High ho, high ho, it's off to the Highlands we go

Before we ended up finding the Highand games in Airth[or Laurie's description], we had seen a Highland Games in Inverness. Attending a Highland games seemed like an essential while on holiday in Scotland. As Laurie said, it made sense to do a tour of the north (where the Scottish Highands are) at the same time.  We headed up a bit late, but not too bad. We hit some traffic and some rain along the way.  Eventually we got hungry and started looking for something to eat, but places were hard to come by.  We finally found a little pub in a hotel where we got some "take away".

GPS Sidebar

On this trip I'm using Destinator mapping software with an HP iPAQ 4150.  Great software.  It is interesting to contrast it with the (relabeled) software HP provided with the GPS unit.  Both are good but different.  Having a different views is nice. Destinator includes a 3D view, Birdseye, and of course  a convention 2D view.  Like the HP software, the user can decide if "Up" is north or what is ahead of you. When I'm walking around, I generally like having North up but when driving, I generally like to have what's ahead in front of me. Overall the GPS is superb but things to note with Destinator:

Destinator is far superior to Microsoft's Autoroute 2004 which I thought was appallingly bad, but I won't go into all of the details here.

2 miles before a round about, Destinator will alert you that it is coming up.  No problem there, except that while it is 2 miles, and the display says 2 miles, the friendly woman who supplies the audio notification tells you it is 3 miles.  This is so completely consistent it isn't actually a problem, but was kind of funny.

Destinator is different than the two other GPS software packages I have used in the US.  In some ways better, and in some ways not.  Often you can't depend solely on the audio or visual displays independently.  If you looked at both it was clear what you had to do, but if you only looked or listened you might easily miss a turn.  Sometimes the audio would ignore when a road made a 90 degree turn because you had no choice but to take it, I suppose.  Other times, it would include a direction to veer left or right in an inconsistent way.

The GPS software was really chockfull of features.  It took a while for me to appreciate some of the nuances, but after I did I realized that it is well designed for the most part and has good data.  With any GPS system the user interface is separate from the underlying data so when you buy you need to decide which product has the right combination of good data and good interface. It isn't uncommon for many products to share underlying data since there are only so many suppliers of data.  Also, some products include data from more than one source. For example, POI data like hotels and historical monuments might come from one place while road data may come from another.

I was conserving the GPS and iPAQ batteries because we had a long journey and no car adapter.  Eventually we found the games without much trouble. As we pulled in, we saw a "Caravan Site" and I said that it would be funny if that was the place Laurie had found for us to stay. It reminded me of Yosemite. Not in terms of beauty, but in terms of the large caravans and people stacked on top of each other.  Laurie was pretty sure that couldn't be the place she'd called. I don't know if this was wishful thinking on her part, or just because this was so different than the mental picture we had from the description. In any case, there were kids running all over, and auto-traffic on the roads to the park where the highland games were and a nearby indoor "Aquadome" water park.  We weren't thinking much about camping right now though, we had games to see!

The games themselves were very similar to our first Highland games, but much bigger.  The military, police, and fire departments were there to talk to public and recruit. There were even more carnival rides, most of which had a distinctively American look. We've seen at least four carnivals since we got here, and they all had characters of American origin.

The schedule for the day seemed to have been set back by rain so we got to see a lot of sports that should have been finished much earlier. Some, like the Keber and the 16 pound hammer throw weren't new to us, but the Men's Weight Toss for Height was. It was really impressive to see these guys take the ring attached to a heavy weight in one hand and swing it between their legs and up and over 10 feet. Actually, 10 feet was just a warm up. Eventually, the winner did over 14 feet. We were told that the weight was 65 lbs! No women competed in this event, but there were track and field events and bicycle events for them. I'm not sure, but I think a couple of the guys had also competed in our first Highland games.

This Highland Games had more information about various Scottish Clans, music, whiskey tasting, etc. They also had covered bleachers and several really large tents since they get so much rain up there.

Around 17:30 we decided to head out. Since we weren't sure where the camp ground was, we thought we'd go into town where we might get some dinner so we wouldn't have to drive back to eat later and find the tourist information to get better directions since the GPS didn't have a name in the database that matched exactly what Laurie wrote down and we had no actual address.

Parking was challenging downtown. By the time we found parking, the tourist information office was closed. We decided that since it might take a while to figure out where the site was, we should eat before things closed. Also, we were both tired, cranky, and a little hungry so I figured we should relax for a bit before any more frustration ensued. As it turned out, things close relatively late so that wasn't a big concern. Dinner was fine, and we got in just before their big rush. (Have I mentioned that every meal here comes with potatoes?)

After dinner we puzzled further over the map and directions. Looking at the directions, such as they were, the GPS; and the street signage; things just weren't adding up.  Our impression was that the games were 3-4 miles from the trailer park.  I was not looking forward to driving miles out of our way and was getting a bit cranky about the situation. Finally, it dawned on me:

• The street signs indicated that one of the possible towns the campground was alleged to be near pointed toward the park the games were held in.
• Laurie mentioned that the campground was near a water-park.
• There was a similarity of street names near the park and the camp ground.

Now you probably put this together faster than we did, but you have to understand...Laurie had specifically mentioned to the man who took the reservation that we were going to the Highland games that day.  The games are a huge deal in this town.  Posters and signs were all over the place.  There is no way he could not have known about the games or their location, yet he never said to Laurie, "just drive across the street to our driveway."  Rather he gave some very confusing directions.  This was part of why we couldn't imagine that park was where we were planning to stay.

I headed back over to the park if nothing else, to rule out that this was the spot.  Sure enough, the pieces fell into place one after another. Kind of like when you see a car accident, it happens quickly, but feels like it is happening in slow motion.  There was no doubt neither of us wanted to spend the night in this place. Laurie clearly needed a good night's sleep as she was still fighting a bit of a cold like a real trouper and she's a much lighter sleeper than I am, so we had to find somewhere quiet, warmer, and more comfortable.  We had a couple of hotel names from the GPS, but from past experience I was reluctant to reserve without seeing them first.  Laurie agreed, so we drove on towards tomorrow's destination—the Isle of Skye. Worst case, I figured we'd find a real campsite outside of Inverness. 

The GPS was working fine and since we now planed to stay in a B&B or hotel I knew we could charge it so I was less worried about loosing power.  We found several B&Bs along the way.  Some were on the GPS and others weren't.  Interestingly, the GPS lead us to one hotel, but it claimed it was supposed to be about 1 mile before it actually was.  This seemed surprising at first, but as this was countryside and addresses probably coincide more with plots of land than buildings. Also, surveys aren't done frequently so the GPS data wasn't quite right. Fair enough. 

This place had a room, but was upwards of £130 so we decided to "keep motoring"¹ 

The GPS has been wonderful to have. GPS makes driving much less stressful. Between driving on the right side, driving a mini-van, and trying to enjoy the scenery, a lot can be said for having the navigation part taken care of. It also helps promote marital bliss--which of course, priceless^TM.

Another hotel's front door was locked, but their bar was open.  When Laurie asked about a room, they said they had one and gave her a price.  On the way from the bar to the front of the hotel where the owner was going to meet her, Laurie came to ask me what I thought since it was a bit expensive and I suggested we check out the Best Western down the road first.  When Laurie went back to thank the woman and tell her that we were going to be back in a few minutes, she said, "No, now or never."  Laurie came back to the car with a look on her face I don't see very often.  Even though she really wanted to sleep, Laurie told me we weren't going to stay there, so on we went.

We continued on for a while finding several hotels, but all were booked up. We are in "high season".  Finally we came to a place that looked pretty good.  Since I was tired and parking was always a bit of a trial with the minivan, Laurie went to inquire about a room.  She was gone a really long time I think.  Actually, I don't know exactly because I fell asleep, but it seemed about half an hour!  It turned out that the woman in the hotel didn't have a room for us, and felt so badly that she called all over town to find us a spot!  Ultimately, she succeeded and we were off to another hotel.  Now you'd think that by now we'd get some directions or an address...But no.  We were a) too tired to think clearly and b) used to having the GPS take care of us, so we just got in the car and started driving.  Well it turned out the hotel wasn't listed in the GPS and we had no actual address.  So we got a couple of miles or so down the road to the first place we could stop and sorted things out.  It turned out we had to go back  past where we just came from to get to the town where the hotel was.  Okay, off we went.  We got to the town in about 15 minutes but couldn't find the hotel so we asked at a gas station.  The attendant was very nice, but his directions weren't all that helpful.  He kept saying to take the main road but it wasn't clear to us which that actually would be.  After asking him to clarify several times, we figured it must be obvious once you get going so off we went.  After driving almost out of town, I knew we must have been on the wrong track and I headed back.  We finally found the place and it looked alright.  The only problem was that we had to park in back, in a sort of ally/parking lot and I was nervous.  For a small town this place had a lot of drunk people coming out of bars. It was after midnight by now, so I could easily imagine some young drunk guys trashing the car.  We checked in and found our way up to the 2^nd (or 3^rd for Americans) floor of the hotel.

We made our way up some stairs which turned out to be fire-escape only so the doors were locked on the outside. Back down the stairs carrying the bulky suitcase holding our combined stuff, we found a side entrance to the hotel. Clearly they are doing some renovation and tools, nails, the odd piece of wood littered the hallway. The first stairway we found was not much wider than our suitcase, so it was a challenge getting up the stairs. I thought it was unusual for a hotel to have such narrow stairs, but I didn't know we had chosen a secondary route. There was a wider, more formal entrance further round the corner.

The room was small and simple, but would certainly due.  We were both really beat.  I wanted to read, but the only light to choose from would have kept Laurie up so I just went to bed which was probably for the best. I am anxious to finish Bill Clinton's My Life which I'm now about half-way through.

I charged up the iPAQ and GPS so we'd be all set for tomorrow.

Ah well, more tomorrow.

¹ Favorite expression of Carson from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.

Mr. Jones, Mr. Jones...

Once again, Laurie did a great job on her blog so I'll just add a few tidbits here and there.

The other day I was watching a TV program where an architect was decrying the materials used in modern building. I don't remember exactly, but I think, "crap", "shite", and "garbage" were among her favorite terms. Now it is true that the older buildings here are generally made from really durable materials like stone and iron. But I am not sure that is the essential reason for their superior design aesthetic which clearly stands the test of time. The buildings are elegant and usually understated. But I digress...

Along the way to the concert we saw a beautiful clock covered in flowers in Princes Street Park. The park is right in the center of town between the "Old" and "new" Glasgow and has lots of grass and flowers. The park is interesting too, in that it is built in at least two levels. There was a natural valley between New Glasgow and the "mound" and so they built the park around that. Part of the park is at street level and part of it is hidden away from the noise and traffic some 30-40 feet or so down. Either way, you can look up and see formidable Edinburgh Castle.

When we reached the Mound we were, as Laurie mentioned, told by a policeman that we had to go around the block to find the queue. I have to say the police here have been amazingly polite and don't seem to feel they have to present an air of domination and/or terror that many police in the US use. In fact, their power comes from extreme politeness. In any case, the queue was quite long, but that gave me a few more minutes to take pictures. As always, I loved the detail of the buildings.

Anyway, the concert was nearly the best I'd ever heard. Yes, I do mean heard—not saw. Until we moved up to stands, we could hardly see what was going on. There were only two price points for the show and we'd had to pay the more expensive £40 so I was getting pretty disappointed as was Laurie. The first response we got from the "steward" at the top of the ramp was that we had to go to the box office (which was down the street!) Needless to say, I didn't like that answer since there were dozens if not hundreds of empty seats to be had up there! Soon we spoke to someone higher up the food-chain and she resolved the issue quite easily and nicely.

The show was pretty good including the fans. There was a woman who had a giant pair of men's boxers that said, "Tom Jones is a Sex Bomb". She taunted the security people by blocking an isle and not sitting down when directed to. Eventually she did, or they tossed her out, I am not sure which. She was too far a way to get a good shot. There were some women above us who were really into the show...and of course, the famous underwear was all over. Panties and bras were being tossed up toward the stage like we would throw a beach ball through a crowd. At one point, Tom wiped his face with a pair of panties. Well, I guess someone has to have adoring women throwing their underwear at him.

Tom put on quite the show, and part of the way through the concert, they lighted torches (yes, real torches, not flashlights) above the castle. Our seats provided a nice view of both the show and the castle directly behind. There was also a soldier stationed in front of the castle, but I think that was more for his pleasure than any real security. I should mention that since we arrived, we have seen almost no sign of the high-security measures we're accustomed to in the post 9/11 United States. A sad commentary on the "home of the free". 

Makes me wonder how the election and that Democratic convention are going, anyway?

On the way home, we got to see some great views of Edinburgh at night which we hadn't seen previously.   It was really stunning.   We made our way to the train station and had some luck.  The train we intended to catch back to Queen's Street Station wasn't due for 30 minutes because it was so late.  However, the train to Central Station, a few minutes closer to our house, was uncharacteristically late and we were able to catch it just a few minutes after we got to the station.  Now that's service.  Since we missed the last bus for the night, we took a cab home.  The driver was very friendly and told us that he'd been in California a few years ago…1966 I think he said.  I didn't have the heart to tell him that I might not have been born when he was last there.

House tour

Well since we are more than half way through our stay we thought we should provide a tour of our digs. Most of the pictures are self explanatory, but some aren't so here goes...

The house is a comfortable size--for a family of seven! It is a four story house with rustic wood floors throughout the house. The basement level is now a separate unit owned or rented by a young couple.

When you enter the house, there is an excellent spiral stairs. Just off the left side is the living room which is warm and inviting. They have a great fire place and a piano. I know one of the Lacey children, Myriam, plays drums. I think that Archie's wife plays piano. No doubt there are a lot of happy family times spent in this warm home.

There is a front loading laundry machine, and drying is done on a line in the kitchen that lowers from the ceiling. Apparently this is a fairly common thing here as it is often too wet or cold to dry laundry outside.

The bedrooms are on the second and third floors (not including the basement). The kid's rooms are really cool. Gabriel, the Lacy's only son has a really cool spiderman bed. The master bedroom is amazingly big and it is going to be hard to go home to our little bedroom.

The showers here are interesting. They have electric-powered heaters so you never run out of hot water. Although they seemed awkward and perhaps scary to me at first, I'm pretty sold on them now.

Well enough blogging--time for some sleep.

We appologize for this temporary interruption...

Laurie wasn't feeling well so we took it easy. I did some reading, worked a lot on the pictures for the blog, and watched more BBC.

The pictures are now organzied by day. There were just getting to be too many to throw all in one big directory. By the way, the pictures are much better in full screen mode, but I don't know of an easy way to present them that way so for now this will have to do. Stay tuned.

Our first Highland Games

We found out there was a Highland Games that was variously described in Airth, Sterling, and somewhere else I can't remember. It turns out it was near Sterling in Airth. We never did find the park it was held in on the web, or in my GPS software. After much research, we determined that we couldn't take the train. We'd have to take the van.

Although the batteries on my GPS wore out part of the way there, we found it fairly easily. The games were held in something between a farm field and an open space—not a park as we'd think of it. The fair was like a three-ring circus. Foot and bicycle races going on at the same time as traditional Scottish sports like the Keber and the 16 pound hammer, and a heavy ball. A couple of the competitors were big guys from America. We just can't seem to get away from these Americans! The 16 pound hammer throw was interesting. To do this sport, you wear boots with big blades stick to the front of your boots. Unlike the greek style hammer throw, you dig your fit into the grass and spin the hammer around you. I think generally it is clock-wise, but it may depend on whether you are right or left handed.

There were also dance and bag pipe competitions. There were also some falconers with beautiful birds. Ironically, one of them was also from America. These birds can no longer be imported, but they hope to breed the ones they have. I got some really good shots of them flying, soaring, and doing their thing.

Of course there were bag pipes and a Scottish band which played very stirring music.

Alongside the traditional Scottish culture were some amusement rides for kids and food. One of the common dishes seems to be “chips and curry” which is just what it sounds like. I've come to fancy my “chips and curry” although I bet I can't find it anywhere in the US.

Kids seem to be having a great time. Some were dancing, some were racing, and some were just playing.

I think the pictures from the games are among the best so far. I encourage you to take a look at them.