Sunday, September 23, 2007

Day 15: Glasgow and back to Calgary

Not much doing today. We wandered around the "High Street" of Glasgow for a bit, did a bit of shopping, and then grabbed a taxi and headed to the airport.

Check-in took about an hour. Then it was off to "Duty Free". Heh heh. T was a few feet ahead of me going through the store. *I* found the "Whiskey tasting station". By the time she turned around to find me, I had a bit of a glow going. It probably helped that I started calling for her after I had the "samples".

We met and had lunch with a lady from the Edmonton area who had moved there from South Africa and was a solo traveller.

The 7.5 hour flight was pretty boring (not a bad thing) with cloud cover ALL the way.

Day 14: Hanging out in Glasgow

After a decent breakfast at the hotel, we headed over to the Glasgow Cathedral. Wow.

Although they began to build the Cathedral in 1197 (took 200 years), there have been "holy" things on the ground there going back to 397. that's old. Just think, the guys who were building the cathedral were saying the same things back in the 1200s. "ach, that's some old shite". After stumbling around the cathedral and the graveyard, we were sitting down for some tea. I said to T that Saint Mungo was supposedly burried in the basement and an old dude at the next table said, "that's not exactly right". He came and sat with us and chatted for at least 1/2 an hour.

From the Cathedral, we took a cab to the Kelvingrove museum and archives (http://www.glasgowmuseums.com/venue/index.cfm?venueid=4). I guess it's been closed for a couple of years for a major overhaul. again, wow. T and I spent a good 1/2 of the day there. It's huge. A definite highlight was the pipe organ that was being played during lunch. Real "Phantom of the Opera" moment there.

And finally, we went across the street to the "Museum of Transport". A lot of historic vehicles/trains/boats. They've got a separate gallery upstairs going over the boats that were built in the Glasgow harbours. and there is a LOT of them.

As we've learned, the best way to end the day is over a beer. We went to an Aussie pub (T was giving it to a couple of locals who were cheering for the team playing against Canada in the Rugby World Cup.... I thought she was gonna take them outside...heh heh) for dinner and a couple of pints of the good stuff.

Day 13: Back to Glasgow

This time, we're travelling by train. It's just a huge hassle to do the 4 hour drive from Dingwall to Glasgow.

As hoped for, the train ride was uneventful. Other than carrying T's suitcase UP the stairs and THEN seeing the ramp to roll it up.

Took a cab the 3 blocks to the hotel, and then wandered off for some fish 'n' chips. The Haddock they get here sure is good, gonna miss that.

Day 12: the Royal Dornoch


Went golfing at the Royal Dornoch today (http://www.royaldornoch.com/).

Although people were golfing at this place as early as 1616, it didn't become a royal course until 1877 (which means, endorsed by someone from the royal family). Prince Andrew is a regular there now, he apparently plays there a lot. I suspect if you dig deep enough in those sand traps, you'll find some of the original golfers.

T+R+M were out getting liquored up in a pub and doing what-not while I was golfing with a couple of guys from Vancouver, of all places.

Back to J+R's for haggis for dinner.

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Day 11, hanging out in Dingwall (pt 2)

Quiet time. Getting the hagis ready for dinner for tomorrow night.

Went down to "high street" and did a bit of shopping, ended up at the Legion for a beer. Leaving the Legion, I was in charge of picking up the bags and grabbed the bag of liquor that the "town drunk" left behind our bench.

T+R went to Bingo, J and I watched another movie (Letters from Io Jima).

Day 10: Back to Dingwall

Feet can't take it any more. Must. Sit. Down.

We wandered around for a bit, did some more shopping, and wandered up the hill past High Street to see what else was up there. We ended up at the University of Edinburgh where the "new school" was built and dedicated in 1770.

Down to the train station and on our way to Dingwall. The first part of the train ride was uneventful, T had a nap, I took pictures.

We changed trains at Sterling. The 2nd train was packed. Eventually we got the conductor to kick the folks out of our seats so we could have a table. The father and son that were there were actually from Dingwall as well. He talked the whole 3 hours of the ride. Quite the conversationalist.

Day 9: Holyrood castle

We wandered over to Carlton Hill and checked out the monument for Lord Nelson. We walked up the tower (143 steps) to the top and had a decent view of the city and the castles.

Our plan for today was to check out the Holyrood Castle (http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/page559.asp), so we went down the royal mile this time.

Walking past this old school (really gives meaning to "old School") T and I were talking about how old it was when these 2 kids who were hiding behind the stone fence jumped up and yelled "BOO!". I'm sure they heard T scream quite a ways away. What was it she called the kids after that? oh ya, "little stinkers". I'm sure that wasn't the first choice.

Of all the nerve. We come all this way to have tea with Liz and she's not home. She was nice enough to let us have a look around her summer shack though. What a place. Parts of the castle date back to the 1100s.

Day 8: Edinburgh Castle

Started the day off with breakfast at the BnB. I tried Haggis!

It's quite a walk up the hill to the Edinburgh Castle. "It was big. Lots of stairs" (T's words). Oldest part of the castle dates back to 1200 (the chapel). The crown jewels of Scotland (the Sword, the Scepter, and the Crown) are in a chamber with the "Stone of Destiny". They wouldn't let me sit on the stone. Something about being king.

One of the canons was this monster that would shoot a ball 2 miles. T and I together couldn 't move one of the balls.

I can't imagine anyone dumb enough to try and take this place. It's hard enough to get to now.

Got some great pictures on the way down from the castle where T was having a bit of a sword fight with this Braveheart dude. Talked to him for a bit after and found out he was an extra actor in Gladiator.

Stopped on the way down the hill for a beer at "Deacon Brodies". He's the guy who invented the gallows and had the misfortune to commit a crime 2 weeks later and get the same device used on him. There were a few guys in Brodies wearing kilts. They were the Royal Scot Dragoon Guards.

Day 7: Travel to Edinburgh

Didn't do much today, got on a train and went off through the hills to Edinburgh.

When we got there, we hopped in a taxi (£6) and went to the bed-and-breakfast. It was built in 1870. Big old Victorian house. It's only a 10 or 15 minute walk from the BnB to the main downtown, uphill all the way. T had a good laugh when she saw a "To Let" sign. First couple of times she read it, she thought it said "Toilet".

T and I walked over to the Royal Mile and had a late look around. The castle was already closed, so we'll do that tomorrow. The Thistle Cathedral was open so we went exploring. Huge old place

We didn't know what was going on, but there was a crew decorating the street for Christmas. Found out that they were doing a commercial for a phone company that night.

Ended up at the "Conan Doyle" (had a terrific lunch there), named after the author Arthur. He was born across the street from the pub (he's the guy that wrote all the Sherlock Holmes books).

Back to the room for a nap and then out for more walking and exploring. Ended up in another bar for a another beer and some nachos.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Day 6: Golf golf golf

Picked up at "half of 8" this morning by L. Went off to Strathpheffer and banged out a 77. Same as L.

Afternoon round was at Alness. Very windy and rainy. Typical Scottish weather. Great.

L and I picked up M from work and took her to J&R's for dinner.

Tracey was shopping and hanging out with her sister. Went to visit some folks and then to "High Street" to cash in some more traveller's cheques. "Supervised" while R made cabbage rolls for dinner.

Tomorrow, it's up early and off to the train to go to Edinburgh for 3 days. heh heh. Everyone laughs when Tracey says it 'cause she says it different each time.

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Day 5: Golfing and Shopping

Went for a round of golf on a course called "Aigas" today. Just a little 9-holer some farmer built in his field. Good practice for me though. Banged out a 38/40. J came with me and carried the umbrella. He'd played the course years ago and was good for the local knowledge. Nothing like golfing in a bit of rain.



Tomorrow, I'm supposed to play 2 rounds with Leigh.

Meanwhile, T, M, and R went shopping.

We ended with J and I giving the girls a ride to bingo, then giving M a ride home.

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Day 4: Hanging out in Dingwall

Sleep schedule adjusted! (with the help of a 1/2 of a Gravol for me)

After watching the great white hunter (T) chase down and kill three horribly disgusting house flies that were freaking her out, last night's sleep was the first normal sleep for both of us.

Got up this AM and booked us a B&B for 3 nights next week when we go to Edenburgh. Was a bit of a chore as every place I called was full up.

So, to get going, we went to see J's mom (T had met her years ago when she came to Canada), we went for lunch at a pub. Mac 'n' cheese for me, Roast Beef with yorkshire pudding for T. Both were happy.

After that we went to the Legion to watch a football game. The local team won, and a good time.

Then it was down the street to another pub where an item of interest was purchased for my nephew. On the way, we saw some guys out in the street practicing their bag-pipes. We've seen a "toy" bagpipe set that may be appropriate for someone's neices. We also went to "Woolies" where T's sister works to pick up some small things (games for me that I've never seen before, and a lint remover for T).

Dinner was fish'n'chips from "Mr. Fish" just around the corner. It was very good. Had Haddock.

Tonight, T, R, and the niece M are going to play bingo. heh heh. uh, I'll stay and watch a movie or something with J.

Driving around, we saw the house that Lady Munro (Queen's cousin) lives in. It's HUGE...picture to follow.

All-in-all, a good day. Even though it rained ALL day long.

Friday, September 14, 2007

Day 3: exploring begins

After a night of problem sleeping for both T and me, we jumped out of bed at the crack of 10 and headed out.

We went to the train station first to get out tickets to Edinburgh (T will struggle with this name until the day we leave) and our return to Glasgow.

We had breakfast at Alness. It used to be a Safeway but it's been changed to something else with a bit of a diner on the side. (In other words "greasy spoon").

We headed north to Dornoch to see the Royal Dornoch golf course. They've been wanting "the open" here for a few years. Very nice. I may have to go shag some balls there and see if they make a different noise when they slap off the roof (ruf, as they say here) of the clubhouse. We stopped for some pictures at Dornuck beach. Quite windy and a rainstorm out of no-where.

From there we went to the church where Madonna was married. At the side of the church there was a grave yard dating back to 1800's. We found a stone in the ground with two pins that at one time were used to measure fabric at markets.

Then we wound our way up to Dunrobin castle. VERY excellent. It was funny, first we wander around this castle with all sorts of crap going back to the early 1800s. THEN we go down to the garden where they have a museum for the "older" stuff.

One of the flowers in the garden was "fuscia"... got a picture or 2 of that.

Saw some seals on the way back. Can't swing a dead cat over here without hitting a sheep. They're like rats. Oh, and one field had so many rabbits in it... had to be hundreds.

Ended the day back at R & Js for pasta and red wine. yee-har.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Day 2: Touring Dingwall



Went for a bit of a walk to "High Street" and had a beer. T said that it reminded her a lot of Heritage Park (but made of stone, not wood). T had to go to a post office to cash travellers cheques; a bank wouldn't do it.

J took me for a drive to "Ord" to look at the distillery and a couple of the golf courses in the area. I'll have to go give them a shake down.

The fields have stone fences in them, built from all the stones they pick in the fields over the years. J says that the more money the owner would have, the higher they'd stack the stones...3 rocks thick in the bottom, 2nd row is 2, and 1 at the top. Something like that.

R's daughter Michelle is joining us for dinner.

All-in-All, today was a day of getting our clocks adjusted. Off to bed at a normal hour here.

Day 1: Travel shock (rev'd)

What a long day, work all day and then get on a plane at 11:30 for 7 1/2 hours. As much as I can sleep anywhere, I had trouble sleeping on the plane. The flight to Glasgow was uneventful. T's sister Rande and brother-in-law Jim were there to get us. We left the airport "Crikey, you're on the wrong side of the road" and began the drive up to Dingwall . Another 4 hours. Two things off the old checklist: as soon as we left the airport we saw sheep roaming the countryside and a castle.

One of the castles was "Robert of Bruce's" Sterling Castle from Braveheart. You can see the monument out front from the betrayal.

The other one was a big white monster (as T says, "it's from a fairy tale") that looks huge called "Blair Castle" I'll get the name for it later.

We stopped at a little diner for lunch (no surprises there) after walking out of another "tourist trap" that was a bit expensive ("exhorbitant", as J would say)

The first thing we noticed about Dingwall is that the signs are bilingual English-Gaelic. Small town of about 5,000. R who was the tour guide at this point was one continuous "so and so lives there....of everyone in the family". Eventually, we got settled at their place. We stayed awake for a little while, but crashed pretty hard. For me, it turned into 13 hours of sleep.

Monday, September 10, 2007

If it ain't Scottish, its Craaaaaaap

A good opportunity to start posting again. I can't believe it's been over a year since I've had any thoughts worth recording. I know there's been a lot of road-rage and "oooh, I should start an asshole of the day listing on the blog". nada.

Anyhow, T and I have been busy (I guess that's where the year has gone). We're going to Scotland to see her sister, maybe golf, maybe tour up some castles. Tomorrow. I can hardly wait.

Any of you who have ever gone on a trip realize that as soon as you get home, you start to forget the trip. So, I'm gonna try and carve out some notes every day while I'm there (TRY is the word here) and update my notes here. All the better for the future.

The clubs are packed. The darts are packed (can't watch a "game" on the tely at the Legion without having darts in hand, can you?)... tonight: the rest of packing and getting the fish feeder set up.

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