Jen and Rebecca Follow the Random Brown Signs

R: Jen and I were again happy with our hotel choice. While not a free Hilton again, our Oban hotel upgraded us to the family suite, for some reason, so we each had a giant room to ourselves with our own giant TVs and our own nice views of the harbor and town. Plus, as an added bonus, the towel heater in the bathroom worked! Once we tore ourselves away from our awesome rooms and BBC’s morning show, we wandered through Oban where every moment had us guessing about whether it would continue to rain all day or not. Enticed by the brown sign saying that the coliseum-like McCaig’s Tower was only a half-mile away, our steep climb would have been more pleasant without the rain. But the walk back down sans rain psyched us up for a visit to the Oban Chocolate company for hot chocolate.

J: I’d hate to say that the hot chocolate was the highlight of my day, but there is something to be said for cocoa made with fresh chocolate. Today turned into a day of “what does that brown sign say? Want to go there?” It started with an abandoned priory outside of Oban. It offered up some lovely lake views and photos of church ruins. It was only a mildly stressful for Rebecca to drive down a single-track road. She was much happier once we arrived for lunch at a little café overlooking Castle Stalker. And, so was I because I was once again lulled into thinking it had stopped raining again. Silly me.

R: Castles sitting alone on tiny islands are pretty cool. We managed to make the short walk to the castle viewpoint without precipitation, but good thing we didn’t linger!

R: Onward to the village of Glencoe, a one-street town nestled between the monros and hills. We first stopped at the Folk Museum which, as one of the other visiting American tourists noted, looks a lot like an antique shop with its odd collection of old things. But there was a nice display of implements needed to card and then knit wool over the years, plus some old Victorian dresses complete with a description of proper dance etiquette that was pretty interesting too.

J: There was a small display on the Glencoe Massacre at the museum and we followed up our history lesson with a viewing of the Massacre Monument a few minutes later. We finished off our time in Glencoe with a short forest walk around one of the many lochs in the Highlands. We had been debating whether or not to take the short, easy hike (the lake route) or the longer, steeper hike to the top of the mountain, but when it started to pour rain again, we decided that we had, indeed, made the right choice.

R: Seeing another brown sign just down the road, we stopped again for another wee bit of a hike around the old slate quarry in Ballachulish as it continued to rain on us. (Hooray for hoods!) We soon arrived in our overnight town of Fort William where we easily found our B&B conveniently located an easy walk into the town center had some Tex-Mex and cask ales from the Grog and Gruel.

Rainbow over Fort William

J: Another perk of our morning walk through Oban was the purchase of a road atlas. Now that we’re in the Highlands, there are significantly fewer roundabouts and turn options even available, but we feel much more secure with an honest-to-goodness map in the car—plus it includes markers for fun road-side attractions that we’ve already started to add to our agenda for the next several days.

Jen and Rebecca Don’t Let the Weather Stop Them

R: Monday, we woke up to a gloomy day. June at the B&B agreed that the rain was looking to settle in for the entire day. This settled our plans against heading out for an island day-trip, which was a little disappointing, but given the number of other fun things to do, kind of nice to be able to cross one plan off the list. First we headed to the famed Inveraray Jail which taught us all about medieval torture used before imprisonment was en vogue. We also saw the old courthouse with a trial reenactment in progress, learned about some real Inveraray Jail prisoners and saw the barracks they were housed in. I’m glad I had no intention of breaking the law in Inveraray!

J: Next stop: Inveraray Castle, home of the Duke and Duchess of Argyle. We were only allowed into a portion of the home, but we did get to see several hundred years of family history (the current Duke lives with his family in London). As it was still a wee bit rainy, we only spent a short time in the gardens before heading out for our next attraction.

R: Jen was also disappointed that the cows in the Inveraray Castle’s pasture were not Highland cattle. She’s on a mission to see one, and the replica one at the jail was apparently not good enough.

R (continued): Having hit the highlights of tiny Inveraray, we headed out of town and on to a more modern type of site, the Cruachan Hollow Mountain power station. While neither of us really wanted to spend vacation thinking about our respective real-world jobs in the power industry, I thought this might be kind of interesting (and nerdy) and a break from looking at really old things. Plus, as I’ve mentioned, I like underground tours! This hydro plant takes the fast-flowing waters that fall down Ben Cruachan to generate its power in an underground facility. Sadly, the 30-minute tour didn’t really allow you to see anything other than just the turbine tops, so it was a little disappointing. But the tour guide was funny, and I got a little bit of a nap in on the bus ride into the mountain!

J: After the tour ended, and sadly also our break from the rain, we headed back out to find the elusive Kilchurn Castle. I found pictures of it and even knew its general location, but it still took a little help from one of the power company employees. We finally found the unmarked lot and began our rain-soaked hike thru a boggy pasture to the abandoned castle. Based on what I had read in a couple of the guidebooks, I wasn’t sure if we would be able to make it the entire way to the castle without the assistance of a ferry, but we did! And, I must say, wandering alone thru an old abandoned castle is awesome!

R: At least our rain coats were effective, so only our pants and socks got completely soaked through. The walk was definitely worth it—if we let the rain impede all of our plans in Scotland, we’d be spending our whole days in a hotel! On our drive into the coastal town of Oban for the night, we decided to make the day really one to remember by heading to yet a third castle for the day, Dunstaffnage Castle where Flora McDonald was imprisoned after helping Bonnie Prince Charlie escape to France. This castle was also mostly a ruin, so we did more wandering in the rain. It eventually let up, but still, I failed miserably trying to get this self-timed photo of us in the chapel.

Given the rain, poor Shaun didn’t make much of an appearance today. He enjoyed the castle model, though.

J: We finally made it to Oban, just slightly chilled from our rainy hikes to the castles. But, is there a better way to warm up than by having a spot of whisky? No? We didn’t think so either, so we checked into our hotel and then immediately headed over to the Oban Distillery for a tour. I was a little shocked to learn that my experience with gas plants would help me to understand the distillation process, but it did! I was less shocked to learn that even after discovering how whisky is made, I haven’t garnered a greater appreciation for it. But I did try it, twice! We sampled 10-yr-old whisky straight out of the cask, no water added, and then the distillery’s usual 14-yr-old whisky at the end of the tour.

R: We opted for a seafood dinner as we were directly on the coast and we weren’t disappointed. Another fantastic dinner, mine was scallops, Jen’s was sea bass. We topped of the end of the day with a few pints, a good habit to be in when in Scotland, I think…

Jen and Rebecca Have a Stirling Day

R: Sunday morning, we made the short drive back to Stirling to explore Stirling Castle. Like Edinburgh Castle, it’s perched high atop a hill, but it also afforded great views to the William Wallace Monument that we went to visit later. This castle visit was okay, but I think we’d had so much fun at Linlithgow the day before (or maybe we were too tired from our evening and weren’t yet ready to face more sightseeing), that it wasn’t quite as awesome for me. It could also be that half of it was covered in scaffolding as well! I did enjoy seeing the weavers working on recreated tapestries, some of which are finished and hanging in the chapel.

J: The castle was impressive, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if the actual castle portion of it weren’t under restoration. I’m sure it will be a fantastic site once they’ve restored it to its original grandeur. After we finished our castle tour, we headed across town to the William Wallace Monument. The large tower was built to honor one of Scotland’s greatest heroes – and we happened to visit on the anniversary of one of his greatest victories! We witnessed a re-enactment of his arrest, a little bagpipe music and some folk dancing, all before tackling the 246 steps to the top of the tower (with a few stops for exhibits along the way).

R: To further my disappointment in the day, we stopped at Loch Lomond. I was really looking forward to a nice hike in Trossachs National Park and views of this Loch made famous in song and poem. However, more map misinterpretation in addition to my belief that the Loch Lomond visitor’s centre would actually be a sort of trail head for paths into the park instead of the glorified shopping mall that it was, left me feeling a bit downcast about the experience. To cheer me up, we had milkshakes (which I’m pretty sure made Jen happy too.) Then we found a nice look-out point further along on our drive by the Loch where I got to enjoy a short walk and prettier scenery, so I ended up much happier!

J: Eventually we made it to Inveraray, our final stop of the evening. I had booked hotels/B&B’s for every night of our trip, so we only needed to find the B&B, check-in and then wander about the cute little village for the rest of the evening. However, not everything always goes according to plan. We found the inn without a problem, but it took us nearly 30 minutes to get anyone to answer the door. Finally, June, the proprietor, came out to help us, but insisted that we didn’t have a reservation. They had no bookings, so she let us stay anyway and then finally we were on our way to dinner. We wandered a bit aimlessly around the cute village and then went into the George Inn for a delicious dinner and our first ever Gaelic coffees (coffee with some sort of Scottish whiskey and lots of cream). It tasted a wee bit like cough syrup to me, but Rebecca really enjoyed hers.

Waiting to get in the B&B

R: Loved my fine dinner on the shores of Loch Fyne, the longest sea loch in Scotland. And my hand-pulled cask ale. We are having great luck with tasty dinners on this trip so far. Also with hotels. Despite the mix-up, we had a nice, clean room, and we were the only guests in the inn, so we had plenty of privacy! (This is especially nice when the bathroom is not en suite.) And best of all, June discovered that the missing booking was her fault, not ours, so we were vindicated in the end. I love a good vindication.

Jen and Rebecca Remain Unnaturally Calm and Freak Out, Respectively

R: Sorry for the posting delay. Saturday night we had a wee bit of a problem with alcohol (as in drinking quite a bit of it). Then our computer died and our 1990s-era converters did not allow for a three-pronged computer plug. Once we finally located a converter, we were without internet access at our hotel. And so it’s now Tuesday and we’ve made it to our Fort William B&B, finally with a charged computer AND free wi-fi! But for those of you who are dying to hear the extreme details of all the in-between, we’re backing up to tell you about the days in between, starting, of course, with our departure from Edinburgh.

J: Saturday morning marked our departure from Edinburgh to the Scottish countryside. And, being the little planner (and automatic-only driver) that I am, I had reserved us an automatic car several weeks ago. After breakfast, we headed down to the car rental agency to pick up our automatic hatch-back, only to discover that no automatics can be found in the entire country of Scotland!! Rebecca and I were both immediately dismayed. Me because that means I don’t get to drive at all, Rebecca because she gets to drive all week. At any rate, we picked up our Opal and hit the mean streets of Edinburgh…eventually. It took Rebecca a bit to get out of the rental car parking lot. But, don’t worry; throughout all of our missed turns and scenic byways, I remained calm.

R: Yeah, I “get to” drive all week. I am absolutely shocked that Jen didn’t mention how many times I killed the car (it’s been a long time since I’ve driven stick…ahem), did a curb-check, failed to get the car into the hard-to-get-into-reverse gear, had to backtrack, or missed the correct turn off in the roundabouts. Roundabouts! I essentially panicked every time I hit one, yelling, “Jen, Jen! Which way? Which way?!” This and we forgot to pick up a quality map, so we were working off some Google maps I printed myself. These are not so useful when you are no longer on the proscribed route. But Jen’s calm demeanor and extreme skill reading crappy maps eventually got us to Rossyln Chapel (of The Da Vinci Code fame) south of Edinburgh.

J: Rosslyn Chapel had obviously become a major tourist attraction based on the large number of signs describing all of the sites to be seen in the church. The masonry work throughout the entire church was spectacular. One interesting point of note in the church was the carvings of maize (a North American plant) completed 50 years before Columbus discovered America. Sadly, like most sites in Europe, the chapel was covered in scaffolding and therefore hard to take lovely photos of. After the church tour, we wandered down to the cemetery for some scenic photos of the Scottish countryside.

R: After some further creative navigation through the Scottish countryside, we stopped at Linlithgow Castle where Mary Queen of Scots was born. The castle is in semi-ruins, but was fun to run through when we heard the bagpiper starting to play the recessional at the neighboring church following a wedding. I also engaged in some inspired rock climbing, much to Jen’s amusement this time.

J: I must have spent too much time with engineers over the years, because I really wanted to see the Falkirk wheel. It’s a boat lift that swings boats between the Union and the Forth and Clyde canals. It runs continuously, and lifts boats the equivalent of 11 locks in 15 minutes. Sadly, we didn’t get to see it lift any actual boats, but we did see it in motion.

R: As our last stop on this whirlwind day, we pulled of the main highway to a tiny town called Airth in search of one of those off-the-beaten-path sites that I love. This one, The Pineapple of Dunmore, was actually Jen’s suggestion, and when we realized we didn’t have quality directions to the site, I was determined to keep driving through the tiny town to find it! And am I glad I did, because it caused us no end of laughter in engineering a few silly photos—plus I figured out my camera’s self-timer! Thanks, crazy man from a past century for putting a pineapple on the top of your house.

R (continued): We had another free Hilton night (thanks, Jen and your employer) in Dunblane. The hotel was fancy-looking, but we wanted to escape the hoopla of the wedding going on inside, so we had dinner at the sleepy town’s only restaurant. I actually got Jen to eat Indian food! I was so excited. We wrapped up the evening pub hopping (between the town’s two pubs). Below, Shaun illustrates our level of alertness by the time we got back to the hotel.

Dunblane Doubletree

Poor Shaun

Jen and Rebecca Hit the High Points of Edinburgh

R: Jen and I donned our colorful new rain coats (both purchased for this trip) and dashed across the street to have scones and tea for breakfast at a lovely church cafe this morning. We're both very glad to have nice raincoats, though turns out Jen forgot to pack an umbrella. We later remedied that, but not til after the rain stopped and I had poked Jen in the eye a hundred times by walking too close to her.

The first high point we hit was everyone's Edinburgh must, Edinburgh Castle. The rain had mostly subsided by the time we hit the parapets, so we were able to enjoy all the old stone walls in relative dryness.

J: We wandered aimlessly for a bit around the walls and cannons and happened to run into a couple from my Denver to London flight. Unfortunately, they were stuck on the Manchester route and didn't make it to Edinburgh until 9:30 last night. Thank goodness the nice BA lady in Denver hooked me up! The castle was filled with kilts, swords, bagpipes, and other war memorabilia. Since we had a lot planned for the day, I got to hurry Rebecca thru a couple of the rooms.

R: It's true. The National War Museum was possibly my fastest English-language museum ever! The other castle highlight was the crown jewels, plus the lovely views from our perch on the hill overlooking the city and the firth. Next we headed down the Royal Mile. We were sidetracked by a few churches, lunch, and a tartan weaving mill, but made it to Holyroodhouse Palace at the end of the road to tour the Queen's official residence in Scotland. Good thing we aren't here next week when she'll be in residence greeting the Pope on his first official state visit to Scotland.

J: We spent some time in Holyrood exploring the State Rooms currently in use, as well as more historical sections once inhabited by Mary, Queen of Scots. She caused quite the scandals in her time...murder, intrigue, it was all there! Just outside of the house lay the remains of the Abbey - it provided much photographic entertainment, plus, Rebecca was spotted photographing Shaun by non-toy carrying tourists. She wandered off before being forced to explain herself. Once we had finished practicing our artistic photography skills, we decided to hike up to the top of Arthur's Seat - the highest point in Edinburgh. Unfortunately, we didn't read the park map and the trails aren't marked. So, we ended up climbing Radical Road (a trail built by unemployed laborers - so named because of their political beliefs) instead. It still provided us with some extraordinary views of the city though.

R: I've learned that the first path you see, despite how invitingly rocky and steep it is, isn't always the path you want to take. Ah well. We next headed Calton Hill, the third of the high hills in Edinburgh (a town that has a lot hillier streets than I'd imagined...). There Jen took my photo with the National Monument, which looked like it should have been Greece's national monument, much to the amusement of those looking on. We finished off the day with a tour of the underground Mary King's Close--I love my underground tourist sites! We learned about how filthy the streets were in the 16oos, how the street eventually got covered over to build a government building, and how Mary King and others still haunt the Close. Oooooo. Spooky.

Jen and Rebecca Check in and Walk About

R: Thanks to Jen’s Diamond Status with Hilton, which is in turn thanks to her 6 months of work travel to Houston, our Edinburgh hotel is “Double Deluxe” fancy and overlooks Edinburgh Castle. We’re very happy with our view!

View from hotel window

After stashing the luggage and changing out of our travel-icky clothes, we headed out to wander the street of Edinburgh, and to fine some much-needed dinner. I was pleasantly to see that the sun is still out past 7:00—I guess I worried that being further north would mean it would be dark a lot later.

Another side of Edinburgh Castle, on the walk to dinner

J: We found a little pub called the Last Drop. Not named as I originally thought in reference to the drinking of alcohol, but rather in reference to the location’s former use as the site of the town gallows. We also discovered that one of the ghost tours Rebecca wants to take departs from this bar (and the literary tour she wants to do leaves from a pub 2 doors down).

R: Leave it to me to pick a pub with historic significance. But they had good steak and ale pies too! After our leisurely dinner and a pint, we decided that a good night’s rest would ultimately make us happier than staying out late, so we wandered through some of the area streets—full of people, half of which had American accents—and by the castle at night back to the hotel to sleep off jet-lag. We’ll be ready to tackle Scotland with full strength tomorrow!

Jen and Rebecca While Away the Time at Separate Airports

R: I’m in Scotland! But I’m entering hour number 2 of sitting in the Edinburgh airport, which is a decidedly un-fun place to be spending your first evening of vacation. My travel plans went off without a hitch—I dashed off to the last few “here is what to do while I’m gone” work emails at 5:00, hopped on the lightrail to the airport, shared my traditional airport dinner of McDonald’s with Shaun (Mc—that’s got to be Scottish, right?), and boarded the plane on time.

After a few hours’ layover in Amsterdam, during which time I confirmed that the Verizon people were not, in fact, big fat liars and my Droid indeed does not function in Europe, I had another uneventful and nap-filled flight to Edinburgh that even arrived 10 minutes early. I was unreasonably excited to hear my first Scottish accents of the trip on the flight.

Jen’s flight was supposed to arrive an hour before mine, so I expected to see her smiling face waiting for me on the other side of customs. Sadly, no Jen. She had let me know she was concerned about the less-than-hour-long window to clear customs in London before catching the Edinburgh flight, though, so the lack of Jen wasn’t entirely unexpected. I wandered through the UK Arrivals Hall, in case she had caught the next flight which was her back up plan. Still no Jen. Plus she hadn’t emailed me any updated flight status as she said she would if necessary (as I learned from a pay internet station, not my phone, thank you very much.)

Shaun looks about as forlorn as I feel waiting for Jen.

The British Airways counter was at least a little helpful. They confirmed Jen’s flight was delayed out of Denver and so she must have missed the connection; however, all the flights from Heathrow were booked solid, so getting a stand-by seat could be tricky. Ack!
So Shaun and I waited at arrivals for Jen to magically appear. And I can’t believe there’s no bar to wait in! No beer! No whiskey ! I admit I had looked for a bar in part because I thought that’s where I might find Jen…

J: I had intended on meeting Rebecca at her baggage claim, but the fine folks at British Airways had other plans for me. The plane we were set to leave on had a bit of a bumpy landing on its way into Denver, so my flight to London was delayed by 2 hours. This, of course, meant that I was going to miss my planned connection to Edinburgh. However, the very nice gate agent booked me on the next available flight to Edinburgh from London (the rest of the passengers on my flight were content to follow directions and let BA take care of that while they were sleeping…silly travelers). Contrary to Rebecca’s beliefs, I did email her to tell her that I would be about 2 hours late. Once I finally arrived in London, I went straight away to the BA ticketing counter to receive my ticket for the later flight. I was one of the lucky ones because everyone else headed to Edinburgh got to make a stop in Manchester first. And, still attempting to be a good friend and travel companion, I asked the ticket agent if he could alert Rebecca to my new arrival time. He promised he would and even offered to call her for me (which thanks to Verizon, wasn’t really an option). But, either he failed to deliver on his promise or Rebecca failed to hear her page because she did not get the memo. Never fear though, I arrived a mere 3 hours later than originally intended and found Rebecca patiently (?) waiting for me in baggage claim.

R: Let the fun begin!