The Soul Knows No Borders

Trying to discover the world one experience at a time. Follow me on Wordpress: thesoulknowsnoborders.wordpress.com

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I scheduled myself three full days in Denmark, with which I wanted to explore Copenhagen and trek to the Viking mounds in Jelling, but the last option was in the air. With a short train ride from the capital, I could see a Viking ship museum, the city and castle Shakespeare’s Hamlet were based on, or I could take a ferry to Bornholm (which holds particular interest to me as it has long been thought that Bornholm is the origin of the people who migrated to the area near the borders of modern-day France, Switzerland, and Italy to form the Kingdom of Burgundy!) I was torn between the three options but told myself to remember that there’s always the opportunity to come back again and see the things I didn’t the first time around. With that in mind, I decided to visit Roskilde since it was an easy 15-minute ride from Copenhagen.

-Roskilde’s history

At the time that Denmark became a mostly unified nation, Copenhagen was not the capital. Roskilde remained the capital for a little over four centuries until 1443, around the time of a fire that destroyed a large swathe of the city north of the cathedral. The city was founded around a handful of springs which are considered sacred and many are still preserved, visible, and flowing to this day (though they now have signs advising not to drink the water). Up until the time of the Reformation, the city was not only the administrative capital but also the ecclesiastical capital of the country, hence the importance of the cathedral there.

-Roskilde Domkirke/Roskilde Cathedral

  The cathedral in Roskilde was unlike any I had ever visited before. From the outside, the architecture was the first difference I noted. Most of the cathedrals I’ve visited have been in the vein of the French Gothic style (think Reims, Amiens, Chartres…) The structure is made up of small red brick, instead of the typical large cut stones. Upon seeing the western façade for the first time, I also noticed the lack of a rose window. However, the shape of the building is similar to those of Gothic design.

The interior is also very different than most of the cathedrals I’ve visited. It is very apparent in the design of each room that the complex had been built up in different ages. One of the most fascinating features of this particular cathedral is that it is also the royal mausoleum. 40 kings and queens of Denmark are interred here, as well as the future tomb of Queen Margrethe II, which is covered by a piece of art until her royal interment. Even Harald Bluetooth is buried here, though his tomb is a bit challenging to find without the help of the pamphlets.

  The number of entombed royal family members is almost creepy, though I do love a bit of the macabre. One of the underground crypts was the creepiest because it was dark, cold, and I was alone. All the caskets were covered with white cloths. The beautiful and almost bright design of the cathedral, though, is a stark contrast to the vast number of caskets and effigies. It was truly fascinating to see the balance of life and death so graciously held in the same space.

-Viking Ship Museum

There are a few places in pretty much every country I’ve been to where I get hit with the “I can’t believe I’m here” feeling. And I think that’s relatively normal, especially when travel is still somewhat new. In Denmark, I got that feeling any time I was near historic Viking locations. One of these locations happened to be about half of the reason I visited Roskilde in the first place: the Viking ship museum.

Downhill from the city center, the train station, and the cathedral, lies the Roskilde Fjord. In the 1960s five ships were discovered, sunken in a line across one of the narrow passable channels. Surprisingly, after around 900 years, many large pieces of the ships were still intact. These pieces were painstakingly preserved and put back together over wooden skeletons in order to give visitors an idea of what the ships must have looked like so long ago. These are part of a handful of exhibits about the history of the Vikings both in Scandinavia, and abroad.

Throughout my historical research, I’ve grown quite fond of the Vikings as historical figures. What we know of their history is bloody and fierce, but what’s interesting is just how much power they exerted over much of Europe, extending as far as Asia Minor and even North America. I couldn’t quite travel to Denmark without seeing some of the origins of the legends I found myself drawn to reading. It’s a shame that I visited so early in the year, because, in the summer, you can ride around the fjord on replicas of the Skuldelev ships (definitely a reason to come back!)

The city of Roskilde is full of history and beautiful architecture, as well as plentiful natural landscapes surrounding the fjord. The story of how the city was founded, built up, and changed over the centuries, as well as the Viking presence is enough to make any history lover happy. If you’re in Copenhagen, I highly suggest you take the short train ride to visit Roskilde. You won’t regret it!

Roskilde: Viking Ships and Royal Mausoleums I scheduled myself three full days in Denmark, with which I wanted to explore Copenhagen and trek to the Viking mounds in Jelling, but the last option was in the air.

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Germany has always been high on my travel bucket list. Growing up, we always thought our heritage was mostly German. That is until we began to dig into the records a bit more, as well as taking the Ancestry DNA tests and finding out we are much less German than we thought. Even so, the country had always been one I wanted to visit. Detailed written history from the Roman Empire forward makes the country all the more intriguing and enticing to see.

The idea behind my trip was to backpack my way from Denmark to the Netherlands. I failed, however, to take into account just how short my trip was going to be. As I was doing my research on train routes and interesting/beautiful cities, I realized that of the few days I had, most would be spent in Denmark and the Netherlands. I really wanted to try to spend two days in Germany, but it seemed I would only have one. This made planning interesting because I needed to decide on one German city to visit. This proved to be slightly difficult as there is so much to see. I was really torn between Lübeck, Hamburg, and Bremen, with a few cities like Osnabrück and Oldenburg in the running as well.

The images I found were really what pushed me to visit Bremen over the others. Not only was it a good midway point between Copenhagen and Amsterdam, but the photos I saw were also beautiful. The plaza located in the old part of town looked gorgeous. The town hall and statue out front are both UNESCO World Heritage sites. I started reading about the history of the city, including its role in the Hanseatic League.

I boarded the train from Copenhagen pretty early in the morning in order to get to Bremen with enough time to explore before dark. I remember passing through Lübeck and seeing the tops of some of the older buildings and wishing I had time to stop for a bit. My hostel wasn’t far from the train station as well as being only about five minutes from the town center. After dropping off my backpack and locking up my valuables, I headed into town.

The first thing I did when I entered the old city was to visit the tourist office to buy a ticket for a tour of the 600-year-old town hall, as that was the only way to see the interior. The side of the building facing the square is breathtaking. Much of the design dates from the Gothic and Renaissance periods, though some of the extra ornamental work was added in competition to the buildings across the square. Once inside, the main portion of the tour takes place on the second level. The walls are covered in wood paneling and murals. The entire room is intricately decorated and one could spend hours examining all of the details carved or painted into the wood. I highly recommend taking the tour because the guides teach you not only about the history of the building itself but of the city and why it was so important.

  I was done with the tour around 5 pm, and most of the monuments were closed or closing, so I decided just to walk around the city to find a place to eat. I walked through Schnoor, which is the Medieval quarter of the city, with narrow streets, restaurants, shops, and tourists. Unfortunately, it was quite crowded so I didn’t stay long, but it was fun to get to see how a Medieval German town may have looked.

I made my way down to the banks of the Weser to see the beer gardens and to grab something to eat. I stopped at one of the kiosks and ordered currywurst and a beer and sat down at one of the outdoor tables close to the wall. Though the trading port of the city has long since moved, I enjoyed sitting and looking at what was once the most important feature of the city. I may or may not have had a couple of orders of currywurst while I sat. It was so delicious I couldn’t help myself.

I ended up going back to the hostel pretty early that night because I wanted to try to wake up early the next day to see the city without other people around. On my way, I heard two voices ringing out over the brick and cobbled streets in tight harmony. As I walked away, I found myself brought to happy tears. Every once in a while, it really hits me that I’ve decided to make experiences like this my life.

Very early the next morning, I made my way back into town to get some pictures. To get into town from the hostel where I was staying, I had to cross over the old moat that protected the city long ago. The sun hadn’t been up for too long so the sky was still full of color which reflected off of the still water. The area lining the southwestern side of the water has been converted to a park which was very peaceful to walk at this time of day.

I will always continue to suggest waking up early during travel. Not only do you end up with more time to explore, but there is rarely more than a few people milling about. When I compared the pictures of the town center I had taken the night before, the ones I had taken the next morning were so much better. I didn’t have to worry about hiding other people or bodies distracting from the focal point. I knew none of the buildings would be open which was disappointing because I never got to see the interior of the cathedral, but it was still worth the time for the pictures.

I continue to look forward to the next time I get to visit Germany, and I’m thoroughly glad I made Bremen my halfway point. The architecture is beautiful, the history is fascinating, the food was delicious, and the atmosphere welcoming and exciting. I hope to return one day to see the interior of the cathedral and to once again sit beside the Wesser for more currywurst!

Backpacking to Bremen Germany has always been high on my travel bucket list. Growing up, we always thought our heritage was mostly German.

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Until the past few years, I never really knew how much Roman architecture was left standing in France, especially in the south. I guess I always had a preconceived notion that most of it had been destroyed during the Middle Ages and replaced with more contemporary structures. I was pleasantly surprised, while doing my research, to find that there were a few cities in the south that still maintained a very Roman feel. Arles is among the most well known for its Roman architecture and history and gives one the opportunity to visit ancient Rome in France.

What’s really cool about Arles is that they actually have four different walking routes through the city to see the staggering amount of monuments. There is the Circuit Antique, the Circuit Medieval, the Circuit Renaissance et Classique, and the Circuit Van Gogh. I didn’t choose to follow any specific path because I wanted to see it all, however, if you are visiting with more specific tastes, these routes can be really helpful.

One of the more interesting things I saw when I was in Arles was a place called Les Alyscamps (which Van Gogh actually did a pair of paintings on). Once, this was a sprawling Roman necropolis where the well-to-do were buried. There used to be thousands of sarcophagi and mausoleums that attracted people from all over Europe as many wanted to be buried there. During the Industrial Revolution, however, much of the graveyard was demolished, leaving only one sarcophagus-lined lane leading up to Church of Saint Honoratus. The church itself is unused but leaves yet another hollow reminder of what this location once was.

I wandered my way back up into town, passing ancient ramparts and old chapels as I went. I found myself in the middle of a plaza known as the Place de la Republique. It was an interesting tourist moment. Crowds of people milled around, a man played the saxophone, pigeons were flying around, and I was surrounded by Roman and Medieval architecture.

There wasn’t a lot to see by this point of the night as most of the monuments and parks were either closed or closing. I used this opportunity to circle the arena looking for a restaurant within view of the arena, of which there are plenty. I wound up having a pleasant conversation with the Englishman next to me about our experiences in France and swapped stories about the climate of the politics in our respective countries.

In the early morning, I headed to the Cathedral of Saint Trophime. Built in the 12th century, this church is actually one of the stops on the Camino de Santiago and as such,  is an extremely popular tourist destination. The adjoining cloisters and dormitories are both open to the public and make for a neat visit. Sculptures line the columns that make up the cloisters and there’s a wonderful air of quiet pensiveness that surrounds you while you’re there.

Arles taught me to take my time a little more. So often, I had woken up early and immediately checked out of my hotel to hop a train for another city or two, only seeing each for a very brief time, then moving right along. I decided to treat Arles differently. There was something about this ancient Roman town that called me to stay. I scheduled my train for later in the day, and, for the first time, didn’t think about where I had to be next.

The first step was to find lunch, which turned out to be easier than I thought considering by midday, all but about two restaurants were closed. I found a nice little cafe by the steps leading up to the arena and tried my first ever croque monsieur, which I loved. I journaled a little while I ate, enjoying the sun and the surprisingly quiet afternoon.

  Unable to enter the ancient theatre or arena the night, I took the opportunity to visit both after lunch. The arena was spectacular, though there was a lot of scaffolding obscuring the view. It was interesting to take a look at each level within the structure. From the top, you can see where people had sought refuge and built homes within the arena itself. At one point, an entire city center, complete with markets and houses existed inside the ovular construction.

The theatre was breathtaking. I was so overcome with emotion as I walked up the stairs to the stone slabs that served as seats thousands of years ago. It was hard to believe that some of the earliest recorded theatrical performances happened in spaces just like this one. Getting back to the roots of the career I chose was such a surreal experience. Though a concert was being set up as I sat there, I felt like I was alone with my emotions, even if just for a moment. Very few places have left me as awestruck as this ancient artistic space.

After leaving the theatre, I checked with my map to see if there were things I had not yet seen and I realized that I had spent a lot of time in the city center, but very little near the water. I found a creperie that sold takeaway and went for a stroll. I’ve mentioned it before, but it’s worth saying again, the Rhône is one of the most beautifully colored rivers I’ve ever seen. The turquoise water, paired with the stunning white stone architecture that lined the banks was the perfect view while I stopped and ate my crepe.

It was here that a handful of people began to ask me if I was on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, one of the many ancient pilgrimages to the cathedral in Spain. It made sense, I was a single backpacker in a town that is one of the main stops in France. I almost felt bad that I wasn’t, though the idea of making that pilgrimage is high on my to-do list. The person that really surprised me though was the middle-aged woman taking photos for her photography class. She said she was taking pictures of backpackers passing through Arles and kindly asked me if I would be willing to let her take a photo of me, which I did. I wish that I could find that photo. Selfies are one thing, but having a complete stranger take your picture is another, and I’m fascinated with what she saw through her lens, her interpretation of me.

      Ancient Rome in Arles, France Until the past few years, I never really knew how much Roman architecture was left standing in France, especially in the south.

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When to Visit: France, the Pros and Cons of Peak Season

When to Visit: France, the Pros and Cons of Peak Season

There are a ton of factors that go into making a decision on when to travel. Prices, hours, activities, crowds, and weather can all heavily affect your decision. I figured it would be helpful to share what went into my decision to travel during France’s high tourist season as well as what I found were the positives and negatives to making that decision. Every country has peak season(s) for…

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Everyone knows about Paris. The City of Lights, romance, and wine with thousands of years of history, plenty of museums, and the eye-catching Eiffel Tower, visible from almost everywhere you go. There are so many monuments and Instagram picture worthy things to see. Countless hours can be spent wandering random streets. Millennia of intense (and sometimes bloody) history have made Paris a cultural center and one of the most visited cities in the world. No matter what your interests, there is something here for everyone to see. 

My personal advice, however, is not to limit yourself only to this one beautiful city. Some of the coolest things to see in France lie within an hour’s short train ride of the French capital. Almost any direction you head you’ll find something of beauty or interest to experience. I find that too many people get so caught up staying within the city and forgetting or never realizing that so much is nearby. I actually spent somewhat minimal time in Paris itself because I wanted to see as much of the country as I could. I headed out and hit a handful of nearby cities and boy am I glad I did!

Before I had even bought my plane tickets, I had purchased and read a book called Paris to the Past by Ina Caro (you can find it on Amazon.com for about $15) which gives wonderful insight to the many different things you can see on a day trip from the city. Not only does she recount her personal experiences in these cities but she also details how to reach them, what kind of places to visit, and even where to find some of the best tour guides! I took this book with me and used a lot of the tips to decide where to go. I highly recommend taking a look for anyone who plans to go to Paris.

To the northeast lie Reims, Laon, and Soissons. Laon was actually one of my favorite villages I visited because the upper portion of the city is a well preserved medieval hilltop town. It’s only about an hour and a half train ride.  A hike up the municipal staircase from the train brings you right into the heart of a quiet village full of historic landmarks. For a small town, there was a surprising amount of things to see!

From my instagram

The ancient walls of Laon

I felt an incredible draw to Reims because of the cathedral and adjacent museum there. The kings of France were coronated here and you can stand in the spot where King Clovis of the Franks was baptized. The museum houses many royal artifacts as well as the room where the French kings spent the night before their coronation.  

Cathédrale de Notre Dame in Reims

From my instagram

Soissons is stuffed full of cathedrals and abbeys that display architecture that spans over a millennium (the crypt of one such abbey dates from about the year 840!) Though much of the city was destroyed during World War I, there are still plenty of remnants or restored pieces of architecture to catch the eye.

Almost straight to the north is Amiens, a town I feel I didn’t get to explore enough of but would love to go back to see it again! Home to another UNESCO World Heritage site and the tallest cathedral in France, Notre Dame d’Amiens, as well as a really cute old town where you can sit by the canal and see the cathedral at the top of the hill while you eat.

Cathédrale de Notre-Dame d’Amiens

Nightly light show

Then, to the northwest, is another one of my most favorite towns, Rouen. Wandering down the streets to the Seine will take you past rows of half-timbered medieval houses and towering cathedral spires. If you enjoy history, especially the struggles between the English and the French (specifically the Hundred Years’ War and the fearless Joan of Arc), Rouen is the place to explore. 

To the southwest is the town of Chartres which holds a special place for me seeing as it was where I spent my first night in France. The UNESCO ranked cathedral dominates the view of the town and at night the front and side of the cathedral (as well as multiple locations around the town) are lit up in a dazzling light show.

From my Instagram

Nightly light show

The places that I have written about thus far are only the ones that I’ve personally experienced but there are a number of other towns and monuments you can visit on a day trip such as the Palace of Fontainebleau and the Basilica of Saint-Denis. In my opinion, the time and money you would spend to leave the city would not be wasted. I experienced hundreds of years of history and architecture, beautiful light shows, new cuisines, not to mention almost everything you see will be less crowded than in Paris. While I think it is important and thoroughly enjoyable to explore every inch of Paris, if you have the time and the capital I absolutely recommend taking a quick drive, train, or bus, out to some of the other nearby cities. I promise you, you won’t be disappointed!

Paris and Beyond: Nearby Cities to Explore Everyone knows about Paris. The City of Lights, romance, and wine with thousands of years of history, plenty of museums, and the eye-catching Eiffel Tower, visible from almost everywhere you go.

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On to Ireland!

Hi All!

Ireland was always the first country on my list of places to visit. My family has a decent amount of history rooted there. Our last name (Neely) is thought to have descended from multiple other surnames (MacNeely, Neeley, Nealy, and O’Neill, the last of which is very interesting due to that specific clan’s history.) Unfortunately, we did not get up to County Tyrone in the former province…

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Tea, Sandwiches, Soup, and...Ancestral Castles?

Tea, Sandwiches, Soup, and…Ancestral Castles?

This was by far one of the most personal experiences I had on the trip so you may have to bear with me a bit. In my last post, I talked about Emerson and the invisible eyeball in transcendentalism. This time was a little different but I’ll dive into that a little later. The majority of this day was actually spent in one place, which was nice. We left Loch Lomond fairly early in the morning to…

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So I realized today that posting about each individual day would actually take me quite a while to catch up and may not be the most interesting thing to you as the reader. I decided to try to group the days into cohesive clusters in order to catch you all up a bit faster. I’m really excited to get to the trip I’m currently planning. This time I’m going to mix the pictures in!

I’ll start off by saying that there are positives and negatives to the method we used to see the country on this trip. Disclaimer right off the bat: if you are renting a car in an unfamiliar place, let alone another country, it is nearly imperative that you spend the extra and get the GPS/Sat Nav. Seriously. Your phone service won’t cut it (especially in the mountains) and trying to read a physical map, though fun, can be very stressful, especially in cities. It cuts down immensely on the time you spend trying to figure out where you are and where to go which when you’re pressed for time is a great help.

The pros and cons of car rental should definitely be something you consider before a trip. For us, it was the best option for the countries we were in and what we were trying to do. My aunt is a photographer and I had some very specific things I wanted to see that would have been very difficult taking any other mode of transport to see. It allows you to go literally wherever you want, whenever you want without having to depend on schedules, tickets, and routes. Renting a car also allows you to stop whenever you want or take detours which, for two people who love taking their time (and photos), was a benefit we couldn’t pass up. That being said, car rental (with GPS/Sat Nav) can be fairly expensive and in the case of most of the EU, not necessary with their network of trains. It also means that you have to drive in a country or place you are unfamiliar with, sometimes on the opposite side of the road. For those of you coming from the US and other countries that roundabouts/rotaries aren’t common, they can be quite daunting, especially in busy areas so be aware beforehand. Overall I would say that there are more benefits than downsides to renting a car but again, all something to consider when you are deciding what you want to get out of a trip. For my upcoming trip for example, I have a pretty even mixture of things accessible by train and others pretty much only accessible by car which may mean I do a little travel by both.

For this trip, the majority of the travel we did was by car. We rented from a place right in the Edinburgh airport and headed right out from there. We took the bridge instead of going around the Forth which I kind of wish we hadn’t done because we skipped Stirling Castle but we also knew how long it was going to take us to drive the route through the Highlands, especially with stopping to take photos. A lot of the route we would end up taking ran right alongside the line of Lochs and rivers known as the Great Glen that cross the Scottish Highlands

The landscape through the Highlands was like nothing I had ever seen before. The sides of the mountains were so green and the water was so blue it felt like most pictures couldn’t do them justice. We made it all the way up to Inverness that day (it helped that it didn’t get dark until after midnight up there.) Such a cute city! I think one of my favorite features of all of the European cities I’ve been to so far is the rivers that usually run through or next to them. They are so clean and clear compared to the rivers I’m used to (there’s reasons for that…) Next time I’m in Scotland I definitely plan to go back and explore a little more. We didn’t have a whole lot of time there since we arrived pretty late in the evening and had to leave pretty early the next morning to get to Loch Lomond by dark.

Inverness

As we sat in our hotel eating breakfast the next day we started to plot our route south. We decided to take the same highway we had taken south then jog off toward the Isle of Skye. It was well worth it. We spent a bit of time stopping off around Loch Ness. I spent a few hours exploring Urquhart Castle. It’s one of my favorites so far. It is one of the largest castles in in Scotland, though mostly in ruins now. It was fun to explore and see the different signs that told of the history of the buildings. Urquhart was a major landmark in the Wars of Scottish Independence. I took one of my favorite pictures there, the landscape surrounding the ruins is just so beautiful.

We hit the castle Eilean Donan on the way which was really neat because it is fully restored and looks the way it used to a long time ago. Most of the inside is a museum now that portrays life through the ages in the castle. It’s extremely picturesque and well worth the visit if you can make it. Once we got to the Isle of Skye we took a route that led along the water to the town of Portree. This is yet another place that I wish I could have spent a bit more time exploring. There’s a lot to see on the Isle of Skye including some museums that I would like to go back and visit next time.

Eilean Donan

On our way from the Isle of Skye to Loch Lomond, we passed a sign for Inverlochy Castle and decided to pop by and see what it was about. This was a castle that had somehow escaped my research in my quest for castles to visit but I’m totally glad we stopped by. It was completely free to visit and there was no one there so I felt like I got to really experience the space which was nice. Inverlochy Castle is good example of a typical quadrangular castle, almost square in shape with towers at each of the four corners. There is nothing left of the internal structures but the towers were still standing (though under renovations while we were there.) There were a few signs placed around the courtyard detailing the history and location of old buildings. On the back side of the castle you can see where the old boat landings used to be on the River Lochy leading into the Great Glen. Yet another worthwhile stop and another reason that our car rental proved to be an asset.

We ended up making one last stop on our way into Loch Lomond for the night near Glencoe. It wasn’t for any specific landmark, it was only for the sheer beauty of the site. Its kind of rare to find places to pull the car to the side of the road for pictures which is slightly disappointing (though understandable.) We were in the middle of a valley where a river ran into a loch in the distance. My aunt decided to take some pictures of the one house we could see nearby while I decided to hike up the side of the mountain on our side of the river. It was a tad slippery but I went up a couple hundred feet to a ledge where I could see the entire valley. It was so quiet except for the wind. You could see the clouds forming as the wind swept up the side of the mountain across from me and the water condensed as it hit cooler air. It was so neat because I didn’t really feel like a body standing on the side of a mountain. I always loved transcendentalism but I had never really experienced anything like the “transparent eyeball” mentioned by Ralph Waldo Emerson. It suddenly made sense to me.

“Standing on the bare ground,–my head bathed by the blithe air and uplifted into infinite space,–all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or parcel of God.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

I felt like I was a simple observer taking in everything around me. It’s amazing the kind of peace that fills you when you lose the egotism that Emerson mentions, even if just for a moment. I stood there for quite a while until I heard my aunt calling to me because we needed to continue driving.

Once we got to Loch Lomond, we found a cute little inn right on the water. It was late so they weren’t serving food anymore so we drove down the street a little way (on the suggestion of the wonderful man working at the inn where we stayed) to the Drovers Inn. The inn has 300 years of history and legend says that Rob Roy ate there! The food was probably my favorite meal I had on the whole trip. We both ordered the steak and Guinness pie. It makes my mouth water just thinking about it. If you’re ever in the Loch Lomond area (it’s a national park and highly recommended by most everyone who has traveled there) definitely pop by for a bite, it is well worth your time.

So I guess I lied, this post was not short like I assumed it would be. We saw so much though and its hard to blog about going to the Highlands without repetitively mentioning the beauty and sights.

We had only one more day left in Scotland but what we saw that day is worth an entire post of its own. Stay tuned!!

A Jog Around Scotland So I realized today that posting about each individual day would actually take me quite a while to catch up and may not be the most interesting thing to you as the reader.

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Hey all welcome back! I apologize for the lengthy pause between posts but Edinburgh is one of the coolest places I’ve ever been and I wanted to do the city justice by making sure my post properly portrayed how I feel about it. Edinburgh is a place where you can move from the present to the past in a matter of steps due to the wonderful mixture of architecture that pervades the city. It was so beautiful we had to see it twice in one trip! Again I apologize, this post is going to be long and somewhat rambling as I could never say enough about Edinburgh. (As always, there is a small gallery at the bottom of the post and more pictures are added to the gallery tab.)

Before I discuss what all we experienced here, there’s a very important theme that will reoccur many times throughout my posts: the topic of energy and resonance. I am a big believer in the idea that because time is not linear as we perceive it to be, a place or an object can hold a lot of energy or resonance due to the things that have happened or are going to happen. I know that not everyone agrees with this idea and that’s fine, but much of how I feel when I experience things is based on this idea, especially when I’m viewing things with enormous historical importance. Edinburgh is no exception to this.

Picking up where we left off, my aunt and I woke up early to grab breakfast and head out from London. Maybe it’s just the idea of eating breakfast in another country that’s so alluring, but it was definitely the best hotel breakfast I’ve ever had. Most hotels in the states have a small selection of fruits, breads, eggs, and cereal but the Lancaster London had an entire smorgasbord of fresh fruits, cheeses, meats, breads, etc. Once we checked out of the hotel, we headed to the train station, stowed our luggage and settled in for the most pleasant train ride I’ve ever taken. Granted, I was enchanted to be in England at all but to see the countryside from the window of the train was breathtaking. The amount of times I was offered coffee was probably too many but who am I to turn down coffee, right? We only saw the cities we passed through briefly but I tried to make a note of every city that we passed that I have to come back to see which I highly suggest that anyone taking a train does. Using your phone it is extremely easy to track where you are and it’s really helpful to write down places that you see that call to you to revisit.

I think the funniest part about the whole ride was when the man seated next to us turned without any preamble to ask me who I was voting for. Keep in mind, this was right in the middle of the 2016 election cycle as well as the referendum being held in the UK. I know, what a time to be in the UK, right? I remember very clearly the astonishment of his wife when he asked me a political question of that gravity. Of course it led to our discussing the differences in policies between the UK and the US. Honestly, it became very common for anyone who learned we were from the states to ask us who we were voting for (both of us being extremely opinionated, vocal, and very against the idea of Trump becoming president had no problems sharing our ideas.) Me being me, my immediate response after I finished ranting about the insanity that was the 2016 elections in the US, was to ask their opinions on the referendum.

We pulled into the train station in Edinburgh which happened to be very modern in architecture. I have to say after all my aunt had said and all I had read about Edinburgh, I was surprised to see so much glass and metal. However, leaving the station I was immediately in awe. I was instantly presented with buildings and streets that ranged from the Middle Ages through modern times, though admittedly I enjoyed that so much seemed to retain the medieval look. It took me a bit to be able to even formulate any thoughts. I was only looking at part of the city but the part I was looking at left me breathless.

We immediately headed to our cute little boutique hotel to drop off our luggage (Hotel One.) Everything from the color schemes to the cute little rooms overlooking the rooftops of the city was truly enjoyable and it was right in the middle of the city which made getting anywhere very easy.

We spent the evening wandering the city a bit, stopping at The Conan Doyle for dinner. We didn’t realize at the time (we were hungry!) that we did NOT need to order the extra half a fillet of fish with your fish and chips. I was not expecting the massive amount of fish that I received. It’s too bad that we had no way of storing our food and eating the leftovers because the fish, chips, and pea mash was so good. Afterward we just wandered the streets a bit more. We looked at the maps of the city to see what was around but it was about six at night and not much was still open anyway.

We briefly stopped at the Scott Monument which was beautiful and next time I go there, I will have to make sure I have the time to climb to the top. We couldn’t really decide what to do with the rest of the night so we stopped by a nearby place to grab a coffee. We decided the best thing to do with our evening, since most things were closed, was to grab a cab and get ourselves a quick tour of the city.

If you didn’t know, the drivers of the black cabs are extremely well versed. They have to take an extensive test before they can become black cab drivers (the same goes for London.) There are little stickers on the window that say to ask about guided tours of the cities. So we did. We told the cabbie we had about a half an hour to burn and to show us his favorite parts of the city. Let me just say it is WELL worth your time. Especially if you have a driver like ours. He took us to every part of the city and gave us a history lesson and a joke every step of the way. He had me cracking up at every location he showed us.

The architecture of the city is awe inspiring. We passed by Edinburgh Castle, the Palace of Holyroodhouse (a personal residence of the Queen), and through the old markets that I like to think look almost the same as they did 800 years ago. Many of the streets are still cobbled instead of paved and sometimes our car barely fit. It’s too bad we didn’t have more time to wander that area of the city because the little storefronts we passed were delightful.We tried to make a note of the things we wanted to see in the morning before we grabbed our rental car to head to the highlands.

When we got back to the hotel we hung out in our room where we had tea and biscuits and we talked about what our plans were for the next day. If we had more time, we would have gone to all of the museums and wandered the streets for hours, but we knew we only had a part of the next morning to explore what we hadn’t seen the night before. We decided the best way to spend our morning was to head to Edinburgh Castle (which was the obvious choice because I was obsessed since the moment we left the train.)

I could have spent days at Edinburgh Castle (or lived there. A guy can dream right?) To get to stand in Saint Margaret’s Chapel, a space that could only fit a few people but that has been standing for nearly 1,000 years took my breath away.  It was so tiny but the air was thick with history. I got to stand in the room where King James was born. It was hard to even comprehend. Every room I went into in the Castle gave me that overwhelming feeling I get any time I enter any space that contains that kind of energy or history. I get the same feeling in museums, its like my brain is trying to comprehend all of the experiences and happenings all at once. It can be hard to do anything but sit and take it all in but I love it. It makes the experience so much more humbling and in an odd way, personal. I feel almost as if I was there. I tried to see every inch of that castle and when I go back, I’ll go and see it again. The view that standing on the ramparts provides (as was obviously strategic then and so beautiful now) shows you the entirety of the city and the whole surrounding area to the Firth of Forth.

I was so excited to drive out to see the highlands but I was so very sad to leave Edinburgh behind. So far it is the single most beautiful, energy filled, and memorable cities I have ever seen. The people were astoundingly kind and witty. I would love to have a day to wander through the Grassmarket and Cowgate areas. The buildings still heavily resemble the architecture of the Middle Ages. It was cool to learn that some of the buildings in this city that still stand were part of what made it the high rise capital of Europe during the Middle Ages according to our cab driver the night before.

Edinburgh will always have my heart. I recommend any traveler to the UK should visit. From the history, to the architecture and landscape, and to the food and the people Edinburgh is altogether a wonderful city. It’s no surprise that it is the capital of Scotland as it is one of the most amazing places I’ve ever visited and my soul will always be drawn to return to this amazing city.

Edinburgh

[thesoulknowsnoborders]

Hi All!

Today’s post (if it wasn’t obvious) is about the first leg of our journey! We only spent one night in London (regretfully only one, there was far too much to see in such a short time) but we slammed it with as much as we could squeeze in! As will most usually be the case, there is a small gallery of photos at the bottom of this post but from here on out, any photos that I don’t use in each post will be posted in the gallery! I do have to ask though that if you would like to use any of my photos, feel free, but please give the proper photo credit!

Great! Now that that’s out of the way on to the experience!

As someone with anxiety, the flight definitely started off a little nerve wracking. It was my first international flight and I knew we would be out over open water for quite a while. It didn’t help that they changed our pilot last minute so they had to redo all of the safety checks while we sat on the plane until they were finished. Better safe than sorry though so I didn’t mind too much. Other than that the flight was super smooth and went quickly! I remember very distinctly flying over the country side as we approached London and seeing all of the flats, I don’t know how I stayed in my seat I was so excited! I landed in Heathrow (which is enormous! So much so that it took about a half an hour just to find my aunt!) and we were off!

First thing, we went straight to our hotel. We ended up staying at the Lancaster London Hotel which was such a nice place! We decided since we were only going to be in London for one day, the hop on hop off bus tours, which honestly are one of the best ways to see as much as you can in a short amount of time! It wasn’t terribly expensive (£35 if I remember correctly.) There are two daytime routes that you can take on the regular red hop on hop off buses. We got to see almost all of the most famous monuments and places in passing and I even got some pretty decent photos!

We stopped off near Westminster Abbey because there were some things nearby we couldn’t just see in passing. We walked around the Westminster area seeing the Abbey and 10 Downing Street (well…what we could see from the gate anyway). Now I’m not sure if I mentioned, but I have a very hefty obsession with the Middle Ages. Seeing the perpendicular gothic (part of the English gothic) style of architecture of Westminster Abbey was just astounding!

As a bit of a digression, as an American, coming from a country where the visible history is still very young, the amount of history that you could see and feel in really all of the places I’ve been to so far in Europe, was almost overwhelming (in a good way) at times. To see buildings and structures older than the city and country I currently live in was so crazy!

After taking some time in Westminster, we crossed the bridge to do probably the most touristy thing we could think of which was to see all of London from the Eye. It didn’t disappoint. It was so cool to see all of the monuments and buildings that you see on TV growing up or all over your friends’ facebooks and instagram accounts! I couldn’t help but to imagine what the city must have looked like throughout history.

We passed back over the bridge to take a walk through Saint James Park. We stopped off on a small bridge to take some pictures and then walked over to Buckingham Palace. It was actually surprisingly quiet that day, I expected many more tourists to be gathered around taking pictures like we were.

At about this point it was starting to get dark so we had to decide where to go from there. We had a handful of pamphlets we had picked up in passing and had a peek through them to see what was nearby and what we could get to in a relatively short amount of time. Now I know, it may seem almost redundant to mention another bus tour, I mean, we had already gone on one right? Well we found a night time bus tour of the city that passed a large handful of places we didn’t get to see on the hop on hop off bus (because we only took one of the two routes.) We decided since we were only there for one day it would be nice to see London by night from the bus. Now of course, you can only expect the bus to be filled with other tourists but what are the chances of running into someone from where YOU live right? Well it happened! I couldn’t help but to laugh and ask where the woman sitting in front of me was from when I heard her say she needed “cwahfee” (coffee). We actually ended up swapping emails and sharing the photos we had taken of each other for the sake of souvenirs!

After the bus ride, we were both exhausted, having barely slept on an overnight flight as well as a ton of walking so we headed, windblown and tired, back to our hotel.

There was just far too much to see in such a short time. Looking back now, I’m not sure why we only decided to stay in London for one day. I think maybe we were more concentrated on seeing where we knew we had more familial history (Ireland and Scotland.) We only briefly got to see the Tower of London but I know for sure when I go back that I will be spending some time there. I have so many places on my list to see! I’m actually considering applying to get my graduate degree in London so who knows, I may even get to live there some day! I can only imagine the sheer joy of spending a few years in this beautiful city exploring every inch of history that I possibly could!

Next stop: Edinburgh!

Tower of London

Saint James Park and Buckingham Palace

My Aunt Dawn (

Big Ben (luckily taken before the renovations began)

The Eye

The River Thames from the Eye

To London! Hi All! Today's post (if it wasn't obvious) is about the first leg of our journey! We only spent one night in London (regretfully only one, there was far too much to see in such a short time) but we slammed it with as much as we could squeeze in!

[thesoulknowsnoborders]

Let the Wanderlust Begin

Hey guys! I’m going to start this post off by saying I’m sorry for the long rambling post. Since it is the first one,  I figure I will catch you all up on how I came to finally realize my dream of travelling abroad. So let me say, this isn’t the story of my first international trip. I have been to both Canada and Mexico (though Mexico I don’t really remember because I was four years old and…

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