stuff Scotland does well, and stuff they do "weird"

consider this a pro/cons list, lessons learned, or things to be advised of for future travel/travelers Should you choose to go to Scotland, just know that: Pro's 1. green - if you like the outdoors, they have it in spades. everything that isnt rock has grass or trees on it. and some of the rock has moss on it 2. architectures - bear in mind, I work in teh building business - the construction or modification of buildings - so I see alot of them. America spends tons of money on marginally built buildings that are relatively easy to take down. Stone constructed castles that are 800+ years old is simply shocking to me 3. fuel stations - while rare, are in good shape and ALL pay inside after you pump. it would appear that the average Scot is more trustworthy than the average American 4. fish and chips - this meal is everywhere and average in all locations. it had to be the inspiration for Long John Silvers, but LJS does it better, with more fish and a chicken option to boot 5. history - by comparison, America is a 7 year old schoolboy (and often acts like it). Scotland is LOADED with old stuff/history/etc 6. more reasonable vehicles - and I say this as a heavy duty truck owner - Scots have vehicles that are appropriate for their lifestyle. Most drivers of F-150's would be better served with a car that got 30 MPG, cause they dont really "haul" stuff. I saw less than a dozen "light duty trucks" in Scotland, and I think it works fine for them, and it'd work fine for most Americans, were it not for a need to make up for testosterone atrophy 7. in fact, most campers (aka Caravans) are single axle, and likely, just fine for the job. 8. blackout curtains - most places in Scotland are equipped with these so you can sleep past 6am in the summer. win 9. general lack of land development - most folks in Scotland live in town, even if they are out in the country. seems like rare's the man that owns much land. public land, or at least.... public access a plenty in Scotland 10. whiskey ice cream - never heard/seen this before and a 120% win. well done, brothers Con's 1. yes, they drive on the "wrong" (left) side of the road. it's more than a little weird to do, and it'd be pretty easy to get in a wreck if you're doing "a lot" of driving on your trip 2. rain - in late June - we got rain in some form on about 60-70% of our days. not the end of the world, but if you were planning an extended event outside (say....... golf, or a hike) you were pretty likely to deal with precipitation 3. road configurations - from roundabouts, to no stop signs, to 1 lane 2 way roads, their roadway infrastructure "wants" a bit by American standards. that said, we rarely encountered traffic that impeded flow, so maybe it's fine - just different... 4. the pound to dollar ratio is not favorable to us. stuff is more expensive in Scotland than it is in TX - but then again...... good luck finding fresh caught salmon in north TX... 5. public toilets - a real issue. if you're going to Europe...... pee first. public toilets are rare. 6. signs - holy moly, from the "Otter Crossing" to "Give Way" to the total lack of Stop signs, this takes some getting used to. 7. "a dram" of whisky - how they measure a shot is really not enough, and grossly overpriced. a drams worth of whiskey is 25ml, looks like a single ounce, and is around $6-8, which is just silly. fail all in all, thats more wins than losses, and a beautiful land populated with friendly people who genuinely want you to enjoy their homeland. I cannot say Americans welcome foreigners at all like Scotland does, and for that, I'm a bit ashamed. I am very glad to have visited this place, and feel blessed to call them "my people", even if "my people" left 4 centuries ago... until we meet again, Scotland, Slainte! :)

travel home - sadness.....

our travel home was relatively simple. dropped off car with Hertz, then went to the insanely long British Airways "checked baggage" line. we got to the airport nearly 3 hours early, but it took forever to check bags. After that..... I got to go thru TSA checkpoint in one of my new kilts. Based on the pat-down process that followed, I think I may be legally married to the individual doing the pat-down, and may owe "support" payments now that we have seperated.

Landed at London-Heathrow on schedule and had a couple hour layover before flying to DFW on AA, so I hit the "duty free" shops to pickup a couple more handles of single malt. The 10 hr flight to DFW got a little spicy when there were two seperate "medical emergencies" on board, but both got resolved without further injury, or flight diversion. Amanda picked us up at the airport and had flowers for Deanna - next day was her birthday. Well done, young lady.

the day of Blair(s) stuff

Alright - this post is going to be long, and it'll probably take awhile to be written, compiled, and then shared. Too much important stuff to convey here, and I don't want to miss any of it. I had mentioned this previously, but we've got decent records on the "family tree" on the Blair side (mom's mom) of the family going back a while. Turns out- a while - is about 25 generations and nearly 900 years of data. It's a lot. We left Glasgow and headed to Largs, Scotland to look at a kilt, and I bought it.

It's not a "correct" kilt tartan - but it has the right colors in a reasonably close pattern, and it was a great deal, and it included a sporran, for ~60pounds. Bargain. if you are not familiar with what a sporran is.... it's like a purse to carry your stuff (cause you dont have pockets on most kilts) but to make it manly....... it hangs in front of your privates and is often fronted with hair. Just watch this video as it's an exceptional summary of scottish attire, and also the scottish-english dynamic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwBB1Izls1w After that, we headed to Dalry (prounounced dal-rye - which is quite a bit different than the more redneckish- "dal-ree") Took us a bit to find the Blair Estate, but wow. once we did, it was just crazy how cool it was. We parked the car and went for a (this is okay- they dont have trespassing laws in Scotland - or so I'm told) walk on the property. they have a sign out front that summarizes the castle history too.

We got pretty danged close to the castle, and met a "volunteer" caretaker who was weed-whacking around the property to make things look sharp for a couple international dignitaries who would be here soon. The folks that get to stay in the castle today are very high profile (ie not me). Names you would recognize, but never have a shot at meeting.

we ran into several old "home improvement" projects around the property, some dated, most not..... allowing me to put more pieces into place. this creek crossing/bridge was built in 1849 by William Fordyce Blair. Thats before our Civil War happenned!

We saw deer tracks on the property, and eventually got a bit of rain, pushing us back to the car, but it was cool knowing I was walking on land last visited by "my people" about 399 years ago. I'm fairly confident this stone fence around the garden was built to keep deer out of it. pretty robust....

There are huge "old growth" trees on the property. Chance some of them were alive when my Blair folks were there.

Leaving there, we were hungry and looked for local restaurants - no sh$t- there's a local restaurant called "the Blair".

we stopped and ate a fantastic meal. Deanna had Cullen Skink (haddock/potato soup) while I ate a huge seafood patter intended for two. :(

I got away with a menu, half a dozen coasters, etc that will soon decorate the family Ranch.

The day manager was a lady who had married into the Blair family, and one of the employees recommended we visit the Robert Burns memorial and infomration center in Kilmarnock, just a few miles down the road. I really wish we'd have had a couple days to spend at this place. TONS of local Scottish history, including old newspaper articles on the estate, one story of a shooting involving the family, and lots of other data.

I felt like Indiana Jones doing project research, but less snakes or drama. it was awesome. Eventually, it was time to migrate back towards Edinburgh, and along the way, we stopped at Glasgow, (Mr Bens antiques) where I bought an additional kilt - that puts me at 4, lifetime - nearly one for every workday! We made it to Edinburgh and spent an hour playing luggage-souveneir-crap I didnt need anyhow-jenga) before heading to our last dinner at Ye Old Pub. Deanna had scampi and shane had steak pie with mashed taters - both of which were awesome. Sad to see it come to an end, but we have to leave soon before I buy all the kilts in central Scotland. I started compiling ancestry data, and I think we have 25 generations between young James Blair (born just last year) and Jean Francis back in 1138. Crazy. shane

Tobermory to Glasgow

Long day of busy stuff. We woke up this morning on the Isle of Mull, still at Tobermory. Drove about 40 mins down to Craignure and took the CALMAC ferry to Oban.

Once in Oban, we drove past Scotland's 2nd most famous Loch - due to a song - Loch Lomond. It is as pretty and as clear as the song, though we didn't spend time enjoying it - just driving along the western bank of it, and being terrified we'd be plowed by oncoming traffic. That road, like many in Scotland is no wider than the specifications mandated. I can't imagine driving the Dodge, pulling a camper (caravan.....) down those stretches of "highway".

We stopped in Renfrew to look at a kilt, but it was overrun with cat hair, and the jacket that came with it was a bit too small, and it was generally overpriced in the first place.

Once we got to Glasgow, we parked in "downtown" which is a bit more sketchy than either of us prefer. I don't like big cities, and this one definitely kept me nervous at all times while walking surface streets. We (Deanna) found a pretty awesome antique shop that specializes in clothes. The owner was there and took a keen interest in getting me properly kilted. She was very informative and showed me their vast collection of pretty nice kilts. Unfortunately, the perfect combo of color pattern (tartan) and fat boy size (38/40) rarely aligned with what I was looking for. I did find two that were "close enough", but I still didn't make a purchase. I have two more locations to potentially check out tomorrow, one in Largs, not too far out of the way en route to Dalry. A guy there has one that looks close enough, looks to be sized right, and is priced very well. Sights from Glasgow-

Dinner was at a local pub down the street from our AirBnb for the night - Molly Malones - named after an Irish drinking song. sausages and tatties with brown gravy and a Tennants.

Tomorrow is a pretty big day for us. Our real destination in Dalry is Blair Castle, which was "the old home place" - 400 years ago in 1625 when my lineage left Scotland for Ireland. I hope to discover much tomorrow. If we can find a cemetery near Blair Castle, I might get to say howdy to folks in my line about 16 or 20 generations back. Stay tuned.

hikes hikes more hikes and criminally good food

Complimentary breakfast croissant with jam from our AirBnb couple this morning with french press coffee (new first for shane, at least). After that, we headed out for a hike to a nearby lighthouse (the Rubha nan Gall Lighthouse) - so we walked to town (about half a mile, dropping about 300 vertical feet) then turned left and hit stores, etc. to the northern edge of town where the trail started. The trail sidehills along the eastern shoreline headed north and..... as you might guess, turns out at a lighthouse on the NE end of the island. It was about a ~2.6mile round trip back to town. Great scenery along the way, and TONS of trail traffic from a cruise ship that was in town today. The cruise originated in Liverpool and is working its way towards Norway before heading back.

Following that, we hit a bakery in town for lunch, which tragically didn't serve beer.

Then we moseyed to the south end of town and hit the Aros Park Trail hike which originates from the south end of town and also proceeds along the shoreline - also up on the hillside with of course..... great views. At the far end of the trip we encountered 3 chaps (men in Scotland....) playing frisbee golf in the middle of the afternoon on a Tuesday. Great times.

Once we got back to town we hiked back up to the car, and drove out to Glengorm castle that has yet another weird circle of those stand-up-stones, like a po-boy stonehenge. More hairy coos along the hike route.

As soon as we got back to camp, we walked down to the shoreline for dinner at a fancy fish restaurant (Cafe Fish): http://www.thecafefish.com/

Shane had a plate of langoustines, which are like small scale lobsters. We'd never heard of those before. Deanna had a plate of mixed fish (salmon, haddock, smoked haddock, and mussels) with rice and an awesome sauce. Again..... walked back to the house. Poor dogs are barking after hiking about ~8 miles and probably put on around 1000-2000 feet of total vertical climb in all of that. We leave the Isle of Mull tomorrow and head along Loch Lomond (famous song....) headed to Glasgow in search of the perfect kilt and matching beverage.

Oban and ferry to Tobermory

Because we got to Oban a bit late yesterday, we spent a bit more time there today. It was raining early when we parked the car on a side street and started hitting stores, etc. We visited the ferry terminal to get an idea of the ferry schedule, and kept moseying around the beautiful Oban "downtown" area along the shoreline. We spent a good bit of time at the War & Peace museum, too. Once we got hungry, we hit a walk up service seafood place that had a long line but limited seating and crazy cheap prices. A salmon sandwich was 4.95 English pounds. A crab sammich was 5.95. They had fresh boiled lobster, crab, langustines, oysters on the half shell, etc and the "deal of the day" was 5.95 for a big pile of mussels steamed with wine, butter and garlic, and dude..... it was incredible. Dee and I got a salmon sammich, a crab sammich and a pile of mussels and ate to our hearts content. It was so good (and so cheap) that we vowed to get more of the same for our dinner before hitting the ferry to Craignure.

After lunch, we continued moseying around town and eventually passed our car, which had a parking ticket on it, which greatly upset Deanna, who now feels like an Scottish criminal - international crime czar because of this ticket. Fact is, we just didnt realize you had to pay to park there. Such is life. Oban is a beautiful city with great people and better food, so if we need to "tip" them the cost of a parking ticket, I'm glad to do so. We took the ~5:30pm ferry to Craignure on the Isle of Mull and drove the half hour up to Tobermory. On arrival, we busted out our fancy meal and had a prawn sammich and a salmon sammich.

Once settled a bit, we walked into town and took more pictures of the bay, and the purposefully un-coordinated paint jobs of the various stores along the seafront. On our walk we went by the local high school campus, and saw a couple dozen middle/high school kids playing soccer, etc on the soccer pitch and wondered - what must it be like to grow up on a remote island of Scotland. I surely can't relate.

Tomorrow we plan to execute a couple of mild hikes. We have an early ferry boat back to Oban on Wednesday, followed by a 4 hour drive to Glasgow and a series of kilt shop tours. That will be a long day.

Ft William to Oban

Deanna typing here. First update from me for this trip. After leaving our Airbnb we started the morning by visiting the Highland Soap Company. Super cute factory shop with lots of lotions,soaps, and other bath products you can try. They even offer a soap-making workshop. They sell housewares, books, liquor, and there's a cafe on site. Across the parking lot from the Highland Soap Company is the 13th Centory old Inverlochy Castle. Unfortunately, the castle was fenced off, and it's temporarily closed because they're doing "masonry inspections", so we could only walk around the grounds.

We then visited yet another shop in search of the ever-illusive perfect souvenir. The perfect kilt is out there somewhere. :-) It was about lunchtime at this point, so we stopped at Aldi. We grabbed some very questionable "30% off" chicken sushi. Old chicken sounds sketchy on its own, but served with "sushi" in the name seems particularly iffy. We also bought nectarines, a chicken wrap, salami and cheese. Quite the smorgasbord. While at the Highland Soap Company, I picked up a book with recommended hikes for the surrounding areas. We were headed to Glencoe on our way to Oban, so I looked for a hike in the Glencoe area. Glencoe is famous for its deep valley, and we hiked "The Lost Valley of Glencoe" This is a 4.5km hike with about a 1,000 ft climb in elevation. This was a tough hike with lots of climbing over rocks, but after about 2.5 hours, we reached Coire Gabhail (a high level glen/hidden valley) which was surrounded by the mountains Gearr Aonach, Beinn fhada and the Bidean nam Bian. The terrain was described as "Steep and rocky path with some mild scrambling; great care needed." They weren't kidding. My knees are still barking at me. It's definitely an ibruprofen night.

We then went to our Airbnb. We're staying in the upstairs bedroom of a home. It's very nice. We asked our host for his recommendation for dinner, and he said that the Fishhouse was the best, but we'd need reservations. When Shane called, he was told that 8:45 was their first opening, so we took it. We both agreed that it was the best meal of our trip so far. I had the Trio of Seafood (Salmon, sea bass, and scallop), and Shane had the salmon. My dish swam in a lobster sauce which had us wishing we could lick the plate. :-)

It was close to 10:00 when we left the restaurant, and the sun was setting over the harbor. Just beautiful.

Another wonderful day in Scotland. This trip is flying by way too fast.