The flight to Edinburgh was long and cramped.  We have learned from experience that the best response to cross-ocean flights is to check into a hotel as soon as we land, so that we can get some rest and build our strength back up.  Our hotel in Edinburgh (Moxy) is no-frills, very close to the airport, and has super tiny rooms.  When we landed, we figured we would save a few pounds by walking to the hotel from the airport.  We did not repeat this mistake, as it was much further than we expected, and our luggage was much heavier.  We purchased some grab-and-go food at the airport to get us through the night (we had some nice food on the flight from London to Edinburgh).  The next morning, we took an Uber to downtown Edinburgh.  The Ubers are fast (once we figured out where they were picking us up), clean and affordable.  We could have taken public transportation, but we were worried about getting Covid so early in the trip (I had just been to Alaska, and had picked up Covid from a non-masked cougher on a bus).  

Our first stop in Edinburgh was for a hearty breakfast.  Loudons fit the bill nicely!  Both days, I had a Scottish version of Eggs Benedict, complete with Haggis.  Krsistin had a full Scottish breakfast the first day, and then the Eggs Benedict the second.  On the second day, we also both enjoyed lovely fruit scones.  We then walked over to Holyrood Palace, which is a fascinating and well-interpreted site, though photos were not allowed inside.  We walked through the Palace with audio/visual handsets, and visited the site where Mary Queen of Scotts secretary was murdered by her husband's henchmen.  The National Museum of Scotland was our next stop (after a long walk up the Royal Mile), and it has a good collection, but had almost no context.  It fails to tell the story of almost any historical pieces.  Dunbar's Close was a peaceful garden spot along the Royal Mile, where we stopped for a zen-break.  We had dinner at the the Southern Cross Cafe, which is along the main drag near the top of the Royal Mile, out in the open, and on a fairly steep incline.  It was crowded and noisy, complete with screeching child.  After South Cross, we stopped into a nice coffee shop (Edinburgh Press Club) for a nice cream tea.  Then an Uber back to the Moxy for two very tired Burques (people from Albuquerque).

After a lovely flight from Edinburgh to Stornoway, we arrived in the early afternoon.  We picked up our rental car at the airport, and the attendent was very helpful.  She came with us to the car and pointed out some things about the car we might not have noticed until later.  In Stornoway, our first stop, of course, was for Cream Tea at the Artizan Cafe.  The scones were fresh and the small coffee shop was comfortable and happy.  We then headed to the Stornoway Museum, where four of the Lewis Chessmen are dsiplayed.  These are pieces of a Viking chess set from the 12th century, discovered on a Lewis beach.  Some of these pieces are also on display at the National Museum of Scotland, but the Stornoway museum did a much better job with display and interpretation.  Next door to the Museum is the Lews Castle, which is pretty, but is really just a shell used for weddings and other events.  After buying some nice wine and cheese from the Good Food Boutique, we purchased our main groceries from Tesco and then headed to our remote and heavenly AirBnB cottage.  This was our first driving experience of the trip, and Kristin took the first shift.  The one-lane roads were intimidating, but there are many pull-outs along the way to allow for passing oncoming vehicles.  We rarely had to reverse into any of them.  We did, however, watch a few videos about how to navigate these roads before we left New Mexico.  Before sunset, we popped over to the Callanish Stone Circle #8 (there are a LOT of standing stones and stone circles on Lewis), where we were inundated by midges but still managed a few good pictures.

Above: Our lovely remote cottage on Lewis

Lewis & Harris is actually one island, divided into two sections.  The northern section is called Lewis and the southern section is called Harris.  Lewis has rockier coastlines and more historical sites.  Harris has famous tweed and stunning long beaches.  Though our beautiful shoreline cottage was in Lewis, we definitely wanted to get down to the beaches.  The drive down is longer than it appears on Google Maps (mostly because we drive slow on tiny UK roads), so this was a full-day expedition.  We started the day with breakfast at our cottage, and then I jumped in the drivers seat and we headed south.  About 30 minutes later, I realized that I forgot my drivers license at the cottage (oops), so Kristin had to drive the rest of the day.  Our first stop was a Harris Tweed store, which was somewhat busy.  Seems there are more tourists in Harris than in Lewis.  But despite the crowds, I managed to get a nice tweed hat.  We then headed down to the beach that is most commonly described as the most beautiful in the Outer Hebrides: Luskentyre Beach.  The parking lot was nearly full, and we were getting hangry, so we had a cheese & cracker snack in our car, right next to the cemetery by the beach.  The beach itself is quite beautiful, with a long swath of sandy shore spreading out in both directions.  However, it is also quite busy.  We love beaches more for their isolation and tranquility than their beauty, so we did not stay here long.  We hopped back into our rental Kia and drove to the southern tip of Lewis & Harris.  We stopped for a lunch of fish and chips at the Butty Bus, a foodtruck that I read good reviews of.  We were disappointed in the food, but we did have a nice chat with an English couple and their friendly retriever, who had just come off the ferry from Uist.  After lunch, we drove a few miles to St Clements Church, which was constructed in the 1500s by a clan chief.  Today it is no longer active as a church, but it is a beautiful place with fascinating tombs and carved stones.  We had the place to ourselves, which was nice.  By this time, we were ready for some peaceful beach walking.  So I checked my maps, and we pulled Sgarasta Beach out of the list.  It was a bit of a hike from the road, and that was promising.  Sgarasta turned out to be just as stunning as Luskentyre, but we had the entire miles and miles of sand to ourselves.  Bliss!  After lolling along, and taking some nice hair-in-the-wind pics of Kristin (she did not ask to take hair-in-the-wind pics of me, I might add), we drove a few miles to the North Saltings.  These saltings are channels of seawater that cut into the bogs, creating beautiful patterns and reflections.  I pulled out my tripod and managed to get a few good shots, though not the ones I expected to get.  By this time, we were exhausted, but still had hours to drive.  Kristin jumped behind the wheel and soldiered on, getting us home safely well after dark (those are not great roads to drive in the dark), where we had a late dinner and collapsed into bed.

Above: Luskentyre Beach

Above: Northton Saltings

Above: Sgarasta Beach paradise

Above: St Clements Church

Earlier in the week, we checked the forecast and found that our last full day on Lewis & Harris would be rainy and overcast.  Consequently, we decided to use that day exploring northern Lewis, which included fewer beaches and walks.  After our usual breakfast of scrambled eggs and cereal, we headed north, with our first stop being Gearrannan Blackhouse Village.  This village was constructed in the late 1800s, and continue as a community until the 1970s, when the few remaining elderly residents were provided more stable housing nearby.  The village was restored in the 1990s, and then opened to the public for visits and holiday stays.  This site provides an outstanding view of island life over the last century, including reconstructed living and working quarters.  The site can get a bit busy, with tour buses rolling through, but it absolutely one of the highlights of our visit to Lewis & Harris.  Moving on from Gearrannan, we stopped at the Wobbly Dog for lunch and cake.  As with other places, we chatted with a couple travelling through with their very cute pup.  Near the Wobbly Dog, we visited Moulag's Church along the northern tip of Lewis.  This church was built somewhere between the 1100s and the 1500s, and sits out on a plain, a few hundred yards from the road.  It is quite lovely, and again we had the place to ourselves.  The church is still active today, but only in the summer, since there is no electricity or heating.  Considering how exposed this church is to the rain and wind, I can only imagine how cold it gets in December.  Driving a few miles further north, we reached the northern edge of the island, the Butt of Lewis.  This rocky promontory is quite beautiful, with jagged cliffs, sea stacks, and sweeping ocean vistas.  The Butt of Lewis Lighthouse perches atop the cliffs, though it is not open to the public.  This area was heavily visited, but is large enough so that we did not really feel all that crowded.  After standing atop the precipice looking towards the Faroe Islands and the arctic ocean beyond sight, we headed around the coast to Dun Eisteen.  Imagine a sea stack separated from the main island by maybe 30 feet, with sheer cliffs dropping below you, and then imagine building a fortified clan defensive outpost on top of it, and that's Dun Eisteen. There is not much structure left standing on the sea stack, but use of the site goes back hundreds, if not thousands of years.  Also, there were some very inquisitive and photogenic sheep along the trail to the Dun.  We only saw two other couples during the hour we spent here, which allowed us to focus more on the site's splendor and history.  By the time we left Dun Eisteen, the only direction left to go was south, so we headed back to our cottage.  We stopped along the way at Steinacleat Standing Stones, but it was raining heavily by this time.  We gave it a go, snapped a few pictures, but then headed back to the dry and warm car waiting for us, and then back to our cottage to pack up for our departure the next day.

Above: Gearrannan Blackhouse Village

Clydesdale horses originated in the Clydesdale region of Scotland, south of Edinburgh.  On our way south from Edinburgh to York, we stayed at Peggyslea Farm B&B, just north of Clydesdale.  As it would happen, this farm raises beautiful Clydesdale horses, which as you can imagine, made our day.  The morning started out with a delicious full Scottish breakfast, accompanied by a sweet dog who set patiently by our legs waiting to be petted between bites.  We also had a great chat with the proprietor.  Then we headed out to the farm to talk to the animals!  We chatted with goats (including the handsome one below), chickens (who followed Kristin around), two donkeys (who came over to the fence specifically to talk to Kristin) and several massive Clydesdales.  It was an absolutely lovely morning.  Then, we packed up the hybrid Yaris and tooled along south through the Clydesdale region.  After driving through this scenic valley, hit the motorway and eventually stopped at Brougham Castle.  This 13th century castle was our first of the trip, and we enjoyed wandering through its ruins (including a fascinating and strong entry gate).  I took the old stone stairs to the top and walked along the perimeter, though Kristin's knees did not think that would work for her, so she stayed on terra firma.  Our next stop was York, where we stayed at a AirBnB apartment in the city center.  Kristin did the tricky driving in York, since she is the safer and better driver.  Once we parked the car, we left it there until we were ready to leave two days later.  York is a very walkable city, and much smaller than I expected.  York is also an incredibly beautiful and historic city, and we enjoyed it more than Edinburgh.  We then popped out for dinner at a French cafe (food OK, not great) since the pubs looked a bit crowded.  One important lesson we picked up throughout our journey is that Brits appearantly do not do walk-ins.  Most places that we thought would be open seating were actually reservation only.  Go figure.  After dinner, we stopped at a Tesco Express to pick up breakfast food.

Above: Talking the animals of Peggyslea Farm

Above: Brougham Castle

York was a short visit, so our second day was actually a travel day.  We had breakfast, and then packed up the car and drove it to a secure parking garage (we needed to vacate our lodging parking spot).  The drive to Q-Park was not long, but the roads were tight and sometimes crowded with people and cars.  Once we secured our tiny parking spot, we walked to the Jorvik Viking Center, where we had pre-purchased tour tickets.  Jorvik sits on top of a former Viking archaeological dig in the basement of a building near the city walls.  Jorvik is the type of place we usually avoid, with an automated cart taking you through an animatronic Saxon village.  But somehow, it really worked for us.  They have a very large collection of Viking artifacts, and they do a great job with interpretive signs.  We spent several hours here, and could have spent longer.  Our next stop was to Holy Trinity Church, which sits in a quiet walled church yard in the middle of the old city.  It dates back the 12th century, and still has its old pew-boxes, which were once controlled by individual families (one family per box).  As a preacher's kid, this was fascinating to me, and I imagined me sitting in a box at the back with a column in front of me (yeah, I was THAT kind of PK).  We also chatted with a knowledgeable docent here, who clearly has a love for the old church.  When we asked her where should would eat lunch (and scones), she suggested Lucky Days, which has several cafes in the old city.  We had lunch at one Lucky Days (they were out of scones) and Cream Tea at another (not more than three blocks away).  Both were delicious and nestled in very old buildings.  After lunch, we headed back to York Minster to visit a few sites we had missed the day before: the Undercroft Museum in the basement (fascinating and well documented historical artifacts), and the Chapter House (unbelievable stained glass windows reaching high to the heavens).  Our last stop in York was Clifford's Tower, a motte and bailey castle dating back to 1068.  It was also the site of a horrible massacre of Jews in 1190.  The tower is a bit of a climb, and there is not much structure inside the tower shell, but the historic interpretation makes use of audio stations where you can hear various stories from the tower's long history.  Unlike Merchants Hall, they did not shy away from the ugly pieces of the tower's history.  After climbing back down the looong stairs, we walked back to our car, and Kristin drove us out of York thorugh VERY crowded and narrow streets.  We stopped along the way at Aldi's to buy groceries (mostly generic and tasteless stuff that we ended up tossing out).  We then winnowed our way along narrow country lanes to our Yorkshire Dales AirBnB.  This cottage was a converted methodist chapel, sitting in the middle of a farm.  The remodel was so well designed, and the cottage so incredibly peaceful, that Kristin took to calling it "paradise," and I concurred.  This is one of the best vacation lodging we have ever stayed in.

Above: Jorvik Viking Centre

Above: York Minster cathedral

Above: Holy Trinity Church.  Lower Right: Lunch at Lucky Days.

Above: Clifford's Tower, York.  Top Right: Cream Tea at another Lucky Days.

Our second 6-Bingo day in a row!  The Yorkshire Dales speak to us.  After breakfast, we launched out on the often-one-lane and winding roads, over hill and dale.  Our first stop was St Wilfrid's Church, which is simply a charming small town church, but nothing special from a historical perspective.  We then drove to the site where Helen's Farm is filmed for the BBC series All Creatures Great and Small.  This farm is quite lovely, with a creek running alongside and beautiful stone bridge crossing over.  We had a picnic lunch here, surrounded by sheep.  A few cars passed by, but not many, and a few hikers walked across the bridge and up a trail.  But not many.  It is a lovely picnic site.  Then we headed up the road to Buttertubs Pass.  Buttertubs is a fascinating geologic formation, where water has eroded deep narrow chasms (maybe 1-10 feet wide, and 50 feet deep).  Before electric refrigeration, farmers lowered their dairy products by rope into the chasms to store and cool them until the next market.  Buttertubs is hard to photograph, but fascinating to visit.  We then drove to the highlight of the day, Muker Hay Trail.  We had seen this trail on YouTube videos, so we knew it would be scenic.  It surpassed our lofty expectations.  It is a stunning gentle trail across hay meadows, with old stone barns scatters throughout, and sheep at every turn.  The hills rise up on both side, with a river cutting through the valley.  We could have days here.  After Muker Trail, we stopped by Gil Force waterfall.  The path to falls is steep, and Kristin's knees were complaining, so I soloed this one.  The Falls were beautiful and dramatic, but maybe not quite worth a trip far out off the beaten path.  We next set our GPS to take us back to our cottage, and followed its instructions blindly.  Our GPS thought this was quite funny, and so it routed us up along some very narrow steep and winding roads, and then through some closed sheep gates, and onto a high moor.  At the top, the fog was so thick we could barely see 20 feet in front of us.  We could sense that the road skirted the edge of some very steep dropoffs with no guardrails, so it might be better we were blinded by fog.  We puttered along slowly, with Kristin hopping out time and again to open and close gates.  At the top were scattered sheep and countless massive hares.  Eventually we started our decline off Oxnip Ghyll, leaving our foggy moors adventure in the rearview mirror.  For dinner, we ate at Olley's Pizza, and surprisingly it was among the most delicious food we had on the entire trip.  Our original plan had been to eat in Grassington.  However, they were celebrating a 1940s weekend there, and the place was packed.  Turns out pizza was an excellent Plan B.

Above: St Wilfrids Church

Above: Helen's farm from the series "All Creatures Great and Small."

Above: Vistas and scenes from our drives through the Yorkshire Dales

Above: Gil Force waterfall

Above: The foggy drive through sheep pastures atop Oxnip Ghyll

Above: Yorkshire Dales, photos by Kristin

There were three areas of our vacation which were stellar: Yorkshire Dales, Lewis & Harris, and Hadrians Wall.  Hadrians Wall extends across the neck of England, from Bowness on Solway on the west coast to Newcastle on the east.  We focused our visit on the part with the best remaining original sections of the wall, primarily between Birdoswold and Chesters Roman Forts.  Throughout this region, the wall follows the rolling hills of Whin Sill, a rock outcrop that formed from tectonics nearly 300 million years ago.  As a result, the scenery near the walls is beautiful, and very 3D (I am from Kansas, so 3D always delights me).  

After a nice English Breakfast at our B&B, where we chatted with an English couple and a couple from near Bellingham, WA, we visited the wall heading east from Birdoswold Roman Fort.  This stretch contains original walls (while other stretches have been rebuilt).  Along this stretch is also an old Roman bridge.  The river has since shifted in its course, so we were able to climb around the original stone bridge foundations.  We had watched a YouTube video on the wall, which helped us to recognize clear signs of the stone masonry techniques used by the Romans.  This was probably one of the least visited sections of the wall from our trip.  From Birdoswold we went to Vindolanda, which was an important fort during and after Roman occupation, and which has outstanding interpretation.  We took one of the free tours, and enjoyed our tour guide's sense of humor and wealth of knowledge.  As usual, when we take the free tours we notice far more detail and history than we would see without the tours.  We had a quick lunch at Vindolanda (I had a Cornish Pasty, whatever that is), and then headed to a small excavated temple near Brocolita Fort ruins.  We thought we lucked into Sunday Roast dinner at Twice Brewed (most of the pubs focus their food-making resources on Roast dinners on Sundays), but it turned out to be tough and flavorless.  

Above: the walk along Hadrians Wall near Birdoswold Fort

Above: Vindolanda Roman Fort

Left: The remains of horse headgear.  Right: a reconstruction of same.

Above: Vindolanda Roman Fort

Above: At various points along the wall

Our first day in the border regions between Scotland and England did not start out so well.  We ate the usual breakfast at our cottage, and then went to the castle of Utred, son of Utred, Bramburgh Castle.  Bramburgh, located on the eastern coast of England, dates back to probably before 420 AD.  From the outside, it is a massive and stunning castle, formidible from every angle.  Inside, however, it is simply a collection of stuff collected over generations by the owners.  There is almost no historic interpration, and if you want to know what it was like to live there through the ages, you are out of luck.  If, however, you want to see some of the costumes and set pieces from Netflix's "The Last Kingdom," then this is your stop.  The place was packed full of tourists happy to pay big bucks to see just a few rooms.  As you might imagine, we left as soon as we could get out.  We grabbed a quick lunch at the White Swann Inn, a nice little place in the country that we had all to ourselves, a few annoying wasps inclusive.  We then felt the need for (surprise!) Cream Tea, so we stopped at the Village Tea Room in Almouth.  It is a nice little shop in a quaint village near the beach, and our scones were fresh, but they were also coated with extra sugar, which did not appeal to us.  Following tea, we then headed down the road to a much less-visited more-ruined castle called Warkworth, which dates from the 12th century.  This one is a gem!  There is great history interpretation, and much of the keep remains intact.  Unlike Bramburgh, this one is worth every penny.  To cap off our day, we popped down to the beach near the castle, which required walking maybe half a mile.  This beach was beautiful and was visited by very few people, all of whom were probably locals.  We watched a few dogs wrestle and play chase in the surf, and a girl rode by on a pony.  It was a nice end to a day that started just the opposite.  We then headed back to our cottage in Sprouston.

Above: Warkworth Castle

Above: Our cottage in Sprouston

Above: Warkworth Beach

On our last full day of vacation, we decided a long hike was in order.  We wanted to visit the Cheviot Hills, and Kristin did some research to find us a great trail.  We began our hike at the small village of Kirknewton, where we parked our car and then walked along the busy road to the start of the trail.  The trail guide, which we had downloaded as a PDF on my phone, was somewhat less that helpful.  It left out most of the distance descriptors, meaning we did not know whether the next style was 100 feet ahead, or a mile.  Eventually, we gave up on the trail guide and I opened the AllTrails app on my phone, which led us nicely through.  The trail took us up a lovely rolling hill, which we climbed far higher than we needed to (the trail guide led us the wrong way), and then back down to a lulling river.  We walked along the river, then back up another hill.  At the top of the hill, the guide instructed us to walk back down to the river thorough some woodlands.  The woodlands turned out to be fernlands, and the ferns topped six feet.  At times, it was difficult to even see where the trail went!  Somewhere near the bottom of the fern gully, we encountered an English couple going the opposite direction.  They told us the path behind them was overgrown, and we smiled, having just come through a fern jungle ourselves.  Finally we reached the river and crossed a charming footbridge that traversed some rapids and a small waterfall.  When we climbed up the less-ferny opposite side of the valley, we started looking for wild Cheviot goats.  These are beautiful shaggy wild goats (sometimes called primitive) that are absolutely lovely!  We looked high and low, and just managed to see sheep.  Still, the trail from here on out crossed rolling hills borded by expansive vistas.  After a four hour hike, tired and with sore feet, we hopped back in our car and drove to Cream Tea in Wooler.  Here I noticed a man wearing Route 66 suspenders having tea with his wife, so we started up a conversation.  It almost felt like they would have traded their UK citizenship for our American ones, at least for a few years of adventuring.  We then popped across the street and had dinner at the Red Lion pub.

Above: Hethpool Lin and Yeavering Bell walk