Our weather luck has run out.  A mostly rainy, at times windy, day, with a bit of sun.  After our breakfast of fruit, porridge and homemade bread, we drove to Mount Stuart, the home of the Marquess of Bute.  A massive, beautiful home in the Gothic style. We walked through the kitchen garden,  which had huge beds of thyme, mint, rosemary and sage, amongst many other growing things.  The rosemary was almost as tall as me!  Unfortunately, no photos allowed, so you'll have to look it up to see what it's like.  Then we proceeded to drive right round the island with a few side jaunts off the beaten path, the most memorable of which was to St. Blane's Chapel, which was the site of a monastary built in the 700's.  It was the worst weather of the day and we took the wrong track from the parking lot.  When we finally got to the site it was very quiet, protected from the wind, beautiful and peaceful and wild.  I took no pictures because it was raining,  but you can probably look that up too.  Finished up with dinner in Port Bannatyne, which is just north of Rothesay.

We were relaxing in the living room, organising plans for the next bit of our trip, when our hosts came in and offered us whisky and/or tea.  We said yes to both, and Joan mixed my whisky with Drambuie.  It's called a Rusty Nail, and I must say was very tasty!  Andy stayed out and chatted for a couple of hours - Joan has a cold so didn't want to socialise.  Also met Winston the cat, and Flute, Meg and Freddy the Black Labs.

Must get to bed, tomorrow is a big day in Dunoon for the Worlds. I'll be thinking of Sarah competing in Saanich!

Here is Ettrick Bay, on a sunny day the water is turquoise:

This is Port Bannatyne:

Wow, I am really getting behind here!

Monday I walked around Lanark again.  The museum was closed,  but I sat in the sun at Castlebank Park for a while. Walked to the train station and picked up schedules for when I leave on Wed.  I walked back to the hostel to read for a while, then went over to the hotel for a pot of tea and some internet.  I had a nice long text conversation with Brad, then a nice Facebook chat with Mallory.   Absolutely no rain today.

Tuesday I walked a woodland trail that took me through some farmland.  The ponies looked at me with some suspicion,  but didn't kick or bite as advertised.  I tried to sit outside in the sun again, but the wasps were too bad no matter where I went.   Came in to do laundry and pack.  No rain again!

Wednesday I left the hostel at 8:30 and after taking a bus, two trains and another bus, I arrived at Glasgow airport at 11:15 to meet Brad.  We picked up our car (a Vauxhall Astra) and made it to the ferry at Wemyss Bay around 1:20.  Grabbed a quick lunch and caught the 2:05 ferry to Rothesay.  It is really beautiful here, lots of Victorian houses on the waterfront, palm trees and gorgeous views up the Kyle of Bute.   We are staying in a nice B&B in a house that was built in 1850.  When we got here Brad went down for a nap and I walked back into town (about 1/2 hour).  Did a bit of exploring,  then walked back to wake Brad up. Went out for a nice dinner.  No Rain for the 5th day in a row!

Today was a research day at the museum and the library.  Got one obituary,  and found the record of a memorial stone in one of the graveyards.  Drove up to the church, but the stone wasn't there.  It was a flat stone, so the grass could have grown over it. We also had time to tour Rothesay Castle,  which was built in the 1200's and is right downtown.  After dinner we drove north to the other ferry (only about 20 minutes).  And I drove back!   I haven't driven a standard in 20 years, I impressed myself.  I even backed into our parking spot!  No rain again!!  Ok, it rained in the night,  but that doesn't count!

The suspicious ponies:

 Brad on the ferry:

The view out our window:

The Serpentine Road on Canada Hill:

Looking up the hill:

The view from the top of the hill:

Finally, internet!  I'm sitting in the pub at the New Lanark Hotel drinking a Strongbow and waiting for steak and ale pie.  It's my reward for hiking up the river this morning for about 2 1/2 hours, on a trail remarkably like the Canyon View in Campbell River.  Made me miss my walking partner, Cathy!

Now to summarise the last few days.  Got to New Lanark no problem, though the train from Edinburgh to Motherwell was running 35 minutes late.  No problem getting a seat either this time.  Switched trains to head south - it was absolutely pouring when we arrived in Lanark.  Didn't last long though.  Caught the bus for the ride down to New Lanark,  it dropped me right at the hostel.  Settled in for the night.

Friday I walked up to the town, about a 35 minute walk. Connected to the internet at the library, but the server wouldn't allow me to access my blog.  Wandered up and down the High Street, then picked up some groceries at Morrisons.  Got lost on my way back, but eventually figured it out.  Curse my sense of direction!

Saturday I toured the heritage site.  The hostel is in one of the old buildings, but they also have the old schoolroom, store, one of the mills and a couple of homes set up how they used to be, in various other buildings.  This was a very progressive place to live and work in the early 1800's.  It was still a very hard life,  but the owner of the mill didn't allow children to work until age 10, whereas in other mills they started at age 6.  Children went into nursery school at age 18 months and had to attend school full time until age 10.  Classes were offered in the evenings for both adults and older children.   There was healthcare for all, and Robert Owen planted the forest around here and encouraged the residents to take their excercise on the paths he built.  Of course this all benefited the running of the mill, but he believed that everyone should be treated kindly and have the benefit of education.   He cut back working hours to 10 1/2, and his mill production didn't suffer.  He tried to get his measures passed into law, but the government (pressured by other mill owners) wouldn't do it.  His ideas were the basis for the co-op movement.

This photo is of Corra Castle,  at the end of my hike today. It dates back to the 14th or 15th century.

I'm staying in the building on the far left.

Another view of the town from the path to the graveyard.

One of the falls on the Clyde - called Corra Linn.

This afternoon I'm sitting in the tea room on the Royal Yacht Britannia, waiting for my whisky cake to be delivered.  I thought that I would take advantage of their free wifi while I'm here.

I love how, in the fancier places at least, you don't get sugar packets, or even perfectly formed sugar cubes, but rather lumps of both white and brown sugar that look as though they've been chipped off a larger block.  The only thing is, they don't provide tongs, or an extra spoon, so I've been reaching in with my fingers.  It feels wrong, but I see no alternative.

Turns out whisky cake is a fruitcake, very delicious.  Feels like Christmas though!

Anyway, the day started out sunny, so I put on my capris optimistically.   And then, because I did all my laundry last night, I promptly spilled oatmeal on them! It doesn't really show, so off I went, walking to the Britannia, since it was so nice; it took about 35 minutes.  The tour is very informative, includes an audio guide, and is full of bits of trivia about the royal family and the crew (you know how much I love trivia!).  I wandered for a good two and a half hours, and yes boys, I read everything!

It's clouded over now, but I have my fleece, so I'm going to walk back up past the hostel to the National Portrait Gallery.  If it starts to rain, I may hop on the bus.

Well I've decided, if I ever win the lotto, a really big one, I'm going to hire the yacht for a private function and invite everyone I know!

Got to the Portrait Gallery too late to see the whole thing, but saw the entire top floor.  In addition to the portraits, they tell you the history of the period you're looking at, so I learned a lot about the Reformation, the Restoration, the Jacobites, how women were viewed and how this changed over the years, and how Scotland was romanticized.  When the gallery closes, no one says a word to disturb, the staff just let you go on looking until you're done.

Now for photos:

A couple from the Tattoo on Monday

My hike to Arthur's Seat - where I've been

And where I'm going (the top of that hump in the middle)

I didn't do the last scramble to the top

The only double bed on the Britannia,  brought on board by Charles for his honeymoon with Diana

The state dining room

My favourite portrait from the gallery, because the blue is so bright, but I've forgotten her name. She either was French or married a Frenchman.  It looks small but it's a full size portrait.

Well today is laundry day, so while I wait for my clothes to dry, I'll update you on my adventures.

Last night was the Tattoo, and it certainly did not disappoint! We could hear the fighter jet fly over, but unfortunately couldn't see it because of the low cloud.  Morgan Bamford (world champion from New Zealand) is the featured dancer, and she and all the other dancers were amazing.  I think there was much more Highland dancing than last time, in addition to the dancers from Singapore,  India (must be from northern India, as they looked more Nepalese), Trinidad and Tobago and New Zealand.  Not to mention the pipes, drums and marching bands.

Today I decided it was time for some excercise, so I started the day by walking up Calton Hill, which is quite close to where I'm staying.  There are some nice views of the city from there, plus a half finished replica of the Parthenon.  Then I cut across the old town at Holyrood Palace, and climbed up to Arthur's Seat.  This is the top of an extinct volcano behind the palace, and you can see across the Firth of Forth to Fife, as well as the whole Old Town and New Town.

When I climbed back down I headed up the Mile to the North Bridge,  then up Princes Street to Charlotte Street.  Oh the shopping!  If only I had room in my backpack...

Walked through the Edinburgh Book Fair, where Herself was giving a talk yesterday.  Then toured Georgian House, which has been restored to its original late 1700's glory.   Then back to the hostel for dinner and laundry.

I'll post photos later!  Oh and I've booked myself into the hostel at New Lanark for 3 nights after I leave here, if any of you care to look it up.

Sorry I couldn't post yesterday, but I was experiencing technical difficulties with my internet connection.  Before it cut out on me I got to Skype with Brad, Tyler and Shadow.  It was nice to see their faces!

Yesterday I made my way from the hostel to the subway to the train station.  I bought a train ticket to Edinburgh and jumped on the train with 5 minutes to spare.  I would have been better to wait half an hour for the next train though, as I ended up standing for the entire hour.  Oh well, I was standing across from some people from Edmonton, so we passed the time discussing the forest fire situation in central BC and Alberta.  Conclusion - the smoke is bad in both places.

Got off the train and found the hostel no problem, it's about a 15 minute walk.  I put my pack in a locker and headed back to the Mile to wander.  Edinburgh has such a different vibe than Glasgow, especially with the Fringe on.  Glasgow seemed more quiet and dignified, whereas Edinburgh has hundreds more tourists in the streets, different performances of street theatre every few feet and lots of people handing out flyers trying to get you to go to the shows.  I booked myself a tour for later in the afternoon at Real Mary King's Close, then walked back to the hostel to check in.  I've got a nice room and it was such a relief to be able to unpack and spread out a bit.  I walked back to the Mile for my tour.  It was an hour long and quite interesting, about the closes that have been blocked up by the surrounding buildings, but they still exist underground. We actually went down between 2 and 3 floors underground.  I walked back to the hostel, then on to the Tesco up the block.  They must have a theft problem, as they had two big east indian bouncers keeping an eye on everyone in the store.  Was going to eat, but the kitchen and dining room were overrun by French teenagers.  Went back up to my room and logged on to check my email, skype, textplus and facebook. Had a little FB conversation with Sarah, then my long skype with home.  Went back downstairs to have dinner around 8:30, but there was another round of French teenagers cooking and eating; I didn't want to wait so huddled in a corner to make dinner and eat.  Some of them were quiet, polite and cleaned up after themselves, and some were not and did not. Like teens everywhere I guess.  The ones who had to clean up after their friends who left were not impressed to say the least! When I came back to my room, I couldn't get on the internet, so I read a bit more then went to bed.

Today I got to Scotlands' People just after 10:00 and researched until 3:30.  Found lots of birth, marriage and death certificates and printed them off.  I walked over to the Tattoo ticket office to pick up my tickets.  Then back to the hostel to have an early dinner and try to avoid the French hoards.  Now I'm up in my room blogging for you.  I'll leave around 8 for the Tattoo,  which I'll write about tomorrow,  as it will be quite late when I get back.

The weather was a real mixed bag yesterday.  It was sunny and very hot on the train, but rained later in the afternoon.  Today is quite breezy,  mostly sunny, only spit rain for a couple of minutes this afternoon.

I have 20 minutes of internet left, so let's see if I can keep this short and type fast.

Fifty thousand spectators watching ten thousand pipers and drummers.   That's who I spent the day with.

And this is what I looked like.  Use your imagination - that's what the weather was like.

It was televised live and broadcast on a big screen.

This is a small part of one of the Bus Rows:

I took the subway back to the hostel and this is what I saw on the walk from the station:

I can truly appreciate what it takes to play the pipes in that weather.   My fingers were stiff with cold, I don't know how they do it, but good on them!

Yesterday I met a man from Dawson Creek, and today I ate lunch with a pipers' mom from Edmonton.  And when I say I'm from Vancouver Island, I've had a German lady tell me she's been to Victoria, and a Swiss lady who has camped in Tofino.  I remember the days when no matter where you were from in BC you had to say you were from Vancouver because no one had heard of anywhere else.

Tomorrow - the adventures of Donna getting herself to Edinburgh!

Ah, libraries - land of free WiFi.  I knew there was a reason I love 'em so much!

What did I forget to tell you yesterday?  Oh yes, school is in session here so in the late afternoon there are cute little kids in their uniforms everywhere, and lots of teenage girls in their mini skirts and ties.  And uniform shops in the malls.

Also I realized somewhere over Greenland that I left the charger for my camera battery at home.  Bummer!

Got another roommate last night, a twenty-something girl from Brighton named Gail.  She is attending a marine sciences conference here, and it's her first time in Scotland.  She's very nice.  Unfortunately, Stephanie locked her padlock key in her locker, so at 7:30 this morning there was a man with a boltcutter in our room.  Yay!

I've had a bit of a slow start this morning.  I was sitting on my lower bunk kind of hunched over, and when I twisted to reach for something, something in my back popped.  I think it's a rib; doesn't hurt too much, but still...

Yesterday at the Paisley library I found two obituaries, plus a few other references to possible ancestors in old newspapers.  Here at the Mitchell library their collection is pretty much the same as what I'll find in Edinburgh, so I'll wait and do my research there. So I've decided to walk to the cathedral, then stop at the Willow Tea Room on my way back.

Well it's evening now and I was hungry when I left the library so stopped at the Tea Room right away.  Here's what I had:

Delicious!

Off to the Glasgow Cathedral - very large, and impressive as cathedrals always are:

And what would a visit to a cathedral be without a tour of the Necropolis:

I've been able to text both Brad and Tyler today; it's nice to 'hear' voices from home.

I've been thinking, it sounds so romantic to live in a Victorian townhouse, but it really is impractical!  The heating, the never-ending maintenance, the cost of getting the fourth floor windows cleaned!  I guess I won't buy one while I'm here, no matter how tempting!

I'll start with an interesting little story from yesterday: when I was checking in to the hostel and the young man behind the desk found out I was from Canada he asked me which hockey team I support.  Let me add that his accent sounds maybe Eastern European.  I told him I'm a Canucks/Leafs fan, and he said it was too bad about the Canucks last year, but what with the new coach and all....  I said "You follow Canadian hockey?!?"  And he said "Yeah, I'm a Canadiens fan."  Hockey - the universal language.

I managed to stay up until 7:00 last night.  My roommates were two young girls, one 17 year old from England (Kirsty) and one slightly older from California (Lorna).  The Americans' parents are English and the girls' moms used to work together.  I told them not to worry about making noise when they came in as I had earplugs and they couldn't wake me if they tried.  They told me not to worry, as they weren't party girls, and sure enough when I woke up at 10:30 to use the bathroom they were both sound asleep.

Got up around 8:00, stripped the bed and packed everything down those 53 steps, dropped my backpack in to storage again, then realized I left my towel in the room.  Back up I went. Tonight I'm in another 4 bed dorm, so far just with a German lady in her 50's named Stephanie. She loves bagpipes, and it's a good thing because our room faces the park and we can definitely hear them!  I am now on the 3rd (4th) floor, which has added a bunch of steps to make it somewhere in the mid 70's if I forget something.  And the kitchen is in the basement which means from there to my room is 91 steps.  I think I can eat whatever I want here because I'll work it all off quick at this rate!

I took the bus out to Paisley this morning, which is about a 1/2 hour ride.  Met a sweet older man at the Paisley Abbey family history centre.  The Abbey is stunning by the way!  He bought me a cup of tea, gave me some advice on my search and generally chatted. He then sent me off to the archives at the local library where I spent several hours happily researching.  I found a few obituaries, but they weren't all that common in the 1800's.  They then recommended I check out the Mitchell library in Glasgow for further research (tax rolls - sounds exciting!).  As I was leaving it started pouring so I ducked in to a shopping centre and grabbed a hot chocolate.  By then it was just sprinkling so I walked back to the town centre and caught the bus back to Glasgow.  I'm starting to get to know the area, though I have to admit, I waited for the bus on the wrong side of the road this morning!

Here is the view out of my new room:

God, it sounds like someone is practicing the bass drum in the conference room right over my head as I sit in the lounge. Time to go!

I Have Arrived

After spending eight long hours at YVR yesterday (something I never want to do again) I have learned my lesson and will book my Harbour Air flight more than 5 days before I want to leave next time.  Somehow I managed to forget that I had to get off the island to start this trip!  The flight was uneventful, apart from the inevitable crying babies.  Don't worry, no puke.  Those of you who have traveled Air Transat before will be pleased to know that they've upgraded to a newer plane with touch screens on this run.   I impress easily.

I sat beside a nice couple from Prestwick who had been visiting their son, who is going to Bible college on Thetis Island.  Who knew there was a Bible college on Thetis Island?

I splurged on a cab to the hostel (bit of a hairy ride) and arrived about 5 hours before check in (cue repeat of YVR hell yesterday).  Ok, not really, there has been lots more to do here, even though I'm doing it all in a haze because I've been up 26 hours now!

I checked in the giant backpack to storage and switched to the mid-sized backpack. Then walked a pleasant 5 minutes in sunny breezy weather to Sainsburies, kind of like Tesco Express, but at a gas station.  Managed to get some fresh fruit and veg and avoid most of the overly processed stuff.  Pleasant walk back to the hostel to pack a lunch and head across the street to Kelvingrove Park.  (Speaking of crossing the street, I feel I take my life in my hands at every corner unless the traffic is forced to stop at a red light).  Sat on a bench and ate while listening to ... wait for it ... a pipe band.  Apparently everyone is feverishly practicing for Worlds later this week, and Kelvingrove is the place to do it.  This band was from New Zealand, I also watched one from Portland.  There are always at least two playing at any one time (it's a big park).  Literally since I got here 6 hours ago I have been listening to pipes.  And when the pipes stop for a bit the snare drummers are practising.  My room faces away from the park so I can't hear them from there, but in the conference room one floor below a bunch of people are practicing the chanter. For those of us who miss hearing the pipes when we're in our rooms.

I am staying in a 4 bed dorm on the second floor (like our third floor). And with the high ceilings that's 53 steps.  Fifty.....three.....steps.  Two of the beds were taken when I finally got in to the room.  I'm only sharing with these people tonight then I move to another dorm room for my other 3 nights.  I haven't met them yet but they can party all night in the room if they want and I won't hear a thing.

Getting back to my adventures, I wandered around the park for a while until I figured out how to get to Kelvingrove Museum.  I probably walked 3 times the distance I needed to, but didn't trust myself to read a map in my state of sleeplessness.  I figured I'd get there eventually.  There is no admission but I donated £1 and got great value.  I saw the Spitfire!

Well that is the extent of my adventures today thus far.  Time to get some dinner and head to bed early. Will post photos tomorrow!

T Minus Two Days

In two days I will be at Vancouver International Airport on my way to the trip of a lifetime, but for now, I'm still at home, kinda halfway packed, and wondering if I'll have time to get everything done I want to do before I leave.  I have very mixed feelings about this trip, because my travel partner, my mom, is unable to join me.  I'm excited to have the opportunity to experience a month in Scotland, but I also feel some trepidation, because at the age of 49, I have never traveled any great distance by myself.  I have traveled to many places across Canada and the States, and even Scotland, with family and friends, but the furthest I've gone by myself is Campbell River to Prince George, which is about 1000 km.  That is a very familiar route for me, so was never a big deal, but this is something much different for me.  I know people who travel alone on a regular basis, and I know it's something that one gets used to after a while, but this will be a new experience for me.  I feel trepidation, but also exhilaration; the fear of the unknown, but knowing that something great is waiting once I get there.