Off to the Races

The day of the much anticipated Cartmel Steeplechase race finally arrived. However, due to the flight cancellation disaster on our way here, the day in which I planned to buy a fancy, embarassing to Kevin hat was spent in the Atlanta airport. Nevertheless, I arrived at the race eager with anticipation. I finally got to attend a traditional British sporting event. Even better, I got to attend in traditional English weather – dreary and wet.

For the first two races, we stood in the Paddock grandstands directly in front of the finish line. The atmosphere was rather interested – the crowd was quiet and talked among themselves while the horses ran a slow pace around the course . However, once the horses were clear of the water obstacles and jumps, they picked up the pace on the final straightaway. With the increase in pace came a drastic increase in noise level. I had to laugh because one of the older women in front of us for the first race reminded me of Eliza Doolittle – but instead of the horse being named Dover, it was named Strikemaster.

For the first three races, Kevin and I decided to try our hand at horse betting. The process is extremely confusing. First of all, you need to decide which of the 10 different betting companies you are going to use. Then you have to struggle to understand what all the payouts for each horse are. Finally, you have to decide what you actually want to bet on – win, place, eachway, swinger, exacta, trifecta, placepot, quadpot, jackpot, super 7 or scoop 6. We stuck with eachway – which means that you pick a horse and get a payout if the horse wins or a smaller payout if it places. For the first race, Juvenile Novices, Kevin chose Melange as it was the top rated US horse in the race. Unfortunately, the horse wound up in 4th place. Since their were only 7 horses running, only 1st and 2nd place payed out, so there went £4 down the drain. I was in charge of picking a winner for the second race. I went with Little Firecracker because it had middle of the road odds and a funny name. This time, 1st, 2nd and 3rd place were paying out, but once again our horse came in 4th. There went another £4.

The horses race down the final straight-away

We moved to the back side of the course to see the horses jumping for the 3rd and 4th race. We chose Nile Moon as our horse for the third race mainly because I liked the name. The horse was in 2nd/3rd place for most of the race but then dropped out right before the horse turned into the final stretch. Foiled again. We decided that £12 was enough to throw down the tubes so for the final race, we just each picked our favorites but didn’t bet any money. Since no one won, I’m glad we didn’t waste any more money.

We called it a day after a short trip to Cartmel Village Bakehouse to buy some of the world’s best Sticky Toffee Pudding, just in time to beat the downpour.

Cartmel Priory as seen from the racetrack

Tomorrow, Mumsy Don and I head to Edinburgh. Check back on Thursday night for our exploits.

It’s a Jolly Holiday with Mumsy (and Don)

The mood on Friday quickly turned from jolly (complete with singing of Mary Poppins songs by Mumsy) to depressed when our flight from Bradley to JFK was cancelled due to Thunderstorms in the NY area. With no other options for the night, we had to go back home and try again the next day, this time scheduled for a flight through Atlanta just in case. Since I have never had a flight cancelled on me in my life, I like to blame the minor travel issue on Mumsy and her over-exhuberant singing.

Placing Mumsy under strict orders NOT to sing until we were safely on our way from Atlanta, we made it to Manchester only 22 hours behind schedule. Kevin graciously picked us up at the airport since it was now Sunday - the most cursed rail travel day in England. However, due to the fact that the Ford Fiesta was once again in the shop, we were picked up in style in the crappy Peugot with no radio and only one working seat belt in the back. Packed in like sardines with a wall of luggage surrounding us, we made it to Ulverston just in time for the rain.

Since the one thing Mumsy was most disappointed about when we had to reschedule our flight was not getting tea and shortbread, we immediately took her and Don for a walk down the Canal path to Bay Horse Pub for a Sunday lunch and tea.

Since the last time I walked the Canal, the baby ducks had grown up quite large, and the path was lined with blackberries and little purple flowers.

We left the pub with bellies full of tea, slow cooked lamb shank that fell off the bone (Don and Kevin), fresh beer battered Cod and Chips (me) and Scottish Salmon in an herb cream sauce (Mumsy).

Tomorrow is the much anticipated Steeplechase. Unfortunately, I forgot to get a hat. Kevin has also told me several times that it is NOT a dressy affair. In any case, I plan on paying homage to Eliza Doolittle.

Coming Attractions

Fear not loyal readers, I will be back in the UK starting Saturday and will return the blog to its regularly scheduled programming. Future entries will involve:

• My hat selection for the Cartmel Steeplechase
• The Quest for the Loch Ness Monster
• How many sites in London can we cram in in 3 days
• Living La Vida Deal - maybe a guest blog by Mumsy on how much tea is too much?

A Quick Trip to Edinburgh

Last week my boss offered a friend, Eric, and I a pair of tickets to the Edinburgh Military Tattoo. This a huge gathering of marching bands and pipe and drum groups from around the world where they perform and put on great marching displays. We were both interested in the event and jumped at the chance to go. I went online and booked some train tickets and Eric went to work on finding us a place to stay for a night.

So, Thursday early afternoon we took the 40 minute drive up to Oxenholm Rail Station in Kendall and boarded our 2 hour train ride up to Edinburgh. When we got there the weather was beautiful and we made the 1.5 mile walk to our little bed and breakfast called 6 Mary’s Place. Once we dropped off our gear we headed up the hill to old town and towards the Edinburgh Castle, where the Tattoo is held.

The size and scale of the Tattoo grand stands are amazing the entire courtyard leading up to the castle is surrounded with temporary stands that can hold about 10,000 people.

The stands at the Tattoo (this is not my picture)

The Tattoo was an amazing show and contained military bands from England, Switzerland, Tonga, and had pipe and drum groups from all over the world. The beautiful night added to the show and we were very glad that it was not raining.

The Royal Air Force Band

Just some of the hundreds of bag pipers and drummers

The Tonga Military Band

A military rescue demonstration by Scottish soldiers

After the show Eric and I walked to a pub that was recommended by one of the locals and had a couple of pints of Orkney Brewery Red MacGregor real ale before heading back to the bed and breakfast.

The next day, after a great breakfast, we headed out to do some sight seeing. It had started to rain so we were sure to bring our rain gear just in case. It is a good thing that we did because it came in very handy once the rain really started coming down. We walked towards old town and in route we decide to check out the Scottish National Gallery exhibit, The Discovery of Spain: Goya to Picasso. I am not much of a art guy but it was very interesting non the less. Plus it got us out of the rain for a while :)

Once we finished at the gallery we headed to Greyfriars Kirk. This is a lovely church in old town that is surrounded by a grave yard that contains many graves of famous people in the history of Edinburgh.

Greyfriars Kirk

One interesting story is about Greyfriars Bobby. Bobby was a Skye Terrier, looked after by John Gray for the last two years of the old man's life. After the death of Gray, Bobby reportedly guarded his grave for fourteen years (he only left to eat), capturing the heart of the Lord Provost, William Chambers (whose own statue stands nearby on Chambers Street). Chambers organized for the Town Council to pay for Bobby's dog license, and so saved him from being rounded up and destroyed. Bobby was buried just outside the graveyard, near where his stone stands today.

Bobby’s Grave Stone

John Gray’s Grave Stone and the Table Stones that Bobby lived stayed under during his 14 year vigil.

One of the most famous images of Edinburgh is the statue of Bobby on George IV Bridge, near the entrance to the Graveyard. It was erected in the year after Bobby himself died, 1872.

The Statue of Bobby with some weird looking guy next to it :)

After the Kirk we went to eat at a pub on the Royal Mile called Deacon Brodie’s Tavern. I had a venison steak with potatoes and vegetables and a couple pints of Caledonian 80 real ale. The food was excellent and a nice hot meal was just what we needed on the rainy wet day out in the city.

Deacon Brodie’s Tavern (not my picture)

We then walked around a bit on the Royal Mile and took in a couple of street performers shows. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe was also going on and there are hundreds of shows in venues all over the city as well as a large number of street performers.

Street Performer, The Sam Wills of New Zealand, putting his body through a tennis racquet frame\

Video of his trick from a different performance

Then it was time to head out so we walked down to the train station for our trip back to Kendal and then Ulverston.

For the rest of the pictures go here.

Hawkshead 3rd Annual Summer Beer Festival

On July 25th a group from my favorite local pub (The Swan Inn, Ulverston, UK) chartered a bus over to the Hawkshead Brewery in Staveley, UK to attend the 3rd Annual Hawkshead Summer Beer Festival.

Hawkshead Brewery

The trip over took about an hour and after a few wrong turns by the bus driver we made it to the brewery for the festival. When we arrived we were met with a huge tent and a couple of food vendors and we set off to start tasting some real ales. They had an impressive collection of 30+ real ales to select from in the tent and in the upstairs Beer Hall.

Various Views from Around the Festival

We grabbed some beers and headed out onto the back deck of the brewery that overlooked a river.

View from the Brewery Back Deck

We had hoped to get a tour of the brewery but it was way too busy for anyone to break away and show the group around. From the beer hall there was a good view of the inner workings of the brewery via a window.

Looking Down at the Brewery

Once we had tried out various beers at the festival we decided to take a walk to The Watermill Inn and Brewing Company in the Village of Ings, a local pub that had a small brewery of its own. One of the group members knew the owner and was able to get us a tour of their brewing operations.

The Water Mill – A Nice Morgan was Parked Outside, Tour of the Brewery

After some lunch (mmm venison stew) and a few of the beers brewed on site (Collie Wobbles was really good) we headed back to the beer festival to listen to a band, taste a few more beers and wait for our bus to bring us back to the Swan. It was a beautiful day and a good time was had by all.

For the rest of the pictures go here.