The travels of Tim and Megan

Friday, July 8, 2011

Marrakech, Morocco - Part 2

Wednesday

We had a big sleep in on Wednesday morning - much needed after a few days in the heat! After breakfast we caught a taxi to the Menara Gardens, out near the Marrakech Airport. The Menara Gardens had been built up rather grandly by the guide book we had, so we were expecting a good morning outing. Sadly it was a let-down.

The Menara Gardens date back to the 12th century. The name "menara" derives from the pavilion with its small green pyramid roof (menzah) that is the showpiece of the gardens. The photos in our guide book and the photos that you will see if you google "Menara Gardens" show the pretty pavilion sitting in front of the tranquil lake/pond, with pretty green trees and the snow-covered Atlas mountains in the background. What we saw was the murkiest, filthiest pond in the world, with about a thousand fish desperately trying to jump on each other to get a boost out of there, a dilapidated shack, and nothing in the background due to the haze in the sky. Oh well. We wandered around the edge of the pond, being very careful not to fall in, and took a few photos, chuckling at our misfortune as we went, and thanking our lucky stars that we had not brought Brendan out here, as he would never have gone anywhere with us again!

The highlight of our visit was finding a pretty cool Moroccan decorated door on the side of the pavilion, where we played silly buggers posing for photos using the doorway as a frame. Then we wandered through the orchards and olive groves back to the entrance way where we caught a taxi back to the medina. If you're visiting Marrakech, give this one a miss.

Back in the main square, we found an internet cafe and an ATM, both of which were most useful, and then we went for walk through the parts of the souks we had not yet seen. The souks are massive and are separated out into different categories (leather goods, footwear, clothing, metal crafts, pottery, etc.). We got lost and could not find a way out, so we had to double back - all part of the fun.

We then split up, with Megan going off for a traditional Moroccan "hamman" at Hamman de la Rose, while Tim went back to the riad and cooled off in the pool. The water in the riad pool was cold, but given the intense heat outside, it was just what the doctor ordered. Meanwhile at the hamman, Megan relaxed in the steam/sauna room, then experienced a scrub and rather odd wash down, before a half hour massage. Excellent times.

Once Megan returned to the riad, we grabbed a late lunch at a cool place called Le Bougainvillier Cafe. It was a nice shady courtyard with a lovely garden around the edges and some bright artwork on the walls. Tim had a spicy sausage pizza and Megan had a beef, aubergine and mozzarella panini - both were awesome.

For the rest of the afternoon we kept cool indoors at the riad and packed up most of our things, (as we were going on a day trip the following day before heading home). In the evening we had a drink and some snacks on the rooftop of the riad, where we were reminded by the waiter of the French word for peanuts, which is cacahouetes - great word, that! We had booked in for dinner at a restaurant on the edge of the main square, called Le Marrakchi, where they have live entertainment including belly dancing! Before dinner we checked out a few more streets around the square.

Le Marrakchi was really good - a little expensive, but you pay for the entertainment. We sat on the third floor of the restaurant, which allowed us a lovely view over the main square. When we arrived, were we were treated to some music and singing from a trio of Moroccan men decked out in traditional dress. We tried some local food - first a collection of mixed briouettes (small triangle or roll shaped pastries, filled with either cheese, vegetables, chicken or minced beef) to share and then Megan had a lamb and prune tajine and Tim had spicy beef skewers with vegetables. We also shared a bottle of red wine, which was not bad, but was served chilled, which was a bit odd.

After dinner, two belly dancers came out to entertain the diners - they managed to get a few of the guests to get up and join them, but Megan was a bit too shy! The belly dancing was pretty fun - something fairly Moroccan - and they were pretty talented "hip wigglers". It was another fun night out.

Thursday

We had to get going a bit earlier on Thursday, as we had booked in to a day tour organised by the riad. After breakfast, the riad's driver took the two of us and a French couple who were also staying in the riad to his car and we drove south out of Marrakech and towards to the Atlas Mountains.

Our first photo stop was at a sort of viewing platform above a road-side shop, which looked on to a huge olive tree orchard. We also had a great view of the Atlas Mountains. Our next photo stop was just a little further along the road, where could see down to a valley with a river flowing through it and a small Berber village in the hills across the other side of the valley. The road started to climb pretty steeply after that as we ascended into the mountains. Our third stop was at a bend in the road where we got a great view of a traditional kasbah (dwelling) on a cliff-face above a valley. Each time we stopped we were hounded by men trying to sell us necklaces or other little nik-naks.

Next we visited a herbal treatment centre, where they grow a variety of herbs and make Argan oil (the particular region we were passing through produces huge amounts of Argan oil, which is used for cosmetic and medicinal purposes and is great for skin and hair). We had a tour of the herb gardens, saw women grinding nuts to make Argan oil the traditional way and we were then shown all of the many oils and skin care products that they make at the herbal centre, while we sipped some mint tea. It was very interesting but we did not buy anything, which possibly annoyed the man who had given us such a thorough tour.

The tour continued uphill into the mountains until we reached a village called Setti Fatma (which allegedly translates to Seven Waterfalls). The village was buzzing with activity. It has a river running through the middle of it, which was full of children splashing around in the water and a few camels chilling out on the river banks. There were also dozens of cafes/restaurants with tajine pots cooking away on smokey charcoal cookers. Many of the cafes had tables and chairs set up actually in the river, with beach umbrellas keeping them shady!

We met a new guide who walked us up the steep mountain path, crossing the river several times and scampering over slippery rocks to the a beautiful waterfall - photos below. The waterfall showered down into a large pool at the bottom, where there were lots of people swimming, although it was pretty cold water. We dipped our feet in to the pool and sat by the pool for around half an hour and then descended back down to the village for some lunch.

It was not really what we had pictured - it was very green and very pretty in the mountains, with the river running through villages and it was comparatively quite cool. We still sought out some shade at the cafe where we had lunch. While we waited for our lunch, we were hounded by more salesmen and we were treated to a solo by a Moroccan man with a little guitar who sang to us. Tim gave him some coins and got his photo with the guy (below).

Lunch was really nice - fresh bread, lamb tajine, meat and vege skewers with fanta/Schweppes lemon drink. The French couple on the tour were very nice and it gave us an opportunity to practise our French (which is not very good) and it also allowed them to practise their English. After lunch we drove back down the mountain and stopped at a saffron farm. The owner of the farm showed us through his garden and then explained the painstaking process of making saffron (no wonder it is so expensive). It was interesting but by this stage we were very hot and tired and just wanted to get back to Marrakech. More mint tea and then we hopped back in the car and drove back to Marrakech.

We had time to have a shower and get changed before we got our transfer out to the airport and headed back to London. We had a fabulous time on Morocco; it is such an interesting place. We were, however, slightly relieved to leave behind the mid-40s temperatures!

Country tally:
Megan 46
Tim 43
Bear 43

Menara
Gardens

Menara
Gardens -
posing

Donkey!

A door

The
souks

Megs in
the souks

Belly
Dancers

Megs and
olive trees

Kasbah

Tim with
camels

Women
making
Argan
oil

Shop in
Setti
Fatma

Tables
in the
river

Natural
fridge

The
waterfall

Water-
fall
pool

Megs
at the
waterfall

Setti
Fatma

Moroccan
busker

Marrakech, Morocco - Part 1

Sunday

Having finished work for at least five months, we set off for the first of many "funemployment" adventures on Sunday. We made our way out to Luton Airport (a first for us) and caught what we hope will be our last ever Ryanair flight, to Marrakech, Morocco.

The Kingdom of Morocco is located in the north-west "corner" of Africa, just 13km away from Spain across the Strait of Gibraltar! It borders Algeria to the east and Western Sahara to the south. Morocco is a constitutional monarchy with an elected parliament. However, the King of Morocco has vast executive powers, including the ability to dissolve parliament at will and he shares legislative powers with the parliament. Morocco has a population of around 34 million. Its capital city is Rabat. Marrakech is the fourth largest city by population with just under a million people, after Casablanca, Fes and Oujda. The official language is Arabic, but French is widely spoken.

We had an extremely smooth Ryanair experience, arriving in Marrakech early with all luggage present and accounted for. It was a cooler day in Marrakech apparently - just a lowly 31 degrees when we touched down on Sunday evening. We were greeted at the airport by a driver from the riad that we were staying at and he drove us through Marrakech and into the medina (the walled old town). We parked the car and walked the remaining five minutes through a rabbit warren of winding narrow alleyways to our riad - Riad Les Trois Palmiers.

It did not look like much from the outside and the surrounding dusty alleyways, but once we got inside the riad, we were delighted. It was amazing. It was like a little oasis amongst the hot and dirty old town - beautifully decorated (in Moroccan style obviously) open air courtyard with rooms around the sides on three storeys. We sat in the courtyard and had some cold water to drink before being shown to our room, which was awesome.

After getting settled in, we set off to find some dinner. Luckily one of the staff of the riad drew us a detailed map, otherwise we may not have found our way back through the maze to the main streets. We found a place called Terrasse des Epices, a French/Moroccan rooftop restaurant with views over the medina. As with many Moroccan eateries, there was no alcohol on the menu, but we ordered some traditional Moroccan tajines, which were delicious, and then we had an amazing dessert of chocolate gooey goodness and ice cream and a Moroccan favourite, mint tea.

We had a little walk through part of the medina after dinner but we were pretty tired and a little concerned about not being able to find our way back to the riad in the dark, so we headed back for a big night's sleep.

Monday

It had been a hot night, as the air conditioning unit in our room kept cutting out after 30 minutes, so we kept waking to sauna-like temperatures. Anyway, we had a brilliant breakfast on the rooftop of the riad in bright sunshine. We had freshly squeezed orange juice, little pancakes with honey, bread with butter and jam, marmalade or honey, fresh melon pieces, yogurt, pastries and coffee or mint tea.

After breakfast we went for a walk through the medina, exploring some of the souks (covered markets) until we arrived at Jemaa El Fna, Marrakech's main square and the heart of the city. The name Jemaa El Fna means "Assembly of the Dead", a reference to a time when the heads of executed criminals would be displayed there on spikes. Although nothing as gruesome is on view today, the square is still populated with some extraordinary sights such as snake charmers, monkey trainers, tooth pullers, herbalists and literally dozens of orange juice stalls.

As it was morning, the square was not very busy, but it was still fun. The outside of the square is lined with restaurants and market stalls, selling souvenirs just like those in the souks - glass lamps, carpets, handmade metal and wooden crafts, T-shirts, bags, scarves, leather slippers (known as babouches), spices and many other delights. We bought some orange juice from one of the stalls - it was really good - and we also bought a colourful stained-glass lamp from the market stalls before wandering back to the riad to meet Tim's brother, Brendan, who had flown in from France to join us in Marrakech.

Brendan was slightly delayed, as the talented TAP Airways of Portugal had managed to lose his luggage in Lisbon. So Brendan arrived in Marrakech with just his carry-on bag - not ideal. Once he arrived at the riad and got sorted, we walked through the medina (getting lost once or twice) to the Medersa Ben Youssef.

The medersa is one of the city's most impressive buildings and (bonus for us) it allows entry to non-Muslims, unlike most of the mosques. The medersa was an Islamic college, built by a Saadian sultan in 1565. The building consists of 130 student dormitory cells clustered around a central courtyard richly decorated in cedar, marble and stucco. Behind the main courtyard on the ground floor is a prayer room, also beautifully decorated. The carvings contain no representation of humans or animals, as this is forbidden by Islam, but instead they consist entirely of inscriptions and geometric patterns. The medersa is one of the largest theological colleges in North Africa and may have housed as many as 900 students. It was closed down in 1960 and was later refurbished and re-opened to the public in 1982.

Next to the medersa is the Musee de Marrakech (Marrakech museum). We grabbed a light lunch in the museum cafe - cheese and tomato sandwich and coke for all. It was very basic and over-priced, but it filled a gap. As we sat eating lunch, the Islamic call to prayer sounded over the speakers attached to the many mosques throughout the city. The call to prayer can be heard several times a day, between about 5am and 11pm. The museum was OK - it was mainly the impressive architecture and design of the building itself that interested us, rather than what was actually on show in the museum, which included some "interesting" modern art, pottery and traditional Moroccan clothing.

By mid-afternoon it was very hot. We wandered through the souks (partly because they are covered and shady). The souks sit on a maze of narrow alleys, which are crowded and busy at the best of times, but they are also made more difficult to navigate by loads of motorbikes that constantly whizz through them and by donkeys pulling huge carts! Megan bought a couple of pretty painted Moroccan bowls and Brendan bought a T-shirt and some shorts in case his luggage did not arrive in time! The main square was more lively when we passed through again in the afternoon - we saw the snake charmers and monkey trainers in full flight and we stopped for another freshly squeezed orange juice - so good.

We headed back to the riad to freshen up and then met on the rooftop of the riad for some tasty Moroccan beer. For dinner, we went to Cafe Arabe, which was recommended to us and was close to our riad. Cafe Arabe also had a rooftop restaurant. It was a beautiful hot evening and once the sun went down and it cooled slightly, it was perfect. We had some beers and shared a bottle of rose (which was quite refreshing on a hot night) and the food was really good. It was a little more pricey than most, but everything was great and there was a nice relaxed atmosphere.

After dinner we visited the Night Market in the main square. It was absolutely insane - the only word to describe it is chaos. For the night market, around 200 make-shift restaurants set up stalls in the square, selling all sorts of food including spicy snails, seafood, meat, Moroccan soups and more. So passers-by get harassed by the staff of each restaurant, who try to tempt you to eat at their stall. The square was packed with thousands of people, there was deafening noise from musicians and people yelling, there was smoke from the restaurants, lights flashing everywhere and all sorts of crazy acts at every turn. The story-tellers were out in force, drawing huge crowds, but sadly the ones we saw all seemed to be telling stories in Arabic, in which we are not exactly fluent.

After checking out the Night Market, we retired to our riad and had a drink on the rooftop before hitting the hay - we were all knackered after a very long and hot day.

Tuesday

Tuesday began with another superb breakfast on the rooftop of the riad. The staff of the riad were all very helpful and lovely, which made our stay even more enjoyable. We could already tell that Tuesday was even hotter than Monday had been - uh oh.

After breakfast we walked from the riad to the New City, outside of the walls of the medina. The staff in the riad had told us it was a 15-minute walk, but it was at least double that. Still, it gave us a chance to see another corner of the medina and a glimpse of the New City. There were some very interesting sights along the way - before we got out of the medina we walked down a long alley filled with mainly meat, fish and produce stalls. The meat was quite disgusting - raw chickens sitting on wooden benches in 30-something degree heat, covered in flies. Still, if I had to choose, I would eat that over the fish that we saw/smelled. There was a also a woman who appeared to be washing her dead pig (or some other animal).

After getting slightly disorientated and thinking we were going the wrong way, we eventually found our target, the Majorelle Gardens. The Majorelle Garden is a botanic garden designed by expatriate French artist Jacques Majorelle in 1924, during the colonial period when Morocco was a protectorate of France. The garden contains many fountains, a lily pond and a huge collection of cacti. The garden has been open to the public since 1947. Since 1980, the garden has been owned by Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge. After he died in 2008, Yves Saint Laurent's ashes were scattered in the garden and there is now also a memorial to him there. The striking blue building in the garden now houses an Islamic art museum, although this was closed when we visited.

On leaving the garden, we walked through the new City in searing heat until we reached the main street of Marrakech, Avenue Muhammed V. We stopped for a coke at a cafe on the corner and then continued to walk back to medina. On the way we passed a temperature gauge that informed us the temperature was 46 degrees Celsius. That's quite warm. We were starting to struggle by the time we passed back through the huge gates in the massive walls surrounding the medina. We made it back to the riad (just) and relaxed in the shade there for a while, sinking a few litres of water. Brendan got his things together and headed off to the airport to continue his world tour - 30 hours in Africa is better than no hours in Africa.

Once we had cooled down enough, Tim and Megan walked down to the Koutoubia Mosque to take a couple of photos. The Koutoubia Mosque (completed late 12th century) is the largest and most famous mosque in Marrakech and its 70m high minaret (tower) is the dominant symbol of the city. Like most mosques in Marrakech, it is closed to non-Muslims, so after we took some snaps, we grabbed some lunch at a restaurant across the road - excellent cheese burgers. With bellies re-stocked, we walked down to the main square and got a photo of two black cobras, which were being charmed by the not-so-charming snake charmers. The theory goes that the extreme heat makes the snakes too sleepy to be dangerous, so the snake charmers drape them around the necks of tourists for photos (and a hefty fee!). We did not care much for the theory - a cobra is a nasty piece of work, sleepy or not - so we took photos from a distance (and paid for the privilege) and carried on our merry way.

Tim found a nice decorative Moroccan dagger in the souks for a good price, then we ventured back to the riad to rest in the shade. It was just too hot to be walking around outside. We had changed rooms due to the dodgy air conditioning and the new room was awesome - air con that ran 24/7 and kept our room at 18 degrees, a mere 28 degrees cooler than outside. Nice. At around 6.30pm we went out for drinks at Cafe Arabe and it was still incredibly hot. The heat gets trapped in the stone walls of the medina and continues to radiate out into the night after the sun goes down. Cafe Arabe had a brilliant "irrigation system" tied to their ceiling beams - tiny hose pipes with nozzles that sprayed cold mist out above us intermittently, much like the supermarkets do in the produce section! Genius.

Our next stop was to a big cafe in the main square with a rooftop terrace (rooftop terraces are very popular in Marrakech) which overlooked the square. We had a fanta up there (no alcohol while watching the square, thank you very much) and took some photos before moving on again. We toyed with the idea of eating at one of the makeshift restaurant stalls in the centre of the square, but in the end we opted for the "safer" Les Terrasses de l'Alhambra - one of the restaurants on the outskirts of the main square.

We had wanted to try the Argana Cafe, also in the main square, which was highly recommended in guide books etc. However, that was the target of a terrorist attack on 28 April 2011, which killed at least 17 people and injured 25, mainly tourists, so it was understandably closed for business. The blast, from a bomb left in a bag, was believed to have been carried out by a division of al-Qaeda operating in North Africa.

Les Terrasses de l'Alhambra was really good. We had a good view from the outdoor balcony down to the Night Market in the main square. Tim had a beef pizza and Megan had pasta and we had more soft drinks, as there was no alcohol. After dinner we walked back back to the riad a different way, through some more souks we had not yet discovered - which were still very busy and lively.

Main
square

Donkey
in medina

Megs and
Tim at
Medersa
Ben Youssef

Medersa
Ben Youssef

Tim in
the riad

Megs on
riad
rooftop

View from
top of
rooftop -
Atlas
Mountains

Night
Market

Souks by
night

Yves Saint
Laurent
street

Majorelle
Gardens

City walls
surround-
ing medina

Minaret of
Koutoubia
Mosque

Main
square

Black
Cobras

View from
rooftop
cafe

Night
market

Night
souks

Souks

Moroccan
Bear

Monday, June 13, 2011

Polo - Queen's Cup Final

On Sunday 12 June, we visited Guards Polo Club, near Windsor, west of London, to see the final of the Queen's Cup polo tournament. We had always wanted to see a polo match while we were in England and this was our chance! The weather had been brilliant all through April and May, so we were hopeful of a nice, sunny day. But sure enough, like clockwork, once June (and proper summer) arrives, the dark clouds roll in and it rains pretty much all month, wrecking cricket matches, the Wimbledon tennis, the Ascot races, music festivals and all of those other English summer favourites. So, it rained on Sunday!

We met Dave, Kiri and Olly at Waterloo station and caught the train to Sunningdale and then got a cab to the polo grounds. We had our jackets and umbrellas, but it was still miserable. There was not a lot of cover at the polo grounds, as they had set up assuming it would be good weather. We watched the second half of the preliminary match between Les Lions and La Bamba de Areco, which was a good way of learning a bit about the rules of polo and how the game works.

The game is split into six periods, called chukkas. After three chukkas, which is half time, all of the crowd has to walk out on to the field and stamp down all of the divots to make the field smooth again - pretty fun! We found it amusing that when a goal is scored, the two umpires standing behind the goal each wave a round white marker back and forth from their side to above their head, much like a runway controller directing an aeroplane.

After the preliminary match, which La Bamba won 11-10, we sought shelter in a marquee in the next field, which had been used earlier in the week for some sort of festival. It was cold and windy, with occasional showers - not ideal. And certainly not summer. Luckily we had a brilliant picnic (and some alcohol) so we ate and drank that while we sheltered from the weather. The red wine and champagne definitely warmed us up and improved our spirits. Next to the marquee was a mechanical bull (or maybe mechanical horse) hiding under a green canvas cover that must have been used during the festival. Tim mounted it with aplomb (photo below), but had a little more trouble getting down again, falling into a puddle in the process. Still, fun times.

The rain cleared, so we wandered to the far end of the polo grounds to check out the merchandise stalls and get some refreshments. Most of the crew had a coffee with a shot of whiskey in it - which was not only delicious, but warming too. Kate and Jono arrived shortly before the main event to join us, and they came with supplies - more red wine!

The main match started at 3.00pm, after a fine rendition of the National Anthem from a very royal-looking marching band. There was no sign of the Queen, however - who can blame her with weather like that! But the first half of the match was played in pretty good conditions.

Enigma took a large early lead over Talandracas (great names), but by half time the gap had closed to 5-3. Half time brought with it more rain and cold wind, so Tim, Megan, Kiri and Kate decided to call it a day and retreated to a pub in Sunningdale, while the hardy souls Dave, Olly and Jono stuck it out to watch the end of the match, which, to their delight, went into a sudden death seventh chukka, when the scores were tied at 8-8 at the end of normal time. Talandracas took it out 9-8 to win the Queen's Cup final!

Despite the bad weather, we really enjoyed seeing polo for the first time. The skill of the players was incredible, galloping full speed down the field and not only making contact with the ball, but picking out perfect passes to their team-mates, hitting the ball back-hand behind them, and even juggling the ball at one point! We were also intrigued that the players frequently change ponies during the match - kind of like a substitute in football in guess!

A "Les
Lions"
player

Les Lions
v La
Bamba

Nice shot
old chap

Time to
stamp
divots

Good
technique
from
Megan

Giddy up!

Coffee
and
whiskey
time

The
marching
band

And some
fancy
horses

The
main
event

Get in
there

Kate and
Megs
keeping
warm

Kiri and
Dave

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Greenwich

Saturday was a reasonably nice, sunny day, so we decided to visit Greenwich. Unfortunately, we had not been able to go last weekend with Dave and Kiri, and we definitely wanted to have another poke around out there before leaving London, in just over a month's time. We got going fairly early and made the lengthy journey out to Greenwich, in south-east London.

It was just as well we did, as it was pretty quiet when got there at about 11am - by 1pm, it was rammed! We started off by grabbing a tasty snack and a milkshake at an old-school milkshake place, and then we wandered through the pretty streets of Greenwich village. We walked through the Old Royal Naval College, Sir Christopher Wren's domed masterpiece. Within the complex is the former college dining room, now known as the Painted Hall, and also the Chapel of St Peter and St Paul.

From there, we walked through the pretty Greenwich Park, part of which has been fenced off in preparation for equestrian events later this summer. The site will be used for the equestrian events of the London Olympics in 2012. We climbed up the hill in Greenwich Park to see Greenwich's main attraction, the Royal Observatory, the home of Greenwich Mean Time.

As the United Kingdom grew into an advanced maritime nation, British mariners kept at least one chronometer on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) in order to calculate their longitude from the Greenwich meridian, which was by convention taken to have a longitude of 0 degrees. This practice eventually led to GMT being used worldwide as a reference time independent of location.

At the top of the hill is the Royal Observatory building where, naturally enough, there is a rather impressive observatory, and also a miniature museum of time-keeping devices throughout history. On top of the roof of the building is the large red Time Ball, which drops at a predetermined time to allow sailors to check their marine chronometers from their boats offshore. In the courtyard outside the building is a line marked in the ground showing the Prime meridian, or Greenwich Meridian, where longitude is 0 degrees.

There is also a pretty awesome 24-hour clock on the wall surrounding the Royal Observatory, which shows Greenwich Mean Time all year round (meaning it actually shows the "wrong" time when the clocks change for British Summer Time (or daylight savings)) - see photos below. We got some brilliant views from the top of the hill too - east to the distinctive looking O2 Arena on the banks of the Thames, and right back to the city centre landmarks of the Gherkin and St Paul's Cathedral.

After lying in the sun in Greenwich Park for a while, we had a wander through the Greenwich Market, where we bought some delicious fudge, and checked out the interesting variety of foods on offer as well the arts and crafts. It was pretty hot by now and Greenwich had been over-run by visitors. We had a quick look through the National Maritime Museum, which was well worth a look. Highlights included a miniature replica of Captain Cook's Endeavour and Lord Nelson's navy uniform that he wore during the Battle of Trafalgar. Then we rounded off our Greenwich visit at a local brewery, where we had a cold beer and some french fries. Delicious.