View from my hotel window, Marina Del Rey

Marina Marriott, Marina Del Rey, CA

February 16th, 17th and 18th 2007

View from my hotel window, Brookdale, Ca

Brookdale Lodge, Brookdale, Ca

February 10th 2007

A view from my hotel window Hollywood, CA

Here is the view from my hotel in Hollywood, CA (January 20th and 21st):

A view from my hotel window

I travel a lot. So I thought I would start cataloguing the view from what ever hotel I am staying at, so you can travel with me. I will add the dates as well (if I remember them). I warn you some views are great and some will probably be seriously boring, but lets see where this takes us.

OK, ready to start?

Here was the view from my hotel window in New York City (January 13th and 14th)

Here are some pictures of my great neice.

Cute, no?

I brought back some Jaffa Cakes back from Scotland for a friend.

I took a look at the box before I sent it off and noticed something.

Is this an actual problem in the UK?

If so, we really need to start exporting more drugs over there.

Scotland - The final Chapter

Friday and Saturday

We returned to the old part of town on Friday to do more shopping, this time I remembered my camera. We walked up Victoria street and returned to Greyfriars Kirk, this time in the day light. We walked around and looked all the graves and found Voldemort's grave :) as well as the inspiration for Hogwarts school, well not in the graveyard but next to it, we saw a guy going a photo shoot, which just annoyed us since we was taking pictures in from of on of the most impressive graves so we couldn't get close to it. After this we just shopped and returned home to relax, which we had gotten very good at by this point.
Saturday we went back into town to go on an underground tour. The tour was called "The Real Mary King's Close" and consisted of three closes, or streets, that had been blocked off when the building on top of them were built. It was an interesting look into the lives of people in the 17th and 18th century in Edinburgh, even with some of cheesy effects and props that were used. There is one room the contains a room were a young girl is often seen. In the past she has been seen crying and asks people for a doll she has lost. So, now people bring in dolls and toys and leave them for her. Now people who see her say she looks happy when they see her. The company that runs the tours now collects the newer dolls and any money that is left and donates it to a local children hospital. We went home after the tour and repacked and spent our last night talking and watching TV.

The trip home was way too long and I got a little worried when the captain of the plane from London to San Francisco told us his name was captain Vader. Yikes! When I arrived in San Francisco I got a door-to-door van to take me home. He got lost in El Cerrito dropping some people off so it took an hour and half to finally get home. I was exhausted but managed to stay up until almost nine before finally falling into bed.

I loved Scotland and would love to return and see more of the country, maybe I wont get sick next time.

If you want to see the rest of my pictures go here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayitaazul/sets/72157594338388821/

Scotland - Rosslyn Chapel, ghost towns, whiskey and Jack Russels

Thursday

We arrived on the Royal Mile near the castle for our tour at 9:30. The bus was small and had really uncomfortable seats that were made for much smaller butts than mine. There were a mix of people on the bus, a couple from Ohio was sitting in front of me and another could from New Zealand was beside me. Behind was a young man and his parents from Scotland, they were showing his aunt from Canada around the country. The rest of the people were English and Scottish. Our bus driver Michael was a rotund, jovial Scot that talked incessantly about everything except the tour. By the time we were ten miles out on the road, half the bus was ready to revolt when he told his tenth story about the people he knew, the town he grew up in and his Jack Russel Megan.

We arrived at Rosslyn Chapel first and departed the bus to tour around. It was about 8 pounds to see the chapel. It had been free before all the De Vinci Code stuff had started all the hoopla about the chapel, but now with all the people wanting to see it they were charging. I really can't blame them, more people equals more damage, and why not charge if it means being able to restore the chapel? The chapel is beautiful. Very ornate and detailed. There is a window that supposedly shows corn about 100 years before it came to the old world...hmmm...Interesting...It did look like corn, but who knows. By the time we left the chapel it was pissing down rain outside. We decided to walk down the hill to try to get a glimpse of the castle that was supposed to be in the area, but no luck, we couldn't locate were it was.
After a short trip on the bus we arrived at the templar church. The church was a ruin in the middle of a graveyard. We were told that the ruin that was there really didn't have anything to do with the templars, but was built on the site of a templar church. Still very atmospheric, especially in the rain.
We then headed out to the town of Gifford for lunch, it was still raining and the town was almost completely deserted. Sharon said it reminded her of the town in the Stepford Wives. It just had a really weird vibe to it. After lunch we went over to the church and looked around, followed by a stroll around town looking at nothing really.
We then headed to Glenkinchie Distillery for a tour. It was interesting to see how whiskey was made, but it was really hot and I felt light headed for much of the tour. After the tour we got a taste of the whiskey and were set free in the gift shop. It was way too expensive so I skipped it and headed back to the bus. At this point we headed home. This tour was much more reasonable in regard to time then the Loch Ness on we had taken. It was from 9:45 to 5:30 so we didn't feel completely dead afterwards. I really liked this one and would love to explore this area of Scotland more with its farm lands and rolling hills.

Scotland - The Darkening

Tuesday night

We showed up for the City of the Dead tour at 7:45 for the 8:15 tour. We were the first ones there, I thought that it might be a small tour, but by 8 pm there were about 30 people including a group of rather rowdy teenagers. I was just hoping that I would be about to hear the tour guide. Our tour guide was Rosie, she was outgoing and seemed to really enjoy what she did. At 8:15 we started the tour. We went around the corner to parliament square and Rosie told us some of the history of Edinburgh. She described the with hunts and all matter of fun torture history. After this we made our way down the road to Greyfriars Kirk Graveyard. It was very creepy at night, but being that I love graveyards I was not afraid at all. We walked around the graveyard and heard tales of ghosts and and the people who had had experiences with them. I was used as an example twice once as a murder victim and again because I have had supernatural experiences I was sent onto an empty crypt to see if I could conduct some activity. I didn't in fact I felt the most calm I had felt on the whole tour. This took place in a part of the graveyard called the conventor's prison which is locked all the time except for when the tours go in. It is supposed to be too dangerous in there, Rosie says because of the ghost activity, but more likely to preserve the crypts. It was a little strange in there, but not enough to scare me at all. After this we headed back towards the front of the graveyard stopping at a large crypt the supposedly had a lot of ghost activity. I really enjoyed the tour and being able to go into a graveyard at night. I would recommend it to anyone that comes to Edinburgh.

Wednesday

I don't have much to write about Wednesday, we went out shopping, I forgot my camera, I was not pleased. Since I didn't have my camera we decided to come back to the historic old town on Friday and moved on to the new town to do our shopping. I bought a lot of stuff, I am sure you will see some of it soon. :)