Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme

Sunday, September 30, 2018

We'll let you guess where we are now located!

When we last blogged we were headed to Gullane, Scotland where Tim hoped to play golf.  Gullane is located about 30 miles east of Edinburgh on the south shore of the Firth of Forth.  As the crow flies Gullane is directly south of St. Andrews.  Tim did, in fact, play at the Gullane Golf Club, the host of the Scottish Open on occasion and often serves as a qualifying  course for the British Open.  Tim once again thoroughly enjoyed experiencing golf in Scotland, as the game was invented.  After his round Tim picked up Lynda and we stopped on the outskirts of Gullane at the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, more commonly known as Muirfield, a part of the rota of golf courses that host the British Open.  As the name would suggest, this is a rather posh club.  Tim did walk out and take of couple of quick pictures of the course but made no attempt to find the pro shop in hopes of buying a shirt.

Making a hasty retreat from the HCEG, we drove east towards the wonderfully named town of Berwick-upon-Tweed.  The villages and towns in the UK have such inventive names.  Lynda still chuckles over the name of the village of Cockbridge that we drove through.  The drive along the coast on Friday morning gave us stunning views of the North Sea.  We stopped at one point to take pictures of a huge rock island that jutted out of the sea not far off of the coast.  A lighthouse had improbably been built on the side of this rock.  Our destination for the night was Newcastle-upon-Tyne. (In case you haven't figured it out, Tweed and Tyne are rivers.)  We found a lovely inn just outside of Newcastle called The Snowy Owl where we had a large, comfortable room, and enjoyed dinner in a very nice pub that was part of the inn.  This was the kind of accommodation travelers a hundred years ago would have stayed in.

Newcastle-upon-Tyne was a nice surprise.  We planned this itinerary with stops in cities we have known about in our visits to the UK but had never visited.  Just like Forrest Gump we don't know what we will get.  Newcastle was good.  As you may have already seen on Facebook, a pedestrian bridge was built across the Tyne to commemorate the millennium.  It is a beautiful, contemporary structure.  We discovered purely by accident that the bridge moves in order for boat traffic to pass under it. Everyday at noon the bridge is closed to pedestrian traffic and it swings up even if there is no boat traffic.  We watched this happen from the 5th floor of the Baltic Museum of Contemporary Art that overlooks the bridge and has an observation deck for this purpose.

A friendly couple from Newcastle explained everything about the bridge. Two bits of information you might enjoy. 1. The bridge itself was built off site. It was then moved by crane up the river and placed into hinges that it turns on.  Both sides of the river were lined with spectators watching to see if the bridge would actually fit as there were literally just of few inches of clearance on each side of the river. A huge cheer went up from the crowd when the bridge fit perfectly in place. 2. There is an older woman who hosts family and friends and always brings them to watch the bridge move at noon. However, she does not tell them that it always goes up and down at noon. She asks them if they would like to see the bridge do its thing and says "I'll go see if they will move the bridge for you".  Cheeky woman.  We also enjoyed walking  Grey Street, named after Sir Earl Grey of tea fame.  There is a statue of him at the top of the street.  The street was alive with people and we enjoyed window shopping and observing the wide selection of restaurants and bars.

Leaving Newcastle, we stopped just outside of the city at the site of "The Angel of the North".  This is a huge, 65 feet tall with a wingspan of 175 feet, metal sculpture that stands on a hill overlooking  the major road into Newcastle.  It serves as a welcome to the north of England and also commemorates the importance of the coal mining industry to the economic health of the area.

The Angel of the North

We drove on from Newcastle towards our destination for the night, Scarborough. (!) As we neared Scarborough we saw the ruins of a castle on a high cliff overlooking the North Sea.  There is never a ruin we won't take time to see so we exited the main road  and descended into the town below the ruin.  This turned out to be Whitby, situated on a small inlet off of the sea.  It was a picturesque town, so after getting close up pictures of what turned out to be a ruined priory, not a castle, we decided to see if we could find accommodations in Whitby.  The city centre was abuzz with people. Tim went into a hotel on the harbor but discovered there were no rooms and was told there probably were no rooms anywhere in Whitby.  A 60's music festival was taking place.  This was another of the pleasant surprises we get when traveling. It was a disappointment not finding a room for the night.  So it was on to Scarborough.

Tim was responsible for Scarborough being on the itinerary.  With strains of Simon and Garfunkel running  through his head, he pictured a bucolic town with a picture perfect market (fair).  His quick research revealed an attraction called the Scarborough Fair Collection.  Viola!  Except further research after arriving showed the Collection to be a collection of antique vehicles, calliopes, and such.  Also, there was nothing bucolic about Scarborough at all.  It was a decidedly down on its luck town that made up for it by not being particularly attractive. Tim may not be allowed to plan the itinerary again.

Seizure

In the spirit of full disclosure, this blog entry was started in Scarborough but is being finished in Lincoln.  We left Scarborough this morning, Sunday, and drove to the Yorkshire Sculpture Garden southwest of York.  We had discovered this park on a previous trip and loved it so decided to return.  Most of the sculptures are created to be displayed outdoors.  We saw 6 pieces by Joan Miro that we enjoyed because Miro has always been a favorite of ours.  We also went inside a work called "seizure".  The artist had taken a room from a house that was to be torn down, removed all furnishings except the toilet fixtures, sealed the room and pumped it full of a chemical solution that was almost at the boiling point.  When the solution had cooled to room temperature, he pumped the solution out of the room and created a door size opening to the room.  As the solution cooled it had formed crystals on all the surfaces.  The crystals were a vivid blue and created quite a striking effect in the room.  A docent tried to explain to us why the work was called "seizure" but she was not very successful.

From the Yorkshire Sculpture Garden we drove to Lincoln.  Lynda got online this morning in Scarborough and arranged an Airbnb apartment for us to stay in here in Lincoln. Unless you stay in high end, modern hotels, accommodations in England tend to be cramped for space.  We are renting this apartment for two nights so we can spread out and relax for a couple of days.  We do plan to explore the area but maybe at a more leisurely pace.  We will be back in a couple of days.

Cheers.

Thoughts from the navigator.  Scarborough had an attractive area on the water front - it reminded me of Bath - the curved road with tall houses lining the street going up hill along the water.  Besides the sculpture garden the highlight of the day for me was finding the perfect spot for a Sunday joint....not the kind you smoke!  The Red Lion Pub had both beef and pork loin roasts today - with roasted potatoes, seasonal veg, Yorkshire pie and stuffing.  To top that off my beef I had Banoffee pie - my favorite.  Very rich with carmel but delicious.

The Scottish Highlands

Monday, September 24, 2018

Loch Lomand (Loch is a Gaelic word meaning lake) is a long, narrow lake just to the northwest of Glasgow.  Sunday, we had not traveled far on the western shore of the lake when we found a lovely Inn in which to spend the night.  We were tired and it was getting dark and we wanted to see Loch Lomand in the daylight when we were reasonably fresh.  The road we traversed on Monday wound around the edges of the lake, giving us constant, spectacular views of the lush and majestic scenery.  We stopped along the way when we saw a sign for the Falls of Falloch.  The parking lot was just off of the road but was surrounded by dense foliage.  A five minute walk  brought us to the falls.  The adjoining picture really does not do justice to what we saw.  Loch Lomand is about 22 miles long so we spent almost a hour driving along the shore of the lake.

Falls of Falloch

Leaving Loch Lomand, we drove into, or more accurately, up into the Scottish Highlands.  The difference in scenery was stunning.  The highlands is a region of rugged mountains barren of any but the most hearty of foliage.  There were no trees, few roads and little sign of civilization except for the moderate traffic on the highway. And yet there was a beauty to this region that we can't really explain.  Fort William was a large, by Scotland standards city situated on the western coast of Scotland where we stopped for a break.  There was nothing particular important to report about Fort William other then it seemed to be a thriving community in the middle of nowhere.

Our destination for the day was Inverness, almost to the tip of central northern Scotland.  Our route took us along the entire 23 mile length of Loch Ness. Like most of the lakes in this region, including Loch Lomand, the lake is long and narrow, probably no more then a quarter to a half mile wide.  Loch Ness, of course, is infamous as the home of Nessie, the Loch Ness monster. It was in the early 1930's when someone produced a doctored picture supposedly showing the monster.  Could this be the first example of a photoshopped picture?  Over the years there have been many attempts to verify the existence of Nessie with no success. The first sighting was supposedly in the 6th century!   The locals believe the legend of the monster came into being as the result of someone having too much to drink seeing a particularly large eel in the lake.  Nevertheless, there is a thriving cottage industry surround this legend including a place called Nessieland.  We waved as we drove by.

Our interest in Inverness was based on the Battle of Culloden that took place in 1746 about 5 miles outside of Inverness. Jilayne put us onto a television program on Straz network called "Outlander" based on a series of books by the same name.  Hopefully some of you are familiar with this show.  It is a fictionalized story of actual events that took place in the late 1600's and early 1700's in Scotland.  A brief history lesson.  During this time period the Stuarts sat on the English throne as King or Queen.  At some point they were no longer able to produce an heir to the throne so the House of Hanover replaced the Stuarts on the throne. There was a major philosophical difference between the two houses.  The Stuarts believed in the absolute soveirenty of the King in ruling England.  The Hanovers favored a more balanced power between the King and Parliament. There were also religious overtones to this that we will not try to explain. One of the Stuarts, Prince Charles, known as "Bonnie Prince Charlie" was exiled in Paris but was determined to take what he thought was his rightful place on the throne.  His supporters were known as Jacobites.  The Jacobites were mostly Scottish. Bonnie Prince Charlie secreted himself into Scotland, organized the Jacobites into an army and began to march towards London.  They got within a few days march of London when their commanders, except the prince, chickened out.  The British came after them some time later and they met at Culloden.  The hour long Battle of Culloden in April of 1746 proved to be the end of Jacobite uprising.  The Culloden Battlefield is a Scottish National Trust site with an excellent visitors center explaining all the lead up to the Battle.  The grounds around the visitors center where the battle actually took place is pretty much a large open field. However, excavations still occasionally turn up artifacts from the battle.  Having been to Culloden we are now anxious to go home and rewatch the first several seasons of "Outlander" now that we have a better understanding of what was going on at the time.

Tuesday morning we were a bit lazy, taking our time getting started.  We are on vacation after all. We did a bit of shopping in Inverness before hitting the road again. We drove southeast out of Inverness heading towards Dundee.  This took us through the Highlands again which were even more foreboding because the weather was lousy;  temperatures in the mid 40's, overcast with occasional rain showers, and 30 to 40 mile an hour winds.  Our only company were the sheep we saw the whole way through the mountains. 

Scottish Highlands

At one point on the journey we stopped at an attraction called "the Watchers" which was nothing more then 5 semi-enclosed chair like structures where one could sit and look out on the bleak landscape.  The wind was so fierce and bitterly cold that we quickly returned to the warmth of our car.

Lynda Watching

The Watchers

Our journey down and out of the Highlands took us by Balmoral Castle, one of the Queen's country homes.  There are lovely pine forests surrounding the castle so we were unable to see it. But it is in a picturesque part of Scotland.  We eventually arrived in Dundee on the eastern coast.  Our reason for visiting was to go to the recently opened Victoria and Albert Museum of Design.  Before leaving home we had made the decision to not book any accomodations except for when Jeff and family arrived.  We figured we would have no trouble finding places to stay and we did not want to be locked into being at a certain place at a certain time.  This plan didn't work out too well.  It did not help that we had no guide books with us that listed accomodations, plus we were unable to access the internet on our phones.  Unable to find anything to our satisfaction in Dundee we drove on to St. Andrews, the next stop on our itinerary.  (Anybody surprised?)  We figured we had a better chance of finding someplace to stay in St. Andrews and it was only 13 miles back to Dundee to see the V&A museum.  This plan worked.

Wednesday morning, Tim was up early and went into St. Andrews hoping to be able to join up with a twosome or threesome to play golf at the Old Course, considered the birthplace of golf, as well as one of the great golf courses in the entire world.  Unfortunately, at 7:30 he would have been 18th on the waiting list.  The starter recommended that Thursday would probably be a better day to get on the course. With no golf for Tim, we spent the morning exploring St. Andrews, seeing the ruins of the old Cathedral, walking about the University of St. Andrews and window shopping in the interesting mix of shops in the town.

In the afternoon we drove to Dundee to visit the Dundee V&A.  The Victoria and Albert Museum in London is one of the great museums in the world.  The building design is spectacular and very contemporary.  It is a three story tall building that is shaped much like a large boat.  The interior when you first walk in is open from the ground floor to the roof.  It too is awe inspiring.  Unfortunately, the building may be of more interest then the exhibits.  There were only two exhibit halls, both on the third level. One that we think is a permanent exhibit features Scottish design through the years.  Hence the name of the museum. The displays featured design from a wide range of products, from fashion to the arts and industry. It was an interesting exhibit.  There was also a temporary exhibit about the history of the design of cruise ships.  This exhibit required a ticket. We decided not to visit this exhibit.  The last order of the day was very mundane.  We found a laundromat so that we would continue to have clean under garments to wear.

As we are finishing this post it is Thursday morning.  Tim has just returned from another unsuccessful attempt to get on the Old Course.  The plan now is to check out of our hotel and drive around Edinburgh, heading east to a village called Gullane where Tim knows of a course that is highly thought of that might be easier to get on. We will keep you posted.

Greetings from Bonnie Scotland

Sunday, September 24, 2018

We started this blog in December, 2008 as a way to communicate with all of our family and friends during our "Around the World" adventure. It was popular enough that many of you asked us to continue it on our following trips.  We have found over the last few years that it is not only a vehicle for entertaining vicarious travelers but also has become a travel diary for us.  We still get great joy in going back and rereading portions of the blog.  Remember - if you think we are being a bit verbose, keep in mind it is a blog for us as much as you.

 Thursday evening,  September 20th, we took a 10:34 p.m. flight from Detroit to London, landing Friday morning at 10:30, forty minutes ahead of our scheduled arrival.  Thank you Delta.  We also found British passport control to be considerable more efficient then in the past.  Consequently, we were in our rental car on our way to Liverpool at noon.  Unfortunately, traffic was a nightmare all the way to our destination.  We ended up in a hotel just outside of Preston, England which is located about 20 miles northeast of Liverpool.  It was an exhausting day.

Our first stop on Friday was Blackpool, a small town on the west coast of England about 15 miles north of Liverpool.  It is famous in England as a family resort town that caters to middle class blue collar families.  A poor man's Cedar Point if you will.  Within one block you will find Ripley's Believe It or Not next to a Fish and Chip shop, next to 2 souvenir shops, next to another Fish and Chips Shop, next to Madam Tussuad's,  next to a gypsy fortune teller, next another Fish and Chip Shop.  We think you get the picture.  The whole lot of it is across the road from the beach so when you tire of the stores you can soak up the sun.  The garish lighting and decoration is in direct contrast to what we would consider proper, dignified Britain.  We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves in Blackpool, were glad we had stopped, and have no plans to ever return.  Just by happenstance (ha) on the way to Blackpool we stopped by the Royal Lytham and St. Anne's Golf Club so Tim could see one of the courses he arranged this trip around.

Horseradish Carriage in Blackpool

Our destination for Saturday was Prestwick, Scotland, on the west Scotland coast.  To get to Prestwick we chose a route that took us through the Lake District of northern England.  It earns its nickname by being the location of a number of lakes with Lake Windermere being the largest.  The hilly scenery around the Lake District attracts a large number of outdoor enthusiasts, not only for the boating but also for the spectacular hiking that is available.  We drove through several beautiful towns on Lake Windermere that contained lovely hotels, inns, and B and B's as well as wonderful shopping.  The Lake District was in stark contrast to Blackpool.

Our last stop of the day was rather sombre.  Lockerbie, Scotland is where Pan Am flight 103 crashed in 1988, as the result of a terrorist bomb being exploded on the plane. We had done no research ahead of this trip but thought there might be some sort of memorial to this horrific attack.  What we found was the "Garden of Remembrance" located towards the back of a cemetery located just outside of Lockerbie.  It was an understated but appropriately dignified memorial to the 288 people who lost their lives in this tragedy.

We spent Saturday night at the Adamton Country House Hotel just outside of Prestwick.  Parts of the Adamton House were quite nice and were probably very impressive once upon a time but the House is now a tired shadow of its former grandeur.  We took a trip into Troon for a lovely dinner on the harbor - and just happened by Royal Troon - you guessed it...another famous golf course.

The reason for going to Prestwick was so Tim could play golf at the Prestwick Golf Club.  Prestwick, founded in 1851, was the site of the first ten British Open Golf Championships, now simply called "The Open".  It no longer hosts major golf tournaments because there is not room for all of the ancillary components that surround a major modern golf tournament, i.e. Corporate sponsor tents, merchandise tents, food concessions, temporary press and media facilities, etc.  However, it still is a challenging course to golfers of all abilities.  Tim's caddy remarked that he would love to see the top pro's play Prestwick. He said that they would not be able to bully the course with their monstrous length.  It is a links style course right on the ocean that looks nothing like the typical American golf course. While Tim had a great time and loved experiencing this Scottish golf, please don't ask him his score.

17th Hole at Prestwick

After Tim finished his round of golf, he picked up Lynda at the hotel and we drove to Glasgow.  Recently we have been reading that this dingy industrial town has had a bit of a comeback featuring among other things new and exciting architecture in the city center.  While we did find some impressive older architecture, what struck us most was the chaotic traffic patterns throughout the center of the city that made driving around the city a mind numbing experience.  It did not take long for us to pull over in a parking spot and quickly plan an exit strategy out of Glasgow.

We are spending Sunday night in a hotel with beautiful views of Loch Lomand out our window.  Tomorrow we plan a leisurely drive through this beautiful part of Scotland on our way to Inverness.

Cheers.