2 months?
Oops, sorry for the absence. Got a big update on Australia, and will get around to it at some point, until then, you'll just have to know that it was great, a truly life changing trip.
As an interim update the annual Boatrace was held 2 weeks ago, how great is it that something so broadly name can only refer to one thing, THE Boatrace. The annual Thames rowing race between Oxford and Cambridge. 4 1/2 miles starting from our little borough of Putney and winding along the river and ending in Mortlake. This was the 155th rowing of the event which began way back in 1829, the story is fascinating,
check it out
We along with a few hundred thousan of our closest friends lined the river (outside of a pub, ahem) to watch this baby kick-off. Cambridge jumped out to an early lead only to be overtaken and outpaced by the Oxford eights. The atmosphere was great, as atmospheres generated by people, esp. college students drinking all day are (for reference see Boston: Patriot's Day, Munich: Oktoberfest, New Orleans: Mardi Gras).
If you ever have a chance to be in London for The Boatrace watching it from the shores of Putney are the best place to be, just outside the Duke's Head. The bigscreen tv set up across the river allows you to not only see the start but watch the entirety of the race unfold.
So congrats to Oxford, though they still trail Cambridge 79-75 in the alltime standings. Imagine, 155 years of history and for all intents and purposes it's been an even split. I guess future toffs will continue to support this race to determine once and for all which uni is the dominant one. As for me, I say Oxford is the best, that is until next year...
Let it snow...
For most of you snow isn't a cause for excitement. Well, when you live in London and less than an inch of snow wreaks havoc on the city, 6 inches is a blizzard.
Snow is a truly magical thing, it reduces adults to children and brings a smile to all our faces. At first we doubted the meteorologists who don't exactly have the best record for predicting the weather here (or anywhere for that matter).
So as we were getting ready to head to bed on Sunday and prepare for another week the snow began to fall. After a few hours there was a generous coating; we like many people popped outside to get pictures of this rare but wonderful event:
Sweet.
But of course we expected the snow to taper off to a rain and be a slushy mess by morning. So
after watching the Steelers jump out to an early Superbowl lead it was to bed with fingers crossed but prepared for normalcy to ensue, or would it...
And there you go, London gets hit
with the most snow they've had
in 20 yrs. It's about time because
we NE'ers were missing the fluffy
white stuff.
Lest we get used to it, now it's cold and rainy again. I guess the only cure is a trip down under...
Morning chuckle and Christmas updates
From one of the travel e-newsletters I receive, the top cities to visit for 2009:
1) Washington DC
2) Cape Town
3) Vilnius
4) Milwaukee
Book your travel early...
Had some visitors over the Christmas period, we tried our best to make them feel as if the UK was their home. So Kirsten and I took Mads and Martyn to Royal Albert Hall for a night of caroling by the London Mozart Symphony Orchestra and Choir. Aside from the encouragement for the whole audience to sing it was a special experience in a beautiful venue. Befitting our social standing we were in the 2nd tier in a private box, directly facing the stage, the Royal box was just below us.
Finally we spent Boxing Day and post-Boxing Day with the Gowars. It was two days of over satiation of food and wine, mixed in between were some long walks through the woods, a stop in a classic English pub (Barley Mow) and general lazing around watching sport and playing board games. A very nice way to spend a few days extending the Christmas spirit.
Joyeux Noel
Just another post from your friendly multi-lingual bloggers...
Last Thursday we treated ourselves during this holiday season by taking Thursday off and Eurostarring it down to Lille. We'd heard that it had the best Christmas market in Europe, how can you pass that up?
We arrived in Lille at 10:30 after a lovely first class train ride - the Hennigans ride in style! Skies were overcast but we were undettered as the Christmas spirit runneth over. After a wander around to orient ourselves we went straight for the big obvious central Christmas market...and wandered...and wandered...and wandered. Now Lille ain't a big place so it was a case of covering the same ground repeatedly looking in vain for the "best Christmas market in Europe". Finally we found it! All 30 stalls of it. Needless to say this did not speak well for the rest of Europe's Christmas markets. Despite the underwhelming nature of the market we enjoyed the short time we spent in it. The mulled wine was delicious (according to the K-dawg), the raclette was a nice surprise and well worth it, and the rest of the swag stalls provided some amusing sights - especially the Canadian stalls selling Montreal Canadiens jerseys, red flannel shirts and maple syrup.
Mercifully Lille is a pretty little city of 220,000 people. The Citadelle, which the Pentagon is based on, is surrounded by a huge park and a lovely place to wander around for a while. We weren't able to go into the actual grounds as there are still over 1,000 soldiers based there, rumour is they haven't come out since 1943 (ha! - that one never gets old). We were able to wander into the soldier's entrance and get a nice picture of the ornate main gate.
On our way back into the heart of the city we passed the Lille zoo and spent about 30 minutes watching the monkeys from a hill overlooking their pen. Funny little creatures and oh so cute.
We spent the next several hours checking out all that Lille had to offer. The neat shops and restaurants of the cobbled and winding roads of the Old Town, a look into the past at the Hospice Comtessa, the Vielle Bourse (though there were no chess matches going on), and who could miss the biggest book store in continental Europe.
We finished up our trip with a ride on the Ferris Wheel set-up specially for the Christmas season, it provided lovely views over Lille at night - although it did take a little while to choke down the nervousness as the thing creaked all the way round.
So the reco is - go to Lille, but don't worry about hitting the "best Christmas market in Europe".
Sleigh bells ring...
That's us, and that's our Christmas tree. Ho ho ho, merry Christmas.
London --> Philly --> Phoenix --> Cabo San Lucas --> San Francisco --> London
Whew!
After a whirlwind trip over the past week we're back in London. We've experienced
pre-dawn taxi rides in London and Philly, near freezing temperatures in Philly, stunningly perfect weather in
Cabo and finally characteristically overcast and drizzling London. So what have we learned in the past 7 days? Let's do a quick recap:
10) 29 hours of air time in 1 week - nothing when compared to the reward of seeing so many friends and family
9) Philly's food - yeah it still rocks. Roast pork w/ sharp provolone and broccoli
rabe - check! Geno's
wiz wit, wit Hughes - check! Shrimp
pil pil, octopus and a Greek from Dmitri's - check!
8) United airlines - you're going to pay, I hope to call down the wrath of the
internet on you bumbling
muppets7) Fall foliage in November along the 95 corridor - sorry Europe, you can't compete on this one
6) US Airways - paying for water? No in-flight entertainment on a 5 hour flight? Might as well fly the plane myself - I'll get to you when I'm done with United.
5) Taco
Cantina - a hidden jewel in the heart of
Cabo - beware of the green sauce it will work you
4) Big brother +
baja buggies at 50 mph - only if you fancy spending 15 minutes strapped into a flipped car
3) People to thank at your wedding - your parents, her parents and her - your best friend's brother probably should come some ways down the list
2) Land's End - what a way to spend a few hours, stay out of the surf on the Pacific side and watch out for the rocks with teeth - just ask Kirsten
1) Ladies and gentleman, I present to you Mr. and Mrs. Francis Peter Reeves III - may their union be as long and beautiful as the beaches of
Cabo
The land of $14 beer
In the interest of full disclosure this trip occurred in August - I am clearly shit at keeping this blog thing up to date. Read on anyway...
Now, despite the title of this post it actually will be a very positive one.
Kirsten's brother came over for another European adventure, loyal readers may remember Jason from such trips as Portugal and numerous London visits. This time saw us jetting off to Norway. Scandanavia has always been high on my list of places to check out while we're here so we settled on the fjords of Norvay. The only note of caution we went with was that it was going to be expensive, since we were coming from 2 of the most expensive cities in the world, NYC and London, how bad could it really be...
Pardon me a moment while I choke on the memory of the cost. All the rumours are true,
Norway, and likely Scandanavia, is incredibly expensive, but to be honest, the beauty of the country goes a long way to soothing that burn.
We started off in Oslo where we had less than 24 hours to explore the city and get our introduction to the land of the midnight sun. We started off with a light lunch at the Grand Cafe, the very place where Henrik Ibsen enjoyed a beer and aqua vite everyday at his regular table. It's a great people watching spot and the interior decor evokes memories of the intellectuals and artists that used to frequent the joint. I like to think that the 3 American intellectuals who sat in the cafe that day would have fit right in during the late 19th century with Ibby and the rest. Our exploration of the city took us to the traditional village which was designed to show what life was like in Oslo and Norway hundreds of years ago, I thought it was some bizarre cross between a Wild West town and M. Night Shyamalan's The Village. After a thoroughly educational walkabout we did what you do when in the land of the Vikings, we checked out the oldest surviving Viking ships from the 15 somethings. They were uncovered from their funereal mounds in the early 20th century and the museum was literally built around them. A very impressive museum building, high vaulted white stucco walls, 3 of the arms
completely empty except for a Viking ship, with the 4th arm filled with displays of the items found in the ships. After getting our cultural fill we hopped back on the water taxi and went in search of that famous Norwegian beer (ahem!) and some eats.
Ja identified the young hip area of Oslo so off we went. There were a fair few cafes along the street and we popped into one for a little well deserved liquid refreshment. This particular place,
Bistro Brocante, was selected because it seemed cool and there were a bunch of suitably Norwegian looking people outside, oh, and there was an available table. The food looked fantastic, so after a walk around the block to see what else was on offer we ended up back at the same place, this time inside the small but charming restaurant with black and white checkered floor for our French meal. It was only due to my extensive knowledge of French that we were able to order, after all, why wouldn't the menu in Oslo be in French? Much to our delight the food was excellent and we passed a lovely evening in a classic French bistro in the middle of Scandanavia.
As much fun as Oslo was we were excited to set off the next morning on our train ride (Norway
in a Nutshell) west, clear across the Norwegian landscape. Our train left at 8 AM and would take us out past the suburban sprawl of Oslo into the countryside and fjord land. After a few hours and some impressive sights flying by (glaciers, snowcapped peaks, waterfalls) we were deposited in Myrdal, atop a mountain with the scenic, and old, Flamsbana railway descending several hundred feet to the town of Flam at the point of the Aurlandsfjord, one of the longest (204 km) and deepest (1,300 m) fjords in Norway.
In a word - WOW. What a stunning setting, one of the most beautiful places I have been fortunate enough to experience. Flam isn't so much of a town as a few buildings catering to the
cruise ships and train loads of tourists that are dropped of throughout the high season.
Thankfully we were there at the very end of the season so were not inundated with too many tourists. Upon arrival we dropped our stuff at our self-catering apartment and immediately headed out for a 4-hour kayak and hike (guided of course). We set out in double kayaks for about an hour paddle. At least it should have been but unfortunately not everyone in our party had kayaked before, or actually experienced the great outdoors from their home bases in Singapore (think pillsbury dough boy and his mini gf) or Brooklyn (all they were missing was the traditional Hasidic garb). We landed the kayaks and began a hike up to a lovely but very very very cold waterfall. How did we know it was cold? Well, because Jason and I jumped in it of course. Much like polar bear jumps it was refreshing and reinvigorated us for the hike back down the mountain (with a side trip to jump in a little pool - also cold). After reaching the boats our guide treated us to a well earned snack of caviar on multi-grain wafers accompanied by watery tea. It was the perfect way to reenergise ahead of the 45 minute kayak paddle back to Flam. As this was a town catering to tourists and we were at the end of the season there wasn't a whole lot of evening activity, we made the best of it though. There was an excellent brewery where we sampled 4-5 different styles - Alt, ale, lager, stout, wheat - that were incredibly good considering the remote outpost we were in, either that or it could have been the 4 hours of vigorous exercise in the clean crisp Norwegian air. We dined on some reindeer patties at the local greasy spoon - but at that point food was for routine purposes only rather than out of necessity.
The next day we set out on the ferry through the fjords on our way to Bergen where we would spend a couple of days. The green mountains rose sharply on either side of us often broken up by cascading waterfalls of the still melting winter snows and ebbing mountain tarns. Rather than settle for an uninterrupted ride to the next port where we would catch our bus we took a couple hour side trip to Undredal to sample some of their famous (?) brown cheese. We were about the only people in this small town but we did happen upon a cafe that did a brown cheese sampler platter along with a narrative of the history of the cheese and the town/region we were in. The cheese is actually carmelised whey, so not technically cheese, but good nonetheless. It is one of those local delicacies that is best remembered rather than trying to recreate the taste sensation back home, this can be seen just by opening our fridge and seeing the untouched block of brown cheese that we brought home with us. Aside from the brown cheese and tiny church (20 people max if that) there wasn't a whole lot to do, plus we had to make sure to catch the last ferry, otherwise we would be up shit fjord without a kayak. The only way to get the ferry was to turn on the rotating orange police light that would signal to the ferrymaster to pull into the dock, it was anxious waiting hoping that the pilot had good eyes or wasn't in a hurry to get to his final stop - thus stranding us. It all worked out and we got onboard looking like travelling rock stars as the entire boat was peering at us over the railing to see who were these three people that caused the ferry to make this unscheduled stop.
Fast forward through the remainder of the ferry ride to the bus ride to the train ride and finally into Bergen about 9PM. Unfortunately when we got into Bergen it was pouring, thankfully the owner of the flat we rented picked us up at the train station, truly door to door service. After dropping our bags we went out in search of this very cool bar we had read about called Pingvin, they were rumoured to serve very good authentic food in a hipster environment, perfect for us foreign hipsters looking for some real Norwegian eats. We were concerned about wandering around in the rain looking for this place but set out undeterred. We walked out the door of the apartment building went about 15 feet and loked left and right to try an decide which was the best way to go - lo and behld there was Pingvin in all its glory, that my friends is what the Brits call a result. Unfortunately the food was running out since we got in so late but we stuck around for a few of their finest Norwegian ale and a little bit of conversation with the decidely Norwegian bar staff (ahem). One of these barkeeps recommended a place just down the road for some quality reindeer and after all that's what we were on the hunt for. So, despite the rainy conditions we not only found our hip local hangout but we got ourselves some delicious reindeer steaks with a lovely berry sauce over the top. Welcome to Bergen Kirsten, Jason and Brian.
We were up the next morning brght and early (well sort of). The sun was shining and we set out to experience all that Bergen had to offer since we really only had one day to take it all in. Off we went to find the "best coffee shop" in Bergen as voted by some hipster magazine or other. Being a non-coffee drinker I was of course ecstatic to find an incredible hot chocolate. The place lived up to its billing as a top shop with quality barristas, so with our bellies full of hot drink off we went for our first Norwegian hike. Skipping the Furnicular we let the power of our feet take us to the top of the mountain (big hill?) and beyond. Once at the top with all the rosy faced rotund tourists we kept going. Through the woods, past the mountain lakes, and up the next mountain - we just kept going. The air was crisp, the views fantastic, I am reasonably sure we could have kept going all the way back to Oslo - but then hunger set in, and we had just the place in mind. What took us 3 hours to climb up took only an hour to get back down again, destination: Bergen Fish Market. If this fish was any fresher we would have had to catch it ourselves (whoa! thank you folks I'll be here all week). After our hunger inducing hike we set about scaring up a variety of seafood - peel-n-eat-shrimp, tuna, and whale. Yes, that's right whale. Now before you tree huggers start bombarding me with your hate mail, Norway is one of the very few countries allowed to hunt whales, they're not allowed to export it but they are allowed to eat it. Probably a god thing it can't be exported because it is very good, much like a very nice piece of steak with a slight sea taste. Mmmmm, would almost be worth the trip back to Bergen for some whale.
We spent the remainder of the afternoon wandering around Bergen checking out churches and other touristy things of note, it was a bit of a half effort since we were all still glowing from our hike and fish-fest. There may have been a nap as well. For our final meal in Bergen we took a recommendation from a Serbian, a highly dubious prospect at the best of times. However, the restaurant was quite good (as evidenced by the prices) and the fact we were the only 3 diners . It was nice to have the restaurant to ourselves as we recounted the details of our trip. After a night cap at our favourite Penguin bar we turned in and effectively closed the chapter on our Norwegian adventure.
Jason carried on for a few extra days while Kirsten and I flew back to Oslo and then home to London very much looking forward to the next time we would find ourselves in Norway.
