Breakfast view

Morning -

Just sharing the view from breakfast this morning. Spent the night in a 1000 year old palace on a hill last night. Amazing meal, best Indian we've had so far.

On the road to Jaipur now. Should be about a 5 hour ride.

Back to the States

I needed to head back to DC for meetings, but wanted to do some visiting on the front end of the trip as well. I flew into Newark and headed up to my friends house in New York State to enjoy some rural peace and quiet. From there it was off to New Jersey to spend several days with my parents and to catch up with some friends from high school.

One night my parents and I went to Shogun Legends in Wall for sushi which was really nice. We also went to Graziano's in Point Pleasant one night with my cousins. I've been eating pizza in this place since I was 5 years old. There's even a waitress there that I remember from when I was a little kid. It's hardly changed, which is a good thing as it has no need to, great New Jersey Italian style food, the ultimate in comfort food. Then it was off to Annapolis to visit with my friend Jennie before heading to DC for a week of work.

Proof
On Sunday night, Janine and I went out for dinner at Proof in the city. The food was great, but the wine list is the real winner here. Plenty to choose from and most of it reasonably priced. I've been to so many restaurants in Europe where there's ten or 15 wines of reasonable prices and pages upon pages of "fine" wines starting at hundreds of dollars, so I really appreciate good choices. While they had several vegetarian options, they didn't offer a pre-determined vegetarian tasting menu, just a meat focused one. I had the impression that vegetarians were more an after thought than central to the menu's plan, however that didn't make the food any less excellent. I highly recommend it. It strikes me as a great place for lunch, I'm not sure if they are open on the weekend for lunch, but their proximity to the National Museum of American History and the National Portrait Gallery would make it a great stop for a leisurely lunch after a morning of museuming.

We Dine in Essex

Keeping the non-stop pace up, the day after we got back from Sweden, Joe and I headed to Essex to have dinner at Neil and Dan's house. We'd had, had them over for dinner in May and it was their turn to return the hospitality.

The train ride was nice and gave us a chance to see a part of the country we hadn't been to yet. Neil and Dan have a great house with a really nice garden. It's all very relaxed and welcoming. We had cocktails in the garden before heading inside for dinner. Soup, which was full of Fall was the first course. There were so many courses it's hard to recall them all now, but the centerpiece was the best vegetarian paella I've ever had with a seaweed side (I can't recall the exact name) that was surprisingly sweet and crisp. I'd had it before as a garnish, but never by the fork full. I was disappointed to be so full by the time we got to the entree. For dessert we had dueling chocolate and regular cheesecakes.

Time and conversation flew by and we had to end the evening just to make sure we got the train back in time. Joe and I are up next for Thanksgiving dinner. Dan's sourcing an organic turkey for me.

A Week in Stockholm

Joe had a week of meetings in Stockholm, so a few days after we got back from the States we jumped a flight to Stockholm for a week. We got in on Saturday afternoon so we would have some time to tour before the work week started.

On Sunday we went to the Hallwykska Museet. The owner of the home had been a forest baron heiress who made arrangements for the house to be preserved as a museum in its exact state at the time of her death so people could see how see how people lived at the end of the 19th century. A beautiful home, with intriguing collections from all over the world, it was really interesting to see the every day things...the kitchen and its utensils, the telephones, the bathrooms. Make sure to take the tour and plan on spending some time with the tapestries.

We stayed at the Adlon Hotel, just a couple of blocks from the train station. Extremely tiny rooms, at least that's my guess since we were supposed to be in one of the larger rooms. Nothing fancy by any means, but serviceable. The only real negative is that our room had a lovely view of the street, but was really loud at night. And, since there was no aircon and it was warm, the window needed to be open.

Monday was officially a bank holiday in the UK so I was off, though Joe had to work. I took the opportunity to just walk around and enjoy a day of nice weather and take in some of the city. It being Monday museums were closed. After visiting the sculpture garden at the Modern Art Museum, I had a nice walk along a marina and eventually ended up for a sunset cocktail at Gondolen. One of Stockholm's hottest restaurants, I went for the view, which I highly recommend. I'd also recommend eating there too, as the food going past the bar to the dining room looked very enticing. Afterwards I did some walking around the neighborhood near the Slussen subway stop. Definitely a happening neighborhood that is almost exclusively locals.

One night after work, Joe and I headed out to a neighborhood far outside the tourist area in search of a restaurant called Portofino on the island of Soldermalm. Before heading toward the restaurant we went to SOFO (south of Folkungagatan) to check out the neighborhood. It's full of trendy stores and restaurants. If I get back to Stockholm, I definitely want to spend more time getting to know this neighborhood.

We did make it to Portofino and it was an excellent restaurant. Great service and an amazing menu. We were expecting something a little more casual, not that the restaurant was stuffy, but the menu and food were very high end. Joe had the lobster ravioli, which were amazing. They had a great wine list too.

Thursday night we had reservations at F12, perhaps the best restaurant in Stockholm. Short for Fredsgatan 12, the address of the restaurant, this was a dining experience that will stand out for years to come. We both had the tasting menu with wine pairings, Joe had the meat and I had the vegetarian version. The first four wine pairings are served "blind". Poured from a decanted bottle you get a chance to banter your guesses with your server after each glass. I recommend you just surrender. While we were able to get some parts right, the wines themselves were so special and rare you'll never get them unless you are a serious expert with a deep knowledge of wines, especially those of Austria, Germany and France. The executive chef is Sweden's Chef of the Year 2009 and his cuisine showed why he had received the honor. Service was impeccable and the decor worthy of attention without being distracting. The other clear distinction for F12 is that they served me the most expensive meal I have ever eaten.

The cost of the meal at F12 was more a function of the cost of eating in Sweden than of the superlative experience. You will find that many very nice places in Sweden are self service. This is because the tax on self service is about 12%, whereas if someone waits on you it's 25%. This on top of the fact that many things are imported because of Sweden's short growing season and limited farm land and, well, you get the picture...be prepared for the cost of eating to shock, even at McDonald's.

On Friday, our last night in town, we dove head first into tourist cliche and had a drink at the Absolute Ice Bar. Book your visit online in advance and you'll save a bundle. It was interesting and I'm glad we satisfied our curiosity, but the interest didn't even manage to last though the length of the one shot sized cocktail served in a block of ice that you carefully drank with your gloves. Fun, but it definitely falls into the never need to repeat experience category.

From the Ice Bar we went to Kungliga Operan Gustav Adolfs Torg, the Royal Opera House, to see Spader Dam, or the Queen of Spades, by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky based on a story by Alexander Pushkin. We were able to get great tickets the week before the show at the box office. Even if you don't go to the ballet or opera, the theatre is worth a visit. It's a beautiful building. The opera itself was great. We had a really good time.

We had an early evening flight on Saturday so we checked out and headed over to De Kungliga Slotten, The Royal Palaces, for the full tour. The combination ticket includes The Royal Aparments (a must see), The Treasury (also a must see), the Tre Kronor Museum which explores the history of the Palace's construction can be easily skipped and Gustav III's Antikmuseuem, which other than the view of the adjacent garden is an easy skip, especially if you've been to the Vatican Museum in the last year. We also took time out that day to drop in to several churches and wander the streets of Gamla Stan before heading to the airport.

Consistent with our Sweden tour in July, I found eating and alcohol to be expensive, hotels and transit to be the same as any big city, English to be spoken everywhere - with no one hinting that you're rude for not knowing or attempting the language, though we did try - and to make a sweeping generalization, the Swedish people are the friendliest people I've ever met.

US East Coast Round One

Our two week US East Coast August tour went by very quickly.

In Washington, Joe and I got to dine with our friends Janine and Martha, which is always a blast. We ate at Komi. Martha, Janine and I had eaten there on my last trip to DC and I was really glad Joe got a chance to experience this amazing restaurant. It didn't disappoint on the return visit. This remains one of the most amazing places I have ever eaten. If you love food, you have to go, but book early. It's become a hot spot in DC and they are now taking reservations only 30 days in advance and those reservations all go the day they open up.

From DC we headed to New Jersey for a quick visit with the rents before going to the Merchant Marine Academy on Long Island for Joe's nephew's wedding. A couple of nights before the wedding Joe's brother and sister-in-law, went out to dinner with my family, which was nice as the two sides hadn't had a real opportunity to meet before. As we had expected, everyone had a great time.

The wedding was really nice and it was great to see so much family at the same time. After the wedding we spent a night at my parents before flying back to London.

It was a serious whirlwind tour.

Reality Show

Yesterday I finished reading Howard Kurtz' Reality Show. While I wouldn't recommend this for everyone, if you are either a public relations person or an American baby boomer you'll probably enjoy this book.

Non-fiction the book looks at the issues and influences behind the changing of the guard at the network evening news anchor chairs that has transpired over the last few years leaving us with Charlie Gibson, Brian Williams and Katie Couric. Kurtz does a good job giving it all a perspective against the backdrop of the 24-hour news cycle, cable news and the Internet.

The moments that given insight into decisions about what does and doesn't make the news were the most interesting to me. But I also thought that if I'd been even five or ten years older, the challenges of the guard changes itself might have been more of a focus for me.

Catherine Visits - Part Two

Last weekend we went to Oxford to see Catherine on her turf and tour the town. It's another place I haven't been since my first trip to the UK in 1988. We took the train and took advantage of First Great Western's Weekend First offer that let's you upgrade to first class on the train for practically nothing, £5 to Oxford, which given how crowded the train was in both directions was so worth it.

We stayed at the Royal Oxford Hotel which is right next to the train station. It didn't look so great on its web site, but was actually a great room at a great price when we got there. Fresh fruit in the room, how often does that happen?

The three of us strolled around Oxford, taking in the sites. Because Catherine is attending Christ Church College we were able to take see the Harry Potter sites without having to queue, though we did have to deal with the crush of tourists, mostly teenagers.

We headed over to a place called 4500 Miles from Dehli on Parkend Street for a great Indian lunch. Catherine said it's considered the best curry in Oxford and while I can't vouch for its standing in Oxford, it was excellent. We had a great meal and then set off to take in some architectural highlights before grabbing some pre-dinner beers.

For dinner I had scoped out a place called Restaurant 66a at the Cotswold Lodge Hotel. Great service and an excellent local cheese platter - the stinking bishop was mind blowing. When we asked for coffee afterwards they invited us into the lounge, where we sat in big club chairs in a bay window while they served a pot of french press. All of it was extremely reasonable in terms of price, I definitely recommend it as a must eat in Oxford.

The next day we took the bus to Blenheim Palace, where the Duke of Marlborough lives and where Sir Winston Churchill was born. This was my first visit to what I'd call a manor home. The Duke and his family still live at the Palace and charge £17 per person to visit to help pay for upkeep of the building and the 2,100 acres that make up the World Heritage Site. It was really a beautiful place to spend the day. We talked about how if we lived nearby we'd get the annual pass and picnic often. It was a great way to spend the day and cap our time with Catherine before she heads back to the States.