Glasgow to the Cotswolds in 10 days – The North
Rumour has it that things are grim up north. Grey weather, rough people, housing estates as far as the eye can see. Well, actually that wasn’t quite the case but it was good to go in with low expectations and then be suitably impressed!
Driving from Edinburgh in our hired VW Passat we couldn’t really tell what the speed limit was. We assumed it couldn’t be more than 70 miles but people were speeding past us at any opportunity. Lesson 1: The UK speed limit is 70 miles but people like to go faster than that.
There’s some beautiful countryside on the road from Edinburgh south west to the Lake District. We met a friend of Peter’s for a Sunday pub lunch in Penrith (mm, chocolate bread and butter pudding) and then continued our journey south.
First stop was Manchester, a sparkling rejuvenated city with a massive mall, a curry mile, a little China town and a nice selection of hipster shops in the Northern Quarter. I can highly recommend staying in the Hilton Chambers around that part of town.
Manchester and Liverpool are both pretty big cities so I only recently realised they’re onlyl 45 minutes apart. So a daytrip to the Liverpool TATE was next on the agenda. We set off early to stop by Crosby Beach, north of Liverpool, to see a massive year long installation by Antony Gormley. Somehow we navigated close enough to the beach to see a brown tourist street sign telling us to go left. Scored! But that was the only sign and there was still a lot of coast to investigate. We decide to wander around from the second car park we pull into. There’s an old lady walking her dogs in the semi-rain and full-wind who I ask for directions. “If I had 20p for every person who asks me that! Keep walking that way and you can’t miss them. They’re staring all the way to New York.”
So we walked on and she was right, we couldn’t have missed them once we got to the right place. I should’ve given her 20p. If you’re ever in the area do drop by because it’s a mighty impressive installation. One hundred life-sized cast iron figures staring out to sea from a semi-industrial piece of coastline. Check out other peoples’ pictures to see for yourself.
The Liverpool TATE is also great. We went to see the temporary exhibition on Gustav Klimt but were most impressed at exhibitions from their collection, of which we only got through one floor.
We had a quick wander through the city centre and were reminded often enough that Liverpool was the home of the Beatles. No time for lingering because there was still Manchester to see more of, including Affleck’s Palace.
Sadly Affleck’s isn’t what it used to be. Or so I’m led to believe given it was my first visit. It’s a big old warehouse building on a corner that for years (since 1982 according to their website) has been a ecclectic and independent market. I think the story goes that the building was set for demolition but then ‘saved’ but a developer/businessman who now runs the market. There were a few more interesting stalls but most of it was aimed at the goth or clubber sub-cultures of the ’90s (or the kids of today just getting into those looks).
Our last city in the ‘up north tour of the UK’ was Leeds. After a few hours exploring the city we headed slightly out of the city to the headquarters of Norman Records. Norman are a mail order CD shop with an excellent weekly newsletter and a broad range of interesting music. Peter organised to check out their office and while he was there, also checked out their store of CDs. Richard, who works at Norman and also plays in a exellent band, put us up in his lovely Pudsey terrace (complete with cute garden and cat) but not until we’d had fantastic Indian at a place called Akbar’s in nearby Bradford. What’s not to love about 2 foot long naan that hangs from a cast-iron rod on your table? Mmm.
Glasgow to the Cotswolds in 10 days
The Glasgow and Edinburgh bit
The British can sometimes get a bad wrap. The weather is dreary, the food is bland and then there are those accents. Well, I can honestly say that after just a few weeks in Europe landing in Glasgow seemed quite exotic.
First there’s that cute accent often combined with a “hey-yar” greeting. Then there’s the cheap good food and the impressive Georgian (?) architecture on beautiful crescents in the suburbs. Hell, even the supermarkets are exciting for me. I guess by exciting I really mean comforting. Comforting because I’m not surrounded by cool Berliners or Parisians anymore, and I can confidently know exactly what I’m ordering on a menu. It’s the small things sometimes.
But more exciting for you (perhaps?) is some talk of what we got up to.
Music: extremely loud My Bloody Valentine gig (review) at Glasgow’s classic Barrowland Ballroom venue. This place has the vibe of a 70s roller skating rink that someone missed out on getting demolished in the ’90s. It was actually a ballroom dancing venue, probably in the 50s, but having never been to one of them in their hey-day I can’t really compare. It was a very rock gig. Hot, sweaty and with the occasional beer being thrown overhead. Nothing says rock like throwing a beer from a plastic cup.
Shops: best shop in Glasgow award would have to go to Monorail Music. It’s a CD shop inside a cafe that kinda looks like a run down community arts venue. Maybe it sometimes is a run down community arts venue. The record store has piles of great CDs and the cafe has tasty vegetarian food, home brewed ginger beer and free wifi. I even bought a CD there – Patti Smith and Kevin Shields (from My Bloody Valentine) combining forces in a disturbing experimental way (review). Might be a good one for Sunday Night at the Movies.
Restaurants: Oran Mor is tops. Somebody realised that there were heaps of churches in the UK going empty because all they had on offer was religion. But a church turned into a bar, live music venue, reception venue and restaurant is far more enticing. We didn’t go to the bar but did go to the somewhat swanky restaurant where we somehow got 3 courses for 15 quid. Noice. Sweet waitresses with that accent and hey-yar greeting too.
Accommodation: Gotta love the Whitehouse Apartments. Classic Glasgow architecture in a beautiful crescent in a seemingly upmarket suburb in the West End (or are Porsches and Bentleys common on the streets of Glasgow?). And lovely people happy to have a chat but leave you be. Actually, I think that lovely people thing is just a Glaswegian thing… kinda like the Irish I think.
Then there was Edinburgh.
We caught an 8.30am train to Edinburgh from Glasgow and the guy seated across from us was drinking vodka. Not only was he drinking vodka but the vodka was being served by the train drinks cart gentleman who wheeled his offerings up and down the aisle. I think Sydney trains need a drink cart gentleman for all trains of 45 minutes or longer too.
Edinburgh is a beautiful city. Only 45 minutes from Glasgow yet so different in so many ways. Sadly it was so cold and rainy and windy in the afternoon that we were forced to retreat indoors without exploring any further than the standard tourist attractions. (See Lonely Planet if you really need info on standard Edinburgh tourist attractions… this ain’t the place for it.)
Then the road trip to London began…..
Berlin
In Berlin the trains run on time, the bikes pass by frequently and the hubs of life and excitement are smattered across the city, usually hidden by a graffittied facade.
Now in cold, wet and windy Edinburgh, balmy Berlin seems like a distant summer holiday.
We stayed at cool and busy Circus Hostel right at Rosenthaler Platz and wandered the nearby streets after arriving on an early train. Good thing number one about Berlin: they start late. Even for Saturday breakfast.
The wandering went on for days so maybe I should break this up a little (I’ve got a time limit on the hostel computer!).
Places…
Kreuzberg in the south, supposedly grungy but actually quite cool. Prenzlauer Berg in the north, used to be grungy but now so cool it’s fashionable. Alexanderplatz in the centre, but without being the city centre. Mitte, a large central area is beyond being described in a few words. Friedrichshain in the east has the impressively grand yet boring Karl Marx Ave. It also has a lot of punk record stores and one cute organic and soy gelato shop. Charlottenburg, in the west was once the ritzy part of town and it still is beautiful. We stepped back in time and had a tour of Pip and Carston’s amazing apartment – closest to a grand Rose Bay apartment but with more history and European-ness, and probably for less rent than a house in Newtown. Grr. Can you see why people are relocating to Berlin?
Museums…
As the Lonely Planet said, Berlin has more museums than rainy days and it was true. The Checkpoint Charlie museum was the absolute low-point of the museum trail because it was so amateur. Walls were plastered with images, text in different languages and different sized fonts and no organisation to the stories being told. There were some great stories in amongst it but it was such an effort to make any sense of it.
Far more impressive were the panels surrounding the actual site of Checkpoint Charlie. Full of all the info you need about the history leading up to and after the Berlin Wall and best of all, consise, well-organised and free.
The DDR museum was small, fun and interactive. You could sit in an old East German car or watch old docos about people living in Eastern housing.
The Jewish Museum was an amazing building designed by some amazing architect who I might just name if I have time left at the end of the post. It led you chronologically through beautiful displays and peaceful surrounds. There were perhaps a few too many words and too many stories but that might just be reflecting my short attention span.
The Pergamon Museum was the highlight. It’s exhibition on Babylon was quite perfect – lots of old stuff with the history downstairs and then the stories, myths and contemporary explorations of Babylon upstairs. The museum has also recreated a giant Babylonian archway – beautiful blue tiles with mythical creatures in relief tiles. I picked up the free audio tour here and was actually impressed… never thought much of taking audio tours in the past, especially at museums where there’s already so many words, but this was a nice exhibition to drift around with something to listen to. Oh and why was a museum in Berlin holding an exhibition about Babylon? To put it bluntly, some German guy was right into digging up the ruins years ago.
Food…
Berlin was the destination where we lost interest in Eastern European food. Good place for it really. Monsieur Vuong’s on Alte Schönhauser Strasse was a hip Vietnamese restaurant just down the road from us near Hackescher Markt.
In Charlottenburg some locals took us out for Chinese on a street they think is this close to becoming Berlin’s Chinatown (although I’m not so sure those lights strung across every Chinatown in the world would look right on this massive boulevard). Afterwards we went to a local cafe where they serve a special Austrian dessert called Kaiserschmarrn. It’s kinda a pancake cooked liked scrambled eggs and served a bit soft, traditionally eaten whilst skiing or camping or something. Much tastier than it sounds.
But of course it wouldn’t be a German holiday unless there was some sausage involved. That brings me to…
Football (or soccer) and cool places to hang out…
The Eurocup final was on while we were in Berlin. Football is kinda a big deal there and so it was a really big deal this time because Germany was in the final against Spain. Peter’s friend Pip (from Charlottenburg if you were reading above) told us we’d be meeting some others at a beer garden. I should point out that Berlin beer gardens aren’t the half-arsed attempt you see in Australia. No, a table outside of a pub does not constitute a beer garden. I walked past a number of places which seemed like a vacant grassy lot with tables, umbrellas and beer but this particular place was even more interesting.
Mädcheninternat possibly used to be a girls’ school, or maybe it didn’t but they just thought it’d be a cool name for a bar. The only way we really knew we were in the right place from the street was that there were hundreds of bikes chained up on the surrounding block. We climbed the overgrown front path and walked around the side of the giant stone building to discover a crowd of people, many on yellow deckchairs, around a big screen. We continued onto the overflow area of the bitumen where there was another big screen and a smaller sea of people constructing their own seating. We went on our own little scavenger hunt through leftover building materials to see what sort of seating we could build. It’s amazing how resourceful you can be with some wood off-cuts (mind the rusty nails) and some giant polystyrene blocks.
What started off looking full of too cool people with their minimal techo (Germans love their minimal techno) turned out being balanced out with families and little kids by the time the game started. And the sausage reference? We hadn’t eaten and German sausages were the only thing on offer here. I should also mention that beer was even served in glasses here. Imagine that! Oh to live in a place not wrapped up in the red tape of public liability. It could be worse, I could live in the UK where anything remotely edible seems to have a peanut warning on it.
Shops…
I really must have done a lot of aimless wandering in Berlin because I certainly didn’t do much shopping. A few good ones worth pointing out though:
Monia Herbst – beautiful leather bags just around the corner from our hostel and made in the back of the shop. I’m one shiny red bag richer for it.
Ausberlin – near Alexanderplatz this shop has interesting non-souvenir items from Berlin. Clothing, books, music, accessories etc. We went here on our first day and if I’d gone back later I would’ve been sure to buy something.
Mauerpark Markets – flea markets that are mostly full of people selling their rubbish but also with a few cool t-shirt designers. One t-shirt and two hair clips richer from this little adventure.