Day 119: Edinburgh, Scotland

Voltaire once said: "We look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilisation"
  
Apparently Voltaire was a complete idiot.  Or really liked him some beer.


Today I had to wake up at 4:30 in the morning.  I felt pretty terrible, but this is probably because I got like four hours of sleep.  Junior drove me about an hour so I could get on a train from  Roosendaal to Schiphol. My travel went really well, and I got to the airport in plenty of time.  I had to wait for about an hour, but it was alright.

First one of these I have seen in 4 months.  Didn't miss it.

This is why Dutch is the most ridiculous language on the planet.

My flight was good, and only lasted about an hour.  I went through immigration, and Megan met me at the airport.  We headed into town, but we needed to wait a few hours before we could check in to our guest house, so we went to a pub to get lunch.  It was good, but this sure ain't France.  Or the Netherlands.  Or even Belgium.  I did try Haggas.  It was fine, but I wouldn't want to eat it. 

These sausages were actually ok. 

Contains: water, apple pulp, sugar, malt vinegar, cane molasses, thickener, tomato paste, salt, acetic acid, spices, onion powder, preservative, colouring(caramel paste).  Yeah.  They don't call it Brown sauce for nothing...

After lunch, we went to a little place called the French Fancies, and got some decent food.  I had a lemon tart, which was great, and a cafe.  It was a great end to the meal.  Once we finished, we had killed enough time and we went to the flat where were are staying.  They lady who rents it out was very nice, and it is a nice room.

This is our building.  Ours is on the top floor, just before the bell tower.

Here is most of the room.  There is one other smaller room behind me. 

Once we were settled, Megan went out to get our tickets to the New Year's party tonight, and I stayed back to shower, and practice and maybe take a nap.  I took a shower, which was nice, and then I got back to the room and felt really tired, and ended up accidentally taking a nap.  I woke up a couple of times, but wasn't feeling any better, so I kept sleeping.  When Megan came back, I got up and discovered that I felt horrible.  I was achy and my muscles just hurt, and my stomach was upset, and I generally just felt awful.  Finally, it was pretty late, and we needed dinner, and had to be in the event by 11pm, so we left at around 8.  I didn't have much of an appetite, and almost all of the kitchens at places we went were closed.  Finally, we found a pizza place that was still open.  I just got some pasta with butter.  I managed to keep it all down, and it was good that I ate.

We spent our New Year's at the Edinburgh Hogmanay.  It is just a giant street festival with concerts and DJs and lots and lots of beer and food.  I would say a majority of the participants were pretty drunk by about 10pm, inside and outside of the gates.  It seems to be the the accepted method is get a 2 liter bottle of your favorite soda, mix in your favorite liquor, and stumble about the streets drinking it. 

He knew that until France had its own Angus Steak Bars, it would never compare to the cultural utopia that is Scotland.

This is what the street generally looked like  inside the gates.  Voltaire strove for, but was never able to achieve, the philosophical intellect possessed by these great minds. 

Here's us under one of the chateaus of Edinburgh.

People gathering to watch the fireworks.

The fireworks were really incredible.  They were a great show, but the cool thing was that one would never be allowed to stand as close to the fireworks as we were.  At times, they were literally exploding directly over our heads.  It was pretty amazing.

They were loud.

These ones were red.

Once the fire works ended, I was pretty much at the end of my line, so we had to head home.  I'm glad we did because it started raining.  When we got back, I spent about 30 minutes huddled in front of a space heater while poor Megan tried to figure out how to cool herself off more.  I am really hoping I do not get more sick.  SPOILER ALERT: When you read tomorrow's blog post, I will be more sick.

Day 118: Vlissingen, Netherlands

Today was a good last day in the Netherlands.  This is also my last day in continental Europe.  No more Euros…  I didn’t do a whole lot today, but that is ok.  It has been really great to relax after so many days of sightseeing and walking and traveling.  I woke up around 11h, and watched a show about oil rigs for a while.  I ate some bread with jam and butter and some fruit for breakfast.  At around 12h 30, everybody went out, and I practiced trumpet for about an hour.  It was a terrible 30 minutes, followed by a great 30 minutes.  Hopefully, I can continue playing without a mute in Scotland.

Here's the view from my window, up Junior's street.

When Junior and Dawejano (w=v, j=y) got back, Junior and I went to the Boulevard along the beach in Vlissingen.  He showed me some parts of his town, which is small, but very nice.  We finished with a trip to the grocery store, and then we ate dinner at home.  We had pasta with a tomato/meat sauce.

Getting ready for tomorrow night.

This is one of the best maritime training academies in the Netherlands.

This is a part of the old defensive wall along the coast, complete with canons.

This is the North Sea.  If you stand near it, you will be cold.

Hotels and condos on the beach.

This is the dike that holds back the ocean. 

...from all of this.

I was planning on leaving tonight for Schiphol, in Amsterdam, since my flight is tomorrow morning.  However, Junior is going to drive me to Roosendaal at like 5 in the morning, so I can take a train from there.  It is about an hour’s drive, so it is very nice of him. 

Day 117: Middleburg - Vlissingen, Netherlands

Today was a great day in the Netherlands.  I slept in really late, which was wonderful.  I woke up a little after 11, and went downstairs around noon.  The family was watching TV and eating breakfast.  The show was basically a Dutch version of Desperate Housewives.  It was the same as ours, but basically all of the women had blonde hair.  After some food, I practiced for a while.  It was so great to play without a stupid practice mute in my bell.  I sounded horrible, though.  Hopefully, tomorrow I will be over the mute. 

Here is my chambre for my stay.  It is very compact. 

At around 14h30, we left for Middleburg to do some shopping.  Middleburg is a very nice town, with a nice shopping area.  There was a large market in the town square, which I don't believe was Christmas related.  We also had several delicious local delicacies.  It ain't France, but the food is still pretty good.  And better than Belgium. 

This is the former Middleburg town hall, which now serves as a university.

This shopping street is curved along the route of the former, circular dike built to keep the city dry, before there were dikes to keep the whole country dry. 

This is a really delicious wurst, AKA sausage.

Me eating a haring(herring) in the traditional fashion.  It is cleaned, de-boned, decapitated, and served raw.  It was a little different, but once I got used to it, it was really good.

This is just hunks of deep fried cod.  It was really good.

Stroopwafels are thin, crispy waffles in sandwich form, with a thin layer of syrup in between.  Really, really great!

Once we finished with the shopping, we came back to Vlissingen for a bit, before we headed out to go bowling.  We had the lane reserved for one hour, so we didn't stay long, but it was fun.  Here, the pins have strings attached to the top, and they are reset by the strings being pulled up an lowered. 

Junior's wife, son, and niece, watching him bowl.

 On the way home, we stopped and got fries, and some kind of sausage-y thing.  The fries here have different kinds of sauces including curry ketchup, peanut sauce, and a mix of the ketchup and mayo, with raw onions.  It was all great.   We sat around the living room table, and watched Home Alone 2.  It was a nice evening.

Junior's nine month old baby, Naomi, watching TV. Or whatever happens to be around.

Day 116: Oostende, Belgium

So today was my last day in Belgium.  I know it was only 3 days here, but it flew by.  I can’t believe it is already so late.  I will be home in less than two weeks….

Today we spent the day in Maarten’s town of Oostende.  It is a really cool city.  It was, and still is, a fishing village and port city.  It has had a substantial military history, and has some very cool things to see.  We started out by heading to Fort Napoleon, with several stops along the way.  

Looking down the pier.  The piles of rock on the left are a massive public works project.  They are raising the beach to prevent flooding.

Me on the pier.  With Oostende in the background.

We took this ferry across the harbor, instead of walking all the way around.

We then visited some German blockhaus, part of the Atlantikwall.

Looking out of the watch tower on the coast.

The whole complex is completely abandoned, so it was pretty cool exploring it.

This is the Oostende lighthouse, near the blockhaus.

We then walked out onto this jetty on the opposite side of the harbor from the pier.  It was cold.  But was nice and quiet.

Me with the city behind me.  Look how cold and unhappy I look.  I hate Europe. 

This bird posed for a shot.

We then walked along the beach to Fort Napoleon.

Fort Napoleon was built by Napoleon.  He was very concerned about a potential British naval invasion at Oostende (which never came), so he was continually bolstering the city’s defenses.  It was actually completed by the British, and re-named Fort Wellington.  They thought they were real clever.  Later, it was used by the Belgians, French and Dutch for various military purposes, including World War One defenses.   When Belgium was occupied by the Nazis, Fort Napoleon was incorporated into the Atlantikwall.  The Germans were very concerned about a potential British naval invasion at Oostende (which never came), so the fort was heavily bolstered.  

There are no rooms in the fort.  Only corridors.  This is where the soldiers would have slept.

There was an exhibit of toy cars, like a mini museum.  The fort became a children's playground after la deuxieme guerre mondiale. 

The fort is comprised of two pentagons, with this dry moat in between.  The moat is broken up with these buildings, with shoosting holes at ground level, to limit mobility within the moat.  So, if you did manage to get in, you die here.

In WWI, zee stinknig German officers turned this into a beer hall of sorts, and smuggled loose women into the fort.  Then they lost a war.  The mural is a German night driving his sword into the throat of a Belgian.  Behind him are the decapitated bodies of a Brit, Frenchman, and others.

Me on the top, of the fort.  Those holes used to enable a soldier to shoot while standing up.  Europeans used to be much shorter.  Really though, the Nazis poured an entire meter of concrete on the roof to strengthen against bombs.  This roof also featured 16 cannons and 20 mortars. 

Us on the roof.

After visiting the fort, we took the ferry back across the harbor to visit a restaurant, because we were hungry.  I had a very good, lunch of fries and Flemish Stew, which is basically beef in broth.  Assuming this was really Flemish Stew.  I also had frites with Bicky sauce.  Bicky sauce is a Belgian thing.  It is kinda sour and tangy and sweet.  Or something.  It is good.

We passed a fish market on the way.  There is tons of fresh seafood, everywhere.

My lunch.  I will miss tiny French fry forks and also Coca Light.

When we finished eating, we visited a fishing-vessel-turned-museum near the harbor.  The port of Oostende once had a large fleet of fishing boats that worked in the North Sea off of the coast of Iceland.  This ship was the last decommissioned, and it was turned into a museum.  It have never been on a commercial fishing boat before.  I basically just was pretending I was on Deadliest Catch the whole time.  It was fun for me.

 

The fish room.  Where the fish go, after they are gutted.

The crew quarters.

I AM DRIVING A FISHING BOAT!!!

Don't judge.  It was a long trip at sea.

The deck of the Amandine.

Now, I am en route to Vlissingen-Souburg, in the Netherlands.  I will basically be there 2 days, which is shorter than I’d like, but it’s better than nothing.  

I got here a bit after 10 pm, and I grabbed a drink with Junior.  Now, we are just relaxing at his house.