Cherry Blossoms and Sunsets

Playing in the park with the cherry blossoms

Sunset over London

London fun

It was a beautiful weekend in London, sunny and warm. We wandered around Westminster, went up in the Jewel Tower (were royal possessions were stored), saw Patrick Stewart playing Shakespear, went on a Jack the Ripper tour (highly recommend!), spent lots of time wandering around parks, and enjoying tasty foods in China town. Very enjoyable!

Animals in war memorial

Westminster, an angle we hadn't enjoyed the last time we came. The whole building is gorgeous, the whole way round

One of the many lovely Gargoyles of westminster

Bingo

This past weekend Marc, JV, Amanda, Camille, and ran around London, and enjoyed a Patrick Stewart play. Sir Patrick plays Shakespeare at the end of his life, and revolves around his dying will. Simple stage scenes are well used, and very good acting of course! The ending is a bit confusing...one of Shakespeares daughters is present in the play, but his other is never talked about and I think that might answer questions the ending brings up.

We did stay to meet Patrick Stewart on his way out, but he seemed rushed and not happy to deal with fans. I had taken photos of Marc and JV getting an autograph, but Sir Patrick said he did not want the photos, so I deleted them.

Gilmerton cove

There is so much to do in Edinburgh, new things keep popping up! Last weekend Marc and I discovered a neat little historical site. Just a minutes walk from us is a neat archiological site, Gilmerton Cove. Made up of a series of hand carved passages and rooms, there is high debate over the origins and functions of the cove. In the 18th century a blacksmith claimed that he carved it out himself as a home for his family, but this would have been physically impossible. Other theories include it was a refuge for covenanters during the period of religious persecution, a drinking lair, or a smugglers den. It is rumored to be haunted by the ghost of the blacksmith, whose bones have remained unfound.

This is a blocked tunnel, thought to lead to Craigmiller castle.


There was a neat chamber where someone went to a lot of table to carve seats around a table, with a bowl shaped indent. Several markings, including masonic signs, where carved into the surface as well as what is thought to be a cat.

Pachers

Marc and I finally got a video of pachers being a good girl....she comes when she's called, sits and waits politely, and then leaps into our arms when we are ready ^_^

Stirling

Yesterday Marc and I attended the Scottish Conference on Animal behaviour in Stirling. Nice talks, very relaxed as it was mostly doctoral students. Stirling is a beautiful town; as with any good scottish town you have the castle, but there is also the wallace monument on a hill top that is striking. Lots of beautiful old bridges, among rolling hills. It is a university town, so lots of student life, with random contemporary art. The campus is lovely, built around several small lochs populated with lots and lots of swans. Highly recommend a day visit if your ever in the area!

Barcelona pt 7: last post I promise!

We did so many things in Barcelona, but mostly we really just wandered around a beautiful city in wonderful weather. Seeing palm and orange trees, and quaker parrots in the trees, it felt just like Florida.

Barcelona Pt 6: Zoo

While Emily and Travis wandered around the gothic area of Barcelona, Marc and I spent a few hours in the zoo. The sea lion exhibit was really cool; they must do training from the windows because the animals are very oriented to the visitors in the window and come right up to see you. We were unable to see the dolphins because like Brookfield zoo, the dolphins are only visible during shows. This can be a good thing; reduce the stress on the animals so that they are only exposed to so much. But from the outside the tank looks small...jury is out on that.
All of the primate and gorilla exhibits were really well done, though a few animals looked like they were overgrooming and had sores.


We did find a few things that bothered us. The penguin and one of the hippo exhibits were close enough that visitors could reach over and touch the animals. This is especially dangerous with hippos, someone could get seriously hurt. We were also lucky enough to see a seal training session. They must have really good relationships with their animals; the trainers used there hands to target the animals. Given the bacteria load in their mouth, it is not something I would recommend doing, not worth the risk of being bitten and developing an infection. Also, they had a young mouthy pup, who would try to nip at the trainer. The trainer responded by batting the pup on the nose. This also seems dangerous to me, I would never recommend using a punishment like this as I think in the end it will result in encouraging aggressive behaviours and increase the likelyhood of being bitten. Despite all this, the animals worked well and seemed to have a great repoire with the trainers.



Overall a decent zoo, but several exhibits need to be updated, and safety really needs to be reconsidered for animals, visitors, and staff in our opinion!

Barcelona pt 5: Mediterranean sea

During the trip we had blue skies and 60 F weather. So wonderful, and a nice change from Scotland! Spent a little of the time near the water. The hostel was by the marina, and Barcelona beach was nice (though it has a bad reputation, I think that is just when it is tourist season and it is more crowded). It was such a short trip, would have liked to have spent more time on the water!

Barcelona pt 4 Churches

Religion has a huge influence in Barcelona, from the Sangrada familia, to the cathedral of spain (just is that well known...it is "the" cathedral) to an amazing church up the mountain montjuic, which also has a theme park attached (though not a religious one). Here are a few shots of our religious wanderings:

Barcelona pt 3: City scapes

There were several places we were able to get a wonderful birds eye view of the city. We went up the Columbus monument (who accusingly points towards Italy for some reason), up into the mountains (Montjuic) and on top of a hill that does gondola rides (when in season, at the moment it is Barcelona's contruction season so it was not running).


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