Ryan starts work Monday

Ryan took a job as a project engineer at a company that designs industrial size welding machines. It's a research and development type design job. He passed up two other job offers. One at an assembly line position putting extras on fire engines and ambulances. The other was at a vintage race place doing exactly what he was doing the last couple years in San Francisco. He decided on the engineering job but he felt like it was nice to know that if he does not like it the race place would probably give him a job. So he starts Monday and could use your prayers!

Edinburgh

We did a three day weekend in Edinburgh, Scotland this past weekend. We left on the train early Friday AM. It was about 5 hours on the train through some beautiful English countryside. We arrived in Edinburgh a little after noon on Friday and walked to our hostel to check in.

Our first Scottish bank note and our hostel keys.

It was a little rainy and very windy, but we probably should have expected that when going sightseeing in Scotland in February. The Edinburgh castle was right outside the door of our hostel, so we made our way there first. A statue of William Wallace greeted us at one of the outside gates to the castle. We took a guided tour of part of the castle and then wandered around it and saw the crown jewels and a lot of old weapons.

Kelly being blown away right outside of the hostel. Castle in the distance

Sir William Wallace himself

View out the canon portal at the castle

It rained hard on and off all afternoon, but it made for great sky views.

A quick storm at the castle

Saturday we went on a bus tour of the highlands and Loch Ness. It was about 400 miles total, a 12 hour trip. It was really interesting to see so much more of Scotland then just Edinburgh though. We didn't see Nessie, but we did see the ruins of Ulquhart castle on the banks of Loch Ness.

Ulquhart castle ruins and Loch Ness in the background

Sunday we got up and went hiking. There is a peak over Edinburgh called Arthur's Seat that is about 250m up. It was not such a long hike, but pretty much straight up. The views at the top were well worth the effort but the wind was so strong we were hanging onto the rocks at the top so as not to be blown off of the peak. But at least it was sunny!

Arthur's seat from ground level

Kelly at the top of Arthur's seat (hanging on tight!)

amazing view from Arthur's seat

We went to church later in the morning at St. Giles cathedral. This is where John Knox, the reformer, preached his sermons during the reformation.

St. Giles cathedral

We had lunch at a pub and finally had our traditional haggis, tatties (mashed potatoes), and neeps (turnips). Kelly even had vegetarian haggis. We got a couple of souvenirs and headed back to the bus station for our long ride home.

haggis, neeps, and tatties (clockwise from left)

London

Yesterday we went down to London for the day and played tourist. It was quite cold, but really sunny so it was a great day for sightseeing. We drove in to an end of the underground and parked there and then took the tube into the city center. Our first stop was the National Gallery and fountain at Trafalgar square.

Ryan by the Lions in Trafalgar Square - National Gallery in background

Then we walked down the Palace mall to see Buckingham Palace. In the winter they do the changing of the guards every other day instead of every day, and of course yesterday was not the day for it. But that didn't stop us and the other hundreds of people from going to see the palace.

Buckingham Palace

After the palace we had a picnic lunch at St. John's park next to the palace and then spent the next couple of hours in the Churchill museum and war rooms. This is the underground headquarters where WWII was run in Britain. It has been pretty much left as it was at the end of the war and then turned into a museum so it is a really cool piece of history to see.
Next we walked by Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, and the House of Parliament.

Big Ben and the Parliament Building

Kelly in front of Westminster Abbey

Next walked across the London Bridge and then went to see the Tower of London.

Tower of London

Us in front of Tower Bridge

We had planned to make a quick stop at St. Paul's cathedral and then go see the British Museum. However, when we got to St. Paul's, they were just closing down sightseeing to start the Evensong service. We happened to get there just in time to be ushered into the choir stalls for the service. So we stayed for the service, sitting right next to the choir in the most enormous and lavishly decorated church either of us had ever been. It was a really amazing experience.

The moon over St. Paul's cathedral dome

When we left it was too late to make it to the British museum so we headed back to the city center. We walked around Covent Garden market, had a bite of pizza from a street vendor, and went to see Picadilly Circus. We also found the London chinatown. It was decorated for the New Year celebration. It made us a little homesick for San Francisco!

London Chinatown

Then we headed back home. Today we got new sofas for our sitting room, which means until we sell the others (Kelly wasn't crazy about the color of the first ones we got) we have 3 sofas and 2 armchairs in our little sitting room. Other than that, we are settling in quite nicely. We love the house we are in now. And we have found a great church to go to in Cambridge so we are excited about that. We are hoping to attend their 20's to 30's group this Wednesday night.

Our Little Car (open for naming suggestions...)

The Unveiling (for real)

Here are some pictures of the house finally. It's mostly clean now. Today we actually put our clothes and other stuff away in closets, so it feels like we are moved in. Pictures of the car will have to wait for another post. No pictures of the second bedroom because that's where all of our stuff went to clean up for the pictures of the rest of the place. :-)
Last night we got to enjoy Kelly's parents' Christmas gift to us and go to a play here in Cambridge. We had box seats so it was totally amazing.
Today was a lovely sunny day so we spent quite a bit of time outside (note the rare blue sky behind the church). We cycled around for a while and everyone was out on the green with their dogs and kids playing games and eating ice cream. Very spring-like.

(small) bathroom

bedroom

bedroom again

back garden

sitting room (and Ryan)

sitting room again (Ryan loves being in pictures)

kitchen

more kitchen

house front

view from front door

back garden

Yeah, about those pictures...

So we didn't exactly get to that this week. I promise this weekend. By then the house will be clean anyway, so things will look better. We just bought a couch and 2 chairs last night, so we'll have sitting room when people come to visit.
We've had a bit of a crazy week (thus the not getting to the house pictures).
We bought a car (yay!). It's a really cute little cracker box. 1.1.L engine, 60 miles/gallon. We don't actually have it yet, b/c we're waiting for some of our USD that we transferred over here to clear in the bank, so we just made a deposit and are picking it up on Sat. Pics of that too this weekend.
Ryan had an interview and was offered an engineering design job. He is going to ask for one more meeting at the company to find out some more details before he decides if he wants to do that. But exciting prospect anyway.
We booked a trip to Edinburgh, Scotland for 2 weekends from now.
So anyway, more later and lots of pictures this weekend!