UK Pubs: Edinburgh

Last March my husband and I took a fabulous trip to the UK. We did some hiking, some sightseeing, and some pub time.
During the Edinburgh part of our trip we visited some fun pubs and tried some fantastic whiskies.

Our evenings would sometimes start with a dram of whisky or glass of wine from the honor bar at our bed and breakfast.

http://www.94dr.com/

One night we hung out at the Whiski Bar and Restaurant on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh.

We shared the Cullen Skink soup and a haggis tower with neeps and tats.

I was able to try one whisky that was aged in sherry cask and one of the scottish beers.

As a welcome treat, a band played traditional scottish music while we sipped our whisky drinks.

A week in Paris

We were able to spend a week in Paris in August 2010. Paris still remains one of my favorite cities. I will always remember the experience we had there. We were greeted with such friendliness by Parisians that to this day people do not believe. Parisians can be very friendly and open if you give them a chance.
We stayed in the Marais neighborhood. It was a former Jewish quarter with lots of character. You can still see many traditional Jewish shops as well as antiques and trendy cafes. We were extremely happy to spend a week in that part of town. I only wish I took some photos of the neighborhood to share.
Here are some pictures from our visit.

 We thought the locks on the bridge were very interesting. Years later they find that the locks cause add weight and cause great damage to these bridges. Please do not do this to a bridge.

Sacré-Cœur Basilica

Montmartre

Down from the Sacre-Coeur lies an interesting part of Paris. Montmarte has a rich history of its own and only some of it involves the sex industry. One of my favorite museums was the Musee de Montmarte. It contained a detailed history of the cabaret scene in Paris along with a myriad of famous posters from artists like Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

We also broke down and went to see the cheesy Moulin Rouge show. It was quite pricy and we were put in bad seats. I suggest doing some research for another show which might be slightly less touristy (if possible). They seemed to treat those who ordered dinner with their show much better than those who only ordered drinks; keep that in mind if you do decide to go.

Saint-Jacques Tower

Arc de Triomphe

Deportation Memorial (Memorial de la Deportation)

Part of France’s dark history was their cooperation in the Nazi holocaust.  200,000 French were handed over to the nazis during this time. We got to visit this powerful memorial in Paris.

Pompidou Center

The pompidou was quite the interesting museum. It is the largest modern art museum in Europe. There were various street performers entertaining outside. Inside we got to see various artworks from famous artists. Some standout exhibits were the fox chair, a bunch of dead looking people in chairs, and Yoko Ono’s artwork : a video of butts – yes butts.

Walk Bike Spain

I have many interests. Some of my interests include biking, walking and running. I am delighted when I discover communities that are friendly to those interests. My current city is adopting bike and pedestrian friendly measures but we are not quite there yet.

On the other hand, Spain seems to have caught on to bike and pedestrian friendliness. Every city we visited took measures to be bike friendly. All of them were pedestrian centric (Perhaps because the cities were developed prior to the invention of the automobile-unlike many cities in the U.S.).

Madrid

In Madrid I failed to take pictures of the bike lanes in the city but I did snap some pictures of some of the evening paseo (walks). In Madrid many streets are pedestrian only. Families, couples, and groups spend most evenings walking the streets and socializing.


Puerta del Sol


Cava Baja, Madrid

Sevilla

Sevilla has some spectacular bike-only paths through its core. Easy bike rental kiosks are available if you don’t wish to have the burden of purchasing, locking up and maintaining your own bike.


Woman on a rental


Trail along the water


Path along the Alcazar


Bike Rental

Bike trail

Barcelona

Barcelona has a good network of bike and pedestrian paths down many of its avenues as well.

Bike and pedestrian paths down medians


Las Ramblas


Bike lane taken over by pedestrians