Bits and Pieces

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Ole, Ole, Ole - Pamplona Part 1

I've said this year was the year of events travel - seeing all of the major festivals that are only really possible because I'm living over here and would most likely never do without living here.

One of those main festivals is the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona. Isn't that every American crazy person's dream to run with the bulls? Don't worry - it was never my plan to run with them and having seen it twice now, it is not my plan to ever run with them.

I met my friend L on Thursday for a flight from Amsterdam to Bilbao. Bilbao is famous for the Guggenheim museum, which I saw from the bus, but will have to go back to visit some day. I think it's worth a second trip to the region just for the Basque flavor alone because....

We took a bus to San Sebastian to spend one night and get acclimated to Spain. Bus was really easy once we figured out the outside of the airport and the signs. It's much like Italy in that a little bit of Spanish (Italian) goes a long way...no habla ingles. It's about an hour bus ride to San Sebastian. We had a hotel along the water, which was a very pleasant 20 minute walk through the newer part of San Seb. We saw the cathedral:

Then dropped our stuff at the hotel and walked to the old town, stopping for pictures along the promenade:

What an amazing city - having seen Nice and other cities along the south French coast, San Seb wins hands down. Maybe it was just the night we were there, but I was kicking myself for only one night in San Seb. I will be making a return.

View of the old town hanging off the cliffs

Beautiful boats in the harbor

You can see the Jesus statue in the far right hand side, which was added in 1950. Reminds me of Rio (haven't been, but assume it's close)

Jesus statue

View from the boardwalk

After a walk along the boardwalk, we headed up to the old town for a tapas crawl, using the RS book as suggestions. San Seb is a culinary delight. I love love love the tapas, which is a first time I can say that. I never really cared for them in the states - too expensive and never good enough. I cannot say that about San Seb. I fell in love.

Best tapas of the night were at the first place - calamari and spicy potatoes with cheap beer. I'm salivating just thinking about it.

Second tapas bar - SOOO good

Last tapas bar, duck and goat cheese. That's the good life in San Seb

A couple more pictures....

Old town stroll

Just an amazing city!

Part 2 to follow....

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

MCC vs ROW - Lord's

So this weekend was all about cricket and MCC vs Rest of World at Lord's, the home of cricket. The game was a "legends" of the game, along with some younger players from all over the world. In one game, I got to see the best in the world.

Great Saturday afternoon to watch cricket, nice company and amazing seats - my friend said were sitting amongst the player's wives and family. Very posh!

Rain delay - quickly covering the wicket

The Pavilion (grounds are 200 years old, but not the original Lord's)

Controversial new age media booth.

Just after the medal presentation

Evening stroll across the Waterloo bridge past the London Eye and just down from Big Ben

View from the drinks spot at London Bridge

Dolly weekend updated - with photos and video!

So first, I must talk about Tate Modern, because I actually did more that weekend than just Dolly.

Really? A mirror is considered art. See description below.

Insert heavy eye roll here.

Interpret away. I see a bean with hair.

Feminists are the best; we are so great at tearing down other women! #Maggierocks

#art?

Beveled mirrors which made for interesting reflections.

Overall, Tate Modern is worth the money (it's free) and highly recommend it for the views, the architecture of the building (old industrial site refurbished) and I definitely recommend going with other people because the art at the very least is chat friendly. You can have so many great conversations, debating if it's art or not or what you potentially see in the abstract pieces.

Then it was off to dinner on Canary Wharf and Dolly. See this post for full description of the show, but here are the pictures and the video (unless youtube killed videos for copyright)

See all the pink cowboy hats down there! That's a rockin' good time y'all!

Dolly - Why'd you come in here lookin like that

Sparkly dress and all - cheap not class.

Takin it back to church on the organ

Check out the fringe

She will always love you.............

I'm very hesitant to add the videos as you can hear me singing quite loudly in them. Oh well, you only live once. And you've already judged me for liking Dolly so much. A little more can't hurt.

The orginal York

So a few weekends ago a friend of mine S and I went to York for a Saturday day trip. York is about a 2 hour train ride from London via King's Cross. According to RS, it is the number 2 tourist city outside of London in England. There's plenty to do for a day and thankfully, S is from Yorkshire and knows his way around. It was so wonderful to travel with someone who knew the city....I didn't pull out a map once, pick a site to see or get lost. It was the most organized travel day I've ever had.

We got off the train and headed straight for the city walls, where the Henry VII experience is in the Micklegate Bar (entrance) to the walls. The wall displays were very interesting, giving a great history of the War of Roses and the Lancaster/York rivalries. Great little museum.

After that, we headed to Jorvik Viking centre to learn about York post Romans when the Vikings took over (York originally know as Jorvik). It has an interactive ride that takes you through a recreated village, complete with smells, food and tools. It's built on top of an archeological dig site, which shows artifacts under York from the Viking era. That was my favorite part. The ride was definitely a bit cheesy, but to be fair, it takes some guts to do something different in museums and it was definitely different. It changed the normal pace.

After the Jorvik, we went up to Clifford's Tower, which is the remaining largest structure of what was once York's version of the Tower of London. It had great views of the city and explained all the famous people that had been in prison there. Good weather, good views, worth the money.

Then we moved on to Betty's for afternoon tea. Betty's is a Yorkshire institution. It's a really classy (girly) place that is known for the tea, sandwiches and pastries. They even have an area on display where Canadian air force members signed the wall during WWII thanking Betty's for the service. It's just a really enjoyable place - highly recommend.

After tea, we headed to the Museum Gardens and got some great shots of St Mary's Abbey and then to the Richard III experience. The Richard III museum was particularly good; it had a section on the Princes in the Tower who disappeared and Richard III took the thrown. In my mind, most intriguing story in royals history outside of Henry VIII.

Then it was time to see the York Minster. We were very lucky; we arrived right on time for the free tour, which was done by a very knowledgeable, amazingly sweet English lady who worships at the church. She gave us the full history and an extended tour as we had to wait for a wedding to finish (! Imagine a wedding in that place). The tour and the exhibits in the undercroft were the best part of the day, which is hard to say because everything really was so great. There was even a single guy on the tour. S and I debated a long time afterwards if I should have said something to him. I probably should have because he resurfaced later....

Next, it was off to walk the most scenic portions of the old walls around the city. Then we did some pub hopping at some of the oldest pubs in York, even some built above Roman Baths. We then had dinner at an Italian place in an old bank. After the train ride back, we watched the English lose to the Italians in the WC, but the game was close, so just like the Americans, the English weren't too disappointed.

I rounded out the weekend with a trip to the British library to see the Magna Carta, original early versions of Shakespeare's works (transcribed by others), and of course, the napkins and scraps of paper with original Beatles songs. It was every book lovers dream. The weirdest thing though was that the single guy from York appeared right next to me as I was staring at the Magna Carta. Of course, I should have said something then, but I chickened out. I saw him later on with his mom, clearly touring with her. Missed opportunity, that's for sure. Next time!