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Published: June 12th 2007
Coming back to a 1st world country was luxurious in so many ways. Having a clean bathroom, access to an iron, supermarkets, our own computer to use, and being able to talk the language were very enjoyable. It was all fantastic, minus the weather. Arriving in London, it was rainy, windy and bitterly cold at 11 degrees. We had a weekend in London at my sister's to meet up with friends, get over our jet-lag and to do laundry and get ready for our trip to northern England, Wales, and Scotland.
On our departure day, we were so cold that we were wearing longjohns in June of all months. The extra layer of clothing did not dampen our excitement as we saw Bath, the Lakes District, and parts of Wales before heading to Edinburgh. The English/Wales countryside is beautiful with its narrow roads, rock fences, lush green hills, and hatched-roof homes. We spend a full day in Edinburgh exploring the castle and walking up Arthur's Seat. Edinburgh and Bath were the two best looking cities and had the most history to offer. The entire city of Bath is a protected heritage site.
Heading north from Edinburgh to the
Scottish Highlands, I quickly realized that my Scottish clan is not too well regarded in certain parts of the country. Under orders from the King of England, my Campbell Clan abused the sacred law of Highlands Hospitality to massacre the MacDonald clan. The Highland Hospitality law was that if an opposing clan was coming through your territory in peace, you had to provide them with shelter and food. After 4 days of eating and sleeping at the MacDonalds expense, the Campbells killed everybody under the age of 70. There is still a bar/hotel in Glencoe Valley that does not permit Campbells. You have to check in under a different name to stay.
After discovering I was a hated man, we went looking for a monster on Lochness. Unsurprisingly, we didn't find any but the boat ride was pleasant enough. The last part of our visit was spent on the Isle of Skye. In true Scottish form, the weather was unpredictable and went from sunny to fog, to rain, and back to sunny all in one day. It was pointless to try and guess what weather was coming next. The Scottish people were excellent. They were all friendly and fiercely
proud of being Scottish. There were more than a few kilts and bagpipes on display. We tried some Haggis (a national dish traditionally cooked inside a sheep), and 'Irn Bru'. 'Irn Bru' was a soft-drink developed to give to the miners so that they wouldn't return from their lunch hour drunk. That's why it was given such a masculine name and is full of caffeine and sugar. It's almost a cross between a cream soda and a red bull. Scotland is one of only two countries where Coca Cola isn't the number one selling soft-drink.
Our tour guide made the mistake of boasting that he had never hit a sheep while driving in his four years of employment. Less than two hours later, we braked hard but still hit one. The sheep's owner saw the accident from a hill, came down and took his sheep away in the back seat of his car. Upon being asked by our driver if he wanted to claim it under the bus' insurance, the owner said "it wasn't worth much but it was my kid's pet". That made our guide feel even worse.
Back in London before our last trip to Paris,
Brussels/Bruges, and Berlin, we met up with old travel friends for some great dinners, and I tried roller soccer with my sister. I'm not sure who invented it but I had a good time and even scored a hat-trick. It was great spending time with, and being spoiled by Kathryn.
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shirley collins
non-member comment
Haggis cooked in a sheep?!
Sheep's stomach, John, sheep's stomach! Our family loves haggis so much we stock pile them at Rabbie Burns' birthday in January and get excited all over again when we find one still in the freezer in Spring. In spite of being health conscious we admit to having a hard time shaking this traditional Scottish questionable 'food': sheep's 'pluck' (heart, liver and lung) seasoned with onion, suet and oatmeal. If you and Megan adopted some of the Scottish foods you probably could dispense with the long johns:)))) Shirley