Traveling

    On Monday, we drove the 150 miles from Ullapool to Bettyhill, a little village way up north.  Way, way up north.

    Our first stop was at Ardvreck Castle, situated on Loch Assynt.  There's not much left of it.

                                     We did not encounter any of Ardvreck's ghosts.

    It was a bit rainy, and quite windy, so our visit was short.  Our next stop was in the town of Lochinver, to get lunch, from a little restaurant that is somewhat famous for it's pies.  Then we stopped at Farr Beach, whose uniquely colored waters and white sands made a popular vacation site.  Not today, though, since we were trying not to get blown away.

We did get to go into an old fisherman's bothy, or hut, and learn about salmon fishing here.

    Then we attempted to take a small road out to a lighthouse.  The three best words to describe it- windy, wet, winding.  It was closed, after all that effort.

    The drive up to Durness took us through some remarkable landscapes.  Unfortunately, it was rainy and cloudy, so we couldn't see much of it.  

                                        That's pretty much what we saw.

    When we finally made it to Durness, we were rejuvenated by a chocolate shop recommended to us by a shopkeeper in Ullapool.  We got some delicious hot chocolate and truffles.

                                    Alfred really doesn't need the extra calories.

    From there, it wasn't too far of a drive to our hotel in Bettyhill.  First, we had to cross the Kyle of Tongue.  A kyle is a body of water.

                                   This way we'll always remember the name.

    Then we had to go around another loch, and finally arrived in Bettyhill.  There was a great view of the beach from the front of the hotel, but, unfortunately, we were in the way back.  Oh well.

    The next morning, we had to get an early start to get to the airport.  From Wick-John O'Groats airport (way out there), we flew to Edinburgh, then to Belfast.  There we picked up another rental car (manual-scary!), and drove to Bushmills, where we spent the night.  Northern Ireland has a lot of history, but that's for next time.

Sheep, 5, Dogs,1

    On Saturday, we left Skye and drove to Ullapool, a popular vacation town for people from Great Britain.  On the coast, it provides the ferry to Isle of Lewis.  We found it to be quite touristy, but I'm not there yet.

    It was about three hours drive from Skye to Ullapool.  On the way, we saw a sign for sheepdog trials.  This was something my mom really wanted to see, so we turned around to take a look.  They were just getting started again after their lunch break.

The first ones who went, a younger boy with his dog, did very well.  The rest, not so much.

    We arrived at our B&B later, and by the time we got motivated enough to go find some dinner, it was at least 6:30, and dark and rainy.  The owner of the B&B though we were crazy, walking along the beach into town in that weather.  But we survived, and had an excellent dinner at the local pub.  I don't like seafood much, but even I enjoyed the fish and chips.

    The next morning, we headed back into town, this time by car.  It was a bit rainy, so we explored the shops.  I bought a pair of gloves, the weather being what it was.  There were a few shops, very touristy.  Want a kilt?  You can get it there.  Tartan hair clips, pencils, socks, plates, notebooks, salt and pepper shakers, boxers.  T-shirts patterned with sheep, and slippers that look like Highland cattle.  How about some Harris tweed gloves, made in China?

    But then the sun came out.  Hoping to make the most of it, we ran back to our car and drove out to Knockan Crag.  There you can see a geological mystery.  Well, actually, it's been solved, so it's not a mystery anymore.  A geological phenomenon.

Sure, it looks cool, but there's something even weirder.  The top layer is 500,000,000 years older than the one below it!

    How could this happen, you might wonder?  Well, I have an answer.  Remember how in Edinburgh we learned that Scotland was once connected to North America, then collided with England?  That was when this happened.  This area was compressed when the two landmasses crashed together.  The compression caused something called thrust, where deeper layers of rock are pushed up from below.  And that is how we are able to see rock that is 1,000,000,000 (one billion) years old.

    Conveniently, the coming thunderstorm held off until we finished our hike, had lunch, and went back to the B&B.  Then it unleashed it's full force on us, knocking out the wifi, and giving me an excuse not to blog.

Skye Walkers

               Highland cattle.  I don't know what it is about them.  They're just so amusing.

    Friday was a hiking day.  On Skye, we stayed on a working farm.  There were cows (not this one), sheep, and sheepdogs.  I had my own little loft at the B&B.

                                                    It was cheerier than it looks.

    Our first hike was very short.  It was out to Duntelm Castle, on the edge of a rocky bluff.  Unfortunately, there was no information on who had lived there, and when.  But even if there had been, I doubt we would have gotten to read much of it.  About ten minutes in to our visit (maybe less), the skies opened up, and we had to make a dash for the car.  We got soaked anyway.

    After waiting out the downpour, we proceeded to Rubha Hunish.  I think I spelled that right.  At least the last part.  The clouds held off while we took our hike, up to some nice overlooks.  That's where we saw that cow.

    After a quick snacky lunch in the boot of the car, we decided to take the inland road back to Uig (ooh-ig), a town not far from where we were staying.  Impulsively, we decided to take another hike, this one called Bioda Buibhe (you'll have to look up the pronunciation yourself).  It was pretty steep, and very boggy, but the view at the end was worth it.

    That evening we dined in Uig, on the ferry pier.  The rest of the day was uneventful.

Feral Goats, 2 Miles

I love the sign posts here.  They seem so unaware of their phrasing.  " Hidden dip" is another of my favorites.  And there's one that looks kind of like a mustache with the ends chopped off.  Or like an upside down bra, if you have that kind of brain.  Either way, it means "bumpy road ahead".

    At 7:33 yesterday (Thursday) morning, we took the train from Waverly Station in Edinburgh up to Perth.  There we picked up our rental car and headed to Isle of Skye.  Dad was driving.  He got the hang of driving on the left side of the road pretty quickly.  Still, roads being what they are, I (the responsible one here) made a rule that the navigator may not criticize the driver, and the driver may not criticize the navigator.  The same goes for telling each other how to do their job.

    The drive was beautiful.  Who knew there were mountains in Scotland?  We did raise the question as to whether these were big hills or small mountains.  And then we rounded a bend and saw Ben Mor.  Definitely small mountains.

   

                                      There is so much a camera can't capture.

    Our day wasn't super eventful.  We drove the 200 miles through the Highlands to Isle of Skye.  The scenery was beautiful.  The mountains were majestic.  The bus loads of tourists were amusing.  There were sheep.

                                            The creatively named Loch Lochy

   If I showed this to someone and told them it was Loch Ness, they'd probably believe me.  Most people don't know their Scottish lochs.  This, however, was a particularly nice loch.  There were raspberries.  And fewer tourists.

 

Edinburgh's Horrible (and not so bad) Histories

    First of all, it's pronounced Ed-in-bur-uh, not Ed-in-burg.  Our first day in Edinburgh (our jet-lag day),  we went to the National Museum of Scotland.  The exhibits in the museum vary greatly, so we focused on Scottish history.  We started at the very beginning, with the geology of Scotland.  Did you know that Scotland used to be attached to the Americas?  And it wasn't attached to England then.  When continental drift happened, they smashed together, creating some quite spectacular hills (or small mountains, if you prefer), first when the ocean floor was squeezed between them, then when volcanic activity left giant piles of rock all over.  The hills were later shaped by glaciers that covered Scotland.  After the geological exhibit (from which I learned quite a lot), we learned about the prehistoric, and more recent, animals that once roamed the land.  Scotland was, at one time, home to such animals as brown bears, giant wild boar, beavers, and arctic foxes.  These are now all extinct in Scotland (don't worry, not everywhere).  From that display, we proceeded to the early peoples exhibit.  Scotland was home to a variety of cultures.  Celts, Picts, Scots, Romans and Norse all inhabitated the land at one point or another.  There's not much evidence, of prehistoric peoples in Scotland, probably because it was covered by glaciers for a long time, and therefore not very habitable.  The exhibit displayed items from all the different cultures, from utensils to farming equiptment to armor.  I was afraid to take pictures of the displays, due to their age.  There were, however, sculptures by Andy Goldsworthy within the exhibit, which I did photograph.

                                                         This is for the Flahiffs.

The caption for this says it's the entire skeleton of a whale, compacted into this sculpture.  I don't know...where are the ribs?  Maybe it was a small whale.

    Then we continued to the next level (with some confusion), and ended up in the middle of an exhibit on Christianity in Scotland.  But by that time, my feet hurt and I was really tired, and I don't really remember much.  There was a creepy mask that a priest wore when preaching to disguise his identity (Catholicism was forbidden at that time), and some very ornate baptismal fonts.  But other than that, I'm not really sure.

    Adjoining that was a small section on cultures in Scotland.  That contained, among other things, a traditional harp (the name of which I can't remember how to spell), and the famous Lewis chesspieces.  After that, we went upstairs to the next exhibit, which I don't really remember either.  There was a display on the Jacobite uprisings (Jack-ob-ite, not Jake-o-bite), and replicas of some huge machines from the first Industrial Revolution. 

    Exhausted from our crazy thirty-six hours, we went back to our hotel and slept.  I was much too tired to do a blog post.

   The next day, we did Edinburgh Castle and the Royal Mile.  The castle is quite a fortress.

                                I guess people liked building castles on big rocks.

The building behind those people up there is St. Margaret's Chapel, the oldest part of the castle.  It was the only part to survive when Robert the Bruce's army razed the castle in 1314.  The castle has changed hands many times during different wars, and has been destroyed a few times.

   On display in the castle are Scotland's crown jewels.  Quite different from the crown jewels of England, they consist of the crown, sword, and scepter, know collectively as the Honours.  The Honours were made around the early 1500s.  They were held by the ruling monarch until 1650, when Cromwell's forces captured the castle.  To prevent their likely destruction, they were smuggled out of the castle under the skirts of two women.  The sword had to be broken in two because it was so long, it could not be concealed.  They were returned when Charles II took the throne.  You can still see the crack where the sword was broken.

    But their story does not end there.  When the Scottish parliament was dissolved in 1707, the Honours were sealed in a trunk in the crown room.  There they stayed, and were almost forgotten, until the trunk was opened at the request of Sir Walter Scott, notable lover of Scotland.  But not all Scots admire him for this.  "Wally" as one of the castle guides put it, was "just there when they opened it".

    Also housed with the Honours is the Stone of Scone, also know as the Stone of Destiny.  It has been the inaugural throne for a least a thousand years.  Around 1280, it was taken by King Edward II to Westminster, and used for the coronation of the kings and queens of England.  It stayed there until 1996, when it was returned to Scotland.  It will be used in the coronation of the next king or queen of England, even if the people of Scotland vote yes this November.

    In 1933, an old barrack was converted into the War Memorial.  The main chamber is a monument to the fallen soldiers, with a beautiful sculpture all around the walls.  The wings contain books with the names of all the dead from the Scottish military, from World War I to the present.  Dad and I looked through some of them.  There were a number of Atkinsons, especially in the books of Canadian troops serving in the Scottish military.  As Dad said, "they weren't very good at keeping their heads down".

   After finishing touring the castle (not exactly in that order), we began to walk the Royal Mile.  What is the Royal Mile, you might ask?  Well, officially it's the walk between Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood Palace.  But now, it's about the most touristy place I've ever been.  Every other store is selling tartan anything, flags, or even kilts.  We skipped off early for a bit of lunch, then headed over to the New Town (we were in the Old Town).  In our search for Waverly Station (complete wrong direction), we stumbled across an old cemetery.  The oldest memorial I could find was from 1778.  Pretty darn old.

   Across from the cemetery (still in the wrong direction), was Carlton Park.  We decided to take a detour.  It proved to be a good decision.  

                               Here's me, trying hard to not be blown away.

    It was a bit windy, but very nice.  There was a great view of Arthur's Seat (another large volcanic rock), and the surrounding area.  There was a monument to Admiral Nelson (seriously, how many does that guy need?).  There was also a cairn that held a torch at the top (not burning now).  It was lit in the early 1990s in support of freedom for Scotland.  The torch was extinguished in 1999, when Scotland got its own parliament.  The cairn contains stones from many different places, including one from Robert the Bruce's castle, and one from Auschwitz.  Another bore this inscription.

                      If you can read this, well, maybe you read a lot of Scottish poetry.

   That was about it for our time in Edinburgh.  We did find Waverly Station.  Early the next morning,  we left from it.  But that's another story.

    If you're wondering about the title, a bus tour in Edinburgh bears the name " Horrible Histories-Edinburgh".  I embellished.

Coffee, please.

    Good morning!  Or whatever time of day it is there.  For me, it is about 7:00 in the morning, I have had approximately two and a half hours of sleep, and am ready to face the day.  Yay!

    We spent a good four days in Maynard visiting our family, did everything you need to do while in Maynard (see family, go to Erikson's, ride in the MG), and are now heading out on our adventure.  We took off at about 7:00 (pm) east coast time, endured a lovely six hour flight, and arrived about an hour ago.  At half past ten we board a plane for Edinburgh.  The only thing on today's sightseeing agenda is the National Museum of Scotland.  We'll probably be too tired to do anything else.

    Either I will post tonight about today's adventures, or tomorrow, depending on how exhausted I am tonight.  I have no pictures of our wonderful airplane meals, my dad made fun of me for doing that last year.  Right now, I will say goodbye until later, and finish my breakfast.

Here We Go! (again)

Hello friends and family!  Many of you have been asking if I am going to blog again this summer.  Well, okay, like, five of you have been asking.  But that's pretty good, considering my blog averages twenty views per post.  Anyway, the answer is yes!  Yes, I will be blogging again.
  Once again, we have our itinerary all planned out beforehand (by we, I mean my parents).  Currently my mom is already over in Maynard, having some family time.  My dad and I will fly out to meet her on the 24th.  We"ll spend a few days there, then, on the 28th, we'll fly off to Edinburgh, stopping briefly in Shannon.  We will spend two days seeing the sights in Edinburgh, then take the train up to Perth, pick up a rental car, and drive to the Isle of Skye.  There we'll be staying on a working farm, complete with big, shaggy Highland cattle.  We stay there for two nights, and then continue north to Ullapool, where we plan to do some hiking, for another two nights.   And then we head about as far north as you can go on the mainland, up to Bettyhill.  We're there for one night, then fly from Wick Airport to Belfast.  We pick up another rental car there and do the Antrim coast, which includes the Giant's Causeway and Dunluce Castle.  We stay the night in Bushmills, which, my parents are eager to note, is home to a whiskey distillery.  Next we spend a day in Derry, exploring the history there.  After that, we head across the border into the Republic of Ireland, and stay in Donegal.  Then it's on to Sligo for two nights, where we'll be doing more hiking.  The next day we'll spend exploring beautiful  Connemara National Park.  That night, we'll stay in Westport.  Finally, we'll spend a day in Kinvarra, which I have seen spelled with both one r and two.  The next day we'll fly from Shannon back to Boston, and spend a week at Cape Cod.
  That took much longer to write than last year's first post.  This year we're staying in more places for shorter amounts of time.  I guess that's the best way to get the most out of our trip, as we're only there for two weeks instead of three.  I'll still be just as fun.
  One more thing I'd like to add.  Feel free to comment!  I love hearing from you.  Also, it's one of the few ways I'm able to be in contact with you while I'm there.  So please leave a comment or two, ask a question, or even request a souvenir.