TravelStream™ news feed for member davekeli on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/davekeli en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Tue, 18 Aug 2009 06:40:25 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/davekeli/52/1250589705/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/davekeli/52/1250589705/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/davekeli/52/1250589705/tpod.html Tue, 18 Aug 2009 06:40:25 -0400 Scotland! August 2009. We saw the Edingburgh Festivals, Harry Potter train, and Highland games!

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Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom

Monday 17 Aug 7pm London TimeDAVE -Trapped. Stuck inside, not allowed to leave.  Imprisoned.  Jailed.  Locked Up Abroad.  We are sitting on the plane parked at the gate at Heathrow.  Our flight was scheduled to depart at 4pm, and British Airways was about 30 minutes late getting the flight boarded.  We waited another 30 minutes before pushing back from the gate because the airport ground crew was checking something on the runway.  Then after we pushed back and started taxiing, the plane stopped for another 30 minutes on the tarmac at which time the captain announced that there was a minor problem with the monitoring system for one of the engines and we would be returning to the gate for their aircraft engineering team to check it out.So we are now 4 hours late for our departure from London and the captain has just announced that the engineers believe they can repair the engine problem within 30 minutes.  He has been giving 30 minute updates for the past 3 hours.It is QUITE hot here in the plane and we are all crammed in like sardines, especially back here in the cheap seats where Keli and I are sweating away the pounds.  She of course is using the time productively.  I of course have used my time less productively, reading the in-flight magazine, which I can already barely remember.Another gaffe by British Airways, they have been very NOT impressive on this trip!  They're very nice and their accents are quite charming but we have had problems on almost every leg of this trip!  Oh well, as long as they get us home safe sometime in the next week, we will be happy.  One final note – it is EXTREMELY HOT on this plane!!!As for our final 3 days in Edinburgh, we enjoyed sprinting from noon til midnight each day, taking in as many Fringe shows as we could!  It was quite a whirlwind and very fun.  What a great way to see the city and a very eclectic collection of entertainments!  The Fringe Festival offers about 2,000 individual performances over 3 weeks.  They publish a big guide book with info on each one of the shows, along with maps to find the venues around town.  The book is 288 pages long!We decided to just do one final roundup of our last days including thoughts on the various shows and other things we did (ratings in number of stars, i.e. 3/5 means three stars out of 5 possible):Creole Choir of Cuba – 10-person singing group from Cuba.  Haitian origin, traditional singing in Creole French.Dave: 3/5.  Good enthusiasm, music was interesting but not fantastic. Sound system in room was not very good.Keli: 3/5. Great energy from the members of the troupe (largely older women) and the male lead singer. Very joyful music. They clearly loved what they were doing, but the songs mostly sounded the same to me, maybe because of the sound system. Still, they were enjoyable to listen to.Jason Byrne – Irish comedian.  Self-deprecating humor.Dave: 4.5/5.  Great!  Really funny and very off-the-wall especially the bit at end with cutting in half an audience member.Keli: 4/5. Exceeded my expectations! I really didn't know if we would be able to understand a lot of the humor from the Irish and Scottish comedians, but his humor was very funny and very general. He talked about things all cultures could understand. Loved it!Camille O'Sullivan – Irish Cabaret Torch SingerDave: 5/5. Fantastic. Sublime. Amazing. Original. One of the great concert experiences of my life! Continually surprising and fascinating, her show is a complete original.  Her voice is gorgeous and her choice of songs is wonderful.  Audience experiences every emotion from sadness to joy to laughter to fear to wonder. A combination of Edith Piaf, Janis Joplin, Ziggy Stardust, and Rocky Horror Picture Show.  If she ever comes to your town, make sure to see her!  But be prepared, because she may actually be completely stark raving mad.Keli: Personality: 0/5 stars. Singing talent: 4/5 stars. OK, I have a love-hate relationship with this performer. I love her when she's singing and hate her when she's talking between songs. She is an unbelievably talented actress and singer. Her songs are very original and unusual, some a bit too unusual for me (not to mention that she looks like a vampire.) But, in between numbers she drives me nuts! She runs around the stage making all kinds of weird faces and weird comments. She literally seems like a vampire on crack!Castle Rocks Breakdance Championship – Breakdancers from all over the worldDave: 4/5.  Pretty cool!Keli:3/5. Some pretty good dancers, but unfortunately, coming from Los Angeles, which is really strong in breakdancing, I've seen much better talent. That's not to take away from these dancers. They danced their hearts out.The Bodega Brothers – Humorous guitar duo, bit like Barenaked LadiesDave: 4/5.  Pretty funny! Lighthearted break in a busy day. Especially loved their final song which exhorted the audience to help resolve the world's overpopulation crisis - "If you want to help the world, kill yourself."Keli: 3/5. These guys reminded me of a fun act you might see at the Renaissance Festival. They had some cute, quippy songs, but nothing too out of the ordinary. I did enjoy the rap they did called “MC is for Middle Class,” which was about well-off kids from the suburbs that imitate inner-city rappers.Still Breathing – Modern dance troupe of 8, hip-hop and breakdance inspiredDave: 5/5. Definitely one of the best dance shows I have ever seen!  The way they combined modern dance moves with hip hop/breakdance was really cool.  I am not a dance expert but I loved it!Keli: 4/5. Great dancers with great energy. Very original show. Very interesting choreography. Very intense and powerful.Craig Hill – Scottish comedian from Glasgow.  Very gay.  Very Scottish.Dave: 4.5/5. Fantastic! Got an understanding of local culture from a very different perspective.  Lots of local references I didn't understand and lots of slang words too, but still hilarious.  Audience was howling with laughter!Keli:3.5/5. It was interesting seeing a local Scot do a comedy show just to get some of the local flavor. He didn't really have an act. He just played off the audience. That was funny for a little while, but got a little old for me after awhile.Noise Next Door: Otherworld – Improv Comedy Troupe.Dave: 3.5/5.  Pretty good!  Some good laughs.Keli: 3/5. Similar to Who's Line is it Anyway, though a little younger and more inexperienced, but great energy. Optimism – A modern re-telling of Candide by Voltaire.  Very modern-ish.  This was actually part of the International Festival, while all the other shows we saw were part of the Fringe Festival.Dave: 4.5/5.  Fascinating absurdist musical with opening song from group Devo, the production examined human life and tried to answer questions about meaning, purpose, and the benefits of optimism vs pessimism. Love all the bizarre absurd stuff that happened!Keli: Negative 20! Ugh. This is the worst show I've ever seen. I can't stand absurdist theatre and this was absurd times 10. It reminded me of a bad version of A Clockwork Orange (which I don't like, either). I left at intermission and went and read in a nearby secondhand bookshop.Porn: The Musical – After all the low-brow fare, we decided to class it up with this fictional musical tale of the making of the greatest porn movie of all time.  Don't worry, no actual nudity what do you think we are, perverts??Dave: 3.5/5. Pretty funny!  Especially the songs and kudos to everyone involved for sticking it out there (so to speak) in a risky production.  The acting was not great but the singing was quite good.  Well worth it.Keli: 3/5. This was a really great premise and had some really talented singers. The script and acting, however, just weren't quite there. But, I applaud the troupe for going for it. Another few tweaks on the score/script and I think it could really be great.We really enjoyed the restaurant called David Bann in Edinburgh, fantastic gourmet vegetarian food!  As good tasting as Green's in San Francisco, but not as wide a menu as Green's.We thought the famous Witchery restaurant in Edin was just OK.MORE DIFFERENCESHere's some fun word differences between American and Scottish/British English.American -- Scottish/BritishBathroom/Restroom – Loo/Toilet“To-go” food -- TakeawayDinner – Tea, but they go out for dinner.Vacation – HolidayRent a car – Hire a carApartment – FlatHave a look around – Have a NoseyClothes washing-machine at David and Tammy's house is in the kitchen under the counter where we would expect to find a dishwasher, and they line-dry their clothes.Starbucks on the Royal Mile in Edin is open until 3amPubs in Edin stay open until 5am!Also, I (Keli) had to try one of their famous Deep-fried Mars Bars. Delicious! The batter is a little weird, but the Mars bar is nicely melty inside!Some Scottish words we thought were fun.  Very few people still speak the Scots language, but there are still some different words used in Scotland that aren't used anywhere else:Auld Reekie – nickname for Edinburgh (also called 'Edin' or just 'Edi')Aye – yesBen – hill or mountainCoo – cowDram – measure of whiskyGlen – valleyGloaming – eveningGreet – weepHaver – talk nonsense (If I haver, then I know I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be the man who's haverin to you)Kirk – churchLoch – lakeNeeps – turnipsNicht – nightTattie – Potato (i.e. the national dish of Scotland – Haggis, Neeps, and Tatties)Seriously, I am going to die of heatstroke if this plane doesn't get going some time soon!!!Later note from Dave:It's now 2:15am Tuesday and we're safely back at our apt in LA!  After sitting on the tarmac sweating for almost 5 hours, they finally sorted out the problem with the engine monitoring system and decided we could fly to LA.  They pushed the plane back from the gate and then stopped for another 30 minutes.  We could see some passengers at the front of the plane arguing with the crew.  Finally the captain got back on the intercom and said in a very exasperated voice “Please return doors to manual” which we knew meant we were going back to the gate once more.After parking back at the gate, he informed us that some passengers were refusing to continue on with the flight to LA so we would have to wait some more while baggage handlers found their luggage among all the hundreds of bags in the cargo hold so that we could let them off the plane.  We waited about an hour and the captain told us that if we didn't leave soon they would be legally forbidden to fly to LA because the crew would be working too long.  They barely made it!  But they did push back from the gate finally, just in time, and we arrived in LA only about 5 hours behind schedule.  (They made up a bit of time in the air.)British Airways kind of sucks.Concluding Notes on the Trip:DAVE -All in all, Scotland was absolutely wonderful.  I knew I was going to enjoy this trip, but it turned out to be one of my favorite trips of all time! The sense of history permeates everything in the whole country.  It was so interesting for me to see all the locals going out to the pub and the pub is hundreds of years old! At the same time, the people and culture is very advanced and forward-looking.  Especially in Edin with all the festivals and stuff, there is just an amazing abundance of dance, theater, music, etc. The people of Edinburgh are very fun-loving and fascinating.Add to that the incredible green beauty of the Highland countryside. Glencoe in particular, which was truly stunning. But all of our Highland time was wonderful! We loved Loch Ness, Ft William, Pitlochry, Mallaig.And then of course hanging out with our friends Rachel and Chris was great too. And meeting new friends Tammy and David, plus Robyn, just added to it.We will definitely go back someday!KELI -This was my favorite trip we've taken. I really loved Tokyo, too, but this trip had the right combination of all of my favorite things – lots to do, lots of history, lots of culture, lots of interesting foods, great time with friends, great scenery and the festival had a great, wide range of entertainment. Everything just worked out perfect!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/davekeli/52/1250368672/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/davekeli/52/1250368672/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/davekeli/52/1250368672/tpod.html Sat, 15 Aug 2009 20:43:21 -0400 Scotland! August 2009. We saw the Edingburgh Festivals, Harry Potter train, and Highland games!

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Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom

KELI - Thursday morning we sleepily got up and turned in our car rental. Then, we headed to the Edinburgh city center to go to the Elephant House for breakfast. It is thiswonderful little coffee shop and it's claim to fame is ... it's where J.K. Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book! There's a really neat back area where you can sit at a table and look out the window at the Edinburgh Castle! I could just picture her sitting there making notes in a notebook having no idea that she would write one of the mostfamous book series ever written! Alexander McCall Smith also frequented this coffee house to write the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, another one of my faves.We had to walk along the Royal Mile (the hub of all the shops and restaurants near the castle) to pick up our Fringe tickets and Tattoo tickets. Along our way, the highlightsof what we saw were the Writer's Museum – Scotland is home to some of the most famous writers in history including J.K. Rowling, H.G. Wells, Agatha Christie, Robert Louis Stevenson (who wrote Treasure Island) ... it was very interesting to see the history of so many great authors.We also went to a wool factory where they sold everything from traditional clothing to Scottish silver jewelry and where you could try on traditional Scottish clothing andhave your picture taken (which we of course did). it was really fun to see ourselves in the traditional wear and mostly I just liked seeing Dave in a kilt! At that same place, we were able to find out our family crests for Brooks and Rowley. They are going to sew ourcrests on black velvet and send them to us in the U.S., along with an explanation of the history of our name. Both of our names are from England. I found the whole process really interesting. I've always wondered about my family name and family heritage and ancestry.DAVE -The Royal Mile is really excellent, in fact Edinburgh is really fascinating overall! The Royal Mile is the nickname of the street that leads downhill from the castle to Holyrood Palace where the royals would also live sometimes. The Royal Mile is lined with shops and restaurants, again always made of stone. The buildings are 3-4 stories and look quite old. Especially during the festival month of August each year the Royal Mile is justPACKED with people including tourists from all over the world and also many many locals. It's very interesting for me to think that all these local people come down to this ancient district for their entertainment, dining, drinking. We all have our favorite areas back home to go for a bite to eat or a drink, but are they hundreds of years old? In Edinburgh you go to a bar (pub as they say) and it's older than your great-great-great-great grandfather! Pretty interesting.The Elephant House was really cool, not much more to say about it but to echo everything that Keli wrote above. Pretty interesting too learning how many great writers have called Edinburgh home. It's definitely a city that would inspire a person to do great things.As for the photos we got in our kilts, normally I would not want to spend money on touristy stuff like that, but it was GREAT! I hope you will agree from looking at the photos! I just LOVED seeing Keli's curly red hair cascading down from her hat and I think she looks very natural in that kilt. I guess there must be something genetic in it. The shop is literally the first shop down from Edinburgh castle. The guy who looked up our family names was very nice and he found Brooks very easily. He said it's ofEnglish derivation. The name Rowley was a bit more difficult to locate, it's more rare apparently. He said it was also English. In a few weeks we will receive in the mail two papers with tons of information about our names and families. We will photocopy andshare them with everyone! Then by Christmas we should receive our handmade family coats-of-arms. The guy will research them to determine what animals and other symbols go on our crests. Then they will be hand-sewn using gold and silver thread on a black velvet background. Pretty cool!After the photos, we saw our first real show in the Fringe Festival, a vocal harmony group called “The Magnets.” They are a bit like The Nylons. My favorite one was theguy doing percussion. Not with a drum set, but only with his mouth! And he sounded JUST LIKE a real drum set! Just imagine the BEST drummer you've ever heard! This guy was that good. Even after listening to him for an hour, I still could hardly believe that hewas actually doing it! Truly amazing. The band overall was good, not exactly great. But that one guy was the best I've ever heard at doing “beat box” stuff.Seeing the military tattoo on Thursday night was pretty good too. They set up grandstands to hold around 10,000 people in the Esplanade open area just outside the castle. The best part for me was just looking at the castle walls the whole time, letting my imagination carry me away with all the things that have happened in that castle over the centuries. The show started with a flyover of a military jet, then a band of bagpipers marched in all solemn and slow with impeccable precision. They had bands from all over the world in the show, including Tonga, Switzerland, China, etc. One of the best was the “Top Secret Drum Corps” from Switzerland who put on an amazing display of synchronized drumming where they are hitting the drum of the guy next to them, flipping their drum stick to their neighbor, etc. Pretty awesome! They hadexcellent Scottish singers performing songs and poems from Robert Burns and other famous Scottish poets, with dancers doing their traditional dances. But the best part for me was at the end when they had one lone bagpiper on top of the highest castle wall playing a traditional song – so moving! Bagpipe has always sounded very forlorn to me and it made me think of hundreds of years ago when a piper might play up in the Highlands and he could be heard through the glens for miles.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/davekeli/52/1250380905/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/davekeli/52/1250380905/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/davekeli/52/1250380905/tpod.html Sat, 15 Aug 2009 20:12:22 -0400 Scotland! August 2009. We saw the Edingburgh Festivals, Harry Potter train, and Highland games!

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Mallaig, Scotland, United Kingdom

KELI - Wednesday morning we awoke early and drove about an hour to Fort William where we were taking the steam train to the west coast of Scotland to a small coastal town called Mallaig. This particular ride was named the most beautiful train ride in the world by Wanderlust magazine. The train is the same one that they used as the Hogwarts Express in the Harry Potter films. We tried to get the seats in the Harry Potter cabin, but they were already full. Before the train took off, they allowed us to tour the engineroom where they shoveled coal into a large, fiery oven to make the steam for the train. It was really fascinating to see how it all worked and it was so warm in there! I can never quite get warm in Scotland so I wanted to stay!The ride itself, which was about 2 hours in duration, had beautiful scenery all around, but it was raining pretty hard that day and, as it turned out, we sat across from a very interesting older couple from South Africa. He worked in automotive distribution for Bosch and she ran an International school. We asked them all kinds of questions about traveling to their country since it's a place I have long wanted to visit. We had awonderful conversation with them about their country and about travel in general. They had literally traveled all over the world and could tell amazing stories from every corner of the earth.After the two-hour trip, we stopped in Mallaig on the west coast and had lunch at a nice, quaint restaurant called the Tea Garden where we had amazing vegetarian fare once again. Our favorite was a chickpea salad with cous-cous. The town of Mallaig itself really didn't have much to look at. Mostly, it had a variety of restaurants to feed the tourists who departed the trains, but there was little else there to see except a couple of small tourist shops. We only had an hour and a half layover anyway, though, so we didn't have a lot of time to look around.On our ride back, we sat across from a young couple from Prague in the Czech Republic. They were very nice, but struggled a bit with the English language. She was a nanny in Birmingham, Britain, and he was a scientist in Prague, but they were both from the Czech Republic. We talked with them for awhile, but soon ran out of things to say because of the language barrier. So, this time we focused more on the views. The rain had cleared out and we could see the amazing green valleys all around.That night, instead of returning directly to Edinburgh, we decided to detour and have dinner in Glasgow, the largest city in Scotland, and only about an hour outside of Edinburgh. We did amazingly well getting there and navigating the city. We had found a restaurant we wanted to try and were able to find that part of the city with little trouble. We were so proud of ourselves! Glasgow is a beautiful city, too. We loved it right away.It's much more metropolitan-looking than Edinburgh, but has its own charm. The particular area where we went for dinner was near the Glasgow university and we always find that the best areas of cities are near the universities. When we lived in Florida, we loved visiting an area of Miami called Coral Gables which is right near theUniversity of Miami. And in California, we love the area called Westwood near UCLA.The restaurant we were going to go to, called the Ubiquitous Chip, from our guide book, was in this really cool back alley area behind the main shops where there were all these really hip and cool restaurants. it felt like we'd found the hidden secret of Glasgow. The restaurant we wanted to go to was full for the evening, so we opted for an Indian restaurant called Ashoka, just down the lane. It was a very fun atmosphere inside, packed with people, and the food was incredible. Dave tried one of the localdrinks called Irn Bru that is like a Shirley Temple soft drink.It was nearly 9 p.m. by the time we left Glasgow and we were starting to feel rather fatigued, but the highways to Edinburgh were big and easy to navigate, so we had noproblem ... until we got into Edinburgh. Then, we got a bit lost in a few areas, but eventually found our way. We got to our hostel about 11 p.m. and crashed into our beds.DAVE -Riding the train to Mallaig was awesome! I love riding on trains in general and this one was really special since it's a coal-burning steam train. We got to check out the engine car before setting out, which was really cool – the fire in the coal-burning firebox was amazinly hot and amazingly bright. The dark black chunks of coal were really neat-looking too. The conductor was a grizzly old guy looking about 100 years old.The engine car looks really cool, just like the one they had in Harry Potter movies. It was jet black and quite shiny – I think they probably just changed the nameplate tosay “Hogwarts Express.” The trip overall is really beautiful, especially going over the 27-arch railway bridge near Glenfinnan. That's the one you see lots of photos of and it's every bit as spectacular in real life. Love it!As Keli said the town of Mallaig on the coast was not really that exciting, a hundred or so buildings and a harbor that's the departure point for the Hebridean islands off thecoast. Our waitress at the busy lunch restaurant was a girl from Canada who said she came to Scotland for the summer. Little did she know there would not be a summer in Scotland (pretty rainy and chilly all the time...)After the train got us back to Ft William, we were very happy because we had heard we would be driving through Glencoe to get back to our hostel. We had heard it wasreally beautiful. Honestly, I did not think it would be any different than all the gorgeous countryside we'd already seen in the Highlands! But when we rounded a bend to see the valley open up before us I was really surprised. As green and beautiful as we'dseen before, Glencoe was something even more wonderful! The valley is quite narrow and the walls very steep, and all of it is deep deep GREEN. It really does look just like the scenery in the Braveheart movie. The valley goes on for several miles and it's just amazing, hard to believe there is anything so beautiful in all the world. Keli said it's something how nature can be so beautiful and in so many DIFFERENT ways! The beauty of the coastline in Big Sur and the beauty of the majestic Rocky Mountains are so different from the beauty of Glencoe! (Glen means “valley” in Scottish by the way...)We had already determined to drive through Glascow on our way back to our hostel in Edinburgh. What a great choice! We didn't really have a good map of where we weregoing but Keli's navigating was flawless – we found the restaurant we were looking for with almost no trouble! We were very proud of ourselves to be driving on the left side of the road in a city we'd never seen before and finding a restaurant with very incompleteinformation.Glascow is just a great city too! The area we were in is all old stone buildings with tons of interesting little shops and restaurants on the first levels, then apartments (flats as they say here) on the levels above. Tons of young people out on the streets and a very electric energy in the air. And NOPLACE to park anywhere. We wandered around for about 15 minutes before we scored a spot. If we lived in Glascow, we would definitelylive in that West End part of town.The great thing about Scotland is that you have both stunningly beautiful countryside and very hip and exciting cities. I love both!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/davekeli/52/1250263979/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/davekeli/52/1250263979/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/davekeli/52/1250263979/tpod.html Fri, 14 Aug 2009 11:46:46 -0400 Scotland! August 2009. We saw the Edingburgh Festivals, Harry Potter train, and Highland games!

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Invergarry, Scotland, United Kingdom

KELI -Tuesday morning we had to say goodbye to our gracious hosts. I had a particularly hard time saying goodbye to little Robyn, with whom I had bonded so well. Chris and Rachel took us to get our rental car and even decided to drive us partway to our hotel in the highlands! We were so happy they did because driving on the right-side of the car and shifting with your left-hand was difficult enough, but there were also two detours on our journey because of road closings for constructions. Without their help, we would have been hopelessly lost. Honestly, the drive up in the highlands was absolutely gorgeous and at the same time incredibly nerve-wracking. The roads are incredibly narrow giving cars on each side of the two-lane highway very little space to pass. There is also no shoulder on the outside of the road. So, for those of us who have never driven on the left side of the road, it was a harrowing experience to say the least, and for the passenger, it is equallyharrowing as you see the car balance precariously on the outer edge of the road.Chris and Rachel took us to Pitlochry, a small Victorian town in the Perthshire highlands, and home to the smallest whiskey distillery in Scotland called Edradour. We took a tour of the farmhouse distillery with a delightfully small, thin, old woman wholoved to give the visitors a hard time and who you could easily picture drinking her bottle of 26-year old scotch. The distillery itself was quaint and small. We completed the tour in only 10 minutes or so. They have only three workers in the distillery! They produce only three barrels of whiskey per day (12-15 barrels per week.) Most distilleries produce 50 times this much! We loved that because we felt like we got an intimate look at the distilling process and because it was fun to say we'd been to the smallest distillery in Scotland.After the tour and a quick bite of lunch, we had to say goodbye to our friends Chris and Rachel. It was wonderful to see them again and very difficult to say goodbye. Each time we're together we all remark at how wonderful it is to have met such kindred spirits. We only wish we lived closer so we could see each other more often. From Pitlochry, we drove to Invergarry in the center of the Scottish Highlands. The drive, once again, washarrowing, but the scenery was absolutely beautiful. So green. And, the lochs (lakes) in the area are incredibly still, quiet and gorgeous.We drove to our hotel, the Glengarry Castle Hotel, which I was delighted to discover exceeded my expectations. It was a fairly inexpensive hotel at only 58 pounds per night, so I wasn't sure how the quality would be, but it was fantastic. Nestled in the greenery near Loch Oich and only 10 minutes outside of Loch Ness, the castle is majestic with its stone facade. Inside, the wood is deep cherry red, the furniture is antique and there is a wide spiral staircase leading up to the rooms. We felt like we'd just entered an Agatha Christie novel. There was a beautiful library and sitting room with wide windows overlooking Loch Oich. Our room itself was quaint like a bed and breakfast but with a newly refurbished bathroom with state-of-the-art facilities and a beautiful skylight window. We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful place to stay.Since we had a couple of hours before dinner, we drove up to Loch Ness. We couldn't be so close by and not take a chance at seeing Nessie! And, just as with everything with our trip, though it was raining on the way up to the Loch, it stopped just as we got out of the car and allowed us to walk around rain-free. We've been incredibly lucky with the weather this whole trip.Near the loch, there is a photo spot where you can take pictures with a cute metal sculpture of Nessie and her baby. We, of course, took photos there, knowing we probably would not spot the real thing. Loch Ness itself is just beautiful. It's a wide and far-reaching still lake, many miles long, with majestic mountains on the far bank. We learned from a placard nearby that it is actually 750-feet deep! You could fit the world's population inside it 10 times over! I had no idea it was so deep, but I love that it is because it lends to the mystique of Nessie. Even though everyone agrees it's just myth, because of the incredible depth of the loch, it's feasibly possible that Nessie could live in the depths and might only surface once in a great while. I think it's more fun to think of the myth as being possible. But, we did not see her on our visit.Our dinner at the hotel that night was wonderful, and once again, for each course, they had a vegetarian option. We had a wonderful entree of chickpea and pinenut loaf soaked in tomato soup. The dining room itself was in a small Scotish parlor overlooking the beautiful grounds. DAVE -Driving on the left side of the road was amazing! First time either of us has ever done that!! It was also pretty scary, especially in the narrow, winding roads up in the Highlands which are approximately the width of a human hair. BIG trucks use those roads and you pretty much feel like you are going to go off the road all the time. Driving with the steering wheel on the right is really different, even though it seems like it should not be. You have to shift with your left hand and you just have to THINK about every thing you do when driving, which is so different from back home where driving is mostly automatic. But we felt so proud of ourselves to drive all over with no major mishaps! We had a fun time at the distillery – the old woman leading the tour was quite a trip. We started the tour with a video describing the distilling process in the tiny distillery, and had our free “wee dram” of their 10-yr-old Scotch (at 11am!) Then we walked into the distillery room itself and the smell of malting barley was just amazing! So strong! They buy their barley from farmers right around the village of Pitlochry. There are only three ingredients to the whiskey they make – barley, yeast, and water. The guide started the tour by saying “Please no flash photography” after which one of our fellow tourists IMMEDIATELY took a flash photograph. She yelled again “NO flash photography!” To which he replied “It just does it automatically.” and she said “Well then, PUT IT AWAY!” It was all quite humorous and you could tell she was not the type to mess with. She looked about 235 years old and she seemed to know everything about whiskey, which Ithink was more from personal experience than book-learning. We once again felt that we had found a piece of the REAL, traditional Scotland in this tiny old distillery. And once again we were in debt to Chris and Rachel for their great recommendation. It wasfascinating seeing how they make the Scotch and I'll never forget the smells of the distillery! Going around in the rural Highland area of Scotland is just endlessly beautiful. The GREEN colors all around you just fill up the soul more and more and more. For bothKeli and me some of our ancestors probably lived in this area for many thousands of years and we both felt that on a subconscious level, somehow it felt like coming home to me. The roads in the north wind through farms and villages, around lakes, under giant leafy trees and along rivers. The light filtering through the trees is filled with greens of all shades and delights the eyes, the smells are all of water and crops and trees, the sound is mostly raindrops all around. Usually on vacation, rainy weather ruins whatever you want to do. But in the Highlands, the rain just felt right. It would have been so different and so WRONG to have sunny weather up there! We just put on our rain coats and enjoyed the rain to the fullest. It really made the experience all the more authentic! And fortunately, when we actually needed to be outside for awhile the rain would stop for us. At least now in summertime, you can absolutely understand why people have lived in Scotland for thousands of years – the land is SO abundant here. It feels like you couldjust find an old dead stick and shove it into the ground, then come back a few weeks later to see it sprouting into a tree. They grow tons of berries in Scotland including succulent strawberries and raspberries. And lots of grains too. I just imagine people living here a few hundred years ago, the only thing is back then they would not have had all the modern comforts of clothing, cars, dry homes, etc. I think they must have been cold and wet a lot of the time.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/davekeli/52/1250262295/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/davekeli/52/1250262295/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/davekeli/52/1250262295/tpod.html Fri, 14 Aug 2009 11:19:22 -0400 Scotland! August 2009. We saw the Edingburgh Festivals, Harry Potter train, and Highland games!

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St. Andrews, Scotland, United Kingdom

KELI - Just a couple quick general notes before we talk about our next activities ... I have had so much fun here in Scotland this week and I realized that part of the reason is because Scotland has such a great sense of itself. From the food – haggis,sweets, toffee, whiskey – to the way they talk to their dress – kilts – to their bagpipes, Scotland has a great sense of national pride and personal history. That makes it particularly interesting to me because there are so many different things to  experience. I feel like I can't get enough of it. I just want to drink it all in. And when we leave here, I feel like I will have a strong sense of what Scotland is like.These are my favorite places to travel, ones with a strong personality, rich culture, history. Beijing and Tokyo were certainly like that last summer and even Vietnam. But, other places we've traveled to like Panama and Costa Rica, are missing that. That's not to say I didn't enjoy traveling there. In Costa Rica, we did four of my favorite things I've ever done – galloping horses on the beach, ziplines, waterfall rapelling and parasailing. But, culturally, Costa Rica doesn't have any particular sense of itself. Anyway, I find all that interesting and we were saying it is something to keep in mind for future trips. Almost all European countries have this sense of unique culture andpersonality. But, even some third-world countries do, too, like South Africa, Rio de Janeiro, etc... One of my favorite things about Scotland so far is the food. We've tried lots of interesting things. We tried vegetarian haggis, believe it or not, and it was quitetasty, very spicy. It's a combination of spices and oatmeal primarily. We also had vanilla tablet. It's like fudge, but grittier like a sugar cube. Also, almost all of their desserts here are covered in toffee, which I LOVE. The Scots love their sweets. That'sanother thing I like about them! I also love their french fries, which they call chips. (When you hear “Fish and Chips” here it is fish and french fries. What we in US call chips they call “crisps,” i.e. “Potato Crisps.”) They put malt vinegar and salt on theirchips which makes them very tangy. We also had to try their scotch whiskey at a distillery. Very tasty and very famous for the country.We've also been very surprised that Scotland is extremely vegetarian friendly. Almost every place you go has vegetarian food marked on the menu and there are tons of Indian, Thai, Middle-Eastern, Mexican, etc ... restaurants with dozens of vegetarian dishes. It's been really nice for us. On Monday, Chris and Rachel took us to St. Andrews, a beautiful city on the coast. This is where the first golf-course in the world was first built and it's also home to theoldest university in Scotland. This university is where Prince William and Prince Harry went to university. The golf course was very fun to see because of its famous history. It's funny, too, because it's actually a bit boring to look at. There are few hills and theentire holes look like putting greens, but it's just fun to see to say you've been there. They have since built a newer course nearby that is more like today's courses. The city of St. Andrews itself is breathtakingly gorgeous right on the coast. The views all around the city are spectacular. All of the buildings, including the beautiful old, stone buildings of the university give the city a quaint, yet richly historical feel. There is an old graveyard in the ruins of a large church right on the edge of the coast that is quite interesting to look at. Also, there are several monuments all around town speaking of how this is the place where martyrs were burned at the stake for their protestant beliefs that went against the Church of England. Near one building, in fact, there was a story that said that a man was hanged in the bell-tower by a cardinal who was then later killed when the friends of the man who had been hanged broke into the building and murdered him. Sounds like something straight out of a novel, doesn't it? I find it interesting to stand there and imagine that hundreds of years ago in the same spot where I'm standing, someone was hanged or burned at the stake.It was kind of funny, too, that on the day we were in St. Andrews a traveling carnival was in the city center and dozens of rides were set up on the cobblestone streets. Itseemed so strange to see kids riding these modern-day carnival rides in the middle of such an old, historical city.While we were there, of course, we had to eat “chips,” which are our french fries, and also we went and had a pint of beer in a quaint pub in the middle of the city. And no, British people don't drink their beer warm, it's cold just like in America. After enjoying St Andrews, we were very happy to go back home for our second night in David and Tammy's house. Rachel and Chris are staying with a wonderful family in Dundee on the East coast of Scotland. It's Scotland's fourth largest city with a population of about 150,000. We have really enjoyed talking with Tammy and David and their wonderful little 3-year old girl Robyn, who loves Disney, so, of course, she and I bonded right away.They have a very nice two-story duplex in a suburban housing complex. In their backyard, they have two small gardens with vegetables that are growing like wildfire because of the large amount of rain in Scotland. Funny enough, too, they have a Shar Pei dog, which is the kind of dog I've always wanted to get ever since I was a child. So,it was fun to spend time with “Bo.” That night at their house, for dinner, Rachel made Dave and me vegetarian haggis, which none of us had ever tried. It was quite tasty.Another couple of interesting little notes about the Scotland. All of the bathroom light-switches are on the outside of the room, so I'm always going into the room andsearching endlessly for the switch only to remember it's outside. Also, in Tammy and David's house, we saw a heated shower system that was unlike anything we'd ever seen before, thought they said it's common in Scotland. Instead of the hot water for the shower coming from a hot water tank, there's an instantaneous heater right on thewall of the shower. It's always interesting to see all the little differences between cultures. Other than those two things, however, we found that our way of living and even the movies and TV shows we all like were very similar.DAVE - Tammy and David have a very homey home. They really know how to make a place feel warm and happy. They are very open people and were genuinely happy to open up their house to us, who they had never even met! We felt comfortable and welcome there, which was so great for us! David works in the Technology Park section of Dundee in a modern 3-level office building for the Scottish equivalent of the IRS. Tammy works in a residential living complex taking care of at-risk kids trying to get over familyproblems. That must be a very challenging and rewarding job! They are both very interesting people to talk with and we got a good picture from them of what it would be like to live in Scotland. We watched a very interesting TV show produced here in Britain called “Shameless.” What a trip!Their garden and lawn is amazing! Just imagine, Colorado and California people, NEVER watering your lawn or garden and just watching them turn more and more green. It rains all the time here! The garden was threatening to take over the entire house. Only problem is lots of slugs and snails to share your produce with. There is NO sprinkler system for the lawn, can you believe it? I guess they don't even know what a sprinkler system is here.As for St Andrews, I found it really excellent too. It made me think again about “place” which I've been coming back to throughout this whole trip on Travelpod. I felt so at peace walking around the streets of St Andrews. The city just has this very calming and happy vibe that we all felt. Rachel and Chris both said they'd love to live in St Andrews, they both have spent time there before. The location right on the east coast of Scotland is very appealing to me since I love the ocean more than life itself. Plus I really love all the old buildings in St Andrews. Again, all buildings made of stone there. Do these things provide enough explanation for the feeling that all of us had in St Andrews? I'm not sure. But I love the feeling I get when I go to a place like St Andrews, and that feeling makes me want to travel more and more and more!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/davekeli/52/1250042049/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/davekeli/52/1250042049/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/davekeli/52/1250042049/tpod.html Tue, 11 Aug 2009 22:09:32 -0400 Scotland! August 2009. We saw the Edingburgh Festivals, Harry Potter train, and Highland games!

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Perth, Scotland, United Kingdom

KELI - Sunday morning our friends Chris and Rachel, who we met in Tokyo on our Asia trip last summer and who are living with friends now in Dundee, Scotland, came to pick us up atour hostel. It was great seeing them again and we all fervently chatted in the car catching up with our latest news. Chris told us they had bought their car for only $500! It was really nice and ran well. We couldn't believe the price. That same car would have cost $2500 in the U.S! They took us to a Highland Games in Perth, about an hour outside of Edinburgh. It was the ideal way for us to see first-hand the tradition and culture of Scottish natives. The Games are held on a large field (called the South Inch), which is the size of two football fields. Around the edge of the competition area are dozens of food stands, sweet stands, games and tents selling jewelry and traditional Scottish clothing – i.e. Kilts, scarves, etc ... One of the foodstands was just called simply Cheeseburgers.We would have felt quite at home if we weren't vegetarians! No, actually, they did have fish and chips (chips are our traditional french fries) and also ice cream. Mmm. There were many stands selling all sorts of different sweets. Rachel told us that sweets are very popular with Scottish people. Maybe that's where I get my sweet tooth. It's in my family ancestry. Anyway, I knew right away from that alone that I was going to like the Scottish people. But, my favorite part of the day was the competitions. There were two fields set up. One was for the sporting events, the other was for the bagpipe band competitions. Thesporting events were broken up into cycling and running events and then strength events, such as throwing a caber (a long, tree-trunk – 18 feet long and 150 pounds!). The men who competed in the strength events were enormous, Arnold Schwarzenegger-looking men from all different countries. We all rooted for a man from Poland named Sebastian Wenta. He was a large Polish man with a big gut and a blackbandana tied around his head. He looked somewhat like a really big pirate. But, the best thing about him was that he seemed to be having so much fun. Every time he would come up to do one of the events, he would grin at the 2000 or so onlookers and wave to them. Turns out, we found out later he's a two-time runner-up in the World's Strongest Man competition! If we'd have known, I would have gotten a picturewith him. Anyway, the other strength events include Throwing the Hammer, where they swing a hammer with an iron ball on the end. It is 4 ft. 2 inches long and weighs either 16 or 22 pounds. For this event, each man has to wear special boots with a long spike on the toe end that he digs underground to help him get traction. Also, there are two events that are similar to shot-put and then there's also an event where they have to throw a weight over a bar. The weight weighs 56 pounds and the bar can be as high as 16 feet. All of them compete in kilts. That was one of my favorite things about the entire day of competition. There is clearly a tremendous sense of national pride among the Scottishpeople. The competitors wear kilts with plaid designs which designate what family clan they belong to – Campbell, Boyd, etc ... Rachel told us that you can tell the really well-designed kilts by the way the pleats lay in the back of the skirt. Other competitors, such as the pipe-band players on the other field are also fully dressed in traditional Scottish kilts and outfits. They're beautiful to see in person and show once again how deep the Scottish tradition runs within the culture. Hearing the pipe bands themselves playing in unison (usually 25 or so players, plus 2 or so  drummers) is a very unique and beautiful sound associated only with Scotland. Thebagpipes are much prettier to listen to in a large group than played alone. There is also a stage where girls and some boys compete in traditional Scottish dances. They, too, wear traditional Scottish costumes and take the dances very seriously, much like child beauty pageants in the U.S. The competitors in the running and cycling events were all given handicaps based on their age and level of experience. This made the races very interesting, since very fitelderly men were running with 12 year olds, but it gave it a real family supportive atmosphere. Even in the strength events, there were many father/son teams. The fathers, clearly with a great amount of expertise, would cheer on and help their inexperienced sons with the events. Lastly, the other favorite event there is Tug-of-War. There were 6 teams competing. Each team had about 6 people and each was strategically placed according to their size to provide the best strength possible on the rope. At the back, were enormous older men who looked like they could hold the entire team themselves. They worked and strained so hard and had to work in unison pulling on the rope like a rowing team. They even had coaches shouting harsh words to those competitors they thought were not, literally, pulling their weight. We had a beautiful day to watch the events, too. It was sunny (a rarity in Scotland) until about 4 p.m. when it began to pour down rain and everyone raced for their cars.DAVE -Seeing a Highland Games was AWESOME! I especially loved the Tug-O-War. The competitors are quite serious – the winning teams obviously had lots of practice and experience, their synchronization in footwork was pretty impressive. Each T.O.W.team represents a certain town or area and their friendly rivalry was fun to watch.  Just have to wonder, how much time do they put in practicing for these events?  All those guys have to work regular jobs I'm sure...I also really liked the game where they threw the heavy weight up and over the high bar. Just imagine taking a 50-lb sack of potatoes and throwing it over a bar 15 feet high – WITH ONE HAND. (That's the rule...) The very colorful announcer said he heard the high bar weight game described as “Throwing a 6-year-old child over a double-decker bus.” Pretty accurate, but don't try that at home.The other thing I felt watching the Highland Games was the sense of tradition and history. Even though we all enjoy our modern world today with iPhones, internet,television, cars, etc it's a great feeling to know that something has been going on more or less the same for a couple hundred years. Especially watching the bagpipers and drum majors in their incredibly beautiful outfits doing their well-practiced routines, I got the feeling of those centuries of history being passed down. It was a great feeling being there on the South Inch. Wonder why they call the field that? Something about that place just brought up a great joyful feeling in me.One of the very non-traditional but also very fun things we did was the Summit slide – you climb up and then slide down this big inflatable slide thing. It's really for kids but we went anyway, what a fun start to our Highland Games!Just getting to and from Perth to see the competition was great in itself – Scotland is just amazingly beautiful. Green Green GREEN! Gorgeous rolling hills, amazingly fertile soil with crops growing everywhere. And the happiest little sheep you can imagine all munching on the densest green grass, like their own little salad buffet. Deep woods going back and back from the road making you wonder “What secret trails are back there under the trees? And where would I come out if I just started walking in...”And all that is just a few minutes' drive from where Chris and Rachel are staying in Dundee with their good friends David and Tammy (and Robin of course!) It's wonderfulspending time with Rachel and Chris, they have amazing stories to tell of their travels all over the world and they have a great outlook on life – it's all just more and more adventure for them. They seem to be always in a good mood, always looking for the bright side of everything and always ready to try something fun. Keli and I both really admire their dedication to living their lives the way they want and not giving in to what would be easiest and safest - “The Road MORE Traveled By”. They just got back earlier this year from 15 months' travel including the Middle East, Japan, SE Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and Los Angeles! (I know they felt LA was the pinnacle of the trip.) We met them in Japan, then they visited us in LA, and now we've visited them in Scotland! Three continents (so far...)
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/davekeli/52/1250037490/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/davekeli/52/1250037490/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/davekeli/52/1250037490/tpod.html Tue, 11 Aug 2009 21:29:05 -0400 Scotland! August 2009. We saw the Edingburgh Festivals, Harry Potter train, and Highland games!

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Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom

Friday 7 Aug 10:30pm Pacific time –British Airways flight 0282DAVE -Someday, if we have an abundance of money, we will fly first class. Now, we do not splurge on luxuries very much, but that's one luxury I would definitely splurge on. Thatand having some really cool cars. And a house with an ocean view. Other than that, we don't care that much about luxuries. Oh and regular massages for Keli. I know what you're thinking and no, travel is not a luxury, travel is necessary to life. Flying firstclass is wonderful, I know from very frequent personal experience (OK, only two times when I luckily got “bumped” up from an overcrowded coach cabin quite a few years ago.) On the 747-400, there is an upstairs section near the front for 1st classpassengers. I just think it's the coolest thing to have a stairway on a plane and I am SO curious what it looks like up on the second level! I assume that they have lay-flat beds for their well-to-do passengers which would be amazing – getting a full night's sleep ona plane.The TV screen in the seat back in front of me is showing the map of our plane's location right now and we've just crossed over the Great Lakes and the Canadian border, on our way to the Atlantic coast of Newfoundland and across to London –Heathrow. I always have to remind myself how incredibly far north Europe is – much farther north than New York for example. It's only because of warm ocean currents that it has such a high population.That makes me think about place. Location. Home. One of our favorite things to do is travel, we love to see another place, somewhere we've never seen before, somewheredifferent from what we already know. We love to find out how we'll react to all the new things we see there. Some places have such a unique feel to them – San Francisco, Paris, Santa Monica – they feel like no place else. When you're in a place like that, you feel different. Why is that? You're still the same person but you feel different.Most people have some place that feels like home to them. For Keli and me, that place now is Santa Monica. Every afternoon driving back from work, I have that “home”feeling as I feel the cool, humid ocean air of my town. Now we're getting ready to leave that homey place, at least for awhile. We're going to live in one of our other favorite places, the San Francisco Bay area. I've just accepted a wonderful job offer in San Jose, at the south end of the bay. The job offer is not 100% confirmed yet, they still have to do some paperwork, but I'm pretty sure it will come through. We've visited the bay area a few times and we've always had great experiences – San Fran itself especially is so great! What an exciting, fun, electric city! So much fun stuff to do! Berkeley and Emeryville (home of Pixar) are also really cool, and the San Jose / Mtn View area is really interesting too. It will be an adventure! But also sad to leave our sweet, lovely little Santa Monica.So why do people care so much about place? Why does it matter to us where we are? Each of us is still the same person no matter where we go. Why do we feel different? Why is traveling such a joy? Why do certain places feel like home?I believe I have never started a trip with so much on my mind. The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of car issues, work, job searching, soul searching. Usually all I canthink about is the upcoming trip! Fortunately, many things came together over the past few days and now maybe I can relax and focus on the present moment for the next 10 days. We're going to be in Scotland after all!Saturday 8 Aug 2009KELI - I'm very excited to be in Scotland. I've traveled to many places in my life (Scotland is my 11th country!), but this is my first trip to Europe. Britain, Scotland and Ireland have always held a particular mystique for me, partially because my ancestry comes from that area, partially because I have always loved anything about kings, queens and royalty, and partially because so many of my favorite stories as a child had such a heavy British influence (i.e. Brothers Grimm stories). Also, so many of my favorite stories today like Sherlock Holmes, Sweeney Todd, Jekyll and Hyde, Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, Dickens novels, etc ... are all either set in Britain or written by British authors. Also, my favorite movie of all time, Braveheart, was shotthere and my favorite TV show, the Tudors, is filmed there. So, suffice it to say, I find the UK very interesting. (Not to mention that I absolutely love the accents, particularly the thick Scottish ones where I have to strain to understand what they're saying).I was not, however, especially thrilled about the long plane ride. Anyone who knows me knows that I have a hard time sitting that long (about 10 hours to London and thenanother 1-1/2 hours to Edinburgh). But, on this trip, I had the great fortune to listen to the book Native Son on CD. I got so entranced by it that I actually had to forgo sleep in favor of listening to it. I love it when a book captures my attention in that way. I do not,however, love it when I get some bad orange juice on the plane or when the landing is super bumpy and makes me sick. Ah well, c'est la vie.We picked up our taxi just outside the airport in fun multi-colored taxis that looked like cars for a ride at Disneyland. Very fun. The ride into Edinburgh (pronounced likeEdinburrah) was fantastic. All of the houses and buildings are made of stone and have turrets and roofs that are steeply pitched. It looks like something straight out of a fairy tale. We had no trouble getting to our 5-star hostel and we were very happy to see it was a beautiful building. I'll let Dave talk more about our arrival and the hostel ... but after we ate at the hostel, we headed to pick up our tickets at the Fringe Festival ticket office. (The Fringe Festival is the biggest performing arts festival in the world, held for three weeks in August in Edinburgh. There were 2008 acts in comedy, theatre, musical theatre, dance, etc ... and there are no auditions. Anyone who applies can get in, so the range of quality ofthe acts is really hit and miss.) We went to see a local company do “Rent” on the first night. It was held in one of the old buildings downtown in a small, cordoned off area that wasn't really a theatre, but had been made into one. The performance itself wasspotty and not really of professional quality, but the singers tried so hard, it was still entertaining to watch. And clearly, they had a very large fan base. After every song, the crowd, made up of friends and family would cheer fervently. It was a fun way to start the week's festivities.DAVE -We both were really taken with Edinburgh in the short time we were there on that first day. (We'll be back for four days at the end of the trip.) The city just has a really interesting feel to it – it feels really old but really hip and happening at the same time. Strange and wonderful! The entire city seems to be built of stone, which is so weird to me! We just don't see that in the US. Not brick either, the buildings are actually built of stone blocks, shades of white, gray, rose colors.  The roofs are dark colored, not sure if they're slate?The streets were still PACKED when we were walking back to our hostel after 11pm. And there were still people walking down our street obviously coming back from partying at 4am. Woke me up but I didn't mind. Keli and I were both VERY happy that we would be be coming back to Edinburgh after a few days with friends and in the highlands. I have so far heard of three nicknames for Edinburgh – Edin, Edi, and AuldReekie. The last one I think must be from the old Scots language of Scotland.Our hostel, Edinburgh Central hostel, is fantastic! They call it a “5-star hostel” whichsounds like any oxymoron, since hostels in many parts of the world are very basic and cheap, designed for the budget backpacker traveler. But this one has a nice restaurant inside, with beautiful couches in the lobby, and the whole place is meticulously clean. It's in a large building within walking distance of Edin city center, nice for attending the Fringe shows. All rooms have private bathrooms, which is unusual for a hostel. But best for us, it has a GIANT kitchen in the basement which all guests are welcome to use. That's the main thing that separates a hostel from an ordinary hotel and it's very helpful to Keli and me with our health food diet. (Plus saves on restaurant bills.) It's by far the most expensive hostel we've ever stayed in, but at least the staff is wonderfully friendly and helpful, giving the most excellent service.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/davekeli/51/1243649110/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/davekeli/51/1243649110/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/davekeli/51/1243649110/tpod.html Thu, 04 Jun 2009 01:25:26 -0400 Northern California - May 2009

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Tahoe City, California, United States

Dave was less than impressed with our cabin. We drove into a neighborhood with hundreds of big, beautiful mountain cabins and were not too thrilled to find ours was the smallest and oldest in the bunch. However, having said that, I didn't think it was too bad. It was quaint and clean and perfectly fine, just not what we had hoped from the website. But, it was really nice to have our own house. My favorite part about the cabin was the loft in the A-frame of the house. It was like having a secret slumber party in the attic. Dave and I, of course, slept in the twin beds up there, rather than in the master bedroom downstairs. Our heads were inches from the wood A-frame of the house, but I love fun little sleeping areas like that. It reminds me of building a fort when I was a kid.Lake Tahoe really is as beautiful as they say!  The water is mostly a deep, gorgeous blue, at least when then sun is shining.  And in Emerald Bay at one corner of the lake the water looks more like a beautiful emerald color, so excellent!  The lake is gigantic, the second largest alpine lake in the world.  It's 22 miles long and 12 miles wide and especially when you get a view lengthwise it's really amazing to see how big it is.  And it's a natural lake!  Not man-made.  The lake is ringed by high peaks that still had snow on them during our trip, adding to the beauty.  The sun was shining in the mornings when we were there but the area clouded over in the afternoons.  You can check out Lake Tahoe factoids here: http://ceres.ca.gov/tcsf/tahoe-local/facts.htmlOur favorite part of Lake Tahoe was the hike we did the first night we arrived. We went in the evening at twilight when there were no other hikers around, so we felt like we had the mountain to ourselves. It was wonderfully quiet, peaceful and tranquil. A few steps into the hike, we came across a bridge that ran over the rushing waterfall that feeds into the main Lake Tahoe a few hundred yards down the mountain. The force of the water as it rushes past is really powerful. You can really feel the intensity of nature. Once we walked past the bridge, we climbed a fairly steep incline and then walked across a plateau of rock. The views from this height were amazing. We could see the waterfall cascading down the mountain through the trees. After about 30 minutes, we reached Eagle Lake, a still and beautiful lake about 50 yards across hidden in the woods. There was no one else around. The only sound was the sound of the lake feeding into the river, which then carried the water rushing down the mountain. The water was so clear, you could see clear to the bottom. We wanted to continue hiking, but it was getting late and we didn't want to get caught up on the mountain after dark. So, we reluctantly headed back to the base. The next day, we hiked the lower portion of the same waterfall, which ran from the highway down to Lake Tahoe itself. The stretch of waterfall just below the highway was more than double the width of the one we saw the night before and twice as powerful. At the bottom of this hike, near Lake Tahoe is a mansion built in the 1920s. It's now a museum, which we didn't have time to see, but I can only imagine how amazing it must have been to live there and look out at the water everyday.Other than that, the rest of our tour of Lake Tahoe included a quick stint in the hot tub Saturday morning, which was very relaxing and nice, and also dinner at a great vegetarian restaurant called Freshies. We were surprised and delighted to find such a great restaurant with so many great dishes for us! There was also a great health-food store in Tahoe City where we bought enough food to last us the rest of our stay. One of the nice things about staying in our own cabin is that we have a kitchen where we can make our own food.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/davekeli/51/1243476247/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/davekeli/51/1243476247/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/davekeli/51/1243476247/tpod.html Wed, 03 Jun 2009 10:30:04 -0400 Northern California - May 2009

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San Francisco, California, United States

2009 has been a very busy year.  Keli had her most difficult semester yet in school while completing a huge amount of screenplay work as well.  Dave started a new contract position and jumped right into the fire with some major projects, working heavy overtime.  Very productive time and very satisfying for both of us to complete so much good work, but also very tiring!  We were definitely ready for a break.  Keli's semester finally ended with excellent grades once again and Dave's first round of projects at the new job turned out well too.  It's time to hit the road!The thing Dave kept focusing on as the trip began was cable cars.  As you may know from previous postings, I am fascinated with transportation.  If it's old-fashioned transport that gives a window into a different time, all the better.  Checking into how to get from SFO (San Fran International Airport) to our hotel near Fisherman's Wharf, I was very excited to find out that the cable cars were a great option!  We took the BART subway from the airport and exited right at the terminus of the Powell-Mason line in downtown San Fran.  We hopped the cable car which took us within 3 blocks of our hotel, how amazing to visit a city with such great public transport after living in LA where public transit is so limited!  (Although we did ride the bus from our apt in Santa Monica to LAX as we frequently do...)Riding the cable cars is absolutely a joy, it just makes me feel so happy sitting there watching the streets of San Francisco go by, imagining people riding the cable cars all the way back to the 1870s!  The cable cars are SO LOUD, the steel wheels rumble and squeal on the tracks as they roll, the sound of the cable pulling under the street is very powerful and the clang of the bell can be heard for blocks.  The cars are old and rattling but they are maintained with incredible care and still look fantastic!  The whole thing adds up to a magical experience and the cable cars add so much to the magic of San Francisco!  Here's a website with cable car history: http://www.sfcablecar.com/history.htmlI just want to add a quick note to Dave's entry here and say -- I love the cable cars, too! I love that they've kept them in the city even though they're a really old form of transport. It gives the city a very fun and unique feel.Keli and I both agreed that being in San Fran is something special in itself.  But what is it?  What makes one city so different and so exciting in its own unique way?  Why is one place so fascinating and fun to walk around, while another seems so ordinary?  San Fran just has so many unique features - the architecture of the townhouses is part of it, the amazing ups and downs of the hills all over town, the fog that blanketed the city for every moment of our time there, the views of Alcatraz and Golden Gate, the wonderful mix of asian, white, hispanic, black and other faces, the restaurants and shops, AT&T Stadium - all of it adds up to a certain unique charm.  Doing the most mundane thing in San Fran just feels like fun because you're in San Fran!We got to our hotel (very cheap deal on Priceline) and found it to be plenty nice, then took off again for dinner at one of our favorite restaurants in the world - Greens.  (http://www.greensrestaurant.com)  It's in the Fort Mason complex of old warehouse buildings on the wharf, every table looking out to the Golden Gate Bridge.  We have found it to be the best-tasting vegetarian food anywhere, and it's entirely non-profit to support the SF Zen Center, what could be better?
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Napa, California, United States

On Thursday we woke up at the crack of dawn and caught the cable car back over the hill to downtown to pick up our rental car.  (Also got on the cheap from Priceline.)  Cable cars, what a great way to start the day!  We zipped across the Bay Bridge thru Oakland and Berkeley and made our way up to the Napa Valley.  We made great time and decided to check out Sonoma, which wasn't officially part of our plans but we'd heard good things about it.  What a sweet little town!  Driving through the outskirts of town, you feel like you're in Mayberry with all the quaint homes and beautiful trees.  We stopped in a little neighborhood market and the people were all so friendly!  They asked us where we were from, chatted with us, and offered suggestions on which wineries to visit. We finished off our quick visit with a spin around the beautiful town park in the center of town surrounded by shops and restaurants.  Very nice!We were just in time to our first winery tour, which we scheduled ahead of time.  You have to schedule ahead of time, even in the off-season and not the most popular wineries!  We were not able to get into Far Niente, one of the ones we most wanted to see.  Oh well, we got to visit two others."But you don't drink wine!"  Yeah, we know.  So what are we doing touring wineries?  Well, we've just heard so much about the wine country and it sounds so fun and pretty!  Plus we do drink wine on occasion, maybe we could try just a little bit?So we get to the first winery tour and guess what it didn't even have a wine tasting!  That was interesting.  It was really more of an Art tour, the DiRosa Preserve (http://www.dirosapreserve.org) was started by an art-loving wine connoisseur who finally gave the whole property over to the city which now runs it as a public museum.  The whole grounds are covered with art galleries and sculpture, with lots of vineyards, but no wine to try!  Strange but true.  It was a nice tour and some interesting art.  We were not exactly thrilled but it was OK.We had a quick lunch in downtown Napa and zipped off for our next winery visit.Dave and I liked our second winery, the Hess Collection, much better. It's nestled in the mountains about 10 minutes outside of Napa. We felt like we'd entered a different state. The greenery was amazing. The winery itself was very upscale. They had an art gallery, too, which was much fancier than the di Rosa and which had much more sophisticated art. The tour itself was led by a woman who spoke a bit like she had done this tour so many times she could say it in her sleep. It was a little impersonal, but still really fun to see the thousands of huge wine barrels where they store the wine and the machines that mix and bottle the wines. The highlight, though, was the wine tasting afterward. Dave and I aren't huge wine enthusiasts, but you can't go to Napa without drinking at least a little wine. We sampled four wines. Dave prefers the fruity wines, but I like my wine dry. The best of all was a dessert wine we tried at the end. It was almost enough to make Dave and I wine connoisseurs! It was really sweet and tasted like honey. We loved it. Go figure that the sweet wine was my favorite. :)The best part of Napa was our resort hotel. We got it cheap on Priceline and it was a beautiful suite with a full kitchen and living room! We made massage appointments thinking it would be nice to pamper ourselves while we were in town. The spa was literally in a cave underneath a winery on the resort grounds. So cool. Really beautiful decor. BUT ... when we got done we found out they cost $120 apiece. Needless to say we should have checked the price ahead of time. I almost dropped dead. The massages were nice, but they definitely weren't that good. That was more than we spent on anything else the entire trip. Ah well. Lesson learned.One last thing we did in Napa that night was to go to a gourmet vegetarian restaurant called Ubuntu. We had heard a lot about it and were really looking forward to it. As it turns out, it's more like a vegetarian tapas bar. You order 4-6 appetizers that come out in separate courses. The dishes were very offbeat and the staff was a bit pretentious. We weren't that impressed. BUT, the highlight was the bean stew. It was the best flavors in a dish I think I've ever had. That almost made up for the rest of the meal.
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