(Tom)
Yeah, we've slipped again. We know it's been a while, we've been very busy! So this is the first of a couple (hopefully) rapid-fire letters coming at you. Keep your eye on this space...
First and foremost: Still time to pledge - Toby's done the walk (all 26.2 miles of it! details below) and now it's your turn to help fight the battle against cancer. Toby's walk report is coming any day (really) - stay tuned. And thanks in advance for your support. We'll stop bugging you now.
Okay, it's been 6+ weeks, and we've been busy. When we last left you, our friend Rich from Boston was coming this way to join us on a trip to Scotland. He indeed made it and has the dubious honor of being our first overnight guest from the States (we're not counting our downstairs neighbor who stayed over one night when she had a house full of family visiting or Richard Weiss, my friend and predecessor who was here for work). Thanks Rich for breaking the ice! Wondering where the rest of you are....
Off to Scotland we go. Rich arrived on Saturday morning (Sept. 7th), and we started driving that afternoon, about 3 p.m. Drove about 2/3 of the way, 4 or so hours and crashed in a nice hotel right on the motorway (highway) in the Lake District. Haven't spent any time there yet, but hopefully we will. Between the Lake District to the west and the Yorkshire Dales to the east, it was quite beautiful. But, it was just a stopping point, and the next morning off we went towards Glasgow. But we took a bit of a diversion to see some Highland Games in Peebles (close to Edinburgh). Quite a sight, between the 30 or more competing pipe bands and the very large men doing the 'heavy events' in kilts (throwing the weight (toss a 56 lb. weight over a highbar), throwing the hammer, putting the shot (22 lb. shot), caber toss (the telephone pole throw of sorts)), what are these people thinking? Hernia is all that comes to mind. We enjoyed it very much, an afternoon well spent. On to Glasgow to have dinner with my friend Emma and her partner and family. Great to see them, it's been 4 or so years. She has an adorable daughter, seen below.
We stayed over in Glasgow and took a very quick tour in the morning on the open-top bus. It has a nice downtown area, but seems like a city that is too big for the number of people in it. Interesting though, with lots of history. We know we didn't do Glasgow justice, but we had an afternoon ferry to catch, so off we went.
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) Highland Games-tossing heavy things! |
) Heaving a heavy ball |
) Bagpipe competition at the Highland Games. Must have been 30 bands there at least! |
) Caber Toss (a.k.a. telephone pole toss) |
) Another caber toss! The aim is to make the caber land at 12:00. |
) Heave this over a high bar (Can you say hernia?) |
) A square in Glasgow |
) Another Glasgow shot |
) Univ. of Glasgow building |
) Another university shot |
) The art museum in Glasgow |
) Friend Emma and daughter Amy |
) Emma and family and us |
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We drove up the west side of Loch Lomond on our way to Oban to catch the ferry to the Isle of Mull. We got a gift of two nights in a B&B in Tobermory (the only city of any size on the Isle of Mull) and were finally going to use it! (Thanks Betsy, Hugh, Elizabeth and Bram!) A lovely ferry ride, and a slow drive to Tobermory on the single-track road. Lots of pull-outs to let people pass by each other, but you can't go very fast.
Tobermory is a beautiful town (fishing village), very picturesque. The whole island is really beautiful and very green, with wonderful hills and valleys. Not much to do there except relax and take in the scenery. We took a few drives around the island and even took a ferry (100 yards, 1 minute) to the Isle of Ulva and had a short hike before we started getting rained on too much! We also made it to the Tobermory Distillery to taste the scotch. Note that in Scotland they just call it whiskey, not scotch or scotch whiskey. Whiskey it is.
We also took in a castle tour before the ferry ride home - Duart Castle, seat of the McLean clan since the 14th century (just a little bit of history, huh?). As far as castles go, it was ok. Too many family photes of the McLeans and not enough battle stories. The McLeans are big into the boy scouts. The cool part was that this was the castle used in the Sean Connery / Catherine Zeta-Jones film Entrapment. We went up to the top where he dropped the glass over the edge to scare her. Cool. The ferry ride home was really nice as well, beautiful views. A short visit in Oban (where the ferry is) - a cute town with, you guessed it, a whiskey distillery. An obligatory tour followed by the obligatory tasting leading to a purchase of some whiskey. (We liked the Oban whiskey better than the Tobermory stuff.) It'll last us years but it's pretty tasty.
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) Leaving Oban heading for Mull on the ferry |
) Isle of Mull landscape |
) Calgary, Isle of Mull. Calgary in Canada is named after this place |
) Sheep in the middle of the road blocking our way |
) Highland cows. Funny looking, huh? |
) Tobermory Distillery |
) Tobermory panorama (big file!) This is the biggest town by far on the island |
) B&B in Tobermory where we stayed |
) Island of Ulva - 100 yards from Mull by ferry. Pretty, isn't it? |
) Taking a walk on Ulva in the rain (my favorite picture) |
) A bank on wheels to serve the whole island! |
) Duart Castle on Mull |
) Rich on top of Duart Castle |
) Tom and Toby descending the narrow spiral staircase at Duart Castle |
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We wanted to head north, towards Inverness and drive along Loch Ness and perhaps look for Nessie. But, it wasn't meant to be as flash floods in Inverness washed out some roads and did some damage to Inverness itself. Change of plans then - we cruised across from Oban to Perth, where we stayed in a nice guesthouse run by a very friendly couple. Perth was just a stopping point for us, and the next morning we were off to Saint Andrews. We parked, walked around and headed for the castle. Had a great private tour (we were the only ones around!) with a friendly and very knowledgeable tourguide. Really interesting and lots of excellent battle stories. Pretty cool castle remnants too. Hard to keep track of all the switches in ownership. Imagine, though, laying seige to the castle by spending 6 months digging a tunnel underneath. The plan is to dig a tunnel underneath the foundation of the outside wall, support it with wood, and then threaten to burn the wood and watch the castle wall come down. It is pretty effective apparently, unless those stuck inside the castle dig a counter-tunnel and meet you to battle it out hand-to-hand, which is what happened here (that's the very short version anyway). On to the Cathedral for a quick visit and then, most importantly onto the greens at St. Andrews. Okay, so we only did a round of putting at the Ladies Putting Club (a.k.a. the Himalayas). 18 holes for a mere 80 pence, about $1.20. No windmills or the like, but it was still fun. None of us got a hole-in-one though. Lunch at the club dining room and we were off to Edinburgh. Alas, no sign of Prince William anywhere.
On the way to Edinburgh, Toby arranged a place to stay in a rental flat. Couldn't have been a better place - for the price of a hotel room, we got a 2-bedroom, 2-bath brand new flat about 1.5 miles from historic downtown Edinburgh. This flat was nicer than ours in Oxford and very well furnished - leather chairs, TV, stereo, microwave, washer/dryer (that worked well). It was also nice because it gave the three of us a place to just hang out and talk. And, a bus to downtown was more or less right outside. Good find Toby!!
Edinburgh was really nice. Granted, we stayed mostly to the Royal Mile (the castle down to the palace), but had a nice time in the two short days we were there. The castle is a large complex, with lots to see and learn about. Once again, an amazing amount of history! (Overwhelming, says Toby.) It seems to be the palace where nobody actually lived. Like Mary Queen of Scots, who preferred living at the palace even though she was born in the castle. We saw a demonstration of fighting with old weapons, saw the crown jewels of Scotland, National War Museum, the firing of the gun at 1:00 p.m. (done every day). I was trying to take a picture of it, but the noise scared me so much I jerked the camera as I took the picture (see it below). Nice views of the city as well.
In the afternoon, after a bus tour around Edinburgh, Toby took the opportunity to get on a trampoline/bungee jump thing. Imagine jumping up and down on a trampoline with a few bungees attached from above (on the sides) and jumping really high. Pretty cool - Toby enjoyed it, although it did make her feel like the almost forty years that she is. (Grateful as she is that she didn't throw up, she does wish that she had been able/willing to do a back flip. Next time!)
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) St. Andrews putting green ('Ladies' Club on the Himalayas'" |
) Castle remnants at St. Andrews |
) St. Andrews Castle again |
) Last one - Tom and Toby. |
) Rich and Toby in the seige tunnel at St. Andrews (take over the fort via tunnel!) |
) Cathedral ruins at St. Andrews |
) View of Edinburgh from the castle |
) War Memorial at Edinburgh Castle |
) St. Margaret's Chapel at Edinburgh Castle (Toby's favorite part of the castle) |
) Another view from the castle |
) A view of the old part of Edinburgh |
) 1 p.m. firing of the gun to mark the time. Scared me so much I took a lousy picture! |
) Palace of Holyroodhouse (Royal Palace) in Edinburgh |
) Cathedral at the Royal Palace) |
) Royal coach at the Palace |
) Toby getting rigged up for the bungee trampoline |
) Toby bouncing around |
) Tom, Toby and Rich at the castle |
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The next day a quick tour of the Palace and then on the road home. (Sorry, no inside pictures allowed.) Stopped at Edinburgh Crystal factory for a tour. Very interesting - I even got to try blowing glass. Too bad we're not too keen on crystal in general. Next a power-drive home to Oxford and a relaxing evening. Took Rich to the airport the next morning and that ended our Scotland trip.
Had a really good time, despite the fact that the sun followed us by one day everywhere we went. We'd leave, and then the sun would arrive. Go figure. We hope to go back to do some more exploration because we thought it was just beautiful. Truly God's country. Lush hills and mountains and lakes. And sheep and highland cows, of course. It was spectacular. Makes England look like a dump, says Toby, and you know how pretty she thinks England is!
Oh, and Happy Halloween! There are costumes here - we're not sure if kids will trick-or-treat here, so I guess we'll have to buy some candy. Oh well, says Tom. Yippee, says Toby.
Bits & Bobs:
And there you have it for this report. Thanks to Rich for some of the pictures!
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