of noise. That kid is lucky we could not find him). The room was super nice and the shower felt like a power washer. Talk about water pressure. I think my scalp is still recovering. Anyway, the room was nice. They had a "free" (it is not free if I am paying to stay there...) spa that was not a spa. It was a pool and a hot room. No massages. No hot tub. False advertising at it's finest.

We snuck out to get a swimsuit. Again with 30,000 people slammed into one department store without a single matching bathing suit. Sigh. We went to a pub for dinner and had awesome nachos. Seriously, they were so good. (I still cannot get a SPRITE!!!) I ordered Mac-n-Cheese. It was decent. Nothing to write home about (as if people still write home). Oh, we're not sending postcards because the Royal Mail is on strike and won't deliver. C'est la vie.

We were supposed to go to St. Andrew's, but the course was covered in snow. Jackson did not want to go unless he could play golf. Susie, he'll be looking to bring you over sometime to play. (Jenna is never leaving the God-smiled-upon U.S. of A EVER again. Someone stop her if she tries. Honestly.) Jackson was really sad and I felt bad for him. :( That day we pretty much just wandered around town. Jackson is so ashamed that we ate at a Mexican restaurant in Edinburgh. It was OK. (A real Mexican would have been pretty angry because the restaurant had pictures of NATIVE AMERICANS up as a representation of Mexicans. Just a little confused...) Anyway, that was interesting. I'm not ashamed of our attempt at yummy food.

We pretty much just explored the city and froze. SO COLD. They have this little festival going on and these crazy cold-immune people are out riding fair rides. BRR. Think 4-H fair in the middle of a real castle. Odd. But neat. (No "fair food" by American standards. However you can get french fries with gravy on them. GRAVY! Gag.)

Have no fear, we did find the Hard Rock Cafe to get my Mom a pin. Whew.

Today is our last day in the "arctic circle." We took the Edinburgh Castle tour. I expected it to be awesome to see how the Queens used to live. SNOOZE. They made the whole thing into like a museum. We did get to see the Scottish Crown Jewels. They were awesome, but no photos could be taken so you'll just have to take my word for it. ;)

They have a place here called "Costa Coffee" that is supposed to be awesome. We tried it out. Not bad. (The Starbucks here is quite different from that served in America.) They are not much into sitting around reading in coffee shops here so we hopped into an Internet cafe (without a cafe-??) to blog really quick. (You're welcome. ;))

This evening, we will catch a train back to London. We are homeless tonight as we have no hotel to go to in L-town. :( We have an early morning train to Paris. (Fingers crossed that we do not get stuck under the ocean like they did last week!) Paris should be interesting. (Still waiting for that plane, Barack...)

We're not so sure we will have access to a computer there and even if we did I feel certain that their keyboards would be even more screwy than the one I am currently attempting to use. So we will bid you good-bye from Europe. We'll be sure to post photos when we get back to Denver. (Denver has never sounded so good to me. Ever.)

Please pray that we have safe flights. All of these bombing attempts have made us a little nervous. (OK, made me nervous. Jackson never gets worked up. And that bothers me.)