Friday, August 1, 2008. 1 month of traveling

Today marks the end of our first month of travels. We have been to 4 countries and leave tomorrow for our 5th (Sweden). If the rest of the trip is as expensive as Norway, we will be coming home before the snow falls... I should take a moment and thank the people who have written to me to correct or further elucidate my postings. Alfred Nobel did not invent TNT but dynamite, which I would have known if I had waited until after we had visited the museum. If any of you ever visit Oslo, the Peace Center is fabulous, with amazing technological effects and a message that moved us all. While in Oslo, we went to both the primary art museum for the country and their famous sculpture garden. The Norwegians have this thing for Vigeland’s sculpture. We found it stoic, and vaguely disturbing (babies being kicked by horses, wolves wolfing down children’s arms—you know, pretty stuff…) The Norwegians also love Munch. I must say his “masterpiece” The Scream, left me, and Kim pictured here doing is best imitation, underwhelmed. It is also the most unprepossessing museum I’ve ever been to. But, the weather has been spectacular. We have had an amazing string of blue skies and warm temperatures. In fact, one of the days we were in Bergen, a city known for cold rain, was the hottest day in Norway in the last 30 years.

We heard a funny story about how much it rains here. A man asks a thirteen year old boy if it is true it rains every day in Bergen. He replies he thinks that is an exaggeration. But, he can't contradict it as he is only 13 years old.

After Oslo, we took a train up and over the mountains of central Norway, and a second train down into the valley of a fjord. If this isn't the most beautiful place on earth, it must be tied for the honor. The waterfall above, was one of 8 1000' falls we could see from our hotel room. It is like Yosemite on steroids.

Once we made it to the western coast, we boarded a boat for a 4 day ride up through narrow fjords and snow capped mountains.

Where in the world are Ethan and Siena? If you remember them being at zero degrees longitude, here they are at another imaginary line. We crossed the Arctic Circle! And wore shorts and t-shirts there. We have been swimming in 3 fjords--one of which was 46 degrees! We were gung-ho to swim above the arctic circle, but it is just too cold now. We are a couple of weeks too late to see the actual midnight sun, but the sun only sets at about 11 pm, there is 2 hours of sunset/sunrise, then the sky begins to lighten until we have broad day light by 2 am. So, when was I supposed to find time to write? This picture was taken at midnight when we were at the 65th parallel. The furthest north we got was the 68.5th. Currently, we are only 2100 kilometers from the north pole. Unbelievable, isn't it? I am afraid I cannot continue my review of the booze in this country other than to say it costs too much! A beer is 12 dollars. Wine was $90 for a mid range bottle. Of course, it isn't so bad after all the drinking in Great Britain to take some time off. To comment on some comments: No, I don't make anyone taste herring, as I can't stand it! The water here is fabulous, cold and great tasting, which almost makes up for the fact that we cannot afford to drink anything else. Cheers to all of you, with my glass of water...

The Beatties

Tuesday July 22, 2008

We have left the U.K. and are now in Scandanavia! We had the most wonderful time in Great Britain and regret that we didn’t allow more time for Scotland. We moved on from the ales in England to the whisky in Scotland. We went on a distillery tour and sampled some excellent types of whiskies. I particularly liked the tasting table at the airport. Slainte (cheers in Gaelic). What a great idea! Even though we boarded at 8:30 a.m., I must admit to trying a couple of types. Thanks to Peter, our host, we had the most amazing time. Here we are climbing up the mountain in the background.

Where in the world are Ethan and Siena? Well, I will give you some hints. This location has been memorialized in song. In this song, the shore they are standing on is described as being very, very pretty, also known as the bonnie, bonnie banks. How about, taking the low road? Yep, this is Loch Lomond. In Scotland, a “Loch” is a lake. The mountain in the background is named Ben Lomond. “Ben” means “mountain”. For us, any mountain we didn’t know the name of while in Scotland, was called “Ben Corsan” in honor of Ethan’s friend.

Yesterday, we flew to Oslo. Oslo is on a beautiful fjord (Norwegian for a valley, carved out by a glacier, filled with water that leads to the ocean--maybe we don't need this word in English...). We met my aunt and cousin (see picture below in front of ancient stave church--I don't know what "stave" means yet) and have been exploring this city. Everyone speaks English—almost without an accent. It makes us realize how weak we are in languages in the U.S. We visited the place where they present the Nobel Peace Prize. Our family finds it ironic that Mr. Alfred Nobel, the inventor of TNT, is the father of the world's most prestigious peace prize. Tomorrow, we are going to the museum honoring the recipients of this worthy award. Hope all is well with you! Skor! (cheers in Norwegian)

Thursday July 17

Where in the world are Ethan and Siena? Yes, they are hiking on an ancient wall, but no, we are not in China. Like the Great Wall of China, this wall was built spanning an entire country to keep the barbaric people living north of the wall from invading. It was built in 144 A.D. and took a mere 2 years to complete the 73 miles. Not only did they build the wall 10 feet high and three feet wide, they also built deep ditches parallel to the wall to help defend the border. This is Hadrian's Wall, in northern England, to protect the Roman Empire's northern territory from the Scots. I'm not sure you can see in this picture, but the wall is built on the ridge of a mountain range. During our 10 mile hike along this mountainous section, we had up to 100 foot straight drops down on the north side of the wall. We stopped part way along for lunch, then cut back to the road to wait for a bus back to our hotel. Our choice of beverages at these stops caused Ethan to reflect, that whilst others walk from peak to peak, "The Beatties hike from pint to pint."

England has a reputation for mediocre food. We have been very happy with the food. We have had lots of pies--cheese and onion, steak and ale, lentil, mint and lamb, beef and Guiness. The food is all hearty. We have tried to have the local specialties, including Black Pudding, which is a sausage made from pig's blood (better than it sounds, but it would almost have to be), yorkshire pudding (yum!), lots of lamb (there are sheep everywhere), strawberries and cream at Wimbledon, local sausage (which are all very different) and local ales (also all different, but all good). We went on the Wensleydale Creamery Tour and sampled all 12 cheeses--the good ones multiple times. I am glad we are hiking about 8 miles a day to work off some of the calories.

Yesterday, we arrived in Scotland. We are staying in Stirling with a friend of my parents. Peter must be an excellent friend to invite his friends' daughter and her entire family to stay. It is wonderful to be in a home after 2 weeks in hotels. And, "hotel" is definitely a compliment to some of our lodgings, so this is especially wonderful. Yesterday, we went to Glasgow and stopped in at the Horseshoe Bar (thanks, Jim and Gillian for the suggestion!) Today, we traveled to Edinburgh. The picture of the family (with Peter) is from the castle.

On a technical note, I understand some are having problems seeing pictures on the blog or responding to us. Please feel free to go directly to our blog site--www.beattieclanworldtrip.blogspot.com. You can also email us at beattieclan@gmail.com.

Internet at last

I have not been very good at posting. London was hectic and each day was jammed with lots of sightseeing and running around. We would collapse into bed and jump up in the morning to start again. Since leaving London, we have had no internet access. The local internet café, as it were, is attached and affiliated with the undertaker (you just can’t make this stuff up!)

For the friends and classmates of the kids, I will include a section titled “Where in the World are Ethan and Siena”. Can you figure where we are in this picture? The line in the background is highly significant. Once the world was proven round, how could a person describe where they were on the globe, or, what time it is relative to the rest of the world? Well, Greenwich, England was chosen as the beginning of time and place. The twenty four hours of the time zones start at GMT, or Greenwich Mean Time. As you travel east from there, time gets later, GMT +1, GMT +2, etc. Traveling west, the time gets earlier. Michigan is GMT –5, meaning it is 5 hours earlier in Michigan than in England. It is also zero degrees longitude. Travel east and you are in the Eastern Hemisphere, from 0 degrees to 180 degrees east. Travel west and you are in the Western Hemisphere, again going to 180 degrees. The imaginary line at 180 degrees (either way you travel) is the International Date line. So, as we stand on the Prime Meridian in Greenwich, England, we are standing at the beginning of time and space, with one foot each in the eastern and western hemispheres..

There were other things we discovered in London. I discovered that half a pint at lunch is lovely. A full pint makes me comatose. We used to have a saying in college, from evenings when we’d go to a happy hour, then return to our room before heading out: Friends don’t let friends stop drinking. Ethan and Siena, not having imbibed at lunch, had no such difficulties. We were able to drag ourselves out later to do a rapid exploration of the British Museum, including seeing the Rosetta Stone!

Saturday, we went to pick up our car. The gentleman helping us urged me to take a larger car as we would be smooshed (FYI: my computer did not like this word and suggested I use “smooched” instead. One must be very careful not to always listen to spell check…) into the one reserved for us, and he would be happy to upgrade us to the next model free, however it would be a stick shift. I declined; driving in a car on the wrong side of the road, going around traffic circles the opposite direction, arguing with my husband about where to go and shifting gears with the wrong hand would be just one thing too much. I also figured the only reason he was offering was because he didn’t have the car we had reserved. So, we gleefully piled our luggage into the available car—a Mercedes, and took off driving out of London.

I swerved to avoid the two double-decker buses converging on us, made a u-turn on a small lane after missing a turn, narrowly missed a man in a wheelchair with suicidal desires who darted out in front of me, braked to prevent hitting two women crossing the street whose peripheral vision was compromised by the chadors they were wearing, but failed to see the curb that moved into my lane, without signaling, I might add. And so, we got a flat tyre (British spelling, not wrong). By the time this occurred, we had traveled a full half a mile from the Hertz office. . But, this proved to be only a minor delay and we continued on our way to Oxford then on to the Cotswolds. By the time we arrived, we had pretty much mastered the round abouts and were able to drastically decrease our number of u-turns.


The day ended far better than it began. We checked in to a lovely bed and breakfast in an idyllic town in the Cotswolds, before heading up to Stratford for a brilliant performance of A Mid Summers Night’s Dream. The word of the day was “bucolic”—perfect for describing the drive in the Cotswolds.

Still no internet! Sorry about missing the meeting yesterday, Gary, Jim, Keith and Peter, but we were climbing up a mountain to see the ruins of Castle Dis Bran, outside the town of Llangollen. The wireless connection was rather weak. We are now in Wales, where a double “L” is pronounced like clearing your throat politely. I am sure you, the reader, can practice up on this. The countryside is very different from the part of England we have seen. It is wilder, more treed, more mountainous, and harder to pronounce. We passed a golf cwrs—who needs any pesky vowels???

Our hopes of climbing Mount Snowdon today are fading as it looks like rain. Of course, it has rained part of every day we have been here. There is no getting our clothing to dry for the humidity is so high, things hung out seem wetter in the morning than when originally hung. We haven’t let the rain stop our activities as Monday we tramped 12 miles from town to town in the Cotswolds, the last 5 of which were in pouring rain. The kids were troupers! When I apologized to Siena for the length of the trek—we had only intended on a 5 mile loop, she replied that it was okay, but, in the future, 8 miles should really be the maximum.

Now, we are spending our anniversary evening, sitting in a dive, blogging to you. Of course, we do each have a pint! Which reminds me, I am going to include a section entitled, "Kim and Wendy drink their way around the World." The beer/ale in England and Wales is wonderful. It is decidedly less bubbly than ours in the US, has a stronger taste and is less cold. We haven't had the same type twice, although I couldn't list them for you. Siena's section is entitled, "Sweet World" (my child with the major league sweet tooth). Her favorite dessert so far is a Welsh specialty, Caramel Ribbon. "It was a cookie on the bottom, covered with caramel and chocolate. I found that there are a lot of ice cream places in Great Britain, and the ice cream is very good here." Unfortunately, the "Blogger" site was down, so the post needed to wait another day to reach the internet.

We spent the intervening day climbing Snowden. It is the highest mountain in Wales or England and a tough walk. It took us 6 hours, up into major fog, rain and strong winds. A bit down from the top, though, the skies cleared and we had beautiful views. We are spending tonight in Chester.

Our First Stop: London

The trip is underway! We flew into London on Wednesday morning and have been running ever since. Our hotel is a bit seedy, in a quaint, convenient way. We dropped off our luggage, met Ross (Ross had spent a week in Paris with friends from high school/college), and have been exploring for the past 3 days. Such a clean, easy to navigate city! We went to Wimbledon, planning to just look at the exterior, but no lines, and decent priced tickets convinced us to stay and watch. Ross and I were walking the first evening, hoping to keep me up long enough to cure my jet lag and happened on a concert in Hyde Park. Jack Johnson, one of all of the kids favorites had just started. The word of the day is "serendipitous".

Here is a picture of us on the London Eye. Tomorrow, we leave for the Cotswolds.

Two More Days...Yikes

We are almost there. Where ever there is. We leave in two days, we have boxes and bags strewn throughout the house, every room has more to pack, and there are no where near the number of reservations for the trip made. I knew there was more to do than we could accomplish, and I was right! I have emptied our cupboards, eat your heart our Mother Hubbard, but there's still wine in the rack.

We have been saying good bye to our family and friends. The picture attached, from left to right, shows Dan, Wendy (a.k.a me), Siena on Pattie's lap, Kim, and Cliff. Our phone has been ringing regularly with well wishers and we will miss them all. Our dog seems to know something is not right, and rarely ventures far from our legs. We are fortunate that our neighbors have volunteered to take our dog, but, so far, no one has offered to take our mortgage. But, there's still time, and hope springs eternal. Anyone interested???

We have recently added many friends to our blog, and this short blog is primarily to make sure everyone is receiving this that is interested. If you get this, please respond to let us know you are on the list! I should have more to report once the trip starts.

The Countdown Stands at 2 Weeks

Yes, the day is fast approaching for our departure. I have learned so much preparing for this trip. In applying for our Russian Visas, I discovered that we are mistaken to think the Cold War is over. Anyone under this misconception should look at the application for a Visa. We needed to list our past two employers, supervisors, etc. As I have worked for Becker Orthopedic for 20 years and Kim owned/worked at Moon Valley for 32 years, this meant we had to go back a long way. I was releaved that I could come up with two since college, as my college engineering internship was with a defense contractor. I sure didn't want to list that, although, truth be told, I don't remember anything from my engineering days. I looked at one of my notebooks I found cleaning out the house, and it is completely amazing to me to think I once understood the stuff I wrote down.

As we clean house, we find all kinds of stuff that seems to hide until you start packing. How, I ask you, can I have bathtub toys in my house? My youngest is 11. We are currently burning our ancient records. I found our wedding registry and a list of what everyone gave us. Thanks again, to those of you on this list! I don't think we will keep all of this until the next move.

England is our first stop, London to be percise. We are staying at the Edward Lear Hotel (pictured above) home of the eponymous author, famous for The Owl and the Pussycat ("eponymous" is the word of the day--feel free to use it yourself). We have tickets to see The Lord of the Rings. Hard to believe they made a musical out of a long, dark book, but it is supposed to be wonderful. I will let you know.

I have changed the settings for the group email. I think, if you respond, it will only come to us now, not the entire group, and we would love to hear from you.

Missing you already!

The Beatties