GD & CP's UK adventure

[Ghoulish Delight]

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


A week in Scotland



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.

[Ghoulish Delight]

One of the big treats of our trip was our visit to the Scotch Malt Whiskey Society. We have Disneyland annual passes, our friends in Edinburgh have a membership here. A club of whiskey fans that buys casks directly from distilleries for tasting and selling. There is almost nowhere else in the world to enjoy these whiskeys in this way. Commercial whiskey, which has to be bottled for consistency, is almost universally a blend of whiskeys from different casks, with water added. What you get at the whiskey society is straight from the cask, full strength (generally over 100 proof), and unmixed. Served with a pitcher of water if you prefer it a little more watered down, often recommended just to see how the flavor can change drastically with even a small amount of water.

We went on "Red Ribbon Tuesday" where drams of the best whiskeys, indicated by gold ribbons on the bottles, are sold at the lower red-ribbon price. Part of the charm is the detailed and imaginative descriptions of the various samplings they provide. For example, the first one I tried was labeled "Complex and Delightful" with the following description:

A rare chance to sample the malt from this Inverness
distillery built in 1846 and demolished in 1986. The nose begins with furniture polish and ‘magic balloons’ turning to toffee and scorched wood. There is also something fresh and elusive – peeled cucumber or boiled pasta, perhaps? The unreduced palate is scrumptious, with toffee, vanilla pod, fig and cinnamon, and some dry woodiness. The reduced
nose is complex and delightful, displaying melon and kiwi, chocolate, leather and Danish pastries. The flavour is now wonderfully sweet (puff candy, cinnamon whirls) but with nice woody notes (‘chewing sappy sticks’). Rather special.

But for me, the real standout among the 7 or 8 we all shared was my second dram, "Pastrami on Rye":

Leaving Kirkwall on the road to South Ronaldsay, you pass a temple of drams with twin pagodas. This sample is very like a sandwich – it smells of smoked ham or pastrami on rye with mustard and gherkin, all wrapped in waxed paper – but where did the Golden syrup come from? It is undoubtedly complex; with water the waxed paper turns to oilskins and wellies in the sun, then later it softens down to egg custard. Various flavour elements combine nicely together – sweet toffee notes, drying smoke and honey mustard. Best enjoyed as a sipping whisky at natural strength.

And I swear to you, that is a dead on accurate description. I mean this in nothing but a good sense, after every sip it felt like I had just finished a bite of a perfect New York pastrami sandwich. That satisfying oily, rich flavor lingered. AND it can get me drunk? I can think of no more awesome thing in this world that can be served in a glass.

At £69 for a bottle (~$140) I just couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger. But oh I was close. I'm still sitting here wondering what at home I could Ebay for $140 to justify having my friend courier a bottle over when he travels this way in October. It was a remarkable drinking experience and well worth that expense.

[Ghoulish Delight]

And as one final footnote, I posted this today:

Arriving back from the UK, I've had no problem driving on the right side of the road. I didn't drive at all while there and was only a passenger in street transport all of 4 times, relying almost entirely on the Underground, walking, and various other trains. So I never had to retrain that part of my brain.

Yesterday I got some work done on my car at lunch. So I dropped it off and walked to grab something to eat while I waited.

I don't walk much here. I walked a LOT in the UK. This was the first time I'd walked across a street since getting back, and holy crap I confused myself!

Interestingly, making things more difficult was the fact that I never really got completely used to the whole "traffic coming from the wrong direction" thing. Even by the end of the trip I had to consciously take a moment before stepping off a curb to be sure I'd looked in all the right ways. What I found when I stepped off the curb yesterday was that as far as my brain was concerned, that rule was still in effect. So I started looking one way. Then my brain said, "No, wait, are you sure that's the right way? Because you're back here now, and maybe your instinct is to look the wrong way first! Wait, no, my instinct is still right, I should look this way...wait, should I? If I look was looking right there when I'd look left here, and I look left here when I'd look right there, and I felt like right now I should look left, then I should look right...right? Aaaargh!!"

Bizarre to encounter that a full week after returning.


And a final P.S. I bought the whiskey and will be receiving it in a couple weeks when our host comes stateside for a conference/job interviews.

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

Alright, this may be a new record. Photos have been whittled down from over 100 to about 300.

That is an impressive feat: going DOWN from 100 TO 300.

[Ghoulish Delight]

0

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

0

THAT'S were the missing zero went.

[BDBopper]

Wow. thanks for sharing! I am glad you two had a fantastic time!

[Tenigma]

Wow, that picture of you with the pint? Classic pron star shot! OK beer ad shot. It's got to be the mustache. lol

[Gemini Cricket]

Love the pictures! I so want to go back to London. My favorite city ever.


I like this picture:


"Hello, friends. My namez Grog. I mean (hic) Greg. I likes the beer."

[Stan4dSteph]

Fortnum and Mason is the best. Glad you got to have tea there.