Last post for our trip: Kassel, Germany

We thoroughly enjoyed our time visiting with family in Kassel and seeing some sites of the area. Since we were staying with Hannelore and Herbert, we spent the most time with them, but we visited with 'Dudi', Else and Kurt on Wednesday.

The weather was temperamental, but we visited the Weihnachtsmarkt three times in the four days we were there! We can’t get enough of the German delicacies – both savory and sweet. I think we have gained 10 pounds each!

I absolutely love Hannelore and Herbert and getting to spend time with them and get to know them was great. Besides Kristina and Herta…this is the first time I have met and spent time with anyone in Chris’ family! Ist shoern! (It's nice!).

We look forward to our next trip there...

First day in Germany - Saturday, 12/13

We spent the first day in Germany visiting with Grit (Herta's best friend from when they were kids). We walked around downtown Frankfurt and the Weihnachtsmarkt (this is an outdoor German Christmas festival; it seems that most of the cities in Germany do this. It is a fantastic thing!). We drank Gluhwein, ate bratwurst on broetchen and looked at arts and crafts. After the Weihnachtsmarkt, we paid a quick visit to Grit’s friend Rilly (Grit and Rilly have been friends for about 50 years!).

Our last day in Scotland

The day before Chris and I left for Germany, we all went to Hadrian’s Wall.

First stop: Chesters Fort (along Hadrian’s Wall)
Second stop: Lunch (at Twice Brewed Inn)
Third stop: Steel Rig / Hadrian’s Wall
Last stops: Vindolanda (Chris and Tatiana); Hexham (Mom, Dad, Stacey and JA)

Top 10 most amazing things about the day:

1. the forts lay buried until the 20th century
2. there are still more ruins to excavate
3. Hadrian’s Wall and related forts were all built in the 1st and 2nd centuries
4. the Romans had an incredible understanding of how to channel and use water - from well-drained latrines, to complex bath houses, to water run-off from buildings
5. heated floors!
6. the Bath Houses
7. it took 10 years to complete the wall (it runs from one side of Scotland to the other)
8. Vindolanda had the most recovered artifacts: from sewing needles, to combs, jewelry, an entire pit full of shoes and the remains of a Roman soldier’s helmet
9. Vindolanda has 9 layers of buildings
10. 10. Hexham still has the original gate to the city

In addition, each fort had a museum where you could view specific artifacts from each site. From statues to fine pieces of art (i.e. a painted piece of glass from an old goblet). It was a neat day imagining what it was like to live during this time.

We are back now...but there is still a week to share with you...

Everyone we were staying with in Germany doesn't have internet and it was hard to find local wi-fi (even wi-fi you have to pay for was hard to find!). Anyways... we are back now. Libby and Scooby were missed a bunch and we are happy to have our comforts (especially our own bed)! I still have another week of photos and thoughts to share with you, so I'll do that tomorrow.

Hope you had fun following along on our travels. I had a good time putting it all together (for you as much as for us!).

Dad's input

We are finally home and unpacked for the final time. Tanya worked for hours each day to document all our various activities on her blog (for which this is to be an entry). She has done a wonderful job keeping a diary of our trip, but has asked for my contribution; so, I will add a few ancillary comments of my own though they will likely be, based on what has already been written, superfluous ramblings.

The travel plans unrolled with seeming simplicity, but I know the women of this family spent MANY hours on the phone and the internet arranging this seamless effort including airfare, rental cars, hotel rooms, and cottages as well as mapping the routes, calling for reservations, making shopping lists and menus, etc. It was a
seemingly endless litany of tasks and they handled the job masterfully!

And JA made all the arrangements for the fishing excursion on the Tweed river which was a true once-in-a-lifetime experience. I say once-in-a-lifetime not only because it was a marvelous experience but because if we had come a month earlier, in season, it would have cost a bit more: a minimum of six rods (fishermen) per party, a minimum of five days on the water per person at the astounding rate of ₤1,450
per day - that's 1,450 pounds sterling - not dollars - or around $2,200.00 per person, per day for a minimum of five consecutive days. For JA and I it would have totaled, let's see... $22,000,00, thank you very much; tip excluded! Our adventure was a lot cheaper and just as much fun on one of the swiftest runs of water on one of the brightest days we spent in Scotland; just beautiful.

My sole contribution was bringing my two 5-mile, hand-held radios which were quite advantageous as we caravaned in two cars nearly the entire trip. It isn't much, but I'm proud of my accomplishment, small as it was.

One thing I have to mention: the climate. It was so like the Pacific Northwest - ferns, moss, warm weather plants and flowers, and a persistent, green, hearty ground cover everywhere, and in the distance, snow-covered mountains mirrored on the surface of crystal clear lakes. It was, for me, totally unexpected. I had always thought of Scotland as brown scrub, heather, rocks, and sheep; it was a complete and wonderful surprise. The sheep were there though, and in abundance. As we flew into Edinburgh airport (pronounced Edinbudah) it looked as though the green hills had handfuls of sheep cast about higeldy-pigeldy by the heavenly hand of some tourism-minded landscaper - truly pastoral.

Another large part of my daily memory consists of navigating the roads. The roadway classifications seemed to be:

1. Carriageways (M8, M9) - two to three lane highways with a median barrier; much like US highways - 70 MPH limit.
2. 'A' labeled roads (A72, A698) - two-lane roads with lane markers and curbs - 70 MPH limit.
3. 'B' labeled roads (B6089, B3024) - 1⅔ to two lane roads without markings and no curbs - 70 MPH limit!
4. Unlabeled 'better' roads (No markings) - one lane roads with 'passing places' carved out of the shoulder. See 'Passing Places' explained below.
5. Unlabeled 'Where are we?' roads (No markings) - one lane (I use the term loosely) roads with no passing places.
6. Unlabeled 'You must be joking!' roads (No markings, no shoulder, some pavement) - one lane goat cart paths. These roads (I use THIS term loosely) may terminate, and I mean come to an abrupt, unheralded end without options - pray this never happens to you.

Passing Places are arcs of shoulder carved in along the roadside to allow one car to pull off the surface into the passing place while the oncoming car uses the road exclusively. You do NOT pass anyone driving in the same direction on these roads; at any rate, I never saw it done.

It's also odd that our (right-side drivers) tendency is to avoid the oncoming Scottish traffic to our right and so, draw too close to theleft - where all the idle cars are parked (on these very narrow roads). No matter who was driving this seemed to be our greatest miscalculation. We never hit anything, but I would swear we once or twice occupied the same space and time as parts of other vehicles and yet escaped unharmed... ah well, who can explain such miracles?

We all tried 'haggis' - the lungs, liver, and sweetbreads of the sheep spiced and bound with steel-cut oats; then encased in the stomach lining and boiled 'til done. Not bad actually - a little gamy and highly spiced, but not bad. We ate a lot of Steak and Ale pie with chips, fish and chips with boiled peas, and Scottish breakfast - a lot like a typical American breakfast - save the sausage tastes different than ours, the bacon is never crisp, and the meal is served with baked beans - again, SURPRISE! The beer, tea, and coffee however were matchless.

One final item: I think the Scottish Tourism Board should take note: I once went confidently into a women's room because the door sign read 'Ladies' which I took to be the plural of Lad. I heard female voices and turned on my heel. I was not discovered. Odd how the mind works sometimes.

That's all that occurs to me except for the words sor'd (sorry), luvly (lovely) and brilliant (brilliant) which I heard every day; so, I'll end this contribution here. If I think of enough other fodder to comprise an entry I may add more later. Cheers!

Peebles...and 'pubbing' (December, Tuesday 9th)

Today the guys and girls separated. The guys went ‘pubbing’ and the girls went to Peebles (to see where mum was born).

Guys will be guys so there isn’t that much to report, but seeing where mum was born was great! The Kingsmeadows House is an old estate that is now owned by an insurance company where their employees can go on holiday.

We were let into the estate by the groundskeeper and got to see some of the main rooms. I could live in a house like this!!  There was an actual small exhibit in one of the main rooms that outlined the history of the estate and showed the timeframe when the estate was turned into a maternity ward during the war (see slideshow). Mum was happy to see inside because in the past when her and gran visited someone was still living in the house and you could only go to the gate.

We did some light shopping today like locals: visited the bakery in Peebles, the seafood shop in Melrose and the Co-op in Jedburgh.

The pace of life here is really great and the people are fantastic. We are not sure how the locals know we aren’t from around these parts, but even before we speak they know…must be that we don’t look like others around here. Not sure…

Day of Fishing by JA Pinkney (Monday, December 8th)

Dad and JA were picked up by their fishing guide, Ron, around 9:30 and the rest of us were happy to just take it easy. Mom and Stacey hiked around the Bairnkine farm – along the sheep trails – and had a chance to talk to Matt (one of the owners). While we were relaxing at the farm, Dad and JA were fishing on the River Tweed near the town of Kelso.

Fishing the River Tweed
By JA Pinkney
When we arrived at the River Tweed in Kelso we quickly put on our waders and headed for the water. As we were preparing to enter the water we saw a large salmon jump out across the river. At this point I started to get exited and couldn’t wait to get started. We slipped into the water and thankfully had neoprene waders as the water was just a bit chilly. They had a good amount of rain over the weekend so the water was higher than usual and much murkier. We started off with a quick instruction lesson from our guide. He showed us the finer points of nymph fishing (it is a technique of fly-fishing). I quickly headed off slightly down stream while Ron watched John since he has not been fly-fishing in many years. We started off the morning with several bites and a number of hook-ups, but we weren’t able to land anything. This is typical when trying a new type of fishing. You will spend the first part of the day trying to figure out what you are doing and then the rest of the day actually catching fish. At about 1 pm we were starting to freeze from standing in the fridged water for so long, so we got out of the river and headed into Kelso for lunch. We had some tea, coffee and a nice warm lunch while our feet thawed out and then it was back into the water. While we were out at lunch it cooled off quite a bit and the clouds came out covering the sun we had earlier in the day. After several more hours of fishing we were losing the feeling in our feet so we decided to call it a day. No fish, but we had a great time and learned a new fishing technique that I will hopefully get to use again in the future.

Meanwhile, the rest of us went into Jedburgh for some lunch at the local pub (of course), and then it was back to the cottage. We made dinner and played games in the game room right off the kitchen.

Day of Abbeys (Sunday, December 7th)

by Chris Wicke

We woke up to the beautiful scenery at Bairnkine. Since we drove in at night, waking up was a surprise. Our cottage is on a working sheep farm and we look forward to exploring more of the farm while we are here.

We decided to set out today and visit a few local and renowned abbeys in the area.

Dryburgh Abbey
Founded in 1150 by the Cistercian Order, this is one of a large number of abbeys established under the influence of King David I. The English burnt the abbey twice in the 14th century and at least once again in the 16th. Each attack necessitated rebuilding, the character of which differed with the Abbey’s changing fortunes. Most of the photos you see are the remains of the original structure built in the late 12th century. Some exquisite carvings and original plaster work (inside the arches) still exist. A truly beautiful place.

After Dryburgh Abbey we went on to Melrose and stopped in for a bite of lunch in town. All of us (except Dad) had the ‘Afternoon Tea’ meal which consisted of finger sandwiches, pot of tea, and a tray of homemade treats: scones, shortbread, scotch pancakes and meringue with cream. We used the cream in the meringue for our scones and topped it off with strawberry preserves! YUM! After lunch we walked down the street to the Melrose Abbey.

Melrose Abbey
Interesting things we learned:

• Founded in 1136, there are only a few remains of the original foundation.
• The vestibules along the outside of the abbey had drainage in them to receive water and wine that had been blessed and then used for ceremony.
  
• These vestibules were created for the more than 50 monks to pray individually more than 6 times a day.
• The last monk died in the mid 1500s. The abbey was essentially abandoned from that time on.
• Robert the Bruce had always had a special feeling for Melrose Abbey. He died shortly before being able to go on Crusade and as a last act of faith, his heart was taken along on the Crusade, so that he could be a part of it. Supposedly, after the Crusade, they brought his heart back and buried it in Melrose Abbey. During an excavation in the 90s, they found a small casket buried under the abbey. When they drilled a tiny hole in the casket and pushed a fiber optic line down into the casket, they found a lead box inside with an inscribed copper plate on it. The inscription, dated 1921, said that a human heart was inside the lead box. Since there was no way to confirm that the heart belonged to Robert the Bruce, they left the box alone.
• The Cistercians are a strict order of monks who were allowed only 2 sets of clothing. A robe and a tunic, and a second set so they could wash one set and still wear the other. In later years, the order relaxed their restrictions for the more northerly abbeys and would allow the monks to wear all of their clothes at the same time to stay warm. In the early years of the order, these monks were only allowed to wear the tunic and a robe, even in Scotland where the winters can get a bit chilly. In the summer the monks would sometimes be allowed a second meal for the day.
• King Richard the First burned the abbey down and then paid for it to be rebuilt in order to save his mortal soul.
• Lay Brothers outnumbered the monks about 3 to 1; sometimes more. Lay Brothers were the menial workers of the abbey. They were typically people who did not have the birth to become a monk. They had a hard life, but at least they had a roof over their heads, steady work, and steady meals. That’s quite a bit during those times.
  

It was dark when we left Melrose Abbey and we made our way onto Peebles to shop for some groceries. There isn’t a big supermarket in Jedburgh (population 4000) so we wanted to shop in Peebles, which is about double the size in population. We always find interesting food stuffs in the markets…so our shopping excursions are an adventure and full of new discoveries!

After shopping we went onto West Linton to meet up with Shona (mom’s second cousin; Barbara’s sister) and her husband Shaun at the Old Bakehouse for dinner. It was a cozy little place and the food was excellent. We had great conversation and lots of fun at the end of our meal with the ‘crackers’, while Mom and Shona looked over albums of old family photos.

It was a great day of history and connecting with our roots. Another day that by the time we hit our bed sheets, we were all sound asleep. (Yawn).

Family Pilgrimage

By Carol Brooks

We visited several of the places that played a role in my family’s life. Without Mum to give us the details, we relied on my memory of having visited when I was 15 and what Rosemary had told me. Our plans to visit the Isle of Mull and at least take photos of the isle of Ulva, where Gran Mckee’s family was from, were superseded by bad weather. We did do some Internet searches and learned that the McQuarries owned the island until the 1700s and that Lachlan McQuarrie was the Governor of New South Wales and quite a local celebrity.

Since we were already in Glasgow at the Kelvin Grove hotel, our first stop was 39 Glen Crescent which is where Mum and I lived just before we came to the U.S. We had been told that the area had deteriorated but found the Crescent in good shape with well attended gardens and homes. I told the girls how the original house had been destroyed in the war and you could tell by comparing it to the others that it was a newer construction. The little bridge across the railroad tracks was as I remembered as was a small manufacturing plant that made bottle tops when we lived there. Funny how things look so much smaller than when you were a child. I remember walking down to Dumbarton Road with Mum with the rationing stamps to the green grocers and buying the bruised fruit because we got so much more for the money!

We were successful in finding the “monkey house” or Formakin Estate and, although it is now private residences, we did walk around the grounds and I told the girls about coming out here on picnics with their Gran when I was a little girl and about the time we got a ride with a man on a motor bike and I got to ride in the side carriage. Most of the monkeys are gone but you can still see a few frolicking on the rooftops! One of the ladies who lives in the mill house told us that Barachon Row was still there and we were delighted to drive around the corner and see where Mum and my Aunt Madge were born. The cottages are still all occupied and have been well cared for – Mum would have been delighted!!

Next we drove on to Bridge Of Weir where Gran and Granpa McKee were married and, later my Aunt Rosemary was born. It is still a lovely village and we had lunch in a wee pub on the High Street. According to Dennis and Katie, this has become a very upscale place to live for those commuting into Glasgow. Again, it was largely unspoiled and lovely. One more stop on the way was Lochwinnoch where the family lived after the house on Glen Crescent was bombed and where my Mum and Dad were married.I took a picture of what I hope was the chapel but will not be sure until I look again at the slides we took back in 1959.

As the sun fell, we made our way to visit David Ritson and his wife Jan in Uplawmoor; David was the exporter of Scottish food that I had met when I was working with Marc and Colleen Leffman. We spent an hour or so with them and had tea and biscuits and then jumped on the M8 towards our next cottage in the Borders – Bairnkine – with a stop in Lauder at another very comfortable pub for dinner.

It was a lovely day full of memories…and some tears…

Inveraray

Sorry for the delay in posting...but our new cottage does not have internet access. So...I am sitting in the Jedburgh town centre at the visitor's center.

So, let me pick up where we left off: Inveraray.

We stopped about half-way in Inveraray (a very tiny town on Loch Fyne) and met up with Barbara (mom’s second cousin) at The George Hotel. After tea we made our way across the street to a small restaurant for lunch. JA had the best hamburger here; the hamburger was very thinly sliced steak pressed together and the bun was like a ciabatta. Stacey is now on a quest to find this delicacy again while we are in Scotland.

Side note: The public transportation system here is amazing. You can go almost anywhere in Scotland on a bus - from the city to the country to the Highlands; and if you want to go to any of the islands without a car, just take the ferry! I say this because Barbara doesn’t drive and took a bus up from Dunoon (about an hour away)…just hopped on the bus and voila! Sigh…I wish America had better infrastructures in place like this.

Once we left Inveraray we continued on our way to Glasgow. We got lost in Paisley and Stacey almost burst her bladder while we tried to find somewhere we could go to the restroom. No restaurants or supermarkets had public restrooms and the public restrooms (off town square in Paisley) were closed! Ok – so this is one of the only things that Scotland DOESN’T do well. We did find a large supermarket with restrooms but after driving around and remaining lost for almost 2 hours we decided to find our way to the hotel.

After about an hours rest at the Kelvingrove Hotel, we went out to dinner with Dennis and Katie (they own the Bothan Darach). We had a wonderful dinner and great conversation at The Drawing Room…I even tried a haggis mash (see appetizing picture in slideshow).

It was a very long day...we were happy to go to bed…

Too tired to post today...

...but I'll tell you all about our travels tomorrow when we reach our next cottage: Bairnkine.

http://bairnkinecottages.co.uk/about.htm

We are staying in the Owl Cottage.

Night, night...

Last day in Port Appin

Mom, Chris and Tatiana hung around Bothan Darach today - to run, rest and check out the local scenery...while Stacey, JA and Dad went onto Dunstaffnage Castle. Not much else to say...it was a relaxing day taking in the beauty of Port Appin (we are VERY sad to leave tomorrow).

This evening after dinner we went to the Pierhouse for a drink and had a chance to speak to some local folks (and as it is, not one of them is FROM Port Appin!).

All in all - a wonderful day. Did I mention we don't want to leave tomorrow? That's ok - it will be a new set of adventures. Tomorrow we are off to Glasgow...

Inverness (in the snow!)

Yesterday we left Port Appin around 7:15 am because we knew we had a long drive ahead of us to Inverness (about 2.5 hours). That may not seem like a long drive to some (especially fellow Texans), but trust me...2.5 hours in Scotland on skinny roads, in the snow and ice with double-decker buses and semis passing you on the 'wrong' side of the road is very long! We started off with fairly clear skies but just as we made it to our B&B and our tour guide (Allison) was picking us up, it started snowing!! We had made it just in time! We hopped into the tour van and headed off to Urquhart Castle.

Urquhart Castle
On our approach to Urquhart Castle we stopped at an overlook of Loch Ness and quickly saw Nessy! (See picture in slideshow above). The snow was coming down densely in great, white puffs at this point but we were all smiles at the beauty of the snow. Urquhart Castle is mostly in ruins now, but it is very beautiful and easy to visualize the structure in its heyday. The castle is built in a very strategic l0cation to the Highlands and has an interesting and long history. http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/drumnadrochit/urquhart/

Corrimony Burial Chamber
We set out from Urquhart Castle for the Corrimony Chambered Cairn (burial chamber). This 4000 year old burial chamber is mostly known by locals and therefore we would not have found it without Allison (our tour guide). There are other smaller chambered cairns in the area...but the Corrimony is the largest and the only one that was excavated and now protected by the Historic Scotland Foundation.

Loch Ness Center
We were suckered into a Loch Ness exhibit exploring the mystery of Nessy and the geological and scientific pros and cons of her existence (cue spooky music here). So...does Nessy really exist? We are not telling. Something neat that did happen at the Loch Ness Center, as we were leaving Adrian Shine walked right by us! (Adrian Shine has devoted his life to studying Nessy and Loch Ness and designed and narrated the exhibit. He has written many books and sponsored numerous expeditions and research projects). http://ww.uniontrib.com/uniontrib/20080316/images/trav-man280.jpg

Dinner and a show
After resting a bit at the B&B, we enjoyed a dinner at The Kitchen right on the River Ness and then walked to Eden Court Theatre for a pantomime of 'Aladdin'. Think vaudeville meets Barney and Saturday Night Live. It was...interesting... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantomime

Inverness Town Centre

This morning we slept in a bit, had breakfast at our B&B and then headed into town centre Inverness for some site seeing. We found a delicious little bakery and bought lots of yummies for dinner and dessert: mince meat pies, sausage rolls, bridie's(pronounced BRY-DEEs), cornish pasties, shortbread with caramel and chocolate on top, jap cake (with marzipan, coconut and bananas) and a sweet mince pie. How much weight are we going to gain on this trip? Let's not count...

James Pringle Weavers

On our way out of town, we stopped by this 200 year old working woolen mill on the northside of Inverness. We were able to see some old weaving techniques of the traditional tartans and explore products we can't get in the U.S. Dad bought a nice cashmere scarf, Tatiana bought a tartan shawl and JA tried on his Scottish look (see slideshow above).

We stopped off for fish & chips (which were delicious!) - served with pots of tea, of course, and then made our way home.

Oban and Inverawe smokery

Today we mostly spent our time in Oban, but we made a detour first to the east, to Inverawe.

Inverawe: Scotland's Specialist Smokehouse
http://www.smokedsalmon.co.uk/default.asp?submit=Home
The Inverawe smokery is tucked into a tiny town, down a 2 mile single track lane. It is very isolated and very unique. We stepped right into the 'deli' area to peruse their goods - mostly focusing on their specialty preserves (used for game and other meats), specialty mustards and other condiments and...of course...their smoked fish! We bought smoked trout pate (which is to die for and is almost gone already!), smoked organic salmon fillets as well as a roasted, then smoked salmon with herbs (which is completely gone!). YUM! While Chris and Tatiana ate their smoked trout pate on oatcakes in the tea room (with panoramic windows overlooking the water) Dad, Mom, Stacey and JA went to the small smokery exhibit and then we headed to Oban.

Oban
Oban (which means 'little bay' in Gaelic) is a larger town directly on the water (population 8500) about 19 miles south 0f Port Appin. We headed straight into town looking for lunch. We wanted to eat at the Oban Inn, but we were hungry and needed to find lunch asap. We ate a pancake place which was basically the Scottish equivalent to an American diner. Stacey was adventurous and tried black pudding (she later found out what was in it and swore she would never eat it again. But hey - she tried it!).

After lunch the guys and the girls split up. The girls went in search of jewelry, general site seeing / shopping and to find out how to get onto the Ferry to Mull (which we'll be doing on Thursday). The guys headed off to tour the Oban Distillery which is the second smallest distillery in Scotland but one of the oldest (established in 1794). The girls had to go retrieve the guys from the distillery...and then we got into our cars and headed up the hill above Oban to McCaig's Tower. It was EXTREMELY windy and cold up there so we left quickly (nice view, though!). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCaig%27s_Tower

Great finds today:

• Smoked goods from Inverawe.
• Chris, Dad and JA got a free 'Official Whisky Glass' (for tasting) and bought some single malt scotch whisky.
  
• Mom bought some cool earrings made from dried, dyed Heather twigs!
• Ginger wine!
  

Tomorrow we are off to Inverness for two days!

Day of rest in Port Appin

We woke up late this morning - some of us at 10...some of us at 11. We had a nice breakfast of Scottish sausage, eggs, toast and marmalade!

After some respite:

• Chris and Tatiana went on a run up to the township of Port Appin
• JA, Stacey and Dad went on a nature hike on the Clach Thoull footpath which winds around on a small hill behind Port Appin
• Mom enjoyed some quiet time bird watching from the second story sitting room.
  

Afternoon tea and hot chocolate was served around 1:30pm and then Mom, Dad, Stacey and JA took a leisurely drive toward Glencoe - stopping at Ballachullich for tea and Guinness! Since it started to snow, and it was getting dark, they turned back toward Bothan Darach.

It was a very relaxing day getting acquainted with our piece of west Scotland. Tomorrow we are off to Oban for some shopping and site seeing (the boys will be drinking - there is a distillery in Oban!).

Edinburgh, Stirling Castle (and driving!)

OUR FIRST DAY
After much traveling - which we all agree wasn't that bad but sleeping on the plane was not easy to accomplish - we arrived yesterday around noon. Transferring planes in Heathrow was also not easy - we were running behind (Stacey forgot her camera on the plane and had to dash back to get it! It was waiting peacefully where she left it...so that is good news.). Three separate people at three separate stations wanted to check our passports and then there was quite a line at the security checkpoint. (Sigh). We made it 7 minutes before the plane was scheduled to take off! I think others were also delayed because the guy that swiped our boarding passes said "Yeah, we were expecting you. We've got a few others that are also running behind." Whatever...whew...we made it...

Once we landed in Edinburgh, we picked up our cars and drove to our B&B. We were looking for a place to eat, but the streets are tight and we were learning to drive the roads (there were a few close calls!) and there really isn't any parking...so we headed to our B&B: Brig O'Doon. After checking in and relaxing for a bit, we headed out for an early dinner at Loch Fyne (a great seafood restaurant on the water). It was nice to sit down, relax and eat some nice food (and decompress after no sleep, no food and very stressful driving).

After dinner, we went back to our B&B and bundled up before heading down to the Christmas Festival in downtown Edinburgh. What a beautiful and sparkling evening! The bus dropped us off right below Edinburgh Castle and in the promenade below us were Christmas lights, people milling about the warm-lit booths and a Ferris wheel set-up in front of some medieval tower. We spent most of our time and received the most enjoyment from the German section of the festival. Which, by the way, everyone else seemed to feel the same way...because it was the busiest and liveliest! We ate fried doughnut balls dipped in hot, melted dark chocolate, drank mulled wine and hot mead and looked at all the yummy German treats and imports.

STIRLING CASTLE
After a good nights sleep, we started our day with a hearty breakfast at Brig O'doon (which consisted of poached eggs, sliced ham, baked beans (!), a link sausage(which tasted like hot liverwurst) and fresh tomato. We left Edinburgh for Stirling (the Falkirk Wheel was closed...bummer). Stirling Castle was AMAZING! If you have ever fantasized about living in medieval times...this is the place where you could envision that life. Built in layers from the 1300s through the 1800s, this castle and palace is a tribute to a way of life long gone. We spent 2.5 hours wandering the grounds and imagining all the fascinating people who lived and worked in this magnificent place. We were also able to listen to a lecture from a weaver who is currently weaving a replica of one of the famous 'Hunt of the Unicorn' tapestries.

After lunch in a local pub below the castle, we went grocery shopping and headed out of town toward the west coast. It was already dark when we left Stirling, and we knew we had a 2.5 hour drive ahead of us in the dark on windy streets. EEK! There were hairpin turns and surprises: tight bridges, fog, lanes the size of our car and no shoulder. There was also amazing beauty: snow on the evergreens, millions of stars, cute little sleepy villages.

Port Appin is a magical, tiny township...and our cottage (Bothan Darach) is exactly what we hoped it would be. Dennis Bell (the owner) was waiting for us when we arrived and couldn't have been more genuine and kind. What a lovely person. This will be our home for the next week.

So...we've unpacked, made our first dinner in Scotland, drank a bottle of wine (and I am now sipping on a Scottish delicacy: Mrs. Walker's Drumgray Highland Cream liqueur) and we are quite content indeed!

Oh yeah...meant to mention: It's really cold here!

We're outta here!!

We have packed, re-packed, created list upon list and organized until we are cross-eyed. WE ARE READY TO GO!!

The shuttle picks us up at mom and dad's house at 3pm - our plane leaves at 6pm. We touch down in London at 10am tomorrow and then catch our flight to Edinburgh. We will be in Edinburgh tomorrow by noon.

Remember: we will be six hours ahead of you.

Weather currently in Edinburgh: 39 degrees and raining. Woohoo! High today 48, low 33.

Stay tuned...

Packing

Jacket
Scarf
Hat
Gloves
Long underwear
Warm socks
Jeans
Sweaters
Boots
Running gear
Camera
Scotland book
German book
ipod
Laptop
Movies for laptop
Passport!

Countdown to Thanksgiving

We leave for Scotland on Thanksgiving Day. That means no turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, dinner rolls...(sigh). The annual meal-of-all-meals will be missed but the essence of this day will not be lost. As others gather around their tables to share warmth, food and memories, we will hunker deep into our cabin seats as we fly over the Atlantic - and from this vantage point we will indeed be thankful for all that we have:

• that we are able to take a memorable trip like this;
• that we are a close family - we love each other and have deep friendships;
• that we have nice homes and friends;
• that we see life as an adventure full of messiness, laughter, ingenuity, tears and kindness.

So although we will miss the delectable delights of this year's annual favorites (sigh), we are very lucky...and thankful...indeed.