Bubión, Spain

Spain! This is our last country before we head home to Canada for good. :) We continued our healthy phase by hiking in the Sierra Nevada mountains around this tiny hilltop town called Bubión (but did go back to the salami and cheese diet). The streets are so narrow here and our apartment happened to be at the bottom of the town so we debated just grabbing a few clothes from our car parked at the top. There was no way we could get the suitcases down! Mike decided he could drive the car down to unload so we inched past walls while I covered my eyes… getting the car back up again was just as exciting (since we had to park it back at the top). 

A refuge where you can stay the night (they have rooms for rent and a small restaurant). 

That's the oddest scarecrow I've ever seen!! 

Small grocery store in Pampaneira... now you can see why our jamón habit continued.

Mike was hiking on his own... and apparently taking selfies of his shadow. Fascinating stuff.

View of Capileira (town just above the one we stayed in).

Eating healthy in London Town!

Although I won’t post any pictures of all of this healthy food we ate, since that’s boring. You can imagine it… lots of fresh fruit and veg (as they say), multigrain toast, yogurt with oatmeal and nuts, etc. We probably ate the healthiest we have all trip while in London because it was easy to get this kind of food here. From juice bars to smoothie places, we were surrounded by options, plus healthy food at the grocery stores was not too expensive.

Now I wouldn’t want to deceive you into thinking we ate this way all the time because, umm, the weather was awesome the weekend we were there and apparently it’s legal to drink outside the bars in London. The sidewalk and sometimes the street become the patio – literally! I have never seen so many people outside drinking without having to formally sit down at a table or be in a beer garden (and in suits to boot, I swear they started at lunchtime and never returned to work). What’s interesting to note is that this scene shuts down early (lots of bars closed around 11pm – midnight) so perhaps that’s how they prevent any issues.

We had a wonderful planner and tour guide for this leg of the trip, Ms. Cassandra Ma, who can be hired most weekends and depended on for planning some awesome events! J We miss you already Cass! From the London Gin Club to a fabulous 20£ lobster dinner to weird but delicious duck and waffle, she made sure we had a good time! We loved seeing you.

We also enjoyed being close to the West End and saw Book of Mormon (Mike’s favourite new musical) and 1984 (very well done and still leaves me with a bit of a chill, especially since it has parallels to the North Korea book I’m currently reading).

A sunny Friday afternoon outside of a restaurant/bar in London. We saw this scene everywhere and thought there was a special event happening. And there was... sun!

Touristy Buckingham Palace shot

Hi Cass! Bibs on and ready to go. Lobsters, beware! 

Blurry Mikie photo

West End 

Oh hello, Jamie Oliver, we're not creepy at all but just wanted to take another Avigilon security camera photo. Don't worry, we'll come in and eat afterward. 

London Gin Club 

Best beef carpaccio ever

Infamous duck 'n waffle (that's a leg of duck on top of a waffle).

Here's a random Saturday in London. Turf was put down temporarily so people sat in the middle of the street (they closed it off) and brought their food and drinks. 

Casi is introducing us to Pimm's. 

Umm... why is the Canadian bar so busy?! You're in London, people. Hang out in an English pub! What is a Canadian bar anyway? Sigh, bet they serve maple syrup.

Yep, drinks on a park bench. 

Eating haggis in Edinburgh, Scotland (and it ain't so bad!)

We only had 2 nights in Edinburgh and really could have used more. There's a castle (called Edinburgh Castle, very creative name) right in the middle of the city. How cool is that?! Couple this with lots of rolling hills made by an extinct volcano (including the castle rock that the castle sits on) and it makes for a pretty cool place to walk around. We also saw the first Avigilon camera on this European leg of the trip. It was spotted in the Edinburgh castle gift shop, which proves my point that it's always worthwhile to peruse gift shops.

We had our first haggis experience (sheep's heart, liver and lungs mixed with spices and onion) in Scotland and we liked it so much that we ordered haggis nachos later in the day. That's 2 experiences in 1 day! It tastes good as long as you don't think about what it is too much.

We saw sheep everywhere on the drive from Leeds to Edinburgh.

Shoot. The lambs look really cute.

Spacious apartment rental - airbnb has been great!

Mike loves telling me not to 'foul the land'. Sigh.

View from the castle 

The prison at the castle actually looks kind of comfortable. People love lying in hammocks nowadays, right? 

Not just a corny picture of me in the gift shop. Look above! 

Is it creepy to take photos of the security cameras?

Mike's haggis

Grilled veggies with sorbet, which sounds strange but was delicious.

Mom - now I know where you got this word from!

Palace of Holyroodhouse (official Scotland residence of British monarchy and found at the end of the Royal Mile). 

I swear, it's windy everywhere we go.

Cab 

There's a storm a brewing!

Haggis nachos

Edinburgh Castle (it's beautiful but I was starting to wonder how many photos of the castle Mike could take :).