Bikes, Drugs, and €1 Billion Fireworks: Welcome to Amsterdam!

Why Amsterdam? No particular reason, but it seemed like a good place to celebrate the start of 2012!  Amsterdam is the main city of the Netherlands (also called Holland and its people are known as the Dutch… so confusing), a small country to the north of Belgium and west of Germany.

We arrived late Friday night and were immediately wowed by the airport, which felt like a posh mall that morphed into the train station at the back. The trip from airport to city was simple and within 15 minutes we were at the downtown train station with instructions to take a tram to our hotel about a mile away. Every country has its own transportation nuances, of which ‘where to buy tickets’ is often the most confusing. I hopped on a tram to ask the conductor, who said I could buy the tickets onboard. I turned to tell Chris to hop on… right as the tram doors closed and we started moving. Uh-oh.  Wait! My husband is right there and he has the money!  Chris ran alongside the tram watching the conductor shake his head 'no'.  I locked eyes with Chris as he mouthed the word “hotel”, which I cleverly interpreted as meaning we were each to get there on our own. It could’ve been a big deal, but I had a map and the hotel address, and Amsterdam at 10PM is as safe and busy as any normal city at 6PM. It would’ve been even less stressful if I had map-reading skills but that’s my own burden to bear. (My lack of navigation skills and inability to keep track of tickets is legendary.) After each making a few wrong turns, Chris and I arrived at the hotel the same moment, from opposite directions! Out of the experience was born a new Travel Rule: always stay on the same side of tram/train/bus doors! (Brett, this was infinitely less harrowing than the split up at the Peru/Bolivia border, don’t worry.) At check in, we were told that the hotel had actually over-booked (uh-oh) and we were being moved to the brands’ 4-star hotel a few minutes away (yay).

Very happy after finding Chris and the hotel!

Pretty little square in Amsterdam

The next morning we beat the crowds and made it to the art museum Rijksmuseum as it opened (cup of Starbucks in hand… ahhhh).  We spent ten minutes alone with Rembrandt’s masterpiece Night Watch.  I agree with a friends’ assessment: as much as The Mona Lisa is surprisingly small, this painting is surprisingly large!  Afterwards we walked the few blocks to the Van Gogh museum to look at the 200+ of his paintings on display. Did we fully appreciate them?  Probably not, but it was good anyway! 

In front of Rembrandt's Night Watch (this SO doesn't do it justice)

From there we just started wandering through the city.  Amsterdam in a nutshell: bridges and bikes (and tulips in the spring but it rained most of the time we were there!).  The whole place is filled with orderly canals, like a tidy Venice, and gable-roofed houses that literally lean in towards the water.  It oozes charm.  You can’t relax too much to take it in, though, because you have to have at least one eye and ear open for the bikers whizzing by.  Everyone here rides a bike everywhere, in work boots or stilettos, while talking on their phone, painting their nails, etc. Bikes are chained to every inch of bridge/tree/permanent structure, too.  Love it!   

Bikes and trams

Pretty little bridge over one of the many canals.

A typical view of the pretty houses, houseboats, and canal.

Since Chris is working most days, I’m usually the one researching where to go/what to do on our trips.  Occasionally when we get somewhere and discuss the day’s (brilliant) plans Chris just looks at me with one eyebrow raised, like whatever I’m suggesting is crazy.  A cheese & wine ‘connoisseur class’ in the famous Raypenear cheese shop for only $18 each?  I was so excited I didn’t even think to ask him about it before signing us up!  He groaned out loud at the idea but after about a pound of cheese and two glasses of wine he was grinning! 

"This is not really what I want to do" LOL

Love cheese.

Learning about the salt/mineral crystals in this 2 yr old cows milk cheese.

The Netherlands' New Years Eve Extravaganza was located in a park about a quarter mile from our hotel.  After a mid-afternoon nap, evening snack, and a bottle of champagne transferred to a Nalgene bottle we were ready!  We got to the park around ten and we worked our way to the stage. The show alternated between a DJ who was great, some sort of terrible 80’s themed host with an orange and purple leisure suit and fake afro, and some Dutch band who sang mostly in English but whose songs you’ve never heard.  Oh, and the whole thing was nationally televised so we’re probably famous by now. LOL.  The atmosphere was mostly fun.  At midnight while we counted down, two mammoth (like 100+ foot) paper mache figures were slid from either side of the stage towards each other and kissed as midnight struck.  The fireworks, which had not stopped going off in the 24 hours prior to this event, were now absolutely constant from every direction.  We were told that Amsterdam had spent one billion Euros on fireworks this year alone.  It was impressive, if not a bit tiring toward the wee hours of the morning.

Massive statues coming together for their midnight kiss. (Hmm...)

These things are scattered throughout the city to cut down on "wild peeing".  Brilliant! 

Happy New Year!

Yeah, it was cold!  In the background you can see the stage and the two massive characters.

After a molasses-slow start the next morning, we visited the Anne Frank House.  I read her famous diary only a few months ago, and it was eerie to enter the space, touch the walls, and see photos of the little Jewish girl and her family who hid from the Nazis for two years in a secret apartment. Also eerie was that this happened so recently that Anne may still be alive (in her 80’s) had she survived the concentration camp. The Holocaust killed 80% of Jews living in Amsterdam; that’s about 64,000 people.  In her father Otto’s words: “To build up a future, you have to know the past.”  We tend to forget so quickly, don’t we?


Amsterdam is well known for two vices: legalized prostitution and might-as-well-be-legal cannabis use. There are hundreds of Coffee Houses that sell 5 grams of weed at a time to anyone over the age of 18, and then let you smoke your stuff inside while you sip on a cappuccino or whatever else you’re in the mood for.  Hard drug use and weapons are absolute no-no’s and almost all the patrons are foreigners. (The Dutch actually smoke percentage-wise less than the rest of Europe and most of the world.)  We took a great tour of the district and industry and learned that a new law had just been passed that may forever change the Netherlands: coffee houses will only be able to sell weed to residents!  Supposedly all of Amsterdam will have to be in compliance by December 2012 so hurry up and visit if that’s your thing.  

One of the couple hundred Coffee Houses.

You can buy Magic Mushrooms, too!

The prostitution thing goes down in the Red Light District, which may be one of the most disturbing but distinctive neighborhoods I’ve seen.  Basically there are windows maybe 4-5 feet wide and 7 feet tall, like tiny store fronts, but instead of mannequins displaying clothes there are women displaying themselves.  These windows are jumbled in between coffee houses and ‘normal life’ stores like drug stores, groceries, dry cleaners, etc.  The Red Light District actually encompasses many square blocks of Amsterdam (different ‘styles’ of women tend to clump together… like Model Row, Tranny Ally, etc).  The apartments above all these stores (including those rented by the lovely ladies) are actually some of the most desirable and expensive real estate in the city.  So yeah, it’s not just 20-yr old ‘stag party’ guys walking through this area.  People work and live there, and families walk through doing errands.  Yikes.  We didn’t see that kind of thing growing up in sweet Davidson, NC!  In case anyone is wondering, the going rate is said to be €50/15 minutes.  Gross, dirty, and hopeless are my first thoughts but at least the women here have ridiculous security, their own union, and they’re self-employed.  I shouldn’t judge so there, that’s the end of that. 

Red Light District

 

Well, we found out what was wrong with Chris’ knee.  His left knee pain went from occasionally annoying him a year ago to waking him up almost every night for the past few months.  As most people have, we assumed it was some sort of overuse injury (um, Ironman training!) so he took a month off and went to the doc.  His knee cleared the initial exam “it feels really sturdy”, and the X Rays and then CT scan were inconclusive.  The MRI nailed it, though.  Chris actually has a small tumor in his tibia.  It’s an osteoid osteoma, a weird little benign cancer that usually spontaneously resolves within 3 years.  The only serious problem is the pain he’ll have to deal with for quite a while unless he opts for surgery.  After some research it seems as though training has nothing to do with the tumor or the pain, so now he’s trying to decide whether to start back up with Ironman training.  There are no known cases of an osteoid osteomas turning malignant, so we feel blessed for that. 

NO NO NO... Okay!



This puzzle is waaay too easy Aunt Claire!

The holidays can get stressful for anyone, but being a 26-yr-old mom of a 2-yr-old boy and having to have surgery to deal with The Big C right between Thanksgiving and Christmas increases that stress to a whole new level.  Jamie is our sister-in-law-to-be and we absolutely love and adore her, Chris’ brother David, and their son Wyatt.  Since I’m not working right now, I was able to go back to Tennessee to take care of Wyatt for the time Jamie was in surgery and recovering.  Chris had to stay in England to work, unfortunately, but everything else about the trip was wonderful. 

After a 9-hour flight from London (UGH!), I had a 6-hour layover in Charlotte which is where my mom and Benson live.  Mom picked me up from the airport and we spent those hours talking non-stop!  Skype is an amazing tool, but hugs and kisses and conversation with a person physically sitting next to you is a million times better.  I got a little teary-eyed saying goodbye at the airport to make the second and fortunately short flight to Nashville but am so thankful that the timing of the flights worked out to be able to see mom!  Chris’ parents picked me up from Nashville airport and by the time we got to their house the time change and flights had turned me into a total zombie.  I slept until 8 the next morning which isn’t impressive until you figure that in ‘my’ time that was 2:00 in the afternoon.  

David, Jamie, and Wyatt came over for dinner that day and I got my first warning that Wyatt’s Terrible Twos had just begun.  Wyatt (the cutest, tallest, strongest 27-mo-old in the world) had always seemed independent and easy going.  He was content most of the time, went down for naps consistently and effortlessly, ate well, etc.  But whoa, he’s making up for that now!  He had just (like, the day before) started really enjoying the word ‘no’ and everything it entailed.  Is it just that he suddenly realized he could make decisions and wanted to practice refusing things, no matter how inconsequential?  Is it to assert to the world that he’s growing up?  Is it to drive everyone insane?  I know most of the parents out there are nodding or smiling but let’s remember that I haven’t had the gradual, daily practice of this whole parenting thing and I think Wyatt could sense that. He totally smelled fear! 

We went for a walk most days and would sometimes wander through the woods alongside the Schmidt’s’ house.  My favorite memory of the entire trip is when Wyatt was in a little clearing deciding in which direction he wanted to go.  Scott and I were talking to each other at least 15 feet behind him when we heard him say, to HIMSELF mind you:  “This way?  NO!” (He would turn a few degrees to the left after each shout of ‘NO!’) “This way?  NO!  This way?  NO! This way? OKAY!"…and just started off in that direction.  Scott and I laughed.  We couldn’t take it personally that Wyatt told us ‘no’ all the time – he was telling himself the same thing!

By the end of my babysitting assignment me and my little buddy had tons of good laughs, fun walks, many, many hours of amazing playtime, and ‘read’ more books that are in some libraries (‘read’ because even as he insisted on my reading sometimes he just wanted to flip the pages as fast as physically possible to get to the last one and triumphantly announce “The End!”) I can count the number of hours he napped on one hand, but apparently kids go through stages with nap-time so I’m giving myself a pass on that one! 

 

Wait, a nap at 4:30 PM is a good or bad idea? Passed OUT in the living room after fighting a nap for the last 5 hours... But man does he look so cute and angelic when he sleeps!

The most important thing is that Jamie’s surgery went well, the malignant tumor was removed completely, her prognosis is absolutely excellent, and she was in great spirits!  The last couple days of my stay she was up and about and baked five different varieties of Christmas cookies!

Our little helper!

About 10 seconds before he flung flour to the far corners of the kitchen :)

Me and Jamie holding up the raspberry chocolate chunk cookies.

Trying to learn the thumbs up. 

Me and Monkey Boy

Zoom Zoom mode around the kitchen... laughing histerically... drooling... no nap... 8:00 at night. 

Getting to spend those couple weeks with my in-laws (who are almost as wonderful as Chris!) and David, Jamie, and Wyatt was such a Christmas gift.  Again, the only one absent was Chris and he really was sorely missed.  It was so good to get back to him and England and my bed, but we’re pretty determined that next Christmas we’re both going back to the States!   Chris’ boss invited us to his house for dinner on Christmas day.  We were so thankful to spend some of the day with Lyn and Kurt, his mom and dad, their three kids, and brand new puppy that Santa brought that morning!  It definitely made being away from family a whole lot easier.

Some big news is that we decided to transfer our Ironman race from Germany to the Ironman UK race in Bolton on July 22^nd.  Bolton has more hills and isn’t as scenic, but we know five people racing there (from our bike and running clubs) and it’s only a 2.5 hour drive from our house.  Plus, it pushes the event back a month and as Chris awaits results from an MRI on his knee we are thinking he may need the extra time to rest, heal, and prepare.   I thought this blog would be mostly about our travels but may start including a little bit about Ironman training since that will start consuming something between 8 and 20+ hours of each week.  We need to start getting serious about nutrition, drinking less alcohol and more water, stretching every day, etc, but I’m waiting until we get back from Amsterdam to commit to all that!   

Chris says thanks for all the birthday wishes! 

Happy New Year! 

Saying Howdy to Gaudi in Barcelona

I have ALWAYS wanted to go to Spain and have been excited about this trip for months!  We started our four-day Thanksgiving weekend in the resort town of Alicante on the southern coast.  The end of November is way past tourist season, but it was warm enough to spend a lazy day walking barefoot on the beach and watch the wind surfers for a couple hours.  After a nap (it’s okay to be lazy on Thanksgiving, right?!) we went into town to try to watch the Packers game.  Finding American football is NOT easy, but Google got us to an American bar, the bartender found the game, and we found ourselves playing out a new version of our old tradition.  For for the past many years (and hopefully the next twenty) all the Schmidts gather on sofas in Chris’ parents’ house to watch the Packers play while the Thanksgiving turkey cooks.  On this day, I would have traded Barcelona for their den in a heartbeat, but we enjoyed ourselves despite the distance.  To balance all the relaxing, we dealt with two bits of self-induced panic:  one from waking up only 10 minutes before we were supposed to leave the house to catch the plane that morning (rookie mistake) and the second from Chris having to sprint back to a restaurant to recover the purse I had left there (oops).  All’s well that ends well, right?  We made the flight with about seven minutes to spare and nobody had taken my purse. Phew!

Wind Surfer in Alicante, Spain

Chris watching the Packers game on Thanksgiving at Bar Austin in Alicante, Spain

Friday morning we were up early to take a five-hour train to Barcelona. Chris slept almost the entire way (My brother is the only person who can fall asleep faster!) and I read enough of the book “That Used to Be Us” to get me scared about the future of our economy. I know it’s an inflammatory book, but still think it’s worth a read. (Just an aside: trains have assigned seats labeled by train-car and seat number. So you can, for example, have a ticket for car eight, row six, seat C. For our first train ride from Marseille to Nice we didn’t realize that and just hopped on the car that stopped in front of us and sat in the two seats that looked most appealing because the train was almost empty. About three stops down the line we realized that everyone was looking at their ticket to find the proper seats so immediately took our out tickets to correct our error. I am not kidding; from that entire train we had somehow chosen our exact two seats. Totally strange, isn’t it?! )

After checking into our Barcelona hotel we walked down La Rambla (shoppers beware: you could drop your next paycheck in an instant on this street) to Casa Batllo (www.casabatllo.cat), a home the famous architect Antoni Gaudi (Gow-di) built for a rich textile merchant around 1900. Gaudi was born and raised near Barcelona, and lived there most of his life. He designed and built homes, monuments, and parks throughout the city and spent the last fourteen years of his life dedicated to his ultimate project: a church called La Sagrada Familia. The church is… outrageous. To me the outside is a monstrosity but the inside is breathtaking. Gaudi’s works are IMPRESSIVELY unique. The joke is that Gaudi was gaudy, which I would totally agree with, but after spending hours learning him and the architecture he created I have to say Chris and I are both fans. Gaudi was a nature lover, and incorporated as many elements of the natural world into his architecture as possible. He was also inventive, and picky about capturing the perfect amount of natural light, blending textures, shapes, and materials, making spaces ergonomic and useful, and in my opinion adding weirdness wherever possible.

Casa Mila, aka La Pedrera (The Stone Quarry), a Gaudi apartment complex.  Cal, you thought mom's house was hard to build because of its weird corners...

Looking up at the facade of Casa Batllo.  The curving windows "represent waves on a stormy day" to Gaudi and the iron balconies look remarkably like skulls to me.  This picture doesn't do it justice, but the facade is covered with thousands of colored tiles.

Chris standing in the main drawing room of Casa Batllo.  It was totally worth the 18 Euro to take the audio tour and get to see inside the house!  The attention to detail is amazing - everything down to the handrails was designed to be comfortable!

On the roof of Casa Ballo, with one of Gaudi's crazy chimneys and The Dragon's Back - a colorfully tiled cap above the facade.

The attic of Casa Batllo - the arches look like a rib cage, don't they?

The Passion Facade of La Sagrada Familia

Inside La Sagrada Familia.  The columns and stained glass were stunning!

The Nativity Facade is on the opposite side of the church and in stark style contrast to the Passion Facade.

We spent the rest of the day wandering around Montjuic, a large hill overlooking the southwest part of the city that is home to some beautiful museums and stadiums from the 1992 Olympic Games.

Looking over the Placa d'Espanya from the stairs of the National Palace.

Saturday morning we failed at our attempt of a long training run. Stopping for traffic at every street corner was so annoying! The one good part was getting to see the Park Guell (designed by Gaudi) which was really cool.

Chris standing at the front of Park Guell.

Me with a Gaudi lizard.

After the run we headed to the waterfront to see the Olympic Village and watch the sand volleyball games. It felt like half of Barcelona’s families were out strolling along the boardwalk!

People lounging in concrete chairs watching other people working out on the beach gym.  I watched until some old guy started doing squats in a speedo.  LOL.  

That evening we went to watch the ‘Magic Fountain’ – a gorgeous light, sound, and water display in a massive fountain in front of the Palau Nacional. What a unique thing, we loved it!

The Magic Fountain - the color, texture, height, and shape of the fountain changed with the music. 

The Magic Fountain.

Lots going on in this photo - the Magic Fountain lit up pink, behind it is the National Palace with its rays of light.

I’d say the only somewhat disappointing part of the weekend was the food which was hit or miss. Tapas bars are really common, and I absolutely love the idea of serving small portions of a wide range of dishes, but we don’t love all our food swimming in oil. A bit of olive oil makes most things taste better, but for me, an inch-thick pool at the bottom of every plate takes away from a dish. Our favorite bites were actually from little markets: fresh smoked tuna, crisp runner beans, good bread, etc. Oh, and the Cava, their sparkling wine, is so yummy. I went for the midrange €5 (the cheapest I saw was€1 which was far less expensive than a bottle of water!) ‘Extra Brut’ Cordorniu at the grocery store and it was perfect with our grocery store dinner!

Sunday we took an unimpressive tour of Barcelona’s Old Town and then ate some decent seafood paella for lunch. The most fun part of the day was meeting Cassie, who had ditched her San Fran job and was on the third month of bumming around Europe. She convinced us that parts of Turkey (the country, not the bird) shouldn’t be missed, so now I’m trying to figure out how to make that trip happen. We didn’t have time to tour Barca’s (the muy famous soccer club) stadium or go to any museums but all in all we saw a lot of Barcelona in the three days we had there. The amazingly efficient, clean, and user-friendly transit system helped get us from area to area but I swear we also must’ve walked ten miles a day... we were tired and glad to be heading home by Sunday night!

We got lucky with the customs line this time around. Sometimes it takes more than an hour to get through, but the line was short when we landed Sunday. No clue why, but I am always nervous going through customs even though I never do or carry anything illegal. Occasionally watching the reality TV show ‘Nothing to Declare’ (about the UK and Australian Border Patrol) apparently hasn’t helped me either. The agents being interviewed for the show talk about what makes people look suspicious and instead of helping me avoid doing those things it has just made me more self conscious! The border agent we encountered on this return to London was absolutely intimidating. He didn’t ask any questions, but scrutinized each of our passports page by page. After about an eternity he looked me in the eye and said: “You came from Barcelona?” Me: “Yes sir.” Stern Agent: “Did you say howdy to Gaudi?” It took a couple seconds for the joke to sink in and when it did, I just… squawked? It just escaped out of me… an awkward and too loud one-syllable laugh. Instantly I thought “Did that just make me look suspicious? “, then “Why am I holding my hand in this weird position?”, then in an instant my thoughts unraveled to “Oh my gosh, do I look guilty of something? Are they going to take me for more questioning? Are they going to put me through one of those crazy scanners to see if I’m smuggling drugs?” Hahahaha, wow. None of those things happened; Stern Agent just looked at me funny and let us through.

Well, the next planned trip isn’t until Amsterdam for New Years but I may be heading back to Tennessee in the mean time to be with my sweet, amazing sister-to-be who is going through surgery in the next weeks to help her beat cancer. Keep her in your thoughts and prayers, please!

A few days late, but still so applicable; here’s an amazing Thanksgiving prayer from my old pastor: http://revjameshowell.blogspot.com

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Edinburgh and the Hairy Coo

In the spirit of Veteran’s Day I’d like to thank Chris and all the Air Force guys and gals for their service, Chris’ father Scott for his 20+ years with the Army, to Chris’ late granddad who retired with a couple Purple Hearts, Bronze Star, Silver Star, and a Distinguished Flying Cross, to my own granddad who served two years in the Navy, and to my Uncle John who was an M.D. in the Army Reserves for eight years. Without people like them we truly wouldn’t be able to do the simple things we enjoy like travel freely and speak openly.

We REALLY capitalized on Veteran’s Day this year by traveling six hours north to the amazing city of Edinburgh (pronouced ‘Ed-in-burra’, don’t say Edin-burg!) Scotland. There’s absolutely no way to see all of Edinburgh in one weekend, especially this late in the year when the days are so short. After squeezing in a 12-mile run Friday morning (Ironman training is still going well!) we arrived in Edinburgh as it was getting dark (4:30). We learned the lesson to not sit in a car for 6 hours immediately after a long run – we were stiff and sore and hungry! Ever heard of haggis? It’s Scotland’s national dish and I had it for dinner Friday night. I’d hated it as a kid (we ate lots of weird stuff growing up) but I guess my adult taste buds have changed because it was really nice! I know I’m going to lose a lot of people on this one, but haggis is made of sheep’s heart and liver minced with onions and a special type of oatmeal, heavily spiced, and cooked for hours. Yummmmmy.

There were so many people living within Edinburgh city walls during medieval times that there was simply not enough housing.  Building maxed out at 17 story high-rises but the top floors were so unstable they’d regularly crush the people below.  To make more room, people start building down into the rock, hence the many cellars and tunnels underneath the city.  With the sheer number of people stuffed into the city walls, living conditions were horrific and disease was rampant. Hundreds of people sick with the plague were said to be cast away to the underground vaults and bricked in to try to contain the disease. Inspired by this dark history, we took one of the many ‘haunted Edinburgh’ tours. I’m too much of a skeptic to make that worth the money. The guide had one good story, though: As there was no sewer system, every night at 10:00 the people of Edinburgh got rid of their toilet waste by chucking it out of the window and yelling ‘guardi loo’ to warn people below. Ten PM also happened to be when the bars closed, so he reckoned the phrase ‘s**t faced’ may have originated in Edinburgh. Well, that’s £20 we’ll never get back…

Saturday we were really late getting to a day-long tour we had booked to see the Scottish Highlands. I’m blaming a slow bus systemJ.  BUT we made it, and the tour was awesome!!! Our tour guide Donald drove the bunch of us around in a bus called Bessie (named after the Hairy Coo we would be photographing extensively later.)

Me and Chris camouflaged as Hairy Coos :)

the bus

Donald (wearing a kilt and bright orange shirt) was really proud (with a capital P) to be Scottish.  After listening to his stories of how many times England had tried and failed to conquer it I could understand why!   He relished the fact that Scotland had never been part of the Roman Empire, either, and laughed that either the Romans thought Scotland’s cold, harsh, wet climate wasn’t worth the fight or the Scots were just that good!  Donald even taught us how to speak like Sean Connery.

Our first stop on the Hairy Coo was the William Wallace monument to learn about one of Scotland's most famous people and the truths and fictions (gasp) about Braveheart.   I hated history as a student but now am fascinated by how things came to be in the areas we visit.  To be able to see how geography, a couple poor or good decisions, and luck shaped huge chunks of the world is so interesting!  We also stopped by a little lake to take in some of the gorgeous views.

William Wallace monument

After the obligatory visit to the William Wallace monument, the Hairy Coo started the journey up into the highlands (about an hour northwest of the city.)  The transition from low- to high-lands was drastic – within two miles the scenery had completely changed.  This time of year the hills have a rusty red color from all the dried bracken (ferns).  As he drove, Donald told stories about his family (we went through his tiny village on the way into the hills) and the history of Scotland.  We stopped at the prettiest little spot to snap some photos.

Scottish Highlands

From there it was off to find the Hairy Coos!  That Scottish Highlands are so rugged that only a few species can survive outside all year 'round.  This particular breed of cattle isn’t the best at producing milk or meat but is the best at staying alive up there!  I tell you what, if I came across one of these beasties somewhere without a fence between me and it I would run the other way – in a zigzag motion to confuse it – and never return to the area.  They are aggressive and have massive horns.  I’m smiling in these pictures, yes, but only on the outside. 

About to pee my pants?

Feeding mama and baby Coo.

Chris with papa Coo - that thing's horns completely dwarf Chris, don't they?

The last stop on the Hairy Coo was to Doune Castle where Monty Python and the Holy Grail was filmed.  The castle looked spooky as darkness fell, but Donald lightened the mood with movie quotes.

Sunday morning we hiked Arthur’s Seat, an ancient volcano that sits smack dab in the middle of the city.  It’s a popular hike because the views from 800 feet up are fantastic!

Chris with the peak in the background.

Me with Edinburgh Castle in the background.

Chris (with his new pose) on top of Arthur's Seat.

Everyone has different styles of traveling and different things they really enjoy experiencing in a new place.  Right now we’re less of the ‘museum and castles’ style and more of the ‘unique scenery and food’ style.  This trip fit the bill – we really got to see the countryside and beautiful mountains and lakes but didn’t spend nearly enough time in the city.  So, future visitors, if you want to go to Edinburgh we’d welcome another chance to explore!

PS: As an aside, poor Chris is dying inside because there are big flocks of ducks and geese flying overhead and he’s devastated to be missing the start of Arkansas duck hunting.

PPS: How many sheep are there in Scotland? Answer:  No one knows.  Every time someone attempts to count them they fall asleep!   Hahaha, seriously though, there are millions!