It took me a little bit this morning to get back into things, but once I figured out what my notes meant I managed to finish two whole features today. And I still had time to check these out:
That's it. Just three stories. I really didn't have time to read much else. But I did have time to give Cassie some pats, which I will resume doing in just a few minutes.
Welcome to stop #116 on the Brews and Choos project.
Brewery: Crust Brewing, 5500 Park Pl., Rosemont
Train line: CTA Blue Line, Rosemont
Time from Chicago: 45 minutes
Distance from station: 1.4 km (shuttle bus from El station—don't even try to walk it)
Have you ever heard Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album? It's exactly what it says on the tin. And it's not their best work. (I mean, it's got a few laughs, especially on the first cut, but the boys made it clear they were flipping two fingers to their record company with that one.)
This is my Contractual Obligation Brews & Choos stop.
You see, taking the (soon to be discontinued! Oh no!) 8:20 am flight to London, with its requisite check-in time of 6:20 am, led me to getting a hotel room near O'Hare. Since Crust Brewing is just steps from the Aloft, the trip lent itself to stopping there. I didn't have high hopes going in; I didn't have high regards going out.
Wow! TVs everywhere and lots of stone surfaces to make them all really loud! Exactly my kind of place. At least they let you take the beer outside, to the Parkway Bank Entertainment District in family-owned Rosemont. I mean, who could pass up this view of I-294 when sipping on a beer?
I had a perfectly-serviceable but otherwise unremarkable hazy IPA whose value didn't even approach the $13 with tax and tip that I paid for it.
If you find yourself trapped at a convention or something out in Rosemont and you need to entertain a very junior or very suburban team who don't want anything challenging but do want to say they went to a "craft brewery," Crust will work just fine. If you find yourself at a convention or something in Rosemont but you can get away for three hours, go to Revolution, Piece, or Bungalow instead.
Beer garden? Only technically
Dogs OK? No
Televisions? Yes, unavoidable
Serves food? Full but boring menu
Would hang out with a book? No
Would hang out with friends? Not if I wanted to keep them
Would go back? No
I had the opportunity, but not the energy, to bugger off from Heathrow for an hour and a half or so connecting from Marseille. Instead I found a vacant privacy pod in the Galleries South lounge, and had a decent lunch. Plus I'm about to have a G&T.
I've loaded up my Surface with a few articles, but I really only want to call attention to one of them. Bruce Schneier has an op-ed in the New York Times with his perspective on the Hezbollah pager attack and supply-chain vulnerabilities in general. I may even read that before turning my Surface off.
Next stop: Chicago, home, and dog.
I've arrived in Marseille, after a short but perfectly pleasant trip from Aix-en-Provence by basic commuter train. I didn't realize the Gare Marseille was on a hill, however, so it took me a few minutes to sort out how to get to ground level.
Just going to dump three photos from yesterday and this morning, then figure out what to explore in the 2 hours of daylight I have left. The principal goal: scoring a slice of the famed Marseille-style pizza that the New York Times assures me is second-best in Europe after Napoli.
Anyway, this is the view across the street from my friends' house, which they built at the edge of their small village about 40 km north of Aix:
We drove for a bit after lunch to Lourmarin for ice cream and a stroll:
Back in Aix, we had some pretty heavy rain come through overnight, leaving behind clear blue skies and lots of (not too hot) sun:
Once I get back to Chicago I'll have the tools to organize and process my photos better. Now, though: exploring Marseille.
I will spend most of today exploring the narrow streets and fromageries of Aix-en-Provence and visiting with an old friend up in the hills above the city. While I endure those horrors and privations, I will also be struggling with the realization that the TV series Lost premiered 20 years ago today.
Remember, kids: don't let the smoke monster cast you out of purgatory until you've figured out the meaning of your life.E
I love actually experiencing the 21st Century. Right now I'm hurtling through the suburbs of Lyon at 265 km/h (down from 300 km/h earlier) on my way to Provence. The Eurostar from London started with an insane scrum at St Pancras—they really mean it when they advise you to arrive 75 minutes before departure—but it arrived at Paris Gare du Nord a minute early. The only impediment to getting onto this train came in the form of several consecutive people who couldn't figure out how to get RER tickets from the machine. Pro tip: use exact change. Also, note to SNCF: your tickent machine UI sucks.
I expect I'll have more interesting things to write about tomorrow as I explore Aix-in-Provence. Monday mid-day I'll relocate to Marseille, then fly back to Chicago through Heathrow on Tuesday.
For now, I'm going back to my book.
Other than the hotel debacle, I'm having a pretty good time in the UK. Yesterday I went out to Berkhamsted to do Walk #1 in The Home Counties from London by Train Outstanding Circular Walks (Pathfinder Guides):
I followed that up today by getting lunch in Borough Market, then walking back to King's X:
(The maps are in French because I set my phone to French to practice in advance of my arrival in France tomorrow.)
The weather yesterday and today has been spectacular, to boot.
Another nice bit of news: I'm now less than 1,000 miles from lifetime Platinum status on American Airlines (with courtesy Sapphire status on another dozen airlines):
That should flip over 2 million lifetime miles when I get back to Chicago.
And now: a shower, a quick kip, and (I really hope) a pork bap at the Southampton Arms.
I mentioned yesterday that I've paid a £319 poor-research tax because I changed hotels after only one night.
The original hotel, the Argyle Square Hotel just south of King's Cross, has mixed reviews. My experience traveling to London for 30 years told me that I could either avoid or ignore the difficulties some people had with the hotel. For example, Americans always complain about European room sizes and British plumbing. Always.
This time my experience failed me completely. This is the best photo I have of my room there:
By "best" I mean that it puts the room in the best light possible. That said, please direct your attention to both air conditioning units (the fan and the window) and imagine how effective they are cooling a 3rd-floor cell when it gets up to 27°C outside. Also imagine carrying a 16 kg suitcase up to the third floor on a staircase barely wider than the suitcase. Also imagine that the bed you see there—hard to tell, but it's just over a meter wide—has not a mattress but a decades-old box spring, so that you can feel each individual coil digging into your body as you try and fail to sleep.
Now imagine brushing your teeth and discovering that the plumbing isn't just quirky, it's producing really off-tasting water. And the shower, barely bigger than a coffin, is nowhere within reach of anyplace to put a towel or a bar of soap.
I have traveled to Europe for over 30 years, staying in youth hostels as a kid and "charming" old hotels as an adult, and I've never stayed in a room that bad.
Contrast that with the room I have now:
Almost the same price. And just the other side of King's X. And with a desk big enough for my Surface, books, charger, and bottle of water. And places to hang my clothes.
Once I fled the Argyle Square, I re-read the reviews on Trip Advisor (there are only 18!) with a more cynical eye. I can't be sure, of course, but the 5-star reviews seem remarkably similar. And the 1-star reviews seem a bit more genuine.
This hotel has over 4,000 reviews and most of them are positive. Not to mention, multiple electronic security measures, and actual plumbing that does not produce horrible effluent.
I am glad I moved.
I haven't posted anything since arriving in London because I made a grievous error choosing my hotel. The room I'd booked was, in fact, the worst hotel room I'd ever stayed in. Worse, even, than the school dormitories and youth hostels I stayed in as a kid. It was so bad that I just decided to write off tonight and tomorrow night and move myself to a much better hotel, for what turned out to be not much more money. I mean, except for the two nights I paid for at the flophouse that I won't use.
I'll have more tonight. Right now, I desperately need a shower.
The last time I took American 90, like this time, I stayed overnight near O'Hare so I could sleep an hour longer on the day of the flight. Unfortunately, last time I had a rehearsal the night before, so I didn't even get to the hotel until 11pm.
Last night I was asleep by 9 and woke up (mostly) refreshed just before 5 this morning. I even got a few thousand steps in that walker's paradise*, the Rosemont Entertainment District. From the hotel, to O'Hare, to checking my bag, to getting through security: all of that took only 20 minutes. And now I'm watching the sun rise over Chicago in American's Flagship Lounge, because Platinum status, baby!
I did not, however, feel it appropriate to avail myself of this particular lounge benefit at 7am, nor did I accept the mimosa the server just offered me:
Tomorrow (or maybe tonight if I get there† early enough) I'll do some real walking. Tomorrow's forecast calls for partly cloudy skies and a warm-ish 25°C—perfect for a 10-kilometer walk in the countryside.
Updates as conditions warrant.
* Walk score: 53.
† Walk score: 99.