Contrary to popular rumors, I wasn't lost at sea on the ferry trip to England, I haven't been locked-up for (fill-in the blank), nor have I decided to renounce my US citizenship after being asked by people here if all American's have lost their minds. I have been diagnosed with a fairly serious ailment commonly referred to as "overextension" -- not enough hours in the day to get everything done.
Since leaving France I've been moving about much more frequently -- requiring time be spent on figuring out where I'm going, what I'm going to do and where I'm going to sleep at night. Add those demands to actually "doing something" during the day and frequently having no or marginal internet connection for days at a time and I've become hopelessly behind in keeping this journal. So I've decided to cut my losses, do a quick summary of the last month and move on from there.
My last entry described my night at sea crossing the English Channel and ending up in Hull, England -- from there I traveled to Durham to see a castle and a cathedral (nice/interesting/big).
Then north to York for the Minister -- fancy name for cathedral (really impressive), the Shambles (small Victorian shops built overhanging the narrow streets almost touching each other at the center point (scenic/quaint/interesting) and an evening "ghost tour" (a few interesting stories, long on entertainment -- fake bloody knives, top hat and long coat and make-up but a nice walk around the old town).
From there it was off to Fountains Abbey, home of a religious order dating to the 7th century, now a ruins -- but a very pretty, atmospheric one. It is now part of a large rural complex, Studley Royal (don't ask) with lovely landscaped gardens, ponds and fountains.
A few days exploring Hadrian's Wall -- the Roman Empire's version of the Great China Wall from circa 0 BC. The Roman army conquored what is now modern England, got that far north and "called it a day" -- proclaiming victory and putting-up the wall (which stretched seventy miles across England from the North Sea to the Irish Sea) to try and keep out the feisty Scots and the marauding Danes/Vikings who at times were more than a match for the "all-powerful" Roman army than is widely known. The Wall was built on a natural bluff cutting through the land -- a twenty foot high wall built on, at times, eighty foot high bluffs made for quite an impressive barrier. Today it's a ruins -- fairly intact six foot high sections and stone outlines of the forts the Romans built every few miles to shelter the soldiers. The scope of the Wall is stunning and the scenery intimidating (cold, windy, desolate, open rolling hills/meadows and evergreen forests) -- easy to conjur up an image of the mindset of the Roman soldiers -- thousands of miles from home for a 2-3 year stint typically with no family, forced to train for hours every day and mind-numbing boredom. Undergoing a "crash-course" on the "ins-and-outs" of the workings of the Roman Army was fascinating -- not even close to what we were taught in high school World History classes! Defiitely a high-point of the trip.
Stayed in a small village and the Saturday evening I was here they held an outdoor village" party" on the "square" starting in the late afternoon and going well into the night. Food was "American" hamburgers, sausages (otherwise known as hotdogs) and french fries, beer, hard cider and wine -- felt very weird -- exclusively American food in a small, very rural English village -- complete with a dj playing American music. Amazing -- people said hello to me, joked with me, tried to make sure I was comfortable, asked about the USA, tried to talk me into buying raffle tickets for a lovely wooden bench a woodworker in the community had made from a large tree trunk -- all the while knowing I didn't "belong" there -- wonderful experience!
Reluctantly moved on to Edinburg, Scotland -- a semi-modern university/government town -- crowded, dingy, bustling -- and my first real experience with "kamikazi" cyclists -- they weave in and out of fast moving traffic, fly by going downhill at 20-25 mph, pass cars at a stop light blowing right through the light without a glance in either direction -- mostly college students -- nerve-wracking.
Toured Edinburg Castle -- massive, impressive -- worth seeing even with th gazillions of tourists you have to share it with. Did another ghost tour that evening -- much better than in York -- minimal schlock -- as much a history lesson as a spooky-thing -- went into the "vaults" (underground chambers originally built in medieval times for storage -- abandoned -- rediscovered and used as brothels, places of ill-repute and housing for the homeless -- two mass murders in the 1800's used them for something else -- learned about a facet of English/Scotch history you don't read about in history books. Visited the "closes" -- make-shift housing "built" underneath buildings where people lived in total darkness and filth and were ravaged by the Black Death and half a dozen other mass illnesses.
Got up early one mornig and made a pilgrimage to Rosslyn Chapel of the Knight Templers and Divinci Code fame. An intriguing place -- at first glance, a lovely small chapel set in a rural surrounding -- then you strt to notice things that are out of place -- at the time it was built, the style was that everything was in balance -- eg., if you had a "grape-leaf" motif on the left column, then you needed to have the same thing on the right column -- and they paid huge attention to detail, expecially in building a religious shrine -- here, small things are out of balance - no way it would have ben by accident -- eg., in carvings of the seven deadly sins and the seven heavenly virtues one of the sins and one of the virtues made it into the wrong carving, one of the columns has a totally different design than the others, rooms in the crypt area are out of symmetry, KT symbols are incorporated in seemingly insignifcant places, non-Christian symbols that might have been part of the KT code system appear in odd places -- are these clues to the location of the Holy Grail or where the Templers disappered to -- or just a massive screw-up? Fascinating!
Left Edinburgh and moved on to another mystery -- the Aberlemno Stones -- large sandstone pilars with symbols etched into them -- thye've been attributed to the Picts -- a prehistoric people who left no clues as to their language, who they were or the meanings of their drawings. The stones are standing upright in a field just off the main road and in a nearby churchyard. At one time they were quite important -- somebody(s) put a lot of work and effort into carving them.
Loch Ness in Inverness. Took the boat tour and no, I didn't see Nessie. The Loch is twenty-three miles long and something like two miles wide -- in other words, it's big! Add in that the water is a brown/black color from the peat moss constantly being wasshed into it, the fact that it's very deep and has white-caps two feet high from the strong winds blowing down the lenght of it and there's a lot that could be going on there and no one would ever notice! Nessie was supposedly first sighted in the 8th century when St Patrick (?) observed her bothering some boats in his convoy and ordered it to go away and it promptly disappeared. It's also a little suspicious that the first modern sightling started to occur when the area was in an economic downturn and really could've benefited from some kind of financial "shot-in-the-arm" to help it survive -- today, it's obvious that that "shot-in-the-arm" thinking is still in effect. It was a nice boat ride, although a bit windy and chilly!
From Loch Ness, it was on to a place on Scotland's west coast called Oban -- or the "town" I actually stayed in, Clacken-Seil. Oban is a mid-sized town for Scotland but apparently during the month of August it turns into a nightmare of tourists -- imagine a one-street town where it took thirty minutes to drive a mile and a half with no traffic lights-- ugly! Tried to sign-up for a sea kayaking lesson but -- surprise, surprise -- they were all booked -- so I avoided the town as much as I could which was fine!
Went on a vintage train ride from Ft William (a two hour drive from Oban) to a town on the coast called Mallaig -- very scenic, decent time. It's a real touristy thing -- two and a half hours to get to Mallaig -- two and a half hours back -- and an hour plus for you to eat dinner and spend some money. Beautiful scenery through the hills and along a slough. Other than the views, the ride has another claim to fame -- one of the trains they use is the train from the Harry Potter movies -- that one gets booked quick as Ft Williams is also a tourist destination -- they only have two trains per day so getting on at all was an achievement!
Spent much of my time driving through the countryside and walking -- the place I stayed was thirty minutes (12 miles) south of Oban on some incredibly narrow roads so I was really out there. Unfortunatly, I had sprained my ankle badly just before leaving France and wasn't letting it rest/heal so didn't get to hike as much as I would have liked-- gorgeous country, you could walk out the front door of the cottage and head in any direction and commune with nature -- up the hill, you walked through the herd of sheep and over a mountain -- down the hill took you to beautiful country along an inlet from the sea -- Clacken-Seil is actually an island so you could go in every direction and not worry about getting hopelessly lost.
I, walking only short distances, had another issue to contend with -- I apparently got adopted by a flock of wild-roaming chickens who when I came by, would fall in behind me in single file and walk with me -- it was a hilarious! Fortunately there was no one around to see what must have looked totally ridiculous -- kind of like a Pied Piper.
Unfortunately, being so far out there, I had neither cellphone or reliable internet and got further behind with this journal -- but overall it was nice, sitting out in a small private garden area overlooking the inlet, eating breakfast/dinner or reading a book with only the sounds of the wind blowing and the sheep braying.
Completed my circle of Scotland by heading to Perth on the east coast -- again, more castles (nice) and took a drive up the coast to the birthplace of golf, St Andrews. Again, overrun with tourists -- fortunately I arrived early in the day and missed most ofthe traffic -- there was over an hour backup on the road to St Andrews when I left. The original course is closed -- now a park and shops -- so not a whole lot to see -- the clubs there are private and keep out the hoi-poli tourists like myself so no photos or souvenirs. Glad I went but kind of a disappointment that it's so commercialized.
Left St Andrews and went for a drive along the coast -- very pretty -- planned on doing a hike desribed in thee Lonely Planet guides as "a challenging four mile RT hike along the coast requiring the use of chains and ropes" between two neighboring villages -- got there only to find the villages were only three-quarters of a mile apart and the trail was mostly walking on the beach and on main roads -- have learned that the guide writers really take "liberties" with their descriptions to reel people in -- quite disappointing.
And that was Scotland.
I initially perceived Scotland as a place-holder, somewhere to spend time while waiting out my mandatory ninety days before returning to France. What I found instead was an absolutely wonderful, magical place -- friendly people, beautiful scenery, great food, a variety of things to see and do -- I liked France, but Scotland has won a place in my heart and, under the right circumstances, I'd go back to visit in a heartbeat! Best place so far, hands-down!
(To be continued)
