Spain and Gibraltar

So we had our first holiday (aka vacation) since we moved.  Seeing as the weather has been quite dreary here, we decided to make it a beach holiday.  Yay!  I can finally unpack some of my summer clothes.  And with fingers crossed...they still fit!

After searching online and being overwhelmed with all the different places to go, we snagged a last minute deal to Spain.  Estepona to be exact.  It's in the Andalucia region along the Mediterranean.  It was a package deal...flight, hotel, meals, drinks.  Mark loved the idea of eating all day and with his appetite, this in itself was worth the money.  Our flight left on a Monday and we were booked till Friday.  I checked us in online Sunday night, printed our boarding passes and set alarms for an early morning wake up.  We were all very excited.  But even better was the fact that we left for the airport on time which rarely happens.  Steve and I even high five-d each other on the drive to the airport at the thought of how smooth our departure was.  We even reminisced on some of our other, not-so-impressive travels where we forgot things and had to turn around or missed entire flights, etc, etc.  Little did we know that this trip was going to unravel in an epic manner.

The first thing we did was to return our rental.  We have decided against buying a car here and are sticking to rentals (more cost effective and less hassle to sell one when we move back).  Newcastle is not a large airport and it only takes about 10 minutes to get to it compared to the hour in Atlanta.  The timing couldn't be better we thought with an hour before departure.  Mistake one.  We headed into the airport and got in a line which we thought was the Jet2.com ticket counters.  After a few minutes we realized we were standing in the line for an entirely different airline.  Mistake two.  We then moved into a Jet2.com line that turned out to be for check-in, which we had already done the night before.  Mistake three.

Finally we got in the check bag line where we wound our way through rather quickly.  We got to the counter and after providing our boarding passes and passports the man proceeded to pick up the "red" phone.  Panic set in as neighboring passengers came and went at the counter.  After what seemed like forever, he tells us the flight has closed and we can't get on.  But we already checked in online last night I breathlessly said.  "Yes, I appreciate that" said the man with the "Happy to Help" button on his shirt.  "The flight closes 45 minutes before departure."  I checked my watch....it was 40 minutes to departure.  He said there was nothing he could do and pointed us towards the customer service desk to try and rebook our flight for tomorrow.  We walked away from the ticket counter with our luggage; hanging our heads in shame.  How could this be happening...again??

The customer service agent, who was also wearing a "Happy to Help" button (which now just seemed to be mocking us) poked around on the computer for a few minutes and said that there are were no flights from Newcastle to Malaga later that day or even the following day Tuesday.  She could, however, get us into Murcia on a 3pm flight on Tuesday.  Murcia is a "neighboring" airport.  We'd have to rent a car to get to our hotel seeing as our airport transfer would now not work.  The car ride would take about 6 hours.  But that was our only option at this point.  After paying to rebook our flight we walked out of the airport, into the drizzle and fog only to be faced with the fact that we now had NO CAR!

We hailed a cab and rode home in complete silence.  I'm sure the driver was wondering who died.  We got home and I went straight to bed to mope and to wait the long 2 hours until customer service opened so I could plead my case for them to extend our holiday by the day we missed.  The agent on the phone said there was nothing we could do at this point (I'm guessing he wasn't wearing a "Happy to Help" button).  So basically we not only lost a night at the hotel, but we were also going to loose a day because of the lengthy car ride to get to the hotel from our backup airport.  But not one to give up, I called again the next morning and got a different agent on the phone who said it would be no problem to bump our departure by a day and that we would just need to extend the room with the hotel directly.  She changed our return flight (with fees of course) and I called the hotel to book another night.  Success!  Expensive success.

We were on our way, again by cab to the airport Tuesday afternoon.  Check in went swimmingly and we boarded our flight.  I even had an empty seat next to me.  I wondered if someone missed their flight like we did the day before!?  We arrived, with the time difference into Murcia around 7pm.  We got our rental and began our trek to the hotel.  Not really the way we wanted things to happen, but it worked out well because we got to see some of the beautiful countryside on our drive.  We decided to stop somewhere for dinner along the way.  This was quite difficult as we passed one small town after another with only houses and some closed up shops.  Finally we came into a town that looked large enough to have a place to eat.  We pulled over to the first place where we saw people sitting at tables outside.  I walked in and asked the lady "Habla Englishl?" She said no, and asked her coworker to come over with his iPhone where we proceeded to have a conversation thanks to an English to Spanish translator app.  Turns out they didn't serve dinner until around 10.  I wasn't surprised as I knew that Spaniards ate later in the evening.  What to do?  Then like a beacon in the night we saw a Burger King sign.  Yes, I know you all are rolling your eyes right about now thinking Burger King?!  You flew all that way, to another country, to eat Burger King?!  But it was late, we had a long drive ahead of us and the kids were hungry.

All my middle school Spanish came back to me as we walked into BK.  "Uno numbero ocho, con queso y Coca Cola Light por favor."  Whatever I couldn't pronounce or remember how to say I just pointed to the signs overhead.  And did you know that you can substitute beer for a soda?  I didn't of course, but Steve was thinking it if he hadn't been the one driving.

With all of us fed we hit the road.  We wasted almost an hour with that side trip so we didn't arrive at the hotel until 3am the following morning.  We all crashed into bed, but not before unpacking a bit and realizing that one of the suntan lotion bottles exploded all over Steve's clothes.  And yes, we did bag it but with our luck the bag broke too.  I was too tired to cry at that point.

The next couple of days were relaxing to say the least.  Reading by the pool, eating, walking along the beach, eating, sunning ourselves, eating.  You get the picture.  One night after dinner we headed into town.  It was so pretty with flowers everywhere and little shops and cafes lining the pedestrian only streets.

On our last day there, after lunch we headed towards Gibraltar.  You could see "the rock" from our hotel and then further down the ocean you could see the tip of Africa which is owned a bit by Spain and well as the country of Morocco.  How cool.

Upon arriving to the border of Gibraltar, which is British territory, we saw a sign selling tickets for a gondola ride up the rock to see the world famous apes that reside there.  I quickly got out of the car to buy the tickets while Steve waited in the car line.  But our lines didn't move at the same speed and he was well past the the border control before me.  Luckily I grabbed my passport before I left the car so I just walked in myself, but then I couldn't find him anywhere.

In my search for him and the kids, I walked across, get this, the airport runway.  Gibraltar is so small, that even though they have an airport, you have to walk/drive across the runway to get into town.  So every time a plane has to take off or land, they hold up the traffic.  Afterwards, they lift the gates and people start crossing again.  I was lucky enough to witness this and I've posted the video.

Steve and I finally found each other and we made our way through the winding narrow streets to the gondola station to take our ride up.  The view was utterly amazing.  To witness the sole point of entrance (before the Suez Canal was built of course) for ships carrying people and goods to countries like Italy, Greece, Turkey, Algeria, Libya just to name a few.  A place that has been fought over and changed so many hands over thousands of years.  I couldn't believe that I was standing there on the Rock of Gibraltar, looking at the Mediterranean Sea with Africa in the distance.  And an ape trying to steal my purse. :)

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking the city streets, doing some duty free shopping and enjoying the warm weather.  We headed back to the hotel to pack as I said "farewell" to my summer clothes and suntan lotion.  The return to the airport (the closer one this time) went off without a hitch as did the flight back and drive to our house.  It made us want to book another trip somewhere else to see if we actually get one vacation right.

So we did...to Paris!

The pool was f-f-f-reezing as Mark put it.

Room with a view

They made a friend at the pool; Benjamin from Essex.

Yes, that's a topless lady in the background.  I can see you all squinting now. :)

Window shopping in Estepona.

Estepona

Beach shower that the kids thought was way cool.

Some of the beautiful houses in Estepona.

Gibraltar

Heading up in the gondola.  That's the tip of Spain that curves around from the right.

The face he made was the same I made to him.  I think I made him mad because he grabbed my arm and not in a nice way!

Snack time!

At the top of The Rock.

This baby was only two days old!

The preferred mode of transportation in Gibraltar...mopeds.

A little duty free shopping!

"Please cross quickly"...no kidding!

Stay Tuned.....

Things have been quite on the blog lately, but that doesn't mean we haven't been busy and that I've forgotten about you all! 

Upcoming blogs:

Belsay Hall and Castle

Alnwick Castle (pronounced "Anick".  I'll explain that confusion in the blog)

Spain/Gibraltar

Edinburgh

It's been several weeks since we took a trip to Edinburgh, but it's taken me that long to get my pictures and thoughts organized enough to create a post.  So...here we go!

The half marathon, my 12th which I just cannot believe, was on April 15th.  We decided to head to Edinburgh a couple days beforehand to play tourist.  There are so many things to see there, that after our weekend we decided that we wanted to return to take in a few things we didn't get a chance to see on this visit.

We packed up the car and headed out mid morning on Friday.  Within an hour and a half we were at the England-Scotland border.  I somehow imagined a castle or stronghold there when crossing, but there was just a sign, a couple of Scottish flags and a roach coach cooking some of the best smelling sausage butties (sausages between thick bread with HP sauce...like a hot dog but WAY better).

Sausage Butty-actually haven't had one yet!

In another hour or so we had arrived in Edinburgh.  We found our way to the flat that we rented out for the weekend.  Parking was on the street and was controlled with meters until 2pm.  We got there around noon and Steve decided to risk feeding the meter so we could start sightseeing.  Guess what was waiting for us on the windshield when we made it back later that afternoon?  You guessed it, a ticket.  That's coming out of HIS pocket.

The first thing we did was to head to the tour bus operator.  We found a deal where we got tickets to ride the double decker tour buses for all three days and admission to several attractions that we wanted to see.  We hoped on a bus and rolled out to our first destination....the The Royal Yacht Britannia.

                             

Dinner bell?

Wheelhouse

Queen's office

Queen's bedroom

The Britannia was the official ship of Queen Elizabeth II.  Although it was in the process of being built while her father, King George VI, was still in reign, he passed away four months before the keel was laid.  So the new Queen, along with her husband Prince Phillip, had a large part in the final design of the yacht.



It was christened The Britannia in April of 1953 and sailed the world during her commission, carrying not just members of the royal family, but dignitaries from all sorts of countries.  It was decommissioned in 1997 as plans for a new royal yacht were underway and is now harbored in Edinburgh and open to the public.

The kids had an amazing time and they both said that was their favorite part of the trip.  It was a self guided tour so we each had little handsets to listen to the tour guide.  As we came to each section, there would be a sign posted which would tell you what number to enter onto the handset.  Mark always ran ahead and would yell out the number...for pretty much everyone to hear.

Family room

 The ship was smaller and more modest than I thought it would be.  I guess I assumed it would be more "Titanic" like.  But it was neat to see the Queens office where she did all her Queen-ing.  Bedrooms, kitchens, dining area, engine room, etc where all set up.  They even had clothes laid out on the beds and laundry hung in the washrooms.  The kitchen on the ship is still in operation as it serves the tea room which was added to the ship as part of it's tourist reconstruction.

Engine room--so polished you could see your reflection in all the brass

After the tour and dinner, we retired to our flat completely exhausted from all the walking.  Knowing that we'd be doing that all again the next day, I began to wonder what I was thinking running a race on Sunday.  Every place we went to visit had chairs, but since they were in palaces and castles (not to mention hundreds of years old) they were all roped off with little signs saying "Please do not sit".  I needed to rest my feet!

So...onto Saturday.  It began with a another tour, this time of The Palace of Holyrood House.  This is the official residence of the Queen while she is in Edinburgh.  The abbey on the premises (called Holyrood Abbey) was founded by David I, King of Scots in 1128.  Between 1501 and 1505, James IV constructed a new palace adjacent to the abbey.  The palace itself has served as the principal residence of the Kings and Queens of Scotland since the 15th century. 

Outside Holyrood House Abbey

Inside the Abbey

At the front entrance of the Palace

Could it be?  Yep, the sun is shining!

In one of the more interesting stories of the Palace:

Mary, Queen of Scots, lived in the palace from 1561 to 1567.  It was in her own apartments in the north-west tower that she witnessed the murder of David Rizzio, her private secretary, on March 9th, 1566.  Lord Darnley, the Queens first husband, was jealous of his wife's friendship with Rizzio.  It was rumored that the baby she carried belonged to Rizzio and not Lord Darnley.  Darnley entered the Queen's apartment with an entourage.  Bursting in on the Queen and Rizzio, who were at supper, they dragged the Rizzio through the bedchamber into the outer chamber, where he was stabbed 56 times.  He was then thrown down the main staircase and stripped of his jewels and fine clothing.  They then dragged his body to another room and left him to die.  The blood stain is still in the wooden floor.  THAT gave me goosebumps!

And if that wasn't bad enough....the ghost of Agnes Sampson, who was stripped and tortured in 1592 after being accused of witchcraft, is said to roam the palace.  That almost sent me running for the hills!!

The palace underwent many changes during the centuries as it changed hands from one royal to another, but it was King George V who transformed Holyrood into a 20th-century palace.  Central heating and electric light were installed prior to his first visit in 1911, and after the World War I improvements to bathrooms and kitchens were carried out.  In the 1920's the palace was formally designated as the monarch's official residence in Scotland, and became the location for regular royal ceremonies and events.

During the tour they had some kids crafts in one of the rooms tucked away from the main portrait gallery.  They were having kids make their own pomanders.  A pomander is a small vessel usually made of gold or silver that would be filled with fragrant herbs.  It would be designed with holes punched in to let the fragrance come out.  This would be worn around the waist or neck on a chain.  Since bathing was frowned upon and thought of as "evil" during medieval times, it helped mask the body odor of the wearer.  Prettier than deodorant, but I'm sure not as effective!

After our visit to Holyrood, we made our way on foot (why did we pay for bus passes if we weren't going to use them?) to pick up my race packet.  We checked out the vendor booths and enjoyed a bit of live music from the Red Hot Chili Pipers.  They were awesome!

Red Hot Chilli Pipers

Oink!

After some lunch at a place Steve found called Oink, which served pulled pork on buns with haggis stuffing (delish!), we headed up the Royal Mile towards Edinburgh Castle.  The Royal Mile is a street that connects Holyrood Palace to the Castle.  It's filled with shops, pubs, tour groups and bagpipers at every corner waiting for tips.  Back in the day, this stretch served an actual purpose to the town people other than selling I Love Scotland kilts and bagpipe shaped piggy banks.  But the buildings were still in their original architecture and the street cobbled so it still have a sense of history.

I couldn't get a good shot of the Royal Mile, so I snagged this one off the web

Finally we made it to the castle.  Although admission was included in the package tickets, it did not include the audio tour.  But the kids had so much fun at the other two places with them, that we paid for them to have the handsets.  I swear, I have never seen them so well behaved and listening so intently to what was being said that I think I might make audio tours part of our daily lives:  "Press 1 to hear your bedtime routine...First get undressed...if your clothes are dirty put them in the hamper, if they are clean hang them up nicely....." :)

Enjoying the audio tour!

By this point, with all the walking, the cold, windy weather and the sensory overload of everything that we were seeing; I had to take a break.  As Steve took the kids to see what were some super cool cannons (as the boys described) I took a break on a bench tucked away from the crowds and wind.  With a few minutes of rest over, we continued on to see some amazing things both inside the castle and out.  We saw the Royal Scottish Jewels, tapestries, memorials, plaques of where people were murdered, artwork, gardens, plaques of where people were imprisoned and more artwork.
 

Chatting it up with some period dressed Royal Scot Dragoons (Scottish Army)

At the castle

We decided to head back to the flat for a rest before dinner.  I needed to carb up and found no less than a thousand Italian restaurants to chose from.  I have no idea why there were so many...Scottish people must love pasta!  We found a cute place tucked into a basement and had the best food and service (by real Italians).  They loved the kids and were so impressed by their manners and patience, as our food took a really long time to arrive, that they gave us free dessert and both boys got huge lollipops.

The race was truly amazing.  It was a great atmosphere, not only because it was part of the Rock 'n Roll race series but because it was the inaugural race in Edinburgh so everyone was really excited.  The music and ambiance was about as energetic as you could get.  I busted my bum on the crazy, hilly course (Edinburgh is built on an extinct volcano after all) to try to get a PR, which I did, but I still got passed by a guy dressed as Elvis.  There's always an Elvis isn't there?

Finished!

With a sore body from all the walking around town and running the race and sore brain from all the "learning", I passed out on the ride back home.  What an amazing, whirlwind weekend.

Moran taing Scotland!

Hadrian's Wall and Chesters Roman Fort

Several weeks ago we visited Hadrian's Wall at Chesters Roman Fort.  Since the site is owned and maintained by the English Heritage Society we had to pass through the visitor's center to get our tickets.  It was also a gift shop and the kids instantly gravitated towards the Roman warrior section which had play swords, shields and helmets.  Steve gravitated towards the mead (a honey wine) that they had samples of and I gravitated towards to the perfectly chiseled six pack Roman chest plate.

OK, onto the history lesson of the day.....

Before we checked out the fort we went into the building next to the gift shop.  It housed a ton of artifacts from the site from tools to weapons.  I tried to stay in there as long as possible just to get a good "warming up" before hitting the outside fort.  Did I mention that it gets cold here?  For a really long time?

Millstones

The wall was built in AD 122 during the reign of Roman Emperor (you guessed it) Hadrian.  It was built across the width of Great Britian as a line of defense against immigration and smuggling and as a customs post.  It was the most heavily fortified border in the empire.  There were actually two walls.  The one closest to us is Hadrian's Wall and the one north of it is called Antonine Wall.  But it didn't survive over the centuries as well as Hadrian's Wall so there isn't much of it to see.

Hadrian's Wall was 80 Roman miles long.  As if getting used to kilometers instead of miles was difficult enough...now I have to learn "Roman" miles?  80 Roman miles=120 km.  Its width and height were determined on what building materials were available to a particular area.

The initial plan called for a ditch and wall with 80 small gated milecastle fortlets which would house a few dozen troops each, and pairs of evenly spaced turrets used for observation and signalling.  It was one of these fortlets that we visited at Chesters.  Which makes me laugh because as a kid growing up in California we had a neighbor whose name was Chester.  He was an old hermit that had lava rock as a front lawn.  He never came out of his house and he creeped the heck out of us kids...right Mom? :)

Chesters was one of many forts that were added to Hadrian's Wall after the Wall was first built.  The Romans referred to Chesters as Cilurnum after the Celtic word meaning "cauldron pool."  Research shows that the fort was occupied for nearly three centuries and many of the regiments based there were from countries such as Spain, Germany and Yugoslavia.

The beautiful English countryside.

Jack claiming victory on the fort.

Heading down towards the river

Looking across the river.  The wooden bridge is no longer there but you can see The Wall continue on towards the sheep.

At the barracks.

At the bath house.

Artists rendering on how the bath house would have looked with ceiling and walls still intact.

Jack's interpretation of how the bath house loo would've worked.

We had a great time at the fort and the kids loved being able to climb the walls and run through the fields.  Of course we had to go through the gift shop to get to the car park.  That's were we bought the kids each a sword.  Steve got his mead.  And for me?  Well, I got the Roman chest plate. :)

I thought I would dedicate a post regarding the kids' school because, in the end, it was actually the most stressful part of our move.

In the Newcastle area there are three different kinds of schools.  Private (or public as we know them back in the states and I will call it that to avoid confusion), church schools and American based schools.  Church based schools have a tuition and were not an option for us anyway based on our beliefs.  American based schools had a tuition as well, but why put them in an American school if we wanted to immerse ourselves in the country?  So we decided on going public.  That, as it turns out, was the easy part.

We came to learn that unlike in Atlanta,  where you go to whichever school is zoned to your neighborhood, you can pick the public school you want to go to.  So this opened up our options.  But as we started calling around we found that the schools closest to our desired living area were either full for both boys or they would have openings for Jack, but not for Mark.  Turns out 2006 was a very high birth year and all Year 1 classes were full in our immediate area.  Why didn't they just take the kids even though they were full you ask?  Well, they don't have to.  That's what makes the schooling out here rather interesting.  If a school is full, they're full.  No trailers set up to accommodate children that are zoned for that school....because there is no zoning.  And since there really is no building of new housing developments, the schools aren't bursting at the seams.  If there is a school just steps from your house and it's full, they don't take you.  I know!!  It's crazy.

So we were lucky to find a school with good ratings/test scores in a town called Wideopen about a 5 minute drive from the house.  I said "drive" because that's what I do every morning.  No school buses here.  They both start school at 8:50.  Hardly anyone drives as most people just walk their kids, because once again there are so many schools to choose from that they are in walking distance from most houses in either direction.  Mark kept begging me to walk because the administration gives out badges to walkers.  I kept telling him that it's too far (2 miles is far for a 5 year old), but I agreed one day when Jack stayed late for cooking class.  I walked to school to pick him up with his scooter in hand which took me about 45 minutes.  It took us almost an hour and a half to get home with Mark whining almost the whole time..."Are we there yet?  How much longer?  This is R-E-A-L-L-Y far!"  Some kids have their parents park across the street that way they can still say they "walk to school" and still get a badge.  Kind of cheating in a way I think, but we've done it several times because the smile on Mark's face when he gets his badge is priceless.

There is no car rider line.  Parents walk their kids to the doors of the school.  This gives everyone a chance to chat a bit.  I called it "forced socializing" at first.  But it paid off, because I have met some really nice moms that have invited me and the kids to the movies and tea time after school (yes, dinner at 4).  Mark gets out of school at 3 and Jack at 3:10.  That gives me just enough time to walk to the back of the school with Mark to hang out and wait for Jack.

As for the school itself, it's small; only about 350 kids total from Nursery to Year 5.  The teachers and staff are great and have made the transition for the kids really easy.  We had our first Parent/Teacher conference the other week and were surprised to learn that both kids were a bit behind the curve.  At the ages they are at, the school expects more from them on an academic level.  Not so much knowing English things such as history.  But simple spelling and math concepts.  Their teachers said had they known before they were enrolled, then they may have been placed a year down...Jack in Year 3 and Mark back in Nursery school.  But all their teachers say they are working hard and adjusting well and should be up to speed by the end of the school year.  I don't know if this is because the school back home was behind or if the school they are in now is ahead or maybe they are just learning differently.

There are a few neat things at their school.  One is Term Assemblies.  This is where, before each term break, the classes put on an assembly for the parents to come and listen to what they've learned.  Mark's class put on a show about the things they learned during their space topic and about forest school (more about that in a bit).  Jack's class assembly was about the Victorian times including what inventions came from that era.  For instance did you know that the person given the patent for the toilet during the Victorian times was named Thomas Crapper?  That's right, Crapper.  They also played their penny whistles (from their music lessons) and sang in French.

Another neat thing that kids participate in is Forest School.  Right next to the school is a huge forest and grassy area.  Once a week for six weeks the classes take turns spending half a day outdoors.  It's there that they learn about all things nature-ish.  They build campfires, fashion tools out of sticks and rocks (like MacGyver

One thing we've had to get used to is RE....Religious Education.  Seeing as there is no separation of church and state over here, all public schools have RE.  Although this goes against what we believe in and makes for a hard pill to swallow, we are making sure the kids are respectful towards the beliefs of others.  We do have the option to pull them out of RE, but are deciding against it because they also teach the kids about tolerance and other cultures and customs...and that's always good.

Mark, a muddy mess from Forest School

Mark and his walking badges.  Oh and a missing tooth! :)