We headed to the airport this morning to fly (on Southwest Airlines) to Midway Airport. The flight was slightly delayed, but was very quick. In fact, because of some kind of traffic tie-up it took almost as long in the limo (actually a Ford SUV) as the plane. The driver finally gave up on the freeway and drove over to Lakeshore.
Dani spent the afternoon studying chemistry for her summer intensive that starts tomorrow, and I spent it setting up her iMac to be just like mine at home and work. Thank goodness for Dropbox and Mobile Me.
Lunch was sourdough bread and epoisses from Whole Foods, and dinner was Falafel at Pomegranate.
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The Wizarding World of Harry Potter opened today at Universal Studios (although the ever-reliable CBS News reported it was Disney World). It uses our HD uncompressed video players for Forbidden Journey, what is now the world’s best theme park ride (besting former title-holder Spiderman, at the same park). There were massive crowds, but the opening was a success, which is great news for Universal, which has had a history of rocky openings.
Completing our busy week of wining and dining, we had a California wine experience dinner at Emeril’s Tchoup Chop tonight. I don’t know if it was Harry Potter that scared them away, but only ten of twenty people showed up, so there was plenty of wine. The most inspired match was a 1995 Littorai Mays Canyon Chardonnay with pineapple upside down cake.
I spent eight and a half hours eating and drinking with Ron and Bev today! I really don’t know how they do it. The occasion was a visit by Allan from Hart Davis Hart, a wine auction house in Chicago. We began with lunch at Capital Grille, and then went to The Bull and Bear at The Waldorf Astoria for dinner with Linda and Dani. There were some excellent wines, but the stunner was my 1934 Clos du Roi, one of those magical old Burgundies that only seem to come along once very few hundred bottles. The wines:
Capital Grille
Ron, Bev, Bruce, Allan from HDH, Andres Montoya from Wine Barn
98 Laville Haut Brion
Tight chalky stone wax toasty citrus flowers melon vanilla candy
96
2006 Aubert Ritchie Chardonnay
Butter citrus acidic
Not as good as the last bottle I had
92
1969 Nuits St Georges Bouchard Pere & Fils
Cherry dried flowers, fading, didn’t stand up well against all the young wines
89
2006 Ramey Ritchie Vineyard Chardonnay
Butter, oak
95
1934 Clos du Roi Chanson Pere & Fils
Great color, Mineral spirits, bacon, cherries, earth
It’s been a while since I’ve had one of these magic bottles. This is why we have cellars.
98
1934 Corton Maison M Doudet-Naudin
Vanilla, sawdust, acidic
90
We drove to Tampa for dinner with Ryan and his family, who are visiting from the UK. Ryan will be here for two weeks of training, but I’ll be in Chicago then, so I wanted to meet him before I leave. He and his family seem very nice, and were suitably wowed by Bern’s Steakhouse.
It was quite frustrating today trying to upgrade to the iPhone 4 because, due to an error in the ATT servers, it was pretty much impossible to order, until all the launch day units were sold out. I will be so glad when Apple’s exclusive deal with ATT is over.
Update: It turned out the orders did go through. Days later I got confirmations that the ATT orders I placed would ship for launch day, and that one of two units I tried to order through Apple would be at the store in Skokie.
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Almost everyone was back in the office today. Linda is getting a cold, so I fixed dinner, including experimental potatoes au gratin, with the additions of cheese, bacon, onion, and smokey chili flakes. Not bad.
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Linda booked our transatlantic cruise on the Crown Princess, which completes arrangements for out September trip to London and back. Cabins B723 and D211.
Tonight we try out the new Victoria Room at Victoria and Albert’s, which serves the Chef’s table menu in our favorite room.
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For lunch, Audrey and I went to a new Lebanese place called Habibi, in the Publix shopping center across from the office. The vegetarian platter was excellent.
This food picture was edited with Color Splash, which let me convert the tray to black and white, to make the food stand out.
I packed up some things to ship to Evanston for the summer, including a couple of bottles of wine for Dani to save for her 21st birthday: a 1991 Echezeaux and a 1991 Dominus.
Update: I ended up packing these in the luggage, because of the heat, but shipping other stuff.
Linda had to work tonight, so I went up to Aji Sushi in the Winter Garden Mall and sat at the sushi bar. It was busy for a Monday night. I’ve always gone at lunch on the weekend, and never sit at the sushi bar.
A quiet day at home after our big night out. I helped Dani with her film project by recording some snippets of novels for her soundtrack. The one she used was from Michael Connelly’s The Last Coyote.
Tonight is our Wine Syndicate group’s get together. This is the first time the group has met at Ocean Prime, and we have a private room booked. We’re having trouble scheduling times that don’t conflict with everyone’s (especially my) travel schedules. So tonight is the last meeting until September. This is an unofficial event, so there are guests coming, and rather than drawing wines from the group cellar, we’re each bringing our own flight. I’m taking three 1982s, one from France, one from Italy, and one from California. They’ll be served blind, so we’ll see how people do with their guesses!
Followup: best wine was Ron’s 1982 Grange, 99 points.
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Had a very interesting telephone conference today. We discussed the specs for a new HD reproducer card that would meet their requirements for a high def Binloop that could output 4:2:2. We have a potential IP core, but they’re asking for an order for 1000 at $1400 each to turnkey it for us. A big commitment, but we could resell it for $3500.
Also exciting was that it seems they will relent and let the parks replace their video servers with standard def Binloops that can only output 4:2:0. If we can help them convert their video, and support the protocol, that could be a lot of units.
Ryan Davies, my 17 year old programmer helper from England, finished the changes on my LightingPad app for the iPad, just in time for it to go with Jeremy to InfoComm in Las Vegas. It looks cool!
Today Loren arranged a fondue lunch in honor of Crystal’s upcoming wedding. There were cheese and chocolate fondues and lots of things to dip. They also gave Crystal a fondue pot of her own, and a cookie sheet — a somewhat self-serving gift, because Crystal brings the cookies she makes in to work.
A busy day back at work after the long weekend. Last month was the first time we broke $800K in a month. This month looks good, too, with a proposal out for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame that specifies $220K of our gear.
It’s Memorial Day, a day when we honor those who’ve given their lives for this country, and Chinese people who manufacture rolling chairs. After lunch at Uno, I took Linda to Staples where she picked up a new chair for her desk in the kitchen. You wouldn’t think a chair would come in this many parts, but she got it together.
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These are some more shots taken around the house using the TX7’s HDR mode.
Last night I was awakened to a scrabbling sound, and woke up to find something on my pillow. I leapt out of bed and turned the light on. Sitting in the middle of the pillow, nibbling on it unconcernedly, was a mouse. He seemed completely unperturbed by my movements and the light. He calmly continued nibbling as I opened the door and gave him a pillow ride outside. I finally had to push him off the pillow to get him to say goodbye. I’ve had pets that weren’t as tame as that mouse!
I thought it would be fun to keep a journal this summer, since I’m planning to travel this summer, and to spend much of it with Dani, in Evanston, Illinois. So I downloaded a journal writing application to see whether or not I can use it, combined with Dragon Dictation in order to make it easy to create a journal and include pictures of what I do everyday. I’ll be using the iPad, which has proven far more useful than I expected, and also a new Sony DSC-TX7 camera.
So this is my trial run, to see if these tools work together.
Last weekend a thunderstorm snapped off some of the dead trees in front of our house. Defying Murphy’s law, they landed neatly by the side of the driveway, ready to be picked up.
The Sony DSC-TX7 is a lot like my previous TX1, but has an HDR mode that produces great color depth and contrast range by shooting two exposures. These are some shots I took around the house.
We scheduled this extended trip to the UK to coincide with Dani and her friends from Trinity Prep performing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Dani departed ahead of us, on Tuesday, July 29th, with her school group. They spent a couple of days in London and then took the train to Edinburgh to prepare for their run in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. It’s one of over 2000(!) shows running in this year’s Fringe Festival. Here’s what they did before Linda and I left Orlando:
Wednesday, July 30th Arrival, Half day panoramic tour of London, Check in
Thursday, July 31st Workshop at Shakespeare’s Globe and attend “Billy Elliot”
Friday, August 1st Early train to Edinburgh, sightseeing
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Orlando to London
Linda and I departed on Delta through Atlanta. Dani was already in Edinburgh with the 30+ person group from Trinity Prep, getting ready to perform A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. We’ll join them in Edinburgh in a few days, although we’re doing our own thing.
Meanwhile, in Edinburgh, Dani and her troup had a Technical Rehearsal.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
London
Upon arrival we took the Gattwick Express Victoria Station, and walked about four blocks to the Goring Hotel. It’s a very nice hotel located very conveniently to Buckingham Palace, The victoria Place Theatre and Victoria Station. I wasn’t feeling well, so we took it easy the rest of the day, and had a late night dinner in the basement bar: roast beef and horseradish sandwiches, and smoked salmon, both delicious.
From Janine Papin, Director of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum:
A wonderful day. Our group was one of two that got to ride on the top of the open bus and sing as the Cavalcade paraded down the main streets of Edinburgh. They had a great sound system on the bus plus microphones and we had a few tracks that Peter (our sound guy) had recorded after the last rehearsal at Trinity. The crowd clapped along while they sang Comedy Tonight while some of our ensemble gave out post cards advertising our show.
It was a HUGE parade and the streets of Edinburgh were packed! After that we performed on the the Royal Mile, our group sang a few songs and successfully attracted a nice crowd to perform to.
Last night was a big dance (pronounced Kaley, even though it is not at all spelled like that). The kids were taught traditional Scottish dances and had a blast! Our kids were among the last to leave and overall participated more than the other kids in the other schools. I am so proud of all my boys that wanted to learn and were such enthusiastic participants! The kids are excited and nervous but I am sure that it will be wonderful.
Monday, August 4, 2008
London
We met Henry at Le Gavroche for lunch. It was totally forgettable, like a different restaurant from our last two visits, hardly what you’d expect of a Michelin two star. Because of the week dollar, everything in London is very expensive — about double the US price. So it was kind of Henry to pick up the cost of this meal, and we’ll treat him to the show and dinner.
In the evening we walked the two blocks from our hotel to the Victoria Palace Theatre to meet Henry and saw Billy Elliot. We had the front row of the dress circle, which is the first balcony, and it was really neat to be able to see the stage. At previous shows we’d had close seats in the orchestra, but the stage floor was above eye level, which is weird for a dancing show. This Billy was older and slightly darker than the others we’ve seen. His voice wasn’t as high or good, but his dancing was better.
Afterwards we had a delicious pizza at Bella, a tourist restaurant next to the theatre. It was better than lunch!
In Edinburgh, Forum opened and the cast attended another show, too.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Edinburgh
We took a cab to Train Station, our first good experience with a London cab driver. The train ride to Edinburgh is 4-1/2 hours, with just a few stops. The track is smooth, the seats spacious, and you have a table to work on, free wireless internet and even electrical outlets. If only air travel were like this!
The scenery was lovely: rolling pastures, farmhouses, cattle, and for a while we skirted the coast. In Edinburgh the Balmoral is adjacent to Edinburgh Station, but if you have suitcases you have to go out and around, up a really steep hill to get to the front door. There were people everywhere, here for the Fringe Festival.
The Balmoral is an exceptional hotel. The staff are extraordinarily helpful, and our room is spacious, and has a great view of Edinburgh castle. It’s really expensive, thought, so after four days we’ll move to The Knight Residence, where we can also do the laundry for the second half of the trip.
In the evening we had dinner at the Balmoral’s Michelin one star, restaurant Number One. It was the equal of any dinner we’ve had. The Chef’s seven course tasting menu was creative and superb, light enough not to be overwhelming, and at fifty pounds it was a bargain. The wines with each course were the most perfect food pairings we’ve ever experienced.
From Janine Papin:
The days are so busy and wonderful! We opened Forum successfully and the the kids did beautifully! We climbed Arthur’s seat (a inactive volcano) and saw the Military Tattoo at Edinburgh Castle. We have seen more shows, shopped, had afternoon tea, and have spent time laughing and talking.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Edinburgh
Dani called this morning (well, she woke us up at about 11:30!) and we got caught up. It sounds like they’re having a great time.
The day was drizzly. We walked a few block to a restaurant out concierge recommended called The Dome. It’s actually a converted home, if you classify the Parthenon as a home. There are two restaurants there. The Grill Room is fancier and has a glass dome. We ate in the cozier Club Room, where we had that traditional Scottish dish, Nachos. They were excellent and huge, so we didn’t order anything else. We ended up in a long conversation with a delightful English couple whose daughter lives in Edinburgh. They were very well traveled, and we spent an out or so swapping stories.
On the way back, Linda did a bit of shoe shopping at the decrepit Princes Mall next to the hotel. About 60% of the storefront are vacant, and the rest are closeout places. Weird, in such a central and upscale part of town.
For dinner we went to Martin Wishard, the eponymous restaurant of Scotland’s number one celebrity chef. It’s also a Michelin one star, so we were expecting a lot, but it failed to deliver. Although there were a couple of notable dishes, the chef’s tasting menu paled in comparison to last night’s dinner at Number One, and the wine matching can only be described as oafish. Not only were the wines odd, the wine service was bizarre, with the wines poured in the kitchen and then described by someone with a thick German accent. Not recommended.
Our cab driver for our return trip was a lot of fun. He was really the first person we’ve encountered with a Scottish accent thick enough that we couldn’t completely understand him. Most of the service industry people we’ve encountered have actually been Eastern European, a reflection of the service level skilled labor shortage in the UK.
Meanwhile, Trinity performed Forum at 6pm to rave reviews:
A review of Forum:
Roman Farce Unleashed with Youthful Zeal
4 Stars A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum
(2008) American High School Theatre Festival Church Hill Theatre. 4th-8th August. Various Times (1h30)
A strong old Broadway warhorse,”A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” originally opened with Zero Mostel in the lead followed by Frankie Howerd in the UK. A mixed bag of plot lines from Plautus are woven into a finely honed hit – it ran for years.
This production from the American High School Theatre Festival deserves to run just as long. It’s a bubbling, vibrant production played with consumate skills by actors still in their teens. Every farcical device is employed – cheating on wives, transgressed taboos, desire – and what could easily turn into a confused mess is neatly and cleanly played out.
The performance bubbled with energy, the direction was tight and inventive and the choreography caught the spirit of the piece. James Everett as Pseudolus directed the traffic of the piece with fine comic timing and Alex Ferguson as Lycus was outstanding.
Ian Billings
An audience member writes in review:
Look at the way it is today, things are getting out of hand – there’s no decorum in the forum 07 Aug 2008
Frankie Howard would have loved this. The vaudeville elements were performed stunningly. The best scene? Everybody Ought To Have A Maid – it was fantastically impressive. I’ve never seen the play before but now that i have the film and the CD pales into insignificance. James Everett as Pseudolus held the story together masterfully. Alex Ferguson as Marcus Lycus was brilliant – move over Phil Silvers. And Gabe Gonzales as Hysterium – well, he was just amazing. A comic actor of the highest order. Other special mentions go to Christine Pappas as Domina and Kyra Bloom as Philia. Great actors and wonderful singers. All in all a great show. It was certainly worth getting soaked to the skin in the Edinburgh rain to watch this.
reviewer: Yahadriel, Cornwall (yeah i know we haven’t got independence yet but it’s a matter of time)
The review from The Scotsmen, Scotland’s number one paper:
Musicals & Opera: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
4-Star Rated
CHURCH HILL THEATRE (VENUE 137)
I DON’T know about the forum, but plenty of funny things happened on stage, courtesy of Florida’s Trinity Preparatory School. These are schoolkids? Never mind the voice, you have to be pretty bright to get the best out of a Stephen Sondheim score. And many a professional actor has fallen flat on their face tackling farce.
But not these teens – they stride on to the stage with huge self-confidence and make the 2,000-year-old tales of Plautus live. Songs aren’t so much delivered as presented with flowers and chocolate. It helps that the script, by Burt Shevelove and Larry (M*A*S*H) Gelbart, has zingy one-liners by the score.
James Everett as Pseudolus the slave is terribly funny as he drives the action. Matthew Prast is dashing and Kyra Bloom sweet as young lovers Hero and Phylia. But stealing a show in which there’s no weak link is Gabe Gonzalez as Hysterium, the loyal house servant and reluctant cross-dresser.
A presentation of the American High School Theatre Festival, this is a tad away from the centre of the Fringe, but if you like musicals even a bit, make the effort. The cast, band and crew will make your day.
Until today, 6:15pm
Martin Gray
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Edinburgh
We rose early — well, early in the afternoon, anyway — and decided to return to The Club Room at The Dome, as it’s one of the few nice places that serve lunch at 3:00 in the afternoon. It was still drizzly, so on the way back we spent an hour at the Royal Scottish Academy, which is almost next to our hotel. They have a special exhibit of impressionist paintings, and it was almost overwhelming to see so many paintings by all of the master impressionists. I was actually most impressed by a painter new to me, Sir John Lavery, an Irish Impressionist.
We had a casual late dinner at the hotel’s Hadrian’s Brasserie. Nothing special.
Friday, August 8, 2008
Edinburgh
I hadn’t quite drifted off to sleep last night when the fire alarm summoned everyone to the lobby for an amusing pajama party. After about fifteen minutes it was determined to be a false alarm. The hotel sent out a note of apology in the morning.
We picked up our tickets for tonight’s final performance of Forum and then walked to Oloroso, a restaurant on top of an office building in New Town. I’d made a reservation for inside, but since the rain had cleared off we ate on the terrace, which had a more casual menu that was fine but nothing special. But the weather was great, with occasional sun, and temperatures in the high 60s. The terrace has a wonderful view in almost every direction including Edinburgh Castle.
In the evening we took a cab a few miles to the Church Hill Theatre for the closing night performance of A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum. Because of the good reviews, word of mouth, and the patronage of other American High School Theatre groups, there was a good crowd of about 150 people. The theatre was perfect for the show, with a real orchestra pit and excellent acoustics.
Both the show and audience were high energy, feeding off of each other, and it was easily the best of the run, with thunderous applause and cheering after many of the numbers. Outside the kids received more cheering as they emerged from backstage to board their bus. I’m sure there were many bittersweet moments as they realized they’ll never perform together again, as much of the cast disperses to different colleges across the country in a few weeks. But what a great way to go out!
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Edinburgh
We checked out of The Balmoral and took a cab from New Town to Old Town, where we checked into The Knight Residence. What a fabulous place for an extended stay! It’s too bad we’ll only be here until Monday.
The building is brand new, with 19 lovely flats. Ours is a spacious one bedroom. It’s beautifully decorated and comes with CDs, DVDs, breakfast foods, a fully outfitted kitchen, teeny washer/dryer (our reason for staying here) and more. The charming Christopher runs the front desk. I had previously corresponded with him by email, and he was every bit as gracious in person. At about one third the price of the Balmoral it’s a real find.
The Knight Residence is in an interesting area. It’s just a couple of blocks from the Royal Mile, the concatenation of four streets that run from Edinburgh castle to The Palace of Holyroodhouse. In the same block as the hotel are six antique books stores and three strip clubs (yes, there’s lap dancing in Scotland).
Indeed, it’s very close to Edinburgh Castle. We strolled through the Grass Market, where they were having a rummage sale, and climbed the hill to the castle. The road is lined with old stone buildings that are now tourist shops. The street was filled with Fringe performers and visitors. Near the entrance to the castle is The Witchery, a fine dining restaurant where we had a cordial but not particularly noteworthy lunch. The couple next to us happened to also be American parents whose daughter is in another of the high school productions. Small world.
Next to the Witchery is the Whisky Heritage Centre, where we went on a dark ride called The Scotch Whisky Experience. The story was well conveyed, with good on-board audio and well done lighting and set decoration. The vehicles were wire guided, and moved only about 6 inches per second. It was surprising that many of the set pieces — including some quite delicate objects — where within inches as we passed, yet everything seemed to be unmolested. Afterwards we were served a dram of Tormore 12 year old Speyside Single Malt, which was excellent: caramel and fruit nose, very smooth. Even Linda liked it.
After a quiet afternoon experimenting with the washer/dryer (we found French and German manuals online — it’s very complicated) we strolled through the rain to the Grass Market, where we had a pleasant Italian meal. Things were still hopping well past midnight.
Dani Spent the day with her group, sightseeing outside the city.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Orlando
In the morning we took a cab over to Pollock Halls and picked up Dani’s luggage. We had lunch at a baguette shop and Linda spent the afternoon doing one teeny tiny load of laundry after another.
We enjoyed an authentic French dinner at Petit Paris, a small bistro at the Grass Market.
Dani attended the closing ceremony for the high school groups, where she was selected to deliver a speech to all of the various schools participating, and then went to Fringe Sunday at the Meadows and had dinner with her friends before we picked her up near midnight.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Edinburgh to London
We sort of slept in, although this being Monday, the construction site across the street was gearing back up. We checked out at noon and took a taxi to Waverly Station for our return trip to London. Once again I was able to get a lot done on the train. We arrived at King’s Cross Station at 6:30pm — a good time, because the cross town cab ride took only about 20 minutes to get us to Hammersmith, and the Novotel London West. It’s an enormous and fairly nice hotel in a great district for restaurants.
We walked about a mile down King Street to Indian Zing, a place I found online, and it didn’t disappoint. The weather was temperate and it was a great evening for a stroll.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
London
Dani has a bit of a cold, so we spent a lazy day in Hammersmith. Linda and I walked a couple of blocks to a pub for lunch, and then in the evening we all took the tube to see They’re Playing Our Song at the The Menier Chocolate Factory, a converted factory building in the interesting district just south of London Bridge. Linda and I saw this show with the original Broadway cast, Kevin Klein and Lucy Arnaz, when we were first married, thirty years ago, and it’s always been one of my favorites. Although it’s never been revived, we all knew the music and were anxious to see it.
The Chocolate Factory is an interesting place. You enter through a restaurant, and then negotiate a random assortment of steps, up and down, to access the theatre, an intimate space with padded bleachers that seat about 150. Despite a tepid review, the show was sold out. Most of the audience were in their sixties, and seemed to have seen the show in its original London run almost thirty years ago.
The show was performed as a period piece. I felt the material held up well, although the two leads lacked the comedic timing to make it funny. However their singing was superb, and the staging, which used the floor as a giant revolving LP, was inventive and fun. It was definitely worth the reasonable 25 pound admission price.
Back at the hotel, Linda and I had a late supper in the bar while Dani went off to bed.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
London
We decided to skip the city tour of London and relax today so that Dani can get over her cold. It’s not like we haven’t seen St. Pauls, the changing of the guard and so on. In an effort to avoid pub food, Linda and I walked to a Thai restaurant for lunch.
On the spur of the moment, we decided to see if we could get tickets tot he new musical Zorro. Somehow we ended up in the fifth row, even though the show was sold out. It was lavishly staged, with great talent and excellent songs. Somehow it didn’t quite work for us, but it seemed fixable. And since it received four stars from virtually all of the press, and it’s sold out on a Wednesday night, it may do well. It just needs more story and a bit less Flamenco stomping, but the talent is certainly there.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Bath, Bristol
Today we met our Globus tour group and our guide, Liz, and set out on our tour. It’s easy to see whose currencies are up and whose are down: the tour is more than half Australians and New Zealanders.
The first stop was Henry the Eighth’s old house, Hampton Court, where we walked through the gardens.
Then it was on to Stonehenge, which Linda hadn’t seen before. None of the stones had moved since our last visit.
We retraced our steps to Salisbury for a mediocre pub lunch. It would have been better to simply press on the Bath, which was our next stop anyway. The Roman baths are really interesting, and we spent almost two hours on the self guided tour, leaving just enough time for some scenic portraits overlooking the Avon.
It was a short drive to Bristol, where we had a lovely room at the Jury’s hotel overlooking the water. There was a welcome dinner for the group (let’s just say it was food as only the English can prepare it), and then we called an end to a long day.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Waterford, Ireland
This morning I had lots of catching up on my online classes, and a high speed Internet line, so I skipped breakfast. We left the hotel at 8am for the drive to Cardiff and a fairly pointless stop outside the castle, plus a stroll through the mall, just like 500,000 other malls. Then we crossed into Wales. Southern Wales is a country of rolling green hills, scattered farms and villages, and many cows.
Gaelic is the official second language of Wales. Although we didn’t hear it spoken, the government certainly is promoting it, with mandatory education. It’s also a second language on all the highway signs. Its absence from all commercial signs and billboards is telling, though.
After a long drive and a snack at a rest stop we finally arrived on the western coast town of Fishguard where the entire tour bus drove onto the ferry. The crossing was calm, and we spent the time in the sports bar ignoring the Summer Olympics. Dani has started work on a second novel, now that she’s finished The Last Telepath. In just a few hours she’s almost finished structuring it, defining characters and writing her outline.
Three and a half hours later we drove off the ferry in Rosslare on the southeast coast of Ireland. Ireland is a country of rolling green hills, scattered farms and villages, and many cows.
An hour’s drive brought us to the city of Waterford, Ireland’s fourth largest. Our hotel is the somewhat seedy Tower, although our room is spacious by European standards and overlooks the river Suir (pronounced ‘shus,’ not ‘sever’) and the historic Tower for which the hotel is named. (Gaelic is also prevalent in Ireland. ) Dinner was decent, and we made it an early night after a long day of driving and many cows.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Waterford Factory and Blarney
We set out on a rainy morning for the nearby Waterford Crystal Factory. Having visited artisan glass works in Oslo and Venice, I was expecting more artists and less factory, but Waterford is indeed a factory. Although there are artists there who do custom engraving, most of the 700 workers are dedicated to churning out the stuff you see in department stores, which looks clunky and dated compared to the fine art of, say, Murano glass.
We then had a long drive through a country of rolling green hills, scattered farms and villages, and many wet cows. Reaching the west coast, we passed through Cork, Ireland’s second largest city, and on to Blarney Castle.
We were lucky, and the rain abated for our exploration of Blarney castle, where Dani enjoyed exploring the twisty stone stairways, cramped tunnels and caves. At the top of the six story climb she leaned out over the parapet backwards and kissed the Blarney stone, which is supposed to impart the gift of eloquence.
Afterwards we had lunch in the nearby pub and then drove on to Killarney in County Kerry, and an afternoon check in at the Scotts Hotel. There are many, many towns in Ireland that start with ‘kill’ because the Gaelic word for church is ‘cil. ‘
Much of our tour group went to an evening folklore event, but we’ve learned over the years that we’re allergic to contrived revelry, so we walked to Foley’s, a nice fish restaurant a few blocks away. In fact, we’re skipping all the optional excursions on this trip except for a tour of the royal yacht in Edinburgh.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Killarney
Linda has Dani’s cold, so she opted to rest today. Our group set out on an approximately 100 mile loop called the Ring of Kerry, which circles County Kerry. The weather cooperated at first, and we got some nice vistas of lakes, mountains and rivers. But by 11am rain and mist had settled in.
The sheep didn’t mind. We passed thousands of them. Most looked a bit odd, because they’ve been spray pained with red or green markings to indicate ownership and parentage. We also passed several bogs, and saw peat that had been cut and stacked to dry.
After an ill-conceived lunch stop at a village with no open restaurants, we continued on to “the best view in Ireland,” which today consisted of a post shrouded in fog. Allegedly there was sea, peninsulas and islands somewhere out there. The drive back to Killarney was through much rockier terrain, as the road twisted down the mountains (at 3000 feet, the tallest in Ireland) and through the national park, where there were many scenic views of rivers, fairly large pines and oaks, and three large lakes.
We had a delicious dinner at a restaurant upstairs next to the hotel. It was called Lemon Grass, and offered a fusion of different Asian cuisines. My sushi appetizer was some of the best sushi I’ve ever had.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Limerick, Tiperary and Dublin
Today we drove across Ireland, from Killarney to Dublin, in just a few hours. It was another wet day. This is the wettest summer in Ireland, perhaps ever, and there were signs of flooding in several spots, and many swollen rivers. Last Saturday alone they got a whole month’s rainfall in a couple of hours.
We drove through Tiperary and Limerick (yes, there really are such places), and watched the names on the businesses alternate between all the cliche Irish names you’ve ever hear.
After another annoying lunch stop in a town with no open restaurants we drove on to the Irish National Stud, where we learned about thoroughbred racecourses and the economics of breeding them. A few of the random things I learned:
All horses change age on January 1st, so if you’re racing, say, two year olds, the could b anywhere from 731 to 1094 days old. So it’s a big advantage for your horse to be born right after the first of the year. As a result, they breed the horses in the first quarter, they foal in January, and then immediately are impregnated again.
Artificial insemination is not allowed. A stud will impregnate up to 190 different mares during the three month season.
One of the studs we saw has sired so many winners that his stud fee is $75,000. This is payable if the mare is pregnant on October 1. That particular stud was worth $60 Million, because he has about 15 years of service left.
As we drove on into Dublin we reached the first road that could be called a highway, with three lanes in each direction. Almost the entire rest of the country has been narrow two lane roads.
Ireland is definitely not the backward country it once was. In fact, it has been enjoying a real economic boom the past decade. This really started with the move into technology in the 1970s. In fact, after centuries of emigration, Irelands population is now growing through immigration, and is about 10% recent Polish arrivals!
The Hilton Dublin Kilmainham is a nice, modern hotel, with much better furnishings than most Hiltons. It’s across the street from the prison where the Irish rebels were executed in 1916, but it’s far from city centre.
It was really raining hard in the evening, so we had dinner at the hotel’s Cinnamon restaurant, which was surprisingly good.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Dublin
This morning we drove around the centre of Dublin. We had a different driver, as Bob was required by European driving laws to take the day off. Our replacement driver didn’t really have any experience with a manual transmission coach, so it was an interesting ride. The weather continues to be intermittently drizzly.
Dublin is a modification of Gaelic words that mean ‘black pool’. Dublin seems to be the only real ‘city’ in Ireland, as it looks typically European, and everywhere else we’ve been has been more along the lines of a village.
We visited a number of areas including statue-lined O’Connell Street, a couple of Georgian squares, St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Trinity College, where we saw the 1,200-year-old Book of Kells and the Old Library. We then walked into the Grafton Street shopping district and found a tiny basement wine bar and French restaurant called called La Cave, where we had a nice traditional French lunch.
We returned to the hotel for the afternoon and relaxed, then walked to a nearby Italian restaurant, La Dolce Vita, for dinner.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Chester, England
We took a high speed ferry back across the Irish Sea from Dun Laoghaire to Holyhead on the Welsh Isle of Anglesey. This ship was a catamaran design, and made the crossing at a top speed of 40 knots, taking only two hours. Our first stop was at Llanfair(. . . ), a town that is a tourist attraction simply because its name contains 58 characters!
We drove along the scenic North Wales coast past abandoned shale mine, and rocky beaches. Its much more rugged than Southern Wales. Just across the boarder in England the Welsh disappeared from the highway signs. We stopped for a walk around Chester, a charming medieval walled city with some Roman remains, and many black and white halftimbered buildings. An unusual feature of the main street is the two-tiered arcades called the “Rows. “
We spent the night back in Wales at St. David’s Park, a nice hotel. The power to the whole area went out for a couple of hours just after we checked in, but the hotel rose to the occasion and catered sandwiches in the bar on the spur of the moment and it was really a fun evening.
Linda is recovering from her cold, but I have it now, hopefully not for long.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Lake District, Edinburgh
We took a beautiful drive through the Lake District, where we cruised for a half hour on Lake Windermere, namesake of our hometown. The town and surrounding hills are much more scenic than our own, with forested slopes and quaint stone buildings. In Grasmere we dodged rain and had a quick lunch, then returned to the motorway for the drive into Scotland. Just across the border we stopped at Gretna Green, where the blacksmith used to wed runaway couples. The scenery became progressively more beautiful as we made our way through the Lowland Hills to Edinburgh.
The Edinburgh Thistle is conveniently right across the street from the Balmoral, so it was easy to walk across for our dinner at Number One, which was superb, and virtually identical to our previous visit. They treated us like old friends.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Edinburgh
Dani and I skipped the morning city tour but Linda went with the local guide on a visit to Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood Palace, both of which she enjoyed.
Dani and I had a walk down pedestrian Rose Street, and lunch at a Thai place.
Then we caught our only optional tour of the trip, a visit to the retired royal yacht Britannia, which was very well done. It was followed by a group dinner at a hotel on the Grass Market and a climb up the steps to the castle to see the ‘Tattoo,’ a marching band and bagpipe show that was much better than I was expecting. We were only briefly rained on during the show, and we were squeezed in so tightly there was no place for the water to go.
It was dry for the walk back to the hotel.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
York
For the first time in a month IT DIDN’T RAIN TODAY! This has been the wettest August in UK history.
Our drive southward began with a stop at Floors Castle, an enormous house that is still lived in seasonally by the family of the Duke and Duchess of Roxburghe. It’s how the other 0. 000001% live. Their backyard is about 65,000 acres.
W drove past the abbey ruins at Jedburgh and the house of Mary, Queen of Scots, and stopped near a section of Hadrian’s Wall, the Roman coast-to-coast defense against marauding northern tribes. It used to be 75 miles long and 15 feet high, but this fragment wouldn’t keep a sheep out.
Lunch was another ill-planned affair at a rest stop.
York is England’s most complete medieval city. It’s surrounded by its original wall, and it’s crammed higgledy-piggledy with oddly constructed buildings of all types, leaning and packed together at crazy angles. The main street used to be lined with butcher shops, and you can see the gutters designed for the blood to run down. Of course, now every building is a Starbucks, but the ambience is neat.
We stayed at the York Ramada, which is fairly nice, and had a decent group dinner.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Stratford-upon-Avon
Another almost rain-free day. We drove past Robin Hood’s Sherwood Forest on the way to Coventry, where the ruins of the original cathedral were of some interest to Dani and me, because they feature in one of our favorite books, To Say Nothing Of The Dog by Connie Willis. The city was bombed in World War II and the cathedral burned. Iron girders, installed in the late 19th century melted in the heat and pulled down the upper part of the structure. Most of the stone walls, and even some of the stained glass survives. The ruin was left in place, and a new cathedral built next to it. An ironic aspect to the story is that the British had broken the German code, and knew the city was to be bombed, but could do nothing about it without giving away their secret.
We stopped briefly for a photo in front of the thatched roof cottage where Shakespeare’s wife, Ann Hathaway, lived, then drove on to Stratford-upon- Avon, where Dani was fascinated by a tour of Shakespeare’s birthplace.
We spent the night at the very conveniently located Holiday Inn, which is right next to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. Had we known, we should have booked tickets.
Monday, August 25, 2008
London
It’s less than a three hour drive from Stratford to London. Along the way we stopped at spectacular Blenheim Palace, home of the 11th Duke of Marlborough and birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill. It was built by John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough, a man with an ego even bigger than the palace. It’s filled with tapestries he had mad commemorating his victory over the French in the War of the Spanish Succession. That’s why Queen Anne gave him the property, although she refused to give him the 60,000 pounds of cost overruns on his palace.
It was saved from ruin in the late 19th century by the 9th Duke’s loveless marriage to American railroad heiress and renowned beauty Consuelo Vanderbilt.
We arrived at the Hilton London Metropole at 2pm. It’s a comfortable and well located hotel where we’ve stayed several times before.
For dinner, Linda picked a fantastic restaurant, Zaika, on Kensington High Street. We had a nine-course tasting menu with an Indian slant, and some interesting matching wines.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
London
We took advantage of our first chance to sleep in for two weeks. Then we spent the afternoon at Harrods. where we had a very overpriced sushi lunch and a late afternoon tea at LaDuree, which was good, but not as good as the Paris original.
After a convoluted tube ride back to the hotel due to a rush hour closure, we made our way to the Open Air Theatre in Regents Park for its wonderful ambience and a fabulous production of Gigi, starring Topol and the lead we saw last year in Mary Poppins. It was terrific, and we were in the front row, almost close enough to touch the actors.
Then it was back to the hotel for packing and a short sleep.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
London to Orlando
It takes a long time to get to Gatwick from London, so er were up at 5:30 for an 11:100 flight, and a five hour layover in Atlanta (a good thing, since it took an hour to get the bags) meant we didn’t arrive until 10pm. It was nice of Chastity to pick our remains up at the airport and rive us home for a long rest.
Thoughts About The Trip
I have mixed feelings about this trip. It was impacted by rain almost every day, but on the other hand, we were lucky, and were rarely out in it. On the third hand, it limited what we chose to do and see, especially in Ireland.
I was disappointed in Ireland. It’s a beautiful, green country that is much less developed than the rest of Europe, and it is enjoying an economic boom. But there were few ‘show stoppers’ in the week we spent there. Blarney Castle near Killarney was neat, and Dublin seems a nice city — the only city, really.
On the other hand, I loved Edinburgh. Even without the Fringe, it would be a great place to visit. It’s a great mix of new and old, and Scotland is geographically more diverse than the rest of the UK.
York might be a good stop for a couple of nights. It’s historical buildings are neat, but it’s basically a giant tourist mall.
Wales was just a place to drive through.
London, as always, was a mixed bag. It’s a great city to get around in via the tube. And with over 300 shows running every night, it’s a theatre lovers dream.
Food-wise, the UK is very odd. The vast majority of food is simply awful. And yet there are some amazing culinary treats, if you take the time to search them out, and are willing to pay for them.
And paying for them is a big part of the problem. All the prices looked reasonable — if only that pound sign were a dollar sign! But at worse than a two to one exchange rate, doing anything in the UK is very, very expensive. So while the tour, with its many included meals, was a good deal, nothing else was.
Finally, as we’ve noted in past years, this trip was a bit too long, especially for Dani, who was away for more than a month. The solution might be to bite the bullet on airfare using direct flights from Orlando, which make it easier to go more often for shorter periods.
The bottom line is that for those looking to explore the British Isles I think I’d look at a cruise, or just a Killarney/Edinburgh/London trip.
Handy Travel Packing List
Books Camera, interface cable, charger Clothes, short and long sleeved Dress Clothes, Sport coat & Tie Ear Plugs Electrical adapters, Extension cord Euros Folding Tote bag Guidebooks, Pocket Maps Hat Laptop, Ethernet cable, Broadband modem Mini London Map Microphone New shoes Passports, Travel Docs, Theatre Tickets Phone/iPod & charger Purell Robe Shoulder bag Sunglasses Sunscreen Toiletries Umbrella Vitamins, Medicine, Coldeez, Advil Warm Jacket Ziploc bags
Miami • Aruba • Panama Canal • Limón, Costa Rica • Grand Cayman
Miami
Friday, March 14, 2008
Since Dani was sick for most of our 2005 spring break trip, we decided to repeat much of that itinerary on a different ship. Besides, it was the only cruise that fit into our schedule and didn’t go to all the usual places. And Aruba will be new for us.
We rose early and drove to Miami, arriving before noon. Dani wanted to get a copy of Margaret Atwood’s The Robber Bride, so after ascertaining that no one in downtown Miami can read (therefore no bookstores) we drove to a Barnes Noble in Coral Gables which happened to be around the corner from a French place we like, Brasserie Halles. A few books and some cheese later we headed for the port where boarding Royal Caribbean’s Brilliance of the Seas was quick and easy.
The ship is more or less the same size as the Coral Princess, it’s width — PanaMax — being defined by the Panama Canal. It’s much smaller than the other Royal Caribbean ships we’ve been on, so we’ll have to make do without the ice skating rink.
We booked two cabins this time, a junior suite for me, and a hovel in the bowels of the ship for Dani. At least it’s an outside hovel. Because Dani is too young to have her own cabin, Linda is theoretically staying there with her. I’m trying to imagine it. . . !
I like the more intimate size of this ship, and it has an interesting asymmetry to it, with glass elevators on one side and a single sided promenade in front of the specialty restaurants, much like on the Coral Princess. The passenger makeup is surprisingly old. I guess all the kids were on the larger Royal Caribbean ship that left port before us.
Susie and Rusty — those traditional Philippine names — were really friendly in the champagne bar, and the food seemed a bit better than on previous Royal Caribbean ships, whose cuisine I’ve rated at the bottom of all the lines we’ve traveled.
Royal Caribbean still uses assigned seating in the main dining room. Out table is shared with a family from Mexico, who seem quite nice. We have a lot of reservations in the specialty restaurants, so we might not see too much of them.
At Sea
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Brilliance of the Seas is the first cruise ship we’ve been on where passengers can get to the prow. It was very neat leaning over the railing and watching the azure sea vanish beneath the ship.
Dani spotted something skimming over the surface of the waves below us. At first we thought it was a bird, but then we realized it was a flying fish. I had never realized that they really do fly. As long as they’re headed into the wind, it seems they can stay aloft for a half minute or more, and they could easily out pace the ship. Their silver green bodies looked somewhat alien, and their “wings” reminded me of hang gliders.
It was formal night, We had a lovely dinner with our friends from Mexico and then went to a ‘contemporary’ Broadway show. Funny, I’d never regarded Cole Porter as a contemporary. It was actually fascinating to watch the slightly talented cast struggle to stay with the slightly talented musicians as they performed a show designed by a wholly untalented director. As Dani said, “If they’d tried harder, the couldn’t have sucked more emotion out of each number.”
At Sea
Sunday, March 16, 2008
A lazy day at sea. Although the ship is the same size as the Coral Princess, it seems there’s less to do on board, since they don’t have the ceramics studio or the ScholarShip at Sea educational programs. But it was a good day for reading, writing and relaxing.
Oranjestad, Aruba
Monday, March 17, 2008
Aruba was very different than we were expecting, much more like a desert than a tropical island. An advantage is that it doesn’t get hurricanes, but on the other hand it doesn’t get much rain, either, as a result, there is a lot of sand and cactus, and — incongruously — some really large boulders.
I think this is the farthest south we’ve been in the Caribbean, as we’re only 17 miles off the coast of Venezuela. The island of Aruba is a Dutch colony with an independent government the past few years. The people are descended from natives and Spanish, and speak Dutch, English, Spanish and their own Creole. Despite Dutch being the official language, there was little evidence of it except in street names. Of course, the major industry is tourism, and 75% of the tourists are from the US, so we were well insulated .
To get an overview of the place, we took The Best of Aruba tour, which seemed to be the choice of the old and infirm. Our first stop was at the Casibari rock formations, where a short set of stone steps — and a bit of a crawl through a hole between the rocks– brought us to the top of a really big boulder. The view from there encompassed three fourths of this nineteen by six mile island, but was mostly of sand and Oregon pipe cactus. It was cool crawling through the crack, though.
The next stop was at the natural bridge, which, in quite a natural way, fell down in 2005. There is a smaller one still standing nearby, with a big danger sign next to the giant crack. Most of the tourists seemed to ignore this, though, and stepped right over onto the crumbling outcrop. I mean, it’s too big to fall down, right?
We stopped at Aruba Aloe, a surprisingly tiny factory where they make a wide range of products using — you guessed it — aloe. These products are mostly packages the same two ways, do to the fact that the factory has only two small bottling devices. We learned that aloe is good for cuts, sunburn, dry skin, hair conditioning, stomach ailments, losing weight, age reversal and reducing the national debt — of Aruba, anyway.
Our final stop was a the California lighthouse, so named because it was erected on the spot where a ship named the California wouldn’t have run aground if there had already been a California lighthouse there.
Then about half the group was dropped off at a mall, and the rest of us were dropped off near the cruise ship. This area is called “downtown” although it’s really just a street of tourist shops and government offices, with a lot of noisy traffic. We had a tasty lunch upstairs in an open air restaurant named Iguana Joe’s, and then retreated to the ship.
Overall I was disappointed in Aruba, because I was hoping it would be less the touristy Caribbean port and have more of its Dutch heritage in evidence. I suppose it’s great for beach lovers, but otherwise a three hour visit seemed plenty.
At Sea
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
A quiet day at sea. The cruising was surprisingly smooth, considering the 7-10 foot seas, but they were coming from the stern, and just seemed to hurry us on.
In the evening we attended the Murder Mystery Dinner Theater, held in the Colony Club and Portofino Restaurant. Six members of the entertainment cast acted out parts in a comedy murder mystery. During dinner we had a chance to interview each character for clues, and then a prize was awarded to one of the guests who had the correct solution. The acting was quite good, and the characters were very entertaining. It was probably the highlight of the onboard experience.
Panama Canal
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
We began our approach to the canal about 6:30 AM. Although it turned out we could have taken either side since they were both running the same direction this morning, my selection of a Starboard cabin proved to be the correct choice, and we had a great view of the locks from our balcony. An added bonus was that a US Navy submarine made the transit in the adjacent locks, complete with armed escorts. Pretty cool.
The Internet was down most of the day, which was a bit aggravating since it’s the first day of new ed2go classes, but it came back up in the late afternoon. We docked briefly to pick up passengers on shore excursions, but I skipped the two hour visit to the flea market that’s operated by half naked natives. Linda and Dani bought traditional native goods: carved wood, painted feathers and a bent license plate.
We had a nice dinner at Chops Steakhouse, the nicest restaurant on board.
Limón, Costa Rica
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Today we more or less retraced our steps from a tour three years ago, visiting the aerial tram in the rainforest that’s about two hours west of Limón. This time we stopped for a boat ride along the way. Our 17 passenger flat bottomed boat navigated a mile of twisty canal through jungle, where we saw a sloth, a small crocodile called a caiman, a sloth, monkeys, and a Jesus Christ lizard, so-named because it runs on two legs across water while waving it’s front legs like a girl, just like Jesus.
The rainforest was, indeed, rainy when we arrived, but held off for our glide through the treetops. We had a traditional Costa Rican lunch — rice and beans, of course — before taking a nature walk.
Our guide for the walk was extremely interesting, and pointed out dozens of things we would have missed, accompanied by fascinating explanations. The most interestering were the leaf cutter ants, who carry chunks of leaves back to their nest where they use them to grow a fungus that they eat. On top of some of the leaves are smaller guard ants, whose job is to keep a fly from laying an egg on the leaf. The eggs turn into worms that eat their fungus.
After the walk we boarded the bus for the 90 minute drive back to the port. Even though Limón itself is pretty much a dump, I really like Costa Rica. The people take great pride in their stability, health care and educational systems, and lack of an army. And it’s neat being in a place where anything that falls on the ground grows.
One interesting aspect of Costa Rica is the way addresses work. A typical address might read: “From the church go 400 meters north and turn right. After 200 meteres turn left at the store and it’s the third house on the right with the yellow door. ” Needless to say, mail delivery in Costa Rica takes a long time.
Linda and I had dinner at Portofino, where everyone wanted to know what happened to Dani, who decided to relax and have room service in her cabin.
At Sea
Friday, March 21, 2008
We went on a very interesting backstage tour of the ship’s theatre today. It gave us a chance to visit the lighting booth, sound booth, stage, and dressing areas, and listen to presentations by technical personnel, stage hands, and performers. I was nice to see Alcorn McBride IO64s in the lighting booth, although the lighting technician didn’t really seem to know what they did. There was also a Richmond Stageman system and two lighting boards. The 52-channel mixer is large, analog, and unautomated.
Dani and I discovered that the best lunch onboard is a the Seaview Cafe, a very small table service restaurant at the back of deck 12. It looks like it was designed to be counter service pizza, but now it has about half a dozen tables. Its obscure location and the fact that it doesn’t open until afternoon keep it from being crowded.
We rejoined our dinner companions in the main dining room for the traditional formal night lobster dinner.
Grand Cayman
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Today we had the best Caribbean shore excursion ever. Dani and I took the tender to the island and then a van to the far sight, where about forty of use boarded a dive boat. After a 45 minute trip we arrived at Stingray City, a sandbar that is home to hundreds of stingrays. Wading around in the waist deep water, we fed, petted, held and kissed(!) the stingrays for close to an hour. The stingrays really seem to enjoy being held, at least once they’ve been fed.
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We learned that the large dark ones are females, and the smaller gray ones are males. The males have a unique characteristic: two “willies,” as our guide put it. I’m not sure why this is useful, but it conjures up some interesting possibilities.
Our second stop was nearby, at the barrier reef, where the coral and fish varieties rivaled those of Australia. The snorkeling was easy in the three to ten foot deep water. Our guide coaxed a moray eel from its hideout, which was pretty exciting. I’d never seen both ends of a moray eel at the same time!
This was the same trip I took three years ago when Dani was too sick to go, but what a difference the guides made! There was so much hand-on time with the stingrays on this outing. The trip was also very professionally photography and videotaped. The photographer made CDs right on the boat, and the videographer edited in music and delivered professional DVDs to the ship before we sailed. If I could only do one outing in the Caribbean, this would be it.
We had dinner in the main dining room. Our friends from Mexico didn’t join us because the grandmother — who has Alzheimer’s — wasn’t feeling well. They didn’t miss much, as almost everything on the menu tonight was fairly awful.
At Sea
Easter Sunday , March 23, 2008
After several rocky days at sea due to up to 40 knot cross winds, today was very smooth because we had a 5 knot tail wind. We’re averaging over 20 knots to make the 600 miles back to Miami by early tomorrow morning.
This afternoon we attended an interesting presentation by the Captain and Chief Engineer about the operation of the ship. It’s powered by dual turbines spinning at 7500 rpm, which generate many Megawatts of power to drive the two azipod outboard propellers, which can each rotate 360 degrees. The high speed of the turbines explains why there is absolutely no engine vibration on this ship.
The Captain indicated he didn’t think any more cruise ships would be built this way, because although the small size of the turbines allowed them to add 50 cabins, they require fuel that is now more than twice the cost of regular diesel sludge. In fact, the ship is going into dry dock in two months to have a hole cut in the side and a diesel generator added for times when power requirements are low, such as when they are in port.
Miami
Monday, March 24, 2008
We arrived in Miami before dawn. Total distance sailed: 3,200 nautical miles.
We disembarked at 8:30 and made great time on the drive home, and were back before 2pm, including a stop for lunch. .
Things to remember for next time
Royal Caribbean food is a rung below NCL and Princess. It also seems like there aren’t a lot of food venues. It’s mostly concentrated in the Windjammer buffet. They seem to be reaching to appear to additional venues: The Solarium Cafe is six saran-covered plates of pre-made sandwiches and a thermos of coffee!
Internet access of this class of ship is poor. The cabin jacks don’t work, and expensive wireless is available only in a few areas.
There’s not a lot to do on the Brilliance of the Seas class if you’re an adult who doesn’t want to lie by the pool or gamble. I miss the Princess art and education programs. The larger Royal Caribbean ships also offer more variety, with their interior main street. .
The entertainment on this ship was mediocre at best, except for the Mystery Dinner Theatre, which was wonderful.
Aft on deck 10 turned out to be a less than optimal cabin location on the Brilliance of the Seas, not because it was aft, but because it was under the Windjammer, with its constantly moving chairs and carts of dishes and dropped silverware. Earplugs were a definite must at night.
Panama, Limon and Grand Cayman are all interesting ports. Aruba is not. It’s a poor exchange for Belize’s cave tubing, which was on our previous itinerary in its place.
Stingray City in Grand Cayman is the best shore excursion in the Caribbean.
The flight from Orlando was uneventful, although the lines at security were the longest I’ve seen, stretching all the way across the Hyatt lobby. I hadn’t been in Logan Airport’s Delta terminal recently, which is really nice. There’s even a Fudruckers.
I was, frankly, shocked at the sight of the hotel, the Omni Parker House. It is surrounded by scaffolding. That’s the view outside the window, too. It’s amazing to me that Tauck would book clients in here under the best of circumstances, let along during a major renovation.
The lovely exterior of the Omni Parker House. It all looks like this.
The hotel was built in 1855 and is the oldest continuously operating hotel in America. Unfortunately, 1855 was before the invention of the Internet or the electrical outlet, both of which have yet to arrive in my room. The only flat surface is the night stand, which has on it:
lamp
all the non-refrigerated offerings of the mini bar
hotel directory
phone
clock radio
tv remote
coffee pot
glassware
advertising for other fine hotels in this chain (isn’t this the same chain I hated in New Haven?)
The walls are paper thin, and aside from very expensive linens and a nice lobby, it’s difficult to see any appeal. When Dani and I were here in Boston on her college tour we stayed at the Charles Hotel next to Harvard, which is cheaper and much more comfortable.
After unpacking, I met Pamela Collins, my friend from Australia, in the bar for a drink and to get caught up. It was great to see her again after a year and a half, our last outing being the cruise in Hawaii.
The Tauck welcome dinner gave us an opportunity to meet our fellow travelers, who are an interesting demographic. I’m probably the youngest by a fair margin. Most seem well traveled. Of the 43-person group, six or eight are from the UK, and about ten are from California. The balance are from around the US, including the Carolinas, Mississippi, Texas, Colorado and Wyoming.
Our tour director is Nancy Rowe, who does Alaska in the summer, and New England in the fall. Clearly she must have seniority. The rest of the year she’s a substitute sixth grade teacher, so she’s good at supervising both the young and old.
The food at dinner was banquet fare. It began with gravy-like clam chowder. The beef was a nice cut but ruined with a weird sauce that tasted a bit of mentholatum. A jumbo shrimp that accompanied it was very chlorinated and tired. The hotel’s claim to fame is that Parker House rolls and Boston Cream Pie were invented here, and both were okay.
With no Internet, the iPhone came in really handy for responding to my students’ postings while listening to every word of the neighbor’s soft conversation. I hope my typing isn’t keeping anyone awake.
Boston / Cambridge
Monday, October 8, 2007
After a fairly appalling “Boston Benedict” (heavy corned beef hash on fried, sweet brown bread with a poached egg and hollandaise sauce) we headed out into the rain for a tour of Boston. We drove a circuitous enough route that we passed Emerson College three times. I found that I was surprisingly familiar with the city after my trip here with Dani to visit colleges in August. One college we didn’t visit then was Harvard, which was our first stop. Fortunately the rain had pretty much stopped by the time we reached the campus. We received a presentation by an energetic sophomore girl, Asli, whose parents were from Somalia (although she was from Michigan). The school is a lot like Yale, and although there is no theater major, I was interested to hear that they have a lot of drama classes, and she knows several students who plan to be actors.
Our second stop was back in Boston, at the Old North Church, where the lanterns in the Paul Revere story were hung. Up the hill was Copp’s Hill Burying Ground, an old graveyard.
We left the bus at an open air (read: tourist) market and walked a few blocks back to the hotel, stopping at Borders for coffee.
After an afternoon nap we took a taxi back to Cambridge for a nice dinner at Sandrine’s, an Alsatian/French restaurant Dani and I discovered in August, where I spent most of the meal explaining the plot of Wicked to Pamela. She’s very patient.
Lexington / Concord / Salem
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Contrary to predictions, Tuesday dawned bright and clear. We took a short drive west to where the first skirmish of the America Revolution occurred, and then followed Paul Revere’s ride on toward Concord, where the first battle occurred. Both are small towns with parks and monuments that commemorate the events. An amazing number of famous authors also come from Lexington.
All along today’s route we passed colonial era houses, and even some dating back to the mid 1600s.
A thirty mile drive northeast brought us to the coast, and the town of Salem. Having already been well-schooled in the history of the witch trials during Dani’s appearance in The Crucible, Pamela and I chose to spend our time walking around the town. It’s essentially a square mile of tourist shops selling witch paraphernalia. There are also some cute old houses. We had lunch at a restaurant on the pier called Victoria Station, which I think is a survivor of the 1970s chain.
We then drove out of Massachusetts and along the entire coast of New Hampshire. This didn’t take long, since it’s only 18 miles long. It became increasingly rocky as we approach New Hampshire’s only port, Portsmouth, where we are spending the night a a Sheraton. The large rooms, desks and Internet are a welcome relief after the Omni Parker House.
Congress Avenue is the main street, and is about four blocks of tourist shops. We found a couple of good book stores (due to the town being to small for a Borders or Barnes Noble to open and put them out of business).
We dined on lobster at the hotel with four delightful couples from our tour group, two from Fresno, one from San Francisco, and one from the UK. We had a really nice time. By the time I retired it was beginning to rain.
Coastal Maine / White Mountains
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
It was overcast all day, but except for an occasional sprinkle, the rain held off. Heading up the coast we immediately crossed the bridge into Maine.
Our first stop was the lighthouse at Cape Neddick. It sits on a rocky point connected to land only by a cable and suspended bucket. As with all of Maine’s lighthouses, it is now fully automated.
An hour to the north we arrived in Portland, Maine’s largest city (although only about 65,00 people live here). We were divided into three groups. (I was a cod. ) Pamela had a bit of a sore throat, so she decided to do some shopping while the rest of us cods went out on the lobster boat Lucky Catch. Captain Tom was very informative and entertaining. He’s been lobstering since he was fourteen — although he should be an actor. This time of year he does tour groups in the harbor, but during the rest of the year he works the waters about 8 miles off the coast.
We went to two different spots and pulled up two traps at each location, which got us three lobsters (one of which was too small to keep) and an assortment of crabs that we threw back. The lobsters must be within certain length limits, measured along the carapace. The limits put them between about 1-1/4 and 4-1/2 pounds. The smallest keepers are about seven years old. Females with eggs have a tail fin notched and are thrown back. Notched lobsters are then protected, and must always be thrown back in the future, even if they don’t have eggs. This way the breeders grow large. Similarly, the maximum size limit (in Maine, anyway) assures a population of large males for breeding purposes.
After a fairly pointless interpretive walk around the block we had lunch at a fish and chips place, did a bit more shopping, and then headed west back into New Hampshire.
We stopped briefly at Crystal Lake (an impromptu stop because of the colors) and then at the Swift River Bridge, a covered bridge built in 1869 and now bypassed by a concrete overpass.
Shortly before 5pm we arrived at the White Mountain Hotel and Resort, the exterior of which looks a lot like Wawona on the approach to Yosemite. But it’s nicer on the inside. In fact, the valley we’re in has a granite outcropping of the same glaciated structure as Yosemite Valley.
Pamela and I had a lovely dinner by ourselves, and then sat through part of a talk by a local naturalist before the early morning caught up with us.
White Mountains/ Green Mountains
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Not rainy, but very gloomy, with a low ceiling.
After some pancakes with delicious cinnamon butter, we set out over the Crawford Notch and Franconia Notch (those are passes, for you westerners), where the rock profile of the Old Man of the Mountain stood until 2003. It’s now a guy called “Cliff”! We couldn’t see it anyway, because of the low cloud cover. Nor was Mount Washington, New England’s tallest peak, visible. Although Mt. Washington is only a bit over 6000 feet high, it has the world’s worst weather, with winds clocked as high as 234 miles per hour.
We stopped for a walk at the Basin, a waterfall into a rocky. . . well, basin. It was an excellent walk, with brilliant colors. We just wished the sun would come out so we could really appreciate them.
We also stopped at Bath, a charming little (really little) town with fours shops all owned by Michael, a Rock musician from California. One of the shops is the oldest continuously operating general store in America.
On to Hanover for a drive through Dartmouth — literally. Route 10 goes right through the quad! What a beautiful town and campus (they’re sort of the same thing, since students outnumber residents). We had lunch at a hotel that faces the quad.
Crossing in to Vermont we stopped at the dramatic Quechee Gorge, a very deep and scenic ravine that was alive with color. Just beyond was the Vermont Institute of Natural Science, where we saw a really interesting raptor show, featuring a falcon, hawk, owl and even a turkey vulture.
A hour’s drive brought us to our hotel for the next two nights, The Hawk Inn and Mountain Resort. It is situated in the middle of 1299 acres, and has less than 50 rooms, all occupied by two Tauck tour groups. After a nice wine and cheese reception we went to their tavern restaurant for an excellent dinner. A steady rain settled in during the night.
Woodstock
Friday, October 12, 2007
Last night’s rain had stopped by morning, taking some — but not nearly all — of the leaves with it. We retraced our path back to Woodstock, Vermont for a visit to the Billings Farm and Museum. The farm is a working farm with dairy cows, sheep and chickens. It was established by one of America’s first conservation minded individuals, and later donated to the public by the Rockefellers. There were a lot of great museum exhibits about the history of farming in the early 20th century. An 1890s house built for the foreman has been completely restored and furnished, and is actually quite technologically advanced (for 1890) and rather comfortable, even by today’s standards.
We then made the short walk into downtown Woodstock where Pamela did a bit of shopping, and we had a relaxing lunch at Bentley’s restaurant. Afterward we walked over to the Woodstock Inn, a very nice hotel, and relaxed in the library while waiting for the bus. It started to rain again but only lasted a short time.
Much of the group then visited the home of Calvin Coolidge, and a maple sugar shack. I’ve been thinking about getting Pamela’s cold for a couple of days and the cold air seemed an unwise environment for her (much improved) bronchitis, so we opted to get out of the cold and went back to the hotel along with a dozen other fellow travelers.
A stiff breeze came up in the afternoon, and stripped more of the leaves. Then, at 5pm, the sun came out and I literally ran up the mountain behind the hotel and madly snapped pictures. Although a lot of the color was gone, the light made a huge difference.
We had dinner with six of the more gregarious members of our group and then hit the sack.
Berkshires / Stockbridge
Saturday, October 13, 2007
We awoke to the season’s first frost, and a crisp, clear day with bright sunshine. What a difference it made in the colors! Our first stop was Weston, Vermont, home of the Vermont Country Store. The women shopped and the men took photographs of the very scenic little town.
We also stopped at the grave of Robert Frost in the churchyard of Old First Church in Bennington, Vermont. He’s still dead.
An hour’s drive brought us to Williamstown, where we had lunch at the Williams Inn. Williams College is a scenic campus that forms the center of this town.
Another hour of driving took us south back into Massachusetts, for a visit to Stockbridge, home of the Norman Rockwell Museum. Perched high on a hill next to the first gilded age “cottage” constructed in the Berkshires, the museum was much more interesting than I was expecting. It’s quite remarkable to look at Rockwell’s familiar works close up. No matter how closely I peered at these moderately sized oil paintings, it always seemed there was more detail. Downstairs is a collection of his 322 Saturday Evening Post covers. His studio has also been preserved, moved to a separate building on the grounds, and set up exactly as it was the day he died.
We drove back to Williamstown via a corner of New York, and our driver, Jim, who lives on Lake Champlain and is married to a former Rockette, gave us quite a witty dissertation on all the best points of the state.
Along the way we passed the Shaker village. The Shakers were a religious group who invented a number of furniture types (and other things such as the straight broom), but now there are only seven members left. This is probably due to the fact that one of their religious tenets is celibacy. Note to self: when founding a religion, incorporate wild debauchery.
Our hotel for the night is The Orchards, by far the nicest accommodation of the trip. My room is huge, and decorated like the rooms at the Waldorf Astoria. A farewell reception in the lounge offered an open bar, and dinner in the dining room was superb. The menu prices were amazingly low, with a wonderful filet mignon in a wine reduction and its accompaniments going for $25. Of course, it was all included. Reflecting on the week, I think I’ve bought one dinner, two lunches and two bottles of wine. Everything else has been included in the Tauck price, even tips. Definitely a good deal.
Deerfield and West Podunk (honest!)
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Today was cooler, and breezy. We departed from Williamstown through the Pioneer Valley of the Connecticut River, stopping at Deerfield, a cute little town with lots of colonial era houses.
For lunch we stopped at the Salem Cross Inn at West Podunk. It’s a sprawling complex with some rooms that date back to 1705. It is named for both the Salem family (who began restoring it in 1962 and still operate it) and the “Salem Cross,” an anti-witch sign engraved on the original house’s still-intact door handle.
The building has many dining rooms, most of which were filled with tour groups, so I wasn’t expecting much. But they served the best prime rib I have ever tasted, along with excellent clam chowder and homemade rolls of many different types. Dessert was a wonderful tart apple pie with hand made whipped cream. This was the second best meal of the trip, and a wonderful surprise.
By 3 pm we were at the Logan airport, where I said goodbye to Pamela and the group, and caught my 6:30 flight home to Orlando. It was a very nice group of people, and we had a lot of fun sharing meals and experiences with all of them.
As with all Tauck Tours, this one was well thought out, and the fact that everything was included is always great. Our tour director, Nancy Rowe, seemed particularly concerned with everyone’s welfare, and the driver, Jim Tom, was very entertaining (even if he does need a last name). This itinerary is perhaps a bit less exciting than most, and is dependent upon the trees, which cooperated, and the weather, which was mixed.
Posted inNew England|Comments Off on New England 2007
For Dani’s 16th birthday she asked to take her friend Christina, to Europe. This is the journal of that trip.
The only time Christina has been out of the country was on Dani’s 13th birthday cruise to Nassau, so this will be an adventure for her. We picked her up Friday evening and headed for the airport to catch our nonstop Virgin Atlantic flight to Gatwick airport south of London, connecting on British Air to Rome.
The Virgin flight is one of the few nonstops from Orlando to Europe, and they offer premium economy, which has better seats than coach but is much less expensive than business class. The food is still English, though.
Saturday, June 30, 2007
London to Rome
The girls didn’t get much sleep to speak of on the plane and I got none (my own fault since we were all wearing our ipods, and I was listening to the lyrics).
The plane got into Gatwick a little late but we had a five our layover. Good thing! What a mess it was! At first the immigration line simply wasn’t moving, and there were hundreds of people in front of us from several large planes. But finally, after they processed all the EU people, they must have put more people on the non-EU line. Still, it rook more than an hour to clear immigration, Another hour to get our bags and get checked in at British Air, and then more time to clear security back to the gates. We had to run a gauntlet of eight guys with assault rifles (they must have had some inside intelligence since there was a problem later at Glasgow airport), do the normal X-ray, and then X-ray our shoes separately in a small, shoe-sized X-Ray machine. Gatwick really is broken. The flow and policies make no sense. I don’t know if I’d try to connect through there again or not.
For lunch number 2 (or was it 3?) the girls picked a revolving sushi place that was excellent. That’s where there is a conveyor belt and you take what you want, and then pay according to the stack of empty color coded plates.
Then the plane for Rome was delayed an hour getting into Gatwick. We were dragging by this time, But we had hot chocolate and got our second wind.
The main problem was that the entire population of Western Europe was at the airport. I suspect that’s because it was the first Saturday of summer and everyone was headed for the Mediterranean. Given the cold, rainy weather in London I can see why.
By contrast the Rome airport was a breeze. First time I’ve seen someone stamp passports without looking at them at all!
Our driver was waiting for us and the trip into Rome was quick. We rode with another threesome embarking on a different Globus tour from a different hotel. They are from San Francisco and just spent two weeks in Spain.
The hotel is in a great location, just a half block from St. Peter’s. It’s fairly newly refurbished with nice wood flooring and trim and new furniture.
It was so late the girls didn’t want to nap, they just wanted dinner and bed, so we walked the half block to the edge of the Vatican and had pizza in a local hangout – located literally within the thickness of an ancient wall — that sold it by weight from a deli case. Then we crossed the street and had the best chocolate gelato I’ve had since the last time I was in Rome. The weather was great. 77 degrees.
Now I need to answer a pile of ed2go postings and get to bed.
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Rome
I was awakened by the phone this morning. It was Dani informing me it was 11 AM! Admittedly, I was up until midnight doing email, but I was surprised how late I slept.
The weather was beautiful today, mid 80s and a slight breeze. We slathered ourselves in sunscreen and set out to walk across the city.
We passed St. Peter’s square at noon and saw (a teeny dot in the distance) and heard the Pope speaking to the multitudes. Then we crossed the Tiber, bought some postcards in an antique book shop (Dani’s postcard torrent begins) and made our way to the Pantheon.
In the square there we had lunch at the same outdoor cafe as on our last visit, then ventured into the immense coolness of the Pantheon.
I didn’t bring a guidebook on this trip, so I had to wing it, but I think I got most everything right except possibly the part about it having been built by Haliburton.
Next stop was the Trevi fountain, where we all threw coins in to guarantee our return to Rome on a future visit.
On our way back we spotted the Roman ruins (pictured on many of the local postcards) where there are hundreds of cats fed by local cat ladies. Then we meowed for a taxi and caught a ride back to the hotel. A very successful day.
We met our tour group this evening in the lobby. They seem very nice. The demographics are interesting. It’s a much younger group than usual, with 8 of the 44 being teenage or recently teenage girls. This is nearly everyone’s first visit to Europe.
Out Tour Director is Lia, short for Cornelia. She is a middle aged Dutch woman with a great sense of humor.
Dinner was at “The Grotto of the Emperors,” a basement restaurant similar to all the other basement restaurants that cater to tourist groups. The six course dinner and free wine were tasty, and the entertainment by a trio of accordion/guitar/opera singers was. . . clearly audible.
By the end the group looked ready for bed, but we felt completely on schedule. Good thing, because our wakeup call tomorrow is 5:45 AM.
Monday, July 2, 2007
Rome
The early wakeup call wasn’t all that bad. After a traditional European hotel buffet breakfast we took our coach around to the other side of the Vatican to queue for the tour. We arrived about 40 minutes before the group opening at 8 AM, which was a good thing, because I’ve never seen the Vatican so crowded. This was because Friday through Sunday it was closed for a holiday.
Our local guide, Patricia, spoke exceptional English, but the microphone on her Whisper audio system wasn’t picking her up all that well. When she narrated on the bus it was great, though.
That’s a painting on the left, not a sculpture!
At the Vatican Museum we toured the Roman sculpture gallery, the tapestry gallery, and the map gallery. In other words, the usual hallway that leads to the Sistine Chapel. Patricia provided an excellent explanation of the history of the frescoes in the chapel before hand, since there is no talking (only mooing) allowed in the chapel. We found an uncrowded corner with only about 400 people in it and admired the art for 20 minutes.
Then it was next door to Saint Peter’s Basilica, the largest church in the world. The dome in Saint Peter’s Basilica is so high the 34-story Sun Bank building in Orlando would fit in it. Our exploration was somewhat cursory compared to the private tour Linda and I took a couple of years ago, but everyone’s feet were tired anyway.
We walked across St. Peter’s Square (it was hot!) to a (you’ll never guess) Vatican gift shop. For the past two days I’ve been trying to cash a 500 Euro bill, but the hotel never has enough cash. But guess who does? Yup.
The girls bought Vatican stamps to mail their first pile of postcards, we had a soft drink, and then entered a tunnel that led to an amazing parking garage designed for tour buses. Next stop: the Coliseum.
We got a nice break in the weather, as it began to cloud over and a breeze came up, and there were even a couple of sprinkles. By the time we reached the Coliseum. it had probably cooled off ten degrees.
Did you know that “Coliseum” is only a nickname, because it had a colossal statue in front? Unfortunately, like every other piece of metal in ancient Roman it has long since been melted down. But the name stuck. I guess “The Flavian Amphitheater” didn’t have much of a ring to it.
It was a lightning fast tour, but it worked (Linda would have been frustrated, though). Then we climbed the hill to overlook the forum.
There is an exhibition being put together, and they have erected stark white plastic(!) columns in the places where the original columns are missing from the temple that overlooked the Coliseum. That gave us an interesting impression of how big the thing was.
We arrived back at the hotel around 1 PM, freshened up, and strolled a block toward the Tiber, where we had lunch in an outdoor cafe down the street from St. Peter’s Square. As we walked back, it was beginning to sprinkle lightly.
Nearly all of our group went back out again at 3 PM for an optional $80 tour, to do what we did on Sunday, followed by another group dinner (but will there be another demon accordionist?) We, on the other hand, got to relax, do postcards, journals, and naps. At 8 PM we went out and wandered around the neighborhood until we found a trattoria that suited us and had a leisurely dinner. Then we walked back to our gelato place for desert.
I’m really glad we had the extra day. We got to touch on all the highlights of Rome without overdoing it.
Olives!
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Rome to Florence
We left Rome at 8 AM and had an easy drive to Florence, entertained along the way by Lia’s sense of humor, and arriving a bit after noon.
We had a fairly poor lunch at the Grande Café at San Marcos Square and then queued for the Uffizi Gallery. It takes a month to get reservations, so I had never seen it. Our local guide was fine, but took us only to a room of religious icons and to see Michelangelo’s David. I explored an extensive and ornate musical instrument exhibit and quickly walked through a sculpture hall while she prattled on the headset.
David looked just like the exact replica of him in Piazza Signoria. I really don’t see what all the fuss is about David. His head’s too big for his body and his hands are too big for even his head.
We then walked to the cathedral to view Brunelleschi’s Dome (only from street level, although some brave soles had climbed 34 stories) and the brass doors of the baptistery (which are copies of the originals).
Next we walked to the Piazza Signoria where we saw the Rape of the Sabine Women (not the actual event, a sculpture). We had seen the plaster model for this at the Uffizi, and it looked just the same only cleaner.
Finally we walked to the Piazza San Croce, where we met up with Lia, who ushered us into a gold and leather shop. Expecting one of the normal hard sells, I was pleasantly surprised by the brief and entertaining presentation about Florence gold. But what was really good was the leather presentation, which was very funny and informative. A number of the people on the tour got to model the coats for us, most amusingly, and Dani actually ended up buying a very nice (i. e. expensive) leather coat that looks great on her. Since she spent her schoolbook refund money on it, I like to think she’s wearing everything she learned this year.
By the time we walked to the bus (did I mention they’re not allowed anywhere in the old city?) we were ready to sit down. Florence is cute, and has some nice art, leather and gold, but for me, five hours was just the right stay. It’s not a place that excites me, the way Rome does.
Our hotel, the Cosmopolitan, is a bit west of the city. It’s very new and European chic, with proximity switches at the door. The group dinner on the third floor was okay, and the Montipulciano was excellent. .
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
Florence to Venice
We left Florence at 8 AM and header over and through the Apennines on the fours hour drive to Venice. The scenery along the way was initially green mountains with a sprinkling of houses and olive groves, but near Venice it changed to pastureland. The weather in Florence looked threatening, but in Venice is was mostly clear and about 90 degrees.
A water bus took us from the end of the bridge to Saint Mark’s square. With a little time to ourselves, we strolled along some of the smaller passages and had some delicious sandwiches and calzones at a snack counter. Then we met our local guide back at Saint Mark’s for some information about the history of Venice.
While we waited to enter the cathedral we noticed water coming up from the drains as the tide came in, driven by a strong wind. Before we could enter they had to change to a door at a higher elevation. Inside, the cathedral is fairly ugly, although it is admittedly almost 1000 years old. The tiled floor rolled like the sea due to settling.
The local guide dropped us off at the Murano Glass shop — not the real one on the island, but a huge shop a block or two from Saint Mark’s Square, with many floors and many rooms on each floor. We saw a demonstration of glass blowing, where the craftsman mad a fairly elaborate vase in about three minutes. It was really impressive and fun to watch as always. Afterwards we shopped for glass thingamabobs and wandered the narrow passageways until it was time for our gondola ride.
Unfortunately, it was also time for a storm, and it got cool and began to pour. On the bright side, we weren’t already in the gondola.
Instead, we went to one of the cafes off of the square where we paid extortionist prices for espressos and listened to live jazz.
After about thirty minutes the rain stopped and the girls ventured out to feed the pigeons. One of the decided to go for a ride on Dani’s head, and was content to sit there as we strolled about a block. It must have been migrating.
A few people did stick around and got a gondola ride, including a couple celebrating their twentieth wedding anniversary. Last year she lost the stone from her wedding ring and has been wearing a cheap replacement. On the ride he took her ring, threw it overboard, and gave her a nice new one.
Then we caught the water bus back to the land bus to our hotel. The Hotel Anthony is not far from the bridge to the island. It’s an older hotel in fairly good shape, but it’s the kind of place where the shampoo comes in a Taco Bell hot sauce packet. Definitely not four star. My first stop was the front desk, to pay three Euros for the “free” wireless Internet service.
We had a group dinner at the hotel that was fine, and shared our Ferrari Spumante (fairly dry, like off-dry Champagne) with the anniversary couple.
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Venice to Lucerne
We spent Thursday on the bus from Venice to Lucerne. Leaving the hotel at 7:30, we took a wrong turn at Milano and so had lunch in a truck stop. It was delicious! Unfortunately, this cost us an hour or two of extra driving time.
Our morning drive paralleled the Dolomite Mountains. After lunch we turned north and began to climb up into the Alps.
The buses here record the driver’s hours on a paper disk (to become electronic next year), and the drivers have lots of restrictions, including a 45 minute break every four hours. (In fact, tomorrow our driver isn’t allowed to drive at all, hence our two-day stay in Lucerne. )
We stopped in Lugano for one of these breaks. It’s where the home office of Globus is. Lugano is a beautiful and pricey shopping area and resort just past the Italian/Swiss border.
It seemed strange to have to stop at the border at all, but of course Switzerland isn’t part of the EU (which means we’ll need some Swiss Francs, too).
After Lugano the road climbed steeply, and we entered the most picturesque scenery I’ve encountered. Sharp, snow rimmed peaks towered above us, their bases blanketed by emerald grass. Cows with placid brown eyes and real cowbells around their necks grazed on the steep slopes, well above the treeline.
We stopped at 6000 foot Gotthard Pass to take photos and discovered the temperature had dropped from 90 degrees to 50 degrees during our half hour ascent.
On the other side of the pass, rivulets collected in a small pond, flowing out in a gradually increasing stream — the headwaters of the Rhine. It twisted between grass-carpeted shoulders and rocky outcroppings.
Passing through the narrowest gorges, the scenery resembled a model train layout, with its exaggerated topography, crisscrossing railroad and foot bridges, and cascading waterfalls. In many spots the road was covered to prevent avalanches or rock slides from scraping the cars off. Occasional outposts or solitary cottages appeared unexpectedly around each bend.
As we descended we passed from the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland to the Swiss-Deutsch part, which represents 70% of the country. The road curved through many tunnels, the longest of which was 9 kilometer. There is a far longer tunnel that bypasses the pass, but we didn’t take that one because we would have missed the scenery.
We arrived in Lucerne at 7pm, after almost 12 hours on the bus. Good thing it’s a comfortable bus and Lia is so entertaining! The temperature was back up to 80 degrees .
Our hotel, the Astoria, is in the center of downtown. It has many restaurants, and there is a lot of shopping nearby, and it’s a short walk to the lake. The hotel is the poorest of the trip so far, but is, frankly, more like what I was expecting. The soap is literally less than a square inch, and comes in its own hot sauce packet.
The hotel’s atmosphere isn’t helped by major construction of a meeting hall. The view outside my window is of a twenty foot square concrete room, and their is scaffolding inches from the glass. On the other hand, the street noise we were warned about won’t be a problem in this room!
Anyway, it’s nice to be off the bus. Most of the group was going to a folklore dinner, but we weren’t really in the mood for something so touristy, so we strolled across the historic wooden bridge to the other side of the river and had fondue and dinner in an outdoor cafe at the Hotel des Alpes.
I stayed up until midnight doing my journal, responding to students and trying to upload files through the lame Internet service at the hotel. I was sitting in the temporary lobby when our well-oiled group returned from the folklore dinner. Reports were enthusiastic, but I’m not really into events that include a beer drinking contest, so I’m glad we skipped it.
Friday, July 6, 2007
Lucerne
Another 6 AM wakeup call, for an early breakfast and ride on a coach borrowed from another group. We were the first ones to to board the cog wheel railway that ascends Mount Pilatus. The weather at the base was mixed sun and overcast, so we weren’t sure what it would be like on top.
Legend has it that after Pontius Pilate committed suicide the area where he was buried was cursed. So the Romans moved him to the most remote spot they could think of. This was it. (Personally, if I’d been assigned to do that, I would have dumped him off a bridge and just claimed I buried him on top of a 7000 foot mountain, but hey. ) There was also something about a dragon guarding it, but I missed the connection somewhere.
Anyway, Globus gave us these really nice embroidered caps with the dragon on them, so our entire group looked like a coed baseball team.
The cog wheel train ascends the mountain at a steep angle, near 47 degrees in most spots, so the trip up was spectacular. Towering fir trees gradually gave way to grassy slopes broken by the occasional slide of gravel sliding down a sheer face, or rivulets splashing over jagged boulders. Halfway up we passed a farmhouse. The farmer had already taken his cows even higher on the hillside, and in another few minutes we heard their cow bells ringing, and then passed them as they grazed. (I’d love to have heard the conversation: “Hey, look at that really tall mountain. The top of that would be a great place to graze cows. “)
At the top we passed into the underside of the clouds, so except for occasional glimpses, visibility was near zero. It was about 40 degrees, with a stiff wind blowing. Stiff enough that we couldn’t take the gondolas down, which is too bad, I’m sure it would have been amazing. But we enjoyed the ride down on the cog wheel train, too.
Back downtown we visited the Lion sculpted from the rock face, the most famous site in Lucerne. It commemorates the Swiss Guards killed while unsuccessfully defending Marie Antoinette during the French Revolution. If you look carefully you can see that the sculptor played a joke on his patron, who he thought was a pig. Look at the outline of the opening.
Nearby we stopped at Bucherer’s department store to use some vouchers for free spoons and buy some chocolate. Nice jewelry and Rolex watches here. The prices aren’t as outrageous as the rest of Europe.
Near the lion sculpture is a restaurant Lia recommended called The Old Swiss House. Its traditional architecture in the midst of the modern city makes it look a bit like a tourist attraction, but the three of us decided to try it. Wow! What a fabulous meal. The gazpacho was the best I’ve ever tasted (sorry Linda) with fresh diced ingredients served on the side to dump in to your taste.
Weinershnitzel was prepared tableside. Let’s just say a serving for one involved two sticks of butter. And the creme brulee (called burned cream catalan here) was possibly the best I’ve ever had. Best of all, I discovered they were a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence winner with a very deep list of old Bordeaux at crazy prices. Would you believe 1961 Ch. Croizet-Bages for $130? I couldn’t resist. What a fantastic bottle of wine that was! On the way out the proprietor pointed out their Mouton vertical — every vintage back to the 19th century! Because every year’s label is unique, the worst years are the most expensive, since those bottle were not laid away. So the 1946, which I’m sure would be undrinkable, set them back $12,000! Anyway, it was an amazing experience, and all three of us really enjoyed it.
After lunch we did some tourist shopping. While the girls were in a bookstore I found an inexpensive digital camera as a gift for Christina. Her camera has been eating batteries like a demon, so I think she’ll have a lot more fun with this one.
We strolled back to the hotel and had a restful afternoon, then a group dinner (tasty sauteed fish with a lemon sauce) in the dining room.
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Lucerne to Paris
We spent most of Saturday on the bus. Almost as soon as we left Lucerne, the scenery changed to rolling hills and farmland. We skirted a few outlying vineyards in Burgundy, but the most memorable sights were the many vibrant colored fields of sunflowers. Several truck stops provided breaks and lunch, and we arrived at the Holiday Inn Republique around 5 pm. Dani and I stayed here once before, but it has been remodeled since then. It’s a large, older hotel with nice rooms. They serve a full complimentary breakfast and the worst (i. e. American) coffee in Paris.
After a couple of hours rest we headed back out for an evening sightseeing tour. We’ve only purchased two of the optional excursions on this trip because we know our way around these cities. This tour was particularly popular, with 100% enrollment by the group.
Because Miguela couldn’t drive any more that day, we borrowed a bus from another group, a Trafalgar tour. This bus had 52 seats compared to our 44, and would have been very uncomfortable for daily use.
We began by passing through one of the seediest parts of Paris, an unlikely combination of wedding shops and sex shops. We disembarked in front of the Moulin Rouge, which I hadn’t realized was in the midst of this detritus. A tourist tram took us up the hill that is Montmartre. The district turned first trendy, then touristy as we reached the top, where Sacre Coeur overlooks the city.
Searching for a non-touristy restaurant we walked away from the square and tried a restaurant called La Bonne Franquette. Unfortunately it turned out to be just as touristy as the rest, and they tried to pull a bait and switch on the wine I tried to order. The food was mediocre by French standards, but certainly adequate.
After dinner we purchased chocolate and Nutella crepes from a take out window and strolled back to the tram stop.
It was now past 10 pm and the lights of the city began to come on. We drove around the city admiring the lights along the Champs Elysee and then stopped at the Eiffel Tower, where Lia convinced everyone someone was going to jump off. Of course what we were really waiting for was the strobe light illumination that occurs for ten minutes at 10 pm, 11 pm and midnight. This is part of the system installed for the Millennium, and recently put back into use.
On the way back to the hotel we drove past Notre Dame and through the Marais district, with its bustling gay bars.
By the time we returned to the hotel and I did some email it was nearly 1 am, not leaving much sleeping time before our 6 am wakeup call.
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Paris
The streets were nearly deserted Sunday morning, a big contrast to Saturday night. Our local guide, Isabella, took us, past Notre Dame and the Sorbonne, then to the Eiffel Tower to get into line early, before its 9 am opening. We had tickets to the second floor, but considered leaving the tour and going to the top. In the end we opted for convenience and stayed with the group, getting dropped off on the Rue de Rivoli outside the Louvre. We had a late breakfast or early lunch at Angelina, a tea room similar to our favorite, La Duree. Ahh! at last! French food. Baguettes, cheeses and super rich hot chocolate.
We walked to the pyramid and entered the Louvre, which was perhaps a bit less crowded than on our last couple of visits.
We spent about two hours doing the highlights, including the medieval castle they unearthed when digging the new basement, the Venus de Milo, Mona Lisa and Winged Victory of Samathrace.
We probably spent the most time in the 17th century Flanders galleries. All told I estimate we walked though about five percent of the Louvre.
Back on the Rue Rivoli we had drinks in a sidewalk cafe and the girl went to the nearby fun fair and rode one of those rides with the swings around the edge.
Henry, the director of Alcorn McBride sarl, picked us up a bit before 5 pm and took us to the Champs Elysee for dinner. His son Zacharie came along tool. Zacharie is now fours years old, a handsome little boy.
Originally we had intended to hang out for a while and then go to dinner later, but we were all tired and Zacharie was feeling a bit under the weather, so we decided to have an early dinner at Fouquet’s, a famous restaurant across from Louis Vuitton on the Champs Elysee.
The food was surprisingly good for a touristy place, and we enjoyed having a chance to relax and chat with Henry. We were back at out hotel before 8 pm, and enjoyed a good night’s sleep.
Monday, July 9, 2007
Paris to London
After breakfast we took a short bus ride to the Gare de Nord, where we said goodbye to our driver, Miguela, and caught the TGV train. Once on the outskirts of Paris, the train accelerated to over 200 miles per hour, and the French countryside raced past.
It goes slower in the chunnel, because of the amount of air is displaces as it moves through the relatively constrained space. The chunnel transit took about 20 minutes. When we emerged in England we traveled slower, because the track is not as good. We arrived at Waterloo Station shortly before 1pm, with a one our time change.
A bus ride across London brought us to the Hilton Metropole, a large convention hotel that is quite comfortable. We said goodbye to our tour director, Lia, and were handed over to the Globus representative who work in the office at the Hilton. We didn’t sign up for any of the optional London tours, so we’ll be mostly on our own, now.
Dani and Christina took advantage of the comfortable beds and had a long nap. For dinner we rode the elevator up to the 23rd floor and had a nice Japanese meal at Nippon Tuk (is that name a joke?)
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
London
We were extremely lucky with the weather today It has been raining in London for a month, but today was lovely, with scattered clouds and temperatures in the mid seventies. More importantly, it was a lovely evening for the open air theatre.
Our day began with the last Globus event, a city tour around London. We passed all the usual sites and then stopped at St. Paul’s where we left the tour and walked across the Millennium Bridge to Shakespeare’s Globe theater. Dani and I saw Coriolanus here on our last visit, but this time we just took the guided tour, which was quite interesting, and gave us a chance to experience to view from the yard and the lower seating. We discovered that the second tier seats have more legroom than the third tier seats we sat in last year.
A couple of performers in one of the current shows were rehearsing while we were there, and they seemed to be fairly mediocre.
After the tour we crossed back over the Thames and caught the underground to Embankment, where we had fish and chips and curried chick for lunch in the cafe in the park. There are many fewer pigeons in London than there used to be because it’s now prohibited to feed them. They seemed quite put out about this.
We walked to Trafalgar Square and spent an hour in the 18th century painting wing of the National Gallery. It was quite impressive to see rooms full of paintings by Monet, Renoir, Degas, and Van Gogh.
I think everyone’s favorite painting was “An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump,” in which artist Joseph Wright perfectly captured the varied emotions of each person present.
Our next stop was Harrods, which is more like an entire city inside one store. Dani wanted to proved to herself that you can even buy bridles for your horse in this department store. You can. But like almost everything else at Harrods, they’re expensive. Our purchase was sandwiches, bread and cheese for tonight’s picnic.
Back at the hotel the girls took a long nap and then we took the tube to Regent’s Park. Outside we picnicked under the tents, but the girls didn’t like the yellowjacket that was interested in our sandwiches. Ah, the joys of outdoor dining.
Macbeth was interesting. It was staged very similarly to Trinity Prep’s production, using a mixture of modern costumes and traditional plaid. The set was several large cargo containers.
All of the performers were either marginally or significantly better than their Trinity counterparts, with one glaring exception: Lady Macbeth. She played only one emotion — ruthlessness — throughout. And her sleepwalking scene was completely emotionless. I could feel Dani next to me, struggling not to jump up and show her how to do it.
After the show we walked back to the tube, and were back at the hotel by 11:30.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
London
We took advantage of a rare day with no wakeup call to sleep in, and nearly missed the 10:30 cutoff for breakfast. Then we took the tube across town to The British Museum, where we spent a couple of hours looking at all the stuff the British stole from Greece and Egypt.
Avoiding the mediocre Indian restaurant we tried last time, we found another a half block north, called Chambeli, and enjoyed a leisurely four course lunch before returning to the hotel for naps before the show.
Linda had arrived for her day and a half in London, and was napping, too.
In the evening we went to the West End to see Mary Poppins at the Prince Edward Theatre. The staging of the show was amazing, with an entire house moving up and down, the attic and roof top expanding as needed, and lots of ‘magic. ‘ It used the original songs from the movie to great advantage, but more closely followed the book. The performers were all terrific, and the audience loved it.
I like act 2 better than act 1, because it does a better job of finding the story, which is about the father. The new songs they added are formulaic, and don’t measure up to the originals, but there aren’t many of them. It builds to one of the best endings for a musical I’ve seen.
After the show we crossed the street and had an Excellent Thai meal at Patara. We got back to out hotel a bit after midnight, answering the question: “Do underground day passes really expire at midnight?” Not if you’re already inside the turnstiles.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
London
We slept in, then took a rather circuitous three segment underground ride to Marble Arch, a nearby place that’s hard to get to from our hotel. Today was the culinary highlight of our trip, a visit to Le Gavroche, London’s first 3-star Michelin restaurant (although now two start, since the original chef retired and his son has taken over.
Lunch consisted of eight courses:
Rare peppered tuna
Asparagus tips with truffles
Wild salmon with crispy skin
Fois Gras and a duck pastry
Rack of lamb
Cheese cart with about 50 selections
Chocolate Gateau and sorbet
Floating Islands
Yes, there were two desserts. Plus petits fours! Oh, and an amuse bouche to start. Oh, and hors d’oeuvres upstairs before hand.
There were about as many employees as guests, and the service was orchestrated like a ballet. Linda and I had the wine pairings with the lunch, and shared a taste with the girls. All eight wines were top notch, and brilliant matches to the food. The standout was a 1928 Maury Solera. The wines:
Liefmanns Kriek Cherry Beer (amazing!)
Don Jose Sherry Olorosa (bone dry)
Puligny Montrachet, “La Truffiere,” Morey, 1999
Tokay Pinot Gris, Beyer, 1997
Ch. de Villegeorge 1999 (Haut Medoc)
Le Soula 2002 (Rhone)
Maury Solera 1928
Vin de Constance 2001 (muscat)
I particularly enjoyed the Boulette d’Avesnes, an orange pyramid of cheese that we also had at L’Arpege, the 3-star Michelin in Paris.
It was an amazing three hour lunch.
To complete our European spree we headed for The Victoria Theatre and London’s greatest musical, Billy Elliot. It’s a particular treat to see this show, because it will probably never play in the US, due to its apparent appeal to young people but its extremely salty language. Dani and I saw it last year, but Linda wasn’t with us. This show is the reason for her whirlwind trip.
The show was terrific, but not as good as when Dani and I saw it last year with the original cast. This Billy was perhaps a better actor, and had a more modern dance style, and his enthusiasm made us suspect it was one of his first shows. They made some staging and dialogue changes that sometimes worked better but other times didn’t. The final half hour was particularly good, though. The show has a unique way of dancing through the bows that it quite exciting.
All in all, a very fine last day to our trip.
Friday, July 13, 2007
London to Orlando
We took advantage of Globus’ transfer service to get to the airport. It’s a really easy and economical way to do it. Meanwhile Linda headed off separately with a driver to catch her Delta flight.
Gatwick airport wasn’t the madhouse it was two weeks ago, although security was very, very tight. The only complication was that our tickets were for the next day(!) I’m not sure how that happened, but an extraordinarily helpful Virgin Atlantic agent at the baggage counter took care of getting our tickets changed, and we were all set.
I dozed during the nine-hour nonstop to Orlando, and Dani read Margaret Atwood’s Lady Oracle, about her tenth book of the trip.
We cleared customs in record time, and despite a jam on I4 dropped Christina at home before 7pm. Linda arrived shortly after 9pm.
Christina’s Favorites
Venice
Billy Elliot
Dani’s Favorites
First Day in Rome
Mary Poppins
Steve’s Favorites
Mount Pilatus
The Old Swiss House
Dani’s final postcard tally for the trip: 43.
Some Tips for Next Time
Globus buses seat 44, while Trafalgar buses seat 52. That would be a big difference in comfort over a week or more.
The little, laminated, folding map of London is great.
Chambeli is a good Indian restaurant on Southampton Row between the British Museum and the Russell Square underground station.
There also is a large Indian restaurant on the circular road around Regent’s park, a bit west of the south entrance.
When in Lucerne — even passing through at noon — eat at the Old Swiss House.
Consider avoiding connections in Gatwick. Orlando to Miami/Atlanta/JFK to Rome would be better.
Best seats for Billy Elliot would be front row of the balcony, because nearly all of the orchestra puts your eye level below the stage floor, so it’s hard to see the tap dancing.
Hotel Ratings:
Rome – Starhotels Michelangelo **** Florence – Cosmopolitan Hotel ***** Venice – Alberghi Antony Hotel *** Lucerne – Astoria Hotel ** Paris – Holiday Inn République **** London – Hilton London Metropole ****
Ron and Bev invited us to Victoria & Albert’s chef’s table in Disney’s Grand Floridian. We were joined by Philipe and Audrey. Chef Scott was in town (at last!) and provided an amazing meal, with several new creative touches. The menus were slightly different for the men and ladies. Here’s mine:
Tasting Notes
Flight 1
NV
Krug Champagne
Youthful color, nice effervescence, surprisingly nutty and toasty.
88 points
Flight 2
1961
Ch. Hut Brion Blanc
When I went to pull this wine from my cellar I was surprised to discover it was a white that had been misfiled in the reds! Since we love Haut Brion Blanc, this was indeed a pleasant surprise. This is the oldest vintage of Haut Brion Blanc I’ve tasted, but I would have gueesed itwas from the 90’s. Light straw color, intense lemon nose, later becoming intense crushed mint leaves, dust, bees wax, soap, youthful floral finish. The nose continued to improve for hours. After three hours: lemon sherbert-coated vanilla ice cream bar, a hint of smokiness. Probably the wine of the evening.
98 points
1934
Ch. Olivier
Clear but somewhat orage. Oxidized nose but pleasant, nutty, balanced mineral and citrus flavors.
83 points
2000
Ch. “Y”
Pale straw, floral, white pepper, honey, vanilla, banana creme brule, dry but really fruity, bubble gum finish(!). Fabulous wine.
96 points
Flight 3
1961
Richebourg Paul Bouchard & Cie.
Good color, big fruit nose, bacon fat, meat, youthful fruit finish, wood, citrus, cherries, mint, long, balanced, great match to pork reduction.
94 points
1929
Romanee St. Vivant
Cloudy, plummy nose, caramel, sour cherries
88 points
Flight 4
1938
Ch. Mouton Rothschild
I wasn’t expecting much from this, but it’s way better than the ’38 Cheval Blanc. Youthful, fruity, cherries, mushrooms, wood, mint, amazingly youthful, shoe polish, lead pencil, licorice, very focused.
97 points
1947
Ch. La Fleur Petrus
Somewhat corked, mint, big fruit, herbs, chewy, very young, vanilla, long fruit, wood.
97 points
Flight 5
1968
BV Georges de la Tour Private Reserve
Redwood nose, huge, chewy, mint, vanialla, big fruit, perfectly youthful, cherries, great match to corn and lamb confit. Nose later became pronounced curry. Fabulous bottle of a great wine.
95 points
1985
Camymus Special Selection
Dusty, big fruit, still needs time.
92 points
Flight 6
1970
Ch. Caillou Creme de Tete Sauternes
Ice wine from Barsac. Really interesting, and right up there near Yquem. Vanilla, figs, marmalade, medium to low acid.
92 points
1996
Ch. Suideraut
Botrytis nose, very low acid
88 points
Flight 7
1990
Gaja Barolo
Very corked. Velvety fruit
Not rated
1982
Barbaresco Nicolini
Medium ruby color, floral / meaty nose, sweet candy finish
90 points
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This trip to Japan sort of snuck up on us. Between having hardwood floors installed, buying new living room furniture, painting and redecorating the guest room, getting ready for Christmas, and entertaining my Dad, suddenly it was the day after Christmas and we were packing for Tokyo.
The 4 am alarm was an unwelcome sound, but our trip to the airport and flight to Atlanta were uneventful. By 10 am we were boarding Delta flight 55 for the 14-hour flight to Tokyo’s Narita Airport.
The Boeing 777 was a lovely plane, with business elite seats that nearly reclined flat. I exchanged 360,000 frequent flyer miles for the tickets back in March, when I thought Delta might be going out of business. Even though they are still in bankruptcy, it was gratifying to see that their international service has really improved — a necessity to compete with foreign carriers on their many new routes. As a result, the food and service was excellent. The Japanese meal I had was particularly noteworthy, with a dozen small ceramic dishes of tasty mysteries.
We were able to nap for several hours, which helped make up for the early morning and ten time-zone shift (Tokyo is 14 hours ahead of Orlando). Dani took advantage of my new laptop’s 9-hour battery to add 3500 words to her novel, The Last Telepath, which is now past 20,000 words.
The flight path took us over Alaska — I know, it doesn’t seem like a shortcut until you look at a globe. We arrived a bit after 2 pm Thursday, having lost an entire day somewhere over the Bering Sea, when we crossed the International Date Line.
It was very windy in Tokyo, which made for an exciting landing. I was struck by how much the airport — and much of the city’s architecture, for that matter — looked like Frankfurt. In fact, all of Tokyo looks much more European than I was expecting. Except for the signs in Japanese, the sea of 5-foot tall, black-haired people, and the cars being on the opposite side of the street, it would be hard to distinguish it from any major European city.
The people are very different, though. Friendly but reserved, and extremely focused on doing things right. This was in evidence from the moment we arrived at the airport. Waiting for the bus to the hotel, industrious porters arranged and tagged our luggage and positioned it (and us) just so, in anticipation for the spot-on arrival of the bus. There was much more spoken English and English signage than I was expecting, although this changes dramatically, away from tourist-frequented areas. In the city there are lots of English names on stores and buildings, but they’re mostly just words that sound good to the Japanese, and don’t convey any meaning.
The topography of Japan is similar to Southern California, although one guide book described it as looking like a perpetual construction site. Certainly the land is thoroughly used, with every acre of the 45-mile drive from airport to hotel occupied by either a rice field or a building. Speaking of guidebooks, here are some things I learned by reading the excellent Time Out Tokyo during the flight:
Japan is an archipelago that stretches from the latitude of Miami to Montreal. Tokyo is about even with Atlanta.
The Japanese literacy rate is 99%.
There is no tipping in Japan, an odd but refreshing experience.
All but three of Japan’s 3000 streams and rivers are dammed!
Approximately 100 million Japanese practice the traditional Shinto religion. And 100 million practice a version of China’s Buddhism. Impressive, considering the population is 127 million. Clearly these people are hedging their bets.
On the drive from the airport we passed a Carre Four (French) supermarket, Tokyo Disneyland, a very, very large Ferris wheel, The Ginza shopping district, and Tokyo station. By this time the sun had set (at 4:30!), and the city was a mixture of Vegas neon and brightly lit office buildings. Workers were still hard at it in most of the buildings, but there were also a lot of office parties in progress. December 28th is the last day of work for most people, and culminates in a traditional Japanese-style blow out. Many of these workers won’t go back to their jobs until January 4th.
Central Tokyo was a literal tangle of streets, bridges, causeways and canals. It was amazing to see vending machines glowing in the darkest corners of these concrete mazes. In a city with low crime, these machines are safe from vandalism everywhere. And they are everywhere, vending, soft drinks, beer, cigarettes, condoms and even used teenage girl’s panties (although we didn’t actually see any of those. . . sorry, Dave).
At the hotel I was bemused that, in a city with little crime, procedure still dictated that every last baggage tag be matched to our luggage as we disembarked. This was all done for us, but it had to be done.
I didn’t realize it when I booked it, but we’re staying at the hotel where Lost In Translation was filmed. The Park Hyatt is a stylish, modern facility occupying the 41st through 51st floors of one of the western-most high rises in Shinjuku, Tokyo’s “skyscraper” district. At over 300 square feet, the rooms are among the city’s largest. The staff is extremely efficient (of course) and friendly, and well-versed in English. A measure of their efficiency was that when we checked in they didn’t have a record of the third person in our room. By the time we were escorted to the room, there were already three people there making it up for the extra person.
Our luggage was delivered moments later by a young lady who apologized profusely when I had to help her heft the largest piece onto a shelf to prevent her from being flattened — but better to lose face than life.
The wind had swept away the clouds, providing infinite visibility in all directions. Given how even the locals lingered at the windows, I suspect this is a one-a-year event. As promised, our room looked directly onto Mt. Fuji. I wonder how many guests have never spotted it?We had an early dinner in the lobby restaurant, Girandole, which specializes in American food. It was okay, but expensive, more attributable to the hotel it’s in than the cost of Tokyo these days, which after fifteen years of inflation isn’t nearly as high as it once was. The exchange rate is pretty good — 118 Yen to the dollar — but this is still going to be an expensive trip: a bottle of San Pellegrino water is $15. By 7:30 pm we were in bed, and didn’t surface until 7 am.
Friday, December 29, 2006
The next morning we awoke to find Tokyo dazzling. Still breezy, and with few commuters to replenish the smog, visibility remained infinite. Dani and I had an American breakfast in the lobby restaurant, with delicious croissants, scones and other pastries.
The most notable feature of the room is one the Japanese take for granted. No, this isn’t the captain’s chair on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise, although it has more buttons. Don’t press them unless you like surprises. It’s typical of most toilets in quality establishments in Japan. Because the Japanese don’t like rude noises, it is also the habit of women to flush the toilet multiple times to mask the sound. Because this was wasting water, many public toilets are equipped with audio players that make a flushing noise when their button is pushed!
There is an entirely different type of public toilet that provides a far less pleasant experience. As you walk around Tokyo, you are often handed packets with advertising on them. The advertisers know you won’t throw them away, because they contain toilet paper — a necessity in this other caliber of public facility.
After a visit with the concierge, Crystal Wong, to organize our week, we set out to explore. A twenty-minute walk East brought us to Shinjuku Station. Thanks to careful reading of the guide and a few leaps of logic, we were able to use the automated kiosk to purchase three Suica passes, essentially wireless smart cards with pre-loaded fares. These will work on the Japan Railway trains, but not on the other three competing systems. Shinjuku Station is the one that often appears in films of rush hour in Tokyo: white-gloved personnel pressing commuters into trains so the doors will close. Fortunately for us, the New Year holiday means the trains are almost empty by Tokyo standards, with only a few people in each car. The Yamanote line is a particularly easy way to get around Tokyo, as it makes a loop, and stops in most of the places that interest visitors.
Most Tokyo streets aren’t named, which makes it a bit of a challenge to get around. Navigating the rail system is quite easy, once you get the hang of it, because routes — and the corresponding trains — are colored. Stops are named, but not always in English. Recognizing the Japanese characters is very difficult, but you can get off by counting stops. And the trains are so timely you can also tell where you are by how long the ride has been.
But once you come out of the station, you have to navigate by the names of buildings or businesses. Addresses are a combination of the ward, district, chome, block and building, sometimes named, but mostly numbered arbitrarily. This means maps are of only limited use. But if you stand staring at a map, looking lost, someone will probably offer assistance. Of course, they may then have to ask a policeman!
Two stops to the South brought us to Harajuku, an upscale shopping and restaurant district. We strolled up and down the street looking for a Japanese restaurant with English menus, finally settling — by mistake — for one that turned out to be Chinese. It was a nine-course affair of mostly unfamiliar stuff. I can’t say I found anything spectacularly wonderful, but there were a few tasty things.
One thing about Tokyo — you never have to feel self-conscious about taking pictures. Everywhere people were snapping photos and taking videos. We saw very few foreigners, but there were either a lot of Japanese tourists, or they just like to document everything.
We visited a store called Kiddy Land (you can’t count on the name implying the contents in Japan) that specialized in animated gizmos (including radishes) and radio-controlled gizmos, and kitsch. After exploring one floor we discovered there were five more and gave up.
Dani discovered an enormous Manga (comic book) store. 40% of Japanese publishing is Manga, and there are titles that appeal to boys, girls, men and women. When translated they cost about $10 a book in the US, but many are under $2 in Japan. How frustrating: 10,000 titles, and not one in English!
We later learned the Japanese write two different ways. The traditional vertical technique is read top to bottom, left to right. But young people prefer to read left to right, horizontally, and many books are now being published this way. This is also how text messaging on the phones work. (Text messaging is quite popular here, because voice calls may not be made on public transportation, as it annoys fellow travelers. ) How you text message in Japanese using a ten-key pad is beyond me, though.
The nearby Takeshita Dori specializes in shops for teenagers (sample name: Goth and Lolita). More on this later.
The high today was in the 40s, and it continued to be breezy, so as the sun set we retraced our route to Shinjuku station — spending only about half an hour reorienting ourselves as we re-emerged through a randomly selected exit. Back at the hotel our heated toilet seat actually felt good.
We had a nap and then a late (9 pm) dinner in the hotel’s Japanese restaurant, Kozue. This is a fairly famous restaurant, where each dish is a unique ceramic work of art. There were eight courses, some of which contained many individual items themselves. Many dishes were based upon broth, and there were many new flavors. In the end, it was the sashimi that I liked best, by a wide margin. Not coincidentally, it was the only thing that seemed familiar. Dani has been quite adventurous food-wise, but I think she found today’s lunch and dinner a bit challenging. I know I did. Linda, following the philosophy “when in Rome do as the Phoenicians do,” tried some Japanese white and red wines. They reminded me of the Florida wines Blanc du Bois and Noble. On the whole I thought the meal was just okay. I stayed up late, catching up on my journal.
Saturday, January 30, 2006
Continued cool and clear, although not quite the dazzling clear of yesterday. After some nice pastries in the lobby we set out for Akihabara. This involves taking the Yamanote line halfway around its circuit of Central Tokyo, a thirty-minute trip.
On the walk to the station I saw someone washing highrise windows. This is done by essentially rappelling down the side of the building. As dangerous as it looked, it was topped later by a guy clinging to a ledge washing the windows outside his restaurant.
Akihabara is Tokyo’s “Electric Town. ” It started as a black market center for tubes and other electronics after World War II, and has since become the place to buy consumer electronics. There are over 600 booths, shops and stores crammed into a few blocks.
For me, the most interesting ones are the small booths right beneath the train station. Reminiscent of a permanent flea market, each specializes in one category of component, such as LEDs, transformers, or even screws. Unfortunately, this was the least interesting area to everyone else.
There were no deals on consumer electronics. The Japanese versions of some products were a bit cheaper than in the US, but the export versions (which have an international warranty and English menus) were the same price they would be for a savvy Internet shopper.
Dani bought some T-shirts and souvenirs at Llaox, a seven-story duty free electronics and gift shop. Duty free means the store carries export merchandise, and will refund your 5% tax on the spot if you spend more than 10,000 Yen (about $80).
Because of its appeal to the young male otaku (nerds), Akihabara is also filled with Manga and Anime shops. The one we visited consisted of seven floors, each about 1000 square feet, with approximately 100 nerds per floor. Navigating the three-foot wide stairwells was interesting. The ground floor offered the most varied selection, with the other floors devoted almost exclusively to porn in all its variations, Lolitas and tentacles (or a combination) being the most popular. (There’s no stigma against reading porn in public here. The shelves of the am-pm mini mart are lined with it. )
Having found no deals, no English Manga, and no appealing restaurant in Akihabara, we got back on the Yamanote line for two more stops and disembarked at Tokyo Station. Built to look like Amsterdam’s Centraal station, it is one of Tokyo’s oldest buildings, although it dates from only the late 1800s.
The station opens onto the Marunouchi district and beyond that the Imperial Palace. The Marunouchi Building is 36-story high rise with many floors of gourmet food shops and restaurants. In the lobby a large orchestra was playing classical music. It seemed odd that at the end of the pieces none of the spectators applauded.
We found a tempura restaurant on the sixth floor, and had a nice meal that involved a lot of pointing and nodding. Personally, I liked it better than last night’s extravaganza.
On the way back to the lobby, a sign in the elevator warned us not to put our fingers in the door.
Two blocks north, we posed in front of the Imperial Palace grounds. They are open two days a year. Today wasn’t one of them.
On the way back, Dani used the new camera Grandma Marjorie gave her for Christmas to take some art photos.
By the time we completed the circle of the Yamanote line it was approaching rush hour, but because of the holiday, traffic was light.
The walk back to the hotel after sunset was a bit cool, and we stopped at a mini mart for cans of coffee. I hadn’t realized that coffee was so popular here. It seems there is a coffee house on almost every block. So far they are holding their own against the encroaching Starbucks. After such a busy day and a late lunch, our 6pm nap turned into bedtime, and we didn’t venture out until the next morning.
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Another cool and fairly clear day, with highs in the 40s. Up a bit before sunrise, we watched Mt. Fuji change from purple to white in the morning light.
We had breakfast in the lobby. One thing on the buffet that I’ve never seen before is a complete honeycomb rack, removed from a bee hive. It drips into a collection tray, then runs into a serving dish.
Linda was feeling a bit under the weather, so she opted to relax in the room today. Dani and I decided to visit Roppongi Hills, a new shopping development in what used to be mostly the sleazy sex district. We took the subway, which is like a clean version of the London Underground. Like the train system, it’s easy to buy tickets and navigate, once you get the hang of it. And like the train system, the biggest problem is figuring out what exit to come out, when the streets have no names.
Roppongi Hills is a network of malls, on six levels. I have no idea how many stores there are, but the map is 12 pages long, and the separate restaurant guide is at least thirty pages. We spent a couple of hours wandering around, and Dani found a Japanese copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. For someone who liked shopping, this place would be paradise.
We selected an Indian restaurant named Diya for lunch, and had an excellent meal of curries and tandoori-grilled meats. No trouble communicating there.
After lunch we decided to return to Harajuku and Takeshita Dori’s funky teen neighborhood. We took the subway to the Yamanote train line; total travel time: 15 minutes including the connection. This transportation system works great. It sure was deserted most of the day, because of it being New Year’s Eve.
But Takeshita Dori wasn’t. The place was packed with teenagers, many dressed for cosu-purei or “costume play. ” 19th century French maids, lolitas, and leather abounded. There were an equal number of tourists checking out the funky shops. Dani bought some umbrellas with plastic animal handles. At the Manga store a helpful salesman directed her to the titles she was looking for, which were unrecognizable from the English editions. A whole bagful cost less than one book in the US. Too bad she can’t read them.
Back at Kiddy Land she bought a few more gifts for friends, and a plush radish (we didn’t have one of those). Then we headed back to the hotel to rest our feet and get ready for New Year’s Eve.
The hotel’s approach to housekeeping is interesting. A team of five housekeepers — men and women — descend upon the room and completely remake it in under ten minutes. This includes carefully wiping every edge that could possibly collect dust.
The hotel staff has also been leaving small gifts in our room: a box of candied chestnuts, mint chocolates shaped as leaves, a chestnut pie, an artisan-crafted flask of sake.
For New Year’s, Japanese families gather for traditional foods, give pocket money in colorful envelopes to children, and decorate entrances with these bamboo, pine and plum tree ornaments.
We took a twenty-minute taxi ride to our 8 pm dinner at Gonpachi. It was quite fun zipping through the narrow, winding streets of Tokyo at high speed in the light traffic. The taxi was equipped with a high resolution gps screen that appeared to display live street condition information.
Although there were quite a few locals dining there, Gonpachi seems to be oriented toward clueless tourists. When George Wacko Bush was in Tokyo he dined there, and if anybody is clueless, it’s him.
The restaurant is a two-story affair. We sat on the second floor, a mezzanine surrounding the food preparation area below. We removed our shoes and climbed into our booth which, like the rest of the restaurant, was constructed from very old wooden beams.
Down below, the restaurant was a lively space, filled with chefs grilling things on sticks, making tempura, and a wide variety of other traditional foods. Tapas style (it even said tapas on the menu), we tried a variety of things, and it was all tasty. Prices were very reasonable, less than $3 a skewer. The Louis Roederer Champagne was good, too, and a bargain at 8500 Yen.
A line of cabs waited out front, so it was easy to get back to the hotel.
Dani watched the New Year arrive on our room’s high definition flat panel TV. The New Year’s countdown involves Japanese pop music, and banging a giant gong. It seemed a little strange to welcome the New Year, knowing the Times Square Ball won’t drop until tomorrow afternoon at 2 pm!
For the Japanese, New Year’s is a time for leaving the old year behind, and starting fresh, so we’ll say “Sayonara” to 2006.
Monday, January 1, 2007
After a room service breakfast Linda and I set out to explore while Dani stayed in the room to do some writing. It continues cool, but the smog is encroaching, and our view of Mt. Fuji is history. We now realize how lucky we were.
Because of the holiday, the streets are almost deserted. This trip timing has worked out really well for us. Everything we’ve wanted to see or do has largely been available, but with one tenth the normal crowds.
We were expecting everything to be closed because of the holiday, but quite a few shops and many restaurants were open. We began by walking through the twisty little streets not far from the hotel. There were actually quite a few people in the electronic stores. It must be a madhouse on a normal day.
We walked through the train station to the east side, which is the true Shinjuku: a maze of shops, department stores, cinemas, love hotels (rented by the hour), restaurants, pachinko parlors and arcades. It goes on for about one square mile!
We wound our way through the streets for a couple of hours, looking for a restaurant with either an English menu or pictures of the food. Finally we selected a conveyor belt sushi restaurant. You sit at a counter and small plates of sushi travel past on a conveyor. You simply take what you want, and are charged by the number and color of plates in your pile at the end of the meal. No English required. A box of green powder proved to be tea (not wasabi, as we discovered the hard way) which we placed in mugs filled from the hot tap at each seat. The sushi was fresh and delicious, and ten plates of it came to only $15.
On the way back we walked past the Hilton and made a reservation for dinner at Twenty One, their French restaurant. It’s normally closed on Monday, but they are serving a set menu for the holiday. It seemed unpopular, and the Maitre d’ told us a reservation would be no problem, as the Japanese guests all wanted the traditional New Years menu served in the Japanese restaurant.
Dinner proved quite good, not exactly French cuisine, but certainly not Japanese either. Closer to what I’ve come to call new American cuisine: seared fois gras, braised short ribs, and so on. Prices were comparable to upscale prix fixe menus in the US.
As I headed to bed it was funny to realize that the Rose Parade won’t happen here until January 2nd.
Tuesday, January 2, 2007
Kyoto
We met our guide, Ms. Junko Matsuda (Jun), in the hotel lobby at 8 am. Ms. Matsuda is a lovely Japanese woman who has lived in Hawaii for a year and Kansas for five years. Her business, Jun’s Tokyo Discovery Tours, specializes in personal guided tours of Tokyo, but she also takes clients to other cities. Although she goes to Kyoto several times a year, this is the first time she has gone during the New Year’s, when many (many) Japanese journey there to visit the shrines.
We walked to Shinjuku Station and took the express train to Tokyo Station, where we transferred to the Shinkansen bullet train. This high speed train glides on welded rails at 276 km/hr, making the journey to Kyoto in two and a half hours. We had reserved seats in the ‘green’ section, which were very much like first class airline seats, but with one additional trick. Any pair of seats can be rotated 180 degrees to form a four-person grouping. Perfect.
Traveling through the low mountains that divide the east side of the main island of Japan from the west we passed through agricultural areas and saw snow- dusted fields of rice. Lines of snow hung on the tile roofs of the houses.
Arriving in Kyoto’s modern railway station we found the city crowded with Japanese visitors. We stood in a long but fast moving line, waiting for a taxi. There was a slight drizzle as we waited, but it stopped during the cab ride and didn’t return.
Each of our four taxi drivers during the day was obviously quite proud of their beautiful and historic city, and enthusiastically provided information along the way. Jun translated for us, and we enjoyed the driving almost as much as the places we visited.
Our first stop was at a Zen rock garden. Before visiting the garden we had lunch in a tatami room. This was our most authentic traditional Japanese experience of the trip, and I wondered if it was for tourists. I suppose the answer is both yes and no. Many Japanese use Western style furniture in their homes, so when visiting Kyoto they enjoy the traditional ways. But we saw almost no other westerners during our entire day, so this is clearly something they like to do.
Before entering the tatami room we placed our shoes in storage cubbys in the entryway.
We sat on woven tatami mats. Their standard size, one by two meters, is used to designate room size. For example, a bedroom might be a six tatami room.
In the center of the mat was a burner used to heat a large bowl filled with tofu cubes and vegetables. In addition, we were each served a small tray/table with a variety of tofu preparations, Japanese pickles and other tasty items. I had never had very good tofu in the States, so I was somewhat skeptical, but everything was tasty, and we all enjoyed the experience very much.
After lunch we strolled through the peaceful landscape of woods, skirting mirror-like ponds. A mossy carpet covered the ground beneath the trees.
At the Zen garden we again removed our shoes and donned slippers. Benches line one side, allowing visitors to sit and contemplate the fifteen stones surrounded by smooth-raked gravel. It might seem silly to a generation raised on video games, but I found it quite peaceful (except for the large crowd coming and going).
Our next stop was at the Golden Temple. This Buddhist shrine is a popular spot to visit when seeking luck for the new year. It was burnt by an obsessed monk in the 1950s, but has been reconstructed exactly as it was. Although not allowed to enter the temple, hundreds of pilgrims were making a procession around the site, and we joined the flow of traffic.
Visitors fanned incense from a brazier onto themselves for its good luck properties.
Along the path many small booths sold a variety of items. It is a fad in Japan to add “accessories” to cell phones. These small charms or souvenirs dangle in clumps from almost every teenage girl’s phone. They might be a Hello Kitty, a Disney character, or a traffic safety charm.
If you enlarge this photo, you can read the names of some of the good luck charms.
Dani bought one for scholastics, just to be on the safe side.
Fortunes were also for sale, printed on small scrolls. Not all are good. Jun helped Dani read hers, which was favorable.
Linda’s advised her not to volunteer for anything!
Bad fortunes are tied here, so the bad luck may be left behind.
Another taxi drive found the streets of Kyoto approaching gridlock. We wove our way through back streets to Gion, the neighborhood described in Memoirs of a Geisha.
For me, these three women are the perfect symbol of modern Japan, with their cell phone cameras, special occasion kimono, and high spirits.
There are only about 100 geisha left in Kyoto. They entertain at private parties, at a cost of about $3000 an evening. Although we saw no geisha, many, many of the women were dressed in beautiful kimono to celebrate the new year.
Nearby we posed in front of a famous pagoda, and walked up a winding street lined with shops, many of them making and selling beautiful — but expensive — ceramics. The area is known for its art and literature, and this was evident in the beauty of both merchandise and neighborhood. Vendors stalls also sold homemade food items, and Jun bought us each a freshly made rice cracker wrapped in seaweed. Delicious, and very different than the bit sized rice crackers we are used to; this was more like a rice cake.
A final taxi ride of the day returned us to the station where we boarded our Shinkansen for Tokyo. Jun had purchased some origami paper at the station, and spent the train ride teaching Dani how to make cranes. It is a tradition to make 1000 cranes for various occasions, such as a sick loved one. Dani has about 997 to go.
We could have easily made the journey to Kyoto on our own, but without Jun’s help we would have seen very little and understood less. We are very indebted to her for her guidance and especially her friendly and fun attitude.
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
Tokyo DisneySea
We decided to spend our final day in Japan visiting Tokyo DisneySea, a project we’ve heard a lot about, but didn’t really know much about. I always enjoy visiting places where our equipment is in use, trying to guess what is backstage. And indeed, we wouldn’t be going backstage, as none of Linda’s co-workers had been available to let us in, so we’d be going as paying guests.
Feeling fairly comfortable with the Tokyo rail lines, particularly with some new insights from Jun, we took the Chuo express train from Shinjuku to Tokyo station and then transferred (after what seemed like a mile walk) to the Keiyo line for the trip to Maihama Station. The total journey took less than an hour, and was very easy, even with almost no English signage. I wouldn’t have wanted to try it a few days ago, though!
At Maihama you take the Disney monorail to one of two theme parks or the resort complex. The monorail seems a bit less like a ride when you’ve just taken two similar systems to get to the park!
We were afraid Disney would be very crowded because of the holiday, but the parking lot was less than half full. That’s not to say there weren’t long lines — nearly every attraction involved a wait of 30 to 90 minutes. But the Japanese don’t seem to mind queues. There was even about a 30 minute queue to play redemption games!
Tokyo DisneySea is (as of this writing) the world’s most expensive theme park, and it shows. With a budget of over $2 billion, every detail is simply perfection. It’s hard to believe this park was done by the same people and at the same time as the low-budget Disney’s California Adventure.
We began our visit with lunch in the steamer that is docked in the American Waterfront section, dining on those American favorites grilled prawn sandwich, bouillabaisse and roast beef on graham. Those crazy Americans!
Then we ventured over to the park’s central feature, a giant volcano. A castle at the base housed interactive science exhibits themed to the era of the alchemists. Rooms were devoted to the Coriolis force, the rotation of planets, lenses, and a working copy of Leonardo’s flying machine. Really neat!
Inside the volcano’s caldera is the best themed area ever. A lagoon bubbles and froths, and occasionally holes open and water simply disappears into the abyss. A 20,000 Leagues sub is docked at one side. Overhead an earth boring machine hangs poised to drill into the mountain side. Steam oozes from crevices in the rock, and strange metallic noises echo around the rock faces. Everywhere there are strange, hand-wrought metal structures that look like something out of the computer game Myst.
Descending into a dark tunnel we entered a heavily-themed queue for Journey to the Center of the Earth. The wait was about an hour, but there was lots to look at. The ride vehicles are large earth borers that travel through a number of fanciful scenes before encountering a giant, highly articulated creature. The ride then accelerates rapidly, bursting out of the rim of the caldera for a moment before dropping back down into the caverns and unload. Very well done.
Next we wandered past the Mayan pyramid that houses Indiana Jones, and then spent some time shopping in the Arabian marketplace.
When our Fast Pass time came up, we returned to the caldera, now even neater with evening lighting, for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. For this ride you enter a diving bell vehicle that seats two people at each of three large domed windows. Bubbles swirl as you submerge. (Actually the bubbles are trapped in the domed windows, and the ride remains dry, a real maintenance saver. It’s a superb illusion. )You encounter various undersea life and discover a lost city populated by strange creatures before “resurfacing. “
By 6 pm the cold air off of Tokyo bay was pretty chilly, but a new crowd of visitors was just arriving to take advantage of the after 6 pm rates. It was time for us to retrace our steps by monorail and train, back to the hotel. We rested for an hour, then headed upstairs to the New York Grill for our Tokyo farewell dinner. The restaurant is a stylish mix of metal and glass, with two-story-high glass walls on all sides. A jazz combo played old standards in the lounge on one side, their backdrop the solid glass wall and twinkling vista. The multi-course meal was tasty (and pricey), and the 360 degree view of Tokyo’s lights superb.
Thursday, January 4, 2007
Sitting by the window finishing this journal, I’m contemplating what a great trip this has been. We’ve crammed a lot into our six days in Tokyo. And as I look out at the city — just now gearing back up to its normal bustling level — I realize what a perfect time of year this was to come. We had a chance to explore without crowds, and the holiday didn’t interfere at all.
I really like Tokyo and its people, and definitely want to return for another visit.
A few months ago I tried to book Victoria & Albert’s chef’s table in Disney’s Grand Floridian for Linda’s birthday, but they had no openings. I asked Israel, the manager, to wait list us. Margaret from V&A called on Wednesday and unexpectedly asked if we’d like to take over a cancellation Saturday night. We called our friends Ron and Bev Siegel, and set up a dinner and tasting. Chef Aimee provided us with great food and Israel was a terrific host and sommelier. We learned that Chef Scott and Israel go on some very high end restaurant scouting missions around the world, spending thousands of dollars of Disney’s money on dinners at restaurants in Paris, Barcelona, Chicago and New York. That sounds like a dream job for a Maitre d’.
The Line Up
Menu
Tasting Notes
Flight 1
1995
Taittanger Comtes Champagne
Youthful color, clean citrus and pear nose, nice effervescence, good match with the four different amuse bouche items.
93 points
Flight 2
1923
Musigny
Dark garnet, leather and mineral nose, classic old burgundy, sour cherries in the mouth. Lasted about twenty minutes before going sour on the palate, but the nose continued to improve for hours.
93 points
1947
Chambertin Jaboulet
This was a much more youthful wine that the ’47 we had last December. My notes for that wine were: Medium brown, sweet, earthy, leather and bacon fat in the nose, medium body, a floral, woody finish. This one was more garnet in color, with a very minty nose, tending to smoky bacon later. The wine was surprisingly fruity in the mouth, belying its age. It was a very tight competition between all the wines at this dinner, but this was probably the favorite.
96 points
Flight 3
1961
Hermitage Chapoutier
Probably my favorite wine of the evening. A classic, still youthful Rhone, complex, with mint, cherries and a mineral finish.
96 points
1968
Grange
The first Grange I’ve had that was ready to drink.; Balanced between syrah fruit and wood with a soft mouthfeel (surprising for Grange) and vanilla on the finish.
95 points
Flight 4
1993
Ch. d’Yquem
Not the greatest Yquem ever, but a steal I picked up at K&L for $94 in a 750ml. Good match with the fois gras. Phenolic, waxy, not blindingly sweet, possibly due to high acid.
90 points
Flight 5
1928
Ch. Lafite
This was the wine in our cellar we’ve had the longest. Linda bought it as a birthday present for me in 1984 for $400. At the time, it had just been released from the winery, so the label looks brand new. The wine was classic Lafite, with lead pencil and wax in the nose, and still appealing fruit on the palate. I would have guessed it was from about 1970.
93 points
1959
Ch. Baron Pichon Longueville
Very youthful, quite fruity and floral. Another true to form wine.
93 points
Not opened: 1973 Heitz Martha’s Vineyard, making this perhaps the first tasting I’ve ever done with no California wines in it!
As you can see, the wines were all in good shape, and true to type. Since my preference has migrated to old Burgundy, the Bordeaux seemed a bit anticlimactic, so I might reconsider the order in future events with old wines like these.
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