Seven Minutes

In an effort to save money for travelling, Scooter and I eat one of three dinners every night. We have found that the cheapest things to make here are pasta, curry, and stir-fry. We eat variations of these things like pasta with red sauce one night and pasta with pesto the next night; curry with frozen vegetables and curry without; stir-fry with chicken one night and stir-fry without the next night. It can get pretty boring, but when you are hungry in the end it doesn't really matter. If it means more travelling then it is worth it. One bonus I have found to eating this way is that the grocery list is set. I have adopted many English habits while we have been here, but going to the grocery store 4 and 5 times a week is one thing I have refused to do. It seems such a waste of time. So, I go the grocery store once a week and take the same list that I have been using forever. This week I was able to do a weeks worth of shopping in seven minutes. From the time I got off the bus at the grocery store to the time I finished at check out - seven minutes. It may be monotonous, but it is cheap and fast!

Wiltshire

This weekend we also visited sights around Wiltshire which is a nearby county.

We went to Stonehenge which is pretty amazing. It is in the middle of some very beautiful countryside.

Salisbury has the tallest church tower in England. It is so heavy that it is causing the floor to sink a little bit.

I went to Stourhead gardens on my study abroad five years ago and loved it and have wanted to go back since then. It is a huge manor that had an owner with a passion for gardening. He dammed up his stream, made a lake, and landscaped it all. It is wonderful for wandering around. They filmed part of Pride and Prejudice (the newest version) at this building in the garden. (The part where Mr. Darcy proposes for the first time in the rain.)

We went to another ancient stone circle at Avebury. This stone circle probably served the same purpose as Stonehenge, but the circle is much larger - in fact, it is so big that it surrounds a tiny hamlet. We probably liked this even better than Stonehenge because you could walk around and among the rocks.

It was a great weekend and we can't wait for the next chance we have to rent a car again and see more of Britain!

By the Way

As if driving on the left side of the road wasn't confusing enough - there are tons of these painted on the road...

It made me think I was on the wrong side, which I wasn't... but I also was in a way... See how confusing it is!?

Devon and Cornwall

So far this weekend we have:

Driven through some of the moors in England

Stumbled across some wild ponies while walking through the moor

Had an impromptu barbeque

Eaten a traditional English breakfast. including marmite and black pudding

Visited the Eden Project

Walked through a "rainforest"

Went to Camelot

Visited King Arthur's birthplace and castleThe weekend isn't over yet, though...

Road Trip

Tomorrow we are setting out on our first road trip within England. We have spent so much time travelling to other countries that we have seen almost nothing of our own surrounding area (this was quite intentional, however, because the weather has been so miserable). Now that the weather is so gorgeous we thought we would venture out. However, venturing out in England is not as easy as it sounds because it involves driving.... stick shift.... on the left side of the road...
Pray for us! We might need it!

We are going to the counties of Devon and Cornwall to see Dartmoor and the coast.

Siena

Siena is beautiful town in Tuscany. Our friend Dave had lived there before, so he showed us around.It has a great central piazza that slopes down toward the town hall. There were tons of people hanging out in the piazza at every time of day. See how it slopes? You can see the bell tower from all over town because it is so tall. Scooter found a car that he wants - a sporty Smart Car. Look how tiny it is! The duomo in Siena is gorgeous from the outside... and the inside... There were the most amazing manuscripts that monks had made hundreds of years ago. They were so detailed! They must have used magnifying glasses.

Cinque Terre

This was one of the best days of our trip. The "Cinque Terre" means "five lands" and is an area of the coast that has five beautiful and charming towns within less than 10km. We spent all day and hiked between all of the towns. I can't even describe how beautiful it was. We were just exclaiming all day how unbelievable it was. I must admit, however, that we stopped for gelato a couple times.
I loved this lone red rock among the sea of gray rocks.


I loved this hand painted sign


Just like on Sicily the wildflowers were in full bloom. It was incredible. Just imagine this many flowers in every direction.




This was the craziest flavor of gelato we ate - chocolate with chili pepper. It tasted like normal chocolate, but then had a spicy after-taste that left some heat in your mouth. Yummy!



This is the city, Riomaggiore, where we spent the night.


This is Manarola.


This city is Vernazza. After dinner we climbed up the trail in the dark for some night views. Beautiful!

Pisa

We randomly decided to stop in Pisa to climb the infamous leaning tower. When our study abroad group went five years ago we didn't have time to climb it. We were so glad that we did!It really does lean so much.

Obviously many thousands of people have walked up this tower...
It was so disconcerting to climb it as well because you are inside and can't see out. On one side you are trying to compensate for the lean of the tower by leaning yourself, but as you spiral up, your compensation starts making you tip over. I finally had to brace myself against the wall on either side of me to keep my balance enough to climb quickly.

Trying to not fall off the top...

The Pisa cathedral is often overlooked but shouldn't be because it is stunning.
Couldn't resist the classic cheesy pose...

Sicily

We took the ferry from the Italian "boot" to Sicily, the "football" that the boot is kicking. It was beautiful! Driving through the countryside was gorgeous. We kept stopping the van for photos.


We saw lots of amazing Greek ruins in Agrigento.


The wildflowers were in bloom and absolutely carpeting the countryside.


We spent the night in a medieval hilltop town called Erice, the view from the city walls was breathtaking.


Again, the water is amazingly blue!


This was the huge van that we drove around. You should have seen the looks we got as we tried to fit this huge van down tiny alleys. Luckily, Dave had some amazing stick-shift skills.



Look at that water!


The gelato was so good it made us feel like doing this all the time...


This is the famous cathedral at Monreale. The picture doesn't do it justice because all the gold images on the walls are made of mosaics. It was such a unique cathedral and was one of our favorite that we have ever seen (and that is saying something, because we have seen a lot of them!)