BONUS! August 9: 250 feet over Elliott Bay!

Jamie planned a surprise to celebrate Scott's graduation from his teaching master's program. She wanted to do something a bit out of the ordinary, and Scott had no clue until we walked onto the parasailing pier on the Seattle waterfront. Jamie was quite nervous about the whole thing, but it was definitely both thrilling and beautiful. The pictures speak for themselves:

July 20-23: London

London was the final stop of our journey. Even though we were becoming a bit travel weary, there was still plenty to see an do. Jamie had studied for a summer in London, as was eager to show Scott the sights.

Our first day we stopped by the British Museum, which travel writer Rick Steves calls "Encyclopedia Britannica National Park". It features a huge collection spanning the formerly vast British Empire.

Our next stop was St. Paul's cathedral, which is almost as big as St. Peter's in Rome. (St. Peter's even has a mark on the floor showing it is bigger!)

Scott climbed the 530 stairs to the top of the dome, offering a great view of the River Thames:

We also stayed around to enjoy St. Paul's Evensong service -- it was incredible to hear the organ and choir sounds fill that big space!

On our second day, we visited the Tower of London, the former residence of English monarchs. Below we are posing with our comical tour guide, known as a "Beef Eater". These guys are the only ones who now make their residence at the Tower.

On our tour we ran into the parents of our friend Jamie Yates. It's always strange who you meet half way around the world!

Here is Jamie in front of the Tower Bridge:

From the Tower, we traveled up the River Thames to the Parliament, the site of Big Ben:

Things got a bit crazy around Big Ben after the attempted second subway bombing. Police cordoned off the area, so we moved on. We stopped by Buckingham Palace, where it appeared the Queen had just completed some royal function: there were many well dressed people (lots of women in fancy hats) departing.

We also stopped by Herod's department store, and enjoyed some great Indian food for dinner. For the final full day of our trip, we enjoyed some leisurely shopping, and strolled through Hyde Park near our hotel, which includes the new Princess Diana memorial fountain:

On Saturday, we were on a plane back to Seattle. Most definitely, this was a trip we will remember fondly for the rest of our lives!

July 18-19: 1000 miles around Britain

Unbelievably, we drove our rental car 1050 miles in four days! The following map shows our route from Liverpool to Edinburgh, our day trip in the Scottish Highlands on the 18th, and our journey from Edinburgh to London on the 19th:

By the way, it wasn't too difficult adjusting to driving on the left... it takes about a day to feel comfortable. However, being a pedestrian is a different story. On a couple of occasions in Edinburgh, Scott would step off the curb looking left. Jamie would pull him back as a car zoomed by from the right! Thankfully, in London, every crosswalk reminds pedestrians whether they should "Look Left" or "Look Right". Evidently too many tourists were getting hit!

We enjoyed a beautiful day in the Scottish Highlands. We traveled north to Inverness, then west to Loch Ness. There we visited the Castle Urqahart, which now lies in ruins due to wars with foreign invaders and between Scottish clans.

(Look closely in the background and you can see Nessie!)

On our trip south back to Edinburgh, we saw more castles and ruins of old homes and churches:

At times, traveling on some remote backroads of the Highlands, it was only us and sheep for miles around!

On the 19th, our long drive to London took us along the coast of the North Sea, where we visited the Bamburgh Castle:

We arrived in London that evening, 10 minutes before the rental car was due!

July 16-17: Edinburgh

On the evening of the 15th, we flew from Madrid to Liverpool, UK. After spending two weeks in southern Europe, with different languages and hotter temps, arriving in Britain felt almost like coming back home!

Our first stop was Edinburgh, Scotland. We had to dig out our sweater and fleece for the first time, with highs only in the 60s!

We enjoyed walking and shopping along the "Royal Mile", extending from the Holyrood Palace up to Edinburgh castle, which you can see in the background of this picture:

The castle includes the Crown Jewels of Scotland, and below Scott is standing by "Mons Meg", a 15th century cannon that could fire 330-lb stones almost two miles!

We also enjoyed a hike up the 822-ft high "Authur's Seat", offering great views of the city and bay, the Firth or Forth.

July 13-15: Madrid

Madrid is a wonderful city! It feels like one big small town of 4 million people. There is a warm, hospitable energy to the city. The city is well suited for walking, shopping, and people watching. You can safely walk about the streets after midnight with the many people still out and about. There is also an expansive and modern subway system making it easy to get around. Like Toledo, our hotel was near a "Puerta del Sol"... this time, however, this refers to a central Plaza of the city were some main streets intersect:

We were also near the Plaza Mayor, a place that charmed Ernest Hemingway:

On our first full day we visited the Reina Sofia museum of modern art. It has a great collection of Picasso, including his famous Guernica masterpiece. But mostly this visit affirmed our lack of enthusiasm for modern art.

We also visited Retrio Park:

Our second day we visited the Royal Palace, the residence of the Spanish monarchy. (Currently the King and Queen live elsewhere, but use this palace ceremonially.)

The rooms are exceedingly ornate, each unique. Here is the throne room (this picture is a bit blurry because of the time exposure).

The down side was the hot spell while we were in Madrid, with temps pushing 100 degrees! Jamie cooled off in a fountain near the Palace:

On our final night, we enjoyed a visit to a "meson", which are some cave-like taverns near Plaza Mayor featuring tapas and cheesy live music.

The next morning, after our usual morning stop at a nearby cafe for some Cafe con Leche (a Latte) and pastry, and doing our laundry, we were off to our final country, Britian!