The Mother Land: Scotland, England, Ireland and Home

It was the plan all along to spend Christmas in Europe with the family in 2015. Our unexpected move back to the US tried to put a glitch in this plan, but we combined our final apartment check-out with a family Christmas before going back to the states. Our daughter Stephanie and her husband John arrived a couple of days before Christmas and we met them in Rotterdam, one of their favorite cities, to enjoy the architecture and the nearby MarktHal. The area near the market was destroyed during WWII as both the Nazis and the Allied forces tried to take control of the port. It was slow to be rebuilt. John had been eyeing the MarketHal when it was just a concept. After a delay of 6 years in building, it was at the top of his bucket list to see the finished product finished in 2014. It houses 230 apartments and the shops inside seems to compete to have the best displays of fresh food, including seafood, donuts, Dutch delicacies, meat, cheese, as well as a great assortment of restaurants.

John rented an AirBnb at one of the cube houses near the Markthal, a very unique Piet Blom design, completed in1977 when the area was finally rebuilt. It was a hoot to stay in one of these houses, definitely the most unique place I've ever slept. We walked to a park before nightfall to see the Maas river, the old harbor, the Erasmus bridge, and the Kralingen neighborhood where historic preserved mansion stand next to student housing. The area had a definite vibrant feel.

We drove to Veldhoven and had a quiet Christmas and final days at our Europe apartment. We found a synchronized light show in someone's back alley Christmas eve with American music. We attended an English Christmas mass in Eindhoven Christmas day. We had dinner at our local Fine restaurant  with a surprise 4 course dinner with wine pairings Christmas night. We arrived at 6pm and left at 11pm. Christmas dinners out are popular in the Netherlands where Christmas day is usually a small quiet family affair. Santa (Sinterklaas) gets his own day December 5th when the children get all of their presents.

On Boxing day, December 26th, we packed out
belongings and headed to Schiphol airport with daughter Stephanie and her husband John to fly to Heathrow airport for Boxing Day or the second day of Christmas in Europe. We rented an AirBnb cottage for the group in Bath, England for 4 days and we would be joined by our other daughter Erin and her husband Seb who live in London. The agenda for the three days was to have family game night in the cottage, open presents for Christmas, take a walking tour of the famous baths and soak in the history of this place, explore the famous restaurants and visit Stonehenge. I imagined Mary Poppins in a few back gardens as we walked through the town.

Stonehenge is an interesting place. People have been trying for several
thousand years to figure out why it even exists. It was assembled in three phases starting over 5000 years ago by the Druids. It may have been a burial place, a ceremonial site, a pilgrimage or a memorial to connect with distant ancestors.  It contains bluestones from over 200 miles away from Wales and so also could have been a place for healing. I can't imagine the process to transport these large stones over 200 miles. In any event, it is delicate arrangement of  large stones laid in circles that are visited by thousands every year. I wanted to feel some spiritual presence as I do when visiting similar sites around Europe. I was left without that experience though I did see some interesting characters that perhaps attracted to the shrine more than I was.

Paul and I left the girls and their husbands in England and trekked off to Edinburgh for New Year's Eve and a short weekend visit to Scotland. We arrived early afternoon, dropped our luggage and headed to the ticket office for the New Year's Eve festival called Hogmanay. The office closed at 5pm and we bypassed interesting sites along the way to get there in time. We purchased a specialty ticket to Old Town Ceilidh (pronounced Kylee) but that also gave us general admission to other areas of the festival - the street dance. With tickets in hand, we went down the hill by the river to take in some of the Christmas markets that were still open. The markets resembled the ones we saw in Germany with carnival rides and an ice rink. We ate at the food vendors there, a crepe for myself (the only item without meat) and a sausage for Paul. We left to return to our hotel to rest up for the New Year's Eve festivities.

We found a pub across the street from our hotel in the Grassmarket area called the Cafe Royal to get a taste or twoof whiskey. Some locals wondered in and included us in their group. They intended to stay here for the night and admonished us that we spent too much money for the tickets to Hogmanay. We politely left them, headed to dinner down the street at the Last Drop where Paul tried "haggis, neeps and tatties" and I tried a version of their veggie burger with mash.  This is probably one of the best veggie burgers that I've ever had, made with eggplant, red pepper and chickpeas. I definitely won the night with a food choice. Haggis is a "pudding" made of sheep heart, lungs, liver with suet, oatmeal and onions, all contained in sheep's stomach. Who knows what "neeps" was. It was not much to Paul's liking.

We returned to our hotel to wrap up for the cold night
and set out to start our partying. We were among the first to enter the Ceilidh area. We watched the Scottish band warm up the crowd and soon found ourselves being included in a group of 6 for the Scottish dancing instruction. It resembled American square dancing somewhat with a little more arm movement. Paul and I negotiated the steps as best we could with cobblestones for a dance floor. We could see the potential for injury with a few more people and a little more drink. Around 10pm,  it became very crowded and we were ready to go on to the Street Dance part of the festival near the Christmas markets. The gates to this area closed at 11pm. We moved to an area we wanted to watch the fireworks over the castle knowing it would be hard to move around later in the night. We found a boulevard away from the music to get off the street, people watch and to jump around to stay warm.

The countdown began and the fireworks started right at midnight. It was a fantastic spectacle with the traditional Auld Lang Syne being sung throughout the light show with gusto. Scots Robert Burns wrote the song in 1788 and I guess I didn't realize until that night that it was even a Scottish song. We left for the hotel immediately after the fireworks were over and the crowd started moving as we did. At some point, I was swept off my feet and separated from Paul and I panicked at the crowd rush. Eventually, the crowd thinned and we made our way successfully home to start the new year. We earned our party merit badge.

The next morning, we started off up the hill to the Edinburgh Castle. As we entered the castle, we were awed by the view below and we were very curious about the history of the castle. We found that we didn't know much Scottish history either and we were very interested to learn about it. My mother's family was Scottish (Campbell) and Paul's family on the Nixon side was also Scottish.

The self-guided tour of the castle was very nice. We had audio guides to give
us a fairly complete history of not just the castle, but Scotland itself. After watching the cannon go off and three hours of looking in every nook and cranny, we left the castle and hit the historic woolen mill down the street. We found the family tartan for the Nixons easily, but didn't have enough family history to know which of three Campbell tartans were mine. We bought a scarf with the Nixon tartan on it. We found food on the way home and nestled in our room to watch the Fiesta bowl game, Ohio state and Notre Dame on Slingbox (no judgment here - we love American football).

The next day, we visited the National Gallery to see some Scottish art. All
museums are free of charge in the UK. After, we scheduled a whiskey tasting at the largest collection of whiskeys in Scotland - the Whiskey experience. This experience was something that Paul really wanted to do. I usually shudder when tasting whiskey with a mixer, I couldn't imagine a straight up shot. We spent some time learning about the different regions of whiskey in Scotland and the history of it's making. We tasted a whiskey from the region Islay, known for it's peaty aroma and taste. It was not to my liking. However, we also tasted Aberlour, a Highland single malt and it was fairly smooth. We got an additional taste of a 25 year Scotch and Paul really liked it.

We flew back to London to catch up with our daughters. Paul and John had to return to work the next day in the US and Stephanie and I were going to stay for a week to visit with Erin and Seb, as well as take a side trip to Ireland.  With Erin, we visited the British Library. I had no idea what I was in for! This was no ordinary library. The John Ritblat Room held many original articles, including the Magna Carta, Lindisfarne Gospels, Barcelona Hagadah, Gutenberg Bible, and a Notebook of Leonardo da Vinci. Manuscripts by some of Britain's most well-known authors are also on display,  including Jane Austen, George Eliot and Charles Dickens, Shakespeare's 'First Folio', 'Alice's Adventures Under Ground' and Jane Austen's 'History of England'. I was surprised to also see original scores from Mozart, Handel, Chopin, and Beethoven. My favorite were the original lyrics for a Hard Day's Night written on the back of a 1st birthday card to Julian Lennon.

That evening Stephanie and I caught a flight to Dublin to
explore Ireland for a couple of days. We arrived at 11:30 at night and as it turned out, it was the night that the citizens of Dublin were coming back from a two week holiday to return to work. It was pouring rain and the lines were astonishingly long. We found our hotel on a quiet street near the castle and settled in for the night.

The next day, in the rain, we set out first off to the Guinness Storehouse at St. James' gate. We grabbed a croissant and coffee and walked by St. Patricks on our way but didn't stop - as if we were on a mission. Guinness was just the best place. It was laid out well, and after two hours of our self-guided tour, we hit the tasting room called the Gravity Bar, a total glass-walled room on the seventh floor. The views were amazing. The beer was even better. We took our time to look at the city and savor the taste. We left there and walked home in the rain and rested before our dinner at Fallon and Byrne. It is an upscale grocery store with a wine-tasting bar and restaurant downstairs. It was relaxed and the menu was simple but tasty. We stayed there for three hours discussing life and catching up. We then wandered to the Temple Bar to check out the oldest bar in Dublin. It was a Tuesday night, but very busy. There was an Irish band playing and friendly people at tables nearby. We finished the night in the hotel with a game of rummy and TV.

The next day, we found a little out of the way place for breakfast near Stephen's Green. It was called Bibi's cafe and it was a little cafe in a residential neighborhood. It was really nice, with a choice of oats, eggs, creative breakfast sandwiches, lemon tart, or yogurt. I couldn't decide between the homemade granola and yogurt and the lemon tart, so I had both. Stephanie tried one of the breakfast sandwiches and shared the tart with me. We left there and decided to go to Trinity University and visit the Book of Kells and the Long Room. The exhibit tells of the history of the Irish monk and why the book of Kells and others like it were so important to Ireland. The Long Room is a room in the Library that comes out of a Harry Potter movie. It houses numerous antique book collections and the effect of the room is very unique.

We visited the Dublin Castle after and was on the last tour of the day to visit inside. We left as it was starting to rain again. We decided on a early dinner at an Italian restaurant in the Temple Bar area so we could eat and get home early before the storm. We had a flight the next morning early back to London.

After we arrived in London later morning, it was a sunny day. We dressed for the cold and set out to find Shakespeare's Globe theatre. The tour took us into the rebuilt theatre. This structure was rebuilt along the river after the original theatre was razed during a fire. It was rebuilt without nails and exactly like the original theatre however. It would be fantastic to see a play there, which is offered April through October.

To wind up the London part of our trip with Erin, we arranged tea at Fortnum and Mason. It was fairly elegant historic tea shop and restaurant complete with a piano player. Our waiter told us about our options and the selection we made allowed us as many tea sandwiches, scones, pastries as we wanted and also a selection from the dessert cart. It was fun trying different teas with my daughters. I kept wanting to raise my little finger while drinking the tea and talking with my terrible British accent, but my daughters made me behave. We walked back to Angel area where our hotel was to work off the feast.

Saturday we had a date at the Prince of Wales Theatre to see Book of Mormon. My daughters weren't sure that this production was mother appropriate, but I purchased matinee tickets anyway and made them sit on either side of me. (Note - there were parts that were NOT mother appropriate). We enjoyed the date and rode the bus home in the rain. Sunday, we walked along the canals in the sun to Regent's Park, about five miles. Stephanie and left that evening to start our trip home.

It's funny how a place can make you feel like it's so familiar to you that you could call it home. The smells seems familiar, and the way people walk is a familiar gate. I noticed that my reddish hair was common place. Perhaps it is like home because it was the home of my ancestors and I carry parts of them with me. Maybe it was just the easy comfortable feeling of traveling with family. Familiarity is a deep kindness that allows us to be content whatever the reason.

Krakow Understands Freedom

We arrived late in Krakow Saturday evening just in time to check into our hotel and make it to our dinner reservation at a traditional Polish restaurant called Morskie Oko. We were seated in the basement where two parties of large family gatherings were already seated. I ordered perogies and soup, and Paul ordered goulash and we drank some aperitifs while the string ensemble started playing some Polish folk music. The elderly matriarch of one family, complete with a peasant style skirt and colorful scarf on her head, made her way to dance floor to dance to the folk music with the children. We immersed ourselves in the music and good food and enjoyed the company of the Polish families nearby.

The next morning in the market square, we observed that the buildings
were mostly dark and gloomy in Krakow, many of them darkened with age and neglect, maybe even  some of them from the reflection of despair. It has only been since 1981 that Poland was free and not under communist rule. Previous to that, it was oppressed by Hitler's regime. The spirit of the people was far from oppressed. We intended to go to mass at St. Mary's Basilica and we arrived early. The mass from the previous hour was still going on. We would have waited in the church but there was not one empty seat or place to stand. We went back outside and walked around the block and found in just the central market area 22 Catholic churches and each of them had five or six masses on that Sunday morning. We went back to the Basilica as mass was letting out and it was almost impossible to get into the church for the number of people waiting outside to get in. The Polish people had an appreciation for the freedom to go to church. In all the cities I have visited in Europe, Krakow gets the prize for the most church attendance; the church was filled with all ages of devout worshippers. After mass, we visited the altar of Karol Wojtyła, the bishop of Krakow who became Pope John Paul II.

We left the church and walked across the square to Cloth Hall, a market of
handmade goods, Polish dolls and costumes, and pottery. After a few purchases, we stopped to have a Polish beer and lunch and then dropped off our purchases at the hotel before we walked up the hill to Wawel castle. Krakow was the seat of the Polish throne in 1025 and the first coronation of the king took place at Wawel castle. The walk to the castle was a treat, walking through a city park filled with colored leaves and many people strolling. We hiked up the castle and the grounds were amazing, as well as the view over the Vistula (Wisla) River. We considered visiting the inside of the castle and  Leonardo da Vinci's painting Lady with an Ermine, but the lines were long and it was a gorgeous day to be outside. We lingered to watch several newly-married couples walk the grounds to get wedding photos.

We found an Italian restaurant called Trattoria Mamma Mia back by our hotel and ordered Polish wine and an artisan pizza for dinner. This pizza was the best I have ever eaten. The ingredients were fresh, but the crust was exquisite. We didn't expect to find great pizza in Krakow and were pleasantly surprised. We did miss eating with the large families that evening, this night seemed to be older couples and tourists.

The following day was going to be a long one in many respects. We hired a guide to take us to Auschwitz and Birkenau, the concentration camps of World War II just outside of Krakow and then afterwards to the Wieliczka Salt Mines on the outskirts of the city. As a student of World War II having retraced my Dad's steps throughout Europe from his service during the war, I felt I had to go to fully understand the atrocities of the war. I had a patient in the early 1980s who had been a prisoner in Auschwitz and he was ever present on my mind that day. He was a very sweet widowed man who had no children and his sweet approach with those he met stayed with you, in spite of having a Auschwitz tattooed prisoner number on his arm.

The drive to Auschwitz was beyond beautiful. The red

roofs in the valley below blended with the fall foliage in the woods. On the way there, the driver started a movie in the car to give a history of the camp we were about to visit. The movie didn't make it nice. The actual footage of prisoners was shown as well as the remnants of possessions and bodies. What I was viewing inside the car was very different from what I was seeing through the window. It was extremely hard to watch and we approached Auschwitz with a heavy heart and immense sadness.

We walked through the gates recognizing that this place was hell for the prisoners there. We saw photos of the prisoners as they were registered (unless they were killed immediately after they got off the train). They had their possessions taken and their heads shaved and the look in their eyes was extremely fearful. Officially between 1.1 and 1.5 million people died at Auschwitz by the hand of the Nazis. Some people estimate that over 4 million people were killed here. We solemnly walked through the camp, past the gas chambers and furnaces, and the atrocity of what occurred here buried into our hearts. It was impossible to fathom what took place in this camp. We honored the lives that were taken and realized that we stood on Holy ground. Appropriately, this is the end of my travels to study the war.

We drove away and I kept thinking of the many books that I read and of my friend who was a prisoner here. There were some who made it out alive and somehow they managed to go on with their lives. As Elie Wiesel says, "to forget a holocaust is to kill twice". Below is the furnace, the pit where bodies were placed, and memorial for those that died.

We stopped for a snack of perogies and a beer,  and then entered the salt mine on the way home. Wieliczka was started in the 13th century and had continuous mining operations until 2007. Salt prices dropped then and there was flooding in the area, so the mine was shut down and reopened later as a museum. After descending a thousand feet deep, we entered the first of four rooms. The miners were predominantly Catholic and salt statues of religious figures were throughout the passage ways. There was one room containing an altar and masses are said here once a month, and wedding are conducted here as well. 

It was interesting to see the mines, but at the end of the long day, I was glad to leave. The salt mine was interesting but Auschwitz was still on my mind. I wanted to step outside and take in a breath of air. I exhaled and realized that I will never take freedom for granted. Freedom is the oxygen of the soul. 

It's All Right and Good Cheap Beer: Czech-Style

Our trip to Prague was cancelled last summer - we were supposed to cycle from Munich to Prague along the river when our cycling friend's mother died unexpectedly. The city never fell off our adventure list and we decided to squeeze in a quick trip before our move back to the States, this time without the bikes. We arrived with only a few preparations and no expectations - the best way to travel.

Saturday offered us the bluest skies and we used  the 
opportunity to cross the St. Charles Bridge to go see the Prague Castle. First off, the St. Charles bridge was almost a section of the city itself. It is a pedestrian bridge with religious statues along the way spanning the Vltava River. People weren't using it as a means to get from one side of the river to the other, but instead were just hanging out along the bridge, looking at the artist booths, the street performers and enjoying the nice day. We wandered along with them. Eventually we reached the other side and climbed the hill to see the Castle (Prazsky hrad -where the President of the Czech Republic lives) and St. Vitus Cathedral. The inside of the cathedral was mostly closed off, but not before we could appreciate the stained glass windows with the intense sun reflection on the inside. The guards with trumpet and drum patrol changed shifts with much pomp and circumstance. The ceremony to change guards was fun to see, not merely a handing off of the weapons used to guard the Castle.

As we left, we smelled the roasting sausages and decided to pick up some street food while watching the street performers. The brat sausages were to Paul's liking and I noticed that sauerkraut and potatoes were available for vegetarians. Yum! There were many outdoor markets and street musicians also in this vibrant area of town.


We left Castle hill and returned to our hotel on the right bank of the Vltava River, near Old Town Square. It was too glorious to be inside, so we hiked to the Old Town Square to people watch. We came across more food trailers and bought some Trdelnik - a roasted bread pastry that is either covered in sugar and cinnamon or slathered on the inside with Nutella. The smell from the rods of Trdelnik was very satisfying. We realized that we had not eaten at all in a typical restaurant, but had munched on street food all day - very tasty street food.

Sunday we got up early to be on the St. Charles bridge before it was busy to get some photos of the saints on the bridge. We thought we had an appointment for a bicycle tour of the city that morning, but there was a miscommunication with the tour company. We rebooked for the next morning and took the cycling guide's advice on finding some good breweries in the city to take in some inexpensive beer since we had some open time. We also wanted some traditional Czech food so we went to Novomestsky Pivovar for a beer and some Czech food - potato rolls, sausages, pork chops, sauerkraut, and boiled potatoes (for my husband, the meat eater). I had a pretzel with mustard and salad. We left there and considered going to some of the historic breweries on the west side of the river, but decided to halt on the day-drinking to see more of the market square and to be outside. There is a beer called X33 that has an alcohol content of nearly 12%. We also considered going to get some original Budweiser beer (we've had it before - it is truly tasty). We passed on it. The cobblestone streets are very uneven when walking sober, it's seemed dangerous to drink more.

Sunday evening, we bought tickets to a classical music concert with a soprano and string quartet. It was to be held in an old monastery, now converted to concert hall and office building. While we were waiting for the concert to start, a violin player was playing outside the open windows, courting the restaurant patrons outside. The bass player went to the window five minutes prior to start time to call the violinist upstairs so the concert could start. It was a fantastic venue and very nice music, complete with a mix of traditional Czech folk songs.

Monday we started our appointed bike tour, which included a history talk of various points around Prague. We started near the bike shop and saw the Powder Tower, one of the oldest structures that was part of the town wall. The gun powder was stored here to keep it away from the enemy. We pedaled to the Old Town Square at the Astronomical Clock. We waited until it dinged on the hour to see the twelve apostles at the top and the statues perform below as they have for several centuries. We looked around the Square to see the Church of our Lady before Tyn, as well as the original city hall that had been mostly destroyed by the Nazis on their way out of town. The National Gallery, a very unique building, holds a prominent place on the square.

We left the main square and rode down narrower streets to the Jewish Quarter, which for the most part was still in tact from WWII. Hitler decided to use this Jewish neighborhood as a Museum and therefore, most of it was not destroyed during the war. The oldest Jewish temple in Europe is located in this section of town. We crossed the bridge to see a few sites on the west side of the river, but mostly we found ourselves looking back at the view of the East side of the city. We found a couple unique pieces of art along our ride. We were within a block of the Lennon Wall, but our guide seemed to be pressed for time and didn't even mention it. We found Wenceslas Square and heard about the starts of revolutions by the people that have taken place over time, including the Velvet Revolution that started with 20,000 students protesting Communist rule in 1989. The next day there were 500,000 people in the square. Days later the Communist leaders resigned and it was the end of Communism in the Czech Republic after 41 years of control. We arrived back where we started at the bike shop after two hours of cycling. We ate lunch outside near the Municipal House at an active outdoor market to rest and people watch.

After lunch, we immediately went back to the west side of the river to find the Lennon Memorial wall and to figure out where to catch the funicula for our dinner at Nebozizek, on the peak of the Petrin Hill overlooking the city. We found the area where the wall was to be and at first was very disappointed. It was small and the graffiti to memorialize Lennon was not very artistic. There were over 500 locks on a bridge over a small waterway. We were not impressed. We were getting ready to leave, when I looked down an alley and caught a glimpse of the REAL Lennon wall. It would have been terrible to miss this tribute to John Lennon. A lone guitarist was playing "Imagine" as we walked up. I just wanted to be there. It occurred to me that though Lennon had never visited Communist Prague, his pacifism through music touched everyone. The Communist youth dared to paint this wall when Lennon died even though his music was banned by the communist regime.  The art on the wall has evolved over time, but it still seems like a coming together to celebrate not only Lennon, but a celebration of giving peace a chance. I was touched.

We traveled along the river and found out sadly that the funicula to Petrin hill was out of service, which would require a 30 minute uphill climb on our part to get to our dinner reservation for the night. As it started to rain and then became foggy, we decided that dinner back at our hotel sounded better and better. We would be missing the view at the top of Petrin hill anyhow. We dined on beetroot soup, and other Czech delights at our hotel and then returned to our room to log in to watch some of our favorite football teams in America as it rained outside. Yes in Prague as well as the rest of the world, Lennon taught us "whatever gets you through the night . . . it's all right, it's all right".