*****This post ended up being quite long I think I accidently hit the "medium sized pictures" instead of small, but anyway, there is also UK 2011 Part One on the next page if you scroll to the bottom and hit "older posts"*****
I had mixed emotions as we left Stirling...a little sad because I thought that place was one of the coolest places on earth, but also excited because we would be moving on to see some new and exciting places. Edinburgh (Eburgh) was our next destination. So, after filling our stomachs the second time with some good breakfast at Ravenswood, we headed out. We had read that Eburgh had a nice park and ride and since we wanted to avoid the traffic there at all costs, we found the airport park and ride and had also pre-booked a hotel for that night. We easily found the park and ride and loaded onto the bus which took us down to Princess Street, right near the Eburgh Castle. The bus was cool, it was a double-decker and it was fun to ride and look at all the sites going in to town, which was 100 times less stress than looking at a map and trying to figure out where to park. I had talked with my friend Tom who had been to Eburgh and he said it was one of his favorite cities that he's been to, so I had high expectations...I was not disappointed. Just after exiting the bus, the ooh's and aah's started! There was a beautiful park there on Princess Street (well, actually many beautiful parks) that was just under the Eburgh Castle. We all were in awe as we looked around...the blend of old buildings and the beautiful park were truly something to behold! Mom wanted to walk around the park a bit, so we saw just a little and then headed up the hill towards the castle. I had hoped we'd have a little more time later in the day to get back to the park, and fortunately we did. The walk up the hill to the castle and the Royal Mile was a nice one, with amazing views down onto the city and out into the Firth of Forth (basically the sea just north of Eburgh). We got up to the castle and they were building a stadium for the music festival they are holding later this summer, it was a bit of an eye sore, but not too bad. I thought it was funny with some of the most beautiful buildings I'd ever seen around, there were people posing in front of the blue plastic seats of the temporary stadium...to each his own I guess. The line out of the castle looked extremely long and I had wished I had pre-purchased tickets the night before...I had thought about it and didn't go through with it. Note to anyone visiting the castle in Eburgh...PRE-BUY YOUR TICKETS!! HA! The line actually moved along pretty good, we were able to get to the counter within about an hour, so not awful, but just kind of a waste of time. The castle was really awesome, but maybe it was the fact that there were SOOO many people there, I just seemed to enjoy the inside of Stirling Castle a little better. Still, the views there were really amazing as well, just much different looking down on the city as opposed to out into the countryside near Stirling. There has been a royal castle on that spot since around the 12th century. It was interesting, there was an area underground where they hid the crown jewels during WWII when they thought Germany might attack there. Obviously that didn't happen, but I thought that was an interesting piece of history. They actually have the real crown jewels there now, along with some sword and other things, but in that area they wouldn't let people take pictures. I really liked the castle, but, after just visiting the Stirling Castle, I was mildly disappointed, maybe just too many people or too touristy feeling, I'm not sure. It definitely was cool though and I enjoyed the time there. We stayed a few hours checking out the sites inside the castle area and then headed down the Royal Mile which is a collection of historical buildings and tourist shops. There were many street performers, including musicians, magicians and people dressed in just weird costumes (one woman was like an 8 foot golden queen). I was REALLY happy when we heard some bagpipe players, and it seemed like they were true performers, not just playing some squeaky noise to make a few bucks. They were older gentlemen and I enjoyed hearing them play, I've always loved the bagpipes. Mom actually had a chance to jump in and take a picture with them, so I thought that was a lot of fun. We made our way down the Royal Mile, which starts at the Eburgh Castle and ends at the Holyrood Palace. The palace is the official residence of the monarch in Scotland and where the Queen stays when she visits Eburgh. The only bad thing is that there was a gate in front and some delivery vans and such there, so it was nearly impossible to get a good picture of the Palace. One of my favorite things in that area were the mountains just behind the palace where many people had climbed and surely had a gorgeous view of the city. We didn't make it up that way, it was quite a bit out of the way and we had already done quite a bit of walking (and we weren't but halfway done! HA) I really wanted to walk up to Calton Hill above the city, but thanks to some bum directions from the lady at the Holyrood Palace, we walked about a mile or so out of the way, but eventually made it up there. The views of the city were really cool from on top, and there were many people there just relaxing and enjoying the afternoon. We walked back down the hill and found an interesting cemetery (for some reason I love old cemeteries) and so we took a few pictures there too. Just walking back down Princess Street was a real treat, with all the old buildings and just the feeling of the city I really really enjoyed it. We made our way back to that park at the base of the castle and walked around through there just enjoying the flowers and the beauty. It was getting near dinner time and I found a little restaurant we tried out, the food was pretty good, I got Chicken Tikka Masala, which is actually a British Indian dish...it was quite tasty, I just found it funny that they served it along with chips (french fries). One thing I noticed in the UK, EVERYTHING comes with chips...everything! I know the US gets a bad rap for having tons of obese people, well let me tell you...the US ain't got nothing on the UK! Anyway, suffice to say that if you like french fries, then the UK is a great place to visit! HA! We made it back to the pickup spot for the Park and Ride and headed back to the airport and our hotel at around 10 PM. We had had a wonderful day, enjoyed the beautiful city of Edinburgh and had really had a nice day. I have to agree with my friend Tom and concur that it truly is an amazing city. I easily could have spent three or four days there! The hotel (Travelodge) was very near the airport, and I was thrilled that we made it that day with no mishaps on the traffic side of things, we easily found the park & ride and easily found the hotel. The lady in Stirling was right, Edinburgh is MUCH more expensive than most places, that little Travelodge we stayed at was 90 pounds, (without free WiFi or breakfast) and not half as nice as Ravenswood was!
At this point we really changed our plans from what we had originally thought. We had originally planned to head down the east coast of England and then into Stoke Upon Trent, Birmingham, etc. However, we had gladly spent more time in Scotland then we originally thought, so for the sake of saving time, we headed back towards the expressway. I had hoped to see a little more of the east coast then we were able to, but I can't imagine I would have liked it as much as Scotland, so I'm OK that we didn't. We were able to enjoy some beautiful scenery as we headed back to the expressway down the A702. I really loved the area near Biggar, as it had many rolling hills and grazing animals.
Our drive back down the expressway was nice and relaxed, just enjoying the scenery as we went. I helped drive just a little more, Dad was kind of tired and I figured on the expressway there would be minimal chance of anything happening. It was kind of fun they had an England sign in the same area across the expressway from the Scotland sign, so we stopped and got a few pictures there as well.
We got down around Stoke Upon Trent at around early evening time, and tried to find some of the areas that were important for Mom with her family history. Stoke and the surrounding area is well know for pottery, and so we were able to locate the town of Burslem, which is located just a few miles from Stoke. In this area, Mom's great grandma (I believe) had worked and painted pottery, so we tried to find some pottery places there. It was just after 6 PM and unfortunately the place we found was closed. Sadly, I have to admit I just didn't much like the area, it seemed quite run down and it was about the only place on the trip I just didn't feel very comfortable. I felt bad because I know Mom was happy to be in the place where our grandma had worked, but we decided to move on the the Derby/Denby area and camp for the night. We were able to find a cheap (yay, cheap!!) hotel in Derby that was pretty cute and clean for around 30 pounds. The funniest thing about this little hotel room (and I do mean little, it just had a stall for the toilet and the shower opened up out into the room! HA) was that it had a bunk bed over the double bed. I've never seen that in a hotel room, so it made it quite fun I thought. Anyway, we got a good nights sleep there, and the next morning headed to Denby, which was another area where some of Mom's family had lived and worked. I was happy with how cute and fun of an area Denby turned out to be, and I was happy they had a pottery village we were able to go to and enjoy. I know Mom enjoyed looking around there and I think she was able to find some things for her sisters, which she had hoped to do. The village was really cute and clean and we spent the morning there. The cafeteria had some nice food and also free WiFi so my PLAN was to map out where I wanted to go in Birmingham (Bham). After eating we stopped by one of Mom's family churches and we were able to find some tombstones with the Hunt family name on them. Not sure exactly who they were, but we found the church regardless. It was in a cool area, and like I said before, the area around Denby was very nice and I was happy to think I had family from around there.
I had everything all written down and planned for when we hit Bham, but sadly things QUICKLY fell apart when I told my dad to take a wrong turn. Bham is a city over 1,000,000 people and the second most populous city in the UK behind London, so...needless to say we were overmatched! HA! We drove frantically for a bit, trying to get back to where we needed to be, but it was impossible. Now, as I've said before, in the States no problem, we could have found it, but this WASN'T the States, and there seemed to be roundabouts and turn offs everywhere you looked. Finally Dad just pulled over and we took a breath for a bit, trying to figure out our game plan. I was pretty frustrated with the roads, and for a few minutes I was ready to admit my defeat and just head north to Wales. I had about 10 roads we needed to turn on to find St. Edburgha Church, and I knew that wasn't going to happen. I walked around for a bit, trying to think of a plan. Could we just walk there? HA! Argh...finally, I thought, "let's just get a cab!" So, I asked Mom and Dad what they thought, and they agreed, let's just do that. We found a corner store and asked the guy to call a cab for us. He did and I told the driver where we were going, "Yes, he said. I know where that church is, it's about 5 miles from here." So, we got in, and he took off. Amazing how much less stress it was just riding with some guy who knew where he was going. He was an affable gentleman originally from the Kashmir area of Pakistan, he said he had been in BHam from the 1970s and thought it was cool that we had gone all that way just to see some family churches and see where our ancestors had lived. After a bit (and about 277 turns) we arrived at the St. Edburgha Church at long last! This church is special to the Holyoak family as it is where my great great great great grandfather George Holyoak, Sr. married his bride Sarah Green. It was almost unreal to be in a place where I knew my ancestors had also walked! It came with slight disappointment as the steeple was currently being worked on, so they had a huge blue tarp draped over it...also there was no cemetery there at this time. I'm not sure if they dug people up and moved them, but according to my records some of our family were supposedly buried there. Anyway, it was a lot of fun to look around the church, and the taxi driver patiently looked around with us, he even seemed a little bit excited. He said that someday he hoped to take his family back to Pakistan and do the same thing we were doing, and he asked me to include him in this blog so he could be a small part of our trip and our family history adventure. His name was Mr. Hussein and after looking around the church for a bit we headed back to the place where our car was parked. Mr. Hussein wished us well on the rest of our journey, and I hoped that our ancestors were proud of us for not giving up, and trying to find their church. I had really hoped to stop by Villa Park (home of Aston Villa Football Club) and see the stadium, but the chance of us finding it was minimal. As we headed for the expressway actually I did get to see the stadium as we drove past, and since I am just kind of a johnny-come-lately soccer fan, that was enough for me.
The drive up to Wales was incredible! I was mildly disappointed that they didn't have a welcome sign on the road, as you can tell I enjoy getting pictures near there, but what can we do?! HA! The roads there was VERY narrow as we made our way up the mountains, and of course right next to my window was a rock wall for what seemed like 30 miles. Winding up the road, I noticed the temperature kept dropping too, it was around 57 degrees the first time we stopped near a beautiful little church. I noticed several little houses had their stoves burning! The beauty of Wales is almost too hard to describe, as much as I had loved Scotland and England, Wales just seemed to really amaze me. I loved the hills and how rural it felt up in the area we were. We had booked a night at the Ruthin Castle and I hoped it would be amazing. It was fun to see the signs on the road using Welsh and English, and it certainly felt like we weren't in England anymore. As we arrived in the little town of Ruthin, we spotted the castle up on top of the hill. We found our way to entrance after winding up some NARROW streets, (I don't even know how people can drive on those streets!). Driving into there was such a cool feeling, through the gates the castle was surrounded by woodlands and the castle really seemed to be on its own there. Upon entering the lobby, I was already amazed and was sure the castle would more than meet our expectation. We got our stuff and checked into our rooms, I had the junior room and Mom and Dad had a castle room I think it was called. Anyway, the rooms were fabulous and the view out my window was great, it looked out into some green fields and the forrest near the castle. We toured the grounds for a bit and then started to get hungry. Mom said she wanted to eat dinner at the castle and I was glad we decided to do that. The dining room was very elegant and quiet, had some nice music playing and beautiful flowers. I ordered some trout which was just exquisite and Mom and Dad both ordered the duck. I think they enjoyed it a lot as well. The castle was huge, and there were reading rooms, game rooms and many different dining halls. I got a great nights sleep and we awoke in the morning for some more touring of the grounds. We walked around for a few hours and must have taken 1000 pictures between Mom and I! HA! The grounds were amazing, the greenery and old castle walls were really interesting to see. There were also a lot of peacocks, rabbits and other wildlife on the property. Ruthin Castle is definitely one of the coolest places I have ever stayed in my life. We all raved about how fun and cool it was. If you find yourself in Wales, I promise you will love the castle there in Ruthin and the prices compared to a lot of the UK were actually really good (I think my room was 50 pounds and Mom and Dad's room was around 75).
The week seemed to go sooooo fast and starting our last full day together felt a little sad as we headed towards the town of Conwy. The drive to there was also beautiful and as we neared Conwy you could see the Sea of Ireland on the north hand side of the road. We got to Conwy quickly from Ruthin and wanted to spend our last day out of the car and enjoying the sites. Conwy was a really cool little seaside town which is well know for the walls the encircle the entire city. It was a lot of fun, you can walk along the walls the entire way, so we walked up to the place where you can get on the wall and enjoyed the uneven walk around! HA! The city itself was very charming, it had a lot of cool little shops and restaurants. I also noticed there was a barber shop named Jensen's Barber (my sister's married name is Jensen) so that was kind of fun too. We spent lots of time in the shops and finally Mom got to eat her fish and chips! HA! She seemed pretty happy and so did Dad. I opted for the meat pie which was delicious, the longer I've been in Korea the less I like fried foods, and the fish looked pretty oily to me. The little restaurant was nice and we enjoyed a good meal there, as well as buying a lot of things for souvenirs. I really liked the Wales flag, and so I bought almost all of my souvenirs in Wales. The people there were really friendly and I really loved that little country. The weather there was also nice, a little breezy, but it was a lovely day to enjoy seeing a historic town like that.
As the day was winding down we decided to head back to Manchester and get ready for my flight out the next day. I was hopeful that on the way back in to England we might see a sign for welcome to Wales, but...there wasn't. We got back to Manchester and just had a nice evening enjoying discussing all the fun things we had done. I decided since dad was such a Road Warrior and had braved over 1000 miles of driving on the wrong side, around roundabouts and everything else, he deserved a nice picture with his chariot! We were even joking around and I got him to flex his muscles...he had came, he had seen, he had CONQUERED the roads of the UK! I also had a chance to finally see the lovely tea pot Mom had bought for herself in Denby. I wished it was easier to get things like that home, I would have liked to have bought some pottery as well.
The next morning was of course a sad one, as I had to arise early and get back over the airport for my long flight back to Korea. There were tears shed at the airport as there always are when you leave the ones you love. I know it might be some time again until I see Mom and Dad and that's hard. I'd like to take this time to thank them for joining me on this AMAZING trip. They were both so wonderful to travel with, this certainly was my favorite trip I've ever taken. They are just so easy and fun to travel with. My Mom has to be one of the most enthusiastic people ever, I loved to hear her say "Oh guys, look over there!" all through the trip. She was lovely and enthusiastic and it made it a lot of fun. To my Dad, thanks for being so pleasant and easy to get along with, my Dad has to be one of the kindest, easiest to get along with guys in the world. He likes to do things that make others happy, and I appreciated his willingness to do anything we wanted to do on the trip (even the day we must have walked at least 5 miles around Edinburgh...no joke!). He was always smiling and happy. I love my parents and I'm so thankful and happy that we did this trip. I will never forget the times we shared here, and I hope it was just as special for you both too. These will be memories I carry with me through my whole life. I love you both!
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” Mark Twain
