I sent out an email to some friends and family letting them know about this site and my upcoming trip. In it, I mentioned that I'd love any restaurant advice or don't-miss destination advice. So this is the suggestion box post. I'll leave it specially linked in the sidebar so that if anyone thinks of anything later, this post will be easy to find and use for offering travel tips. You can leave a comment by clicking the number next to the post title. If the comments moderation function feels like working, your comment may not appear right away, but be [99%] assured that your comment is waiting in my inbox for approval and will appear on the site after a click or two on my part. I hate having to use the moderation feature, but spammers got ahold of a
Phubar post and it was not pretty - this special non-Blogger template is a tad less secure than regular Blogger template pages because the word verification feature won't work with it (though if anyone has a hack for getting it to work, please let me know).
Thanks in advance for your suggestions! I can't wait to visit your favorite haunts and sample your favorite food!
When I lived in Edinburgh I found a lot of great bars (not too difficult I guess). My favorite bar was a block from my apartment, it's called the Three Sisters and I think it's on Cowgate. There's another great bar called the Globe that sells absynthe and BarKohl is this awesome vodka bar that makes "milk shakes" with vodka. You have to find BarKohl! You should definitely check out Grey Friar's Bobby for some history as well as the area where the "hangings" used to happen. I think it's called something Mary's Close. There's a great bar over there called "The Last Drop" which is allegedly where the hangmen used to go to get their last pint before they started working. And I swear, I was not an alcoholic, there's just some great pubs over there!
Obviously you need to check out Edinburgh castle. There's a great whiskey distillery on High Street that could be fun to check out and if you're there more than one night, you should try one of the ghost tours - it actually was pretty creepy - they take you into the old underground town and tunnels where real live witches hang out.
And if you actually want to eat too, you can grab a quick "pie" at the Piemaker, which is also on High Street I think. And of course you need to try some fish and chips and a deep fried mars bar (but maybe split that with Rob, they can be a bit much).
I will miss you like crazy!
Check out www.venere.com...the best place we found to reserve hotels, pensions, etc. Happy travels!
The San Jose Merc had an artical about "new news" for traveling in Europe. It had a bunch of good tips (writen by the travel guru himself, Rick Steves).
Make sure to read the bit about Florence...looks like you will need to reserve tickets for the Uffizi well in advance.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/living/travel/14136877.htm
One of the best books I read last year was "The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of The Oxford English Dictionary" by Simon Winchester.
Its opening chapter describes Lambeth Marsh:
"In Victorian London, even in a place as louche and notoriously crime-ridden as Lambeth Marsh, the sound of gunshots was a rare event indeed. The marsh was a sinister place, a jumble of slums and sin that crouched, dark and ogrelike, on the bank of the Thames just across from Westminster; few respectable Londoners would ever admit to venturing there. It was a robustly violent part of town as well--the footpad lurked in Lambeth, there had once been an outbreak of garroting, and in every crowded alley were the roughest kinds of pickpocket. Fagin, Bill Sikes, and Oliver Twist would have all seemed quite at home in Victorian Lambeth: This was Dickensian London writ large. "
Today the marsh is gone and I think the South Bank (Southwark?) is what has taken its place. Maybe if you have a free afternoon, you could grab the book, walk across the Millenium Bridge and camp out on the manicured grass lawn with it, trying to channel the feel of that part of London in its seedier days. If you're into that sort of thing, that is.
Once you've had enough of that, the Tate Modern is just a few footsteps away.
Yea! A comment!
We floated past the Tate Modern yesterday and it's on my list of places to go back and see (along with almost everything else in London). I'll have to picnic on the grass before I go to the museum, per your comment.