Miller in Scotland?

You can buy Miller beer in Scotland and it is brewed locally. It still tasted like MGD though. There are quite a few local Scottish brews as well which are very good.

The Royal Mile and Edinburgh Castle over my right shoulder.

Nelson's Column

Back in town I climbed up the Nelson's Column and saw some great views of the city.

The Forth Road Bridge

The road bridge over the Firth of Forth.

The Forth Rail Bridge

I have always thought it is one of the most interesting looking bridges in the world. This bridge was completed in 1890 and is still considered a great engineering feat even today.

Queensferry

Following my engineering tourism interests, I took a bus out to Queensferry a few miles from Edinburgh to see the bridges over the Firth of Forth. Queensferry is a harbor town that has magnificent views of these two famous bridges. I found a nice little cafe and had tea and cake while writing out postcards. It was very British.

There was this amazing flower artwork in one of the parks in Edinburgh. I can't even imagine how long this took.

As long as it's not a blend

I started off the day on Saturday by taking a tour of the Scotch Whiskey museum. It was pretty interesting even though there was a very unenthusiastic girl leading the tour. The robots were entertaining though. It had a little ride too. I can now say that I know the difference between a single malt and a blend. I wandered through town a bit after the tour. They wanted something like 12P to go into Edinburgh castle, so I passed. This is a view of the castle from a park below. Pretty good defensible location for a castle.

Royal Mile Backpackers Hostel - Edinburgh

+ Excellent Location with walking distance to everything in town
+ Free local phone calls
+ A safe for valuables
- Poor Kitchen Facilities

Haggis

I've been trying to eat traditional local food hence pub food in England, Foie Gras and Frog's Legs in France and now I have tried Haggis in Scotland. For dinner I had Haggis with Tatties-an'-Neeps. If you know what is in Haggis, it probably sounds pretty disgusting. It is quite tasty though. It looks a bit like ground beef, but it is a lot fattier and tastier than beef. With a good scottish beer it was excellent.

High Street

The Royal Mile is a long street that cuts through the old part of Edinburgh from the Palace of Holyroodhouse at one end to Edinburgh Castle pearched on the hill at the other.

Newcastle to Edinburgh

Later that afternoon I took a train from Newcastle to Edinburgh. It was a pretty scenic ride that hugged the coast for much of the journey.

Umbrella

I picked up a mini umbrella at a £1 store for, you guessed it £1. It was quite a deal. It was probably the cheapest umbrella you could ever make and it was a women's umbrella too (not black), but it served me well as I ended up getting rained on in every country I visited except Austria.

Newcastle

This is the Newcastle that gave Newcastle its name. One thing I found interesting in the town was that Newcastle beer isn't necessarily what everyone drinks, or even what anyone drinks. I didn't see it on tap anywhere, or any advertisements around town. I had to have it in a bottle the one time I ordered it. It must be more of a marketing thing I guess.

Gateshead Millennium Bridge

The Gateshead Millennium Bridge is the only bridge in the world which tilts to let ships pass under. The three photos below show the tilting sequence. It was pretty cool to see. I've never really seen or heard of anything like it.

Gateshead Millennium Bridge

Just down the river is the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, which is a pretty cool cable stayed pedestrian bridge. It looks like a big harp.

Tyne Bridge

Newcastle is home to a few interesting bridges over the river Tyne. This is the Tyne Bridge completed in 1928. At the time it was the largest single span in the world.

Newcastle upon Tyne

After a long bus ride I made it to Newcastle. It was pouring rain there. I have a really good raincoat, but no umbrella with me, so I was expecting to get wet. I wasn't yet sure how waterproof my backpack is. Robin gave me directions from the bus station to where she worked. Unfortunately in the directions she forgot a turn so I ended up walking in the wrong direction in the heavy rain for about 5 minutes. It turns out my backpack is pretty waterproof.
Robin works at this American diner in Newcastle. I guess as an American she brings authenticity to the restaurant. One of the items on the menu was "Freedom Chips" which I found funny.
I went and wandered around town in the rain a bit while Robin was finishing her shift. I had been told that the women in Newcastle are famous for wearing the shortest skirts in all of England. I guess they don't come out in the rain. I went and walked down to the Quayside where there had been a tall ships race the day before, but today they were all gone. When the rain picked up again I popped into a pub to get a pint.
After Robin was done working we went back to her place. It was nice to be in a real house again after spending a week in more cramped quarters. I got to do laundry and sleep in a real bed too. What luxury.

London to Newcastle

Today was my final morning in London. I caught a bus midmorning headed to Newcastle. Since the attempted bombings last week, London had been even more edgy. When I arrived at the bus station and attempted to board the bus with my daypack full of my valuables, I was informed that backpacks of any size were not allowed on the bus "because of what has been going on recently." I asked the driver if he wanted to inspect the backpack and then let me take it on. He said no and said that there were no exceptions. I tried to argue that the rule was ludicrous, but there was no swaying this guy. I finally gave up and pulled out my rain coat, took everything out of my backpack, put it all in the coat pockets, handed the driver the completely empty backpack and walked onto the bus. On the bus I discovered that it was ok to bring briefcases on board and several people had them. I guess there is no chance of a businessman carrying a bomb. Who is going to bomb a bus headed to Newcastle anyway? The ride took about 7.5 hours. I had a copy of the Economist to read though and that kept me busy.

Trinity College

Cam

The cam river where students enjoy punting.

Nice Grass

The lawns at King's College were the most immaculate I have ever seen. I imagine the groundskeepers freak out if people walk on them.

King's College at Cambridge University

The thing that really struck me about visiting Cambridge was that everything was so old. The school was founded in 1209 making it nearly 800 years old. UC San Diego where I attended school just turned 40. Pretty ridiculous. This was the first point on my trip where it really struck me as to how old things in Europe are relative to things in the U.S. I also visited the Fitzwilliam Museum in town which had a large collection of Illuminated Manuscripts from the middle ages which were amazing.

New Scotland Yard

On the way to the Tube stop in London I passed New Scotland Yard. Outside there is this triangluar sign on a pole that slowly rotates. It is so stupid looking. I think their architect or whoever designed the sign should be fired. There were tons of reporters clustered outside because this is their standard backgroud shot while reporting on police investigations.

Cambridge

On Wednesday I took a day trip to Cambridge to see the University. Cambridge is about an hour North of London by train.

Country Pub

We had dinner at a country pub that overlooked a nice little stream. On the way back to London we stopped at Windsor Castle, but it was too late to take a tour.

Windmill

Visited a windmill somewhere else out in the country. It is still used every year to grind grain.

Baaaaa

The stones ring a little village and there are a lot of sheep grazing.

Avebury

Avebury is the site of another ancient stone circle. This one is much larger, but less elaborate than Stonehenge.

Nice color contrasts between the wheat fields and the green hills.

Crop Art

Mooo

Woodhenge

This is a lesser known Druid site called Woodhenge. Apparently it was like Stonehenge, but made of wood. The best part is since the wood has long since decayed, the pillars have been replaced by color coated concrete pedestals to show you where the wood was. You just have to imagine what it was like. Very Spinal Tap-esque. The formations actually are 18" high.

Salisbury

After Stonehenge we headed to Salisbury to see the cathedral. It is a very impressive structure inside and out. Inside one of the rooms there is an original copy of the Magna Carta as well.

Stonehenge

First stop of the day was Stonehenge. A little underwhelming, but I had been told to expect that. We didn't pay the £5.50 ($10) they wanted to enter the site and be able to walk around the rocks. You still can't touch the stones or get too close. We just stood by the side of the road and looked through the fence.

A Drive in the Country

Today I went on a drive through the English countryside west of London with Paul. We covered a lot of ground.

Astor Victoria Hostel

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday night I stayed at the Astor Victoria hostel in London. This was the view from the window. This hostel had a much better location than the last London one. You could walk places from here.
+ Location
+ Free Breakfast
+ A safe behind the desk for valuables
- Expensive
- Internet £2/hour ($3.50/hour)
- Poor water pressure on 5th floor
- No hot water in bathroom sink
- No cold water in sink in dorm rooms

Millennium Bridge

After the Design Museum we walked down the Thames and crossed the millennium Bridge which I think is a very ugly bridge. It is not elegant at all. For dinner that night we found another one of the Gastropubs that Gourmet recommended. It was called Metcalf on Exmouth market. I had rabbit with black pudding (congealed pig's blood in a length of intestine) and it was yummy. One thing that I found funny about the Gourmet article on Gastropubs is that it gave the impression that they had scoured the city for the best pubs and were listing only the best for their readers. In reality all five or six listed were within a few blocks of each other. A reader in the states would never know it, but you discover this quickly when you use it as a guidebook.

Design Museum

We also visited the Design Museum which was interesting. I couldn't really figure out why one of its largest exhibits was about the evolution of Surfboard design. I mean, we are in London, not San Diego. I could understand if it were about umbrella design or something like that.

Now that is Art

We spent the day wandering around the city some more. We visited the Tate Britain museum which was alright. There was one exhibit in the modern art section that at first looked like a stack of white tiles or something like that. Upon closer inspection I discovered that it was a huge stack of white bread. The artist had created a self portrait of himself by eating a body sized shape out of the stack of white bread (photo above). It was really funny. More info

Paris - London

Monday morning Sim and I headed back to London on the Eurostar.

It was interesting to see the amount of logistical support necessary for the bike race. I think there are about 150 riders in the race and there are probably over 100 cars and motorcycles ahead of and behind the race carrying spare bikes, camera men, police, paramedics, VIPs and sponsors.

One thing I found amazing was how relaxed all of the bike riders were. Many were just casually talking to each other and just coasting along. The only guys who were working were the ones at the front of the peloton.

Lance

At least Lance was easy to spot.

Le Tour de France

Sunday was the final stage of the Tour de France. The stage that day started south of Paris and ended on the Champs Elysees. The riders did eight laps around a loop in Paris. We were able to walk right out from Fabien's apartment and watch the race a few blocks away. It was exciting to see Lance get his 6th tour victory, but bike racing is not much of a spectator sport. It is much better on TV. We got to see the peloton zoom by like this for 5-10 seconds each lap.