Lunch in Amsterdam

After being hosted by Katherine's lovely family (thanks family!), we hit the big city - the really big city of London! The first thing we did was ride in a London cab. We couldn't resist seeing "a show in London". We got great seats to Les Mis - we loved every second of it. Not that we regret it, but now, a week later we can't get those songs out of our head! Even Italian radio isn't helping. We saw The Tower, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, but a highlight was watching the chagning of the guard at Buckingham Palace, with an Aussie couple we met. We were all dodging the Bobbies who kept trying to get us off the wall of the monument. Katherine's favourite moment was when she realized that the music the band was playing was all theme music from James Bond films... You can see all sorts of great pictures of this event in any tour book or online, but we thought you'd appreciate a picture of the crowd so you don't think it's all fun and games being a to...

Who can guess where we were when we had this meal?

Here are a few more photos from the trip - including the world-famous Fingel's Cave.

One of our days in Iona, we took a boat trip to the Island of Staffa with a group of people -some of them were staying at the McLeod centre with us, some were just folks visiting Mull or Iona for the day. It took about 1/2 an hour to get there in the boat. The best part of this trip was getting up close and personal with some puffins. Puffins love people because we scare the seagulls away from their nests. When we get off the boat, we all hike up a hill (about a 20 minute walk). We could see a flock of puffins on the water below us, and when we sat down and stayed still for a little while, they flew up to check us out. We were surrounded by at least 30 birds - flying back and forth to their nests, and just hanging out near the humans. Beth took this video - there was no zoom involved, we were really this close to them. As a bonus, we saw a mother seal and her pups on the way into Staffa, and a whale on the way back to Iona. We didn't try and take a picture of the whale, we ju...

We spent a week living in community on Iona, at the Macleod Centre. We shared a room with a women from Germany, Holland and Austria. Everyday we had a chore - setting up for, serving and cleaning up after one of the meals (we were on supper duty). The food was delicious - fresh, homemade, local and yummy! It was a relaxing week of visiting, napping, hiking and exploring...here's some of what it looked like. Pictures from Iona Here we are on Staffa (more details on the Staffa trip on our next post). Enjoying sunny Scotland. This is a picture of the view from our room. Waking up in the morning to sheep and cows outside the window. Beth relaxing with the cows...until she realized that one was a bull... free range sheep view of the Abbey from the water proving to the locals that Canadians don't live in igloos - we were so cold, we bought wooly hats, and taught everyone the word "toque" Bird on sheep

...well, 2 coaches and a train...we're in Manchester for a quick stop. Pictures and stories of Iona to come.

We're in Glasgow now. First thing you need to know - we're in a public library that has a fully licensed bar! Oh, and free internet. We've also made our first European clothing purchase! Any guesses what's in the Mark's and Spencer's bag? You're right! Long (thermal) underwear. It's bloody cold here - and rainy, although the sun is trying to come out now. Was this our lack of planning? It is July, right? And we are Canadians... Anyway, we are really enjoying Scotland and are making full use of the 2 day "hop on, hop off" bus tour of Glasgow. Tomorrow we head to Oban, then a week in Iona, where internet access may be iffy. We'll be back online as we head south to Manchester in another 10 days.