Saturday

We stayed near the airport in Edinburgh for the last two nights. We visited the Britannia royal yacht. It was very interesting. It’s owned by a conservation company and available for tours. We spent a couple of hours there and then we had a late lunch/early dinner, walked a little around town and went back to the hotel to pack. We played dominoes both of the last two nights.

The queens bedroom

A sitting room for the queen

The rear sun deck converted to a tea room

Prince Phillip’s bedroom. Across the hall from the queen’s

The formal dining room for entertaining while on board. The placement of the plates and silverware was measured with a ruler and took three hours to complete. There gifts to the queen on the walls that were given to her while on a cruise.

The original engine was built in Glasgow as was the ship. It was still working when she was decommissioned and had never broken down.

The living room

That is how many men it took to run the ship.

Meat pie tattles (mashed potatoes) and nips(mashed turnips

Fish and chips and below haggis, nips and tatties. Our last Scottish meal. Bev found a new dessert to love. It’s sticky toffee pudding. It’s a moist, warm date cake covered with a buttery toffee sauce and served with a little ice cream. She made a point to try several versions and rate each one.

We had a long trip home. Our 9:00 am flight was cancelled. We were lucky enough to get a 2:30 flight that got us back to Lansing about 23 hours after we had gotten up. It was a good trip with good friends.

Saturday day 12

We stayed downtown Glasgow in a nice hotel. We ate breakfast at a local place then got on the off and on bus. This city is nice and worth more time than we are spending. It has interesting art murals that are encouraged. All the city museums are free. Pete and I went to the transportation museum. It had a strange organization. There was a lot of emphasis on ships and Glasgow history of transportation. A Glasgow ship builder reportedly built very good ships for the south during the civil war. They were used to run the northern blockade and one person bought five of them. It was interesting to see a different perspective on that aspect of the civil war.

The others went to a traditional museum and they said the organization there was unusual also. The weather was rain then mist then rain then sun then rain all day. Sunday we are back in Edinburgh then home on Monday.

Near the hotel

Bev and Maria in Glasgow. Notice the clothing for the weather

The art museum they went to

An intricately carved fountain

The rain and cold doesn’t stop the people of Glasgow from eating outside

A commissioned mural

Friday day 11

We enjoyed our stay in Oban but the accommodations were a little different. Parking down the street, no elevator and an old house. It was clean and had a shower and a good breakfast. We had a good meal but after an hour wait. The town is small and on the ocean. There was some shopping in the morning with success. We drove to Glasgow leaving the highlands and going to the lowlands of Scotland. We stopped at Luss on Loch Lomand. It is picturesque and the lake seems nice but the weather was not inviting for a boat ride. We drove through sun, mist and rain at various times during the day. Glasgow traffic was less than expected and we are in a regular hotel downtown.

The group on the dock at Luss

The slate roof was interesting to me. The house is very old. I don’t know who would work on them in Michigan

Loch Lomand

One of the model houses

Bev and the model houses

An old hotel on one of the lochs

Leaving the highlands

Thursday day 10

We stayed in Portree a second night and had salmon and salad for a second night. We couldn’t get in any restaurants because they were booked up. The salmon from the Coop store was good and everyone was happy with eating in the house. It has been surprising to me how tight and quiet the houses are. We have had really heavy winds and the houses are quiet. It was nasty weather when we got up and it didn’t get any better. Strong wind and intermittent heavy rain. We toured the Eilean Donan castle that was rebuilt from 1912 to 1932. It was very interesting. I saw a lock of Bonnie prince Charles hair. We stopped at Neptune’s staircase. It is a series of 5 locks that are part of the system that goes across Scotland. We drove to Oban the long way because the ferry wasn’t running due to the weather. We wandered the town, had a nice dinner and we to bed.

The heavy rain caused the streams coming down the mountains to be so frothy that they were white. They looked like snow chanels. It was amazing.

One of the white rivers

Part of Neptunes staircase

A little bit of rain!

Bev and Janet at the castle. They don’t allow pictures inside.

An indication of the size of the roads. This is a small car and we are in a full sized van. This road is medium sized. Some are much better but some are smaller. Some are small enough that you have to use a pull out to pass a car going in the opposite direction.

Wednesday day 9

We stayed in Portree and drove around our area of Skye. Lots of mountains, sheep, cliffs and some waterfalls. It was a windy but mostly dry day.

One of the scenic lookouts

The red plants are heather and there is a lot of it in some areas

View from a high plateau

Pretty waterfall

The high plateau with free range sheep. They are branded on their horns. Skye is famous for it’s free range sheep.

My sandwich for lunch. Haggis and cheese with an egg on top.

A house restored to 150 years ago. It was lived in until the 1930s. A family with ten children lived here in the late 1800s. They moved other period buildings to this location to make an outdoor museum.

A bin of peat to burn for cooking or heat.

A blacksmith shop. Notice the roof construction. That’s the typical way they were built with thatch as the top layer.

Bev feeding a Coos cow. They are hardy and were common in the highlands. We have seen mostly sheep and a few modern strains of cows on our travels.

Rugged coastline with a waterfall

Janet and Pete down below

The telephoto view

Climbing to one of the lookouts

Looking out to some of the neighboring islands

Tuesday day 8

We drove to Portree on the Isle of Skye. We drove along Loch Ness. We stopped at a castle in Kyle and didn’t do much else. We cooked salmon for dinner and played dominoes.

Bev and me at Loch Ness

The castle at Kyle at low tide

Bev in our kitchen. Note the beautiful view

Looking down on Portree with Maria and our van. The mountains in the background are about 3,000 feet in elevation and we have seen a lot of them lately. The neighbor uses a clothesline to dry their laundry and that appears to be common. The black plastic tank is for kerosene to heat their house. It costs them about 800 British pounds a year (that is about $1,100). Their house is below.

View from the deck with sheep in the background. We have seen a lot of sheep.

Monday day 8

We left Elgin and drove to Culloden. There was a huge battle there in 1746. It was over who should be king of England. Bonnie Prince Charlie lost and England put an end to the highland culture. It was the last shot at independence for Scotland. It significantly changed British history and was interesting. We drove on to Inverness, wandered the downtown, ate in a Scottish restaurant with a show about the history of the kilt and stayed in a pleasant house. We then went to an area with rock works that were very interesting.

I have added some miscellaneous pictures that I didn’t load before because of technical reasons.

The remnants of the cathedral in Elgin. It was called “the light of the north “. It was burned down by a highlander leader after the bishop excommunicated him. It is huge and had to be great in its day.

A shirt in the cullodon cafeteria on their staff.

Huge rocks for the base and the circle. 4000 years ago. Nobody knows how or why. They are huge piles with a path to a cleaned out center.

Interesting sign on the way to the rocks

Janet, Pete and Lola by a famous walking bridge in Inverness

Paco, Mike, Bev, Janet, Pete and Lola in Inverness on the Ness river.

Lola, Pete Bev and Janet with the Inverness castle in the background.

Fun tourist shop in Inverness

Whiskey is a huge part of the Scottish and English economy.

Bev and one of her new favorite deserts

A 1700’s building in Culross

Bev and Maria in Culross

A common farm scene. notice the cloudy day. We have had very good weather but some days it is sunny, cloudy and drizzly in the same day

Sunday day 7

We started a little late because we had no real schedule. We drove back to Braemar getting lunch at the ski area. We drove to the entrance of Balmoral and past it to distillery that is one of the two that supply the royal family. We took a tour that was very interesting. They have very little distribution because they are owned by a corporation and are obligated to sell 90% of their production to Johnnie Walker.. the guide said it was for Johnnie Walker blue. We stopped at a stone circle that was not exciting. We spent the night in Elgin.

Janet is very interested in the British royalty so she wanted pictures of Balmoral.

The ski area on our way

The entrance to Balmoral

Janet at the distillery

Vats for beginning of the distillation process. Made from Oregon Douglas fir

Barrels in storage. Scotch whiskey must be aged in barrels for 3 years and 1 day to be called Scotch whiskey. It has to be aged in Scotland.

The unimpressive stone circle.

The view from the stone circle. Most circles are on top of a hill and date back to the bronze period.

Another view from the circle

Saturday day 6

We went to the Highland Games in Braemar and they were very interesting. It was an hour and a half drive because it is a small town and there is tremendous demand for the tickets so we couldn’t stay close. It is somewhat like a county fair. There was lots of highland dancing, running races and feats of strength. Throwing the caber was great. It’s a 19 foot long tree trunk that weighs 140 lbs and the idea is to have it turn over after it is thrown. They carry it from the thinner end, run forward and try to flip the top as the thicker end comes down.

The highlight of the day was when the king and queen of England arrived. We were in the front row on the track and 15 feet from the limo. We were about 50 yards from their pavilion. The track was grass and everything was very low tech. There was no screening coming in and the King was giving out awards to winners without any obvious security people.

There were 11 bagpipe bands that played during the day. They were one big band for the opening and closing. They led the royal party in and out. There were several cars in the entourage. The music was incredible. They also had bagpipe competition for prizes.

Before the start.

The grandstand. It is about the size of a small high school grandstand. Notice cloudy and cool but dry.

Between playing with the concessions in the back.

Photo op

Tossing the caber

The King and Queen notice the stands are full now

Coming in with everyone standing and the stands full

The Kng and Queen exiting

Friday day 5

We toured Stirling castle. It was very interesting and very historic. Mary Queen of Scots was here as well as William Wallace. Robert the Bruce won independence for Scotland fighting from here and ruled from this castle. We spent 2 & 1/2 hours here with a self guided tour and we really enjoyed it. They have restored some of it with 1700s furniture, tapestries, weapons and people in period clothes. We drove to St Andrew’s and the “old course “. Paco and Lola play golf so it was more important to them. It is a famous place and it was interesting to see. We watched some groups of golfers on the 18th hole. We saw the famous bridge that was built in 1100 and is on the 18th fairway. We then drove to Pitlochry for the night.

Stirling down town

Bev and Lola on a Stirling street

Outside Stirling castle

The entrance

Bev and Janet entering Queen Anne’s garden

Queen Anne’s garden

A view of the old garden’s outline from the castle. Past them was the royal hunting grounds.

View from the castle. Nice flat land for farming years ago.

Another view of Queen Anne’s garden with the palace in the background.

The great hall. It looks like the hall from Harry Potter on the inside.

Further views inside the castle

Monument to Robert Byrnes near Stirling as we drive by.

Day 4 Thursday

We got organized to go to the airport and pick up the van, left the apartment only to find the tram had a problem. There had been an accident and we needed to take a bus from a few blocks away to a stop a few blocks from a tram station the other side of the accident. We picked up the van and drove to Culross. It’s a town restored to the 1700s and used in movies. It was interesting. After lunch we drove to Falkirk and the kelpies. They are gigantic horse head sculptures somewhat based on a local legend. It opened in 2014 and we were impressed and liked them.It was We then went to theFalkirk water wheel. It is from 2004 and is a water elevator for barges. It is the only one in the world. What used to take a half a day to lift the barges 80 feet with the locks now takes 5 minutes. We spent the night in Stirling.

Lego store in Edinburgh

The Kelpies

Lola, Janet and Bev at the Kelpies

The beginning

We are on the road again. We are traveling with Janet and Pete again. This time we have added our Spanish friends Paco, Lola and Maria. We have previously traveled together and really enjoyed those trips. We are in Scotland for two weeks. Our flight was uneventful but tiring. We left at 5:30 and flew for 7 hours. We then had four hours in Amsterdam before one and a half hours to Edinburgh. A 30 minute tram ride took us into the city and our apartment. We left our luggage but couldn’t get into the apartment for 2 more hours. We were tired by then. Paco, Lola and Maria arrived 3 hours later and confirmed our plans for the next day.

We ate breakfast in our apartment and then walked to the Edinburgh Castle. We had a guided walking tour of the castle. It was very interesting. We walked down the “Royal Mile “ to a fish and chips restaurant and then we rode the “on and off “ bus around the city. There are lots of tourists here. The castle was crowded and some of the restaurants near our apartment were full with a waiting list.

We flew out on Monday, arrived on Tuesday and started with the Castle on Wednesday. Today is Thursday and we pick up a van this morning for the rest of our trip. Here are some pictures of Edinburgh.

Bev, Maria and Lola with a church in the background on the Royal Mile