North Midlands, UK

After a weekend in Stockholm, I had a pleasure of discovering north of England (mind you, not United Kingdom). I have to say, that Sheffield surprised me most; it is up and coming city with a lot of money invested in it. There is a brand new train station, renovated high street, new trams are connecting different parts of the town and people are friendly. I stayed in Best Western Cutlers Hotel, which is nothing special but definitely good value for money (you are getting what you are paying for) and dinned at Vijays (not bad, but again, nothing special).

But the best part of the week was the drive from Sheffield to Knowsley (Liverpool) through the Peak District (check out the photo above). I would never believe that that was in UK...

In Knowsley, I’ve stayed in Suits Hotel Knowsley and it was surprisingly good, given it was £65 per night (including breakfast). It was closer to a small apartment rather than a hotel room; the double bedroom had a king size bed and in addition there was a lounge room with all the amenities you come to expect from much more expensive hotel chains.

That's it for now.

Enjoy, John.

Weekend in Stockholm, Sweden

I guess if I had to summarise the weekend in one sentence, it would be “one day in fog, one day in cold”. Stockholm is a beautiful city with relaxed vibe, but very expensive (even compare to London). Although Stockholm is built on the islands, it is very easy and convenient to get around the city using public transport. SL website (has English version) allows you to plan your journey and estimate the fare. There is also a frequent and quite cheap (150SEK one way or 249SEK return) bus service to all Swedish airports; you can find more information on the Flygbussarna website.

We have stayed at Best Western Amani, on the outskirts of Stockholm, but since the transport was really frequent and convenient, it was more then fine. The hotel has a small sauna, but we were not able to use it (because of the Russians).

The city has number of excellent attractions, but most of them are a bit on the expensive side. If you want freebies, try the Stockholm Parliament Guided Tour, hung around the Drottninggatan, Gamla Stan or the Djurgården island.

Check out the photo album at http://picasaweb.google.com/john.markh/20090208WeekendInStockholm

Enjoy, John.

I Live in Ski Resort Called "London"

Yesterday, when we came back from Scotland, we were in for a surprise and not a good one: it was snowing. Although there is nothing wrong with the snow itself, in UK the public transport does not function when it is more then 0.01cm of snow! All the buses were recalled to the depots (the people were asked to leave the bus in the middle of the street), trains were cancelled and the taxis refused to take passengers. Even private hire were not able to coupe with the demand! We had to wait for 2 hours around "Elephant and Castle" and to pay double fare to get home. As my friend Tal wrote "..the only thing that might have a more severe implication on the UK roads other than a wee bit of snow is a nuclear holocaust."

I really can't understand the reason why everything stops because of 6" of snow? It is not the first time it is snowing here (http://jmarkh.blogspot.com/2007/01/white-london.html and http://jmarkh.blogspot.com/2007/01/snow-again.html) and we are not living in the village, so why London can not prepare for it?

Well, the only thing I can say is that snow is beautiful! Check out the photo album at http://picasaweb.google.com/alla.markh/20090202LetItSnow

Enjoy, John.

Weekend in Edinburgh

After 4 and a half long hours on the National Express East Coast train, we are finally in the capital of Scotland, Edinburgh. We have stayed in Best Western King Manor hotel on the outskirts of the Edinburgh (15-20 minutes on the bus from Princes street), close to the Portobello promenade. The hotel has all the facilities you can expect from Best Western (including pool, sauna and steam room), affordable and quite easily reachable. The only (minor) downside is that the interior and the toiletries are a bit worn down.
I did not expect Edinburgh to be that different from other cities I've been to: the architecture, the weather, the culture and the people. The first shocking discovery was that buses: they are clean! After using London buses for number of years I have used to food leftovers (fish and chips and fried wings are the most common), crazy drivers and loud people, but in Edinburgh the buses are clean, frequent and drivers are helpful and polite. Then, it is the whiskey they don't export! We've been sampling number of locally (by that, I mean Scottish) produced whiskeys and liquors (based on whiskey) and they are exquisite (we've bought a bottle of Old Pulteney Liqueur to enjoy at home)! As for the sightseeing, we've been to Portobello promenade (had a lovely breakfast at Beach House café), the castle (everybody goes to the castle and there is excellent panoramic view of the city), Royal Mile street (for whiskeys and tartan scarf/kilts) Princes street (high street shopping), Omni Centre (cinemas and restaurants), Scottish Museum of History (7 floors of museum dedicated to Scottish history – free) and White Hart Inn pub (for good selection of local beer, live folk musics and the best Haggis in Edinburgh). I've been told, that we should have climbed the Blackford Hill, but it was only 1½ days visit and didn't manage to do that.
Check out the photo album at http://picasaweb.google.com/alla.markh/20090131Edinburg.

And as the saying goes, not everything that starts well ends well. When we came back, we were in for a surprise...

Enjoy,
John.