St. Andrews, Scotland

Golf. Invented in St. Andrews.

Golf appeared in 1350 in St Andrews, Fife. It was forbidden by the king thrice during the 1400's, as it was considered to distract young men from their archery and Church, but was re-legalised in 1502. It is a common misperception that it began in the 1600s; as early as 1567, Mary Queen of Scots played golf on the St. Andrews Links. The oldest remaining club here is the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, dating back to 1834, which still accepts only male members, with the exception of once in the year for the Women's Open. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/When_and_where_did_golf_originate

Arrival in Edinburgh, Scotland, however, was far from optimal. My luggage was lost for 28 hours and our journey to the hotel took hours longer than anticipated. T in the Park attracted more than forty thousand music-loving fans to Kinross-shire, which just happened to be along our path to the hotel. As a result, we became ensnared in the traffic pouring out and negotiating a detour cost us more than an hour.

We stayed at the Fairmont in St. Andrews, where, despite our 1:30am arrival, we were greeted very energetically. Fairmont St Andrews is delighted to announce the completion of its major refurbishment programme. Voted in the Condé Nast Traveler readers' poll as 18th in the World's Top 100 Golf Resorts, this £10m renovation further enhances Fairmont St Andrews five star global reputation for leisure, golf, spa and conference facilities.
Set on a 520 acre estate with a unique coastal setting, our 209 bedroom hotel is the perfect location to turn your stay into a treasured memory.

The view in the morning of the North Sea across the green links of one of the Fairmont's two home links courses.

Of eight courses in St. Andrews, I was pleased to learn from my biased group, including the caddies, that the Kingsbarns course is often rated the best course in St. Andrews. The Kingsbarns clubhouse, below.

Players at Kingsbarns can see the water from 16 of the course's 18 holes. See here for a photo perfect view of each hole: http://www.kingsbarns.com/photo-gallery.php

Proof that I was in fact there.

The photo below was taken of the club house on "the old course" in St. Andrews.

Where golf began.

28 hours in Amsterdam

Coming off last week in UK and US, this week also was solid travel. From the first train ride and airport customs check, I had 7 UK and intra-European flights in 6 days.

Amsterdam had fine weather this week. After a brief welcome drizzle stepping out of Schiphol airport, it cleared up and became respectable summer weather.

We stayed at the trendy Roemer Hotel, where everything is included, and had our 1 1/2 days of meetings at the Vinoly Building (above) in the up and coming World Trade Center business park.

We dined at 15, Jamie Oliver's successful mini-chain of restaurants employing disadvantaged youths, started in London and now open in Amsterdam www.fifteen.net

Ich bin ein Berliner - for a day

My first time to Berlin consisted of a whirl-wind tour of the sights in Berlin Mitte - the central district, that sits on the former border between Eastern and Western Germany.

I saw Checkpoint Charlie from the Western Berlin side at night, where the face of a young American soldier stands on guard; and the next morning in daylight from the former East German side of the border, where a young Russian soldier's portrait is immortalized. Strange to freely walk across what was a fiercely dangerous border zone from 1961 through 1989, and where many lives were lost in the pursuit of living a free life.

We ate at Gugelhof, where Albright, Clinton and Schroeder ate together, several administrations ago.

The Holocaust memorial was very impressive, with scores of individual concrete pillars of varying heights are arranged in rows and columns. The pathways in between varied in their depth and are designed to take you into the monument, and make the experience a little uncomfortable as you walk among the gravestone-like monuments.

Steeped in history, and deserving of a more leisurely time for exploration, I hope to return to Berlin soon.

Heading home

What a wet trip - from Zurich to London on to New York and back again - rainy in all locations. There were a few sunny breaks, but they never happened while I was flying.

My first experience with Heathrows' terminal 5, however, was rush, rush, rush, and wait. Before the rushing part, we did have a chance to look around at the recently opened terminal.

Created by Troika, an art and design studio in London, “Cloud” is a digital sculpture housed at the luxury lounges in Heathrow Terminal 5. It’s a smooth-shaped object suspended in the air, covered with 4638 “flip dots” - motorized metal patches that change orientation to produce various patterns.

The sculpture is located in Terminal 5 in the atrium hall which leads to the British Airways First Class Lounges. The brief from British Airways was open and simple: to create a signature piece that will mark the entrance of the First Class Lounges and signify the transition between the busy shopping floor and the calm and serenity of the lounges.

And then we arrived in New York City.

The Chrysler Building looked fantastic (it was sunny then). It's always been my favorite building in Manhattan.

We had a group dinner at Tao Restaurant. Tao provided an authentic Asian atmosphere, but unremarkable food. It makes a better bar than restaurant.

There was a 50-minuted delay into LCY, a 4 1/2 hour delay departing LHR and a 1/2 hour delay out of JFK. I hope it's sunny in Zurich...