Today we left our cute B&B and took a taxi to the Euston Station for our train to Glasgow. Taxi was 25 pounds and took only half an hour. Of course we were much too early so found the cafe on the second floor where we could watch the board and see everyone else watching it down below us! Finally got our First Class coach and nice comfy seats at a table opposite a nice older couple. We left on time and right away porters came by with tea or coffee and then breakfast! Too bad we already had two breakfasts while waiting. And throughout the nearly five hour trip they kept coming by with snacks, drinks, wine, and then lunch. We were pretty stuffed by the time we arrived at Glasgow Central Station.
Very nice modern hotel, Jury’s Inn again, right on the river. Only a ten minute walk from the station. Room quite nice, again with one big bed and one twin bed. I’m the child in the small bed! Too tired to go find a restaurant so we ate in the bar, as the hotel restaurant was booked full of kids here for the European Games. It was thrilling to see these gorgeous young ones in their team jackets, Sweden, Slovakia, Latvia, Nederland, etc. why was Israel here?
August 2. Thursday. Day 8. Glasgow on our own.
After a sumptuous breakfast buffet in the hotel, we walked to George Square to find the sightseeing bus. But the square was closed off for music events with the Games. So we walked around the block, saw the red bus and followed it to its start. 14 pounds for the day, one more for two days. One bus was full so we waited for another and got two seats right in front upstairs. After going through the western part of Glasgow we got off at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, which is a fascinating place with a huge variety of exhibits. I was interested only in the Charles Rennie Macintosh things, mostly furniture and drawings, very much like Frank Lloyd Wright designs. At 1pm there was an organ concert, so we had lunch in the Great Hall Cafe, the very spectacular huge main room.
Back on the bus to home, a short walk from the bus stop! For dinner we decided to go to the Mussel Inn, for of course mussels. We went by Uber since it started to rain a bit. Only 3 pounds for a ten minute ride. Food and drink was terrific, and we left feeling very satisfied. A slow walk home in a light drizzle, and so to bed!
August 3. Friday. Scotland Day 9. Tour Day 1
Found the hop on and off bus to go to the Riverside Museum, a transportation museum designed by the late Zaha Hadid. We got there too early as it didn’t open until 11 on Fridays, so we went on the Tall Ship first. It was huge with more than three deck levels, a vast floor which holds wedding parties! I bought a ship model to remind me of it. Views of the Museum were fantastic from all sides, particularly from the river. The tall ship reflected in its glass front was beautiful.
The museum itself is fascinating inside, huge with a curved floor plan to provide various spaces for displays of locomotives, trolley cars, buses, bikes, ship models, cars of all periods, the second oldest Rolls Royce. We were so tired after that we just wanted lunch, and were determined to find the Willow Tea Room designed by Charles Rennie Macintosh around 1900. On the way we passed the burned out shell of the Glasgow School of Art, a most famous building designed by Macintosh and just being restored after a previous fire. What a great loss as it is now being demolished. After several blocks detour around the burn site, we found the Willow Tea Room. Even without reservations, they seated us. Food was so-so and service pretty bad since they had just reopened in June. We walked back to the Hotel where we met our tour group, got in the bus for a ride around town and a short visit to the Kelvingrove again!
Dinner with the group in a private room, 44 people.
August 4. Saturday. Day 10. Tour Day 2. To Loch Lomond.
Bags out at 6:45, and to breakfast as we leave at 8 for an hour ride to a cruise on the Loch in the rain and fog. Too bad as it would have been nice in a the sun. Then back on the bus to Inverary, a quaint little town with minimal stores and we found a little place to eat a nice fish lunch. After wandering the town we took the bus around the corner to the Castle. Downtown Abbey filmed one of their Christmas specials there. the rooms were not large but with lots of gold, paintings, and weapons! It is still the home of the Duke of Argyl, of the Campbell clan.
Leaving there at 3 we drove through some wild hills, stopped once to take photos, and on to the Nevis Bank Inn on the outskirts of Fort William. A very nice dinner with some new friends here at the hotel restaurant.
August 5. Sunday. Day 11. Tour Day 3. To Skye
Left Hotel at 9 today for a not too long trip to Skye by ferry. On the way made a short stop at Glenfinnan, with its monument to Bonnie Prince Charlie, last of the Stuart claimants to the throne of England.
At Mallaig, we got off the bus to walk on the ferry, and it was a huge one, more than four levels of decks, and with several big tour coaches plus cars. The landing on Skye is at Armandale, where we went to the Donald Center with its history of this most powerful clan. In a long list of names I found an ancestor name, Addison, from Henry Addison Jones, my great grandfather who came to the US from Wales in 1820. This Addison may have been on his mothers side.
A lovely lunch in the castle Inn and Restaurant, and a walk up to the Museum there. Still damp but at least not raining. After this stop we traveled along Skye for a few miles to cross back to the mainland by bridge. This one had tolls when it first opened, but is now free.
Lastly we traveled along the Loch Ness without seeing the famed monster. But we did see a guy (we think) swimming along behind a boat. Maybe training for a triathlon, since the loch is 24 miles long! Finally arrive by 5 pm to our hotel, The Palace Hotel in Inverness, right on the river in the center of the city. Another tasty dinner in a noisy dining room holding two big tour groups!
August 6. Monday. Day 12. Tour Day 4. Ardoe Mercure Hotel.
Today out of the hotel and on to another one. Long trip on winding roads again. I’m almost getting carsick as we were in the very last row due to the rotation schedule. The SUN is out and blue skies are shining though, so we are cheerful. First stop Culloden Battlefield where Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Jacobites were soundly defeated in less than an hour by the government forces. Clans fought against clans on both sides. The opera Donna del Lago is about some of the clan warfare. Of course the lovers are on opposing sides a la Romeo story!
Then a quick lunch stop in Aviemore for fish and chips, really excellent fish. And on to Aberdeen for two nights. Actually a castle-like Hotel way outside of the city, so no city walks today or tomorrow.
August 7. Tuesday Day 13. Tour day 5. Ardoe Mercure Hotel, Aberdeen.
Whiskey for breakfast! The Lochnagar Distillery (accent on last syllable!) was our first stop. First to a tasting table, with little glasses of tiny amounts in them. Sniffed it first, then sipped. Didn’t like it at all. After explanations about their product, which Queen Victoria really liked, and we are very near Balmoral Castle too, we were taken in small groups around the works, from one area to another. Quite a complex process to ensure that all batches are the same.
A short stop in a very little village for a tasty lunch, then on to another castle. Crathes Castle was built in the 16th century and it looks the perfect little tower, with extremely tight winding stairs going up one room at a time! Ropes to hang on made it possible but not easy. I took it slowly and arrived safely! Best thing was the rooms with painted ceilings. One room had the nine nobles painted between the beams, with words along the sides of the beams. Another room had the muses painted there. Of course another stone circular stair led us down to the very gorgeous gardens. Clipped hedges and trees, and a grand assortment of flowers was a beautiful site across expansive lawns. Back to our same hotel, the Mercure Ardoe, and another full dinner here.
August 8, Wednesday, Day 14. Tour day 6. To St. Andrews
Checked out of the hotel, and stopped off at Glamis Castle, childhood home of the Queen Mother Elizabeth who was born there. It was a big one, and nice, but filled with too much stuff! Couldn’t take pictures as some family still lives there. We had a young tour guide with a shrill voice. The castle again had many steps up and down so we certainly only saw part of it. A lunch stop in St. Andrews for only two hours. I got a sandwich to go, and walked the town from the university at one end to the beginning of the Old Gold Course at the other end.
Then on to our hotel near Edinburgh, the Norton Hotel, in the country again. Change clothes and on the bus to our dinner show! It was a lively mix of bagpiper, four lassie highland dancers, a terrific guy dancer, a funny mc, and a few other musicians.
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