Daily Archives: July 23, 2007

Day 32: The EU…. round two

Posted on July 23, 2007 | Leave a comment

July 23 –

My watch alarm went off at 4:30 this morning which should be illegal if you aren’t going to work!  We got the kids up and the car loaded and took our leave of the Bargh family and of Scotland.  Luckily Prestwick airport is only 10 minutes from Kate’s house so we had no problem getting there in plenty of time to check in for our 7:15 flight.  We dropped off the rental car (which we completely forgot to fill up first so heaven only knows what *that* will cost!) and were the first in line to check in.  The boy behind the counter, who I swear couldn’t have been more than 14, pointed out that we were way over our weight limit on all our bags but he wasn’t going to charge us since it would cost a fortune (about 5 pounds per excess kilo or about 80 quid in our case!).  We thanked him profusely, went through security and found ourselves ready to board by 5:35!  Unfortunately, Ryan Air wasn’t ready for us to board so we had our last Scottish breakfast (another egg and bacon roll for me!), bought some reading material (the new Harry Potter book!) and waited.

Ryan Air is the Scottish version of Southwest:  cheap but no perks.  They have open seating and even the water on board costs money.  We got seats together (with a spare seat in between no less) and weathered the hour and a half flight just fine.  All the luggage came through okay, the kids and I got new stamps in our passports and we were off.  (Frank is most displeased that as he has an EU passport, he hasn’t gotten a single stamp in it yet….)

We headed out to pick up the rental car and noticed that there was no one manning the Europcar desk.  We wandered around trying to figure out what was up, asking at the information desk and even the Avis desk next door before giving up and phoning the number on our reservation slip.  Which was promptly answered by the man at the Avis desk in front of us since we were supposed to get our car from Avis and not Europecar!  I blame lack of sleep…  After a good laugh was had by all, we got into our brand new Mercedes C class (the one that apparently isn’t available in the US yet), changed the language on the navigation system and headed out.  (And yes, Frank was chucking gleefully the entire way!)

We got to the hotel in Düsseldorf only to find out why it was such a good deal:  it’s a business hotel near many of the industrial and trade sites but no where near the city center!  Undeterred, we wandered off in search of the nearest tram stop to figure out how Düsseldorf public transportation works.   Luckily, there was a trinkhallen (kiosk) at the stop we went to and the unbelievably nice guy working there not only explained how to buy a family day pass from the machine outside,  he ran across the street to a waiting bus to buy one for us when we discovered the machine didn’t work!  (Won’t say anything unkind about the Germans now!)

We got to the Altstadt (old town) and wandered all over looking in shops, admiring cathedrals and having lunch… all in a nice soft German rain.  I believe if I look back over these entries,  I’ll be able to count no more than 2 or 3 days where it hasn’t rained.  I really am beginning to take it personally!  While we did encounter many folks who’s English was far better than my 6 words of German, we felt the pain of not being able to communicate fully so we found a bookstore with an English section and bought a German phrase book.  (And I could have gotten the new Harry Potter book in English for cheaper than I bought it this morning but such is life!)

After we tired of wandering past shoe shops (I counted no fewer than a dozen in one 1/2 mile span!), we headed back to the hotel and got directions to a local German restaurant.  We are definitely not in tourists country because no one in this place spoke English and the new phrasebook got put to good use!  We managed to order two different kids of schnitzel, a pork steak in Hollandaise sauce and a Gyro entirely in German (with a healthy dose of pointing!)  It was absolutely delicious!  A quick stop at the trinkhallen of our new friend for some takeout beer and ice cream and it’s off to a (relatively) early bed.  We are thoroughly enjoying the local alt bier (Schlosser alt) which is brewed here in Düsseldorf.  We just need to make sure we don’t enjoy it *too* much!

/san/

[Pedometer:  24, 515 or just over 12 miles, the majority of which was again done in the rain.]

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Posted in Germany, Scotland

Day 31: On sunshine and hangovers…

Posted on July 23, 2007 | Leave a comment

July 22 –

Let me explain what too much wine and too little sleep mean…. well you probably know. After finally getting to bed at around 3 a.m., I was unable to stay unconscious past 10 a.m. and got up to deal with the chiddlers. I was in far better shape than my cousin and my spouse and after we finally had bacon and egg rolls for breakfast at noon, we showered and changed and looked out the window to see glorious sunshine. Apparently, the west coast of Scotland was the only part of the U.K. not completely underwater and we took full advantage of that fact!

Duncan, Andrew and Gordon, the best pal from across the road, walked into town to go to the beach. They actually swam in the Atlantic at approximately the latitude of Craig, Alaska! We wandered into town later on and caught up with them jumping off the rocks by the Ballas Bank. We got some great photos which I’ll upload when I have a better wireless connection. We spent the afternoon climbing all over the rocks, counting dead jellyfish (Michael says we were up to 123!) and trying to ignore the random topless bather that was perched uncomfortably on the rocks.

We got some chips at the Marina cafe which is still being run by the Corti family. Unfortunately, Lorena wasn’t in when we were there but she did get to ooh and aah over Duncan earlier in the day. Lorena and I were both the bestest buddies of my cousin Fran and we’ve known each other since we were 15 but I haven’t seen her in years. Unfortunately, it will have to wait a little while longer.

Since we were worn out from the wandering and the previous nights revelry, there was no big BBQ on the agenda; instead we resorted to the dinner of the weary – Chinese take-away! I regularly marvel at the differences in “Chinese” food in various places. What we get in Fairfax is different than what I remember growing up in New England which is different yet from what I had in Southern California. We are collecting Chinese food adventures wherever we go and I can now say I’ve had it in Spain, the Bahamas, Scotland, England, Wales, France, and Switzerland. We’ll add a few more countries on this trip as well. The best thing about UK Chinese food has got to be prawn crackers. They’re kinda like shrimp pork rinds but not as gross as that sounds. I don’t know why we don’t get them in the U.S.

So we sat outside in the beautiful sunshine eating our Chinese food and when all were finished, a football game broke out. There are three males in the Bargh household and that is a quorum for officially being football daft. Andrew is also a golf fanatic – which explains why I not only know who won the British Open at Carnoustie today, I saw the final round and the playoff! (Garcia totally choked!) After the Open was over and dinner was finished, all the children large and small played a game of football in the back garden while Kate and I (and Amy who wasn’t really interested in anything besides finishing her Nancy Drew book) watched and video taped. There are a few shots that might actually be worthy of submitting to one of those silly TV shows!

When all were exhausted, we set about to finish our packing since we had to leave at 5 a.m. the next day for the airport and our flight to Germany. It was a group project since Kate and Stephen had flown Ryanair, the low cost airline we had booked on, and knew all the tricks. For example, they charge for each checked bag (a fiver!) and each person is limited to 15 kg of weight for their checked bag. We were *way* over that for each of us so we spent a great deal of time rearranging belongings and fidgeting with the neighbor’s bathroom scale. We weren’t able to do much except cross our fingers and try to get some sleep. I headed to bed at 10:30!

/san/

[Pedometer: 9015 steps or about 4.5 miles in beautiful sunshine. Frank and the kids probably doubled that during the football match!]

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Posted in Scotland