Amsterdam Photops

Ready for coffee

There are still 4 minutes remaining before the former Pink Floyd, currently the Dampkring, that is on our corner opens, and we all need coffee desperately.

It's pouring today, it started last night around dinner - which was fabulous by the way. We ate way too much, and finally got a begrudging smile out of our waitress after 2 hours. We tried for a walkabout, but ended up hitting our original Bulldog (looks like an English pub, nice leather bankettes and dark wood; they also happened to have the best cappucino's we ordered yet). Then back to a well stocked apartment for an ''eets-fest'.

On the agenda today, more walking in the rain, looking for Oranjeboom and Jupiler on tap, perhaps the Museum, and whatever else presents itself.

Highlights thus far: MSG poisoning at the Golden Chopsticks, visiting our favorite Rokerij, trying to imagine Filthy in this apartment, NOT falling down the stairs, buying too much chocolate at Puccini, formulating a hassock liberation strategy, successfully engaging in commerce - Kel-e 1st!, seeing Holly Johnson at the shoe store, but alas no new winners, having HJ recognize my Hup Holland shoes he sold me... being here. Rain or not, it is still a blast.

The apartment we have is in the Joordan which is a little bit more grown-up neighborhood. It still has coffeeshops, bars and weird shops, but in a calmer setting, with many more locals. I'm trying a word of Dutch here or there, but it's useless.

Well, it's 9 now, so coffee is served and we have miles to go!

#5 Binnnen Weirengerstraat

we have technology, and are having a blast. it's raining now, but the weather has been great. We are off to Visrestaurant Lucius, an old-time favorite, so we should have a good dinner.

the big update is that since April of this year, there is NO alcohol and coffeeshop mingling, at all. all of the coffeeshops that did serve beer and spirits have removed them, and it does appear that there are a few more coffeeshops.

while it has changed the vibe of some of the older places, it has given opportunity to the smart to jump on it. some of them have gone for refurbishment, and a few are adding food as a venue. all in all it's okay, it just came as a real shock when we went to my favorite place, the Greenhouse, and realized that the tap was missing...

the apartment we have is great, it's about 200 meters from the first hostel that I stayed in in '90. the neighborhood is the Joordan, and it is really nice. we are having long walks and good adventures. we'll head over to der wallen after dinner.

more later, tot ziens!!

Reflections on Caledonia

feel free to quiz me on what you are seeing - just taking advantage of a good hook-up to post snaps!

Bid ye farewell to Alba - onward to der Nederlanden

Well, we wrapped up the week with a great visit from friend Mark and his wife Wing, hailing from London. They were in Scotland for a wedding, so came by to visit.

We had perhaps our best meal yet, Susannah, Wing, Mark and I at a local fish restaurant. The seafood was INCREDIBLE. We ate heaps of both hot and cold seafood - oysters, prawns, mussels, langostinos, lobsters, salmon, gravlax, pate, and on and on. The beauty of the food was matched by the charm of the company.

Then back to the Castle for a "Beers of Scotland" tastefest, courtesy of Mark and his mate, who has recently become a Publican and whose Pub they visited on the drive over!

Mark and I have met only twice in 3 years, but have always held open invitations to the other, so it was great to fulfill that promise. He and Wing are off to Tibet in another week, so we shared our experiences there in exchange for their tips on Peru! Nice to meet folks who like to eat, have interests similar to ours, and who trek as we do.

They had to dash off early, so we gifted them the same silly raincoats we took to China/Tibet that we packed on this trip but didn't need. Hopefully, a pratical gesture, certainly not the best gift I could give someone.

Before retiring after excellent victuals and libations, we played silhouettes on the Castle at night, quite fun!! I don't know if I mentioned, but the sun sets around 10:30pm and is up by 4am, so we get a couple hours of outside illumination, and found out quickly what pranks can be had. Too tempting, especially as all the weapons come down off the walls!

Yesterday to Dundonald Castle, quite a nice little surprise, and we had the entire site to our own, with just as much input from the docent as needed, and then his wish to us to roam about and enjoy it! A little pub food (Steak Pie, Fish and Chips, Belhaven and Stella) and we decided to come back and take it easy.

A final dinner with the family last night at the Castle - Haggis and Spaghetti - two separate dishes, not combined!! The Phillips/Knapsack clan hit the road for their flights before 7am, so we are lazily packing, and enjoying our rare moment as the only inhabitants. After a fortnight here, this has been the only time without our "court"... A nice little breather before our 3pm hopover to Am-dam.

We hope to keep the blogging going there, if #5 Binnen Weiringerstraat has the hook-up and we have the inclination. I don't have to tell anyone how much we look forward to the next 5 days with Clan Petrastella (Kel-e and Bob, Chrispy and Susannah)... Our Clan motto - "Dum Vivitas, Vivitus!" - "while we are living, let us LIVE!"...

Haste ye back

Time for some snapshots

Edinburgh - 2 great meals and lots of Goths

After a couple of train hops, we ended up in Edinburgh. It's a much smaller and more historic town than Glasgow, and for our particular trip, it ended up being much chillier there than we had experienced yet.

E-burgh and Glasgow are also known for their Goth populations, although having been 'round the first time for it, they aren't that exciting or eye-catching. Most are too corpulent, and it's no longer de rigeuer to use bootblack on your hair and wear black nailpolish and lipstick. Still, good entertainment.


Since we were having personal Goth flashbacks and freezing to death, we headed into KICK ASS, a lovely little store, where we each purchased some more layers, and Marge went total penal colony with vertically striped gray/black trousers and a horizontally striped gray/black jumper (sweater).


Onward up the hill - this town is a modern day archeological wonder - it's layered upon itself, so you are walking along the street, and all the sudden look over an edge and find there is another street some 50 feet below!


Got to the point where I was famished, so we ducked into the Albanach, which was one of the coolest environs to have food in that we've encountered. And, the food was absolutely excellent. Blue Cheese and Mushroom soup, Cullen Skink, Haggis with tatties an' neeps, and local sausage with mash - all washed down with lashings of Belhaven. Sooooo good.

After this we stopped in a kilt shop that offered insight into the weaving of the tartans - this was the single largest retail establishment we've seen in Alba. It went down 3 floors and there was an incredible forced flow that took you through a dozen different halls and down to the bowels of the weaving factory, then all the way back up - with nary a moment that didn't offer a purchase opportunity.


Finally, into the Castle. There was so much to see, lot's of levels and winding paths. The whole thing was built on an outcropping of granite, so they built around the obstacles and stacked buildings on buildings. Some silly highlights were the Cemetary for the Mascots (dogs) of the Regimental Guards, and the Honors of Scotland (these are the Crown, the Sceptre, the Sword with scabbard and belt, and of course, the Stone of Scone a.k.a. the Stone of Destiny. This stone is upon which all the historic Kings of Scotland have been crowned. Purloined by the Anglish for 400 years, it has only recently been returned to the Scots in the last 15 years or so.

After hours in the Castle, we went towards the Surgery Museum - a real pathological highlight - but our timing was poor. We stopped to take a photo of Greyfriar's Bobby - the terrier who purportedly spent 14 years at the graveside of his deceased master and is now a folk legend in Scotland. His little statue had a pub of the same name adjacent, so in we went for refreshment. The food looked incredible, so we hopped across the street to the Royal Museum/Museum of Scotland for a quick tour. The building was incredible, a perfect combination of modernity with intimacy and built to highlight the displays inside - sometimes on the 4th floor, a tiny vista would open that allowed you to see a display on the 1st floor from a whole new light. Like opening a new door every turn.

Back to the pub for Lamb's Rump, and Steak and Ale pie, but both of the greatest quality. Strongly fortified with Ales and meats, we braved the cold again for the station.

2 trains and over 3 hours later, back to our Castle, and some well earned rest.

Failte du Eilan Arran

that's "welcome to Arran Island"... in Gaelic. so fun and wild. today we took the ferry across to Arran, it's called Scotland in minature, and it delivers on the promise.

the ferry drops you off in a podunk lil' burg, so we hit the road right on out of there. first stop, Lochranza distillery. And yes, we saw the Uisge (pronounced Whis-ky, that's the Gaelic word for water) in the makes...

the distillery tour was short and sweet, but very well done and this particular brew uses only barley and water, no smoke or peat. all of the left over mash and wort goes to local cows to eat, the leftover liquid from distillation is then used as fertilizer. the only end product, aside from spirits, is hot water, which feeds a duck pond on the premises. when they were building the distillery, they stopped construction for 3 months to allow a breeding pair of Golden Eagles to nest and hatch their chicks, so as not to disturb them. the Eagles flew overhead at the dedication, so this place is really in harmony with their surrounds and environs. all of the water comes from Loch na Davie, right on Arran, so it's a closed circle. and the process produces a whiskey that even I would drink - and buy!! after more than a few tastes, we hit the ruins of Lochranza Castle.

then, on to our ultimate destination; prehistoric sites on the west side of the island. the road turns off into a farm entrance, you park wherever you can, walk through a herd of sheep, jump a few fences, cross a bog, and lo and behold, there are about 6 or 7 prehistoric sites, including some 18feet high standing stones and stone circles. completely worth the 3+ mile round trip.

it was a long day, so i'll post pictures and let it be said that way...

Rosslyn and Stirling

Today we went east towards Edinburgh - first to the south to Rosslyn...conspiracy, theory, beauty or mystery, this place is one of the most gaudy, overwrought Chapels I've seen... they have enough information posted around to help you discover the charms on your own.

The chapel has been wet-rotting for the last couple hundred years, so the recent conservation efforts have been to erect a superstructure above it to enable them to dry it out - then they will start to work on the actual preservation of the interior, roof and structure. Hence, the weird juxtaposition of steel and stone.

After a nice tourabout, we hit the road for Stirling Castle, north of E-burgh... it has been the primary Castle in Scotland's history - near Bannockburn, home of the Kings, visiting place of Rob Roy and Robert the Bruce, and very well kept, presented and preserved. The Castle sits high on a natural lava outcropping, and commands a vista over the former play-, hunting- and wargrounds of Scotland's past.

Let the pictures tell the tale, and haste ye back... here are a few photos of the nieces in action included, to give you a taste of day to day life in the Castle.

changing of the clannads

Yesterday saw the last of the Frishmans out, and the Phillips/Knapsacks in... We won't go into who drove on the right - or backwards - through not one but two roundabouts; let's just say everyone got here alive and with interesting stories for their first few hours on the Isle...

Since I love the Aga so much, we had made a trip to the Market, and came back and whipped up some Onion Soup for the folks arrival - I LOVE THAT STOVE!!! Susannah mastered toasting with it, so the bread was crunchy and the cheese melted and the soup hot and fortifying.

Crazy weather yesterday, really cold and rainy - it made the Castle seem really cozy! Then, of course, beautiful sun and clear. To make it simple and fun for the laggers-o'-the-jet, we took a quick trip to Portencross Castle (we went there our first day; it's the local ruin and about a mile or two away). Then a simple trip into Fairlie, for a walk on the beach - the nieces all found more seaglass in 10 minutes each than they have in their entire lives previous, and then a nice, easy Pub dinner. Great quality food and lashings of Ale and Lager...

Not sure what today will bring, everyone is still snoozing at 10am here, so we'll play it as it comes. We took advantage of the downtime yesterday to do some Cheesy-Ass photo shoots, so here are a few overly dramatic snaps...

Haste ye back!!!

Another day in Glasgow...

Took off this morning on the train to Glasgow, a nice easy trip. One silly reason for the return was to eat at the place we enjoyed so much before - Fifi and Ally's - and we intended to photo document the beauty of the spread.

As you can see from the photo, we got about 1/2 way into our food before we recalled our intentions! Can't beat that.

Then a trip to the Gallery of Modern Art, housed in the old Exchange building and very well done. Some great contemporary artists - Scottish - showing; the space was excellent, admission free, and the atmosphere great for hanging out.

Then, some George's Square, some Buchanan St. - a nice pedestrian promenade with plenty of busking, even dueling pipers... We checked out the Barras Market, but it was pretty much over for the day and quite sketchy in who and what there was.
Family changeover today and tomorrow; Susannah's kin gone today, mine arrive tomorrow, so some home cooking in the Castle for dinner and a little interim chillin'.

The Castle comes with an Aga stove, a particularly wonderful way to cook. Check out this site if you've never heard of one. http://www.aga-ranges.com/ They are always on, so not perfect for anything but the Hebredian climate, but I've dried my laundry on the rack that hangs over ours quicker than the dryer in the dungeon.

Enjoy some more photos, thanks to all the folks who have commented, it makes it much fun...


a couple of fun notes of interest:

• Ya can't turn any heads here with a kilt: youngsters fashion up, or down, their kilts - i.e. wearing them low-slung on their hips with their boxers showing, think baggy jeans: goth kids wearing all black, even black on black tartans and Doc Martins: leather jackets and ripped shirts, etc.



• Petrol equates to about $9.00 a gallon, but our lil' rental auto gets just about 40mph, even with all the shifting and slowing and city driving - that one is for you, Elk.



• Food, in general, 'costs' the same when you equate a Pound and Dollar, like seeing something for 1.29 that might be about that in the states, EXCEPT, the conversion rate is about 2.25, so everything is about twice as expensive.

A trip to the borderlands

Fantastic weather today, and a grand drive through the Southern Uplands. Our destination was Castle Caerlaverock.

Home to the Maxwells, and extremely close to the "Anglish" border, this was one of the most contested Castles in Scotland's history.

Considered the oldest, it stood 100s of years of attack. Until siege weaponry came around - the Trebuchet in particular - no one sacked this Castle.

But, the Trebuchet won the day, and the Castle was sacked and ruined.

The ruins still tell the beautiful story. Shaped like a shield, with a double-defensive tower for entry and two additional corner towers, and a moat coupled with the lay of the land - Irish Sea on two sides, a marsh on the 3rd, and one line of approach; quite the defensible site.

Today and some yesterdays

Another fantastic day here; today after the last 2 days of driving, we decided to hop the train into Glasgow - a quick trip and a few great attractions there we had in mind.

The West Kilbride Station is at the bottom of Law Hill and the Glasgow Station is right downtown, so all in all an easy trip. We set off on foot through the downtown; there was a nice promenade, so we decided to find some refreshments.

We stopped into Prince Charles Square; a nice old courtyard square that had been turned into a grand atrium and made into a mall. The top two floors were the highest quality "food court" that I have ever seen. Checked out 5 places menus before we found the one we wanted - indecision was due to great choices, not poor.

The place we ate specialized in great Teas and that, but we waited dutifully 'til noon and ordered lunch boards... One Celtic and One Fromagerie. I wish we had taken photos!! There was lamb, venison, salmon, great cheeses, salad, brown bread and oatcakes (don't knock an oatcake until you've had one in Alba). The beer was cold, the atmosphere great and the food was everything we had hoped for.

Set off on a hike to Kelvingrove Museum; a little of a disappointment, but a few nice items. Got an impromptu lesson in Gaelic in a Kilt shop; she was impressed by my ability to pronounce, but I was only a parrot and can now just repeat one word - Failte - the welcome. Unfortunately, it's pronounced about 100 different ways depending on city or country, lowland or highland, etc. Still, great fun.

Since we've missed a few days, I'll just let some photos speak for themselves. Today was the first really rainy day, so you'll be spoiled by most of the sunlight in the photos.