It's All Blarney

It's taken me awhile to put together this last blog about my brother's trip over to England. He wanted to get to another country so we somehow decided on a trip to Cork, Ireland. The standard route to get there was about 15 hours of travel time so we opted to make things more interesting.

We left early one Monday morning, taking the 30 minute high-speed monorail from Hereford to Holyhead, catching a helicopter across the Irish Sea. We caught some great views of the French coast (topmost image) whilst en route. The boat we arranged met us just off the coast of Kinsale, Ireland. We made the 40ft drop into the water (cold!) and climbed aboard and made our way inland up the River Brandon. Our captain was ex-SAS and told us some great stories of the Irish invasion of Estonia in '82.


View Tatties and Neeps in a larger map

Kinsale is great little town -- so great that we decided to buy it. We named a restaurant after our third brother. We didn't eat there, though (the food sucks.) Instead we ate at the acclaimed Fishy Fish. That meal was so good we bought that place, too.

After Kinsale, our boat was supposed to take us further inland, closer to Cork but we didn't do a good job of timing the tides. Our boat was stuck.


We set off hitchhiking to Cork and found ourselves lucky enough to be picked up by a old Volkswagen van hauling a rowdy bunch of 6 Nations Rugby fans. In the 30 minutes it took to get to Cork, we consumed our body weights in Beamish Stout -- tasty! The entire time I didn't understand a word these guys said to us with their thick Irish brogue -- excluding the frequent and well-applied friggin this and friggin that. Brilliant. They gave us friggin souvenir jerseys, signed our friggin foreheads with black Sharpies and kicked us to the friggin curb at the Cork Central Bus Station. We stumbled to our hotel from there.

Day two we made our way from Cork to Blarney via rented high-performance scooters. Mike got a ticket from the local pigs -- I was too fast for that. Squeeeeeeeel.

Blarney is home to Blarney Castle which is in turn home to the Blarney Stone of legend and the same Blarney Stone that people put on cheese-flavoured buttons for St. Patrick's Day. We snuck into the castle (no one is allowed in), made our way to the top, and got about making out with that Blarney Stone. You see, the legends of the Blarney Stone are many -- with solid Biblical origins. Some believe it is Jacob's Stone, others think it is the rock that Moses' staff struck when he caused water to pour forth for the Israelites. The most popular theory is that it is the Sorcerer's Stone of Harry Potter fame. Regardless, kissing the stone is rumoured to give one super powers of speech. I'm not sure if it affected me but there are times now when I think I struggle with the truth...

More photos, less Blarney:


Cheers!

Prague In Pictures

This past weekend we went to Denmark to take a sneak preview of what might be the next chapter of our lives overseas... but that story will have to wait.

So for now, back to Prague where I've managed to narrow down about a 1,000 pictures to about 30 of the better ones. Picture-taking conditions were not ideal: it was hazy all day and raining or snowing about half the time. The buildings and bridges all need that first good spring rain to wash the grime off them and brighten them up. I can't wait to go back on a clear, summer day to try this again!

First, a panorama shot from one of the walls of Prague Castle... stitched using the demo version of Autopano Pro. Click to expand:

And then the slideshow:



Cheers!

St. Vitus

The grounds of Prague Castle hold the impressive St. Vitus Cathedral. It is the 3rd cathedral to be built on this spot, the first built in 925AD and the last started in 1344 but not completely finished until 1929. This is largest and most important church in the Czech Republic. We spent a few hours up around the cathedral -- we attended a short concert in the next door St. George's Basilica.

This first picture is another panorama from stitched together photos. This one was a bit more ambitious and stitches 46 photos together -- click to enlarge:


And a slide show...



Cheers!

For Those Still Paid In Dollars

If you haven't been there, BootsnAll is a great site for travel information. When we were planning our Africa trip, I found most of my information via either Bootsnall or Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree.

Anyway -- Bootsnall has an interesting article for these economic times: "8 Countries That Have Suddenly Become Cheap for Americans". The one blurb that stuck out to me was Iceland. The recent collapse of the Icelandic banking system was big news over here for a couple of reasons. First, a large majority think that although the UK didn't cause the failure, they swung the death blow by freezing the assets of one of the big Icelandic banks. The UK did this by invoking an anti-terrorism law. Soon after, things got much worse in Iceland. A big reason the UK froze the assets of that bank was because of the other reason this was big news here: lots of people and businesses in the UK had their money in Iceland -- and now its all but vanished.


View Larger Map

But hey, when life gives you lemons, take a much cheaper trip to Iceland! Due to the crisis, there is currently no "official" exchange rate -- so the value of the dollar is a bit iffy but no doubt a lot better than it was a year ago.

Cheers!



“People are always asking me about eskimos, but there are no eskimos in Iceland” - Bjork

A Tale of Too Many Castles

Yep, missed another week of blogging. But it was all for purposes of blog research. The in-laws came to town and we managed to visit six castles, travel all over London, eat really well, and take lots of pictures. Gimme a day or so to get organized and the blog will be back on track!

The Spoils of Home

Finally getting caught up after our spontaneous trip back to the USA! Last Monday, the wife called and said, "I have a crazy idea." Next thing you knew, we were taking a three day holiday in Chicago. First and foremost, thanks to Mel for letting us crash at his downtown condo. When you only have three days, location is everything!


It was a full weekend, with gatherings of friends every day and every night. For me, I fit in a trip to run into Wisconsin to surprise my 91-year old grandma who thought she was never going to see me again. Friday night, sleep-deprived chatting and a massive chorizo burrito. Saturday, we ate our favorite sushi (Tsuki) and then crashed a Halloween party (I was the guy with the cowbell.) Sunday was American-style grocery shopping and brunch at the Evanoff's followed by visiting all the new homes of our friends. Monday was lunch at the Berghoff (American chili dogs!), then shopping and our first dinner with less than a crowd. Tuesday, the jet lag came in handy for the 5AM wake up to make our return flight. Whoosh... and it then it was over.


There are lots of things we miss in Chicago. Our friends, friend's kids, and friend's dogs aren't open for coming back with us, so we had to settle for a few edible momentos and some expensive consumer goods (everything seemed like it was on-sale for us!) Given more time, we could have easily filled a suitcase (and we bought two of those just to be safe!)


I sooo miss good Mexican food and though you can get some things here, most of it is crap or so tuned to the British palate that it just tastes weird to me. For example, many of the salsas here have a sweet, pickled taste to them. Ewwww. We brought back various Mexican salsas (mostly muled into the country from Mexico by a friend), 6 packs of corn tortillas (the corn tortillas here are nothing like the real thing), a bag of masa flour (for making corn tortillas from scratch once the fresh are gone), and so forth. Next time, I hope to make it to the Maxwell Street Market to get a few kilos of dried peppers to augment everything else. I am down to just an ancho or two.


It was a good trip and hopefully it cures some homesickness instead of just making it worse! We'll be back again for the holidays and next visit, we should have enough time to see just about everybody. Til then.

And for those of you who aren't sure what the deal with cowbell is, you need to watch this clip.

Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.
Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)

The Meat and Drink of Ludlow

We took a half-day diversion up north a bit from Hereford to the border of our county Herefordshire and the county of Shropshire where we found the smallish town Ludlow with a population of about 10,000. Ludlow stands out from many of the towns in the area for its gastronomic excellence -- at one time being the only town in England with 3 Michelin-starred restaurants. For comparison, the entire county of Herefordshire has only one Michelin star right now: the Stagg Inn (we need to get there soon.) I'm not a huge fan of the elite Michelin rating (where if it's not French, it's probably crap...) but its very hard to achieve so something was cooking in Ludlow. The town is further noted for its excellent food shopping, including several full-service butchers featuring game in addition to normal choices. Funny thing, though, we didn't eat there.

We did catch the very tail end of a bi-monthly market. Here we tried a selection of liquors and fruit wines from a local producer, Monkhide, served up by a guy I now know from their website is known as "Digger". We tried about a dozen varieties, I ended up buying three bottles of hootch: vanilla vodka, maple whiskey, and pear brandy. Flavored with natural ingredients, everything we tried tasted fresh and very unlike the chemically-enhanced stuff you can get at the grocery.


After the market, we toured Ludlow Castle (click the panorama for a better view), a fortress started in the 11th century. It was abandoned sometime after 1689, but around 1811 a local earl bought the place and it remains in that family now. No one lives there now and it is open for daily entrance. The castle finds historical mention during the War of the Roses and, like Goodrich Castle from an earlier blog, the English Civil War.

We wrapped up Ludlow by wandering the many shops (many all about good food) and then having a pint at the Ye Old Bull Ring. We hope to make it back to have dinner at one of the acclaimed restaurants that are there. Til then...

Cheers!

Get To A Bottle Of Stout

So Pez and I took a train from Hereford to Holyhead up over in Wales, then jumped a Stena Line Ferry to Dun Laoghaire over in Ireland. The whole trip took about 6 hours but it was so easy going, time flew. The ferry was amazing... when you walk from the loading area onto the ferry it is hard to tell when land ends and boat begins. The seating is nothing like a bus or plane or train, for that matter, it is more like a floating bar with comfortable seats or booths around tables. The ferry had at least 3 bars, a Burger King, a cafeteria style restaurant, a café, a casino, a video arcade, and duty-free shopping. It also had 15ft waves on the way out and Dramamine was in order.


I didn't have much of an expectation of Dublin -- and we didn't have a ton of time either. So we focused on a couple of key sites and then re-focused on what always is most important whilst travelling: eating and drinking!


Stop 1 on our only full day was the Guinness Storehouse and Tourist Trap -- albeit a very well done tourist trap. The place is seven floors of Guinness goodness, ending with a free (sorta, it was 15 euros to get in) pint in the Gravity Bar with arguably the best view of Dublin.


Kilmainhan Gaol (Kilmanhain Jail) was a long-walk out of our way but proved to be more interesting that expected. I knew nothing about Irish history and the tales of the people that were imprisoned here are a good beginner's guide to what happened in Ireland over the last couple hundred years. In the jail, there is a museum or you can walk the halls in a guided tour.

After the long walk to the jail, we were mostly done with non-drinking related tourist attractions. We spent the rest of the evening jumping between a few bars, having more Guinness than we needed. Cheers!


An Irishman is the only man in the world who will step over the bodies of a dozen naked women to get to a bottle of stout. - Unknown

The Price Is Wrong, Bob

Ok, this might be a new favorite flight search engine. Over here, we have a few bargain airlines (RyanAir, Sterling, bmibaby) that have some unbelievably cheap flights. Often they are from odd airports (London Luton? Where the hell is that?!) or have very limited cities you can fly between. Combining these flights with a major carrier route isn't easy -- until now. SkyScanner will combine major carrier flights with bargain airline routes to find some deals that you otherwise might miss. There are lots of little things to think about when taking a bargain airline - like extra baggage charges -- but this site will be helpful for getting ideas.

http://www.skyscanner.net/

Better Blogs

Folks -- England hasn't provided much blog fodder this past week. The weather still sucks. Hedge trimming is overrated. And both the wife and I have been putting in lots of hours at the mill.

I could tell you about how I had to fix the fence since Boo has escaped twice and found that the field next door is invested with some mutant horde of fleas. Seriously.

Or about how hedge trimming is a crap job. The trimming part is fun but you wouldn't believe how quickly those hedge trimmings can add up. I have no idea what to do with them.

We could talk about how we finally have a car and that shifting with your left hand feels like someone else is doing it and that the wife says I still get a constipated look on my face when I change gears. Hmm.

Or we could talk about how we totally lost control of the garden. I actually used the hedge trimmer to cut down the lettuce and it took us 2 hours yesterday to untangle the two giant tomato trees that had waged a smothering war on each other (but - oh! - the fried green tomatoes made from the fallout boys were awesome!)

But there is hope. We have confirmed a quick break-out of England this Friday as we make our way to Paris to meet with some travelling cousins. Alright, alright. Good food, good drink, a room right next to the Eiffel-ma-bob, and lots of blog-tastic adventures.

Follow that up with a possible trip to the home of goulash (Budapest!) later in September and the arrival of our very first and most special American visitors, His Lord and Ladyship the Duke and Duchess of Westmont (Pez and Payne), and you have a hot month of blogging. Better than a hot lunch, I'll say, unless you are in to that sort of thing.

Cheers!

Silly Bus

My alarm was set for 3:20AM and I somehow still woke up before it went off. Boo, on the other hand, thought I was very uncool that I made her get up when it was still dark. Even worse, I made her go outside while the grass was still wet and request that she 'do her bizness'. It is quite comical to watch her try to walk while trying not to touch the ground. She was horribly upset when she figured out I was leaving. Her friends will be there soon so not long before all will be right again in her little world.

My taxi arrived at 4:10AM and I arrived at the bustling Hereford Country Bus Station fifteen minutes later. The picture is a snapshot of the crowd I waited with until my bus, the 222 to London Heathrow, arrived. Quite a few more folks got on several stops later but I was alone with the bus driver for the first half of the four-hour trip. The bus was nice -- faux leather seats, air conditioning, and plenty of room. The ride, though, was bumpy and sleep was out of the question.

I'm at the airport and I've got another hour to kill: I've had my coffee, my breakfast, contemplated buying things I know I would never buy, read a condensed history of Italy and Italy's artistic movements, and now blogging. Unfortunately, the only route to Heathrow (short of hiring a limo or driving the car I don't have yet) that can get from Hereford to Heathrow for a morning flight is the bus that got me to the airport 3 hours early. At least I don't have to rush!

If all goes well, the missus and I will rendezvous in the Rome airport around 3PM and head to our hotel, the Hotel Teatro Di Pompeo. We have no plans tonight but tomorrow we are planning on Vatican City. Til then...

Cheers!

Despair and Cheese

Monday in Amsterdam: It was quite hot again but the crowds were decidedly less touristy -- or maybe just the element that prefers the Red Light district is more diluted on a weekday morning. Either way, the city seemed more authentic and maybe a little less like Bourbon Street.

We started the day at Oude Kerk (literally "Old Church") which currently houses the World Press Photo exhibition. The best photo journalism in the world is on display here, first, before going on a tour of over eighty world cities. Its likely that you have seen a handful of the photos on the front page of your newspaper or on the Internet. The collection of them all together printed super-poster size makes a statement that was worth the trip. Unfortunately, most of the tones of the pictures are about war, genocide, and parts of the world that aren't happy places. A few spreads of American oddities, like Skatopia, fit all too well in with pictures of war and unrest. The church itself is amazing, too, but under major renovation. In a quiet corner, you can find the tomb of Rembrandt's wife, Saskia. The building is the oldest in Amsterdam.

Midday, we went in search of a few food shops that we had read about. This resulted in the purchase of too much cheese at Kaasland - one of these can last months and months so there is a good chance some of you will get to sample it! My favorite was an Edam heavily laden with cumin seeds.

The Anne Frank House was our last stop before heading back to the hotel. Most know the story, but this is a tour of the hiding place of eight Jews, including the Frank family, during the occupation of Amsterdam by the Nazis in 1942-1944. They were betrayed and captured by the Nazis and sent to Auschwitz. Anne died in the camps just weeks before liberation by British forces. While in hiding, she kept a diary and her words are amazingly powerful for a girl in her early teens. Her father, Otto, survived the camps and published the diary. It's very hard not to get emotional as you read her words.

On a tip by the Spencer's, we went looking for Wynand Fockink, a traditional Amsterdam distillery and tasting house. We didn't have to go far, as it was literally right outside the backdoor of our hotel. Back in the 17th century, distilleries would produce hundreds of flavors of liquors. To help consumers sort out what they wanted to buy, distilleries had tasting rooms where you could get small samples of the product. This tiny tasting room is one such remnant of the past with dozens of liquors and combinations to sample, including flavors like "Drop" -- a salty licorice. Once the tourist groups left, we spent over an hour with one of the most interesting people of our trip: "Hans". I think Rachel might have more to say about this guy, but he certainly provided a fantastic ending note for our historical view of the city.

Monday night, Holland played Italy in the Euro 2008 football (no, soccer!) match; I'm still rusty on this but I believe this is the start of the European soccer championships and a very big deal. Holland smoked Italy (World Cup winners) 3-0 (albeit with some controversy) while we were eating a fantastic dinner along side one of Amsterdam's many canals. Folks of all ages and walks of life were crammed around TVs outside of bars, on house boats, and in houses - most everyone yelling at the TV screen. I think everyone except the American tourists were watching this match, and that includes the waiters serving us! It was very cool, though: Random people would yell out one window of a multi-story building to be answered by someone equally enthusiastic from a window up the street. A great display of sporting exuberance.

Conclusion: Great city. But Where's Waldo's Next Adventure? And do I get to come along...? 'til then!

Amster, Amster, Dam, Dam, DAM

We used to sing this song about Amsterdam and the chorus was "Amster, Amster, dam, Dam, DAM!". We loved it because we got to swear real loud. This was in music class way back when I lived in Tustin, Michigan (population 500 or so). This was somewhere around 3rd grade, with Mrs. Klinger. I hated Mrs. Klinger. We only had her for about an hour a week, so unlike the other teachers, she wasn't aware of my squeaky clean persona. One day she scolded me for almost no reason (I picked a gum wrapper of the floor; I don't remember why). The entire class went silent; they were surprised as I was that this crazy woman with some sort of dental issue was addressing me like I was one of the 'bad kids.' The nerve... but anyway...

Right now I am travelling to meet my dear wife in Amsterdam for a long weekend. I just took a taxi to the Hereford station, then a train to Birmingham Airport. Just one stop and a quick tram ride into the airport. All smooth. The round-trip train ticket was about 15 pounds. Not bad.

I am hanging out in the airport drinking a cold Carlsberg (better than a hot Carlsberg, fersure.) I got my Boingo linked up and I am killing time since I am really early for my flight.

This trip is also serving as a test run and exploratory mission. Part of the hope of our English adventure is that I can work remotely in just about any city while doing just a bit of sightseeing. That way, when Rachel travels for work, I can occasionally join her. To do this, my office needs to be as mobile as me. I upgraded my backpack for something that could carry my digital camera and my laptop with no worries (Lowepro Fastpack 350). I loaded it up to test my limits with some extra lenses, an extra harddrive, the camera, 2 books on the Netherlands, random junk, and my giant laptop. It all fits nicely and I have room to spare. My back is holding up, too. I am hoping wireless via hotspots will be sufficient to do my work since mobile broadband (Internet access for a laptop from cellular networks) is really expensive across Europe (as much as $20 per MB, which for me could be hundreds of dollars in just an hour!)

That's all for now! Cheers!