Between 12 and 14 percent of the American population considers themselves to have Irish decent. So it is not surprising that many people I talk to have been, plan to, or wish to visit Ireland. It was always high on my list and a few weeks ago I got a chance to at least get a taste of the green island. RG and I took a nice little weekend and spent it in Dublin. To describe Dublin I would say to picture a generic European city with stone and brink builds standing 3 to 5 stories tall. Replace every fifth building with an Irish pub, the ones found in every US city are actually very good representatives of the real thing. Now add statues, sculptures, and other public works of art to 3 out of 5 street corners. Finally imagine that most friendly people surrounding you have fair skin with light brown hair, accept for every fifth person who has red hair, also figure every seventh person is an American visiting the city and making a small ruckus. Add a couple dozen catholic churches, some medieval structures here and there, and a nice river through the center of town then you have Dublin.
The hotel we stayed at was fabulous. The Shelbourne Dublin is one of the oldest hotels in the city and is old world opulent. Woodworking, brass, fabric covered walls, great art work, a good steak restaurant, and a couple of trendy bars make up a wonderful hotel. I would say it was the best hotel I have stayed at to date, but my wife would remind me that I say this for every 3rd hotel we have stayed at. I guess I am just lucky to reap the benefits from constantly traveling for work via free stays at great hotels. This was certainly the most elegant hotel though in the traditional sense. It was also nice because we were upgraded to a suite, unfortunately the suite had two double beds rather than a king. The beds were also a little old and sagged in the middle. So it was a little hard for two people to sleep in one of them but we made due.
I won’t go into a lot of detail about Dublin. I would suggest that everyone go there. The pubs are great places to visit and what most Americans would expect but there are many other things to see as well. Dublin has theater, museums, historic landmarks, and of course the Guinness Storehouse tour. The store house tour is nice, though you don’t actually get to see the production line but you do get to sample some fresh Guinness, so that is nice. My personal favorite sit though was Kilmainham Gaol. A prison that was used to house some of the people that fought for Irish independence in the early part of last century. A large stone structure that at one time housed thousand of prisioners the Gaol has operated for more than a hundred years. It is a very interesting tour because it reflects a turbulent time through Irish history.
The strangest site we visited had to be the Bram Stoker Museum. This museum was out of the center of town across the street from where Stoker lived. It is funny because it is housed in the same building as a Health Club and a Bar/Night Club. In fact you have to walk through the bar night club, go up some back stairs, pay in a back room that houses the pool tables, continue toward the rear of this long building, and pass the bathrooms where you find yourself at the entrance of the self paced museum. The museum is actually part museum part haunted house. The first part of it is exhibits of photos, writings, and artifacts from Stoker’s life along with some movie posters from various Dracula related movies. After that you walk through a cheese special effects hallway that transports you through space and time to the scenes from the Dracula story. These are fun and for the most part relatively accurate to the book. They are animatronics displays that move when triggered by sensors. Only a couple things jump out at you so it isn’t too scary, but it is still fun.
So basically we had a great time in Dublin. We had our share of Guinness, had some traditional Irish stew, saw some great sites, and saw some strange sites. It is certainly worth a weekend, if I had more time we certainly would have traveled more of the country and seen more. I still have on my list to someday visit the Blarney stone and find a leprechaun or two.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Friday, October 24, 2008
Riding the Hovercraft to see the Osbornes
Well it only took me nine months but I finally visited one of the closest sites to my apartment in Portsmouth. Though I guess I should say we got there. In fact I can practically see it from my apartment window on clear days. A few weeks ago on a unbelievable fall day RG and I went to the Isle of Wight to check things out, ride a hover craft, and see a fancy house. And we did all of those things. To start I should mention that I am with in walking distance from no fewer than three different ferry launches, and there are several launches from each of them an hour. So there are at least a dozen opportunities an hour to get to the island. However for the first nine months or so in Portsmouth I would spend 3, 4, 5, 6, even 10 hours in the car to get all over England to go site seeing. Well that has changed I think now I will try to do things more locally at least until I leave.
One of the best parts of the trip, and unfortunately one of the shortest, was the ride to the Island. And I say ride because that is what it was a ride. We decided to take one of the few running hovercrafts left in the world to the Island. I have been fascinated with hover crafts since I was a kid and my parents, er I mean Santa Claus, gave me a remote controlled hover craft for Christmas. I remember trying that thing on everything, concrete, sand, ice, and water the whole bit. This fun didn’t last forever I think I used it off and on for three years then driving and what not seemed more important. But I always wondered what being on a full sized one would be like. So I finally had my chance, we bought a round trip ticket including bus fare and entry to Queen Victoria’s mansion on the island at the Hover port mid morning, waited our turn to board, and strapped in.
I was pretty cool, the way the whole craft lifts up when the large fan fills the bladder with air. RG was amazed by the way the craft rotates as if falling backwards off the launch pad. I loved the way it cruised above the sand and then the surf for 10 minutes to the island. It was surprisingly smooth, and must have been well insulated because it didn’t seem loud. All in all it was a bit surreal. The hovercraft itself looks just like the one from Rumble in Bronx and the cab is completely contained. It certainly looks like it was built in the late eighties or early nineties from the plastics and colors used in the passenger area. The window are set a little too high to get a good view out of, and the ride isn’t smooth enough to stand at the main window in front, so you don’t get the best view while cruising. But this didn’t make the trip any less fun. Now in a single year I have been on a Hydrofoil and a Hovercraft. Seriously, how cool is that?
Once on the Isle of Wight the Hovercraft launch is basically attached tot he main bus station in town. We had to wait about 15 minutes for the double decker to show up and the ride to Victoria’s mansion was about ½ hour. What amazed me here was how populated the Island was. I thought it would be like an Island off Maine with a few people and the town had many four or five roads with a typical main street. This is not the case there are at least five descent sized towns of thousands. In fact the island seems more populated than parts of the regular coast. We saw a lot of good sized homes, a lot of shops, pubs, restaurants, and all the normal city living amenities. The Mansion was a bit in the country but not by much.
Victoria’s Mansion on the Isle of Wight is called Osborne House. I honestly don’t know why and before we went there I didn’t even know that the Queen had owned and lived there. I just never looked it up, I went because the locals in Portsmouth said it was a nice place to visit. They were certainly right about that. It is a very nice park with several sites including the large mansion to visit. I won’t go into to much detail as I am starting to feel like the descriptions of these places are running together but it was a nice country estate fit for a queen. It also had no relations to Ozzie and his family but this wasn’t a big disappointment. To finish off the trip we also took a walk through the town called Ryde and had dinner at a nice bar/restaurant were we ate something called whitebait along with some topas. All in all one of our nicer days out, though it seems like that is all we get in England.
One of the best parts of the trip, and unfortunately one of the shortest, was the ride to the Island. And I say ride because that is what it was a ride. We decided to take one of the few running hovercrafts left in the world to the Island. I have been fascinated with hover crafts since I was a kid and my parents, er I mean Santa Claus, gave me a remote controlled hover craft for Christmas. I remember trying that thing on everything, concrete, sand, ice, and water the whole bit. This fun didn’t last forever I think I used it off and on for three years then driving and what not seemed more important. But I always wondered what being on a full sized one would be like. So I finally had my chance, we bought a round trip ticket including bus fare and entry to Queen Victoria’s mansion on the island at the Hover port mid morning, waited our turn to board, and strapped in.
I was pretty cool, the way the whole craft lifts up when the large fan fills the bladder with air. RG was amazed by the way the craft rotates as if falling backwards off the launch pad. I loved the way it cruised above the sand and then the surf for 10 minutes to the island. It was surprisingly smooth, and must have been well insulated because it didn’t seem loud. All in all it was a bit surreal. The hovercraft itself looks just like the one from Rumble in Bronx and the cab is completely contained. It certainly looks like it was built in the late eighties or early nineties from the plastics and colors used in the passenger area. The window are set a little too high to get a good view out of, and the ride isn’t smooth enough to stand at the main window in front, so you don’t get the best view while cruising. But this didn’t make the trip any less fun. Now in a single year I have been on a Hydrofoil and a Hovercraft. Seriously, how cool is that?
Once on the Isle of Wight the Hovercraft launch is basically attached tot he main bus station in town. We had to wait about 15 minutes for the double decker to show up and the ride to Victoria’s mansion was about ½ hour. What amazed me here was how populated the Island was. I thought it would be like an Island off Maine with a few people and the town had many four or five roads with a typical main street. This is not the case there are at least five descent sized towns of thousands. In fact the island seems more populated than parts of the regular coast. We saw a lot of good sized homes, a lot of shops, pubs, restaurants, and all the normal city living amenities. The Mansion was a bit in the country but not by much.
Victoria’s Mansion on the Isle of Wight is called Osborne House. I honestly don’t know why and before we went there I didn’t even know that the Queen had owned and lived there. I just never looked it up, I went because the locals in Portsmouth said it was a nice place to visit. They were certainly right about that. It is a very nice park with several sites including the large mansion to visit. I won’t go into to much detail as I am starting to feel like the descriptions of these places are running together but it was a nice country estate fit for a queen. It also had no relations to Ozzie and his family but this wasn’t a big disappointment. To finish off the trip we also took a walk through the town called Ryde and had dinner at a nice bar/restaurant were we ate something called whitebait along with some topas. All in all one of our nicer days out, though it seems like that is all we get in England.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Battle of the Dress
In the movie A Christmas Story there are a couple of battles going on with in the family. The first is the main plot of the movie Ralfie the older boy wants a Red Rider bb gun with a compass in the stock and a thingy that tells time, his mother doesn’t want him to have one. The other fight is over a lamp shaped like a woman’s leg in fishnet stockings that the father wins and displays in the front window. He believes it is a major award, while she believes it is disgusting. Eventually the mother accidentally nocks the lamp over and it breaks. Everyone can relate to these scenes because I think this is a normal part of family life. People clash over small silly things all the time. I think it is a funny cycle that everyone gets caught up in from time to time. Say a teenager wants a car, or a college student wants to move out of the dorm, possibly parent want the kids to accomplish something, whatever it all out campaigns can be waged the dominate ones personal story for entire periods.
My wife and I think take this to a high art. Her parents are always campaigning for something, she is always campaigning for something, and I am generally trying to defect these tactics as best I can. The latest one though I had to relent and give in. RG’s sister is getting married this coming winter. At some point when RG decided to move to the UK for a while she asked if I could get buy her dress for the wedding. She is going to be the maid of honor and her sister told her to buy whatever she wants. I of course said this would be no problem and we could spend probably x dollars. Well that was a mistake. Not saying that we can buy the dress, no, that wasn’t a big deal. It was assigning a possible amount. My wife’s razor sharp mind kicked right in and she committed the number to memory. I, as I usually do, promptly forgot about the whole matter.
One weekend after she had moved to the UK she said she wanted to go into the Karen Millen outlet that shares a parking lot with my apartment building. I didn’t think anything about it, it is one of the few stores she actually likes to browse in. So we went in and she started looking at dresses. So she found some she liked and said she was going to try them on. What I didn’t know is that she was looking for the above mentioned Maid of Honor dress. Not that I minded, I just didn’t expect it was so pressing as the wedding was still 6 months away. So she found two that she like and both of them were priced well under the amount we had talked about, and I had promptly forgotten some time before. So asked is she could get both, together they were still under the budget.
Of course this isn’t the way I think. I remember talking about A dress not an amount. Of course the amount seemed about what I would agree to but my silly thinking is we could just keep the difference. After a little chatting she picked one, we bought it, and we left the store.
Not a day went by before she started her campaign to get the other dress. Using lines like “don’t you think I look pretty in the dress”, “aren’t I worth another dress”, “it is still under the amount for the dress”, and any other thing she could think of. Then she started to say things like “I know what you want to do, buy me that dress” and so on. She couldn’t go a day with out bringing it up. Of course what she didn’t know was I figured it would be a good Christmas present, bought it when she was napping, and hid it. So I kept trying to get her to drop it. The problem with this is that she is almost as hard headed as I am. We have incredible tests of will on regular basis. I win some, I lose some. So I kept persisting with arguments against buying the dress. Saying the store sold the last one, or that it wouldn’t be practical for winter, and so on. Of course these efforts fell on deaf ears.
This went on for at least 3 full weeks, and would have gone on longer, except I really didn’t have a good place to hide the dress and I was getting sick of hearing about it. So on the wife’s birthday even though she already received a very nice gift early, and a dress for her sister’s wedding, I gave her the other dress. She wore it that night to dinner at a fun little Greek place down the road, and I suppose she feels she one that one. I hope she feels that way at Christmas when I wrap the dress up in a box and give it too her again!
My wife and I think take this to a high art. Her parents are always campaigning for something, she is always campaigning for something, and I am generally trying to defect these tactics as best I can. The latest one though I had to relent and give in. RG’s sister is getting married this coming winter. At some point when RG decided to move to the UK for a while she asked if I could get buy her dress for the wedding. She is going to be the maid of honor and her sister told her to buy whatever she wants. I of course said this would be no problem and we could spend probably x dollars. Well that was a mistake. Not saying that we can buy the dress, no, that wasn’t a big deal. It was assigning a possible amount. My wife’s razor sharp mind kicked right in and she committed the number to memory. I, as I usually do, promptly forgot about the whole matter.
One weekend after she had moved to the UK she said she wanted to go into the Karen Millen outlet that shares a parking lot with my apartment building. I didn’t think anything about it, it is one of the few stores she actually likes to browse in. So we went in and she started looking at dresses. So she found some she liked and said she was going to try them on. What I didn’t know is that she was looking for the above mentioned Maid of Honor dress. Not that I minded, I just didn’t expect it was so pressing as the wedding was still 6 months away. So she found two that she like and both of them were priced well under the amount we had talked about, and I had promptly forgotten some time before. So asked is she could get both, together they were still under the budget.
Of course this isn’t the way I think. I remember talking about A dress not an amount. Of course the amount seemed about what I would agree to but my silly thinking is we could just keep the difference. After a little chatting she picked one, we bought it, and we left the store.
Not a day went by before she started her campaign to get the other dress. Using lines like “don’t you think I look pretty in the dress”, “aren’t I worth another dress”, “it is still under the amount for the dress”, and any other thing she could think of. Then she started to say things like “I know what you want to do, buy me that dress” and so on. She couldn’t go a day with out bringing it up. Of course what she didn’t know was I figured it would be a good Christmas present, bought it when she was napping, and hid it. So I kept trying to get her to drop it. The problem with this is that she is almost as hard headed as I am. We have incredible tests of will on regular basis. I win some, I lose some. So I kept persisting with arguments against buying the dress. Saying the store sold the last one, or that it wouldn’t be practical for winter, and so on. Of course these efforts fell on deaf ears.
This went on for at least 3 full weeks, and would have gone on longer, except I really didn’t have a good place to hide the dress and I was getting sick of hearing about it. So on the wife’s birthday even though she already received a very nice gift early, and a dress for her sister’s wedding, I gave her the other dress. She wore it that night to dinner at a fun little Greek place down the road, and I suppose she feels she one that one. I hope she feels that way at Christmas when I wrap the dress up in a box and give it too her again!
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Driving and Driving
So after being in the UK and driving all around the UK for the last 8 months I think I have a pretty good handle on the skill. I may have eluded to a my feelings about driving in some previous posts but I thought it may be fun to put together a top 10 list of things that bother me about driving in the UK.
Before I get to the list I will also say that I had quite an adjustment to driving overhear and the first 3 weeks or so I referred to as white knuckle driving. This is because I was so intensely paying attention to my driving that I gripped the wheel so tight that my knuckles lost blood flow regularly. To be honest this was also caused because I was a bit scared. In fact I would tell people that when they drove in the UK they should bring along a couple changes of shorts because you get that scared you may need to change them.
However I did get over these issues and now when I go home and drive I must admit it seems a little boring. The roads are super wide, there are no true corners in most places, and you have easy to follow signage (no matter what you think of our road signs they are better than any other country I have visited yet). One of the biggest things I did to get into driving was change the type of car I was driving. Originally I drove a large car, either a Peugeot 407 or a VW Passat. In the states these would be considered mid-sized cars. In the UK they take up way to much room and leave you less room to maneuver. Also a lot of it came to practice. Driving with your right hand and shifting with the left takes some work when you are used to doing the opposite. Also once you start to learn where to look for road signs you can start to make your way around with out the GPS.
So here is my top ten things that bother me, and probably any driver from the states, in the UK:
10.) Driving on the Opposite side of the road – I don’t care that more people in the world drive on the left, it is just weird. You have to shift with the wrong hand, the GPS tells you to go the wrong way through a round-a-bout, and your passengers get freaked out because you end up driving so close to the edge of the road. However you do get used to this and switching back and forth does become a non-issue.
9.) Signage – UK signs are not where they belong. They may dangle from over head like on the US freeways, be posted in the center of the round-a-bout, on the outside of a round-a-bout, on the pavement, on signs leading into an intersection, or who knows where. There are duplicate signs that list destinations in a different order each time you see them, and when you come into an interchange you never know where to look to determine which lane is the correct one to be in.
8.) Size of roads – They are simply, with the exception of the motorways, to small. The lanes are too small, there are not enough lanes, and they will not move fences, hedges, light poles, or stone walls to accommodate a decent road way. Even on a well traveled road you have to pull over to let on coming traffic to pass. How 19th century is that. We aren’t in horse and buggies anymore.
7.) Parking on roads – This actually is a continuation of point 8. In the middle of a decent sized city people will park, and it is legal, along a major road. This in effect cuts the road in half and backs traffic up. It also means that in many cases I only have millimeters between my car’s review mirrors and those of the cars parked along the road. This is when I normally need those new shorts.
6.) Country bi-directional roads – This point is also a continuation of a theme. When you get into the country, and it doesn’t take much 10 mile out of a town center, the roads get even smaller! There are times where the road is so narrow that the mirrors on the side of the car are trimming hedges on both sides as you drive. Now take in mind and realize that this is a two way road. So now you have to pull into a swamp every 10 minutes to let traffic pass. No take all that into mind and realize you are in Wales and driving up the side of a mountain in the fog. Come on build some decent size roads.
5.) Corners and Speed – The British can not make a straight road. I don’t know why they just can’t. In the states we may be a little crazy on making routes as straight as possible in the UK it isn’t even considered. Neither is driving at a decent speed. The national speed limit is 70 mph, on a two way road with 90 degree s-turns, and people will average 95 mph. They are simply nutz. Though, when I get on the motorway the speed seems to make more sense.
4.) Never stopping, at least in theory – The whole point of a round-a-bout is so people don’t have to stop. So why do the British then put stop lights on them? Or put them in on highways so at 70 miles an hour (or as I said 95) people have to worry about cross traffic. Then at an uncontrolled round-a-bout you still have to stop because there are a million cars coming on one exit to the left of you. Again traffic backs up. Just put in a four-way light and be done with it. Oh yeah and if a round-a-bout needs more than 4 lanes it is too big and you should use something else. I always end up going somewhere I don’t want to be cause I should have been in lane 2 not lane 9.
3.) Watch out if there is bad weather – This is simple. When there is a little fog or drizzle 3 people on the road want to go 50 mph rather than 70 or 95. Then they decide they should pass someone doing 40. Plus everyone decides to go home early so there are 3 times as many people on the road and it take 3 times as long to get anywhere. Even though the roads have fine traction and visibility is still 80% what it normally is.
2.) The fast lane is not fast – Building on number 3 the British have a bad habit of riding in the wrong lane. If there is a tractor on the road in 2 miles they get into the fast lane now. Then do 3 miles and hour faster than the tractor. Add bad weather to this, or heavy traffic and the fast lane actually can move slower than the slow lane. For no reason. The slow drivers just don’t want to move over. It is enough to make you scream (of course this happens in the US as you approach a merger or construction drives me just as nutz there).
1.) 1.) Traffic incidents – Finally the way they handle traffic accidents is crazy. They completely shut the road down until the forensics work is done. And if it is a weekend that could be ½ a day, forget a bout it. Seriously on our drive back from Scotland there was an accident on the M40 that occurred around 2 in the afternoon and we were stuck in the back up when we arrived at interchange around 6 in the evening. It was closer to 7 when they finally opened the road and it started to flow again! The best part, no detour signs, if you are smart enough to get off in time you have no clue where to go.
All that said, I do have to say that the British are much more courteous drivers. They signal, let you in when you signal, and in general leave gaps for people. If there is no one in front of them they will get over for you to pass, assuming traffic is light. And you aren’t allowed to honk unless there is an emergency so it is nice not to hear all the honking (if you have been to New York or Chicago you know what I am talking about). Though side by side. I will be glad to be back in the states, it is just a lot easier to get around from place to place.
Before I get to the list I will also say that I had quite an adjustment to driving overhear and the first 3 weeks or so I referred to as white knuckle driving. This is because I was so intensely paying attention to my driving that I gripped the wheel so tight that my knuckles lost blood flow regularly. To be honest this was also caused because I was a bit scared. In fact I would tell people that when they drove in the UK they should bring along a couple changes of shorts because you get that scared you may need to change them.
However I did get over these issues and now when I go home and drive I must admit it seems a little boring. The roads are super wide, there are no true corners in most places, and you have easy to follow signage (no matter what you think of our road signs they are better than any other country I have visited yet). One of the biggest things I did to get into driving was change the type of car I was driving. Originally I drove a large car, either a Peugeot 407 or a VW Passat. In the states these would be considered mid-sized cars. In the UK they take up way to much room and leave you less room to maneuver. Also a lot of it came to practice. Driving with your right hand and shifting with the left takes some work when you are used to doing the opposite. Also once you start to learn where to look for road signs you can start to make your way around with out the GPS.
So here is my top ten things that bother me, and probably any driver from the states, in the UK:
10.) Driving on the Opposite side of the road – I don’t care that more people in the world drive on the left, it is just weird. You have to shift with the wrong hand, the GPS tells you to go the wrong way through a round-a-bout, and your passengers get freaked out because you end up driving so close to the edge of the road. However you do get used to this and switching back and forth does become a non-issue.
9.) Signage – UK signs are not where they belong. They may dangle from over head like on the US freeways, be posted in the center of the round-a-bout, on the outside of a round-a-bout, on the pavement, on signs leading into an intersection, or who knows where. There are duplicate signs that list destinations in a different order each time you see them, and when you come into an interchange you never know where to look to determine which lane is the correct one to be in.
8.) Size of roads – They are simply, with the exception of the motorways, to small. The lanes are too small, there are not enough lanes, and they will not move fences, hedges, light poles, or stone walls to accommodate a decent road way. Even on a well traveled road you have to pull over to let on coming traffic to pass. How 19th century is that. We aren’t in horse and buggies anymore.
7.) Parking on roads – This actually is a continuation of point 8. In the middle of a decent sized city people will park, and it is legal, along a major road. This in effect cuts the road in half and backs traffic up. It also means that in many cases I only have millimeters between my car’s review mirrors and those of the cars parked along the road. This is when I normally need those new shorts.
6.) Country bi-directional roads – This point is also a continuation of a theme. When you get into the country, and it doesn’t take much 10 mile out of a town center, the roads get even smaller! There are times where the road is so narrow that the mirrors on the side of the car are trimming hedges on both sides as you drive. Now take in mind and realize that this is a two way road. So now you have to pull into a swamp every 10 minutes to let traffic pass. No take all that into mind and realize you are in Wales and driving up the side of a mountain in the fog. Come on build some decent size roads.
5.) Corners and Speed – The British can not make a straight road. I don’t know why they just can’t. In the states we may be a little crazy on making routes as straight as possible in the UK it isn’t even considered. Neither is driving at a decent speed. The national speed limit is 70 mph, on a two way road with 90 degree s-turns, and people will average 95 mph. They are simply nutz. Though, when I get on the motorway the speed seems to make more sense.
4.) Never stopping, at least in theory – The whole point of a round-a-bout is so people don’t have to stop. So why do the British then put stop lights on them? Or put them in on highways so at 70 miles an hour (or as I said 95) people have to worry about cross traffic. Then at an uncontrolled round-a-bout you still have to stop because there are a million cars coming on one exit to the left of you. Again traffic backs up. Just put in a four-way light and be done with it. Oh yeah and if a round-a-bout needs more than 4 lanes it is too big and you should use something else. I always end up going somewhere I don’t want to be cause I should have been in lane 2 not lane 9.
3.) Watch out if there is bad weather – This is simple. When there is a little fog or drizzle 3 people on the road want to go 50 mph rather than 70 or 95. Then they decide they should pass someone doing 40. Plus everyone decides to go home early so there are 3 times as many people on the road and it take 3 times as long to get anywhere. Even though the roads have fine traction and visibility is still 80% what it normally is.
2.) The fast lane is not fast – Building on number 3 the British have a bad habit of riding in the wrong lane. If there is a tractor on the road in 2 miles they get into the fast lane now. Then do 3 miles and hour faster than the tractor. Add bad weather to this, or heavy traffic and the fast lane actually can move slower than the slow lane. For no reason. The slow drivers just don’t want to move over. It is enough to make you scream (of course this happens in the US as you approach a merger or construction drives me just as nutz there).
1.) 1.) Traffic incidents – Finally the way they handle traffic accidents is crazy. They completely shut the road down until the forensics work is done. And if it is a weekend that could be ½ a day, forget a bout it. Seriously on our drive back from Scotland there was an accident on the M40 that occurred around 2 in the afternoon and we were stuck in the back up when we arrived at interchange around 6 in the evening. It was closer to 7 when they finally opened the road and it started to flow again! The best part, no detour signs, if you are smart enough to get off in time you have no clue where to go.
All that said, I do have to say that the British are much more courteous drivers. They signal, let you in when you signal, and in general leave gaps for people. If there is no one in front of them they will get over for you to pass, assuming traffic is light. And you aren’t allowed to honk unless there is an emergency so it is nice not to hear all the honking (if you have been to New York or Chicago you know what I am talking about). Though side by side. I will be glad to be back in the states, it is just a lot easier to get around from place to place.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Mary King’s Close
One of the things I have been trying to do while I travel is to find some out of the ordinary places to visit. Otherwise you end up with a pretty routine way to look at a city in Europe. Tour the palace/castle/manor house, tour the church/Cathedral/Abby, go to the town square, check out the local statues, maybe see some roman ruins, and so on. Most towns and cities have the same main elements. Larger cities also have museums, and very large cities have more unique sites such as the BA Eye in London, or the Eiffel tower in Paris. But in most medium and small cities this isn’t the case, but a lot of times you can find something unique to an area. One such place in Edinburgh was Mary King’s Close. An underground tour of what were in effect Scottish tenements. These though had been paved over to build a modern city.
A Close is essential a street that is between 7 or so story tall buildings on both sides where thousands of people live basically in Squalor. At least most the people in a close did, some like Mary King had some money and lived in the middle levels, while people with more money lived in the top levels. Most people however lived in the first few levels with more than 10 people crammed into a single 10x10 or smaller room. No furniture, no beds, no windows, a bucket to collect waste (all waste) and a fireplace. Not the nicest of conditions according to the tour. There were two plagues going around and generally unsanitary conditions everywhere. In fact people emptied their waste buckets straight into the street, even people on the upper levels, so you had to watch where you stepped or for surprises from above.
These closes all ran from the Royal mile in the center of Edinburgh down a hill for about a mile down to a lake that no longer exists. It was said that the lake was covered in a foot thick film of filth until it was eventually filled in and a park built in its location. Eventually the government closed out the closes one by one forcing people to move and cut most of the buildings in half and built a new city on top of them! You can actually see the underside of the roads when looking up while touring one of these closes. The tour is quite interesting, including live tour guides dressed in period garb. They tell ghost stories, along with some other stories of murder, plague, along with others and they show a house that was featured on some shows about the most haunted places. You go through several “houses” and rooms and see some mock ups of how people lived. It was quite interesting and a lot of fun. I was certainly glad that we stopped into see. I am also very glad that I live in the twenty-first century and have much nicer living options available to me!
A Close is essential a street that is between 7 or so story tall buildings on both sides where thousands of people live basically in Squalor. At least most the people in a close did, some like Mary King had some money and lived in the middle levels, while people with more money lived in the top levels. Most people however lived in the first few levels with more than 10 people crammed into a single 10x10 or smaller room. No furniture, no beds, no windows, a bucket to collect waste (all waste) and a fireplace. Not the nicest of conditions according to the tour. There were two plagues going around and generally unsanitary conditions everywhere. In fact people emptied their waste buckets straight into the street, even people on the upper levels, so you had to watch where you stepped or for surprises from above.
These closes all ran from the Royal mile in the center of Edinburgh down a hill for about a mile down to a lake that no longer exists. It was said that the lake was covered in a foot thick film of filth until it was eventually filled in and a park built in its location. Eventually the government closed out the closes one by one forcing people to move and cut most of the buildings in half and built a new city on top of them! You can actually see the underside of the roads when looking up while touring one of these closes. The tour is quite interesting, including live tour guides dressed in period garb. They tell ghost stories, along with some other stories of murder, plague, along with others and they show a house that was featured on some shows about the most haunted places. You go through several “houses” and rooms and see some mock ups of how people lived. It was quite interesting and a lot of fun. I was certainly glad that we stopped into see. I am also very glad that I live in the twenty-first century and have much nicer living options available to me!
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Royal Mile
Ok well I can say that being in the UK is exciting, at least on the weekends. During the week of course it wouldn’t matter where I am really. New York, Chicago, Dayton OH, Milwaukee WI, Minneapolis MN, or Petersfield UK in all of these places I get up shower get dressed, put in 9-12 hours and come back to the hotel. I try to get a little work out in, maybe read a bit of a book, answer personal emails, or watch some TV. But being in an exotic location does allow for me to do some fun things on the weekends. So the week after RG and I went to Northern England and through Whales we headed up to Scotland. However this time my Parents were in town, so in a slight role reversal I planned a weekend trip and drove the four of us in my small Peugeot 308 four door to Edinburgh. We stayed at a nice little inn about 8 miles from the city center and had an easy commute to sight see.
We drove up Friday afternoon and got in rather late, though we did have time to stop for a nice dinner at a pub on the way. The next morning we didn’t get up ridiculously early but since most sites are only open a few hours a day in Europe you always need to get going if you want to see more than one thing. So on the way into town we stopped at the Roslyn Chapel the same one from the book and movie the Da Vinci Code. It was undergoing some repairs and the building was covered by a tin roof, so from a distance it looked like a farm shed, but once you got closer you could see this was no ordinary church. It was supposedly built by members of the Knights Templar that had visited the Americas long before Columbus and was filled with strange carvings for a church. It was a very strange place really. I was a little surprised though that were not more visitors there. I guess it is just too out of the way to get as much attention as the Churches in London and Paris that were also featured in the story.
Then we headed into town. The plan was to see as many sights as we could along what is know as the Royal Mile; a stretch of cobblestone road leading from the Royal palace at the base of a hill to Edinburgh Castle at the top of the same hill in the center of the city. Most of the places to see are along this stretch and we packed a lot in. Though I have to say I could have been a little more relaxed as I got somewhat frustrated by the whole parking situation, but that is what it is. The area is picturesque to say the least, full of 4-6 story stone buildings that house fancy wool shops, armories, a few cafés, some hotels, and a lot of specialty tourist shops. Each byway is a scene out of another medieval time. It is said the progressions of Royals would go from the palace to the castle on a regular basis and may time this was similar to a parade like atmosphere. But on the overcast day we were there we did not see any Royals.
We did however see Willem Wallace. Or for movie fans out there, Braveheart. Dressed in a Kilt, face painted blue, and carrying that four foot log broad sword. Try as I might I could not get my dad to take his photo with the guy. That would have certainly been a highlight – probably for RG and me than for my dad, but the way he talks about that movie you would think he would have jumped at the opportunity. So we toured the Castle, an old church, walked by the Scottish Parliament, walked by the royal palace, took a tour of an underground abandoned close (more on this in a future post), and RG and I took a Scotch Whiskey tour while my parents walked the shopping district a few blocks away. The Scotch tour was very interesting though, and we got to do a little sampling. As for the next day we headed back south and saw some Roman ruins, which I and my dad found fascinating, I don’t RG was as impressed though.
I don’t think it is going to happen but I would love to go up to Scotland again and tour further north. I saw adds for a Highland tour that includes the Locke Ness and there are also a few other sights of famous battles and Scottish rebellion that would be fun to visit. But it is a LONG drive to get there so I doubt it will happen while I am working over here. Maybe I will take two weeks to do a longer tour of Ireland and Scotland in a couple of years.
We drove up Friday afternoon and got in rather late, though we did have time to stop for a nice dinner at a pub on the way. The next morning we didn’t get up ridiculously early but since most sites are only open a few hours a day in Europe you always need to get going if you want to see more than one thing. So on the way into town we stopped at the Roslyn Chapel the same one from the book and movie the Da Vinci Code. It was undergoing some repairs and the building was covered by a tin roof, so from a distance it looked like a farm shed, but once you got closer you could see this was no ordinary church. It was supposedly built by members of the Knights Templar that had visited the Americas long before Columbus and was filled with strange carvings for a church. It was a very strange place really. I was a little surprised though that were not more visitors there. I guess it is just too out of the way to get as much attention as the Churches in London and Paris that were also featured in the story.
Then we headed into town. The plan was to see as many sights as we could along what is know as the Royal Mile; a stretch of cobblestone road leading from the Royal palace at the base of a hill to Edinburgh Castle at the top of the same hill in the center of the city. Most of the places to see are along this stretch and we packed a lot in. Though I have to say I could have been a little more relaxed as I got somewhat frustrated by the whole parking situation, but that is what it is. The area is picturesque to say the least, full of 4-6 story stone buildings that house fancy wool shops, armories, a few cafés, some hotels, and a lot of specialty tourist shops. Each byway is a scene out of another medieval time. It is said the progressions of Royals would go from the palace to the castle on a regular basis and may time this was similar to a parade like atmosphere. But on the overcast day we were there we did not see any Royals.
We did however see Willem Wallace. Or for movie fans out there, Braveheart. Dressed in a Kilt, face painted blue, and carrying that four foot log broad sword. Try as I might I could not get my dad to take his photo with the guy. That would have certainly been a highlight – probably for RG and me than for my dad, but the way he talks about that movie you would think he would have jumped at the opportunity. So we toured the Castle, an old church, walked by the Scottish Parliament, walked by the royal palace, took a tour of an underground abandoned close (more on this in a future post), and RG and I took a Scotch Whiskey tour while my parents walked the shopping district a few blocks away. The Scotch tour was very interesting though, and we got to do a little sampling. As for the next day we headed back south and saw some Roman ruins, which I and my dad found fascinating, I don’t RG was as impressed though.
I don’t think it is going to happen but I would love to go up to Scotland again and tour further north. I saw adds for a Highland tour that includes the Locke Ness and there are also a few other sights of famous battles and Scottish rebellion that would be fun to visit. But it is a LONG drive to get there so I doubt it will happen while I am working over here. Maybe I will take two weeks to do a longer tour of Ireland and Scotland in a couple of years.
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