woodpusher
TSC’s International Man of Meh
Bad brekkie? Well, that's not good. 
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- Thread starter GearNoir
- Start date
Right up the street from Wrectum, I believe.
GearNoir
“The Disney Princess’s Apprentice”
Potentially would have been, but we mixed those plans for the included breakfast and found much better on the road.Bad brekkie? Well, that's not good.
Right up the street from Wrectum, I believe.
Well 3/4 Monty at least of this part of the UK. Won’t hit Northern Ireland unfortunately or any much further than we are now in Edinburgh, missed quite a bit of the south west of England as well, including Stonehenge sadly. Maybe a different trip!
HMan
Doften Savant
I've yet to make it to Stonehenge either, but I hear it's not so exciting, chain link fence next to a major highway experience.
We had the opportunity as we drove within 30min of it on the way to the ship. I figured it’s just going to look like it did in the pictures. Yep, rocks stacked on rock, got it.
GearNoir
“The Disney Princess’s Apprentice”
Bummer. Still…it just one of those things you hope to say you did/saw at some point. There’s a lot of amazingly old/historical things here we just don’t have context for in the US.
GearNoir
“The Disney Princess’s Apprentice”
Photo time! Not many today unfortunately, a lot of the day was taken up by a sizable drive north.
After leaving the questionable hotel, we made a short detour back south a bit to visit Llangollen (pronounced something like l-lang-gloch*phlegmy sound*-len). A quiet town that straddles a beautiful river. There’s a castle there as well as an abbey and manor house, but unfortunately with our need to get on the road in a timely manner, the hike to see them would have been too long.
Then a very quick jaunt to Wrexham stadium and to the team shop. A game day fortunately/unfortunately so security was a bit tight and we couldn’t get a peek into the field. So we satisfied ourselves with a jersey for myself and to bring back to each of the boys; the missus grabbed a cap.
Then the beginning of the long trek north and into Scotland. We stopped just over half way, into the city of Penrith, for a decent bite to eat for late lunch.
Scotland is beautiful…especially the scenic route to Edinburgh. Magnificent. Perfectly cloudy, chilling, and steely weather to see it in as well. The photo doesn’t do it justice.
Room for the next 2 nights in Edinburgh, just about a mile from city center.
Snuck a shot of our dinner room at the posh Rhubarb…it was complete with those ridiculous small portions us blue collar Americans laugh at seeing in the snobbish TV shows.
Bonus picture - a heartening message posted to the front door post of St Collen’s, St Tysilio’s & Trevor Church in Llangollen.
After leaving the questionable hotel, we made a short detour back south a bit to visit Llangollen (pronounced something like l-lang-gloch*phlegmy sound*-len). A quiet town that straddles a beautiful river. There’s a castle there as well as an abbey and manor house, but unfortunately with our need to get on the road in a timely manner, the hike to see them would have been too long.
Then a very quick jaunt to Wrexham stadium and to the team shop. A game day fortunately/unfortunately so security was a bit tight and we couldn’t get a peek into the field. So we satisfied ourselves with a jersey for myself and to bring back to each of the boys; the missus grabbed a cap.
Then the beginning of the long trek north and into Scotland. We stopped just over half way, into the city of Penrith, for a decent bite to eat for late lunch.
Scotland is beautiful…especially the scenic route to Edinburgh. Magnificent. Perfectly cloudy, chilling, and steely weather to see it in as well. The photo doesn’t do it justice.
Room for the next 2 nights in Edinburgh, just about a mile from city center.
Snuck a shot of our dinner room at the posh Rhubarb…it was complete with those ridiculous small portions us blue collar Americans laugh at seeing in the snobbish TV shows.
Bonus picture - a heartening message posted to the front door post of St Collen’s, St Tysilio’s & Trevor Church in Llangollen.
woodpusher
TSC’s International Man of Meh
Look at all that knee room!!
That one gets 4.5/5 Sam’s knees
GearNoir
“The Disney Princess’s Apprentice”
Shave #258 (800 Open Blade Shaves) of 2023:
Gear: Gillette Prewar Tech, Astra SP blade, Stirling 2-band synth brush, Clown Puke tub soap, homemade witch hazel/aloe, Nivea Sensitive AS Balm, Speick AS, and Chanel EDP to finish!
A great dinner out last night and a fairly solid night’s rest.
Excellent shave to help me wake up a bit. Headed down soon for a bite of breakfast.
At least two tours today, of very different nature. Hopefully some exploring in between. Stay tuned for the photos!
Can’t believe it’s Sunday already!
Gear: Gillette Prewar Tech, Astra SP blade, Stirling 2-band synth brush, Clown Puke tub soap, homemade witch hazel/aloe, Nivea Sensitive AS Balm, Speick AS, and Chanel EDP to finish!
A great dinner out last night and a fairly solid night’s rest.
Excellent shave to help me wake up a bit. Headed down soon for a bite of breakfast.
At least two tours today, of very different nature. Hopefully some exploring in between. Stay tuned for the photos!
Can’t believe it’s Sunday already!
HMan
Doften Savant
Better for the cold draft too!
GearNoir
“The Disney Princess’s Apprentice”
Time for pics!
Really fun day today and we only covered the smallest fraction of the great city of Edinburgh.
Our day began by walking to meet our guide at a half way point on the Royal Mile in city center. (These pics are on the way to the Mile)
Here’s some of city center by where we met the guide. (St Giles; a bag piper in front of the High Court; originally the meeting place for the Church of Scotland hundreds of years ago, now known as the Hub, home of the Edinburgh International Festival)
As we walked to Edinburgh Castle, she did a great and fun job of relaying a lot of history and interesting facts. Then we got a good tour of the Castle itself (the initial view is somewhat marred by the grand stands being taken down from the Fringe Festival a month or so ago that happened literally immediately in front of the castle).
Home of the Scottish Crown Jewels and Stone of Destiny (no pictures allowed unfortunately) in the Castle.
The Scottish National War Memorial that’s on Castle grounds.
Really fun day today and we only covered the smallest fraction of the great city of Edinburgh.
Our day began by walking to meet our guide at a half way point on the Royal Mile in city center. (These pics are on the way to the Mile)
Here’s some of city center by where we met the guide. (St Giles; a bag piper in front of the High Court; originally the meeting place for the Church of Scotland hundreds of years ago, now known as the Hub, home of the Edinburgh International Festival)
As we walked to Edinburgh Castle, she did a great and fun job of relaying a lot of history and interesting facts. Then we got a good tour of the Castle itself (the initial view is somewhat marred by the grand stands being taken down from the Fringe Festival a month or so ago that happened literally immediately in front of the castle).
Home of the Scottish Crown Jewels and Stone of Destiny (no pictures allowed unfortunately) in the Castle.
The Scottish National War Memorial that’s on Castle grounds.
GearNoir
“The Disney Princess’s Apprentice”
Pics continued:
Scottish Royal Coat of Arms
St Margaret’s Chapel in the Castle, the oldest building in Edinburgh having been built in the early 1100s.
Mons Meg, a beast of a cannon that could launch a ball multiple times the size of your head over 2 miles.
Views from the top of the castle, you can make out the Firth in some of it. The nice panoramic I took is unfortunately too big to upload.
Scottish Royal Coat of Arms
St Margaret’s Chapel in the Castle, the oldest building in Edinburgh having been built in the early 1100s.
Mons Meg, a beast of a cannon that could launch a ball multiple times the size of your head over 2 miles.
Views from the top of the castle, you can make out the Firth in some of it. The nice panoramic I took is unfortunately too big to upload.
woodpusher
TSC’s International Man of Meh
Gotta love the vibrant colours of Edinburgh! 'Twas called Auld Reekie for a reason.
GearNoir
“The Disney Princess’s Apprentice”
Our second stop of the day and a big highlight in its own way - Glenkinchie Distillery.
Here’s an overview, starting with…the entrance, duh.
The original barley drying room.
Key points of the process.
Where the initial mash “mort” is made.
The process of the “mort” being made into a more pure alcohol (colorless and as of yet without much character, except a hay-like malted quality)
The fermentation room (I got to stick my head over a near finished cat for a whiff…phew that’ll wake you up).
The distillation room.
Select barrels, mostly from 2020, representative of the ways and types of barrel storage.
Then there was the tasting…boy did we have some treat samples! We sampled the 5 you see here plus a first pull red wine/sherry cask strength from the barrel room (which was absolutely superb). They normally make the last sample a higher end tasting…but we lucked out and got a higher higher end sample with Blue Label “Legendary Eight”, which includes a blend of 8 different distilleries, a few of which were permanently shut down approximately 20 years ago. That was definitely the sip of a lifetime.
Needless to say, I’ve never had so much whisky in a single sitting and the missus had to drive us back while I recovered…200% worth it!
Here’s an overview, starting with…the entrance, duh.
The original barley drying room.
Key points of the process.
Where the initial mash “mort” is made.
The process of the “mort” being made into a more pure alcohol (colorless and as of yet without much character, except a hay-like malted quality)
The fermentation room (I got to stick my head over a near finished cat for a whiff…phew that’ll wake you up).
The distillation room.
Select barrels, mostly from 2020, representative of the ways and types of barrel storage.
Then there was the tasting…boy did we have some treat samples! We sampled the 5 you see here plus a first pull red wine/sherry cask strength from the barrel room (which was absolutely superb). They normally make the last sample a higher end tasting…but we lucked out and got a higher higher end sample with Blue Label “Legendary Eight”, which includes a blend of 8 different distilleries, a few of which were permanently shut down approximately 20 years ago. That was definitely the sip of a lifetime.
Needless to say, I’ve never had so much whisky in a single sitting and the missus had to drive us back while I recovered…200% worth it!
woodpusher
TSC’s International Man of Meh
Are you sure you're in the right place?
GearNoir
“The Disney Princess’s Apprentice”
Lol, that did at one point say vat…then autocorrect got ahold of it and thought it knew better.Are you sure you're in the right place?