Curious Bystander

Who’s up for a food Festival? Review of Ludlow’s –

It was only a few months ago when I was in Ludlow for a short stay. Very impressed with the “living museum” type of feel, the food, drink, architecture and the Shropshire Hills, so why not try it another time?

I did and was impressed yet again at their Ludlow Food Festival, and with it came beautiful weather as well (Ed; Of course, it’s way south of Glasgow!).

The “buyings” can be sorted into the two types of my faves; alcohol and non-alcohol!

The one thing that fascinated me, were the many alcohol stands on display, mainly aimed at Gin, but also spirits such as Whiskey; English Whiskey! I tried two of the whiskeys, a young one less than 3 years of age, and a casked one – the difference was immeasurable! The latter was like nectar, and I subsequently received a hand written email to contact the distillery, as only 400 bottles are produced each year.

I bought a bottle of the whiskey later at the Ludlow Farm shop just outside of town. The subsequent taste was similar to fire water though I think over ice or mixed it would do just fine; though to be fair it is technically not a whiskey (and it does say that), as it has not been aged for 3 years in a barrel.

The other purchase, was a variety of ales from the local Ludlow Brewery Co. (where we also had a tour – more on that later), with the “Red Dawn”, I believe a ruby ale, being a personal favourite.

Endeavour, ITV, Sundays

Endeavour has started its eighth season on ITV and as usual, I’ve consumed the first of the episodes, “Striker”. Watch it on the ITV player as I easily feel it’s the best thing around, even if crime / detective series are not your thing.

The plot concerned the death threats to a mixed-race Northern Ireland striker, Jack Swift, who plies his trade for a fictional Oxford football club. It’s only subsequently that we learn that his race has little to do with the threats – This IS 1971 after all, and though at times I am tired of any news from Ulster on the troubles, this is history and in ’71, they were just starting to be bloody awful.

For one thing about the episode, and who knows maybe about this series, is that this IS an older Morse, and it seems that at any stage, John Thaw will suddenly pop up on the screen! Starting with the drunken Endeavour crashed out on his sofa, after a bender. Though we’re not sure whilst seeing the record player end its playing of an LP, whether the drinking was accompanied by Wagner!

In addition to the death threats to Swift, there is also a college bombing, that results in the death of a departmental secretary. We subsequently discover that the first thoughts that it must be the fault of animal rights’ activists, may well be wrong.

These two rather distinct, though timely strands somehow fit, and certainly had me going in more than one direction trying to ponder just who committed these acts.

All in all, I feel as though I am viewing something that has been on for some 10 years now, but that could eventually endure for a few years more. It is naturally produced with modern tastes, but still has enough of an old-school, character driven aesthetic to put it above most “telly” or Netflix shows at present.

German Musings – More things I saw there and thought interesting

Take a look at these bikes. They are your basic rental bikes that exist both here and all over Europe. They were in western Germany and are quite standard and functional.

I rented these for several days and were quite basic and adequate. On the other hand, whilst in Bavaria I went for a shop-based rental and got something that though more advanced, did not really have as much comfort.

It was while I was outside the shop, that I noticed MANY second-hand bikes on sale; at surprisingly high prices in my opinion!

Prices from left to right €549, €449 and €239!

I can only put this down to the German mentality of not wasting perfectly good bikes and / or their emphasis on useable quality. All of these will easily stand the test of time, and no doubt can endure the rigours of city use.

The Week Ahead / Heh! I have to show you my Poundland shopping!

Last week we travelled to Shropshire once again, for a fabulous food festival, a report on this and English “Whiskey” later in the week. But first, haven’t done this for a while, but look at my bargains from Poundland:

The snails are everywhere in my garden right now in Glasgow, the Rustlers are devine and are my lunch for tomorrow (we don’t have a kitchen in our office), and the “King in a Million” cologne is NOT that bad, but for one quid, I’ll take it!

Seriously, we’ll bring you some photos from England, more stuff from my Germany trip a few weeks ago, and I’ll review the new Endeavour series – my favourite thing on the box as of now.

Glasgow – More Street Art / Posters – Have an Interactive Wander . . .

Interesting poster:

You always wonder why some of this type of thing, has not been done before and in even greater quantities.

This “democratisation” of tourist “things”, such as museums, exhibitions, public parks, etc, can only be a good thing, and at the same time actually will spread the areas where tourists (and locals!) can go to encounter the tourist experience.

I approve wholeheartedly.

The Week Ahead – More from Glasgow and the last from Bavarian trip, but what about Levi Strauss’s home!

The week is among us, and I’ll continue looking back at my trip to Germany and Bavaria specifically. As above, I did a cycle tour in northern Bavaria, Franconia, and lo and behold, came across the birthplace of Levi Strauss, in Buttenheim.

I didn’t know that not only was he born in Germany, but did not leave there until he was in his very late teens. The above photo is his house and is now a museum (though it was closed on the day we cycled there).

This was only part of our cycle tour, which we’ll be showing more from this week, in addition to commenting on our various COVID tests that we had to do (highly bureaucratic) and looking at more things in Glasgow and beyond.

Glasgow shot of the week – Gardner Street – Steep!

It actually doesn’t look that steep here, but I assure you, you should try to jog it! Like these guys do:

Glasgow Warriors Rugby Club training

It is known in the Glasgow area as not only steep, but also where a mad Scotsman tried snowboarding a few years ago (I believe it was 2017?), when we had the so called “Beast from the East” late snowstorm; though I think the video is of another one who tried this, the past year.

Either way, it’s impressive!

The Week Ahead / Random Thought from Germany #3 – Cigarette Machines

As for this new week, I’ll continue to note some things in Deutschland and blog about my travels here – whether it is about the food, alcohol, vistas that I’ve encountered, or various smaller “Sehenswurdigkeiten” that I have noted down, such as:

Cigarette machines in the streets! I’ve noted or blogged about this in the past, but it simply strikes me as something that would never happen in the UK – though I could be wrong. And I am not talking about the old style machines, that at one time, were in most pubs / clubs – these are basically EVERYWHERE in German streets.

A typical German cigarette vending machine

What is interesting about these, is after a second more careful look, you can see that it is only possible to purchase these, via a credit or debit card (In the case of Germany, this could also include an “EC Card” – Another complete German oddity!).

I’ve been told that this is to stop the purchase of these buy children; no doubt a good thing.

Random Thought from Germany #2 – Blue Receipts at the Supermarket

Another thing that I’ve noticed here in Deutschland, is the number of till receipts I’ve so far received that happen to be blue?

It was only when writing this text, photographing my receipt and looking on the flipside, that I saw just what exactly this is about.

The flipside clearly states why this is so:

“Blue Voucher for a Greener Environment”

It’s just interesting if we will see this in Britain anytime soon.

Random Thought from Germany #1 – Incredibly cheap Alcohol!

I went into a LIDL whilst in Bavaria, naturally as they are both German and exceedingly good value. But the prices and variety of the “bevvy” was exceptional.

That’s right, £1.00 for a bottle of Merlot!

As you can see, a bottle of perfectly fine Merlot (Ed; In your opinion), will only set you back a quid! Extraordinary. Though this may have something to do with both the number of local wines produced in Germany as well as the tax structure in the UK and Glasgow.

What I also saw, and have seen before, were the different types of “whiskey” – Queen Margot? But now, this “formula” has been applied to gin and gin schnapps, that have a very similar look to other, more famous real gins.

But the last thing I saw, was the beer; with unbelievable prices.

Whether that be a very fine bottle of wheat beer, Patronus, to a nice can of Spaten (from Munich).