Urqhart Castle, N Scotland on Loch Ness.
The morning following my last day of lectures, we flew to Glasgow, Scotland - I had arranged it for Niall's birthday to take him to see REAL castles with REAL King's, Queens, Knights, swords and battles rich in history not so long ago. Back in Jan, airfare was very, very cheap from Iceland so 'grabbed' the opportunity. Here's a little summary of this brief interlude from home in Reykjavik...
Fri Apr 19: 7:30am flew to Glasgow direct on IcelandAir. It felt like we'd landed in Florida it was sooo warm & sunny! We relaxed in the city square, took a Glasgow city bus tour sitting on the top open area - learned a lot about the place! Caught a train to Edinburgh mid-afternoon to Haymarket station, settled into Eddie's home (an online booking thru Airbnb, a way that people can host travellers in their home, very affordable, comfortable & treated amazingly well with full Scottish breakfast, fruit salad, smoked salmon, porridge, etc) well...look at the pictures u won't believe how good it was!! We walked towards downtown Edinburgh along the cobble stone streets & had dinner at Nando's - so good! Walked past a massive old church with gravestones all around it with a view of Edinburgh castle in the background.
Sat Apr 20th: went by bus to the Royal Mile, which is High St that's a beautiful old cobblestone street leading up to the majestic Edinburgh Castle. 11am, we arrived perfect timing for a march we didn't know about - the Scottish soldiers were returning home from Afghanistan & everyone welcomed them as they marched down the Royal Mile from the castle, some w swords. We spent an amazing day at Edinburgh castle - saw the crown jewels, watched the one o-clock gun go off, joined a tour guide sharing stories behind and outside those castle walls, had afternoon tea w scones. Niall literally searched out every nook n cranny of that massive, beautiful castle, from where King James was born that 1st translated the bible from Hebrew and made it available. His mother, Queen Mary of Scots gave birth to him in the one room. It's a large castle rich in battles and history of many Kings. At one pt, the King was both King of Scotland and King of England! Just outside Edinburgh castle, there's a shop where a young girl (19) is a swordsmith, well, Niall and I visited to her for at least an hour. It was fascinating how passionate she was of battle tactics of especially her Scottish clan. How a shield and sword could work together and she's the only woman left in Scotland crafting swords, the rest are men. Later, we hung out in a place called Games Workshop, where people can build models, paint and play strategy games. HIgh St is really old, mysterious and beautiful; during the month-long Edinburgh festival in Aug it's bustling with all kinds of artists, music, plays, shows yet it was just as majestic for u to feel how old it is.
Sun Apr 21st: walked to Sun morning meeting, met with friends there, very nice. Afterwards, watched a soccer game on the walk home, and relaxed & studied the rest of the day. Later, we went back to Games Workshop on the Royal Mile by Edinburgh Castle, so Niall could learn how to paint his first model piece and play a strategy game - learning fun for Niall! We joined a 'Ghost Walking Tour" of the haunted underground Edinburgh vaults - very spooky! They have names for all of the ghosts that live down there, by their character and what they look like from the many, many sighting. The woman who gave us the Haunted Tour, asked the group, "is there anyone brave enough to stay til last and make sure the door is such before going down into the vault?" To the group and my own shock, Niall spoke up loud n clear with his hand up, "I will!!!" It was quite a chuckle cuz he was the only child in the group, seemingly having no fear. He kept asking, though, if the stories are real. Someone even caught a ghost in a photo, and the vaults are supposedly the most haunted place in Europe. Yikes!
Mon Apr 22nd: went to Fettes College, a Harry Potter-like school that's a castle. I was curious how children are educated and taken care of in such a place. Originally, some of you know I had such difficulty choosing btwn Edinburgh vs. Iceland university for my exchange studies. I'd considered the Fettes college for my children to attend school, so it was good to see it - wow, pretty posh and just like Harry Potter. Looked around Edinburgh University, then relaxed and mostly studied for final exams.
Tues Apr 23rd: train to Stirling Castle, spent most of day there. This is a castle also rich in history as it strategically sits at the top of a hill and overlooks half of Scotland. King James IV, and other King James', King Charles' and Queen Mary lived and visited here. The village of Stirling is very quaint, again cobble stone streets, old beautiful stone buildings & gates. In early evening, we got on the ScotRail train to N Scotland (3 hrs) to Inverness. Stayed at a guesthouse w scottish breakfast.
Wed Apr 24th: took bus to Findhorn EcoVillage, enjoyed a 2-hr tour. In one of my sustainaable development classes, we'd studied about this place being one of the first eco-villages in the world. Stayed in one of the original bungalows.
Thurs Apr 25th: Went on a boat ride up the Loch Ness ("loch" is gaelic for the english word "lake"), to Urquhart Castle. It's mostly ruins but beautiful and rich in Scottish and English battles and history. Went thru a Lochness monster centre that teaches about the viewings of the creature. Took a 3-hr train ride back south to Stirling & stayed at a comfy guesthouse.
Fri Apr 26th: took the train to Glasgow and flew home! I watched the movie "The Bucket List" on the flight, which finished just before the almost 2hr flight landed - the film gave me some tears because the two characters in the film dared to do the most outrageous things they'd always wanted to do in their life, once they found they only had months to live. I couldn't help to feel completely amazed at what we can do, the people we meet & places we can see that touch us forever. I hope Scotland has done that for Niall. I think so - when I got him two (plastic) swords at Stirling Castle he desperately wanted, he played and played with them at the castles, on the train, in the park, walking down the street, waiting for a bus or train - people would smile as he was completely active in his imagination of his experience. I know being able to take him to Scotland and feel the warmth of the old country I very much wanted to do while I was in Iceland - it would have been more perfect if Alexis & Kai were with us, completing it, but I know that things are always as they are supposed to be, seeing them very soon! Yeah!!! As the plane headed for landing in Iceland and I could view the beautiful landscape, it felt so good to be coming home. Even tho it's not really home like Canada, it has been home and there's nothing like that.
Fri Apr 19: 7:30am flew to Glasgow direct on IcelandAir. It felt like we'd landed in Florida it was sooo warm & sunny! We relaxed in the city square, took a Glasgow city bus tour sitting on the top open area - learned a lot about the place! Caught a train to Edinburgh mid-afternoon to Haymarket station, settled into Eddie's home (an online booking thru Airbnb, a way that people can host travellers in their home, very affordable, comfortable & treated amazingly well with full Scottish breakfast, fruit salad, smoked salmon, porridge, etc) well...look at the pictures u won't believe how good it was!! We walked towards downtown Edinburgh along the cobble stone streets & had dinner at Nando's - so good! Walked past a massive old church with gravestones all around it with a view of Edinburgh castle in the background.
Sat Apr 20th: went by bus to the Royal Mile, which is High St that's a beautiful old cobblestone street leading up to the majestic Edinburgh Castle. 11am, we arrived perfect timing for a march we didn't know about - the Scottish soldiers were returning home from Afghanistan & everyone welcomed them as they marched down the Royal Mile from the castle, some w swords. We spent an amazing day at Edinburgh castle - saw the crown jewels, watched the one o-clock gun go off, joined a tour guide sharing stories behind and outside those castle walls, had afternoon tea w scones. Niall literally searched out every nook n cranny of that massive, beautiful castle, from where King James was born that 1st translated the bible from Hebrew and made it available. His mother, Queen Mary of Scots gave birth to him in the one room. It's a large castle rich in battles and history of many Kings. At one pt, the King was both King of Scotland and King of England! Just outside Edinburgh castle, there's a shop where a young girl (19) is a swordsmith, well, Niall and I visited to her for at least an hour. It was fascinating how passionate she was of battle tactics of especially her Scottish clan. How a shield and sword could work together and she's the only woman left in Scotland crafting swords, the rest are men. Later, we hung out in a place called Games Workshop, where people can build models, paint and play strategy games. HIgh St is really old, mysterious and beautiful; during the month-long Edinburgh festival in Aug it's bustling with all kinds of artists, music, plays, shows yet it was just as majestic for u to feel how old it is.
Sun Apr 21st: walked to Sun morning meeting, met with friends there, very nice. Afterwards, watched a soccer game on the walk home, and relaxed & studied the rest of the day. Later, we went back to Games Workshop on the Royal Mile by Edinburgh Castle, so Niall could learn how to paint his first model piece and play a strategy game - learning fun for Niall! We joined a 'Ghost Walking Tour" of the haunted underground Edinburgh vaults - very spooky! They have names for all of the ghosts that live down there, by their character and what they look like from the many, many sighting. The woman who gave us the Haunted Tour, asked the group, "is there anyone brave enough to stay til last and make sure the door is such before going down into the vault?" To the group and my own shock, Niall spoke up loud n clear with his hand up, "I will!!!" It was quite a chuckle cuz he was the only child in the group, seemingly having no fear. He kept asking, though, if the stories are real. Someone even caught a ghost in a photo, and the vaults are supposedly the most haunted place in Europe. Yikes!
Mon Apr 22nd: went to Fettes College, a Harry Potter-like school that's a castle. I was curious how children are educated and taken care of in such a place. Originally, some of you know I had such difficulty choosing btwn Edinburgh vs. Iceland university for my exchange studies. I'd considered the Fettes college for my children to attend school, so it was good to see it - wow, pretty posh and just like Harry Potter. Looked around Edinburgh University, then relaxed and mostly studied for final exams.
Tues Apr 23rd: train to Stirling Castle, spent most of day there. This is a castle also rich in history as it strategically sits at the top of a hill and overlooks half of Scotland. King James IV, and other King James', King Charles' and Queen Mary lived and visited here. The village of Stirling is very quaint, again cobble stone streets, old beautiful stone buildings & gates. In early evening, we got on the ScotRail train to N Scotland (3 hrs) to Inverness. Stayed at a guesthouse w scottish breakfast.
Wed Apr 24th: took bus to Findhorn EcoVillage, enjoyed a 2-hr tour. In one of my sustainaable development classes, we'd studied about this place being one of the first eco-villages in the world. Stayed in one of the original bungalows.
Thurs Apr 25th: Went on a boat ride up the Loch Ness ("loch" is gaelic for the english word "lake"), to Urquhart Castle. It's mostly ruins but beautiful and rich in Scottish and English battles and history. Went thru a Lochness monster centre that teaches about the viewings of the creature. Took a 3-hr train ride back south to Stirling & stayed at a comfy guesthouse.
Fri Apr 26th: took the train to Glasgow and flew home! I watched the movie "The Bucket List" on the flight, which finished just before the almost 2hr flight landed - the film gave me some tears because the two characters in the film dared to do the most outrageous things they'd always wanted to do in their life, once they found they only had months to live. I couldn't help to feel completely amazed at what we can do, the people we meet & places we can see that touch us forever. I hope Scotland has done that for Niall. I think so - when I got him two (plastic) swords at Stirling Castle he desperately wanted, he played and played with them at the castles, on the train, in the park, walking down the street, waiting for a bus or train - people would smile as he was completely active in his imagination of his experience. I know being able to take him to Scotland and feel the warmth of the old country I very much wanted to do while I was in Iceland - it would have been more perfect if Alexis & Kai were with us, completing it, but I know that things are always as they are supposed to be, seeing them very soon! Yeah!!! As the plane headed for landing in Iceland and I could view the beautiful landscape, it felt so good to be coming home. Even tho it's not really home like Canada, it has been home and there's nothing like that.