We did in fact spend most of yesterday on the road. And except for the busier highway we took along the shores of Loch Ness to get here to Inverness, most of the driving consisted of cruising along single track roads, which has a rhythm of its own. See approaching car, flash lights if you're going to pull over, or if they flash their lights, you keep going and give a friendly wave as you pass. From my very informal survey, I'd put the percentage of folks giving the friendly wave at at least 85%.
Loch Ness is very narrow, very deep, and very long. We drove along it for what seemed like a long time before finally arriving in Inverness. And, with the foggy, gloomy weather, the whole drive was very atmospheric.
View from the restaurant where we had a delicious Indian dinner. After, we walked a loop around the river Ness.
We've just had another quite heavy breakfast - including my first taste of haggis, upon which I pronounce thumbs up. And now back to the road - this time fast roads back to Edinburgh and our last day in Scotland.
Sometimes during travels, nothing goes right. Missed connections, delayed trains and planes, lost items, destinations that are less than one was hoping for. Today was not one of those days; in fact, today was pretty perfect.
This morning was a bit of a rush. We decided at the last minute to try to get our car on the ferry to Mull, since it would eliminate waiting around for a bus. We knew it would be tricky without a reservation, and indeed when we pulled up and talked to the ferry guy, he said it might not work out...but directed us to a long line of stand-by cars to wait and try our luck. If we didn't get on, the next ferry was also completely booked, so our whole itinerary was hinged on this working out.
The ferry pulled up, the walking passengers boarded, all the non-stand-by folks drove on, the trucks, the tour buses...and then they started letting stand-by folks on, one by one. All the cars in front of us made it. Then, we heard the guy down at the loading zone tell the guy about to take our tickets to hold up - no more cars. Someone has to be the first one not to make it...but we were so disappointed. Then, the loading zone guy looked up and saw us, and must have remembered our conversation. "Go ahead," he told the ticket-taker, "I want to get these girls to Iona today". Hooray! We drove down, and after a bit of rearranging, squeezed ourselves into the teeny little spot. Last car on. I'm so thankful for they guy who helped us out - and may I say, this type of kindness and consideration has cropped up so many, many times here in Scotland. Here's what it looked like after I parked:
The ride to Mull is pleasant, about 45 minutes long, and full of castle views. Here's Duart castle, which we toured when we got on the island, since it was on our drive to the other end of Mull where we could catch the ferry to Iona.
The drive across the island was beautiful - and the single track roads were much easier to navigate than I thought they'd be. See a car coming? Whoever has the first opportunity to pull over does so, and then as you pass you give each other a thumbs up or a friendly wave. See a sheep or goat? Well, if you're a local, ease on by. If you're a tourist from California, pull up and snap some photos:
After about an hour, we pulled up, parked for free overnight, and hopped on the 10 minute ferry to Iona. You can see the abbey from the opposite shore:
Our hotel was also just right on the shore, in fact here's a shot from our bedroom window:
We checked in, and meandered over to the abbey. People have lived and been in religious communities on this island since the 6th century, which is about when this cross dates from:
After a good long look through the buildings, I walked out to the little field in between the abbey and the shore. Donica finds my whole "sheep are cute!" mentality strange, but she took a picture for me anyway:
Much later, after a delicious and very Scottish dinner at the hotel restaurant, I went out for another walk. It was just beginning to get dark, at about 10:15, but not too dark for a picture of the main "road" of the town:
I took a little video, which I'll post here, but must warn you of a mistake...I accidentally call the island across the water "Oban" instead of Mull - Oban is the little town we stayed in last night. Whoops.
And in closing, I'll just say that this island is the most peaceful place I think I've ever been. There is a very very close second on a little farm in Tuscany, but Iona has an extra quality that pervades the atmosphere and stills the mind and soul. I wish it weren't so far away from my real life.
I borrowed Loretta's GPS for this trip. We call him Daniel, since "British Daniel" is the voice she chose for the audio. He seems really happy to be in the UK, as he's very much more able to pronounce place names here than at home. "San Jose" throws him, "Loch Lomond", no problem.
Today we set out from Edinburgh in pouring rain, and at first Daniel wasn't very cooperative, as we couldn't figure out how to tell him that yes, we wanted to visit a little town called Kilmartin, but we didn't want to take the fastest possible way to get there. He doesn't really get inefficiency for the sake of the scenic route. He said "Recalculating!" lots of times. Finally we figured it out, and it was pretty smooth sailing from there forward.
So in the end we sailed along past clearing skies, the proverbial black-faced sheep in stone-walled meadows, with castles on rocky outcroppings here and there. The castle of note today was the one at Stirling, which is near where the Battle of Bannockburn took place. (Braveheart, William Wallace, etc).
So since I'm in an internet cafe, and tired from all the drivin' - I'll close with a few photos from the day:
Our breakfast table in Edinburgh this morning before we left, taken by Erlend, who kindly gave us driving tips and a lunch suggestion for today.
Mossy rock wall, aka Erin likes to use the macro digital feature sometimes...
Old, old church yard (14th cent and later) with pastoral scene in background.
There's a teddy bear on my bed here in the B&B!
And finally, cheers to a good day, safe driving, and being on holiday in general!
Actually my day began with a lovely home-cooked breakfast, complete with tea, eggs, parma bacon, and toast and marmelade. (Also roasted tomahtoes, which I'm not crazy about, but of course I ate them without complaining since the rest was so delicious). And, special bonus, Erlend took my broken glasses and fixed them for me with gorilla glue while managing to still serve the breakfasts! 2 Cambridge St. B&B is a wonderful place.
OK, but after the glorious breakfast, this:
It was OK though. I went across the street to the little shop you can see in the video and bought a "cheap" umbrella for £3. Slightly damp, I arrived at the Royal Scottish Museum, which is where I spent the next three hours. It's a great museum, albeit a very nerdy one. (I know what you're all thinking - it's nerdy, that's why she loves it, and you're right!) I'm totally into the whole Scottish history thing now, and looking for a good, readable, comprehensive book on the subject. Bonnie Prince Charlie, Mary Queen of Scots, William Wallace, Robert the Bruce, Jacobites, all those kings named James...I'd love to get it all in order in my head.
I loved the signage in the museum...as if we're all Scots, fighting off the Roman invaders who "moved with the purpose of ants". And I so, so wanted to put a period at the end of the last sentence.
OK, moving along...I crossed the street to the Greyfriars church and graveyard. It was calm and peaceful place, but I didn't get into the whole Greyfriars Bobby thing because his gravestone was covered with grungy little stuffed animals and it creeped me out. But here's a picture of the graveyard, anyway:
I walked to the station to pick up Donica, which worked perfectly, we dropped her stuff off, and then headed to Edinburgh Castle...at last. I'd walked by it so many times already and not gone in. I do love me some castles, and I loved this one. It's so big inside, with so many buildings, and so defensible - it just seems to grow up out of the rock - that you can imagine living in it and withstanding siege after siege. Well, I guess until your food and water ran out and stuff. But still. Here are Donica and I at the castle, Edinburgh New Town in the background:
And here is a nice picture, looking out across the Firth of Forth to St. Andrews, with a funny story. Our guide told us that people on tours ask all kinds of questions about what that land across the water is. Some want to know what part of Europe it is...some ask if it's France, since there's a telecom tower way in the distance that they think is La Tour Eiffel...and some ask if it's America. Wow. Our guide just said "That one was a bit worrying."
A final castle picture, because when I saw this I could not stop thinking of LOTR. "Light the beacon fire of Amon Din!"
The view of Edinburgh Castle from the street my B&B is on; there was a farmer's market today, where I bought lunch: fresh pressed Jonagold apple juice and a sausage roll - homemade and very fresh from a guy who loved to talk about his pigs while his wife served up the bacon and sausage rolls on very soft bread. Delicious.
I got up at 4:30 today to make my way back to the airport and catch my 6:50 flight to Edinburgh. I was a bit nervous about the bus coming on time, and whether or not Big Mama would make it on the plane despite her weight, but make it she did, with 2 lbs to spare. The 45 minute flight was like taking Southwest from Oakland to L.A., except when we were coming in to Edinburgh I saw small islands with old stone ruins on them rather than, um, smog and stuff.
Right away I loved it here, starting with the bus driver who helped me figure out not only where to get off the bus but where exactly to walk after, and waved at me as I waited to cross the street as he drove away. I arrived quickly at 2 Cambridge St, which is a lovely home with two rooms that Erlend and Helene rent out, and even though I was quite early, Erlend brought out a tea table, laid it with lace and china, made me a press pot of coffee, and asked about my travel plans. He and the other person staying here, a native Scot, seemed to know each other well, and at one point started discussing a finer point about the itinerary they were recommending to me, and as I tried to keep up I realized that they were referring to historical events from 600 AD as commonly and thoughtfully as if it were a recent election.
Walking up to the castle, there are lots of wildflowers growing in the crags of the rock
History does pervade the atmosphere here - and it twists things in an interesting way. For instance, I spied a little ancient-looking fountain, planted with flowers and mounted on a wall with a plaque at the top of the Royal Mile by the castle. On closer inspection, the plaque had witches on it in memory of the many who were burned at that spot quite a while back. Another moment - walking home along Grassmarket, a pleasant pedestrian street with lots of bars and people enjoying the sunny day, I read that it used to be the place for public executions, and that owners of houses with upper windows rented them out for the view.
A view down the Royal Mile - very crowded today, no shortage of tourist shops and buses, but still manages to be charming and full of interesting things to see
I happened into the Edinburgh Writers' Museum, full of things like Robert Burns' personal desk, Robert Louis Stevenson's dining table, and this sign. Love it- so clever, unless you're someone who DID live in the house and just was clumsy sometimes.
When I got tired, I bought some of the best fudge I'd ever had - peanut butter, of course - and found this little close just off the Royal Mile's craziness. Literally steps away, it was peaceful, mostly empty, and silent.
And, because I really did see so many of the Scottish stereotypes today (men in kilts, shortbread, lots of tartan and woolens on sale, even a woman walking a cute little Scottie dog), here's perhaps the ultimate:
Two scenes from the bottom of the Royal Mile - the very controversial, (and very expensive) new Scottish Parliament building, and just turning my head from where I took the parliament photo, a view of Arthur's Seat. A 45 min hike from where I was standing, it was dotted with people headed up to see the view of Edinburgh. I was too tired to take it on, at least for today.
After all the walking and wandering this morning, I headed back to my room for a nap - much needed, although jet lag is much better today. I decided to head to the "New" Town for dinner, but on the way took a short cut through a very atmospheric old graveyard,
and then eventually found a place for my companions and I to have a leisurely French meal:
Props to Loretta for letting me borrow her Kindle...now I can read War and Peace on the road, and Pierre Bezukhovetal can keep me company during single-traveler's dinner time!
I trekked back home, up across the hill and up to the Castle area, and stopped to take a picture of where I'd been a few hours earlier...so quiet and calm:
Here's a little video during the walk home...
More tomorrow - I'm excited for my friend Donica to arrive by train and continue the Scottish travels with me!
My brain feels foggy, and has felt so all day. Despite the haze, I managed to get out for a bit of a walk earlier today and run a few errands. One errand was successful - adapter to charge my computer; the other was not. My glasses broke on the plane - one arm just fell right off. I can still use them, but I look ridiculous with them just propped on my nose and nothing on one side. I was directed by a nice lady at a pharmacy to a little store called Spec Savers, which I had high hopes for, but alas, a lady there looked at them sadly and said there was nothing she could do. So I'm trying to figure out where one buys superglue in Ireland, and hope that will fix the problem. Stay tuned for an exciting update on that.
Meanwhile, here was a very touristy Irish scene - notice good old Molly Malone there with weird, shy leprechaun in the background:
And here's a sign that made me think of my sister, who hates litterbugs:
On several buses, I also saw the phrase "BIN YOUR GUM, NOT €150", so apparently there's a real crackdown going on here, Singapore style. I made every effort to keep my gum safely in my mouth - so far so good. Another street sign in the "not-in-CA-anymore" genre: large posters all up and down the main street advertising a pro-life rally tomorrow, ending with "Keep Ireland Abortion-Free".
I met a nice girl on the plane - Irish, returning home for the first time in a year and a half, lives in Vancouver. We sat next to each other and endured a family behind us that consisted of a constantly coughing, frustrated dad, an increasingly agitated mum, and a very naughty little girl named Erin who whined and cried whenever she was awake. There was a slightly older, well-behaved sister, but I don't even know her name since I didn't have as many opportunities to hear it urgently hissed. Not all Erin's are so lovely as yours truly, sad to say.
I shall close with a little video of O'Connell Street taken during my walk. This was taken before I got really sleepy and konked out in St. Stephen's Green, which is how I spent a few hours this afternoon. Tomorrow early I catch a plane to Edinburgh - more from there!
Some small children can in fact manage a cross-country air trip amazingly well, in fact so silently that I wondered if their parents had given them something.
In this age of many, many baggage number and weight restrictions I was shocked to stand behind an older couple checking in who had at least 8 bags in between them, including 2 golf bags.
Traveling teenagers are the same everywhere. For the girls: teeny tiny shorts, layered, lace-edged tank tops w/bra straps hanging out, flip flops. One had a little stereo meant to hold an i-pod that looked like a triangular pink and white purse. For the boys: board shorts, t-shirts with ironic sayings, ridiculous behavior to impress girls. Watching their antics here in the food court did not make me sigh wistfully and long for bygone days.
30 Rock is hilarious. On the plane, I watched some old episodes of The Office, pretty fun. But 30 Rock made me laugh out loud several times, which may have disturbed my sleeping older Vietnamese gentleman seatmate. Sissy and Pete have been telling me to watch for a few years. Gotta get the DVD's from Netflix when I get home.
Urquhart Castle, on the shores of Loch Ness
View from the restaurant where we had a delicious Indian dinner. 
