Thursday, October 20, 2005

Scotland2005: Post Trip Humor

Seems like everyone is doing travelogue blogs these days...

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Scotland2005: Home

We just wanted to send out a final note letting you know we got home safe and sound. As I write this it's 5am on Wednesday, October 29th, and we have both been wide awake since about 430am, thanks to the after effects of jet lag. Yesterday it was 3am, and tomorrow we hope to be back to a regular 6am. We are both still feeling the effects of long jet travel -- sore scratchy throat, mild cough, and all the other ailments that come with being cooped up in a big toothpaste tube for 15 plus hours breathing recirculated air and germs of our fellow travelers.



Our trip back from Wales was quick and fast, although the train did fill up as we approached London with people who'd made a getaway for the weekend. We arrived back about 7pm and went for one last dinner at Garfunkels, that UK "Denney-esque" type diner. They had started an ad campaign while we were there with tube posters saying "A UK Institution" for 25 years. In UK time that's a drop in the bucket I suppose, but we liked it and it seemed a fitting last meal in town. Of course we had the Waffle Toffee sundae for dessert. Back on South Beach when we get home (I'm feeling a tad fat from ignoring the diet all these days).

Tony did his usual miraculous packing job -- unfortunately I'd been meaning to take a picture of the process since what he can stuff into a suitcase is truly beyond words. The usual process is that we lay out everything on the bed, then he makes me stand in a corner far away so I don't "help" (or inadvertently get packed I don't know which), and he goes to town. I've never seen anything like it, and by the time he's done, there we have everything neatly put into two rolling travel bags.

I however have control over the daypack -- which we use as our carry-on for the plane -- it has our reading material, tickets, passports, note pads, camera etc. It is the one thing Tony lets me pack, I suppose this is because there is very little in it and I can't do any damage packing it. Since I packed it, naturally the camera was deep inside when the real packing began so "out of sight, out of mind" I forgot to take a picture. Next time we go on a big trip I'll do one before we go to illustrate this. If they gave out an Oscar for packing, Tony would win it.

We decided to stay up quite late to be able to sleep on the plane, and fortunately London's gay night life doesn't stop, and we got home abut 3am. We slept for a bit, but worried that we'd oversleep our 915am flight, we had a wake-up call, the in-room TV alarm, and the travel alarm clock all set to go off at 6a. They all did, and we groggily stumbled down the street to Victoria Station, hopped on the Gatwick Express and made our way to the airport.

They say London is famous for fog -- we never saw any before on previous trips. We got introduced this time. By the time we got to Gatwick is was pretty foggy and by the time we got through customs and passport control and to the gate, several miles it seemed like away from the ticket counter, it was time to board. Naturally they let us board the plane, seal up the doors and then announce "due to fog, we are going to pull away from the gate and park at the end of the runway for 2 hours or more as we wait for a take-off slot." No way could they let us wait on the concourse with food, shops and things to do. So away we went to the far end of Gatwick and parked, fuel burning away, engines idling, and 200+ people on a 777 trapped in a prison of recurculated air.

About 11a, the fog lifted and so did we, and away west we went. At least it cut down on our 4 hour layover in Atlanta, which by the time we got there, was now just 2 hours. Nothing like 2 hours at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Hell to make one grateful that we live where we do. Then onto a 5.5 hour trip to Seattle. By the time it finally landed at 7p Seattle time we were both so tired of flying we swore we'd never go again -- or at least fly British Airways direct from Seattle next time.

Our friends M&M picked us up at the airport and deposited us in a driveway full of fallen aspen leaves with a huge tub of mail that came in while we were gone. We both spent yesterday sorting through the parts of life that go on while you are on vacation -- work stuff, home stuff, mail, e-mail, and small tasks around the house. We sort of made a dent in it, and should be back to normal in another day or so.

If you are truly interested in our travel adventures you'll note we've expanded the blog site and that Tony spent some time this morning updating it with pictures while I wrote this, as well as posting some of our summer travel this year before we went to Scotland. It now makes a nice on-line picture book of our adventures. I don't know if its ostentatious or fun or both, but if you enjoyed our Scotland adventure, read back into the archives as Tony put up our Whistler motorcycle trip e-mails to friends and family along with some pictures, and renamed the whole site. The archives are located on the right-hand side of the blog and start in July 2005 and continues into August 2005.

I expect we'll add to it when we send out other travel e-mails in the future, and it will be a fun way for us to share our experiences with you.

Now its back to the real world of clients, and politics, and work, and friends and neighbors and chorus and all that we do. It's good to be back, but a bit of a daunting task to get caught up for sure. First thing today we go pick up the dogs, whom we've missed terribly. And now that we are more or less back to functioning on Seattle time, we'll be catching up with our friends and family face to face.

Thanks again for coming along with us. Don't be a stranger.

From our Home on Fauntleroy Park..

Gary and Tony

Sunday, October 16, 2005

Scotland2005: Hello from Wales (of all places)

And you thought we were in London. We had to get out of the city after yesterday. I don't think I've ever seen more people in my life than I did yesterday in London -- most of them on the tube. If we hadn't gotten out of town we likely would have gone quite devistatingly mad. On top of it being a very nice sunny weekend which drew lots of tourists to town, two of the tube lines were shut down so it dramatically increased the traffic on the other lines. It was almost summmer-like weather, so it was warm, stuffy and humid inside the tube, and the streets were very crowded with folks walking about too. We walked around late into the evening in t-shirts. London is a very big city anyway, and it was truly miserable yesterday. Tony and I both said if we lived in the UK, it would have to be in Edinburgh, follwed by Glasgow.

Not to say we didn't have a good time, London is a very fun city -- but we did do a lot of walking and lining up and being squashed like sardines in subway cars. We first went up to the theatre district and bought tickets for the matinee performance of "Guys and Dolls" which is my pennance for taking Tony on so many train rides. It was a good show, and like everything else in London yesterday, packed to the rafters.

We also did some shopping and wandering about the streets of London, along with doing one touristy thing. We'd done the usual sights on previous visits, but we both realized we had never gone through Westminster Abbey. Apparenly a lot of other people hadn't gone through either since the line to get in was 40 minutes long. Unlike Disneyland, it dindn't weave back and forth, it just went straight out the doors and down the street.

The inside was quite fascinating, particulary since we'd both read Da Vinci Code, so naturally we went looking for the Chapter House and the Isaac Newton memorial (if you've read the book you know why). Virtually every King and Queen of England are burried there as well, including Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots and Edward I (known as the Hammer of the Scots for the destruction he brought fighting with Robert the Bruce). It makes a fitting end to our trip since so much of what we saw and experienced in Scotland this trip was directly related to all of that, to visit those graves on the last leg of the trip made the circle complete.

We did some night clubbing last night as well -- not really Tony and my scene, but it was fun, and much different that going out in the states. Crowded and sweaty venues there as well, so we were quite tired when we got back to the Hotel and needed to get out of town -- hence the side trip to Wales.

Neither Tony nor I have been to Wales, and since our rail passes were still good today, we decided to head out to Cardiff, which is about a two hour train ride out from London. We got here a bit after lunch and toured their ancient castle at the center of town. It is composed of three parts -- an ancient Roman fort built in the 1st Century, a Norman castle from the 12th Century, and an exceedingly ostentatious mannor house built by the Marquess of Butte in the 18th Century. They gloss over the Roman and Norman history -- indeed they don't even charge you for admission to that part. The 18th Century manor house is what apparently draws people and which they charge admission for. It's the kind of place I think that the lady we ran into at Linlithgow in Scotland earlier in the trip would have loved. Even the guide called it "Victorian Disneyland".

This is the kind of place that Cal Hockley (Rose's fiance in "Titanic") would have built no doubt. At the time the Marquess was one of the richest people in the UK -- in today's dollars he'd earn about £3 Billion from his estate each year, because he had all the mineral rights to the coal in Wales. The House was rather over the top to say the least,ánd he only used it 6 weeks a year. I have to wonder if 200 years from now people will be touring Bill Gates place in Medina like we were touring this house and marveling over the excess and excentricites.

It was a nice train ride out to Wales as well -- though not terribly scenic. The rail line was First Great Western, another franchise owned by the giant First Company. We flew along at 120mph for most of the trip, and had one of the 1st class cars to ourselves. It was a nice respite from the crowds of London.

We are sitting in a nice sushi bar/Internet cafe in Cardiff just up from the train station. It seems like a nice city, dominated by a huge soccer/rugby stadium. Since we've already explored much of Scotland, this might be a nice place to explore down the road.

We leave for home tomorrow morning -- actually, about the time you go to bed on Sunday night, we'll be getting up and making our way to Victoria station then out on the Gatwick Express to the airport -- then on to Atlanta, and home to Seattle. We are both anxious to get home -- it's been a wonderful and very memorable trip. We hope you have enjoyed coming along with us.

From the Sushi and Internet Cafe in Cardiff, Wales ...

Goodbye

Gary and Tony

Friday, October 14, 2005

Scotland2005: Back in London

Well, we are back in London. The trip is winding down, and although we miss home and the dogs and our friends, I for one am sad to leave Scotland. It's such a beautiful country, and the people are all very friendly, and I feel quite at home there. We grew familiar with Glasgow (although Tony's sense of direction there never clicked in), and our hotel staff there was the best of the trip. We'll definitely stay there again. London is a huge cosmopolitan city with its own fun and charms, but I'd return to Scotland yearly if I could and if Tony would let me.

We are back at the Internet Cafe across the street from Victoria Station in central London -- where we started the trip. All around Victoria -- indeed in every big city in the UK, we are surrounded by US Brands -- Kentucky Fried Chicken, Starbucks, Burger King, McDonalds, and the Internet Cafe is attached to a Subway sandwich shop. It is clear that the US economy dominates the world (but for how long?) I noticed the same thing in Hong Kong and other cities. It makes me wonder how come we don't see a British equivalent outside of the UK -- why we don't see Brit fast-food joints over in the states -- I don't think I can name a single UK consumer brand that has any real market presence in the US like KFC, Starbucks and McD's have here.

That is not to say that there aren't UK industries over in the states -- Scottish Power owns PacificCorp, the big electric utility in OR, WA and UT for one. Another giant that we saw a lot of here was First -- not one that is terribly familiar or that you'll recognize I suspect, but they own everything related to transportation over here. In the UK First runs the bus system in Edinburgh and Glasgow, they also have several of the national rail franchises here including all the trains in Scotland on ScotRail. In the US, First runs the School Buses in Washington, along with the Community Transit system in Seattle and a number of other cities. It's a HUGE company. But what we don't see are the UK consumer brands over in the US like we see US brands over here. Just an observation.

Along that line, we took a different rail route back to London than we have in the past. Last trip, as well as the north bound trip this time, we took the Great North East Railway -- GNER. It runs up the UK East Coast Mainline between London and Scotland. It's the quickest way to get up to Scotland from London, and they have wonderful trains. They've decorated their trains in a very tasteful, very traditional scheme, with dark colors, dark paneling and wide first class seats. It takes about 4 hours to go between London and Edinburgh.

We decided to take the West Coast Mainline back this time -- and the franchise is operated by Virgin Rail. In the UK they privatised the railways back in the Thatcher years (she turned 80 yesterday and there was a birthday party hosted by the Queen BTW). The actual tracks are owned by a company called NetworkRail, and they handle also all the dispatching of passenger and freight. Both passenger and freight are run by various train franchises. Companies bid on the franchise for 10 years and have operating rights on certain city pairings or routings. They set fares and pay NetworkRail for the track time. NetworkRail is independent and treats each company equally.

Virgin Rail is the same Virgin that is the large record company, cell phone provider and airline company. They have Virgin Trains over here on the west side of the UK. Richard Branson, the chairman, is sort of like a very eccentric Bill Gates -- one of the richest people in the UK, and has his fingers in a lot of things. They even serve Virgin Cola on his trains. He also has tons of bucks. He invested in brand new eqiupment in the last year -- very sleek, very modern trains that are more like airlines than trains (however with much greater room). They all have very modern decor, lighting, and gee-gaws like in-seat music (just like on the airline). The trains are made in Spain, and they have high-speed tilting mechanisms that force the train to lean into curves so it can go faster without all the jarring and swaying. It's really amazing and fast, and much like riding on an airline as it is about to take off and become airborne.

The West Coast line takes a lot longer -- almost 5 1/2 hours compared to the East Coast line. It runs through the very heart of industrial England, through their "rust belt" if you will. Cities like Birmingham, and Sheffield (where the movie Full Monty was set), and Manchester. One sees lots of abandoned factories along this route, and it's quite similar to going between Ohio and New York via train in the US.

We had first class tickets (naturally), and boy are we glad we did. This train filled up and in coach they were standing in the isles and vestibules. A lot of folks going to London for the weekend. Meanwhile we sat in a half-empty first class car and lorded it over them, although they kept sneaking down to use our loo. We (that is the "royal" we -- those of us in 1st class) were all rather put off by the riff-raff invading, very Charles Dickenish don't you think?

Although it was a long trip, I quite enjoyed it. I'm very content to sit and watch the world go by from a train seat. I find it hard to read or do anything else, especially when I'm in a place I've never been. I don't want to miss anything. While Tony read and finished his second book of the trip, and the tabloids, and had a nap, I was content with my map and timetable and an open window. I know it sounds boring -- but it's what I love. I need to SEE things -- to look at the landscape, to wonder what is in the factory, to plot my course. It's why I love driving and riding my motorcycle too, and why I HATE flying with a passion. I can't see anything and it bores me to tears.

We got to London in the height of rush hour, so the tube trip over to Victoria was rather pleasant to say the least. But we are settled in our hotel and figuring out what we'll do for the next few days. The weather is lovely -- and much warmer than Scotland, and it's supposed to be sunny all weekend. Our railpasses are good through Sunday, so we can get out of London for a bit -- maybe head out to Stonehenge, or down to the beach town of Brighton. We don't know yet.

Tony is looking for theatre tickets as I write this -- we tried to get some on-line ones for Billy Elliot, but so far haven't been able to. Tony also wants to do some shopping, and maybe go to a museum, and even thought about calling Delta to see if we could bump our flights back to Sunday from Monday, though I'd rather not.

Tonite we'll find a nice place for dinner, and maybe hit one of the gay clubs and enjoy London's nightlife.

Winding down the adventure from the Internet Cafe near Victoria Station, London..

Gary and Tony

Thursday, October 13, 2005

Scotland2005: Ye tak the High Road and I'll tak the Low Road

Well here we are back in Glasgow again. The storms have cleared and it's been a sunny day so far and a wonderful train ride back from Oban. Got the laundry done and we checked back into the same hotel and in the same room, as when we left on Monday. Familiarity is good -- especially when one has been on the road for as long as we have. It's why we like Edinburgh so much.

We've just been wandering about Glasgow this afternoon after doing the laundry, enjoying the sunny weather and the shopping strip. We stopped by Glasgow Cathedral, which is the only major church to make it intact through the Scottish reformation in 1560. Parts of it date from the 11th Century, and it contains the tomb of St. Mungo, who died in the 7th Century and is the patron saint for Glasgow. Suffice to say it's a VERY OLD PLACE.

Glasgow is very busy. There are a lot of people on the streets -- young people. It almost makes me feel old -- but the eye candy is something else. Glasgow is home to three major Scottish universities, and as such is full of students -- and all three have downtown campuses right near where we are.

After we left the Youth Hostel's Internet access terminals last night where we sent out our update, we had to return the little blue Ford to the "car hire" agency. Even after three days and several hundred miles, I instinctively went to the left door to drive away, and then correcting myself, went to the right side, sat down, and reached with my right arm to the left side for the seat-belt. It wasn't there, it's on the right side, which your reach for with your left hand! It makes me wonder if Brits are naturally left handed, since the radio dial and the cup-holder for a driver over here are operated or used with the left hand. The gear shift is left handed too. For a "rightie" like me, it must give me a little taste of every day life for "lefties" in a "rightie" world. It was quite frustrating and somewhat difficult and awkward at times.

We had Chinese for dinner -- apparently rice is extra here as all the menu items were noted as "rice not included". It wasn't bad, though no matter where we are, Tony tries to get them to make Kung Pao like his mother does -- and unfortunately no one ever does.

Tony did his usual spectacular job of packing us back up and we left on the 820a train back to Glasgow. It was sunny, clear, and a beautiful sunrise over the Atlantic. The West Highland rail line is one that cries out for a US style scenic train with big windows and dome cars, but alas, we had the usual ScotRail self-powered cars -- nonetheless, the views were grand, and the fall colors vivid and bright.

It's a bit melencholy to think that the trip is winding down and that we'll not be up in the Highlands again for some time. We decided to head back to London tomorrow, and we'll spend the next three nights in London, taking in some shows and maybe a few sights. Tony said he's ready to go home, though truth be told I'm not.

From Glasgow..on our last night in Scotland this trip...

Gary and Tony

Ye tak the high road and I'll tak the low road and I'll be in Scotland afore ye, where me and my true love will ever want to be...

SCOTLAND FOREVER!!!

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Scotland2005: Last day (thank God) in Oban

Wet, wet, wet. Not like people from Seattle aren't used to it, but it's been very wet the last few days. We've often said that the weather here is very similar to Seattle's, but it's rained so hard that there has been major flooding in England and Scotland, south of where we are -- so much so that the rail lines and some freeways are shut down. If this keeps up, we may have an adventure getting back to London this weekend.

Last night we went over to a little "TexMex" place here in Oban. Let's just say that the Scots do a very interesting TexMex, which consists of dumping Pace Picante Sauce on anything cooked, wrapping it in a tortilla and calling it TexMex. We were also the only ones in the restaurant at 8pm too. This town really does die at 530pm.

This morning we got up early and drove up the coast to Ft. William. It's about 50 miles away, but it still took us 90 minutes. The roads here, though two lanes, are very windy and very scenic by the same token, but distances here aren't great (like we are used to in the West), and 70 miles is almost considered a day's journey.

We got to Ft. William and found our train waiting on the platform. The Jacobite Steam Train is run by a charter outfit, and goes up the West Highland line, a very scenic rail line through rugged mountains and glens that was built in 1880, and is considered an engineering marvel at the time. The train doubles as the Harry Potter train from the movie, and they filmed the train from the air in the scenes where they go from Kings Cross to Hogwarts. The cars are all from the late WWII era, and one of the cars even has those traidtional compartments that that seat six on facing couches. All have wood panelling and plush seats. We had first class tickets, two single seats facing with a wee table between. Coffee and tea provided (really warm water with food coloring, so we sufficed with diet cokes and short bread cookies).

The train is called the "Jacobite" after the people who supported the return of the Stuart kings after the English civil war. Jacobite" refers to supporters of the lineage of King James, and James in latin is Jacob. "Although technically the pretender to the throne was named Charles (hence "Bonnie Prince Charlie"), he was a direct descendent of the line of Jameses that ruled Scotland for centuries. When he attempted to regain power, his base of support was all in this area of the Highlands and his supporters were named Jacobites (there will be a test later on all this).

The train filled up with quite a few people. Mostly guys -- it must be a "guy thing". Most were also train buffs, or railfans, or as they are known here "trainspotters". I guess old steam trains, like old cars, and really any kind of big machinery attract guys, and very tollerent spouses -- Tony included. While I spent much of the trip hanging out the vestibule window feeling the wind, smelling the steam and smoke, and watching the scenery, Tony sat and read, watched out the window, and eavesdropped on the other conversations going on around him. (Tony writes: Mind you, I am still battling a cold and didn't think sticking my face into the rain and wind would be a good cure for my ailment) Tony said one young chap, fresh back from Iraq said when the topic of Haggis came up "I'm not going to eat anything made up of assholes and elbows".

In addition to eavesdropping, Tony read the British papers, which are interesting in their own right. They tend to put the National Enquirer to shame, and include a bare breasted woman in each issue. As Tony said each time he came across one "Eww"! Now if they had been bare chested men, well, who would complain about that! Lots of gossip too -- especially about Boy George (you remember him don't you? -- the Brits sure do, he's their Brittany Spears I suppose). He was busted for Coke posession (the white kind not the soda) in New York last week, and its THE major news story over here. Tony also sketched out his Scotland inspired tattoo -- weaving the Gaelic word for "Bear" which he got from our hotel front desk lady who called her "mum" who speaks Gaelic, and the Scottish shield and some celtic knots. It will be very painful -- both to have applied and to the wallet, but it is pretty cool. With luck we might find a tattoo place in Glasgow for a truly permanently memorable trip!

While Tony was reading and snooping, I was watching the train along with a lot of other guys. "Every time the train would go around a curve, arms, heads, and cameras would pop out of every open window for a view or a picture, especially as we went over the Glenfinnan Viaduct, which is that big white arched bridge you see in the Harry Potter movies. I shared the vestibule with a couple of other guys, and we talked trains, and even motorcycles since I was wearing my Harley logo rain jacket to stay dry. Everyone asked if I rode a "'arley" back home...

We got up to the coast at the town of Mallig after about two hours, where they gave us a 90 minute break for lunch. We were able to have a relaxing lunch of steak pie, walk all the way around the town (both streets), watch the ferry to the Isle of Skye leave, and still have thirty mintues before the train left to go back to Ft. William. VERY small town.

The trip back was much the same -- me enjoying the Highland scenery go by from the open windows, and Tony relaxing in the seat. It's hard for me to describe the Highland scenery -- and words can't do it justice. Picture very rough, blackish rock on steep hills, covered with a light fuzz of reddish brown grass, scattered sheep grazing, with some trees here and there, cascading waterfalls coming down out of the mist covered mountains that disappear into the clouds. A small blacktop narrow road, no traffic, or a rail line -- scattered white stone farmhouses, and fields criscrossed by walls of stacked stones. It is something one must see and experience first hand to really appreciate -- it's unlike anything on earth, including our own Cascade mountains in Washington.

It's wonderful to have a spouse who will put up with your excentric tastes when it bores the crap out of them -- and I'll repay it when we get to London and he has tickets to some awful play -- something called "Midsummer Madness" starring Vera Charles, Chauncy Penman and Byron Prong...or something like that.

We got to Ft. William and made our way south to Oban on the same road we came up on. The roads here are wonderful for motorcycles, but a lot of work on anything else. I feel like I had a good upper body workout with the manual transmission and steering on these curvey up and down roads. It got me and Tony to thinking that a great new business would be to set up an escorted Harley Tour of Scotland -- either as single riders, or taking a passenger. What a life eh? (The fact that we were thinking about this probably explains the severe rain and flooding in Central Scotland today -- MOTHER!! we are just fantasizing!)

We'll head back to the Royal Hotel shortly and pack up -- we catch an 820am train back to Glasgow tomorrow morning. We'll spend the night there and sometime tomorrow decide if we are spending only one or two nights in Glasgow before returning to London. Truth be told, Oban is a charming little town -- typical of many Scottish small towns, but it's too small to spend three nights in. The only thing open tonite we haven't done is the bowling alley. If one truly wanted to unplug and get away, this is a good starting point -- and the Isle of Mull is even more remote and quiet. It's not something I'm terribly good at, (Tony writes: Imagine that!) so I don't know if I could enjoy it like the pilgrims going to Iona do...perhaps it's a weakness.

From the much quieter tonite Oban Youth Hostel..

Gary and Tony

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Scotland2005: Oban -- Day 2

Well guess what -- we found semi-decent Internet access in Oban. It's at the Oban Youth Hostel and Tony and I are 1) The only ones speaking English and 2) The oldest ones here. So now we can bring you up to date on what life here in Oban is like.



Oban is a very small fishing town on the coast, and the point where the ferries to the Hebredies Islands depart. It has only a couple of streets and everything faces the waterfront. We are staying at the "Royal Hotel", but the only Royalty that would stay here are deposed ones. It's kind of shabby, but an interesting Victorian building, however the elevator is an afterthought. We have a third floor walk up, and the room is without a doubt the smallest room we've ever seen -- including Tony who has spent years in the travel industry. The double bed barely fits in the room with a small desk and TV stand. My knees hit the bathtub when sitting on the john.

In order to get ONE of the suitcases into the closet Tony had to straddle the suitcase in the "hall" between the bedroom and the bathroom, open the folding door slightly, tip the suitcase in, open the other door, slide the other side of the suitcase in, then hold both doors open to lay the suitcase down, open it up, unpack, close the doors, and then back out into the bedroom again. The other suitcase is on the side table next to the 9 INCH TV!!! On the plus side, this wee little TV in this tiny little room gets more TV channels than any of the other places we've stayed -- go figure. It must be because they roll up the sidewalks precisely at 530pm in this town. Virtually everything closes at that time except for one fish and chips stand and a movie theater -- a multiplex in fact, with TWO, count them, TWO screens!

It poured down rain all evening, and after watching a 15 year old rerun of LA Law, we walked down to a nice restaurant recommended by the front desk, where we had a surprisingly good set of steaks. Then we went to see the new Wallace and Grommit movie, and unlike Kinky Boots the other night, this is one you should save for a DVD rental. It's being hyped to the 9s here in the UK, and we had high hopes, but it wasn't that good.

We sloshed our way back to the Royal Hotel, where after getting ready for bed, we found that the mattress was fit for a princess -- a dead one. I swear it was a piece of plywood covered with a sheet. We did manage to get some sleep, and awoke at 7am for breakfast before catching the ferry to the Isle of Mull.

WE TRIED HAGGIS!!!! Shocked aren't you! They had some as part of the buffet and so we figured that this far up in the Highlands it had to be better than at a fast-food deep fried joint in Glasgow. We each put a wee tablespoon worth on our plates, spread it on some toast points, and found it surprisingly strong, but not as nasty as we might have expected. Very much like a gamey strong sausage.

The ferry to Mull is a large boat, not at all like the roll-on-roll-off Washington State Ferries. This boat was more like an ocean ship, and absolutely packed to the rafters with elderly tourists on bus tours of the Highlands.
The crossing takes about 40 minutes, and we enjoyed a cup of hot chocolate on the voyage. It was a very pretty trip, the storm had cleared, and everything was wet, but the sun was peaking out and the grass on the mountains a lovely orange brown. Approaching Mull you could see Ben Moore, the highest peak on the Island rising out of the mist, and lots of creeks and waterfalls cascading down.

We docked, and lucky for us were among the first cars off so we high-tailed it out so we could beat the Parade Of Buses on the 37 mile road to the other side of the island and the ferry to Iona.

The road was, to say the least, spectacular, and the scenery unlike anything we've ever seen. Tony said that the actual "texture" of the landscape was like nothing we have in the US. Very ancient rocks, virtually no trees, and a red-brown tinted grass that made the mountians look like they were covered in velvet.

The road was also unlike any road we've ever been on. Thirty seven miles of single track, with passing pull-outs every 100 feet or so. Thank goodness there was no on coming traffic to speak of, and we were way ahead of the busses. The experience was much like a small roller coaster with single cars -- up and down, and around and around, and WHOA!!! ANOTHER CAR!!! Pull out, pass, and then on down the road you go. Very desolate too, a few scattered farms, and some villages with three or four houses but thats it. We probably passed maybe 10 cars in 37 miles, which took us a little over an hour to cover.

The ferry to Iona leaves from a small village that is nothing more than a ticket office and a store. It's a small boat, room for a couple of cars and about 100 people. It just drops a ramp off the boat when it docks and you drive or walk up what amounts to a boat ramp. It takes 10 minutes to cross to Iona, and on that side is another village with a few houses and the remains of a Nunnery and Abbey that portions of date from St. Columba who landed from Ireland in the 560s. The previous blog post has a picture of Tony in front of a Celtic Cross that is 1300 years old.



The Abbey is still in use by a new ecumenical religious group -- or in other words a bunch of old very liberal hippies living in a commune of sorts and working for peace and justice by decrying Shell Oil, Wal-Mart, and the Bank of Scotland among other things. However, we did give them kudos for selling rainbow and AIDS ribbons in the vestibule of the church.

We ate lunch at the small Columba Hotel, which is where we also wrote the previous post, and then walked back to the ferry at about 230pm. This apparently was also the ferry that the hordes of old folks on tour busses were taking, so we bolted off the ferry when it docked and ran for the car to get ahead of the monster sized tour buses. I couldn't even contemplate driving behind those giants for 37 miles on a single track road -- all we'd see is "TOUR THE HIGHLANDS WITH US" in celtic script the whole way back.

We decided to take a side loop road too, which was way cool except that we spent a lot of time dodging sheep and cows, as this route went through a lot of pasture land. The cows are what are known as "Highland Cows", or as it's pronounced here, "Heilan Coos", and they have very long hair with bangs over their eyes and are quite cute.



Tony also got to take his turn at driving on the left side of the road for a ways, and found out it wasn't as easy as he thought and now is much less critical of my Scottish driving skills.

Tomorrow we are headed up to Ft. Williams to take the Jacobite Steam Train -- which doubles as the Harry Potter train in the movies -- the Hogwarts Express. It's about a 45 minute drive up the coast from here, and we won't get back until late so I don't know again if we'll be able to post anything, but we'll try.

We've got just under a week left here in Scotland - it's been kind of a second pilgrimage. As Chaucer said in the prologue to The Canterbury Tales:

"Then do folk long to go on pilgrimage,
And Dalmers to go seeking out strange strands,
To distant shrines well known in sundry lands.
And specially from every shire's end."


Thats us in a nut shell.

From the Oban Youth Hostel, where someone is cooking curry down the hall and speaking German sitting next to us..

Gary and Tony

Scotland2005: At the nunnery on Iona

Hey..

Well we had pretty lousy Internet access in Oban -- and here we sit after just having lunch at the Columba Hotel on the wee island of Iona, which is a 2 mile square rock, reached by a small ferry, after driving 40 miles on a single track road across the Isle of Mull which is a 40 minute ferry from Oban.

They actually have better Internet access here if you can believe that, but we don't have time to write anything...but Tony is uploading these pictures, plus some for yesterday's post.

Why go to Iona you ask? Kind of like Everest, because it's there. Actually its where St. Columba landed in 560 something and founded a nunnery and abbey, which today is still a bit of a shrine and home to lots of old very very very liberal hippies. We had organic french onion soup for lunch and they about blanched when Tony ordered a burger!

When we get back to Glasgow on Thursday afternoon we have to do laundry as we are on recycled socks now (eww, I know).. and I should have time to send out an update -- and believe me, we have lots to update..

From the lonley little rock of Iona
Gary and Tony

Monday, October 10, 2005

Scotland2005: Hello from the Highlands



We are up in the small west coast town of Oban right now -- and as I feared, there is only one place with very limited Internet access, and this is likely the last entry we'll be able to do before getting back to Glasgow on Thursday.

Last night after a Mexican dinner that was served to us by a young Iranian waiter who'd been in Scotland for a year but already had a charming Scottish accent with some Iranian overtones, (how's that for multicultural) Tony writes: Gary was totally flirting with this guy and I think he would have brought him back to Seatttle as our houseboy if I'd let him -- which I wouldn't. we decided to take in a movie. Apparently the largest theatre in the UK is in Glasgow -- it's 20 screens spread out over 18 floors! They even had a monthly all you can watch pass for £10. Puts the googleplex concept to shame. We saw a British comedy called "Kinky Boots", which was absolutely hilarious. I don't know if it will make it to the states, but if it does, it's a must see. It's set in a shoe factory in central England, it's going under and is saved when the owner decides to go into the niche market of ladies shoes that men can wear, thus tapping into the under served drag queen market. It's done by the same guys that did the movie Calendar Girls.


This morning we got up early and caught an 8am train up here to Oban -- a small coastal town which is where the ferries out to the Hebredies Islands depart. It's deep in the Highlands, and the countryside is stunning. If you recall the scenes in Braveheart where Mel Gibson is running along the ridgelines and the mountains rising up around him, it looks just like that. It's fall, the leaves are yellow and orange, and it has been a gray and misty morning.

The train is a slow moving one, it winds up through the country, and calls out for US style dome passenger cars. Instead the train consists of self-propelled diesel driven passenger cars, and at best I figure we hit 40 mph a couple of times. The trip took over three hours, but who's counting. We had a bit of a delay getting out of Glasgow with some signal problems that shut down the entire rail line for about an hour.

After leaving Glasgow it's a single track line, with no signals. The train has to stop and get a "token" at every junction to move to the next junction. It's very sparsely populated with only a few people on the train. Tony is still feeling a tad under the weather and spent much of the trip sleeping while I watched the Highland scenery go by.

We picked up a very very small rental car (I think it's a Ford "Spek", but Tony say's its a Festiva) which we'll have for three days, and set out to explore some of the countryside. There were two castle ruins we wanted to see up near here, but first stopped for some fish and chips to eat on the road. One cannot eat fish and chips, drive a left hand stick shift with a right hand drive on twisty Scottish roads very easily. However, I think I did pretty good driving -- only cutting through one round about, and thinking I was on a one-way road when I wasn't -- but other than that I did OK, and Tony doesn't need to change his drawers. (Tony writes: The people honking at us from behind was a good reminder to Gary that he was doing something wrong -- in addition to me freaking out)



We decided to eat in the parking lot at Dunstaffnage Castle before touring it. This is a cool, very large castle, built in the 1200s. The grounds are kept nice and trim by a flock of sheep -- who also poop all over the law they just trimmed. It makes for interesting walking.

We then drove 20 miles up the road to one of the most picturesque castles in all of Scotland -- Kilchurn. It's at the head of Loch Awe, and unfortunately is now closed for the season, but we could view it from the road in a couple of spots. We'll try and return before heading south again in a few days to get some postcard style pictures with the fall leaves in the background -- better than the one at the beginning of this post.

Tomorrow we'll take the car on the ferry to the Isle of Mull, drive across the Island and take another ferry to the Iona, where the first Christian settlers landed sometime around 580AD. Then on Wednseday we go up to Ft. William to take the Harry Potter train. The one Internet cafe closes at 5p so we'll not be able to make any posts tomorrow or Wednesday, so we'll have a lot of catching up to do on Thursday.

From Oban
Gary and Tony

Sunday, October 09, 2005

Scotland2005: Last Day in Glasgow

We spent the day just hanging around Glasgow today, sleeping in late and not leaving the city. The day started out nice, with some sunshine and blue skies, and we noticed a lot of stars out last night as we walked home. However it quickly turned to a light Seattle-esque drizzle that lasted all day—despite promises to my mother that we wouldn’t go motorcycle riding anymore this trip.

We tried to take some nice pictures of Glasgow to post on the blog—we really did. But we couldn’t find anything, although the area around the Univesity of Glasgow was nice with some cool gothic buildings. That’s not to say it isn’t a pretty town in its own way—there are some wonderful buildings built in the mid to late 1800s out of carved red sandstone. And the town also is home to a famous architect—Charles Rennie MacIntosh -- and his buildings are all over town—or so we are told, because we only could find one near our hotel.

Like I said before, Glasgow was, and still is, a very industrial city, and the building heritage reflects that as does the population. Following the loss of the football game yesterday, even very late at night, mobs of guys in their kilts with the team jersey, quite drunk, were roaming about, and having fun. Our hotel is right next to the train station and there were huge lines of people headed back upcountry and out to the subs after the game and a night of partying. The amount of litter that was along the major streets around the train station was staggering last night—Tony and I have never seen anything like it, but it was all cleaned up by the time we got up and about today.

It’s a very “gritty” city—lots of dirt on top of the litter, as well as grime. The subway cars were covered with grime and full of litter. The Brits in general have no sidewalk or public litter cans—they tended to attract IRA terrorists in the past—so it makes for a lot of litter in the less upscale parts of town.

We have to give them credit for trying though. Glasgow in the last few years has undergone, or tried to undergo, a transformation of sorts. They’ve been cleaning things up, the economy is moving towards the service sector, and there are a lot of people buying wonderful old buildings and putting trendy shops into them. But it still has those gritty, industrial underpinnings. Edinburgh reminds me in a way of Washington DC, smaller, quieter, and generally cleaner while Glasgow reminds me of a big dirty city like Pittsburgh or New York.

Like New York, it’s a very “late” city, and we ate dinner at 10pm and there were crowds at many of the nice trendy restaurants in the revived part of town and we couldn’t get into our first two choices. It seems like a fun town too, so if I’m making it seem like a place to avoid, that shouldn’t be the case.

We wanted to go to two places and do some shopping today, after taking care of “business”—booking a hotel in Oban, our next stop, and getting train seat reservations. We first started out taking the subway to the Museum of Transport—which we learned about on the hop-on, hop-off tour we took the first day here. The guide said it was a great place to spend the afternoon if you liked anything to do with transportation—trains, busses, autos, and boats. So we put it on our list of places to visit. It was a fair walk in the drizzle from the subway, and Tony started to come down with a chill —probably the after affects of the ride yesterday too. So by the time we got to the museum he was feeling a tad under the weather. It was just as well though; the museum was more of a collection of odds and ends, with not a lot of information on what we were looking at. They did have a few cool cars in the car section, some old Mini-Coopers and a few other oddities—along with a 1970s European Chrysler “Sunbeam”, which looks like every other ‘70s Plymouth hatchback. Well those were odd little cars too I guess.

They did have some cool old “’arley’s” too, and an exhibit on the history of the Glasgow subway (which apparently was once pulled by cables like the San Francisco cable cars, only the cable was a 14 mile loop with a huge engine). They also had a few old trolley and tramcars that were fun to look at. However, I wouldn’t call an exhibit on the “History of Prams” (what the Brits call baby strollers) to be top on the transportation agenda. They even had a modern folding one like you buy at Target for $9.99 in the display.

Tony started to fade, so we figured we’d head back to the Hotel for a bit, get some cold and flu medicine and sit in the sauna and steam room for a while. That seemed to do the trick,(along with lunch at KFC) as it revitalized Tony, and we went out with the Sunday afternoon throngs who were shopping along the pedestrian mall. We enjoyed people watching and doing a little shopping—Tony bought a CD called “Caledonian” which is a group of Scottish tenors. I think it was mainly for the cover of the big burley guys in kilts, but I digress. He also picked up the Scottish soccer team jersey so he can wear it with one of his kilts and be just like the blokes here. He has wanted to get a tattoo done here -- something in Gaelic for “Bear” but we’ve yet to find a place for that -- there is still tonite however.

We’ll leave early tomorrow morning on a train to the town of Oban, which is on the west coast, where we’ve booked a hotel for three nights. This is the jumping off point for the ferries to the Hebredies Islands, as well as other points in the Highlands and we’ll have a car for three days since there is really no public transportation. Our plans include going to the Isle of Mull and out to Iona, where the first Christian’s in Scotland set up an Abbey way back in 500 AD, as well as driving to some castle ruins, and going up to Fort Williams. Fort Williams, which is at the base of Ben Nevins, which is the highest peak in the UK, and the starting point of the Jacobite Steam Train—better known and seen as the train used in the Harry Potter movies as they go to Hogwarts. This is a four-hour excursion, which goes up one of the most spectacular rail routes in the Highlands, and we are looking forward to it.

Unfortunately, small towns such as Oban often don’t have the Internet access that we’ve been used to in Glasgow, Edinburgh and London, particularly for loading up pictures here.

We'll write if we can, but if we can’t you’ll know why. We are due back in Glasgow on Thursday. We’ll spend at least Thursday in Glagow, and then decide where to go from there—either down to London for the weekend, back to Edinburgh, or maybe up to Inverness. We do have to be in London on Sunday, when our rail passes expire, and we fly home a week from tomorrow on Monday the 17th. We’ve been having a great time so far, and we’ve got a week of cool stuff to see and do in a part of the country we’ve not been to before. We hope you are enjoying the travelogue and pictures as much as we are writing and posting them.

One last time, from the Yeeha Internet Cafe in Glasgow.

Gary and Tony

Saturday, October 08, 2005

Scotland2005: Glasgow Day 3

I have to say that Glasgow really is a "night" city. Where as Edinburgh kind of rolled up the sidwalks at about 10p, Glasgow was going strong until the wee hours of the morning. Glaswegans also like to drink -- no, they LOVE to drink. I don't think we've ever seen so many drunk people on the streets as we did last night -- and that I see and hear right now outside the cafe window at 745pm. In fact, I don't think, outside of New York, I've ever seen so many people on the streets at night. This really is a much more of a "city" than Edinburgh, and is much more like London -- complete with their own "mini-Tube", a small circular subway that looks like the London one if you washed it and ran it through the dryer. Tony has to duck when he gets on to it. They need to have a "mind your head" recording in addition to the "mind the gap" one.

After a late dinner at an Italian joint last night, we walked about -- there are a couple of large pedestrian malls, and lots and lots of big nightclubs and bars, along with the corresponding drunk people wandering about in a party mood. (Picture Mardi Gras with 1/20th the people). We ran into "Steve" when Tony noticed a store with deep fried Haggis on the menu and commented to me. (Deep fried Haggis? -- generally you can make anything better by deep frying it, but Haggis?) Apparently Steve felt obliged both introduce himself to us AND to tell Tony NOT to have the deep fried Haggis, but rather the steamed version, and began walking with us extolling the virtues of steamed Haggis.

When Steve found out we were Americans, he asked us what we thought of "Jarge Booosh"? Before we could answer, we found out what he thought about "Booosh", and suffice to say we tended to agree, which made Steve a very happy fellow. Fortunately we arrived at a corner where we had to turn, so he shook our hands and stumbled down the street.

This morning we awoke to clear and sunny skies for the most part, and we were due to get the motorcycles back to the Harley dealer by 10ish. We had, upon the advice of the hotel, secured our bikes at a "car park" down the street, where we found them secure, but being fawned over by two blokes who were operating the garage. They too, like numerous folks yesterday, decided they had to extol the virtues of "'arley's" and wish they could afford one. At least that’s what we think they said, as their accents were so think we "couldn'na unnerstan' a werd they was sayin' mind ye!"

We wore our rain suits over to the dealership because we packed the saddle bags with our other coats, figuring we'd take a train out to the countryside down to the Dumfries area today after dropping the bikes off. However it was so nice when we got to the dealership, and Benny encouraged us to keep the bikes for the rest of the day if we wanted to. We couldn't refuse. He helped us plot a route out of town and down to Dumfries and back that we could do and still be back in time for the dealership to close.

It was a tad cool, so I elected to keep my rain pants on, while Tony took his off as he was feeling warm (rain pants that is -- they are like fisherman's waders -- sheesh, what were you thinking?) This of course meant that immediately after we left the dealer and got onto the Motorway (freeway), it would start to rain. My Mother must have perfected her powers of storm generation, because this storm actually made me want to turn around and get off the bikes. I asked Tony what he wanted to do, and he said "lets keep going, it looks like it's clearing the way we are headed." Sure enough it did, and we enjoyed sunshine and nice weather down the M-8 towards the border with England.

Dumfries is about 70 miles south west of Glasgow on the Soloway Firth -- the bay that separates England from Scotland, and thus was prime fighting ground in the wars with England. It is also the home of Caerlaverock Castle, which dates from the 1200s and which Edward I (the bad king in Braveheart) used for target practice several times. I had wanted to see this castle for some time, as it looks like what every child's story book picture of a castle looks like. It is made of red sandstone, and is surrounded by a moat. (Actually a moat was a big cesspool of sorts as the loos and drains all emptied out into it -- now days it has swans swimming about.)

When you walk around to the back, it's all blown to bits from a siege where catapults like you see in the movies hurled big rocks at it, and it looks like a Playskool brand toy castle that opens up to reveal the inside all displayed. It's really quite cool.


Unfortunately we couldn't spend as much time as we wanted to there, and had a quick bite at the tea room, and talking "'arly's" with the castle steward who'd wandered over as we were packing up. Tony put on his rain pants to keep warm and thus ensuring bright gorgeous sunshine the rest of the way home in theory.

We took a different route back up to Glasgow through the area known as the Borders. Lovely rolling hills with lots of stone walled pastures and farms, lots of sheep and cows, and quaint little towns. Also lots of roundabouts at every junction. Roundabouts are really quite fun on motorcycles once you get the hang of it. We were actually enjoying ourselves too much as we lost track of time and suddenly realized that we needed to be in Glasgow before 5pm, so we picked up the pace.

About 15 miles outside of Glasgow my Mother's storm generator kicked in again, and we hit pouring rain and even hail. Hail HURTS at 70mph on a motorcycle is all I can say. We managed to slosh our way to the Harley Dealer just as the sun broke out again, and the clock hit 450pm. We've now learned our lesson not to mess with my Mother's awesome and terrible power and will not be riding bikes anymore on this trip. The wonderful folks at the Harley dealer asked about the ride and how we enjoyed it, and even found a great shirt for Tony that we couldn't find in his size earlier, and didn't even charge us for the petrol we couldn't replace since we were rushing to get back.

We were cold, wet and tired, so we decided to hit the steam room at the hotel before heading out to the Internet Cafe. On our way back from the dealer however we ran into a huge crowd of folks coming out of the Football game (or what we in America call soccer). This was THE BIG GAME!!!! Apparently Scotland was vying for a World Cup playoff berth in a game against Belarus (one of those odd little ex-Soviet countries that no one can find on a map). It reminded me very much of a Seahawks or Mariners crowd -- lots of folks wearing the team's uniforms, or draped with Scottish flags. However, unlike folks going to Mariners or Seahawks games, a large number of this crowd were in their kilts. To my knowledge, Tony and I are among the few who have actually gone to a Mariners game in a Mariners jersey with a kilt. It's the norm here -- your kilt with the Scottish team's shirt.

They were all very disappointed, if not down right pissed off, as Scotland unfortunately lost 0-1. We now have the spectre of a whole bunch of very angry drunk people wandering about Glasgow tonite. This should prove quite interesting as we go out to dinner, and maybe check out one of the large gay clubs here tonite.

Tomorrow is our last day in Glasgow -- we'll spend it in town visiting a couple of museums and doing some shopping and relaxing. We'll also be booking our hotel in the next stop -- Oban. Oban is a small town out on the west coast in the Highlands and is the gateway to the Hebredies Islands. We plan on going out to Mull and exploring a bit along the Highlands Coast for three days. We'll also have a car those days since it is so remote and unfortunately there is no "'arley" dealer.

But tonite, we'll head out for some dinner -- maybe some deep fried Haggis (despite Steve's warning, it might actually be tolerable, because, everything really is better if it's deep fried), but then again maybe not. We'll also be dodging the pissed off soccer fans, watching the crowds of drunks wandering about, and just enjoying this, "very different from Edinburgh", city.

From the Yeeha Internet Cafe in Glasgow

Gary and Tony

Friday, October 07, 2005

Scotland2005: Glasgow Day 2

The nice thing about being on vacation with no real plans is that you can change what plans you do have at the drop of a hat. We woke this morning to a weather forecast that predicted dire rain and wind tomorrow (Saturday), which was the day we were planning on renting motorcycles. We figured that my Mother had been practicing her power to brew up storms whenever we want to go riding, and had conjured up a doozy, but given the massive time change, her timing was a probably a bit off, and she didn't realize we could change plans quickly. So we called the Harley dealer and rented a pair of bikes for the day.

Taking a cab over to the dealer we realized how much this city is like a "city". Unlike Edinburgh, which feels a bit small, Glasgow hums and rushes about like a small New York.



We picked up the bikes, which included far too much paperwork for insurance and promises not to sue etc.., as well as helmets, and leather coats and rain pants! The whole shebang. The rental manager, Benny Andersen (NOT one of the group ABBA) who is also a road captain for the local HOG chapter helped us map out a neat ride and pointed us out the door to the M-8, the major Edinburgh/Glasgow freeway. Nothing like a rush to get started, and a "backwards" freeway sure did the trick! We only had to go a few miles to our exit -- or as they are called here "junction". Because it was backwards we took the wrong ramp -- or so I thought, it really was the right one, but in my haste I bailed off too early (just like on the Tube in London) and we wound up in the drive of a retirement center, with a whole living room full of seniors looking out at these two American blokes in full black leather on noisy bikes invading their quiet respite.

After figuring out we were right the first time, (and now owing Tony $20), we doubled back and headed out of town. The route that Benny, the rental manager plotted with us, took us north and east, up through some charming small towns. We stopped in one for a coke and some "digestive biscuits", or what the Scots call cookies. We pulled into the small supermarket and walked in and one of the cashiers said "those your 'arley's mates?" We said yes, and she shrieked "I 'ave tae see" and left her spot, with customers in line mind you, and ran out to look. We quickly paid for our cokes and went out too, where we found her literally fawning over the bikes and going on and on about "'arley's" being the best bikes and how much she wanted one. We let her pose on them, and then another checker came out and told her to get her "arse" inside. This theme was to be repeated several times today whenever we stopped. I can only surmise that "'arley's" aren't that numerous here.

It was a gray and misty morning, and very much fall. We didn't need the rain pants but it was damp, and the air smelled wonderful -- kind of wet, cool, and the smell of fall leaves. We wound up a small Glen (what the Scots call a canyon) and over a high pass with wonderful views up into the Highland hills. There were sheep grazing, small waterfalls, and desolate moors as far as you could see, with the peaks of the Highlands rising up in the distance. The road was barely wider than a car (the Hummer would have taken up the whole road), but we didn't pass a single car for a long time.

We dropped down into a valley where we picked up a road that headed due east into Stirling. This is where William Wallace won his first big battle against the English, and where Robert Bruce fought the battle that won independence from England. We had visited the castle here and the Wallace monument last time we were in Scotland, and our goal was to go further east a bit and visit the ruins of Castle Campbell.

We stopped at a small pub along the way -- in a very small village, where there must not be much entertainment, as the "'arley's" caused quite a stir here. In the pub there was a poster for a big event tonite – a comedian and two strippers! Only a £7 cover! I was picturing "Full Monty", but we resisted the temptation to linger.

Castle Campbell was a bit further down the road and up Dollar Glen. I don't think I've seen a prettier setting for a castle ruin than this one. We had it to ourselves, and wandered about for about 30 minutes enjoying the scenery before heading back to the valley and back West.



Benny had suggested we take the very scenic highway (if you can call it that) back through the Trossach National Park and the Queen Elizabeth Forest. As we left the small town of Doune (where the Castle that was used as the backdrop for Monty Python's Holy Grail movie, and which we visited last time), it started to sprinkle and we saw we were headed into some clouds, so we stopped and put on our rain pants. I was having second thoughts about going up into the mountains, but we thought we'd press on a bit and see how the weather was. We are both glad we did, as the ride turned more spectacular by the mile, and the weather cleared up completely. We rode for miles along lochs and up and over passes on some narrow twisty, perfect for motorcycle roads, and passed no more than a handful of cars.

Navigating was a bit tricky though -- with Benny's help we were able to write up directions so we didn't have to pull out the map, but the road signs are quite different than what we are used to and the roads very narrow with no place to stop and pull out the map, so you kind of go by instinct. Fortunately our instincts were pretty good -- most of the time. I had to keep reminding myself to NOT stop at intersections in the wrong lane.

Benny suggested a small shop in a town right after we got out of the Park for "the best steak sandwiches in the world". However, the small butcher was closed by the time we got there, and the only other place in town was having a special on fresh Haggis -- so we held our noses and kept riding.

We went back up and over the same high pass we went north on this morning, and dropped down into Glasgow at dusk in a wonderful glow. All in all we put on only 130 miles or so -- the distances here are not great, and you can get out into the country very quickly. The roads are small and the speed limit is maxed out at about 40. It takes a long time to cover very little ground -- but on a motorcycle, that's the point. In medieval times the knights had their trusty steed and wore their armour when exploring the wild moors of the Scottish highlands. As modern Knights, we have our trusty V-twin 1200cc bikes and our armour of leather, but the feeling of riding along a ridge with the wind in your hair is the same now as it was 500 years ago I expect.

We'll take the bikes back tomorrow UNLESS it turns out to be sunny and my Mother's storm generating abilities have failed to materialize, and we may just keep them for another day. After all, we are on vacation, and we can change our plans at the drop of a hat.

From the Yee-ha Internet Cafe in Glasgow

Gary and Tony

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Scotland2005: Hello from Glasgow

Last night, the clerk at the Internet cafe in Edinburgh recommended a nice little Italian place for dinner, just up the street from the cafe, so we walked up the ancient streets and found the place tucked away on the side of a building. It was quite good, but you know Tony is terribly allergic to alcohol, and we had bruschetta for an appetizer and they had drizzled some wine on it -- one bite, and Tony had instant rash on his, as the British say, "arse". Not a bad reaction, but one none the less.

We got up this morning and had a few hours to kill before our train to Glasgow, so we wandered up the hill to the Castle and took in the view one last time and said goodbye to that beautiful city. Edinburgh is a wonderful, very ancient city that to this day retains both its Medieval and Victorian charms, and one we could see ourselves living in.

We decided to take a cross-country GNER train rather than a local First ScotRail train -- no stops and it flies down the tracks and got us to Glasgow in a bit over an hour. What I wouldn't give for the rail system they have here back home in Seattle. Can you imagine a train every hour to Portland, and 6-7 times a day to Spokane or Vancouver BC, making the journey in a few hours?

Glasgow is a very very different city than Edinburgh. They say that Edinburgh may be the Capital, but Glasgow HAS the Capital. It is very much an industrial and financial city, and at one time was the second largest city in the UK -- at the turn of the last century, it had 1.6 million people, but now has 600,000. The decline of the industrial age hit this city very hard. It used to be THE ship building and heavy engineering center of Europe, and now boasts the most call-centers in the UK. There's the new economy for you.

This was quite evident on the inbound train -- we passed a lot of red brick factories, many abandoned or boarded up, but quite a few still operating. They look like "model" factories too -- red brick, pointed roofs with glass skylights, smokestacks, etc. I wondered what they made or still make -- and as if to answer, one factory came into view with a sign that said "JAXCO Industrial -- More Than You Imagine". Big help.

Glasgow on the outskirts reminded me of any big decaying east coast US city -- and while Edinburgh retains it smaller charm and elegant Victorian style with a streak of midieval thrown in, Glasgow has miles of shipyards and pollution stained red-sandstone buildings. But once one gets into the center of the city, it becomes very much a comsmopolitan European city, much like any big city -- lots of nightlife and shopping, and some modern architecture sprinkled among 150 year old brownstones. Edinburgh is kind of like Washington DC in that sense, while Glasgow is like, oh, lets say --Buffalo -- sort of bleak.

None the less, we are excited to be here, as we didn't make it here on our last trip, and we are staying at nice hotel accross the square from the city hall and attached to the train station. The first thing we did was hop on to one of those "hop-on/hop-off" tourist bus tours. It's on a double-decker bus that has been peeled back by a can opener so it's partly open-topped. You get a local guide who yacks your ear off with a wonderful Scottish brouge, and tells you all the local lore and sights. Tacky as it may seem, it is really the BEST way to get the lay of the land and general feel of a city, and it helps you decide what you want to see more of. In our case, we (or at least I) want to see the Transport museum -- a great big huge place with lots of trains, planes and automobiles. Tony didn't say much -- and he's kind enough to go along as a good sport.

We'll also do a couple of day trips -- and yes, probably rent motorcycles on Saturday, as we made a quick trip to the Harley dealership and talked about renting bikes that day. Riding season is kind of over here, as it is a tad cool, and he says there should be no problem getting bikes, weather permitting, for us to rent. I can sense it now, my mother is brewing up one of her storm spells as we speak, but I can only hope her powers can't reach accross the Atlantic, and are localized in Utah only.

We already decided to extend our stay by one day, and will now be here until Monday morning, and are looking forward to exploring Glasgow and getting to know this part of Scotland.

From the "Yee-ha Internet Cafe" (how's that for a name?) in Glasgow --

Gary and Tony

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Scotland2005: One last day in Edinburgh

Well after a couple of busy days visting with new friends and seeing the sights and just enjoying the city, we took it kind of easy today and embedded ourselves as locals by going to the neighborhood laundromat! Nothing like a laundromat to bear witness to the daily life of the everyday person. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on perspective, there is no close laundromat to our hotel -- we had to go out into Old Town on a double-decker bus quite a ways to find one -- more or less across the street from the University of Edinburgh.

Now in Scottish laundromats one doesn't find the same sort of machines one does in the US. These all are coin operated from a large pannel at the rear of the store, next to a soap dispenser (.20p per cup). You put your clothes into a machine, put the soap in, then insert coins and "dial" up the proper machine and away it goes. Then you do what everyone else does in a laundromat -- sit and watch the wash, maybe read a trashy Scottish gossip rag, or in our case, run next door to a pastry shop for breakfast, then back to the laundromat to eat. People in laundromats at 9am are not very conversational, and tend to sit and watch their undies spin, so we didn't strike up a conversation with anyone. Most folks just dropped a load off with the attendant for pick up later. Forutunately we found a nice Internet cafe next door, where Tony was able to upload all the pictures.

I decided to take the bus a bit further to the Edinburgh Harley-Davidson dealer. It was about a 10 minute bus ride and a nice walk through a lovely neighborhood from the laundromat. I had a chance to visit with the staff, pick out a couple of Edinburgh-HD t-shirts for the collection, and then head back to the Laundromat where Tony had just finished up.

It was just after noon, and we took some time to run to the train station and book our hotel in Glasgow for the next three nights. The rail stations in Europe all have hotel booking offices inside, and the one at Edinburgh was staffed by a nice young lady from New Zeland who was traveling and working on a temporary worker visa for year -- and I was quite envious. She'd just been posted there for a few days and wasn't familiar with the places in Glasgow, but she did manage to find us a four star hotel, next door to the train station for £90 per night ($150), including breakfast -- so we jumped on it. When she called her supervisor for some help with the transaction the super said that she couldn't believe the rate for such a nice hotel, and we'd be very happy with that, so we are looking forward to heading over there tomorrow morning.

After that we picked up some Pasty's (meat-filled pies) and a couple of Diet Cokes and took a train out to the small town of Linlithgow which is about 20 minutes west of Edinburgh. Linlithgow is where the Stuart kings had their main palace and residence from the 1400s to the early 1600s and where Mary, Queen of Scots was born. After King James VI also became James I of England and left for London, became pretty much unused until Cromwell's troops camped there and when they left they torched the place. Fortunately all the walls still stand, and you can see it was once magnificent. These preserved ruins are great fun for Tony and me, exploring and using our imagination to spot details and filling in how it might have worked or looked.
We'd explored Linlithgow palace before last visit, but wanted to stop by again since they'd restored a spectacular fountain in the courtyard that wasn't there when we were here in 2003. We ate our lunch at the top of one of the towers in a lovely little room overlooking the Loch.



Apparently Linlithgow was not magnificent enough for other tourists, for as we were leaving, a couple from England were there and she poked her nose in and seeing that it was ruinous and not furnished or roofed asked the Steward in an indignant one, "you mean it isn't furnished? why would anyone want to visit?" We resisted the opportuity to tell her why.



There was one more castle in the vicinity but the bus system couldn't get us there so we decided to take a taxi about 4 miles to Blackness Castle on the shores of the Fourth. This was a massive stone place that was used more as a prison than a residence, and later, up until WW1 it was used as a garrison and an armory, so it is still in very good condition. The Steward was kind enough to drive us back to the Linlithgow train station and we talked a bit of history and ancestry with him -- turns out he has a brother who lives in Tampa where Tony is from, making this an even smaller world.

So now we are heading out for dinner -- the vegiterian clerk is not working the counter at the Internet Cafe tonight so I suspect we'll ask some local advice again. The hotel bar has live music tonite too -- the same singer we heard two years ago that we enjoyed very much, so we'll pop in there before heading to bed. We'll write from Glasgow tomorrow..

One last time from Edinburgh --

Gary and Tony

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Scotland2005: Edinburgh Day 4

It's always a wonderful experience to make new friends -- but a good friendship has to start with a common denominator of some sort, and often that is belonging to a "group". As a rule gay people have that connection simply by being gay and being part of the "club" -- and subsets of the gay community such as the Bears are that way even more so. A Harley-Davidson rider can run into another Harley owner somewhere and there is an instant bond and friendship, Tony finds this in his chorus family too -- we ran into a chap from the London Gay Men's Chorus here and they spent hours talking -- and people who belong to a given church do the same thing -- even in strange towns where they know no one.

So it is with Tony and me. Tony found through the Bear Scots group, a fellow and his partner who offered to drive us to some of the historical sights in Edinburgh and vicinity that were not readily accessible without a car. We spent the day with them, and just got back from a late dinner, and spent a lot of time talking about life, and travels and pets and other things, all through that common connection with the Bear clubs.

Malcolm and Jonathan have been together as long as Tony and I have, and Malcolm was kind enough to take a day off work and drive us to some rather remarkable castle ruins that we would not otherwise have seen. Driving anywhere in Scotland is a challenge, and although we didn't travel as many miles as we routinely do in the US just running about in a day, it was rather exhausting on poor Malcolm I fear. The roads are narrow and winding and one must actively "drive" -- we weren't motoring up and down I-5. Tony and I are most grateful and hope to be able to return the favor at some point if they should ever make it out to Seattle.

Malcolm picked us up in his little Vauxhaul -- like all European cars, a bit small, and with three big guys it was a tight fit. Jonathan stayed at work today. We first went to a favorite castle of Malcolm's, and one I'd wanted to see but that was closed for the winter. My personal motto of "It's easier to get forgiveness than permission" came into play and with a gleam in our eyes, we set off down the path to Castle Crichton -- a massive 14th century ruin, out in the pastures south of Edinburgh. The castle itself was locked, and since we were lacking in medeival seige equipment, we couldn't storm it -- the best we could do was Tony doing a gymnastic vault over a barbed wire fence. He was unable to gain access, and Malcolm and I were quite satisfied looking at the exterior.

We decided we needed a morning coffee and scone, so we stopped at a quaint tea room in a small town nearby for a break before continuing on to a small little castle called Hailes. We then went to the coast to Tantallon Castle -- a massively huge ruin that was mostly destroyed when Cromwell's forces attacked it in the mid 1600s. It was the most impressive, almost scary fortress I'd seen in Scotland. It was over 6 stories high, and we spent almost an hour crawling all over what we could, and going all the way to the top where the view over the Firth of Forth was spectacular.

We motored a ways up the coast to a small town for lunch at a Seabird center, which reminded Tony of a rather disconcerning sight yesterday -- we were walking past the St. Andrews aquarium and Tony noticed that the cafe attached was a Seafood one! I suppose if they run out they can just run to one of the tanks next door...but I digress.

Our last stop was Dirleton Castle, which was built about the time of the wars with England in the 1200s, and was partially dismantled by Robert the Bruce when he became king. It too was complete enough that you could use your imagination to see where things were and how they worked, but in a ruinous state, much like the Native American ruins in the Southwest at Mesa Verde -- and these were built about the same time. Our common questions and comments were on the massive size and thickness of the walls-- often well over three feet thick; the darkness, which would have been even greater in the years it was occupied; and the fascination with the"plumbing" and cooking facilities, as well as the large number of people it would take to construct these huge buildings, and the staff to maintain them, and just how they did that with the tools of the day.

Back in Edinburgh we picked up Jonathan and headed out for drinks, a nice supper and wonderful conversation. We walked from their flat in old-town to a nice steak place and back, through twisty streets with buildings -including theirs -- that were built in the 1850s.

It's been the bestnight of the trip so far. We decided to stay another day and do some laundry and book down line in Glasgow and a small coastal town called Oban -- we figure on being in Glasgow through the weekend then heading out to Oban -- and not sure from there at this point. But we'll always know we have some friends to comeback to in Edinburgh.

From the coin-operated Internet terminal in the hotel lobby..

Gary and Tony