God's Country, Scotland , a place to return to.

As we were staring in disbelief at the "TSA guy", who emptied our plastic baggies, when leaving the airport in Edinburgh, while protesting that we came in with the same content in our baggies from Amsterdam, and that we there passed inspection, he simply replied: "they should have done what we are now doing here in God's country. 

Edinburgh a port city

 

A view of the castle

I will spare you his follow up opinion about the US TSA system. In the end however, he was kind enough to let us choose which bottles we wanted to place in his slightly larger plastic baggies, before confiscating the rest, claiming, that the deodorant and toothpaste were liquids.

 

Scotland colorful and amazing views

Those words "God's Country", keep resonating in my head, as I review and choose the pictures for this blog.

 

We never pass up arboretums anywhere

In the two weeks we spent in Scotland, we visited Edinburgh (Scots pronounce it as Edinborough, stressing the latter part of the word) and did the tourist thing, like the hop on hop off, the Royal Mile, the Royal Palace etc etc. 

 

On the bottom of the Royal Mile hill lies the Royal Castle where Mary Queen of Scots resided

4 nights is not enough to really meld with this city and begin to get to really know and enjoy this 2000 year old place, built on a lava stream, with its densely built old town buildings, featuring numerous closes and wynds. 

 

Old town views

No Roman remains here, they never were able to conquer these lands. In fact Emperor Hadrian had to build a wall to keep the Scots out of England.

 

The pub is Stirling where we resided in the left top room

Then followed 3 nights in Stirling with lodging above a pub in the old town, where we had a car to visit the surrounding lowlands.

 

Stirling's Royal Castle

We travelled this time by Scotsrail to and fro. And last but not least, we feasted 6 nights on a small wooden ship with 6 cabins, departing from Oban on the western coast and during our trip 10 passengers saw the rainy and cloudy Inner Hebrides. So that is the coming story today.

 

Hebrides views 

For you readers who claim Scottish heritage: you will find on Princess Street a building aptly called the "Register House", where for centuries all "Hatches, Matches and Dispatches" have been recorded.

 

The newest Majestic line ship, not wooden like ours, but same size

 

Happy Sandee as she should always be if I can have my way

Let's start this story on the west coast, where we visited last and introduce you to the Majestic Line a small cruising company with 3 small ships. We boarded the Glen Massan and sailed the Inner Hebrides (pronounced for your edification as "Heb bre dees")

 

Quiet night views in protected lochs

The stormy weather and thus rough seas prevented us from straying away from protected lochs, and views were not too expansive due to the cloud cover. 

 

Good food Good company

But all in all the crew and passengers made it a relaxing trip, filled with food and drink. I counted 9 stops during the six night trip, several distilleries and picturesque villages. 

 

Distillery visit - there are many of them all around the country

I tried every evening a glass from a different scotch bottle and came to no absolute winner during my tasting tests. The chef provided 3 times a day wonderful food and the freely served house wine flowed into our glasses, bottle by bottle. 

 

Our "retired chef" who now provided us 3 times a day food we lauded every time

Wonderful Scottish names were visited, such as Loch Spelvie, Loch Sunart, Sound of Sleat, the villages of Strontian, Craignure, Tobermory, Aird of Sleat etc etc. 

 

 

Views one never tires of

At the end of the trip, I for one decided, if we are returning here, I want to stay land-based for awhile during the best possible season, not just sail between them and walking a village for a few hours.

 

Stirling above and below, one senses history here

 

One of the heralded kings I never heard about before this trip

Ok let's now fast backwards (Editor's note: Erik's counter to "fast forward") to the city of Stirling, the Royal seat of the Kingdom of Scotland created in 1130 by King David I; the city where King James VI, infant son of Mary, Queen of Scots was coronated as King of Scots, among other noted feats in Stirling. 

 

The light colored building was added centuries later 

For history buffs, King Robert the Bruce and before him King David I, scheming exploits to become famous are a fascinating read. The castle dominates the town and just below that castle we found the Portcullis tavern, where we lodged and were fed. 

 

We really enjoyed walking Stirling 

It is in this town that in a small corner grocery store, I found two 2007 Gran Reserva Rioja bottles on a high shelf for the measly price of 8 pound each. I savored those bottles to the last drop, and it will make me remember Stirling to my dying days.

 

Imagine this to be a block of ice thousands of years ago, while green erupted all around it

 

Leaving the dock onto Lake Lochmond

 

A view on the Killin Heritage path walk

 

Driving Country roads meeting locals

Our little rental car brought us to Loch Lomond & the Trossachs national park over winding tree leaf covered park roads to Loch Katrine, where we had a few hours touring on the Sir Walter Scott, looking below a blanket on its bow at the green slopes rising above the waterline, and after that, an hour driving northwards, we walked a part of the Killin Heritage Path. 

 

 Mary Queen of Scots 

Many lochs were the deeper troughs cut during the ice age by the hundreds of tons of ice mass, pushing southwards from the North Pole. The changing climate left these deep lochs filled with rock solid ice that took decades to melt, creating lakes and ponds, while the hills surrounding them got lush and green again.

 

I forgot the names of these places during our day trip, but it represents what we saw a lot of

 

The second driving day we traversed a 91 mile / 148 km route called "Abbeys, Battlefields and Castles" in a tour guide and drove through towns with names like Dollar, Causewayhead, Perth, Dunblane, Culross, Blackness, Bo'ness, Linithgow and Bannockburn. I list these names not just for the questions some of them raise, but also as a memory aid for my beloved spouse as she one day may peruse this blog.

 

Culross

The landscape was a lovely multicolor green with pastures, forest and streams noisily flowing past our open car windows.

 

 

So colorful so rustic

One township was so frozen in time, that one seemed to wander back a few centuries, through the Celtic "stones" as it were. Read Diana Gabaldon's historical time travel novel series Outlander.

 

And then there was "Edinborough", but about that part of our trip in the next blog.

  

 For my Dutch Readers: other nations use words we would not use in public