Scotland & Ireland Adventure – Day 9

Ireland

Monday 3^rd November 2014 – Cliffs of Moher & Bunratty Castle

& Tuesday 4^th November 2014 – Travel day

Hitching rail for the horses

Up and at ’em early in the morning again and it was a little bit of a sad morning, knowing that it would be our last full day together before some of us went home the next morning (or back to England in my case).  Knowing we were going on a ferry again today I had a light breakfast and then decided to have a little explore of Killarney in the daylight why I still had the chance.  The weather was very much like it was in England and so sure enough it rained a little on and off, but at least I did get to see a little more of Killarney before we left. It is indeed a very nice small town with some interesting things around, such as a sign stating the European towns Killarney is in connection with (including one in Bavaria!).  I made it back with plenty of time to get back on the bus without anyone having to worry (although I am sure Mary was still worried about me regardless).

Twinned towns

Statues in Killarney

Killarney Pub

Killarney (photo courtesy of Carrie)

Ireland

It was then back on the bus driving through Ireland with the lovely green countryside and rainbows David explained that the rock walls that you could see through are called ‘laze walls’ and the only thing holding them together are rocks.  They have them so the cattle can see through them to the other side and realise the grass is just as greener where they are and also so the wind can blow straight through them.  We had a few minutes waiting for the ferry but it certainly wasn’t long of a wait.  We drove onto the ferry to cross the River Shannon but this time we all stayed on the bus as it was raining outside (open top ferry) and it was a shorter trip.  But of course I moved around the bus and got to talk to the couples from Virginia and learn a little bit more about Virginia and ‘The South’.

Waiting for the ferry

Waiting for the ferry

Ferry wasn’t far away and onto the bus again we went

Irish beach

Irish beach & excavator

Surfs up (too cold for my liking though)

We arrived at the breathtaking Cliffs of Moher (a spectacular wall of sandstone that reaches 700ft above the Atlantic Ocean) and got in a few good photos before the rain started.  The path has been made a little safer back from the edge with a fence, however that didn’t stop a few people from climbing over to try to get that better photograph.  As Bill, Mary and I started to head back down a tourist (who looked about my age) stepped aside and waited for us to pass instead of pushing through as most would and as she kept eye contact with me (rare in England but not Ireland) I said “Thank you!”, she then replied “You’re welcome!” and this had me intrigued.  Firstly a lot of tourists aren’t this polite and second her accent was very familiar but I couldn’t quite place it.  I think my face must have given everything away as she replied to my surprised look “Australian?”, as I answered in the affirmative she explained that she was from Western Australia and was travelling around by herself (Although I think she was with a tour group).  It was nice to hear her accent as it reminded me of the beach, the Australian sun and surfers.  I’m not familiar with the WA accent at all really so once she explained that she lived a few hours out of Perth I realised why her accent sounded familiar but I couldn’t place it.  It’s a small world as I didn’t have to explain where Charters Towers was (West of Townsville is usually the best answer as most people know Townsville and the Great Barrier Reef) because she has cousins in Ipswich and in turn knows Queensland fairly well.  We didn’t stop and talk long but it was nice to finally come across another Australian and another solo traveller at that.  We got some photos of O’Brien’s tower (a.k.a. The Last Erection) but then it started to rain quite heavily so we decided to go inside to the coffee-house, watch the movie (which wasn’t all that interesting or informative) and check out the gift shop before our time was up and it was back on the bus again.  Later Kevin explained that the Cliffs of Moher are in the movie ‘The Princess Bride’ as The Cliffs of Insanity.  I had never heard or seen the movie before so it didn’t mean much to me at the time but I have since seen it and loved it.  Apparently the actor came out early before the shooting and climbed the Cliffs to prove that he could (before he would have to do it carrying two people) but then the director explained that they could shoot it all in the studio and that he would never have to actually climb the cliffs (I am sure that information would have been nicer to know before).  If you watch the movie you can definitely tell which ones are real shots of the cliffs and which shots were filmed in the studio but either way it is quite impressive that he did manage to scale those steep, jagged cliffs!

O’Brien’s Tower

Cliffs of Moher & O’Brien’s Tower iPhone pano

Old track and rain

Looking information telescope (first language was Gaelic)

Bill & Mary with the Cliffs of Moher trying to get the best photo of the castle

Cliffs of Moher

Panorama courtesy of Jeremy

On the bus again

Still a bit of flooding

It wasn’t long before we were checking into the Bunratty Castle Motel (no not the actual castle) with a little free time in the afternoon.  We went down and explored the Bunratty Mills and Mary managed to do some last-minute shopping that she wanted to do.  A lot of places offer shipping to different places so you don’t have to fit it into your suitcase to take it home (although I recommend Australians ensure they have room as it is not cheap at all to send to Australia but the US was a pretty reasonable price).

Bunratty Castle Motel

Inside Bunratty Castle Motel

It was then off to the Bunratty Castle for a memorable medieval-style feast where lords and ladies serenaded us with song and harp and fiddle music from the Medieval Ages and put on quite a good show.  We started in one room and were given honey mead (just as nice in Ireland as it was in Germany).  It was explained that the term ‘honeymoon’ came from the tradition that on their honeymoon newly weds were supposed to drink honey mead for a full moon month.  It is said to help fertility and virility (working like Viagra).  Along with the mead we were served bread with salt, a lot of people didn’t realise it was salt and in turn put quite a lot of it on their bread thinking it was a dip.  It really didn’t go well with mead at all (both not bad on their own) however we were told it was a sign of friendship to eat bread and salt together.  We also learned a little bit about the castle that started as a wooden structure in 1251 and was burned, rebuilt and burned again.  Then they finally built a the stone castle in 1425 for the O’Brien seat.  The lords and ladies explained that we were going to be in a bit of a fantasy (all pretend to be a part of the act) and they were very clever and added good humour along the way.  They ensured there were no enemies among us as they would have been put in the murder hole and had boiling water poured upon them (safe to say there were no enemies among us).  We learned the castle toast which means good health and long life (I have the video tape of us repeating it but I still can’t remember exactly how to say it).  Our Earl and his lady were chosen from our group as the honeymooning couple from New York and they played into the act very well.  We moved into the dining hall and the tables were quite impressive.  Our whole group could fit on one table, with others, and we learned that because we were in medieval times there was no cutlery and we were to eat with our hands (obviously I didn’t think this was quite a problem, it is pretty common to have food you eat with your hands at an Australian BBQ and if you have ever worked on a property especially out mustering cutlery is the last thing you think of when you are eating what’s in your saddle bag).  We started with bread and soup and it was quite easy to drink out of the smooth wooden bowls.  Ribs was the next thing they served and they even provided us with knives which made it easy enough.  We were allowed finger washing bowls and napkins and as we ate and drank the wine (one end of the table was enjoying the endless jugs of wine a little too much).  The Earl had to give his approval of the food however the butler did have to try it first and did put on a good act of being poisoned to only inform us that it was a trifle hot.  We did have someone in the castle who had to be sent to the dungeon, Patrick who the butler described as “too young and…bald to go to the dungeon”, because he had been trifling with the ladies of the castle!  Of course our gracious Earl sent him straight to the dungeon however he did let him come back out and he had to sing to entertain us as punishment.  The butler of course didn’t let this go on too long as it was meant to be a punishment for the prisoner and not for us ladies and lords. 😉  The ladies and lords of the castle in costume sang some beautiful traditional songs and played beautiful music with the harp and violin.  We were served a desert called ‘Lovers’ kisses’ and you were supposed to spoon-feed (yep they slipped up again and gave us spoons) all of it to your partner (thankfully not everyone did this or did it the whole way).  We had a great night singing, listening and thumping on the tables as applause.

Bunratty Castle

Harp & Violin

Honey Mead

Fantasy

Our Earl and his lady

Singing

Eating with our hands

Long tables

Other end of table

Listening to the singing

Kevin & Carrie clapping to the music

Me & Mary (photo from Carrie)

Long tables

The bus then went the short trip back to the hotel with some however there were a few of us who decided to go to the 400 year old pub and have a last drink with each other.  It was here that we met up with a few others from our castle feast  including more Canadians and I met another Australian Tina from Wagga Wagga and we both had to explain that Wagga Wagga is indeed the name of a town in New South Wales.  Tina was travelling by herself having hired a car (she would have been in her late thirties I think) and was staying at hostels in Ireland and I was surprised at how cheap her trip was.  It made sense then if Ireland is a lot cheaper than I had thought then that could have been why my trip was such good value for money and I think travelling Ireland by car would be a nice way to see it to be able to stop whenever you want and go at your own pace.   Now I had no choice in whether I was drinking or not as I was handed a hot whiskey with Audra (or a hot toddie as the English call it) and I can say now I would rather drink it straight, but at least it was warm.  We all continued talking and I realised that I was perhaps way too sober for the conversation with the others having been drinking wine all night but we managed to make a travel plan.  2016 I’ll make my way and travel through Canada and America (in Summer of course) and then whoever wants to will come back with me for a trip to Australia (in our Winter).  There is a plan to do a road trip from Melbourne to Perth across the bottom of Australia so we will see when we will all manage to make these trips happen and I informed them they will always be welcome to stay at home – as long as Dad got to put them to work of course.  Eric was one of the main travel planners however communication has to be limited to snail mail or through the other couple from Virginia (poor Will had a bad tooth ache for the last of the trip and didn’t come out that night and Rebecca went back to join him instead of coming to the pub) as in his opinion “The internet is just a fad.”  It was a great night talking, planning and dreaming about more travel before we had even officially finished our current trip.

400 year old Pub

Inside the pub

Audra & Me with our hot whiskeys

Me, Eric & Audra

Inside the smaller room of the pub

Making travel plans

As you can imagine it was quite a stumble back to the hotel as I tried to keep us off the road but eventually gave up as we walked in the middle of the road back to the motel.  It was when I got back to the motel I realised I had to be completely packed up ready to leave on the shuttle bus to the airport before some (including Bill and Mary) would even be awake for breakfast and I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye properly to them as they didn’t come to the pub.  So I sat down and wrote a letter, we had already exchanged details but it was nice to say goodbye and as Mary later said it was a much easier way to say goodbye (or more goodbye until I get the chance to get over to Boston and visit).  Therefore early in the morning a few of us left for the airport and said goodbye however luckily Audra, Jeremy and I worked out we were on the exact same flight so we stuck together at the airport and I got to talk and learn a little bit more about them which was really nice.  When we got to London the fog was still too thick so we couldn’t land and had to fly around in circles until it cleared and it seemed we weren’t the only planes having to do this (Classic London, the fog was only over the airport.  The more time I spend in England the less I like it.  However due to the fog only mainly being over the airport and I had a window seat I did finally get to see a lot of London from the sky).   When we finally landed in London I lost Audra and Jeremy when I had to get my bag so I didn’t get to say goodbye properly but I am hoping it won’t be too long and I will get to see them both again soon, and thankfully Facebook keeps most of us connected now.  I grabbed my bags and then realised I needed to catch a train in the airport to get to the right place to catch my bus.  Being half asleep and not registering in my brain that the train at the platform was not the train that was on the sign leaving in 2 minutes time (or more arriving) I of course got on the wrong train (had to happen sooner or later didn’t it!).  Thankfully it wasn’t too much of a big deal as the exact same train went back the opposite direction and then became the train that I needed (so technically it was the right train but the train staff were a little amazed and confused as to how I was already on before the doors had been opened from their security check).  So being tired and annoyed of solo travel already I then realised just how big the airport was and how easy I had it the other times I had flown out of or into that airport.  I had to wait a little while for the bus but then at least I knew my way back to Oxford.  I arrived late in the afternoon, exhausted and hoping I wouldn’t get called into teach the next day (thankfully I didn’t).

Last morning in Ireland

Flying over Ireland

Flying over Ireland

Flying over London

Flying over London

Well sadly this is my last travel blog.  My next trip, which starts in a week, is a Europe Contiki Tour where my friend Danielle will join me and we will explore 13 European countries in 23 days before flying home to Australia in early January.  I won’t have time on Contiki to blog and when I get back I will have to start preparing for full-time teaching so I won’t have the free time that I have had doing supply teaching in England.  Thank you all for reading and commenting and I hope you have enjoyed this blog as much as I have and I promise to still post Facebook updates about my travels through Europe.

Scotland & Ireland Adventure – Day 8

Killarney Plaza Staircase Group Photo

Sunday 2^nd November 2014 – Killarney, Ring of Kerry & Skellig Experience

Jaunting Cars

A beautiful cold morning in Killarney and we had a little bit of a later start for breakfast in The Plaza and then our first activity.  I forgot to mention that I worked out that in the cold climate my iPhone really does not like charging properly regardless of what it is connected to.  A way around this I have found is best to have a portable USB charger and warm the phone up by either putting it on the heater for a few minutes until it registers the charger, using the motel hair-dryer and pointing it at the cable connection to warm it up until it registers the charger or (as I did in England) putting it in a warm place such as inside an ugg boot.  I just thought I would share those handy tips in case you come across a similar problem in colder weather.  So with my phone and camera fully charged, and after we got the photo on the million euro staircase in the Plaza (not sure if the gold flecks were actually gold but it’s hard to see why it should cost that amount and we had a few missing as some slept in and of course we left others in Scotland) it was off to experience the Jaunting Cars (horse and carriage rides).

Me & Marissa up in the front

Killarney is a small country town but a nice pretty town itself and the views around are quite spectacular and so despite the cool weather we were really looking forward to this.  I found a carriage with Bill, Mary and the Canadian family and joined Marissa up the front of the carriage for a ride.  The driver Cal asked if I needed a hand up but as soon as he pointed out where I could step on the wheel I climbed up easily enough by myself.

In the carriage

It was at this point that they started asking who the single traveller was, and as I mentioned before I was the only one travelling by myself and the rest were pairs, four or a group of three, and that the single one had to ride with Michael as the driver.  Well I figured it must have been a numbers thing and went over to join the other cart.  Ron was already up the front and the others were already in the back so Ron went to move to the middle and let me sit on the outside.  However this is when I then saw Michael who was on the ground getting the horse ready and he replied “No, no, Colleen you need to sit in the middle and then you will be like a rose between two thorns.”  Haha okay this is the moment I then realised what they meant by ‘the single one’ as I sat in the middle and wondered if it was David the bus driver who had dobbed me in or not but was certain this was sure to be an interesting carriage ride.  I chatted with the others in the cart as of course it really didn’t bother me that I had moved as I enjoyed talking to everyone on our trip and as Kevin and I finished our conversation Michael climbed up to take the reins and introduce himself.  I must admit it was nice to see a man dressed in jeans and boots again and I was starting to feel a lot more at home.  Now a lot of Americans, Kevin especially, and even some Australian television shows pronounce my name more ‘Carleen’ and it was through my explanation to Michael when he asked how to say and spell my name that I learned the Irish spelling for Colleen is ‘Cailín’ and I guess that is where the different pronunciation comes from.  Michael was a great conversationalist from the start with his jokes and explanations and we all really enjoyed the ride while we admired the impressive view from his company car.

Killarney Golf Course

I asked Michael how long he had been at his job for and he replied that it was his first day but not to worry that we were in good hands.  I believed that it was his first day but wasn’t at all worried as I knew enough about horses to know that they would all practically drive themselves and I certainly know how to make a horse stop if I needed.  So then I asked what he did yesterday then if it was his first day on the job today and he laughed and replied that he was a fifth-generation driver with his family’s company and that he had been doing his job fifteen years.  Haha yes I should have known better, my excuse is I was on holidays.

Driving the jaunting car

However Michael never missed a beat keeping the conversation and the jokes flowing.  We stopped at one of the 9 golf courses and it was here that he explained the GOLF acronym and the 18 shots in a whiskey bottle that I mentioned in my previous blogs.  You could also see the mountains in the distance (the rain hadn’t started yet) and Michael explained that if you can see the mountains that is a sign it is going to rain.  “Okay.  Then what does it mean if you can’t see the mountains?” I asked.  “Well that means it is already raining!”  Haha I take my hat off to you Michael – you got me twice!  He offered to let me drive however having ridden many horses before (and knowing that was too good an excuse for a man I just met to be able to touch my hands to guide me to steer – yes mother I do listen) I passed the reins over to Ron so he could steer for a bit (however I had to guide him a little with him having no experience and Michael enjoyed watching and keeping the conversation going).  We passed the reins back, but after a little while Michael offered them to be again and after I assessed that Michael was clearly a nice guy I steered the cart for a bit (not realising until the end that I was the only one offered this option – haha yes I have always been a bit slow with these kinds of hints).

We continued to drive through Killarney National Park and onto Ross Castle set on Lough Leane.  Michael explained that we were in no danger of snakes in Ireland as St Patrick got rid of the snakes long ago – well except for the politicians that is!  (I did tell you the Irish had a good sense of humour and poor Michael is going to have to get some more jokes now after I have revealed them all to you – sorry Michael!).  He explained that politicians are like bananas…. they are green at the start and not one of them are straight!  Michael kept us all laughing and the cart in front of us (the one I was first in) also broke out into laughter at times and so it seemed all the drivers were good with entertaining their passengers.  It started to rain a little and get cold and Michael made sure we had blankets to stay warm as he explained that he works eight days a week (haha I think I have heard that from my family before!).

Ross Castle

Lots of flooding around in Ireland too

We stopped at the castle and the rain was a lot heavier as I got the camera out to get some photos and then quickly came back to the carriages to put it away (not worth water damage to the camera).  As I came back I realised I didn’t have a photo of the horse Daisy and took a photo as Michael came over to check that I was alright and offered to take a photo of me with Daisy.  I asked if I could get a photo with him as well when he cheerily replied that he would get Cal (one of the other drivers – the one I started with) to come and take the photo for us as he called out to the other two having a break huddled in the carriages they had covered up to block out the rain.  Now Cal is quite an older man and he came bounding out of the carriage smiling with his false teeth and I was starting to wonder why he was so happy to take our photo.  As he tried different angles and was clearly taking his time Cal said that Michael was looking for a wife and asked if Michael had told me that.  I replied honestly that no he hadn’t mentioned anything of the sort and that is when Cal replied that he heard I was single! Haha and that is when everything finally made sense to me.  I replied that I promised my grandmother I wouldn’t fall in love with an Englishman and we agreed that an Irishman was much different – however the concept of living on the other side of the world still applied.  I must admit Cal was being a pretty good wingman but they left me be as I packed away the camera and then ran to catch up to the others to have a look at the ABC and I was glad to have the excuse to run a little as I was frozen in that rain out of the blanket. Yes I was wearing a dress but when you pack lightly there are only so many pairs of jeans you can pack and so much time you have to do washing on a short trip.

Posing with Daisy

Daisy, Michael and Me (yes that’s Michael’s hat on Daisy – I did tell you he had a good sense of humour)

Cal & Ally

We enjoyed the ride back as the rain settled down a bit and we were delivered to our bus ready for most of us to embark on the Ring of Kerry drive while the others explored Killarney at their leisure.  Michael graciously gave me a hand-down although I think I shocked him a little when I used the hand he offered me to jump down (as I do from the back of utes or trucks) rather than daintily climb down and then he helped all of us cross the street after we took some photos and said goodbye to the horses.  Michael also said the company Killarney Jaunting Cars was on facebook and for us to like them and rate their driver, and said that he would possibly see us later for a drink – he’d bring Daisy.  As I hopped onto the bus I wondered if that would be true as I was pretty sure we had no plans for tonight and therefore I wasn’t sure where he thought he was meeting us.  We started on our drive through the breathtaking sights of mountains and coastal views and so with the wi-fi back on the bus I did find the company page and write a review.

View from the bus

Irish sheep

We enjoyed looking at the countryside as we drove on the bus and were grateful to be back in the heating for a while.  We went past a 350 year old cottage with the old-fashioned split door and saw oghan inscriptions (old Irish language).  Now I am not sure I mentioned before but everyone in Ireland has to learn Gaelic (Irish Language) while in primary school at least and it is recognised as the first language of Ireland and anything from Europe is printed in both Gaelic and English for those in Ireland.  However a lot of people forget it as if you don’t use it you lose it (such as the Japanese I used to know) and Michael mentioned that he didn’t know any so he never spoke a word of it.  Cal (his wingman) on the other hand told quite a different story to his passengers.  Now apparently Michael and I were quite the subject of conversation for Cal in the carriage I started with, which was proof when I was asked a few questions by the others.  Mary explained that Cal was telling them that Michael would say ‘such and such’ (whatever it is in Gaelic that is) and then say that it means “You have beautiful eyes”, then he would say ‘whatever it is in Gaelic’ and then say that it means “You are a beautiful girl.”  Then Cal said he would finish by telling me ‘something in Gaelic again’ but then when I asked what did it mean he would reply “I’ll tell you in the morning.”  Well this was too much for my adopted grandmother Mary and she vowed then that she would keep Michael well away from me!  (Poor Michael you have to remember that he never said anything in Gaelic to me nor anything like that at all, and it was only Cal who ever said anything like that but it certainly added a good element to the story and explained why a lot of the time they looked back at us before they laughed!).  Now after I wrote the review Michael added me on facebook and we had a few conversations and I can tell you now that he certainly got his payback on Cal for us being the butt of a joke (but I won’t reveal how)!

350 year old cottage

Ogham (old Irish language)

King Puck

Skilleg experience

We continued on the Ring of Kells and could see Misch mountain as David called it and therefore according to Michael’s weather predictions it was going to rain soon.  We stopped at a store and they served us Irish coffee while we browsed (now I don’t like coffee and not the biggest fan of whiskey but I tried it and it wasn’t bad and tasted like chocolate, coffee and a little bit of whiskey) and we were certainly grateful it was nice and warm (I enjoyed holding mine more than drinking it).  We kept driving and went across a bridge to Valencia Island to visit the Skellig Experience (which is in a building made to blend into the landscape.  However I could pick it miles off as the roof was just covered in grass.   However the grass was a different shade to the green grass around it.  Nevertheless other people found it hard to see at a distance and I am not sure if that is because they didn’t realise what they should look for or I have just had more experience at looking at grass at a distance – good long distance eyesight can certainly save you time and energy when mustering cattle).

Skilleg Monastery

The Skellig experience described the austere lives of early Christian monks on the nearby islands.  In better weather you can go and visit the islands and see where these monks spent many hundreds of years living on the island away from people so they could be closer to God. They carved 400 steps and built places to live and a chapel.  The monks lived mainly off what birds or an occasional seal they could kill and traded these with merchants who sailed through.  We had a lovely lunch and admired the gift shop when a great downpour started (I guess the mountain weather prediction works 😉 ) that some people suffered through. The Irishman running the establishment told us it would be over in 30 seconds and to just wait so we waited and sure enough pretty much dead on 30 seconds it eased right up so I could even take some photos before hopping onto the bus again.

View from Skellig Experience

We then continued our journey around the Ring of Kells and David informed us they have an unwritten agreement with the other coaches and touring companies that they all go the one way (anticlockwise I think it was) to limit the amount of traffic that passes each other on the small roads.  He also informed us that in some places there were no last names and that when there is an ‘O’ in front of a name it means ‘Of the Clan’ therefore “O’Connor” means they are from the Connor clan.  We took in the views of the Lakes of Killarney and what they now refer to as ‘The Ladies’ View’ which stems from the admiration of the view given by Queen Victoria’s ladies-in-waiting during their 1861 visit.  We certainly were reminded that we were in Ireland by the rainbows, the green grass, the ‘Leprechaun’s crossing’ sign and the deer you could see throughout the national park.

Back over the bridge

Easily see the stone walls in the paddocks

More flooding

Back to Killarney

We got back and were on our own for dinner.  I asked Michael a few places he recommended and he gave a few suggestions one being a nice Irish restaurant down the street but recommended getting reception to call first to see if they were open.  I met Bill and Mary at their room and we decided to try it, after having read some good reviews online, however reception was busy when we got there so we thought we would try our luck.  It was of course now pouring rain and so the walk down the street wasn’t too pleasant and when we got there we saw it was closed and the sign said they weren’t open on Sundays.  So we went back and found a nice restaurant where we sat and shared some really nice pizzas that were clearly freshly made.  We then decided to go and find a bar so Mary and Bill could say they experienced an Irish singing bar.  As I was walking along I said “G’day” to a man walking past and realised that was the first time I had said that out of habit since leaving Australia and it was clear that I was feeling quite at home in Killarney (what made it even more strange was the man was actually in full Scottish attire including a kilt – and we were in Ireland).  We didn’t hear any singing in the pubs but as we went past one we saw Kevin and Carrie sitting inside and so we joined them.  As soon as we sat down and had a chat Mary and Bill decided they would go back and made me promise to stay with Kevin and Carrie (I think Mary was worried that I was going to be abducted without them and was relieved she didn’t have to stay at the bar long). There was an American grid iron game on the TV in the bar and an Irishman asked if he could join our table with the good view of the screen.  He eventually mentioned something about it being a silly game and I agreed with him.  I then had to explain the rules of rugby league to Kevin and Carrie, to explain that the game we were watching was called grid iron and not what every country called football.  Also they had taken the free-time in Killarney option and had come across a rugby-league game but were at a total loss as to what was happening or how they were keeping score.  We then had a discussion about the different sports that were popular in different countries and I found that not one of the Americans on my trip knew what netball was.  I had to google it and show them that it was an Olympic sport and that they had a national organisation in America.  Kevin is a huge basketball fan and he asked if high-top shoes were worn and when I replied that only the basic joggers were usually worn he stated that there must be a lot of rolled ankles.  Having rolled my ankle for the first time at the start of the year when I started playing netball I had to agree with him!  Kevin informs me that a player who used to be a soccer player who turned to basketball tried to wear normal running shoes and rolled his ankle playing so instead had to get used to wearing high-tops – I may just have to look into that instead of having to strap my ankle – thanks Kevin.  We had a good time talking and Shamus (the Irishman) was good company and of course we bonded of our mutual dislike of how unfriendly the English are and how friendly the Irish are (as of course I had to agree that an Englishman wouldn’t normally sit down and start a conversation like that and that Ireland and Australia seemed to be quite similar in many ways.  Kevin and Carrie still hadn’t anything to eat so we ended up back at the same restaurant Bill and Mary and I ate at while we swapped stories and I showed them some photos and videos of home.  It was a great night and we didn’t stay out too late ready for another big day tomorrow (although I was quite sad knowing it would be my last full day in Ireland).

What could have easily been the logo for our trip!

Heading out (before the layers)

Scotland & Ireland Adventure – Day 7

Dun Laoghaire, Dublin

Saturday 1^st November 2014 – Farmhouse, Blarney Castle & The Blarney Stone

Another early start in the morning, breakfast before the sun came up and on the bus as it was rising.  We had a big day to get through and we were all a little excited, even if it did mean we were back on the bus again.  We had a lovely breakfast as always and hit the road.

Inside the Royal Marine Hotel

Sunrise silhouette

We travelled through the midlands of Ireland and stopped to take some photos of the stately Rock of Cashel where we could also see (through the rain) the ruins of Hore Abbey down below.  The Rock of Cashel was always owned by the O’Brien’s King.

Rock of Cashel

Hore Abbey Ruins in the distance

Race track

There were also some horses and a race track that we passed and David stated that it was the only left-handed track that he knew of.  However I did some research and there are quite a few right-handed and left-handed tracks throughout Ireland.  He pointed out a plant with yellow flowers that looked pretty enough but is poisonous to horses (fortunately I think you can see for yourself that they certainly aren’t starving with plenty of green grass to eat).  David also informed us that Ireland is indeed well-known for its horses and that the Nation Stud owner used to read the horses’ stars (I am talking astrology star signs) before he would purchase them.  As he believed this affected their racing ability and temperament.  (I will have to remember to ask Nan or Dad if Grandad ever used this strategy for his purchases of racehorses – somehow I seriously doubt it).

Farmhouse built in 1798

Inside the farmhouse for scones and tea

We soon visited a very large and pretty farmhouse that was built in 1798 to have tea and scones and watch the sheep dogs herd sheep.  The scones of course were delicious and everyone was excited to see the sheepdogs in action however it was raining quite heavily that day with a very cold breeze so we were certainly making the most of sitting inside with our tea and coffee while we could.

Then it was time for the two sheep dogs to show us their stuff.  The farmer went down to the fence of the paddock and sent the dogs around and whistled and called directions as they herded the sheep together and pushed them down to the gate.  They did this very quickly (a little too fast for my liking) and the sheep were clearly used to people as the dogs tried to push them through the gate even though we were essentially in their vision and what I would have considered in the way.  As we stood there with cameras watching and leaning over the fence and I mentioned that we were in their way the dogs got the sheep that were going the wrong way along the fence and skilfully pushed them through the gate into the new paddock and kept them in a mob.  They did this very well although I know quite a few people who use dogs with cattle and sheep and I mentioned that we have a saying “The only thing more stupid than a man who works sheep, is a man who works sheep without a dog!” (haha clearly the saying comes from cattle graziers but the dogs certainly are worth more than their weight in gold when it comes to moving sheep as the farmer really didn’t move at all and just gave orders but the dogs were also thinking for themselves).

Friendly sheep dog

The farmer (yes that’s right sorry I have forgotten another name again) came up and spoke to us about his farming practices and I was impressed with the interest and the questions the group asked.  The dogs were fairly old one being the 9 yr old daughter of the other and they have always been his dogs.  The farmer does 6 month controlled lambing (so they control when the rams go in and when they come out to control what time the lambs are born) and they have a barn where they keep the sheep separate so they can watch the sheep and make sure they are looking after their lambs.  Standing there in the cold and the wet in November I can understand why they put animals in the barns during Winter on this side of the world.  It is too cold and wet for the country to dry out properly and the sun never gets warm so it is much nicer inside out of the wind.

Irish Sheep farmer

Huddled under the umbrella

After saying our thanks and goodbyes it was back on the bus and off to Blarney Castle to kiss the Blarney Stone!  It was still raining quite heavily when we got there so we hurried along to the castle (it was a bit of a walk) and it was hard to do battle with the wind with an umbrella but then the rain was too cold on my head – yes I have a new appreciation for a jacket with a waterproof hood!  (I had never really had much need for one before).  Some of the others upon reaching the castle and seeing how wet and slippery it was decided against going up and headed off to explore the other parts while many of us pushed onwards and upwards to the Blarney Stone!

Blarney Castle

Inside the castle

We explored the castle that once again had some small windows, low doors and narrow, winding stairs.  We came across where they said was the kitchen (however it is the first kitchen that I know of to be at the top of the building and I wonder how they got everything into the castle.  Did they have to carry everything up the stairs, was it hoisted over the open area in a different room or were they mistaken as to where the kitchen really was?).  I kept climbing to the top and there were two men there at the Stone of Eloquence.  Now it was raining and quite cold so I was certainly grateful the two men were sticking it out and at least there were very few tourists around.  The stone is part of the castle wall but it’s not at an easy spot to get to, they used to hold you by your legs as you bent down to kiss it but of course health and safety wouldn’t allow this so there are now bars where you can also hold yourself.  I had to sit down with my back to the wall and then lie down and shuffle to be able to bend underneath the wall to kiss the stone.  I had to keep wiggling down and was a little concerned as to how far over I had to lean in order to kiss the stone.  I held onto the bars while one man held my legs and the other took my photo – I was glad that I am only light and not very heavy!  It was quite a scary experience as all you can see below you is the ground which is quite a long way down and you realise you are upside down with someone holding your legs as you bend down to kiss a stone!  It wasn’t until I looked at the photo afterwards that I could see there are also two bars below where you lean that would catch you if you fell but when you are upside down they are out of your vision and it is quite scary.  A few of the group did it and it was over too far that Carl, who is quite a tall man, actually couldn’t bend down enough to kiss it.  But those that have kissed the stone are now said to be blessed with the gift of eloquence.

View from Blarney Castle

Blarney Castle & Stone

Kissing the Stone

Inside Blarney Castle

Inside Blarney Castle

I then explored around the castle a little bit and went into the ‘Poison Garden’ where the sign asked us not to touch or taste the plants – I can’t say that eating the food in a place that is called ‘Poison Garden’ would have been my first instinct.  It was still raining heavily (my camera was staying out of the weather and it was only my iPhone being used) and I saw a sign that mentioned a waterfall so I decided that sounded good.  The next sign told me it was a 45 minute walk and I only had an hour until I had to be back on the bus.  So I went and took a quick photo of the stable cafe and then headed down to the Woollen Mills to check out the items for sale and more importantly have some lunch!

Poison Garden

Stable Cafe

Castle Path

Cave near Castle

“ABC”

By chance I met Bill, Mary and the lovely Canadians for lunch and so we joined together to swap stories and eat before hopping on the bus.  It was then onto the small town of Killarney (one of my favourite places and I will have to make a point on visiting the Killarney in Australia to see if it really is similar).  We often saw different things along our way including a lot of “ABC’s”  now if you hear someone say ABC as they point in Ireland it stands for ‘Another Bloody Castle’ and I now understand why they say it as they seem to be scattered around everywhere!

We had been upgraded from our hotel to The Plaza and had a few hours to relax for a bit and then have dinner in The Plaza (yes never thought I would say that sentence in my life).  It was indeed quite lovely with complimentary robes to use and wear if you wanted to go the spa (the three ladies travelling together opted to wait for the elevator when we came down for dinner as there was a man dressed only in a robe in slippers going up to the spa and even though he graciously allowed them to share the lift they politely declined and waited for the next one).  In the plaza there is also a million dollar stairway that we were to take a group photo on the next day (that will be in the next blog).

The Plaza

We had a lovely meal and the staff were very friendly and polite and then I found a companion in Carl (Marissa decided the day had been too much and headed for bed) to experience one of the Irish singing pubs in Killarney with (Mary was happy I was going with Carl as she was worried about me around Irish men – I told her they couldn’t be much worse than some young Aussie men!  But I couldn’t be in Ireland and not go out.  I think David was a little disappointed all the other nights when I hadn’t gone out on the town as he had picked the young Aussie girl to be the one out partying every night and late on the bus – sorry I really let down the stereotype there).  Carl and I had a great time listening to a wonderful young Irish singer who although he only looked about 19 had a really deep amazing voice and played some Irish and American songs.  It was also good to be get a chance to talk one-on-one with Carl as I got to know a little bit more about Canada (Carl and Marissa have already visited Australia before and were reliving some memories) and more about himself and Marissa – including their pet bunny that I am sure was happy to see them when they returned home.  Kevin & Carrie also came into the pub and were going to join us but got talking at the bar.  When it was time to go we went over to say goodbye and got caught in the conversation they were having with a very drunk Irish woman named Katrina who said she was a civil engineer.  We talked to them all for a little bit and Katrina picked something up off the floor as we were about to leave (which was impressive as she was a little too drunk to stay on her bar stool) and the luck of the Irish must have been with me as it was my room key that had fallen out of my pocket!  I am not sure how I would have managed to get into my room or as Carrie mentioned who else might have joined me in my room if she hadn’t found it so thank you Katrina!   The four of us then went back to the Plaza for a good night’s sleep in preparation for tomorrow’s jaunting car and Ring of Kerry adventures!  (Don’t worry I will explain in the next blog).

Irish Bar

Scotland & Ireland Adventure – Day 6

St Patrick’s Cathedral (no longer a cathedral but Protestant church)

Friday 31^st October 2014 – Dublin & Canal Dinner Cruise

After another great breakfast (we couldn’t fault the food in Ireland as it was still as great as it was through Scotland), similar to Edinburgh, we started our morning on our bus with a local tour guide.  Our tour guide named Mary, who also had a wonderful Irish sense of humour, taught us a bit about Dublin and its history as we drove through it.  Mary was one of thirteen children as her parents were good Catholics who didn’t drink, but didn’t have a TV.  Therefore growing up in a big family surely would have helped her in becoming accustomed to all of the people in Dublin as it is a very large city with one-third of the population of Ireland living in Dublin.  Mary informed us that a thousand years ago the Vikings came and raided and then it was the Britains who built round castle towers with canons on the top to defend against Napoleon (who of course never came and the castles are still scattered throughout Ireland).  The English were invited over by an Irishman however apparently overstayed their welcome by over seven hundred years!  (I’m sure we all know visitors like that who overstay their welcome).  In 1973 Ireland joined the European Union as a poorer country (Northern Ireland is still part of the United Kingdom).  In 2008 the banks collapsed in Ireland (similar to everywhere in the world) and the Irish Republic nearly went bankrupt but it was Europe that saved them.

Georgian door (once painted black)

Dublin has a lot of Georgian architecture (which I explained how it got his name in another blog and is one of my favourite kind of building designs as I much prefer the smoothness of it over the sharp Gothic style) and with these buildings are nice old doors.  These doors were ordered to be painted black once before when there was a death of an English Monarch so everyone painted their doors black.  However when the men came home from the pubs (remember this is Ireland and there are 750 pubs in Dublin alone) being dark and all the doors black and looking the same they would get lost and not know their way home or what house was theirs.  Therefore they decided to paint the doors different colours and there are a range of differently coloured doors including yellow, red, blue and still the occasional black door.

The Dawson Lounge

One of the 750 pubs in Dublin includes The Dawson Lounge which is the smallest pub in the world.  It is so small you can fit only one person in it and you can’t fall down in it so as David said it’s not very good for Ireland. 😉 Oh and yes I managed to get a photo of it next to the jewellery store which may have been where a joke I have heard came from.  A man was shopping with his wife when it all got a bit much and the man slipped away while his wife was busy in a store.  When she was finished in the store and realised her husband wasn’t there she rang him to find out where he was.  When she asked where to find him he replied “Do you remember that jewellery store where you saw that diamond necklace that you loved so much?”
“Yes!” his wife excitedly exclaimed.                                                                                                              “Well I’m at the pub next door to it.”

Molly Malone a.k.a. The Tart with the Cart

We drove past the statue of and family home of Oscar Wilde the author of “The Importance of Being Earnest” ad “How to be a Good Husband”.   We also drove past St Andrew’s church and the statue of Molly Malone.  Now for those who, like my family, are fans of Mrs Browns Boys you will have heard of “The Tart with the Cart” well Molly Malone is who they are talking about.  Molly Malone was a fish monger by day and I guess you can guess her profession by night be her nickname and there is even a song written about her although it is argued who Molly Malone actually was (you can read more about her and the lyrics to the song can be found here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molly_Malone)

O’Connell bridge

We drove over the River Liffey a few times which is a tidal river and is home to the widest bridge in Europe – The O’Connell Bridge (which is actually wider than it is long), that was built to compensate for the large amount of traffic that travels through Dublin.  The bridge is named after Daniel O’Connell who was known as the Liberator or the Emancipator who through his knowledge of the legal system and laws campaigned for Catholic Emancipation and repeal of the Act of Union (which combined Great Britain and Ireland) as well as being a liberator of anti-slavery.  O’Connell was greatly respected by Queen Elizabeth as he managed to liberate the Catholics without any bloodshed at all, which I think we can all appreciate in any century.

On one of our crossings of the River Liffey we came across the Spire of Dublin or the Monument of Light (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spire_of_Dublin) which is a is a large, stainless steel, pin-like monument  that is 121.2 metres in height.  The locals have a few other names for this 4 million euro structure including: “The opinion poll” (due to everyone having an opinion on the structure including if it was worth the price); “The stiffy in the Liffey” and; “The Erection in the Intersection” (I’ll let you figure out where they may have devised the last two names from).

Trinity College

Dublin is home to three Nobel Prize winning authors and with its 750 pubs and Trinity College it is quite the popular destination for writers to visit and live. If you want to learn a little more about Dublin’s Literacy history and places to visit you can read more about it here: http://www.visitdublin.com/pdf/literaryguide.pdf.  We did in fact visit Trinity College which was founded by Queen Elizabeth the first and when it was built four hundred years it was in the countryside however now it is in the middle of the city as Dublin has built up and around it.  You’ll notice in the photos there is quite a slope that clearly shows it was built on a bit of a hill and is sloped to prevent flooding.

Trinity College

We arrived at Trinity College and were introduced to our Irish guide Joseph who is a professor at the university.  Now I seemed to be one of the few who noticed that our Irish guide had an English accent (a very high class accent that actually sounded quite put on).  I later got to ask Mary if Joseph was Irish and she explained that he was born in Ireland but his mother had high hopes for him and so sent him to finishing school which cultivated an English accent.  He wasn’t quite as entertaining as our other guides and gave the impression that he thought he was a ‘cut above the company’ and certainly didn’t answer kindly when an American asked if Trinity College had sororities and fraternities similar to the ones in America.  No they don’t and students have tried to start them but have been unsuccessful in their attempts as the university doesn’t want to be associated with such organisations.  Nevertheless Joseph did tell us the story about the shooting of a professor at the oldest building “The Rubrics” in 1734.  Edward Ford was then Fellow of the College and a few students after being out drinking one night came through the Front Gate, beating the porter stationed there, being quite boisterous and got a strong scolding from Ford.  They went back to their rooms and made a plan to go back at midnight and break Ford’s windows.  However Ford responded with a pistol and shot at the group, injuring one, and then ordered two undergraduates to summon a porter.  The students quickly dispersed and returned to their rooms only to gather their own firearms and return to Ford.  A Scholar urged Ford to remain in bed, but he refused to listen, and he went to the window in his night-dress to admonish the students further. The crowd fired, and Ford received shots to the head and body. He was then moved downstairs, and a surgeon was summoned. After two hours of agony, he died and in his last words, asked that the students be forgiven.

“I do not know, but God forgive them, I do.”

The court ruled that because it was a college prank gone bad the four students were not charged of murder (especially as it was hard to determine what actually happened from contradictory evidence and reports and because the Front Gate porter had also been drinking).  However they were expelled from the college.  Joseph mentioned that he was sure a few students, and hinted even he himself, would probably like to do that to some of his colleagues (and I am sure my university friends will know which lecturer of ours immediately came to my mind).

The Old Library

We also got to go into the Old Library where we learned about and saw two parts of The Book of Kells.  Now I had heard about Trinity College before but never The Book of Kells.

The Book of Kells is celebrated for its lavish decoration. The manuscript contains the four Gospels in Latin based on a Vulgate text, written on vellum (prepared calfskin), in a bold and expert version of the script known as “insular majuscule”.

The place of origin of the Book of Kells is generally attributed to the scriptorium of the monastery founded around 561 by St Colum Cille on Iona, an island off the west coast of Scotland. In 806, following a Viking raid on the island which left 68 of the community dead, the Columban monks took refuge in a new monastery at Kells, County Meath. It must have been close to the year 800 that the Book of Kells was written, although there is no way of knowing if the book was produced wholly at Iona or at Kells, or partially at each location. (http://www.tcd.ie/Library/bookofkells/book-of-kells/)

Basically the Book of Kells is a very early version of the bible (four books to be exact) written by monks in Scotland on calf skin (a little different to the leather that we know and they always used calves – about 400 of them).  It is very lavishly decorated with pictures all throughout the text and two of the books are on display in the Old Library opened up to view (but of course no photography allowed).  We got to see the library that houses hundreds of thousands of books however most students don’t use it (as of course most are irrelevant and outdated now. I once got reprimanded my a lecturer for using an article that was ten years old {the same lecturer who quoted from a text fifteen years old – hypocrisy at its best} and so I am sure they wouldn’t be impressed with students using books housed in the old library).  There are also interesting things in cases that show the history of Ireland and Great Britain and some famous figure heads that I am sure you would recognise such as Shakespeare.

The Old Library

Shakespeare

Tiny children’s Bible

Presents to soldiers from Princess Mary

Soldier’s medals

Old Library

Missing windows

We then continued our city tour including seeing some buildings that clearly were affected with the window tax and stopping to take a photo of what once was known as St Patrick’s Cathedral (pictured at the top of the blog).  The Catholics were suppressed for many years in Ireland and the Protestants took over a lot of the main cathedrals and eventually the Catholics were allowed to build new Cathedrals but they had to be small and out-of-the-way outside of the cities and towns.  The Protestant congregation that now uses St Patrick’s cathedral is quite small.  We were asked to guess just how big the congregation is and there were guesses from thousands to a few hundred (which I would have guessed) however there are now only 50 people as part of the Protestant congregation that use that large church.

Guinness Factory

It was then onto the Guinness factory!  Now Guinness is also known as liquid viagra and seeing as Arthur Guinness and his wife had 21 children (10 who made it to adulthood) I think it’s quite possible there’s a truth to the nickname.  Arthur Guinness inherited some money from a relative who passed away and invested in a brewery outside of Dublin.  A few years on he went to Dublin and set up his own business, taking out a 9,000 year lease (yep nine thousand years) for an annual rate of 45 pounds! (Now that’s a smart businessman) .

Wooden barrels that were once used and made by coopers

We learned about the ingredients and the brewing of Guinness (such as we did in the whiskey distillery) and we also learned a little about the cooper trade.  A cooper is the person who makes the wooden barrels or goes around and smells for foul barrels and repairs them.  It used to take seven years to be a cooper and when you finally finished your apprenticeship they stuck you in a barrel you made with some Guinness and rolled you around in it.

We were given samples of Guinness and taught how to drink it properly (including how to breathe as you drink (gulp) it – I’m not kidding).  Now I’m not a beer drinker and I liked it better than what I usually do but I couldn’t finish the small portion but I must admit it was good and tasted a bit like beer, coffee and chocolate mixed together.  Guinness is known as the black liquid but it is actually a rosy red which you can see if you hold it up to the light.

Rosy red Guinness

Learning how to drink Guinness properly

Taste test

We were allowed to explore the many levels of the Guinness factory after the tour and given a voucher that entitled us to a free pint of Guinness (or softdrink).  We went up to the top bar which had a panoramic view of Dublin with information about what buildings you are looking at printed on the glass.  However it was packed full and it felt more like a club with the crowds, Guinness and music and we quickly decided to go down to one of the quieter bars.  You could take a class on how to poor Guinness properly and get a certificate but we were more interested in getting our drink and then going somewhere in the city for lunch during our free time.  As Bill and I waited for the drinks and asked the bartender if we could take Bill and Mary’s stouts after they were poured and settled we got a free lesson on Guinness pouring.  It was very nice of the bartender to share this with us as other people were paying for it and lining up to do it themselves.  He poured the Guinness first as you would a beer (tipped on the side to prevent too much froth and too big a head) pulling the tap handle towards him.  The Guinness came out very pale looking as the two gases nitrogen and CO2 reacted and caused a lot of bubbles.  Once it was settled (and this is when we asked why we couldn’t take them) the bartender then pushed the Guinness tap handle away from him to top up the drinks and they fizzed again as they were filled to the brim.  The bartender explained that when he pulled the tap it added the Guinness and the two gases but when he pushed it away it added just pure Guinness and it simply reacted with the gases that were already in the glass.  By the time he finished explaining this we could take the drinks (which had now settled twice and had the black look) and thanked him for his lesson.

Top Bar

Info. printed on the windows

There was plenty of other things to see in the factory including the Guinness monument that is made from Ash wood from America and topped with Irish lace to look like a pint of Guinness.  This monument took five artists 600 hours to complete and tells the story of Guinness.  The harp is a trademark of Guinness and Ireland wanted to use it on their money but had to have it backwards due to copyright on the harp already belonging to Guinness.  Within the factory there is a harp in a glass case that will play if you touch the glass (clearly the glass is attached to music as the strings themselves don’t move as yes of course I tried it).

Guinness Monument

Guinness Harp

Now please don’t laugh at me, as I am sure I am not the only one, but I never made the connection with Guinness the drink and the Guinness World Record books before this trip (please tell me I’m not the only one?!).  Apparently the idea for the Guinness world record book came around when a few men were talking over some drinks (Guinness of course) and wanting to know things such as ‘What is the fastest bird in the world?’.  They soon came to realise there was nothing to help tell them this information (especially as this was well before the Internet and search engines such as Google) and thus the idea of the Guinness World Records Book was born!  They have a display in the Guinness factory of the Guinness World Records books and other merchandise.

Guinness World Records

After a little while we were then let loose for some free time in the city for a little bit.  We were in search of a pub for lunch and actually struggled to find one (not sure how they hide 750 pubs) and found a coffee place to have lunch in instead and found it remarkable that we came across two young homeless men in a matter of a couple of blocks (Dublin city has one of the highest homeless rates in the world).  Bill and I wanted to find a camera shop for a few things (Bill forgot his camera charger in America) and luckily we had topped up my English phone that had free Internet and using the GPS we soon found one close by.  We had an added bonus of coming across Frozen characters in the window of a Disney shop which Mary took some photos of for the little girls she babysits.  We then did the tourist thing and had a look in the shops for any bargains and of course I had to get my keyring (I have quite the collection already from all of the places I have visited on my trip) and I found a good luck shamrock to help try to change Carrie’s luck (the one who not only had her bags lost but also had a trip to the hospital in Scotland).  We managed to get back to the bus early and missed the pouring rain that the others got stuck in.  It was then off to our canal dinner cruise.  We cruised along the canal and went through many locks and under bridges in a former Guinness barge through Central Dublin.  We had a wonderful singer singing Irish music and some American cover songs (Billy Joel seemed to be a favourite of Irish singers throughout Ireland) while he played the guitar and he also played the Irish flute for us (videos on facebook).  I am sorry to say I don’t remember the singer’s name but I did remember he said he was from a big Catholic family and had 6 brothers and 3 sisters as he informed us “I never knew what it was like to seep in my own bed….until I got married!”  Haha I did have a good chuckle at that one!

Our ‘restaurant’

Irish flute

Irish singer

We had a three-course dinner while we listened to the music and also went on the deck to enjoy seeing Dublin from the canal.  Marissa reminded me before I went out to duck if we come up to a bridge (they are quite low and most people would indeed have to duck).  When I went up, there were already a few up on the deck including Eric who coincidently enough has the last name of Foster and so is hoping when I get back to Australia I can send him a t-shirt with it on (or an Australian flag).  After I replied that I’d be happy to send him something if he sent me something (rather than money) I took some photos of the approaching bridge and turned around to go back downstairs so I wouldn’t have to duck.  Now Eric is quite a bit taller than me but was clearly looking at the bridge as we approached it so I didn’t think I had to remind him to duck but I should have as staring right at it Eric smashed his head right into the stone bridge as the boat went under it.  We were moving very slowly so I knew it wouldn’t have done too much damage and so I laughed out loud at poor Eric and his pain (sorry Eric!).  The singer was great and had us singing and clapping along (although his timing for the clapping song wasn’t the best and he had an intermission while we were in-between courses instead of perhaps when we were being served our meals).  We had good craic (pronounced crack) and I was glad to finally know what craic was!  If again you’ve ever watched Mrs Browns Boys you will have heard them say that they had good craic at a party (craic means fun or can mean funny depending on the context).  We continued on until the bus picked us up and we watched everyone in their Halloween costumes out-and-about in the city and viewed and heard fireworks on our way back to our palace like hotel (photos in the next blog I promise).  Ireland always have fireworks for Halloween however not for New Years (so one of the wait staff at the hotel informed me).  I think England celebrate Halloween with fireworks too, however one night makes it special and worth it but when I got back to England it was still going constantly every night at different times for two weeks (obviously it is legal for people to buy them and release them safely at their discretion and they have some miserable weather conditions to deal with).  However it is safe to say we all slept well that night and were looking forward to Blarney Castle and watching working sheepdogs the next day.

Guinness stew as one course

Back of the boat and captain

Front of boat

The bridge Eric hit his head on

Heading home on the bus

Some of the songs the singer sang:

Wild Rover https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_4KboYi40I

Whiskey in the Jar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBcRDln6I7A

Sweet Sixteen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WonYt3wOLcE

The Old Man https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNL_wGZgV5Q

(The Irish music and songs reminded me quite a lot of Slim Dusty and his style of music and then I remembered his grandparents were Irish and his Dad was born in Ireland but moved to Australia when he was a baby but still sang and played a lot of Irish music which would have influenced Slim Dusty).

Scotland & Ireland Adventure – Day 5

Scotland

Thursday 30^th October 2014 – Titanic Belfast & Dublin

Today was more of a travel day and not too adventurous, I only took photos on my iPhone this day so I apologise for the quality of the photos but it gives you the idea for the day.

It was an early morning and a race to catch the ferry.  We had to skip our scheduled rest stop as David was worried we were going to miss the ferry.  We raced past some interesting scenery seeing some more cattle, sheep (a lot of sheep painted to say they have been dipped or that they belong to a certain farmer), donkeys, tower ruins and an old abbey.  We even saw black-faced sheep that had wool that was more yellow in colour than white (most sheep in Scotland and Ireland are meat sheep and the few that are used for their wool often have their wool sent to India to be made into carpets).  We went past more wind farms and I remembered that Gordon (our Scottish tour guide) had mentioned that the wind farms had been so successful in Scotland that they had to upgrade all of the powerlines.  The wind farms were producing more energy than Scotland needed and they needed to upgrade the powerlines so they could put more energy back into the grid (well done Scotland).  Through Ayrshire we travelled and then along the coast.  David soon informed us that we had reached the Irish Sea which would have currently been about ten degrees.  He said “If Joseph was to go swimming in there he would soon come back Josephine.” 😉

On the bus again

Driving along the coast

“Whit’s Yer Hurry?”       We have to catch the ferry!

As we drove past the sign “Whit’s Yer Hurry?” I realised the Scots clearly have a laid back attitude similar to the Bavarians in Germany.  However sadly we were in quite a hurry to catch that ferry and couldn’t take our time to sight-see.  We also passed a lot of stone-wall fences that seemed to be built around a barbed-wire fence (not sure if this is done for look or strength) and some fields where they are entirely clear except for the fence-lines which still had a lot of trees growing along them.  We try and clear trees and especially wattle from our fence lines as they grow up and through the fence and weaken or break the fence.  Therefore I am not sure if these trees don’t grow any taller and so they are safe to stay or if the farmer just hadn’t gotten around to clearing them away again yet.

Stone wall fences

Irish Sea

Uncleared fence-lines

We drove the bus onto the ferry and departed only ten minutes after we drove on, so luckily we didn’t stop or we would have missed it!  We got off and were allowed to explore the ferry which had many levels and included a cinema and gaming room for children, a casino, a spa retreat area, a trucker’s bar, a cafe, a restaurant and a shop.  We had a lovely meal on the ship and it is the first time I have had to use my motion sickness tablets as the ferry may have been large but you could really feel the unevenness and it was hard to walk around and the pressure was giving me quite a headache.  I would have much preferred to curl up and sleep on the ferry like many of the other passengers but Mary, Bill and I continued to explore the ship and even the shop (which wasn’t solely Irish and Scottish based products but had quite a collection of American products such as “Yankee candles”, why you would want to buy candles from America when going from Scotland to Ireland I do not know).  After quite a lengthy stint on the ship (at least an hour and a half from memory) we landed in Belfast.

Our ferry

View from the ferry

We visited Titanic Belfast and learned about the famous liner which was built in the adjacent docks.  Yes that’s right the Titanic was built by the Irish….and sunk my an Englishman (yes indeed the Irish do love to tell it that way).   They have the SOS messages and communication from the Titanic and other ships there for you to read, the chairs outside of the building spell out the SOS the Titanic sent in Morse code and on the floor throughout the building and outside of it is a compass and one of the biggest maps of the Northern Hemisphere in the world.  We also learned about some of the working conditions of the ship builders.  For instance they take you up to the top of the building (the third floor) to look down and then tell you the workers were at a level that was 3 times that (9 levels high) without any harnesses or safety equipment.  They were only given fifteen minutes for lunch breaks and if they were late they had their pay docked.  So as you can imagine this didn’t leave much time to go to the toilet and so they had to have a toilet bucket up there with them that was brought down and emptied each day in preparation to take it up again the next day.  The exhibit also showed what some of the rooms on the Titanic would have looked like and the people and their life histories of who were on the Titanic (the different classes and even the workers who worked in the different classed sections of the Titanic).

Titanic Belfast (in the shape of a ship)

Titanic being built

Titanic

Time clock

Workers worked at 3 times this height with no safety equipment

One side of the Titanic

Inside one of the rooms of the Titanic

Inside one of the rooms of the Titanic

Another ferry at the docks

There was a lot to see and even a ride, but we opted to not go on the ride and tried to skim through as we didn’t have too much time before the bus was leaving and I had also run out of credit on my English phone (which is my internet source and therefore important for staying connected to my family and friends in the different places of the world).  So we raced through and then Mary and I asked someone where we could buy phone credit and found the Irish man to be just as helpful as everyone in Scotland had been and within 10 minutes we had a nice fresh walk, got the phone credit put on and were the first ones on the bus ten minutes early.  It was quite lovely to go for that walk after being on the bus, a ferry, and then in a large building all morning and even better as it wasn’t raining!  I wouldn’t call it a clear day as there always seems to be some kind of cloud in the sky in this part of the world but it was a nice dry day for the moment.

We then drove south to Dublin crossing from Northern Ireland (UK) into the Irish Republic (EU) with the only difference really being the lines on some of the roads went from white to yellow.  David was now in his element being back on his home turf and with some of the strange questions he was getting from one of the other tour group members he replied “You have a one-track mind…and even that’s derailed!”  He even helped us spot the local wildlife and we saw a MAMIL in its habitat.  For those of you unsure a MAMIL is a Middle-Aged Man In Lycra (middle-aged men who wear tight lycra clothing, similar to professionals, while cycling through streets on bicycles).  After dark we finally checked into our hotel in Dublin which looked very much like a palace and we wondered how this tour continued to top the accommodation each and every time.  It was lovely to get back to the hotel room as in it was the largest bed I have ever seen and I was even more impressed with the tour that even though I was travelling by myself and there was a group of ladies travelling in three I had my own room throughout the whole trip.  We were then left to our own devices for dinner and Bill, Mary and I had a lovely dinner at a chicken place on the Bay (although it was a little bit of a cold wet walk on the way back we were still enjoying ourselves as we were now officially in Ireland!).

On the bus to the hotel

Largest hotel bed all to myself

Scotland & Ireland Adventure – Day 4

Green Scottish Field

Wednesday 29^th October 2014 – Edinburgh Castle & City Tour (Last full day in Scotland)

The Country Club

We were all very excited today, not just because of the wonderful breakfast at the Country Club – yes we were staying at the Country Club in Edinburgh!  But also because we had a full day in Edinburgh exploring the city for our last full day in Scotland (no long bus trip).

We met our guide Linda again and we set off for a tour of Edinburgh in our bus with Linda navigating as we went (and today I had the front seat, just a shame it was only for a little bit of the tour and not one of the longer days).

Front of the bus for me

We toured the city and Linda informed us of some more stories such as the story of Queen Charlotte who was known to be an unhappy queen who was married to the Mad King George who is said to have a disease (most likely an STD) that turned his pee purple and to whom Linda said she had 19 children with (researching more it seems they had 15 children and 13 that survived into adulthood but why let that get in the way of a good story) and so it is no wonder the poor woman was unhappy!  A lot of the buildings are heritage-listed and residents are allowed to do anything to the inside of them but not to the outside.  Therefore there are a lot of houses still with a lot of chimney pots on the roof as there used to be a fireplace in every room (now they have electric heating).  There is also some buildings where the windows are simply painted on because the parliament decided to add a tax for windows as they considered them a luxury and not a necessity and this is where the saying “Daylight robbery” comes from as having less windows in houses robbed them of daylight inside them.

“The Last Drop” Pub

Chimney pots on the roof

There is a statue in Edinburgh of a dog known as Greyfairs Bobby who is famous for having guarded his master’s grave for 14 years until he himself passed away.  The Queen allowed him to be buried within the cemetery and is one of the few animals that have been allowed to be buried on church grounds so he could continue to be with his master.

Greyfriars Bobby

 In Edinburgh there is also quite a famous university and it was Joseph Lister who once studied and operated as a surgeon in Edinburgh who first realised the connection with diseases spreading and unsterile operation tables/areas and introduced the antiseptic spray.  There was also a story, relating to the university, about a man named James who studied in the university who I am sorry to say I can’t remember what it was that ‘he’ studied and I think it may have been psychology but it came out later on that ‘his’ name was actually not James.  It turns out James was actually a woman who disguised herself as a man so that she could study at the university (now that’s a determination to learn).

We went past the markets and learned that there was a scale at Tron where you could weigh what you bought if you thought a merchant had cheated you.  If they were found to have cheated they nailed their ears to the scale and left them there for 3 days and then when it was time to release them instead of taking out the nail they simply ripped them off the scale and tore off the part of the ear (very similar to the English cutting off the ears). The merchant would then have part of their ears missing and buyers would then know they had cheated someone before and this is where the saying “Ripped off” comes from. As the people were ripped off by the merchants and then their ears were ripped off.

Georgian Architecture

There is a lot of history with the old town and new town of Edinburgh (although new town is only 200 years younger than old town) and there is a lot of nice Georgian architecture that was inspired by Roman buildings and is called Georgian as that is when there was a long reign of King Georges on the throne.

We continued onto the Queen’s park which is in the middle of the city but built around an old volcano (inactive a million years or so) and it is said that if you wash your face in the dew from the top on May 1st you will have eternal youth (apparently our driver David said he hasn’t done it enough times so that story may not be entirely true).  Near the park was the drained lake that was the polluted lake that I mentioned in my last blog that the people in Edinburgh also drank from.  This lake is also where they tested if a woman who was accused of witchcraft was actually a witch or not.  They would bind the woman’s hands together and her feet together and then drop her in the lake (that was known as Nor Loch or North Loch).  If she floated then obviously the devil was holding her up by her petticoat to save her and she was clearly a witch so then they took her to the castle and burned her.  If she didn’t float but sunk to the bottom then clearly she wasn’t a witch (but it didn’t really matter too much as clearly by that time she would have drowned).

Queen’s Park

View of Edinburgh

One story that is told by a lot of our Scottish tour guides was that of Mary Queen of Scots.  Mary is said to be quite a romantic figure but after listening to the story of her life, and especially that of her love life, I will never complain about mine again!  I will try to do this story justice although like many stories passed down through time there are different versions and facts with each account.

Mary’s father James the fifth was dying after losing a battle with the English and was looking forward to news of his wife giving birth to a son so that his son could continue on the battle for Scotland.  When Mary was 6 days old her father finally heard that his wife had a daughter and the Scots say that he died then of a broken heart knowing that he had no son to carry on the fight.  Thus Mary became Queen of Scotland at less than a week old.  The English King soon wanted Mary to be betrothed to one of his sons however the Scots did not wish this and so Mary was sent to live and be educated in France with the Royal Family.  Mary fell in love with the prince and they married at a young age (14 or 15 which was quite common in those days) and a few months later her husband’s parents died and her husband then became King of France and Mary became Queen of Scotland and Queen of France.  However sadly her husband died within a year and heartbroken Mary went back to Scotland at age 16 with her Italian secretary (I have now learned that her husband’s brother then only 10 years old became the King of France).  Mary then had a lot of attention from Lords because of her power as Queen and soon married Lord Darnley.  Lord Darnley didn’t love Mary and only wanted her power and had many affairs, however Mary was soon pregnant with his child.  Lord Darnley was jealous of Mary and her Italian secretary who it is said had private Catholic masses together (Scotland was very much Protestant at this time now) and organised for the secretary to be killed.  The Italian secretary was stabbed thirty-seven times in front of heavily pregnant Mary and Lord Darnley hoped that the shock would make her abort the baby and possibly kill Mary in the process.  However Mary fled from Holyrood Palace to her Mother’s castle (Edinburgh castle) a mile away and safely had her baby James.  Lord Darnley’s house was burned down and he was later found dead outside of it which made it seem that someone planned it and that it was murder.  There were rumours that Mary made it happen and also rumours that perhaps it was the Earl of Bothwell.  When the two were married a few months later suspicions seemed more likely to be the truth.  However he didn’t love her either and the Protestants fought back against Mary, she surrendered and was imprisoned and Bothwell fled to Norway.  Mary was made to then abdicate her throne to her one year old son King James the sixth.  Mary escaped and then went to seek help from her cousin Queen Elizabeth the first in England who she had never met.  However Queen Elizabeth’s people distrusted Mary and arrested her.  Mary was under house arrest for 18 years.  There was a lot of Catholics wanting a revolution and although Mary was never involved as long as she lived it gave them hope and so Queen Elizabeth eventually charged Mary with treason and signed her death warrant.  James the sixth king of Scotland continued to rule with the help of Lords and when Queen Elizabeth the first died without marrying or producing any children he was the closest heir to the throne and thus became King James the first of England and Scotland.  James moved to London and loved it so much he only came back to visit once and lived in London and ruled Scotland with his pen.  (I always thought that the bigger country England took over Scotland but it seems that the Scottish King inherited England).  It sounds like a much nicer story for King James (the sixth or the first depending on if you are Scottish or English) then it did for Queen Mary.

Holyrood Palace

Not far from Holyrood Palace was the public bath house for everyone to take their yearly baths (yep that’s right – yearly).  It was here that some people learned about one of the reasons brides carry bouquets (don’t ask me how I already knew this as I can’t remember).  Because baths were only yearly occurrences the bride would carry a bouquet to mask the smell, sometimes of herself if she didn’t have a bath but more so, of the congregation in the church as she walked up the aisle and so would walk up with the flowers under her nose so that was all she could smell.  I also know that the tradition of most weddings happening in June is because a lot of people would have their yearly baths in May (due to the nicer weather) and therefore would be at smelling their nicest still in June.

Bath House

Finally we ended our city tour at Edinburgh castle, we had to walk a little up the Royal Mile and went past a few buskers playing bagpipes or pretending to be invisible and any other tricks for the tourists.  We got to the castle and Linda explained that there was a church in the castle that one leader used to store guns in once upon a time and that there were a lot of canons around and one that still worked.  This canon they fired off everyday to keep everyone on the correct time and, as true Scots, rather than firing at 12 and having to fire off twelve shots they fired it at 1PM so they only had to fire one shot (to me that is smart thinking not being cheap).  We actually managed to witness this coming to where the canon was unknowingly at the correct time and seeing a huge crowd we soon realised what it was when we heard and saw something being shot from the canon as the tourists waited and videotaped the canon (sorry I didn’t get a video as it wasn’t until it was shot that I realised I could hear and see it from where I was).  In the castle there is also a very small cemetery strictly for the dogs that served as mascots for the army.  The Crown Jewels and Stone of Destiny (that had been stolen from different people throughout the years and had different Kings and Queens stand on it as they had their coronation) are also within the castle walls.  We waited a long time and had to read the history of the jewels and the stone through different levels of the tower and were a little disappointed when we got there (we weren’t allowed to take pictures of course).  There was a septa, a necklace, some earrings, a crown, a sword and its sheath and belt, and the Stone of Destiny was simply a very big rock.  We explored the castle a little and the a little bit more of Edinburgh.  We learned that some of the buildings in Edinburgh are made of sandstone and so very black as they can’t be cleaned.  If they try to clean the sandstone it wears away and so they have been instructed to leave them as they are.  Soon we opted to take the shuttle bus back to the hotel for a bit.

Busker

Edinburgh castle entrance

Inside Edinburgh castle

The dog cemetery

Edinburgh castle view

Where they fired the canon

Castle built into and on strong rock foundation

Church in Edinburgh

We were on our own for dinner so we decided to meet at a pub just a little walk away that David recommended to us.  As we got back to the Country Club hotel the sun was just starting to set so I raced over to take some photos of the green fields.  I had to dodge a golf game that was happening (but the New Yorkers went through the course first so if they could do it without getting yelled at or hit in the head I figured I could too).  I got some photos of some sheep (two of which were fighting until they saw me and were like two school children waiting for the teacher to turn away) and also of some cattle further away (but I couldn’t see any hairy Highlander cattle).

Sheep & cattle

Sheep caught fighting

We then met for dinner and David was going to town so drove us closer to the pub, now luckily I listened as to what street we had to go down as no-one else seemed to so I led the way.  It was a lovely pub and very much like Australia where you go to the bar and order your meal, then get a ticket or go to the buffet.  This isn’t customary in America and it took us a little to work out exactly where we had to go and when (even I struggled with some of the accents in the pub but I am not sure they are Scottish).  When it came to dessert we saw that the ice-cream was yellow and Mary has an allergy to yellow food dye so to make up for this the waiter brought out one of the biggest desert plates I have ever seen (like a huge drinking glass) filled with jelly and then topped with a lot of whipped cream.  Poor Mary was not a fan of the cream and struggled to eat some of that dessert but she ate it as didn’t want to hurt the waiter’s feelings as he seemed to think it was the best treat and that she would love it.  It was quite a cool walk back but luckily a short one and we all went to bed excited that we were going to be in Ireland tomorrow (although we weren’t keen on having to be up early with our bags all packed again).

Scotland sunset

 Photos courtesy of Marissa Fread:

St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh’s Old Town

Dinner in Scotland Pub (before the food and Mary’s huge dessert)
Canadians – Marissa, Doug, Carl, Janis &, Mary & Bill (behind camera) my Boston grandparents.

Scotland & Ireland Adventure – Day 3

Scotland rain

Tuesday 28^th October 2014 – Loch Ness, St Andrews & Edinburgh Ghost Tour

At another lovely buffet breakfast at the Newton Hotel (mansion-house) Mary met a Scot who was going to be the loader for an American man who was going out for a shoot that morning.  They were both certainly well dressed in the nicest hunting clothes I had ever seen (imagine 19th century English attire).  However I certainly wouldn’t like to be out shooting that morning as it was cold and it was raining quite heavily, but I suppose it wouldn’t be the American cleaning the guns.  As we boarded the bus one of the lovely staff at the hotel got on the bus to wish us well on the rest of our journey and his parting words were “The weather is going to get better, well let’s face it, it has to as it can’t get much worse!  Unfortunately their jokes (as he looked at our guides David and Gordon) don’t!”  Haha yes both the Scots and the Irish have a good sense of humour.

Sleeping bus

It was an early morning, once again, and quite a drive to rearrange our schedule and take a cruise on Loch Ness to look for Nessie (the famous Loch Ness monster).  Once more the whole bus was asleep and this time I have some photographic evidence that this was true (I was feeling awfully tired too but I certainly didn’t want to sleep while driving through such a beautiful country)!  There was plenty of waterfalls and high rock cliffs however I was too slow as we raced passed on the bus to get a photo.

Gordon kept us updated once more with Scotland history and facts informing us that there is more water in Loch Ness than in England and Ireland combined!  It has a brown tinge so you can’t see through it (which is not surprising if it is always raining and filling up from the Highlands) and is 27 miles long and a mile wide.  Loch Ness is 1,000ft deep and in some places it is deeper than the Red Sea (so plenty of room for Nessie to hide).  There are many people who have given up their jobs to come and live in Scotland and try to get a photo of Nessie and there are many different stories as to whether there is a monster or if it is a log or family of otters.

Scotland Flooding

Gordon announced that Nessie sometimes comes up for a walk and that he could see flipper tracks on the road and as we turned towards the lock I saw her! Haha can you spot Nessie?!

Can you spot Nessie?

Looking for Nessie

Urquhart Castle

We then arrived at the ruins of Urquhart Castle (first discovered 500 years ago) and after watching a short film about the castle’s history and how it was the Scots of the land themselves that eventually blew up their own castle using gun powder after years of fighting and raids we went down to explore the ruins and look for Nessie.

It was nice for the rain to finally stop and it was a great chance to get some really nice photos.  The ferry arrived but as we were exploring the water level continued to rise and our cruise had to be cancelled as the dock become completely covered in water (giving Nessie more room to hide).

The photos really don’t do Loch Ness or the castle justice and it was just beautiful standing there and breathing in the lovely fresh air and taking in the magnificent view and trying to get a feel for the history of the place and the castle.

Loch Ness & Urquhart Castle ruins

The ferry

Chillin’ in the castle with Nessie

One of the staff at the castle or for the ferry informed me that it was the most rain Scotland had seen in 5 years and when I told him Australia is in drought at the moment and my family would love for this rain he replied “Well we will sell it to them!”  And my first thought was no wonder they still have the name of being ‘Tight-fisted Scots’ but Gordon explained where that saying came from when we got back onto the bus.

Looking out the castle window

Our ferry sailing away

Dock now covered in water

In the Woollen Mills. Apparently I did get a photo of a Scottish Highlander cow (but unfortunately it is only a photo of a photo).

Well as we couldn’t go on our cruise this meant we could stop at one of the Woollen Mills for a nice lunch but it was again quite a bit of a drive and so Gordon informed us a little more of Scotland and its history.  The Scots used to carry oatmeal in their sporran (the pouch worn in front of their kilt as a pocket) and to make oatmeal cakes they would get a fistful of oatmeal and dip their fist into the river to dampen the oatmeal as they squeezed it into a cake.  They had to hang on tightly and not let the oatmeal go as it would get washed away in the river and this is how they got the name ‘Tight-fisted Scots’ and so the saying apparently has nothing to do with money.

Council workers hard at work

As we travelled along we past some more road construction however it was raining and there was no construction happening but three council workers were simply sitting in a parked truck as Gordon commented that the Scotland council workers were hard at work (so it seems to be a world-wide thing to make fun of the council workers).

We then continued our drive past the town of Perth (yes just like Australia – talk about a way to make a person homesick) and Gordon explained as we passed that Perth was home to the Queen’s hotel that had bars in every room … it was the local prison!  I did have to give him points for that joke as he got me with that one!  Gordon also explained that he wasn’t sure why but everyone always asked what is worn underneath the kilt.  He said that a Scot in the Highlander army would say “Nothing was issued” as they are issued with the other garments they are made to wear but nothing is issued to be worn under the kilt (hence why they are plaited at the back for extra weight to stop the wind lifting them up).  He also told us that a man once replied to that question “Nothing is worn under the kilt, it is all in perfectly working condition!”  If you want to know a little more Gordon also played us the song “The Drunken Scotsman” which is quite a good listen http://youtu.be/fnlqTOsR0RA

We drove on some very skinny roads to which David and Gordon explained they are called ‘Friendly Roads’ as you have to be friendly and wait sometimes and you need to pull over and let people pass and they usually give you a wave.  However a lot of people don’t wave with as many fingers any more. 😉  We asked about the temperature in Scotland and Gordon said it gets down to minus twenty degrees but never hotter than 20 degrees Celsius and so there are no air-conditioners (or even fans) in any of the houses and their cars have only just got air-con put into them as it is never really hot enough to use them.  We had a ten minute rest stop and as we got back on the bus I think David was envious of the sleepers and asked if I wanted to drive the bus.  He wasn’t quite expecting when I replied “Yes!” and nearly jumped up enthusiastically.  He laughed and said he was sure I would and I explained I had my truck licence but sadly he got back behind the wheel.  The others replied they noticed he didn’t ask any of the Americans or Canadians if they wanted to drive but I am sure you have all figured out that Scotland also drives on the left side of the road similar to England and Australia (opposite to America, Canada and other European countries).  I think David was trying hard not to take away from Gordon’s jokes but he did ask Gordon “What are an Irish man’s two favourite days of the year?”

“Christmas Day and Summer” haha and with all the rain in Scotland and Ireland I couldn’t argue with that one either.

Loch on one of the canals

As we continued to travel near water the whole way through Scotland Gordon explained that all of the lochs in Scotland are connected by 25 miles of man-made canal and so you can sail all around Scotland connected by this canal and the rivers (there is only one river in Scotland that flows the opposite way to the others).  As we travelled past Loch Lochi (no that isn’t a spelling mistake that is the actual name of the loch) we saw ‘The Well of Seven Heads’.  It seems that a son (or two sons) of a McDonald King were murdered when they came to visit their uncle and his six sons however there was not much of a justice system within or between the Scottish clans and so for a while the murder went unpunished.  One man set out and eventually got justice and beheaded the 7 men but as he was taking the heads to Edinburgh he stopped by a local well and washed the heads in the well (frankly I can understand the beheading but to ruin a good well by washing heads in it seems a little extreme).  They have a monument there with the 7 heads to remind them of that history.  There are also some stone monuments for different clans of the area and Gordon explained that when the Clans would go off to fight there would be a pile of rocks (one rock for every soldier or family) and as the soldiers came back they would collect their rock.  Once everyone had collected their rocks they would know how many of their Clan had been lost in battle and have a shrine with the rocks for them (one of the first kind of roll calls).

Scotland field

Finally we arrived at St Andrews which is known as the “Home of Golf” and it was quite late so I had to race down to get photos of the old golf course as the sun was already set but the beautiful pink sunset colours were coming out which I hadn’t seen since Germany and I couldn’t resist taking some photos of the old golf course, the famous Swilcan bridge and the North Sea.  It was nice to see the sea again although as the sun was already set and we were next to the sea it was colder than ever with a fierce wind and I was missing the Australian summer more than ever.

St Andrews Golf Course, Swilcan bridge and the North Sea

Gordon then continued with teaching us about Scotland informing us that on the 18th of September this year they had a referendum if they should become an independent country and it was quite close but they voted against independence.  He said most of them in their hearts wanted to vote yes but their minds told them no because of a few things.  One was the army (which was my first thought as Scotland would be quite a small army without the rest of the United Kingdom) but the Scots were unsure who would rule the army, another reason was money as they use the British Pound and were unsure if they would be able to join the European Union and use the Euro and either way it would be quite a huge expense.  On the 18th of September they also had another vote as to whether they would allow women to play Golf on the old course at St Andrews to which they voted yes!  Before this women were only allowed on the course one day of the year on November 30th which is St Andrews day.  So apparently the name of Golf is no longer accurate as GOLF is said to stand for ‘Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden’ (which I had heard before).  However something I didn’t know, which I actually learned in Ireland, is the reason there are 18 holes in a round of Golf is because there are 18 shots in a bottle of whiskey and you used to have to take a shot of whiskey at every tee as you played!

These stories helped make the trip to Edinburgh go quickly and it was straight to a nice fancy dinner, sadly this is where we said goodbye to Gordon.  However the dinner was lovely (still 3-course dinners the whole trip) nevertheless then we had to battle the cold again as we went on a ghost tour of Edinburgh that night with our guide Linda (I am sorry to say I can’t remember if her name was Linda or not but for the sake of the story she will be).  Edinburgh has such a rich history and I will try to do my best to relay some of the most interesting things I remember from that night.

Edinburgh Ghost Tour

We first stopped in the middle of the street outside of a few pubs.  One was called ‘The Last Drop’ and I was thinking that was a perfect name for a pub but I was soon to learn its name had nothing to do with alcohol but more to do with where we were standing which used to be the hanging docks where people would drop to their death on a hanging rope (hence the name ‘The Last Drop’).  Linda asked for us all to do a little acting.  She called up two men to be Englishmen to be tortured and the rest of us were a blood-thirsty group of Scots.  Linda told us their crimes weren’t bad enough for them to be hung so instead they were to be whipped.  She pretended to whip them 13 times.  She said they would give them 13 lashes and then rub something into their wounds….yep you guessed it – salt!  Then they would get 13 more lashes, some more salt, and then 13 lashes again.  Linda informed us that 13 and 3 were said to be unlucky numbers and so they got 13 lashes 3 times which for those good at mathematics means 39 lashes.  39 lashes a person can withstand, however 40 lashes would kill a person so that is another reason they stopped at 39.  We cheered as a blood-thirsty mob would and then Linda said we had been quite heartless as we didn’t even ask what their crimes had been.  She said to start with they were Englishmen which would have been enough (that was my thought to start with when she said they were English) but one of them toasted to the King which at the time the Scots had a Queen and therefore the English man was not allowed to toast to the King as clearly it was the English King he was toasting to and the other English man simply did nothing but hear the toast and reply “Here, here” which was also against the law.  So to the one who toasted to the King they sliced his mouth from inside his lip to his ear and the same on the other side and then pulled out his tongue and cut it off.  To the one who heard the toast they cut off his ears (yes don’t mess with the Scots).

Englishmen being tortured

Another pub that was near where we were standing was linked to Maggie Dickson’s story.  Maggie had committed one of the worst crimes imaginable – she had a baby out of wed lock, and so was sentenced to be hung.  She was hung from the gallows that used to be where we stood and then her family and friends came to collect her.  However as they took her away in the coffin in the horse and carriage they heard a knocking, they opened the coffin and up sat Maggie quite alive!  She had merely only appeared dead (so I am assuming she fainted) and so they brought her back to trial her but as she was already hung to death they couldn’t hang her again so she was allowed to live out her days.  Nevertheless they say she still haunts the streets as to where she was first hung.  A member in our group asked what happened to the baby and Linda replied that was the saddest thing of all.  Maggie had given birth to a still-born baby and it was when she was trying to get rid of the baby’s body that she was discovered to have had a baby out of wed-lock.  Therefore Maggie didn’t even have the baby she was hung for (which to me seems awfully unfair as she certainly didn’t make the baby all by herself but that was the law).

One of the other ghosts that is said to have roamed the streets was Deacon Brodie a man who was in council and quite a respected man who is said to be the original Jekyll & Hyde who eventually was hung on his own gallows (he was a cabinetmaker) outside his own front door.  However rather than me trying to remember the story you can read about him and also Burke & Hare the grave robbers who dug up bodies to sell to the universities (and sometimes went beyond that and didn’t wait until the person was dead but killed them themselves).  You can read about these characters of Edinburgh and more here  http://www.23mayfield.co.uk/about-edinburgh/haunted-edinburgh.htm

We also learned about Old Town and New Town and how in Edinburgh they used to have a slop bucket (with all kitchen scraps and the toilet bucket and any used cooking or bathing water) used to be tipped out onto the street at a certain time at night and this was all washed into the lake (heads up if you were walking in the street at the time).  Now where do you think they all also got their drinking water from? Yep that’s it – the lake!  It is no wonder the plague struck them hard and they even had to close off part of the city and not let anyone in or out of it because of the plague but eventually when they went to get the bodies because of rigor mortis they couldn’t get them out through the doors and so had to chop the dead bodies up into pieces to remove them.  The stories say that there are ghosts with missing body parts, including heads or floating heads that haunt that part of the city and it took a young lawyer and his bride to encourage people to come back after they fixed it up and built buildings on top of the old town buildings and decreased the rent significantly.

We continued exploring Edinburgh and came to where an old tolbooth (prison) used to be and where there is now a Mosaic heart.  People used to spit on that spot to show either disdain for the prison or for the prisoners who were executed there.  Now people spit on the heart for good luck and some for good luck for their sports team which has a heart as the emblem or the opposing team spits on the heart for bad luck to the team. Kevin and Carrie, one of the couples who still didn’t have their bags back from the airline, spat on the heart for good luck and I did it for them.  Sadly however it didn’t work as the next morning as we got on the bus Carrie walked on with quite a cut on her nose!  After waiting so long they finally got their bags that night and were quite happy for a few hours until Carrie had to go to the bathroom and tripped over her suitcase (yes the one she had been waiting so long for) and smashed her nose into a glass table.  Luckily the hotel was great and called a taxi for them and Scotland (like Australia) have free health care so Carrie had her nose glued together at no cost (in America you need insurance so the Americans were all quite impressed with this and I really think they are quite backwards not having free medical care for everyone).  Needless to say it was a long day and night (longer for some more than others) and we were all very glad to get to the hotel and cuddle up in our nice comfy beds for some sleep before the next big day in Edinburgh tomorrow (which at least did not include any long bus rides).

Bed at last

Photos courtesy of Carrie & Kevin Ritter:

Stairs in Urquhart castle

The Old Course at St Andrews

Scotland & Ireland Adventure – Day 2

Scottish Highlands

Monday 27^th October 2014 – Scottish Highlands, Loch Lomond & Blair Athol Whiskey Tasting

We had a nice early breakfast and as creatures of habit we all sat at the same tables we did last night and therefore I got to know more about Mary & Bill, their family and some of their past adventures.  They had travelled Northern Ireland 9 years ago and were coming back to see Scotland and more of Ireland.  It was a buffet breakfast and I resisted the urge to try black/white/blood pudding again (having eaten it with my house mate in England when I first moved in – once is enough for me).  Mary resisted the urge to try some and wasn’t sure what it was – Bill and I advised her it is best she didn’t know (similar to the Haggis).

Photo stop

The weather was better this morning as we got on the bus but still not great.  There had been a landslide and the roads were blocked and so we went through the Highlands and saw more than we would usually see and opted for Plan B.  Instead of going to Loch Ness today we would do it tomorrow and alternatively today we would have a visit to the Blair Athol whiskey factory.  This changed our whiskey factory time from 10AM to 2PM the day before to which Gordon our guide said is probably a preferable time for drinking whiskey (but that would have to be a matter of opinion for some I guess).  We got out at a photo stop and braved the wind and rain along Loch Lomond and you can see from the iPhone panorama that I was shaking from the wind and the cold.  I lost the battle with the wind having it turn my umbrella inside out (hasn’t been the first time this happened and certainly wouldn’t be the last).

During our drive down Loch Lomond (which is said to be 5 miles wide in places) we went past some road construction where they were widening the road and they had uncovered an old Rock Tomb Alter.  When it was first revealed the tour guides had to go back and check the books to find out the history behind this.  A long time ago the nearest church was more than 20 miles away so people in that area stopped going and the nearest preacher wasn’t happy with this.  So the people asked the preacher if they built him a pulpit would he come and preach, and he agreed.  So in this huge rock the dug into it and created an archway and in turn a pulpit.  The preacher would travel from 20 miles away to preach in this open area in the rock pulpit (sorry I didn’t have a camera ready and the bus didn’t stop so I don’t have a photograph).  But the pulpit would have been dug 7 ft high and 1m into a rock that was easily 6m tall (the hole was very small in comparison).

Windy & Cold

iPhone pano

Map of drive along Loch Lomond

Along our drive we passed ‘Honeymoon Island’ and this little island is where newly-weds had to live for a week with minimum provisions and it is said if the couple could last the week they could survive anything.  When you see how tiny the island really is you would certainly believe it of the couple.  Strangely enough not one of our honeymooning couples volunteered for the test!

We had a lovely break from the bus in a nice little town and Mary, Bill & I joined Kristin, Jim, Kevin & Carrie for a lovely pub lunch (the two couples that had lost their bags but were doing very well under the circumstances and hoping they would be at the next hotel).  It was a great atmosphere and very similar to an Australian pub where you go and order and pay for your meals at the bar and then wait for it to be brought out to your table (apparently not a common thing in America, but they are very big on tipping and having things brought to them).

Honeymoon Island

As we travelled again Gordon told us that David (our Irish tour and bus driver) would tell us that there are 30 shades of grey in Ireland but Gordon insisted that there are 41 shades of grey in Scotland, and as we looked out of the window to the drizzling rain and grey clouds we couldn’t really contradict him!  However things were looking brighter as we headed to the Blair Athol whiskey distillery.

We got a tour around the distillery although it wasn’t operating at the time and in fact had engineers in trying to fix the problem (which could be a few weeks) but luckily they have partner companies so they weren’t worried about the loss of production and clearly they were still doing tours.  Before this trip I used to think Scotch and Whiskey were two completely different drinks.  I have now learned that Scotch is a single-malt whiskey that has been aged (often in barrels bought from other countries that used to have wine and therefore the wine taste from the wooden barrels would seep into the whiskey changing its colour and flavour after a few years) and as it comes from Scotland we call it a Scotch.  Whiskey is usually a blend of different whiskeys to create different flavours and make it cheaper and this is a blended whiskey but what we usually just refer to as whiskey.  We got our free single-malt whiskey taste and our tour guide advised as to never put ice in whiskey/scotch but to warm it up in our hands, breathe it in and take our time (which I have heard before).  He said it doesn’t like ice and I can remember the reaction of the scotch and snow in Germany and would have to agree (although it is much easier to drink watered down).  So Mary and I drank ours straight and we learned if you shot the whiskey it burned down your throat and your stomach but if you swirled it in your mouth before swallowing it burnt your tongue and your lips but not your throat or stomach (it was 12 years old and potent stuff).  We learned later that the others on our tour in a different group (we were split into two groups with different guides) were given the option of adding water to dilute their whiskey a little, however our guide was so against mixing it with anything that we weren’t given that option so we were even more proud of ourselves for finishing it.  We then continued to the gift shop and no-one bought the most expensive whiskey in the shop but I had to take a photo of the 40yr old Blue Label Johnny Walker for 2000 pounds ($4,000 AUD)!  Sorry friends but I left it there. 😉

Mary & I with our scotch/whiskey

Our distillery tour guide

2000 pound bottle

Gordon did tell another story as we were leaving the whiskey distillery. “My father died in a distilling accident, he fill into the whiskey still.  Two colleagues tried to rescue him – but he managed to fight them off!  On the doctor’s certificate it said ‘Died of ecstasy.’  It took 2 whole weeks before the fire burned out after his cremation.”  Haha yes he did say he was going to tell us some stories that were hard to believe, and I know I have definitely heard that joke before!

Harsh rock cliffs along the roads everywhere

Then it was back on the bus for a two and a half hour drive and so it didn’t take long for the whole bus to be asleep and to give me a chance to write down about our day (as I still couldn’t manage to sleep on the bus but I was very proud that I never got motion sickness on the bus the whole trip, through the Highlands and all, and those who have travelled with me before know I can be easily sick on a bus or in a car.  Here’s hoping I am finally growing out of it!).

Scottish Highlands from the Bus Window

The Highlands were amazing and there was such colour, although apparently the heather can be a rich purple a few months of the year and that would certainly be worth seeing I think.

Lots of flooding

After what felt like a very long day on the bus we arrived at a huge Mansion House that had been turned into a hotel. The rooms were very quaint, including little comfy chairs that didn’t help ease my disappointment at hearing the rain was still going to be around tomorrow.  Apparently the house also had two hairy Scottish Highlander cows but the weather was horrible and so I didn’t see them or get a picture (I did see two on our bus trip but we went past them too quickly for me to take a photo, definitely the downside to a bus tour is not being able to stop when you want to).

We had a lovely Scottish meal of Scottish broth, and Haggis with whiskey (you could drink the whiskey or pour it onto the Haggis.  I tried both and liked drinking it better but I think I poured too much onto it) with a Merlot red wine (which I tried to finish but still can’t manage to do), chicken in a whiskey sauce and a shortbread/cream dessert.  Now I am willing to try nearly anything once on my travels and so I tried the Haggis and I really loved it.  However I think it was more pastry, potatoes and mince with a little of Haggis thrown in.  The whiskey was definitely not as nice as the Blair Athol and it wasn’t a cherry colour so safe to say it was a blended whiskey and it was far from smooth going down.  We then were asked to take our tea and coffee into the ballroom to listen to the music and watch the dancers.

Haggis

Highlander dancing

Laura & Hannah were the young dancers who danced the Highland dancers.  They danced to the bagpipes and the accordion.  One of the most impressive was the sword dance where Laura danced around the two swords crossed over without touching them.  There was also the shield dance where the dances would place a shield with a spike down after a battle and fight to dance in the one spot around the spike without hitting it.  However the freedom dance also had an interesting history as it was to celebrate when the ban from the kilt was lifted and emphasises the shaking of the legs to shake off the trousers.  An English King (I think it was a King but I am not certain) to show the ban had been lifted and that the kilt could be worn and bagpipes played again visited Scotland in a kilt.  However he was such a large man it was more of a mini kilt and he was so afraid of the cold that he wore bright pink stockings underneath it.  Luckily the Highlanders were so happy that the 35-year-old ban had been lifted as I am sure it would not have gone down as well otherwise!  The bagpipes played a few songs accompanied and unaccompanied and so did the accordion including playing Waltzing Matilda, Ode to Texas and Amazing Grace after finding out where we were from and if there were any requests.  They then taught us how to do the Scotland Polka (which is very similar to the old-fashioned dance ‘ The 3 step’ and two of our group members got up and did a great job of learning it and dancing it and so we all went to bed very merry (except perhaps poor Kristin, Jim, Carrie & Kevin who still did not have their luggage).

Newton Hotel

Photos courtesy of Marissa Fread

Blair Athol Distillery

Scottish waterfall in the Highlands

Photo courtesy of Kevin & Carrie Ritter:

Laura & Hannah Scottish Highlander Dancers

Scotland & Ireland Adventure – Day 1

Off on an adventure

Sunday 26^th October 2014 – Travelling Day & Glasgow, Scotland

It was an early start to catch the plane this morning (2:30AM wake up) and I was grateful I had rested a few days and was finally getting to the end of a very bad cold. It was the morning that daylight savings ended and the clocks were changing an hour and I thought I had taken this into consideration when checking the early morning bus schedule.  Apparently the 3:15AM bus that I thought I was going to be on time for didn’t actually exist (only on the website) and so the 2:00AM bus was the last one for my stop and therefore it meant a walk into the city.  Google Maps told me it would take me 50 minutes to walk there and I had 40 minutes to get there to catch the bus I had planned on connecting with from the other bus.  It was quite cold and a lengthy walk therefore I was very grateful I had packed lightly (one backpack and a carry-on bag) as I trudged down the street to the city. I could have called a taxi (and a few even went past) but I knew I could walk it as I had done that walk a few times, it was certainly cold enough to want to have some exercise and when travelling you try and save your money as much as possible (I certainly don’t want to have to try and swim home).  I made it to the bus stop and could see the bus but I reasoned as I as walking that I would catch the next bus in half an hour as I was still very early for my flight and too warm after walking to want to hop straight onto a heated bus.  So I watched the bus drive off (instead of sprinting to catch it – Google Maps you were wrong, I would have made it) and then sat and waited for the next one in the cool breeze and was then very grateful to get on a warm bus.

Learning to pack lightly

London Heathrow Airport – Waitin’ on a plane

It was then quite a wait in the airport but certainly better to be early than miss the plane.  I was grateful when my gate was revealed that it was only a few hundred metres away and I didn’t have to take one of the trains to get there.

On the plane they provided a nice hot breakfast so my holiday was off to a better start. Although once more I was at a window seat and London had too much cloud cover to see it from the plane.  There was however some really beautiful cloud cover that day and it was so very white and clear!

Flying over London

Glasgow

Coming in to land in Glasgow and typical Scotland it was already about to start raining and I had to try and take a few photos in between the clouds before we landed in Glasgow. There was no use putting up an umbrella as it was just too windy!

I had to then find my tour group guides and the people in the airport in Glasgow were very friendly (clearly I wasn’t in England any more) and it was easy enough to find them.  I had missed the second bus by five minutes so had to wait a couple of hours but I had good company with the two Scottish women.  They were mother and daughter and the mother had a son who met an Australian and they were actually living in Rockhampton and also had a nephew living in Adelaide.  The daughter had travelled to America for a couple of months and wanted to travel more but was over thirty and a lot of the working visas you have to be under 30 with no dependants (hence why I am travelling now).  They saw that I only had a small bag and asked if I had lost my luggage, I replied I was learning to travel lightly and they agreed that was best as three couples from two different tours had their luggage lost by British Airways (who was the company I flew with to Glasgow although I didn’t have to connect flights).

I met girls from America about my age and they asked how I could possible have packed enough and I asked what essential things they had packed and the first girl replied “Well I have three hats.”

“Why do you have three hats?!”

“Well it is supposed to rain the whole trip so I packed three hats.” Hmm I think I found her problem pretty quickly (for the record I didn’t pack any hats but I did have a jumper with a hood and an umbrella and there is no need for hats in these countries as it is a completely different sun and I am becoming paler by the day).

I was then on a bus by myself to the first hotel Glasgow Thistle Hotel and I knew that the accommodation was going to be very nice and fancy on this trip (I was starting to feel like a bush kid lost in a big city).  The room overlooked some of Glasgow city from the 8th floor.  I had a little time in the hotel room before we met in the lobby for our city highlights tour (and even with an early start I couldn’t sleep). The rain was now pelting down (and it seems there was a hurricane around so that we were getting torrential wind and rain) so I left my camera in the room, and my iphone was flat so I only managed to get a few photos with my old English phone but I am sure the others on the tour got some better shots.

Beautiful rooms

View from 8 story hotel room

The bus driver and Irish tour guide David asked about my Irish ancestry as he handed me my name badge and after a moment of confusion I realised he figured I was named Colleen due to an Irish family history.  As far as I know there is no Irish in my family I got my name because Mum and Dad weren’t expecting to have any girls (Dad wanted three boys and Mum wanted two, so I guess I was the compromise) and so when I was born Mum had hundreds of girl names so Dad said “Right, it’s girl” and Colleen is Irish for girl (with the English spelling I have now learned).

We then met our Scottish tour guide Gordon and set off on the bus to see Glasgow (or what we could through the rain).  Glasgow is a beautiful city and the largest in Scotland, it made its money on the slave and tobacco trade. They would trade goods in Africa for slaves and then take them to North America and sell them.  Glasgow University is the 4th oldest English speaking university in the word (behind Oxford, Cambridge, and St Andrew’s [St Andrew’s is Scotland’s oldest university]).  If you are born in Scotland you can study in a university in Scotland for free, if you want to study in England then you have to pay university fees (around 9,000 pounds a year).  If someone else wants to study in Scotland (such as an English citizen) they have to pay high university fees.  This seems a great way to encourage Scottish people to go to university but makes me wonder about their reputations if people are still deciding to go to England even though it is free for them to study in Scotland.

I met a lovely lady Kristin who I saw sitting by herself on the bus and learned she was on her honeymoon (postponed 8 months) but her husband needed a rest so he was having a snooze in the hotel while she came out and battled the rain to see Glasgow. Kristin and her husband Jim were one of the couples who lost their bags and so it had already been a bit of a stressful trip from Philadelphia.  But I was certainly grateful to have some nice company as we ventured out into the 50-60mph winds which were so bad that they shut down a bridge in Scotland for fear high vehicles would be blown over the bridge.

We braved the torrential rain (although I left my camera in the hotel on purpose) and went and admired the Glasgow Cathedral (which is no longer a Catholic cathedral but the High Church of England as it is now a Protestant church).  It was an amazing atmosphere walking into this grand church that was just as stunning inside as it was outside, with intrinsic carvings and designs with many alters and chapels within the church, as a choir was singing and being video taped.

Glasgow Cathedral

Glasgow Cathedral

Part of our explorations included visiting a house built in 1407 and its size and how it must have been built was quite impressive and I am sorry I didn’t take any photos to show you all.

We continued our tour of Glasgow on the bus and Gordon explained the story as to how the salmon came to be a part of the Glasgow coat of arms and it is from one of the miracles of St Mungo (as the salmon is also feature on some of the posts in Glasgow.

Once upon a time (so you know the story is true when it starts like that) there was a King who loved his wife very much.  To show his love for his wife the King gave his bride a beautiful ring, now unfortunately for the King the wife did not love him and had a lover who she gave the ring to.  One day while walking along the river the King notices a man sleeping next to the river wearing the ring he had given to his wife.   Now, as Gordon said, instead of throwing the man in the river he carefully took off the ring while the man slept and threw the ring into the river.  He then goes back to his wife and demands to see the ring and threatens her with death if she fails to do so.  The Queen prays to St Mungo to help her and she then starts cooking a salmon for dinner (don’t ask me why a Queen is doing her own cooking) and inside the belly of the salmon was the ring!  She washed it off and put it back on her finger and that is one of the miracles of St Mungo.

After telling this story Gordon announces “What a load of rubbish.  If you believe that then you will believe everything I am going to tell you over the next 3 days.”  (And I think there were some on the bus who were believing it, although funny enough I have heard that story before but I can’t quite remember where).

There are different versions of this story but the other emblems are all from miracles St Mungo is said to have performed and you can read a bit more and a different version of the story here: http://www.ngw.nl/int/gbr/scot/glasgow.htm

We went back to the hotel for dinner and we were all very confused when we saw people in black-tie attire around the hotel (including some in very formal Scottish dress – including kilts) but later learned there was a Restaurant convention in another room.

At dinner I saw a nice older couple and sat down with them to learn that they were from Boston (although Mary was born in Canada and lived there until she was 11) and they were on their 50th wedding anniversary holiday.  They were both so lovely and we hit it off right away – little was I to know then that they were going to adopt me as their granddaughter and become my Boston grandparents!  The food selection was fantastic with a three-course meal at every hotel or restaurant that we were at.  I tried the salmon, chicken and banana bread which was all lovely – I wasn’t quite game to try the Haggis yet!

We learned there were 28 of us on the first part of the tour.  I was the only solo traveller, most were couples, one pair of teachers, a group of three ladies, and all except myself and the Canadian family of 4 were from America.

We may have had a very wet and cold afternoon but it was a great day, the food and company that night was excellent and we all knew we were in for a good trip!

Glasgow

Photos courtesy of my new friends Carrie & Kevin Ritter:

Glasgow Cathedral

Glasgow Coat of Arms (including Salmon and Ring)

Inside Old House

Old house built in 1471

Inside Old House

Germany Adventure – Day 8

Last morning in Germany

Saturday 27^th September 2014 – Travelling Day

Waking up this morning was bittersweet, the view was still incredible but it was to be our last day in Germany.  The view of the mountains was fantastic as the sky had cleared and you could see the mountain peaks with the sun reflecting off them and the snow was now gone (I had mixed feelings about the melted snow too).

We packed up and dragged ourselves to breakfast which of course was lovely and I managed to have a nice chat to an English couple sitting beside us.  They were travelling through Germany by car and said the roads were magnificent from the castle along the Western border of Germany through the mountains and to do it myself if I ever got the chance.  By this stage I was already about ready to live in Germany and the thought of driving around in a car in lovely weather like it was did not help my mood in having to go back to England!  The couple were a lovely pair and were also on their last morning at the motel but they certainly were more cheery than we were having a lot more of their German adventure to go.

We were on time for our train and able to have our last European bagel at one of the train station restaurants.  A man dressed in a dirndl was around the station selling things and it was too good to not get a photo.  Connor asked ‘her’ to pose for a photo and for a 2 euro bottle of vodka (or wodka) he happily posed as Connor’s “German girlfriend!” (I’ll add the photo to the blog if and when Connor shares it with me).

2 Euro Vodka

Connor and his German girlfriend

Sadly it was then time to part ways, after establishing the German word for ‘airport’ we got on our two separate trains and were on our way back to two separate countries. Connor was off to Frankfurt airport to fly back to Brisbane and I just needed to get to the Munich airport and fly to London.  I got my ticket from the machine and had a lady come up to me and speak German, I explained that I didn’t speak German and she assumed I was English and went on her way.  Before I had finished another lady came and spoke to me in German too (it’s only now that I realise the poor ladies may have been looking for each other) but she simply replied “English? That’s okay” and went on her way.  Once more the Germans are very understanding of people not speaking German and Svenja explained that most people when travelling speak English first as it is more universally spoken throughout Europe.

German train ticket

I then found my train platform downstairs and the train was there within a minute. I had the timetable and the map all worked out however it now seemed a lot lonelier having no-one to talk to (although the Americans on the train were certainly quite loud and boisterous about their Oktoberfest hangovers).   I was quite a few hours too early to even check-in my bag so had to entertain myself at the airport.  I ordered some lunch and that was the first time I realised I had to speak German without anyone to translate.  Luckily all I needed was the words on the menu which I understood and to use my German manners which is easy enough (I refused to take the easy route out and go to the McDonalds which actually had directions on the main airport signs as to its location).

German police van

It wasn’t too long before I was on my flight (yay no delays) and the cabin announcements were made even longer with both English and German announcements.  It was quite late at night when I arrived in London and so passport entry was even easier (especially as it was a flight within Europe) and I got down to the bus station only to discover I missed the hourly bus by ten minutes!  So another wait it was and I was certainly missing Germany when not one person was happy or smiling in London at all and the weather was cold, although at least it wasn’t raining.  The bus came on time and back to Oxford I went. Now I have since learned a different stop that I can get on and off to get onto the airport bus from Oxford (which I hadn’t realised before going on this trip) so next time I won’t have to walk through the Oxford club strips.  However this time I hadn’t realised this and again had to walk through Oxford clubs and it was early Sunday morning (after a big Saturday night).   It was an interesting experience last time and this time was no different.  In amongst the drunk students, people dressed in black-tie formal attire and homeless people begging for money or busking there was also two policeman chasing someone down on foot (who was stopped and arrested by other policeman in a patrol car).   Things certainly weren’t boring however it did make me miss Germany a little more as the Oxford buildings and castles with the gargoyles were now seeming more dreary than usual as I walked past the chaos.  Luckily I have now learned how to avoid the club strips when travelling to the airport and so hopefully my trips in a couple of weeks won’t be as eventful!

London from window on iphone

London from window on iphone

Munich airport