London Summer

Ascot

The Royal Ascot races – one of the highlights of the summer calendar in London. It was Queen Anne who first saw the potential for a racecourse at Ascot, and the first race meeting ever held at Ascot took place on Saturday 11 August 1711. English people really like sticking to their traditions!

Lou and a group of mates decided to make a day of it and head to the races. Emails were furiously exchanged on what dresses, hats, shoes to wear as well as what food we were going to bring. As it turns out, we needn't have bothered.

In short, it poured down. It was cold and wet and muddy and our plans for sitting in the sun drinking bubbles and eating cake in our pretty dresses changed to sheltering in the beer tent with muddy shoes eating hot chips. Not very glam.

And because of this we even missed seeing the Queen. Oh well, ticked the box.

Highlight: Being able to take my shoes off at the end of the day
Lowlight: The weather, as always. Come on England, sort it out.
Interesting Fact #1: Royal Ascot is the most valuable race meeting in Europe with nearly £4 million in prize money on offer.
Interesting Fact#2: Over the 6 day meet 63,746 glasses of Pimm’s and 6,780 punnets of strawberries were consumed.

London Sevens
This was really hyped up. Locals were saying how great the event was and how crazy it ended up. This was enough to convince Lou to join a group of Kiwis and Aussies and attend the Saturday of the weekend of London 7's.

Fishfaces

Lou was thinking it would be like Wellington 7's so effort was put into the costume – Finding Nemo was the theme. In the end, there were about 40 Nemos' in our group as we made the train journey to Twickenham.

For once it was sunny and clear with a cool breeze, we started off at a local Twickenham pub where Lou was introduced to her new favourite drink, Crabbies which is alcoholic ginger beer….mmm delicious. After a few drinks there we made our way to the stadium and proceeded not to watch any rugby.

The crowd was tame. The costumes (apart from ours) were lame and the atmosphere subdued. But it was still a fun day in our little orange group, but probably won't spend my money on it again next year.

Highlight: A fun day with good friends in the sun
Lowlight: Every single person we walked passed trying to nick our Nemo hats. NOT FUNNY
Interesting Fact: Clownfish (which Nemo is) are sequential hermaphrodites, meaning that they develop into males first, and when they mature, they become females. Weird, but interesting (sorry I couldn't get an interesting fact about the Seven's).

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre
Not a lot is known about the early days of Shakespeare, but they do know that he became a shareholder in the newly built Globe Theatre in 1599, but abandoned this in 1613 when it was burned to the ground.

The Globe Theatre that we visited is about a hundred yards from its original site, the reconstruction is based on illustrations and article but they freely admit that it's a best guess. It was completed in 1997.

Inside the theatre from our "seats"

It does look very cool inside though, it is opened topped and the stage is decorated with lions and other crazy animals that don’t' really have anything to do with the play being performed. The cheap tickets (which we got) meant that you stood in front of the stage, whilst the more expensive tickets got stall style seating and they could pay extra for a cushion.

We knew that we would have to stand but we didn't really comprehend how tiring that would be after a gym session and a full day of work. But we took our places and got ready to watch Hamlet. Unfortunately on that day it was cold and windy, we were standing amongst a group of German high school kids on a school trip who couldn't understand English and were bored senseless so they were chatting amongst themselves and to top it all off, the actor playing Hamlet was such a weird looking individual that it was impossible to take him seriously.

As a result, we snuck out after about 45 minutes. We did get the feeling for it though and apart from Hamlet, the actors were very very good.

I think if we were ever to do it again we would pay a little more for the seating tickets.

Highlight: Walking into the stage area, it is quite amazing and you can really picture all the poor people crowded round the stage yelling stuff.
Lowlight: Hamlet - Stop over acting.
Interesting Fact#1: On 29 June 1613 the Globe Theatre went up in flames during a performance of Henry the Eighth. A theatrical cannon, set off during the performance, misfired, igniting the wooden beams and thatching.
Interesting Fact #2: it was Lou's idea to leave early not Hamish’s.

Ace Café
The Ace Cafe London is a transport cafe in Stonebridge, north west London. It is a notable venue in motorcycle culture which originally opened in 1938 to accommodate traffic on the new North Circular Road. Because the cafe was open 24 hours a day, it started to attract motorcyclists. It became popular with the Ton Up Boys in the 1950s and the Rockers in the 1960s (I am assuming these are the names of gangs, but this is off their website)

We decided to make the hefty trip north one chilly Sunday morning for brunch (the only way to get Lou to a motorbike shop is if there is coffee there). It was a bit of a mission, but once again we passed through places in London we had never seen before, and this time it really made us appreciate living in Fulham…

We found the café, which was populated by lots of bikers having breakfast as well as a range of other people that made for an interesting mix. The café is set up like an old American diner complete with rubbish coffee next to beer taps. The food was fine, big plates of grease sums it up. Lou got the vegetarian cooked breakfast and is pretty sure that it was cooked on the same grill as Hamish's meaty breakfast as it had a distinctly balcony flavour…

We had a nosy round the rest of the café, there wasn't as much motorbike stuff as we thought but it was still cool to have a look.

Highlight: Finding the place! And Bubble and squeak, definitely going to give that one a go
Lowlight: Lack of motorbikes
Interesting Fact: The cafe was rebuilt in 1949 after being destroyed in a World War II air raid.

Sonisphere – Knebworth House

Metallica is the greatest heavy metal band of all time. Metallica are heavy metal rock gods and something Hamish had wanted to witness live since he was 15. Strangley "friends" however did not share Hamish’s view and hence he could not find anyone to go to the festival with. Never fear! Nothing could stand between Hamish and living a dream so he took a Friday off work, hired a car, drove himself to a 3 day festival in Stevenage just to see 1 band play then drove back that same night.

The festival itself is based around metal and rock music. Other notable acts included – Megadeath, Anthrax, Slayer, Motorhead, Weezer, Biffy Clyro, Slipknot and many more. Hamish brought a 3 day festival ticket but left after Metallica a happy man.

The festival demographics was bogans, skinheads and the occasional goth but Hamish blended right in and head banged the set away. It was an amazing night and will never be forgotten.

Colombia Flower Market
One sunny Sunday morning we rose extremely early for a Sunday and headed east. Lou had wanted to visit the flower market for ages and Hamish being the nice guy that he is, agreed. The journey is long, but we made it.

The first thing that strikes you as you get to the start of Colombia road is the noise of all the market stall holders yelling "sunflowers for a fiver, roses for a fiver, you won't get them cheaper than this, lavender from France for a fiver". We soon figured out that 90% of flowers were a fiver. The next thing that struck you was the massive array of colours. The flowers were actually incredible; every single type of flower, plant, and vegetable plant or fruit tree was there. And to complement it, all the proper shops were selling gorgeous wee flowerpots, vintage clothes and cool jewellery.

Columbia Road began its life as a pathway along which sheep were driven to the slaughterhouses at Smithfield. Like much of the land in East London it was finally built on to serve the needs of a growing London that resulted from the explosion of Empire during the Victorian era. The flower market originally began with plants brought by handcart from nearby market gardens in Hackney and Islington and market pitches were claimed on the day on the blow of a whistle.

The only thing that would have made this road perfect was a really good coffee shop….there were lots of coffee shops but alas no good coffee. We made do and enjoyed some coffee and cake in the sun before Lou had to make her mind up about what kind of flowers to buy. She ended up with 20 roses for….a fiver. Such a bargain and they were beautiful. We also bought a cool modern art print from one of the many arty stores.

Lou would definitely go back there with girlfriends, Hamish maybe not so much.

Highlight: The colours, sights, smells. A nice little village feel in the middle of East London.
Lowlight: Lou discovered that after 4 years of being with Hamish that he didn't like carrot cake, and Hamish discovered that after 4 years of being with Lou that she didn't like sunflowers. We learned a lot that day.
Interesting Fact: The market was originally held on Saturday but due to the increasing Jewish population in the area it was changed to Sunday.

St. Paul's Cathedral
We had a spare weekend in London and since summer hadn't arrived we decided to trek east and visit St. Paul's Cathedral. The City end of London is really interesting on the weekends as it is essentially a ghost town apart from tourists so we felt we fit in nicely with our huge camera out on display.
 
The first thing that struck us was how pretty the gardens were, seriously English people are so passionate about their parks. We had a stroll round before confronting the masses at the front.
 
 

 The statue of Queen Anne at the front is pretty impressive, pity about the bars covering it up!

A bit about the cathedral, before we go on, St Paul's Cathedral is a Church of England cathedral dedicated to Paul the Apostle and sits at the top of Ludgate Hill. The highest point in the City of London. At 365 feet (111m) high, it was the tallest building in London from 1710 to 1962, and its dome is also among the highest in the world. On 2 December 1697, thirty-two years and three months after a spark from Farryner's bakery had caused the Great Fire of London, St Paul's Cathedral came into use.

This cathedral has survived despite being targeted during the Blitz- and in 1940 a time-delayed bomb that had struck the cathedral was successfully defused and removed by a bomb disposal detachment of Royal Engineers. Had this bomb detonated, it would have totally destroyed the cathedral, and as a result of this action, Davies was awarded the George Cross.

We decided to stump up the £14 to get inside the cathedral itself, and we got an audio guide that was good. The inside is just massive, the mosaics and paintings on the ceiling of the dome were actually breath taking. It's quite funny watching people walk in as everyone just tips their heads right back with their mouths open actually breath taking. It's quite funny watching people walk in as everyone just tips their heads right back with their mouths open and stares for ages. It's amazing to think that this building was the venue of the marriage of Catherine of Aragon to Prince Arthur in 1501 and then the wedding of Charles and Diana almost 500 years later.

We were also just in time for hourly prayers which was a nice touch. We got to go right to the back where the gold alter is and then headed up to the Whispering Gallery which is called that because apparently a whisper against its wall at any point is audible to a listener with an ear held to the wall at any other point around the gallery. We tried this and it didn't work.

We then continued heading up the stairs, and came out at the Stone Gallery, which is the lower balcony, we were both impressed that we could get outside to enjoy the views that you don't really get in London. But we kept climbing (major burn in the calf muscles) up to the Golden Gallery that is the tiny bit on top. Even though we knew it was safe, Lou couldn't help but wonder how good Christopher Wren was at building structures that were made to last? I mean seriously, what did he know?

Next we made our way slowly down with about a million other people and kept heading down into the crypt which is where a variety of famous people have their tombstones including Christopher Wren himself, Lord Nelson, Lord Wellington, and Florence Nightingale. Definitely very impressed with the Church and I'm going to throw it out there – best we have seen in Europe so far and it's been right on our door step the whole time!

Highlight: The mosaic ceilings – over 6 million pieces of coloured glass were used. Lou is already designing the mosaic feature in our future house…
Lowlight: Other tourists, but if you can't beat em, join em.
Interesting Fact: In 1716 the total costs amounted to £1,095,556 (£147 million as of 2011).

Edinburgh - Sunday

Sunday 24th July

We woke up sun burnt, very sunburnt. Hamish's nose especially as who would have thought to bring sunscreen to Scotland. It was another blinder of a day and Lou struggled with what to wear as she had only brought winter clothes! Anyway we checked out of the hotel leaving our bags there and tried to find breakfast (this was yet another struggle!). 

On the way we came across the Church of St.Cuthbert so we stopped for some obligatory photos. It would have made a great story to say that it was a beautiful old church but to be honest it was a bit funny looking.

Eventually we found a half way decent place and Hamish couldn’t get enough of the full Scottish breakfast, with another round of haggis. Lou got the vege option and had the pleasure of sampling a potato scone which were frankly amazing. We were ready to attack the castle.

Outside St.Cuth's church

Meant to be good luck to rub his right toe

Human habitation of the site is dated back as far as the 9th century BC, and there has been a royal castle here since at least the reign of David I in the 12th century. As one of the most important fortresses in the Kingdom of Scotland, Edinburgh Castle was involved in many historical conflicts, from the Wars of Scottish Independence in the 14th century, up to the Jacobite Rising of 1745, and has been besieged, both successfully and unsuccessfully, on several occasions.

We knew that the Castle would be rammed so we tried to get there as soon after opening as possible, but we were still met with a massive queue. But we got in and were blown away with the view. We did a quick guided tour that basically showed us where everything was. The best parts were the St. Margaret's Chapel which is the oldest building in Edinburgh, a tiny wee church that can only fit 20 odd people. We were amazed to hear that people can still get married in there and there was a wedding taking place that afternoon!  Our guide let us in on the secret of while people still decide to get married there...as it only fits 20 people it helps keep costs down. Tight Scots ay!!
 
Just outside the chapel is Mons Meg, a 15th-century siege cannon. Mons Meg has been defunct since her barrel burst on 30 October 1681 when firing a salute for the arrival of the Duke of Albany, the future King James VII and II. It was a mighty big cannon.

Inside St.Margaret's Chapel

Our favourite building in the castle was the Scottish National War Memorial. Its original aims were to commemorate Scots and those serving with Scottish regiments who had died in the First World War, but then this was expanded to include all wars that any Scottish people had ever fought in. The exterior is decorated with gargoyles and sculpture, while the interior contains monuments to the individual regiments. Upon the altar within the Shrine there was a sealed casket containing Rolls of Honour which listed over 147,000 names of those soldiers killed in the First World War together with open lists within the Hall. We found some Bennie's and Hay's as well as Lou's great uncle who died in France in WW1.

We felt like we had seen enough history so we wandered down Castle Hill to the next stop. Whiskey. Almost every bar and restaurant we had been into boasted about how many different types of whiskey they sold, and we didn't really appreciate the differences in the tastes, until we completed the Scottish Whiskey Tasting Experience. They went hard out with this, we started off on a tame barrel ride which took us through the process of making whiskey and then we got a bit of a presentation on the 4 main whiskey producing regions in Scotland and how they taste differently depending on where they were made. So Dave, based on your whiskey preferences you like whiskey produced in the Islay region….We then got to taste some. Yuck. 
We tried to like it, we really did but it is just awful. Next on the tour was the Diageo Claive Vidiz Collection, which is the largest collection of whiskey in the world featuring 3,384 bottles. It was built up over 35 years by Brazilian whiskey enthusiast Claive Vidiz.

Sweet barrel ride

From there we were feeling a little peckish so we checked out the restaurant in the basement area of the whiskey shop. It seemed cheap and cheerful so we grabbed a table. Lou being adventurous decided on two Scottish influenced starters – Cullen Skink soup, which is basically smoked haddock and potato soup, and Scottish smoked salmon on rye bread. Very nice. Hamish went for another soup and a pork chop, typical.

Next door was a tartan making factory that was worth a look so we went in and were confronted by so much tartan it was enough to make you dizzy. And judging by the price Lou felt like she could cut up her old school uniform to sell and make a killing. The best part was the area where you can dress up in traditional Highland gears and get your photo taken. They had examples of the photos on display and seeing a family of Chinese people dressed in tartan with the dad holding a sword and the mum holding some bagpipes is up there with the funniest things we have seen.

By mid afternoon we were keen for a rest so we got in touch with Hamish's mates again and met up with them at a pub, had a quick drink and a catch up in the sun. By this stage Hamish's sunburn had gotten so bad he had a whopping big blister on the end of his nose, we did not expect to go to Scotland and get sun blisters! Before we knew it we were on the bus back to the airport where we had a quick dinner and hopped on the plane and we were at home before midnight, result! Also have to mention that we bought some shortbread (you have to in Scotland!)

We had such a great time in Scotland, better than we anticipated (definitely helped by the weather) and we have already made plans to go back there again and do some train journeys. Brilliant weekend.

Hightlight #1: The castle is amazing, you can see it from everywhere in the city and contains so much history
Highlight #2: The continuing weather! (even gets its own highlight this time)
Lowlight: Leaving! We had some serious discussions about the pro's and cons of moving to Edinburgh…watch this space…
Interesting Fact: Approximately 2% of the volume of whiskey evaporates each year per barrel. The Scottish call this the "angel's share", how sweet is that!

Edinburgh - Saturday

Friday 22nd July

Despite living in the UK for over a year we had yet to venture to the home of the brave. We decided a trip to Edinburgh was on the cards, and handily one of Hamish's mates had moved up there and was keen to catch up.
We were looking forward to a weekend away with no time difference, no foreign currency and relatively short travel time. This was put into question when our flight was delayed and once we got to Edinburgh we were stuck on the plane for another 25 minutes while they found someone to bring the stairs over!! Annoying but we kept calm and carried on.

We had arrived and it was a beautiful sunny evening and it took us record time to get to out little hotel close to Murrayfield. The hotel was a collection of terraced houses which were quaint and old but cute in their own way. We had arranged to meet Tom and Nic for a drink and started down Princes Street where we found them and made our way to an awesome wee bar called Dirty Dicks.

It happened to be Big Tom's birthday and after many drinks, the closing bell rang and we were turfed out. Realising we hadn't really had dinner we did like the Scots do and headed for the nearest kebab shop. Kebabs are foul in the UK, they use "lamb" which is actually more like luncheon. Lou didn't do much better with her choice of hot chips with cheese and brown sauce. But at that stage we were too hungry to care. We managed to find our hotel at about 2am and hit the hay.
 

Saturday 23rd July
Now, the Bandits pride themselves on early starts and long days on their trips but in this case we slept in. Hamish was feeling the effects of Scottish Gold pints and the feral kebab and felt that the continental breakfast offered by the hotel wasn't going to cut it. So we headed off in search of bacon.

We walked for a long time, even thought it was after 9am there were a lot of places not open. We walked all the way to Royal Mile until we found a half way decent open café, and by this stage we were full in grumpy/hungry mode. Hamish had the full Scottish which was basically a full English with the addition of haggis, and Lou had the Scotch porridge – she couldn't figure out why it was Scotch porridge as it didn't really taste any different to English porridge. Both were ok, nothing special, although the haggis was really yummy.

We spotted a funny looking Highland Bull on the Royal Mile...

Before we go on, a bit about Edinburgh. There is evidence of settlers as far back as the Bronze Age but it wasn't until the 12th century that it really kicked off. As with any UK city there is heaps of history of wars and disease and all that, but the interesting part about Edinburgh is the Scottish Enlightenment, where it became a major cultural centre. It produced big names of the time like David Hume, Walter Scott, Robert Burns and Adam Smith (which Lou was shocked to discover that Hamish didn't know who Adam Smith was, even after an economics degree!) (In my defense Economics is more than just the "Invisible Hand" and 5 pints didnt put me in the best frame of mind for Lous Economics quiz).

One of the 400 shots we took of the castle.

The next big thing in Edinburgh's history was the Scotland Act of 1998 which established a devolved Scottish parliament responsible for governing Scotland, with reserved matters such as defense, taxation and foreign affairs remaining the responsibility of Westminster.

Refueled we headed down Royal Mile to start our free walking tour. Unfortunately we ended up with the dud tour guide - an Australian named Steve. He did ok though. The Royal Mile is the main road in Edinburgh linking the castle and Holyrood Palace and believe it or not it is not a mile long. It is 1 mile and 175 feet. And back in the day, being Scottish they measured all their miles in this distance just to annoy the English.

The tour took us past notable monuments such as the statue of David Hulme (a famous philosopher), his philosophy was that if you hadn't seen something take place then you shouldn't believe in it….interesting. We also stopped at the Mercat cross which is a market cross found in Scottish cities and towns where trade and commerce was a part of economic life. To this day several important announcements and proclamations are still ceremonially made at the Mercat Cross in Edinburgh, including the calling of general elections and the succession of new monarchs.

During the break in the Haymarket area we chilled out to the music of the "Mardi Gras" and tasted Iron Bru, the Scottish national fizzy drink which outsells Coke and Pepsi combined. It is quite delicious and contains some of the same ingredients as a product derived from morphine which is why its banned in some countries. We didn't care it helped cure the slight hangover that we had very nicely.

We made our way passed the building that was the inspiration for Hogwarts, the café where J.K. Rowling wrote the first 2 Harry Potter books and into Grayfriar's cemetery, where of course Grayfriars Bobby is buried. It's also the place where J. K. Rowling found a couple of characters names for the books including Mad Eye Moody, Professor McGongangal and Tom Riddle.

Tom Riddles grave

We finished our tour in Princes Street gardens which were just gorgeous, the flowers were beautifully looked after and everyone was out enjoying the sunshine. Apparently this little valley was where Edinburgh citizens emptied their excrement in the olden days which explains why the grass was so lush! After the tour we had a quick lunch at a cute café, Hamish ordered soup and cheese on toast. It was pretty much a plate of melted cheese with a side of bread and a nip of soup. But very yummy.

Lush flowers, castle, Hamish and sun in Scotland!

To work off the cheese related calories and to take advantage of the glorious sunshine we headed east of the city towards Arthur's Seat. It looked steep and challenging and it was steep and challenging. Luckily the weather meant that we could see for miles around Edinburgh, out to Leith and way into the farmlands around the city. It was also beautiful countryside, with wild heather and other pretty flowers that I don't know the names of around. 

Arthur's Seat is the main peak of the group of hills which form most of Holyrood Park.
Many claim that its name is derived from the myriad of legends pertaining to King Arthur, such as the reference in Y Gododdin. It is often mentioned as one of the possible locations for Camelot but it seems more likely that the name is a corruption of the Gaelic ard na saigheid, meaning 'hill of the archers'.

Not content with climbing to the peak, Hamish then decided that we should walk up the cliff face opposite Arthur's Seat "just for a look". More hard work, but then it was an nice gentle stroll to Holyrood Palace which is the official Royal residence in Edinburgh. We had a nosey round but didn't pay to go in as it was quite pricey and we have seen a few of the Queen's houses already. Interesting fact though, Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall are got married there recently.

It was getting close to 6pm but the sun was still so high in the sky and after weeks of London rain we felt we had to make use of it. So we wandered up to Calton Hill which is where several iconic monuments and buildings are including the National Monument, Nelson's Monument, the Dugald Stewart Monument, the New Parliament House, the Robert Burns Monument,and the City Observatory.

They were all standard monuments with the exception of the National Monument. This monument was intended to be another Parthenon to commemorate Scottish Soldiers killed in the Napoleonic wars. Construction started in 1826 but work was stopped in 1829 when the building was only partially built due to lack of money. It has never been completed. For many years this failure to complete led to its being nicknamed "Scotland's Disgrace".


We wandered back through the city and found a nice pub for dinner. We shared a steak and ale pie and Chicken Balmoral which is a chicken breast stuffed with haggis in a whiskey cream sauce. Very very yummy. Then we staggered back to our hotel room and got into bed and watched Grand Designs. Rocking Saturday night, but well worth it after the immense amount of walking we did!

Highlight: The history, the beautiful parks and the weather, and the people were super friendly too.
Lowlight: We had a slow start, a weird feeling for a weekend city break
Interesting Fact: The Heart of Midlothian is a heart-shaped mosaic built into the pavement near the St Giles High Kirk on the Royal Mile. It records the position of the 15th-century Old Tolbooth which was the administrative centre of the town, prison and one of several sites of public execution. The weird thing about this thing is that this little square is the only place in Edinburgh where you can spit. Although said to be for good luck, this was originally simply a sign of historic disdain for paying taxes. One popular legend says that by spitting on the heart, one is destined to one day return to Edinburgh. Lou has a physical aversion to spitting so we weren't allowed to play that game.