Oct 31. More Edinburgh

We got back out the first thing on Thursday and explored the area around Edinburgh castle. We keep talking about how much we enjoy the town. It is beautiful and cosmopolitan. The queen lives here in the summer so it should be kept in a beautiful condition.

We finished our explorations at the Edinburg castle. As two other castles we had seen in the last few days, this one is perched up on top of volcano plug with the most enviable views and excellent exhibits: They had Scottish old crown jewels and the Stone of Destiny. Memorial to the fallen Scottish service men and women was very touching.

After that we did a quick haggis, fish and chips stop and ran to work. By the time we got out in the evening, all the good places were full. Fruitlessly we wondered through town checking one place after another and getting rejection. One restaurant said they do not allow children younger than 5. Hmm.. I wonder what it is they do that the children this young are not allowed to witness.

Kids were starting to freeze up and get desperate by the time we’d stopped by at Mussel and Steak in old town. It seemed hopeless as well. Thankfully, a kind American lady with two kids got out and let us take her table. It seemed that she was preparing to spend some time hanging out at the restaurant and brought some books to keep her kids engaged. That was so nice of her.

The food, other than steak was excellent. To be fair, steak is challenging to prepare just right. Highly recommend this place for seafood though. 

On the way home we got a special treat – Halloween parade in Edinburgh. Totally cool!!! 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Oct 30th. Edinburgh

Telecommuting while on the move is pretty intense. We wake up early and get out to see a bit of town and then come back home to work. We get out again for dinner and then come back to continue working. We finish around midnight. And then repeat again the next day.

With so many experiences crammed in together over a short time period memories start to jumble. However, our days are never boring, we see something new every day, and we enjoy spending more time with kids. In addition to having a much improved endurance, they seem to have grow more mature as well. They have fascinating discussions among themselves and their inputs into our conversations have us burst out laughing almost every day. So telecommuting is awesome!!

Today we went for a walk down the Royal Mile. Edinburgh is one of the prettiest cities we visited. It is filled with a great quantity of amazingly beautiful buildings. It would be good place to come back to for the summer. Its narrow medieval alleys have secrets to tell, I am sure of it. Because it is surrounded by the mountains and is situated on the multiple levels it reminded us of a colder Nordic version of Lisbon, but the one without the blue tiles, clean, and in perfectly restored state.


We walked to the summer Royal Residence in Holyrood Palace and saw amazing Da Vinci exhibition in Queen's gallery. Da Vinci did substantial research in human anatomy. He performed countless autopsies, not something looked at favorably in those times, and experimented with different preservation methods. His talented drawings and detailed anatomical descriptions would have really progressed medical field further but they were pretty much lost until early 1900s and by that point it has progressed on its own. Georgia was a bit grossed out by the images but understood their significance.

For dinner we went out to Phuket Fountain for Thai. Highly recommended. Even Isabella ate there - and normally she goes not experiment beyond pasta and toast. Further on the gastronomic front Dima expanded our discoveries of what the city has to offer with some great whisky. If anyone is a connoisseur, this is a place to be. The variety is staggering. 

Oct 29th. Stirling Castle

Early in the morning we got on our way to Edinburgh with a stop at Stirling on the way. Stirling is a beautiful town complete with its own castle perched up on the hill, just like Dumbarton yesterday made from a volcano plug.

The views of surrounding hills were picture-perfect. The nearest featured a monument to William Wallace - a huge, lone-standing tower. The guy on the right is not it. We walked through town and returned back to the castle. As with most of other castles Mary of Scots was there too.




William Wallace looks
 nothing like Mel Gibson

In the last few centuries it was used as a military facility so other than the walls nothing remained of the prior splendor. It was restored, and walls were whitewashed and painted with some medieval designs but after seeing a few others with their décor intact this one was not as impressive inside. We did like the marvelous children workshops that showed how different paints were derived, medieval clothing, and jesters.


We were hoping that we would be able to work from a lovely medieval tavern in town. But when we checked in, they did not have Internet available any more so we transferred to our final destination. I rented an apartment for us in Edinburgh. It turned out to be nothing like it was on the pictures. It is a giant two bedroom apartment in an old building. Five minute walk away from the center.

But did I say it is giant? Ceilings alone must be 6 meters tall. Kids were afraid to go to Dima's room level reachable by a stone staircase. It is a bit like fishbowl though because it is on the ground floor. Unfortunately the Internet here is questionable as well. However home electrical appliances and shower facilities are much better than in England. Flushing the toilet is no longer an act of faith.

At night we got out for a short walk. Isabella fell asleep halfway through it so we called it a day.
 

Oct 28th. Glasgow, Dumbarton Castle, Loch Lomond and too much work

We met with the locals

Today we left our apartment at dawn to cram in a few hours of sightseeing prior to the start of the work day. We went Northwest to Loch Lomond. Loch Ness was the desired option but we were not ready for the ride and were not sure that the monster will show up promptly.

The roads are much nicer and wider than in the UK. Fall is in full swing and we enjoyed the views of foliage, hills and lovely lake on the way.

At Luss we got out and strolled through the picture perfect village filled with Chinese tourists. Stopped at a souvenir shop. The owner ran up to us and offered to try some fudge. Really warms your heart - both physically and spiritually :) We got some butter cookies there and instantly devoured them.

The final stop by the lake was at Tarbet. We visited the tea shop and had some coffees with hot egg and black pudding (a.k.a my favorite blood sausage) bugs.

On the way back we visited Dumbarton Castle. It will be one of the most memorable in our travels. The castle is perched high up on the rock that served as a plug for a volcano way way way back. It is also one of the oldest castles in Britain and like many other places was visited by Queen Mary of Scotts. The views were amazing and kids enjoyed visiting various parts of it.

Back home we jumped into work and emerged only for dinner at Insgram Wynd. Safe for the ambience, it is really four stars tops. Interesting dishes but lacking that final oomph.

Tomorrow we are relocating to our next point in Scotland - Edinburgh. We did not give this town its due and there are few nice places to visit here. Maybe we will come back at warmer and drier times :) 

Oct 27th. Glasgow

Today was a great day. Kids oblivious to the daylight savings time change woke us up at 6am. We fought them off with an iPad and got a few more minutes of sleep. But time is of the essence so by 8am we got dressed and ran out into the bitter cold, rain and wind to get some breakfast. The streets were empty but we found a little coffee shop just past the Merchant city. Remarkably they had Pasteles de Nata. How can you say "No" to this?

When we got back outside we decided to re-start. We ran back to the apartment and put on our warmest clothing. That made our walk substantially more comfortable. We wandered through the lovely center stopping to check out the third oldest subway in the world, one circular line, lovingly restored to complete newness. Had scones and clotted cream at Willow Tea Room and visited another Charles Renee Machintosh creation: the Lighthouse. Walked through the lovely center filled with truly magnificent red brick buildings. Went to Kelvingrove Art Gallery. It is a weird combination of taxidermied animals, mummies, paintings, kids' workshops. As much as Liverpool maritime museum was superbly organized this was not. I guess finding interesting random facts can be appealing too.

When we got our fill we grabbed a cab back to town to catch lunch. After much fruitless searching for a Scottish restaurant of the highest quality represented by 4.5 Tripadvisor stars settled on a Spanish Galician restaurant. It lived up to its reputation of bad service. I think part of the reason for that the misalignment of the expectations. The staff there expects you will understand and speak Spanish. You expect they will speak slow and humane enough version of Scottish for you to understand them. We decided not to risk it and pointed to a few tapas. They were excellent.

We dedicated the rest of the afternoon searching for the perfect Scottish restaurant. Ingram Wynd was 1/5 star short but it had amazing scenic décor and ambience and was located only a few blocks away. We decided to head back there for dinner. Goals accomplished we made the last final push to check out Glasgow Cathedral and we then were done for and ran back home in drenching rain.

Ghost Busters were on TV. We all dropped into the comfortable sofas and spent three hours glued to them emerging once only to replenish our food supplies. So much for the top Scottish. However I can confidently attest to the fast that we are not desensitized to the joys of relaxing on the on the sofa for hours to end.

Oct 26th. Liverpool

After going to sleep pretty late we needed some extra time in the morning to prepare for our week in Scotland. At last we packed up and got on our way.


Glasgow is 7 hour drive away from Kingston. We stopped halfway in Liverpool. Approach was somewhat grimy but it was surprisingly a very nice city to visit. It used to be a heavily industrial city but now it seems to be switching its focus to tourism.

There were beautiful red brick buildings all around. In general, this is one of the few cities that seems to have combined very harmoniously multiple building designs. Those red bricks somehow seem right in place next to boxy establishments made in the 70s and modern gleaming glass constructions. The center had a busy shopping street and a modern mall. We picked up our lunch from several international kiosks outside. The enormous grilled Polish kielbasa was hard to resist.

After lunch we went to the Albert Dock - superbly restored modern center containing a slew of free museums, Harris wheel and other attractions. We took a ride and enjoyed some lovely city views. Dan, Dima and kids played ping pong at the outdoor table. After that we went to the maritime museum.

It was  exceptionally well done. Lots of interesting and informative exhibits about the maritime industry. Georgia is learning about WWII in school this year. The museum presented a great coverage of the events from Liverpool perspective as ship building town. Finally, there was an exhibit of gay life on ships. It was done with a great deal of honesty and sensitivity.

During our ride on the Harris wheel we spotted an enormous Cathedral, seemingly in the center of the city. Since it was already late, we decided to drive up to it rather than walk. It was the right decision. Liverpool Cathedral is the third largest church in the world. It is actually some distance away from the center. It is not to miss of only of the size. The Cathedral was built over a 80 year period starting in 1900. The entire experience in Liverpool had made our day. The remaining half of the ride in the dark and through the rain seems to have lasted for too long but at least we arrived.

Ronnie from Principal Apartments had met us and guided us to the parking lot inside the building. The apartment is lovely. We were so happy to finish working through our food supplies from home and drop into the comfortable beds. Hurray!!

Oct 25th. Amsterdam

I left off in Amsterdam. We walked around after dinner. The streets were busy. We ended our walk at the large square. There was a carnival set up there. The sight of Harris wheel and a number of lift, rotate, and drop attractions were threatening the comfort of our dinners.

My room on the second floor, two stories further up the winding staircase on the attic occupying the entire floor was like the cavernous gates of hell. It was too big. I could not fall asleep for a while.

In the morning the cab took us down to the expo center. It was 8am on Friday and barely a person in sight. They must have been all waiting in an enormous line to get their iPnone 5S. It was launching in Amsterdam on the 25th. HRTech Amsterdam was much smaller and less showy than its US counterpart. We were done with our agendas in about 3 hours.

We headed back to town and continued walking around waiting for our afternoon flights/train rides. My colleagues, Paolo and Veronica, respectively from Italy and France were great to hang out with. We really liked Amsterdam. The city seemed to have infinite amount of and combinations of narrow alleys and wide streets crossing the canals. By 2pm the streets finally filled up. The weather was cool and comfortable.

By late afternoon I grabbed a cab to the airport. We passed the line for the iPhone again. The taxi driver lamented that so many people seem to have a computer/mobile addiction. To keep the conversation going I agreed and mentioned my brother's withdrawal symptoms whenever away from Facebook for more than three hours. The driver countered that Facebook is absolutely not the right example of dependency but rather a "valuable tool to stay in touch with family and friends a few times a day."  He whopped out his iPhone and started to type furiously. I bit my lip, my hands started to grope for the seatbelt, and I hoped that there won't be any cars around. In a little while he turned around and thrust his phone at me. "There how is this an addiction??" It was the carpark cartoon :)

The border patrol agent in Gatwick scanned only one of my fingers and did not pry too much - they much be getting used to our comings and goings.At last I was at home. was great to see everyone at home!! We said good night to kids and got out to have a couple of drinks to celebrate Dima's 38th birthday. We are happy and honored he chose to mark the occasion with us in the UK. The evening started out very nice. At night we got a hold of Dan R. and though he would not crack had correctly guessed the reason for the mandatory corporate training on Monday. That provided room for discussions late into the evening.