Sunday, August 2, 2015

The European Expedition - Scotland

For the purpose of reasons, I am going to keep the info short and the pictures plentiful. Hopefully the beauty of what's in the photos will speak enough to the magic that dwells in the hills and on the plates of everything in Scotland. Unfortunately for you, you won't be able to taste, smell or feel (NO TOUCHING) the things that were eaten, drunk, smelt or touched. You'll just have to come with me next time (I am almost certain there will be another trip to Scotland).

On an unrelated note, uploading high quality pictures such as these on a 4MB/s internet connection took me longer than I'd care to say. It usually meant choosing 50 of them at a time and leaving the computer on overnight to get the work done. So enjoy the pictures!


 --- Edinburgh ---
Here's photos and some words to explain the photos.

Day #1: H.M.S. Britannia, the royal family's former yacht.
< Parents & I had a quick drink at a pub we liked. Those are my parents. Yes they always wear those hats.
The H.M.S. Britannia >


<Queen's Sitting Room (the English term for an office, I think)
             Bow of the Yacht>

< Main Bridge

         Telephone System>
(If you look closely you can see the different royal quarters and rooms on board)



<Main.... Um.... Room Place

             Dining Room >


< Lunch
                              Folks >



For dinner, I was so tired by 9 pm that I fell asleep right as soon as we go home, so there was no dinner to be had. This would not become the norm as the trip continued. More on that below

Day #2: A Walk Through Leith & CrammondLeith is a suburb of Edinburgh (but not in the North American style of suburb). It was formerly a town outside of the city, but urban expansion meant it's now a regional neighborhood just like any other area. Crammond is a village outside of down along the Firth of Forth. 
A neat church I found, and Ol' Vicky watching over the town. 
 Something I realized that day was that everything is really really old. Like I mean the most recent date on any of the tombstones I could find was the late 19th century. The state had been there for over a hundred years (it also blew me away that someone, or a group of people, made all that by hand.... geeze). This place is truly entrenched in history. 





< Got some tasty treats from there. Their pastries and treats are a little less sweet than back home, and tend to be more rich rather than loaded with sugar. Buttery tarts with custard & fruit, goopy brownies, wholesome cookies & biscuits 

< A cafe

Tea with Backlava >

Your standard Edinburgh town houses. Tall, made of sandstone or limestone, and probably exceptionally old


< Letter writing session in the park

The field on the way to Crammond>



The Firth of Forth, the bay north of Edinburgh




Day #3 Royal Botanic Gardens (not to be confused by Burlington's Royal Botanical Gardens) & a visit to the pub. Self-explanatory. Lots of things to look at. That day was the first that I had a pang of loneliness hit me and I was a little out of sorts.

 












Whoops. Looks like my formatting's a little off






































After all that time alone, wandering around the gardens & finding my way back to the city, I found a pub close to the city center that I decided to get a pint at. The Stockbridge Tap turned out to be a fantastic and friendly place to spend some time, and I ended up having 3 pints instead of 1, and befriending the bartender, the other bartender, the bartender that replaced the first bartender (who, when his shift was over, came to the other side of the bar to have a drink with us) and a few of the patrons. It was just what I needed, and couldn't have come at a better time. Funny how that works out eh?

After some good chats and getting a recommendation for dinner, we went for Indian, and holy MOLY, it was a good recommendation. 












Day #4 The Royal Mile & Arthur's Seat. The Royal mile is the mile-or-so-long stretch of road through the old city between Edinburgh Castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse (AKA the Queen's lair in the colony of Scotland). Arthur's Seat is the name of a mountain in the center of the city. It's a climb, but it's definitely worth it. 




LOOK AT ALL THE PLAID TARTANS





Got myself a nice shirt & tie from that place>

< I want to wear that. I want to wear that and drink a scotch in my own private library. 







That's Arthur's seat itself. The lower mountain (pictures above) is named something else. It's a longer but gentler slope that juts in front of Arthur's seat and is known for nothing. 





*Heavy Breathing


Not a bad view eh?



















St Giles Cathedral, who's choir was putting on a performance just as I was happening by. Incredible ensemble, acoustics & experience. 10/10 would throw money at if that was considered acceptable there.



Dinner was at Deacon Brodie's, on the recommendation of a new friend. Also fantastic food, I had chicken stuffed with haggas, wrapped in bacon, on mashed potatoes & gravy, with beer. Not a single meal in all of Edinburgh was below excellent. I don't mean good, I mean everything was chuffing EXCELLENT!




 --- The Highlands ---
With our time in Edinburgh at a close, I got my hands on a tasty new (2015) Mini cooper, packed the three of us and our luggage (which was a squeeze) inside, and hit the road. It should be mentioned that driving in Scotland is a little different than at home in Canada. Notably:
- Roads are in much better shape and more intelligently designed (better tarmac, better paint, good signage, etc). It should also be noted that it allows for comfortable, safe driving on the narrow winding roads that make up Northern Scotland's highway system. The satisfaction of carving some corners in addition to the scenery made for some fantastic journeys.
- Motorists drive on the wrong other side of the road. (I suppose I can't say wrong if it's their way of doing things. That's like Brits chastising us for drowning our breakfast in maple syrup or automatically apologizing to people that bump into us without a second thought). While this was hard at first, once you're going on the road with other drivers, the stress and difficulty melt away. However, turning out of a grocery store or on an empty road, I still got my sides mixed up. Anywho, o
ur trip through the highlands consisted of the following destinations.

Pictures from the drive:


 
First stop was a railway heritage museum (complete with an inter-town steam railway. Nobody told them it's the 21st century). 
 


 


 
Scotland just reeks of the 19th century. 
 


 
And I wouldn't have it any other way. 
 


 
Our first look at the proper highlands. Note the clean water, fresh air, and unbridled GREEN. It's more green than Ireland, and they invented the colour!
 


 
Getting out of this muddy ditch was a negligent fun adventure
 


 
Classic Mom. 
 




Look at that majestic creature, and well dressed too! Rumor has it that he's also employed! How is he still single?
 


 


 Pick your poison >

 
The King's House Hotel. Currently on my list of favourite places on the planet. I'll have to return here by motorbike or classic roadster when I've got more money than sense (and I don't have to be a rich man to reach that stage)
 
How can you not make a face like that after finding the best little nook in the glen and having a river trout & scotch for dinner?

Glencoe
Most of the small towns in the highlands double or even triple in population during the summer months from all the traffic. For us, that means good restaurants, lots of things to see, and warm(ish) weather to keep us company. In Glencoe, We rented a wonderful cottage (as anyone who has whatsapp and gets videos from me might see), and they even had a CAT. I was overdue for some cat time. No. Really overdue. I forgot the sensation of having fur left on your clothing when you're done playing with the cat, a testament to HOW WELL YOU PLAYED WITH THE CAT.

 The cottage






 Pup Pup


 A small road that led to a secret waterfall. It's like frickin NARNIA EVERYWHERE

 <The cafe I mooched some wifi from while I had some juice.

 Kitty



 Kittayy



KITTY

I have a soft spot for cats in the way children have a soft spot for all-you-can-stuff-in-your-face-chocolate buffets

Oban
While it isn't a particularly special town, Oban is where I got my hands on the newest Game of Thrones book; The World of Ice & Fire. It's essentially a history book that outlines the centuries in the GoT world prior to the events of the show & books. It's quite detailed and very interesting, with quite a bit of good artwork. As of now, I don't know where the book is, as it was in the suitcase that has found itself a new home somewhere in Hong Kong.









 This is a place. It was built a long time ago for something. It's still here but there's no interior. Maybe they just liked sitting in the cold and the rain?



This is an example of the traditional British tourism industry. Back when the English would turn their noses up at the 'continentals', Scotland was a very popular destination for many years. As a result, hotels popped up all around the highlands, even in small towns,
One unique feature of this is that all of these antiquated hotels (which date from the 50's and prior) all have really tasty restaurants & bars, unlike in N. America where the meals served in a hotel/motel are a kind of last-resort source of sustenance in case you forgot to book a reservation in town and even the hot dog stands are closed. Not what I expected, but it meant that there were even more options for eating out (and all of them were great).



 Mom borrowed the camera while I fetched the car, she snapped these last six pics before I pulled up. With all those extra years on her, that maturity, I think she's got a bit of photo experience to show for it.




Plockton
Plockton is a small town at the end of a single-lane road that runs through the hilly countryside of sheep farms & fields, eventually leading down to the cove that the town is nestled into cozily. There is a small coastal strip, two hotels, and one boat rental company that lets you (or takes you) onto the loch to watch for seals, otters, birds (like cranes) and the odd whale. It is a truly lovely place. Lovely is the perfect word for it. Cozy, comforting, well-aged (like that hand-me down sweater that's brought out from a trunk in your grandparent's attic that fits you almost perfectly), Plockton was one of my favourite places. I also had sticky toffee pudding here for the first time (after a dinner of venison pie). 





 Eilen Donan castle, where we stopped before dinner. We actually lucked out with a B&B nearby, as we hadn't reserved anything and had planned to spontaneously find somewhere to stay


 Low tide is LOW tide up here. There are big tides in the highlands

 The castle after the British had RUDELY destroyed it during some war or another. A fellow rebuilt it a hundred or so years ago and claimed it for his ancestral family who had ties here>


 < THAT is what I would like to do


And there's Plockton>







 Eilan Donan by night













The Isle of Skye
The setting of part of the Bond movie 'Skyfall' and a magnificent corner of the earth. This is where I had my first distillery tour, and became quite fond of Talisker scotch. Shortly after the tour, the family (while reluctant at first) and I drove up the hill to get lunch at a seafood shack. I had oysters & prawns on chips (fries), and my parents had fish soup. I can honestly say it was one of the most simple-yet-delicious (or perhaps simple-and-therefore-delicious) meals I've ever had. This is also where things went a little hairy with the 'ol Mini.



 SHEEP FARMS
 Single track roads are the road of choice in Scotland. So many boulders & other reasons means it's just easier to make a single lane road with passing points.



 Farm animals being rude




 SCOTCH



 MORE SCOTCH




My favourite meal of the whole trip. Just simple, tasty and completely appropriate given the day, climate, and location>



Annnnd here it is, the thousand-dollar picture. As you can see, the mountain ranges ahead were just gorgeous, leading me to exit the road onto the 'junction' (as they call it here) at an, inappropriate speed. With a bump and a plop, I landed in the ditch, and that was the end of the Mini for us. During my wait for the tow truck, I snapped some nice pics.





 No, that wasn't the RAF coming to help me... >








The Drive Back
When our time at the cottage was at an end, I promptly became quite ill and derailed our plans to go to Glasgow a day early (I was the only driver of the group). We managed to get into town where I spent most of the day in bed, waiting for the storm to pass. Getting sick on vacation is certainly not fun, but I'm pleased it only lasted a day. When we finally got on the road, we stopped in the city that the 'Harry Potter Train' leaves from. In the films, they had a different train on the same route (the bridge Ron & Harry fly through in the flying car is quite famous as well). It'










 A final view of Glencoe & the castle type hotel we had some dinner at



 CAT ALERT
 New Ride. More spacious, but slower, more cumbersome and not quite engineered in the proper manner of the mini (like an electronic parking brake, a dump stereo system, etc) >


















Part way through our drive, I started noticing more and more old, silly cars that were decorated in all fashions. Coming to a gas station, I spotted a few more of these cars and pulled over to have a chat with some of the drivers. Apparently, once a year in July, there is a Dutch race (they can't call it that because they're not racing) rally (no wait they can't call it that because they're not marking times) tour/trip/expedition to a number of places in a given country. This year was England/Scotland (destinations are on the 'Carbage Run' number picture), with 550 teams driving from each location to the next, camping/partying the night away on some camping ground, and then packing up to hit the road the next morning. Apparently anyone can sign up themselves as part of a team (online registration for the 500 team slots fills up in about 1-2 minutes time once the gates open), and cars have got to be bought for under 500 Euro. They did Spain or Italy the previous summer, I'm told. If I ever get the chance to come back to Europe, I will jump a the opportunity to do this. 



























Glasgow
Glasgow is much like Hamilton in that it's a fairly big city with plenty of history, although a more prominent neighbouring city, and several decades of economic decline and urban decay have meant that it had been overshadowed by Edinburgh. There's a rivalry between the cities, because of reasons. But I'm not YOUR history teacher! You're damn lucky I'm not charging you money for the luxury of being able to view this wonderful blog posts containing impeccable commentary and breathtaking photography. Remember that the next time I call you up to hang with you, or at least check up on you. That business aside, Glasgow is pretty nice. Here's some pictures so you can see for yourself. 






 Things that go





 A view of the streets of Glasgow. Not a bad looking city by any means



The farmer's market was open that day. NEATO






 In the park they even had a 1920's themed festival thing with live music, dancing and a history of the bandstand.







After that I hopped on a ferry bound for Northern Ireland, but that's another chapter. Right now I need some Tim & Eric to make sure I don't grow up too much. 


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