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| The Victoria and Albert Museum, London. |
So it is the fall therefore it must be holiday time. Last year at this time it was a quick one week to Oregon to cycle and drink wine. It was decided, after that trip which was good, that a week was not long enough. So, while sitting in the dentist office in August, I was flipping through a book titled 100 must see places. I got to some pictures of the Orkney islands and decided before getting my teeth cleaned, that’s where I wanted to go, so I called Dwayne and said “we’re going”. We had been talking about going on a cycling trip in Scotland, so I figured we could add this on. A note was then sent to a number of friends who have made noises through the years about wanting to come on one of our cycling adventures. Dave and Jan Vellutini decided to take the plunge and come along. Now realize Dave has not been on a bike for any length of time since he was six. They quickly went out and bought some bikes to practice on before heading across the pond. We met up with the Velluntini’s in Edinburgh the night before we began to cycle.
WEEK ONE:
A slightly misty morning pickup by our guide Will who introduced us to the other couple on the trip, Paulo and Maria from Brazil. The second guide, Craig was a last minute substitute who met us with bikes and away we went. We drove for about an hour into the Scottish highlands. The slight mist had let up and we hopped on our bikes after a yummy lunch of “Cullen skink” and off we went.
Some great cycling along skinny British roads through tree tunnels to the city of St Andrews. Yes, back in the home of golf for a fabulous walking city tour (I think Dave was happy to get off the bike at this point) including the university and the ruins of the Roman Catholic cathedral of St Andrews.
A couple of nights in an old hotel in St Andrew's where the golfers playing the British Open used to stay. Fabulous old pictures of some of the greats of golf hang on these walls. An interesting thing about Scotland. Famous for its whiskey, the distillers have gotten smart. Whiskey takes a long time to age and be ready for market. So, the distillers have started to brew gin, yummy gin as a matter of fact. This includes different types of tonic to mix with this yummy gin. What would a trip to Scotland be without a taste of whiskey? A guide tour of a distillery and a taste of the final product was of course part of our cycling adventure. A stay in a hotel beside Europe's oldest Yew tree (dated at 5,000) and some more cycling (much to Dave's chagrin, doesn't he look happy?). A stop at the "Queen's View" that overlooks one of the locks, also on one of the Scottish pound notes, some more cycling, yes Dave not much left now. Then a finally few days staying at a converted castle overlooking the town of Pitlochery. We rode about 250km, saw some beautiful scenery, drank some fine gin and made some new friends from Brazil. One of these Brazilians is a famous composer who happened to be 77 years old! His wife was a mere 63 but they rode pretty much the entire trip. That is the way to live a life that's for sure.
WEEK TWO:
After an overnight in Edinburgh, with Dwayne sick with a cold and me on the verge of one, we took the train further north than where we had been, to Inverness. This is considered the "hub" of the highlands but for us was just a one day visit before heading even further north. We spent the day walking around, seeing the castle and walking up one of its towers for an overview of the city. The next day we took a plane, a small one, with me drugged up on Gravol over to Kirkwall on the Orkney Islands. Kirkwall is known for its very old (building began about 1137) Cathedral, St Magnus, and the Earls and Bishops palace's. These seem very old until you see some of the other archaeological sites on the Orkneys.
The Orkneys are also known (besides the wind, and man it is windy) for the Scapa Flow harbour where a Nazi submarine snuck in and sunk a British battleship in WWII. Thus Winston Churchill decided that would not happen again. He commissioned the POW's on the Orkneys to build the Churchill barriers. Some of these barriers have old ships that were scuttled there to start a barrier and then large concrete blocks were put in place as well. There are signs when you drive across these that you do so at your own risk. The waves crash over the barriers and windshield wipers are critical! So some of the POW's were Italian and wanted a place to worship. They were given a Quonset hut and were told "here you go". Well, they had a painter with them who proceeded to decorate the inside of this hut with beautiful frescos' worthy of any Italian church. You can see from the picture that these are amazing and the walls look like marble. Since the end of the war the man who did this came back a couple times to do touch ups on the walls.
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| One of the Churchill barriers with a sunken ship to the right. |
The Orkney Islands are also known for amazing preserved stone age sites. These were the pictures I saw while sitting in the dentist office that made me want to come here. Now October may not have been the best month to visit but the weather behaved and when it did rain it was quick and blew away just as fast. There are stone circles on the island that predate Stonehenge and the Pyramid's of Giza. There are two bigger circles still standing but there are standing stones in a lot of other spots (here read in the middle of farmer's fields). The smaller one, though the stones are actually bigger is called, the Stones of Stenness. It has four stones still standing of the original twelve. These are Neolithic in age and thought to be the oldest "henge" in Britain.
The other circle is the Ring of Brodgar which has 27 stones standing of the original 60, though some were restored to upright. They are not the height of the Stenness stones but there were many more of them in this huge circle which is 103m in diameter. It is awe inspiring when you consider that these are Neolithic or early Bronze age. I found out after we came back that this was called the Temple of the Sun and Stenness was the Temple of the Moon.
The preservation of these sites is amazing. Unlike the rest of Britain where the stones were reworked this did not happen on these remote islands. The next site (Skara Brae) is a good example. This was found when a storm in 1850 blew away the sand that had covered this 3200 to 2200 BC aged village. Again, wow. It is right on the coast, though originally the sea was much further away so it is windy, gale force wind as a matter of fact. This is a site where you do not need a lot of imagination to see how people lived here. The houses have beds, fire pits, shelves with cooking gear and tools of the time. There are eight buildings linked together by passages that you can still see! Check this out!
The last two sites we visited on the island were Maeshowe and the Tomb of the Eagles. Maeshowe is a "mound" though called a burial mound, there were no bones found in it. It is a mound similar to those we had seen in Ribe, that were Viking burial mounds. This is an elaborate building made out of stone, that now has grass growing over it. The doorway lines up to the Winter solstice when the light shines in and hits the back wall which lights up with colour. There are also four large stone slabs incorporated in the tomb which were thought to be part of yet another stone circle. You cannot take pictures inside the mound so just one looking at it. It sticks out in the landscape which is what some Vikings thought around the 12th century. They got caught in a snowstorm so they broke into the mound to shelter from the storm. They carved Runes into the walls, brilliant sayings like "I am the best Rune drawer" or "my ex-girlfriend is a ....". You get the idea. The coolest thing they did carve was a dragon which the Orkney island women's rugby club has on their jersey. The Vikings wrote about this stay once they got back home, so there is other documented evidence besides these amazing literary "giants". HA!
The last site was the tomb of the Eagles. This one was full of human and eagle bones, hence the name. On the walk out to the site was another one that had running water with drainage that was still functioning. It was either a sweat house or a pub, I am thinking pub. Anyway, off we went to the tomb which is right on some amazing cliffs. The tomb's entrance is small and you have to crawl or slide in, whee! I opted for the slide, Dwayne did not. It is marked by yet another standing stone with a tribute plaque to the couple who found and preserved the site.
Amazing place to visit and see. Am so glad I saw the pictures in my dentist's office else we never would have come. The end of the second week.
A flight I was dreading ended our time on the islands. It had been so windy on the Orkneys that ferries had been cancelled but our flight day was clear and the winds were calm, yeah! A quick flight, though delayed by three hours over to Inverness with a quick connection which was supposed to be 4 hour layover which ended up being NONE took us down to Bristol. My cousins Ros and Steve picked us up and off to Cheltenham we went. A day was well spent at the Cheltenham Rugby club where Steve is president. Three excellent matches were played including the victorious women's team. I am wearing my fabulous Orkney islands women's rugby club jersey with the Cheltenham women playing behind me. When I bought the jersey the women said it was brand new and they needed pictures of people wearing it for their website, so I obliged. Am now famous on their website, I am sure.
A visit with cousin Jonathon and his family included a walk with everyone. Before I forget my other cousin Hannah, Ros and Jonathon's sister let us stay with her on the way to Edinburgh. She lives in Leeds's, which is kind of halfway between London and Edinburgh, thanks Hannah!
A visit to Cheltenham always includes interesting walks. With the newest addition to the family Bertie the horse, we did some walking close to their home and further away. Apparently all of the Ratlciffe's animals have to be black and white. This includes the horse, two dogs and two cats.
The next journey was to the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire. Fabulous walk along the river Wye, followed by a hand pulled ferry ride (don't pay the ferryman, don't even fix a price, don't pay the ferryman til he gets you to the other side.......ok a little Chris de Burgh for fun.) Of course there is a pub on the other side where we ate lunch. Lunch was interrupted, quietly though by two Apache helicopter's doing maneuverers along the river, way cool. No, they were not looking for me, I have done nothing recently....or in Great Britain for that matter.
A picture with Ros and Steve's dog Pippa as she has a bad eye just like me but she would not sit still. Though the other dog, Surtsey (I have no idea if this is the correct spelling) managed to sneak into the shot as well. Always good to visit and am looking forward to hosting them when they come in January to Calgary. A two day trip to Bath to visit Zoe, Chris and the kids ended this week of holidays.
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