I\u2019ve been trying to understand something. Why, in a British pub stocked with the usual dozen or more carefully-crafted cask ales and draft beers would these places also have a cooler full of Bud and Corona? I believe the Budweiser part is an artifact of Anheuser-Busch being acquired by Inbev, brewers of Leffe, Stella, etc. The Corona part I completely don\u2019t understand. According to a few barkeepers I spoke with though, the C brew is a very big mover. Go figure.<\/p>\n
Yesterday was our last in London for a few weeks and prior to heading for the airport and Gdansk we walked across the Themes, stopped by the Southwark Cathedral, made a pass through the Central Market and had lunch at Anchor Pub. The Anchor was supposedly a favorite of William Shakespeare, but these days it\u2019s a big hit with tourists and it reminds me of a pub you might find on Main Street in Disneyland\u2014not terribly authentic.<\/p>\n
The bus trip from London\u2019s Victoria station to Luton airport was an almost two hour stop-and-go, gas-and-break jerk-along, but that\u2019s London traffic. What I perceived as Wizz Air\u2019s open hostility towards its passengers had me a bit concerned about the flight and the recorded \u201cif you have more than one carry-on item, including a purse, you will be denied boarding\u2026\u201d recorded message playing at the check-in counter didn\u2019t help. The Wizz flight crew, though, was a most congenial group and the air trip was totally uneventful.<\/p>\n
London was mostly about being a tourist; Gdansk is where we get down to some traveling. Exiting the main doors at the airport, the first sensation was that of a low-rise quiet and calm\u2014serious culture shock when arriving from 24-hour a day, go, go London.<\/p>\n
We didn\u2019t arrive at our hotel until shortly before midnight, and by then a little refreshment was sounding pretty good. The desk clerk seemed to think a few places might still be open in the Gdansk Old Town so out the door we went. To my surprise, we quickly found a restaurant with its OPEN sign illuminated. Inside, there was but one group of diners who were most definitely enjoying their evening. The group was composed of six middle-aged men and six women, most of whom were considerably younger than the gents and, to understate things a bit, dressed rather provocatively. As I later learned, the men were there taking part in a company celebration recognizing their success in the ship building business. I believe the ladies had been employed by the ship builder to provide scintillating conversation, make sure the guys didn\u2019t talk shop and perform other tasks as needed. Anyway, we ordered a couple of Ballentine\u2019s and soon after settling in with our drinks a couple of the girls seemed overtaken by the music on the CD player and began to dance.\u00a0 Judging by their obvious ability to capture the beat and even employ props such as the metal poles supporting a mezzanine, I\u2019d guess they were terpsichorean professionals. The party progressed, the front door was closed, there was a bit of singing, the dancing continued, wardrobe modifications were made and we had a few more Scots whiskeys. At one point, a police car stopped out front. The proprietor went to chat with the officers and for a brief moment I had visions of spending my first night in Poland in some Soviet-era jail remnant. At about two, the day for us had grown long enough and we surrendered. Our newfound Polish friends did not. Let the traveling<\/em> continue.<\/p>\n Given our late evening, things moved a bit slowly this morning, but we made it down to the hotel\u2019s enormous breakfast spread and then spent the day exploring the streets of this lovely port city.<\/p>\n During WW II, Gdansk was effectively leveled. Most of the city has been restored to the way it looked before the war, but the work continues to this day and you can find buildings that look much as they must have in 1945.<\/p>\n At dinner last Saturday, I found out our server was Polish. When I told her we were on our way to visit her home she asked “why are you going to Poland?” I will admit, she had me second guessing our travel route for a bit. Dancing with the Stars, Polski style is over so it\u2019s time for Z\u2019s. Tomorrow afternoon we\u2019re on the train to Warsaw.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Wednesday, May 11 I\u2019ve been trying to understand something. Why, in a British pub stocked with the usual dozen or more carefully-crafted cask ales and draft beers would these places also have a cooler full of Bud and Corona? I believe the Budweiser part is an artifact of Anheuser-Busch being acquired by Inbev, brewers of …<\/p>\n