Scotland

Day 1

Day 3 really. Our 787 out of DEN was delayed for 2.5 hours so we missed our connection to Edinburgh. We chose to spend a couple of days in Washington DC and take in the sights. The Memorial day parade on the National Mall was a bit anticlimactic, however the riderless horse leading the parade was a bit moving.  I was a little surprised by the lack of political activity. The National Art Museum has maybe the most incredible sculpture I have ever seen.

Back to Edinburgh: we are having discussions about getting right back on a 757-200 and going home.  

Renting a car is rarely a good experience but here it is even more difficult.  A short walk from the terminal is a separate building with about ten or so car rental companies. They all have lines and only two agents at each counter. None of them have any cars available.  Using the internet, more on this in a moment, I manage to book a car from an off site rental agency starting tomorrow. I put in today’s date, but it still starts tomorrow. We got on the shuttle anyway in hopes of getting it today, but no. The price (£150 for two weeks) is too good to be true and other wanna be rent a car drivers, with reservations, are being turned away with various excuses. I do not expect things are gonna work out tomorrow.  We opt for a taxi to a hotel in Queens Ferry. Queens Ferry is on the shore of the firth of Forth, and nowhere near Fife (not making this up).

The ATM at the airport wants 12% plus the normal fees so we will have to make due with the £50 or so I had on hand from our last trip.  The taxi cost about £20 and we submitted our credit card to the driver. He spent ten minutes trying to get it to work but it just hung part way through the process. Eventually we paid with some of our limited currency. We thought it hung but the charge showed up on our card anyway. There is a credit pending, but who knows. I just realized how jaded I have become from all the scammers and con artists in Europe.  

We bought a sim card at the airport with 20gb and 250 minutes. Upon activation we were awarded a bonus 20gb of data. The bonus is worthless because the Internet here is next to useless. There is no way we will use even 2gb in the next month. The WiFi in the hotel is no better. It works a little better in the bar.

Day 2.

I failed to mention how spectacular the scenery is here. Wow! Green on green with overcast and rain. Alicia found a Pandora mood station that plays the sound of rain. We both had a good laugh.

Mass transit here is expensive. It will cost us nearly as much to ride the train back to the car rental than to take a taxi, plus all of the walking to and from the station. I don’t think Uber or Lyft are an option because the Internet just doesn’t work well enough.

The car rental company, Green Motion, was a total scam. We booked the car on booking.com, a  usually legit website. Upon arrival there was of course a long line (a que, as they say) so we had plenty of time to listen to others stories.  The game is to collect a cancellation fee. Yesterday an English gentleman was denied a car because he did not have his passport with him (why would he?). There were several families with children, strollers and all, hanging around trying to figure out what to do next. Today the ladies ahead of us were denied rental due to an undisclosed problem with their credit card insurance. The couple beside us had not signed their credit card, and were told that they could not sign it now in front of him. Too late! The guy to our left had his card declined for an unknown reason. We were told that to exercise our booking, that was already paid for online, that we needed to present the very same credit card. It was declined. I grabbed my card back without apology and we left. Another £15 for the tram and we left for our hotel downtown. We finally dropped off our luggage at 1:30. What a waste of time. Alicia showed me an official visit Scotland website that warned of the perils of renting a car here. Not sure what to do next. We still want a car.

The Grosvenor Hotel is one block off of a major thoroughfare with busses and a tram, so we went exploring.  

St. Mary’s Cathedral has the highest ceiling I may have ever seen. No matter how many cathedrals I visit I never get tired of them. This one has some unusual modern stained glass.

The “Royal Mile” turns out to be just another street that runs between the Edinburgh Castle and “The Palace”, which are about a mile apart. We opted to visit the Castle. Wow, this is a proper castle, now a tourist trap. The news reports a fatal stabbing while we were there! The world’s largest cannon is on display. We tried to read some of the history, but there is just too much to wrap your mind around. The grounds have the greenest most incredibly manicured grass I have ever seen. It rained and drizzled all day.

There are plenty of anti Brexit posters, stickers, etc… Russian TV,  or “RT” is available but I’m not allowed to watch it because it is “too boring” (all news). There is a bit of a language barrier because they make up words, speak in the lowest register possible,  and have to hold some marbles in their mouth. Think Sean Connery. If you say “what” they will stop using their made up words.

Everything is expensive.

Dinner for me was fish & chips. The fish here is Haddock. I prefer Cod.

Day 3.

A bit of a laid back day. Generally just walked around looking at more cathedrals and enjoying the architecture and parks.

I have noticed “extreme liberalism”. There are groups like “extinction rebellion”, and the like threatening to shut down Heathrow with drones. The local paper says Scotland is not going to survive climate change. Nearly every service advertises how much they offset their own carbon footprint. On the news there is a local school where 5yr old’s are being taught to accept “alternative families”  and “local religious parents” are protesting. The “religious parents” are all Muslems, but they can’t say that on TV. I think both sides need to back off a bit, or a lot.

We have reserved another car to pick up tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed.

Dinner was at a nice but forgettable Italian restaurant. The piano bar next door, The Rat Pack, turned out to be a rather fun gay bar. The clientele was a yellow lab, some dykes, a few bald headed men, and an amused American couple that no one wanted to sit next to.   

Day 4.

Getting the car was too easy. It is a spanking new Renault Clio diesel. Underpowered, but gets over 80 mpg. With fuel costs over $6/gal I can live with being slow.

We headed South to see Hadrian’s wall. It was kind of underwhelming and at the same inspiring when you think of what went into building it. We saw a sign letting us know when we crossed over into England.

Internet is still a hassle. Alicia’s doesn’t work at all. I bought an SIM card from a different provider and maps works, but I somehow used up all of my minutes on two phone calls. We spent waaaayyyyy too much time finding a room for tonight. Frustrating. Tonight we booked rooms for the next two nights with our time limited hotel wifi.

Everything about Scotish history is violent and gorry. Here is where this mass murder disposed of 17 bodies. There is where so & so impaled his enemies. Here is yet another mass grave, etc…

Day 5.

Back into Scotland today.  First we went to where Hadrian’s Wall ends at the sea. The wall is long gone but the town is just adorable. Yesterday we stumbled across Lanercost Priory where King Edward I spent a winter in bad health.

I saw a photo of a monument put up where he died and, lo and behold, just driving along there is the monument in the middle of a large pasture with a bunch of cows. We stopped, had a picnic, climbed the fence via a stile, and walked out for a closer look. Some cows came over to see what we were up to. This is how I learned that Alicia is afraid of cows. We spend the night at the Savoy in Ayr.

Day 6.

We drove up to Arrochar. We have a beautiful view from our guesthouse of a lake, sorry loche. We took a long drive through the forest and got out for several hikes. Breath taking beautiful. There are huge black slugs that are super glossy.

We’re bored, and spending a crap ton of money.  We spend hours everyday fighting to get on the internet to book a hotel for the following night. We decide that we would rather spend our hard earned money elsewhere. We’re headed back to Edinburgh tomorrow to fly home. We are hoping the flights are open. With no Internet all we can do is hope.

Day 7.

Change of plans. We’re here so we might as well make the best of it. We head North through the Highlands. The scenery reminds me of Rocky Mountain National Park. The roads remind me of a go cart track, only with tour busses and lorries on them. There was one moment where I thought a lorrie was gonna ride right over me. Lunch was at a pastie & toastie shop. Tonight we are in a B&B in Laggan that has a whiskey bar. Alicia is acting very sophisticated as she and the owner discuss smokey VS Port finishes and single malt VS blends, etc… Tomorrow a distillery tour is planned.  Dinner was in the next village called Newtenmore. Desert was “Sticky Toffee Pudding”. Date & walnut sponge drenched in Muscatado sugar, butter, cream, & golden syrup sauce and then topped with custard. Yum!

Newtenmore is kind of a junior Hollywood. Lord of the Lair, Outlander, The Crown, The Outlaw King, and several more shows are shot there.

On our way we stopped and were having a hike along the RR tracks down to an old castle when a steam locomotive with about six cars steamed by. The sound is unforgettable. I had never seen one outside of a RR yard.

Our little Renault took 7 gallons of fuel at a cost of $50.

Oh yeah, it stopped raining for most of the day.

Day 8.

The rain is back. Toured some history stuff and the Blair Castle. For the first time ever I got a senior discount. I’m having mixed emotions about that. The Castle was full of swords & rifles and is the home of the only private army in Europe. We again lost some time fighting with the internet but I think we have rooms for the next two nights and then home. Average costs for food & hotels is running around $250/ night.  Tonight we stayed in Pitlochery at a B&B.

Day 9.

The rain is back but with no wind, and we even had a bit of sunshine in the evening. More hiking and sight seeing with a tour of the Dewar’s Abernathy distillery at the end of the day. They are very proud of their environmentally friendly biomass boiler. Tonight is back in Queens Crossing at the same hotel we spent our first night in, this time with a view of the firth and all three bridges. They really are stunning. Flying out in the a.m.

Reflection:

Scotland is a sleepy little backwater economy,  and I think the locals like it that way. Tradition and history mean more to them than having a decent telecom system. The 20% VAT, being regressive, is surprising.

I have a little better understanding of their belief in global warming. There is a TV station called “Heat” that is 24/7 propaganda, and I mean propaganda.  The news constantly has feature stories about the always dire effects of global warming. As it is at home, lot’s of propaganda and no science. One of our hosts went on in length about how they are phasing out carbon energy to power the grid. Then he bragged about how toasty his propane heater keeps the house. He had a gasoline powered car in the driveway, and a pheasant.   I just don’t understand.

Looking back at this writing it seems to have been a miserable trip, but it wasn’t. The weather sucked, prices are high, and I was frustrated with the internet. All of that aside I will never forget the hikes through the forests with every shade and hue of green imaginable.  I also enjoyed the lack of crowds, the food, and the history.