Around The World 2011 Day 39: Edinburgh, Scotland to Paris, France

Time to say good-bye to Edinburgh.  Think of it this way -- I will not be forcing you to look at any more pictures of the castle on the hill backed by blue sky and clouds.

A last shot out the window.  Among the three gentlemen to the left, who are walking to the right, you might note that the gentleman in front is wearing a kilt.  Men in kilts have been walking that direction all morning.  At the time I took this picture I did not know why; therefore, you have to wait to know why as well.

Everyone has their own way of saying good-bye.  And I have no idea why these pictures got flipped upside-down, but considering the faces Tova and I are making I suppose that it is appropriate.

Jodie, Tova and Barbie saying good-bye at the door. 

And then a second with yours truly inserted.

Taxi to the airport... 

Our taxi driver might have had the thickest Scottish accent we had yet to hear, but we understood that he said all these men in kilts were headed to a rugby match.  

This is a line of people waiting for the bank machine on the way to the rugby match.  At the airport I saw a television with a rugby match between Scotland and Ireland.  Okay.  Now I get it.  Clearly that has to be a huge game, even if it is a, "friendly."  For people in the USA, think of a friendly match as a preseason game.

Pretty sophisticated, no?  Order a cab and the iPhone's GPS tells the cab company where to pick you up.  The do not even have this in NYC yet.  

Airport shot is a must. 

The elegance of air travel. 

There she is, the third version of this suitcase this trip.  It started as our original suitcase that matches everything else, and after Air France destroyed that one we asked for a credit and picked up a replacement on the streets of Rome.  And after British Air destroyed the replacement, they shipped this silver guy to our hotel in Edinburgh.  Let us hope that silver guy makes it all the way to Los Angeles.

Lunch at the William Scott Pub in the Edinburgh Airport.   

It started raining as we left.   

Bye bye, Scotland. 

We flew easyJet, which is the European version of Southwest with the slight difference that Southwest employees seem to be the nicest in the air while easyJet employees seem to be intentionally rude.  No joke.  There seems to be a wave of hatred coming from the easyJet people. 

The point is that easyJet does not assign seats.  We paid for priority boarding, but the woman would not let Barbie on with her carry-on bag and backpack/purse, even though she let me on with my larger carry-on bag and larger computer bag.  Go figure.  While Barbie had to combine things into a single bag, I went onto the plane and sat in the center seat of three in aisle seven.  And the great thing about being a nasty-looking male with a shaved head is that not one person even considered sitting with me.  When Barbie finally joined me, we had the three seats to ourselves.

Barbie stretches out and takes a nap, using the extra seat that my football hooligan look earned us.  And note that the boy across the aisle is a dead ringer for our friends' son.  Aaron and Lisa, your second son has a twin from Ohio.

Hello, France. 

Unoriginal and silly, but as I took this picture I thought, "easyJet?  More like effyouJet."   

Say what you will about Paris.  They have the details well in hand. 

We were not too excited to see that it is raining in Paris as well.  From rain to rain?  Sacre bleu. 

You cannot escape the Swedes.  They are in your base. 

This little fellow did not take his eyes off me for the minute we sat at a red light.  This is no candid.  It is like he demanded that I take his picture.

Our home for two nights, the Hotel de Crillon.  They are refurbishing the entry, or you would be seeing a beautiful piece of architecture that allegedly inspired the design of the White House. 

The lobby of the Hotel de Crillon cold not be more classy and beautiful.   

Upgraded to a suite!  At long last, I realized that the best way to show you a suite is to stand between the living room and bedroom and shoot a panorama.  Look at that space!  Très bien. 

Just outside our room the hallway is lined with mirrors on both sides.  This makes for an infinity picture to blow your mind. 

Time to step out into the neighborhood for some dinner.

Did I mention that our neighborhood is Place de la Concorde?  Well, there it is.  This is the sight right outside the hotel's front door.  Yes, Paris' most famous obelisk sits outside our hotel, demanding to be photographed every time I come and go.

This is almost embarrassing.  We are on day thirty-nine of what I believe is going to be a fifty-three day trip, and this is the first photograph I have taken during the magic hour just after sunset.  Could there be a more beautiful moment in time?  Or a more beautiful city?  We have been in Paris a few hours, and already we are reminded why we keep coming back.  (Although this year's visit is to see hotels and meet up with Sujay, who I have known since 1980.  1980?  Thirty-one years?  Sheez.)

Just around the corner from us, facing Place de la Concorde, sits the Madeleine Church.  We have never gone inside before, no matter how many times we have passed by.  This trip we shall correct this.

We ate there for the best reason; it was open. 

A cozy brasserie. 

Croque monsieur for her. 

Croque madame for him.

After walking in the rain to dinner, we walked in the rain back to the hotel.  But when we came to the Place de la Concorde again, I stood there in the rain taking pictures for YOU.

The clouds were just right to catch the Eiffel Tower's searchlight.  Paris never ceases to amaze with the moments it throws your way.

Back at the hotel, Barbie said, "Big knockers."  I turned and saw that she was talking about the door. A picture had to be taken.

Until tomorrow...

Around The World 2011 Day 38: Edinburgh, Scotland

Our last full day in Edinburgh, and we woke up to a sunny sky.

I know that we could have been more ambitious, and gone on more tours and such, but with our last day we decided to keep it low key.  We will go for a walk over to the Scott Monument, which is tall and impressive and we have never gotten too close to it during the day.

But first...

We began the day at the Starbucks.

Our walk down Lothian Road took us to Princes Street.  It is amazing how effected I am by weather.  Walking in the sunshine put me in a great mood, and Barbie, too.

Up on the hill above the West Princes Street Gardens stands The Hub.  The sun was very strong and it was very hard to get this picture right.

I think that this might be the last shot that I share of Edinburgh Castle.  Believe me, I understand the redundancy here.

This statue honors the Royal Scots Greys, who fought in the Boer Wars.  In case that does not ring a bell, our visit a few years back taught or retaught me that the Boer Wars were the British Empire attempting to put down rebellions by the White South Africans, who at the time were called the Boers.

Nothing could be more emotionally complicated than Scots fighting in the Boer Wars.  As we know, the Scots fought for centuries to maintain their independence from England.  From 1899 to 1902, members of the Royal Scots Greys gave their lives to prevent a people from doing the same, which was keeping their independence from England.

The Boer Wars get crazy complex.  During these wars, the British were the first to ever use the strategy of concentration camps, locking the wives and children in such camps to die while their husbands and fathers fought their guerilla war against the British.  Children died of starvation, their corpses in identical condition to the victims of the Holocaust of World War II.  Not amusingly, the German Empire condemned these concentration camps at the time, not knowing that a later generation of leadership would tragically borrow this British strategy a few decades later.

Besides introducing concentration camps to the world, which really should be called murder camps, the Boer Wars have the also disturbing footnote that the Boers would go on to create Apartheid, which would become one of the world's most revolting governmental systems of ethnic repression, abuse and murder.

Can you find a good guy there?  Interesting to think about when waging a war.

Oops.

Back to our pleasant day of sunshine in Edinburgh.

The number of  people who gather for Fringe is overwhelming.  And everyone is... happy.  People gather for bands, performers... anyone.

Barbie sits on a park bench with the Scott Monument behind her.

If you are truly devoted Waste reader, you would remember Larry from Cabo San Lucas.  This is Larry's distant Scottish cousin, Phillip.  Do you not remember Larry?

Here he is, by the pool in Cabo San Lucas.  I think you can definitely tell that the sea gulls of Scotland and Mexico would be best buddies if they met halfway in New Brunswick, Canada, where I am sure a third cousin would meet them at the airport to help with their luggage.

After a nice visit to memories of Mexico, let us return to Scotland.

The day's goal.  Barbie is lovely and heard me say on an earlier day that I really wanted to get close to it on a nice day.  This Victorian Gothic masterpiece is dedicated to Sir Walter Scott, who is held in the highest regard here.  He is, as far as I can tell is, Edinburgh's own-personal Shakespeare.  Scott is a giant of literature, having written Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, The Lady of The Lake, Waverley, The Heart of Midlothian and The Bride of Lammermoor.  How great it is that the Scots build monuments for their kings and generals AND their writers?  Will the USA build a monument to Melville or Faulkner or Steinbeck?  There have got to be a bunch of Mark Twain statues around but is there a monument?  While we are at it, can we build one right now for David Foster Wallace whose Infinite Jest deserves to be enshrined in, like, a shrine?

Fine.  I get how things work in the USA.  Build one for the woman who wrote the Twilight novels first, then hit Melville, Faulkner & Steinbeck.

Barbie was not shy about stepping around the monument for the best shot.

Barbie with the memorial to the great Scottish explorer John Livingstone, who discovered Victoria Falls.  She achieved a life-long goal when she visited Victoria Falls, even if the experience of being in a failed nation (Zimbabwe) with a husband suffering from acute pneumonia (a nearly-incapacitated me) was not what she had been after.

Everyone ignored the bagpipe girl, and it broke my heart.  Expect a video to come out of this someday.  Sorry about the lack of videos.  They will trickle in over time.

Fun for the kids includes sticking them inside of large beach balls and having them jump around on bungee cords.

Another Venezuelan pipe flute band doing their best to keep the colossal guinea pigs at bay.  If that reference means nothing to you...  I wish I could say you need to watch more South Park, but the last season or two has not been as good as the previous thirteen years.  You merely need to watch the first thirteen years of South Park and get with the references.

The Scott Monument from in front of The Balmoral.

Not only did I get my visit with the monument, Barbie thought to check at The Balmoral for our package from British Air.  It was there.  I have not gone into it, but after decades of travel without a suitcase being damaged, Air France destroyed one of our bags on the flight from Bangkok to Rome and then flying from London to Edinburgh British Air broke a wheel off of the replacement.  We travel with four bags, and one of the four has now been replaced twice!

In front of The Balmoral we passed this brilliant Hen Party.  The bride wore a bee costume with a sash that read, "Bride To Bee," while each of her friends wore a t-shirt marking the event with their name on the back.  These women did their bachelorette party right.

Time to head into New Town for lunch and to see a few more sites we missed.

There are few bank machine names better than Hole in the wall.

The Melville Monument in St. Andrew's Square.  Funny that I was just demanding that the USA put up a monument for Herman Melville.  This monument actually commemorates Henry Dundas, the first viscount of Melville.  Still, we could pretend the Melville Monument is Moby-Dick related.

In all honesty, we were headed to the Hard Rock Cafe just down the street when we spotted this restaurant, Amarone.  It looked new, fashionable and appealing.  Barbie went with her gut.  And I loved that we were eating in a place that allowed me to see their door and the Scott Monument together.

I should have asked our Hungarian waitress to pose for a picture.  Besides being pretty, when we told her we had been to Budapest recently she said, "Ah, you break my heart."  Then, when she brought us drinks I said, "Ku su nuum," which is thank-you in Hungarian, and again her hands touched her chest as she said, "Ah, you break my heart."

It was as pleasant an experience as you can have.   We soon learned that the restaurant opened just a few weeks ago.  No wonder it looks very new and fashoinable.

And then the food...

Barbie got the Tagliolini Trastevere; with chicken, pancetta, cherry tomatoes, basil, garlic and mushrooms.  You had better know that Trastevere is our neighborhood in Rome where we long to live.

I got the Rigatoni con Salsiccia; crumbled spicy Italian sausage, ricotta cheese, tomato and shaved Parmesan.

I am not exaggerating.  This meal is nearly on par with the best we have had in Italy which automatically makes it one of the best places to eat in Edinburgh.  Sure, hit the pubs, eat meat pies, and try Haggis.  But when you want to break it up a little, got to Amarone Edinburgh, 13 St. Andrew Square.

On the way home, we stopped at the Sainsbury's Local and got some essentials.  Jodi, the person who has been kind enough to let us use the flat she is renting for the dance festival she is holding here, arrives with her niece in a few hours.  We got milk, cereal, orange juice, fruit, and everything else you need to have a kid in the flat.

When the niece in question arrived, Tova, it was not a particularly uncomfortable meeting.  She danced and sang on our bed until she was too tired to go on, and then she danced and sang some more.

We shot a few videos together, which you may very well see someday.

I tried on the scarf Barbie gave to Jodi that Tova appropriated.  I am also sharing with you in the mirror how I accomplish self-portraits.

Dinner... peanut-butter-jelly-time!  Tova and Jodi made theirs, and then I made sandwiches for Barbie and myself.  It is one of the few meals Barbie allows me to prepare for her, which makes it fun for me to do.

Tova came in while I was finishing my sandwich wearing the Chinese jacket Barbie gave Jodi.  Yes, the seven year old girl desired a bit of attention.

I showed Tova how to make an original artwork using the site pixlr on my MacBook Air.  Have I mentioned that this super-lightweight laptop seems to do everything without limitation?  And that a newer model has come out that is even better?  No, I do not work for Apple.  I do not expect someone there to read this and send me a free computer, either.  It is just that after years of travelling with a laptop that limited my abilities it has been a pleasure to travel with this 11.6-inch MacBook Air.  (End of nerd passage.)

After some time chilling with Tova in the living room, discussing politics and Nickelodeon, I was ready for bed.  The ladies stayed awake and I hit the hay for what turned into ten solid hours of sleep.

Until tomorrow.