Month: July 2018

Falls Church, Virginia – My flight back to the U.S. on Virgin Atlantic went smoothly and I emerged from Dulles Airport into even hotter weather. A third day of temps in the high 90s with humidity making it fell like 103-105. Welcome to Virginia in the summer. I was very happy to discover when I opened my front door that my AC was working well.

As usual after my trips, there are a few days of unpacking, sorting through, laundry, and the other things required to get back to home life. And there’s the writing of this post, which is drawn from a collection of random notes I make during a trip.

– Sign seen in the Deacon’s Cafe in Edinburgh: “We Have No Wi-Fi, We Talk to Each Other”  Bravo!

– The Hilton Paddington was closed, refurbished, and re-opened more than a decade ago and the rooms are showing their age a bit. But it’s still a great hotel; it still has a retractable clothesline over the bathtub and an extension phone next to the toilet. Does anyone really use the room phone anymore?

– From a Smile to Stone: What happened to the cheerful and friendly barmaid’s face at The Maltings in York when I asked if they offered a discount to CAMRA members. It was almost comical.

– I like the system in pubs generally where you pay at the bar when you order drinks and/or food. You take the drinks with you and they deliver the food to your table. When you’re done, you get up and go – no waiting around for the check and perhaps waiting again for your change.

The 2018 Beer List

My promise to you: at least one pint, and sometimes several, of these were consumed:

– Boltmaker (Timothy Taylor – 4%)
– Yorkshire Terrier (York Brewery – 4.2%)

 

– Cream Ale (Roosters – 4.7%)
– Minster Ale (York Brewery – 4.2%, made with three American hops)
– Birdman (Roosters – 4.3%)
– Black Sheep Bitter (Masham – 3.9%)
– Yorkshire Sparkle Pale Ale (Treeboom – 4%)
– Boss Hog (Gibsons – 4.1%)
– Cragg Vale Bitter (Little Valley – 4.2%)
– Edinburgh Gold (Stewart – 4.8%)
– Pale Ale (Nicholsons – 4%)
– TBA Best Bitter (Sherfield Village – 3.9%)
– 6X Best Bitter (Wadworth – 4.1%)
– Jet Black Heart (Brew Dog – 4.7%)

– Extra Special Bitter (ESB) (Fullers – 5.5%)
– Abbot Ale (Greene King – 5%)
– Tribute (St. Austell – 4.2%)
– Doom Bar (Sharp’s – 4.2%)

 

 

As always, thanks for following along. Cheers!

 

London, U.K. – I said farewell to Poole and took a Southwestern Rail train north Sunday morning. My original plan was to take this train straight to London’s Waterloo station and then use tube/taxi to get to Paddington. I reconsidered this plan as overly complex and simply retraced my steps to Reading and Paddington, changing trains twice. The trains were great and all went exactly to plan, and it was a good thing I changed my mind – I heard that central London was a traffic mess and that there were delays on the tube. So I gratefully settled into my luxurious Hilton Paddington room (with killer air-conditioning).

After dropping my bags, I went up to the Bishop and Bear pub for a nice, refreshing pint of Fuller’s ESB.

Renovations to the “Lawn”, the enclosed shopping area, in Paddington have been finally completed after several years and I picked up a few essentials like toothpaste from Boots and some provisions from Marks & Spencer for a light, in-room dinner.

Monday dawned as another hot, sunny day in London and after  breakfast at the Hilton, I was off on a whirlwind day of visiting old favorite, and new, sights.

First stop, the British Library’s Treasures Room. It contains some of the library’s priceless artifacts, such as manuscripts, musical scores, and rare books, many written by hand by their authors (i.e. not copies). Some of the authors today included Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, William Blake, Chopin, Beethoven, Handel, the Beatles, Hobbes, Karl Marx, Gandhi, Shelley, Michaelangelo, and da Vinci. Other documents included one of the original four copies of the Magna Carta (1215), the original King James Bible (1611), and many beautiful illuminated books. Think of it – you can see up close the original handwriting of these geniuses, see the paper they held as they composed their amazing works!

Next, I took the tube down to Russell Square and the British Museum, for its special exhibit Rodin and the Art of Ancient Greece. Rodin is one of my favorite sculptors and it was interesting to learn that his many classical works were based largely on his exposure to museum collections in France and at England (including the “Elgin marbles” – friezes taken from the Parthenon in Athens and on display in the British Museum); he never went to Greece. Like so many exhibitions now, there are things in it that you’re encouraged to touch. Interesting, if possibly germ-laden.

After the exhibition, I tried to visit the Egyptian Hall but the crowd was unbelievable. Hordes of tourists and middle school groups made it impassable so I split.

It was lunch time so, I headed for the nearby The Plough pub. Unlike the tourist-jammed pubs directly across the street from the museum gates, this restored Victorian gem is a block further away, blissfully air-conditioned, and was nearly empty.

I had a nice sandwich and a pint of Abbot Ale and rested my weary legs. In the picture at right, note the little jam jar in front of the pump badge – some pubs put them in front of all their real ale (cask) taps so that you can see the color and clarity of the beer. I think it’s kind of a nice thing.

Next, I hopped on the tube and made my way to the Tower Hill station (overlooking the Tower of London) and from there walked out onto the Tower Bridge, headed for the Tower Bridge Experience. This was something new to me, and the view up the Thames on this sunny day was very nice.

 

During this tour you learn about the building of this iconic bridge, get to walk the high, enclosed walkways between the two towers, and enjoy the view down through their glass floor sections. You get to watch vintage film footage from the early 1900s, and a cool animated short film showing the bridge’s construction. And, the grand finale, is a walk through the nicely restored and organized Engineering Rooms, which explains the machinery that opens and closes the bridge spans for ship traffic.

Having escaped the adjacent Gift Shop with wallet intact, I walked over to the south end of nearby London bridge and to my old favorite The Market Porter pub. I was delighted to find that they had Sharp’s Doom Bar on tap and lingered over a tasty pint, watching World Cup soccer action on their TV.

It was getting into rush hour when I got back into the tube at the London Bridge station and made my way back to Paddington. That took three different trains and none of them were air-conditioned. One was packed to the gills and really hot. The Hilton AC was most welcome! Tomorrow: homeward bound.

 

 

Poole, U.K. – I thought I’d add a quick post about the Royal National Lifeboat Institute, (RNLI) which is near where I stayed in Poole. In fact, you can book a room there and I wish I had. As you may know, the U.K. is an island nation, so that means a lot of coastline. Lots of boats and a lot of beaches and swimmers. The U.K. has an official Coast Guard but it also has a system of local lifeguards and sophisticated local lifeboat (sea rescue) teams. The RNLI is the national guiding organization for this scheme and even offers a “college” where teams are trained and certified. It’s also a charity that raises funds for the necessary equipment.

The RNLI campus is very nice and, as might expect, is on a marina with an outlet to the English Channel, south of Poole. They also have a very nice restaurant/bar and I had dinner there one night. The restaurant was ingeniously designed, with a modern look that cleverly incorporated nautical motifs. The staff was terrific and the food was outstanding, and the sunny view over the marina and port at dinner time was a bonus. 

Poole, U.K. – This is Armed Forces Weekend in the U.K. It’s also the weekend when the Tank Museum, in nearby Bovington, throws TankFest, a three-day celebration of motorized armor. For those readers in the D.C. area, it’s something like the Andrews Air Force Base Air Show, but with tanks.

The Tank Museum is next door to a British military base that specializes in tanks, personnel carriers, and such, and the two have a close relationship. The weather was on the warm side but there was a breeze and the sky was clear – a perfect day. There were thousands of attendees and the event was very professionally organized.

I splurged for a VIP ticket, which got me fast-track entrance, food and drink all day in a special tent, and a seat in a covered area for viewing the action in the arena. The latter was really important as everyone else sat or stood in the blazing sun for hours.

The museum is a very large, modern, well-run institution that has been around for decades. It’s filled with tanks, armored personnel carriers, etc. – anything with tracks or wheels and a big cannon. Many of them have been restored in a huge center on the premises.

 

My old friend and former work colleague Mike Mather joined me and we had a great time meeting other attendees. For example, there was a man and his recent-college-grad son from Oshkosh, Wisconsin that sat across from us in the tent. For that matter, there were lots of dads and kids there.

German Tiger tanks in the museum, and yours truly among a bunch of tanks in the Restoration Center.

The tanks themselves were awesome. In the arena, tanks and other vehicles were put through their paces on a weaving course, over hills, and around the perimeter. It was amazing to see how fast some of the modern tanks, like the 62-ton Challenger, could move, and how deadly they looked. There was an announcer who kept up a running commentary on the vehicles’ histories and stories, and there were separate programs in the arena featuring vehcles from different countries and eras.

I chatted with a few other visitors from the U.S. and many said this was a “bucket list” event for them. 

Many of the vehicles were driven by instructors from the military base and I was able to talk with a few of them in the arena staging area (above). Boy, did these soldiers seem young. But they were very friendly and knowledgable, willing to answer questions. We were also allowed in this area to get a look inside (even get inside) some vehicles. Great fun!

What a great day out – fantastic weather, great experience, and a sea of testosterone. Cheers!