View Full Version : Just flew in from Glasgow and boy are my arms tired.
Well, not just now, but this weekend.
Missy and I went over to London for a few days of sightseeing, the Bengals game, and then a tour of the area in the Highlands where Missy's ancestors are from. This is a trip we've wanted to make for a while and the Bengals conveniently gave us an excuse to do it this year.
It was an amazing trip and we were really blessed to have some great friends from there to show us around and give us a really grand tour. Thanks to them we were able to see probably twice as much as we could have accomplished on our own or even with a booked tour.
Our "must see" plan in London was the Tate Britain Museum, The Tower of London, the Tower Bridge, the Churchill War Rooms, the RAF Museum, and of course the Bengals game. We saw all of that and along the way we saw many of the other the major sights in London.
From London we took a train to Glasgow for a day then from there our friends' car up through the eastern Highlands to a place called Killdrummy Park Castle Hotel (http://www.kpcastlehotel.co.uk/). This is an amazing old mansion turned into a hotel which is convenient to a lot of Scotland's distilleries and castles. From there we visited Leith Hall (www.nts.org.uk/Property/Leith-Hall-Garden-and-Estate) (Missy's ancestral lands), the Glenfiddich distillery, and Dunnottar Castle (www.dunnottarcastle.co.uk). We also made a trip into Edinburgh to see Edinburgh Castle (http://www.edinburghcastle.gov.uk/) before returning to Glasgow for our return trip.
It was an amazing trip but we're still trying to recover from jet lag combined with a nasty cold picked up on the last day. Anyway, if we've been a bit quiet lately it's because preparation, the trip, and recovery have been burning most of our time lately. We need a vacation to recover from our vacation. :)
Sounds like a great trip. :thumbup: :thumbup: Sorry about the Bingles. :shakehead: :saywhat: One. Missed. PAT. One. :irked: :mad:
WickerBill
11-09-16, 03:15 PM
Awesome! Next year for me. I'll be picking at you two for some tips.
chop456
11-09-16, 03:33 PM
Nice! :cheers:
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nissan gtp
11-09-16, 05:14 PM
we really want to go to Scotland
maybe now is a good time. :laugh:
Awesome! Next year for me. I'll be picking at you two for some tips.
Well let's start with the most important stuff. If you don't like anything else on the menu most places have good to amazing Fish and Chips. Pass on the mushy peas or pickled onions unless you're into that sort of thing. Pretty much everyplace we went had Diet Coke available. Usually it was reasonably cold and served in glass bottles which was great. You may have to beg for ice and bribe someone for more than a couple of cubes.
For cab drivers in London and pretty much anywhere in Scotland you may need an interpreter.
Well let's start with the most important stuff. If you don't like anything else on the menu most places have good to amazing Fish and Chips. Pass on the mushy peas or pickled onions unless you're into that sort of thing. Pretty much everyplace we went had Diet Coke available. Usually it was reasonably cold and served in glass bottles which was great. You may have to beg for ice and bribe someone for more than a couple of cubes.
For cab drivers in London and pretty much anywhere in Scotland you may need an interpreter.
On the ice issue...it's rare in Europe. I have no idea how my parental units survive on their trips since the mother unit always requests a glass of ice when we dine out here (and I need to stock up the freezer with ice when they visit). :\ Cuisine in the UK is, well, awful. Haggis anyone? :thumbdown: Fish & chips, bangers & mash, and perhaps a shepherd's pie. :)
No meatloaf?
What's he got to do with the UK?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMR3Hy3yrbw
;)
And, yes, a cold meatloaf sammich with a good mustard == goodness x 11
EDwardo
11-09-16, 09:05 PM
Madame Tussaud's/London Planetarium was on my must see list in London. I also spent some time at Speakers Corner. That was a very interesting experience on July 4, especially when they discovered that I was an American. Not to date my visit, but I had a spirited debate on the Viet Nam War and Muhammed Ali's conscientious objector status. :D
Richard, what did you think of the game experience? I went to London 4 years ago when the Bears played in Wembley against the Buccaneers. I was very impressed with the entire event. There was a fan zone in Traflager Square complete with Tampa's pirate ship. Lots of football related displays. The fans at the game were quite knowledgeable. At least half of the crowd was wearing jerseys or team apparel, not of the Bears or the Bucks but nearly every NFL team. Goo Goo Dolls performed at halftime. Sort of a mini-Super Bowl.
Full English breakfasts rocked. London is an absolutely great city.
No meatloaf?
I had an alleged hamburger that was more like a meatloaf sandwich, does that count?
I had an alleged hamburger that was more like a meatloaf sandwich, does that count?
Did it come with chips or crisps?
I don't know boss, seems like you missed all the high points. It's like you didn't even see the real Scotland.
No Hogwarts tour.
No caber toss.
No Loch Ness Monster search.
Gordon Ramsey didn't cuss you out.
You didn't kill an Englishman with a broadsword, or get addicted to heroin.
And you missed the main tourist attraction in the whole country.
https://s12.postimg.org/bnmu1so3x/article_2666829_1_F12_FC8_A00000578_463_634x381.jp g
Sounds like it was an OK trip, but not a tremendous trip. ;)
Richard, what did you think of the game experience? I went to London 4 years ago when the Bears played in Wembley against the Buccaneers. I was very impressed with the entire event. There was a fan zone in Traflager Square complete with Tampa's pirate ship. Lots of football related displays. The fans at the game were quite knowledgeable. At least half of the crowd was wearing jerseys or team apparel, not of the Bears or the Bucks but nearly every NFL team. Goo Goo Dolls performed at halftime. Sort of a mini-Super Bowl.
Full English breakfasts rocked. London is an absolutely great city.
They had all fan activities leading up to the game in central London and around the stadium. We didn't participate in any of that because of all the other sightseeing that we were doing but I hear that Bengals fans out-drank all the other teams that their pub headquarters had hosted previously. Who Dey!
Game day was very different than a normal NFL game. They had all the activities around the stadium and probably 3/4 of the fans there are wearing gear from teams other than those who are playing. So it's more like an NFL festival than a typical home game with tailgating.
It's odd because the teams playing are supported about equally by the fans so there's cheering on both sides. The strangest thing is that unlike the cacophony of cheers, clapping, and other noise that U.S. fans make to support their defense in critical situations, the UK fans seemed to just boo. I kept looking to try to understand what they were booing at until I figured out that was just their attempt at noise.
They played the Bengal Growl fight song on the video board after scores but I was disappointed that we didn't get a proper Who Dey! chant video for the UK Bengal fans. I don't think they had time since they had their own colour announcers doing video segments during most of the breaks.
No half time concert. Maybe they've dropped those since they've added more games than they had in the past.
I was impressed with the way they handled stadium security. They had a more layered approach starting further out from the venue so there were really no bottlenecks when we came in.
Perhaps the halftime concerts didn't happen because the current talents were working the election? ;) :\ Me thinks they have the security down pat due to the soccer shenanigans and the Olympics. As for the missing Bingles theme song...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upHWtPkuD5s
:)
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