Stonehenge and Bournemouth, England

During one of the weekends that I had free on my visit to the UK, I decided that since I had a rental car and it was one of the few times it would make a lot of sense, and so with myself and a friend, we targeted Stonehenge as the travel destination.

Hours: Spring (1 Apr to 31 May) 09.30 - 18.00, Summer (1 Jun to 31 Aug) 09.00 - 19.00,
Autumn (1 Sept to 15 Oct) 09.30 - 18.00, Winter (16 Oct to 15 Mar) 09.30 - 16.00 (16Mar to 31Mar) 09.30 to 18.00
Boxing Day and New Year's Day 10.00 - 16.00
Admission: Adult - £7.80, Child (5 - 15) - £4.70, Child (Under 5) - Free, Concession (student, over 60) - £7, Family Ticket (2 adults + up to 3 children) - £20.30, English Heritage and National Trust Members - Free



Without a car it can be a little challenging to get there, you would need to catch one of the various tour buses from a nearby village or from London directly.  These tend to be crowded and you lack the convenience of being able to take your time along the way and to arrive when you please.  Some information about alternative transportation methods can be found in my references section at the bottom of this entry.

Located in Wiltshire, England and surrounded by beautiful farmland Stonehenge is still a place where you can almost feel history.  There are a considerable number of theories about how Stonehenge was built, for what purpose and I honestly don't want to get into too much scholarly debate about that in a blog which is mostly about the beauty of travel.  So let me just say this, of all of the destinations I have visited so far, this one really felt important for some reason I couldn't define.  It is after all just a collection of rocks in a field.

 Ok they are really quite huge rocks...

I get the feeling you are not going to let me away with so little information, so fine... one of the more interesting stories is that Arthurian legend (you know Arthur and Merlin, swords in rocks, etc) version of how Stonehenge was formed, basically the English heard about these amazing healing rocks which had been placed in Ireland by some giants, and they were quite famous for their healing powers.

Being a right English bastard the king at the time Aurelius Ambrosius wanted to create a monument to a bunch of soldiers who had died for him, so naturally the English go to Ireland and kill an awful lot of Irishmen only to discover that these giant rocks are actually a bit of a pain to move!

I laugh at the foolish Englishmen attempting to move such enormous things, so of course Merlin being the slippery wizard that he is devises a method to transport the rocks, and then convinces the giants to help him put it all together where it stands today.

This rock also comes with a fairly entertaining story, this is the Friar's Stone, or Heel Stone.

Basically if you are standing in the middle of Stonehenge and look at this stone, AND it is summer solstice, the sun rises over this stone.... but that is not the interesting part... how did it get there?

Well rumour has it that originally the Devil bought all the stones from an old Irish woman, while he was transporting them all to England and one of the stones dropped into the Avon river.

An elderly friar laughed and said "Nobody will ever know how these stones got here!"

The Devil being in no way a man for shenanigans yelled "That's what you think!" and hurled one of the stones at the Friar which caught him in the heel and has remained there ever since.

 And so with my visit to Stonehenge concluded and some daylight left still, it was decided to take a bonus adventure to the seaside! So we set off for Bournemouth with absolutely know idea what such a place would be like, only that it would have a beach and it was NOT Brighton.

Looking every bit the seaside town, Bournemouth was a really pleasant surprise location, to the left of this street was a most excellent pub serving steak style meals, and traditional pub offerings such as Bangers and Mash! (this is one of my favourite meals of all time, there is no accounting for taste)

The pier is also a ferry terminal I believe, so you could theoretically travel from here to Brighton or other such places, but we had arrived quite late and only really had time for a quite brief stroll along the beach after dinner, and a quick few photos of the sun set.

The beach at Bournemouth I suspect during summer would be really quite nice, and was significantly less pebbley than I had been led to believe all English beaches were.  Worth noting as well for anyone familiar with really old English comedy, Bournemouth is part of Dorset! If you haven't ever seen the film "Five Go Mad in Dorset" by Comic Strip, you owe it to yourself to find it!

Next time: Toyohashi, Japan! And then Paris, France!

References:
The Stonehenge Wikipedia Entry - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonehenge
Stonehenge Visitors Information Site - http://www.stonehenge.co.uk
Bournemouth Wikipedia Entry - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bournemouth
Five Go Mad In Dorset - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_go_mad_in_dorset



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial license.

London, England

I must confess I have been entirely lazy in updating the blog, so the next several posts actually occurred a few months ago now, and therefore are going to be somewhat lacking in detail.
However, I will do my best to recall what I can about each location, and at least somewhat describe what each place was like.

So in late January I was sent to the United Kingdom for my job, and since I have friends in London it made sense to arrive with a weekend at the beginning of the trip so that I could spend some time with them.  After a fairly large night out with the girls, my good friend Marie decided she would play tour guide around London, the following photos are the highlights of that stroll.

Firstly we got the tube to South Bank since that is a really good starting point for a loop of each iconic landmark.

With a nice view of the River Thames, and some great markets available, South Bank is a really easy beginning to the day, so we stroll through the various food stalls at the market and then decide to head to St Paul's Cathedral via Blackfriars Bridge.

Looking surprisingly sober and cheerful, but still I require a railing for support, and if you notice... we got incredibly lucky and there was sun in London!

Just a cute scene of the Thames washing up in South Bank before we headed over the Blackfriars Bridge..

I didn't remember to actually take any photos of the bridge itself, so the sign will have to suffice!

And here we finally made it to St Paul's Cathedral...the site of the cathedral has a fairly rich history, some people claiming that in AD 604 it was in fact a pagan temple to the goddess Diana, which was then destroyed and replaced by a smaller chapel, which was in turn destroyed during a fire in 962.
This was replaced by another cathedral, in which the bones of Ethelred the Unready (a particularly unlucky English king) were laid to rest, but sadly this next cathedral also burned down in 1087... not to give up easily, work begun immediately on yet another cathedral known as "Old St Paul's" which took 200 years to complete...it was completed in 1314... can you guess what happened to it?
To top the previous cathedrals this one was struck by lightning in 1561 which destroyed the spire... and then it was completely destroyed by... you guessed it... fire! The Great Fire of London in 1666 completely gutted the cathedral again.

In 1669 the task was given to Sir Christopher Wren to design a new cathedral, he drew from various architectural styles including Greek, Gothic and Renaissance and ultimately the cathedral as it stands today was completed on the 2nd December 1697.

Having finished at the cathedral we then walked over the Millennium Bridge, and we stopped past the Globe Theatre, home of Shakespeare's plays, and rather an interesting place.
The building as it stands today is actually a reconstructed building which stands near to the site of the original (200m away). The original Globe was destroyed by fire in 1613.
Once we had poked around the Globe we continued on our way, stopped for a spot of lunch at a nearby pub Founders which was really affordable and delicious, and then returned to South Bank.

This is a rather large Ferris Wheel, called the London Eye, it is 135 meters tall and offers some excellent views of most of the nearby landmarks. It opened to the public on the 9th of March 2000.
There is really not a lot else to say about it, if you like Ferris Wheels, enjoy this one!

Attached to Westminster Palace, Big Ben is one of the worlds most recognizable clocks I am sure, it has been destroyed in countless movies, and slapped on so many postcards and souvenirs it is really rather scary given that at the end of the day... it is a clock.

The tower was originally completed in 1858, it was designed by Augustus Pugin, who very shortly afterwards went mad and then died.
It is designed in the Gothic Revival style, and stands 96 meters tall.
The original bell weighed 16.3 tonnes, and the bell was dedicated to Sir Benjamin Hall (which could be why it was nicknamed Big Ben)

Onwards! Next we walked to Buckingham Palace, sadly there was no changing of the guards while we visited, so we settled for a few quick photos.

This is the Admiralty Arch which will lead us on to our next destination nicely

After this we walked to Trafalgar Square, another fairly recognizable area in film and television, but also quite the meeting spot for many people.  It tends to be crowded with people, street performers, and is within easy walking distance to most other interesting sights.

Here is Nelson's Column, this monument was erected in 1843 to commemorate Admiral Horatio Nelson who died during the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.  The lions at the base of it are pretty neat.

And with that, we leapt on a tube, and returned home for some much needed sleep!

Next blogs: The Sherlock Holmes Museum, London - Cambridge, Stonehenge and Bournemouth (three for the price of one!) - Toyohashi, Japan - Paris/Versailles, France.... which will finally bring us up to date.



References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Bank
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Eye
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackfriars_Bridge
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Paul's_Cathedral
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethelred_the_Unready
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globe_Theatre
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Ben
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckingham_Palace

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Admiralty_Arch
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson's_Column
http://www.foundersarms.co.uk

*REVISED* to include the name of the pub, and to share its URL

Edinburgh, Scotland

Okay I confess I am writing this post a full three months after it happened, so my memories may be a little bit hazy at this point.  Especially given that I was visiting Edinburgh for their famous Hogmanay Street Party... and there was tequila... a lot of tequila.

Edinburgh is a beautiful city, it contains all of the classic elements people associate with Scotland, and the United Kingdom in general... cobblestone streets which look phenomenal after the rain which is fairly common.  A castle perched atop a hill overlooking the city.  And a million winding alleys and closes throughout... A close is basically just a tiny alley in case you wonder.

This time around I am only going to post a few photos, but I am going to include a few friends took via Instagram etc as well, just to give this post a bit more community feeling since it was most definitely a joint venture trip... we had the most amazing new years ever.

First of my guest shots, the awesome cobbled streets after a spot of rain, it truly is a beautiful town.

A Ferris wheel setup for the Hogmanay Festival, looking pretty at dusk.

Awesome cute whiskey bar/cafe, made really awesome eggs benedict (my favourite breakfast ever)

Yet another castle... this one is cool mostly for location, its all about location in a castle... this one is perched on a hill and has canon emplacements... that is total street cred in a castle.

Serious gentleman of some note...

Next are a few shots from along the Literary Tour, which was also fantastic, a local author and guide will take you to some of the notable sites around Edinburgh and tell you of its rich literary history.

Interestingly in Edinburgh many of these sites are not marked in any way, they do not tend to place plaques on things of significance or signpost them in any way.  This man is amazing and well worth checking out if you are a literary enthusiast.  (link at the bottom of the post to his site)

The pub where Inspector Rebus from the Ian Rankin novels drinks...

This is where the lecture halls Joseph Bell taught at are located in the University of Edinburgh's medical school...

He was the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes, and all round amazing guy. A good example of his skills is this story of how he taught his students to be perceptive. (taken from "The Original of Sherlock Holmes" by Dr. Harold Emery Jones)

"This, gentlemen" announced Professor Bell, "contains a very potent drug. To the taste it is intensely bitter. It is most offensive to the sense of smell. But I want you to test it by smell and taste; and, as I don’t ask anything of my students which I wouldn't be willing to do myself, I will taste it before passing it round"

Here he dipped his finger in the liquid, and placed it in his mouth. 

The tumbler was passed round. 

With wry and sour faces the students followed the Professor’s lead. One after another tasted the liquid; varied and amusing were the grimaces made. 

The tumbler, having gone the round, was returned to the Professor. 

"Gentlemen", said he, with a laugh, "I am deeply grieved to find that not one of you has developed this power of perception, which I so often speak about; for if you watched me closely, you would have found that, while I placed my forefinger in the medicine, it was the middle finger which found its way into my mouth"

ONWARDS! a little bit more walking and we were at a pub which used to be called Rutherfords, which is where many excellent writers drank, including Robert Louis Stevenson, it was renamed to The Hispaniola after the ship in Treasure Island

Arthur Conan Doyle lived at this house once upon a time, he was the man responsible for Sherlock Holmes, and general legendary author.

And in something of a rarity on this blog... a photo of people! including myself! 

These beautiful ladies were the team who made this the best New Years I have ever had.  As for the creature on the left, he is most excellent company in shenanigans and noise making.

References:

http://www.edinburghbookloverstour.com/ - The Literary Tour

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Conan_Doyle - Arthur Conan Doyle

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Bell - Joseph Bell

Munich, Germany

Last weekend I visited Munich with some friends of mine, and I have to say that it is one of the most interesting places I have been so far in Germany.
Its native name, München, is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place" and this is due to the fact that the town was originally situated near a monastery of the Benedictine monks.
The city has a rich history being the capital of Bavaria, and is well known for its beer!

However as we learned on a free city tour, there are a great many other amazing details about Munich your average tourist would not know.
For example the church built in the centre of the city (Frauenkirche) has an interesting history wherein the architect made a deal with the devil to have it completed within 20 years.
The church was built by Jörg “Ganghofer” Halspach in the then record time of 20 years (1468-1488) and the towers were added 30 years later.

The story goes that the devil agreed to finance the church, provided Halspach built it without windows running down the aisles. When the work was done Halspach led the Devil to a point near the entrance where none of the side windows could be seen – the view was blocked by 22 inner columns.
The Devil threw a tantrum and stamped his foot real hard, leaving a mark that remains to this day. There always seems to be a wind blowing around the church and that’s said to be Satan himself, circling around looking for the side windows.

Here is the devils footprint!

We also learned some fascinating things about the world famous beer hall Hofbrauhaus am Platzl.
Wilhelm V., Duke of Bavaria really loved beer, and he was not happy enough with the locally brewed beers, so he would import from the city of Einbeck in Lower Saxony.
Wilhelm then asked his royal court to come up with a way to reduce these outgoing costs and so on September 27 1589, his advisors recommended they build a brewery of their own.
So they hired the master brewer of the Geisenfeld Monastery, to assist with planning the new brewery and to devise a recipe for a "brown" beer.  The brewery started in the “Alter Hof” ( Old Court ) in 1592.
It was called the “brown” Hofbräuhaus as only brown ale was brewed there.
Wilhelm’s son and successor, Duke Maximilian I., preferred wheat beers and to secure the Hobräuhaus as the best in Munich he banned any other private brewery from producing wheat beers.
This caused so much demand for wheat beer that he moved the Hobräuhaus to Platzl, where it became known as the "white" Hobräuhaus due to its new specialty in wheat beers.

An interesting side note to this is that during the Thirty Year War, the Swedish army arrived in Munich, and rather than simply destroying it and moving on as they usually did, they decided to stay since they loved the city so much.
Duke Maximilian I. had fled with his own army before the Swedish army had arrived, and so the citizens of Munich had to tolerate these invaders living amongst them.
After some time they asked if there was some way to pay the Swedes to leave, it was decided that 300,000 gold pieces would suffice.
The citizens tried their hardest and raised 180,000 gold pieces, however that was still not enough, so they made a deal to pay the remainder with the beautiful wheat beer of which they had an abundance.
And so the Swedish army took the beer and left... the citizens decided to throw a party in Marienplatz square, when Maximilian arrived to participate they were naturally a little upset.
So he told them that he had gone to the alps to find a high place to pray to Mother Mary for protection from the Swedish Army and to deliver their city.
The citizens being quite gullible believed this, and it was decided a statue should be erected for Maximilian, however he declared that it should instead be a statue of Mary.
This is how the "Mariensäule" was built in 1638, and is also the reason "Schrannenmarkt" was renamed to "Marienplatz" in 1853.

But back to the Hofbräuhaus! In 1828 the now reigning King Ludwig I. made a proclamation that the Hofbräuhaus be opened to the general public (women were excluded) rather than simply court officials and other dignitaries.
And this is how the Hofbräuhaus has continued to this day (only now women are also allowed!)
In 1844 not to be outdone by his previous generosity King Ludwig I. declared that beer should be sold at a fixed price, so that the working class and military could also afford a drink.

Enough about beer!
What about a castle?

On a nice Saturday, we hired a car, and drove through some beautiful countryside to a town called Hohenschwangau where there are two amazing castles.

The first and most famous is Neuschwanstein, which looks like something from a Disney movie (and is actually the basis for the castle in Cinderella) this castle was built by King Ludwig II. of Bavaria and was a tribute to composer Richard Wagner as well as a private retreat for the King himself.

The second is Hohenschwangau, which was rebuilt from ruins by King Ludwig II's father King Maximilian.
Unfortunately we didn't have time for the tours, but here are some pictures, and I have included links to the respective articles below.

What about a local past time?

ICE HOCKEY! Everyone knows I am not a huge sports person, but since I had played field hockey when I was younger I figured I could make an exception to see an ice hockey game.
It was actually really fun, we drank, we cheered, and had an exceptional time.  The game was Munich vs Augsburg, the final score was 5-0 to Munich.

Since this post is already very long, I will stop...

NEXT TIME! Berlin for a Garbage concert and sightseeing, London for Christmas, and Scotland for New Years!


References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_Frauenkirche - Frauenkirche
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eishockeyclub_M%C3%BCnchen – Munich Ice Hockey Team
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hofbr%C3%A4uhaus_am_Platzl – Hofbrauhaus am Platzl
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuschwanstein_Castle - Castle Neuschwanstein
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hohenschwangau_Castle - Castle Hohenschwangau
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hohenschwangau - The town the castles are in
http://www.newmunichtours.com/ - free city tour (our guide was Blake)
http://www.destination-munich.com/frauenkirche.html - Destination Munich entry on Frauenkirche
http://www.hofbraeuhaus.de/en/01/hist_anfang_en.html - History of the Hofbrauhaus
http://www.neuschwanstein.de/englisch/palace/index.htm - Castle Neuschwanstein