Travel – Page 5 – Thimbleanna

A Trip

65 Comments / June 4, 2013 July 13, 2013 / Travel

Whew! There’s been very little blogging activity in ThimbleannaLand — to include not reading your blogs and commenting. I do have a good excuse though, and I hope you can forgive me. If you follow me on Instagram, you know that we’ve had a fun little get-away.

Several months ago, we decided that we wanted to go somewhere to celebrate TheFirstChild’s graduation. During the weeks of conversation, TheFirstChild suggested Iceland.

Iceland?

Hmm, we hadn’t really given it much thought. (And happily, my first reaction wasn’t the same thing that we heard from most people — “Iceland? Why would you want to go to Iceland?) As I started to research a trip, I wondered if maybe TheFirstChild chose this location for ME— for two reasons — 1) Puffins, and 2) YARN!!! (Naturally, I kept this little yarn insight to myself — I didn’t want to scare the rest of the family away!) So, while you were happily reading quilt market reports across blogland, we were winging our way to the Land of Fire and Ice.

The hardest part about a trip to Iceland is getting there. There are limited flights into Reykjavik. We connected from Chicago through Toronto, and unbeknownst to me when I booked our flights, Toronto only has one flight into Reykjavik every other day. So, when our American flight from Chicago was two hours late, we missed our window to get to Iceland on time. Shortly after we landed and collected luggage for customs, they told us to hop on a shuttle and hustle over to the Air Canada terminal to catch a flight to London where we would connect to Reykjavik the next morning. Fine. We hustled.

When we got there, we were told that we were 5 minutes late (still 55 minutes before flight time) and couldn’t be checked in for the flight. We argued with Ms.PeaBrain and Ms.PeaBrainSupervisor for twenty minutes — until it really was too late to check us in. Even better, Ms.PeaBrain and her supervisor offered us no help or suggestions, except to suggest that we get back on the shuttle and go back over to the American terminal. So we did. And by now we were too late for any other options that night. The next best chance was to fly, on Air Canada again, to Frankfurt Germany, the next night. We made our reservations for the following night and went to a hotel around 1 a.m.

So, we lost 24 hours and played a lot of cards in Toronto. I was pretty darn upset at all the planned things that we were going to miss in Reykjavik — most notably, meeting an Icelandic blogger (more on that later).

The next day, while hanging around, TheFirstChild suggested that we extend our trip by a day (to try to make up for the two days that we lost), so we went back to the American counter and met the bright shining star of the whole fiasco — an American agent who gladly changed our return flights. Then, we got back on the shuttle (by now we were becoming fast friends with the shuttle) and arrived at the Air Canada terminal to check in four hours before our flight. And guess what Mr. AirCanada had to say? “There’s no way you guys are getting on this flight. It’s oversold by about 25 seats and we have to honor our Air Canada customers first.”

WHAT??? I looked over at SweetiePie, and this is what I saw:

Yep — THE Vanessa look for panic at the airport. We all looked like that. And, once again, Mr.AirCanada was NO help for options. If you are sensitive, avert your eyes.

Air Canada… YOU. SUCK.

Sorry and Thank You. That felt better. We were definitely NOT going to spend ANOTHER night in Toronto, so we hopped on the shuttle and went back to Ms.BrightShiningStar at American. She was fantastic and she found us a British Airways flight to London with a connection to Reykjavik the next day. (Which only goes to prove how unhelpful Air Canada was — they could have found the same solution. But then, you have to be a thinker.) We happily boarded the BA flight which went smoothly until an hour before landing at Heathrow. The pilot announced that there’d been a fire on one of the runways and we would be diverted to Stansted. The fun meter was pegged out! Luckily, just 20 minutes before landing, the pilot came back on to tell us that we’d been cleared for Heathrow. Shoot, I was really looking forward to the chaos of trying to figure out ground transportation for a 747 FULL of passengers to get them back to Heathrow. {Sarcasm}

Anyway, 36 hours after the original arrival time, we made it to Reykjavik. And we had a FAAAANTASTIC time. Iceland is amazing! When I was planning the trip, I found several blogs that did day-by-day reports of their trips and they were a great help in my planning. I’m going to do a similar report and post it here on the website. In the meantime, here’s a peek. We saw…

Sheep (all that lopi yarn doesn’t grow on trees)

Gorgeous Icelandic Horses

Whales (and we weren’t even on a whale watching trip!)

PUFFINS! (It took more than one attempt and a lot of driving, but we saw them. I love my little family for putting up with me!)

Fjords

Churches

Glaciers

Waterfalls

Yarn sold in grocery stores

Beaches

And Oh. So. Much. More.

That’s plenty for now, don’t you think? When I come back, I’ll tell you about meeting the most beautiful little Icelandic blogger and shopping with her. Have a good week!
XOXO,
Anna

P.S. In case you don’t know, Sherri is having a blog book tour this week. Be sure and visit each blog for chances to win her wonderful new book!

Our Day with Mr. Nevis

62 Comments / September 23, 2012 June 22, 2013 / Bunnies, Travel

Boy, thanks for all of your fun comments about our UK trip. I promise, this will be the last of it, and then we’ll try and get back to some regular posts around here. (Although, the weather is changing around here, and when that happens, I go more into planning mode than actual doing mode, so not much exciting is happening around here.)

As I mentioned before, we had one day that didn’t exactly go as planned. One thing I really wanted to do on a visit to Scotland, was hike Ben Nevis — after all, 100,00 people a year can’t be wrong, can they? It’s the highest mountain in the UK and I thought it would be fun to make the hike and check out the gorgeous views. The hike was planned for our last day in Scotland and it’s estimated to take 8 – 9 hours, so I knew we needed to get an early start. At the end of the hike, we had to drive 3 hours to be able to spend the night near the airport to fly out the next day. The afternoon before our hike, we went to the visitors center so that we would know where we needed to be the next morning. I asked the people at the desk what the forecast was for the next day. She said not as rainy but the winds were predicted to be pretty high. I thought Great! and made some stupid comment about “What’s a little wind — as long as it’s not rainy.” They were probably laughing hysterically as we left and thinking poor, dumb American tourists.

Anyway, we hit the trail, bright and early the next morning. Awww, look at SweetiePie — doesn’t she look happy? We’d been hiking for about 45 minutes and the drizzly rain had stopped. We took that as a good sign. It was a little breezy though (it’s hard to tell, but the wisps of SweetiePie’s hair give it away.)

At this point, we’re getting a little higher. I commented to SweetiePie, “Look how quickly and easily we can gain some altitude.” Ha.

Onward and upward. Those rocks are fun on the way up. Not so much on the way down.

Shortly after that little break in the drizzle, it started to pour. And the wind came with it. Oh that sweet little wind that I thought would be no problem. Fighting the wind made the climb seem twice as hard. After about 2 1/2 hours, we passed a couple coming back down. I asked them if they’d been to the top already and they said no, they decided to turn around. Hmmm, that’s kind of sad, I’m thinking. Then about 30 minutes later (and a LOT more wind and rain) the family of five that had been behind us split up. The mother and the youngest little boy turned around, the father and the two older boys (only about 8 and 10) continued on. I knew that they had been on this hike before, the fact that they turned around should probably have been a clue. We hiked on. The thing about Scottish weather is, that it changes every 15 minutes. Shortly after the family split up, the sun came out. And then, I saw sheep on the mountain. Sheepies! NOW we’re talking. We’re soaking wet, the wind is howling, and the temperature is dropping, but there are sheepies. It MUST be worth continuing, right??? (You can see the trail where we’d already been in the picture below.)

So, higher, we go. Notice, the sheep are gone. And so is the sun. At this point, I’m managing to stay a little ahead of SweetiePie. And while we’re on this little sun-just-went-in break, lets take a minute to talk about our attire. We had layers of shirts and jackets and then we each had a big poncho thingy to keep us dry. And jeans. Funny thing, the sign at the visitor center recommended no jeans. I just chuckled and said, but we’re tourists and jeans is all we have. We were SO unprepared. Those “tarps” were worthless in the wind. Therefore we both ended up mostly wet. Soaking wet jeans are No. Fun. But hey — the view is getting pretty good up here — when the clouds part. See SweetiePie back there with her plastic poncho? And uncovered head?

That didn’t last very much longer, as the temps were dropping. Luckily, we had both bought souvenir hats and mittens the day before, so we busted them out. At this point, we passed a couple who had been to the top and asked them how much longer. They said about 45 minutes and it was really cold at the top. They sort of eyed our attire and hopefully said, “Be Careful!”. We talked about turning around, but thought, it really couldn’t get any worse, could it? The wind and rain were awful, but couldn’t we stand 45 more minutes of this? WE are continuing on! That little comment about things getting worse, probably shouldn’t have been uttered by either of us. As they say, all hell broke loose and it started sleeting, and WIND-ING and visibility dropped. (Please notice the fine hikers below. They were properly dressed, had a walking stick, and were clearly not clueless like us.)

Moving right along, we kept climbing. About 30 minutes later we passed another couple and asked “how much farther”. “About 30 minutes, depending on your pace”. I also asked them if there was a shelter on top — I envisioned a little place where we could hide from the wind, have a little snack and catch our breath. No shelter — just a wall from some ruins and a lot of sleet and ice. We hiked on a little longer, but by now, my pace resembled that of a snail. My legs were so wet and cold they were barely working. SweetiePie asked me again if I wanted to turn around. “I” didn’t want to be the one to say “yes”, so she finally put me out of my misery and said it. Only 30 minutes from the top and we threw in the white flag. But, before we turned around, we had to take a few pictures. See? We were higher than the other mountains.

We’d just barely started back down and that blasted sun came back out! Arrrgggghhhh. This is a forced smile, I’ll have you know. And notice the billowing poncho — the wind had let up at this point, but it was still blowing.

At least it cleared up enough to take a few pictures. We thought it might stay this way, but we were Oh. So. Wrong. Winds and sleet, just as bad as before, all the way down.

And Ha! Look at SweetiePie. She can’t get out of here fast enough LOL.

Sadly, she’d hurt her knee on the way up, so it wasn’t easy getting back down. It took another 3 1/2 hours to make it back to the car. Notice that plastic poncho is gone — we finally gave up fighting them in the wind. Wool mittens and hats aren’t very exciting when they’re wet. And they’re smelly. Ewww.

Finally, almost at the end. You can’t really tell it, but it’s still raining.

When we got back to the car, we went back to the visitor center to change out of our wet clothes. I asked the people at the desk if they’d been laughing at me the day before. She said the winds had been 70 mph in the valley, so they estimated that they were 80 – 90 mph up on the mountain. No Kidding! F1 tornadoes are 90 mph. We both got knocked over by the wind at least twice up there. We were probably lucky we didn’t get blown of the mountain. If there hadn’t been so many other stupid people up there, we seriously would have feared for our safety.

And really, I’m probably just lucky SweetiePie didn’t push me over a cliff for getting her into that mess. She definitely deserves some sort of reward for putting up with my little folly. After it was all over, I started analyzing what we’d done wrong. “But, SweetiePie, if we’d just ….” implying that we should try again sometime. She made some disparaging remarks as to my sanity. But, you know what? It’s just like childbirth. You forget how awful it was. By the time I get back over there, I’ll probably be too old to attempt it again, but for SweetiePie? You never know! (Although, at the height of our misery, we both agreed that TheFirstChild would not be likely to make that hike, so she’s going to have to find some other adventurous soul!)

Whew! Sorry to ramble on. It was a grand adventure — someday when she’s a grandma, she can tell her grandchildren about that crazy thing she did with their great-grandma. Thanks for sticking with all my travel posts. How ’bout a giveaway? A little British bunny pincushion, perhaps?

You know the drill — leave a comment and we’ll do the RandomManoftheHouse generator in a week — Sunday, September 30 (wow, the end of the month already!)

XOXO,
Anna

My London Top Five

37 Comments / September 18, 2012 June 22, 2013 / Travel

Ok Boys and Girls. I’m back to entertain you with my favorites from London. (If you’re allergic to long posts or you’re a London expert, you’re dismissed. ;-) ) This was SweetiePie’s first trip to London, but I’ve been there on other trips. Each trip has different favorites.

One. Cathedrals.

SweetiePie and I loved visiting the Abbey ruins in Scotland, so it was fun to see one that wasn’t ruined. Westminster Abbey is the cream of the crop and it’s always a favorite.

We also went to St. Paul’s Cathedral.

We climbed the 528 stairs to the top, which, for reasons I’ll explain later wasn’t as easy as it should have been.

The views were worth it though. A 360-degree view of London. We looked out…

and down. Very fun!

Two. Buntings.

What a fabulous time to visit London! She was dressed in her finest and it was so fun to see buntings at every turn.

There were Union Jack buntings and Olympic buntings.

We even found a fun little knitted bunting while we were shopping.

Three. The London Eye.

The first time I saw The Eye, I REALLY didn’t like it. I felt like it ruined London’s historical skyline.

But I’ve come around. I’ve warmed up to it and now it’s one of those iconic structures that says you’re in London.

This was my first ride on The Eye and it was really fun.

Besides, it looks cool at night.

So, I’ve embraced The Eye. Not sure that will ever happen with the Shard though. Not really a fan.

Four. The Gardens at Hampton Court Palace.

SweetiePie and I LOVED Hampton Court Palace. In spite of the fact that we lost each other for almost 2 hours, which was a little nerve-wracking.

My favorite part was the gardens. There were a ton of different gardens — I’ll spare you all the pictures and show you two of my favorites.

You couldn’t walk around in this one below. Look, but don’t touch.

Unfortunately, a few days later, I realized I missed one of the big reasons I wanted to go to Hampton Court Palace. The Royal School of Needlework! If only I’d checked my notes that morning! I didn’t even see any signs. Have any of you ever been there? Is it actually in the Palace? Ah well, just another reason I have to go back, right?

Five. Portobello Road.

I had designated our last day in London as a shopping day. And luckily, it was a Saturday. We tried out Camden Market first but we didn’t stay around very long — not really our thing. Then we decided to see if Portobello Road was any better. We LOVED it! We had so much fun snooping around all the antique booths. It was really crowded though, so I didn’t drag my big camera out — these are iphone shots. (This picture below was at the beginning of the long shopping street — not as crowded here.)

Naturally, we had to see if Hugh was in the vicinity.

And happily, there was a Hummingbird Bakery. Can’t pass up a cupcake!

Whew! Now you can breathe a big sigh of relief. We’re done with the travelogue. Thanks for indulging me!

Oh wait, I do have one day to tell you about that didn’t go exactly as planned. Maybe next time — and with a little reward for your time.
XOXO,
Anna

My Scotland Top Five

31 Comments / September 10, 2012 June 22, 2013 / Travel

Well Hello There. Here we (and by we I mean you and me) are … we’ve just had a nice dinner (it was Shepherd’s Pie of course!) and now we’re going to go into the family room where I can bore you with a few of my trip pictures. I took a ton of shots. They’re all my favorites, but just so that you don’t have to be here until 3 a.m., I picked five favorite topics about Scotland. You know, just in case you might be planning a trip in the future. Hurry and make your excuses now if you have to leave — I know, you might need to go and clean your toilets!

So, here we go, in no particular order …

One. Applecross.

Or, rather, the drive to Applecross. When TheManoftheHouse and I were in Scotland 4 years ago, a camera club from England was staying in our hotel and each evening, they would tell us about the cool place they’d been that day. One day, we followed their tip and had a fantastic little Highland adventure. The last night we were there, they said “You must take the drive to Applecross” but we were leaving the next morning, so I took a mental note and promised myself that I’d do it on my next trip to the Highlands. I’d heard stories about this drive — it’s all single track roads with “hairpin” turns. One travel book referred to it as a “white-knuckle” drive. I was actually worried about driving it — I was driving on the wrong side of the road, the wrong side of the car and shifting on the wrong side of the car, after all. This sign at the beginning of the drive didn’t instill much confidence either, and we came really close to taking the alternate low level route.

But Oh MY! Am I ever glad we took the leap. The drive wasn’t that bad at all — I wouldn’t really even call the turns “hairpin” and I don’t think either of us had white knuckles. The views along the route were stunning. Absolutely gorgeous.

There’s no way any picture could do justice to the views. We were really lucky and it was a beautiful day (which means spotty drizzle here and there LOL.) The drive to Applecross is a must if you visit the Highlands, imho!

Two. The Highlands.

Ok fine. This is a broad category, but the bottom line is that no trip to Scotland is complete without a visit to the Highlands. The beauty will take your breath away. I can’t think of anything that could convey just how gorgeous it really is — maaaayybbeeee an IMAX movie with swooping helicopters, but probably not.

You get mountains AND the sea.

And Sheepies! (Ok, you get sheepies in the rest of the UK too, but they’re extra special in the Highlands. ;-D )

Three. Heather.

You may have noticed a little purple in the sheepie shot above. That’s Scottish heather and it’s everywhere and it’s gorgeous! It was in full bloom. My other trips to Scotland have been in late October, so the heather was a burnt orange.

I had no idea it could be so fabulous. Entire mountains were Purple. WOW!

Even the sheepies love it. I think they eat it. Yum. Yum.

Four. Fishing Villages.

There are so many pretty little villages in Scotland — it made me want to cry!

When our original plans changed and we didn’t stay as long in Edinburgh, I booked a little bed and breakfast in Eyemouth. The owner of the Bed and Breakfast we stayed in was talking to us and she told us a teeny bit about the history of Eyemouth. She mentioned a fishing disaster that occurred in October of 1881. She said that a large number of fishermen got caught out in a surprise storm and there were almost two hundred fatalities. She told us about a statue in the middle of the little village that was recently commissioned to commemorate the women and children who were left by the disaster. Here they are — looking out to sea and grieving for their lost fishermen husbands and fathers.

I love all these little villages. They all have a story to tell and it seems like every place had some occurrence of historical significance. I think it would be fun to visit Scotland again and just drive around all the coasts visiting fishing towns. (Which would take a long time, btw.)

Five. Castles.

Who doesn’t love a good castle? This is Eilean Donan Castle — the classic castle that you see in many travel brochures and ads.

We also visited Edinburgh, Stirling (look Isabelle — I spelled it correctly — in my defense, my parents grew up near a town called Sterling!), and Alnwick castles. And Tantallon, a castle ruin pictured below.

Tantallon was a last minute decision and surprisingly, it was one of our favorites. We were free of the crowds that were everywhere this time of year. I think it’s a best kept secret. The setting is beautiful — it sits on a cliff looking out to the sea and it sits opposite Bass Rock which is also gorgeous. Bass Rock is the home to a large colony of gannets — the white you see all over the rock are birds. It even comes complete with a lighthouse — what more could you ask for?

So, there you have my top five for Scotland. That last category is actually a segue so that I can tell you my top five for London next time. (I see you nodding off over there!) We visited three castles in London too (Windsor, Hampton Court and The Tower for those of you keeping track). Now you’re free to go think of a good excuse for the next time I invite you to dinner to see vacation photos!

XOXO,

Anna

Blink, And It’s Over …

29 Comments / September 7, 2012 June 22, 2013 / Travel

That’s exactly what happened to summer. And my vacation! We’re starting the second week of September already — how can it be?

Our little Trippy Trip blitzed by in a flash — time flies when you’re having fun. I think it was pretty obvious from my previous post that we went to the UK. More specifically, Scotland and London. Way back last winter, Isabelle and I hatched a plan so that SweetiePie and I would come and be cat-sitters for a week, just like TheManoftheHouse and I did almost four years ago. But then, Isabelle’s Mum got sick and we had to start thinking of alternate plans. As the trip got closer, we decided that Isabelle and Mr. Life wouldn’t be able to go anywhere, but that SweetiePie and I would still come for the week and visit. And then, sadly, the week before we left, Isabelle’s sweet Mum passed away. I really felt that we should scrap our plans to stay with the Life family and started to look for other accommodations. But, after several e-mails with Isabelle and conversations with friends, we decided to cut our week to three days (after all Benjamin Franklin says “Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days”) and hope that our visit would add a little cheer to the Life home and help momentarily take their minds off of their sorrow.

And so, we were off! (And lucky to fly British Airways on the way over — so much nicer than the American flight we had on the way back.) Mr. and Mrs. Life picked us up at the airport. It was SO fun to see them again and introduce SweetiePie to them. And as sad as we were about the circumstances, the huge silver lining was that we were able to spend several days with Isabelle and Mr. Life — something that wouldn’t have happened if we’d been cat-sitting per the original plan. We had such a wonderful time and Isabelle treated us like Queens. There was a never ending supply of fabulous food (btw, Isabelle, I keep forgetting to ask you for that Chicken recipe!) and we felt totally at home. After our first afternoon of braving the crowds on High Street, it was fun to come back to Isabelle’s and enjoy her beautiful garden and just relax.

I loved that we were able to see the garden in the summer, with gorgeous blooms everywhere. (The last visit was in late October so most of the blooms were gone.) And, Isabelle’s favorite friends came out to greet us. (Avert your eyes if you’re slug creeped out!) We don’t have slugs here (well, at least I don’t ever see them) so I had to take a picture. Isabelle has talked about them and their voracious appetites so it was interesting to actually see them. Behold. A Scottish slug LOL.

Ok, sorry for that picture. The next two will be your reward. I couldn’t wait to meet the Grandbaby Life! I was beyond excited and so grateful that DD1 and her hubby made the trip across town just so I could meet this little cutie. (Sorry, the pictures are a little blurry — this little guy is always on the move.)

I’m pretty sure I can safely say this is the cutest little grandson on the planet. And, aside from being adorable, he’s perfect — happy and so well behaved the whole time we were there. We never even heard him cry, which I thought was pretty darn amazing considering we had dinner together and it was getting close to his bedtime!

Ahem. I might be grandbaby crazy LOL. Just thought you should know that Isabelle is much too modest when she talks about wee Grandson on her blog!

Anyway, back to the trip (sorry this is getting so long!), on our last day in Edinburgh, Isabelle and Mr. Life took us over to Fife and we walked a short segment of the Coastal Path. I’ve always wanted to walk part of the path and I’ll definitely do it again on my next visit. The weather was beautiful (maybe a little windy) and we had a wonderful time. The views were gorgeous!

We walked from Anstruther to Pittenweem — a short mile. We were going to walk more, but we discovered that we talk too much. I’m sure you’re shocked LOL. Halfway between Anstruther and Pittenweem, we came upon a swingset. All the children had a fun time swinging. Isn’t it fabulous? Swinging right there on ocean. {Sigh}

Then, a little farther along the path, we came upon a golf green and we were treated to a cartwheel. Isabelle showed a similar picture on her blog and, Molly, I’m very disappointed that you didn’t think this is me!

In Pittenweem we met up with Di from Woollie Wanderings for a little afternoon tea. What fun to finally meet her after several years of blog reading! Di had just been to the Highlands, where we were going next, so she was extremely helpful with our planning. Thanks for all your help Di — and for taking the time to come and meet us — I loved it! I’m so sorry that I didn’t get any pictures of us. Again, we were talking so much that I forgot.

And Di wasn’t the only picture casualty. A few days later, SweetiePie and I met up with Lisa of It’s Just Peri and Tess of Driftwood and none of us got pictures either. Well, I did get pictures of the boys. Here’s E and Milo — aren’t they cute? I asked them to each show me a favorite book.

Gabe was having none of this picture taking though, so I got a wiggly picture of him.

Thanks to you too, Lisa and Tess, for taking time out of your busy schedules to meet up with us. We had a great time – it’s amazing how you only know someone through blogs, yet you know them and there’s always SO much to talk about!

Speaking of which, I’ve rambled on long enough for now. I only took about 1500 pictures (ha!), so after I manage to get through a few more of them, I’ll be back with a top 10 favorites or something. It was a super fun trip and I’m ready to go back again!

XOXO,
Anna