A little late on my post but….wow, what a great year 2018 was! From Thailand, Romania, and Russia, to Iceland, Scandinavia and South Africa, we had a chance to see so much. It was another year filled with amazing adventures! We’ve added 10 new countries to our list, numerous new cities and some wonderful memories. A special thanks to all of our visitors who took the time to come to Cologne or meet us in another country. It means a lot to us. Plus, a thank you to my mom and aunt Cathy who came in December for the Christmas markets. I had such a great time showing you both around, shopping, visiting new cities and of course eating chocolate and drinking wine.
Edinburgh, Scotland: After a wonderful (and much needed) trip home we ended 2018 in Scotland. On Alex’s Birthday (30 – woohoo!) Andrea, Andy, Alex and I arrived in Edinburgh where our friends, John and Trudy were waiting at the airport for us. Since none of us had ever done a gin tasting before, we thought it would be the perfect start to his birthday. After an interesting tour through the history of gin, it was time for the best part, the tasting! We sampled five different gins then got to pick our favorite to take home with us. Then we celebrated Alex’s birthday Scottish style…at the local pubs.
Glasgow: The next morning, we hopped on a bus and headed to Glasgow for the day. Our first stop was to the Cup Tea Lounge for afternoon tea. In 2017 while in Scotland with my parents, we had stumbled upon this cafe for tea. We enjoyed it so much that I wanted to take everyone back. We all stuffed ourselves with the delicious sandwiches, scones, cupcakes etc. We then spent the rest of the day enjoying the beautiful weather in Glasgow, we eventually headed back to Edinburgh for the night.
The next two days we celebrated Hogmanay. We started with a delicious Sunday roast in Leith followed by a torch procession. The 6 of us, with torches (1 per couple) in hand, along with thousands of other people, started our mile long walk through the streets of Edinburgh. It was amazing to see the streets in front and behind us illuminated with torches. Once we finished the walk, we found a “secret” bar to enjoy a few cocktails. The following day was New Years Eve. We had a hearty Scottish breakfast to start off the morning, followed by a whiskey tasting (when in Scotland…). After we did a little sightseeing we headed back to the apartment to get ready. We put on our warm clothes and made our way to the street party. They had closed off the main street in Edinburgh to host the thousands of people celebrating New Years. They had bands and entertainment throughout the night and small fireworks at each hour. We drank wine and celebrated the year. At midnight they had wonderful fireworks and we all danced and sang Auld Lang Syne. It was a great start to the New Year.
York, England: Bright and early the next morning we were on a bus headed for the Loony Dook (polar plunge). Even though we were slightly regretting our decision to participate in the Loony Dook, we couldn’t complain about the perfect weather for January in Scotland (40 and sunny!). We got signed in, stood in our group and got into our costumes. Once our butt shorts were on we had everyone around us cracking up. We had to wait 15 minutes, freezing our butts off (literally and figuratively) for the parade to start. Finally, with hundreds of other people dressed in costumes, we started the 10 minute walk to the water, while tons of spectators cheered us on. Once we finally reached the water, we quickly worked up the courage and ran in. After submerging in the freezing water, we quickly ran out, grabbed our towels and got dressed. Don’t get me wrong, it was cold (my feet felt like they were going to fall off) but honestly, it wasn’t as bad as I expected. It took a few hours to warm up but the experience was definitely worth it. We said our goodbyes to John and Trudy and we left for York, England. We took a 2.5 hour train and arrived around 6pm in York. We had a little time to get ready before our ghost tour. Alex loves ghost tours so he jumps at any chance he gets to go on one. It turned out to be a really interesting tour as the guide walked us through the streets of York with stories of ghosts, hauntings and murders. Afterwards, we had to have a drink at one of the many haunted bars the guide pointed out during the tour.
The next morning we had most of the day to explore York. We walked though the cute little town admiring the medieval buildings. We eventually stopped for lunch at a bar that’s supposedly haunted by 5 ghosts. Having the stories swimming in our heads from the night before and the cold draft in mine and Andrea’s seats, we couldn’t help but wonder how true the stories actually were. Later that afternoon, we hopped on a train and made our way to London.
London: On our first full day in London, we had a tour planned for Stonehenge and Bath. After a two hour drive to Stonehenge, we grabbed our audio guides and slowly made our way around the mysterious structure. It turned out to be a lot more interesting then we thought. Once we had our fill, we got back on the bus and headed to the town of Bath. We did a tour of the Roman baths then had a few hours to explore the cute town. We made it back to London just in time for dinner. We feasted on fish and chips in Piccadilly Circus.
We had the whole next day free. Since this was Andrea and Andy’s first time in London, they had tickets for Westminster Abbey. The rest of the day we spent exploring London.
We woke up excited the next morning because we had tickets to the Warner Brothers studio to tour the set of Harry Potter. (And when I say we I mean Alex and me. Andrea and Andy have never read the books or seen the movies…muggles). All said and done it took about 1.5 hours to get to the studio where we were greeted with a rather boring looking building. The inside turned out to be anything but. After walking down a long hallway covered in quotes and watching a short video, the doors open up into the Great Hall. The same Great Hall seen in all of the movies, it was pretty surreal. Throughout the (go at your own pace) tour, we got to see Dumbledore’s office, the potions room, Diagon Alley, and so much more! It was pretty cool for us Potter-files (Warner bros words, not mine!). We even got to sample some delicious butterbeer! After taking pictures in front of a life size version of Hogwarts, we made the trek back to London. We got back to the hotel and Andrea and Andy set off for the Tower of London. Alex and I, having seen the Tower of London on our previous trip, went to the rooftop bar of our hotel and had a drink overlooking Tower Bridge. We met back up, walked around a local market, had delicious pies for dinner then joined our Jack the Ripper tour. Alex and I had been on one before but this one was 10x better. It was even guided by a Beefeater from the Tower of London. He walked us around for two hours explaining the significance of each site we stopped at. At the end of our tour he gave us the best theory we’ve ever heard of who he thought Jack the Ripper really was. It was so worth doing the tour again. Then after one last drink, we said our goodbyes to Andrea and Andy knowing that we will see them again soon for an exciting trip in February. Thanks for an awesome “bonus” trip guys!
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Wow. What an incredible year. Oh the adventures you two have had…so far…love the stories and accompanying pics!
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