Monday, October 7, 2013

U.K. and Europe 2013

August 18, 2013               Edinburgh, Scotland

                        We left home around 2:30 pm because the taxi showed up early (usually they are very late) and got to MIA with plenty of time.  The flight was delayed on hour which wasn’t too bad but caused us to miss our connection in London.  It all worked out and we arrived in Edinburgh about 10:30 a.m. local time.  The flight from MIA was about 7-1/2 hours which almost seems short after flying to Istanbul.  When we got to Edinburgh, we luckily got into our Piries Hotel and took a 3 hour nap.  After we got up, we walked quite a ways down Princes Street and ended up where the HOHO buses start and bought a 24 hour ticket which we could use the next day.  We stopped for a bite to eat at a kilt store which had a tea shop on the third floor.  We had tea and a scone and it turned out to be the best scone we had the entire trip (Romanes & Paterson).  We also found the car rental company which was oddly located beneath Princes Street, and changed our reservation to Thursday morning because it looked like the parking would be an issue if we picked it up Wednesday afternoon.  We then walked back to our hotel a different route so we could scout out the Edinburgh Castle and where we need to go on Wednesday night.  By the time we got back to our area, our legs were very tired.  I must add that our hotel room (which is pretty spartan) is on the third floor with no elevator.  The town is very hilly too which we are not used to at all.  We had dinner at a local pub.

August 20, 2013               Edinburgh, Scotland

We had a pretty good night’s sleep (interrupted by the fireworks at the end of the Tattoo as well as the fire alarm going off in the hotel).  We got up and had the hotel breakfast and took off for the HOHO bus stop nearest us.  Our first stop was the Edinburgh Castle and surrounding Royal Mile area.  We walked up through the Tattoo stadium and into part of the Castle but did not do the tour since we will be there tomorrow night.  We looked up my grandmother’s name to learn that she is part of the Fraser clan.  We got back on the bus and went to the Holyrood House which is really the Queen’s summer residence palace.  Very dreary really but impressive.  The associated museum had an exhibit of Leonardi’s di Vinci’s work but when we got inside, it turned out to be his drawings of the human anatomy, not at all what we were looking for.  We took the bus back to an area (Grassmarket St) that we had seen and had a variety of restaurants.  We had a light lunch at a Turkish restaurant.  There are an amazing number of middle Eastern and Indian restaurants in Edinburgh.  We walked around the Lawnmarket area (little shops etc) and got the bus to a high point in the city so we could get an overview.  We then took the bus back to our neighborhood (which really is out of the way, but with the Tattoo in town, we had a difficult time finding reasonable accommodations).  We had dinner at the Mercat restaurant which had very good food.  I finally had my first lamb dinner.

August 23, 2013        Edinburgh & Sorbie, Scotland & Ambleside, England

On Wednesday, we slept in late and walked to have lunch and then go to an organ concert at St. Culthbert church.   It was part of their summer organ series.  The organist was a professor from Glasgow University, Kevin Bowyer, who apparently specializes in modern organ music.  He also plays exceptionally difficult pieces for which he has earned a reputation (he even played one lasting 9 hours….imagine!).  Jon remarked at the end of the concert that if this were someone’s first organ concert, they would never go to another one again.  The music was mostly odd, although we did like two of the pieces.  But his technical ability was amazing.  After lunch, we walked some, had some tea and then went to rest before the Tattoo.  We decided to take a cab to the Castle which worked out perfectly.  The driver was charming (from Poland) and got us right near the base of the esplanade.  We shopped a little and then joined a group for dinner in the Castle.  The day had been a little rainy off and on, but the night was perfect; about 65 degrees and clear.  We had a typical English dinner (roast beef, vegetables, potatoes and dessert) and the food was better than usual for an event like this.  After the meal, we were given a little speech by the producer of the Tattoo and a brief bagpipe concert.  I had gone to the Tattoo when I was 11 years old and it turns out that was year 9 of the event.  As I remember, they did not have bleachers at that time.  They then escorted us to our excellent seats and we enjoyed a beautiful program from groups all over the world.  What I really loved was the projection of images and colors on the castle itself.  The bagpipes and drums were beautiful as always and the women’s marching group was amazing.  The show finished with a fireworks show.  As an aside, we turned out to be sitting right in from of Susan Boyle.  I nodded at her and she blew me a kiss, but I otherwise left her alone.  We walked back to the hotel after the Tattoo and went right to sleep.

On Thursday, Jon got up early to walk to the center of Edinburgh to pick up the rental car.  He was gone a little longer than I expected because he sort of got lost and was having to adjust to the left side driving.  When he came back to get me, there was such a parking issue that we just loaded the car and got out of town before we could eat.  The day was generally nerve wracking for a variety of reasons.  First, we picked the slower route to go to western Scotland.  Second, I was very uncomfortable with being a passenger on the wrong side of the car because it looked like Jon was driving in the trees and bushes all the time.  Lastly, we had no cellular so the Map app doesn’t work and we were much later than I thought and I couldn’t call my cousin to let her know what was happening.  Anyway, we arrived in Sorbie around 4:30 and finally met cousin Jennifer.  We had a lovely evening learning things about each other, our shared pasts and politics in general.  It was quite chilly there and her house was wide open so getting ready for bed was a very quick process.  We slept under many covers and finally warmed up and slept ok.  In the morning we had a little breakfast and then Jennifer took us around her wee village and for a walk in the woods to the sea.  We really hated to say goodbye to her because she was absolutely charming and witty and delightful.  As much as we hate staying with other people, and eating the food was not something we really would have picked, we had a wonderful time.  We then drove on to the English Lake District to a town called Ambleside.

It was very difficult to find the Mortal Man Inn we stayed in, but we finally did.  It is a
charming place on the hillside overlooking a valley full of sheep.  We went right back out to dinner so we wouldn’t have to navigate the narrow roads in the dark and had a pretty good dinner at the Waterside Inn.  The Lake District turned out to be much more hilly than we expected.

August 27, 2013        Stratford, Oxford & London England

On Saturday, we drove on to Stratford-Upon-Avon through really pretty countryside.  We checked into the Caterham Inn (very old with twin beds and a small room, but clean) and walked into the town for a while.  We saw the funniest street show which was almost slapstick.  Went back to the room for just a little bit and then went out to what we thought was an early dinner.  It turns out that everyone eats early so they can get to the theatre to see Shakespeare.  Fortunately, after being turned away from several restaurants, we ended up at Café Rouge and really liked the food.  We walked over to the Holiday Inn after dinner for our Ghost Tour.  It was a silly boat ride on the Avon but it was entertaining and we did hear a couple of stories.  Very peaceful.  Everything in Stratford seems to close up after dinner.  We got up early in the morning, had a decent breakfast at the Inn and carried on to Oxford to the church service at Christ Church.  What a beautiful church and a lovely Episcopal service.  It was exactly as I had expected it to be with a wonderful choir and lots of pomp and a good sermon in understandable English.  Oxford University is huge comprised of 38 separate colleges.  We drove around trying to find a particular shoe store (thanks to Jon we did find it) and bought me a new pair of shoes because my walking shoes totally broke apart the night before.  We got a quick bite to eat and made our way to the car return and on to the train station.  We took the train on into London and a cab to our hotel.  It was nice to be in a large hotel with a lot of amenities (although the Internet didn’t work for a day and a half).   We ate dinner in the nearby Notting Hill area but it was crowded with revelers from the annual Notting Hill Carnival.

On Monday, we got up and took the subway to our HOHO bus stop and started touring the city.  It was a gorgeous day with beautiful weather.  During the day we saw all the major London sites which included a boat ride on the Thames between Tower Bridge and Westminster Abbey.  We ended up going back on the bus and got caught up in too much driving around, and then having to walk a bunch more and were totally exhausted.  We had trouble finding a place to eat which meant more walking but finally found a suitable Italian restaurant.  We then had to take the tube home and were dead tired having walked almost 7 miles.  We won’t do that again!  The most interesting thing we learned is that Westminster Abbey has many people buried there including many British poets.

Tuesday morning, we got up bright and early to be ready for the tour bus to pick us up to go to Windsor Castle, Bath and Stonehenge.  Windsor Castle is huge and magnificent.  Our favorite area with the long hall/room with all the people who have their family crests in that hall (knights, dukes, etc).  Bath was a lovely little town with a large Roman bath that is not used today.  Stonehenge is so different than I remembered because of all the tourists now.  It is roped off and crowded and has lost that spiritual feeling that I remember.  It was a good tour though, but a long day.  We got back to London late, grabbed a cab back to the hotel and had a nice dinner at a local Greek restaurant, Halepi.

August 28, 2013               London, England

We had a lovely last day in London.  We slept very late because of the long day yesterday so consequently missed breakfast.  We took the subway to the National Gallery museum which is in the Trafalgar Square area.  We are getting pretty good on the subway now.  We chose this museum because it is in an area close to the theatre we are going to and the exhibits at both Tate Museums did not strike us.  The walk through the museum was fairly short and we did not find much of interest to us.   The museums in GB do not allow photography so the few paintings we liked, we wrote down the names to research later.  We then had a nice lunch at an outdoor café in the area and went on to the Wyndham Theatre to see “Relatively Speaking”.  The play was very funny and very British.  We thought it wouldn’t work in the U.S.  After the play we strolled around the area and went in to a “casino” just out of curiosity.  It amazed both of us that it was a regular casino (minus craps tables) so we sat awhile and played blackjack.  The Asian players in the casino seemed very animated and angry for some reason.  We finished our day with dinner in a local pub and then took the subway (tube) back to the hotel.

August 31, 2013               Amsterdam, Holland

We got up early on Thursday morning to eat some breakfast and take a cab to Gatwick Airport.  It’s very far out of the city (1 hour and 20 minutes) but we didn’t feel like schlepping our bags on a train to the airport just to save a few pounds.    We had a nice ride and asked the driver many questions on the way.  We also got to see more of residential London.  Our flight to Amsterdam was uneventful and we got to our hotel in the city without delay.  The Amsterdam hotel was the worst one so far on this trip.  It was a Best Western (Leidse Square Hotel) and was dingy and small.  It was in a good location, however, so we made the best of it.  If we thought walking in London was difficult (which it really wasn’t because there were so many reminders in the street about which way to look), walking in Amsterdam is a nightmare.  There are bikes and scooters everywhere as well as cars and a tram.  You never know where the heck to look.  We walked around finding a place to eat lunch and looking for a laundramat.  We found food and then went walking in the Leidse Square area still looking for a laundry.  We had planned to do this from the beginning of the trip so we were persistent (also out of underwear).  We found one so went back to the hotel to get our dirty clothes.  We walked about to do the laundry and then decided to take it back to the hotel before eating dinner.  This was quite a bit of walking by then but had to go out to eat.  We had a nice dinner at Rancho Steak House and called it a day.  On Friday, we went to the Rijksmuseum which is world famous.  They had done a nice job of renovating the museum but we were not all that impressed with the art.  We went to almost every part of the museum, and got a bite to eat there and went on our way to take the HOHO boat around the city.   We got off in the central area, did a little shopping, toured the red light district, ate a pancake, walked a ton and got back on the boat.  The Anne Frank museum was too busy to wait in the line.  We took the boat back to our part of town and had dinner at the same restaurant as the previous night.  By then, we were pretty tired and went on back to the hotel.  Today, we got up leisurely and packed.  We had a nice breakfast at the hotel and took a cab to the central train station.  We had a lovely, smooth ride to Cologne which took about 3 hours.  The only excitement was the appearance of a drug dog/police woman who came into our train car.  The dog triggered one couple who were then taken out of the car and questioned and searched.  They were then taken off the train at the next stop.  When we got to Cologne, it was raining a little and we got a cab to our hotel (Hotel Konigshof) which is in the heart of the tourist area.  We checked in and went back out to check out the Cologne Cathedral and do some shopping.  We came back to the room for a bit and then went out for our first German dinner.  We ended up in a beer hall (Sion Brauhaus) that seated 600 people.  The food was good, as was the service, but it was SO noisy.  We walked some around some of the squares and called it a day.  So far, I like Cologne much better than Amsterdam.  Cleaner and no bikes/scooters all over the place.

September 1, 2013                   Cologne, Germany

After an incredible night’s sleep on what appeared to be a board, Jon got up really early and walked around the square.  I slept a little more and then we had breakfast.  We went to the 10:00 service at the Cologne Cathedral which was all in German and extremely well attended.  It was a pretty solemn Catholic service but there was a lot of really good choir and organ music.  After church we walked to Gross St. Martin church which Jon particularly wanted to see because it is so different in style from the “Dom”.  Cologne was bombed very badly during WWII so much of the town is either new, or has been rebuilt.  We had some lunch after church and then went to take the subway to a massage appointment I had made before we canceled having a car here.  It worked out pretty well actually.  We did very well figuring out the subway and when we got to the other end, we took a rather long walk across a bridge over the Rhine and the massage spa was right there.  Afterward, we took the cable car back and then the subway home.  We went looking for different German food tonight and different it was.  Neither one of us really liked what we got so we’ll see how we fare in upcoming towns.




September 4, 2013     Heidelberg, Germany, Strasbourg, France &
                           Ulm, Germany

On Monday morning, we walked to the train station and took the train to Heidelberg.  We did quite well crossing the square with all our bags and getting on the right train.  We got off one stop early but it worked out when the next train came so quickly.  In Heidelberg, we got a taxi to the hotel (Goldener Hecht) which was in the heart of old town.  What a beautiful city on the Neckar River.  It was picture perfect just like we had seen in movies and it was a glorious warm day.  We put our things in the room and took off for a little lunch.  We then headed up the funicular to the castle but continued on to the top of the mountain first to take photos.  It was definitely the highest we had ever gone on a funicular (1400 feet) and the view was spectacular.  We came back down to the castle level and walked around taking photos there as well.  It was just beautiful and very different than other castles we have seen.  We had talked to the one of the shop owners earlier in the day who recommended the food at a local German restaurant (Vetter Brauhaus) so we had dinner there.  It was really good food which made us realize that the food the night before really had been mediocre.  We had a very hard bed again (which we are starting to realize is a German thing) so Jon gave me his duvet again and slept under a throw.  That worked out better for both of us since the duvets make him sweat.  In the morning, we got coffee at a local shop because the hotel breakfast was so expensive and then got a cab to the car rental agency.  Now we got a stick shift car that seemed very close to the ground but off we went to Strasbourg.

The drive was very pretty all the way to Strasbourg and it was interesting to see the combination of French and German names.  Curiously, we drove through several small towns on the way looking for a bite to eat and they were like ghost towns.  No people, no restaurants and no activity, yet beautifully manicured.  One of these was called Roeschwoog.  When we got to Strasbourg, the hotel was very far from the center of town and the room was not ready (Hotel des Princes) so we left our things in the car and walked to the City Center.  We had a hard time actually finding food because many places seemed to either be closed for food at that hour (1:30 pm.) or they didn’t serve food at all.  We finally got sandwiches of a sort.  Everything seems very French here except for names of things.  We then walked on to the Cathedrale Notre Dame which is the third largest in Europe..  It is a beautiful church.  We then bought tickets for the boat tour around the central area.  The boat ride was very slow and peaceful and we saw all parts of the old and new city.  There are many bridges in Strasbourg but it is much, much prettier than Amsterdam.  After the boat, we walked to the Petit France area but were disappointed in the restaurant choices so ended back in the central area and had a wonderful French dinner at La Petit Alsace.  We made the mistake of deciding to walk back to the hotel not realizing how far we had strayed.  We were exhausted by the time we found the hotel again and were glad the room was nice.  Once again, Jon gave up his duvet so I could get some padding.  Unfortunately, I had a food allergy attack during the night which kept us both up for 2 hours.

On Wednesday, we had a nice breakfast at the hotel in Strasbourg and took off for a beautiful drive through the Black Forest.  It was a glorious day again and the drive was lovely.  Again, we had trouble finding a place for lunch but ended up getting off the highway and eating at a Turkish restaurant in a small town.  We got to Ulm mid-afternoon, checked into the hotel (Hotel Gasthof Adler) which was outside of town, and drove to town to see the Ulm Munster Church which is the largest church in the world.  It really does appear that people tried to build churches that would reach God directly.  This church is Lutheran but had some very Catholic appearances to it.  Parts of it were very old and parts seemed new, even with big differences in the stained glass windows.  We walked around Ulm center for a little bit and ate an early dinner.  We would have eaten at our hotel but the man didn’t speak any English so we couldn’t get enough information on what was available.  Ulm is not a very exciting or pretty city.





September 7, 2013                   Munich & Friedrichshafen, Germany
 
On Thursday, we got moving a little earlier so we could be in Dachau for a 1 pm tour.  We tried to find somewhere to get a sandwich (or really anything but Burger King) but we ended up eating sausage sandwiches from a food truck in front of a grocery store.  The afternoon at Dachau was very interesting.  It started with a vivid and depressing movie showing the images we all have seen.  Then the volunteer guide (a recent PhD in history) took us around for 2-½ hours to each area of the camp described in complete detail.  Dachau was the first camp and was only a labor camp, not an extermination camp (although they did kill some people in gas ovens there).  The attitude of the German adults, and in schools there, is one of embarrassment and apology.  After the tour, we drove on into Munich to find out that the hotel (Hotel Brack) had messed up our reservation and the room was 2 twin beds nowhere near each other and the room was so stark it almost looked like a prison camp.  The halls and lobby smelled of smoke as well so we decided to stay just one night and find somewhere else to go on the way to Zurich.  The woman at the front desk moved our room for that night but we had
 the worst night’s sleep of the whole trip.  The room was very stuffy and the beds were horrible.  The same woman also sent us on a wild goose chase to a Munich Bier Hall and we never did find one.  Plus, we ended up having to walk a ton.  Thankfully, the dinner we found was not too bad.  We decided we just weren’t in the mood for another big city with attitude.  The breakfast at the hotel was very nice which made up for some of our troubles.  On Frida  y, we drove through Bavaria to a town called Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance.  What a lovely little town.  On the way, we drove to see the famous Neuschwanstein Castle after which Disney was patterned.  We also saw the nearby Hohenschwangau Castle.  On the drive after that, our lunch consisted of gelato ice cream cones.  The hotel was wonderful as well.  Nice beds, pleasant staff.  We drove into town to make sure we could find where the ferry was located and went back near the hotel to have dinner.  On Saturday, we slept in some, had breakfast, and went to the ferry from Friedrichshafen to Romanshorn in Switzerland.  It was about a 45 minute ride with beautiful calm water and mist covered mountains.  From there we drove on to Zurich where we checked into the hotel (Holiday Inn Express) and then took a van to downtown Zurich to see the world’s most expensive shopping street (Bohnhofstrasse).  Since we are not really shoppers, we walked down to Lake Zurich at the end of that road and watched the water.  We took a tram back to the central train station and then a train back to the hotel.  Jon turned in our rental car while I packed.  We had dinner in the hotel and were ready to get up at 4:30 a.m. to go home.  There was a big brouhaha over dinner because we just wanted a simple salad and they were only serving a 25 Euro BBQ dinner. Since they told us at check in that we could order off the menu, they ended up making us salads and all was well.  We miss a few things at home (primarily Pedro) but are sad the trip is over. 

Things We Have Observed

In many restaurants and stores in the UK, there are coffee machines (with pretty good coffee) rather than brewed coffee.  This is true in Europe as well
In hotels/inns there are no facecloths, bar soap, envelopes or Kleenex.
The shampoo and liquid body soap are one and the same.  There is no hair conditioner.
Everyone in Holland speaks English and understands it well.  Some People in Germany speak it but do not understand it very well.
We like some city touring on vacation, but prefer small towns.  The train was good (but expensive) and the driving was great.  Driving in England was ok after the first day getting used to it (I didn’t drive, Jon did).
There were British Heart Foundation stores all over England and Scotland.  They seemed to be an upgraded version of Goodwill.
There are pay toilets at the rest stops in Germany where you pay to even get in the bathroom.  But the bathrooms are spotless and well supplied.
There are little trash cans on the tables in Germany (much like ones we had seen on other trips in other countries).  It seems like such a convenient addition to the table.
The bacon in every country we ate in was much better than American bacon.  Less fatty, crispy and more flavorful.


 

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