Today’s Food Report

Ibn Bru: Scotland’s primary soft drink. An orange soda (in both regular and diet) that tastes like a cross between Fanta and Thomas Kemper. Neither version contains high fructose corn syrup.

Fisherman’s pie: salmon in some kind of cream sauce with a pile of potatoes in the middle. Excellent.

Smoked mackerel and trout salad with horseradish mayonnaise. I can’t even tell you how good this was.

Pork medallions (unfortunately overcooked) with perfect roasted potatoes, vegetables, and a mustard sauce that more than made up. I guess Scotland hasn’t heard pork can be rare. Ah well.

So much good Scotch we couldn’t have cared less whether the pork was overcooked at all.

Some recommendations, albeit based on a one-time brief visit, about Edinburgh

Glasgow seems to be a more modern city than Edinburgh, though admittedly we've only seen small portions of each city. But with the royal seat having been in Edinburgh, it doesn't surprise me that more medieval/ancient buildings are there than in Glasgow. It truly is beautiful.

Do not go during the Fringe Festival unless you are actually going there for the Fringe Festival. Too crowded.

If you’re going to go to the Edinburgh Castle, see the recommendation above, then follow this advice:

• Be prepared for the School Field Trip Academy of Museum Curation style of exhibit.
• If the above tip doesn’t stop you, be sure to go to the Scotch Whiskey Experience before going to the Castle. You’ll be good and knackered and it will be funny.
• The Scotch Whiskey Experience is very worth it. The videos and barrel ride are cheesy as hell, but actually informative if you’re interested in Scotch at all.

Regarding Scotch, the man knew most of what we saw, but we both learned a few things:

• Blended Scotch is not a blend of different scotch whiskies. It’s a blend of Single Malt and grain whiskey, which mixes wheat and barley and is much sweeter. Explains why I never liked blends. I'm not much of a sweet fan.
  
• “Blends” of single malts are called Vatted Scotch Whiskey.
• If the Republicans want to keep their good scotch, they’d better start advocating for clean water. Clean Scottish water is vital to their old boys’ drink.

Today's high point, scotch!

Seen/Heard, Edinburgh, Scotland, Thursday, August 14, 2008

In the Edinburgh Castle Royal Scots Dragoon Guards Regimental Museum:

• Beleaguered Nanny: Do you know why we come here to see this? (implying it’s to see his heritage)
• Child-who-should-be-slapped: Because you’re ANNOYING?!?
• Man, myself, and two old ladies: Hysterical laughter. Old ladies had to leave the room.
  

At a Scottish bistro:

• American customer: I’ll have a Coke and fries.
• Man and I (under our breaths): There’s a Burger King back near the train station.

At that same bistro, after the man and I expressed a liking for Ibn Bru, the server solemnly nods and declares we may stay in Scotland, but only if we also like Haggis.

In the Prisons of War exhibit at the Edinburgh Castle, the solitary confinement cells:

• Interactive exhibits of the cells that you could go into (they still smell like open pit toilets).
• Cheesy dioramas/re-creations of punished soldiers including bad mannequins to represent the soldiers blurbs about their offenses.
• One closed/locked cell door, with the only view through the peephole, into the modern supply closet. The most interesting/amusing part of the whole exhibit.

More on the Edinburgh Castle in a later post.

Harry Benson

I'm not even qualified to comment on the amazing work of Harry Benson, who we were fortunate enough to encounter in an exhibit at the Kelvingrove Art Museum & Gallery in Glasgow. I've been familiar with his work thanks to Vanity Fair, but his entire body of work represented in the exhibit is positively amazing. I also did not know until today that he is a Glasgow native. In addition to his amazing international entertainment and political work, his local Glasgow work was so indicative of this pretty city. Unfortunately, the catalog was sold out so we have only our memories, what we find on the Web, etc. to remember it by.

I think the SIS and BIS would never have forgiven us had we been in Glasgow and not partaken of this exhibit. And they would have been correct. We were lucky enough to stumble across it and are now actively pursuing procuring a print. The Dolly Parton if we can get it. Don't scoff until you see it. Positively beautiful.

Ad hoc travel

Youth do it and think nothing of it. So the man and I decided to do the grand tour. Fly in and out of London, with no set itinerary in between. Couple of issues right off the bat to deal with:

• You can only buy BritRail passes when you are outside of the country. We didn’t do so, so no passes. Only point-to-point sales. While annoying, probably better in the long run since we don’t know where we’re going on any given day, how many days we might be traveling, and when we want to go first class vs. standard depending on the length of the train ride.
• Jet lag: I’m right now up at 4 AM. Really awake. 3 hours before anything is open for eating. And I’m hungry.
• Itteh bitteh, even for kitteh, hotel room: No bathtub, no suite. No way to get away from sleeping man who isn’t awake and who shouldn’t be so no reason to wake him. So little room that I already have furniture bruises just from moving from room to bathroom. Thankfully the hotel has a lounge with wireless. That’s definitely a step up from the last time we stayed in the Paddington area. But still will have to stick my leg in the sink from the shower to shave.
  

But good stuff so far:

• Pubs! Pubs are always good.
• Business class makes the transition so much easier! As does wireless once you arrive.
• New Mudd boots are working out wonderfully! Sorry, can’t find a pic, but found them at DSW.
• Sister and Brother-in-Sin using the house for vacation, thereby making us worry-free on the house/cat front.
• Olympics coverage outside of the US means we actually see what other countries are doing.
• Did I mention pubs?

When you fly business, you don’t need Xanax

Flying is an increasingly annoying, often painful, experience. We do it out of necessity, to get to our destination, without any pleasure whatsoever. The man and I have even extracted, not even ethically, a prescription for Xanax to facilitate the process (give us the prescription or we’ll order it illegally over the internet). Flying across the US is not so egregious, five hours or so, with half a dose and a nicotine patch, but across the pond is something else. Eleven hours is intense for even the best of flyers. Enter the beg for upgrades.

Not cheap, to be sure, but oh so worth it if you get it. The seats fully recline, and on this particular flight (Northwest direct from Seattle to London), you get lumbar massage, foot rest, full recline, etc. The man and I forewent the Xanax in lieu of comfort, champagne, and real plane rest. So started the trip to the UK. Not complaining! This is seriously the way to fly, and airlines should stop with this stupid veal-like coach experience. Coach is positively torture!

This trip is going to be interesting. Only solid itinerary points are the arrival and departure points to and from London, the arrival/departure dates to and from Bristol (to see Janna and Jules) and everything ad hoc in between. We already encountered our first obstacle and need for adaptation when we discovered we couldn’t buy a BritRail pass once we were in the country, nowhere was this noted on the Web site. Ah well. Point to point will probably be better in the long run, or so I'm telling myself.

So far nothing earth shattering. Arrived in London Saturday, checked into Paddington hotel (not bad, especially compared to last time in Paddington), ate/drank in neighborhood pubs, and booked train travel to Glasgow for tomorrow.