Tourist Sites

• Edinburgh Castle - beautiful castle overlooking the city of Edinburgh. The crown jewels are housed here, like they've been over the past few hundred years or so since they were re-discovered in an old chest. The history is actually quite fascinating with Mary, Queen of Scots, William Wallace and all but I'll leave that up to you to research. We saw the crown jewels after spending 20 minutes or so in a queue and they are well...royal. It was also cool to see the old prisons for POWs and for soldiers behaving badly.

• Ghost Tour - We went on a ghost tour of Scotland on Saturday night (apparently they are very popular here) and it was ok. The guide was a nutter and I had to go pee the whole time, but held it for close to 2 hrs..

• Mary King's Close - Sunday we spent in the underground of Scotland checking out the historic Mary King's Close. A close is basically a very narrow street with tiny rooms on both sides that were pretty much dwellings. While we went underground, we actually say the real Mary King's Close which is now housed underground, imagine a thin narrow street with a strong incline, cobblestone pathways, pretty cool stuff.

• We also saw the most haunted place in Scotland (also in Mary King's close) and was also featured on the TV show 'Most Haunted' (sorry no pics allowed!!)

• The most famous ghost here was that of 10-year old Annie, who died of the plague back in the day but visitors still report feeling a tug when they are in her bedroom, where her parents left her to die.

• Talisker Whisky - one of Scotland's famous 6 whiskies and I won this drink against Richard when we bet on the men's rowing 8's Olympic final (Canada vs Great Britain) Goooooooooooold!! Oh, and im bringing back a bottle of this stuff when I come back to Canada..heheh get ready boys..
  

Off to Zurich, Switzerland we went for a weekend trip to visit Eckhard, Michelle's Director from work who is in the middle of a 6-month sabbatical (seriously, i need one too.)

• Stayed at the Continental Hotel about 2 blocks away from one of the main shopping areas, Bahnhofstrasse. I'd give the hotel 3.5-4 stars for being in a good location and having an alpine-lodge type feel. Free fresh-pressed apple juice in the lobby too!

• We arrived in the evening and were met by Eckhard, Michelle's co-worker who is on a 6-month sabbatical and lives in Zurich. Took us through a cool, area with small sidestreets, cobblestone walkways and filled with restaurants, bars, and one-off shops. Had dinner and drinks at a separate lounge/bar and actually ended up the lounge/bar the night after. It was also a national holiday in Zurich so there were fireworks going off around the river/lake.

• Next day went shopping in and around Bahnhofstrasse which is a high-end shopping area, like Rodeo Drive, but with tons of watch shops...next time i will get a Swiss watch (just have to bring along my 4000 CHF (1 CHF = 1 CDN)).

• Zurich is EXPENSIVE! I thought London was expensive but Zurich is now top of my list of most expensive place i've been to live-wise. Put it this way, it may have been partly b/c we were at the airport but, a Whopper combo + single burger cost me 20.40 CHF !!! A Swiss t-shirt (all red with a white cross) was 39 CHF !! wtf?! I'm just going to assume that salaries are higher there and/or income tax is lower...

• Zurich is CLEAN and MODERN - love it! Could definitely live here assuming i was making a relatively good salary..

• Met again with Eckhard and his girlfriend Laura, who graciously took us around Zurich and showed us places like Dolder Hotel (most expensive hotel in Zurich located atop a hill overlooking the city and Lake Zurich), FIFA headquarters (where Zinedine Zidane had to report to after headbutting that dude in the last World Cup..)..very cool.

Spent this past Saturday in Brighton, which is about 1.5 hours South-East of us and by the coast.

• Brighton Pier - this is probably the most famous landmark in Brighton and is a long long pier with a carnival at the end of it and hundreds, well probably thousand of tourists just wandering in and around it. We actually didn't go on the pier but instead sat on the beach.

• The beach itself was odd in that it was completely small rocks. No sand whatsoever. So when i stepped into the cold water and got up to my knees wet, the walk back uphill to my sandals was painful on the feet lol.

• Norbert brought along his kite which he flys in a sport called 'kiting'. Basically its hard-core kite-flying and pretty cool. Though when I tried, i didn't quite get the feel for it and i had to luckily struggle and crash land it between sunbathers! whoops! We will definitely try it again, but at an open park!

• Brighton has also a large gay community and that's cool and all of course. The funny thing I noticed was that on the radio, there was a local radio station called 'Gaydar Radio' which played mostly electronic music...lol love it!

• There was also an Indian-Chinese pavillion called the Royal Pavillion which Michelle and Cigdem toured through but Norbert and I skipped it and just headed to the beach.

• Great shopping in and around he city of Brighton, with lots of little independant stores that outnumber and type of chain-type stores. We will definitely go back to do more shopping for unique stuff. Also bought my new Prada sunglasses there lol. Who would've thought eh?

So on a whim, Michelle and I decided to go to Barcelona for my birthday, a Fri-Sun trip to the coast of Spain...and all i can say is WOW. Initially at first I wasn't too impressed with the city since we only did go down the main shopping street and didn't have very good tapas. But, from Friday night and through Saturday everything changed and my eyes were opened..

• Stayed at the Barcelona Center Hotel, a 4-star property that was 2 streets away from Placia de Gracia but at the top end. Not near the water but right beside the BEST tapas restaurant ..the BEST - called Cerveseria Catalunya. The BEST tapas and amazing friendly service..from mostly Filipino waiters!

• Placia de Gracia - main shopping street with high-end fashion. Of course we didn't shop there but the day we planned to (Sunday), all shops were closed! Good thing? possibly..

• Gaudi - a 19th century Surrealist artist who is intertwined with Barcelona's landscape and architectural beauty. Seriously, this guys work is all over Barcelona and the detail and fantasy-like almost candy-like nature of his work is a huge attraction in BCN. From the famous cathedral Sagrada Familia (scheduled to be completed in 2030) to the Parc Guell - two places we visited, it was almost like entering another world and you either absolutely loved it or thought it was one of the ugliest designs...we loved it.

• Took a tour bus all around Barcelona and stopped at the Olympic Park, site of the 1992 Summer Olympics. It's unreal how all the buildings and the site seem so 'abandoned' and 'unused' after seeing the millions of people mulling around during those 2-3 weeks. Also drove through various neighbourhoods and along the coast..very cool.

• At night, we headed down to the beach area and for a couple nights, listened to good house at a couple beachfront lounges, Shoko, Opium. Miguel Migs was also at a club while we were there and we only realized it as we were catching a cab back to the hotel..argh!!

• Ate so much cured ham (Prosicutto), tapas, beer (San Miguel and Estrella!)..we will definitely come back and next time visit the beach!!

We went to the Cotswold today, a range of hills in west-central England, with towns with weird names such as Bourne-on-the-Water and Stow-on-the-Wold (which we both visited). We met up with Richard, another one of Michelle's co-workers who lived near the area and showed us around and took us for 'clotted cream' (see below).

• Bourne-on-the-Water - first place we went to, and probably the most popular, tourist-attraction one. It was characterized with several small footbridges crossing a little River Windrush that winded through the city center. The weather was unpredictable (again) with rain, sun, rain, sun..all day long.

• Visited the Miniature Village which had a complete 1/9th replica of the town and within that replica, had another mini-replica..lol.

• Had afternoon tea with cream tea. Cream tea is basically regular tea but served with scones and a butter called 'clotted cream'. Cream that was as thick as butter - minimum fat content of 55%!!!!. It was sooooooo good but i believe that if you had this every day or every other day, your arteries would get clogged up mighty fast.

• Stow-on-the-Wold - took a short drive out to this next small town but it wasn't as picturesque as the last one. A bit more mainstream and busy with local traffic. If this were Markham, this would be Markham Main Street and Bourne-on-the-Water would be Unionville Main Street.

• Tried hand-pulled real english ale, Arknell's, for the first time at a pub here. Very flat and served at room temperature. "Real ale is the name coined by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) in 1973 for a type of beer defined as 'beer brewed from traditional ingredients, matured by secondary fermentation in the container from which it is dispensed, and served without the use of extraneous carbon dioxide'" - Wikipedia. Basically you can tell real ale from lager in that it doesn't go down with that carbon dioxide fizziness in your throat..less carbonated.