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What makes a good episode of House Hunters International?

Conflict. One person wants to be close to shops. One person wants close to transportation, or close to work. One of them wants to be close to a park. They both want to be close to entertainment. They need a guest room. Oh, and then there is the budget. The budget is firm, but one will say: “we can pay extra for location”. Ah, yes; so funny.

Until it’s you. 😊

Luckily, we agree on everything this move; we both want it all. We knew for sure we did not want to be in the canal zone; too loud, too many tourists, to many ‘coffeeshops’. We knew we did want to be close to the Vondelpark. Vondelpark is the largest, I think, in Amsterdam. It has trails, ponds, restaurants, and even a great brewery outlet/cafe – yes, that is where we want to be. The park is surrounded by stately brick homes with wrought iron balconies. Who wouldn’t want to live there? And, of course, we want to bring our own furniture and belongings from London to Amsterdam. Our UK bed is super comfy, the barn-wood dish cabinet from Pennsylvania Dutch seems appropriate, and who can read a book without the reclining chairs? Yep, we agreed on it all.

Until we went house hunting. 😊

We walked into the first, completely furnished apartment, and threw all our wants out the balcony window.  Holy cow, it was beautiful! We looked at furnished apartments in London, Paddington actually, before we moved to terraced house in Chiswick. The furnished apartments looked like dorms. The floors were plastic wood simulations, the décor was all gray, the sofas dismal and of a questionable cleanliness – no, who would want a furnished apartment? Not us, we are grownups now. That is not what we saw in Amsterdam. So, maybe, a furnished apartment would be a good thing. We can fill some suitcases with our clothes and ship the rest of our stuff back to the US; that way when we do finally go back to the US; easy/peasy.

OK, so maybe we will change our mind on the furnished/unfurnished question. But, the Vondelpark, we want to be by the park. Turns out, the inside of the beautiful houses show their age – 100’s of years. Dutch stairs are steep and twisted. We opened the door to what looked like a beautiful home next to the park and were greeted by stairs so steep they could be a ladder. A beautiful kitchen and living room could not make up for bathrooms as old as the invention of indoor plumbing. Maybe we don’t want to live right next to the park.

We saw a few apartments in the canal zone. Views of the water, views of the courtyards you can’t even imagine from the streets. Turns out, not all canals are noisy. Not all are filled with coffeeshops (of the light drug dispensing kind). But, they are close to tons of restaurants, venues, and various shopping outlets.

Yes, we have both changed our minds 180 degrees from our ‘want’ list. Now we do want a place in the canals, we do want it to be furnished, and it turns out; Amsterdam is so walkable, getting to the Vondelpark from almost anywhere is not a problem.

All we have to do now is make it happen. 😊

Momma Mia! Here we go again,

How many activities can you fit into two months?

Blog 28 ended with the statement that we are moving on to Amsterdam, effective April 1^st. Since we were thinking we would be here until at least the end of May, if not longer, this necessitates a compression of our sightseeing plans.

Officially 2020 started with Aj still here until January 4^th. During this winter’s break visit we were able to cross off many places and activities from our joint ‘want to do’ list. We saw shows, (Ian McKellen, Magic Circle, Snow White pantomime) exhibits, (King Tut, Gingerbread City) buildings (The Shard, Coal Drop) and even Scotland. (Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood Palace) It is now on to our own ‘want to do’ list.

We want shows; some of these dates were happenstance, having been planned months ago and some because now is the time. In one week, we saw: Come from Away, Judy Collins, Sandi Toksvig, The Girl from the North County, and I went to see Les Miz on my own. Before April 1^st, this list will include, Beth Hart, the musical Rags, Waitress (w/Sara Bareilles), Wicked, and a night of stand-up comedy with Romesh Raganathan. Our access to such great events is part of what has made London such a fun adventure.

And the adventure continues as we again work to complete immigration requirements, locate a new place to live, negotiate setting up utilities and cell phone plans – and move all our stuff, again. We are as lucky as can be and ready to see what we can fit into the next few months in London as we move on to ‘phase 2’ of our living abroad adventure.

Blog 28 – A year in the life.

We have now lived in London over 14 months.

During this time, we have been in the great situation of being both ‘tourists’ and ‘local’. We have done almost all the usual touristy things now; Westminster Abbey, Tower of London, Jack the Ripper walking tour; but we have also been able to do more of the regular, everyday things too. That is what has made living here such a great adventure.

I keep a spreadsheet (no surprise there) of the tourist-like places in London we have been; it has a simple recommendation rating system of possibly, probably, and absolutely. The current list has 41 listings, of which, 25 are recommended ‘absolutely’. This includes some pricy options such as the Warner Brother Studios tour where the Harry Potter movies were made. This is absolutely a must-see for any Harry Potter fan. Live theater in the West End where we have seen such hits as Hamilton, Man of La Mancha, and The Play That Goes Wrong. Visiting Westminster Abbey, including the new Galleries. There are also many free items in this category, such as: The Museum of London, The British Museum, or any of the “Markets” like Camden, Burroughs, or Portobello Street. Some of the places I think a visitor can skip, but probably won’t, are: Piccadilly Circus; a true circus of people, not just cars going through a roundabout. I include Leicester Square in this category too, but it at least has a great Lego store.

Because we live here, we get to use London as a home base. We have routinely traveled within England and out of the country to places like Scotland, Spain, France, Netherlands, and Croatia. For the most part, these trips are documented in my blog postings and include my/our impression of the places visited. All have been worthwhile, with most earning a ‘we could come back here again’ review – with one exception, after the nine days in Prague because of the stolen wallet, we don’t feel a need to go back there, Prague is ‘done’.

And, we get to be ‘local’. We can walk to the Hammersmith Apollo by following the Thames from Chiswick to Hammersmith or take the Underground for three stops. This is a major event venue where we have seen performers such as Jerry Seinfeld, k.d. lang, and Hootie and the Blowfish. Also, in Hammersmith is Belushi’s Bar. Belushi’s is one of the few places in London that show American NFL games. The selection is limited; the provider (Sky Atlantic) selects one game to show from each time slot plus the Red Zone channel. Sundays at 6:00 pm, this is the place to be for any NFL fan in London. When the Ravens/Bills game was the selected game, Belushi’s was packed with members of the UK Ravens fan group. We have also been able to go a couple of the NFL games played in London. We saw Carolina Panthers vs the Buccaneers at the new Tottenham Stadium and the Rams vs Cincinnati Bengals at Wembley. NFL fans in London celebrate all teams, it is great fun to attend a game where fans are in all 32 team’s jerseys and rooting for the best plays regardless of team.

With more time here we have found smaller shows and venues that as tourists we would probably miss. We have gone to a couple improv musicals which are quite a fun way to spend an evening. Some of our favorite bands have come to London; Dustbowl Revival played at Nells Jazz Club in Kensington and Dawes was at the Islington Assembly Hall. A great evening was spent at the Simon and Garfunkel Story which is a combination of impersonated songs and historical context. The Union Chapel hosts Comedy Nights every month with locally known entertainers trying out their new material; proceeds fund their outreach programs.

We go to dinner, we go to the pub, we go to the mall. We go to Westfield Mall, the largest covered shopping development in London – and we can walk to that too, or take a bus. Westfield has a huge selection of stores and a beautiful movie theater, the VUE. VUE was our favorite for many months and was where we saw all the American movies you probably saw too, but then we found the Archlight Cinemas at Battersea; this is our current favorite. Built under the arches of the Overground train coming out of Victoria Station, next to the redevelopment project of the Battersea Power Station, this is a very comfortable and intimate theater. All three screening rooms are small, holding 50 – 60 patrons at a time; but the seats are comfortable, the projection beautiful and the sound system is great. We had the perfect seats for Star Wars, it did not disappoint.

It has been a great year with adventures and joys large and small. We are excited for 2020 and ready to see where the new year, the new decade, takes us. We do know that it will take us out of London. We will be moving again on, or about, April 1, 2020. Coty is moving their headquarters and consolidating many of the smaller offices currently situated around the world into a new location in Amsterdam. Andy has agreed to be part of this transition and has committed to 18 months in Amsterdam effective April 1. While in many ways we feel we have just now really gotten a handle on London, we are excited to move to another European city.

While we know it is less likely that friends and family may be in the neighborhood of Amsterdam, please let us know if you are; we would love to see you.

Wishing the best for all and to all for 2020 and beyond.

Last spring, Andy and I went to Barcelona, Spain and loved it. The sun, the color, the architecture. The food, the drink, the Mediterranean Sea. It was all good, especially after the dark and dreary winter in London. When thinking of where we might go this December for a bit of sun, we decided to return to Spain spending a few days each in Seville and Granada.

Seville was beautiful. Not as warm as we would have liked, but nice enough to be outside both day and night – with a jacket. We managed to spend almost an entire day at the Real Alcazar. https://www.alcazarsevilla.org/en/  It was in the mid-1200’s that the location became a royal residence that is still in use today. We did a tour of the actual rooms still in use, but no photography is allowed. A lot has happened in the meantime as the area switched from a Moorish center to a part of Catholic Castile. The compound has been expanded multiple times reflecting the change in leadership.  The buildings and gardens are unlike any castle or grounds to be found elsewhere in Europe.

It was on a tour of the Jewish Quarter that the guide used the phrase: “Our history is difficult, but we still must share it”. We, of course, knew of the Spanish Inquisition; but to see the buildings and hear the stories of the lives lost and affected is a whole other thing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Inquisition

Our time in Seville included an evening of Spanish guitar music provided in the central garden courtyard of our hotel, so nice to be that close to our room. The following evening, we went to a Flamenco dance center to have an evening of Flamenco. We may have benefited from a little explanation of the dance and music, but think we figured out on our own that someone’s heart was broken and that the only way to work this out is to dance with rhythmic stomping to precise guitar harmonies. Our table was quite close to the stage where we collected evidence of the hard-stepping dance in the assortment of wood chips flying from the dance stage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flamenco

It was then on to Granada. Granada is home to the Alhambra, one of the most visited sites in the world. December is a good time to visit; it was not hot and while busy, it was not too crowded. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alhambra  A site that has been a royal center since Roman times, it was here that Ferdinand and Isabella gave authorization to Columbus to find an alternative route to China. The site itself reflecting Roman, Moorish and Christian rulers. The history is difficult. It was also Ferdinand and Isabella who created the Spanish Inquisition which would report to them, the Crown, as apposed to the Pope. They needed loyalty for their newly combined kingdom, they needed money; it was the Jewish communities of Spain that paid that price.

Aside from the painful parts of this difficult history, the time spent in Spain was wonderful. The weather was fine, the food was great, the wine was excellent. In this land of Christians, we also saw whole Christmas markets dedicated to the selling of manger scene materials. New styles, traditional and vintage; from very small to almost life-sized, there were Mary, Joseph, Jesus, the wise men, camels, chickens, hay, pottery, and water features; several even included little tiny menorahs. And, for those of us who love lighting displays; Granada at Christmas is the place to be. The shopping streets compete for the most beautiful overhead street displays. It is something to see and we are glad to have been there to see it.

The history is difficult, but it must be shared.

T-Day in the UK, an ex-pat’s experience

At the end of July 2018, I was in Pelican Rapids Minnesota visiting my sister and her family. The day before I was to leave, Andy called and said: “I have an offer to move to London for eighteen months, what do you think?” Duh.

This was not completely a surprise; the possibility of moving somewhere had been floating around since Coty announced they were buying the color cosmetic brands that were previously owned by P&G. Yet, we were still caught off guard. Andy needed to respond quickly, and we had to extricate ourselves from Towson, and the US, within three months to start our life in London on November 1, 2018.

When I said ‘yes’, I didn’t consider myself brave, or adventurous, or courageous; I do have some considerable depth of knowledge around curriculum and assessment – but that is very much a niche skill set and does not prepare a person to make rash or necessarily exciting decisions. We still don’t see ourselves as brave or adventurous – simple taking advantage of a tremendous opportunity that was placed before us (with just a little nudging).

So, here we are thirteen months into the eighteen-month assignment. Celebrating our second Thanksgiving in a country that does not celebrate Thanksgiving. We could have cooked a turkey, we could make cranberry sauce, we could even find pumpkin pie; but why? It’s not a day off for Andy; there is no lazy, sleeping in, football watching, eat an early, large dinner, day event. It’s go to work and come home by 7:30 pm, a little late to start a traditional Thanksgiving Day. Last year, we had baked chicken in our temporary apartment with the twelve-inch oven. This year, I made reservations.

A few London restaurants and pubs offer a ‘traditional’ Thanksgiving dinner. One, even includes all three NFL football games, but it was sold out long ago. Instead, we went to Duke on the Green. The ‘green’ in question is Parsons Green and is right off the Underground stop of the same name. The dinner was mostly traditional – it started with spareribs, not traditional in our experience, but tasty. It also came with four (full-sized) cocktails. All cocktails were made with Makers Mark Bourbon Whisky. Again, not traditional in our experience, but very tasty.

It was a fun and festive evening followed by today’s Black Friday sales. Even though it is not their holiday, even though there are no days off this week; Friday the 29^th is still Black Friday. The stores are open, the streets are decorated; it is again, a lovely time to be in London – no courage needed, but the Makers Mark may help.

Blog 25 – Not all tours are meant to be fun

D-Day; June 6^th, 1944. https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/d-day

In mid-October Andy had a set of multiple meetings scheduled in Paris. While I would know many of the folks involved and enjoy meeting them over drinks and dinner; I still needed something to do during the day. I looked for a day trip and found Normandy and the D-Day landing beaches bus tour.   https://www.pariscityvision.com/en/france/normandy This is a full day; 14 hours door-to-door. Normandy is located about three hours outside of central Paris. The day starts with a long pre-dawn drive.

I am not a World War II buff. War is not glamorous or exciting to me. Defenses and strategies played out with real human lives is not of interest. But I am a minor history buff; time, distance, culture, old buildings. I can’t help but feel compelled to see and touch the actual places where World War II took place as we venture around Europe. Memorials, remains of bombed buildings, the existing streets that supported the movements of both Allies and Nazis; Jews and Gentiles. The magnitude of the efforts for both good and evil remain incomprehensible. The courage, the honor, the horror; it is too much to understand. This is what took me to the beaches of Normandy.

According to: https://www.historyonthenet.com/d-day-casualties The total number of casualties that occurred during Operation Overlord, from June 6 (the date of D-Day) to August 30 (when German forces retreated across the Seine) was over 425,000 Allied and German troops. This figure includes over 209,000 Allied casualties:

• Nearly 37,000 dead amongst the ground forces
• 16,714 deaths amongst the Allied air forces.
• Of the Allied casualties, 83,045 were from 21st Army Group (British, Canadian and Polish ground forces)
• 125,847 from the US ground forces.

The beaches of Normandy were just that before the war; beaches. Beach towns where families and friends would gather for a weekend holiday. And, then the Nazi’s came; outings ceased to be. Occupied France was turned to the Axis war effort.

Invading the European continent via the west coast beaches was determined by both sides to be a key military option. To defend against such an attack, Hitler built the Atlantic Wall.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Wall It was a fortified wall of bunkers, guns, and barbed wire fences running from the northern tip of Norway to the southern French border with Spain. Regardless of the fortifications, Eisenhower knew this was the only option to come at the Nazi’s to form a new front of the war. The planning took months.

Much of the coast was bombed prior to D-Day in hopes of confusing Hitler regarding the Allies actual planned landing location. Military and civilian lives were sacrificed along much of the coast. It worked; Rommel left the area as he did not believe an invasion imminent. None-the-less, 425,000 troops were killed and up to 20,000 French civilians were sacrificed in addition to the military personnel.

It is too much. Too much to comprehend. Too much to see. November 11^th will be Remembrance Day in the Commonwealth and much of Europe.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remembrance_Day  It will be Veteran’s Day in the US.

The tour was not fun. It was enlightening. It was sobering.  When I asked my seat mates why they had chosen this tour, they replied: “You can’t come to France without coming to Normandy”. That may be the point of this blog posting; to see all the history here, not just the pretty buildings, not just the rolling countryside. See what we are capable of doing both to each other and for each other. A day of Remembrance, a tour of Remembrance. The day ends with a long post-sunset drive back to Paris.

Did you know that the first exit off the wrong train at the Copenhagen airport is in Sweden?

We are not the only Americans whose European geography is a little weak; many folks can’t tell you where Sweden is located. For myself, I must admit that until a few days ago, I was not sure where the country of Denmark was located either. I get it now. It is north of Germany and is made up of a peninsula and several islands. Copenhagen is located on the island closest to Sweden.

I knew we wanted to go to Denmark, we wanted to go to Copenhagen. As long as the airline knew where it was specifically located – I wasn’t paying too much attention. That’s part of how we ended up on the wrong train, going the wrong way; with a conductor explaining to us that when we get to Sweden, just cross platforms and take the return train to our planned destination. Easy enough, silly Americans.

This extended weekend trip was actually a shortened version of a trip to Copenhagen we had planned for July. But since we had to stay in the UK in July (see Blog 18 re: lost visa card), we ended up revising our trip to Copenhagen. We had a great time in our three days, but it was not nearly enough time in this lovely, old city.

Our hotel was very close to the city’s pedestrianized shopping area, the Stroget shopping mile. https://theculturetrip.com/europe/denmark/articles/how-to-spend-an-afternoon-in-stroget-copenhagen/  Here we were able to find coffee and snacks, browse souvenir and gift shops and even find a local craft brewery for dinner.

It was also not too far to Tivoli Gardens. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tivoli_(Copenhagen) The world’s second oldest amusement park and some say the inspiration for Walt Disney’s Disneyland. The park is right in town and was very easy to walk to. My experience was not quite what I expected – I expected a little more grass and flowers and fewer thrill-seeking rides. This was a pleasant surprise for Andy; he likes thrill-seeking rides. It has plenty of little shops, plenty of food, and surprisingly little with a logo on it. No logoed t-shirts or hats to be bought. It also has a lovely restaurant in the middle which is surrounded by planters and nooks with seating and fire pits. In the restaurant we bought adult beverages and our first ‘Danish bonfire bread’. https://nordicfoodliving.com/danish-bonfire-bread-snobrod/ Bamboo sticks are wrapped on one end with a seeded bread dough. This is held over the fire pit for about 20 minutes. When cooked, torn off pieces of bread are dipped into a jam jar; yummy.

After our long day at Tivoli Gardens it was time to return to our hotel to take advantage of the adjoining spa. This is a Danish thing; sauna, hot tub, and massage. Decadent, but lovely. To complete our day, we stayed very close and enjoyed tapas and wine at the restaurant next door.

No trip to a European town is complete without a visit to a castle. Copenhagen has two, but we only made it to one; The Rosenborg Castle. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenborg_Castle The building itself is in remarkably good repair – it is hard to imagine it was built in the 1600’s. Four floors of the castle are open to the public so you can see reception halls, bedrooms, and ballrooms. The basement level is actually a huge vault where the Danish crown jewels are stored. It is something to see and we were glad we made time for this stop.

But we ran out of time by the time we got to the harbor, Nyhavn Harbour. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyhavn  This is where the Little Mermaid is located; we did not get to see her – on this trip anyway. We did get to see the old houses painted a variety of pastel colors, the various boats anchored at the harbor and the large number of restaurants and shops lining the walkways. When postcard pictures are taken of Copenhagen, this is where they are taken. It is lovely and lively.

Copenhagen in October was beautiful. The trees were starting to turn and the weather was fine with only our light coats and scarves needed even at night. There are parks and waterways, shops and restaurants. All the people we talked to were friendly and were able to switch between Dutch and English with amazing alacrity. It is an easy place to be, and a lovely place to visit.

In things that may be different between the US and the UK, one of them might be the “Right to Roam”. https://www.gov.uk/right-of-way-open-access-land/use-your-right-to-roam This law codifies walking and access traditions that go back hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Much of Europe has similar laws and traditions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_to_roam This allows access to lands and water ways for the purpose of exercise and recreation. You cannot do whatever you want, but you can walk through most any open land, even if there is no path, even if sheep or cattle are grazing. 

Frankly, there is not a lot of open land around Chiswick or London beyond access to the River Thames. To exercise our right to roam then, we needed to go where there is open land; two options occurred to us, the Lake District National Park of England and Scotland, particularly the Isle of Skye. Working with a tour agency that specializes in train travel, https://www.mckinlaykidd.com/ we were able to create a journey that included both the Lake District and Scotland with the bonus of using various transportation options.

Our trip began in an ordinary enough way; Euston Station, Virgin Trains, exit at Penrith. Penrith lies just outside of the Lake District National Park, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penrith,_Cumbria From here we located our hotel/BnB in the smaller town of Pooley Bridge. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pooley_Bridge This put us right at the top of Lake Ullswater, the second largest lake in the District. Our first afternoon had beautiful weather and we made use of it and the right to roam by completing two hikes. We made our way through hills and fields to Dacre Castle, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dacre_Castle , only to learn that it is not open to the public as the entire castle is currently rented to a private family. Oh well, on to Daleman Mansion and Gardens. https://www.dalemain.com/ , here we learned that the mansion and gardens are closed on Friday and Saturday as it too is occupied by a family. Back to the BnB we went – regardless, still some great roaming.

The next day was not beautiful weather. It poured rain until about 4:00 in the afternoon. None-the-less, it was our planned day to take the Ullswater Steamer to reach other hikes/walks around the lake. We both made good use of our last-minute decisions to buy ‘rain pants’ to go with our already purchased waterproof shoes. We were buttoned up and on the boat by 9:45 am. They said there was a waterfall. After spending the morning on one side of the lake roaming a good-sized hill, we caught the Steamer to the other side to access Aira Force. https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/aira-force-and-ullswater This is where the waterfall is located. After some great soup and scones in the café, we made our way up the hills to find the waterfall. All the rain of the night and day made this a sight not to be missed. The rain even stopped pouring for a few minutes so we could take pictures. With daytime running out, we were back to the Steamer; finished our trip around the Lake, and back to the BnB to change and find a place for dinner. I wish now I would have taken a picture of my favorite sign outside of a pub: “Muddy boots and dogs welcome”.

For our final day in the Lake District we made use of a guided tour. In this way we got to see the Lowther Castle. https://www.lowthercastle.org/ While not actually ancient, it is something to see. Much of it is ruinous but that is because when the family had to turn it over for failing to pay inheritance taxes, they removed everything they could. The building is only partially restored. We were able to go to Grasmere, where right next to the graveyard with William Wordsworth’s remains https://www.thewordtravels.com/william-wordsworth-grasmere.html; you can buy the best gingerbread. It is still made in the same way, in the same location, as it has been for hundreds of years. https://www.grasmeregingerbread.co.uk/  Yummy.

It was then that we went to the home of Beatrix Potter. Here we learned so much about this remarkable woman and the legacy she has left for all to enjoy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatrix_Potter  We knew of the Peter Rabbit books, we knew Beatrix Potter had lived in the Lake District, and we knew that her home is a very popular stop for tourists. What we didn’t know could literally fill books on her life. A few examples: she was so convinced of the sale-ability of her first book, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, that she self-published it when she could not find a publisher to support her. All her books were formatted as she laid them out with only her illustrations. She had been drawing nature scenes since she was a small child and had many journals to use as inspiration and resources. And, she used her earnings to buy land and farms in the Lake District, amassing over 4,000 acres. All the land was donated to The National Trust at the time of her death. https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/beatrix-potter-gallery-and-hawkshead/features/beatrix-potter-the-lake-district-and-the-national-trust  It is still possible to look out her study room window to see the landscape that Beatrix saw, painted, and published during her lifetime. We are fans – I wish just a little bit that I had not donated our sets of Beatrix Potter books when we moved. But they did go to The Book Thing, https://bookthing.org/ so hard to whine too much. We bought a Peter Rabbit apron to commemorate our time with Beatrix Potter and the results of her life’s work.

It was then off to Glasgow where we were able to tour the Charles Rennie Mackintosh house at the University of Glasgow. https://www.gla.ac.uk/hunterian/collections/permanentdisplays/themackintoshhouse/ This is an amazing exhibit; the university has created a replica of the original house and then furnished it with the original furniture. We were also able to visit the Lighthouse museum in downtown Glasgow. http://www.thelighthouse.co.uk/visit/mackintosh . They house a large, permanent, collection of his work, in a building he designed. In addition to the displays, visitors can also climb what used to be the brick water tower for some great views of downtown Glasgow. With just enough time, we stopped by the Willow Tea Room, which he and his wife Margaret Macdonald worked on together. Off to Spean Bridge.

Spean Bridge is a hamlet just outside the town of Fort William. The Fort William train station is the starting point for the Jacobite Steam Train to Mallaig. https://westcoastrailways.co.uk/jacobite/jacobite-steam-train-details.cfm  Or, what we would call: The Harry Potter Train. It is a real black steam engine, burning coal, with red vintage cars, and it goes over the Glenfinnan Viaduct just like in the movies. We had to do this! Great fun, with ‘kids of all ages’ from around the world who are all Harry Potter fans. Then on to the ferry and into Portree on the Isle of Skye.

Portree is the largest town and the capital of the Isle of Skye. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portree That does not mean it is a large town. With about 2,500 or so residents, it has about six central restaurants and maybe ten shops. It is also central to accessing all the room to roam on the isle. We joined a full day tour to hit all the highlights of the island. We had a great day climbing and roaming Faerie Pools (waterfalls) https://www.isleofskye.com/skye-guide/top-ten-skye-walks/fairy-pools with five other folks who had traveled there from China, Russia, and Germany. These were great young people who amaze me with their confidence to roam the world on their own. In addition to the Faerie Pools location, on our fast-paced day we saw: The Old Man of Storr, Lealt Falls, Kilt Rock, The Quiraing, Fairy Glens, Sligachan, and Dun beag Broch.

We did not see everything we wanted in the one day. The next day we did another tour to walk out to the lighthouse at Neist Point. In the wind and rain (used those rain pants again) this was quite the challenge, but well worth it for the views of the coast. We did not see any whales who are known to show themselves for patient tourists. We also went to Dunvegan Castle and Gardens https://www.dunvegancastle.com/ where we could tour the castle itself and roam the gardens – we found another waterfall. 😊 We ended this day with a tour of Talisker Distillery – you can’t have a trip to Scotland without tasting some Scotch. 

On our last day, it was over the Skye Bridge and on to Eilean Donan Castle. https://www.eileandonancastle.com/ The castle was built originally in the 1300’s, most likely as a defense against the Vikings. It has had an active history; expanding and contracting depending on who was leader, Chief, or King at the time and what or who they felt they had to protect against. In 1719 the castle was bombarded as part of the Jacobite Uprising and left for ruins for 200 years. The reconstructed castle opened in 1932, opening to the public in 1955. With original stone walls as much as eight feet thick, it is something to see. Many rooms have recreations set in the time period of the reconstruction. No place to roam here, the castle is its own island with one foot bridge for access. From here, it was on to Lock Ness. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loch_Ness

This is the second time we have looked for the Loch Ness monster – still no sightings. We had toured the castle on Loch Ness, Urquhart Castle, when we were in Scotland this past January. https://www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/urquhart-castle/  So this time we chose a boat ride on the Loch to learn more about the lake and see the castle from the water side. Roaming is easy in a boat.

Another day is done, and it was time to catch the train in Inverness back over to Glasgow. From Glasgow we took the new Caledonian Sleeper train https://www.sleeper.scot/ back to London Euston. Arriving a little before 7:00 am, Andy was able to go into work on Monday morning only a little bit late. Our roaming for this time was complete.

Oxford University is the oldest English-speaking university in the world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Oxford There are those who say it is also the best university in the world. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-49666979 It seemed an appropriate place then to see Stephen Fry (http://www.stephenfry.com/ ) and his one-man talk on Mythos; Men. It fit our schedule and is easy to get to by taking the Great Western Railroad train out of Paddington Station. Oxford is both a university and a town. The town is made up of the Castle, the individual Colleges, and the support venues necessary for a university and town. While the streets are confusing, it is not possible to be blown off course as Odysseus was, all you need do is turn at the next corner. The weekend was something of an adventure, but not of mythic proportions.

After arriving via the train and leaving our bags at our hotel, the Malmaison (within the Castle), we headed out for the Botanical Gardens https://www.obga.ox.ac.uk/ via the Christ Church Meadow. https://www.chch.ox.ac.uk/visiting-christ-church/meadow  This was a lovely walk on a beautiful day. The Botanical Gardens burst with color from the variety of fall plantings. After lunch we walked back to Christ Church to tour the complex when it reopened at 2:15 pm. https://www.chch.ox.ac.uk/ The grounds house both the Cathedral and College buildings. Of particular interest to Harry Potter fans; Christ Church Hall was the model for Hogwarts Great Hall. The actual Bodley Tower staircase to the hall, was used as a set within many of the movies. https://www.experienceoxfordshire.org/venue/christ-church-college/ Harry Potter aside, the Hall, Stairs, and the Frideswide Cathedral were all very much worth visiting.

As we left Christ Church at 4:30, we found that most other locations of interest were closing or already closed. As the day was beautiful, we had planned our visits to museums and the Covered Market for Sunday which was forecast for rainy weather. But we had learned during our hotel registration that the Market has a restaurant/bar (The Varsity Club) on its roof top area – we headed there. https://tvcoxford.co.uk/#  Fabulous; a Spritz and a great view. As the day wound down, it was time to head back to the hotel and prepare for our evening with Stephen Fry.

I did not want to miss a chance to see Stephen Fry in person while we are London-based. I appreciate his intellect and humor. For many years in the UK, Fry was the host of a trivia inspired panel program, QI (Quite Interesting) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QI  He has since left the program, which is available in reruns, and has been replaced as host by Susan Toksvig (Great British Bakeoff) We very much like this show. Stephen Fry has in the meantime created a book and talk series based on the Greek myths. https://stephenfrymythoslive.com/ Oxford was one of 40 locations we could have selected. The New Theater in Oxford is a nice venue. It is well maintained and unfortunately for me, the seats had been re-stuffed and re-covered; they were too fluffy for my feet to reach the floor. There was plenty of leg room, so it was comfortable enough for both of us. The presentation by Stephen Fry did not disappoint.

We returned to the hotel ready to call it a day. Unfortunately, we learned a lesson about accepting a room which is over a restaurant/bar. The electronica music did not stop until after 1:00 in the morning, the bar did not close until 2:00. We had a pretty good sleep after that.

The next morning, we went to the Covered Market to browse the shops. Many were not open because it was Sunday, but we didn’t need fresh meat or fish anyway. Several craft shops were open and that was enough for us. http://oxford-coveredmarket.co.uk/ From here it was on to the History of Science Museum. https://hsm.ox.ac.uk/  Quite the interesting collection of the tools of science and includes their treasure of a blackboard completed by Albert Einstein during a lecture at Oxford. Next stop was to be the Bodleian Library. https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/ Aside from being a beautiful, old, really old library, this is another stop on the Harry Potter tour with several rooms and hallways being used in various movies. While we waited for our tour to begin, we crossed the street to the affiliated Weston Library which had a café and a great display on Maps.

After the libraries we walked out to see the Bridge of Sighs, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridge_of_Sighs_(Oxford) Again, by 5:00 pm most venues were closing or closed. We took another lap around the town center while a lone saxophone busker played in the square – I had not heard “The Shadow of your Smile” for many years. A lovely way to end the day.

Back to the train station, back to Paddington, back to Chiswick, back to work on Monday for Andy.

Linda and Andy Benjamin: Waterfall hunters

We both like to hike and walk. Among our first dates, in addition to the wine tasting, were hiking trips to Yosemite and then Mammoth Mountain. Our goal for any given day; to see the waterfall, any waterfall. Starting with Yosemite Falls https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/waterfalls.htm, we went on to locate and admire Bridalveil and Vernal falls, in addition to others within Yosemite park. At Mammoth we have hiked to Rainbow Falls and Minaret Falls and have taken the long way back via the Devils Postpile. https://www.visitmammoth.com/blogs/waterfall-hikes-mammoth-lakes. We have continued this habit most of our married life, visiting waterfalls in most places we have lived and traveled. So, when Art and Annmarie (see Blog #4) recommended that we include Croatia in our travel plans, they added: “you’ll want to see the waterfalls.” Yes, yes we did. https://www.visit-croatia.co.uk/

Plitvice Lakes became our must-see Croatian destination. (Dubrovnik is also highly recommended, but sometimes hard choices have to be made) https://www.visit-croatia.co.uk/croatia-destinations/plitvice-lakes/ Depending how you count, there are 16 or 18 waterfalls. It is simply unbelievable. We laughed at walkways that were built over moving water that would have been a feature in many other national or state parks – here, they must be mostly covered up to provide walking paths for the millions of visitors each year. The falls are one thing, the color of the water is another. I had read before we went that the water color is indescribable; I agree. Not turquoise, not blue, not green; just beautiful. All set in a park of stone, trees, and wildflowers.

The lakes are not near a major city or airport. Many visitors fly into Zagreb (the capital), Zadar (on the Adriatic coast) or Split (further south on the coast and home of Diocletian’s Palace). We chose to fly into Split because the scheduled flights from London fit our schedule best. For the first time since we have been in London, we chose also to rent a car. There are buses that go from the major cities to Plitvice but depending on the busses would put too many limitations on where we could go and when, and for our Croatia trip we wanted to be more flexible. Note: I was not sure about driving in a foreign country – it was fine. They drive on the right and the roads are in excellent condition; way better than Pennsylvania.

Diocletian’s Palace was built in the third century. I suspect that the building we stayed in was built not long after. It was right outside the East Gate and had the most beautiful, worn, marble steps; three floors of them. The room itself though, had been recently renovated and was quite comfortable. A large bed, a large shower, and a large TV with multiple channels in Croatian. The service was welcoming and the location perfect. We dumped our stuff and headed straight for the palace.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diocletian%27s_Palace We have seen a lot of palaces, especially in the last ten months, but this is different; only part of it is a museum. The rest of the rooms and spaces have been taken over by shops, restaurants, and folks dressed as Roman Centurions in the open areas. It is palace and old town all in one space. Going out the front, Southern or Bronze, gate we entered the harbor the palace is set against. Between the palace and the water are wide sidewalks with benches and palm trees. The harbor is filled with boats of all sizes. We had been told one of the places to go in Split, in addition to the Palace, is Marjan Park. It is close to town and offers wonderful views of the city and hills. After some missteps, literally, we took a taxi to the viewpoint on the hill. This is the place to watch the sunset. And, there is a restaurant there. Sunset, wine, and food – what more could we ask? https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g295370-d8355724-r491285656-Teraca_Vidilica-Split_Split_Dalmatia_County_Dalmatia.html  After dinner we went back to the Palace to peruse the shops and take pictures at night. The next morning, our included breakfast was at a Palace restaurant, The Luxor. After that we visited the Palace museum. We would have liked more interpretation in the museum; who lived there and when, those types of things; but it was still quite interesting to walk in steps that have been used for 1500 years. We bought our souvenirs and then it was off to Plitvice Lakes and our Bed and Breakfast near the park.

We took the toll road; very easy driving, no potholes, not too much traffic, but it did have multiple tunnels. (I do not like tunnels) At Zadar, we left the toll road to go into and up the mountains to the lakes. This is a two-lane road, but again, very good condition. Passing both entrances to the Park and turning on progressively smaller roads, we found our BnB. I was disappointed by the location as it looked like we would have to drive to a park entrance a few miles back to begin our visit. But then we found our host, Miro, and he helped us make a hiking plan. Turns out, there are more than two entrances to the park. There is a third about a mile from Miro’s house. It is almost hidden, there is no parking lot, but there is a gate, a gatehouse, and a gatekeeper. No worries. The gatekeeper asked if we had tickets, I said “yes”, and we walked right in. According to my FitBit, we walked seven miles that first afternoon/evening and thirteen the next day. We saw it all; from up high, to down low right next to the water, to the boat that traverses the largest lake. All we said all day was: “wow”, “unbelievable”, “beautiful”. And it is.

On Sunday, we had to leave. Back to London. Not taking the toll road this time; avoiding those tunnels. We had planned to go back to Split for the balance of the day as it is close to the airport (great airport), but Miro suggested we stop at Trogir instead. Trogir is on a peninsula between Split and the airport. Another excellent recommendation. Very much a vacation vibe and centered on the old Fortress and the old town next to it. The afternoon gave us plenty of time to go through the little shops and climb the tower of the Fortress. https://www.visit-croatia.co.uk/croatia-destinations/north-dalmatia/trogir/ It took us a little bit of time to find a gas station to fill up the rental car, once that was completed, we dropped off the car, went into the airport, dropped off the bag, and went  through security, all within thirty minutes. Ready to go back to London in record time. Another trip completed.

So, here we are; the end of the update on Croatia, and there has been no reference to the title: “Make Lying Wrong Again”. I used this as a title as we were both very struck by this sentiment when we saw it written on a hat worn by a fellow American traveler. A party of three (husband, wife, sister) stayed at our same BnB. The husband and wife live in Dallas, having moved there from Pennsylvania to follow their daughter; their son lives in Towson. We had gone halfway around the world to meet folks we could have met at Trader Joes in either city. We chatted over breakfast and then went our separate ways at the park. Love that hat. https://www.amazon.com/Make-Lying-Wrong-Again-Embroidered/dp/B07N8MQBWV  All the folks we met on this trip were friendly, kind, and helpful. Every Croatian, every American. It was a wonderful adventure and we cannot wait to go back. Next time we will add time for Zadar and Dubrovnik and of course, back to Miro’s BnB and back to the waterfalls one more time.