Friday 18 April 2008

Travelling Abroad

Last weekend I managed to visit a neighbouring foreign country. Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland to be precise. On a first glance there are no big differences: they still drive on the wrong side, bank notes look almost similar (but it says Bank of Scotland on them) and the weather is not better either.


First contact with locals happened on the high street when we were looking into the travel guide to find a place for lunch. No minute later a woman offered her help with a clearly Scottish accent that was, however, still comprehensible. Her pick was the underground food court of a shopping mall where they only had sandwiches and fast food. Thus the next insight: the Scottish don't care much about food, either.

Talking about Scottish food would not be complete without Haggis. Its description (from another local) sounds little delicous: take a sheep, give the meat away, mix the rest with oatmeal, onions and spices, stuff it into the sheep's stomach and cook it. As sides you get "neeps and tatties", i.e. turnips and mashed potatoes. On the plate it looks much more delicous than that and tastes like sausages which is quite agreeable. By the way, more than agreeable is Scottish whisky (note the missing e, that would be Irish whiskey then).


Apart from eating and drinking, Edinburgh ist a really nice city. The main sight is the castle on a hill in the middle which, for some reason, had free entry (£8-£11 normally) that very weekend with the unavoidable long queues in the usual British discipline. The rest of Old Town is rather compact, hilly and with bridges over lower streets. There is a New Town (new as in 200 years) which is laid out a bit more regularly and "American". Overall, really pretty and looking around it is no miracle that Joanne K. Rowling lives here and invented Harry Potter and Hogwarts.

Another recommendation for evening entertainment in Edinburgh: a Ghost Tour. They come in different varieties of seriousness, i.e. with scaring and walks through dungeons below the city. Our tour was more a leisurely walkabout with a competent guide who knew a lot of appropriate stories and told them well.


Thus: do go there and even the journey from Manchester to Edinburgh leads through beautiful landscapes that are certainly worth a visit by themselves. Anyways, my pictures, finally.

Sunday 6 April 2008

From citizen to tourist

I should have visitors more often (yes, that is an invitation). Then I can show off my secret skills as a tourist guide and get to see new things in Manchester myself as I did this weekend.

Thus, for reference two afternoon walking tours. The first in the city with a visit to Chetham's Library and a sit a Marx' and Engel's favourite place where it smells nicely from those old books on the shelves. Then on to the next library, the John Rylands Library, that was only built in 1900 but is still gothic, looks like a church and is really worth seeing inside. As a contrast a real church, the Manchester Cathedral, and the glass block of Beetham Tower that hosts the Hilton Hotel. From their Bar Cloud 23 on that very level you get nice views of the city and can return the menu they hand you even without ordering anything. To finish, a walk along the canals in Castlefield. And as I forgot to take my camera, my next visitors are lucky enough to get this tour again. I can only offer pictures from a mobile phone, though.


It was Salford Quays for the next afternoon, a former harbour area with now intensive developments. The Imperial War Museum North is there, where they show pictures and stuff from the World Wars as expected, but at least the manage to convey the message that war is not desirable at all. The windy viewing platform on top of the building that was designed by Daniel Liebeskind gives you a view over the harbour area with a lot of construction sites. Seeing the Manchester United stadium still does not make up for this to be a particularly breathtaking view. At least, it is all free as the libraries the other day were, too. They only put up boxes and write the suggested donation on it. Further there is the Lowry, a gallery and a theatre, a shopping mall and many an opportunity to walk along waterfront esplanades which can be quite pleasing if the English weather happens to be. I had my camera with me and can show you pictures.


On Sunday at noon finally a short visit to the Victoria Baths (open 1906-1993) that are currently being renovated and have an open day with guided tours every month. It looks really nice with a lot of ornaments giving it quite some distinctive style. Remarkably, there are three pools: a gents' first class, a gents' second class and a womens' pool. Fresh water was put into the first pool, as soon as you could not see the ground any more, it was filtered and pumped into the next pool. Of course, the dimensions are British: all three are 25 yards long and of different width and depth which is measured in feet. I remembered to bring my camera and took some pictures.