The Yorkshire Dales and the Peak District

After our morning hike in the Lake District we headed south towards the Yorkshire Dales. At this point I feel obligated to tell you that a lot of our tour of England was motivated by Harry Potter. Most, if not all of the Harry Potter films have been filmed in the UK and there was a particular scene in HP7 Part 1 where both Katie and I said "I want to go to there." After a bit of googling I found the town of Malham in the Yorkshire Dales. We knew ahead of time that Malham is pretty small, so we stopped for groceries in the town of Settle before arriving.

Once in Malham we hiked up the 400 steps to the top of the limestone formation and spent some time taking pictures, eating snacks and generally avoiding the other tourists. After making lunch back at a picnic table at the hostel we decided to drive down the road to Gorham Scar. Gorham Scar is a really beautiful glacial valley with a waterfall on the inside. In the evening we had tomato soup, couscous and a loaf of bread and then hung out in the hostel's common room talking about life in general with three Brits.

Hand pulled Ales

The next morning included yet another southerly journey and so we set off for the Peak District around 9:30 AM. Because a lot of this english journey was to parks and small towns the roads were not: fast, wide, well marked or generally navigable. After about three and half hours of driving and getting lost we finally made it to Castleton. The Brits from the night before had told us to do the hike from Castleton towards Edale, so we did (after making some peanut butter and banana sandwiches for lunch).

As we hiked up the hill towards Edale the clouds began to break and the scenery was beautiful. Back down the hill towards Castleton and into the car to drive Winner's Pass once more to film it and then on to the Bretton (another tiny town in the Peak District) hostel. As we drove along a small ridge in Bretton towards our hostel we saw what someone later guessed were the Red Arrows (eight jets) practicing aerobatics with red, white and blue smoke.

Our Hostel in Bretton

The Lake District

After renting our car, we headed to the Lake District.  Since starting our trip, any advice from British people on what to see in their country has included this national park.  On the way down we stopped at a tiny turn off the road with an incredible view of some farms and mountains and such and made ourselves peanut butter and banana sandwiches.

Our roadside lunch stop (still in Scotland)

Further down the road we stopped at a proper parking lot at the top of a mountain pass to view the surrounding valley.

Once in Windemere we starting looking for hostels.  Usually while traveling we will book our hostel online for the next night, saving the scramble of finding a place once in the town.  Unfortunately, we decided to not book our first night and just wing it.  Sometimes it sounds like the better idea, but it never is.  We arrived in town at 5:15 and the tourist center closed at 5.  There were also no internet cafes in town to look up hostels, and we had 2 addresses for 2 different hostels, but no map. We found one of the hostels but it was full for the night.  The other hostel was no where to be found.  Eventually Andy popped into a diner to ask where it was and they helpfully gave us directions.  It was 2 miles outside of town.

Once there, we booked a room (a private room was only a couple pounds more than a shared room so we went ahead and treated ourselves) and headed back into town to get groceries for dinner.  Back at the hostel we made "mexican" which consists of refried beans with added green pepper and onion, salsa, "guacamole" (whose second ingredient was peas), and tortillas.

In the morning we hiked from the hostel to a "public bridle path" which was a dirt road between stone fences and farmland.  We hiked for a couple miles before heading back to the hostel and taking off again.

The amazing city of Edinburgh

The day we arrived in Edinburgh, it was around 6:30 and all we really wanted to do was eat and relax.  But just walking from the bus station (we had flown from London to Glasgow, then took a bus over to Edinburgh) to our hostel was an amazing walk through this well preserved old european city.  It was exactly what I wish all old towns would look like.  There is a castle on a hill surrounded by small streets lined with classic old stone buildings.  We made tortellini and red sauce for dinner in our hostel, which had a perfect view of the castle on the hill.

The view from our hostel

The entrance to the castle

The next day we headed right up to the castle to get a closer view. Without paying the entrance fee, the castle was more impressive from the bottom of the hill.  I don't think it would have been any more impressive than the inside of the Tower of London, which is why we decided not to pay for it.  From there we walked down the Royal Mile, which is the street that starts from the castle and heads down the hill, full of cool old stone buildings and touristy shops.  For lunch we heated up the leftover tortellini then headed back out to conquer the other hill in town.

One of the amazing buildings around

It took us about an hour to get up the hill and had wonderful views of Edinburgh and the surrounding area although it was a bit windy and cold.  As we walked back into town we split a "milkshake" which we forget in foreign countries usually means milk + ice + chocolate.  Dinner was stir fried vegetables with a pre made sauce and couscous.

The next day we checked out and headed to Hertz to pick up our rental car.  Since we were early, we hung out at a little cafe down the road which had free wifi.  I ordered an espresso and Andy ordered a hot chocolate. Both drinks were very tasty. At noon we picked up our car and headed south.

To emphasize how cold it was outside

London touristy things

Our first full day in London was raining, so we spent the day in the free Science Museum. It was amazing.  There were tons of things to see there, not all were ancient (although some of the exhibits could use an update).  Our favorite exhibit was called Listening Post which is too difficult to explain.  Lunch and dinner consisted of a footlong sub sandwich each, eaten half at lunch time and half at dinner time, with a microwavable mac and cheese to supplement the dinner half (our hostel didn't have a full kitchen).

On our second day, we changed locations to our friend's Robin and Aaron's apartment.  They live in this really adorable three floor, two bedroom apartment in Notting Hill.  While they did domestic London things, Andy and I checked out Big Ben, the Parliament building, Westminster Abby, Red Lion pub for sandwiches and a pint of English ale (thanks Sarah and Andre!), Buckingham palace, and a stroll through Hyde Park.  For dinner we made Robin and Aaron black bean burgers in which we put in the usual amount of chili powder, but I think in London that meant cayenne pepper.  The burgers were very spicy.  They made us broccolini and sweet potato fries as sides.

And on our last day in London we went to the Tower of London.  I loved it.  It's a giant old castle in the middle of the city with outer walls and views of the famous bridge (which I thought was called London Bridge but is actually called Tower Bridge).  For lunch we headed out to Covent Garden to walk around and split a jacket potato (baked potato) with vegetable chili on top.  As we sat on the corner of a pavilion, Terri St. Clair (I think) played guitar and sang.  If you can find him on youtube, listen to a couple of his songs.  They were lovely.

In the afternoon back at Robin and Aaron's place, we watched the Notting Hill Festival, or Carnival.  It was not your typical parade, but mostly semi trucks with massive amps and a DJ pumping out reggae music driving slowly by as thousands of dancers trail behind them.  For dinner Robin and Aaron got us jerk chicken and rice and grilled corn on the cob from a Carnival street vendor.

Back to Madrid and on to the United Kingdom

Our last full day in Spain was spent traveling back to Madrid by bus and exploring just a bit more of the city. Katie wanted to see Caixa Forum where there is a hanging garden on the side of a building so we made a brief stop by there and then headed on to Reina Sofia. On our first fuzzy day in Madrid our tour guide told us that some of the museums in Madrid have free hours every day or certain days of the week. Reina Sofia is free between 7 and 9 at night so we spent two hours browsing heaps of Picasso and Salvador Dali works. We took pictures of some of our favorites as you will see below. Picasso's largest work, Guernica, is on display at Reina Sofia but we weren't allowed to take pictures of it. Dinner on the last night consisted of mainly leftovers - pizza, bread and cream cheese, crackers, yoghurt and clementines.

The next day we woke up at the crack of dawn to see Laura to the subway station so she could catch her earlier flight. Katie and I went back to sleep for a few hours before checking out of the hostel and heading to airport ourselves. Our British Airways flight from Madrid to London was comfortable and uneventful. Unfortunately immigration at Heathrow took around an hour (as I'm assuming it usually does?). We made our way to the correct tube stop for our hostel but then preceded to walk a mile or two in the wrong direction away from our hostel (we do this from time to time, for fun I suppose). The rest of the day was spent recovering at the hostel in Shepherd's Bush.

Valencia

Due to our general drunkenness from the night before, we rushed out of the hostel to catch our bus.  Unfortunately, Andy did not leave the hostel with everything but didn't realize until 10 minutes before our bus to Valencia was about to leave.  This lead to Laura and I leaving on the bus and Andy catching some nebulous later bus to meet us in Valencia to allow him to pick up half of his belongings from the hostel.
In the end Andy caught the next bus out to Valencia, and was only 2 hours behind Laura and I.  We checked into our hostel, went grocery shopping, made dinner and relaxed/recovered for the night.

The next morning we headed to the beach for several hours.  It was sunny and warm and everything you expect from mediterranean beaches.

For a late lunch we made frozen pizza back at the hostel then checked out the City of Arts and Sciences.  It is a very large complex of modern buildings and we spent a couple hours just wandering around.

Then we started our own walking tour of Valencia, following the Lonely Planet guide.  We stopped by:
-Torres Sorrenos, the old gate into the city

-Plaza with fountain of Neptune and an old church

-Post Office

Around 9pm it was proper dinner time so we headed to El Rall, a restaurant recommended by the hostel.  It was amazing.  We shared Paella Valencia, a pitcher of Sangria, and sat by this little square where a guy and his guitar entertained the people eating outside.

Big day 2 in Barcelona

After buying our bus tickets to Valencia, we decided to follow the walking tour in our Lonely Planet starting with the Arc de Triumf.

• The Palau de la Musica - free parts impressive but too expensive to tour
• Museu Picasso - got lost trying to find and planned on entering it when it was free (after 3pm) but forgot to go back
• Eglesia de Santa Maria del Mar - huge gothic cathedral, which was closed

Jesus raising the roof on Eglesia de Santa Maria del Mar

• Roman wall - leftover from the time when Barcelona was encapsulated by a wall

• Placa Reial - a shady square with a fountain and lamppost by Gaudi, a famous modernist architect from the early 1900's

•  Casa Batillo - an amazing building designed by Gaudi. The inside also looked amazing from pictures, but way too expensive to tour on a budget.

• La Sagrada Familia - Barcelona's amazing church, designed by Gaudi.  Construction was started in 1909 and won't be completed for another 10 or 20 years.

Our pictures aren't great, so look it up online

That night we switched hostels to one right off of La Rambla.  Dinner was again pasta but we decided to try and go out for drinks and enjoy the nightlife.  Our first attempt started at 10 pm and most of the outdoor cafes required you to eat as well as drink.  But we ended up walking to this cool statue and took pictures.

Attempt two started with us getting a recommendation from our hostel, the Oveja Negra (black sheep).  It took us 45 minutes to find due to not following the directions closely enough, but was worth the perseverance.  It is tucked away on a side street and inside had exposed brick walls and wooden bench tables.  A pitcher of Sangria cost us 12 Euro.

We ended up meeting Adam and Paul from northeast England and they took us to 2 more bars and lots of drinks later before we insisted on going back to our hostel in order to catch our 10 am bus to Valencia.

Paul on the left, Adam on the right.