Valentines Day #9

As our closest friends and family know, each valentines day, we forgo the marked up set menus and other painful date "stuff" and instead make something unique that we have never cooked before. Traditionally, it has involved some type of exotic seafood not available in land-locked (though lake plenty) Minnesota. This was was a slight exception. On the menu was crab cakes as a starter, followed by rack of lamb with stuffed tomatoes and a olive-prune sauce. 

Let's just say it was a definite crowd pleaser. The crab cakes were set upon a salad of thinly sliced radishes and a granny smith apple, combined with a ruby red grapefruit and juicy orange. The citrus was a great compliment to the crab cakes. 

For the rack of lamb, its just about as easy as it gets, we made a sauce of sea salt, fresh rosemary and good olive oil and rubbed it on the lamb, browned it on a skillet, then cooked at about 175C (I think) for 15 minutes. It turned out to be the best piece of meat we've ever cooked, perfectly done.

We stuffed the tomatoes with couscous, feta, spring onions and cilantro, using the inside of the tomatoes combined with some tomato paste as the filling, which was also magnificent!

The sauce of olives and prunes, with a healthy dose of red wine, was very unusual by itself, but ended up complimenting the rest of the meal beautifully!

Bon appetite!

Day Trip: Royal Standard of England Pub

If you find yourself in London on a cloudy Saturday morning and aren't sure what to do. Here's a hint...try the Royal Standard of England. This pub, which won pub of the year in 2009, dates back some 900 years. The interior suggests that is a true statement. 

Erin, Kate, Stuart and I headed out on the Metropolitan line until the end, where you take a 20 minute, 20 pound cab to the pub. About 75-90 minute trip in all, but it removes you from the hustle and bustle of the city. Alternatively, if its not closed the Marylebone train line has a train that drops you off about 1.5 miles from the pub at Beaconsfield station. 

The pub is sooo great, I think there are 3-4 fireplaces, more beams than you can count, a reliable food selection, and it allows dogs, which is a plus for the Stu and Kate. The bar oozes Old English Pub, which is why Stu's shirt complemented it perfectly. 

Our table was in a neat little nook that allowed for several hours of chillin with a real ale and nibblin on some treats. The beer selections at the pub are also great, with a handful of hand-pumped ales, some local regular taps, as well as a good selection of belgians. Its a great destination pub and restaurant that helps fulfill a great day in England!!

Wadi Rum, Petra, Dead Sea, Jordan

---It took me a while to get the third segment of our Christmas trip onto the blog, but not before craziness has struck the very countries we visited. Our thoughts go out to those we met in Jordan and Egypt who have been affected by the demonstrations and our prayers go out for a successful transition to a new government that will benefit all the people of Egypt and Jordan---

We arrived in Amman airport (directly from Sharm) around sunset and picked up our rental, which we got from Thrifty, who has some old cars available for rent, ours didn't come with break pads:-). We were a little nervous about renting a car in Jordan, but there are very few roads in the country and having the car made things very flexible. 

Whenever I see the above picture, I think of my dad humming the Indiana Jones theme song and soon thereafter watching the cast swivel through the canyon to a grand introduction to Petra. Unfortunately, contrary to what one might presume from watching "The Last Crusade," you cannot go into the particular monument used in the movie, and as far as I know the holy grail isn't sitting at the bottom of a crack in the floor inside.  Petra is actually an entire civilization that consists of a massive network of tombs, monuments and other buildings, made by the Nabataeans in the 6th century. Personally, I had no idea it would have as many things to see as it does. 

 

We spent about 5 or 6 hours at the site, but you could easily spend a whole day or more seeing everything there.  One note is that they do not take it easy on your wallet to see the sites. It was 50 JOD (about $65) for each of us to get in for the day, plus another 50 JOD for a guide that in our opinion, was very poor and a waste of time. Instead, print out the Wikipedia article and some other online resources, including a map. You can then save yourself the guide fee. It is also only 55 JOD for a two day pass, so if you have lots of time, I would recommend splitting the visit to two days.

After seeing the most famous building/tomb, which is actually the old treasury, we moved on to other sites and hikes, climbing around over and through various sites. Here is Erin walking down a staircase carved from the rock.

This is the biggest of all tombs that looks more like a palace than a tomb. All the tombs are amazing and were great to visit.

Following Petra we had a nice lunch at the Movenpick which is literally right outside the entrance to Petra and would be a great place to stay if you have the fundage. We stayed at the Marriott using reward points, so the price was obviously right for us.

After our lunch, we set out for Wadi Rum desert, our humble abode for the night.  We have a few friends and family that have spend a night in a Bedouin tent, and it was highly recommended by them. So we emailed Obeid, who has a series of tents in which he accommodates guests. The tent is managed by Obeid and his son, among others that included one of our hosts, his brother, who was an entertaining character to say the least!

It was a pretty unique evening that included a meal cooked in the sand, lots of good tea, and some sisha to top it off. It was one of the other guests' birthday, so they had a cake for him. It was definitely a unique experience. The desert was freezing at night, but they had plenty of blankets to stay warm with. Below is our tent, pretty homely, huh?

After the night in the tent, Uncle Mo took us for a jeep ride in the desert, which had fantastic scenery, including unique rock formations, amazing colors in the rock, and lots and lots of sand!

Soon after the jeep ride, we got in the car and headed towards the Dead Sea, which borders Israel. It doesn't border the countries below, so we smartly stayed straight upon reaching this junction. 

After a few hours on the road and getting lost in the Medina in a town on the way, we made it to the Dead Sea for a beautiful sunset and had a great dinner at the Movenpick, where we stayed for the last two nights of our whirlwind vacation.

The next morning after breakfast, Joelskie, Erin and I got our suits on and checked out the Dead Sea water, which is the saltiest in the world, resulting in the ability to float like a full time synchronized swimmer!! I can finally swim like Lissa! You can see us popping out of the water like a bobber. 

They also have a bucket of mud that you can spread on yourself before jumping in, which results in ultra-smooth skin. 

The Movenpick Dead Sea also has one of the best rated spas in the world, containing over 10 different pools that vary in water temperature, number of jets, or salt content. We spent 9 hours at the spa and each got a nice massage. You can see how relaxed Erin is after hers!

The Dead Sea was a great way to end the trip, relax, and get the sand out of our hair and toes. We wouldn't have done Jordan any other way and highly recommend all we did on the final leg of the trip! I would suggest anybody visiting Petra, Wadi Rum and the Dead Sea to rent a car, as they are all pretty far apart, and very far from Amman. A taxi or hired driver would cost you significantly more. 

Edinburgh and St. Andrews - Nov 2010

A civilised pint it was, with all the Jane Austin classics perched behind our pint-sized table, leaning on the 2007 good pub guide. Of course we opted for the latter, identifying the pubs Joel and I couldn't quite make it to during our June 2009 visit. This was Kay's bar, a classic pub in the "new town" in Edinburgh....I advise you check it out.

I was in Edinburgh for a project for work for 10 days with a couple colleagues. Of all British cities, this is one of the best places to be. The project entailed long hours that were rewarded by occasional warm glasses of scotch following the 10pm departure at work.

The good thing was that on the weekend I was in town, my sweetie came to visit and we actually got some sun one of the days.  

On the Saturday in Edinburgh, we took the free city tour, which is really nice for the first 90 minutes, but gets extremely long. We opted out of the second half and made it to the Bow Bar for a drink. Also highly recommended.

One thing that can't be replaced, a visit from your wife when you are out of town (coming up on three weeks in Houston; which seems like an eternity when you are away from home).

That night we had a nice dinner and the next morning instead of doing the castle tour, which we have both done in the past, we took the train to St. Andrews. The train is really handy, just over an hour and £16 round-trip. It was Sunday, which worked out well since we didn't have our clubs. On Sunday's, the Old Course is closed for play and open for walking.

It was amazing to feel the history when walking across the stone arch bridge on the 18th as so many golfing legends have done in the pass. When I crossed it, I said a little prayer that you'll be competing here for the Claret Jug someday, Scottie.

Following the course, we wandered around the town, concluding this is a good half day trip as there isn't a whole lot besides golf, though I am sure friends who have studied here (Megan) would argue otherwise.

All in all, Edinburgh is an amazing city with tons of history and great pubs. St. Andrews is definitely worth the detour, but more so if there is an Open on or a tee-time booked. 

Luxor to Sharm El Sheikh

I had heard about Luxor from various friends and family who have visited in the past. What they didn't inform me of is that Karnak and Luxor temples are probably the most amazing sites we have ever visited.

If you haven't been to Egypt, go. If you go to Egypt, go to Luxor. I wish we had gone to Abu Simbel, but a quick day in Luxor satisfied our craving for more Ancient Egypt. Combine the East and West banks of the Nile around the city and you could safely classify the entire city as a museum.

After a 3am departure from the Cairo Marriott and arriving at 6am, we hit the ground running by heading to the West Bank on a 3 hour tour set up by the Sheraton, where we stayed for the single night (shortened from two nights due to the "snowstorm" in London). If serious power touring like we did, you can see most of the main sights in Luxor. We started at the Valley of the Kings, which contains an amazingly preserved collection of hieroglyphs. Its too bad all the tombs were looted, otherwise it would be the top tourist destination in the world. Regardless, it was a really cool trip into the mountains to see the tombs. We also saw the Tomb of the Nobles and Valley of the Queens on the West Bank.

After returning to our hotel and a quick bite for lunch, we headed to the East Bank for an afternoon of Karnak and Luxor Temples. I knew they'd be great, but the fact that the New Dynasty, when the temples flourished, is 3,500 dated and to have the structures so well preserved/restored is amazing.

In my opinion, it blows ancient Rome out of the water. I mean, look at this!!!

The first is Karnak temple. One thing we did, which many people don't like, it go along with the security guards who show you closed off parts of the site. Many people are turned off as they expect a little tip when they move the ropes for you, but as we learned at Al Azhar in Cairo, £1 for a different perspective is often worth it. In this case, we were led to the side of a closed off monument under refurbishment, where a hidden staircase offered us an amazing view over the entire temple from up high. It was a great sight!

Following the temple, we followed Joelskie's lead and walked from Karnak to Luxor along the Nile right around a magnificent sunset.

One interesting note that would make a frequent visitor to Luxor want to come back is that in the next 18 months the city will open up a reconstructed avenue of the sphinxes that originally contained over 1300 Sphinx statutes on a 3km path. They have opened one section recently which is remarkable in itself, but once the entire ancient trail is reconstructed, it will be incredible.

We ultimately entered Luxor temple right at Sunset. Both Karnak and Luxor are open late and can be seen under the stars, but Karnak has a light show whereas you can leisurely walk around Luxor temple and admire the shadows in a romantic setting. Below is the completed portion of the Avenue of the Sphinxes, the pic doesn't do it justice.

Following a great stroll around Luxor temple and nice meal at Sofra, which is a highly recommended restaurant while in Luxor, we had a lazy night and it was off to Sharm El Sheikh to finally meet Joel, who was supposed to be our trip buddy the entire trip but was a couple days ahead of us given our set back.

We arrived to the Sharm Renaissance Marriott to an amazingly rude welcome, charging us $70 for one extra person. We had disagreements with the GM to the extent where we almost left the hotel. I am still steaming. It really gives a bad impression to Marriott, especially given the Petra and Cairo Marriott hotels were the complete opposite of the Renaissance Sharm. DO NOT STAY THERE.

Regardless it was great to meet Joelskie and catch up on the craziness over the last few days. We also decided to do a Christmas morning hike up Mount Sinai, why not, right?!?!

Its a good idea in theory and a cool experience to climb the mountain to catch the sunrise on Christmas morning, however, you must be fully committed as the overnight hike consists of a 10pm pick-up and starting the ascent at 2:30am to catch sunrise. Regardless of the lack of sleep, it was a great experience and so much fun!

We got a great seat and caught an clear sunrise over the mountains. It was really worth the effort. Our group was good and our guide was a cool guy too. It was chilly despite being in Egypt, but the Bedouins of course had blankets for rental!

We then hiked down, catching a couple cool pics and then checking out St. Catherine's monastery to see some relics of St. Catherine and the Burning Bush, where Moses allegedly spoke to God.

We made it back to Sharm at about 2pm the following afternoon (i.e. it was a 16 hour tour) and caught a few waves in the Red Sea (but due to all the shark attacks had to stay close to shore). At least we can check another major body of water off the list:-)

Onto Jordan, and yet another unique body of water...

Cairo....but first...Amsterdam???

Everyone has their own tale of the terrible Christmas storm of 2010 that took the western world by storm. Most are tales of remorse, some are tales of near misses. Not many are tales of both. Erin and I most definitely experienced both, combined with what I would proudly say is a tale of veteran traveller savvyiness. Also a tale that turned our African Christmas trip into a trip that included an impromptu night in a white Amsterdam.

Our flight was schedule for immediately following the measly six inches that fell on the 18th. In MSP, it probably would've been 30 minutes delayed to remove the snow and the abominable snowmen in the runway. Not to be so, this was Heathrow, whose snow removal plan is to throw a couple old pensioners onto the runway with a shovel to get the runways clear.

As you would guess...flight cancelled. Not a big deal, there was a flight the next night. So we had a chill day in London and a good night sleep. Those watching the news would guess that Heathrow was closed the next day, flight two cancelled. When we contacted the airlines they said they couldn't confirm our trip till the 25th....THE 25TH?!?!?!

Most would despair; we strapped into serious booking mode. In 20 minutes using two computers, a phone and an iTouch with wireless activated, we had rebooked our flights from London City to Amsterdam, with a mandatory night in Amsterdam (which we of course didn't mind - better than missing the trip) before making it to Cairo, only 2.5 days late. I think we got the first flight out of London possible and were probably the first ones to Cairo from London after the storm!

Yes we made it to Cairo, but not before also having to rebook our hotels for the first three nights of our trip, cutting out a day in Luxor, Cairo and Sharm, but still doing almost everything we intended. We arrived at 8pm and immediately experienced our first dodgy Egypt experience, a cross between a rickshaw and a pinto as our first taxi driver. We stayed at the Marriott in central Cairo which is a beautiful hotel built around the turn of the century for a visit from the French Empress Eugiene. We ate at Abou El Sid that night, which is a popular Egyptian restaurant frequented by tourists.

The next morning we got picked up by a great tour guide, Nadia, who Strauss recommended. She first took us outside the city to Saqqara, or the step pyramid, which dates back something like 4,500 hundred years, the oldest large structure I have ever seen. Amazing to put it in perspective as to how ridiculously old this place is. Puts ancient Rome to shame (however stay tuned for Luxor, for the coolest thing I have EVER seen will be revealed).

Following the step pyramid and a quick lunch, we made it to the grand daddy of them all, the Great Pyramids at the Giza plateau, home to the last remaining wonder of the ancient world. It is literally massive, look it the size of the stones. There is also a common misconception that slaves made the pyramids, when in fact they were professional stone workers.

We cruised around the complex, taking lots of pictures and even hopping on a camel (although that isn't me or Erin on the camel). We of course saw the Great Sphinx. All these structures are also at least 3500 years old and have been engrained in our minds in many different ways throughout our lives. To see them in person was remarkable.

Following the pyramids, we got dropped of in Islamic Cairo by our driver and started walking around perhaps the most intriguing part of the historical city. We went to the mosque that is also the world's oldest university, Al-Azhar. It is a beautiful structure with polished marble floors that you can literally see your reflection in. The mosque dates to 961. After walking around we thought about going into a minaret in a nearby mosque, but thankfully they offered us a tour of the university and a trip up the famous minaret in Al Azhar, which was much more of a treat than we could've expected.

We next checked out the local souks of Islamic Cairo and had a mint tea at the famous cafe in the market, Fishawi's. It was a great way to end a long day of touring and a great conclusion to a whirlwind trip to Cairo.