For some reason I feel the need to turbo tourist through this and kill myself.  But now I’ve still got 3 full days after this, and I will be able to do a lot of different things that are a bit more relaxing, I think.  But today was turboing through London attacking many different areas.

The day started with a trip back to Trafalgar Square and ( Read more... )

A relaxing and uneventful train ride to London, parlayed into a wet and crazy evening walking around the city.  I arrived into King’s Cross, and then hopped down to the tube to Paddington Station, where my hotel is nearest to.  A quick check-in to my small, yet adequate and nicely furnished room, and I was ready to go.


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A bright and early start to my day today, as I made my way the several blocks uphill to get to Waverly Station in Edinburgh to catch the 8am train to King’s Cross.  I continue to be a day late (and presumably a dollar short) with the weather, as it was a gloriously sunny morning in Edinburgh, the nicest day I’ve seen in my entire trip.  I now just ( Read more... )

The rains came and the rains continue.  This paragraph was about 8 times longer, but then my computer locked up and I lost it all.  You didn’t miss much.

I started my day by climbing the Scott Monument.  283 steps to the top, up narrow winding stone staircases.  From the top you can see a lot of Edinburgh, but you can see those pictures for ( Read more... )

Saturday was mostly a travel day, as I said a fond farewell to Sweden and headed over to Scotland.  My friend Heather met me at the airport, and after dropping my stuff at her flat, we went out around the town.  No trip to Edinburgh would be complete without a stop at a local pub, and one nearby was the Queen’s Arms.


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Today turned out to be a rather eventful day.  It was a holiday in Sweden, Midsummer’s Eve, otherwise known as the day before Midsummer, though for convenience moved to the nearest weekend.  Virtually everything in the city shuts down, and people head home to spend time with their families and celebrate.  There are a lot of similarities to American ( Read more... )

Nothing much to report from yesterday, so there was no blog post.  Today was the last day in the office, as Friday is a holiday in Sweden… Midsommarafton or Midsummer Eve, is the day before the Midsummer Day (surprised?).  Apparently it’s supposed to fall on the actual solstice, but for practical reasons it now falls on the nearest Friday/Saturday ( Read more... )

I thought I was adjusting to the time change fairly well.  Then I woke up wide awake at 4:30am this morning and couldn’t fall back asleep.  I guess there’s nothing wrong with that as long as I wasn’t tired later.  Today the waves of sleepiness didn’t hit me until 3 hours later than yesterday, this time closer to 5pm, so that was all good.

Work was ( Read more... )

Well, folks, I’m back.  Once again I’m off to Sweden for a week of work.  This time instead of arranging for a week of vacation before my week in Gothenburg, I’ll be working a week and THEN taking a week of vacation.  Variety is the spice of life, eh?  And this time I have my first excursions into the UK to look forward to, with time in both ( Read more... )

As usual, after a 7-month blogging hiatus I'm finally going to make a good-faith effort to get back into the blogging of random thoughts, OUTSIDE of when I'm on vacation and actually good at blogging.  So here goes...

Today's random topic:  Why are US Border Agents so gruff?

So yesterday I took some friends up to drop them off at the Vancouver ( Read more... )