united kingdom – ToewsTravels

edinburgh!

we went to edinburgh, scotland this summer! it was beatrix’s first country outside the united states and canada, and she really loved it! traveling with a young baby definitely changed our pace, but it was really nice to have a change of scenery after a number of months at home. we learned that edinburgh has a rich medical history on a very cool walking tour of some of the city’s medicine related sites, which was a birthday gift to me from ann! we also had a very nice afternoon tea at the bonham hotel, where we stayed for one night, and even saw a celebrity there. the other nights we stayed in some dorms at the university of edinburgh, and spent some good time relaxing on the “meadows,” beneath which is a burial ground of tens of thousands of the city’s residents who died during the bubonic plague. mostly we just walked around the city, which was a lot of fun!

beatrix in her baller bassinet en route to edinburgh, scotland

beatrix in the bonham hotel, edinburgh, scotland

st. giles cathedral, edinburgh, scotland

national museum of scotland, edinburgh

beatrix and i spent some time at the sprawling national museum of scotland in edinburgh. there is a great view of the city from the open air rooftop.

the national museum of scotland, edinburgh

beatrix at the national museum of scotland, edinburgh

view from the rooftop of the national museum of scotland, edinburgh

“the scotch whisky experience,” edinburgh

scotland is known for its whisky, and i enjoyed the “scotch whisky experience” in edinburgh. it starts as a ride in which you sit in a large replica of a whisky barrel on a moving track, during which the production stages of whisky are explained. they then take you on a virtual flyover tour of the 5 distinct whisky-producing regions of scotland, and what makes the whisky from these regions unique. there is then a tasting of the different varieties of scotch (my favorite are the peatiest), in a room surrounded by glass cabinets containing the world’s largest collection of scotch whisky.

“the scotch whisky experience,” edinburgh, scotland

superlatives included world’s smallest bottles of scotch whisky, “the scotch whisky experience,” edinburgh, scotland

tasting, “the scotch whisky experience,” edinburgh, scotland

medical walking tour of edinburgh

mcewan hall, university of edinburgh, edinburgh, scotland

surgeon hall museums, edinburgh, scotland

ann gifted me a privately guided walking tour of edinburgh for my birthday! there is an outsized history of medicine and medical discoveries in edinburgh, and it was very fascinating. the tour began at the greyfriars kirkyard, which is a ancient cemetery in the center of edinburgh. there, metal cage-like barriers would be placed over recent graves to prevent grave robbers from stealing recently deceased bodies, which they could sell as cadavers, which were in high and unregulated demand in the early days of formalized medical education.

we then proceeded to mcewan hall, the home of the medical school at the university of edinburgh. many important medical discoveries were made in edinburgh, including the etiology of scurvy by james lind, and many others.

the next stop was the meadows, a large open area of grass on the campus of the university of edinburgh. beneath the meadows are thousands of unmarked graves, as this was were bodies were buried during the bubonic plague. reportedly, occasionally students and tourists relaxing on the grass still find pieces of human bones sifting up from beneath the earth.

another stop was the surgeon hall museums, the first anatomy and pathology museum in the world. this is also where there was a riot in 1870 in support of the “edinburgh seven,” seven women who agitated for the right to study medicine at the medical school when women were not allowed to do so. unfortunately, it took an inordinate amount of time even after these riots for the medical schools to begin to allow women to matriculate.

we also went to the old surgeon’s hall at the university of edinburgh, which was a cadaver lab in the early days of formal medical education. private cadaver labs were started as educational competition/supplementation to the medical school, and to supply cadavers, they would need to be purchased, often under questionable circumstances, such as being snatched from recent graves. robert knox ran one of the most well known cadaver labs, where he would dissect the freshest cadavers for the education of medical students. at least 16 of these bodies were procured from william burke and william hare, who had murdered their victims for this purpose. we also walked by the medical lecture hall of joseph lawrence, the father of modern surgical sterilization, the inventor of listerine, and the founder of the johnson and johnson company.

the tour ended at the old college of the university of edinburgh, where there is a nondescript plaque in honor of one the british military’s most famous surgeons for decades of the 1800s, james barry, who served all over the world and tremendously improved sanitation standards. the fascinating thing about james barry was that they were actually a woman, whose real name was margaret ann bulkley, a fact not realized by anyone else until after her death. it was an era in which women were not permitted to practice medicine. the plaque and all the military records still read “james barry.”

protetcion against grave snatchers, greyfriars kirkyard, edinburgh, scotland

plaque commemorating james lind, who discovered the etiology of scurvy, mcewan hall, university of edinburgh, edinburgh, scotland

plaque commemorating the edinburgh seven, surgeons hall museums, edinburgh, scotland

medical school at the university of edinburgh, edinburgh, scotland

belfast

i took the 2 hour train ride from dublin, ireland up to belfast, northern ireland for a daytrip, and it was great! interestingly, despite the united kingdom having very strict covid quarantine requirements for incoming international travelers at the time, i was able to legally circumvent these by arriving directly from ireland overland, thanks to the rules of free movement and no border checks within the “common travel area” (cta). so, even during covid times, but also any other time, this was an easy daytrip, and one i’d definitely recommend!

i really enjoyed wandering around belfast (on one of the hottest days of the year), and seeing the titanic museum, the political murals relating to the troubles, and the international solidarity wall.

downtown skyline, belfast, northern ireland

great to see a canadian staple in northern ireland!

clonard monastery, belfast, northern ireland

victoria square shopping centre, belfast, northern ireland

titanic museum

the titanic was built in belfast, northern ireland, which was the center of the world’s shipbuilding industry at that time. there is a relatively new, world-class museum devoted to the titanic story on the belfast waterfront, which is quite impressive.

political murals, belfast

political signage, belfast, northern ireland

bobby sands mural, belfast, northern ireland

belfast, northern ireland has a tumultuous recent history. “the troubles” were persistent ethnonationalist violence from the 1960s to the 1990s between the protestants/unionists/loyalists and the catholics/nationalists/republicans over the political status of northern ireland. thankfully the violence has subsided since the good friday agreement in 1998, but a literal wall still divides sections belfast city, and remarkably, automated gates still close at 10pm every evening to divide/protect the communities from each other overnight.

in west belfast along and near shankill road there are many politically inspired murals. most are on the protestant/unionist/loyalist side, though the catholic/nationalist/republican side has some too. there are memorials to various killings and bombings as well. probably the best way to see these is to a take a black cab tour, in which a local drives you around in a classic northern irish black cab and explains the context of the troubles and the murals. due to inadequate planning on my part and a desire to minimize costs, i opted to skip the tour and walk my own black cab tour route, after reading the wikipedia article on the troubles and identifying the route of a typical tour, and i think i got a pretty good sense of things, though it did take essentially all day. for me, this was the highlight of my time on the island of ireland.

political/memorial mural, belfast, northern ireland

political mural, belfast, northern ireland

partisan signaling, belfast, northern ireland

gate which automatically closes each evening at 10pm to divide sectarian neighborhoods, memorial, belfast, northern ireland

another gate which automatically closes each evening at 10pm to divide sectarian neighborhoods, memorial, belfast, northern ireland

peace/dividing wall, belfast, northern ireland

solidarity wall, belfast

on one section of the wall that divides protestant and catholic belfast, northern ireland, there are a number of murals supporting causes of justice internationally, known as the solidarity wall. while less locally relevant than the surrounding protestant and catholic political murals, they are still quite eye-catching and interesting!

a pilgrimage to feed the british monkeys

we had almost two weeks of vacation in morocco! we rented a tiny car, which was amazing. i really wanted to make it to gibraltar and ann needed to get some work done, so upon arriving, she took the train to marrakesh and i drove north to take the ferry to europe! morocco has a pretty impressive toll expressway system, so it actually only took a few hours to drive to a town called fnideq, at the northern tip of morocco. after spending the night there and finding a place to safely park the car, i made my way to the border of an enclave of spain in north africa called ceuta! it occupies a tiny peninsula of north africa, and is one of a few remaining enclaves of spain on the continent. spanish sovereignty over these areas is contested by morocco, so it remains a sore spot between the two countries. the other major enclave a few hundred kilometers to the east is called melilla. and interestingly, there is also a third small enclave between melilla and ceuta that is just one small island a few hundred meters square, which is permanently staffed by a contingent of the spanish military to protect it. the short border between morocco and ceuta is very heavily fortified with a huge wall, as many migrants have attempted to make it into the european union this way, often by rushing the border en masse. at the time of my crossing, there were thousands lined up on the moroccan side – i was told they were headed to europe for work. the city of ceuta is an interesting fusion of spanish and moroccan culture, and has a pretty substantial population of about 80,000. from there, i jumped on one of the frequent one hour long ferries to algericas, spain. for whatever reason, i love ferries! once in algericas, one walks to the downtown bus station and takes a 45 minute bus ride to la linea, which is one the border with gibraltar. by this time it was about noon.

approaching gibraltar is fascinating. spain gives way to british accents and very british things such as many posters advertising the territory’s upcoming open snooker tournament. gibraltar is perhaps even more proud of its british heritage than is the typical town in england, because it is so isolated and has a rich history. indeed, gibraltar has been british longer than america has been american. immediately upon crossing the border, one finds themselves walking on winston churchill avenue across the centre of the single runway of the peninsula’s international airport! signs advise to “walk fast” and watch out for landing aircraft, of which there are just a couple each day.

it takes about half an hour to walk into the pedestrianized centre, where i got a huge fried british breakfast of blood pudding and mashers and ten other fried things. i then took a cable car to the top of the rock. the view was spectacular, and there are famous barbary macaque monkeys up there! they are very tame and numerous. they were brought from africa at some point, and when they started to dwindle following world war II more were brought from africa to replenish their population. today they are not having any trouble with all the tourists feeding them. despite being basically just a huge rock with forest on one side and a cliff on the other, the rock of gibraltar has a fascinating amount of history. there is a massive cave of st. michael that is seemingly endless, and in which there is evidence of neolithic human habitation. there are massive stalagmites and stalactites which are quite impressive. there are also many kilometers of man-made tunnels, built for strategic protection of the rock in the 1700s and during world war II, many of which can be explored. the tunnels from the 1700s open out of numerous holes in the cliff face, where cannons were fired from. there was enough space in the tunnels to house and provide for up to 1600 men for one year. very fun to explore.

after exploring the rock, i headed back the way i had come – back across the runway, the border, bus to algericas, ferry to ceuta, border crossing to morocco, into the rented car which had survived the day, and then as far as a terrible hotel in kenitra just north of rabat that night. an excellent day!

last day in london

on my last day in london i went down to greenwich to see the prime meridian. i also went to the maritime museum. the great thing about london is that all the big museums are free! on the way, i stopped at canary wharf, which is a huge development where all the big banks are based. it is probably the closest thing europe has to an american downtown. it was foggy and all the skyscrapers were cloaked in fog – beautiful. then that evening i went to camden town. this is the place one would gravitate toward if one had a tattoo of a welsh dragon tattooed across one’s face, a fluorescent red show-hawk to show off, a studded dog collar around your neck that is a few sizes too small, a disturbing sexual fetish, or perhaps an urgent need for some hard drugs. you get the picture. of course, you can go there if you follow a more normal lifestyle as well, and just do some shopping for a ramones t-shirt or something. truly an eclectic place.

the next day i took the train to gatwick, and left london 🙁
i flew on airbaltic, a latvian low cost airline, to riga, latvia. i navigated the riga airport with a british couple who were on a quest to watch an ice hockey game in every country where it is played. for some reason the diminutive airport seemed a lot more complicated than it should have been – we needed to take three different buses between terminals before finding the right place. despite the fact that the whole airport only had about ten gates. i bought a stale sandwich containing lots of butter and a few thin slices of pickle which the wrapper claimed to be the best latvia has to offer – i sure hope its wrong. i’m sure it is. then i flew to dubai!