December 2010
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May 2010
35 posts
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Museum Day #3
20 May 2010
The sun was out in full force today so we thought we’d head back to the White House to see if we could see any more of it besides tarpaulin and security guards. Kinda. We couldn’t really get that much closer but at least we did get to see the front without requiring binoculars. Mind you, I think Google Street View gives a better view.
From there we went back to the...
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Museum Day #2
19 May 2010
We started off our sightseeing day with a visit to the White House, not that you can actually get anywhere near it, but at least we saw it from a fair distance hidden behind trees, fences and tarpaulins (though it later turned out that there were some extra security measures and barriers in place due to a state visit from the Mexican president). Then we continued on to spend close to...
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Museum Day #1
18 May 2010
We’re back in Washington D.C. and the weather has turned wet and cold while we were away. Perfect for exploring the many museums that D.C. has to offer. First up today - after popping in to the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and saying hello to more people from my Smithsonian intern days - was the National Air and Space Museum (NASM), where we spent a good few...
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“No loitering. Maximum time 20 minutes while consuming food.”
– McDonalds, Lower East Side
Lower East Side
16 May 2010
We spent our last day in New York strolling around the Lower East Side and soaking up the atmosphere of Little Italy and Chinatown, though to my disappointment I discovered that in Chinatown they no longer serve fresh coconuts as a roadside drink. For lunch we frequented the famous Katz’s delicatessen, the last stop on Simon’s ‘They Might Be Giants’ tour of New...
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A Day In Brooklyn
15 May 2010
Today was our Brooklyn day, which we started off with a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge in the most glorious weather. It’s become a lot more popular since I first did it before several years ago and there were literally hundreds of people on the go. Once we reached the other end, we met an old friend of mine from my Iona days for lunch in Brooklyn Heights, and she gave us a...
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“Do you get any UFOs in Scotland?”
– Old jazz musician in a local NYC diner
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MET, MoMA and a new cap!
14 May 2010
I do become awfully Hugh Grant-ish when faced with a full-blown New York accent. I think it’s my way of coping with the potential embarrassment in not understanding what they say – if I play the bumbling, stuttering English buffoon, they give me more leeway.
I was doing the full Notting Hill when we went to the Columbus Café for breakfast. It’s a proper, no-frills,...
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“Passive activities are encouraged.”
– Central Park signpost
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"Statue of Liberty, Staten Island Ferry..."
13 May 2010
I have no idea how big the Statue of Liberty is. I saw a copy in Tokyo once but from films, TV and photos you can’t tell the actual scale of the real thing. I still have no clue, to be honest. Big.
We made our way down to the bottom of Manhattan early(ish) in the morning to catch the Staten Island ferry which not only takes you past the Statue of Liberty, it’s also free...
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Rainy Day Pursuits
12 May 2010
Today was the first time that the weather has been wet and dull on our holiday so far, though it’s still hot and humid. Since Friday is going to be our big New York museum day we were trying to find some other rainy day pursuits to follow, but the rest of our itinerary is all outdoors. So, in the end we added another museum to our sightseeing list and walked across Central Park...
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TMBG Guide to New York
11 May 2010
Some readers may be aware of my slight liking for They Might Be Giants. I decided years ago that if I were ever to go to New York, I would check off the list of highlights mentioned in the song “New York City”
“The Statue of Liberty, Staten Island Ferry, Co-op City, Katz’s and Tiffany’s Central Park, Brooklyn Bridge, the Empire State where Dylan lived ...
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“Please keep…laughter at a courteous volume.”
– Megabus from DC to NYC
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Change of Venue
10 May 2010
We spent a large part of today on a bus from Washington, D.C. to New York City, but at least it had power outlets, free Wi-Fi, air conditioning and a working toilet, so the journey was comfortable enough. We’ve treated ourselves to a self-catering studio apartment on the Upper West Side (for those that means nothing to, it’s a very nice area), where we’ll be staying...
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Old towns and cemeteries
9 May 2010
The first half of today was spent in Alexandria. Proper old American stuff and everything. It’s the town where George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and their mates used to hang out before they found out there was a town next door that had Washington’s name all over it. Or something like that.
Anyway, it was very nice and picturesque and had a lovely arts centre where...
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Just like in that TV show...
8 May 2010
First time visitor, long time watcher of NCIS and Bones.
Jenni figured that, seeing as I’m intimately familiar with all the major tourist landmarks through my keen TV fandom (not to mention Project Gotham Racing 2 on the Xbox), where better to start my real-life Washington, D.C. experience than on the Mall?
So, we head out, take the metro to ‘Smithsonian’ and make...
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To the USA by hook or by crook
7 May 2010
Ash cloud disaster averted - Scottish airspace reopened the day before - we arrive at Edinburgh airport bright and early (well, early at least), relieved that our holidays plans are safe. Until the lady at the check-in asks us for our ESTA forms. ESTA what? Apparently this is a new regulation introduced in January that requires anyone travelling to the USA to complete an online...
April 2010
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December 2009
2 posts
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October 2009
43 posts
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Honey, I'm home...
Our final night in Iceland was a bit eerie. We stayed in the Gistihús Keflavíkur on the U.S. Military’s former Naval Air Station Keflavik. It was decommissioned in 2006 and, for all intents and purposes, abandoned. The guesthouse is in one of the many old accommodation blocks and, given that we’re outside tourist season and the place is run by a small family, it has more than a little...
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Goodbye to Iceland
15 October 2009
After a final walk around Reykjavík, another trip up to the Hallgrimskirkja viewing platform, this time without the scaffolding (well, the lower part of the church is still covered, but at least no longer obscuring the view) and some last minute souvenir shopping we are once again sitting in Babalú café (for the fourth time in five days!), passing the time until our bus to the...
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But what does it taste like?
14 October 2009
Tomorrow afternoon, we have to leave Reykjavík so that we can get to a hostel near the airport for our early morning flight on Friday. Today was, therefore, our last full day in Reykjavík and what are two people who work at a National Museum supposed to do on their holiday but spend several hours walking around a National Museum? Jenni had a very brief tour around Þjóðminjasafn...
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Creatures from the Blue Lagoon
13 October 2009
The difference between a health spa and and a feel good spa is that the latter sells beer and hot dogs. We didn’t partake of either of those, however, we did spend most of today hanging out at the Blue Lagoon, a geothermal spa located in a lava field near the international airport. The water temperature of the lagoon averages 40°C and the water itself is rich in silica and...
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Christmas shopping, afternoon tea and some...
12 October 2009
After yesterday’s caving adventure, we had a quiet day pottering around town today, with another chance to sample the excellent pylsur (truly the best hot dogs we have ever eaten) and some more Haitian coffee for Simon. Despite having managed to cover a lot of Reykjavík’s museums during the conference last week, we still had the Photography Museum to visit, where we...
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