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Western Europe Wiggle
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Western Europe Wiggle

Et 82-dagers eventyr av Glen Les mer
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  • Reisens start
    1. august 2015
  • GlenWestern Europe WiggleReisende

    Prologue - Dubai stop over

    5. august 2015, De forente arabiske emirater ⋅ ☀️ 34 °C

    Many movies and some poor sleep later, I'm in Dubai. It's not yet 7 a.m. local time and the temp outside is 35°C!

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  • GlenWestern Europe WiggleReisende

    London: central landmarks

    6. august 2015, England ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    Met up with Daniel and finally met Anita! Anita showed us around some of the central London landmarks, including what Daniel knew as "the big clock" and "that palace" (not as impressive as I imagined, and a little weird having police with automatic rifles standing around).
    Lots of nice parks around everywhere, every city should have this!
    Went in to Westminster Abbey for free for evensong (pro tip from my experienced co-travelers, it's like we had a secret password while they turned away tourists wanting to get in). Nice service and very beautiful and impressive church. There's a lot of fine detail on many of these buildings that you don't really see in pictures - Parliament building and Big Ben in particular.
    Getting around was an ordeal due to the Tube worker strike, bus back to the hostel was crowded, slow (why have stops every 30 sec?) and just gave up before the end of the line and made us walk. Not feeling a lot of sympathy for the Tube workers now.    Les mer

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    Culture! Richard II

    7. august 2015, England ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Highlight of the day was going to see Richard II performed in Shakespeare's Globe theatre! The theatre was built by Shakespeare's playing company in 1599, burned down in 1613, rebuilt in 1614 and demolished in 1644. Finally the original was faithfully reconstructed and opened in 1997. Thanks for arranging it, Anita!
    Happened across Leadenhall Market, where seemingly all the high powered finance people in business suits come for a beer at noon.
    Also met up with Vel and wandered around a bit. Landmarks everywhere! Millennium Bridge, St Paul's Cathedral, Tower Bridge (no pic). Tate Modern was too modern for me - I find it difficult to appreciate monochrome paintings.    Les mer

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    Diane & Luke's Wedding

    8. august 2015, England ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    Had a lovely day attending and celebrating Diane and Luke's wedding. The ceremony was at a cute little chapel and the reception was at Luke's family farm house.
    Bonus: got to glimpse Reading and ride through it in a black cab, and catch up a little with Daphne (my piano teacher for over ten years, who made it over from NZ)Les mer

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  • GlenWestern Europe WiggleReisende

    London - Tower of London

    9. august 2015, England ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Went in to the Tower -- more like castle -- of London (pro tip: don't leave your student ID card behind in the hostel >.<).
    I particularly liked the Line of Kings and armor displayed in the White Tower. Besides being interesting to see the changing styles of armour, it's astounding to be that this has been a tourist attraction for hundreds of years. Note the king's armour that was possibly compensating for something...
    Also got to see the crown jewels (pretty! so much wealth! no photography), torture tools, and a restored/recreated king's living quarters.
    Once again, traditional guards + modern guns = creepy    Les mer

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    London - evening

    9. august 2015, England ⋅ 🌙 21 °C

    After the Tower, wandered around a bit and got up close to St Paul's cathedral (so big! see me in that photo?). Then went to see Leicester square, Downing st (can't actually get on the street due to giant fence and police with automatic guns), Trafalgar square, and the parliament buildings / Big Ben in the evening. More pretty sights!Les mer

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  • GlenWestern Europe WiggleReisende

    London - Saatchi gallery

    10. august 2015, England ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    Daniel took us to this super-modern art gallery (ie. recent work from current artists). Very cool! Much more interesting (to me) than the older "modern"-period art in the Tate.
    Particularly interesting: giant pool of oil in the basement (pic 1), room of wooden ants (2), tree silhouettes (3,4), tower of rodents (5), room of blue plastic bags (6).Les mer

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    London - bye Daniel & Anita :(

    10. august 2015, England ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    Farewell to Daniel and Anita, off back to Leeuwarden today. It was great touring London with you this past week!
    Also randomly took the bus past my hostel up to Edmonton! Just like the Canadian version except small, less pretty, and more run down. Oh well. Checking Wikipedia, Edmonton, Alberta WAS actually named after this area!
    Also found a jerk centre, hehehe I'm so mature.    Les mer

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    London - science museum

    11. august 2015, England ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    I like science museums, so decided to go here before my side trip to Edinburgh. As science museums go, it was more historical than usual (I liked the San Francisco Exploratorium and Sydney Powerhouse more) but still lots of interesting stuff. Particularly the reconstructed mechanical computers by Charles Babbage, very cool! There was even a section on math including topology (photo for Tuan :P).Les mer

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  • GlenWestern Europe WiggleReisende

    London - transit thoughts

    11. august 2015, England ⋅ 🌧 17 °C

    Having made my way around London on public transit for a week, here is a long rant about it. No details of my activities so skip if you're interested in that.

    Tube/train is loud, usually hot, and often crowded, but gets lots of people around very quickly. Extremely functional (by which I mean they ignored most non-functional niceties). Well-priced IMO.

    Buses are hot, often crowded, and slow. Often it seems like I could get out and walk about the same speed. This is partially because bus lanes are a joke and buses stop every few hundred metres. I've also noticed a distinctly different demographic (poorer) on buses compared to tube. They are cheap to go long distances (exactly what they are bad at) and not cost-effective for short distances (what they are ok at) due to the flat fare.

    Oyster cards work very well, and the automatic daily/weekly/etc capping works exactly how it should. Get on that, Auckland! Despite a lot of advertising to the contrary, contactless payment cards (paywave, paypass) don't seem to work well - Daniel and I each tried two and only one of Daniel's worked... sometimes.

    Walking is great in places (parks abound in the major tourist areas) but for the most part the city isn't super pedestrian-friendly. Controlled street crossing signs take a long time and often cross halfway at a time - particularly silly when there are hundreds of tourists waiting to cross the road near a landmark while the lights let a slow trickle of cars through instead. Some really nice areas exist where they've closed roads (take a hint).

    Overall, it feels like London is clinging to cars when it has a demonstrably better system for getting people around. Tax them away!
    Ok, rant over, back to your regular updates of whatever I happen to be doing.    Les mer

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  • GlenWestern Europe WiggleReisende

    London - Stansted airport

    12. august 2015, England ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    Wow. This airport sucks. I arrived about 1h45m before my domestic flight (just after 7 am, probably not peak time). Massive queues to check in, and even bigger queues to go through security (pic 1). Might have something to do with the 5 pound express lane through security...
    Ended up getting through security 5 mins before my gate was due to close and ran there, only to find they hadn't started boarding yet. There was still a decent queue 20 mins later, after the signs said the gate had closed (pic 2).
    Finally boarded about the time the plane was due to leave (currently 15 mins after departure and we are just pushing away from the terminal).    Les mer

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  • GlenWestern Europe WiggleReisende

    Edinburgh - exploring

    12. august 2015, Skottland ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    Arrived in Edinburgh and found my hostel (pic 1), wandered around, up and down the Golden Mile (super packed with Fringe festival stuff), checked out Scottish parliament (very interesting building, pic 2), and climbed the hill to Arthur's Seat (amazing views, pic 3, even a little sunshine!).

    Dinner was traditional haggis, neeps (mashed turnips - why don't we do this at home?), and tatties (mashed potato) from The Last Drop (the best haggis in town according to the internet, pic 4). As a first time haggis experience, it was good! The best I could think of to describe it is the consistency of mashed potato with couscous mixed in, and the flavour of Bisto gravy / BBQ steak and onions.

    Finished the day with some free stand up comedy shows and street music (part of Fringe, pic 6). All up a great first day!

    There's a lot of bustle and activity (likely due to Fringe) but Edinburgh already feels like a more relaxed place than London. My hostel is also much closer this time. Lots of beautiful old buildings.    Les mer

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  • GlenWestern Europe WiggleReisende

    Edinburgh - castle

    13. august 2015, Skottland ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    Made my way up through the crowds of Fringe to Edinburgh castle (somewhat marred by the huge bleachers erected in front for people to watch the Military Tattoo in the evenings, pic 1). I took a nice photo sphere of the upper/inner buildings (probably won't display right, pic 2).
    History: this was where the most important people stayed, including where Mary, Queen of Scots gave birth to James VI (of Scotland) who was also James I (of England and Ireland), uniting rule of the 3 countries for the first time. Mary became queen at 6 days old and was forced to abdicate to her son when he was 13 months old - they certainly lived in "interesting times".
    These buildings also hold the Scottish crown jewels (no longer in use) which have their own long history of conflict (pic 3 of metal version, no pics allowed of the real thing). Not as extravagant as the English crown jewels.
    A very elaborately decorated room (pic 4) was restored to how it was decorated when king James VI/I returned to visit Scotland for the first time since becoming king of England (14 years prior, it seems like the Scots were a little sour about this).
    There was also a military prison (pic 5) and plenty of cannons with great views over the city (pic 6).
    The oldest building still standing was a small stone chapel from the 1100s.
    Tons of history here, and very worthwhile. I didn't get an audio tour but I felt there was enough to read and there was a free introductory walking tour that explained the main points of interest.    Les mer

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  • GlenWestern Europe WiggleReisende

    Edinburgh - ghost/Potter tour

    13. august 2015, Skottland ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    Went on the famous City of the Dead tour - only slightly spooky but very informative and entertaining - definitely recommend! No pics from the tour because it was usually very dark and camera flashes were blinding.

    Afterwards, the guide was kind enough to take a few interested people to see some stuff that JK Rowling used for ideas for Harry Potter. The medical school (former mental asylum) on which Hogwarts is based, grave stones/markers where names were used: McGonagall (a bad poet), Moody (from Moodie), Tom Riddle (from Thomas Riddell, btw Riddell means naturally gifted, so Marvolo Riddle likely means marvelously naturally gifted), James Potter (if you read across the line).
    Sadly a bunch of other grave stones had to be removed since Harry Potter because people were taking bits as souvenirs and destroying them.    Les mer

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    Blair Atholl - Robertson clan museum

    14. august 2015, Skottland ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    Took a 3 hour bus ride to visit the home of Clan Donnachaidh (in Gaelic, children of Duncan - this was from before families kept a fixed last name, instead called by "[name], son of X, grandson of Y", Robertson is the main last name now). It was a tiny one-room museum with a connected little shop selling kitschy little clan-related souvenirs, but still lots of interesting stuff seeing as it's directly related to my ancestry. There's even a DNA mapping project.
    This trip also gave me a nice chance to see some Scottish countryside. Could almost be NZ, besides the occasional Victorian-style house (pic 6) and the towns (many old buildings that look very similar to those in Edinburgh, Victorian style all made of the sand grey stone).    Les mer

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  • GlenWestern Europe WiggleReisende
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    Edinburgh - food

    14. august 2015, Skottland ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    Continuing with my food-sampling (I'm thinking this will become a regular topic) I tried more Scottish fare: scotch pie (similar to a NZ meat pie except with thin hard pastry instead of soft flaky pastry, and the filing was less rich and "meaty", maybe because it's lamb/mutton instead of beef mince). Decent, but mostly just made me miss mince pies.

    Next up, macaroni and cheese pie! (pic) Same crust as scotch pie minus the top. I wouldn't expect it to work (double carbs) but it's actually very good! Also cheap (for UK) - only 1 pound.

    Oh yeah, food is pretty expensive here - some seems to scale so it's roughly the same price as NZ converted into pounds, others seem to just replace the dollar sign with the pound sign and be done. Worst conversion I've had is a 70p McDonald's ice cream (roughly 3x the price). And it was smaller too!

    Finally, had a Cornish pasty. Basically take all the ingredients of a roast and put them in a semi-circular pie of flaky pastry. Also pretty ok and perhaps a bit healthier (less unhealthy?) than a purely meat pie.

    Oh yes, I also had Yorkshire pudding a while ago. It is not pudding (I was kinda expecting that). It was also pretty basic (just empty puffed pastry with gravy on top). Maybe that's unusual?    Les mer

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  • GlenWestern Europe WiggleReisende

    Edinburgh - tours

    15. august 2015, Skottland ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    Went on a walking tour (so much history!). Got the impression that Edinburgh was pretty self impressed with "the Athens of the north" motto and attempting (failing) to build a replica Parthenon.

    Next, a whiskey tour! It was part museumy - going through the whiskey making process, main regions, and how things affect the flavour - and part whiskey tasting, where you could compare single malt whiskies from different regions and a blended whiskey. Interesting and enjoyable, although pretty pricey even given the whiskey sampling. I think I liked the blended whiskey best (cheap tastes, woo!). They had a huge collection (world's largest?) of whiskies, especially in rare bottles.

    Bonus: balloon octopus! 🐙    Les mer

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