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.