the Bierman's Travels

A Cup of Joe and Post Office Package Woes

2004-07-30T19:25:00.000+01:00

Being that we are soon going to leave Scotland, we thought it would be nice to thank Phoebe, our most generous and entertaining neighbor, for being such a delightful addition to our stay on Regent Park Square. We decided to go to a nearby bakery and get some goodies to take back to Phoebe and her daughter, Molly. We knew Dominic, the man of the house, was on a business trip to the States, so we wanted to be sure Phoebe was not lonely (not that Phoebe is one to get lonely easily) and that she knew how much we enjoyed spending time with her.

We found Bradford's Bakery right down the street from us and picked up some croissants, chicken pie, raisin puff pastry and a fruit tart to take back. We had another lovely visit with Phoebe and her house guest from Brasil, whose name I have forgotten. Apparently this gal is a family friend who has been in London studying English and staying with Phoebe's sister while she's been there. She took the time to come and keep Phoebe company while her husband has been away and to help take care of the kids, which I thought was very nice of her to do. We shared with Phoebe all our happenings in the Highlands and she continued to share her stories about her endless aggravations that go along with trying to sell her home. Unfortunately, the potential buyers evidentially pulled out of the deal last minute and claimed that Phoebe and her husband were not being attentive to requests that they had made. It sounded pretty pathetic to me! In any case, she had people coming to take a look at the house so we had to skaddadle and let her tend to getting the house cleaned up and ready to show!

A big errand that we had to take care of was to go to the nearby post office to ship a box a stuff home that we didn't really want to shlep to London and Nice. Thanks to Phoebe, our first challenge of finding a perfect sized box to put the stuff into, was easily taken care of. She has a collection of boxes in her shed that she was happy to have us take a look at. Luckily, we found one that would suit us well!

We decided we would ship home a bunch of books we had bought while we've been here, some sweaters, some glasses and my long, heavy winter raincoat (which I have only used 3 times since I have been here) to at least lighten our load a bit. We looked at our filled box and thought, "Ah, this might cost a bit to ship but, hey, how bad could it be??"

Speaking of shlepping, we took the box (or I should say Michael carried the box on his back)to Victoria Road, where many little restaurants, pharmacies, grocers and the post offices are located. Before we could take the box to the post offices, we had to make a stop off at the hardware store two doors down to get twine and/or packing tape to make the box secure. Michael found some heavy duty tape and we packaged everything up safe and secure at the post office before getting in the long line that was out the door. We waited patiently and continued looking at the box trying to estimate how much this thing weighs and how much we would have to pay. We get up to the counter, weigh the box, find out it weighs about 9.5kg (roughly 20 pounds)which puts us at £55 to ship this thing to America -- and this is the cheap way! Michael and I look at each other, we ask if there is a cheaper way. We pull out of queue, use the clerk's scissors to tear open the box, and start unpacking. We struggle for a bit, trying to decide what is essential to ship and what can we try and cram into our already full suitcases and backpacks. After rearranging the contents a bit and looking at the items carefully, we decide it's worth the £55 to ship this stuff and not have to deal carrying it around any longer. So... we put everything back, pack up the box with the remaining tape we had, and got back into the long line once again! We approach the same clerk who helped us the first time and told us that the form we had filled out with that had our address on it will be placed on the box but that we might want to write our address on the actual box just in case the form should detach. After several unsuccessful attempts at trying to write our address on the huge amount of tape that we wrapped the box in, the lady gives us a piece of paper and tells us to get out of line while we create a shipping label and adhere it to the box. Out of the line we go again, fighting with the pen once again and strategically trying to tape the paper securely on the box. We finally manage to make it work to only discover that there is an outside chance that the box might not get to us in the states and that they now need an address where the box can be returned should there be a problem. We first thought Archie's address would be the sensible one to give but then figured that if it did come back to him, he would have to then take care of the package and repay shipping fees. Not a nice thing to do so someone who has allowed us to stay a month in his house! We chose to classify the box as "abandoned" should get lost or is not, for some reason, able to get to California. I will cross my fingers... it would be unfortunate if I don't get my coat back and I have a few things I have purchased that I would like to give as gifts! We'll see what happens in the next 4-6 weeks!

After the fiasco at the postoffice, we went back to the house and spent the rest of the afternoon blogging and sorting out how we are going to get to the airport on Sunday to travel to London. Long story but... looks like we will be getting up around 4:00AM to catch a 4:45AM bus downtown that will take us to Prestwick airport, which is the airport on the outskirts of Glasgow. Our flight to London doesn't take off until 8:15AM so this ought to be fun! Oh well...that's what we get for taking a discount airline carrier and booking a flight earlier than the trains take off on a Sunday morning!

So... with this, I sign off. I most likely will not, unless I feel that something noteworthy happens, add anything to the blog tomorrow and will resume once we begin our adventures in London. We have things to take care of, an errand or two to run and an early bedtime ahead of us tomorrow so... probably nothing too exciting for the day ahead.

Ta-Ta for now!. London, watch out! Here we come!

Miscellaneous Musings

2004-07-29T23:59:00.000+01:00

We spent the day blogging mostly. Here are a series of things that I have been meaning to write about but that don't fit under any particular adventure.

Scottish/British Dialect

Today's term is DIY- (pronounced simply D I Y): A term used commonly for "Do-it-Yourself".

Television

Big Brother is an absolute national obsession here. It isn't new, this is like the fourth season. Each season is 10 weeks long (74 days exactly). We will have seen about half the season by the time we go back home. Next week is the last week. The premise of Big Brother is simple. In all, there were 13 characters live in a completely secluded compound on a studio lot and the whole nation watches everythign they do, and I mean everything! The only contact they have with the outside world is through "Big Brother" who is an omniscient voice (sometimes male and sometimes female) that tells them what to do and sometimes talks to them in the Diary room. Throughout the 10 weeks "characters" are evicted until a winner is chosen. As in the Highlander, there can be only one.

Not all 13 were in the house at the Big Brother house at the same time. Some came in late in the game to replace other characters that were "evicted". Each week someone is "evicted" and goes on to a life of minor celebrity. Every paper and tabloid has something about Big Brother in it. Normally two or three are nominated by the people in the house and then the entire nation votes on who goes. Voting is a money making scheme that costs 25p to vote by calling on your mobile or text messaging. Text-messaging is used to vote on lots of things here, always with a small fee (20p). This is not surprising since the whole thing is sponsored by TalkTalk, a telecommunications company that offers both land and wireless service as well as broadband. In addition to the voting scheme, of course there are ad revenues and Big Brother gets a huge viewership, from the web site itself, and broadband service. Now neither Laurie or I have ever been into Reality shows, but we have become a bit hooked on Big Brother. I should explain that Big Brother is not a one trick pony. Not only is there the prime time Big Brother which is basically the day's highlights , but there is a "Big Brother Live" which shows them getting ready for bed, sleeping, and if you are lucky, something more exciting like someone taking a shower. This is usually about as interesting as watching a piece of lint float through the air. There is also a talk show hosted by a young MTV-like VJ who discusses the latest happenings, politics, and events of all that is Big Brother. Next is a panel of psychologists, nutritionists, and other experts who talk about the effect that things may be having on the Big Brother residents. And lastly, there is a special every Friday after someone is evicted where they come back out into the real world after weeks of isolation from the world.

Once a week Big Brother gives the "characters" a task. Sometimes they are individual tasks and sometimes they are team based tasks. Some are physical challenges and others are more intellectual. Some designed to test the patience of the "characters" by making them do things that are particularly frustrating for them, or make them work with people we know they don't like. Frequently, the "characters" talk to us through Big Brother to confide their strategy, blow off steam, complain, sing, dance, or anything else they like. No one can enter the room or interrupt them when they are in the Diary room talking to Big Brother.

Sometimes one person leaves in a week and sometimes several are chosen. The whole thing is like a psychology experiment gone slightly wrong where most of the rules are changed in what must feel like an arbitrary manor designed to test the "characters".

Big Brother is such a phenomenon that large amounts of money are bet on the outcome. The odds of a given character being evicted or winning are discussed daily. The current favorite is Nadia.

"Nadia is the eldest of six children. She was born in Portugal but moved to England eight years ago. She has previously worked on a perfume counter in a department store and managed a children's bookshop. Nadia has had a sex change."

Part of the fun is that the other characters don't know about Nadia's sex change. Frankly, I am surprised that Nadia is in the lead. First, I think she's a bit obnoxious personally, but moreover, I can't picture a transgender character being so popular in the US. In that sense, I am happily surprised that people here are so accepting.

Big brother is full of language and images that puritanical Americans couldn't tolerate including full nudity at times.

Big Brother isn't the only reality show. The British public love their reality shows. Another is Car Booty where people sell off their attic clutter at Swap meets. Almost exactly the same is Cash in the Attic. I found both fun to watch. Completely different, except that it also appeals to people who appreciate antiques is Restoration Nation. Here's the official description.

Across the UK, thousands of historic buildings are in danger of being lost to the nation forever. This summer BBC TWO features a call to action in the fight to save our heritage. With comedian and active conservationist Griff Rhys Jones at the helm, viewers will be asked to vote for and help save one of our 21 most endangered buildings.

Each programme will focus on three endangered properties in one area, then offer viewers the chance to vote for the building they would most like to see restored. Each of the regional winners will go forward to the Live Final, a spectacular celebration of the nation's heritage, and the moment when one property is voted as the most worthy of Restoration.

Every historic building has a wealth of tales to tell, and, with the help of two experts, conservation architect Ptolemy Dean, and historic buildings surveyor Marianne Suhr, the series will bring the buildings back to life and depict them in their prime.

I think this is a great show and a fabulous way to learn about history as well as preserve important sites.

There are several DIY shows like a garden make over show and one where a couple are taken house shopping with some experts. There is also a show where a family tries moving to another country and setting up a new life.

Another great show is SuperNanny where an experienced Nanny helps families work things out with children who have behavior challenges. Of course, often these are due just as much to how the parents have trained the children, as with the children themselves. The Nanny is no Mary Poppins. She's fairly tough but very effective.

I've already written about wife swap which is sometimes interesting. The other day we saw a show were the women who switched were opposite extremes of physical fitness. And, of course the occasional American show is on there such as Sex and the City and Nip/Tuck.
Note that in the UK you have to have a "TV license" which costs about £10 per month! That is required for any device that can receive TV including a computer with a tuner card. Note, this is in addition to any cable service you may wish to have. Licenses can be purchased at the Post Office, but more on the Post Office later.

Nuttin' Much...

2004-07-29T19:16:00.000+01:00

Not much to report for today. We still had to catch up on laundry and we continued plugging along with the blog. After being away from our laptops for several days, we both had a lot to add to the blog and the pictures and doing so takes a huge amount of time -- often more time than we expected.

We hope you have continued to enjoy reading about our travel adventures, for this, it is well worth the time it takes to keep things updated. I also know that as time goes on and our travels are well in the past, that we will appreciate the time it took to include every detail, every silly story and every picture as the blog will help keep all the memories that will hopefully last a very long time!

A Second Time Around

2004-07-28T17:09:00.000+01:00

Today was the day we were actually going to get the chance to see the castle that we had been wanting to see for several weeks. We woke up and had our leisurely breakfast at our B&B -- the usual cereal, scrambled eggs and toast with tea or coffee and o.j. It was nice to not have to feel rushed to get on the road in order to get to Inverary Castle on time. We were so close that we were actually able to take our time and enjoy waking up to a new day!

We headed out at about 10:00, dropped our luggage off at the car and decided since it was such a lovely morning that we would walk to the castle. After all, we were about a 5 minute walk, so why drive?? It was a nice walk and we arrived just shortly after the castle opened. Surprisingly enough, by the time we got there, there was already several tour buses that had arrived shortly before we did.

We wandered through Inverary Castle, trying to dodge the large tour groups of Italians and Germans, and enjoyed seeing all the beautifully designed rooms and memorabilia of the Argyll royal family and the Clan Campbell. I really liked the way in which the first several rooms had items that dated back to the 1700s and towards the end of the tour there were a couple of rooms that had various items and pictures which showed the development of the Clan Campbell from the past to present day.

My favorite room of the castle, primarily because if it's design and airy feeling, was the Great Armoury Hall. The huge displays of swords, firearms and axes hung in creative rounded patterns made the room more massive than it already was. I had never seen items such as the ones in this room look so impressive and attractive in a "pretty" sort of way. The more I looked, the more I admired the way in which the arms were arranged against the bold yellow walls. It made the weapons look more like pieces of art than what they really were.
The time we spent in the castle I felt was well worth the wait and all the trouble we took to actually see what was inside. Our persistence surely paid off!

After roaming through the castle, we took some time to walk around the grounds of the adjacent Argyll Estates. Upon entering the grounds, we saw a color-coded sign that led us to believe that there were hiking paths of different lengths available for exploring, depending on how long of a walk one wanted to take. We saw the colored markers and followed them only to keep running into dead ends and paths blocked off by locked gates. We were a bit confused but how hard it was to actually find a path that went anywhere. After trying several times to follow paths that eventually took us to blocked off sections, we decided to walk around the open fields where the sheep seemed to be enjoying their feast of grass. We watched for awhile while they continued tending to more important matters rather than paying any real attention to us. It was rather funny watching some of the sheep eat the grass so quickly (and I thought I was a fast eater... geesh!)and seeing some of the others taking breaks and basking in the sun.

We decided to head on out and walk back to the car since it looked like a hike was not in the cards for us or at least not around the Argyll Estates. It felt good to know we had only about an hour and half drive back to Glasgow since we had been driving quite a bit the past several days. We considered stopping once again in Stirling on the way back to Glasgow but decided we really wanted to get back, unwind, catch up on the laundry we DESPERATELY needed to do, and update the travel blog before anymore time got away from us and we had forgotten all the important details of our adventures to the Highlands.

It sure felt good to return to homebase. The time away from Glasgow was not a long time however, looking back and realizing that we had actually been away from the city for 5 days without a washing machine and at times without a decent shower, it was fair to say that we were ready to return to civilization and home conveniences.

Along with being back "home" we decided we were tired of eating out and wanted a home-cooked meal. We drove to the local neighborhood SUPER Safeway and picked up some things to whip up a quick dinner. There was something comfortable able being back in the Lacey's quirky home and cooking in their disorganized kitchen. As much as I enjoyed being away from it all and seeing such a different part of Scotland these past days, it was good to be back in Glasgow. As odd as the Lacey house may be, I have grown to appreciate it for what it is and have adjusted to having it be our "home away from home"!!! It is hard to believe we will be leaving the house the day after tomorrow and living in hotels for the next two weeks... The Lacey house will be missed!

Inverary Castle, At last!

2004-07-28T01:44:00.000+01:00

I enjoyed the little room we stayed in, very much. We got up to another nice breakfast and got on our way before 10. Not bad for us. We walked over to the Castle and I was keen to see if the cows were around to say hello. I was quite taken with them on our first visit. The parking lot was pretty full when we got there and the cows were seeking refuge from the tourists by staying far back in their field. Since they were uninterested in welcoming us, we headed into the Castle, which was just opening when we arrived. After only three attempts, we were going to see the castle!

From the outside the castle looks like something out of a fairy tale. It had no real fortifications like moat, or places to put cannon for real use although for aesthetic value, there are a couple of French cannon in front of the castle. There was no explanation of how French cannon got to the Castle, unfortunately.

Inside was a different story though. There isn't a "Great Hall" as in Sterling or Edinburgh, but in the Central Hall Inverary Castle has one of the biggest collections we saw of antique weaponry including swords, guns, bayonets, halbrads, etc. It was all beautifully presented. The room is stunning! The weapons are in excellent condition, and the ceiling is over 68 feet tall!

The Campbells go back a long time in Scottish history and are an active, proud group to this day. Part of the history is the legendary feud with the MacGregor family (and their leader, Rob Roy) which lead to the very banning of the MacGregor name. The MacGregors became Jacobites (supporters of the Stuart dynasty of Kings James. His defense of Stuart line made Rob Roy either an English traitor or Scottish patriot, depending on your historical view. Ironically, Robert MacGregor's mother was a Campbell and at one time, the Duke of Argyll (head of the Campbell clan) gave him permission to use some of his land for his cattle business.

Again, not a lot of our own pictures because they were prohibited, but we got another souvenir book there too.

We walked around the gardens for a while afterwards and saw some of the cows again, but they stayed at a fair distance.

The ride home was uneventful because the GPS did a perfect job of navigating for us. We unpacked the minivan, started laundry, and got to work on the blog.

It is a long, long way to Inverary...

2004-07-27T23:32:00.000+01:00

It rained a good part of the night and there was no sign that the clouds were going away. I had hopped we'd get at least a short hike in that morning, but the woman we'd met the night before said that she had to take off her hiking boots they sank so far into the muck yesterday. Now, the ground had several more inches of water. We'd be really dirty and have to spend a lot of time cleaning up before we could get into the Lacey's minivan so we had to give up. I definitely want to come back and do some hiking and/or climbing here sometime. It is a wonderful spot.

We repacked the car and set out to retrace our steps back much of the same roads that we'd been on. Not surprising since there aren't that many roads on the island. The only problem was that the GPS batteries were dead. I had left on the GPS the night before. Ugh, boy did I feel pretty stupid. I gave it a quick charge in the bathroom while I washed up, but I knew that wouldn't last long so I only turned it on for brief periods when we needed to know where we were, and then used the iPAQ to get the next direction.

We got off Skye without too much incident. The only other stop we made was at a shop we saw on the way in to get some whiskey glasses for my friend Jeff back home. After we got off the island, I turned the GPS back on. For some reason, it was confused and kept wanting us to go back to Skye! Since it hadn't lead us wrong yet I thought it might know something I didn't. Since we were under some time pressure, I didn't want to drive out of the way. First I drove down the road a bit but it kept asking me to make a U turn. I finally gave in and did a U turn at a gas station. Soon as I did, it told me to do another U turn. As we thought, we needed to go away from Skye, not toward it!

It is about a three and a half hour drive from Skye to Inverary. I tried to keep the GPS off as much as possible since I knew there were a couple of roads that might be confusing. Unfortunately, I couldn't conserve enough and soon we were without the aid of technology. After a couple of hours we got hungry and looked for a place to eat. It took a while, because once again, bars and taverns--much less restaurants were a rare commodity. Frantically we found a place which was okay but not speedy. A side observation--not only do you not get coke refills here, but tea is a one serving beverage as well. I really don't get that, but it is just about the only complaint I have so far so I guess that's okay.

After lunch we continued the drive to Inverary Castle which we tried to visit once before, but got there too late. Laurie was doing her best to help navigate with the various free maps we had picked up along the way but she can't read for very long while passengering because it makes her sick. She was very good at remembering the names of some of the places we'd been to the first time we tried to go to Inverary Castle and used that to guide us most of the way there. Unfortunately, we got lost though and ended up about 40 minutes on the wrong side of things! What to do? Time was running short. We could give up and go home or we could press on and give it a try. I got the impression that Laurie wanted to see the inside of the castle and I did too. We weren't sure if the castle closed at 17:00 or 17:30. We also didn't know if they stopped letting people in 45 minutes prior to closing as many castles do. Without the GPS, it took me a few minutes to get oriented and determine how to get where we wanted to go. That wasn't easy as I'd lost track of where we actually were at this point. First thing you need to know is where you are before you can worry about where you want to be. That critical bit is one thing the GPS is really good for, but because of my mistake we didn't have it handy. We sorted things out though and on we went.

With a few quick stops along the way to verify that we were going the right way, we made it to the castle! Yeah!

Ineverary, finally

Another GPS sidebar
It turns out it is a lot easier to read the GPS while driving than a map. The GPS has large letters, speaks to you, and has giant arrows to point you in the right direction. It also eliminates useless information. Paper maps just don't do all of that, but they don't run out of batteries, either. Pros and cons I guess.
Ironically, there is a persistent license in the Destinator software that makes you agree not to use the GPS while driving, but I've never seen a map with such a requirement. Needless to say the fact you have to click on that extra button when you start the Destinator software makes it more hazardous than if they didn't bother to warn you. Go figure!

Unfortunately, the castle was closed by the time we got there. By this point I was really tired of driving. Though it was rainy by the mountains on Skye, it was humid near Inverary. We hadn't showered and we'd been driving franticly to reach the castle. To my surprise, Laurie was up for camping nearby and trying the castle tomorrow. I'm usually more anxious to camp than she is, but we were already wearing dirty clothes because we hadn't bought enough, we hadn't showered, I was tired, and a little hungry. We decided to see if we could find a reasonable B&B for the night and we got lucky. Right across from the main road there was a nice place with a bit of a view of the Loch. We dropped off our stuff and walked around for a while and then grabbed dinner at a very cute little place. I had another steak pie if I recall, and Apple pie for dessert!

Inverary is a cute little town, but one of the mour touristy places we visited. This is probably a virtue of it being closer to Glasgow and Edinburgh, having a decent castle, and a beautiful Loch. There are many shops that happily cater to the many tourists that come to Castle. As an aside, one of the things I've noticed is that unlike many other places I visit, you don't see the same items for sale at every tourist spot in Scotland. There really are regional differences, and the shops generally cater specifically to the area or attraction, not generic "Scotland" junk. The only exception was a few books on Scotland and Scottish history which appeared at several locations.

I think we got lucky on the lodging because a lot of tourists come up for the day on a bus and go back in the evening. While it is only 90 minutes from Glasgow, I was glad we had a more leisurely time of it--even though we had planned to be "home" in Glasgow that night. I took a rally nice, long, hot shower and settled in for the night after I read 30-40 pages more of Clinton's My Life.

Inverary Mishap

2004-07-27T19:52:00.000+01:00

What? It's already 9:30AM??? How can that be? We wanted to get up early enough to take a short hike up the hill overlooking the campsite and at the same time get an early enough start to head to Inverary to see the castle we really wanted to see.

Well, since it was later than we wanted it to be, the fog was still rather thick and it was drizzling outdoors we made the decision to get ourselves cleaned up, pack up the van and head towards the mainland in order to get to Inverary Castle before it closed. We really wanted to see this castle and knew that this would be the last opportunity we would have to get there. While getting our things packed up and ready to go, I met a swarm of the infamous Scottish Highland midges! We had been told about these little buggers and really had no idea what they were or when, if ever, we would get a chance to meet face to face. While heading to the bathroom to wash my face and brush the teeth, a huge swarm of them decided to hang out around my head, face, ears and arms and start biting. They must have enjoyed their feast because later I discovered several tiny bites on the back of my hand, arms and a few on my face. These little flying, biting gnat like critters are well known in areas of the highlands where there is an abundance of water. They are cousins of the mosquito and are just as annoying! If we were going to stay any longer than we were, I probably would have insisted on finding somewhere to buy repellent but since this was the only time I had to deal with the midges and we were on our way out, didn't seem necessary!

We headed back the way we came in order to recross the Skye Bridge and pay the toll once again. We did make a quick stop at the Skye Jewelry Shop again so that Michael could buy some crystal whiskey shot glasses for one of his buddies. We basically did retrace our step back off the island but since we were intending to stop off in Inverary, our route was going to be slightly different from the one we followed to get on the island. So, we drove, and we drove and we drove and drove and drove some more. We seemed to have a pretty good idea of where we were going and what roads we needed to take to get to the city of Inverary. Keep in mind, we were on a timed schedule and we needed to be sure we got to the castle in plenty of time to take a tour however, we also needed to stop and eat something since we hadn't had any breakfast before leaving Skye. We thought we were in good enough shape to be able to take some time to sit down in a restaurant and grab lunch so we did just that and found a pub off the side of the road. Wouldn't say the service was quick but it was at least a decent place to get food! So back on the road we go, again, feeling like we knew where we were going.

Since we have been in Scotland, the majority of the time we have gone anywhere, we had depended greatly on Michael's GPS to help direct us to our various destinations. We weren't using it this time around since the batteries seemed to be dying down and we had maps that we could follow to get to Inverary. We continued on and came to signs that pointed to Oban and Inverness. I was quick to be convinced that Oban was the way we wanted to head since Inverness was where we had been up north and we were headed more south. On the map I was looking at it looked to me that Oban was not far from Inverary so I kept telling Michael to follow the signs to Oban and then once we got to Oban we would be finding a juncture that would then take us down to Inverary.

OOOOPS,I guess big error on my part. We eventually arrive right in the center of Oban, not even close to Inverary. The map I continued to look at was not a very good map since it had very little detail and didn't show all the little connecting cities that more detailed maps showed. We get to Oban only to find out that we have just driven an hour out of our way and have only about 45 minutes or so to get to the castle before it closes, at least I was thinking it closed at 5:00PM. I felt horrible and sensed that Michael was not pleased to have driven an hour out of the way and quite likely missing the opportunity to see the castle we were so anxious to see. I was rather disappointed myself and after looking at a more detailed map, discovered where I had made my mistake and where we should have turned to get to the correct highway that would have led us right into Inverary instead of Oban.

We frantically drive to the castle and notice that the sign says the castle closes at 5:45 but the last entry is at 5:00... it was 5:30 by the time we got there... we were screwed!! Now I felt really bad and felt I had to think of something logical to do to hopefully make things a little better. We were both very tired of driving and just needed to take a break. That is when I suddenly came up with the idea of finding either a campsite nearby or hopefully and inexpensive B&B in Inverary so that tomorrow morning, right when the castle opened we could still take the time to see it. We were now in the city we needed to be and even if we needed to spend another night "on the road" and possibly spend more money for a place to stay, it sounded like the right thing to do. I was all up for camping another night but since we had not taken a shower and were feeling pretty dirty, our first choice would be to find a B&B to stay in. I had noticed several B and Bs as we entered the city however many of them were listed as having no vacancies. We had gone down that path before and I wasn't about to go driving around trying to find another place to stay. We took a break in a little park across the street from the tourist information office to try to come up with a plan when I noticed a little sign hanging on the side of the building that was right next door to the tourist office. It was a sign that said that one of the flats inside the building was a B&B and thought I should at least check it out. It would be the perfect location to stay since the B and B was within walking distance to the castle. I was afraid since it was located on the main road near many of the tourist attractions, that the B and B would either be booked and/or be rather expensive but I wouldn't know until I at least went to see check out the situation. I left Michael waiting in the park and went to explore the situation.

Opening the door to the building, I noticed that the inside looked a little run down. Signs were pointing me to flat #5 where the B&B was located. I went up several flights of stairs to get to this flat and wasn't quite sure where the B and B might be hiding since I had always stayed in houses or hotels that were B and B properties --never in a flat! I knocked on the door and a friendly little lady answered the door. I asked her if she was in charge of the B and B and if so, did she have anything available. She told me the only room she had was a double room and invited me to take a look at it. Someone was definitely on our side... it was a cute little room in her flat with wood floors, a nice double bed, a huge skylight in the ceiling and a beautifully tiled bathroom attached. Looked like a great place to stay for the night and I just assumed, since it was rather nice that this lady would be charging quite a pretty pound for the room. I asked her how much and she told me 35 pounds! I wasn't sure I heard her correctly and asked her if that was 35 pounds per person per night since that was the standard way the other B and Bs we stayed in advertised their rates. She giggled a little and told me that it was just 35 pounds for the room and breakfast-- nothing more, nothing less. "We'll take it!" I quickly yelled, very happy to have found a comfortable place to stay for the night. I felt better that I at least did what I could to help remedy the situation and was hoping Michael would find the room as charming as I did. If nothing else, at least we had a place to stay at a great rate AND we would be right near the castle so in the morning, it would be just a hop, skip and a jump to get there. We would be so close that we could even get there before any of the crowds came!

Before heading in for the night, we walked around Inverary a bit and did some window shopping down the streets near our B and B. We found a little cafe where we were able to unwind and have a relaxing dinner.

Back to the B and B for a warm shower, some TV and a good night's rest and pleasant dreams!

Skye, Day 2

2004-07-26T23:54:00.000+01:00

Woke up and had breakfast cooked by Sam. He made us scrambled eggs on toast with toast on the side. One thing about the Scots, there is no shortage of bread and potatoes (or "chips", aka French fries) at almost every meal. Juice, coffee, tea and a choice of Mueslix or cornflakes were also available. The food wasn't spectacular but it was pretty good and it was a HUGE improvement over what we experienced at The National Hotel.

Over breakfast, Sam, pulled out his various maps to show us all the various routes we should take while we were out exploring more of the island. He recommended some of his favorite places and made sure we had plenty to see over the course of the day.

Sam was kind enough to let us use his computer to try and book tickets for a play at the Globe while we are in London next week. Along with using his computer, the question of how we ended up at the other Kilmuir House came up. Sam was very interested in hearing how I came across the other Kilmuir House's website and also wanted to know what I though of his and how it might improve. Both Michael and I tried our best to let him know, in a delicate sort of way, that if he is really serious about attracting people to his B&B, he needed to make his website easy to read and accessable. He has quite a way to go as far as getting more information on his site for potential visitors. As he and his house are, his website is also VERY simple!

We bid our farewells to Sam and headed just a mile or so down from his place to Dunvegan Castle. Although certainly not my favorite, Dunvegan is certainly an interesting castle to explore and visit. It is rather beautiful inside and has some lovely wooded gardens surrounding the castle property. Dunvegan Castle has been occupied by the head hanchos of the MacLeod Clan since 1270. There is a lot of neat memorabilia to look at in the castle and is worth a visit if you are ever on the Isle of Skye.
We wandered around the gardens after going through the castle. Very pretty grounds with several different types of gardens. The Water Garden was my favorite. It had luscious green foliage and a tiny waterfall flowing down the rocks of the garden. It was rather nice walking and seeing all the different types of plants, flowers and trees located in the different gardens.

From the Castle, we decided to drive around and see what there was to see in the town of Glendale. On the way there, we made a stop at a little woolen shop that had all types of sweaters and scarves for sale. There were some beautiful items there and I ended up getting a couple of sweaters. The lady who worked there was very helpful and was interested in whether or not we were enjoying "our holiday". We continued talking to her about her life on Skye and she explained how expensive things cost on the island. Groceries are expensive since many of the items have to be driven over the bridge from the mainland. She also told us about winters on the island and how horrible the rains and wind can get. She was enjoyable to talk to and gave us just a little more insight as to how life is lived on Skye. It is cetainly a very SIMPLE and different kind of life!

We continued to drive and just had to make a stop in Colbost where the world famous "Three Chimneys Restaurant" is found. We had been told by the across the street neighbor, Phoebe, that we must try this restaurant while on Skye. Apparently this establishment has quite a reputation and is very well known for its outstanding food and service. We tried getting a table the night before for dinner but they were booked so we decided since we were on the way to Glendale we would make a stop and try to get in for lunch, as Sam had told us getting in for lunch is much easier. By the time we got there, lunch was no longer being served. We inquired about dinner and of course, as expected, not a chance getting a table. It seems as though one needs to make reservations way well in advance to get a table for dinner. We glanced at both the lunch and dinner menus outside the restaurant and although it may be very good, there wasn't anything on either menu that caught either of our eyes as being a MUST HAVE experience. We didn't feel we were really missing much.

In Glendale, we stopped off at Skye Silver, another jewelry shop that specializes in all types of sterling silver necklaces, bracelets, rings and other items. They make their own pieces and seem to be a fairly popular place to buy items from Skye. Nice stuff but I didn't end up buying anything.

We wanted to see if we could get to the one and only whiskey distillery on Skye before it closed, so we drove a little and found it only to find out that the last tour just left shortly before we got there. Oh well! Now what? It was time to see if we could find a gas station, some dinner and a campsite for the night. Since I was feeling MUCH better, and we had planned on camping somewhere on Skye anyway, we wanted to find a place that was somewhat remote and that had a great view of both water and hills.

We took a look at a campsite in Sligachan, which would have been okay but it was near the highway and looked sort of busy. It did have spectacular views of the Cullin Mountains and it had a hotel and restaurant right across the highway... it certainly would have been the more convenient campsite to stay but convenience wasn't necessarily what we were after. Fewer people around, fewer cars and views of water as well as the hills were what we were hoping for.

We had to get to the "large" town of Portree to get gas and looked for a place to eat. Nothing striked our fancy so we returned to Sligachan and ate dinner in the bar adjacent to the hotel that was across the campsite. We were trying to decide whether to just stay where we were or head on down a little south to a campground called "Glenbrittle" which looked very remote and appeared on the map to be potentially a better spot to camp than Sligachan.

We drove down south and found Glenbrittle. Yes, definitely, this was by far a MUCH better place to camp. Drove through the gate that was at the base at the campsite and immediately were impressed with what we saw. Great green hills all around, ocean on the other side of the site. The fog was rolling in by the time we got to the campsite and was resting on top of the hills. There were quite a few people who were camping but never did it seem as though anyone was on top of another person and everyone was very respectful of eachother's space and privacy. Noise was not a factor either. It was certainly one of the more quieter campsites I have been to.

We parked the van, and decided to take a walk along the beach before it got too dark. It was an unusual beach in that it had black sand and rocks all over. There were tons and tons of seaweed all over the sand and at the base of the water. There was so much that we were able to walk on it to get pretty far out toward the ocean. We saw various shells and even a couple of jellyfish washed up close to shore. We ran into a young lady from Bristol, England who knew this campsite well and had been coming to this spot every year with her family since she was a little girl. She informed us that this visit was the first one in 10 years and it is by far the best camping site, in her opinion, in all of Scotland. She was very impressed that we even took the time during our holiday to get to know Skye and to go out of the way to find the spot that evidentially has a very special place in her heart! One amazing thing that this gal shared with us that neither Michael nor I could comprehend was how far the ocean travels to and from the shoreline every 12 hours. While we walked, we were able to see just how far the current had gone down and it was clear that much of the land was still wet from when the water had last risen. We just couldn't believe it had gone down as much as it had and from what the lady told us, this rise and fall happens quite naturally every 12 hours or so. It was hard to even believe but apparently had to be true from the lasting results we were seeing.

The temperature was getting colder, and we were losing light rather quickly. We got washed up and decided to set up camp in the back of the van and read our books as much as we were able to do before we could no longer read. We left the back of the van open and could hear the sound of the ocean behind us as we were reading our books. This place was definitely not a place anyone would come across if they were on a short trip to Scotland. We felt very fortunate to have had the amount of time we had in order to really get to know Scotland and to be able to come across such gems such as Glenbrittle. Before we knew it, we had lost our light for reading and decided to call it a night on the earlier side so as to be able to wake up early in order to possibly take a hike up the ridge of the hills overlooking the ocean. We also wanted get an reasonable start to Inverary so that we can do whatever possible to get to the great castle we had missed the last time we drove there. Since we were up in the northern part of Scotland and Inverary Castle is north of Glasgow, it seemed only reasonable to take advantage of where we were and drive down to Inverary on our way back to Glasgow.

Another day, another Skye

2004-07-26T15:28:00.000+01:00

Our Kilmur house was simple and cozy. We got up, had a nice shower, and Sam made us a nice breakfast. He then spent at least 30-45 minutes telling us about things we could do while on the island. He asked what our plans were, and I hated to tell him we were going to spend another night at the island--but not with them, as we'd planned to camp out since we'd missed our first opportunity in Inverness. He was very gracious and gave us some great suggestions.

The first thing we did was see Dunvegan Castle. We don't have a lot of pictures as they prohibit photography in the castle. We did get a nice souvenir book to remember our visit. Just a couple of observations.

Dunvegan castle is the centre of the clan MacLeod. Skye and Dunvegan has more norse influence because it was an opportune spot for the Vikings to invade.
I know nothing about preservation, but there is remarkably little done in many sights we visited to preserve the artifacts they house. At Dunvegan Castle, windows were open, without screens and with no UV protection. I have to say that Dunvegan was one of the only sights that seemed to have a very visible security system including motion detectors.
Like many of the sites we visited, there was no live or audio tour available. They did provide laminated sheets to provide some history, which was very nice.

Dunvegan wasn't my favorite castle, but the gardens were very nice. It was interesting to see the range of fortifications of castles. Dunvegan was the home of a chieftain, not a king so there were never as many armaments built around it as say, Sterling or Edinburgh.

Onward from Dunvegan...

We took some time to cover the north west of the island. There wasn't a lot to see, but it was a nice drive. More sheep, grass, and slightly flatter than the south west or south east. We stopped by a few shops and by the famous Three Chimneys Restaurant. This place has quite the reputation in the UK. Apparently some people have even been known to helicopter in for a weekend visit and dinner at the restaurant! We weren't able to get in on this visit--it is very small and books up well in advance. Perhaps next visit.

We headed to the South west of the island to locate a camp site. There was a campsite and a convenient cross roads at Sligachan. It had a nice view of the Cullin mountains but it was a bit close to the road. I had my eye further down south to the Glenbrittle area. It also had a view of the mountains, but also the Sea. We made our way down the long, one lane rode with "passing areas" for about 25 minute drive through even more nice country side. The island is filled with these small roads so driving is even more challenging than the goats, minivan, and right-side would be otherwise. The only downside was it was very grey, soppy as we drove down. It was rather majestic though to see the clouds hanging so low on the 3,166' mountain range. When we got to the end of the road (literally) there was a gate to a camp site, right where the GPS said it would be. Excellent! We parked and went for a walk on the beach. There was something very desolate and solitary about the place even though there were a reasonable number of people in the campground. People were quiet and unusually respectful. How could you not be? The beach was about 600 yards deep; that is, the water travels between the high and low tide marks. I'd never seen a beach like this. The sand was highly compacted and so was easy to walk on. it was a graphite colour and filled with all kinds of life since we were now at a low-tide point. Unfortunately, there was a sheep laying in the sand that was no longer full of life. Something had happened to the poor guy and he passed on. I could think of worse places to spend your last minutes, but it was sad, but peaceful.

As we walked along the beach, we met a young woman from Bristol. Until ten years ago, she had been coming to that spot with her parents every year since she was a little girl. She knowingly pointed out the landmarks like the island of Canna--one of the several in Inner Hebrides the way someone would show you around a house they had lived in all their lives. Some of the other islands--Rum Island, Mull, Eigg weren't visible from our standpoint. She told us about some of the good hikes and climbing that were to be had just up the path at the other end of the campsite, just past the bathrooms. She also shared the important news that there was a family of otters at the end of the shoreline earlier that day. Now that's important! Perspective. We had a pleasant conversation where she shared her passion for this place with us. Somehow, I was moved by what it meant to her. Later, I found myself wishing I knew why she'd been away from it for ten years, but I didn't get a chance to ask her.

In addition to the fog, we'd lost most the day light, so after a walk on the beach, we went back to the van and read for a while before calling it a night. Reading in the back of the van, with the back hatch open and the sea just beyond was very peaceful for a while. But soon I began to notice what I determined must be the famous Scottish Midges!

There are something like three dozen types of midges--all related to mosquitoes. The female midges byte, but do not sting. They are apparently more annoying than anything, but they have gotten under one too many kilts and the Scots have been working hard to deal with them. There is now a machine used to combat these pests that produces a scent the midges rather like--which is basically an artificial cow manure smell made of methane and some other things--to attract the midges. Once attracted, they are sucked into a giant vacuum cleaner. The machines are expensive for now, so they are used in beer gardens and other public places.

I hopped that the skies would clear the next day because we were right at the base of some beautiful mountains that were met by the Sea of Hebrides. Even with the bad weather, I was intrigued by the place. I knew what our neighbor in Glasgow, Phoebe meant when she said that people either love or hate the place--it feels desolate to some. On a clear day it must be absolutely amazing and I wanted to find out.

The road to Skye

2004-07-25T17:23:00.000+01:00

I got up because we wanted to take advantage of the included breakfast and get a good start on the day. There was just a bath in the room, no shower. I really needed something to wake up a bit so I took a quick bath while Laurie caught a few more Z's. It looked like she really needed them. When I got out, we got dressed and I took the bags down to the minivan. We were both still really groggy and morning isn't my best time in any event so the comedy of errors that came next wasn't funny until lunch time. While I went down to the car through the main stairway, Laurie followed shortly after down the back stairs where we had come up the night before. I went to the lobby after dropping the bag and didn't see her so I went back to the room only to find her gone. Someone stole my wife! I checked the lobby and restaurant and didn't see her at first. This was a true farce...She slowly walked up from the side of the hotel where she had walked around the outside of the building...the only place I hadn't looked. Ah well...

We decided we should grab breakfast so we didn't have to stop later. Now I thought breakfast ended at 9 so the fact that it was deserted and the food was "bottom of the barrel didn't surprise me. There were some eggs, really nasty looking meats, cold cereal, some juice, and something I couldn't identify. There was some staff around, but they paid us no mind. They were too busy cleaning up after breakfast to see to us. Laurie seemed to need tea, so I chased the waitress down and asked her for some, which she brought fairly promptly. I had to find cups, some silverware, and napkins from various other tables— as there were no clean, completely set tables. I tried something that was apparently an oat cake which was sort of like layered uncooked oatmeal. It was as bland and dry as it sounds. I ended up eating enough, but it wasn't a memorable meal. The one exception was the waitress who continued to clear tables as we ate. She generally seemed to act as if no customers were in the room. She seemed to be exceptionally board or tired and cleared things in a strange order as if to kill time until the end of her shift. She also tossed one of the two tablecloths on each table on the ground in the middle of the room which sort of put me off.

Just as we were ready to leave, the waitress asked another table if they'd like toast. Apparently it was supposed to come with breakfast, but she'd never bothered to ask us if we wanted any. It also turned out that breakfast wasn't officially over until about 9:30, so there wasn't a good excuse for her inattention. Although the room was adequate, we were glad to be leaving.

Now we had a fully charged iPAQ and GPS so navigation wasn't going to be a problem. We headed out for Skye. The drive takes about 90 minutes or so. The weather was much nicer today and we stopped several times along the way to take pictures.

Along much of the way the road shadows an active rail track. It is possible to take a train almost all the way to Skye. The trip would have been really fantastic, I'm sure, but we would have had to rent a car when we got to Skye to get around anywhere.

I'd heard that the Highlands are amazing, and they are. There is open space that seems to go on forever, with a hundred shades of green, and mountains and streams that are stunning. The drive alone would have made the trip worthwhile. Now many of the residents of this paradise are fairly small manufacturing companies that are called sheep here. Much of the wool for tweed clothing and cashmere comes from the Highlands.

Every once in a while we decided to stop to stretch our legs. We came across a sign for a stained glass studio. That sounded pretty interesting so we turned off to take a look. As we drove, we saw a sign for "stained glass and bees-wax paintings". Now I was really interested because I'd never heard of that. As we pulled up, I figured the small building would house a small, but respectable sized gallery. There was a small leanto in front which seemed to be the entrance. As it turns out, that leanto was the studio. We had a look and while we weren't excited by the stained glass work, the bees-wax paintings were sort of interesting so we picked up a couple. The artist was a very chatty bloke who told us about his neighbors musical endeavors, and a bit about his life. Like many people we've met, he doesn't travel far from home. He told us that on Sundays he often just leaves an "Honestly" box and goes drinking. Even though there's been upwards of a £130 in the box, he's never had anyone steal from him. It was refreshing to hear about such honestly. It reminded me of the stands we ran into on the Hawaiian islands where people sell flowers, fruit, and nuts through the same honestly policy. I'm not sure if the natural beauty is the cause of such honesty but paradise in these places is far deeper than just the natural beauty.

Back on the road, we saw some lovely horses and captured some more pastoral scenes. Soon enough we were at the controversial Skye bridge. What could possibly be so controversial about a bridge? Well from what we gather from the discussions, there are several issues. The bridge is privately run and the toll for an auto is £5.80 each way, £2.90 for a bicycle, and trucks are a great deal more. The majority of ferry service were discontinued after the bridge was completed, making it the only way for residents to get on and off the island. You can walk across for free, but it isn't illuminated at night so locals complain it can be dangerous if they bike or walk across. There were also some environmental concerns about the bridge and the extra traffic the bridge brings to Skye.

Soon after we got over the bridge, we saw some sheep on the shore of the Loch. Not often you see unshorn sheep at the sea shore! We had to check it out. Soon, the Cullin mountains and the Old Man of Storr came into view. With mountains and water come waterfalls. Skye had many of them. It also has a lot of wildflowers.

We continued on around the north of Skye toward where we thought our B&B was. (Do you sense a story coming on? Good.) I had fun collecting wool that the sheep had shed around when we stopped for pictures. I figure if I find enough, Susan will make me a sweater when we get home. Man, I can't wait! We also got to see some really funny sights like a cow with a great sense of self-esteem.

Did I mention the sheep? There are a lot of sheep on the Isle of Skye. They are fearless. Unfaised by speeding cars or steep cliffs where they enjoy their meals. Just over the cliff from these guys, we saw a really nice cove where there were unusual rock formations that extended from the beach out into the water. " Now the sheep are really cute, but the local paper included the following warning:

Let's be clear on this one--they are not to be regarded as cuddly, friendly, woolly jumpers with a magnetic attraction for car bumpers. Treat them as devious, plotting, assassins hired by some crooked breakdown merchant to force cars off the road. In short, they are a menace.

We had no problems, but I kept my eye on those little guys! We stopped at a place named, the Aros Experience which is kind of a combination of local entertainment and community center (including movie theatre), shopping for tourists and locals, and restaurant. Now this is not a giant mall, it was a fairly small place, well laid out, packed full of interesting things. Lunch was a real surprise. I had a delicious lamb stew, the likes of which I have never had. It may have looked like a "cafeteria" but the food was superb.

Now back to that story I alluded to earlier.

I had entered the information Laurie gave me for the Kilmur house,where we'd booked a room, into our GPS. Now if you check these links carefully, you may notice that they do not refer to the same house. Oops. yes, we went to the wrong Kilmur house! We followed the GPS' directions drove up around the northern tip of the island which is quite stunning. When we reached the Kilmur house we knocked on the door and and told them we thought we had booked a room. Pretty quickly they realized we'd probably got the wrong one and called over for us to confirm. We weren't the first ones to have made this mistake. They were very nice people. Actually, since we wanted to see the north end of the island, nothing was really lost. But it did mean we didn't get to our Kilmur house until about 18:30. While it wasn't quite as fancy, the people were very nice here as well. They suggested we try a restaurant called, The Old School Restaurant just down the street. it was a very cozy place that still felt very much like it's namesake. We headed back to our place and spent an hour or so with our host family talking about everything from Shakespeare to Big Brother. The father of the family is a retired Finance guy who used to work in London near the Globe theater (more on that when we go to London.) When he got laid off a few years ago, he packed up the family and moved them to Skye. What a life! They were really great people and I enjoyed the conversation very much, but it was time to get some sleep. We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow!

Over the Bridge to Skye

2004-07-25T12:59:00.000+01:00

A new day... a new morning... a new start. I wake up after having about 3 hours of sleep and feeling rather thankful that we will soon be leaving Dingwall to head to the tranquil surroundings of Skye. We are due to stay in a B&B over on the island so at least we know where we are staying and it seems that the chances of getting a good night's sleep has now increased.

We get our clothes on and head downstairs to what the National Hotel calls breakfast. The price of the room includes breakfast so we thought we should get at least get a little something in our stomachs before heading on the road again. We go into the dining room and see a buffet style breakfast. Could be good, that is, until we take a look at what they were offering. There were these horrible looking greasy fried eggs sitting under a heat lamp, the scrambled eggs looked rather mushy and were sitting in lots of liquid and to top it off, the bacon and ham looked dried and full of grease! There was no way I was about to eat any of the cooked items so I grabbed a very small bowl of cornflakes and some juice and hoped that would at least give me some energy to start the day. We find a table. No silverware, no salt, and we continue to look for some milk to put on our cereal. Things are not properly set on the tables and no one offered to bring us toast or coffee/tea that we saw so many of the other guests enjoying. We had to hunt someone down for tea and didn't bother to ask for the toast... it didn't seem worth the trouble. I was anxious to check-out and get the heck out of this place!

We get back to the room, pack up our things,and I tell Michael I will meet him downstairs after checking out of the hotel. He grabs the suitcase and backpack and leaves me with the stack of coats we brought and our books. I drape the coats over my shoulder, tuck the books under my arm, take the key and am about to race downstairs to check-out when I realize I have absolutely no idea how to get downstairs. I circle and circle around our floor trying to find the stairs that lead to the main lobby but continue to retrace my steps or run into walls. I feel like I am Alice in Wonderland trying to get out of the maze of mirrors... this hotel is freaky! I get sooooo pissed off I slam open the only door I do find that leads back to the outside fire escape and proceed to stumble down the stair, coats in all, half asleep, swearing under by breath, but... trying to keep the humor, yah, right! When you climb down the fire escape steps, they lead you to the back of the hotel so when I climbed down I had to drag the coats to the front of the hotel in order to reenter the hotel to check out. I get there unable to find Michael at first.. it seems as if we are passing eachother. While I am downstairs he went up to find me in the room, only to find out I am not there. I expect to find him downstairs. We do this ring around the rosy thing for several minutes... I, try to keep the humor, which has now flown out the door and has sunk deep into the depths of the earth. I will find it again, eventually but we first must head out of Dingwall!
Okay, all is well, we have checked out of Hotel HELL and are now ready to start fresh...Skye, here we come! The drive to Skye is oh so beautiful. We see lochs, forests of Scottish pines, sheep and cows along the road and majestic, awesome green hills and mountains surrounding us. The views only get more and more spectacular the farther north we drive. As we continued to drive, we stopped several times to take in the view, take pictures and stretch our legs. We were in no hurry to get to Skye so we took the time to really absorb the scenery. At one of the stopping points, we met at lovely Welsh family who was headed to Ft. William for several days. We asked them to take our picture for us and we returned the favor. We chatted with them for several minutes, they told us what we should see if we should ever visit Wales and also informed us about the Scottish pines we kept seeing everywhere. We enjoyed our short chat with them!

Time to continue on... we arrive in LochCannon and see signs along the road for a stained glass studio. Both Michael and I enjoy looking at various types of glass art and thought it might be worth a stop to see what this studio had. As we got closer, we not only saw the signs for the stained glass studio but it also said something about beeswax painting. Not knowing what beeswax painting were, we just HAD to stop now... curiosity got the best of us. We turn where the sign tells us to go and all we see is this small house with what looks like a small greenhouse like entrance attached. This didn't really look like a studio but we figured the greenhouse entrance was the entrance to the studio which was probably in the house. We proceed towards the entrance and realize that the entrance IS THE STUDIO. We are greeted by this older gentleman who welcomes us to his art studio which has a few cheap looking stained glass hangings, embroidered dolls, and of course, the beeswax paintings. The artist, was quite a character. We enjoyed talking with him and hearing about his life, his neighbors, who play in a local band, and his Sunday drinking day. He had no problem telling us that on Sundays, his drinking day, he would leave the studio wide open, put a sign up and place his "honesty box" out for people to leave their money in if they happened to stop by and purchase things. He would be off at the local pub, drinking the day away and not caring much as to what might be happening in his "studio". He has never had any problems with the honesty box and claims it seems to work for him. He was happy about that so as it allowed him to be away and "get to better things" than to have to hang around in case someone MIGHT come by. We weren't all that impressed with his glass work but we did end up buying 3 of his beeswax paintings, which were quite unusual and beautiful at the same time. Not something you come across everyday and they were reasonably priced so we grabbed one for our home and a couple to be used as gifts.

We continue our journey to Skye. We finally get to the one and only bridge that connects the mainland to Skye and are prepared to pay the controversial toll fee of 5 pounds 60pence EACH WAY. This bridge was built in 1995 and has since created much controversy and outrage, creating opportunities for to protest about the high cost of the toll. To this day people are campaigning to get the fees either reduced or eliminated.

We pay the fee (at least we were well prepared) and enter the roads of beautiful Skye. The day is a sunny one and the way the light falls on the hills and the water makes everything look so magical. As we make our way towards the town of Uig, where we believe is where the B&B is, we stop to take a look a small waterfalls and take many pictures of the surroundings, not to mention the numerous sheep that dot the hills and sit right along the roads. We stopped in the small town of Broadford to check out Skye Jewelry, which we had received a flyer for when we crossed the bridge. We got a whole packet of tourist maps and various merchant/activity flyers when we paid our toll so at least we had some idea of what types of things were on the island.

As we proceed on, we take the eastern route along the coast to Uig. I cannot give a good enough description of what this place is like... it is like no place I had ever experienced. The pictures we took, I hope will give some perspective of what we saw, but I am afraid it won't do justice to what the actual scenery is like. I think the pictures will at least give a taste of how very different Skye is from many other places in Scotland.

We get to Uig. We travel along the road and see a sign that says "Kilmuir House", yeah, our Bed and Breakfast. Michael and I get to the door, I knock and a sweet woman answers. I introduce myself and tell her we have a reservation for the evening at her B and B. She looks at me with some confusion and says, "Ah... Nooo. I don't think so!" I continue to explain that I had called on Thursday to book a room and had talked with a gentleman. She asks me, "Could you have booked a room at the OTHER Kilmuir House?" The OTHER ONE??? AH... GEEEESH.... Apparently there are two Kilmuir Houses on the Island... one in Uig and one in Dunvegan, which is more on the western side of the island and is about 45 minutes away from Uig. The man of the house kindly calls over to the OTHER Kilmuir home to inquire whether or not they are expecting us... of course, they were! In hind sight, everything makes more sense. When I booked the room, I went on the website to get more detailed directions as to how to get to the B and B. It only gave me an availability calendar, the name of the place, a phone number and a brief description of its location. It did say something about Dunvegan. I later went back to see if there were further directions that I might have overseen and so I typed in "Kilmuir House" in my search engine and came up with the website to the Kilmuir House in Uig, which had great directions and a virtual tour of the property. I gave Michael the directions to the Uig place, he told me how we were going to get their and I told him I thought the place was in Dunvegan. It never crossed our minds that there could be two places of the same name on the island yet we continued to be a bit confused as to why one site said Dunvegan and one said Uig. Consequently, we aren't the only ones who have gotten the two places mixed up... this seems to happen rather often. You'd think the two properties would do something to clear up any confusion!

So... we drove another 45 minutes to the town of Dunvegan, which ended up not being all that much out of our way. We wanted to see the island anyway and so since we took the route to Uig, we got to see a large part of the eastern side. Now we will get to see the western side and we wanted to get to Dunvegan anyway since that is where Dunvegan Castle is located and is one of the island's largest attractions.

We arrive at Kilmuir House #2 and this rather tall, sort of chunky man, greets us at the car. He is dressed in a t-shirt and sweat pants and looks like the sort of fellow one would describe as "laid back". He introduces himself as Sam and immediately we can tell this guy is extremely warm, hospitable and very friendly. He guides us into his home, shows us our room(very simple, has a clean bathroom, and looks out over the hills which are covered with sheep!!!) and helps us get situated. Although the two Bed and Breakfast places have the same name, they are quite opposite of one another. The Uig location is done up in Victorian style decor, they do the whole tea and scone thing and have obviously been in the business for sometime. Sam, on the other hand, has a home that is simple. No frills, no extra fluff, just simple, plain and well lived in. The place was comfortable and would suit us just fine but it felt more like staying in someone's house rather than a B&B, which was fine by us.

Sam helped us find a place for dinner and so we made reservations at a restaurant about 1/4 mile away called "The Old School House". We enjoyed our dinner very much... a very good recommendation on Sam's part. I had their chilibean casserole and Michael had this incredible chicken that was stuffed with creamcheese and apples covered in a delectable sauce. The food was excellent!

After dinner, we get back to Sam's place and end up sitting in the living room with him and his wife, Carol. They are watching the U.K.'s popular show "Big Brother" which brings up lots of interesting topics of conversation. We ended up talking with Sam and Carol for a good hour or so about Scottish TV shows, a few political issues, various books that Carol recommended and living life on Skye. Eventhough the place was not fancy whatsoever, the hospitality was extraordinary. Sam and Carol both made us feel very welcome and always made sure we were comfortable. Sam seemed to really enjoy making sure his guests knew of the local sites and what the island had to offer. I know I will sleep well here!

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

2004-07-24T23:14:00.000+01:00

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.

Taking on the Highlands and Nighttime Creatures

2004-07-24T22:59:00.000+01:00

We had heard so much about how beautiful the Scottish Highlands were and how we must head up north to experience the beauty. Well, okay, here we go... hitting the roads to the Highlands. First stop, Inverness to experience a larger, more exciting Highland games.

We had seen the Inverness Highland Games advertised in a brochure and assumed that these games were on a more serious and grander scale than the ones we saw in Airth. We wanted to head north and eventually end up on the Isle of Skye so, why not check out the games in Inverness on the way? Oh, and yes, since we probably won't want to drive up to Inverness and Skye all in one day, we should definitely find a campsite in Inverness, camp overnight in Archie's minivan and then proceed on in the morning to Skye.

Well, before actually taking off for Inverness, I did some homework and found what I thought was the perfect camping spot. I found out that the highland games were to be taking place in Bught Park right in Inverness and what better place to find a campsite than one practically around the corner from the park... Bught Park Caravan and Campsite! Perfect! I called the campsite, talked to this man who apparently worked there or at least was a source one could contact to reserve a space and get questions answered. I got directions, sort of, from the guy and I thought all was set. Before leaving Glasgow to head to Inverness, we packed enough clothes to hold us until Tuesday and made sure we had blankets and pillows to use so that we would be warm enough while we slept in the van. Great! This should be fun and it should be easy to find the campsite when we are done at the games!

We drove up to Inverness, which took us about 3 ½ hours to get up there. Drove a little in the rain, had some traffic but overall, the trip wasn't too bad and we did end up getting there in plenty of time to see the afternoon events. We paid our entrance fee and quickly noticed that these highland games were set up pretty much the same way as the games in Airth. It was like going to Airth all over again but this time the park where the games were held was much larger. These games also had various tents you could go in to hear a band play, taste whiskey, see dancing and visit various booths or tables of different Scottish businesses. The same fair games and rides were also going on at these games for the kids to enjoy. We walked around a bit, sort of bored and wondering why the heck we drove all the way for this. Since we did spend 5 pound per person to get into these games, we did decide to stick it out a little longer and check out some of the sporting events that were going on. The weather was wet and cold so we decided to go sit in the covered stands where we would be warmer and also get a better view of the field where many of the sports were taking place. Good choice on our part to sit in the stands. We saw competitions such as tug-of-war, relay races, bike races, the famous caber toss and one event that we particularly favored, the men's weight toss for height competition. Men, who were very large and very strong, took this heavy weight and tossed it overhead behind them, trying to get it over this horizontal pole that would be raised every so often. The barrier started at about 10 feet and then gradually rose until it ultimately got to about 14 feet. These men continued to toss the weight, some being very successful with their tosses. There was this one rather tall guy, who turned out to be the winner, who was very good and seemed to have no trouble getting the weight over the pole. He was rather impressive, to say the least. We stayed for quite awhile and waited until we heard the bagpipes and drums band play during the grand finale.

It was around 5:30PM or so and it was about time we go and find Bught Park Caravan/Campsite. We went back to the van, I took out the paper that had the directions written on it and we took a look on the GPS to figure out where the heck this place is. From the directions the man gave me, it sounded as if you had to drive a little way to get to the campsite and when we looked on the map, the directions he gave really didn't match up with what we saw. Things were a little off. We drove around, trying to find signs that might help us make sense of where we were and where we wanted to go.. nothing seemed to make sense except some of the town names on the signs sort of matched up with directions. As we pulled out of Bught Park, we did manage to see this caravan place in the middle of the city, with RVs and tents practically stacked up on top of eachother. Kids were running around, cars on the road were whizzing by and we both thought this couldn't possibly be the place we were looking for.It just didn't add up. We also saw this indoor water park near the caravan site and I had mentioned to Michael that on the website for Bught Caravan, it mentioned that it was within walking distance to the Aquadome and some sports center. What we saw and what I had read, still weren't adding up. So... we drove around in circles for awhile, getting aggravated, irritated, tired and annoyed. We backtracked back to the park where the games were held, turned near the caravan site that we saw earlier and right in front of us was the sign we had been looking for "Bught Park Caravan". Crap! We had been driving around all this time and the place was right across the street from where we were. Not exactly sure why the man gave me the directions he did and why it didn't register in his head when I told him we were driving to Bught Park to see the Highland game and then to his campsite. It was all very confusing and a huge waste of time! We decide there was NO way we were going to stay at the caravan site and we were going to have to find another alternative.

We went into downtown Inverness and found a restaurant called "McDonagalls" to have some dinner while we figured out what our next move was going to be as far as where we were going to sleep for the night. Camping was still a possibility however I had been fighting a cold for the past few days, I was exhausted, feeling rather ill due to being out in the rainy cold weather and we came to the conclusion that it might be best for us to find an inexpensive hotel or B&B to stay in so that I don't end up getting more sick. Do we find somewhere in Inverness or do we venture out a bit toward Skye and find somewhere? We decided to move forward and find some place with a vacancy and a reasonable price.

Leaving Inverness

By this time, it was getting dark and late, we were driving in places that seemed to have very few accommodations and we were both getting a bit cranky! Not knowing exactly where we were and not having any clue where to search for a place to sleep, we were a bit concerned about our ultimate plans for the night and thought the worse thing that could happen is we pull off the side of the road, if need be and sleep in the van, which wasn't' exactly what I wanted to do. How I wanted desperately to find a place to sleep and was getting to the point that I was willing to pay just about anything to get a decent room.

We did drive and did eventually find some places to check out. We first came to a place way out in the middle of who knows where that had a room for 110 pounds a night... sounds nice but no thanks! We came to another place in a city called Contin. It looked rather empty and closed for the night but decided to see if I could find anyone who might be able to help us. I had no luck opening the door to the hotel so decided to enter the bar area to see if someone in there could tell me who I might talk to about a room. When I entered the bar the few folks who were in there were staring at me and watching every move I made as I asked the bartender who I needed to talk to about accommodations. I know I looked like hell, my eyes were bloodshot due to lack fo sleep, my hair a bit matted down from the rain and I was zipped up completely inside my long raincoat.. I must have been a rather scary sight! I talked to a man who was a bit stuffy and rough around the edges who then directed me to his wife who was in charge booking rooms. I asked about a room, she told me she did have a double room for 88pounds and so I went out to talk it over with Michael. We thought that might be a little more than we wanted to spend but might be open to it if we were unable to find anything else nearby. I asked the lady if we might be able to return in about 10 minutes or so and she rudely told me either I take the room now or leave. That helped me make the decision that we were not going to stay there and that we should press on a little further... we just had to find some place better!

We drove up the road a bit and came across this beautiful Best Western Hotel on this hill in Contin. We had a feeling it was going to be pricey, but at this point, I was willing to pay whatever we had to pay to sleep somewhere warm, clean, and safe. Went inside the hotel and unfortunately, they were all booked for the night. Geesh! The lady was very kind and told me we should head over to the next town of Strathpeffer where there were a number of B&Bs and a newly remodeled hotel that often has rooms available. We drove to Strathpeffer, and the majority of the places we saw had signs stating they had no vacancies! There was a lodge just up a bit that claimed they had vacancies. I went inside looking rather desperate, talked to the woman who ran the lodge with her husband and she told me she was very very sorry but just gave away her last single room to a couple who was also desperate and dead tired. Sounds familiar!!! She was a delightful woman and felt very sorry for me. She said she had been in situations like this before and understood completely how horrible it is to not find an available accommodation. She was determined to find a place for me and ended up spending about 20-30 minutes calling all types of accommodations within the little village of Strathpeffer and its surrounding area. She informed me that there was some sort of bicycling event going on and that is why we were having such a hard time finding a place available. She was so helpful and bent over backward to try and help. She came up empty handed with the exception of The National Hotel,she was a little hesistant to recommend since she had heard it wasn't the best hotel and had heard that music from the bar area was loud. It was over in a nearby town called Dingwall and they claimed to have a double room for 30 pounds per person per night. Fairly cheap, not sure what we were about to get ourselves into but it was worth a shot! So... on to Dingwall!

We get to Dingwall in the dark. It is wet outside, it is now around 11:30 at night and we can't seem to find where the hell this hotel is. It is supposed to be on the main road in the center of town but we aren't able to find the main road at this time of night. We pull into a gas station, ask the attendant, he thankfully knows where this hotel is and proceeds to tell us how to get there. At this point in time, I am so brain tired and can't see straight... nothing, no matter how clear it is, makes sense to me anymore. I am hoping Michael is hearing these directions that the guy is telling me outloud since all I hear is "blah, blah, main road, up over to the right, blah, blah". Excellent! Nothing is processing and by this time I feel like crying... California, home, friends and our own bed sounded oh so good right about now!

Halleluya! We somehow manage to come across The National Hotel. We pull up only to find several drunk people around the hotel.The hotel had an adjacent bar not to mention there were several pubs within the area. I leave Michael in the van while I go check out what this hotel is like and whether or not they actually have a room available. I go in and of course no one is at the reception desk. I see several folks in the bar but no one at the desk. I wait. I ring the bell for assistance. Nothing! Finally, this older man comes out of the bar area, shuffling his feet a bit and looking a little off key. I am just greatful to have gotten anyone's attention and completely disregard the fact that this just might be someone who is not in any condition to help me. I proceed to ask him if he works at the hotel and he mumbles something I am unable to hear. I tell him that I understand he has a double room available and was interested in taking it for the evening. He quickly comes over to me, stands inches away from my face and tells me he sure wishes he had a double room to share with me. By the look of his droopy eyes and slurred speech, I suddenly realize I am talking to a completely blizzed drunk who is coming on to me. Oh goody. Just want I needed at this point! A shouted out a sarcastic "Great!" in his face, he said he'd love to help me out but need to find his own room. He tells me I need to ring the bell. I thanked him and told him I had done that about 5 times already with no luck. All I can think of at this point in time is that this will all soon be over and I will be laughing at this experience at a later point. I was trying to find the humor of it all but it was getting more and more difficult as time went on!! I finally go into the bar area, ask some woman where the person at the desk might be and FINALLY a NORMAL HUMAN BEING comes out to help me. WE FINALLY HAVE A ROOM AND I actually have a key in my hand that will lead us to God only knows!

Of course the hotel has no elevator to use to get our luggage up to the 2nd floor, which is actually the 3rd floor, where our room is located. We park the van, reluctantly, in back of the hotel, grab our load of crap and decide it might work out better if shlep our belongings up the outside stairs of the fire escape to our floor. But of course, as we get to the top, the door is locked, so down we go, to the ground floor and take the steps up to our floor, dragging our belongings behind. We get to our floor but have a lot of trouble finding our room. The layout of the rooms don't seem to be in any logical order and when we finally get to our room it is tucked away up these few stairs in a corner. We unlock the door and I praying we don't find a room with cockroaches or some God awful smelly stinch. I am pleasantly surprised that the room looks decent and the bed looks rather comfy. Had it been a grass mat on the floor, it might have looked comfy to me at this point!!! I was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo tired and just wanted to sleep. We get into bed, thankful to have found a place to sleep, we turn out the lights and Michael seems to have no problem falling asleep. I, hear every drunken person outside, every car passing by, every door closing in the hallway and every person having a loud and lenghthy conversation outside our door. I have a feeling this is going to be a loooooooong and restless night!

I stare at the ceiling and tell myself to keep thinking... this too shall pass and I WILL be able to laugh about this later with friends and family. I MISS HOME!!!! Tomorrow has GOT to be better!

Mr. Jones, Mr. Jones...

2004-07-23T23:53:00.000+01:00

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.

An Evening With Mr. Jones

2004-07-23T18:23:00.000+01:00

Edinburgh again???!!! I know, I know. We have already gone to Edinburgh several days last week however, we HAD to return today in order to attend the Tom Jones concert we have been waiting to go to. Tonight was the night it was going to happen, but much more later in this broadcast -- let me first tell you about the day.

We jumped on the 2:15 train to Edinburgh and upon arriving, went straight to the National Art Gallery to see the exhibits we had not been able to get to, due to the gallery closing, when we went to the gallery last week. There were two exhibits in particular that we wanted to see and made a point of arriving in Edinburgh early enough to stop by the gallery to finish our tour. The first exhibit we wanted to get to was that of the Scottish artists. We viewed many paintings, sketches and watercolors created by many well-known Scottish artists. We also went to the floor that had paintings done by French Impressionist Artists such as Monet, Van Gogh, Degas and Cezanne. Many of the art pieces we looked at are huge and cover large sections of the gallery walls. As you step back and take time to look at the detail in these masterpieces, some actually are so full of detail that they draw you into the picture. I had taken an art history course in college way back when, that I will never forget. It gave me an appreciation for art and what artists convey in their pieces and it has provided me with a manner in which to look at art in a different way than I might have had I not taken the course. I think I enjoyed looking at these remarkable pieces more so than I might have had I not had the experience I had in my college course.

It was getting closer to concert time but we still had time to grab a bite of dinner before we had to head to the show. We ended up back at Rose Street at the same little pub we had eaten once before while in Edinburgh. We ate outside this time around and enjoyed people watching while we ate. Our tickets said the show was to start at 6:30PM, but we were told by the guy who sold us the tickets that the show would actually begin around 7:30. Not knowing what to expect, we decided to head up the Edinburgh Castle Esplanade where the concert was to be held. We took the usual route up the Mound to where we usually would walk to the castle only to be redirected by Police to head up further up the road, turn right and meet up with the rest of the crowd along the Royal Mile. OH MY GOD! When we arrived at the Royal Mile, just shortly after 6:30, the lines had already started forming. These were no puny lines... we are talking huge lines going down, down and further down the Royal Mile. Thousands of people were all lined up ready to see Tom Jones and I have to say, with as many people lined up, it was the most organized, well-controlled crowd I had been in in a long time. When we got to the line, we were fairly far from the entrance to the Esplanade but not as far as some folks who had lined up WAY behind us. The crowd started moving closer to the castle at around 6:40, still in an orderly fashion with no major backups. We entered the Esplanade rather quickly and found our seats which we were rather impressed with AT FIRST. The way the Esplanade is set up, there are seats in the upper stands to the left and right of the stage and way in the back. The stand seating is what we wanted originally being that these seats overlook the stage and there doesn't seem to be a bad seat in these areas. We were told when we purchased our tickets that there weren't any of these seats available and the only seats that were left were on the ground floor or what is better known as "The Stalls". When we got to the seats we were quite close to the stage and were very pleased with what we ended up with. Since we had found our seats so quickly, we still had a good 40 minutes before showtime so we killed time by reading our books and watching people. As time went on, and it got closer to 7:30 we noticed that there were still a lot of seats not filled and were wondering if for some odd reason this wasn't going to be the sell out crowd we expected it to be. We waited and waited a little longer and then around 7:30 the show began, starting with the opening act. For about a half hour, before Tom came on, a band called "The Magnets" performed. Not knowing what to expect and not ever hearing about this band, my first impression was that they MIGHT be entertaining and possibly something to enjoy until the REAL STAR came on. Out came these 6 guys all dressed in black suits with ties, looking rather handsome I must say. If they didn't sound good, at least they would be something to look at! They broke out in their first song and started harmonizing. Uh oh, I though, another Back Street Boys kind of group. I listened some more and realized, as they were getting into their song that although I heard the bass, drums, and an entire rhythm section, I saw no instruments whatsoever! Where the hell was the band? What the???? Absolutely amazing! Not only did these guys sound great, two of the six guys WERE the rhythm section! Yes, there were no instruments anywhere. These two guys, with their own mouths, were making sounds so incredibly unreal you'd swear there was a drum, a bass, symbols, etc. somewhere. We were so impressed that we had to pick up one of their CD's. The guys announced that after the show, the six of them would be hanging out by the souvenir kiosks to sign their CD. We were going to take advantage of this opportunity!!!

The Magnets had done their magic and now it was time to wait a bit more until Tom Jones was to come out. We now noticed that all the seats that had been empty were now all full and the Esplanade was now pretty full, that is EXCEPT for many of the seats still open in the stands. How odd... I thought we were told there weren't any of these left. Oh well, we still have awesome seats. I particularly thought we'd be just fine with our seats because consistently, during the waiting time between performances, there would be an announcement that requested audience members keep umbrellas closed in the event of rain, that no recording or picture taking was allowed and for the safety and courtesy of others, all people should remain sitting during the performance. Awesome! We really do have great seats... NOT!

About 8:30, the one, the only Tom Jones! There he is... got a great view... well, I did have a great view. Suddenly I could see the wave of people starting from the front all the way to our row quickly rise to their feet. All I could see were backs of heads and obnoxious people yelling on their cell phones and waving at their friends who were sitting far away from the stage... lucky people... they could probably see a whole lot better than we probably could at that point.

Tom started to sing a slow song. People sat down. I thought we had it made until, boom! He started up with a faster pace song and it was all over... more heads, more arms flying around and no view of what we came to see. The folks who were sitting next to us suddenly left... probably to find better seats. There aren't many things that get me really upset but the more people stood up, the more I was getting really annoyed. Michael suggested we go up to the stands and try and grab some seats up there since it was clear that many of the seats up there were not sold. I was a little hesitant at first to give that a go but certainly wasn't going to stand for paying 40 pounds to see a bunch of heads bobbing in front of me. Okay... let's go find the better seats!

We proceeded up the stands, went up the stairs that lead to the stand seats and was greeted by one of the security people asking to see our tickets. I told her we did not have tickets for this section and was very upset that we paid what we did to not see Tom Jones. She told us she could not allow us up in the stands and that if we wanted to either get a refund or exchange our tickets we could go down to the box office which was way down at the bottom of the Royal Mile and try to get new tickets. Nope, not an option. We wanted to speak to someone who could help us. After a little more pleading and explaining our frustration, the security gal told us if we got off the stairs there would be a lady from the box office in a second to talk to us. She did show up, we grabbed her and told her our story and she immediately told us to go up and find seats to our liking. Whew!

Found some good seats and had a great view not only of Tom Jones, but Edinburgh Castle all lit up. Now this is what I call good seating. We waved at Tom as he waved up to the stands and we were able to stand up and dance when we wanted without bothering others around us and vice versa. We had terrific views of crazy folks having a grand old time throwing underwear at Tom, of people in the stands holding signs of various sorts and even a guy in the floor seating who completely stripped down to his birthday suit (I, unfortunately didn't catch this but Michael saw this bold fan!) There were these woman who were each wearing a t-shirt that had a word on it. When they stood together and were in the correct order they spelled out "We love you Tom. Blow a kiss!" They were really into is. When Tom sang "What's New Pussycat?" a fan, who was dressed as a cat, went down to the bottom of the stand area so Tom could see her clearly. That was rather cute! There were all kinds there of all ages and it was fun to see so many people really get into the concert. As the concert went on, it was evident that security could care less whether or not folks were taking pictures. There were so many people with cameras taking pictures, despite the many announcements that were made telling everyone no photographs of any kind were allowed. I was afraid that our camera would be taken away if we took any pictures but so many folks around us were, right in front of security, that we figured it might be okay. We did get a couple of good shots, which was rather exciting!

It was a great show and Tom Jones, whatever age he is, still has the strong, deep voice, still has the charm and still has that sexy charisma. The guy is good! He sang many songs that neither Michael nor I recognized however, he did sing many old and some new songs that we did know so all in all, the show was rather amazing! At the end of the concert, when Mr. Jones said his good nights and thanked Edinburgh for coming, he went off stage and from where we were sitting we could see the back of the stage where some of the trailers were that might have been used for make-up or changing rooms. As Tom was exiting to go back stage, we could see him come out of a bottom opening off the stage that led to the back. Some fans around us yelled at him, he turned around and several of us were able to wave and give some extra good-byes as he waved back. Too bad we didn't capture that on camera!

Before heading back to the train station, as planned, we stopped by where all the souvenirs were being sold and stumbled through the crowd to find at least one of the Magnets to sign our CD.

We were able to find both Colin Griffith Brown and Andy Frost, the two amazing guys who are the rhythm section of the group, and had them both sign our CD.

An amazing night an amazing concert. Now off to bed to get some amazing sleep, I hope, in order to start fresh tomorrow and begin yet another amazing adventure!

A Trip To Ayr

2004-07-22T16:28:00.000+01:00

Today,another adventure away from Glasgow BUT first, we must start the day with a long awaited lovely cup of tea with Phoebe, the English neighbor across the street. We headed over to her place around 10:45AM only to be welcomed by none other than Phoebe herself... rather tattered looking, full head of hair in her face. She apologized for her attire, which I though suited her perfectly since I perceive her as being the "busy mum" who is doing about 5 things at once. She invited us downstairs where her main kitchen area is located and we settled in at her table, ready for some good conversation. Her 5-year-old daughter, Molly, was at the table when we arrived, looking quite cute in her pajamas, which she was still dressed in and which Mom was trying to get her to change out of for the 2 hours or so we were there. When we got our tea, we noticed Phoebe had put milk in it without asking our preference. Although I rarely drink milk with my tea while in the states, I do like drinking my tea that way and had forgotten that many people in England drink "white tea". Makes sense that Phoebe would automatically assume that we wanted milk, since she is originally from London and probably assumes everyone drinks tea this way.

We spent about 2 hours chatting with Phoebe and occasionally her high-energy husband, Dominic, who dashed in for a bit with fast food breakfast for his family and then out again to take care of work related issues (he is a local media personality who apparently writes TV reviews for one of the papers and does some radio announcing, we think). Both Phoebe and Dominic are a kick in the pants and have a terrific sense of humor. So down to earth, so honest about everything... they tell it like it is, without withholding a thing! We talked about everything from the housing market in Scotland vs. the US/Bay Area, schools, and individual backgrounds. It was a delightful way to start the day.

We left about 12:30 and headed out to the town of Ayr (pronounced "Air"), which not only is a pretty town but is also the birthplace of Scottish poet, Robert Burns. When we got into town, we headed toward the city center to find, the tourist office. We found signs that showed the general direction as to where the office was but it seemed that parking was going to be a bit of a hassle since it looked to us that the tourist office was located down a pedestrian only area. We drove around, and around, and around, and around (literally!!!) the same block to find parking. We finally did find a space but discovered that in order to park on the street one had to find a local shop that sold "parking vouchers". We walked up and down the street in search of a shop that might sell one of these vouchers to us, but came up empty handed, ironically enough. You'd think that if these vouchers are necessary for parking in the area, that more shops would sell them. Apparently, not the case! So.. we got back in the car, drove some more up and down the block and luckily found a space that surprisingly enough, had a beauty salon right next to it that advertised that they sold parking vouchers inside... AMEN!

Once we got our parking situation all squared away, we walked around the center of town toward the tourist info office. The town of Ayr is cute and as with many Scottish cities we had experienced, had a very old feeling to it. I enjoyed the city, but not as much as many of the other ones we had been to. When we arrived at the tourist information office, we asked the man that was working there if he could advise us of what we might be able to see since we had arrive in Ayr on the later side and many things in the next several hours of our arrival were going to close. He was very nice and told us we should probably spend our time over at the Robert Burns National Heritage Park in Alloway. It is in this park that visitors will find the cottage where Burns was born, the Robert Burns Museum and Gardens. Not far from the park is the Tam O'Shanter Experience (this is a character that Burn wrote about in one of his works)and the Burns Monument. We got to the park and decided that we really only had enough time to check out the cottage and the museum and so we did.

The Burns cottage was sort of neat to go through although it took all of about 10 minutes at most. It consisted of about 4 small rooms and had a fair audio recording of the telling of how life was like for Burns and his family while they lived in the cottage. From the cottage, we walked along the garden area that was located adjacent to the cottage. There was a pathway that led us to the Cottage Museum, which we spent some time in and found very interesting. The museum had actual manuscripts of Burns's work... from some of his very famous poems, tales songs to letters he wrote to various people, especially his love, Mary Campbell. The museum did a great job letting about Burns's life as a child all the way until his death at age 37.

From the museum, we walked down the road to see if we had any chance of seeing some of the other Burns attractions. Unfortunately, due to the time we arrived in Ayr and the time we spent at the cottage and museum, we were not able to see some of the other related Burns exhibits that were part of the Heritage Park.

So, we drove back down to the City Center of Ayr and this time around, we found parking to me MUCH easier, with no voucher required to park in the area we found. W. By the time we got back to the center of town, many of the shops and restaurants that were previously open, were now closed. The town seems rather deserted and dead, with not a whole lot going on. I guess when closing time hits, the town virtually shuts down and everyone heads home for the evening! We strolled a long the streets for a bit and then took our journey across one of the small bridges that took us to a walk along the river that went through the city. I am still not exactly sure which river we were walking along but regardless of the name, we enjoyed the scenery that lied before us. There were beautiful swans swimming along the river, the silhouettes of the old town buildings and church steeples rose about the river, giving a feeling of history. We took some time to sit on a bench that was on the river walk and enjoyed the feeling of the sunshine hitting our backs and the view of the river glistening in the sun.

From the river, we crossed a large foot bridge that took us back to the center of the city and we headed back to our car. We really weren't ready to head back to Glasgow quite yet and weren't ready for dinner either. What we really wanted to do is to take advantage of the sunshine that we still left and find a nice place outside to read our books and possibly enjoy a drink. We found the Carleston Hotel right across the street from where we parked the van and noticed it had a nice patio out in front to sit and enjoy the outdoors. We ordered our pints of ale and cider (not being much of a beer drinker, I have "fancied" the various ciders that many of the pubs carry)and read a bit on the patio. We sat for awhile, the cider going right to my head (doesn't take much for me to get buzzed on alcohol... WHAT A LIGHT WEIGHT!)and decided it was time to go when the sun decided to be uncooperative and hide behind the clouds that were forming in the sky. The wind picked up a bit too and what was a pleasant day of warmth and sunshine, turned into a cold and cloudy evening! It was time to pack up and drive back to Glasgow!!

By the time we reached Glasgow, it was beyond dinnertime and we were VERY hungry. Not knowing where we were going to find a restaurant that would be open, we did recall seeing a place downtown that we wanted to try called "Spice Garden". Lucky for us, Spice Garden was open until something crazy like 4:00AM. We entered the restaurant to be greeted immediately by an Indian gentleman that could have possibly been the owner. He was very happy that we took the time to come to Spice Garden and did everything possible to make sure we were comfortable and understood the HUGE menu. The menu was rather overwhelming and had all kinds of Indian, Italian and European dishes. The atmosphere was a little odd in a sort of entertaining way. Neon lights lit many of the archways around the windows, there were neon lights shining over the bathroom doors... a blue male figure for the mens' bathroom and a pink female figure for the women's' bathroom. We particularly thought it was funny to see music videos projected on the wall over the bathrooms with music playing in the background that did not correlate whatsoever with what was being shown on the wall. While Brittany Spears was on the wall, Tom Jones was playing in the background... strange! The best part of the restaurant environment was that the place was located sort of off the beaten path of the center of downtown and was placed right directly underneath train tracks. These tracks are used on a consistent basis and while we were eating, many trains traveled across the track above us and shook the entire restaurant. The first time it happened, it was a bit unsettling until we realized what it was! Despite the peculiar atmosphere, the food and service were fantastic. We really enjoyed our Indian food (I had some sort of mixed vegetable dish that was excellent and Michael enjoyed this terrific lamb dish that had a sumptuous curry type sauce).

When we left Spice Garden, we noticed that we were so close to the Glasgow Bridge that leads traffic from the outer parts of Glasgow into the City Center. We had crossed over the bridge so many times at night on buses and vowed to come back to the bridge at night either by car or bike to take pictures when it was all lit up. We were excited to see we were just a walk away from the bridge and better yet, we had our camera with us! We took the time to take some spectacular bridge pictures and were very excited to finally get the opportunity to get some great shots at night.

Another delightful day gone, another exciting day ahead for tomorrow. Come back tomorrow and read about our return to Edinburgh complete with an evening with Tom Jones! Until then...

House tour

2004-07-21T23:56:00.000+01:00

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.

The Burrell Collection

2004-07-21T19:40:00.000+01:00

We took it nice and easy and lounged around the house for the better part of the morning. Since I felt a lot better today and we never really left the house the past two days, we decided we needed to get out of the house for at least a little while. We had been told that where we are staying is not far at all from The Pollok County Park, which houses both the Burrell Collection and the Pollok House. We drove over to the park sort of on the later side of the afternoon so we really only got to go through the Burrell Collection Museum. Of particular interest to us a temporary exhibit on all the different Chinese art pieces Sir William Burrell had collected over time.

We browsed around the museum and saw the huge collection of art artifacts that Burrell collected from all over the world. In the first room we entered, we saw various stone sculptures, reliefs and vessels from Egypt. We walked through a room that had ancient Greek and Roman vases, sculptures and jewelry. The Gothic Art room consisted of a small collection of religious art from medieval times such as wood sculptures, precious metalwork and ivory carvings. There were wooden church furnishings in this area as well..these were rather large and full of detail.
We saw stained glass hanging in one room that has lights behind the glass to bring out the color and there were other pieces of stained glass in one of the hallways that had the natural light of the outdoors shining through the colorful glass pieces. Around the corner, was an impressive room of European armor and weapons that date back from the 13th to the 17th century. My favorite room was the tapestry gallery. In this gallery hung GIGANTIC wall tapestries of various subjects. These were massive and full of rich detail. I needed to sit back from many of them to really take a good look at everything that was going on in each tapestry in order to take to take in the story that was told through each hanging. One other very interesting display of Burrell's collection was the Islamic Art Gallery. It is in here that one will find a collection of carpets and rugs from the Muslim world as well as early Islamic ceramics and metalwork. Many of the artefacts come from areas stetching from Turkey to India and date from the 9th to the 19th century. To complete our walk through the collection, we ended on the top floor looking at the paintings Burrell included in his collection. His collection consisted of works by French 19th century artists such as Degas, Cezanne and Boudin.

We had had enough art for one day and decided to see if we could get into the Pollok House just up the road within the park. Unfortunately, we arrive at the house just a little after 4:30, which is the last time folks can enter the house for the day. Oh well... not something we felt we HAD to see.

It was getting close to an early dinner hour and since we were fairly close, we returned to Battlefield Rest, which is a little Italian place we had gone to before. In a previous blog entry it was mentioned that this little place has once been a tram station long ago. It is cute and quaint and has a very friendly atmosphere. I had a delicious vegetable crepe and Michael has this very good Margarita and caramelized onion pizza. We both enjoyed their homemade minestrone soup for starters. As we were getting ready to leave, one of the waiters asked us our nationality. When we told him we were from America he seemed rather surprised and informed us he though we were Norwegian or Scandinavian. This certainly was the first time I had been indentified as something other than American... it was kinda neat!

Stopped off across the street to see if Phoebe, one of the very sweet and generous neighbors, was available for a cup of afternoon tea. She seemed rather frazzled and told us her newborn son was having quite a day and that tomorrow would be a much better day for a visit. We hope it will work out to spend time with her, her sweet daughter, Molly and her baby son. It would be a great way to start another wonderful day in Scotland. We also hope to scope out the city of Ary, as we have been told this is quite a lovely place to see. We'll see how the day goes and will let you know what we ended up doing in tomorrow's blog entry.

We appologize for this temporary interruption...

2004-07-20T17:35:00.000+01:00

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.

BUMMMER!

2004-07-19T22:22:00.000+01:00

Caught a Scottish cold... they aren't much different from American ones. I guess today will be spent resting and trying some good old American remedies... soup, tea and lots of o.j.! Hopefully, tomorrow all will be better!

A New Experience

2004-07-18T20:50:00.000+01:00

In one of the many travel brochures we have collected, we noticed that their was an announcement that mentioned something about Highland Games in Falkirk, which is relatively close by to Glasgow. Not knowing anything about Highland Games or what even happens at one, I thought it would be a kick to go and see if we could find these games. It seems as though there are Highland Games of some sort all over Scotland, some on a very large scale, some much smaller. We had no idea what to expect at these games so it was worth at least trying to see if we could find them.

Our first frustration of the day was not being able to find anything that showed where North Green Park was in the town in Airth. In fact, where the hell is Airth (EER-TH) anyway? Well, it we did seem to find where the small nothing town was ( I guess the consider it Falkirk or a part of Falkirk) but nothing helped us find the park. We decided we had nothing better to do so we hopped in the van and headed out towards Stirling because both Falkirk and Airth are very close to Stirling. We were driving not really knowing where the heck we were going and Michael's GPS was no help since it seemed to be running low on its battery. We continued following signs toward Stirling, making contingency plans to spend time in Stirling if we were unable to find Airth. Of course, to top off everything, we hit a place on the motorway where they were doing major construction and sat in traffic for a good 20-30 minutes.

We somehow, surprisingly enough, found Airth and since it is so small, we were able to find signs that led us to the Airth games. As we drove to the car park, we saw that we really weren't driving to what we know as a park... it was actually a huge field. The games were held on this huge grassy area, nothing like what we would consider a park to be. As we entered through the entrance gate, we were bombarded with what lied before us. I couldn't stop laughing at what I saw! There was so much going on all at the same time it was a little overwhelming at first. You had bike racers riding their bikes around the outer circumfrence of the field, runners were running on the same track, in the middle of the field there was a corner where there where young ladies competing in highland dancing, at another part of the field these huge men were throwing heavy weights around and then there was the tug-of-war teams pulling the rope back and forth. It was absolutely crazy but quite interesting. I wouldn't say this was a huge event; it was more like the local community highland games... with games and rides for the kiddies as well. Oh and yes, of course, plenty of food booths were there. Since we hadn't had lunch, we figured we would pick up something at the games. I was a little hesitant as most of the food that was there was high in grease or drenched in sauce. I was happy to find a sign at one of the food booths that said they had "chicken wraps".. PERFECT! I felt this might be the more healthier alternative available at the time. Well, let me just say that the Scottish chicken wrap definitely ISN'T close to what I would consider an American wrap to be. I watched the lady prepare my wrap and almost cringed at what she was doing to my poor wrap! At first things looked okay. I saw lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes being placed in the tortilla... all good! Uh oh, then came the fried battered chicken pieces followed by some sort of salsa sauce, cheese, and the BIG UH OH... MAYONAISE!! Mayo seems to be a well-used condiment around here. I guess I have learned you have to be careful for what you ask for. I should have settled for the chicken burger!

We stayed for quite awhile at the games. Met a cute poodle named Casper, talked to Casper's owner, huddled under one of the tarps where this man who was trying to sell various types of clothing was getting very upset with all of us for coming into his area to try and get out of the sudden pouring rain! The rain blew over rather rapidly and we continued to watch the various sports and dances. We even caught this guy doing a brief show with his eagle which was pretty fascinating. Glad we stayed at long as we did because I felt we were able to see so much of all the various things that were going on (even caugh bagpipe competitions and a band of bagpipers!). We plan, later on, to head up to Inverness to catch some other Highland Games that we anticipate will be a much larger venue! That should be interesting to see and to compare with Airth's little event!

We headed back to the homestead and relaxed a bit and had some dinner. Then around 8:00PM we went over to Daniel and Patricia's house. These folks are friends of some friends of our who graciously invited us over for drinks and tea. What an absolutely delightful couple. We talked quite about about politics, Scottish culture, sites we haven't yet seen and got to know eachother. They are very nice people with such hospitality. Daniel is quite a character.. he is quite a history buff! Daniel and Patricia are both Jewish and advised us to go to one of Scotland's oldest synagogues, Garnet Hill. Patricia's mother, in fact, is the Vice President of the synagogue and she said she would try and arrange a tour if we so desired. Maybe not a tour, but depending on time, we may join Daniel, and his 1o month old son, Jacque, for services before we leave Scotland. We'll see!

Our first Highland Games

2004-07-18T17:01:00.000+01:00

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.

Down day

2004-07-17T16:59:00.000+01:00

Saturday we caught up on sleep, laundry and cleaned up a bit around the house. We also made plans to to go to a Highland Games tomorrow, which sounded very exciting.

What Castle?

2004-07-16T19:10:00.000+01:00

Yes, as Michael had indicated in his entry, we were bound and determined to use our passport travel tickets to check out yet another castle right outside of Edinburgh. When checking with the lady in the tourist office as to what the best way to get to the castle, she gave me the impression that there were loads of buses in the heart of Edinburgh that would take us directly to Craigmillar Castle.

Not knowing really where we were going and looking probably very lost as we were traveling along on the bus, the natives reassured us that we were heading in the right direction. Bless his heart, this kind older gentleman told us to get off at this particular bus stop and to ask anyone around how to get to the castle, they would know. Well, actually, that wasn't quite correct. We immediately asked the first people we saw where the castle was and how to get there. They both looked at us and in their very heavy accents said, "Castle? Castle? There is the castle in Edingburgh! No Castle... Castle in Edinburgh!" They were convinced that the only castle around was the one we already had visited. We tried to explain that we were fully aware of the Edinburgh Castle but we really just wanted to find Craigmillar. They seemed very perplexed about our questions and told us to enter the road across the street from the bus stop that just happened to have signs that said "Craigmillar Gardens". Well, at least it we knew we had to be close if the sign had the name "Craigmillar" on it.

Craigmillar Gardens? You've got to be kidding! No gardens or castle anywhere here. We were now entering a low income housing project that had seen better days and from our lack of success at the bus stop, we weren't about to ask the neighborhood locals where the castle was.
We walked and walked and eventually saw the castle on the hill (how anyone around this place couldn't have known it existed, is beyond me). We couldn't quite figure out just how to get there so we followed odd paths that led us up hills, through trees, in large fields and wha-la... we finally got to Craigmillar!

Quite an interesting place. I think Michael did a great job telling a little about the place and providing great pictures to show you how very different it was to some of the MAJOR castles we had already seen. It wasn't much to look at but I was glad we made the stop to see it. It certainly gave us another taste at what the differences of castles can be like. While walking through the various entry ways and up and down steps, I couldn't help thinking about how wonderful a place it is for kids to play hide and seek! That is when we saw the kids dressed in their "armor", sheilds in hand, having a great time protecting THEIR castle!

Aside from seeing Craigmillar, our other mission of the day was to get tickets to the Tom Jones concert on the 23rd. You might be asking, why in the world would two 37 year old Americans want to go see Tom Jones??? Well, we had the option of getting tickets to see Donny Osmond or Cliff Richards but neither of these guys, we felt, were worth the cost of a ticket. For those of you who only associate Tom Jones with his older stuff such at "What's Up Pussycat" or "It's Not Unusual", we should inform you that he has recently made a come back with some new music that has a new sound and that appeals to "the younger crowd". He is quite the hip singer that usually draws an audience that spans across generations! He is also Welsh, so we figured , although he is not Scottish, being Welsh or Irish is the next best thing as far as seeing a "local" performer! Best of all, we will be seeing him at the Edinburgh Castle Esplanage which happens to be the same place that the Military Tatoo happens. What a fabulous place for a concert... I am REALLY excited about this event.

I was happy to see that Michael found some really cool shoes. He has been wanting to go to the Clarks Shoe Store in Glasgow to buy some really comfy shoes however, while we were in Edinburgh, the Clarks store was having a 1/2 off sale so we hit that at a perfect time!

Walking around Edinburgh was relaxing. As Michael shared in this write up, we came across Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs drinking and smoking outside one of the local pubs. We were curious what the occasion was for "dressing up". I went up to the ladies and asked if Snow White was the bachelorette of the evening, thinking this may be some kind of bachelorette party. Snow White sort of laughed at me and quickly corrected me by telling me that she was celebrating her 40th birthday. I asked if we could take their picture, then ran out of the way just in time for Snow White and her Dwarfs to call me back to join them in the picture! What a great way to turn 40! Hmmm... 2 years to go for me.... maybe I will dress up as some character and make my friends wear silly costumes around San Jose!

We had an enjoyable dinner at a local pub and I was glad I finally got my fix of a good vegetable stir-fry. He had a leisurely dinner as we had time to kill before heading to The Stand comedy theater.

We still had time to kill before the comedy show so we wandered down the road closer to where the show was going to be and found a park. The sun was shining, the wind was blowing slightly and we really just wanted to go into the park and relax for a bit before heading to the show. The gates all around the park were locked so we decided to sit on a curb near the park. Michael continued reading his Bill Clinton book and I just watched the cars and people go by. Glasgow is certainly a great place for people watching. Not that much was going on but it was fun just to watch the going ons of the early evening hours.

7:30 PM -- it was time to start heading to the the comedy shop. We get there and realize that we have another hour and a half to kill before the 9:00PM show starts. Oh well, more opportunity for people watching. We watched the crowd for awhile and for a time, it seemed as though Michael and I were the oldest people there. As time went on and it got closer to the start of the show, the crowd started to vary quite a bit. There were older people, younger people and mid aged folks. When the show started, the hostess of the show, did a great job letting everyone know what an international audience there was that night. A family from Canada, with mom being Dutch, was sitting in front of us. Some lasses from Ireland were there as well as ladies fro, Austraila. Then there were folks from England who got picked on quite a bit along with the folks from Glasgow. It is quite apparent that there is quite a clash of heads between the English and Scottish and even between Glasgow people and the people of Edinburgh. It rather amusing seeing the rivalry between these groups. As Americans, we got picked on quite a bit too. We were accused of being vegetable and fruit freaks and having a tremendous influence on many cultures, especially British culture, around the world. As Michael said, the gay comedian from SF was really the only one who made reference to American politics and culture... he was pretty lame but it was sort of neat listening to him make jokes about things that happen in the Bay Area.

at 11:15PM we dashed out of the comedy place in order to catch the last train to Glasgow which left at 11:30. We were only about a 10 minute walk to the train station so there wasn't too big of a worry not catching the train. It did mean we had to leave when this very funny guy from Ireland was doing his gig and we couldn't dawdle much... we had to walk rather quickly to make sure we weren't going to have to spend the night in Edinburgh!

Big plans

2004-07-16T15:23:00.000+01:00

Today we had a plan. We were going ot make the most of the Historical Passports we purchased by visiting at least two sites—Craigmillar Castle and Lilinthgow Castle. We also wanted to go back to Edinburgh. Now Lilinthgow is a bit outside of Edinburgh so this time we waited in the queue for the ticket counter to find out how to get there most economically. It turns out that when you buy a ticket to a destination, it is also good for route. So all we had to do is buy the same tickets we had been buying and get off at Lilinthgow. Then, we could get back on the train and end up at Edinburgh. What a deal. Even better, we were just on time to get a train and we were off straight-away.

However, for some reason the train didn't “feel right” to either of us. This was probably because we have been reading, sleeping or talking, on the train and not looking out all that much. It turned out that the train would take us to Edinburgh, but it did not stop at Lilinthgow. We could have gotten off and gone back a couple of stations, but we would have spent some time doing that and we were worried about spending that much time so we just went on to Edinburgh.

When we arrived, we wanted around the train station a bit. Laurie wanted to use the bathroom but we didn't have the proper change. We went up to the tourist information center to find out how to get to Craigmillar Castle. Turns out there were several buses to take and we found our way over to one after getting a bit lost first.

It wasn't for the worse however, first, we saw our second bag pipe player. Next, we found the Tattoo store and decided to get the video for the Tattoo. Unfortunately we will miss it because it sold out almost 2 months ago and it doesn't take place until after we leave. The video is really good, but I am going ot try to exchange it because it seems to be somewhat damaged. Sometime we will have to come back to see the Tattoo. It looks like a really amazing event.

We got an all day bus pass for £2 we could ride around as much as we liked in Edinburgh. Now there are several bus companies and if we had been more thoughtful, we should have chosen First because it also runs here in Glasgow and we might have been able to use the all day pass to get home the same night—but we aren't certain it would have been honored in any case. A side note, we later met some friends of our friend Franklin and they remarked that as good as the public transportation is, locals complain that there isn't a unified transportation system as there is on the continent so you can't take a bus to an underground, etc. Rather, each are separate and so a journey adds up sometimes. Still, transportation is so much better than it is back in the US.

We found the bus and after a short wait we were off to Craigmillar Castle. We rode the bus in a direction we hadn't been previously. Eventually a couple of locals realized we were looking for something and asked if we needed assistance. They told us to be patient that the bus would get us there shortly. Sure enough, a few miles up the road, the man said to get off at this stop and ask the people at the stop how to find the castle. There were a couple of women there, who had very think accents and were obviously not wealthy. We asked them where we would find Craigmillar Castle and they sort of just laughed. This didn't exactly give us comfort, nor was it helpful. On the apartment building other side of the road we saw a sign for “Craigmillar Court”. This was obviously a low-income housing project of some sort ironically named after a castle. There appeared to be something up on the hill that could be a castle so we headed on. In a block o so we saw an entrance to “Craigmillar Gardens” and we entered thinking it might get us to the castle, or at least closer to. We took a dirt road/hiking path to where it terminated at some kind of recycling plant. Now this was very odd indeed! We followed a path somewhat toward where we had come from, but up the hill for about half a mile. This couldn't have been the way we were intended to go, but we were determined to see the castle. Eventually we found Craigmillar Castle.

Like Dumbarton Castle, this is not one of the major spots to see. Even in its heyday this wasn't a major locale. As with most of the places we visited, the signage was good, although none of the castles or historical sites have included a brochure with the cost of admission.

Craigmillar is now somewhat in ruins. If we had such a thing, I would like to think it would be preserved, but there are so many more significant historical sites that there is only so much appreciation and attention a minor site like this gets. The castle had been remodeled a half a dozen times as its different owners chose. Even in the ruins, you can see doors and windows filled in with stone and relocations of kitchens three of four times. There was some precautions taken for safety but no where near as much as the threat of lawsuits would require in the US.

The Castle is treated almost as a local park would be in the US. We met some kids who were having a great time protecting this castle from all manor of dragons and dangerous knights.

Seeing castles in varied condition gives an interesting perspective into how they are built. For example, several Craigmillar bedrooms were outfitted with several “latrine closets”. These were plumbing free because they emptied right onto the wall of the castle. No doubt this, would be a security measure—who would scale this castle wall?

As we left we found our way to the bus the way we should have come in the first place. It turns out that the well-meaning person on the bus had told us to get off a stop or two early.

Next we went to the ticket office to get tickets for the Tom Jones concert which will be held at Edinburgh Castle right where the Tattoo is held. This should be a spectacular show next Friday. Next, we intended to go back to the National Gallery as we had only seen the ground floor and there are at least three more to see. However, it was getting late and we were tired again from all the walking. We had a drink and wanted around Rose Street which is a nice pedestrian path. Laurie found a ring she linked at a street vendor while I investigated an Internet cafe. Apparently the rate is variable based on how busy they are. When I popped in, it was like £1.50 for an hour. Along the way we saw some interesting things. There were a group of women celebrating a 40^th birthday . You have to see for yourself.

We continued enjoyed more of downtown for a bit , grabbed dinner, and waited for a bit waiting for a comedy show just down the corner from the train station.

The show was very interesting. The food in the club/bar seemed pretty good, although we didn't try it since we had already eaten. The comedians gave us a bit of a hard time for being American, but they gave some English a much worse time. In fact, the only comedian to touch upon current events was a gay American comedian from San Francisco. Unfortunately, we had to leave before the headliner finished his act because the last train was at 23:30. We made it home fine, although we had to take a cab because the bus service had terminated for the evening.

Ring, Ring, Ring...

2004-07-15T18:49:00.000+01:00

The day in Edinburgh was a lot of fun and we enjoyed going through both the National Portrait Gallery and most of the National Art Gallery. It was VERY unfortunate that Michael has misplaced his ring as it is very hard to really enjoy the day when something like that consistently surfaces in your brain to the point that you are unable to think of anything else. As hard as we tried to forget about it until we got home, it was a challenge letting go.

When we were finished with the National Art Gallery, we noticed we had missed an entire section of Scottish art and unfortunately, didn't have time to check that out since the gallery was closing. We know we will be returning to Edinburgh again soon so we can always catch that exhibit later.

All's well that ends well. THANK GOD I found Michael's wedding ring! I was getting to the point of accepting that it was lost forever and that he would have to replace it but that just wouldn't have been the same ... it wouldn't have been THE WEDDING RING! Anyway, the day ended on a great note and we both were now able to sleep well!

Lord of the ring...

2004-07-15T13:38:00.000+01:00

Today was another fun, busy day in Edinburgh. As usual, we took a train from Queen's Street Station in Glasgow to the end of the line in Edinburgh. We learned that we don't need to wait in line to buy tickets—they have ATM style machines that are much faster and great if you don't have any questions to ask.

We had coffee and muffins on the train and arrived about noon. After another brief stop in the tourist information, we set out along the Royal Mile and saw the old part of the city. So many buildings have so much history. One building had an interesting origin—the result of a golf game.

Eventually we reached the end of the Royal Mile at the Hollyrood Palace. This is actually an official residence of the Queen when she visits Scotland. It is very impressive, well kept, and has a great deal of history. I was very taken with the fountain in the courtyard.

The one exception is the abbey next to the palace. It was destroyed because it had been used as a Catholic church and I suspect that there was no motivation to restore it for that reason.

Again, pictures weren't allowed in some sections of the Palace, but we got some good ones and got another book. I really enjoyed the palace. We ran into an excellent tour guide who was giving a private tour. We listened in on part of her talk and I was amazed at her detailed knowledge of the history of the Royal families, the art, furniture, and everything about the castle. Those folks were getting their monies worth!

Next we headed back up the Royal Mile which runs from Hollyrood Palace to Edinburgh Castle and stopped at the base of the Mound at the National Portrait Museum. The building was purpose built as a gallery and is another amazing building. It houses a nice collection of art.

While I was admiring one picture, I noticed the ring the man was wearing and instinctively felt around for my wedding ring. This is a pretty natural instinct, I think. The problem was, my ring wasn't on my finger. My mind started to race to remember when I had it last. Now I should say that I have thought about taking it off several times, but had resisted because I didn't want to chance loosing it. At home, I take it off often, but I thought it best to leave it on while here. I said something to Laurie who got a panicked look on her face. I remembered that earlier I had dropped a coin in the street and it made a noise. I retrieved it and we went on our way. Now I wondered if my ring had slipped off my finger at the same time. I could not imagine why that would be so, my ring fits snugly—but fingers swell and shrink with temperature, humidity, etc. and I feared that the ring had come off and I hadn't noticed. Since there was nothing to be done now about the ring, we finished our visit to the gallery and went on to other things but my mind was stuck on what might have happened to the ring. I didn't remember taking it off, but I couldn't remember if I had it on when we left the house either. I kept thinking about a time when I jumped into a pool and my class ring came off and I didn't notice for about 30 minutes. Lucky for me, my friend Dave Bloom found the ring while playing water polo.

We were both really tired of walking and I was anxious to to take advantage of a sale at the Clark's shoe store we had passed the day before. I found a couple of great deals on shoes and slipped on a pair for the rest of the day. Just changing shoes made my feet feel much better.

Next went on to the National Gallery just accross the street which is open late on Thursdays. Actually, many of the galleries are open late on Thursdays which is really handy. They have a wonderful collection at the Scottish National Gallery. We saw many paintings by both well known and lessor-known painters. Many that are older than our country and yet displayed plainly without fan faire. No ropes, no glass…just the occasional guard and humidity meter.

When they were closing we walked out to see "what was on" for dinner. We checked our handy restaurant guide which is on loan to us from one of our neighbors. We were really tired of walking and hungry so we weren't making a decision very fast. A guard started towards us and I assumed he was going to ask us to leave. But no, this is Scotland and people are friendly. He spent 15 minutes or so giving us suggestions for dinner and then told us that he had to lock the closer gate (which went up some amazingly steep stairs) but we could get out the side gate which is actually closer to where we wanted to head anyway.   What a delightful man.

We walked a bit further—always finding new things like the fact that John Muir was born in Edinburgh. Finally we found a middle eastern place that looked okay. I had a roasted lamb with chicken liver and rice and Laurie had a delicious chic pea stew type dish.   She made the better choice I think—the lamb was good, but I was tired and kept thinking about my ring. After dinner we decided to call it a night—we still had a 45 minute train ride back and a bus ride—about an hour's journey and we had been walking all day. Everywhere you walk in Edinburgh and Glasgow is pretty much granite so after a while your feet hurt.

When we got home, I dashed up stairs to see if, by some chance I had taken my ring off before going to bed. On the way home I had half convinced myself that I had…but it was equally possible it was lost on the street in Edinburgh that morning and I'd never see it again.   I looked around and didn't find it. I called the insurance company to see if it was covered. If it had been stolen, it would have been covered, but "mysterious loss" wasn't covered. I wasn't surprised because I think I had decided that my ring could be replaced and so self-insurance was a better bet than the premium. Laurie's ring is covered for "the works" because it is worth a lot more than mine. I determined that the next day we'd stop by the Edinburgh police department and file a report in the unlikely event that someone was honest enough to turn it in. Then, I spent some time registering for a Computer Forensics program I am planning on pursuing when I return home.   The SMCC registration site is pretty poor. Several things don't work properly or require that you go back and forth between multiple web pages to complete a process. In the end, I passed the first test—I am registered for 12 units that begin 3 days after I arrive back at home. I am pretty excited about this, even though I haven't had time to research exactly what the job opportunities are after completing the program. However, it involves law and computers which both interest me. Although there were rumors that the market is up, the little bit of news I have read while gone is that there is more bad news. I am not excited about the current prospects and want to find something new to pursue—even if it means starting over to some extent.

As I finished my registration, Laurie came downstairs to tell me that she was going to make my day. Now every husband likes to hear those words, but they could mean a lot of things.  In this case, she meant something very specific— she had found my ring in the sheets of the bed. Apparently I had slipped it off in my sleep the night before. Even though the ring could have been replaced, I was very happy to have found it!

More on the castle...

2004-07-14T23:59:00.000+01:00

Again, Laurie did a fantastic job on the blog so just a few notes...

The stained glass in the great hall was beautiful. Very similar to Stirling Castle. The Great Hall in Edinburgh has Victorian influence because it was remodeled several times.

The armaments in the Great Hall and the canon outside are all on loan from various places including the Tower of London.

One of the neat things was a small cemetery where the dogs that belong to the armies that have protected the castle were allowed to burry their dogs. Royal treatment!

Much of the castle is devoted to various war memorials. The National War Museum of Scotland was a superb memorial to those Scotland has lost since WWI until today. Every name is recorded. No pictures are allowed out of respect to the dead.

Also very interesting were Honours of the Kingdom and the Stone of Destiny which was taken to Westminster Abbey in 1296 and returned to Scotland 700 years later. The Honours have a very interesting history as well, since they were hidden once in an abbey for 8 years and then walled up and stored in a giant shipping crate for 111 years! After being saved from Cromwell, they became some of the oldest surviving regalia in Europe.

Edinburgh Castle is more touristy than Stirling. In part it is because Edinburgh is more touristy...it is the city most foreigners come when they want to see "Scotland". Many take a detour from London to see Edinburgh and maybe Loch Ness. As nice as the Edinburgh is, there is so much more to Scotland and it is a shame to think you've seen the country from one city.

Pictures aren't allowed in many places in the castle for a range of reasons including security, and respect for the memorials so we got a really good book from the gift shop that supplements the visit nicely.

Dinner was really good. We had "pub food" on Rose Street. The men's toilet had all the essentials, including Whiskey flavoured condoms.

After dinner we had a nice hike up to the National Monument, the Observatory, and a great view of the castle. Since this is where the observatory is, not surprisingly we had a stunning view of the city as well.

Edinburgh Extravaganza

2004-07-14T22:57:00.000+01:00

I have been to Edinburgh once before and was looking forward to returning to this city. From what I remember, it is quite beautiful and this particular ancient presence about it. I just recall loving this city so much and I was excited to be able to introduce it to Michael.

We decided to take the train from Glasgow's Queen Street station to Edinburgh's Waverly station rather than taking the van into the city and fight with finding parking. The train is extremely convenient and very safe... it is a terrific way to travel and not have to worry about traffic or getting lost.

We arrived at Waverly Station which is located right in the heart of downtown Edinburgh. We couldn't have been taken any closer to where it all is happening.

First stop... you guessed it... the tourist information center. Seems to always be a good place to start when one arrives in a new city. If anything, it is the place to go to get some good maps of the city so at least you can get a sense of where things are located. From the tourist information center we walked up what is called "the Mound" which is a rather hilly road that takes you up to the higher part of the famous street known as "The Royal Mile". We walked up a little until we reached the walk way that takes you to the entrance of the Edinburgh Castle. When we were walking towards the castle we walked right through this large section of stadium seating and noticed signs that were hung all over for the Edinburgh Military tattoo. Not knowing what the Military tattoo was or why the seats were already set up, we had to investigate this... more on the tattoo later!

At the entrance of the castle, we had to stop off to get an ice cream cone. Now, Scotland doesn't seem to just have ordinary ice cream cones. No sir-ee! We had to get the cones that also have chocolate sticks sticking right out of the scoop of ice cream. We saw a picture of these special ice cream cones hung in the windows of the many ice cream trucks found in both Glasgow and Edinburgh... we just had to give this a try!

Edinburgh Castle... here we come. We finally entered the gates and were immediately impressed by this enormous fortress. I had been to the castle before but the last time I was there most of it was up in scaffolding and I didn't take nearly the amount of time it takes to really see this remarkable place. Before deciding to purchase the audio tour, we wanted to take a tour of the castle led by a guide since we discovered that often the guides provide more interesting facts and information that are not on the audio tapes. We took a brief tour of the outside of the castle, which was okay but it didn't give up nearly enough information. So... in order to get back down the hill to get the audio tour, we first went through the Prisoners of War exhibit. This wound us down some stairs inside a dark and dreary area of the castle and when we came out, we were near the area where we started the guided tour. The audio tour was good, although not as well organized as the one at Stirling Castle. The audio tour gave us additional information of buildings and museum located both on the lower and upper wards of the castle grounds. We went to The Great Hall, St. Margaret's Chapel, The Royal Residences (this was cool as we got to see some of the rooms where people like Mary Queen of Scots, King James the IV, and James the I lived. We went to museums such as the National War Museum and the Honors of the Kingdom which was my favorite. It was in this museum that we got to view the Scottish Crown Jewels, The Stone of Destiny, The Septhe Crown, the Sceptre and the Sword of State. We also took a look at the various cannons that were located along the top ward of the castle. There is one that is still used on a daily basis. It is customary at precisely 1PK Monday-Saturday that the gun is shot off. The firing of a gun from the battlements of Edinburgh Castle at 1pm from Monday to Saturday was not introduced as a tourist attraction (though it has become one) or to alarm pedestrians in Princes Street below (which it does, even regular shoppers). It started as a means of giving an accurate time check to the ships in Leith Harbour - two miles away. We got to the castle around 2:30 but I do recall, as we were eating lunch down near the National Art Gallery before heading up the Mound, that I heard the gun shot. Not knowing what it was at the time, it sort of startled me but after learning more about it, it was rather neat to be around in time to hear it go off!

Edinburgh Castle is one of those places that you will never forget once you visit. Not only are the grounds impressive but the views from the castle that look down upon city are like no other you could get in the city.

We spent close to 4 hours at the Castle as there was soooo much to see and learn about. As we left the castle, we again, entered that section of seating that we were so curious about. We inquired about the Military tattoo event and what the seating was all about. One of the guys who worked at the castle told us the tattoo is this HUGE annual event that has dancing, singing, music and marching from performances around the world, in addition to Scotland. From what we hear, it is a life changing experience. It is unfortunate that we will be missing this event. It is held at the end of August and has been sold out for 5 months. The seating area, better known as the Edinburgh Castle Esplanade, is up evidently all the time for various concert events.

Next stop, The Tartan Weaving Mill. This is a store that carries sweaters, kilts, scarves, hats, blankets... you name it! They weave their own items here and sell them. There are displays set up all around the warehouse like store that teaches and shows how wool is woven to produce a variety of the products made at the mill. It was a pretty cool place!

Coming down Castle Hill and ending up back into the center of town, it was time to hunt for a place to grab dinner. We walked up and down several streets, looking at menus and trying to decide what we were in the mood for. We finally came to a pub on tourist Rose Street and had cozy dinner while we listened to dance music in the back ground. Michael had the Steak and Apricot Pie and I settled for the Indian-like chicken dish (can't recall the name). We sat at a corner table and spread out all our maps, and various brochures to read up on what else we needed to see in Edinburgh. Realizing that there is so much to see, we figured we needed to return tomorrow to do more site seeing around the city since we had spent so much time at the castle today.

After dinner, we decided to walk off dinner. We walked and walked down Hanover Street, to Queens Street, through Queens Park, to Waterloo Street and then up, up, up to the top of Calton Hill. Calton Hill is located in this park like area but at the top of the hill you will find the National Monument which is actually an incomplete Athenian acropolis that seems to be the most impressive structure on the hill. There is also the Old Observatory and The Nelson Monument. We hit Calton Hill at the perfect time of day. The sun was just above the horizon and everything had golden shadowy cast to it. It was so beautiful and peaceful (except for the yelling Italian group of teens hanging around) and a great way to end a long day.

Our feet were killing us, we were exhausted and it was time to say good-night to Edinburgh. We plan to make it a point of returning tomorrow to see many of the sites we missed today. I look forward to coming back! It was time to go catch the train to head back to Glasgow... thank goodness the trains run until 11:3oPM -- this gave us plenty of time to get a taste of Edinburgh and not feel rushed. Until tomorrow...

On The Road Again!

2004-07-13T21:31:00.000+01:00

And you thought the Dumbarton Bridge only existed in the Bay Area! Well, needless to say, there is a town called Dumbarton here in Scotland that is not too far away from Glasgow and yes, there is a Dumbarton Bridge (although I'm not exactly sure if we've seen it yet). Along with the town and the bridge, there is also Dumbarton Castle, which we decided we had to check out... I mean, after all, we want to see how many castles we can get to and since this one seemed to be a short trip from Glasgow, why not? So off to Dumbarton we go!

First stop, as we seem to always do, the tourist information office. Got some information, talked to the man behind the counter, got a fair recommendation on where we could go to grab a quick bite of lunch, and gathered more travel pamphlets to add to our collection.

We drove across the highway from the tourist office and ate at a place that reminded us of a larger scale Baker's Square. Not that they specialized in pies but they did have their sure of desserts and the food had everything from burgers to meat pie (luckily they had salad... Something I had been craving for sometime!).

We got good directions to Dumbarton Castle from the cheerful little man at the tourist office. We arrived there not really knowing what to expect. We had experienced Stirling Castle before, which was very well restored and was very very large. We weren't quite sure what Dumbarton Castle had to offer to us, as we were looking at it sitting on the hill above the town. Could it be as grand as Stirling? Would it be pretty? Would it be worth the trip? These were some of the questions we had since it didn't seem to be well publicized in the travel brochures and we couldn't really find a lot of information about it... it certainly made us wonder. We thought we would at least take a look since the man at the travel office told us it was worth a visit.

We were able to drive the van to the entry gates of the hotel. We entered the gates and went into the gift shop where we had to pay our entry fee. When we paid, the folks that were working there convinced us to buy a "Historical Travel Passport" that they claimed would save us money if we planning to visit any more castles or other historical sites in Scotland. We thought long and hard about buying it and decided we would go ahead and purchase the 3 out of 5 days tickets. With these we were allowed to see as many sites as we could in 3 out of the 5 days that the passes were valid. At first we were all gung ho about this until we realized that the sites that were included in these passes were ones that were sort of off the beaten path and not really major attractions that most tourists would visit.

We spent about 45 minutes to an hour at Dumbarton and although it was something to see, we really weren't all that impressed. There really wasn't much to see, and it certainly wasn't anything like Stirling Castle. Time to move on...

Not really knowing what to do next, we took a look at the map that came along with our passport tickets to see what other possible things we might be able to explore and noticed that the Bowane Iron Furnace was listed and we were curious about so... on we go to see what this is all about. It was rather an interesting place although, probably not worth the long drive it took to get there. We drove and we drove and we drove and drove and even drove some more until we got to the place which was literally in the middle of nowhere! This place was built back in 1752 and was a major location where iron was produced. There are dense forests located around the furnace which makes it a great location for collecting wood for the manufacturing of charcoal. It was a major source of iron production until 1876 and is claimed to be the "longest lived blast furnace in the Scottish highlands". It was very peaceful there and consisted primarily of barn like structures that houses a lot of the timber and coal. Certainly not the usual place we would have gone to but it was sort of interesting.

We were planning to visit Inverary Castle as we thought it was closer to Dumbarton Castle but unfortunately, once we drove for miles and miles and did our little Furnace exploration, the castle was closed for the day. That didn't stop us! We drove to the castle anyway just to see what it looked like from the outside and to see if it was worth trying to come back to. Absolutely no doubt... this is a place we will try to return once we figure out our travel plans to the Isle of Skye up in the northwest highlands. This castle was the closest one that resembled the Cinderella castle at Disneyland. It wasn't as big as Cinderella's but it certainly was impressive. Not only did we enjoy the view of the castle, we also got a special treat getting to know the highland cows that were located in a large field at the rear of the castle parking lot. We had seen these types of cows along the roads we had been traveling on and intended to stop the next time it was convenient to take pictures. We were pleasantly surprised to be able to get up so close to them and spend some time watching and talking with them. There were a pair of adorable little ones that were eating near the fence we were by. They seemed to feel comfortable with us nearby and they even approached us so that we were able to pet them. Michael had a great time petting one of the less shy ones. He even got licked by the cow on the hand, which isn't something that happens everyday. These cows were absolutely adorable.. we fell in love with them and wanted to take one home but we weren't sure how Ben would feel having a baby brother or sister cow to play with! I guess we need to check with him first!

We drove all the way back home after a very long day of driving. I started to get a horrible headache on the way back to Glasgow that wasn't much fun so Michael had to drop me off at the house before heading to go pick up dinner. He found a little Italian place nearby and brought back some yummy food back for us to enjoy. A little rest, some Advil and food in my stomach made everything MUCH better. I look forward to a fresh start tomorrow... nighty night!

On The Bonnie, Bonnie Shores...

2004-07-12T16:15:00.000+01:00

We were all set to get up at a reasonable hour in order to get going and be able to cover a lot of territory in a day's time.   We were getting ready when there was a knock at the door.   Michael went to answer it and was greeted by a man who he thought might be the Fed Ex guy (we are expecting something from Fed Ex).   To his surprise, it was a friendly fellow from the police department coming by to follow up on the smashed window scenario and to collect some blood samples from the car.   The window repair man did a great job cleaning up the crime scene however, lucky for the CSI man, there were still some traces of blood inside the vehicle.   While I was upstairs continuing to get ready for the day, Michael and the police guy went out to the van to get the blood samples then came into the house to continue their “visit” with a cup of tea and some good conversation.   I continue to hear voices from down below and was wondering what in the world the conversation was all about.    Apparently they were talking about everything from our visit in Scotland to the finest types of Scottish Whiskey!  The policeman was giving Michael some recommendations on local pubs where one can go and buy bottles of whiskey! I am sure Michael will add more detail of the conversation when he types up his blog entry.    All I can say is I heard lots of laughing and talking going on for probably a good 45 minutes! I did eventually go downstairs to say hello and meet the “mystery man”.   He seemed like an awfully nice guy that you would want to just invite into your home and share stories with.   Once the policeman left, we decided to go head out to see some more Scottish sites.

One site in particular that was recommended to us was Loch Lomond.    We wanted to get out of the city and see some of Scotland's countryside at the same time we didn't want to drive too far out of the way.   We got the best of both worlds, a beautiful serene place, about 30 minutes from Glasgow.   Our first stop after we entered the Loch Lomond/Trossachs National Park, was the first tourist information office you come to on the eastern side of the loch in the town of Drymen.   We went inside the office, which was also the town's library, and talked with a very helpful woman who shared somethings about Loch Lomond and suggested some things we could do while we visiting.   First thing first...   LUNCH! We went to a little pub called Clachan which was established in 1734.   It was a rather charming little place.   As you enter the pub, there is one side that is strictly the bar side and an adjacent door that lead to a small dining area for folks like us that want to bypass the afternoon drinking and stick to just eating.   We enjoyed some yummy Scottish pub food; Michael had the steak "pie". Pie here is not the traditional type of pie we associate in the states.   Scottish pie is similar to what we know as "chicken or beef pot pie" except the breading is sort of on top of the meat instead of the meat being inside.  I tried the asparagus and mushroom strudle.   The strudle was not what I had expected.   It was rather rich but simply delicious and enjoyed very much!

After our lunch, we drove up the eastern side a bit until we reached the tiny town of Balmaha.   Here is where the larger tourist information office is located.   We stopped into the office for a short minute to see if there was any additional information we might find that we didn't receive at our first stop.   There were various hands-on displays inside the tourist office that taught tourists a little bit more about the loch and its inhabitants.    Starting from the tourist office, we took a short walk along a footpath that took us by the loch and up some hills that guided us to some hight points where we had some spectacular views.   No view was more spectacular than the view we saw at the top of a high ridge we hiked up later in the day...   but more on that later in the blog! We continued on the footpath and came to a secluded beach area.   We took a short break to take in the loch close up and to take in the beautiful surrounding scenary.   Up the hill we went again which then had the path that led us down to the road that goes back to the tourist office.   The walk along the footpath took us about 30 minutes or so to do and it was a nice introduction.  We proceeded back to the tourist information center.   We wanted to check in with the tourist guy inside to see if he could recommend any trails nearby that might give us different perspectives of the loch.  He had given us many different options and we chose to take a hike up a hilly ridge that was located just behind the office.   We were warned beforehand that the trail gradually got steap as one continues up the hill...   we were adventurous and wanted to see to at least see what he meant by steap.   Ah, not bad, we thought as we started to walk up the trail.   The trail did gradually go up but it really wasn't too bad until...   we hit the steps! There were a series of rocky steps that went up, up and up.   As we climbed these stairs, our hears beating rapidly, our breathing getting a little deeper, we knew this must the part where steap begins.    Before we got any further up the steaper part of the climb, we noticed these women in teal colored shirts walking back to the start of the trail.    On their shirts, we caught a glimpse of Hebrew and were curious if this was some kind of Jewish hiking group.   We stopped one of the ladies and asked what group she was associated with.   She told us the name of the group, which has escaped me and told us she and her group were doing a charity hike for Israel.   She, herself, was from England and this was her first day in Scotland...   what a great way to start off your first gig in Scotland! We continued up and up and up and up and...   after the stairs, as promised, the trail did indeed get steaper.   It was a good climb and well worth the effort as this climb gave us a terrific view of the loch from a higher standpoint and also gave us some good photo opportunities as well.   The day was glorious...   sunshine shining brightly, cool winds blowing, birds singing loudly! While we were climbing, we were greeted by sheep up on the hill.   They weren't as interested in us as we were with them but they did make sure they got out of the way of our tracks.   There were these two sheep hiding behind a rock.   Every so often, they would peek over the rock to see if we were still staring at them.   They peeked up just enough for us to take a picture of them huddled closely together.    We didn't actually make it to the very top of the ridge.   From what we could see, we still had away to go.   We met another hiker on the ridge, taking a break and asked him if he knew how much further we had to go to reach the top.    His English was a bit limited and we weren't really sure if he understood what we were trying to ask.   He claimed, "It wasn't a long walk" then changed his mind and said, "It was a long walk...   a "short mile"!.   We looked ahead of us, realized we had downed our water and decided that we had enough walking and to not take the short long walk! We sat down and took in the scenary and were happy to have made it as far as we did.   It was simply an amazing view! After taking some time to soak in view and take some pictures, we descended down the hill.   Going down wasn't all that strenuous however, the knees sure felt the work! Once we got back down the hill and headed back to the car, we took a look at the map and decided we would drive until we reached where the road ended, which we were told was about 7 miles up the road.   We drove amongst the deep forest of trees and got glimpses of the loch peeking through the thickness of the trees.   We finally got to the end of the road and took a few moments to relax and look at the loch once more as the sun was lower in the sky and the loch looked darker than it had during the afternoon.   We drove home before it got too dark and had a relaxing evening.   We had a bit of salad and some soup for dinner and took it easy for the rest of evening since it was a long and adventurous day!

Simple Sunday

2004-07-11T20:15:00.000+01:00

First thing that needed to get done today was to get the shattered car window replaced. After going to bed around 3:00AM, we were awoken by the telephone. First call was the insurance company followed by a call from the auto window repair place. We had an appointment set to get the window fixed at 10:30AM.

After getting a tad lost, we arrived at the window place. We hadn't had an opportunity to eat anything before we left so we were hoping the repair shop was located somewhere near restaurants so that we could grab food while the window was being fixed. Well, no such luck. In fact we were out in a very industrial part of town with not much of anything around. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrowl goes the stomach! The repair guy said it was going to take about an hour to get the job done. We inquired about a place to eat and he could only direct us to the nearest Burger King.. oh boy!

Here we were...of all places to kill an hour... a Glasgow Burger King. We ate nothing, drank some soda to fill our stomachs and read our books while hip hop music played in the background. Oh well. As I like to keep thinking when things don't always go as planned, "it could be worse" !
12:30…Window is repaired, blood all over the inside and outside of the door has been cleaned up and the shattered glass inside the car is all gone! Whew, thank goodness that is all taken care of! 50 pounds spent, papers signed and we are off to the City Center's weekend open air market, The Barras

The Barras Market is nothing new. It has been going on since the turn of the century and is quite a site to see, even if you have no intention of buying anything. It reminded me a lot of an American flea market with a mixture of items on sale. There was everything from DVDs to clothing of all types being sold by the traders. People were shouting about the prices of their items and the locals seemed to take advantage of the bargain prices There was absolutely nothing that caught our eyes and we felt there was no need to buy anything. We did manage to find a little greasy snack stop at the back of the market to grab something to eat. Michael and I had a cup of VERY hot lentil soup (that was the only thing that appealed to me) and Michael tried their chips with curry (basically French fries topped with curry sauce).

We walked briefly around the market, not feeling like there was any need to stick around. It was something to see for a short time... that was plenty of time. Apparently, on the last Saturday of every month, The Barras holds a Farmer's Market. Now I could see spending some money at this market!

Feeling a bit lazy and very tired, we started to make our journey back to the car by way of Glasgow Green, Glasgow's large park near the City Center. We took some time to sit under a tree and relax a bit. I took advantage of catching some zzzzs while listening to the sounds of children laughing, the wind whistling through the trees and the faint traffic sounds of the city. It was quite relaxing to say the least. It would be nice to be able to take time out of every day to "stop and smell the roses". Ahhhh.... vacation. The ultimate opportunity to be lazy and not feel a bit guilty about it!

We drove back to the house and took some more time to doze in front of the BBC. Had a delightful phone conversation with Mom. Always nice to hear voices from home. As much as I am having a wonderful time here, there is a small part of me that misses many things of home... primarily friends and family!

It is currently 8:53 PM Scotland time... I think I will continue taking advantage of the lazy Sunday before it is time to call it a night.

Saturday with Shakespeare

2004-07-10T23:04:00.000+01:00

Again Laurie beat me to writing most of the important parts of the day. The darn pictures take too much time! Well, just a few items that require correction.

I did not sprinkle salt on the bride-to-be. The Maid-of-Honor grabbed me and brought me into a the party of girls helping ot celebrate the up coming wedding. Now keep in mind that the music was very loud and that I'm still not throughly used to the Glaswegian accent, nor do I have any idea what the customs are for such things here. Anyway, I gave the bride-to-be a kiss on the cheek and wished her the best of luck. Then I was told to give her some silver, which really puzzled me. Apparently, one is to give a small silver coin (5 pence will do) to the bride. In this case, they had a bowl to put it in, apparently filled with salt. I looked this up and all I could find was the old rhyme:

"Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue, and a Silver Sixpence in Her Shoe.

"The silver sixpence in the shoe is to ensure wealth to the couple in their married life (most people now opt to put a penny in their shoe)"

Anyway, they seemed to be having a lot of fun!

Baps, Acts, Bars and... THE CAR!

2004-07-10T00:09:00.000+01:00

Eureka! A Large Grocery Store!

The other day as we were walking around one part of the neighborhood we had not gotten to know all that well, we discovered that all this time, there has been a large grocery store waiting to be found. No need to have to go to the mini Safeway down the street…hurray!
We decided it was time to cook another dinner at home, so we walked to Somerfield Grocery Store, we saw shopping carts all neatly lined up in the parking lot area, just as they would be gathered and in neat rows at an American store. We thought it might be nice to have one since a BIG store had now been discovered and BIG shopping was in our plans. We grabbed a cart, pulled and realized that all the carts were chained together with locks. If you wanted to use a shopping cart to do your grocery shopping, you had to put 1 pound in the little slit on the cart handle to pull the key out to unlock a cart and pull it from the stack! Pretty ironic. They charge for shopping carts but all around the airports the luggage carts are completely free!

The first stop, the produce aisle! This produce was the first one I had seen that had a relatively large selection of fruits and vegetables however, it still didn't measure up to what we have in the states. I was happy to see that there was the option of getting some produce while we were here! We continued to browse the aisles, looking at the products that were very similar and very different from what we have back home. We looked at the all the different types of bread one could purchase and found “White Burger Baps”, one item we found rather amusing, so much so that Michael decided to reenter the store when we were finished shopping to take a picture of the package! What are burger baps, you ask? Nothing more than what we know as hamburger buns. Why the heck they call them baps is beyond me. Maybe it has something to do with why they call diapers, “nappies”. We never thought grocery shopping could be so entertaining and fun as we continue to find things we know and love oh so well, called by different names over here.

We had a healthy chicken stir-fry dinner chalk full of vegetables... Amen!

Satirical Shakespeare…

At the Botanic Gardens on the west side of town, the Glasgow Repretory Theater Company was performing various Shakespearean plays in the different areas of the gardens. We went and saw "Richard III". This play is one of Shakespeare's more serious ones. Death and power are common themes of the story however, this company did it in such a way that made it almost comical and full of satire. The spectacular performances and the outdoor setting, with smells of fresh flowers, trees surrounding us and the birds singing in the background made the experience a very enjoyable one.

Drinking in a Church???…

On the way over to the gardens, a kind man noticed we had been looking at a map and, as many Scots tend to do, he wanted to be sure we knew how to get where we were going. He made sure we were heading in the right direction from the subway station and before we went our different ways, told us about some great places to go to after the play, if we wanted food or just wanted to grab a drink with the locals.

It was a rather chilly evening, so once the play was over, we were in search of something warm to drink to heat us up. We walked along the streets of what looked like the happenin' side of town, looking for a place to grab coffee. As we were on our search, we came to this church that had tons of tables set up on the front lawn and a huge amount of people sitting at these tables, enjoying themselves and their drinks. This was quite a sight to see since one doesn't normally see large amounts of people sitting outside a church drinking pints of beer, ale, cider... whatever! Curiosity got the best of us so we just had to check out what was going on inside the church. As we entered, there was a spiral staircase right in the middle entryway. From there we turned into a doorway that led us into this HUGE bar area with tons and tons and tons of people all standing around with their chums, drinking, smoking, enjoying the evening! The man on the subway told us about this particular bar that cost about 10 million dollars to renovate and when he spoke of this place, neither Michael nor I could imagine why a bar would cost so much money to renovate. After taking a look, we now completely understand what the guy meant. It was quite an experience, standing in the middle of a church, huge amounts of people surrounding us, and watching people just hanging out and having a grand time. We hope to make a point of coming back to this church to have a drink and be part of the local congregation of drinkers and socializers.

Before we left the church, we saw a group of young ladies parading down the sidewalk, banging spoons on pots, singing their lungs out and looking like they were out to party. We noticed that one of the gals was the honored bachelorette of the evening and the other gals were obviously making sure she was having a night to remember.

We walked across the street from the church to what we thought was a piano bar, at least that is what sign on the building said it was. As we entered, we heard loud dance music and saw lights flashing and soon realized this was as far from a piano bar as one could get... in fact, there was no piano to be seen. We just had to take a peek and as we entered who should we see but the bachelorette and her gal pals dancing away on the dance floor. One of the girls grabbed Michael and asked him to put salt on the bride-to-be to give her good luck. I was just glad I was able to still see Michael after she pulled him away from me!!! He wasn't doing anything too dangerous...looked pretty innocent to me! The place looked like a rather fun dance place. We just might have to return to this place too, at a later date, and check it out some more.

And Then the Car…

Bridge Street exit. Time to get off at this stop and get the car that we parked at the station, before heading back to the house. We exited the station and started walking across the parking lot when we noticed that the only cars that were still parked on the street were Archie's minivan and a police van right behind it. Immediately, the first thought that entered my mind was that we had illegally parked on the street and the cops were coming to either ticket us or take us away. As we approached the car, the police jumped out of their vehicle and asked us if we were the owners of the van. Of course, we told them we were responsible for the van and had to explain the whole house exchange story and they proceeded to tell us that someone had broken into the van by smashing their hand through the driver's side window. Keep in mind that the driver's side window is on the opposite side from where you and I usually expect to see it so when we came upon the car, the first window we saw was actually the passenger's side window, which looked perfectly fine. We walked to the other side and saw that the window, was in fact, completely smashed into little pieces that were either scattered all over the sidewalk or scattered all over the inside of the car. Blood was spattered on the outside of the driver's door and on the inside as well. The lunatic who broke the window must have either been out of his mind or completely drunk to have done the job that was done. According to the police, someone decided it would be fun to take their hand and smash the window... yes, that's right, their bare hand. When the glass broke, the car alarm went off and scared the guys who were breaking into the car. They ran off just in time to have a responsible citizen hear the alarm, see the guys run off and call the police. Fortunately, from what we saw, nothing was stolen or damaged further.

The police were very apologetic that we had to deal with this during our stay and told us to not take it personally. I guess they saw us just standing there a bit shocked by the whole thing and wanted to be sure we knew it wasn't our fault and that it was logical for us to park where we did without really knowing that it was not the best of places to park at night. They helped us by telling us what needed to be done next and that they were going to file a report and would be contacting Archie when he returns from the U.S.. It was now time for us to contact him first and to proceed with dealing with the insurance company and getting the window repaired. No luck getting ahold of Archie. Tomorrow we get the window taken care of.

In the grand scheme of things, I guess, it could have been worse. Luckily, nothing, from what we saw, was stolen and there was no additional damage to the car. I guess the most important thing is that we are both okay and no damage was done to us directly!

It was rather ironic that this happened this evening as Michael and I were discussing earlier that since we have been in Glasgow, we have never felt threatened or in any danger. Everyone appears to be so friendly and helpful and there seems to be very little crime, from what we have discovered. I guess, there are always a few folks out there that have to be on the other side of the bell curve who give the cops a run for their money. As we would like to think that there are places in this world where people feel completely safe or do not have to worry about their property, I guess we live in a world where very few places even exist. Although Glasgow has its crime, I believe we have found a place where the MAJORITY of the people care about one another, about their city and surprisingly enough, about the visitors who come to see what the city has to offer. It may not be "the perfect place on earth" but Glasgow is classy and the people definitely have a style of their own that makes this place "perfect" in its own special way!

Visit to Stirling

2004-07-09T23:09:00.000+01:00

Laurie did such a fantastic job writing about our trip to Stirling so I just played photojournalist and added links to what she wrote.  There were just a few additional comments I had below.

Driving
I am getting adjusted to driving here.  I love the roundabouts. They keep you going without having to stop (or at least usually the stop is shorter than it would be otherwise.

I am surprised that people seem free to park facing in either direction on either side of the road.  Since the traffic inicators aren't as obvious as they are in the US where you can tell directionality as opposed to lane separateion, this is a bit disconcerting to see cars facing you as you turn down a road—though so far I have not turned down the wrong way once so far.

The Stirling Castle
I thought the castle was amazing.  I'm getting a bit better about making panorama pictures with the digital camera and Photoshop.

Particularly impressive is how much research and work they have put into the returning the castle to the way it would have been originally. For example the Great Hall has a stucco like coating over the large stones made from limewash which is "flicked'on with a brush.  It is stunning and not at all what you might have expected a castle of that time to look like.

There are also excellent examples of period cooking and costumes.

Stirling Silver

Since we went to Stirling, I was currious about Stirling silver. I thought there might have been some connection, but I was wrong. At I. Franks Antique Silver, they have a nice history as does the WikiPediA which presents alternate theories of the history. Sterling was once the capital of Scotland. It's geography makes it both a natural fortress and a natural delimiter between the Scottish highlands and the lowlands.

Our First Adventure Outside Glasgow

2004-07-09T22:08:00.000+01:00

Today was the day we decided to breakaway from familiar territory and go take a look to see what lies beyond Glasgow.

We took Archie's minivan out for a spin to the town of Stirling which is a beautiful city about 35 miles slightly northeast of Glasglow.  Now mind you, this was the very first time we actually took the van out for a drive that was longer than 10 minutes to downtown.  Michael did an excellent job driving on the motorway and along country roads.  We had are share of experiencing “roundabouts”, UK's answer to stop signs (but these are even better as they allow constant flow of traffic).  I was a little freaked out as the passenger traveling around the roundabouts.  Sitting on the American's driver side of the car as the passenger and not having any control was sort of unnerving but once Michael got the hang of how these things work and we both started looking for oncoming traffic the right way, all went rather smoothly.  Oh, and I must not forget, we had Michael's iPaq to help navigate us to our destinations, that is, when it didn't get us mixed up and backwards.  It did do a fairly good job getting us where we needed to go.

Once we got to Stirling, we drove for a bit, trying to find parking and finally found a “Pay and Display” parking area fairly close to the center of town.  We found a small bistro to grab a quick bite to eat and then headed out to go find and explore Stirling's magnificent castle named none other than Stirling Castle.

To get to the castle, we walked along small narrow cobblestone streets that wound through quaint sections of the city.  Every turn and twist of the streets brought cute tenement houses and old church like structures in view.  We continued to walk up hilly streets until we finally came to stairs that led us up to the castle.  As we got to the stop of the stairs, it was quite an impressive sight to see the castle sitting on top of volcanic rock better known as Castle Rock.  Looking up from the city, the castle looks like such a magical, enchanted place!

We first entered the vistor's center and watched a 12 minute film about Stirling and it's history.  This was a good introduction to what lied ahead of us for the rest of the day.

We got to the grounds of the castle and decided we would get the audio tour to help guide us as we got to know the castle.

We entered the gatehouse enterway that led us to the main courtyard called “the inner close”.  Surrounding this area were the Palace, the Great Hall and the Chapel Royal.  Each structure has its own story to tell, sharing much history along with beauty.  Both Michael and I were extremely impressed by how many of these buildings have been so well restorated and preserved.  I especially loved the Great Hall.  This was where great feasts, performances and gatherings were held by the royal court.  The ceiling had these incredible high wood beams that arched across in grand curved designs.  The windows were do eloquant and so delicate looking.  There was something about them that drew me to them.  Most of the glass was clear however there were portions of the window that were colored and had various pictures of royal shields.  I loved the criss-crossed iron pattern that covered the windows.  they added so much to this elaborate room!

Oh, I can't forget the bowling green garden that welcomed us as we approached the inner close.  This area was a relatively large area of green lawn and beautiful flowers that were such a lovely contrast against the grey stones of the castle.

As we continued to roam the grounds, we came to many lookouts that allowed us to see the city of Stirling from different perspectives.  The scenary was truly amazing and I can only imagine what it must have been like thousands of years ago before the city had been developed.

We also saw the “French Spur” where many of the cannons were placed strategically for defense.  I thought it was also pretty amazing how so many of the outside wall has these cut slit in them so that these "peek-a-boo" openings could be used to see who was approaching the castle and used to advanced protection.

Lion's gate was another courtyard that was tucked away between inner walls of the castle.  Here Mary Queen of Scots among others of the royal court would sit and talk with friend or relax and be entertained by actors or dancers.  I thought it looked like a great place to sit and read a good book and relax in the filtering sunshine!

The Great Kitchens were something to see! This is where the cooks would prepare the grand feasts and individual meals.  The kitchens were set up so that visitors could actually see how the kitchens might have been used to prepare the various types of food.  There were also books full of various recipes that might have been prepared long ago.

Our last stop at the castle was the impressive tapestry studio.

It is in this room that talented, hard-working weavers have been and are continuing to restore many of the old tapestries from the “Hunting the Unicorn” series.  We saw one of the tapestries in progress hanging on the weaving loom and were absolutely awestruck by the time, patience and precise measures it takes to restore one of these.  It is not uncommon for weavers to take anywhere from 2-4 years to complete a tapestry.  Everything from creating what is called a "cartoon" of the old tapestry (this is used as the basic pattern for creating the new tapestry) to matching and finding colored thread to be used for the weaving needs to take place before the actual weaving begins.

We stayed in Stirling for dinner and went to The East Indian Company Restauraunt which we happened to stumble on thanks to Michael's navigation software.  Not knowing what to expect, we were pleasantly surprised at the classy ambiance and how great the food was.  The restaurant isn't anything you would imagine an Indian restaurant to look like inside.  It is done in old British Colonial style with rosewood paneled walls and furniture, bold crown molding along the rim of the ceiling and brass candlesticks.   On the walls were painting of the presidents of the East India Company and best yet, in the background music from the mid-sixties was playing.  We heard Doris Day's "Que Sera, Sera”, “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head”, “The Candy Man”, and "What the World Needs Now is Love Sweet Love”, to name just a few of the great hits we listened to over the course of our dinner.

Our drive home was quite successful.  We seemed to get home quicker than we did getting to Stirling since we apparently made some wrong turns on our adventure out.  We felt a sense of accomplishment getting back in one piece, car and all, and having a delightful day out beyond Glasgow.  More Scottish journeys are soon to happen so keep coming back to hear more about our adventures!

Museum of Transport

2004-07-08T21:04:00.000+01:00

Laurie did a great job of relating our adventure in the museum. There are now pictures. The museum is a very unusual collection of ship models, children's scooters, carriages, baby carriages, cars, trains, horse drawn carriages, etc. Quite a variety of brands from the past and present including Harley, Indian, and Bentley, VW, and Morris Cowley.

There was a fascinating model of bomb used in the Lockerbie incident that shows how it was probably done. It was made by a relative of a victim built inside a tape recorder. I have been to the Smithsonian and several other transportation museums including Chicago. I don't know what I was exactly expecting in this museum, but I was impressed. A very nice collection well presented.

After the museum we walked quite a ways to Battlefield Rest. I had a really good Calzone, we took a nice picture from Queens Park looking out over the city of Glasgow.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (boats and bicycles too)

2004-07-08T20:57:00.000+01:00

As mentioned yesterday, we barely made it in time to see the Museum of Transport so we just had to go back and see the entire thing today.

Taking our well-learned route via bus and subway, we went to the west end of town where the museum is located.  When we first entered the museum we went down this section that is designed like an old time neighborhood street, with old shop windows, and various cars parked along the cobblestone road.  We went inside a little room where they were showing a film about Glasgow's past and present.  This was a continuation of the film we started to see yesterday.  When we were watching the film we were invaded by Glasgow's crew of little people…kids from all ages were filtering in with their unruly parents and going from seat to seat slamming the seats up and down and yelling and running up and down the isles.  It was rather hopeless there for awhile to try and listen to what the film was saying.  There was one wee one who decided the film needed some professional critiquing.  She decided to lie down in front of the screen and give a two legs up vote for the film.  All we could see were these little legs going up in the air and down with a crash…  of course, mother not doing a thing about it!

We proceeded to walk about the museum, looking at old fire engines, various buses and trolleys of the past, old model cars (I particularly loved the old Bentley), the progression of the baby buggy and bicycles.  There was one room that was devoted to airplane security, showing everything to how airport x-rays worked to how recordings are gathered from the cockpit after airplane disasters.  The Lockerbie bombing of 1988 was also referenced in this area.  The last room we entered was the Clyde Room where there were loads of model ships of various kinds displayed.  Glasgow is known for its shipbuilding industry of the past and this room showed numerous vessles and ships that are all part of Glagow's transport history.

We decided to have dinner on the west side of town for a change and ended up at a place called The Battlefield Rest.  This place used to be an old tram station that was due to be demolished in the early 1990s but locals signed a petition to save the building and a man by the name of Marco Giannasi came in to restore the exterior and turn it into a restaurant.  The restaurant is delightful full of charm and comfort.  The menu consists primarily of Italian dishes but all with a Scottish twist.  Food was quite good!

On the way home, we took a scenic detour and went through Queens Park, which is a VERY LARGE park in our neighborhood.  As we were walking through the park, it was that time of day when the sun was low in the sky and it gave everything a spectacular glow.  We came down a large hill to get to the otherside of the park and as we were standing at the top, we saw an absolutely beautiful view of the southside skyline—tall church steeples, city tenement rooftops and hills in the background, all glistening in the evening sun! When we got to the bottom of the hill, we were welcomed by one of the parks small lakes.  A large group of gulls were gathered in the center of the lake, sitting there rather peacefully.  The sun was casting its glow on the surface and there was something so tranquil and serene about this view.  It was just one of those moments that makes me appreciate natures offerings!

Now time for some of our own peaceful moments back at homebase…a cup of tea, laptops on our laps, TV in the background and recalling the days events.  May not be the same type of tranquility that I found in the park but it certainly has its own warm and fuzzy feeling of comfort as we wrap up the day in “lour Glasgow home”!!

On The West End

2004-07-07T20:39:00.000+01:00

We have been spending quite a bit of time in either the south end of town or the central part  We thought it was time to head towards the “West End” to see what that part of Glasgow had to offer  We have been sticking to using the public buses to get around but decided to try the subway today since it took us closer to where we wanted to be  I am absolutely amazed at Europe's public transportation system  In America, we aren't even close to what the Europeans have as far as easy, accessibility and cost effective city transportation

First stop.  The Mackintosh House. After hearing all the hoopla about Glasgow's famous architect, Charles Mackintosh and the major contributions he has accomplished all over Glasgow, we thought we should have a look around to see a reconstruction of how the interior of this man's house reflected his artistic style  I am not sure if I like his work or not  It is rather simple yet it has a kind of stylish art-decko type of feeling to it.
  After visiting the Scotland Street School yesterday, one of the many building around town that he helped design, this visit was a good follow up.

After walking through the Mackintosh House, we took a quick look at the Hunterian Art Gallery  There were various painting from some of Glasgow's famous artists.

We then walked across the street to Glasgow University  This place is quite a campus  So old and absolutely lovely  I was taken by the architecture and the lush trees that surround the campus  I can't imagine any student not enjoying such a breathtaking place to go to school.

We stopped off VERY briefly at the Museum of Transport  We unfortunately only had enough time to enter and take a quick look because we arrived about 20 minutes before closing time  We did manage to see a movie of Glasgow's history and how the city has changed over the years  We definitely want to return when we have more time  This museum seems to have an abundance of exhibits and information about the variety of transportation that Glasgow had in the past up to present day.

Dinner time! We returned back to the City Center and found a recommended restaurant called Gamba's  We thought our meal at Quigley's was quite amazing…well, it was good however Gamba's have them beat  We managed to get to the restaurant in time to take advantage of the pre-theater special menu  We got a great deal! The regular menu, which looked quite good, was more expensive to say the least  We were able to enjoy a tasty two-course meal with a glass of wine included, for 15pounds as opposed to the regular meals which run anywhere from 19-25 pounds  For starters, both Michael and I had a starter of this absolutely delicious tomato-basil soup  For our main courses, Michael had some delicious chicken in a sweet glaze with rice and I had this “to die for” piece of salmon with egg noodles, all in a honey-ginger sauce  We absolutely were in 7th heaven as we enjoyed our dinners!

That's about it for now..  more to come!

Oout and aboot…

2004-07-07T20:03:00.000+01:00

We went into the West End of Glasgow today to see the Charles Renee Mackintosh House and the Hunterian Gallery. I like the Mackintosh style  It felt like it has a Japanese influence to me  I assumed I had to be wrong because what do I know? But I wasn't too far from the mark  Pretty neat.

Right near by is the Glasgow Transportation Museum  This was pretty neat, but we ran out of time to see it all so we'll have to head back over.

We took the underground to get to the West End  The underground has no exits, however they do have a “Way Out”. I love the differences in terminology.

We had dinner at a place called, Gamba's which was excellent  Laurie had fish with a yummy ginger sauce and I had Chicken with sticky rice and a delicious sauce, the ingredients which I can't remember.

On the way back, we saw some funny nappies in a car window…

and then a familiar man on the front of a garbage truck wearing some nappies of his own!

Jargon of the day—snog:French (or Freedom if you prefer) Kissing.

Other observations…

We kept seeing store fronts called “Amusements”.  We finaly went in and checked them out to see what it was all about.  They are basically casinos or arcades.  Card games were not allowed in the one went into, but apparently some have them.  I don't know if it requires a different license or not.  something to investigate.

Ordinary observations

2004-07-06T21:06:00.000+01:00

Just some random observations today since Laurie had all of the fun.

I learned that you don't make right turns on red here. Don't worry, no tragedies.

I noticed there seems to be a difference in various accessibility requirements from back in the US. There's no braille on the ATMs or street buttons. There's no closed captioning on TV, but they sometimes have a person standing in front of a bluescreen of the show, signing. I can't make any determination why some shows are interpreted and others are not.

By the way, “Plaid” is really just a Galic word for blanket. Tartan is the pattern we think of when we say Plaid. Now you now. For another interesting fact, see Nevin's comment and my reply. You won't be sorry! Or should I say “sorrrry” (I'm working on mee Scottish.)

If you plan a trip to the UK, check out this slang dictionary or this one, which is even better.

More tomorrow.

School Days, School Days... A Teacher's Perspective of the Past

2004-07-06T18:38:00.000+01:00

Michael had some work to do, so I decided to go off on my own to explore the Scotland Street School Museum.

Being that I am a teacher, when I learned of this particular museum, it certainly peaked my interest and I wanted to see what it was all about. It certainly was well worth the visit! Glasgow's famous designer and architect, Charles Mackintosh, designed this school back in 1903 and it certainly has the Mackintosh flavor sprinkled within the structure, especially the windows!

Although the museum itself is not all that large, it sure does a great job giving visitors an idea of what school was all about back in the 1900's.

The ground floor consisted mainly of the drill room which was a large tiled area that was used primarily for exercises and physical education.

Floor one had rooms that were primarily educational for the museum visitor. There is an activity room that allows visitors to take part in some hands-on interactive activities on the computer which provide emphasis in the area of school design, past student interviews, and historical stories about the school and its structure. You can also search for your great-grandmother's old school photograph!!

Another room was the Mackintosh and Scotland Street School Room of 1903-1906. This room gives historical content that tells how Charles Mackintosh went about designing the school and the hurdles he had to jump to get the project completed. It also tells a little about what the school was like at its opening and how the Scottish community responded to the new school. Next, there was an additional room called the School Street School 1906-1979. It is in this room where the story is told about the start up of the school, the growth of Glasgow and why the school was important to those that moved to the area and finally the closing of the school back in 1979. In addition to the informational rooms, there was also an exhibit room that had a variety of photographs taken of children doing various things around the school and in other parts of Glasgow... these were truly charming!

At last, my favorite floor, Floor 2! I particularly enjoyed this floor and spent most of my time here. nbsp; nbsp;This is the floor that had reconstructed classrooms of the Victorian Era, World War II and the 50's-60's. This was a real kick for me to see what a typical classroom looked like during these times and to compare and contrast these classrooms with the classrooms of today. On the same floor was the large Cookery Room that you don't often find in today's schools. This was a classroom that had several desks lined up in the back, a cast-iron stove to the side and large tables where students would prepare anything from baked goods to soups. Although it was very different, this room reminded me of my high school home economics classroom!!!

On opposite sides of the Cookery Room, one can find the boys and girls cloakrooms. These rooms were used for students to hang their coats, aprons, etc. or to change into various uniforms for physical education.

The final room on this floor had the "School Days" exhibition. The room is set up so that one can stroll along and listen to recordings from a "Jannie" (the janitor), a "Headie" (the head master) and the teacher as to what school was like way back then from their perspectives. There were also exhibits that showed what girls were expected to do around the school, what playground games were popular, what the emergency evacuation procedures were during WWII, and how the school changed during the changing decades, just to name a few.

As I walked through the museum, I tried to imagine what this quiet place was like with 1,250 students. I took some time in one of the classrooms, sat down at one of the small desks and imagined what it must have been like to be a teacher during these times. I am sure, from what I had learned, there were many things that were both much easier and harder than what I do on a daily basis in my classroom. It would be quite exhilarating to be able to experience teaching back in simpler times!

The visit was a wonderful experience for me and the museum did a remarkable job bringing the educational past to the present!!

I took several pictures of things I saw in and around the school. Go to our pictures to have a peek!

Pictures!

2004-07-06T09:13:00.000+01:00

I've posted some pictures of the trip so far. Laurie is going to enjoy a day out while I get some work done today.

July 4th in Scotland

2004-07-04T13:27:00.000+01:00

SEARCHING FOR FIREWORKS...

After trying to contact the American Consulate of Edinburgh and searching through tourist guides and the web, I came up empty handed as far as finding somewhere to go to celebrate the 4th of July. We did discover that over at Loch Lomond, they were having a weekend American July 4th festival but after calling to find out more information, the festival didn't sound like it was that big of a deal. So... what do we do on the 4th of July in Scotland? We venture out and go to the Glasgow Police Museum, that's what we do!

A MAN AND HIS MISSION...

We found the museum, which basically consisted of only 3 relatively small rooms, and meandered through, looking at the displays that taught us about the history of the Glasgow police department. Not knowing what to expect, I was rather impressed at the vast amount of information that was presented in such a small amount of space. There was everything from old police uniforms to some of the major people of the past who were vital to the development of the police department.
Upon entering the final room, we were greeted by the man who runs the place and were welcomed with open arms. He welcomed us and told us we had just entered the international room. As we quickly scanned the glass cases that were there, we could see hundreds and hundreds of badges and various uniforms. It was impressive at first sight but what was even more impressive was that every country in the world was represented in that one small room!
The museum keeper spent time with us, talking about his collection that he has acquired over the past 37 years. It was evident that he was extremely proud of his collection and rightfully so! He had been in the police force at one time and later started to collect various pieces of police paraphenalia that he started to store in his attic. He collected more and more things over the years until he says it "Got out of hand". He decided it was time to share with others what he had collected and thus the Glasgow Police Museum was born! This man was so kind and so interesting to talk to. He had a lot to share with us and took interest in talking with us and answering our question (such as why is Scotland Yard located in London and NOT in Scotland?). He explained all the various ways he was able to obtain all the things he had collected and also told us that various costume designers in the movie industry contact him occasionally so as to gather correct information as to how a specific country's police uniform might have looked during a certain time period. We were simply amazed at what he has been able to collect and his generosity in taking the time to share his passion with us!

A PLEASANT WALK IN THE RAIN...

After spending time at the museum, we decided to walk a bit and find somewhere to have a bite to eat. We came across the famous Merchant Square, right in the heart of Merchant City. This is enclosed shopping and eating area that was once a warehouse used for trading tobacco and other goods.
We first entered a pub that had food that appealed to us but then were quickly instructed by a local Scot to go across the way to the "Metropolitan", which he claimed had MUCH better food and a more desirable atmosphere.
Good recommendation! Food was very good and the atmosphere was pleasant. After our meal, we walked in the rain a bit down Argyll Street and looked at the various shops.
It was time to head on back and do our laundry and pay bills.. exciting, eh?

We shall see what is in store for us tomorrow!

And We Mustn't Forget the Monkey Man!!

2004-07-03T02:45:00.000+01:00

Yes, the riding on the opposite side of road was a bit interesting. It was weird sitting on the left-hand seat and not driving while Michael was driving over on the right side.

BEARS IN MANHATTAN???

While eating the best meal we have eaten since we have been here, we started chatting with the party sitting right next to us. One of the ladies we were talking to was so enthusiastic about us being from America and taking the time to experience her side of the world. After telling her what part of the U.S. we were from, she proceeded to tell us the different parts she has visited in the past. One place that she particularly enjoyed was New York. She and her sister were telling us that all they ever thought New York consisted of was Manhattan and knew nothing about the upstate area. Apparently someone had told them to watch for bears while in NY, obviously referring to the ones located upstate. Because of their lack of knowledge about the entire state of NY, they were on the lookout for the bears in Manhattan and just couldn't understand why they hadn't seen any and where they would be found in such a huge city. They remained rather baffled by the whole prospect of bears in NYC and continued to ask themselves, "Where are the Manhattan Bears?" Lucky for them, they finally got the real story and no longer had to worry about running into one at Tiffany's or Rockefeller Center!!!

The evening was a splendid one (SEE MICHAEL'S POSTING) and yes, the Scots that we have come across so far are indeed extremely friendly, warm, authentic and truly genuine. Nothing phony about them. Along with being rather extroverted, the Scots have no qualms about expressing themselves and having a grand old time. Not only did we see the gals, that Michael mentioned, who were keeping Glasgow's streets clean but on the way home from downtown we also saw this guy jumping around in the middle of the street, raising his shirt and then running back and forth, from one side of the street to the other swinging around street light posts like a wild monkey. He was yelling God knows what at the top of his lungs, apparently encouraging his buddies to join him.

I think I should learn a few lessons from the Scots - Enjoy life, smile, be kind to yourself and others and most of all, let go of the insecurities!

Time to sign off and get some much needed sleep. I look forward to another day where we can be among those that truly know how to live! Until tomorrow…

Lazy Saturday

2004-07-03T01:15:00.000+01:00

Well today was a pretty lazy day. Partly we were up very late last night working on the blog…then I had so much energy I read more of Clinton's book.

Then I did some research on web hosting and things we should do while we're here—Laurie did some calling around to the Embassy to see if there were any 4th festivities—no luck there. They weren't working on the weekend, can you imagine?

We have been trying to meet with the downstairs neighbors for a drink the last few days but we keep missing each other. Today was no exception. At Archie's suggestion, we did go across to meet another neighbor who has a very new baby and a cute 4-5 year old daughter. Very cute. They gave us some suggestions of places for dinner and we headed out to grab a bite. They told us it might be hard to find a place because Saturdays are the night to go out to dinner around here. They invited us to come by soon just to chat.

This was my first time driving on the right side of the road so I figured this might be interesting. Armed with my iPAQ GPS, we were set. We made it out of the very narrow street we are living on just fine and followed the GPS' directions easily to our destination. Parking was a bit hard to find, but we lucked out and found street parking in a very trendy part of downtown Glasgow. Parallel parking from the right was really fun! (Later I got to park in the road where we live which is just big enough for one car to pass in one direction!)

We found the restaurant just fine too. The food was the best we've had since we arrived. I had a steak and “fresh cut potatoes” with baked tomato. Laurie had some delicious salmon. We had a good time and toward the end we got to talking with people at the next table over. Three pretty Sottish women and a Scotsman. My guess is he was gay or just a very lucky guy.

Anyway, when Laurie went to the bathroom they asked me to take a photo and when she got back, we all started talking. They gave us some helpful travel tips about places to see and when to see them. They were really very nice. Turns out two of the women were sisters, the guy and other woman were friends. Before they left the offered us the rest of their bottle of wine, but as we had finished dessert and tea, we thanked them for the offer. I should note that the Scots we've met have been boisterous and these were no exception. They were off to go to clubs and bade us a good time with lots of Scots as kind as them.

We wandered around the pedestrian area near by after dinner and found that Glasgow is quite the party town! There were plenty of dance clubs and people just walking around enjoying the evening. We saw a street performer playing bagpipes which I thought was quite nice. They have a primal tone like a shofar, which is hard to resist.

Glasgow calls itself, Scotland with Style. The people are generally attractive, and there is indeed a lot of style around in everything from buildings to clothing. Nothing is ostentatious or overdone. Like the people, the style is fairly simple, friendly, and practical. By the way, Glasgow is filled with beautiful ironwork throughout the city. No doubt a benefit of their history in such crafts.

Around 12:30 we decided to head back so we can try to get to bed at more or less a reasonable time and not waste the day tomorrow. On the way back we saw more drunk people out having a good time. No one seemed to be particularly bothering anyone else—simply having a good time.

At one point, we saw a couple of girls dressed for clubbing. Somehow they had found a street broom and dust pan and had decided to clean the streets of Glasgow—which they promptly did right in the middle of traffic that was stopped at a red light. That was all in good fun until a bus came by and nearly hit one of them. “All in a good days fun until you get hit by a bus” I always say.

Notable driving tips:

the lights go from red->yellow->green as well as from green->yellow->red.
the road markers don't really differentiate lanes going in the same direction from those in the opposite direction. I haven't gained the wisdom of this yet.
I entered my first roundabout tonight. This takes some getting used to but I can see them as useful.

Old Glasgow

2004-07-02T12:33:00.000+01:00

We got up late again today. I assume we'll adjust to the time sometime before we leave. We decided to go back downtown and do a walking tour that we learned about from the tourist office.

But first food. We found a good Indian buffet for lunch before we got started. Glasgow is a very metropolitan city with people from all over the world. This is not a new phenomenon. Scotland has a long history of mixing peoples from all over: the Picts and Celts, Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Irish, and Vikings all settled here at one time or another. That mixture seems evident in everything from the names of places to architecture.

The tourist office is a busy place which both provides information on transport of all kinds and sells useful items for visitors like maps and tour books as well as Glasgow/Scottish keepsakes.

The tour included much of the oldest parts of Glasgow

It was a cassette based tour that gave us a nice lay of the land so to speak. It took us to the oldest house in Scotland, several churches, art galleries, "the tech" university, and so on.

We spent almost four hours doing the tour including stopping for a pint at a bar. We got a little lost a few times because the tour tape and accompanying map weren't as clear as we required. For example, several times were meant to retrace our steps back to a previous point before continuing. A couple of times we had to rewind the tape and review the map. Once or twice we must have appeared very lost because a couple of people asked if we needed help and provided us some excellent direction to get us back on course.

My iPAQ's GPS system seems good for driving around, but not as good for walking for two reasons. First, getting signal when on the sidewalk between tall buildings is a challenge. Standing in the street solves that but has its own problems. The second problem is that I don't think the software I have answers the "where is the closest X from where I am now" very well. If you know where you want to go, it will tell you how to get there, but it seems you can't just turn on categories of things (ATMs, restaurants, etc.) which is unfortunate.

After finishing the tour and returning the tapes we went back to Safeway to get some more supplies. Then we took the bus back to the house.

TV

TV here is interesting. Not a lot of Scottish TV--much of it is BBC produced. Random observations:

Wife Swap is an interesting show. I guess there is already an American version in the works. Funny how there are few BBC channels yet the manage to export so many shows to the US.
How Clean is Your House is also interesting. Two women, Kim and Aggie, come in and, like Queer Eye For the Straight Guy they make comments about how disgusting and silly things are in the victim's&emdash;I mean star's house. We're not just talking about cosmetics. These ladies take samples from the kitchen and toilet and send it to the lap to find out what bacteria and viruses might have moved in. They also give some good cleaning tips and
More American brands advertised on TV than I expected. Breakfast cereals surprised me another was Dannon yogurt. Also, some commercials are for different products, but almost the same script as the US equivalent. Churchil Insurance for example, very similar to Geiko.
Big Brother Also has a US version I think but it is on for hours a day here. You don't just see highlights of their day--you can pretty much watch them sleep. About as interesting as watching paint dry mostly. Amazingly, these people seem confined to the house like prisoners. Seems like cruel and unusual punishment, but they don't seem to mind.
Closed captioning: doesn't seem to exist here. I noticed in several places like the news and on the safety film on the plane they use the old fashion method of having an interpreter in the corner of the screen. American TV hasn't done much of that in 20 years.
I miss TiVo®!

On the subject of TV, I saw a BBC report that talked about Britain's Terrorism Act which seems to be very similar in nature to our Patriot Act. A recent study showed that police are generally stopping everyone more often, but particularly blacks and Asians.

‘‘stop and search’’ operations under the anti-terrorism law have dramatically increased, with searches on Asians witnessing a massive rise of 302 per cent. ‘‘stop and searches’’ under the terror legislation more than doubled in 2002-03 compared to the previous year. A racial breakdown showed the number of such checks on ethnic minorities increased significantly more than those on White people, the report said. Overall, Black people were six times more likely to be stopped and searched than Whites,

In the previous year, they were five times more likely to be stopped and searched. Asians suffered the highest increases in stop and searches under the terrorism act powers, rising 302 per cent, from 744 in 2001-02 to 2,989 in 2002-03.

In the same period, stop and searches under the terrorism act rose 118 per cent, from 6,629 to 14,429 for white people, and by 230 per cent, from 529 to 1,745 for black people. According to the report, police in some areas had reduced their use of the tactic in the wake of the Stephen Lawrence report, which claimed the operation was being used disproportionately against ethnic minorities.

Blair's press secretary, in response to the report said, "Our commitment to race equality was as strong as ever. The imbalance illustrated by the figures today was unacceptable. That was why the Home Office had decided to set up a new unit - the Stop and Search Action Team - which would look at how the powers were used. It would also work with police forces to address the concerns around this policy."

The issues here are the same problems we face at home. What fantastic opportunities for finding common solutions to these problems.

I started reading Clinton's book today. It is interesting so far, and an easy read.

Friday, Already?

2004-07-02T12:10:00.000+01:00

Okay.  I think we now know how to travel to and from the City Center by bus.  Now it's time to get a better feel of the downtown area and what better way to do this than to take a walking tour!!

We went back to the Tourist Travel office to pick up our walkmans and cassette tape of the city tour.  We plugged our headphones in, started the tape and we were off!

Our tour began at George Square, home of the city chambers and various statues such as Queen Elizabeth, James Watt, Robert Burns (Scottish Poet), just to name a few.

We proceeded on George Street up to Strathclyde University.  From there we walked up High Street, which led us to an older part of Glasgow.  Here we found St.  Mungo's Museum of Religious Life and Art, The Royal Infirmary, Provand's Lordship and the ever ancient Glasgow Cathedral, which has incredible stained glass windows! We traveled back down High Street until we reached Saltmarket Street.  The history of this street is as follows: SALTMARKET STREET, opened in 1100.  It was then known as Walcargate, receiving this name from being the residing place of a colony of cloth waulkers or fullers.  About 1650 the name was changed, when it became the market for salt.

From the Saltmarket area, we entered "Merchant City/Trongate area.  I particularly liked this area because of the old grand buildings and layout of the streets.  It had what I consider “A European Flair”.

We roamed around the area where the old Tron Theater is located.  It has since been updated and is one of the major theaters located in the heart of Glasgow.  In the same building, The Tron Bar.  We took a break in there and had ourselves a 1/2 pint of one of Scotland's brews.  I am not a beer drinker however, this wasn't half bad.  I was able to get most of it down but wasn't able to keep up with Michael, as he had no problem drinking the stuff!

The Tolbooth Steeple is also located the Trongate area and is quite a site that towers over the busy streets.

We continued on our journey up Candleriggs Street which led us right to Merchant Square.  Here is another area of Glasgow that has many shops and restaurants.

At the end of our walk we headed down Ingram Street where we ran straight into Glagsgow's Trade Hall which today is used for weddings, meetings, conventions...

We made our way back to the Tourist Information office through what is known as the Royal Exchange Square.  Here is where the Glasgow Gallery Of Modern Art and Borders Bookstore are located, not to mention more shops and restaurants.  The neat thing about these buildings is they were once used in the past and now used for modern day uses.  This one of the many things that had really made an impression on me since we've been here.  Many of the buildings, home, museums, etc.  that are in existence today are located in buildings that have been around hundreds of years ago.  Although we have some old buildings in the U.S., there is no comparison to the historical flavor that sweetens the city throughout!

We stopped once again at our City Center Safeway store to pick up some more items and then headed back to the house to unwind and relax from the day's events.

When we got home, we watched Scotland's version of “Big Brother”, which is pretty comical, to say the least.  I whipped up some curry chicken and vegetables for dinner and we then we spent time on our laptops until 4:00AM gathering the week's information and adventures and typing them into this blog for you all to enjoy!

Yes, I Agree! We Should Do Something!

2004-07-01T11:39:00.000+01:00

Seems as though we are doing an ever so good job sleeping in... I guess the time change has messed up our sleep patterns, at least is has with me!

As Michael mentioned, we got up on the later side and felt like it was time to go start scouting out the City Center, which is about a 7-10 minute drive from the Lacey house. We hoped on the bus and it took us right to the downtown area. This seems to be the Mecca of shopping and dining. Great for people watching too!

We walked around a little, finally found the tourist information center and gathered some maps and pamphlets that will help us get a better perspective of the Glasgow area.

We walked a little more through some of the downtown squares and found a little cafe that had a nice outdoor patio. We enjoyed our sandwiches as we watched the people go by. One of the other customers in the cafe was a gentleman from L.A.. I first noticed he was not a local when he first asked the waitress if it was customary to tip and also when he asked some Scots what time it was. They told him it was "half 4" and he confirmed the time by saying, "Ah, 4:30 then!" We smiled at eachother and knew we were not from the area and were talking the same language.

Eureka! A BIGGER SAFEWAY!! I was excited to come across a larger grocery store than the one we first were introduced to when we first arrived to Glasgow. This one was a tad bigger with a slightly better selection yet, still doesn't quite measure up to home! We took advantage of what the store had to offer and purchased some things to help us stock up.

Got home, relaxed and continued to email folks! Tomorrow... we go back to the City Center for a "Walkabout tour" of the city!

We should so something!

2004-07-01T02:56:00.000+01:00

We got up late since we haven't adjusted to the time difference. Okay, I would stay up late anyway so that's no excuse.

Did I mention the house we are in is quirky? A few random examples.

Many doors have no knobs
For the first day we couldn't figure out how to get hot water or heat. They work just fine, but you have to turn them on manually.
The house is under some construction. Archie is adding living space in what was an attic. Very neat! But it is a work in progress.
There is a washer, but no dryer so things dry on a clothesline in the kitchen (too wet outside to rely on outdoor drying)
We couldn't find the kitchen light for the first day and a half.
The shower next to the master bedroom doesn't seem to work (but the bath works just fine.)
The new upstairs shower works fine, but you have to pull a string on a switch to turn on the heater installed in the shower. (Think of a closet light-switch). The good thing is this provides really good hot water! But only if you know to turn on the switch first. :)
The floors are rustic wood. Very nice, but have a somewhat more unfinished feeling than I'm used to being a spoiled American. They have charm though. The exception is the kitchen--which has the same Pergo flooring we have at home! talk about mixing old and new.
No closets--everything is in freestanding in the kitchen there are really no cabinets or shelves on the walls.

Note that in many cases, we are just adjusting and learning how things are done here—the house is really nice and very large.

Even though I intend to get work done while here, we should do something other than sit in the house all day. So we got cleaned up and went downtown via the bus and found a little cafe called, "The Social". Watching people go by was fun. After that, we went to the visitor's bureau and got some brochures and a few books including a couple of brief historical overviews of Scotland. We decided to map out what to do with ourselves a bit so we went to—dare I say, Starbucks. We had a coffee and made some plans. Then, we saw a Borders and picked up some reading for later in the trip. Before we went home, we saw a really big Safeway and we had to get some more food since we had not found a good store near where we are staying. Mind you, we are only about 10 minutes drive from downtown, but still. This was similar to our own Safeway, albeit smaller. Of course some of the brands are different and containers are different. But many are not. Heinz is big here in both restaurants and supermarkets. So are American cereals like Cheerios. It is quite amazing, really. But on the other hand, ever other care in the US is made outsisde of our country. And so it goes. Hard to tell sometimes who influences who.

We were right next to Central Station so we wandered through it a bit. While we were there we got info on how to take the train to Prestwick Airport when we leave to London at the end of the month. Note to self…this is Europe, carry change for bathrooms. :)

With some effort, we found a bus that would take us back home and it dropped us of right at the corner. Yippie!

Spent some time catching up on email and having dinner...also watching British TV. Insights on that tomorrow. ;)

There was no rain today. There were even patches of blue sky.

First day “in country”

2004-06-30T02:42:00.000+01:00

We got some much needed sleep. When we got up we had a bite to eat and then went to Queens Park just around the corner. It is fairly big and we enjoyed a fast walk/jog around there. We saw the "Glass House" which featured an arboretum with cactus and a Japanese garden. The whole complex was heated with 6" galvanized pipe which created a giant radiator. Very cool and very hot. The outside temperature was like 55 but inside it was like a desert.

After the park, I started to try to get the computer stuff set up. That turned out to be quite the challenge because the Laceys have a USB DSL modem. So I had to connect the modem to Laurie's laptop because mine has a bad USB port and then her laptop to a router to which, my laptop and the Vonage box are connected. With a little Internet Connection Sharing and Whew! we are all on the same DSL line. What could be easier? (Note, I don't recommend this unless you like significant dorking around. :) FYI for the geeks...it took many hours because of some old software drivers on the USB modem. Once that was fixed and we got the password from the Laceys we were set.

<insert picture>

After that we got some mediocre Afghani food around the corner. Nice looking place, but the food was so-so.

It rained on and off today. The weather is cool and moist. Kind of like Seattle.

Our First Full Day

2004-06-30T01:57:00.000+01:00

We got up on the later side after a long and restful sleep. We made our first breakfast consisting of scrambled eggs, fruit and toast!! After leisurely eating breakfast and being a bit lazy, we decided it was time to get some exercise and get outside while the weather was cooperating.

We slipped on our exercise clothes, put our walking shoes on and headed to Queens Park, which is a lovely and rather large park right across from the street from where the house is. We walked briskly along the paved walkways, listed to the birds chirping and were even greeted by squirrels that came up to us expecting food. During our walk we stumbled across "The Glass House" which was basically a large greenhouse that had various rooms that had cacti, flowers, birds, reptiles and other unusual plants.

We continued our walk through the park, admiring the dogs that were there that seemed to be having the time of their lives. Just wish Ben could have been with us to enjoy this beautiful park!

We meandered through the park, ending up on the other side that led us out onto some local streets. We decided to explore the store lined streets to see what other types of things were nearby that we didn't yet know about.

The walk was refreshing and it felt great to be in the fresh air. We got back and basically hung around the house the rest of the day. Michael continued to fight with hooking up the computers, which first needed to be done in order to get our Vonage Box working. Luckily, before we went for a walk, Archie, our Scottish host, called to check on things and see if we managing okay. We were sure glad he called as we desperately needed his secret password in order for us to get the DSL software installed on my laptop -- that was the first hurdle to get over!

Talk about persistence! It must have been hours and hours that Michael worked on hooking the laptops up to DSL. The next puzzle was to get the Vonage Box working and that took even more time!

By dinner time, Michael finally got things all hooked up! My hero!!! For dinner we went to this take away (aka take out)Indian Restaurant and brought food home. I enjoyed this food much more than the Kurdish food we had the other night! We were informed that Scotland has great Indian food and that is absolutely the case!

Stayed in for the night, cozied up to the TV( Watched an old episode of Charlie's Angels and a silly Scottish show called "How Clean is Your House?") and our laptops and spent time sending email and chatting with our friends. It was a nice way to spend the evening. It felt good to get a little taste of home, even if it was via the computer!

Travel Day (continued)

2004-06-29T01:58:00.000+01:00

We laded a tad early in London, Heathrow. Just prior to landing, we were told that if we were going on an international flight and your bags were checked through, you didn't have to fill out the form. Since Scotland is another country, we assumed that we didn't need the form.

The signage was odd in several places. For example, we were routed quite a long way around the jet way to a couple of hallways and finally to a courtyard sort of area. Below us were shops, restaurants, etc. and that sounded good since we had time to kill. However getting there was no easy task and there were no signs. We went down an escalator two levels to the wrong area. We had to take stairs back up. I didn't mind too much because we'd been so inactive for 10 hours, but this was kind of silly. Ultimately we found our way to a security check…even though we just came from a plane and weren't leaving the terminal or the secure area. The line was very long, but luckily we weren't in a rush. After security, guess what? We had to go through customs and had to fill out that little form. (Not even as a family—but individually!) Ah the joys of travel. Finally we found our way to the gate and waited. Turns out that just before our scheduled departure, they posted a delay so we grabbed some panini sandwiches in the little restaurant near by. They had mayonnaise, but were amazingly good actually!

Anyway, our flight to Glasgow was about an hour late, but otherwise no problems. When we arrived our bags weren't on the beltway—no worries there was another area for bags that came internationally. Mind you, they hadn't been through customs with us yet. So we found them on the belt and piled them on one of the complimentary carts. (Europe is very civilized about travel carts.) We walked right by three or four people that looked like customs folks but no one wanted to ask us anything or check the bags or match the tags on the bags!

We stopped at the travel desk and got directions from the nice woman there. We bought tickets to the Central Station in Glasgow and took a short cab ride to the house we're staying in near Queens Park just south of downtown on the opposite side of the River Clyde. We were very tied and after we got a tour from our host family's oldest daughter, Marie-Claire. She's delightful and the house is very big and well, quirky in a pleasant way. More on that tomorrow.

Before we settled in, we walked down the road to the Safeway. Yes, Safeway with a twist. It is in a BP gas station. A small market to get some essentials. We wouldn't have known about it, but the cab driver took pitty on us and probably figured we needed some guidance for "emergency" rations. The choices in the market were limited—we got some eggs, juice, milk, fruit, and stuff. Then, back home and got some sleep.

More Traveling... Settling In

2004-06-29T01:20:00.000+01:00

10:45 AM (GMT)... THUMP! "Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to London Heathrow!!" Hurray! We have just landed on UK soil. Getting closer to Glasgow. Only 2 1/2 hours before heading to Scotland! Feeling a little dazed and groggy and trying to get used to the 8 hour time difference (my body is telling me it is 2:45AM), Michael and I venture into the airport, go through customs and grab our first meal in the UK. We continue to watch the information board to keep us informed of gate and departure time of our Glasgow flight. Time ticks ever so slowly but soon we are due to board our plane.
1:15PM (GMT)- we are supposed to board. Just found out our plane will be delayed by at least a 1/2 hour. More waiting!
2:15PM -- announcement was just made to begin boarding. We go down several steps and I am thinking this is a very strange jetway. I have never walked down stairs to get to a plane! The stairs lead us outside to a bus which then takes us to our plane. Interesting! First taste of riding in a vehicle on the opposite side of the road!
YEAH OUR PLANE! We finally get on board only to find out that we still have a bit of a wait as there is a queue of planes lined up to take off all at the same time!
2:45ish PM -- Up, up and away to Glasgow! Only an hours flight to get there! I can hear the bagpipes playing!!!

3:45PM-- WE MADE IT! Time to go find our bags, assuming they made it with us!
Hey, being "a foreigner" has its advantages. There is a completely separate room that has it's own carousel where Americans and other folks from other various places go and claim their luggage. Rather than waiting with the rest of the crowd, we went into this room, pleasantly surprised to see our bags happily rolling along on the moving belt!
Once we found our bags, we went to the information desk to get some help to find out what the best way to get to the Lacey residence. We hop on a bus (along with 3 good sized pieces of luggage, two laptops, various carry on bags, my backpack, and a partridge in a pear tree!!) that takes us to the famous City Center to then hail a cab to take us to the Lacey home. Not yet having Scottish pounds on us (money, that is) I proceed to knock on several cab window asking if they accept credit cards only to get peculiar looks and smirks with friendly "no, sorry, ma'am" responses... Aside from my "accent", this was a dead give away that two Americans have arrived ready to take on Scotland!
Our first withdrawal of money from a Scottish ATM-- we grab a cab. Taxi driver was delightful and was interested in what we were planning to do while visiting Glasgow. He took us to 33 Regent Park Square (our home away from home) safely and made sure we knew where the closest grocery store in order to get us off on the right track!
I knock on the door and am greeted by the charming and gracious daughter of Archie and Theresa Lacey, Marie-Claire. She is the eldest of 5 children (age 19). Marie-Clarie gave us the grand tour of the home and did her best showing us where things were and how things worked (we must have gotten the abridged version of the tour as she failed to explain how heating worked, where the hot water heater was, how the shower worked, etc... all the essential things one would need to know, you'd think).
First impression of the house... old, big, love the huge windows, but a bit weird to say the least (SEE MICHAEL'S DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE HOME'S QUIRKS). I could live here... I think. I just need some time to get used to it all and to revamp my American way of thinking. We are so spoiled in America -- living in comfort and luxury, with all our American toys. Not the case here! Living as simply as possible is the name of the game.
My first exposure to simple living is the washing machine. Michael and I both made a point of spilling things on our clothes on the flight over so thought it might be a good idea to start a load of laundry. First of all, washing machine is VERY small. Detergent is in tablet form, temperature settings are a little different and best of all,the machine makes interesting sounds while running. There is no clothes dryer so we had to string our clothes around the house... this seems to be rather typical in European homes!
We proceed on to take a little walk to explore the neighborhood a bit to to find the neighborhood grocery store. A very short walk down the main road, we come to the local Safeway store, Yup, Safeway of all things but this Safeway is very small in comparison to our MEGA grocery stores in the US. Very small selection of foods and a very poor produce section, if sections is what you call it... bummer! We buy juice, eggs, milk and soda ... the basics to hold us over for a bit! I can already tell I am going to miss our GIANT food stores. I guess the typical things to do here is buy your basics at the local market and then go to the neighborhood specialty stores for meats, some produce and other needs.
Upon our walk to the store, we are introduced to 1/2 of couple that lives downstairs. Stephen welcomes us as he dashes out the door for a game of "football" (what we call soccer). Very sweet guy! His wife, Beata, welcomed us later in the evening, inviting us for a drink at their place. We were way tooooo tired to take them up on the offer but intend to take them up on it later in the week!
Dinner... we walk over to the neighborhood Kirdish restaurant (very much like afghan food)and enjoy a lentil and rice soup, Naan (awesome flatbread) and a chicken and rice dish! Delicious!
Now that we are thoroughly exhausted, and full, the evening is spent flipping through the 4 or 5 channels we get on the TV, laughing at the entertaining commercials, and trying to make heads or tails of the internet system that is in this house. We want to get our laptops going and get our Vonage Box hooked up so we are in communication with friends, family and the rest of the outside world! Next challenge.... Michael has to figure out how the heck all this is going to work with the poor DSL set up Archie has. Also... No heat in the house! OOPS, One, of the many things Marie-Claire forgot to tell us how to work. HELP! I try dialing the 11 digit phone number... that was an experience in itself! More challenges to come... stay tuned!

Travel Day!

2004-06-28T02:47:00.000+01:00

Well, our travel day has finally arrived. We got up around 9am. Michael went over to Safeway to get some laundry detergent, batteries for the smoke alarm, a filter for the laundry machine—which Safeway didn’t have. Well no matter—we had one last filter to put on the machine before we left.

There were lots of other last minute things to do to prepare the house—put the recycles out, and empty the trash in house or at least the third “last time”. There are perhaps an endless number of things we could have done to prepare that I’m sure we could have filled almost any amount of time doing them. Not just for the things we’d take with us, or choose to leave behind, but preparing the house and our lives in the US on hold while we are gone as well.

But thankfully there isn’t infinite time to prepare and before we knew it was 12 and Susan was at our place to provide us a ride to SFO for our flight. First thing is first though, we had time for lunch at Max’s—the same Max’s we went to after our wedding. We actually hadn’t been back since so this was a nice memory. We had a nice lunch and good conversation. We talked about “Fahrenheit 9/11” and Presidential trivia like Lincoln’s son, Robert Todd, then Secretary of War was present at Garfield’s assassination. Susan and Michael enjoy Presidential trivia and often quiz each other on the Presidents. (So far we can’t do better than remember about 32 of the 43 through—we’re working on it.

Susan dropped us at the airport and we were off! We had plenty of time which was a good thing because the check-in line was long. Lucky for us they didn’t seem to check the weight on the bags. It could be because the guy helping us just got new glasses and he had a hard enough time handling the tickets much less watching the scale. Not to worry, I glanced at the baggage tags and they were addressed correctly. Thankfully our bags made it to Glasgow without incident. That was good as I had brought a bunch of cables, my router, Vonage, some CDs, etc. so I would have been pretty upset if they didn’t make it!

After check in, we went through security. Other than a long line, no problems. We had about 30 minutes before boarding began so we grabbed some water for the flight. (Good advice from my Mother-in-Law about keeping hydrated on long flights!) The guy behind the counter was actually quite nice and told us that our trnasfer flight would be in Terminal 1 same as our SF-> London flight and that we would not go through customers in London. This was different than my recent experience in Amsterdam — but hey, what do I know? ;)

Our seats were good—we had no one behind us and Laurie appreciated being close to the bathroom. Every seatback has its own screen with the usual flight info (outside temperature, speed, estimated arrival time, etc.) Impressive that it was -76F during part of the flight over Greenland! Even though I don’t usually watch movies on planes, I watched Along Came Polly which was kind of cute.

I had also brought my iPAQ along loaded with 450 Mb or so of music which is nice. (It can make a cross-atlantic flight without charging the batteries.)

Our Travel Day Is Here!

2004-06-28T01:41:00.000+01:00

9:00AM sure does come around quickly when one goes to bed at 3:00AM! Got up, with a spring in my step and realized, "Hey, I'm going to Scotland!" Wow! It is actually going to happen. Time to vacuum, time to make sure the house is in order for our Scottish guests, time to get the last things into that full suitcase of mine!

12PM.. our friend, Susan, came to take us to lunch before heading to SF Airport. We had a delightful visit and our last fix of Max's great American food before getting to the airport.

2:45PM... get in line at the British Airways line and wait, and wait and wait. Now I know why they advise passengers to get there 2 hours before departure. We finally get up to the counter and are greeted by the ticket agent who has informed us that he is struggling to see our itinerary, passports, boarding passes and luggage tags because he is wearing glasses that he got 2 hours before we got to him. It was rather humorous to see him drop things and comment on his struggles. All I could think of at the time was that our luggage was to end up in Talamazu and we were going to end up in China. Took a look at all the documents that the agent gave us and yup... both we and our luggage are off to Scotland!

4:15PM... ALL ABOARD! Got on the plane, settled in and was amazed at the individual TV monitors on the back of each of the seats. Cool! We get a choice of 18 different movie/TV shows to watch on our own monitor! How can I possibly get bored?? Best thing about our seats.. no one behind us and it is right next to the bathroom!

4:30PM (15 minutes to take off!!!!!)... ah, this is going to be a great flight! 10 hours of relaxation, some food, movies and best yet an empty seat right next to me in the row of seats we were sitting in.. GOODIE, MORE ROOM! Uh oh! No! Wishful thinking -- a lady from the back of the plane who was complaining to the airline staff that is was hotter than hell back there was now placed in that luxurious empty seat I had once "owned". I suddenly realized the next 10 hours were now not only going to be more cramped but now extra long... this lady likes to talk! Not only does she like to talk but she likes to talk to herself and seems to have the need to get up every 15 minutes. The poor guy at the end of our row had to constantly get up... he was a saint!

Final preparations (T minus 12 hours give or take)

2004-06-27T02:41:00.000+01:00

We dropped Ben off at his “spa”. He should have a fantastic timeÂhe has a big yard, a swimming pool, and 5 playmates (not including the two large, amazing parrots.) HeÂs going to have such a good time; weÂre worried he will be disappointed when we come home.

We were up until about 3 am finishing our packing. We had a hard time whittling down our packing. There was also a lot of preparation for our guests, the Lacey family. Since Ben was off on holiday, we had Max there to welcome them.

Laurie put together a welcome basket for the Laceys as well.

We set up the exercise room with our Aerobed, there is our room of course, LaurieÂs office with a double bed, and the sleeper couch.

With packing complete, time to grab some sleep!

Sunday Preparations

2004-06-27T01:08:00.000+01:00

Ahhh, yes... the packing, the last minute preparations... all a bit stressful but all very exciting! I have had this trip in the back of my mind for quite some time however, it never actually hit me that we were going to be heading over to the UK for a large amount of time until the suitcases were down and I started actually putting clothes into mine!

What to pack, what to pack... do I do my usual stunt of packing everything I could possibly want (notice I did not say "need") or do I put my practical hat on and just bring only what I absolutely need? Well, as Michael mentioned in his posting, we stayed up until 3AM packing and getting last minute things done. I could have probably gone to bed a little soon had I not had to pack 3 separate times! I started packing EVERYTHING, tried closing my suitcase and it was a HUGE and I mean HUGE bulge. That wasn't going to work! Took some clothes out, closed it again... nope not quite (also my dear husband was on the sidelines asking me, "Do you really need that? Do you really need 5 pairs of "X"? " After reality set in, I finally was able to cut quite a bit out, still feeling like I was bringing enough but now able to zip up my suitcase successfully! Nice thing about our Glasgow house is... there is a washing machine. No need to go down to the River Clyde to scrub 'em clothes!