After a couple very brief days in the Netherlands it was back to Edinburgh for a one night stay then on to Glasgow by train the following morning, Saturday. It seemed that the rain from the Netherlands may have migrated a little bit and as we left Edinburgh the skies were pretty dark to the West and there was the occaisional light shower beginning. Before we left Edinburgh we had a chance to have one final coffee with Jesse at the fair trade organic coffee shop. It was one of the few places where we could actually get a cup of good coffe. We also met Jesse's friends Chad and Jeff from Surrey who had been in Iceland and were on their way back to Canada. We arrived in Glasgow just after noon and were lucky ... read more

On Friday, the 3rd we began our adventures by driving on the left (wrong) side of the road by driving North from Edinburgh across that long suspension bridge and on through to Perth. From Perth it was North-east to Aberdeen, then North-west to Inverness. Inverness is definitely in North Scotland but we still had to go further North. By-passing Wick we continued North and on to Thurso on the North Coast. From Thurso it was West about 20 miles to Strathy Point, then a right turn and a little further North to Aultivullin where we ended at the gate to the greatest B&B, the Catalina B&B and Guest House. Robb and I had stayed here for one night a couple years ago. I knew it was the type of place that Heather would like and ... read more

Well, the adventures of 2007 started about April when the decision to go was made and the search began for flights and fares. The leader of the expedition scoured the internet and found 'the deal'. Not just a charter or any airline but a Scottish airline beginning a new service from Canada with direct flights to Glasgow. We've all heard of Globespan haven't we ? Neither had I but tickets were booked in mid-April and I was about to become a Globespan flyer about 4:00PM on August 26th. /we even got an e-mail saying thanks for flying Globespan and confirming our seats and the flight date and times. By July time was flying by. There was work, high school graduations, piping competitions, and about mid-July an e-mail from Globespan. Our departure time had been changed slightly, ... read more

Today (Aprıl 13th) was a fairly quiet day spent in Selcuk. Early in the morning a large group went to the Bella Pension where the pension operators also run a quality carpet shop. Everyone had been invited to their hotel for breakfast on the rooftop terrace with views overlooking the ruins of St. John's Basıllıca and Selcuk. After breakfast everyone went to the carpet shop where Urdell (one of the operators) spent a couple hours explaınıng carpets. Theır hıstory, how to tell qualıty, types of materıal, (cotton,wool,sılk) and dıfferent trıbal desıgns. The next few hours were ''spent lookıng at carpets''. Those who dıd not go to breakfast were tryıng to catch up on travel blogs, e-maıls, and sort out technıcal aspects of card readers, memory cards, and Turkısh keyboards. Plus all those helpful Mıcrosoft wındows show ... read more

We'll date the dıary Aprıl 6 but you know by now that I'm tryıng to do a lot of catch up and famılıarızatıon wıth a Turkısh keyboard -- actually gettıng quıte used to ıt now. The narratıve wıll be pretty short 'cause I thınk you really have to experıence Istanbul. Besıdes beıng such a huge ancıent cıty there ıs so much goıng on ın terms of modernızatıon and ınfrastructure development. Some sımple thıngs we take for granted lıke the gas stoves and furnaces don't seem to exıst here. There are an awful lot of questıonable propane tanks though and gas lınes are beıng ınstalled. They also have a modern surface lıght raıl system that always seems to be full. So on the 5th we moved ınto our hotel that had had the reservatıon mıxup, The Hotel ... read more