Ghoulish Delight
10-01-2008, 03:00 PM
Alright, this may be a new record. Photos have been whittled down from over 100 to about 300. Uploaded and captioned (hey CP, I finished captioning).
2 1/2 Days in London (http://flickr.com/photos/66141390@N00/sets/72157607523661226/)
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3181/2890648537_4d8d664687.jpg
A week in Scotland (http://flickr.com/photos/66141390@N00/sets/72157607545446341/)
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3221/2893136695_8552c8784d_m.jpg http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3133/2893981516_b934cb088b_m.jpg
And here's my end-of-trip brain dump, crossposted from LJ:
In London I was surprised to discover just how poor my memory of my visit 12 years ago is. I have far clearer memories of Paris, part of the same trip. For whatever reason the week in London left less of an impression. Which was kind of nice, feeling more like discovering a new city rather than revisiting.
While London surely deserves more than 2 1/2 days to truly enjoy, our main goal was Edinburgh so the time in London was pure bonus. And we surely made the most of it. Not ones to let a little thing like jet lag or a 10 hour flight in a seat that failed to recline slow us down, we landed at 9AM local time and hit the ground running. Or at least strolling. For the whole afternoon we criss crossed Hyde Park. It's not hard to see where Central Park drew its inspiration. I know the chances are slim but I hold out hope that the Great Park in Irvine captures some fraction of the magic that those two great civic parks have. Foolish, I know.
That wore us out good, and killed enough time that the hotel, just up the street from the park, finally had our room made up. A short rest and off to find dinner. Vowing to not fall into our usual pattern travel pattern of failed food plans we selected a recommendation from Lonely Planet. We got a bit turned around looking for it, which afforded us an opportunity to explore Leicester Square and the surrounding area on a Saturday night. Lively as you'd expect. Another travel faux pas we avoided this time, we seem to always be on the move on weekends instead of witnessing the action. We finally got ourselves on the right track...only to discover that the restaurant we'd chosen is closed for refurb! Figures. But no bother, plenty of other options around and we had a nice Italian dinner. Then slept. Well.
Anyway, not going to continue a blow-by-blow of the rest. But we did our share. The V&A, the British Museum, the Tate Modern, the Tower of London, a walk down the Thames, a pass by Parliament, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey, and a futile attempt to mount a Trafalgar Square lion.
Big highlight was high tea (well, afternoon tea at high tea time) in the St. James tea room of Fortnum & Mason. Absolutely wonderful of course, particularly the premium teas. Goodness is that good tea, and of course I had to by a small bit to bring home. Oh yes, and I got to see the staff rolling their eyes and mocking the boorish woman who popped out of the lift, chewing gum, and marching up to a group of friends already seated. They stopped short of just booting her, but it definitely offended their standards.
So. Scotland. Where to even start. Our friends Josh and Jackie have an adorable flat right off the Royal Mile and make fabulous hosts. We arrived on Tuesday afternoon to gloom and drizzle, or as they call it in Edinburgh, "sunny weather." But that was the last bit of rain we felt. It rained late evening and overnight the next day, but that was it. Lots of threatening, but it never happened, and we even saw a fair share of ACTUAL sunshine. Our travel weather luck continues to be good.
So, the quick hit list of our adventures in Edinburgh: The Scottish Museum, Edinburgh Castle, pubs, walking around old town, Indian food, Garyfryar's cemetery, the public library, napping at the flat, Princes street, international food street fair, Dean modern art gallery, Leith waterway walk, pubs, the royal yacht Britania, attempted to golf (more on that later), pubs, a hike to gorgeous Arthur's Seat, cheese, haggis.
We also took a day trip out to Glasgow. That turned into a fantastic day. We started with a tour of the Glasgow School of Art and their main building, designed by Charles Rennie Makintosh. It's a gorgeous facility, an amazing example of art nouveau, and we were taken on the tour by a very knowledgeable and enthusiastic student from the school. Frank Lloyd Wright never actually met Makintosh, and supposedly his style developed independently, simply with similar influences of practicality, nature, and eastern design. But they are SO similar that I can't possibly believe that Wright was never exposed to Makintosh's work, or at the very least the larger movements in art nouveau that were informed by Makintosh.
From there we headed to the Kelvingrove Museum, a combined art and natural history museum. It's very informal, free, and somewhat aimed at children. But it was really quite enjoyable, probably the most enjoyable museum experience we had on the trip. They even had a respectable impressionists collection, though it was rather decimated while were there as several of the best pieces are on loan to a museum here in Edinburgh for an impressionists exhibit that we ran out of time to see ourselves.
And then we hit the Glasgow pubs. A couple nifty places with good atmosphere and good beer. Had a chat with a very friendly Glaswegian (yes, Glaswegian) bartender who proudly was able to name more Californian cities than we were able to name Scottish cities. Dinner consisted of a couple of orders of chips (fries) as we headed for a cheerful pub-fueled train ride back. Good fun.
Ugh. That's just the short version. Hah! One final note - museum cafes! We had invariably marvelous food at museum cafes. That is all.
2 1/2 Days in London (http://flickr.com/photos/66141390@N00/sets/72157607523661226/)
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3181/2890648537_4d8d664687.jpg
A week in Scotland (http://flickr.com/photos/66141390@N00/sets/72157607545446341/)
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3221/2893136695_8552c8784d_m.jpg http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3133/2893981516_b934cb088b_m.jpg
And here's my end-of-trip brain dump, crossposted from LJ:
In London I was surprised to discover just how poor my memory of my visit 12 years ago is. I have far clearer memories of Paris, part of the same trip. For whatever reason the week in London left less of an impression. Which was kind of nice, feeling more like discovering a new city rather than revisiting.
While London surely deserves more than 2 1/2 days to truly enjoy, our main goal was Edinburgh so the time in London was pure bonus. And we surely made the most of it. Not ones to let a little thing like jet lag or a 10 hour flight in a seat that failed to recline slow us down, we landed at 9AM local time and hit the ground running. Or at least strolling. For the whole afternoon we criss crossed Hyde Park. It's not hard to see where Central Park drew its inspiration. I know the chances are slim but I hold out hope that the Great Park in Irvine captures some fraction of the magic that those two great civic parks have. Foolish, I know.
That wore us out good, and killed enough time that the hotel, just up the street from the park, finally had our room made up. A short rest and off to find dinner. Vowing to not fall into our usual pattern travel pattern of failed food plans we selected a recommendation from Lonely Planet. We got a bit turned around looking for it, which afforded us an opportunity to explore Leicester Square and the surrounding area on a Saturday night. Lively as you'd expect. Another travel faux pas we avoided this time, we seem to always be on the move on weekends instead of witnessing the action. We finally got ourselves on the right track...only to discover that the restaurant we'd chosen is closed for refurb! Figures. But no bother, plenty of other options around and we had a nice Italian dinner. Then slept. Well.
Anyway, not going to continue a blow-by-blow of the rest. But we did our share. The V&A, the British Museum, the Tate Modern, the Tower of London, a walk down the Thames, a pass by Parliament, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey, and a futile attempt to mount a Trafalgar Square lion.
Big highlight was high tea (well, afternoon tea at high tea time) in the St. James tea room of Fortnum & Mason. Absolutely wonderful of course, particularly the premium teas. Goodness is that good tea, and of course I had to by a small bit to bring home. Oh yes, and I got to see the staff rolling their eyes and mocking the boorish woman who popped out of the lift, chewing gum, and marching up to a group of friends already seated. They stopped short of just booting her, but it definitely offended their standards.
So. Scotland. Where to even start. Our friends Josh and Jackie have an adorable flat right off the Royal Mile and make fabulous hosts. We arrived on Tuesday afternoon to gloom and drizzle, or as they call it in Edinburgh, "sunny weather." But that was the last bit of rain we felt. It rained late evening and overnight the next day, but that was it. Lots of threatening, but it never happened, and we even saw a fair share of ACTUAL sunshine. Our travel weather luck continues to be good.
So, the quick hit list of our adventures in Edinburgh: The Scottish Museum, Edinburgh Castle, pubs, walking around old town, Indian food, Garyfryar's cemetery, the public library, napping at the flat, Princes street, international food street fair, Dean modern art gallery, Leith waterway walk, pubs, the royal yacht Britania, attempted to golf (more on that later), pubs, a hike to gorgeous Arthur's Seat, cheese, haggis.
We also took a day trip out to Glasgow. That turned into a fantastic day. We started with a tour of the Glasgow School of Art and their main building, designed by Charles Rennie Makintosh. It's a gorgeous facility, an amazing example of art nouveau, and we were taken on the tour by a very knowledgeable and enthusiastic student from the school. Frank Lloyd Wright never actually met Makintosh, and supposedly his style developed independently, simply with similar influences of practicality, nature, and eastern design. But they are SO similar that I can't possibly believe that Wright was never exposed to Makintosh's work, or at the very least the larger movements in art nouveau that were informed by Makintosh.
From there we headed to the Kelvingrove Museum, a combined art and natural history museum. It's very informal, free, and somewhat aimed at children. But it was really quite enjoyable, probably the most enjoyable museum experience we had on the trip. They even had a respectable impressionists collection, though it was rather decimated while were there as several of the best pieces are on loan to a museum here in Edinburgh for an impressionists exhibit that we ran out of time to see ourselves.
And then we hit the Glasgow pubs. A couple nifty places with good atmosphere and good beer. Had a chat with a very friendly Glaswegian (yes, Glaswegian) bartender who proudly was able to name more Californian cities than we were able to name Scottish cities. Dinner consisted of a couple of orders of chips (fries) as we headed for a cheerful pub-fueled train ride back. Good fun.
Ugh. That's just the short version. Hah! One final note - museum cafes! We had invariably marvelous food at museum cafes. That is all.