Scottish Experience

I almost titled this blog entry the Whisky Experience, but I thought even the whiff of that would make Mom sick.  More on that later…

Mom and I decided to go to Scotland for a quick weekend jaunt.  We got up at the crack of dawn on Saturday and took a quickie flight over to Edinburgh.  

 

Unfortunately, the weather didn’t really cooperate with us.  It rained sideways pretty much all day.  We tried walking around Old Town, but it was miserable and we were wet and cold.  We decided to jump on the hop on-hop off tour bus to get out of the rain.  Unfortunately, that didn’t work out so well.  The bus was a double-decker with the top open.  Because the top wasn’t usable due to the weather, the downstairs was pretty well full.  The only spots open were right at the base of the stairs.  Every time we turned a corner, the water came cascading down the stairs in a big waterfall and splashed our feet.  We were soaked and cold.  After the bus tour, we grabbed lunch at a place not too far from Edinburgh Castle.  The food wasn't very good, but the cider was better.  Things did not look good for the Weirath women.

Sunday was a little better, but it was still foggy.

Edinburgh Castle in the overcast skies

This is how foggy it was at the top.

We did the Edinburgh Castle with the audio tour.  The Castle is pretty cool.  It's built on volcanic rock and basically inaccessible on three sides.  While most of the buildings were destroyed in the 16th century, some of them date back to the 12th century.  It used to be a royal residence, but became a military base in the 1600s.  They stopped using it as the royal residence in 1603 when there was the Union of the Crowns.  At that time, King James VI inherited the English throne from his cuz, Queen Elizabeth.  Then, King Jimmy was basically doing double duty of King of the Scots and King of England.  I know you are thinking, "You are a geek for getting into all this history, Chris."  I know.  It's actually pretty cool when you consider we were in the room where Mary Queen of Scots gave birth to King James VI (it was a little room smaller than my closet, in case you were interested).

We took our time with the tour and we took a lot of pictures with Flat Caleb along the way.

Mom, Flat Caleb and a guard

 Mom, Flat Caleb and one of the cannons

Flat Caleb and a Royal Scot Dragoon Guard (Look closely)

Flat Caleb in a prison cell

There are quite a few buildings to see as part of the tour.  Everything from the Royal Scots Museum, to St. Margaret's Chapel, to the Royal Palace and the Crown Jewels, where we saw the changing of the guard.

Changing of the Guard - not as much pomp as in London, but still cool

The Castle has a lot of hills and cobblestone streets, so it is a good thing we we didn't go on Saturday or we would have been slip-sliding all over the place.

After the Castle, we decided to wander over to the Scottish Whiskey Experience.  (Yes, that is the full title.  I didn't make that up.)  They have essentially turned whiskey tasting into an adult theme park like event, including a ride.  As part of the tour, you get in a barrel and learn how whiskey is made while you are circling on a track.  After the ride stops, you are let out and led to a room where there are about 25 seats.  The instructor teaches you about the 5 regions where whiskey are made and you receive a little scratch & sniff type wheel.  Each wheel has a 4 different colors (1 representing each of the regions --- they ignore one of the regions because there are only 2-3 functioning whisky distilleries there).  As you scratch each wheel, you can smell what each area is known for (e.g. lemon, smoke, etc.).  There are corresponding colors on the table.  After you finish the scratch n' sniff, you then put your whiskey glass on the color you want to try.  The mixed pie chart one in the picture is for a blend.

Whiskey Twister - I choose Green, Mom choose Red

After we got our samples, we were brought into a separate room where we had the tasting.  The room was filled with over 3,400 bottles of whiskey.  The collection was started by one individual and then sold to the Whiskey Experience place.  It was an amazing room.

This is just one wall of the room.

None of the bottles were duplicates.  The actual cost of the collection is not known because the sale was kept private, but I can only imagine what it cost.

Mom downing her whiskey.

Mom chose what I would call the strongest of the whiskeys.  She thought it smelled like turpentine.  I thought it smelled like campfire.  Either way, neither of them are something you want to drink.  My whiskey was a little less toxic, but I had to add a little water to it to be able to drink it.  Even then, I couldn't finish it.  I felt like I was breathing fire.  Mom couldn't get the smell out of her nose for days.  I think I will stick to beer, wine and other easy hard liquor.

Since Mom was stumbling drunk then (she wasn't really, but she did say she felt like she was schnockered), we decided to walk around the city to sober up and soak up the sites.  I was happy that I was able to see both stereotypical Scottish traditions in full regalia: kilts and bagpipes.

 

Two old gentlemen on a bridge

Scottish bagpiper

I really enjoyed Edinburgh.  Apparently, I wasn't alone in that.  When we got to the airport on Monday, we were informed that our flight was delayed by over 3 hours due to a missing crew member.  Mom was insistent that one of the crew was hung over. 

Even though the weather didn't cooperate with us and travel home was a pain, I enjoyed the trip to Edinburgh.  Cute little city with a lot of history.  I will be going back in a few weeks with my friend Ellie, so hopefully the weather will cooperate then.  

Pressure Post

I've received quite a few emails/texts about the fact that I haven't posted anything in a while.  No, I wasn't kidnapped or anything.  I have had quite a few busy weeks/weekends filled with work and travel.  By the time I get home at night, I haven't had the energy to post.  I will attempt to catch up on some of my travels.  I hope I remember all the details and do my trips justice.  

As per my last post, my Mom came to visit.  She came came in during a big conference in London for work where we were publicly announcing my project, so I wasn't able to spend as much time with her as I would have liked those first couple of days.  Being the old pro at navigating London, she managed to fend for herself.  

When she first got there, we wandered around London by the Thames and took pictures by all the standard hot spots down there.  Because Mom had a bit of a skin graft done on her nose to deal with some pesky cancerous cells (she's fine), she didn't want to be photographed a lot.  In exchange, she agree to pose with "Flat Caleb" in all the photos.  

So, "Flat Caleb" deserves a little explanation.  My friend Helen's son, Caleb, is doing a Flat Stanley project at school and I was the lucky winner of his visitation because I was the living so far away.  For those who don't know about Flat Stanley, get your head out of the sand and ask a friend with a child in elementary school.  

Flat Caleb and Big Ben

 Flat Caleb and the London Eye

Note the mitten covered hand.  That's Mom.  

It was quite humorous to take pictures with Flat Caleb.  A lot of Europeans hadn't seen anything like him, so everyone thought we were some crazy people taking pictures with a paper doll.  (This was really evident in Brussels when I was doing it by myself, but what can you do?  It had to be done.)

When we were on the London Eye, there were these Italians taking a picture with their football flag.  Mom asked if they would take a picture with Flat Caleb.  They barely understood English and had no idea what she was talking about, but they agreed to do it.  The funny part was that this was their first photo. 

I realized their flag was backwards, but I didn't want to bother them any further.  Later on in the ride, they must have realized that their flag was backwards, so they asked to take the photo again.

Even they wanted to make sure Flat Caleb's trip was immortalized properly.  The whole thing was pretty funny.

I did manage to get one photo with Mom on the London Eye.

Sadly, I had to work on Thursday, so Mom toured around by herself that day.  We met up to meet some friends from work for dinner.  Kurt and his wife Kathy were in town from Chicago and our friend Mary was also in town.  We had a nice dinner in a little tapas place not too far from Kurt's and Kathy's hotel. 

Post dinner self portrait (why do I keep tilting my head in photos?)

Mom and I had a pretty low-key night on Friday because we were getting up at the butt-crack of dawn to go to Edinburgh (more on that in the next post), so we stayed in and made a lovely little dinner.  Kurt, Kathy and Mary came over to my flat for a drink before they headed to a club for a concert (they partied like rock stars!). 

So, I've only got one of about 10 posts to catch up on.  I feel a little less pressure since I posted this one, but I've got a ways to go.  As my Mom said, "Shake a leg, lady.  I want to read about all of it by the time I get home."  Sheesh...she's so demanding...

The Mom Has Landed...A While Ago

So, I haven't had a chance to post anything lately because we have been on the run.  By "we", I mean me and Mom.

Above is a picture of Mom on the London Eye with Big Ben in the background.  For anyone who knows Mom, she knows that she is afraid of heights, so I was pretty impressed that she wanted to do this.  Maybe it was her lack of sleep.  Maybe it was the glass of wine she had (just kidding --- that was after the ride).  Either way, I was pretty proud of her.

The Land of Beer and Chocolate

When last we left our hero, my friend Emily was leaving to go back home.  Because she was leaving early on Saturday and I didn’t have a lot of plans the rest of the weekend, I decided to go to Brussels for a last minute trip.  The beauty of the Eurostar ---- 2 hours on a high speed train and you’re in another country.  The trip itself was easy enough, although I started and ended this trip by spilling my lattes all over.  I know I’m a klutz, but that’s amazing even for me.

It’s funny how my travel has changed over time.  I used to do so much research before I would head anywhere and create an Excel spreadsheet with 3 tabs (one each for things to do, restaurants and hotels).  Yes, I realize I’m a geek.  Before I came to Brussels, all I did was book the hotel.  I didn’t even know what there was to do in Brussels other than drink Belgium beer and eat Belgium chocolates.

While the weather didn’t really cooperate with me, it was a lovely weekend.  I got to Brussels on Saturday afternoon.  As it wasn’t too bad out and I like to get the lay of the land by walking around, I decided to walk from the train station.  The Eurostar train station wasn’t in the best neighborhood, so it wasn’t the brightest idea in the world, but I was never in any real danger.  I used my iPhone to navigate to the hotel (thank God for Google maps!).  The walk wasn’t too bad (about 30 minutes), but their cobblestone streets and sidewalks are a killer.

Grote Markt

Town Hall in Grand Place/Grote Markt

After I got settled in my hotel (totally lucked out because it was a nice place in a prime location), I wandered around the city.  My expectation for beer and chocolate was pretty spot on.  There are pubs, beer halls and chocolate shops everywhere.  It was a little overwhelming.  Kelly would have been in heaven.

There aren’t as many tourist spots in Brussels as there are in some other European cities.  Being that I only had two days, it was good because it enabled me to see most everything.  One hot spot is Manneken Pis, essentially a statue of a little boy peeing.  Yes, that’s right.  A peeing boy.  It’s become such the popular attraction that apparently heads of state bring outfits for the little statue representing their culture.  There are over 800 of these outfits now and they are rotated with the extras being shown in the local museum.  Bizarre, but true.  Because I didn’t really have a great map, I wasn’t exactly sure where it was, but I was able to follow the crowds there.

 Little peeing boy

Another hot spot is the Cathedral.  It stands at the top of a hill and looks fairly imposing.

It is a beautiful cathedral, but I think I prefer the smaller church, St. Nicholas, that is in the center of town right near the Bourse (the Stock Exchange).  

I went to mass there on Sunday morning.  They had an English speaking mass.  As it happened, some Eucharistic ministers were being inducted.  The priest had the weirdest homily/introduction before inducting them.  He started going on about how Moses was a killer and David was an adulterer.  He said “God chooses some strange people to service.  And now he has chosen you.”  What?  Really?  What are you trying to say, Padre?  I can't even cut him slack and say that it was a translation error because the dude was Irish.

At the end of mass, they had this opera-like singer sing Ava Maria for Mother’s Day.  She had a really beautiful voice, but I found it weird that I saw her later in the day singing on the street for change. 

I assumed she was some big shot singer considering the way they introduced her at church, but I guess not. 

I went running in the park on Sunday morning near the Grand Palace. 

I don’t think the king was in residence.  At least he didn’t answer when I rang the bell.

I was expecting the park to be like Central Park or at least Grant Park.  Unfortunately, it was more like Oz Park.  OK, that’s a bit of an exaggeration.  It was small, though.  I had to go round and round to get any sort of mileage.  It did have some pretty statues and fountains, though.

On Sunday afternoon, I made a trek to the outskirts of the city to see the Atomium.

It almost looks like it is coming out of my head.

It was built for the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair.  As you can tell, it looks like a big atom, hence the name.  It has been copied in a lot of other cities, but this is the original.  It is 102 meters tall.  Each sphere is 18 meters in diameter and the tubes that connect them are between 23 and 29 meters long. 

You can take escalators and/or stairs to access floors 1-6 in some of the lower spheres, but floor 7(in the top sphere) is only accessible via elevator (at one point it was the fastest one in Europe at 5 meters per second.  You are only going 7 floors, so it is hard to judge that.).  They have some permanent exhibits and some temporary exhibits.  They also have a kid’s section that is only open at certain times.  It is set up so kids can spend the night in these little pods.

How cool would it be to sleep here for 1 night?

On the whole, the exhibit was OK.  There was a lot of information about the architects and some of the art deco buildings that were built in Brussels and Ghent around that time.  I don’t know if I wasn’t in the mood or what, but I wasn’t bowled over.

I’m glad I went because it was one of most well-known tourist attractions in Brussels (although I will admit that I had never seen it before).  It also gave me the chance to use their public transportation system.  It was extremely easy to get around.  I found it especially interesting that they played music on the metro system platforms.  Even more interesting was that it was all American music.  Some of it wasn’t even recent music.  They did play Rihanna (“Shine bright like a diamond…” – could think of nothing but my nephew Joey when they played that), but they also played Crosby, Stills and Nash, America and Carly Simon.  Very strange combination.

I love all the old architecture of these cities, but the cobblestone streets are killing me.  I have turned my ankles so many times that I’m surprised they aren’t the size of softballs.  Because of that, I decided to kick back and enjoy some downtime with some of the local Belgium food.

Other than chocolate and Belgian waffles (had one of those for breakfast), mussels and fries are a staple.  My garlicky mussels were tasty and the beer was even more so.  Brussels is a drinking city.  As I said, there are countless pubs.  There are also a lot of beer stores.  “250 Sorten von Bier” was displayed on the top of these shops.  That’s a lot of choice.  I stuck with some of the basic local varieties.  Before you ask, I didn’t have Delirium while I was there.  There is a Delirium café there that was quite popular.  For those not familiar, Delirium is a local Belgium beer with 8%+ alcohol.  I’ve had that in the States and it knocked me on my butt.  Being that I was by myself, I thought it was smart to stay upright.

All in all, the trip was really nice.  I’m glad I went because I don’t know that I would ever make a specific trip to Brussels.  I mean no disrespect to Brussels; it just hasn’t been on the top of my list.  Now, I feel like I got a little taste of it.

Yes, Emily, You Made the Blog

As you can tell by the title of the blog, my friend Emily came to visit me.  She wanted to make sure she made the blog, so I thought I would do her one better and name it after her.

Unfortunately, it was quick trip.  She was working in Turin, Italy and made a pit stop (by way of Germany) to visit me for a few days.  She made it in on Thursday afternoon and then had to head out this morning (Saturday).  It was short, but sweet.

Thursday's weather wasn't great, but we were able to tool around London without getting rained on too much.

Look -- Big Ben, Parliament!

We did get rained on a little bit.  Emily bought a Union Jack umbrella, but shockingly, that £4 gem didn't last beyond the first gust of wind.

We did duck into the oldest wine bar in London, Gordon's Wine Bar, for a quick libation.  I had taken my sister Caroline there, but this time, we were there on a Friday night around happy hour and it was hopping!  We got lucky and scored a table as soon as we walked in.  The place is literally a cave (you can't walk upright in some places).  It was built in 1890 and it looks like it could be a deathtrap, but it is quaint in a weird sort of way.  

After Gordon's, we wandered around Covent Garden and then made our way home so we could grab some dinner.  Stupid me didn't think about the fact that she had been in Italy all week and I brought her to an Italian place in Exmouth Market.  Doh!  Moron.  Good thing the food was good...

On Friday, we wandered over to the Notting Hill area and went to the Portabello Road Market.  I've detailed on my trips to PRM here.  That was on a Saturday, so it was much different.  On Friday, there were fewer vendors, but also fewer crowds, so it was a nice change.  Emily came away with quite a few bargains.

That afternoon, we had tea scheduled at The Landmark Hotel.  It is a fancy hotel in Westminster that was originally one of London's Victorian era railway hotels, the Great Central Hotel.  It later fell into disrepair and was used as a convalescent home during the Second World War.  Eventually, some big wig bought it and rehabbed into the posh place it is now.  The tea is held in the Winter Garden, which is where the central courtyard area used to be.  So, we were enjoying scones and clotted cream where the horses and carriages would have dropped off their passengers.  Pretty cool.  It's got this huge vaulted ceiling that is gorgeous.

The tea itself was lovely.  Unlike other British establishments, we were attended to very well.  Almost too well at first.  About 3 waiters tried to take our order ---- after we had already ordered.  At any rate, it was very nice and refined.  I felt very civilized. (Thanks for the recommendation, Kyle!!!)

We couldn't go with just the tea!

Yummy...

I still have to write a post about my tea with my sister Teresa and her friend Abby.  It was quite different and way less traditional, but very enjoyable in its own right.  One of these days, I will get around to writing that post...

Believe it or not, Emily and I did eat dinner after tea.  I thought we would be stuffed for the rest of the night, but we both felt a little peckish (yes, I dropped that Brit-ism on purpose.  I haven't changed that much!).

Anyway, we ended up trying to go to this pub for fish and chips and a Pimm's Cup (it's a British summer drink made with this liqueur called Pimm's).  We sat down and the waitress proceeded to tell us that they don't know how to make Pimm's Cups (even though they have Pimm's and I don't know what else you would make with it) and they just ran out of fish.  What?  Okay....so, we got up and walked out.  We went to another bar around the corner from my house.  No fish and chips or Pimm's Cup there, but we did have yummy meals and even yummier cocktails.  Mine was called Nicola Six and it was quite tasty.  (I totally ordered it because of you, Nicole!).

So, it was a whirlwind trip, but it was a lot of fun.  Good food, good drinks, and Emily was able to close her suitcase after packing all her goodies.  I'd say that was a successful trip all around!

This Made Up for the Light Show

The other night I went to a play in the West End.  The play was called The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.  Quite the mouthful, but it was brilliant.  And by brilliant, I don’t mean British brilliant.  I mean brilliant, brilliant.  As with a lot of things over here, I think I heard/read about it randomly somewhere.  I really only heard that it had good reviews, so I didn’t have a whole lot of expectations nor did I even really know what it was about.  Maybe my minimal expectations had something to do with it, but I was thoroughly impressed.

As a side note, it was interesting going to a play with all Brits speaking.  “Duh!”, you say.  “You are in London.”  I know…I know.  I saw Shakespeare’s The Tempest here, but somehow it made sense for all the actors to be speaking with a British accent.  It was Shakespeare after all.

I digress…back to the play. 

The theater, the Apollo Theatre, isn’t anything really fancy.  It is quite small in comparison to some other theatres I’ve been in and it is old.  As there was no main lobby to speak of, everyone was spilled out on the sidewalk waiting to be allowed to go to their seats.  The entrance to my seats was actually down the block from the main entrance.  I went up to my seats and was amazed at how cramped in everything was.  There was no leg room to speak of, so trying to get to my seat, which was 4 seats in from the aisle, proved to be an adventure.  Everyone had to leave the row so I could get into my seat.  Made me realize there was no getting up and down.  I was in it for the long haul.  Good thing I stopped in the loo beforehand.  

Thankfully, the play was so entertaining that I didn’t think about the lack of leg room.  The play, based on a book of the same name, is about a 15-year old boy named Christopher.  He is a math prodigy with autism.  The story is based upon his quest to find out who killed the neighbor’s dog, but it evolves so much from there.  I don’t want to give too much away about it, but I will say that it was one of the best plays that I’ve been to in a long time.

After going to the play, I found out that it had swept the 2013 Olivier Awards (the British version of the Tony’s).  It was named best new play and Luke Treadaway won the best actor category.  He was amazing.  From the dislike of people touching him to the very literal answers to questions he was asked, he captured the characteristics of an autistic child remarkably well.  It was heart wrenching to see him interact with his parents.  They did a fantastic job of conveying the controlled frustration that they face on a daily basis.  There were parts of the play that had me near tears (awkward when you consider I was on my own, but I didn’t really care).

All in all, I loved it.  I have no idea if it is going to make it over the pond, but if it does, I highly recommend it.  I did hear that Brad Pitt optioned the rights for it for a movie.  It will tick me off if he ruins it.  If Angelina Jolie plays the mother, I’m boycotting.

They Can't All Be Winners

So, I went to my first event here the other night that I considered to be a flop.  It was an art exhibit at the Hayward Gallery called "The Light Show".  I got suckered into it by the ads in the tube stations.  The concept behind it was artists that use light to "explore how we experience and psychologically respond to illumination and colour, and also encompasses more conceptual and political concerns".  In my mind, it was a bunch of hooey.

There were about 20 exhibits and only about 3 of them were cool.  One of the best ones was the one displayed in the ads that suckered me in.  It was by a dude name Leo Villareal and it was called "Cylinder II).  I have no idea was "Cylinder I" looked like, but this was like a waterfall of light.  

Cylinder II

It was cool looking, but I have no idea what it's commentary was supposed to be.  Other than the one exhibit that constantly flashed declassified US government documents on ticker-tape like display boards, I have no idea what any of the exhibits were trying to say.

There was another exhibit that you had to wait in line for and then you sat on the floor in some dark room and you were supposed to stare at the exhibit.  Apparently, "the longer that one spends there the more one sees."  Sure....

I think that I just don't get modern art.  

Taking the Pollyanna view, even though the exhibit sucked, it gave me the chance to see the South Bank in full action.  The Hayward Gallery is part of the Southbank Centre on the south side of the Thames right near the London Eye.  After I escaped the exhibit (I probably moved through that thing in record time), I walked along the South Bank and people watched.  It happened to be a nice day, so the Londoners were out in full force.  Every bar/pub was mobbed.  People were spilling out on to sidewalks and parks.  Unlike in Chicago, nobody was corralling the people and making them stay in a little pen.  I talked about this with some of my London friends the other day.  In Chicago, if it is a nice day out, outdoor tables are impossible to get and once the tables are gone, you are SOL.  In London, it doesn't matter if there is a table or not.  People spill out onto the sidewalk next to the pub and possibly the park or the sidewalk across the street.  Nobody cares and nobody tries to rope you in.  One of my friends said "I don't think anyone in London would stand in the way of enjoying a nice day."  I like that attitude.  I might have to port that attitude over to Chicago.