We had planned this trip to Ireland. But while looking at the map, I exclaimed, “Look at this. Scotland is only fifteen mile away. We should include Scotland, as long as we’ve flown all the way over to Ireland.”
And, so we did. Of course, when we made the arrangements, we flew from Dublin to Edinburg, many, many times the fifteen miles. But only an hour by plane.
Edinburg is a nice city, and interesting with a great bit of history. But soon, we decided to venture out into the northern part of Scotland. We generally prefer to spend time in the smaller villages and country side than in the big cities. Most big cities are similar.
An
hour out of Edinburg, we saw a sign for the Falkirk Wheel. A seat partner on the flight over had told us he was going to see the wheel. So, on a whim, we turned off and made our way to the Falkirk Wheel. It is a different approach to accommodating varying water levels on canals. Basically, it is a rotating boat lift. Two giant water gondolas are attached on opposite sides of the rotating arms. Boats enter on the high side and the low side and the giant arms rotate lowering the one and raising the other the seventy-nine foot difference in canal elevation. The gondolas are capable of handling multiple boats within the limits of its size of 21 feet wide and 90 feet long.
But enough details. We visited the Wheel and it was quite impressive. Incidentally, we also ran into the man from the airplane who had alerted us to its existence.
From there, we headed north and west. Several days later we arrived at Loch Ness. As most of you know, my book A Ton of Gold was inspired by an old Texas folk tale, so I wanted – no, needed – to check out the folk tale of Nessie, the Loch Ness monster. We took a boat out on the loch, the second largest loch in Scotland and the deepest at over 750 feet. It covers twenty-two square miles.
Fortune smiled on us and we did get a sighting of Nessie, which I will
share with you here.
Even without the cryptozoological monster Nessie, the Loch was spectacular: beautiful water, mountains sometimes disappearing into the blue water, and gorgeous scenery on all sides.
Of course, Scotland has its share of castles and we visited several.
Inverness is a beautiful city, covered in flowers and reigned over by the picturesque Inverness Castle (pink stone rather than the usual dull exteriors).
We wandered down south through ruggedly beautiful country side and stayed in a small town which was celebrating with, among other things, a duck race.
Glasgow was just another big city.
Stirling is a lovely town (around 50,000 people), with a large and impressive castle-fortress. In fact, Stirling had once been the capital of Scotland. We spent two nights in a bed and breakfast whose host and hostess were absolutely delightful.
After another day in Edinburg, we headed to the airport and on to Copenhagen. Denmark was less than two hours away. How could we skip it?
Next time: Scandinavia. If you do – or do NOT – want a post on Scandinavia, leave your preference in a comment. Thanks.
Love your snaps and stories. Keep ’em coming!! please~
Thanks, Marni. I’ll write about Scandinavia next month.
I loved reading about Scotland, where I’ve never been, and would have liked a much longer travelogue. Yes, I’ll be happy to learn about your adventures in Scandinavia.
I’ve been told that PV did not get the storm, Jim. Hope you were – and are – safe and enjoying the beauties of the city.
Thanks, Eileen, for the comment and concern about Puerto Vallarta. We are in PV right now, and Patricia turned inland south of PV and the mountains just south of PV kept us from getting any damage at all – no wind, nothing – except maybe three inches of rain, which was just a slow steady rain. For us, it was a non-event.
I loved our trip to Scotland last year and this brought back so many wonderful memories. I would have loved to have added Ireland but that will have to be another trip. Never been to Scandinavia – would love to hear about it!
Scotland really is special, isn’t it? But Ireland is magical and I hope you make it soon. I’ll talk about Scandinavia next month. Thanks for leaving a comment, Nancy.
I enjoyed your post on Scotland very much, especially having never been there – but I’ve always had a yearning to visit the Isle of Skye.
Please do post on Scandinavia!! I look forward to your photos and travelogue. 🙂
Kate, thanks for the comment. And I will post on Scandinavia next month. I don’t want to put people off with too many travelogues.
Jim, I enjoyed your travelogue of Scotland, and I envy you for that trip. I have Scottish ancestral roots, but I’ve never been to Scotland (although I’ve traveled a bit in England and Wales). However, I feel as I’ve just been to the misty, mystical Scottish Isle of Iona, because I just finished reading my son Ben Daniel’s new book, which ends up with an account of his visit to that remarkable spiritual place. Anyway, yes, please keep me posted about your further travels.
Thanks, John, for visiting. And you must get to Scotland. Wales is not enough. Your son’s book sounds interesting. Will have to look it up.
Your blog is not quite as wonderful as being there, but it’s the only way I’ve gotten any travel in this summer. Thanks. Now, come on home and start writing!
Thanks for the comment, Lesley. But I can’t come home right now. We’re in Puerto Vallarta and Hurricane Patricia has shut down the airport. Actually, there’s mandatory (sort of – this is Mexico) evacuation. We are in a very good building and up high, so we are staying put. But, I’m told power goes off in thirty minutes. Life is an adventure.