Day 7 – Scotland the Brave
This was the day I was most excited
about for the entire trip. Great Aunt always kidded me about my claims of
Scottish heritage, saying it was just so I could play bagpipe music with abandon
(I’m doing that now while I’m writing). This was all before DNA testing
conclusively proved I (and she, of course) had nearly 30% Scottish ancestry, so
the love of bagpipe music was hereditary. While I really enjoyed my time in Ireland,
I was more than excited to get to the second half of our tour in Scotland. The
original plan was to catch a ferry across the Irish Sea to Glasgow but there
was a scheduling crunch that required us to fly on a domestic flight from Belfast
to Glasgow. That turned out to be interesting since we would be accompanied on the
plane by a bunch of drunk, rowdy soccer fans heading to Glasgow. This was acerbated
when our flight was delayed a couple hours which gave the fans more time in the
airport bars. We joined our Maine Friends for lunch in the airport which was also
interesting in that the meals were delivered by a robot. We placed out order
and after a few minutes the little guy rolled up with retrieved our food. No
need to tip.
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| Wife and I in Church of Holy Rude |
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| Food Being Delivered at Belfast Airport |
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| Next to Our Glasgow Hotel |
We arrived in our hotel in Glasgow with
a couple hours to spare before our next event. My Favorite Panamanian decided
to stay in the hotel while I went on one of my walkabouts since we had limited
time in Glasgow. Matt, the tour director said there was a statue of Wellington
that college students had started putting a traffic cone on years ago and it
had become a serious tradition. When they were taking steps to stop this
practice the people rose up and demanded it be allowed to remain. I went off in
search of this situation and ended up seeing a lot more of Glasgow than I
intended. Our hotel was in the center of the city and navigating by map, I walked
down Buchanan Street which was a pedestrian plaza with lots of shopping and
pubs. My wife made a tactical error by not joining me but our reserve of British
pounds was therefore secure and I got to move at my own pace. I made it down to
the River Clyde and then turned back to find the statue which was funny along
with dozens of others as well as a wedding party taking pictures with men all
in kilts. I eventually ran into the Glasgow Cathedral and realized I had a long
way to get back to the hotel in time, my damaged foot was also barking at me. I
checked the iWatch at the end of the walk and I had put in nearly 5 miles. My excitement
about being in Scotland had gotten the better of whatever modicum of common sense
I possess.
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| Buchanan Street Glasgow |
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| River Clyde |
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| Scenes from my Walkabout |
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| Wellington with his Headgear |
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| Glasgow Cathedral |
I made it back to the hotel with five
whole minutes to spare and jumped on the bus for our trip to Stirling Castle.
This turned out to be one of the true highlights of our trip. We pulled up to the
castle to be met by Kevin, a piper in full regalia, positioned in the front of
the iconic Robert the Bruce statue. We took a few minutes to look around as he
pointed out the William Wallace memorial as well as the locations of the battles
of Stirling Bridge and Bannockburn. I was already fully steeped in the critical
military history surrounding the castle and found myself overcome with emotion
to be on the actual ground. This went to a whole ‘nother level when Kevin fired
up his bagpipes and said he was going to pipe us to the Church of the Holy Rude,
just down the hill. We followed him through the graveyard adjacent to the
castle as he played on the pipes. I was in serious excitement mode.
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| Grounds of Stirling Castle |
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| Meeting Kevin |
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| Wallace Memorial |
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| Stirling Bridge Battle Location |
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| Bannockburn Battle Site |
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| Entry to Stirling Castle |
The church played an important part in
Scottish history being where Mary Queen of Scots’ son was crowned king. It
served as the church for Stirling Castle where Scottish royalty lived. It was
founded in the 1100s and is steeped in the history of Scotland. It was fun to
imagine all the historical figures that had trod the same ground. My wife liked
it because it was a church which she claimed she had not seen enough of on this
trip (it’s a catholic thing). Our trip to the church ended when Kevin played
Amazing Grace on the pipes in the church nave. He then moved us outside to pipe
us to the nearby restaurant where we would have dinner. I’m gong to try to post
on Facebook the videos I took of that march as well as the Tam o’Shanter story
he later told. This was the kind of experience I had hoped for coming to Scotland.
I know it sounds incredibly geeky for someone of my august accumulation of
years but I was in childlike wonder and am not afraid to admit it (although my
wife thought it was kind of goofy for me).
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| Kevin and I Outside the Church |
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| Getting Ready to March to Dinner |
Dinner was a lot of fun as Kevin was
called upon the pipe in the haggis, another Scottish tradition. He talked about
haggis and recited a poem by Robert Burnes dedicated to haggis. Haggis, the
national dish of Scotland, consists of sheep's heart, liver, and lungs ground
up and minced with chopped onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with
stock, and cooked while encased in the animal's stomach. This doesn’t sound like
something I would enjoy but I tried it, much to the shock of the lady I’m
married to. It was pretty nasty. After dinner Kevin provided a all too short
bagpipe concert, playing right next to me. Great Aunt will understand how
exciting this was for me. After the concert Kevin returned without his pipes to
deliver a telling of the classic Robert Burnes poem, Tam o’Shanter. He delivered
this the way it was written, in both English and Scot Gaelic. He was great
entertainer and story teller. The poem recounts the story of Tam who leaves his
wife at home while he drinks at the local pub only to have a scary encounter
with the forces of evil. I don’t know how this happened but Kevin picked out my
wife and I to stand in for Tam and his wife, claiming he thought my Favorite Panamanian
had been in similar situations with me. It was hilarious and so much fun. As I
think about it, this was the best time I had during the entire trip, and it was
only my first day in Scotland.
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| Streets of Stirling |
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| Kevin reciting Tam o'Shanter |
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| Piping in the Haggis |
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| Beer Adventuring Continues |
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| A Bowling Green Outside the Church |
Day 8, Lots of Lochs
We left Glasgow early the next morning
heading up into the Scottish Highlands. Our first stop was Loch Lomond. I asked
Raymond if we’d taken the high road or the low road which he didn’t think was
incredibly clever on my part. He dropped us off opposite a castle as I got my
first look at the legendary lake. I was immediately taken aback by how large it
was. I was expecting romantic small body of water with picturesque scenery. I
got the awesome scenery but this thing was huge. We had a beautiful sunny
morning as I thought we might have finally escaped the weather curse that had
followed us from Ireland. My Favorite
Panamanian opined that it was still too cold, rising to only the mid-sixties. We
loaded onto a small boat and took up station on the top deck. The Highlands
were rising all around us as we set out.
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| Frist View of Loch Lomond |
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| Our Ride |
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| Huge Lake |
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| Where we Launched From |
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| Wife and I on the Loch |
The skipper was also narrating and he
was very funny. I thought we had another in the series of gray-haired speakers we’d
already had until the skipper stepped out of the cabin and was revealed to be a
fairly young guy. He took us up one side of the Loch pointing out interesting aspects.
The funniest is when he challenged everyone to spot the secret cave of Rob Roy.
Apparently this was Roy’s hideout when he was wanted by the authorities. Everyone
was straining to be the first one to spot it when we came around some screening
trees and the large word “cave” was spray painted next to the entrance. Like I
said, a funny guy. He was dropping us off further up the lake where our bus
would find us. There was a massive ramp like feature that we could see from
miles away and the skipper said he would explain when we arrived. It wasn’t any
of the creative guesses made by us. It was a 70-year-old power station that
took water in from another lake to spin turbines. We rounded a small island
just as we were approaching the dock when the skipper pointed out a ruined
castle hidden within the island’s trees. It was the former home to the chiefs
of the Clan MacFarlane.
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| Clouds Approaching |
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| Great Day on the Loch |
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| Looking for Rob Roy's Cave |
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| Oh, There it is! |
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| Island with Small MacFarland Castle Ruins |
While we were out on the loch, we were
being chased by clouds that threatened the beauty of the day. They caught up
with us as we boarded the bus and in short order we were getting rained on
again. But at least our ride on the boat had been spared. We journeyed further
into the Highlands and I was astounded by the natural beauty as well as the emptiness.
Raymond expertly avoided disaster on the very narrow roads as we passed mile
after mile of spectacular views. I was truly stunned and unprepared for this
first view of the Highlands of legend and lore. In all those miles, nearly an
hour and a half driving, we saw only a couple houses and thousands of sheep. It
was an experience I’ll cherish. We stopped in Fort William for lunch. Since it
was named after an English king who beat the Scots, the locals refer to the
town as “the garrison”. The rain truly caught up with us at this point as we sprinted
through some heavy rain for lunch in the small town. Undaunted by the heavy
rain, my Favorite Panamanian forged across the street after lunch to accomplish
some overdue souvenir shopping. A brave lass, indeed. After lunch we set out further
into the Highlands. We were following the Caledonian Canal which I learned
linked the North Sea from Inverness all the way to the Irish sea. The scenery continued
to be breathtaking as we passed loch after loch the canal connects. We were stopped
for about ten minutes when a bridge had to lift to allow a huge yacht to pass along
the canal. I thought for a moment that Taylor Swift had caught up with us and
was prepared to ruin the natural beauty with her army of pink clad swifties.
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| Scenes from our Drive into the Highlands |
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| Fort William |
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| More Highlands as we Leave Fort William |
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| Did Taylor Catch up to Us? |
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| Loch Ness |
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| Fort Augustus and Caledonian Canal |
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| Looking Towards Loch Ness |
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| Commando Memorial |
We continued north into the Highlands towards
our hotel for the night. Our hotel was in the Cairngorms National Park which
also hosts Balmoral Castle where the current royals hang out occasionally. This
was my favorite hotel for the entire trip even though it was the most basic.
The Laggan Hotel is a small two-story place that blends in perfectly with the surrounding
highlands. It had just a great vibe. Because the area was so bereft of civilization
the tour planned a group dinner in the hotel which was fantastic. We had the
entire hotel to ourselves for our stay. It was a very homey place with great
views across the valley. I downed some more haggis and once again shocked the
wife by eating an entire helping. They had fried the haggis after baking and
this made a huge difference. After the meal we ended up in the hotel lounge
watching some more Euro football matches with Raymond and some of our fellow travelers.
A great evening and once again, my favorite hotel of our entire trip. Because it
is so remote all the hotel workers live in an adjacent building. This included
a Spanish gal whom my Favorite Panamanian was delighted to speak Spanish with
for a long time. A great, if rainy day! |
| Wife in our Laggan Hotel Room |
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| Great Views |
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| More Haggis! |
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| After Dinner |
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| Hotel Grounds |
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| Laggan Hotel |
Thanks for hanging with me for this way
too long recitation. I hope you can understand how much this trip meant to me. It
really was the realization of a lifelong dream; it was where I was going to
honeymoon if I had married my first fiancé. Taking so long to get there was probably
my penance for that situation. At any rate, only two more days to go, in my
next post.
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RECURRING CHARACTERS:
ABFA – Amazing Best Family
Athlete - my daughter
in law; BR3 – Blog Reader #3 – granddaughter
#3; BRS - Blog Reader the Sequel -
second granddaughter; Cantankerous Friend – friend since grade school who likes to argue
about everything, poses as radical leftist to attract women; CRC - Connecticut
Riverboat Captain – another close friend from high school, renowned sailor
of the big river; Curbside Girls – close
friends of my daughter acquired during him her single days in Brooklyn; Deckzilla – our backyard deck which
grew to monstrous dimensions once my wife got involved in planning; Favorite Panamanian - the wife (of
course); FBR - First Blog Reader -
first granddaughter; First Friday –
celebrations to mark the First Friday of the Week; Great Aunt - my elder sister; Keene
Friends 1 & 2 – friends since high school from my home town of Keene,
NH; Kindergarten Friend – friend
since kindergarten whom I reunited with after many years; Maine and Virginia Musqueteras – two close friends of my wife –
her US sisters, my wife is the 3rd Musquetera (musketeer); Namesake Nephew –
son of Great Aunt and Soxfather named after me; Neighborhood Mafioso - wife's close friend and Panamanian mafia
member; PanaGals – female relatives
/friends of my wife from Panama; Panamanian/Latin
Mafia – inevitable group of Latino friends my wife accumulates wherever we
have lived & their spouses; PCR - Pittsburgh College Roommate – high school friend, also a “Minor
Celebrity” in Pittsburgh; PCR+1 - Pittsburgh College Roommate’s wife; Riggins - also known as the Grandpuppy, son's dog; Seis Amigos
- two couples from our condo complex and my wife and I; Soxfather – my brother in law; Tia Loca – wife’s younger
sister; Wingman
– my son in law; Wingmom –
Wingman’s mom, of course
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