Conquering Ben Nevis

For our second bank holiday in May, we decided to head up to Scotland to hike Ben Nevis.  

Ben Nevis is the tallest mountain in the UK at just over 1,300 meters.  I didn’t think that Ben Nevis would be that big of a deal because Mt Franklin in El Paso is almost 2,200 meters and I did that when I was a really unfit freshman in high school.  But it was a big deal!  And I think that the reason for that is mostly due to the weather conditions in Northern Scotland.  The only thing we ever had to worry about while hiking in TX was bringing enough water and sunscreen, but climbing in Scotland requires a lot more preparation!

We invited a bunch of our friends to join us, and the Tarts, Jordan, Laura, and her boyfriend, Alex, were able to come along!  Laura and Alex live in Scotland, so they met us on Saturday afternoon.

We met Jordan, Paul, and Alyson at Heathrow on Friday after work.  Poor Alyson had just returned from a business trip to Istanbul that afternoon, so she spent all day flying and hanging out in airports.  And unfortunately for us, but especially for her, our flight was delayed several hours because of the plane that caught fire and had to make an emergency landing at Heathrow earlier in the day.

We finally landed in Glasgow at 1:00 AM and were so thankful that we hadn’t booked the rental car or our hotel in the highlands until the following day.  We had planned to just spend the night at the Holiday Inn Express next to the Glasgow airport before getting on the road Saturday morning.  That was some good planning on our part!

After breakfast, we were off to the highlands! 

The highlands are so, so beautiful.  It’s hard to capture just how amazing the scenery is in photos, but we tried.  Saturday was a perfect day with clear blue skies and warm temperatures.  We drove past Loch Lomond, the largest Scottish loch, on the way up north and were amazed by how blue the water was and the gorgeous mountains surrounding the lake.

Our hotel was in Glencoe, which is another stunning area of the highlands.

Three Sisters of Glencoe

The misty view of the loch on Sunday morning from our family room that we shared with Laura and Alex. 

Driving back on Monday afternoon, it was raining and it was amazing to see how much the landscape changes with the weather.  Where the land had been dry and green just a couple of days earlier, there were now dozens of roaring waterfalls cascading down the mist-covered mountains.

On Saturday afternoon we drove up the scenic A82 highway (which I mispronounced once and no one let me live down the rest of the trip) to Loch Ness to try and spot Nessie.  Loch Ness is the second-largest lake in Scotland but the largest by volume.  It holds more freshwater than all of the lakes in England and Wales combined.   Unfortunately Nessie didn’t want to come out and say hi, but we did get to tour Urquhart Castle on the shores of the loch. 

We met up with Laura and Alex on the drive back to Glencoe, and had dinner before turning in early to get plenty of rest before the big hike!

The sun starting to set around 10 PM near Ft. William

Alyson and I both write blogs and Jordan is in love with his Go-Pro, which takes amazing videos, so the hike was well-documented.  After our fifth stop in the first 20 minutes, Alex and Laura were probably thinking 'What have we gotten ourselves into?!  This is going to take 13 hours at this pace!' But I'm glad we have the photos and videos because they are beautiful and hilarious!

Great photo-bomb by Paul!

So much energy at the start!

On the way back down, it started to drizzle and it made this path much more slippery and hazardous!

It got a bit chilly near the top but Alex was prepared!

The waterfall where we could fill up our water bottles with fresh, ice-cold, mountain water

By now our legs were starting to ache a little...

... but when I saw literally everyone and their dog (including this cute little guy called Fred) climbing the mountain, I didn't feel as tired and kept on trekking!

We did NOT expect that much snow at the top.  Those towers of rocks are there to keep people from getting too close to the north face.  When it's that foggy and wet, there are accidents.

And there it is - the sheer drop off the north face

David, get away from there!

This is probably my favorite video of the day.  It wasn't until I got to the top of Ben Nevis that I wiped out!  Good thing Jordan was there to face-plant into, and he just happened to have the camera rolling...  And at the end of the video, you'll notice Jordan gets a little confused and calls World Sherry Day, 'World Sharing Day.'  Mark the date - May 26th is now officially World Sharing Day!

This video may trump the summit!  Paul collides with poor Jordan, and they both have to hobble down the rest of the mountain. ;)

After 8 hours, we had conquered Ben Nevis and it was time to celebrate at the pub at the bottom of the mountain, aptly named the Ben Nevis Pub.  We had lots of beers, ciders, and WATER!  David and Jordan couldn’t resist the Scottish beef steaks (Scottish beef is sooo much better than British beef) while the others somehow had lamb.  After all of the cute lambs and cows we saw on the hike, I had to go with the vegetarian haggis.  I didn’t even know that was a thing, but there was no way I was trying real haggis (heart, liver, and lungs encased in a sheep stomach).

Poor little baby lambs

This cow deserves to be eaten after sticking his tongue out at us!  

My veggie haggis was drowning in whisky cream sauce.  Ohmygosh, that cream sauce must’ve had about two sticks of butter and at least a cup of heavy cream in it… good thing I had just burned like 1,200 calories hiking or I would’ve felt really guilty for mopping up my plate with fries!

After dragging our sore bodies out of bed the next day, we said goodbye to Laura and Alex and headed back toward Glasgow for our evening flight.  But before leaving Scotland, we had to stop at a Scotch whisky distillery.

David and the guys had done some research beforehand and found a distillery nestled in the hills near a picturesque waterfall called Glengoyne.  The guys all enjoyed their scotch, while Alyson and I just enjoyed the tour.  I cannot handle scotch – it’s like drinking rubbing alcohol to me.  Every time I go on one of these tours, I think I might change my mind after hearing the descriptions of the flavors – crème brulee and Christmas pudding, or light and fragrant like wildflowers growing in the Scottish isles… Nope, still tastes like rubbing alcohol.

I wanted all of the guys to enjoy the tour and their scotch, so Jordan, our designated driver (again!), passed over the keys to me so I could drive us to the Glasgow Airport after the tour and lunch.

I have to admit, I was terrified for that 40 minute drive.  It’s hard to explain, but driving on the right side of the car, I wanted the same vantage point as driving on the left in America, so I was definitely hugging the left side of the road instead of staying more towards the middle, or right.  Make sense?  Think that sentence was confusing, try driving around a roundabout with four lanes of traffic!  But after hitting only one curb, I got the hang of it.  We had Jordan watching out for cars on the right, while David and Paul were my ‘curb-checkers’ on the left.  And Alyson helped with directions and speed limit signs, while also playing DJ.  I could not have done it without all of my back-seat drivers!  I can now check ‘Driving on the Left Side of the Road’ off of my bucket list! :)

And I can check Loch Ness and Ben Nevis off of my list of ‘things to do before we leave the UK.’  Only about 20 more excursions to go and then we can head back to America!

Danish Delights

Copenhagen is a food-lover’s paradise.  This year, the city was awarded 15 Michelin stars across 13 restaurants.  Being the foodies we are, David and I chose to visit Denmark for the May bank holiday weekend. 

We invited our friends, Paul and Alyson Tart, to come with us.  Since we moved to London, we’ve mostly travelled on our own.  This year, David and I are only taking one vacation alone together – our anniversary trip to the Maldives.  2013 is the year of travelling with friends and family!  And that’s always more fun, right?

We met the Tarts at one of the UT alumni game-watching parties last year, but I had also known Paul back in college when he was in the Petroleum Engineering school with my roommate, Anna, and our friends, Terri and Meike.  We have a ton in common with the Tarts, including our love of travel!

We took a flight out on Friday after work and arrived at our hotel, the Admiral, later that night.  Since we were only going to be in Denmark for 2½ days, we decided to do a Segway tour first thing Saturday morning to get our bearings and see as much of the city as we could that first day.

Paul and Alyson had done Segway tours before, but David and I were newbies.  After having breakfast in the New Harbor near our hotel, we had a quick orientation while the Tarts schooled us in the art of the Segway.  We picked it up pretty fast and now David is in love with the Segway.  He wants one to zoom around London!  It is super easy and a fun way of exploring a new city.  People were taking pictures and videos of us; we were definitely the center of attention (probably because we were 3 feet taller than everyone around us).

The New Harbor

We saw sites like the Black Diamond, 

the modern extension of the Royal Library,

the Round Tower,

the Marble Church and Amalienborg Castle, the home of the royal family,

and of course, the jewel of Copenhagen, The Little Mermaid.

Hans Christian Andersen is probably Copenhagen’s most famous figure.  While we were in Denmark, we found out that the stories we loved as children are not really the happy-ending fairy tales we learned from Disney.  I was horrified to hear that in the actual book, when the Little Mermaid loses her tail, her new legs make it feel like she’s walking on glass and her feet bleed.  Then she’s jilted by the prince, who marries another woman.  The mermaid eventually dies and can’t get to heaven because she isn’t human and doesn’t have a soul!  Jeez Louise, try explaining that to a child!

After our Segway tour, we grabbed lunch at the Royal Café, famous for its smushie sandwiches.  We each had a sampler of three sandwiches.  I choose the fake duck (aka pork) with Waldorf salad, the roast beef with smoked potatoes, and the shrimp with chive mayonnaise.   Ohmygosh, I could’ve eaten 10 of those roast beef smushies!  They were like sushi rolls of creamy potatoes wrapped in roast beef.

We then headed over to The Church of our Savior to climb the spire.  There was only one way up/one way down on the spire so it got crowded fast!  Between the tight quarters, the slanting roof, and the strong winds, that was enough for David and Alyson.  Paul and I figured since we had waited in line that long to get to the top, we might as well stick it out.  But in all honesty, the view wasn’t that different from the top as it was from the first curvature.

From the top of the Church of our Savior, we could see Freetown Christiania.  It’s against the “rules” to take pictures inside Christiania so we snapped a few photos from above instead – muahaha!  After we left the church, we headed over there to check it out.  Freetown Christiana is trying to be its own separate state within Copenhagen, but in reality it’s a giant commune where its residents live as squatters and smoke pot all day.  It was such a weird place.  As we were walking through the “town,” David said he felt like he had found the Lost Boy’s colony.  They didn’t seem like the most productive members of society.

The residents of Christiana happened to be 

having a parade that same day...

Then we stopped at the bakery Lagkagehuset for some sweets and walked along the canals to the Opera House before boarding a water bus back to the hotel.

At this point, I have to mention how ridiculously expensive Copenhagen is.  We had heard about the outrageous prices in the Nordics, so we were prepared, and now I want to prepare all of you in case you ever head that direction.  A one-way water bus ticket across the canal (literally, a short length of water I could’ve easily swum across had it not been the freezing Baltic Sea) cost $20 for the four of us.  Our lunch of smushies, three tiny sandwiches, cost $30/person.  And in all of the restaurants we went to, they charged us for tap water!  The flight from London to Copenhagen was really inexpensive, but that’s where our savings stopped.  We tried not to do any currency conversions while we were there, and decided to just worry about our bank accounts after we got back home.

Another tip - dining out in Copenhagen requires reservations.  Whether you’re grabbing lunch at a more casual eatery, or having dinner at one of the Michelin-starred restaurants, call in advance!  David had made reservations for us on Saturday night at Grønbech & Churchill.  We had tried calling Noma, the #1 restaurant in the world for the past 3 years, but they are booked months in advance.  Even with their recent food poisoning debacle and drop to the #2 spot this year, they are booked solid!

Alyson and I are very similar in our eating habits.  We don’t eat meat off the bone (reminds us too much that we’re eating an animal) and we don’t like fish.  But dining in Copenhagen, it is impossible to avoid fish.  The first course of our four course meal at G&C was fish – brill.  But the way it was cooked and seasoned, it was delicious and tender.  Beside the main dishes, my favorite part of the meal was the palate cleanser between each course.  These consisted of different types of breads, and the bread in Denmark is like cake.  We started off with anise and liquorice soaked bread, then a cornmeal crusted bread, and finally a burnt breadstick with our potato morel cheese soup.  And of course, there was the dessert.  Heavenly chocolate ice cream with hazelnut and Jerusalem artichoke.

On our second day in Copenhagen, Paul and Alyson found an all-you-can eat breakfast buffet at a French café, Den Franske, on the Copenhagen Lakes.  After filling up on crepes and fruit, we walked to Rosenborg Palace to see the crown jewels.

The palace surrounded by its moat

Inside the throne room

From there, we took the subway to Tivoli.

The Nimb hotel and its matching peacock inside Tivoli

Tivoli Gardens is an amusement park founded in 1843, and was the inspiration for Walt Disney’s future parks when he visited in 1950.  We could definitely see elements of Disneyworld all around us.  From the themed areas like India and China, to the water/light show at the end of the night, it was like a smaller version of Epcot.

When we got to the park, it was lunchtime.  Like the rest of Copenhagen, Tivoli is home to award-winning restaurants.  You wouldn’t expect that inside an amusement park.  I had read about Andersen Bakery inside the Nimb hotel before our trip.  In the 1950’s, a Japanese baker came to Denmark to learn all about Danish baking, and then returned to Japan to share his new recipes with his home country.  Eventually his son and daughter returned to Copenhagen to carry on his legacy.  The legacy of hot dogs.

Andersen Bakery not only sells scrumptious pastries, cakes, and danishes, but also gourmet hot dogs.  So for lunch, we each had a hot dog from the bakery.  It was probably the best hot dog I’ve ever eaten.  It was glorious.

The sausage was flavorful in itself and then topped with pickled 

cucumber, ketchup, spicy mustard, and crispy fried onions all in an artisan bun.  I still dream about that hot dog.

Then we rode some rides!

Alyson is not the biggest fan of roller-coasters, but she did great at Tivoli!  She rode her first real rollercoaster, the Rutschebanen.  Built in 1914, the Rutschebanen is the third oldest roller coaster in the world and boy, did we feel its age creaking along the ancient wooden track.

After that, we went on some of the scarier rides, so Alyson was nice enough to take pictures while she hung back.  Here we are on the swings:

Then we did the bumper cars together and even took a turn on the merry-go-round.

That was a serious merry-go-round.  

I had to climb a ladder to get onto that giraffe!

In Tivoli, one of the rides was the Fairy Tale Chest, which is kind of like “It’s a Small World” where you fly through the air in a magical chest and learn all about Europe’s most famous fairy tales.  We’d already heard the true story of the Little Mermaid, but during this ride we also learned all about the Little Match Girl.  This is a tale about a child who wanders the streets on New Year’s Eve trying to sell matches for her abusive father.  She watches all of the families together for the holidays in their warm, cosy homes… and then she freezes to death on the side of the road!  Remind me never to buy a real book of fairy tales for Bailey, or any other children we know!

Paul and Alyson in their treasure chest learning all about characters like the Little Match Girl and Numb-Skull Jack.  Do you think he was in the inspiration for Simple Jack in Tropic Thunder??

On our final day in Copenhagen we didn’t have time for much, but we did have time to eat!

We grabbed breakfast at Emmerys bakery and then went souvenir shopping on Strøget, Copenhagen’s popular pedestrian street. 

For our final meal, we headed to Schonnemann to sample some traditional open-faced sandwiches, or smørrebrøds.  Our waitress brought us some aquavit to start our lunch.  The liquor was too strong for Alyson and me, but the boys enjoyed it.  

Schonnemann also brews their own beer, so the Tarts and David each had a large pint.  Then the waitress recommended that we try two sandwiches each.  

David's fried beef tartare

And my chicken bacon on rye with carrot chips, potatoes, and chives

After seeing the size of those things, I think one each would’ve been enough!  But they were really yummy, and a great way to end our culinary weekend in Denmark!