Our first time in Scotland! What a beautiful country!
Episode 1—Edinburgh
Found in a fortune cookie on September 2nd 2014:
“A new voyage will fill your life with untold memories.”
My backpack – 15 pounds; Georgia’s rolling carry-on – 28 pounds
Wednesday, September 3rd
Jenny, our oldest daughter, drove us to Lexington Kentucky’s “Bluegrass” airport again and suggested that we seemed to be continuing to spend our kids’ inheritance. We plead guilty. We got to the airport at 12:30 for our 2:30 flight. The X-ray machine ate my passport and plane tickets with our seat assignments. They fell through the rollers to the inside of the machine. Sheesh! Luckily the operator saw it and retrieved them for us.
We had to fortify ourselves with a tomato juice and a Mr. Pibb. Last Saturday we spent the afternoon and evening in Good Samaritan’s emergency room. Georgia had stomach pains and went to Urgent Care Saturday morning. They found an elevated white blood cell count and sent her to the hospital for a cat-scan to see why. Diverticulitis. They are treating her with antibiotics. So no wine. Never what you would call a “happy traveler,” she called her primary care doctor who took mercy on her and gave her four xanaxes so she’d be calm. Any calmer and she’d be unconscious.
Landing in Atlanta was a little bumpy. After the landing it poured buckets for a few minutes with lots of lightening. Glad to have missed it while we were in the air.
The flight from Atlanta to Paris was dreadfully cramped but we had an interesting seat-mate from Nigeria, now living in L.A. and sending her 11 year old daughter to boarding school in Virginia. She said she was in the Eboe tribe in Nigeria. We talked about the inter-tribal and inter-religious conflicts they were suffering. I wish the US weren’t becoming so “tribal.” We watched movies and squirmed in our seats trying to get comfortable.
Thursday, September 4th
At the Paris airport we were trying to find our gate for our flight to Edinburgh. It was down in the basement and out at the edge of the world! If this had been our first trip, we would have been left paralyzed with anxiety, but now, no sweat. A bus had to take us across the airport from the gate to the airplane.
The Edinburgh airport was about the same size as our little “Bluegrass” airport. We ended up in the wrong line for customs, but got switched over painlessly by the police lady. Our taxi driver, from India, was funny. He said that no one was talking about the referendum on whether or not to leave the “United Kingdom,” then wouldn’t shut up about it all the way to the Gillis Centre! We saw more “yes” (leave) than “no” (stay) signs, but I don’t think anyone knows which way it is going to go. Pride suggests “yes” but prudence suggests “no.”
We met our friend and Virginia companion, Janet at the airport. She is such a bright spirit! But like us, starting to slow down.
We checked in to the Gillis Centre which is also the Catholic Diocese office. It is a rabbit warren of rooms and hallways and because we needed the elevator for Janet we have to go up in one building, traipse through the main offices into the new wing, then out to the end where our rooms are – the very opposite end from the registration desk.
I needed to rest my eyes for a few minutes and was rudely awakened an hour later because some people want to see the sights ! We three walked to Marchmont Street to buy some bread and olives and find a pub recommended by the desk clerk. And it was great! We had Tennent’s beer and ale. I had macaroni and cheese for supper. The nice, chatty young proprietor recommended a vegetable curry to Janet and Chicken Tiki for Georgia. We are not going to starve on this trip.
We walked back to the house and I went out again alone. I found a nice working-class people’s park (a converted golf course) where people were jogging, throwing balls for their dogs and letting the kids play with wooden swords. Teenagers were gathered around picnic tables and people were just generally treating the area like their community front yard. The houses were all connected row-houses and the front yards were only about 5 or 6 feet deep and the width of the two story house.
I found a sign for a block party on Saturday. (9/6) I walked to the “Internet” pizza parlor. They had one computer with a bar stool. They said I could use it for free it I didn’t need to print anything out. No problem. There was a sweet Italian multi-pierced waitress who couldn’t tell the difference between an American and a Scottish accent. I got a dish of rum raisin gelato. Yumm.
Everyone is so slender!
I went back to the room and crashed.
Friday, September 5th
We got up at 8 AM for a breakfast of bread, cheese, meat, yogurt, cereal, hard boiled eggs and Nescafe coffee granules!
After breakfast we visited the Gillis Centre chapel. It has a lovely stained glass I.H.S. rondel window. The Ursuline Sisters once lived and had a school at the Centre. When they had to leave because of dwindling numbers, they wanted to sell the building to the Catholic Diocese but couldn’t because it turned out that the diocese already owned the grounds. This caused hard feelings, so the sisters sold the old mansion on the grounds, which they did own, to a banker for half what it was worth. This unfortunate episode persuaded the diocese thatthey needed to see what else they owned in Edinburgh, and discovered that they owned large parcels of land downtown that other people thought they owned. It created a mare’s nest!
There were dwarf fruit trees on the grounds so we ate a few apples then caught the #5 bus to High Street, walked to the base of Castle Hill, visited Giles Cathedral, then down to the National Gallery. There was a stunning Rembrandt self portrait and a portrait of a reclining woman (who may have been his mistress). There were glorious Raeburn portraits and his Skating Minister painting.
We saw Tintoretto, Bucher, the lovely Renoir Woman nursing her child, Van Gogh’s Olive Trees and his portrait of the woman potato-eater. There was a beautiful Seurat landscape and his study for Afternoon in the Park. El Greco’s Head of Christ was on loan, and so was one of the two magnificent Chardin still-life flower paintings. But everything was gorgeous. Obviously it was a smaller collection than the Louvre but very well displayed and comfortable to view, not so big as to wear you out walking around.
We then had to get cell phones so we could keep in touch in case one of us wandered off. (I don’t know why they were both looking at me.) And then our rail passes for Scotland had to be bought. Those purchases took us 2 hours!
We stopped at another Italian restaurant for a little mid-afternoon smackeral: delicious scones, lemon cheesecake, tea and cappuccino, then took the #5 bus back to the Centre. I walked back to the little grocery store to get some more bread, tuna and wine for a picnic supper in the breakfast-room downstairs. We watched a little BBC news. The registration for the referendum is HUGE, but no one knows which way it will go. The Polish girl at the front desk said she thinks it will be very close! The 18th will tell.
Saturday, September 6th
Today was the day to try to do everything! We were up at 8 for breakfast. Then we caught the #5 bus back to walk the Royal Mile. We saw the John Knox house, Saint Patrick’s and Blackwells, Edinburgh’s oldest bookstore. Went into the Royal Oak, a 200 year old pub. It had water samples from Perth, Nova Scotia and Edinburgh. Who knows why. There we met Colin Brown who leads the Rebus Walking Tours. We went out with him on a literary walking tour to see places mentioned by Ian Rankin in his John Rebus Detective series. We stopped at the Morgue, the School for Boys, the Medical School (where Conan Doyle studied and Sherlock Holmes was “born”), the Crags and Arthur’s Seat, an extinct volcano and the highest point in Edinburgh. Colin would also read excerpts from the books at these various sites. We enjoyed the walk and the other “Rebus fans.” And the scenery was pretty special as well. Edinburgers don’t typically pooper-scoop behind their dogs. Colin had to warn us frequently, “Watch out! Some poor lad has dropped his Tootsie Roll there!”
We had lunch at the Dovecot Studio Pantry. Delicious cream of chicken, smoked salmon and cucumber salad.
I then staggered up to Arthur’s Seat and Georgia and Janet went shopping.
For supper we had pizza, lasagne al forno, linguini del mar and wine that we had to buy across the street and bring back.
After supper we went to look for St Patrick’s Church but couldn’t find it. Did find the 1924 Olympic champion Eric Liddell community center, a re-purposed church with some interesting stained glass and community made knick-knacks. Then we went back to the Centre and so to bed.
Sunday, September 7th
We waited for the bus to take us to Mass and missed it. A taxi pulled up and we took it to St. Mary’s just in time. I enjoyed the priest’s message: Treat your brother like a pagan or tax collector and treat the pagans and tax collectors like a brother. Sounds harsh towards your brother but he urged us to remember how Jesus treated tax collectors and pagans. At the end of Mass, we received a blessing from Cardinal Archbishop Leo Cushley of St Andrews and Edinburgh.
Afterwards we had real coffee instead of Nescafe granules in their “hospitality suite.”
Then we took the #9 bus to the Royal Botanical Garden. It was amazing! There was a rock garden with lavender and white giant fall crocus.
We saw an Andy Goldsworthy slate sculpture in the shape of a cone and David Kindersley-designed plaques with quotes by Gerald Manley Hopkins and Wittgenstein. His type designs are amazing. There was a beautiful viewing spot of the city. And a tribute to Donald Duck, whose Uncle Scrooge McDuck was from Scotland, doncha’ know. We ate at the Gateway Restaurant at the West Gate of the garden (fish and chips, steakburger with chips and Glenlivet Speyside scotch with a few sparkling ice cubes and a tiny slice of lemon!)
Then we took the bus to the National Portrait Gallery, a beautiful building in town. The driver told us where we needed to get off. I love public transportation. People are always happy to help tourists—as long as we’re not in a huge group and make a minimum effort to be polite. The Portrait Gallery has a wonderful collection of Scottish portraits and a great café too. We liked the Sir Henry Raeburn self portraits and Ramsay’s portrait of David Hume, the Robert Burns portrait, the Sir Walter Scott portrait and many others. There was also a WW I display which Janet enjoyed. In the café we even spied a portrait of Ian Rankin!
We took the Lothian bus home and had to persuade Georgia to get off, as she didn’t think we had arrived yet. Had some Prosecco left over from yesterday. Tomorrow we leave for the highlands!
(to be continued)
Episode 1—Edinburgh
Found in a fortune cookie on September 2nd 2014:
“A new voyage will fill your life with untold memories.”
My backpack – 15 pounds; Georgia’s rolling carry-on – 28 pounds
Wednesday, September 3rd
Jenny, our oldest daughter, drove us to Lexington Kentucky’s “Bluegrass” airport again and suggested that we seemed to be continuing to spend our kids’ inheritance. We plead guilty. We got to the airport at 12:30 for our 2:30 flight. The X-ray machine ate my passport and plane tickets with our seat assignments. They fell through the rollers to the inside of the machine. Sheesh! Luckily the operator saw it and retrieved them for us.
We had to fortify ourselves with a tomato juice and a Mr. Pibb. Last Saturday we spent the afternoon and evening in Good Samaritan’s emergency room. Georgia had stomach pains and went to Urgent Care Saturday morning. They found an elevated white blood cell count and sent her to the hospital for a cat-scan to see why. Diverticulitis. They are treating her with antibiotics. So no wine. Never what you would call a “happy traveler,” she called her primary care doctor who took mercy on her and gave her four xanaxes so she’d be calm. Any calmer and she’d be unconscious.
Landing in Atlanta was a little bumpy. After the landing it poured buckets for a few minutes with lots of lightening. Glad to have missed it while we were in the air.
The flight from Atlanta to Paris was dreadfully cramped but we had an interesting seat-mate from Nigeria, now living in L.A. and sending her 11 year old daughter to boarding school in Virginia. She said she was in the Eboe tribe in Nigeria. We talked about the inter-tribal and inter-religious conflicts they were suffering. I wish the US weren’t becoming so “tribal.” We watched movies and squirmed in our seats trying to get comfortable.
Thursday, September 4th
At the Paris airport we were trying to find our gate for our flight to Edinburgh. It was down in the basement and out at the edge of the world! If this had been our first trip, we would have been left paralyzed with anxiety, but now, no sweat. A bus had to take us across the airport from the gate to the airplane.
The Edinburgh airport was about the same size as our little “Bluegrass” airport. We ended up in the wrong line for customs, but got switched over painlessly by the police lady. Our taxi driver, from India, was funny. He said that no one was talking about the referendum on whether or not to leave the “United Kingdom,” then wouldn’t shut up about it all the way to the Gillis Centre! We saw more “yes” (leave) than “no” (stay) signs, but I don’t think anyone knows which way it is going to go. Pride suggests “yes” but prudence suggests “no.”
We met our friend and Virginia companion, Janet at the airport. She is such a bright spirit! But like us, starting to slow down.
We checked in to the Gillis Centre which is also the Catholic Diocese office. It is a rabbit warren of rooms and hallways and because we needed the elevator for Janet we have to go up in one building, traipse through the main offices into the new wing, then out to the end where our rooms are – the very opposite end from the registration desk.
I needed to rest my eyes for a few minutes and was rudely awakened an hour later because some people want to see the sights ! We three walked to Marchmont Street to buy some bread and olives and find a pub recommended by the desk clerk. And it was great! We had Tennent’s beer and ale. I had macaroni and cheese for supper. The nice, chatty young proprietor recommended a vegetable curry to Janet and Chicken Tiki for Georgia. We are not going to starve on this trip.
We walked back to the house and I went out again alone. I found a nice working-class people’s park (a converted golf course) where people were jogging, throwing balls for their dogs and letting the kids play with wooden swords. Teenagers were gathered around picnic tables and people were just generally treating the area like their community front yard. The houses were all connected row-houses and the front yards were only about 5 or 6 feet deep and the width of the two story house.
I found a sign for a block party on Saturday. (9/6) I walked to the “Internet” pizza parlor. They had one computer with a bar stool. They said I could use it for free it I didn’t need to print anything out. No problem. There was a sweet Italian multi-pierced waitress who couldn’t tell the difference between an American and a Scottish accent. I got a dish of rum raisin gelato. Yumm.
Everyone is so slender!
I went back to the room and crashed.
Friday, September 5th
We got up at 8 AM for a breakfast of bread, cheese, meat, yogurt, cereal, hard boiled eggs and Nescafe coffee granules!
After breakfast we visited the Gillis Centre chapel. It has a lovely stained glass I.H.S. rondel window. The Ursuline Sisters once lived and had a school at the Centre. When they had to leave because of dwindling numbers, they wanted to sell the building to the Catholic Diocese but couldn’t because it turned out that the diocese already owned the grounds. This caused hard feelings, so the sisters sold the old mansion on the grounds, which they did own, to a banker for half what it was worth. This unfortunate episode persuaded the diocese thatthey needed to see what else they owned in Edinburgh, and discovered that they owned large parcels of land downtown that other people thought they owned. It created a mare’s nest!
There were dwarf fruit trees on the grounds so we ate a few apples then caught the #5 bus to High Street, walked to the base of Castle Hill, visited Giles Cathedral, then down to the National Gallery. There was a stunning Rembrandt self portrait and a portrait of a reclining woman (who may have been his mistress). There were glorious Raeburn portraits and his Skating Minister painting.
We saw Tintoretto, Bucher, the lovely Renoir Woman nursing her child, Van Gogh’s Olive Trees and his portrait of the woman potato-eater. There was a beautiful Seurat landscape and his study for Afternoon in the Park. El Greco’s Head of Christ was on loan, and so was one of the two magnificent Chardin still-life flower paintings. But everything was gorgeous. Obviously it was a smaller collection than the Louvre but very well displayed and comfortable to view, not so big as to wear you out walking around.
We then had to get cell phones so we could keep in touch in case one of us wandered off. (I don’t know why they were both looking at me.) And then our rail passes for Scotland had to be bought. Those purchases took us 2 hours!
We stopped at another Italian restaurant for a little mid-afternoon smackeral: delicious scones, lemon cheesecake, tea and cappuccino, then took the #5 bus back to the Centre. I walked back to the little grocery store to get some more bread, tuna and wine for a picnic supper in the breakfast-room downstairs. We watched a little BBC news. The registration for the referendum is HUGE, but no one knows which way it will go. The Polish girl at the front desk said she thinks it will be very close! The 18th will tell.
Saturday, September 6th
Today was the day to try to do everything! We were up at 8 for breakfast. Then we caught the #5 bus back to walk the Royal Mile. We saw the John Knox house, Saint Patrick’s and Blackwells, Edinburgh’s oldest bookstore. Went into the Royal Oak, a 200 year old pub. It had water samples from Perth, Nova Scotia and Edinburgh. Who knows why. There we met Colin Brown who leads the Rebus Walking Tours. We went out with him on a literary walking tour to see places mentioned by Ian Rankin in his John Rebus Detective series. We stopped at the Morgue, the School for Boys, the Medical School (where Conan Doyle studied and Sherlock Holmes was “born”), the Crags and Arthur’s Seat, an extinct volcano and the highest point in Edinburgh. Colin would also read excerpts from the books at these various sites. We enjoyed the walk and the other “Rebus fans.” And the scenery was pretty special as well. Edinburgers don’t typically pooper-scoop behind their dogs. Colin had to warn us frequently, “Watch out! Some poor lad has dropped his Tootsie Roll there!”
We had lunch at the Dovecot Studio Pantry. Delicious cream of chicken, smoked salmon and cucumber salad.
I then staggered up to Arthur’s Seat and Georgia and Janet went shopping.
For supper we had pizza, lasagne al forno, linguini del mar and wine that we had to buy across the street and bring back.
After supper we went to look for St Patrick’s Church but couldn’t find it. Did find the 1924 Olympic champion Eric Liddell community center, a re-purposed church with some interesting stained glass and community made knick-knacks. Then we went back to the Centre and so to bed.
Sunday, September 7th
We waited for the bus to take us to Mass and missed it. A taxi pulled up and we took it to St. Mary’s just in time. I enjoyed the priest’s message: Treat your brother like a pagan or tax collector and treat the pagans and tax collectors like a brother. Sounds harsh towards your brother but he urged us to remember how Jesus treated tax collectors and pagans. At the end of Mass, we received a blessing from Cardinal Archbishop Leo Cushley of St Andrews and Edinburgh.
Afterwards we had real coffee instead of Nescafe granules in their “hospitality suite.”
Then we took the #9 bus to the Royal Botanical Garden. It was amazing! There was a rock garden with lavender and white giant fall crocus.
We saw an Andy Goldsworthy slate sculpture in the shape of a cone and David Kindersley-designed plaques with quotes by Gerald Manley Hopkins and Wittgenstein. His type designs are amazing. There was a beautiful viewing spot of the city. And a tribute to Donald Duck, whose Uncle Scrooge McDuck was from Scotland, doncha’ know. We ate at the Gateway Restaurant at the West Gate of the garden (fish and chips, steakburger with chips and Glenlivet Speyside scotch with a few sparkling ice cubes and a tiny slice of lemon!)
Then we took the bus to the National Portrait Gallery, a beautiful building in town. The driver told us where we needed to get off. I love public transportation. People are always happy to help tourists—as long as we’re not in a huge group and make a minimum effort to be polite. The Portrait Gallery has a wonderful collection of Scottish portraits and a great café too. We liked the Sir Henry Raeburn self portraits and Ramsay’s portrait of David Hume, the Robert Burns portrait, the Sir Walter Scott portrait and many others. There was also a WW I display which Janet enjoyed. In the café we even spied a portrait of Ian Rankin!
We took the Lothian bus home and had to persuade Georgia to get off, as she didn’t think we had arrived yet. Had some Prosecco left over from yesterday. Tomorrow we leave for the highlands!
(to be continued)