Saturday, September 22, 2007

one, two, freedom!


That, my friends, is how you count to three in Scotland. And how appropriate I should find a statue of William Wallace outside the entrance to the Edinburgh castle (As my maternal grandmother is a Wallace. And the whole "Freedom!" thing. yeah). According to our guide he was 7 feet tall and could shoot lightning out his bum. So any tall genes from the Wallace blood I might have totally bypassed me, though I think my brother got the lightning bit. At least figuratively :P


We climbed to the top of the Sir Walter Scott monument (all 287 steps) and as we climbed the stairs got narrower and narrower, as demonstrated by Heidi (shortly after selling her soul to the devil. you can tell by her glowing red eyes).


Coming out the top was almost like being birthed. Very windy, oh yes. I had everything i was holding in a death grip, and still felt like it was gonna get ripped away by the wind.


Sorry for posting another pic of me, but this is the only pic I had of Alec (on the Left), our driver. He's awesome. I had a dream I married his son, Fergus. I don't even know if he has a son, but i'd be willing to marry him so we'd be related. heh. I love him! This was taken after the final dinner. We went to a Highland dinner and dance where I took lots of pics that didn't turn out very well. It was very sad though, cause the next day we ended the tour and had to say goodbye to all the wonderful new friends we'd made.


We had a few days free between tours (thanks a freakin lot Gabby!!! You better not meet me in a dark alley...) so we spent some time in Edinburgh. I just wish I had know the Wallace memorial was in Stirling! I totally could have gone! We took a walk and saw this sign. Glad to know i'm not the only one who likes my meat well hung and tender. It was also time to buy a new bag to fit all the things we had bought. We had to take a bus back to london for the start of our next tour and the wonderful, not rude at all, bus people were not very happy about all our luggage. Actually, pretty much everything about that bus ride was pure hell. Totally set the tone for our attitudes towards the english :P I'll elaborate later..

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Fore!


You ever hear anyone joke about getting drunk off the fumes of alcohol? It's not a joke. Walking on the grounds of the Royal Lochnagar distillery made my head start spinning. We couldn't take photos in some of the rooms inside. The tour guide assured us using cameras would blow up the building. Or maybe it would damage the equipment... I can't remember. I was feeling pretty high at the time.


The barrels were cool. They had a few we could sniff to see the difference between the really smokey, and not so smokey. The Royal Lochnagar was the latter, and i have to admit it smelled pretty good. For whiskey, that is.


Castle Glamis. Pronounced "glams". Absolutely beautiful grounds. The inside wasn't too shabby, either. Again, no photos during the tour inside. I could've spent a lot of hours here *sighs*.


Awww... graffitti. At least it says something nice. And written with chalk. So considerate.


St. Andrews. Home of Scotlands first University. Cool. Home of Golf. Yippee. I really don't care much about golf so I contented myself to taking pics of the beach and collecting seashells.


The tide was out, so we got to walk out a bit. This is way better scenery than any golf course, eh?


There were a lot of things to look at on the beach. I collected a few seashells for Donna. My new friend Paula even found the remains of a very old bottle.

Monday, September 17, 2007

my bonny lies over the ocean..


The coastline of Scotland rocks. Literally. Even the Shetland coast. We had tea with this lovely view, and was tempted to buy a lovely hand knitted hat at the shop. Sadly I didn't even take a picture of it, though I did get a lovely pic of an odd toilet seat. I'll spare you, though :)


Apparently this is the most photographed spot on Shetland (I have 5, myself). They say on a clear, calm day you can sail through the space in the rock. I'll take their word for it :P


Here's Michael (our tour guide) being very careful to follow the "rules" of not falling over the cliff. I thought this was a good pic to show how easy that would be.


Every day we would rotate where we sat on the bus. This day I got to sit behind Alec, our driver :) I kept teasing that I was gonna put my hands over his eyes while he's driving, saying "guess who?!?". He seemed to think it mildly amusing. At least i got a smile out of him. I love him :) Lovely green, eh?


A lovely photo of water. If, however, you see a miniature longboat, it means you believe in Trows (the Shetland Troll). Do you see it?


This vicious creature almost cost us our lives. shortly after taking its picture it reared up, its long fangs gleaming and screamed like a banshee. Actually we wanted to make fun of Larry(a nurse we work with). He freaked out Heidi before we left about land leeches, and how they were everywhere and out to get us. I don't think they really exist, so we took this photo of the closest thing we could find. Looks quite juicy, eh?


This is in one of the "wheel houses". I was trying to get a good pic of Bob and Joan. They are so cute! She turned 81 toward the end of the trip. You can also see Jesse smiling and Jan's head hid behind Bob's hat.


Here's evidence of a real Trows cave. Exlusive footage, here. Only anyone who goes to the museum can see it. I really was a lot more impressed with Shetland that I thought I would be. I wouldn't mind coming back for Up Helly Aa, a festival where they spend 8 months building a viking longboat, then on the last day of January they have a huge celebration and burn it down. Then I can run around screaming "fire! fire!" with my shirt over my head like Beavis. yeah.

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Daddy, I Want a Pony!!

We boarded the overnight ferry from Orkney to Shetland around 10pm and after such a stormy day, most of us just went right to sleep. The crossing was much calmer than our first ferry had been, so Anna and I slept very well. I woke up early and decided to take a bit of a walk around the deck. The sun was just rising and it was beautiful and peaceful, it got me hoping we wouldn't have a repeat of yesterday's weather.

The ferry was again, much like a mini cruise ship and I believe you saw our cabin in Anna's post. It was quite comfortable all in all, and I'm looking forward to going on an actual cruise now. The crew on this ferry was much better than the first. Very kind and helpful, so that was nice.

I love the wind and rain and storms, but I didn't want to miss out on another day's sights. Luckily, the day proved very fine. We were met at the dock by our local guide, Mike, a very tall, very Northern Scot. "Ladies and Gentleman" was one of his favorite phrases and I believe he said it without even realizing it most of the time. Our items of interest were on the "left-hand side" or the "right-hand side", which all of our guides have said, but I noticed it most with Mike for some reason. Maybe it was his particular accent.

The scenery of the Shetland Islands surprised me. I didn't know what to expect, but obviously I wasn't expecting much. It is beautiful! The weather is very temperate for being so far north. It straddles latitude 60 degrees, about 600 miles north of London and 400 miles south of the Arctic Circle. It is as far north as Cape Farewell, Greenland; Anchorage, Alaska; and St. Petersburg, Russia; to give you an idea.

As I'm sure you have guessed, this is the home of the Shetland ponies. They are adorable and I did take more pictures than this so you can see them up close when we get home. I just wanted to illustrate how small they are. Mike is a tall man, but he is still a man, just look at that little guy! I wanted to bring one home as a puppy. They wanted to come as well; when we started to get back on the bus that little brown one came trotting after Mike. He told us one time one actually got on the bus before they could stop it. They seem more like dogs in temperament than horses. Can I have one, Daddy? Please! Sadly, they would probably die in the desert I'm living in, but one day... One day I shall have one!

The coastline is magnificent! I need to get out a thesaurus; I'm sure I'm sounding very redundant. The pictures are my proof though, you can't argue with me. Scotland has got to be the most beautiful place on the planet. I don't have my map right in front of me and so I'm not sure if we stopped at Stenness or Sandness for these pictures. I'm bad about that, I know. If you are that curious, however, we can just go back and I'm sure I'll be able to find them again.

We got out and walked around the cliffs here, though we were careful to follow the "rules". There turned out to be just one rule: Don't fall over the edge. I don't know if you can see from the pictures (click on them to make them bigger), but the edge is very fragile and standing on it would certainly send you down to the bottom. I took a couple of videos of the waves crashing to give people a better idea of how it looked to be there, but I'll save them for when I get back. (Don't worry, family, they are only a few seconds long. ;))

After the exhilarating cliff walk we stopped at a little museum that had much information about the Shetland woolen trade and practice. It was a quaint little spot and worth the stop. Anna and I stopped at a yarn shop later on in Lerwick and will be bringing home many new projects. Mike was full of fascinating information about the Shetlands and his love of the islands was evident in the extent of his knowledge and in his enthusiastic delivery.

These signs are everywhere up here, "Dunna Chuck Bruck". To me, it seemed like it was saying "Don't throw your stuff away", but that's how they say "Don't litter!" I loved it, so I snuck a photo of it from the window of the bus as we were driving by. Mike introduced us to the Trowies, Shetland's version of a troll. Believe me, it is much better than the trolls you are thinking of, I am sure. These are more like wildlife sprites than the hairy, scary trolls that live in dank, dark places. These little guys are generally harmless and in some cases helpful, but if you come across one, don't look it in the eye.

The sky has been nearly as beautiful as the land on this trip. I've taken many pictures of it as well as the flora and fauna. Who knows what I'll think of everything once we get home. Its starting to feel like a dream already. Our last stop of the day was to the Shetland Jewelry store to get a little lesson on how they make their wares. There was also an opportunity to make a few purchases.

We came back to our hotel after a very lovely day of sightseeing and enjoyed another excellent meal with our tourmates. Anna and I spent a couple of hours in the sitting area catching up with email and blogging. Way up here in the Shetlands they have internet! No one else has an excuse now, I've decided. Cheers!

Saturday, September 15, 2007

A Mighty Wind

(Before I start, I want to remind you that I'm writing a post for each day and so sometimes my posts will show up before Anna's. It might look like there hasn't been a post when there has, I guess is what I'm saying. Remember to check the post list to the right, or scroll through them all... just so my hard work doesn't go to waste... or your cursings are in vain ;))

After a night of no sleep we boarded the ferry to the Orkney Islands around 11ish. There was a storm brewin' and the waves were choppy. Our captain decided the best coarse of action would be to ride straight through them, for dramatic effect I'm sure. I tried writing a bit in my journal while Anna snoozed on the bench next to me. Personally, I like a lot of movement on a ship, the rises and dips make me feel like I'm on a roller coaster, and I love those.

This ferry was a mini cruise ship with dining areas and cabins, though we weren't staying overnight on this crossing. After awhile, my stomach started talking, so I wandered into the dining area to see what they had. Fish and chips seemed a likely option, but they also have a great love for macaroni and cheese, so I was torn. I asked if I could have a bit of macaroni instead of fries and that appeared to stump him for a moment, but eventually he saw things my way.

He gave me a huge scoop of it though and then tried to pile my plate with a bunch of other stuff. The fish are already enormous and I'd just been wanting a -taste- of the macaroni. I tried to calm his enthusiasm for loading plates and escaped with only a large man's portion instead of the giant's ration he'd initially wanted to give me.

I walked, steadily I might add, to the register and the woman looked at me in surprise and said, "Two dinners!" and started to ring it up. The man said something to her about the macaroni in place of fries and she gave a dubious look, to which he shrugged. She rang me up for one, though to be fair, the plate held enough for 6 of those people who are supposed to be able to fit inside the elevators. (Which is to say, two regular people.)

Anna woke and staggered into the dining car, everyone was staggering at this time as the wind was having a heyday. I started walking toward her and suddenly, I was walking on air. It was the weirdest feeling ever! Followed by the feeling that the entire world's weight was on my back and I had a hard time straightening my legs. It was quite fabulous actually.

Anna went to get her meal and I realized that I hadn't gotten a drink, so I went to the register to pay for a drink. The girl that was there then tried ringing me up for a dinner as well and I told her I'd already paid for it. Her expression left no doubt in my mind that she thought I was lying and it kind of made me want to smack her. I refrained, fear not.

Conversely, when Anna stood at the register she couldn't get anyone to take her money. That girl (who will always be, "that girl") just walked away. I told Anna she should just sit down and start eating, they'd probably be all over her for money then, but she stayed up there. Finally, after at least 10 minutes, the guy who had served me came over and I said that Anna had been waiting to pay, but that girl just ignored her. Yes, I admit it, I wanted that girl to get a bit of a scolding. There, I said it!

The reason I am even retelling this is because this is the first time we've encountered anyone who wasn't just the soul of kind helpfulness. That girl wasn't Scottish, big surprise there, right? The crew was a little odd, but the rest of the journey went by without incident.

I looked out the window and saw what is pictured here and thought, "Why am I inside?? I need pictures! Our loyal readers will want to SEE THIS!" So out I went without coat or hat and stood on the pitching and tipping deck to take these beauties. I hadn't pulled my hair back so it was going wild and a guy came up to me laughing and said that my hair was in all his pictures. I felt bad about it so I tried to tie it in a knot for the rest of the time I was out there.

As always, the pictures just don't do it justice. After debarking and meeting up with our local guide, we headed to the site of Skara Brae. This sign seemed quite specific, as if there were many neolithic villages around and one needed to know this was the one where you could still see the original stone furniture. It made me chuckle, so I'm including it for you.

The storm hadn't abated, in fact it had gotten worse, but we brave souls, with you in mind, went out into the fierceness and came back wet and bedraggled, but victorious. I am shocked my pictures came out as well as they did as I could not see -anything- of which I was taking pictures. The wind and the rain made short work of my glasses and there was not a spot of dry clothing on me with which to dry them.

I literally just walked along the path I could barely make out and pointed and clicked. I had no clue what Skara Brae looked like until I downloaded my pictures from my camera that night. It doesn't even look like it was raining! It was the worst storm I'd ever been in. Jessie's (one of our tourmates) umbrella broke, right on the section that had the Lifetime Warranty tag. We had a good laugh about the irony there. I'm not sure my coat will ever dry, but at least I know its real wool... it smells of sheep strongly now...

After leaving a site of things I hadn't seen we ran about the island to see their standing stones and other local sites. None of which could be seen very well through the storm, but I did manage some pictures. I'll share those when I get home. We went into town to visit their cathedral, it was quite impressive. The stained glass windows are gorgeous, and surprise surprise, I took a picture of just about all of them. I'll include St. Christopher as he is the patron saint of safe travel.

We also ran into a Monty Python fellow with his Holy Hand Grenade, I think Anna said hers didn't turn out, so I'll post mine. The inside of this cathedral was quite spectacular. The flooring was tile with Celtic knots and symbols (yes, I took a picture of it :P), the walls were stone of course, and I've mentioned the windows.

I've often wondered what it would be like to actually go to services in a building like this. I went to one in Italy and it was interesting, but I definitely felt separate from the priest speaking. I imagined being a lowly farmer sitting in the back feeling small and insignificant, and I had a feeling that that was the point. Many of the buildings were built as a show of power, to let the locals know that they were insignificant and the leaders were awe inspiring and deserved total obedience and loyalty. Well... those were my thoughts anyway.

Our last stop was to an Italian style chapel built by prisoners of war. The paintings were magnificent and despite the weather and the age, everything was in wonderful condition. I have a few other pictures of the inside as well. It was small and seemed like it had just enough room for people to come in and kneel down, but what else do you really need, eh?

fcuk


actually stands for something. It took me awhile, and when I got it I laughed and laughed... and laughed. Just like the GB stickers stand for Green Bay. I mean, what else could it stand for? Everyone here obviously just really loves the Packers! I told that to Michael our tour guide. He kinda looked at me funny, mumbled something then walked away. I wonder if it was something I said..


After chillin with Nessie we went to the battlefield of Culloden. No, I didn't see the stones Claire went through before the battle, sadly there wasn't time. But since I plan on living in Inverness soon, i'll have time to look :)



Ahh.. Castle Mey. The late Queen Mother bought it in the 50's and restored it. Apparently spending every summer since then there. I can't blame her as it's very beautiful. She's a spunky lady. I loved hearing stories about her and seeing her photos wearing sly grins. And she lived to 101. good number, that :)

Moving right along.. (I'm skipping Wick since I'd bet my life Heidi has that one covered) We're at Skara Brae on Orkney and these homes were discovered with the natural errosion from the sea. Over 5,000 years old and preserved wonderfully by the sand. It looks like nice weather, eh? Look closer at the people in the pic. Everyone got soaked, and if you had an umbrella it broke. I worried for my camera cause it started fogging up, but was fine a few hours later. There were a lot of things to see, but most of us didn't want to get off the bus for the pics. I tried taking pics from the bus, but ended up with blurry fuzz. Lots of standing stones and archeological dig sites all over the island. You can't even build a home unless the archeologists check out the land and clear it first.

We also saw a huge nordic cathedral where none of my pics turned out. Not even of the Holy Handgrenade. Heidi's did, though. Hopefully she'll post it. This is our cabin on the ferry to the Shetlands. Cute, eh?

Friday, September 14, 2007

When a Thing is Wick

Hello, hello! This morning we bade farewell to Ullapool and headed northeast. Our first stop was to the Falls of Shin, and of course, I took -many- pictures. I'll post a couple for you to whet your appetite so to speak. Everyday the Highland spell wraps itself more firmly around me. I think it is impossible to take a bad picture out here. You could just fling your camera about willy-nilly, clicking randomly and they'd still turn out.

There is a shop at the pull off of the Falls of Shin that is reputed to be the Harrod's of the Highlands or some such. The same man owns both of them, so I think it will be easy for you to surmise how the reputation came to be.

Haven told me there was a pair of shoes on display in the London Harrod's that were so expensive they decided they needed to be kept under tight security. The security they chose was not lasers and alarms, but instead they used a snake! I can't recall the type of snake, boa or python or something equally ferocious. There was nothing like that in this Highland outpost, however. Nothing but the ever present gorgeous scenery which London will never have.

We continued up through the middle of the country towards the northern coast, travelling on narrow winding roads. Sharing those roads with cyclists, sheep and other cars to name a few. Alec, our driver, was very skilled and maneuvered us around and between them without any difficulty. I hate to do this as it must be very old by now, and I post pictures so they might speak for me... but still I have to add...

Is this not -the- most beautiful country you've ever seen?? Everyday is a little different and everyday it takes my breath away. I marked this place in my notebook, saying, "I must remember to return and spend time in Betty's Hill. The views... magnificent! The scenery... dare I say it? No, I haven't the words, except 'must return'!"

And here we have... more heather! This time its in the foreground of the sea though, so, you see, I take care of you, changing it up a bit. (Well Blogger decided to not save what I wrote about this and the next two pics so I have to rewrite it. Grrr... never as good as the first!) I'm sure I said something very poetic, but I can't recall it, so we'll just move on to the next. We drove up through the middle of the country to the north coast and arrived at Castle Mey.


Sometime in the castle's history it was owned by a laird (shocker! but wait... there's more). As happened surprisingly frequently back in the day, the laird died leaving no direct heir, so the castle passed to the nearest living relative. Unfortunately, he wasn't very "near" at all. Through changes of hands and disinterested owners, the castle began to fall into ruin.

About this time, King Albert died, turning the then Queen into the Queen Mother and their daughter became Queen. With that slight change in title, the Queen Mother had to give up all her households to her daughter and that left her with blessed little place to live. She mourned the death of her husband greatly, for they had been lucky to have a love match. Friends who lived in the area of Castle Mey invited her to stay with them to get away from London for awhile.

She fell in love with the countryside and on one of her meanderings she came across Castle Mey. The owner wasn't able to fix up the castle and he knew the people who would inherit it from him wouldn't bother. When he saw the Queen Mother's interest, he promptly sold it to her for the discounted price of 100 pounds. Now, she spent much more than that making it inhabitable, but 100 pounds for a castle... that's a deal!


She lived most of her remaining 51 years at Castle Mey and was very content. From all I've learned about the Queen Mother, I'm sad I never got a chance to meet her. She seems a woman of great spunk and grace.

In our wanderings we came upon this sign, "Stop and Look", and so we did. I guess I'm not very observant because I didn't really see it do anything. Standing up and turning around I was afforded a most magnificent view of the ocean and thought, "Someone should put a sign out for -that-!" ;)


After Castle Mey we went to John O'Groats, the most northern village in mainland Great Britain. Oddly, I didn't take any pictures! I sent off a postcard so it could have the John O'Groats post mark and we hurried back on the bus. The wind and rain had started to pick up a bit, so I think I wanted to spare my camera the indecencies of the elements. Yeah, that sounds good.

On to Wick, a smallish town on the East Coast. If you look at a map, its only a few miles from John O'Groats, but they still say its on the East Coast. We had a bit of time after dinner so Anna and I decided to see if the local night life was any better than in St. George. The girl at reception recommended a pub called "Zero", so off we went into the night to find said club. I admit to being a little worried about what we'd find, judging by the twelve year olds we saw roaming the streets, but it turned out to be quite a fun little spot.

While we were waiting for things to pick up, I noticed a car outside and thought it had kind of a funny message on the side. Do these people go around picking people up to have therapy sessions while they take in the scenery? It was all very intriguing to me. Then I noticed it was a taxi and that was just an advert for the Samaritans. I like my idea better.


We met this very friendly girl, named Stroma, after one of the islands off the coast. She showed us around and introduced us to anyone who came up. "This is Heidi, she's from Utah in America! She's a Christian, she likes cider and eats custard!" She'd just say random things like that to whoever we passed. They look rather drunk in this picture, and they might have been, though they didn't look it before or after I took the picture.

They had music playing and a dance floor, so I wanted to dance. Anna isn't much of one for dancing, but eventually she came out onto the floor. A couple of guys, who turned out to be Polish, danced with us. We hung out with them for most of the night, getting back to our hotel around 3ish. I really enjoyed it. See, St. George! A little town -can- have a nightlife! :P


A few hours later, after breakfast, Anna took a catnap in the lobby and I went out for a walkabout. Wick really isn't very big and I walked the whole of it in about an hour. I met a friendly Scot who helped me find a landmark I'd been looking for, and again, he thought I was Canadian. I really don't understand it! Everyone keeps thinking we are from Canada... like we have odd accents or something.

Wick has a hospital, and I was going to stop inside to see what RTs make in Scotland, but I didn't, thinking I'd find out sooner or later. I took quite a few pictures of this town, so you'll get to see more in the slide show I hear my mom is planning on us doing.

There is a street in Wick that has random Scottish phrases with their English interpretations underneath engraved into the stones. I, of course, took pictures of them all. This one says, "A scaad o'heit" which clearly means, "A spell of hot weather". Luckily, we've had oodles and scaads o'heit ;) (In our family, that means not much ;) Confused? Ask me about it later.)