Scotland 2014

Love this little boy!

 I am finally getting around to posting some words about our 2014 grand tour.  Let me start by telling your about our time in Scotland.  The first week we spent with family in Strathaven, a lovely little village south of Glasgow.  Since we reconnected with Robert’s Mother’s family a few years ago we have grown very close to these dear people.  We have a very special attachment to Lorna, Robert’s cousin’s daughter, and her husband Tom and son Callum.  They are expecting a baby girl in November, sorry we will miss that.  We stayed with them in their home and had a wonderful family time cooking together and playing with Callum, it was hard to say goodbye.  Robert’s Aunt Jenny is in poor health and was in hospital when we arrived.  She was discharged while we were there, we are grateful that we were able to visit her in her home as well as hospital.  Once again, a very difficult goodbye.  I wonder how it is possible to love people that we have spent so little time with - I guess that’s family connection

Great high level stunts!

Sea King Helicopter

We had a great outing to Ayr for an Air Show with Tom, Lorna and Callum on our first Sunday.  Harry, Robert’s brother, joined us and we spent the morning wandering the area looking at Air Force and Air Cadet exhibits as well as a small carnival and car show.  Firstly though we enjoyed warm fresh made doughnuts at the Pavilion!  The real air show started in the afternoon, there was some amazing stunts performed high in the skies above us and a simulated rescue by a Sea King helicopter, but the star of the show was the grand finale, a fly-by by the last remaining Vulcan bomber!  The skies were clear so we could see it coming up the coast for miles, then suddenly it was roaring over us like a massive futuristic space ship.  What a magnificent craft.  The ground literally vibrated as it flew over!

The Vulcan Bomber

New Lanark

Our second week we spent with Harry. He picked us up in Strathaven and took us to New Lanark, a model mill town from the late 1700’s.  It's World Heritage Site on the River Clyde that was built to take advantage of the water power provided by the only waterfalls on the river.  Homes for the mill workers were built and the town is as early example of a planned settlement and is an important milestone in the historical development of urban planning.  One of the partners, Robert Owen, a social reformer, provided improved working and living conditions for the workers and insisted on education for children.  He influenced the modern co-operative movement.   The town has been restored and is in a beautiful setting a great place to visit.

Edinburgh

Next morning we were up early and on the train to Edinburgh.  We had a wonderful day walking all over the old town trying to avoid the tourist traps!  The only touristy thing I did was visit the Cathedral - a requirement since Spain.  A priority for us was to find the Oxford Bar and have a pint.  If you are an Ian Rankin fan you know this is the bar that Inspector Rebus frequents in his novels.  It was exactly as described in the books!  Okay so I guess that was a bit touristy but we were not with the mobs on the Royal Mile.  The “Ox” doesn't serve food so we found a pub for fish and chips before continuing our walking tour by heading towards Holyrood House - the Queens residence in Edinburgh.  We arrived just in time to see the gates close but we probably wouldn’t have gone in anyway.  We also saw the ultra modern Spanish designed Scottish Parliament building.  It is an interesting building but not very sympathetic to the traditional architecture of the surrounding buildings - makes you go hmmmm - not sure what they were thinking.  

The Ox

The rest of our time with Harry was mostly spent in and around Glasgow.  We took in a MacIntosh exhibit of never before displayed drawings and plans for buildings and homes.  We enjoyed a couple of visits with his friends Joan and Wally.  They hosted us at there home for a delicious curry and we also all went to a local restaurant one evening.  We hope to host them at our home someday soon, they keep promising that they will come to Canada.  There was also another trip to the seaside at Prestwick.  It was a lovely quiet day, the last for a while.  

Our friends Megan and Andre arrived the beginning of our third week, things got busy from there on in.  We met them in downtown Glasgow and once they were checked in to their hotel we went for tea at the Willow Tea Room, one of my favourite things to do in Glasgow!  We spent the rest of the day walking all over the downtown area where we enjoyed a pint at the oldest pub in Glasgow, The Horseshoe.  We finished the day with a pub dinner and walked M & A back to their hotel for a good nights sleep.  The next day we visited Pollock Estate and the Burrell Collection and enjoyed a wonderful curry dinner. 

View from Ben Nevis

Our road trip began the following day, we picked up a rental car and headed north to the Highlands, Glencoe and finally to Fort William for a couple of nights.  We were blessed with clear skies and warm weather so Robert, Megan and Andre were able to climb Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the British Isles.  I had received the sad news of my eldest sister’s death a couple of days before so a day by myself wandering the town and relaxing at the B and B was what my soul needed.  Our hosts became a bit concerned when the climbers were not home at 7:00 pm and insisted on taking me to see if we could find them.  I wasn’t concerned but I enjoyed the drive out to the base of the mountain where of course their was no sign of them - they met us back at the B&B.  All was well, they were exhilarated and ready for dinner.  We said farewell to our excellent hosts the next morning and carried on towards the Isle of Skye.  It took us most of the day to reach the ferry port at Mallaig just 70 kms away because there are so  many wonderful historical and beautiful places to stop and see on the way.  We did not have reservations for overnight and were a bit dismayed to see “No Vacancy” signs on all the B and B’s.  We finally found 2 rooms in a hotel that was built in the late 1800’s to serve the town’s busy port.   There’s not much to the town but we found a restaurant that served amazing food! We enjoyed mussels in cream sauce with bacon, haggis appetizer and Cullen Skink - smoked haddock, potatoes and leek soup! Oh my!  

Ascending Ben Nevis

Amazing views

On top of Ben Nevis

Star jump!  

The next morning was brilliant for the short ferry journey to paradise - I mean the Isle of Skye.  I immediately fell in love.  Skye is a small island filled with such diverse beauty; vast stretches of fragrant heather,  rugged mountains, amazing sea vistas, beautiful quaint villages, sheep every where, historical sites and above all kind and lovely people.  A place to return to, two nights was not near enough time.  On our drive around the island we stopped for lunch at a lovely old hotel that had once been a hunting lodge.  While there we met an elderly lady from England who had stayed at the hotel on her honeymoon over 60 years prior. 

Leaving Mallaig

Hielan' Coo (Highland Cow)

Morning view from our place on Skype

The Old Man of Storr

Kilt Rock

Jodhpurs at the former hunting lodge.

Traditional croft houses.

Our final day with Megan and Andre was spent travelling to Inverness via the bridge from Skye to the mainland, stopping at Eilean Donan castle and along Loch Ness.  We also visited Clava Cairn, ancient stone burial sites near Culloden battle field.  These stone circles were the inspiration for Diana Gabaldon’s Highlander series and date back as far a 3000 BC.  They are in a famers field shaded by lovely big trees.  There is something quite magical and mystical about the place.  Once we checked into our B&B we found a great pub that served delicious authentic Scottish food, we enjoyed homemade Scotch Broth, Lamb Stovies, and of course, as usual, Robert had fish and chips.  The next morning we said goodbye to M & A and returned by train to Glasgow and our last night with Harry.  We boarded another train the following morning for London and then the Eurostar to Paris.  After our first trip on the Paris Metro, carrying our luggage up and down many flights of stairs we arrived at our hotel just before 9:00 pm.  We had a quick dinner in the neighbourhood and fell exhausted into bed.  

Skye Bridge

Eilean Donan Castle

Clava Carin

to be continued……