UK Honeymoon Chronicle - Part I

A few weeks ago Jory and I returned from our trip to England and Scotland. It was my first time on British soil. The purpose of our trip was three-fold: Some friends of Jory's were getting married, a week following that Jory was asked to speak at a conference in Leicester, and since we never took our honeymoon we figured we would spend the week in between road tripping in England and Scotland.

We spent two days in Liverpool celebrating Rob and Ruth's wedding as well as the naming of their new baby Jasper. The wedding was inside the Palm House, a glass conservatory in Sefton Park. Most of Rob's British and Scottish mates had nicknames such as "Pencil", "Ginger", and even "McLeod" (yes, of the McLeod Clan and in full Scottish Regalia). They were a blast to meet and party with.

We stayed at the Crowne Plaza Hotel on the Liverpool waterfront, which was quite nice. According to locals, the waterfront has seen tons of redevelopment in the last few years in preparation for Liverpool becoming the "Cultural Capital" of the UK in 2008. There were many new modern lofts and apartment buildings going up and historic renovation projects of old warehouses and factory buildings are equally prevalent. There were probably more construction cranes in and around downtown Liverpool than in San Francisco.

 

As Jory mentioned on her blog post, we had probably the most expensive breakfast of our life on our first morning: 35 pounds for breakfast and a morning paper. Roughly $70 US dollars for some scrambled eggs, toast, beans, Cumberland sausage, OJ from concentrate, and coffee. We knew it was going to be an expensive trip given the conversion rate, but this was just ridiculous! The next morning we searched out a local cafe, and found the same (traditional) breakfast for 5 pounds.

We then picked up our car and headed out of town. Pulling out of the parking garage and maneuvering through the city on the "wrong" side of the road was a bit challenging at first, but before long I was zipping through the city in my usual fashion - slamming through the gears like Colin McRae, finding out what our Kia wagon was made of. It took a lot less time than I expected to get comfortable driving on the left-hand side of the road and shifting with my left hand. Navigating the traffic circles, however, took a bit longer to adapt to. After several wrong exits, we learned that when in doubt, just keep driving around the circle until we figured out which exit to take. I'm not sure how many miles we put on the odometer doing laps around the circles, but I will give props to Jory as she has certainly become a much better map reader under pressure. I still don't trust her to call out turn speeds and distances like a true rally navigator, but I don't think her stomach or patience could handle that kind of insanity anyway...at least without a helmet and 5-point seat belt!

Since it didn’t get dark there until around 10:00, we had long days to travel and could even continue exploring well past dinner into the evening.

We discovered Edinburgh on foot and by double-decker bus: the old city, the new city, Holyrood Park, the Royal Botanic Gardens, and several great neighborhoods where wine a cheese shops lined the cobble streets. I'm still thinking about the amazing garlic brie and freshly baked seed loaf Jory and I ate while sitting beneath a huge Fagus slyvatica (European Beach) in the Botanic Gardens as squirrels and pigeons ran between our legs munching on fallen morsels.

We quite liked Edinburgh. The city is spectacular - endless blocks of historic buildings (we saw one with 1519 engraved in the side), tons of street life, a pub on every corner (with more scotch than you can shake a stick at), ethnic diversity, and quite a wide selection of food. Before coming here, folks told me not to expect much in the way of food, but I could write a whole blog post on our gastronomic experience of the UK (to be continued...).

Comments

[Susanne]

It's nice to read about the trip on both Jory's and your blog. I love Edinburgh. I have to put it on my "places to revisit"-list.

I'd love a post on gastronomical UK...

[Joy]

Some nice pics here Jesse...I especially love the one of you and Jory....you handsome devil. I didn't think it would take you long to grasp driving on the other side of the road....you're a pretty quick study. I'm looking forward to your next installment. Love and hugs to both of you. ~ Mom DJ

[Chantel]

Good words.