Month: December 2016

Edinburgh so far…

Here’s what our third day in Edinburgh looked like:

Unfortunately, Mike has had a cold for a couple of weeks, followed by L for a week, and yesterday G and I started with the sniffles and scratchy throats.  I’m all about positive thinking — no time for having a cold!  But, it hit G hard, and she had no oompf at all. Despite several fun options for things to do today, she just couldn’t muster the energy.  As a result, she and I had a cozy jammie/movie day and Mike and L spent the afternoon at the National Museum of Scotland.

Hopefully with the rest and lots of fluids, we’ll all be back on track tomorrow so we can all get out and about in Edinburgh.

Our first two days were much more fun for everyone!

Day One. We went for a long walk around the Old and New Cities.  “Old” being the part of the city from the middle ages and “New” being the part of the city from the 18th century! 🙂  We were there on Saturday, so it was quite busy! We strolled up the Royal Mile toward the castle and stopped to watch a juggler — Super Scott.

He was more about the mildly inappropriate jokes than about the juggling, but the kids were quite entertained by it. When he did get around to juggling, it was impressive, with knives and flaming torches and 5 balls. I was afraid to walk away as I knew we’d get heckled as several others did when they chose to move along. (Mike did quietly back away without getting heckled, which is how he ended up on the other side of us to snap the second picture below.)

The view from the front of the castle is beautiful, and we’re planning to tour it, but we were afraid that we weren’t going to have enough time and didn’t want to rush through it, so we opted to keep moving and check out the European Market, which was just down the “wee” steps, according to one of the castle greeters. 🙂

We walked through the European Market. Literally. We just walked straight through it.  It was wall-to-wall people, and the lines for everything were long. As we made our way through the crowds, L said, “I’m getting a little tired of looking at the backs and waists of people.”  As we made our way out, we overheard an older fellow on his way into the crowds ask his friends, “What fun is this?  I don’t see any fun in this,” and he was actually able to see above and around people! 🙂

We were on the lookout for a place to have a coffee or a snack, but ended up finding the Street of Light on George Street, which looks like a giant castle made of lights.  Nearby, G and L got some crepes (see the lighted stand in the picture below), passed some funny bar signs, and continued our walk through the lighted archway and the Scottish Market, which wasn’t quite so busy.

After lots of walking and a dip in the temperature, we decided to hop on a double-decker city bus rather than walking another 20 minutes to our apartment.  Conveniently, the bus stops right at our doorstop.  We ended the evening with a tasty dinner and “A Muppet Christmas Carol.”

Day Two. Headed out to explore The Shore area by our apartment by walking toward the Ocean Terminal (which is a nice shopping mall and where you go to tour the Royal Yacht Britannia). On our way, we saw a cool boat and fish sculpture and the Dazzle ship docked nearby.  We learned after getting back to the apartment that Dazzle ships were used during WWI as a system of camouflage, which used disorientating shapes to make it difficult to estimate a ship’s range, speed and direction of travel! There are Dazzle ships docked on the rivers of Liverpool and London as symbols of the commemoration period from 2014 to 2018. The project recently moved to Scotland, with a fourth new commission.  

At the Ocean Terminal, we found some cool animatronic animals displayed throughout the mall. as well as a double-decker carousel!  There was also a lego version of the Royal Yacht Britannia and a model of the nylon shipped used in the Queen’s 90th birthday parade. 

  

As we meandered back towards our apartment, we came across some cool old buildings and historical markers in the area we are staying.  

We decided to have a late lunch/early dinner at The Cameo, which we’d passed on our way to the Ocean Terminal. They had a clever sidewalk sign that read “The weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful.  Cameo, Cameo, Cameo!” 🙂 The whole restaurant has a subtle theater theme to it — gotta love a theme! 🙂  Areas of the restaurant were called “the stalls,” “box seats,” “the upper circle” and our table had a box for the menus labeled “Box Office No. 21.”  And they had the best tartan covered chairs and bar stools!!

Yummy Oreo cheesecake dessert for the kids:

There was also a giant sculpture of something…not sure who/what it was, but think it must be theater-related. Can you tell us what it is??

As we were finishing up, a couple of windowless vans pulled up.  We noticed when they opened the doors, that they were full of electronic equipment, like ones in those shows where someone hides in the van while they tell someone inside a location what to say, do, etc. When we walked out, the street was lined with the vans and a couple of huge semi trucks! We were all very curious, so L asked one of the guys if they were filming something. 🙂 The guys told him yes and then went on to explain it’s for the BBC and is some murder mystery show about students.  I looked it up later and am pretty sure it was for an episode of a show called “Clique” about university life that “goes to some pretty dark places.”  The show is a six-part drama created by writer Jess Brittain.  I don’t know if it’s available in the U.S. or not.  

We decided to end the evening by watching “The Grinch,” which was a DVD in our apartment. It wasn’t an original copy but must have been recorded and then hand labeled on the CD.  L and Mike were sorely disappointed to find out it was the Jim Carrey movie version, not the animated classic.  A good day regardless. 🙂

 

Beautiful Buxton

Similar to our choice of Wendover as a stop, we didn’t know much about Buxton before going, but we were focused more on the location and train accessibility.  We lucked out with both cities in that they are both wonderful places with unique characteristics and appeal.  We’re so happy we got a chance to visit both of them!

Buxton is another lovely market town in Derbyshire on the edge of the Peak District. We decided to stay here for a couple of nights on our way from Wendover to Edinburgh, so our train ride wouldn’t be quite so long.  

We arrived at our cottage on Wednesday evening and after getting settled, we walked into the town center, where we had a great dinner at The Club House (which was recommended by the cottage owner).  {Funny story: The waiter said, “Have a lovely evening,” to which I replied, “No.”  Mike looked at me funny, and said, “He just said to have a lovely evening.”  Oops. I thought he said, “Sorry for the wait,” as he was dropping off the kids’ desserts. Thankfully, I’m fairly certain he didn’t hear me!}

The cottage and its grounds were absolutely picturesque!  Our cottage was one of two that owners, Dave and Louise offer for rent.  The cottages (and their house across the lane) are converted horse stables!  

 

They are beautifully redone with actual beds, tasteful artwork and furnishings, and all the modern conveniences.  🙂  While we weren’t sleeping on bales of hay, it was fun to imagine what the building looked like as a stable.  The bedrooms were upstairs, which I’m guessing were originally the hay loft!  In addition, Dave and Louise own the Buxton Riding School and 95 acres of beautiful rural land just on the outskirts (walkable) of the town center.  Right outside our door, we heard roosters in the morning and could watch as the horses were getting groomed and led out to pasture!   

The morning after we arrived, Dave stopped by to introduce himself and answer questions. He also said that he and his wife were drooling over the bacon smell coming out of our cottage! 🙂  He gave us great information on a nice walk up behind the cottage and things to see in the town of Buxton.  We had a great day roaming around and seeing lots of Buxton.

Views from our walk on the land behind our cottage.  We had a wonderfully, foggy English morning!

It is an absolutely beautiful city with gorgeous examples of Georgian and Victorian architecture.  Buxton was founded by the Romans, who built baths to use the warm spa water. They called it Aquae Arnemetiae (or the spa of the goddess of the grove).  In the 18th and 19th centuries Buxton was famous as a spa.

  

These are original tiles and the glass ceiling of the Buxton Baths.

  

The Crescent was the centerpiece of the Fifth Duke of Devonshire’s plans to establish a fashionable Georgian spa town in Buxton.  Currently, the Crescent is being redeveloped and restored.  Dave (the cottage owner, where we stayed) told us to come back in 2017 when it opens as a 5-star hotel and spa! 🙂  

There is also a beautiful garden called the Pavilion Garden with an octagonal conservatory and 23 acres of gardens, including a great children’s playground, a river full of swans, and winding paths and bridges.  The Old Hall Hotel (or the Old Hag Hotel as Mike called it when he couldn’t read the sign in the dark) is just across the way from both the Pavilion Garden and the 902-seat Opera House with fabulous stained glass windows.  Built in 1573, the hotel has been said to be the oldest hotel in England.  Supposedly, Mary, Queen of Scots stayed in one of the suites!   

Apartments across the lane from the gardens.

The Octagon Conservatory.

The Club House, where we ate the night before, is the building across the street from the Opera House.

Victorian postbox from 1866, designed by architect John Penfold, these mailboxes are called Penfold boxes.

We also had a look inside the Devonshire Dome.  Measuring more than 150 feet in diameter, the Dome is bigger than St Paul’s Cathedral in London, and is the largest unsupported dome in Europe!  If you stand in the middle, right under the center, you can have fun making echo noises, which we did, of course!  (This was another suggestion given to us by Dave. 🙂  )

The Dome which is now part of the University of Derby in Buxton and Buxton College, was built by in 1779 for the 5th Duke of Devonshire.  Originally it was used as a stable for horses and servants of guests staying at the Crescent Hotel.  Later it became a charity hospital (1859) and then the Devonshire Royal Hospital (1934).  As it’s now part of the university campus, there’s a cafeteria inside where we had a nice lunch! 🙂

Maybe one day we can go back to take advantage of the thermal spas and such after The Crescent reopens!

Standing next to the Children’s Well, which was originally built by local businessman Joseph Taylor, in 1886. It provided water for travelers before piped water was widely available and is made of polished pink granite.

Harry Potter!

This past Monday, we spent the day at the Harry Potter Warner Brothers Studio Tour just outside London!  Mike and I had been planning on going to it but hadn’t told the kids. 🙂 We didn’t think about tickets being a problem, so several days beforehand, we went to buy tickets online and found they were sold out — until January!

Given the fact that one of our reasons for staying in Wendover was because it was going to be relatively close to both the Roald Dahl Museum and Harry Potter, we were surprised and disappointed.  We were happy we hadn’t mentioned anything to the kids, though, and we knew there would be plenty of other things to do and see.  For fun and out of curiosity, Mike looked on the web site again the next day and found several tickets available for Monday and that was it (again until January).  A tour group or something must have cancelled, so we quickly bought the tickets!

The tour is a chance to visit the actual sets and see the actual costumes and props used in the filming of all 8 movies!  In addition, there’s great information about special effects, hair and makeup, and general information about what it took to the make the movies.  It was a great tour, and we all enjoyed it!  After we got back, we found a fun quiz on Harry Potter trivia and a wizard name-maker.  http://www.harrypotter.bloomsbury.com/uk/fun-stuff/harry-potter-trivia-challenge/

Below are each of our thoughts about the day.

L’s thoughts:

I didn’t know that Hagrid’s head was fake, that most of the backgrounds were special effects, using green screens, that the houses were made out of fiberglass and were hollow, or that the first time they filmed dementors they did it under water.  We got to fly on brooms in front of green screens, and they did the special effects to make it look like we were flying through London, over the water, above the castle, and above the train tracks. Mommy, Daddy, G, and I took a picture that makes it look like we were wanted wizards.

     

For a snack, we got a couple pints of butter beer.  They put foam on top to make it look like beer.  The foam had little marshmallows in it and was sweet and the beer tasted like butterscotch!  There was a part where there was a screen that when you waved your hand over it, it made things move, like an iron ironing a dress, a penguin skating around on a cake, a knife chopping carrots, and a brush scrubbing a pan.  

 

My favorite parts were the special effects stuff with the green screens, the masks and animatronics, and sitting in a train compartment set, where they made dementors come up and look in the window, while an assistant director told us how to react.  They couldn’t film the train scenes in real train compartments because they are too small, so they used sets, like the one we sat in, to film those scenes.  I really like how they used real people from the crew to do the portraits that hung all over Hogwarts, and they used 4,000 actual names of the people who helped make the movie on the labels of the wand boxes.

  

Wizard Name: Livius Diggle

Harry Potter Books Read: 1-7 (read Book 1 four times, Book 2 three times, and is currently reading book 7 again.  He is #84 on the waiting list at the library for Book 8.)

Harry Potter Movies Seen: 1-4 (Mommy and Daddy are debating on whether 5 through 7 are too much…)

G’s thoughts:

Harry Potter Studios was so cool!  I learned so much stuff about how they made a lot of things. One of the things was how the actor that played “Hagrid” wasn’t even the actor for some of the parts.  Robbie Coltrane was only 6’2″, but there was a rugby player who was 6’10”, so they used the rugby player for some of the scenes.  The rugby player still wasn’t tall enough, soooo they had him wear a huge mechanical head that looked like Robbie Coltrane that had poles attached to it, so that it was higher and then added pads to the rugby player to make him look bigger and added stilts to his shoes, so he was even taller!

   

Another cool thing was that most of the scenes, like when Harry was on the broom stick or when there are mountains in the background, were actually filmed with a green screen and the background was added later.  In the quidditch section of the tour, there was a broom attached to a wooden stick in the wall, so when you said “up,” the broom would come right up into your hand.  There was also an activity where you could sit on a “broom,” and they filmed you in front of a green screen, so they could add London in the background.  It was really cool.  We got a picture and a USB of the movie, so we can watch it.

  

Wizard Name:  Gwenog Dawlish

Harry Potter Books Read: 1-4 (with lots of knowledge gained about other books from talking to L and playing “Harry Potter” with friends on the playground.)

Harry Potter Movies Seen: 1-4 (Mommy and Daddy are debating on whether 5 through 7 are too much…)

Jody’s thoughts:

It was a great tour and very well done!  For the most part, things moved along without too much waiting.  I loved being able to see all the sets and the costumes up close. Standing in the middle of Diagon Alley, standing next to Dobby, and making one of the mandrakes scream were also favorites for me.  🙂  In addition, the green screen technology is really quite amazing.  While I knew that parts were filmed with it, there were other parts of the various movies that I thought were for sure shot on site, but they weren’t!

 

The model of Hogwarts, which was used often and in all of the movies is absolutely amazing.  We got to see the architectural drawings of it and the white paper version before walking into the room with the real model of it.  Of course the butter beer snack we had was quite delicious, too!  So glad it worked out for us to get to go!!  We all want to watch the movies again (and the kids want to watch the ones they haven’t seen yet), so we can watch them with a new appreciation.

Mike’s thoughts:

Oddly enough, even I agree that that it was money well spent. 🙂

More pictures…