Earlier I admitted to having no appreciation for abbeys and how that attitude had changed. Well, my time around Melrose is when my went into all-out abbey appreciation mode. Seems there were four abbeys within a reasonable driving distance so I decided to take them all in. The results are below in four photo albums, interspersed with other sites I saw along the way.
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As I said, Fountains Abbey opened my eyes to the beauty of abbeys. When I arrived in Melrose I learned there were four great abbeys within a few miles of each other which had been tied together into a biking tour. OK, I decided to make them the cornerstone of my Melrose visit.
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Today was about getting to Edinburgh. My expectations were for cold and uninteresting visits because this was the North Sea and 57 degrees latitude. Reasonable, don\'t you think? WOW! Was I wrong! Good weather conspired with lots of beautiful settings and people wanting to enjoy a beautiful day. This day was fantastic. I wish I could have bottled it.
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It was a fluke. I saw the hill and said to myself, \"I want to climb that.\" What a fantastic decision. What a glorious day! What tremendous weather!!
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A day at the beach includes some of these images, but sans wet suits! These folks were prepared for anything but found the most accommodating of weather conditions. Boy, they were having a wonderful time at a scale I\'ve rarely seen. Beach baseball, Kite flying. Sailing. Volleyball. Playing in the sand. Lounging. Swimming. They were doing it all and I was there!
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In my reading, Edinburgh had been referred to as \"The Athens of Great Britain\". Kind of a lofty description. Even before coming I had my doubts. It sounded like self aggrandizement to me. I stand corrected; my skepticism was wrong. Edinburgh is a fabulous city, a real winner!
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While there\'s much more to Edinburgh, I focused on architecture here. The place is well put together with great sites.
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J.K. Rowling has had an amazing life. From her poor beginnings when she started writing books to her amazing success at changing the world of children\'s literature, her story is one I admire. I had heard she was from the U.K. but I didn\'t know from where. Then in Edinburgh I stumbled upon proud references to her and pieced togther a bit of her story. Once I read how J.K. Rowling had written for long hours in a coffee shop when she was starting out. Her flat was so cold. She needed a place where she could be warm, where her baby could sleep, and where she could write for long stretches at a time. The answer was The Elephant House which had recently opened. They didn\'t seem to mind her hanging out for long hours and it was here that she wrote the first Harry Potter book. The rest is history! More pictures can be seen below.
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I had expectations for Edinburgh but none included dozens of street performers. They were everywhere along the famous Royal Mile performing among thousands of people milling around on the street. It was organized as a part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival to give the public a sample of evening\'s shows. I had no time to see shows so I\'m glad I saw the samples!
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To date, this was the day in which my plans needed the most adjusting. I had originally planned to do far too much; it just wasn\'t going to be possible to pull it off. There were about a half a dozen things I really wanted to do, such as visit Sterling Castle and see the famous Forth Rail Bridge, but the rest I\'d play by ear. As it turned out, the weather turned bad after late morning so by the time I hit Dundee I decided to tuck my tail and head for Pitlochry where my latest backpacking hostel adventure lay before me.
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There are an amazing number of castles in Scotland. The ones that really stand out are either very much in tact (and these are few) or they are part of an important story. This castle is both. The story of Mary Queen of Scots, her imprisionment and escape, and of her son who eventually ascended to the thrown of England is fascinating. Sterling Castle plays a prominent roll in this story. Consequently it\'s a top destination in Scotland.
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This was my first day driving in the Highlands, a part of Scotland which make up about a third of all the territory. Elevation is high, the roads meander and undulate, and the scenery is fantastic. In my opinion it\'s an outdoor wonderland. Too bad I couldn\'t have had nicer weather today. Scotland has three National Parks and Cairn Gorm is the newest. I learned from the Head Ranger that It\'s less than five years old and struggling with its success. It seems the park is overwhelmed with visitors which is great, if only the Rangers could manage the volume. For outdoor activity I would love to spend time here: hiking, boating, skiing, and so much more. As with all of Scotland, evidence of history is everywhere and it\'s ancient history. Bridges and castles are the most frequent examples. However, even more recent history is highlighted such as foot bridges, water wells, steam engines, etc. I\'ve started to think of Scotland as an educated adult\'s amusement park. There\'s so much to see and to do and to learn.
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Sunshine reveals the beauty of Scotland\'s coasts. Aberdeen wasn\'t to have been anything special and it wasn\'t. Inverness was my gateway to the Highlands and I was looking forward to it. I just had to get from Aberdeen to Inverness and I opted for a coastal route, thereby missing many of the ruins. Good choice. The weather made the coastal drive a memorable experience. This drive found me clinging to the coast, dropping in to every village of consequence, and stopping at the few impressive ruins along the way. It turned out to be much more of a rewarding day than I had expected.
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Almost everywhere I stayed one night and moved on. In Inverness I stayed two days, using it as a launching pad for getting to know the Highlands.
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Loch Ness. Everyone has heard of it and now I\'ve been there ... and I\'ve seen Nessy! ;-) Urquhart Castle has been in many movies, I\'m told, and it\'s easy to see why. Enough of it still exists to really show character and being set on a peninsula at a wide point in Loch Ness makes it really picturesque. It was recently a set for a Sean Connery movie. My hero! This morning I read that a town called Applecross had not been accessible by road till the 1970s. There must be a story there, I thought, so it instantly added to my route. There was a story. It was incredibly remote approaching from the north, and difficult too. The road was one lane, winding, and a slow drive. Leaving to the south was similar but in addition it was extremely steep and much more dangerous. The keeper at my hostel had lived in the area for 15 years and said neither she nor her husband had ever driving the road, they were too scared.
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The Isle of Skye is like a mini Scotland unto itself. Much of what I have seen these past two weeks I saw represented on this island, and it\'s small enough to drive to every corner in a day. That\'s exactly what I did as you can see below. As an aside, while castles were not high on my priorities for the day I did stumble across a very picturesque castle just off the island to the south: Eilean Dolan Castle. It was stunning.
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If there is a more \"fairy tale\" castle then I haven\'t seen it. I only wish that lighting had been better. Enjoy!
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I considered renaming this page \"To Ben Nevis\" but decided against it. Originally this day was to be like many other days: a driving tour with many stops to see ruins, mountains, coastline, and other sites of interest. However, from my early days of planning this trip up to the night before driving to Fort Williams, everything pointed to my climbing the mountain. Ben Nevis is the tallest mountain in the British Isles. At its base you\'re at 33 feet above sea level and by the time you reach the top you\'re at 4,406 feet. To get to the top and back you have to walk 10 miles. Though I\'m a moderately experienced hiker, this sounded challenging and I also thought it sounded memorable ... so I climbed it! To make such a hike, I was fairly prepared with the right supplies. I packed lots of layers of clothing, rain gear, food and water into my a backpack. Thankfully I had a knitted cap which I bought as a souvenir at Loch Ness. Tennis shoes weren\'t the best for hiking and I had no gloves but I figured I could get by and I was right. In the end, even though I\'m sore all through my legs, I\'m glad I climbed Ben Nevis. This will be a memory I\'ll keep forever.
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Today was wide open because I had planned too much and needed to improvise and reduce. This approach was actually a nice change of pace, especially since my body wasn\'t up for much walking after having climbed Ben Nevis. With ibuprofen easing my pain I meandered among various ruins as I drove along beautiful loch-side roads.
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I admit going in that I didn\'t properly appreciate this castle. I went largely because it was highlighted in my guide and because it wouldn\'t cost me due to my Scottish Tourist Board 14-day pass. I now know that I misjudged this castle. It was impressive. What sets this castle apart is its setting. The steep, two-humped rock on which it sits is strategically located down river from what is now Glasgow. Any fortress atop this hill is very well positioned to protect the River Clyde so it has been a natural site for a castle since the middle ages. Another benefit of being so high and well placed is that it offers great views. Oddly, you can\'t come away with a single picture of the castle since it meanders around the two hill peaks. Given how my legs feel after climbing Ben Nevis, I guess I\'d have preferred fewer steps. 0:-)
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OK, so the description said \"Most impressive hostel in Scotland\" but you can\'t always believe what you read. However, in Manchester I shared a room with an 81-year old who learned I was heading to hostel in Scotland. Without any further prompting, he then launched in to a speech about his favorite place to stay, a hostel which he first visited the day after it was converted from a mansion back in 1939! Yes, it was this hostel and he was there in the very beginning. I\'d say the writing was on the wall. I\'d say it was destiny that I stay here. And here I am!
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Today was literally a wash-out. To date, I\'ve had pretty good luck with weather. Never has it rained for more than half a day and even then it was intermittent. Today it rained all day. Today it rained hard. Today I quit early. Today\'s agenda was to drive around Loch Lomond, Loch Tay and Scotland\'s first National Park, Trossachs. I was hoping to see great vistas and great bodies of water. As it turns out I did see these but through the haze of rain. After seeing three car wrecks in rapid succession on my drive, I decided to call it a day and head to my hostel in Glasgow. Here I found WiFi!
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Glasgow is the brash, unsophisticated, working class counterpart to Edinburgh. That may sound harsh but it\'s really meant to be shorthand for distinguishing the two. There are many impressive characteristics to Glasgow but its roots show through and color it\'s personality. For 50 years this was the ship building capital of the world and this can be seen in Glasgow today. There are no fewer than ten bridges going across the River Clyde just in downtown! A huge chunk of the city\'s streets have been turned over to pedestrian walkways which are really pleasant to walk along. There is more green park space per person in Glasgow than in any place else in Europe, but this is probably due to the fact that Glasgow is less than half its peak population since heavy industry moved out. One of the things I like best about Glasgow is that all museums are free, kind of like D.C. There are many good ones and I visited three. The Transportation Museum was a hoot as it took a real playful view to all modes of transportation. The People\'s Museum contained a history of Glasgow which I really appreciated, it brought me up the curves quickly. The Kelvingrove Art Museum was an art museum, enough said. :-) The first two were really enjoyable. There were many other things to do which I didn\'t have a hope of getting around to. I\'d have loved to have toured Glasgow University. The Science Center sounded very much like several Smithsonians rolled in to one. Outside the city center are many other things to see and I\'d especially have liked to have learned more about the great ship building industry which once dominated the economy here. Ah well, for when next I visit Edinburgh ....
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