Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! We'll be spending Christmas and the New Year with my family in Wales so we'll get back to posting more exciting Scottish adventures in 2009. Happy holidays and best wishes for the New Year!

What did you have for breakfast?

It's too bad I don't have a kilt and a shot put to go and display the abundance of energy I have from eating these oats for breakfast.

Nos Gusta Madrid

Last week, Nick and I took a short vacation to Madrid to see my friend Sabrina and her family and to tour the city. When you think of Spain, you think of sunny and therefore warm, right? Well, it was sunny but it wasn't much warmer than Dundee. The temperature was mainly in the 30's. But the sunshine was a nice addition and the day was longer too. Right now, it starts getting dark here around 3 but in Madrid, the sun was out until past 5. Definitely a nice change.

We arrived in Madrid on Saturday and spent the weekend walking around Madrid with Sabrina, Antón, and their 2 year old son, Iago (who is a real cutie). We saw a lot of cool things, but I thought this statue for the writer Cervantes was pretty cool.

Notice the gigantic advertisement in the background (how could you not?). There were quite a few of these ads placed around Madrid where they were doing construction. But for the most part, Madrid is a beautiful city and extremely clean. We both loved the architecture and the buildings looked so clean compared to the black sooted buildings in Edinburgh and Dundee.

On Monday, we took the metro to the Palacio Real where the kings and queens used to live. The current king and queen live somewhere on the outskirts of Madrid...maybe the palace is too drafty?

We then walked over to the Reina Sofía museum which is mainly 20th century Spanish art. One of the highlights was Picasso's Guernica. You really have to see it in person to see how impressive it is. There was also a lot of interesting Dalí pieces but he sometimes creeps me out. Then Nick and I attempted to find places to kill time while we waited for the early Spanish dinner hour which we estimated to be 8:30. Let me tell you, it was difficult. At 7:00, we finally ended up eating a small meal of a Spanish tortilla (read: quiche) and a jamón filled sandwich (which Nick loves). Since that was not nearly enough food, we then stopped at a grocery store and bought a bunch of Valencia oranges, which were the best tasting oranges ever. We scarfed down three each. I only wish we would have bought more to bring back with us. I think Spain is great but I really don't understand eating so late. I wonder how many tourists were like us, wandering around trying to find a warm place to spend time until the restaurants opened.

On Tuesday, we spent the entire day at the Prado museum. Yes, the entire day...but with a break for lunch. Thank goodness for all of the benches by the artwork! There was a lot of beautiful art there but one of the most memorable was Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights. If you've ever had Tilburg's Dutch Brown Ale, you would recognize the crazy picture on the label as being taken from this painting (he's the Prince of Hell if you check out the Wiki link).

One common theme of the trip was that all of the museums did not allow any photography. This did not make Nick happy. You can see what he thought of that policy in the captions of the rest of the pictures shown here.

Thanks again to Sabrina, Antón, and Iago for being so generous and letting us stay with them for a few days even though they were working. We really had a great time and hope to go back someday soon (perhaps when it's warmer)!

A Scottish Thanksgiving

Oh, what a surprise! You caught us eating Thanksgiving dinner in this natural pose! Since our kitchen isn't supplied with the adequate pans/utensils for cooking a turkey, Nick cooked a Scottish chicken for our Thanksgiving dinner. He also made cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes with leeks and parsnips (very British). For dessert, a pumpkin pie. Best of all, I didn't lift a finger for any of this cooking! I offered to help but Nick kindly gave the excuse that there wasn't enough room in the kitchen for the two of us. I think he was really saving me from doing something I'm not fond of. What a great guy I have!

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. We're off to Madrid for a 4 day trip this weekend so I hope to have some "exciting" stories for you when we get back.

A Week With My Dad

First of all, I apologize to those of you who actually check our blog (i.e. Daisy)...I've been very delinquent in updating the blog these past few weeks. Truth is, we haven't been doing much since we were awaiting an action packed week with my parents last week. Unfortunately, only my dad could make the trip out here (we REALLY missed you Beth!) and we managed to get out and see some of Scotland on day trips from Dundee. Another unfortunate "spanner in the plans" was that my dad and I came down with food poisoning on Thursday and we were sick most of the day. Not fun. Luckily, it was just a 24 hour thing and we were back to touring on Friday.

On Wednesday, Nick took the day off and we went over to Dunkeld and Birnam which was about an hour's drive away from Dundee. The "big" tourist attraction is a Beatrix Potter exhibit and since I was a big fan when I was little, I forced Nick and my dad to go into this exhibit which was really aimed for children. I think they still had fun. (most of you are probably like "who is Beatrix Potter?". Just think Peter Rabbit.) In Dunkeld we went to the old cathedral there and saw this really cool tomb of The Wolf of Badenoch. His story is that he deserted his wife for some other lady and as a result, was excommunicated from the church. So in revenge, he burned down towns. Obviously he eventually made reparations since they gave him such a nice tomb!

After the cathedral, we took a walk in an area called the Hermitage which is just a woodland area by a stream. It was very pretty but I can imagine how beautiful it must be when we're not in the dead of winter! Nick took some cool water shots.

My favorite picture from the week is from the top of St. Rule's tower in St. Andrews. I actually took this picture (I usually give this task to "long-armed" Nick) so I'm pretty proud of myself.

Shout Out

This blog post is a shout out to Heather in CO for sending me something I wasn't expecting: an "I voted" sticker. So I can finally walk around feeling proud of myself! I might get some weird looks around here. Anyway, here is a picture to show you how smug I felt with my sticker. Thanks for sweet-talking your polling place lady Heather!

Another abbey, and some mountain

The weather this weekend was unseasonably uncrappy, so we rented a car and did some sight-seeing. On Saturday we headed to Edinburgh by way of Dunfermline. We toured the ruins of the abbey, hoping to see where Robert the Bruce and some other kings are buried. The abbey was nice in a typical busted-up Scottish ruin sort of way, and the newer church had some pretty great columns- but the area where the kings' tombs are had closed for the season the day before. Sam's disappointment was heartbreaking. We were ok though- after a mediocre lunch of really cheap meat in a pastry casing plus donuts, we got back on the road to Edinburgh.


We spent the afternoon wandering around the Scottish National Gallery, which was pretty good. Surprisingly good, actually, with some pretty great artwork. A lot of the pieces were listed as 'accepted by HM Government in lieu of taxes' which sounds kind of dodgy, but whatever works. There was a painting of a dog which has to hang in the museum forever in exchange for a large donation in 1915 or so, which is maybe a little out of place. After the donor died the museum had to care for his other dog, too, which is kind of whimsical and charming?


On Sunday we headed for the highlands to climb Schiehallion. This mountain kind of dominates its surroundings and is a popular hike, there were probably 80 people or so on it today. It was a great day for it though. A nice steady climb up into the snow with great views. The mountain is more significant than most if you're into the history of science- in 1774 the Astronomer Royal Nevil Maskelyne measured the deflection of a plumb line caused by the mountain's gravity and deduced the mean density of the earth, which is pretty good for 1774, and it was the first mountain to be mapped by contour lines. Academic trivia plus moderately strenuous physical activity- not a bad day.

Pictures are here.

It's Cold

I don't have much to report from the last week since we took it easy last weekend. However I would like to point out how cold it is here. The high today was 40 deg F. I wouldn't think that sounds too cold but it feels so much colder. I'm used to a Colorado 40 degree day which feels a LOT warmer than here. I was warned about this and I thought my Minnesota skin would reemerge after 5 easy Colorado winters. This is not the case.

The other day, I tried to save on our gas bill by turning off the heat for a little while over the lunch hour since the sun was coming in the window. However, by the time I finished eating lunch, I had lost feeling in my right hand thumb and ring finger. Maybe I'll keep the heat on.

Wind Blown & Soaked: Our West Coast Trip

Last weekend we rented a car and took a trip to the west coast of Scotland. We left Saturday morning and drove the long route to the town of Oban. On the way, we stopped at Doune Castle which is most well known for it's contribution to Monty Python's The Holy Grail. Do you recognize it?

The castle is used in many scenes of the movie (Nick remembers them all) and the castle is obviously proud of the part it played by displaying lots of Python memorabilia in the gift shop. Nick and I both absolutely loved this castle. We both love Monty Python but that's not the reason why. This is what you think of when you think of castles. The location was really beautiful set next to a river and farm fields and forest. And the castle itself had a lot of rooms and tiny, dark spiral staircases that you really had to watch your step on. I don't know if it just felt less touristy to us but we both really enjoyed Doune Castle. I'd even go so far to say it was my favorite.

As we made our way to the west coast, we drove along a single track road (read: VERY scary one car width road that is a two-way) along Loch Awe, which was beautiful. We stopped to get a picture of Kilchurn Castle (shown below) but you had to hike through a field to get the shot and it was pretty muddy and there was lots of sheep poo. So I left it up to Nick. What a trooper.

We then drove on to Kilmartin to see a cairn and some standing stones. These were interesting but I was getting antsy to get to Oban at this point and the weather had turned very cool and windy. So Nick had to take some rush photography in order to appease his wife who was freezing her toes off.

We arrived at our B&B in Oban in the early evening and started to make our phone calls for Sunday's adventures. Our original plan was to take a boat out to the islands, including Staffa, to see puffins and other sealife. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate. All the boat operations were not going out on Sunday (I actually got laughed at for suggesting it) so we had to come up with something else to do. When we woke up Sunday morning, it was cloudy but didn't look too bad. We thought we could maybe manage a hike. So after breakfast, we headed north along the coast. At this point, the wind picked up and the rain was pouring down. We stopped to get a view of Castle Stalker (another castle in The Holy Grail, it's at the end of the movie). We were out of the car a total of maybe 3 minutes and we were totally soaked (luckily we had thought ahead and wore non-cotton trousers that could dry very quickly). Nick tried to get some shots of it but it was pretty dark. For the first few pictures, I held an umbrella against the wind so I could cover the camera while Nick took pictures. But then I abandoned him for the car. I know where my priorities lie. I think the picture shown below is one that he managed without me.

We then drove back to Oban but stopped at Dunstaffnage Castle since we are now such die-hard castle fans. We had hoped this would be an indoor viewing event but alas, it was another open roofed ruin. Nick took a few pictures of me in the rain but in most of them my eyes are closed because the rain was pouring horizontally into my face. Am I painting a vivid picture of our Sunday afternoon?

The rest of Sunday we spent in bookshops and cafes. We were hopeful for nice weather on Monday so we could fit a hike in before driving back to Dundee. Unfortunately, we woke up to another rainy and even more windy day. Mother Nature was against us this weekend. So we gave up and drove back to Dundee on Monday. Even though we didn't get to do what we had hoped, this is the first time the weather has foiled our plans so we really can't complain. And it was a relaxing weekend. I got plenty of knitting in!

Our pictures are posted here.

Exercising Our Right

I've told many people now, but we received our absentee ballots on Monday. This was a big event in the Moeckel household. Here is what absentee voting looks like:

Before we could vote, we both spent an hour or so reading up on the many Colorado amendments and referenda. Usually, we would have heard about a few of these through watching TV. It feels pretty different being over here during election season and not seeing a single political ad. I kind of like it. Although there is humor in the absurd voice overs and dramatic music.

The one bad thing about absentee ballots? You don't get an "I voted" sticker. What a bummer.

Inverness & More Whisky*

Last weekend we hitched a ride with some new friends of ours and went up to Inverness. Our driver, Dieter, was running in the Inverness marathon so we tagged along for the ride. It was very kind of them to bring us along considering they have a small car and we were a group of 5 people. I don't think anyone was very comfortable! We left Saturday afternoon and drove up through beautiful highland scenery, such as this waterfall:

There were quite a few kayakers hiking up in this area too and we weren't sure if their aim was to go down this particular stream. I would hope not! Since it was cloudy, we don't have very many pictures of what we drove through but I have to say it was absolutely gorgeous. There was even a full rainbow for part of our drive.

We then got into Inverness in the late afternoon and split up with our friends for the evening. Nick and I stayed at this very cozy B&B very close to the city center. Our bedroom seemed like a luxury hotel compared to where we sleep right now. I'm looking forward to staying at more B&B's.

The next day, Nick, me, and Wouter (friend of Dieter's) went to Urquhart Castle which is on the banks of Loch Ness. It's another castle situated in a beautiful location (I think we'll be seeing many of those here in the UK). Unfortunately, we didn't catch a glimpse of Nessie. Nick is convinced she's out there.

We thought we had enough time to see the castle and then make it back to Inverness to meet up with Zhao (Dieter's wife) and cheer Dieter to the finish. However, Dieter finished 30 minutes earlier than he thought he would! So we missed them and instead cheered for some other participants while a big inflatable Nessie overlooked the finish line. On a side note, we asked Dieter what his goodie bag was for finishing the marathon. He said it contained a can of soup, a can of pickled garlic, and a can of pickled beets. They sure know how to congratulate you after running 26 miles!

On Monday we drove back to Dundee/Edinburgh going the long way through Aberdeen. Before Aberdeen, we stopped in Dufftown which is home to several whisky distilleries. (anyone else think "The Simpsons"?) We went to Glenfiddich which is one of the world's best selling single malts. Best part of it was that is was free! The tasting at the end gave a choice of a whisky liquor which was much easier for me to drink. I'm still not a fan of whisky.

Here is a link to more pictures. We're going to have a relaxing weekend in Dundee so we'll see what other posts I can come up with.

*CORRECTION: Apparently, spelling "whiskey" with an 'e' means it's Irish. I've corrected the above references to Scottish whisky. (Thanks Nick)

Another Dundee Nugget: Worst Poet

It seems that Dundee likes to highlight another product of their city: William Topaz McGonagall. McGonagall is often referred to as the worst poet in the history of the English language. I've copied his most famous poem below so you can judge for yourself. If you can't make it through the whole poem, skip to the last stanza which is my favorite. Enjoy!

The Tay Bridge Disaster

Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv'ry Tay!
Alas! I am very sorry to say
That ninety lives have been taken away
On the last Sabbath day of 1879,
Which will be remember'd for a very long time.

'Twas about seven o'clock at night,
And the wind it blew with all its might,
And the rain came pouring down,
And the dark clouds seem'd to frown,
And the Demon of the air seem'd to say-
"I'll blow down the Bridge of Tay."

When the train left Edinburgh
The passengers' hearts were light and felt no sorrow,
But Boreas blew a terrific gale,
Which made their hearts for to quail,
And many of the passengers with fear did say-
"I hope God will send us safe across the Bridge of Tay."

But when the train came near to Wormit Bay,
Boreas he did loud and angry bray,
And shook the central girders of the Bridge of Tay
On the last Sabbath day of 1879,
Which will be remember'd for a very long time.

So the train sped on with all its might,
And Bonnie Dundee soon hove in sight,
And the passengers' hearts felt light,
Thinking they would enjoy themselves on the New Year,
With their friends at home they lov'd most dear,
And wish them all a happy New Year.

So the train mov'd slowly along the Bridge of Tay,
Until it was about midway,
Then the central girders with a crash gave way,
And down went the train and passengers into the Tay!
The Storm Fiend did loudly bray,
Because ninety lives had been taken away,
On the last Sabbath day of 1879,
Which will be remember'd for a very long time.

As soon as the catastrophe came to be known
The alarm from mouth to mouth was blown,
And the cry rang out all o'er the town,
Good Heavens! the Tay Bridge is blown down,
And a passenger train from Edinburgh,
Which fill'd all the peoples hearts with sorrow,
And made them for to turn pale,
Because none of the passengers were sav'd to tell the tale
How the disaster happen'd on the last Sabbath day of 1879,
Which will be remember'd for a very long time.

It must have been an awful sight,
To witness in the dusky moonlight,
While the Storm Fiend did laugh, and angry did bray,
Along the Railway Bridge of the Silv'ry Tay,
Oh! ill-fated Bridge of the Silv'ry Tay,
I must now conclude my lay
By telling the world fearlessly without the least dismay,
That your central girders would not have given way,
At least many sensible men do say,
Had they been supported on each side with buttresses,
At least many sensible men confesses,
For the stronger we our houses do build,
The less chance we have of being killed.

- William Topaz McGonagall

The RRS Discovery

This most recent weekend, we stuck around Dundee to relax. (although, I'm always relaxing!) On Sunday we went to see the RRS Discovery which was the ship that brought Captain Robert Falcon Scott and his crew to Antarctica to conduct research during the years 1901-1904. Dundee is extremely proud of the fact that one of their shipyards built the ship so they have made this museum the center attraction of the city. In fact, they have called Dundee "the city of Discovery". As one Dundonian put it, "everything is blooming Discovery". (blooming is used as kind of a swear word, like "blooming idiot")

Nick pointing like a true Captain:

I made Nick take this picture because I thought the knots were cool. We didn't have to learn these knots for rock climbing. Thank goodness because they look difficult!

Last Weekend's Adventure

It's taken us an entire week to post last weekend's outing, so it better be good, right? It was a fun weekend for us but it took some work to get the photographs looking good because it was pretty cloudy most of the time. You can be the judge.

Last Saturday, we rented a car and went to Edinburgh for the day and evening. We started just south of Edinburgh to visit an Iron Age fort that is basically a grassy hill now with a ditch going around it and an underground cellar. Even though there wasn't much to see of the fort, the views from the hill were still beautiful. While we were there, a bunch of mountain bikers were coming through on some sort of scavenger hunt race. So mountain bikers do exist here!

After the fort, we drove into the city to pay for really expensive parking in order to see the castle. If you've never seen it, the castle truly is impressive and makes for wonderful photography. However, it is extremely touristy. We were glad we have the Historic Scotland pass (it's like the National Parks Pass but for castles) because we thought buying a single ticket is way overpriced for what you get. We both preferred Stirling Castle (so far).

From the castle, we made a pit-stop at the Elephant House which is where J.K. Rowling wrote some of her early novels (so they say). We didn't stop there just for the nostalgia but it was a nice place to get a cup of tea (and talk about Harry).

The next stop was the National Museum of Scotland where we ran into Dolly, the cloned sheep!

We then spent the evening eating dinner at Nick's colleague's place in Edinburgh. Their flat was built in the last 10 years which is quite the contrast to our 100+ year old place!

On Sunday, we drove up to Glen Clova and did this gorgeous 8K hike up and around Loch Brandy. Even though the temperature was nice, it got extremely windy as evidenced by my hair looking like I'd just been electrocuted. (Nick discreetly captions the picture 'It was windy') As usual, Nick took some gorgeous pictures.

We go to Inverness next weekend so stay tuned for more pictures! Here are the ones from last weekend.

Sublime and Stupid: Scottish beverages

Scottish beverages: whisky is the first thing that probably comes to mind. Arguably the best combination of water and barley on the planet. The finesse that Scotland has achieved with whisky is completely absent from the rest of its cuisine, which makes it maybe even more remarkable. Dalwhinnie, the distillery we visited our first week here, is pretty mild. Some of the west-coast malts taste like licking a campfire. This one, Blair Athol, is nicely in the middle. It's full of flavor and has a pretty mellow finish, but enough burn at first to keep you on your toes. It's distilled in Pitlochry, fairly close to Dundee. As an added bonus, there's an otter on the label.



Irn Bru is at the other end of the spectrum entirely. What it lacks in subtlety it makes up for in controversial colorings (colourings), sugar, and ammonium feric citrate. 'Brewed' in Cumbernauld, it's apparently really popular, only recently slipping behind Coca Cola in sales. It smells a little like bubblegum, almost glows orange, and feels like it's melting your teeth. The taste is about what you'd expect. It's banned in the US due to one of its coloring agents, but if you see it give it a try. Sean Connery likes it, and he's done ok for himself.

The National Pastime

I was walking around Dundee the other day and found this beautiful park that stretches for about half a mile. There is this old bandstand which was a central point for parades back in the olden days (we even saw pictures of it at the jute museum).

I was strolling along and thinking how I'm sure a lot of people come and play soccer here (there was a pick-up game going on while I was there) and probably run around with their dogs. Then I came upon this sign:

I'm not a golfer so it struck me as funny that they needed to post a sign to deter all those people who can't resist an open park to practice their swing. Then again, this is Scotland and golf is the national pastime. If I ever get into golf, maybe then I will understand.

While Nick works, Sam plays...

You may be wondering what I am doing while Nick works hard all week. The answer is...not much. I have actually been enjoying my free time by knitting, cross-stitching, and occasionally attempting to make desserts that haven't turned out so well. I had originally thought I would be doing a lot of cooking, since I used to leave that to Nick all of the time, but I haven't been able to get over that old habit yet. Luckily, Nick still enjoys to cook.

When we first got here, I looked around at retail shops and bookstores to inquire about a job. However, I soon realized that I would have to work weekends. Since that is our only time to go explore the country, we decided I didn't need to get a job (Yea!). Instead, I've signed up for two classes that meet once a week at the University of Dundee. The first is Art History in the Middle Ages and the second is Spanish. I know it seems kind of funny that I would take a Spanish class in Scotland but I wanted to take a language and when would I ever use Gaelic? Besides, now we have an excuse to take multiple trips to Spain to visit my friend Sabrina. Maybe I'll learn to speak Spanish with a Scottish accent? Quiero un wee dram.

By the way, our pictures from last weekend are now posted here.

Jute, Abbeys, and Coasts

It was misting with rain on Saturday so we decided to take a tour of the local Verdant Works museum in Dundee. Dundee is famous for three j's: journalism, jam, and jute. The Verdant Works museum covers the jute part.

Have you ever wondered what jute is? How it's made? What things are made from it? Well, Nick and I are pretty much jute experts now so ask away. It actually was an interesting museum because it went into the history of Dundee so even though I'm being sarcastic about all the knowledge we have on jute now, it was an enjoyable afternoon. Again, there were more wax figures and some of them told us stories! However, a couple of the recordings were impossible to understand because they told them in a thick Scottish accent (which means it's authentic, I suppose).

When we woke up Sunday morning, the sun was shining so we took the 20 minute train ride from Dundee to Arbroath and spent the day walking around the old abbey and along the coastal cliffs. When we were buying our tickets to go out there, I had my first encounter of not being understood. The ticket salesman asked me where we wanted to go and I said "Arr-bro-ath" and he gave me a puzzled look. I then proceeded to try to say it in several different ways (and when I think back, I probably was repeating it over and over, only slower) and I was about to spell it out when he figured out I wanted to go to "Arr-broth" (rhymes with 'oath'). I have a feeling this will be the first of many mispronunciations of Scottish cities.

Nick is going to put up more pictures on the Picasa page soon but here is one of the pictures from our coastal cliff walk. It's a little difficult to see, but in the center there are rock climbers (if you click on the picture, you'll be able to see them). I think Nick was longing to be friends with them.

Rubbing Elbows With The Royal Family

This last weekend, we rented a car and went about an hour and a half north to Braemar to see the Braemar Gathering, which is one of the more well-known Highland games. One of the reasons it is more well-known is because the Queen usually attends and this year was no different.

If you can't tell, the Queen is in the pinkish red outfit and fashionable hat. Prince Philip is on her right and Prince Charles is on her left. Keep those knees together fellas!

There was quite a lot going on at these games. There was tug-of-war (my favorite!), caber toss, hammer throw, shot put, running high leap (or high jump), running long leap, various distance races including a hill run where contestants left the arena and ran up the closest hill, and highland dancing. It was very exciting! There was even a man from California who was competing in the caber toss. He looked authentic enough in the kilt but he was also wearing a muscle shirt...I don't think that is traditional.

One other thing I want to point out is that the entire time we were at the games, there was a constant background noise of bagpipes. Anyone jealous?

On Sunday we drove to Stirling which is in Central Scotland and took a tour of the castle. It is really an impressive setting for a castle but unfortunately, we don't have a good picture of it. Just imagine a big hill in the middle of town with a big castle on it and you've got Stirling Castle.

We've posted more pictures here so enjoy!

Our Dundee Flat

A lot of people have asked to see pictures of the flat so here it is! In case anyone was wondering, the flat came furnished so we only had to bring what we could fit in four suitcases (each within the airline's weight and size restrictions).

The living/dining room:

I know this picture isn't the greatest due to the bright window but I had to include it as proof that the sun DOES shine here. In fact, I've read that Dundee is the sunniest city in Scotland. That's great for us! There is also a couch just to the left in this picture and a gas fireplace to the right.

The kitchen:

You can even see my reflection on the oven from the sunny kitchen window.

The loo (aka bathroom):

The bathroom window faces the busy street but luckily it's frosted glass so we don't have to keep the curtains closed all of the time.

The bedroom:

The bedroom window also faces the busy street so usually I keep the curtains closed. It's also fun for us trying to get to sleep on Friday and Saturday nights because there is a pub directly across the street and everybody has to stand outside to smoke. We've even heard some wonderful singing coming from the patrons of the bar. It hasn't been too bad but we'll see if I'm still saying that once the university students return to town.

So that is the flat! But my absolute favorite part of this place is the view from the living room window. It's nearly impossible to see in these pictures but we can just see the Firth of Tay and Tay Bridge. When the leaves fall, we'll have a clearer view. Also there is an adorable garden in the back that we share with the other residents but we only go back there to take out the garbage. One of the residents is a talented gardener so we get to enjoy her work!

Another side note: the Scottish beer bottle is holding heather that Rose (Nick's mom) picked in the highlands. That's right, we're nothing but class in this household.

Our First Week in Scotland

This is the beginning of my blogging career. I'm not sure how often I will post but I will do my best to let all of our friends and family know what our life is like in Scotland (and hopefully other areas of the UK). This will also give me a chance to work on my story-telling abilities.

So we've completed Week 1 in Scotland and it was a great first week. Nick's parents, Rick and Rose, were "visiting" us since we arrived in Edinburgh a whole one hour before they did. If you ever want to hear Nick and me describe our mood during the three weeks waiting for our work permit in Minnesota, we'll be more than happen to expound on it.

Since I don't have many stories yet, I'll just point you to our picture album of the things we've done with Rick and Rose. But in case you're wondering where I'm writing from, here is the front door of our flat.

Tinkerty Tonk!

PS - "Tinkerty Tonk" is a way to say "So long!" made famous by P.G. Wodehouse's character Bertie Wooster. It's not very Scottish but we don't care.