In search of Nessie

Hi, it's G. here.

Spring has well and truly sprung in Edinburgh and all the various Spring cliches are dutifully parading about. Birds are twittering energetically, trees have sprouted zillions of deliberately green leaves and the grass in our yard is now about a foot tall. I'm going to have the crack out the mower from the shed sometime soon. With some reservations, however, as it one of these 'no-wheel, floats on a cushion of air' type electric mowers that seem to be very popular over here. It's like the mower from the future. (Note: since I wrote the preceding paragraph, I have done the mowing. Also, I broke the mower.)

The days are also getting ridiculously long - it's not fully dark until about 9:30pm and I'm having trouble dealing with it. Having grown up and mostly lived in a place a lot closer to the equator, so much day seems unnatural. I just can't get my head around it.

The great thing about Spring, though, is that we are getting some cracklingly great weather. The Easter weekend and the following weekend were spectacular, and we were fortunate to have Ma and Pa Mc. stay with us over that time and so some really nice driving trips were had.

On Good Friday we went to a place called Pitlochry, re-christened by Kitty as 'Dud-lochry', which is located about 30 miles north of Perth. The weather hadn't quite turned it on for us at that point, which lessened the appeal of the countryside somewhat, although we still passed through some lovely country. Pitlochry itself, although little more than village sized, was quite busy and touristy in a sold out commercial type of way, hence the renaming. Having parked in town (and having to pay for the privilege) we walked to a hydro-electric station on the river nearby. I'm not sure why now, exactly, but it had a fish ladder for salmon, with an explanation of how it worked, so now I finally know. I'd had visions of seeing salmon hurling themselves upstream, shimmering in the sunlight, however was disappointed because a) the fish travel underwater through a series of chambers connected by pipes and b) it was overcast.

Travelling further north, we came to a place called Killiecrankie, where a famous battle had been fought between red coats and jacobite supporters in the year something or other (look, this blog is for entertainment purposes only. If you want facts, go to wikipedia. Or whatever). There was a visitor information centre near a lovely gorge, so I asked the lady behind the counter if she had a map of the walking trails nearby. She pointed to a display of folded leaflets, so I took one, only discovering after I was outside that it only covered areas south of where we were. We didn't really need it anyway and went for nice little walk that include watching a steam train come up the gorge. Very pretty. As a further note, it was only when we were about to head back about half an hour later that I noticed the sticker on the front of the map: £1.50.

I went back to info centre to return the map and apologise for my inadvertent theft. The lady was really nice about it, even offering the to give it to me for free. I said, 'No, that's ok. We won't be back.' In hindsight, this may have come across as me being rude.

The next day we went to Falkirk, more specifically the Falkirk wheel, and then on to Stirling castle. The Falkirk wheel is a most ingenious device that allows movement of boats between the Forth and Clyde canals. It replaces a series of 11 locks that used to connect the canals but now have nearly all been removed or filled in. The wheel itself is a brilliantly elegant piece of engineering. Take a look at http://www.thefalkirkwheel.co.uk/about/history.html to see how it works. It's nifty.

Stirling castle was great, not the least because you could drive all of the way to the entrance and then only get slugged £2 for parking, which is surprisingly good considering how these touristy places normally operate. The castle had all of the usual Scottish-y castle-y things, ties to Robert the Bruce, William Wallace, inumerable King James's etc. Good views over Stirling country, including a very bendy Forth river and also the Wallace Monument, which we visited afterwards.

There is a bit of a climb up to the monument, but we didn't venture inside as the admission price was a bit optimstic. The only real attraction was that you could see William Wallace's sword, however the lure of this was not strong enough to outweigh our fiscal rectitude. (Thought projection: walk up to William Wallace's sword.....Yep, it's a sword. That was money well spent)

On Easter Monday we headed south, with the highlight being a visit to Melrose Abbey. It had a really powerful atmosphere. As C. succintly puts it, 'It was big'.

The working week passed uneventfully, apart from Ma and Pa Mc.'s ever increasing fixation with Sainsbury's and delight expressed about shopping at same.

On the weekend, we went well and truly into the highlands- Glencoe, Fort William, Glen and Ben with their respective Nevises, Loch Ness and (passed through) Inverness.

The landscape leading up to and in Glencoe is truly spectacular, and I've a feeling that our timing was perfect to get the most out of it. Cloudless sunny days, cool not cold, but still snow on the mountains, and before the peak tourist season, when it probably is impossible to get a park at viewing areas. The lochs as well were stunningly beautiful.

We stayed in a B&B at Fort William on Saturday night after eating out at a pub/restaurant. Pa Mc. and I decided to have a particular dark ale, which turned out to be not available so we were offered one 'just like it'. It was called 'Kelpie'. Kelpie was nice but had a certain je ne sais quoi in the aftertaste. It was only much later that a connection was made - Kelpie- kelp a.k.a seaweed, specifically bladderwrack seaweed. I had read about it in the pub menu located in the B&B lounge earlier that evening. I suspect the seaweed we saw/smelt rotting in the sun on the loch shore that day was the same variety as what was in the beer. Hard to imagine how the idea came about, that someone could squelch over the ponging weed and think, 'Yeah, this'd go great in beer!'

The next day we went up a gondola (fun) at the Glen Nevis ski centre. It was the last day of the season and there were a few die hards working the last patch of snow way up on the top of the range.

Further on we came to Loch Ness, but surprisingly and disappointingly, no sign of Nessie. Rats.

On the banks of Loch Ness we visited the ruins of Castle Urquhart, which was pretty good. Nice view, foreshore (i.e. for sure. Sorry, Scottish humour there). The historical display in the information centre attached to the castle had an audio demonstration where you could press a button to hear certain words spoken in Scots Gaelic. One of the words was 'Urquhart', which sounded like Klingon, something like 'Ooroo-ku-tay'. Since then, it has not been uncommon for Kitty or me to suddenly say 'Ooroo-ku-tay' completely at random. (You had to be there.)

We made it to Inverness and then straightaway headed back home, uneventfully. It was a great weekend and I can't wait to get back up there and throw a line in one of the lochs.

Can't be bothered to put photos in this post in the appropriate places. Too much fiddling around. C. will do another post shortly with photos and captions.

Bye for now.

Two days in London (with extra security)

Hi everyone, it's been a while.

We have excuses though - we spent a week away, in Germany and in London. This was the first proper trip we've done since arriving in the UK (overnight trips to London to collect and/or drop off the dog do not count, as they were definitely not holidays). I don't know about G, but now that we've finally gone away somewhere (relatively) exotic, it actually feels like we're really living overseas now.  If that makes sense.

Back in September, before we left Australia, we made plans with my parents to catch up in Nuremberg. They completed a cruise down the Rhine and Danube, ending in Budapest, and then spent a few days in Prague before training it to Nuremberg. G and I arranged to meet them in Nuremberg on 26 March, spend four days, and then jet off to London for another few nights (including my birthday). 

It was strange going back to Nuremberg, as the last time I was there (in 2004), I still had the hefty burden of my thesis weighing on me like a solid block of concrete. My three month stay there was not fun, as everytime I thought about relaxing and seeing the sights, the nagging voice in the back of my head said "You should be at the archives reading old documents on the postwar period!" (Actually, that nagging voice was there throughout my whole thesis, so I don't know why I would have expected it to leave me alone for any period of time.) 

But, four-and-a-half years later, and two years after having my PhD approved (praise the Lord!), I was back in Nuremberg and ready to actually enjoy the city. And it was great, because it really is a lovely place. It's not somewhere that people choose as a tourist destination, more somewhere that you visit if you're passing by, but it's well worth going to. Not only does it have the mediaeval town stuff, but also the Nazi stuff - an interesting combination of old and new.

Anyhow, I'm writing this at work after cleverly uploading photos to blogger last night. However, I forgot to upload photos from Nuremberg so will have to post another entry later with them.

But here are some photos from London! 

When we arranged our London trip, there was, of course, no hint that there'd be a G20 Summit taking place while we were there. We happened to be right in the thick of things on the Wednesday - not, thankfully, where the violent protests were happening, but we still saw some pretty cool stuff. The main reason for going to London (in my eyes) was so that I could celebrate my birthday with more than one other person! 

Pictorial essay on our London adventures starts here:

Pancakes for breakfast, on my birthday...this seems to be an annual tradition, and one I'm willing to continue. The fresh berries meant that it was practically health food. We went to this great cafe called The Breakfast Club, recommended by Megan and Brett (our London hosts), and they served fantastic food, and the best coffee. Despite Brett's instructions we got a bit lost and retraced our steps several times before realising we'd walked right past the cafe. Oh well, the food more than made up for it. 

Note: Aquamarine earrings (March birthstone) from G for my birthday, from Past Times, my new favourite shop.

We then went to Madame Tussaud's. It was crazy busy for a Tuesday morning, but we managed to avoid queuing. We had to walk through long roped-off queue lines (empty) to get to the counter, and after going through a number of these we reached a sign that said "Your wait is now only 60 minutes". If we were queueing for real, there's no way I'd keep waiting after reading that sign. 

Anyhow, Madame Tussaud's was an experience, but probably not one that I will feel like repeating any time soon. As you see, above, some of the wax works were quite realistic.

Others were not quite so successful. This is meant to be Madonna, which is pretty much evident only from the clothes. She looks like a David Jones mannequin.

They make the waxworks as an exact copy of the original, including height. We were both amused to see that Tom Cruise is very short, as is Daniel Radcliffe, and Christina Aguilera is tiny! She would barely crack 5 foot.

For dinner, we (me, G, my pares, Megan, Brett and our other UK-based friend Michelle) went to this really cool restaurant in Soho called Inamo. It was an Asian fusion menu, which is yum, but the best part was that you order via your table. They project a menu onto the table top, and you can move a cursor to choose what you want and order it right there. Perfect for people with a fear of social interaction. You can change the table top design, and even play Battleships with the person sitting opposite. As you can see in the photo above, you can even choose to have a video of the kitchen streamed onto your table. It was great! 

After dinner, the young 'uns went to another bar for some cocktails. It got a bit awkward as Michelle realised the male half of the couple sitting next to us was a work colleague, and the woman he was canoodling with was definitely not his girlfriend. Out of all the bars in London...

The next day, Wednesday, G and I went to the London Eye (getting briefly lost outside Waterloo station). Just as we were getting on, we spotted my parents getting out of a capsule two away from ours. They hung around outside while we took the Eye journey. It was a mite disconcerting to see two officials with mirrors on sticks check out each capsule for bombs etc, but you get that I guess.

Luckily, it was a very clear day, weather-wise, though there was a bit of a haze around (probably just pollution). The view was excellent, and the Eye moved so slowly that it didn't feel like it was moving at all. It's in a great location, looking over the the Thames, the houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey and various other spots.

This, for example, is the entrance to Downing Street. You can make out barricades and about 30 police officers (in high-vis). We didn't know until later that night that Obama was meeting with Gordon Brown at 10 Downing Street while we were on the Eye, hence the high level of security.

At one stage, G pointed over the Thames and said "Hey, there's Buckingham Palace." I quickly identified which building it was and started taking photos furiously. The photo below shows Buckingham Palace at the left-hand side, next to the building with the green roof. 

After a couple of minutes, G said "Uh, what are you photographing?" 

I replied, "Buckingham Palace", with an implied "Duh."

G checked the camera, and then said, "You know that's not Buckingham Palace, right? It's that building further in the north." 

Oh well, they all looked kinda fancy. And I'm ignoring the fact that everyone knows what Buckingham Palace looks like from TV. And the fact that I've been there before. Twice.

So this is the real Buckingham Palace. It was so obvious as soon as G pointed it out (again).

After we exited the Eye, we grabbed some coffee (after some rude person pushed in front of me in the queue, and shrugged like she didn't care when I pointed this out to her) and sat out in the sun with Mum (Dad was off running an errand). I'm sure I saw Ian McEwan (one of my and G's favourite authors) wander past. 

At this point we realised that there had been a helicopter hovering above the river for about 15 minutes. Then we saw about a dozen police officers in high-vis jackets walking through the area. Then I spotted someone who could only be a Secret Service officer, and was convinced that one or more of the Obamas would be hopping on the London Eye any minute. Seriously, I was so certain of this, but then G pointed out that the whole area would be in lockdown if that was the case. Darn it.

We had thought about going on a river cruise with my parents, but in the end G and I just felt like wandering through London, making the most of the weather. We headed across to Westminster, and you could feel the energy change immediately. There were heaps of tourists around, but also lots of police and security. The reason for this was the anti-G20 protesters who had set up camp across the road from the Houses of Parliament.

I'm not sure if Parliament usually has guards armed with sub-machine guns, but they did last week! Though, as the policeman on the right looks like he's cleaning his finger nails maybe they needed something to pick up the slack.

This was the reason for the security - about 12 protesters with various banners and posters. The man in the middle of the photo was talking on his loudspeaker about various things, including Iraq, the environment and globalisation. At one point he yelled out "And Barack, no more barracks!" It was clear he was really pleased with this 'witty' slogan.

We then wandered through St James' Park, past Buckingham Palace and along the edge of Green Park (I think?). At the end of that road was the Wellington Memorial, which has all sorts of war memorials in it.  

While we were enjoying the peace of the Wellington Memorial, four motorbike policemen roared through the square. 

This is the Australian First and Second World War memorial. It's a great design, and has the names of all the towns where Australian soldiers came from, as well as the battle locations in which they fought. It's kind of cool to see 'Stradbroke Island', 'Gympie' and 'Humpybong' on a fancy memorial.

(I had other photos of various cool things around this time, but for some reason Blogger chose not to upload them. They may make a special guest appearance in the next post!)

Speaking of memorials, here's the Princess Diana Memorial fountain. It's essentially a low, oval-shaped water feature. The idea is that children can paddle their feet in it, but the water was absolutely freezing!

We stopped and had a drink at the Lido cafe, which for some reason I feel is famous. Hmmm, maybe not.

This is the Royal Albert Hall, but in the foreground you can see a G20 motorcade!! No idea who it is, as we couldn't identify the flag on the bonnet, but it was definitely not Obama or Kevin Rudd. Or Gordon Brown, or the Queen. So that narrows it down. 

Finally, this is the Albert Memorial. Queen Victoria must have loved him heaps to give him this huge memorial statue. It even has a marble camel in it - that's love!