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Published: September 3rd 2007
Thirlmere
The nice bit of the Lake DistrictAh, August, the panicking month. More on that later though. First, our trip to Scotland and why we should have moved to Edinburgh. 😊
We kicked off the long weekend in the Lake District. This is one of those places that English people go on holiday so we supposed we should see it. If I were being cynical (which I never am) I would say that it’s really just a bunch of lakes in a mildly hilly setting. Kind of like Lake Rotoiti before it got old. Honestly, it’s actually quite pretty, once you get away from all the tourists and get to see it in all its rural wildernessy splendour. Suffice to say that Grassmere and Windermere were not our most favourite stops in the Lake District but we wandered down to the lake shore at Thirlmere, deep in the national park and it was gorgeous. Not a soul in sight, just the sound of the waterfalls. It was very peaceful and a lovely place to stop after driving for five or six hours at that stage.
We were staying in a little town
A pensive me and Thirlmere
The nice bit of the Lake District and me... called Cockermouth (go on, snigger. You know you want to.) on the far western side of the Lake District and at that point still had a fair whack of driving to do so we headed onward cruising along the shores of Derwent Water to Keswick where we stopped to see a Neolithic stone circle which, as you can see, doesn’t loom quite so much as Stonehenge. Quite cool none the less though. A real reminder of how old this country is. From there we rocked on up past Bassenthwaite Lake to Cockermouth. It’s an odd little town, very pleasant though and with an excellent little YHA in an old mill by the shores of the Cocker. Go on. Snigger away. Wordsworth was born there, as was Fletcher Christian (of Mutiny on the Bounty fame). It’s a very pleasant little town. Not a thing to do and there was a distinctly anti-vegetarian feel to the restaurant menus. Well, maybe that’s a little harsh, but Jen certainly didn’t find anything particularly thrilling. Anyway, from there we headed north and I have to tell you we got the best welcome to Scotland that anyone could ask for.
It hosed down. I mean
Henge
It's not Stonehenge but... really really hosed down. It was exactly the way Scotland is supposed to be! We didn’t get to spend enough time in Scotland. If we were staying the UK I think we would have moved there. Edinburgh is a magnificent town and we loved it. It's like Wellington in its own way. It's arty and cultural and cosmopolitan. There are cafes playing local music and it's easy to get a decent cup of coffee. Plus it has a castle. That's always a good thing.
Edinburgh is an interesting city to drive in. It's not the easiest place to navigate and I think we came in and out a different way every day we came in. I got lost frequently and can now add Edinburgh to the list of towns on whose ring roads I have gotten lost! But we managed to accidently find ourselves just down next to the castle so that all worked out nicely. We wandered up the nearest road to the Royal Mile and as we passed the Channel 4 Udderbelly (a comedy venue built into what look like bomb shelters under the castle) a nice man offered us free tickets to a lunchtime show. So
Downtown Cockermouth
And a statue of Mayo. Not mayonnaise. we went and had 90 minutes of excellent stand-up including the very talented Paul Sinhar and the funniest deaf man I've ever seen, Steve Day. We spent most of the rest of the afternoon wandering up and down the Royal Mile, stopping to watch some of the random comedy and music gigs that were just playing in the street.
We arrived in St Andrews late in the afternoon and checked in at the hostel. It's part of the University and is very nicely kitted out. If you're ever in that part of Scotland, I can heartily recommend it as a place to stay. It's part of the university halls and they're built like little apartments with a shared living room and kitchen and with five en-suite double bedrooms. It's a lovely little town too. It’s about the size of a small postage stamp and frankly we were left wondering about the size of the university as there was really nowhere for it to be! But the town has an excellent ruined abbey which looks quite stunning on the sea shore, as well as an neat little castle, in which pivotal events in the Scottish Reformation took place. It’s a
really nice drive down to Edinburgh too - especially over the Forth Bridge - what a great construction - like the Golden Gate, but grey. However, it pales in comparison to the rail bridge, which is still a magnificent structure that we were both rather fond of!
The following day was culture day. We kicked off wandering down to the end of the Royal Mile to Holyrood and had a wee look at the palace and the Scottish parliament. The parliament was very very interesting. Quite a stunning building and surrounds. It does look somewhat out of place in a city largely built in sandstone and dolorite. Not unpleasant and much more interesting from atop the large mound that rises behind the city. Nice to have a wander around that part of town. As I said, we skipped Holyrood though. I’ve seen enough Royalist excess to last a lifetime! The views were much better from atop Arthur's Seat, the OTHER hill that seems to dominate Edinburgh. The views of the city were just indescribable. Enjoy the photos...having tramped up the hill, we ambled the short walk to the Surgeons Hall museum. Edinburgh University has a long history of being
at the forefront of medical science and the museum was absolutely fascinating. As the hotbed of medical science for much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the hall’s museum contains some quite remarkable stories and artefacts, including the development of anaesthetic and the leaps and bounds made in treating wounds during the Napoleonic and Crimean wars. It also has a lovely little exhibit about the “real Sherlock Holmes,” a diagnostician from the Edinburgh medical school who’s scientific approach to diagnosis taught to Arthur Conan Doyle lead to that authors application of the same system to his detective.
The following day involved seeing a lot of comedy - although we spent the morning doing a little shopping. Well, Jen did. She bought some excellent Scottish tablet, the best fudge EVER and I didn't buy a kilt. I thought about it, but decided not to. Back to comedy, we went to three shows in one day! We saw the hastily thrown together improv show in the afternoon, which was very good for a bunch of people who'd come together to fill a gap in the program! We also had a chance to have a good look at the outside of the
McEwan Hall of the university, while we were waiting to see the entire Star Wars trilogy done entirely by one man! Madness! He was surprisingly entertaining and his ability to make sound effects, music and voices while running through nine hours of film in just under one was really really funny!
So the sun came out again and we went to the castle. Well, eventually. We went and did a bit of looking in shops, bought some Scottish fudge and looked at kilts. I was tempted, but we both knew the travel budget would have been shot if I'd spent the money. We stopped in a nearby pub for a pint of McEwans and a free comedy gig from some up and coming comedians including a young chap called Donnchadh O'Conaill, who is one to watch I think. We also went to see some excellent stand up by one of the blokes who'd been in the improv show the day before. Andrew Wallace is very funny and it's impossible not to laugh at a man who can do an impression of a seal with his feet. Anyway, the castle was an absolute highlight and a really interesting visit. I
found it very interesting that the castle, as a Royal Army base (officially) still flys the Union Jack from the top tower and the Saltaire from further down. Debate is currently raging in Holyrood about correcting this particular imbalance. We were both really quite impressed with the National War Memorial, although the loud and idiotic American and Japanese tourists spoiled it somewhat. There are now three museums on the rock - the National War museum and one for the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards and one for the Royal Scottish Regiment and both of these last two are very good. They’re interesting regiments both with a fascinating history. Did you know that at one time Tsar Nikolai Alexandreivich II of Russia was the Colonel in Chief of the Dragoon Guards? Even better, one of the infantrymen in the Scottish Infantry fought through the Napoleonic Wars with a baby in his knapsack! The National War museum itself was brilliant - very simple and very effective. I can honestly say that I walked away quite convinced of how much the military means to Scotland and what being in the forces is to a Scotsman - what it always has been. Being able to
fight for your country (be it Scotland or the Union) is such an inalienable part of the Scottish mindset and it is with evident pride that they show off their contribution to the history of the UK.
Other highlights from the castle include the dungeons where prisoners were kept during the Napoleonic Wars and the American War of Independence, St Margarets Chapel (Margaret was the wife of King David of Scotland, and is the only royal saint!) and Mons Meg, the most ridiculous cannon I've ever seen. I can also heartily recommend the guided tour - it's short, but offers a very interesting potted history of the castle and it's occupation.
Home time in the morning and we had some seriously grand plans. They all went firmly out the window as I promptly got lost on the Edinburgh ring road again, trying to find the Roslin Chapel. Now my parents went to Roslin about four years ago and raved about it. Since then a book and movie have come out and the place now throngs with tourists! Despite that, Roslin is an astounding church and the detail in the carving was amazing. I'm not going to describe it,
Edinburgh Castle
In moody black and white! have a wee look at a selection of piccies! We did not find the Grail, nor the Templar treasure, nor Elvis. Not my joke, I'm afraid. But sadly much of the beautiful detail was obscured by the detestable cement mix that ran across the entire interior of the church to try and stop it mouldering during the last century. Didn't work of course, so now they've got the entire church in a shed trying to dry it out. At least there are some small mercies - the colours of the sandstone are finally beginning to come out!
So those were the highlights. Of course we couldn’t have spent that much time there without seeing and doing other things, as well as eating and drinking some outstanding Scottish fare.
The Festival was one of the highlights of Edinburgh and half the reason we went. Now I’ll be the first to admit we really only went and saw stand-up and missed much of the other music and theatre that was on in the city at the time. We did try and get tickets to “Xenu is Loose! Cower puny Humans as the Dark Prince of the Galactic Federation rains Atomic
Death once more upon your Pitiful Planet - The Musical!” but sadly it wasn’t to be. On the plus side, we saw four shows for free, including the excellent Paul Sinhar and outstandingly funny Steve Day, as well as seeing one man perform the entire first Star Wars trilogy. The highlight was probably a bloke called Glenn Wool. We saw him in Oxford and he was as good, if not better, second time round.
While we didn’t see any proper non-comedy shows, there were plenty of little bits of things to be seen along the Royal Mile and we caught some excellent improv, drama and choral work just wandering up and down the street! We’ll definitely go again and book well in advance to get tickets for some of the bigger acts who all sell out well in advance. I would have liked to see Frankie Boyle and Jimmy Carr as well as the Tattoo, but hey, can’t have everything eh?
Finally, a brief note about food. I had haggis, tatties and bashed neeps at the pub when we arrived in St Andrews. Lesson 1 about haggis. A neep is a turnip. Lesson 2 about haggis. Haggis is
The Kirk
By which I mean THE KIRK. really quite tasty. I would liken it to a spicy sausage without the sausage form. I think the key is to not see the manner in which it is prepared as it looks quite normal on a plate! Jen elected not to participate, unsurprisingly. We also had a couple of very nice local ales while we were up there including McEwan’s, which I have maligned in the past. Frankly it tastes dreadful out of a can (and I should have known this, although it was a long time ago) and I can assure you it’s markedly better as a draught.
Scotland is also well known as the capital of deep fried everything and after a commentator at the LPGA British Open at St Andrews noted on the BBC website that local chip shops did deep fried pizza, we had to have takeaways at least once! How to describe the food? Well, it wasn’t as bad as I expected. We steered away from the deep fried pizza, kebabs and Mars bars (!) and stuck to normal fish and chips. It wasn’t actually too bad. I think perhaps as it was cooked fresh, not in the usual British way, probably served
Downtown Edinburgh
Complete with cranes. All over the place! to improve it. They also spared me the ignominy of mushy peas with my greasies. Why this seems to have evolved here is beyond me. Jen had a quite pleasant pizza and we shared some vegetable pakoras (made by a Greek in Scotland!) that weren’t half bad either. All in all, a pretty good experience.
The coffee was brilliant as well - Edinburgh, or at least the Royal Mile and Holyrood, unlike the rest of the UK has not been inundated with Starbucks, Costa and Café Nerro and still has lots of small independent coffee shops who brew coffee the way it should be. Always a nice way to while away an hour or so while we perused the festival guide and the Lonely Planet!
Finally, I learned something about bagpipes in Scotland. One piper is really irritating. A group of them, with drummers, sound brilliant. We were able to drive in to the city every day bar Tuesday (when we took the bus from the Park and Ride) and we got off the bus by the Scott memorial just in time to hear the Lothian and Borders Police pipers. Only four pipers and four drummers, but wow!
The Scott Memorial
Rocket ship architecture! What a great sound. There's something about the music from a group of pipers - it's almost like a gas expanding to fill any available space and it stays there long after the pipers have stopped playing. I love it!
This will be the last UK based blog entry that I will write, scarily, so don’t be surprised if you don’t hear from me for a bit. We’ve got a couple of spare days in Cairo in a couple of weeks, so I’ll try and get something up then, as well as catching up on my emails. Bear with me until then. In the meantim.... I can say with some confidence, see you all real soon. Believe me, it’ll fly by and soon we’ll be home to torment you with *apply suitably evil accent* one million photos!
Next stop....EGYPT!
Take care everyone,
Al and Jen
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Ruth
non-member comment
Jealousy ain't a part of me
But seriously it is. Damn. Will have to live vicariously through your exploits for a while. Have a great trip guys, Ruth x