Things to eat in Glasgow

Well, first, we have to find a source for Haggis. Maybe McKean's of Scotland. Good Golly Miss Molly! They even have a vegetarian alternative!
Maybe we'll stick with restaurants:

• Gamba - best restaurant in Glasgow. seafood and expensive
• Mussel Inn - kilo pots of mussels, Fodors Choice
• Gamba
• Pulcinella
• Sannino Pizzeria
• Fratelli Sarti $19.75 pre-theater, Fodor's Choice
• Rogano - Fodor's Choice, seafood, fixed-price lunch menu (2 course 15 pounds, 3 course 20)

I've been using google maps street view to scope out the apartment's neighborhood. Very downtown and not too many shops. At least we won't have to worry about drunks leaving the pubs at closing time. By the way, where are the nearby pubs? Good gravy! I did a search for pubs near the apartment and the map came up positively pockmarked, peppered with shrapnel.

Walking Scotland

So I am back looking at walks for Sunday, August 23rd.

• Walking Scotland

The ScotRail train from Glasgow to Wemyss Bay leaves at 9:50am, arrives at 10:52 am, taking about an hour. One can return at 20:50 (8:50 pm) and arrive in Glasgow at 21:40. For the 3 of us it costs 20.25 pounds ($33) for off-peak travel. Now I have to see how far we can walk along the coast and how many pubs we can visit.

Glasgow Hotels

While we are waiting to see whether Fernando has his session on August 28th before we make plane reservations, I am scoping out the hotels. EUSIPCO has a list of hotels near Glasgow, G2 3NY, UK on Google Maps.
Booking.com, a sponsored site on Google Maps, has a good collection of hotels, better than the American booking sites, which is to be expected I suppose. Here are some possibilities:

• City Apartments
  
• Library Apartments
• Glasgow Centrale
• Albion Hotel - This is a bit further away from the city center.
  
• Victorian House Bed and Breakfast
• Alba Lodge Guest House - I must admit I like the west end better than the Center City but the rooms look tight for 3 people
• Alamo Guest House - the superior triple looks nice

Evidently both can be accessed from Glasgow Hotels and Apartments, The McQuade Group that offers hotel and self catering accommodation to the west of the city centre of Glasgow. I've created a Google Map with some of the hotels and the venue location.

Scotland

I'm trying to check out the possibilities in Glasgow and thought I'd investigate rambles. There's one long walk along the coast of Scotland to the Southwest called the Ayrshire Coastal Path. It might be interesting to take a train down to Largs and catch a part of the trail north or south. Or find out which of the seafront towns might be interesting and start from there. They say that "From Ayr northwards to Largs, most of the walk is easy and suitable for all age groups - along natural beach terrain, cycle paths and pleasant coastal town promenades." Other sections of the trail are difficult and rocky, or depend on the tides.
Evidently ScotRail offers service to the region from Glasgow.

Walk to Lawrenceville

On Sunday (3/22/2009) we did our training on a walk from the University of Pittsburgh to Bloomfield and then down towards the Allegheny River to Lawrenceville. On Butler Street we picked up an Italian hoagie (we had to wait 15-20 minutes for it!) but it was worth the wait. While we were waiting we checked out a bead store (much better than History on Craig Street). I'll have to go back to select tools and material for a necklace. From there we went to Allegheny Cemetery (but didn't run across Stephen Foster's grave), where people drive way to0 fast for the dead. On the way back to Oakland we had to hightail it since Fernando wanted to see the Pitt game at 2:30 pm.
Here's the gmaps route: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2657901

Aftermath

We walked the 8 miles, give or take, and then regained any of the calories that we burned at D's Six Packs and Dogs with a large order of fries and beer. Fernando also ordered a chili dog to top it off. I had cole slaw with my Great Lakes Blackout Stout but I still stuffed myself on the fries. I told Fernando to only order the small fries...
Now we are back home recuperating. It is 5:40 pm but looks like 3 pm. I do not like starting daylight savings time so early and would rather have my light hours in the morning when I am fresh and feel like getting out and gardening. Right now I am absolutely pooped, although I took a hot bath to soothe my aching legs. All I feel like doing is reading.

Practice Walking

This lack of postings will never do!
We are practicing walking on the weekends. Today we will do 8 miles. This is not in preparation for the Camino but for the Pittsburgh Marathon May 3rd when we will walk 13 miles in the half-marathon. I didn't think Fernando would go for the 26 miles and so didn't push it. He's been very cooperative and, although he complains that his GPS says we are walking more miles than the gmaps pedometer route says, he continues to accompany me.

The first week we did 6 miles in the strip, essentially following the marathon route. Last weekend we did 7 miles through the South Side from the Hot Metal Bridge to the Smithfield Bridge and then back along the city side on the Jail Trail. This week my planned route starts in Edgewood, goes through Frick Park up to Reynolds Street and along Reynolds to Mellon Park, then back on Beechwood Boulevard to Aylesboro, past where Will used to live with Mike, into the Homewood Cemetery and around it (we have never been inside the Homewood Cemetery) and then back to Reynolds Street, back through Frick Park and back to Edgewood.

Eating in Lausanne

OK, I haven't been checking my blog for new posts and it appears that you've already discovered that the weather in Lausanne will be in the 70s while we are there. The lows are still in the 50s so I won't go in shorts.
I'm checking out affordable don't miss eateries -- not the michelin starred ones. There ought to be lots since Lausanne has a high student population. Hey! Do you think we are "hip" enough to go to the Cave du Bleu Lezard? Should I bring my black skirt? Ooof. Their prices don't seem to be student prices. Maybe we'll have to go for dessert. This sounds good:
Mojito glacé au lime, menthe et rhum blanc. Oh gosh, everybody is using this phrase in their restaurant descriptions so I'm afraid it is canned: "hip café-restaurants like Le Café Romand and Nyff Nyffenegger". I wonder if we qualify as "hip" if we went to college during the hippie era?
The Cafe Romand has fondue feasts, mussels, choucroûte (sauerkraut), sausages and, according to Fodors, the prices are cheap (why don't they have a cent sign on keyboards?). I like their website with the old film, probably from the turn of the century (20th, not 21st) - since 1951 they say (don't you all of a sudden feel ancient?). Their menu begins with a lot of ham and egg dishes. I remember in Vienna in 1969 that was all we could afford because we were running out of money. I've printed out the Cafe Romand menu so I can identify the dishes and make an "informed decision".
Then there is " À la Pomme de Pin" which is reviewed in Frommers and has
roasted pig's trotters served with rösti. Fernando might like that... Or we could go to Pinte Besson and have horse steak grilled and served on a slate stone -- or maybe not as it is closed in August according to Frommers but the restaurant's website doesn't mention that. But at least I wouldn't feel so old: it was founded in 1780. They serve Saucisse aux choux, et son papet vaudois (Traditional dish of the “Canton de Vaud”, Leek served with a local sausage made of pork and cabbage.)

Or we could eat in the train station and I could have a Grimbergen beer. Or maybe a Feldschlösschen. Or we could eat in the food court at the Manor Department store.

Music

Look at this...there is an organ concert in Geneva at Cathédrale St.-Pierre at 6 p.m. on Saturday. and the carillon at 5. The organ looks spectacular, but I haven't figured out whether the concert is free. And we can check out the free concerts at the cathedral in Lausanne on Friday nights. If we can still stand after the vineyards.

The extended weather looks great

Don't know if this link will hold, but the extended weather forecast for Lausanne is great!

Of course, Mitch says, "That's what it says now!"

http://www.weather.com/outlook/travel/businesstraveler/extended/SZXX0017

Bicycle Tours

I was looking at the summer schedule from the Lausanne Tourism site and ran across these bicycle tours that the Baladeurs offer in Lausanne and Vevey.
These are the two that they have while we are there, on Monday and Tuesday:
---- Balade à travers l’histoire des femmes
Lundi 25 août – 19h00
Guidée par Stéphanie Apothéloz – Auteures : Nadia Lamamra et Corinne Dallera - Centre efg – études et formation sur le genre
Départ : Lausanne Roule – Place de l’Europe 1b (sous les arches du Grand Pont)
Par le Centre efg – études et formation sur le genre
Cette balade propose de sillonner Lausanne en abordant les thèmes centraux de l’histoire des femmes. Car si presque aucune rue ne porte un nom de femme, elles ne sont pas pour autant absentes du passé de la ville.

---- Le jeu de piste des musées
Mardi 26 août – 19h00
Par les musées de Vevey et La Tour-de-Peilz – Coordination : Musée du Jeu
Les musées… Vous connaissez peut-être ces bâtiments, mais avez-vous pris le temps de les regarder plus en détails, que savez-vous de leur histoire ? Suivez le jeu de piste, il vous réserve quelques surprises…

Lausanne Roule is sponsored by McDonalds and they have a very nice page on the bicycle trip along the vineyards. Oh good, I just saw that the Lausanneroule website had an english version.

Swiss Weather

The Gruyere website has a webcam for checking out clothing and weather. Everyone is wearing jackets so it must be chilly. It looks overcast and at 3 pm it was 23 degrees in Geneva. I still can't relate to centigrade. I need a little widget on my blog to convert to fahrenheit. My dashboard widget says it is 67 F in Lausanne. The Swiss weather website has webcams and it is very cloudy everywhere except in the Ticino down by Italy, where it looks beautiful.

Bulle

Bulle is in the Gruyere region of Switzerland, not far from Lausanne, and I ran into these "thematic hiking paths". How could you resist paths called "poor people's path" or witches' path? The Fribourg website says that in July and August there is a folk market every Thursday. Is that in addition to the produce and crafts one that Rick Steves talks about every Tuesday?

Caveaux

We are checking out the wine cellars along the shore of Lake Geneva from Lausanne to Montreux (Lavaux) and they all seem to be nightspots, open from 5-9 pm. Perhaps that is so people bike sober.

The Bernese Oberland

Penny sent us a link to Sam Cotton's flickr account with lots of photos of Switzerland. It makes you want to go up into the Alps right away. Many of the photos are from the Bernese Oberland so I looked to see where that was and, according to Rick Steves, there is a train, the Golden Pass, that goes from Geneva to Zurich via this area. In fact, the section we probably want is the section from Montreux to Zweisimmen. Then we could get off at Zweisimmen, take a hike and then go back to Montreux and Lausanne. We'll have to check out the logistics. And the costs.
So if we consider the swiss rail flexipass for 2 or more persons, maybe that would work. The roundtrip from Lausanne to Zweisimmen would be 74 Swiss Francs in second class, 124 first class. The chocolate train appears only to be first class and is $91 US roundtrip. Does that mean it wouldn't be available using the second class rail pass?

And then there were three!

No, folks! No news from Jen, yet. This is a news bulletin that Penny is tagging along with Cathy and Fernando to explore Lausanne and the "Swiss Riviera." It's about time to add another chapter to our travels after Istanbul and Barcelona. And Penny is going to have to start training to develop her stamina, not to mention her legs. Here is a picture of us in Istanbul in 2000 (when we were young-er)

Check out the LAUSANNE GUESTHOUSE

I was poking around on TripAdvisor for Lausanne and read the reviews for the Lausanne Guesthouse which is much more reasonable than the Regina and doesn't sound half bad. Did you check it out....you would have a kitchen to share as well? And laundry facilities!
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Search?q=LAUSANNE+GUESTHOUSE
and they have doubles with private and semi-private bathrooms
http://www.lausanne-guesthouse.ch/indexe.html
It would make you feel young again!

Swiss Riviera

It looks like I will have to bring a bathing suit:

http://www.swiss-riviera.com/

Or maybe a wet suit.

When will you have time to sleep?

Let's see....You'll be there a week...you have jet lag, a conference, and at least a month's worth of hiking. Oh my, oh my!

Via Jacobi

Oh my, Penny, the Hiking in Switzerland site has information on the Via Jacobi, the St. James pilgrimage. So that means we can pick up the Camino de Santiago in Switzerland! Who would have thought.
Here's more information http://www.viajacobi.ch/