Start of a holiday in Brighton (on being banned from a Gay pride event)

Normally I take holidays outside the UK, because the weather is better and normally even with the airfare, it still turns out to be cheaper. This year I decided to have a holiday in Brighton UK It took just under 6 hours to get from Plymouth to Brighton. I tried to get a taxi from the railway station to the hotel. There was the end of a big gay pride event and the taxi driver thought my hotel was in the restricted area, where the main party was. As it happened my hotel was outside the area, where a wristband was required. The taxi left me at the wrong point and it took some time to find my hotel.

My hotel room did indeed have a sea view. After checking in I wondered around. There was a big party area, which I  couldn't go into because I didn't have a wristband. There was a lot of music. Many people were carrying around cans of beer, so it was a traditional British event.  I drank a German beer, then I ate a huge mixed grill meal from a Turkish restaurant. I was so full I could barely move. I was just sat on a piece of concrete. One of the security guys for the gay pride event went over to talk to me. I had a couple of scabs on my leg after banging into things. These were not serious, but they looked a bit bad. he told me they probably would not let me into the guy pride event, because of my leg. He felt that I would fall over. I didn't actually want to go in, I was just digesting my food.
Still I was banned from a gay pride event. Us people with bad legs should organize our own musical events with chairs and hotels with lifts. There will be much hopping madness.

Hanover to Hamburg

When I was student at Edinburgh I did small rail tour of Germany. I think I went to Hamburg on that trip. I can remember being excited about going to a wild area of Germany. I thought I would go down to the docks and spend sometime in some sleazy bars. I can remember being bitterly disappointed when I was walking around Hamburg in the late evening, all I saw was empty shopping streets. I couldn't find the docks, let alone the sleazy bars.

So twenty years later I thought  I would try to sample the delights of Hamburg again. It takes a about two hours on the train to get from Hanover t Hamburg. I got off the train at the main railway station, but I could not find my hotel, or one of the landmarks fort the hotel. My phone told me that my hotel was 7 km away at a place called Hamburg Altona. I then worked out how to use the local S-Bahn to get there. My phone refused to update my position to Hamburg Altona, so it was hard to find my hotel.

After I checked n in I walked around the area. It looked like a very quiet and boring area. Not again I thought. There were some cafes around with groups of people drinking. I went into a small bar. There was no draft beer, so I ended up drinking a bottle of beer. Two older women at the bar were loudly talking about nothing much in particular,but they were women bar flies. I would have liked another beer, but the guy serving was not very interested.

I trudged back to my hotel. Would I ever swing in Hamburg?

Hanover day 1

I had booked a short holiday in Germany before I knew I would be leaving Germany in September. I planed to spend two nights in Hannover. However I had soem work related deadline for the first day of the holiday, but in the end I decided to go and finish my work thing off in the hotel.

I arrived in Hanover on Sunday evening.  It was very hot still. There was a big pedestrian area in fro of the man railway station. After a little messing around and frankly not helped by the GPS in my phone I found the hotel. The  hotel looked shut even though it was only 21:00. I pushed the buzzer and the a voice said "hello Mr McNeile we are on holiday, but the key is in your room.", so that was all right.

I then wandered around fro a bit. It was Sunday night so a lot of places were closed. I did have a beer in the Jack the ripper pub which served traditional London beers such as Stella and New castle Brown.
After that I picked up some beer at the kiosk and went back to my hotel room and watched TV.

Wasted (but relaxing) day in Bangkok

So I only had a full day in Bangkok. I was planning to go to some famous ruins, but in the end I could not be arsed to do anything. I started the day with a dip in the Jacuzzi in my hotel room. I enjoyed the bubble, but it would have been better with a woman as well, or at the very least a rubber duck to play with.

I was staying at the President Solitaire Hotel and Spa
View Larger Map

 When I went out in the morning I found a lot of nice bars, restaurants and shops. It was hot so I didn't make it further than a block from the hotel. The pavements were full of little market stores selling tourist goods. I was carrying hand luggage or otherwise I would have purchased some butterfly knives.

I essentially just I ate food and drank a couple of beers. There were a lot of older guys with younger (but not children)  beautiful Asian girlfriends. I was so jealous. No one bothered me at all and everyone was friendly.


In the evening there were outside trucks selling cheap cocktails. I just drank one.

I had an early flight back to Singapore the next day. So I saw only a little of Bangkok.

Munich now and dthen

Actually I had been to Munich before this last weekend. When I was a student in Edinburgh I took a train tour of Germany, I think I went to Munich. I only remember trying to work out how to buy a ticket for the S bahn. I also went looking for a vast beer garden around a lake. I had this fancy of walking around a lake hold a massive Stein of beer. I never found the lake. Now that I think about it, it was probably the English Garden , which is more garden than beer garden.

In my first trip to Munich I did manage to visit a beer hall. I only remember a German guy asleep with his head on a table from too many beers. I don't remember seeing so many American tourists last time.

First night in Munich

I was at a meeting in Regensburg last Thursday and  Friday. After the meeting I went to Munich for a day on Friday. It takes about two hours on the train. I was really suffering with a bad cold. I booked a hotel close to the main railway station. I found it quick enough.
After I dropped my stuff off I thought I should explore Munich, although my body really only wanted to go to sleep.

 I walked away from the railway station in the general direction of the centre of the city. My feet were hurting  and I was really ill, so I had to sit down in a park for a while. I found a central area. It was about 18:00, so it seemed like a time for a a beer. But I searched and searched but I could not find a bar. I didn find a beer garden, but there were no free tables. It was so cold as well. I followed sign for the English Garden. After limping there it was a garden, but no beer. How very unEnglish.

I walked back to the concrete. I found a bar with outside tables and I drank two beers, but it was very cold.

After that I was ready for some food. I limped off to find a place to eat. I decided to try hofbraeu haus. It took a while for me to find. I just followed a bunch of tourists. At some point it started to rain briefly. I found the place but it was full of people and chaos. Everyone was drinking huge beers. I was sweating badly from my cold. I left. I was getting hungry. I passed a kebab shop, but I thought no, I should try some Bavarian food. I found a small restaurant in a backstreet. There were seats outside, but I couldn't take the cold. The waiter set me on a bench with other people inside. I was feeling hot and flustered in a bad way. The food came quick. It was beef and dumplings -- I dish I often see in the University of Wuppertal Mensa.

After my food I decided to go back to my hotel. I was going to get a taxi, but I ended up in Marienplatz  There was a S bahn station that took me back to the railway station. There were a lot of people drinking bottles of beer outside the railway station. There were police watching them. If I had been well I would have gone to a bar, but I was too ill.

Goodbye to Singapore

Final day in Singapore. Boohoo it is back to the west for broken old Craig. I was in Bangkok this morning, Because work is paying for the flight from Singapore tn Germany it seemed simpler to fly back from my very short break in Thailand to Singapore. At least it seemed simple when I booked the flight. I started to worry that the passport people in Singapore might worry that i just popped over to Bangkok to smuggle some stuff back to Singapore. I also had no printed proof of travel detail back from Singapore. I did have the details on my phone

As it happened I just wrote on the entry form to Singapore that I was just going to be there for a day and they guy at passport control barely looked at what I wrote, but stamped the form and passport.

I was flying back with KLM. It was not clear whether they were a hard  core airline like Ryanair, where you get shouted at if you don't have a Internet printed out boarding card. There were kiosks to print off the boarding passes so all my worrying was in vain.


Anyway I went back into the city via he train. I had decided to go to Orchard road, because this was an area of Singapore that is famous for the shopping. I though the shopping options would be lots of interesting shops or outside market stalls.
When I got to the railway station I found it was hidden in a vast Mall. After about 20 minutes I found the exit, but it was so hot outside. The Orchard road area seemed like a large number of malls linked together. I did walk outside for a bit. I found yet another mall with some bars in. I really wanted to drink a Singapore sling cocktail, but I settled on drinking a Japanese real ale pub. I only drank one beer. There was a couple sitting close to me. I think they were work colleagues. The guy was offering advice, but perhaps he wanted to start an affair. The woman laughed a lot in a way I would never get tired of. True she worked for Microsoft, but you can't have everything.

After one beer I took the train back to the airport.

More Singapore

After the visiting the Marina in Singapore, I took the train to the little India part of Singapore. This was a very busy crazy part of Singapore.  Obviously this area had a Indian feel. I found an Indian restaurant which turned out to be full of westerners. The food was good after I had convinced the waiter that I could take spicy food. There were more authentic options to eat, but I didn't want too risk getting sick in the tummy.

Then I took the train to an area called little China. This had a more Chinese feel to it. It was more organized than the Indian section. The shops were bigger. There was a more wealth in the Chinese section than in the Indian section. I walked around for a while until the heat got to me.

I took the train back to a station close to the University. I then took a cab to the guest house on the  campus. The cab driver didn't see the campus very well, so he didn't manage to find the guest house, but just dropped me off somewhere vaguely close.

There was a little shop close to the guest house. It sold beer, but it mostly sold very high strength lagers.

Singapore I

I am sitting in a hotel room in Singapore. I flew in on Sunday night. I took a taxi to the hotel, but the driver didn't seem to know the address, even though it was was a guest house in the University. I had just been on a long flight from Germany, so my brain was a little fried. I just have a jumbled memory of big roads. The driver was friendly with an interesting English accent.

I was happy to feel the swampy heat after the long cold winter in Germany. I have been at a physics workhop. Today I have my talk, so I can relax more, because the stress is over, but I just feel  so tired. I have been getting up early to write yet more of my talk...

Art gallery in Lisbon

One day while I was on holiday I thought I would go to an art gallery.  So when I finally got up I took the Metro to visit Centro de arta moderna. It was a pretty nasty rainy day, so it was good time to visit a gallery.

When I walked into the gallery I tried to buy a ticket. The woman at the desk was talking on the phone for a couple of minutes, while I waited. When she finally stopped talking it turned out that the ticket was free. They were replacing some of the exhibits, so the gallery was almost empty.
In parts of the gallery they were installing new things. It was hard to focus on the paintings, when there is a crane installing things.

I think there should be more technology in galleries to keep the arts and crafts people rooted in reality. In fact I would go further and power art galleries with teams of artists on treadmils - just to get them to do something useful for once in their life.

My guide book claimed that I would see some paintings by Paula Rego. I don't think the painting below was the one I saw, but it looks sort of the same as two pictures I saw in the gallery. I like here work, so I will just imagine that I have seen some of here work.

My holiday in Bruges comes to an end.

So all good things come to an end. My weekend holiday in Bruges was over. I left the hotel and
went to the train station to buy my ticket back to Wuppertal. Obviously the guy selling the ticket spoke English, so there were not problems.

I had to change trains at Brussels. However, when I travelled to Bruges, there was a station called
Brussels-Midi. However my ticket told me to change at a station called Brussels-Zuid. This was confusing. When I got to Brussels-Zuid it turned out to be called  Bruges-Midi again. I guess that is what happens when you live in a country with three different languages.

Food in Bruges

So I got out of the last art gallery in Bruges and I though that is me done with art. I need some wittles to keep my body and spirit sound.

My guide book described a kwak beer that required a special glass. The glass was so expensive that the restaurant required a shoe as deposit -- or so my guide said. The beer was also meant to be 1 L of 8% or 9% strong beer. When I ordered the beer, they didn't ask for my shoe. Also there was probably only 1/2 L of standard beer in the glass. Still it was fun to drink. I ordered Mussles and fries. It was all very tasty -- as it should have been for 40 Euros.

After that I had another beer and then took the bus back to the hotel. A bit later I had a drink in the Morrison bar with a picture of the lead singer of the Doors at the front of the building. It was a local bar with a group of friends drinking in a small bar.

So that was another birthday done.

More pictures seen in Bruges

On the Flemish primatives

After my life changing viewing of the pictures in the Arentshaus, I thought I would finally find the famous Groeningenmuseum, because according to the map it was close. After sometime I found it and realized I had passed it many times.

It was a modern museum with 6 centuries of paintings, the most famous of which are those by the Flemish primitives. The colors were amazing and luckily they were not all about religous subjects.
Below is part of "the judgement of cambyses" by Gerad David -- an early zombie flick painting.

The gallery was arranged by time. The BBC recently had a great adaptation of the Mountains of Madness by HP Lovecraft. This had explorers in a mountain in the Artic looking at the pictures of the "great old ones". At some stage the pictures degenerate with time as the race loses it. I was reminded of this as I entered the modern abstract art part at the end of the gallery.  I am no conservative, but where does art go after Damien Hirst.

Thinking about Brangwyn in Bruges

  On the decline of  the reputation of Frank Brangwyn

After a small Capichino (at a mere cost of 5 Euros0 I was ready for more art. I wanted to find the Groeningemuseum, because it had paintings by the Flemish primitives. But could I find the museum ?Could I fuck -- even with the map I had.

After cursing map makers and geometry I did find a museum that looked to be in sort of the correct place. I didn't see many people going in the door. The museum was called Arentshuis museum.

When I stepped into the ticket counter, the woman who was selling tickets seemed surprised that I was there. I was surprised by her surprise, because the guide book had said that the Groeningemuseum was one of the best in the world. She first tried to sell me a general ticket for all the museums in Bruges, until I managed to get to sell me a ticket for 2 Euros for her museum, but she kept telling me that it was "modern art" in a worried way.
It was becoming clear that this museum didn't contain paintings by Flemish primitives, but I was in polite English mode. It looked as though, she had been wound down by people coming in, mistaking her museum for the more famous one.

So I went upstairs to a completely empty gallery. The air smelled of decay and dust. The light was poor. The work was all by Sir Frank William Brangwyn -- someone I had never heard of. He had been born in Bruges, but he moved to the UK as a child.  I walked around the pictures. The floor was incredibly squeaky, every time I moved the floor  boards groaned. I kept thinking the woman below is listening to me trying to work out if I really wanted to be looking at her pictures. I heard a couple
come in below and try and buy a ticket, but after a while it became clear that they wanted to be in the other more famous museum, so I was left alone in the gloom.

There was a time line on the wall of  Brangwyn's life. It looked very distinguished. He was born in 1867, so I could compare his accomplishments in 1912 with mine in 2012. I wanted to cry bitter tears of failure. The paintings I liked enough, he was a realistic type. I did notice that he travelled to Istanbul and maybe even to Africa, but that didn't radically change his paintings in same way that African art had effected the style of Picasso. That made me sad. From the wikipedia site, it does look as though he was an interesting guy. He wasn't one of those University trained posers, and had even worked with William Morris.

So that is the future. Even if you are successful in life, your legacy could be a dusky and empty
gallery, that at some stage will be closed and his pictures burnt or sold in car boot sales. What is the point of it all?

Anyway my favourite artist is now Brangwyn -- more to be bloody minded than anything else.

I liked the quote below from wikepedia.

  The art writer Marius Gombrich has linked the decline of interest in Brangwyn's works to the decline of the British Empire, pointing out that Brangwyn's bold, vigorous, outward-looking art was suited to the expansive spirit of late-Victorian British society but inconsistent with the inward-looking, less confident, and intellectually effete ethos prevalent in the post World War I period.[14]

Picaso, waffles and fries ...

Second full day in Bruges

I started the day by eating Waffles at a little store in train station. Then I went into the center with a bus, and ate some fries purchased from a little store in the markt area. I think I went a bit wild with eating fries in Bruges, because today I didn't feel like Pomme Frittes for lunch.

I then wandered around the city for a while, just looking at the nice buildings and rivers.

I then went into an exhibition of Picasso's (and Joan Miro) work. Picasso painted a lot, so there were many paintings and it was interesting to see his change of styles. I also liked the fact that he was always learning and talking to new people.

I can now see why people steal paintings so that they can look at them alone. There were not too many people in the gallery but they seemed to get in my way.

Picaso managed abstraction with out painting stuff that required no skill.

End of first full day in Bruges

I ended my stroll around the center of Bruges with a fish stew for dinner. Belgium cooking works for me, because as far as I can tell you get fries with everything (but with no vinegar).
My table was near the door and one of the waiteresses just stared out of the door to look for new customers. This freaked me out a little bit.
The meal cost 28 Euros, but when I gave the waiter a 50 Euro note, he asked if I didn't have anything smaller. This shows that 50 Euro notes are hated through out the EU.

i then worked out how to get a bus ticket on the bus and went back to my hotel.

My love affair with the guillotine

Museums are not always boring when they contain an instrument of death

I looking through my guide book for something to do that didn't involve beer or reading. One of the museums, called Gruuthuse , looked a boring -- until I got to the sentence that stated that there was a guillotine there. I put down the book and started running (perhaps a fast limp is a better description).

It took a while to find the museum, because it was hidden away. The museum was a meant to show the life in Bruges in the past, which is something I am not too interested in. I am wise enough to know that the staff will think me a bit weird, if after buying a ticket, I just say, "so where is the fucking guillotine?" I rapidly toured the first floor of the building, but couldn't find it.
It turned out to be in the first room, but just standing in the corner. Personally I would get rid of the other stuff in the building and just keep the guillotine well lit.

I was starting at the guillotine ans was just starting to think about life, death, and justice. A family came in starting at looking at the stuff in the room. One of the children went off and started to explore the guillotine on their own. I was just thinking, this might not end well. Then the rest of thye family came over. The father explained to the children, who I think were around 10, what the  guillotine was for, in an educational way.

Sane well adjusted people take all the fun out of visiting museums.

I then took some pictures. I got told off in a museum in Vienna when I tried to take pictures of the car that Franz Ferdinand was shot in, which was the event that started the first world war. I had turned the flash off, so I was worried when I took the pictures, because it was gloomy in there.

I didn't realize how high the guillotine was.

In Bruges and in Bruges

Watching the film In Bruges in Bruges

I watched the film "In Bruges" while I was staying in Bruges. I rented the film via Itunes.
The film had two hit men hiding out in Bruges after a hit goes wrong. Only one of the hitmen wanted to be there, but the other hates the city. The city Bruges is almost part of the actors because it plays such as important part in the drama.

I kept thinking I was there today, but without a shooter.

TV in Belgium and the fate of the UK

My hotel room has a TV that shows TV programs from a number of different countries. I could watch BBC1, BBC2, and ITV1. The local Flemish channels show English language shows but with subtitles. Some people thing that this is the reason that everyone can speak such good English.

So I was channel hopping (zappen). On the UK channels, two had shitty game or talent shows on.
Even worse BBC2 had a program about how the British felt that they were a special people. One of the local channels showed one of the new Sherlock Holmes programs made by the BBC, but with subtitles.

So the local here improve their English while the English nation is brain washed with game shows and propaganda for a lost Empire. So what is the plan to make Britain great again. Are we going to invade India and sell opium to the Chinese? What we don't need is a program telling us "we are the chosen ones."

The Elites of this country need to let go of the Empire idea. OK, many of them have, of course, they are too busy stealing as much money from the country, so they can buy a big castle in France. and retire there. Cutting the 50p tax rate -- very power to the people.

First day in Bruges

My hotel in Bruges is close to the railway station. The web site of the hotel claimed it was either a 20 minute walk (for normal speed walkers) to get to the city center, or take a short bus trip. It took a short while to get a ticket. I got on the bus to the Zentrum. After about 5 minutes I got off at a market. It was a standard market, with stalls selling 5 pairs of socks for 5 Euros. However I was in tourist mode so I was searching for the historical bit and a place to buy breakfast.

After the market  I walled in what I thought was the correct direction. Bruges is a tourist town, so I thought I should find something quickly. I was partly looking for history, but mostly looking for breakfast, because the night before I had just eaten 3 beers and a chocolate bar. But I walked and walked, but I didn't find any cafes or open shops. I thought, this is hell -- I am going to just walk around until  I starve or go mad. At some point I thought I smelled bacon, but I could see no shop or cafe. I shook my fist at heaven.

Just as I thought, well this is it, I hit the man tourist  area. I then had to decide on what rip off cafe to eat at. This took some while and I eventually went into a fast food joint to order a bacon burger, because please remember I was close to death and needed a little meat.

 The burger was delicious and even used a brown bap.