I Make Some Random Comparisons

We are officially in Scotland! We spent two nights in Ambleside (in the Lake District) and then set off this morning on a beautiful four-hour drive north. Yesterday we spent the morning visiting famous literary sites in the Lake District: Dove Cottage, the home of William Wordsworth and his family, and Beatrix Potter's farm house. William Wordsworth's home looks out on a beautiful vista of lakes and mountains, which apparently inspired him when he was writing his poems. We drove past the little two bedroom building that WW was born in on our way to Dove Cottage: it was a two-story broom cubboard built on a bridge. Apparently WW's father was trying to avoid being taxed by any counties by building his house on a bridge over the river that split the two counties. Instead, he ended up bing taxed by both! Beatrix Potter's farmhouse has beautiful gardens and a cute little paddock where they keep sheep and rabbits. Also, if you look closely into the garden you can just see Peter Rabbit's ears poking out of the greenery!  It was very fun. I learned that Beatrix Potter also did all of her own illustrations. They had her books open to certain pages by every window, and if you looked closely you could see that the illustration in the book matched the view from the window! We spent the rest of the day watching gymnastics and swimming and synchronized diving. :) Too bad for our men's gymnastics team, but I feel worse for the Ukrainians, who thought they were going to get a medal for all of five minutes. Also, the BBC could learn a few things about Olympic coverage from NBC. 

Our one stop today was Stirling Castle in Stirling, Scotland. It was basically the seat of power in Scotland, set exactly halfway between Glasgow and Edinburgh. It's kind of like the Rock of Cashel in Ireland: set on a giant rock in the middle of the city where everyone can see it. It had a lot of great views and pretty rooms. Our tour guide had a broad Scotish accent, which was fun. Also they were having a bagpipe concert while we walked by, so I got to listen to a Scotish accent with a background of bagpipe music for a little bit. :) Also, the girl at the grocery store asked me if I wanted a "wee bag" for my groceries today. 

I love Scotland.