Final Day

Unfortunately, it's our final day in Dublin.  We continued our exploration of the city on foot, first wandering the paths in St. Stephen's Green.  This is a lovely city park that provides a welcome oasis in the middle of the hustle and bustle of Dublin.  When we first visited here in 2004, our hotel was right next to the Green.  Back then, we spent much of our time crossing the park to see the sights.  I now remember why we liked it so much.

St. Patrick's Cathedral

There are two main cathedrals in Dublin -- St. Patrick's and Christchurch  St. Patrick's is considered the National Cathedral of Ireland and is also the largest in Ireland.  Christchurch is older than St. Patrick's, but not as large.  Each are part of the Church of Ireland, members of the Anglican community.  Both cathedrals have great architecture and a rich history. Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver's Travels, was dean of St. Patrick's for a number of years in the 1700s.

Christchurch Cathedral

After touring St. Patrick's, we went to Christchurch and listened to a concert by the choir from Clarion University in Pennsylvania.  Wendy took a guided tour of the belfry and crypt while we did the concert.  I enjoyed the singing, but the acoustics weren't as rich as what we heard in St. Giles in Edinburgh.

We finished our day touring the National Museum of Archaeology and spent our final night back at Gogarty's pub listening to more traditional Irish music.  It's been a fantastic trip, but two weeks has gone by way too fast.  I guess it's time to start planning our next adventure. 

Dublin on Foot

After our Book of Kells experience, the rest of the day was ours to explore with no set times or itinerary.  We embarked on a walking tour of Dublin, using a route suggested by the tourist information center.  There were multiple bus tour options -- hop on/hop off and others with commentary -- but we find that exploring on foot gives us a better perspective and often leads to great discoveries you wouldn't necessarily see otherwise. The center of Dublin is often crowded, but very walkable.

Five things we encountered on our walking tour:

(1)  The bosomy statue of Molly Malone shouting "Cockles & Mussels"

(2)  Dublin City Hall -- the grand neoclassical building itself was built in 1779 as the Royal Exchange and became City Hall in 1852.  We learned Dublin history and how the various merchant guilds were instrumental to the City's success in Dublin's early days.  Meetings are still held in this building.

(3)  Dublin Castle -- the seat of British rule in Ireland for over 700 years, it was the official residence of the viceroy who implemented the will of the British royalty.

(4)  Old City Wall -- the original center of Dublin was originally a walled city like so many in Europe.  Very little of the wall remains.

(5)  St. Audoens Church -- this was a real gem.  This is the oldest church in Dublin, dating back to the Norman era and constructed about 1200.  It was once much larger, and we could see some of the ruins of the oldest sections.  It's still an active church with services every Sunday at 10:00am.

Our legs (and our FitBits) got a real workout -- mine said we walked over 8 miles.  While we were on fumes when we got back to the hotel, it's so worth the effort.  You never know what you may encounter when you turn the next corner.

The Long Room

We only pre-booked one activity in Dublin and that was to see the Book of Kells at Trinity College.  This allowed us to skip the long line to buy tickets and gain immediate entry into the exhibit.  The Book of Kells are hand written copies of the Four Gospels, complete with elaborate illustration and ornamentation.  These transcriptions were done on vellum (baby calfskin) and at least started if not completed by monks living in the Abbey at Iona in Scotland.  Due to Viking raids of Iona, these writings were taken to the Irish monastery at Kells in 806 A.D.  In the 1950s, the College rebound the Book into four separate volumes -- one for each Gospel.

You're not allowed to take photographs of the Book of Kells so I have none to share.  I can share pictures of The Long Room, the main chamber of the Old Library at Trinity College where the Book of Kells is displayed.   Built in the early 1700s, The Long Room holds about 200,000 of the oldest books in the Library's collection.  This is an active collection that can be utilized by scholars and students, but a Librarian must retrieve the book for you.  This is in part due to the fact that books are stored by size and weight - taller, heavier books on the bottom shelves; smaller, lighter books on the higher shelves. They are not grouped by author or subject or use the Dewey Decimal System.

How fortunate for the students at Trinity to be able to work and study in such a great space.  I'm envious W&M didn't have library rooms such as this.  We don't build facilities like this anymore, but maybe we should.

Dublin!

St. Andrews was our last day in Scotland.  We drove David and Teri to the train station as they're continuing their vacation down in England.  Wendy, Mona, and I then drove to the airport to return the van and catch our flight to Dublin where we will spend the last three nights of our vacation.

Other than leaving a little late, this flight was uneventful.  The first good sign upon our arrival -- all of our luggage made it with us.  The second good sign -- the sun was shining!!  We didn't have a lot of sunny weather while in Scotland, and while the rain didn't keep us from doing all of the items we planned to do, it did put a damper (pun!!) on things at times.  We caught the bus to Parnell Square to The Charles Stewart B&B hotel that is our home for the next three nights.

The Charles Stewart is in an older building (1800s) in the heart of Georgian Dublin on the upper end of O'Connell Street at Parnell Square.  There is no lift and our room is on the fourth floor.  Let's just say there was a little labored breathing after toting up all of our luggage and leave it at that.  No A/C either, but with the cool temps, leaving the window open will solve that problem

With the afternoon flight, we didn't arrive until a little after 5:00pm so no real activities except for dinner and hitting the Temple Bar area for the pubs and traditional Irish music.  Mona and I have been to Dublin once before back in 2004, but this is Wendy's first time.  We decided to give Oliver St. John Gogarty's pub a try as we had great success there our previous trip and knew they would have music on.   You never know who's going to be there playing music.  We ended up with three guys -- one guitar, one banjo, and one mandolin -- and they were great.  Although we had no fiddle or pipes, they still played a lot of the traditional jigs and sang about Molly Malone.  We all sang along and had a fabulous time.  A great start to our Dublin visit.

St. Andrews

So now we're down to five -- David & Teri, Wendy, and Mona and me.  We've been driving our nine-passenger VW Transporter van all over Scotland packed with nine people and luggage.  Now with only five, it seems so roomy.  We've driven three hours southeast from Inverness and have arrived in the early afternoon to a gloriously sunny day.  It's at least 70 degrees and is the first day I could have worn shorts had I brought them.

We dropped our stuff off at the hotel, parked the van, and left to explore the town.  St. Andrews is known the world over for the Old Course -- the Royal and Ancient Golf Club -- where the game of golf first started.   It also has a great University (Prince William is a graduate) and ruins of a grand cathedral and castle.   We walked the main streets towards the cathedral ruins and felt a slightly different vibe.  To me, it seemed a little more laid back but still with all of the great architecture, cobblestoned lanes, etc.  Edinburgh felt a little more formal.

I wish I could have seen the cathedral in it's glory.  You can tell from the ruins and footprint that it was massive.  In its day, it was the largest in the United Kingdom.  The cathedral sits at the top of hill overlooking the North Sea.  We were able to stroll the grounds and cemetery and imagine what this site looked like a few centuries ago.

For me, the highlight was visiting the Old Course.  Although I wasn't able to play the course, it was awesome to see in person what I had seen so many times on TV watching the British Open.  The area surrounding the course is a public park and lots of folks were out strolling and watching the golf taking place.  Mona and I walked along the first and second holes and then cut across to 17 and 18.  Hole 17 is known as the Road Hole as it plays along a narrow road and you are hitting a blind tee shot over a building.   There is a small bridge on the 18th hole know as the Swilken Bridge that crosses the Swilken Burn that runs between Holes 1 and 18.

We were blessed with a nice sunny day and it was fun to watch the golfers finish the 18th hole, for many of whom I'm sure was a dream come true to play this course.  We all agreed we could spend a lot more time in St. Andrews than just the one day we had.  I'll just have to come back and bring my clubs next time.

The Gang's All Here

We concocted this idea of having a Wesley Reunion in Scotland a year ago.  Nine of us made the trek from the States to join Cindy & Aaron's family and we've caravanned around Scotland for a week together.  We've worshiped together, seen fantastic scenery, experienced the best of Scottish culture, eaten well, gotten soaked in the rain, and had plenty of driving adventures.  Most importantly, we've fellowshipped together and strengthened the bonds we forged some 20 plus years ago at the Wesley Foundation at William and Mary.

Our time together has come to an end.  Cindy & Aaron and their boys are home.  Ken and Mary and their girls are going to visit the Shetlands in the North of Scotland.  The rest of us are headed to St. Andrews.  From St. Andrews, David and Teri are going south to England to visit another W&M alum and tour through Yorkshire, while Wendy, Mona, and I stop in Dublin for 3 nights on our way home.

We also celebrated Wendy's (July 10th) and Aaron's (July11th)
birthdays!

It's been a fantastic trip.  We spent our final night together having dinner, telling stories, and reminiscing about our shared life experiences together -- from the past week and from the past decades.  Here's hoping we can do this again some day.

Whiskey

We've spent the weekend in Inverness visiting with Cindy & Aaron's family.  Mary & Ken's family are staying with them at their home in Culbokie -- on the Black Isle just outside of Inverness.  The rest of us are at a B&B in the center of Inverness.

On Saturday night, Aaron did a whiskey tasting for us.  Everyone got to sample various whiskeys -- some smoky, some smooth, and some not so smooth.  Sunday morning we went to their local church, and afterwards, most of us went and toured the Glenmorangie Whiskey Distillery.  The Scots do love their whiskey so it seemed only appropriate to go and partake on a Sunday afternoon.

David's all smiles now -- you should
have seen him after the tasting.

Glenmorangie (rhymes with orange-y) is the #1 whiskey in Scotland and #4 in the world according to our lovely tour guide.  We were touring the actual production facility and not just a mockup or museum, so we got to experience the sights, sounds, and smells of the production process.  One of the more interesting things I learned is that all of the whiskey barrels used by Glenmorangie are made of American Oak that comes from a certain area of the Ozark Mountains in Missouri.  These particular barrels are first used by Jim Beam and/or Jack Daniels and filled with bourbon for two years before being shipped to Scotland for whiskey production.  The barrels are then filled with whiskey for a minimum of 10 years before being bottled.  Upwards of 20% of the whiskey is lost to evaporation during this period.

Although I'm not really a fan of whiskey, I have a new appreciation for all that goes into the production process.  Glenmorangie has been made in the same location in the village of Tain for over 170 years and the locals are extremely proud of what they produce.

Neist Point Lighthouse

Our last night on Skye, we drove west to Neist Point after dinner to see the lighthouse and sunset.  It's a single track road, meaning the road is one lane wide but has two-way traffic.  There are little areas to pass, but one car has to stop first so the other can get by.  Fortunately, there's not a lot of traffic on the road, but you do need to watch out for the free range sheep that seem oblivious to cars and car horns.  Not a bad way to finish our day.

Castles

No trip to Scotland is complete without visiting a few castles, and we have done our part by visiting several different ones. They've ranged from ruins where you see remnants of their past glory to ones that are still lived in today.

Inside the Sterling Castle Inner Close

Stirling Castle sits high atop a hill in the village of Stirling.  It was at the Battle of Stirling Bridge that William Wallace (Braveheart) defeated the invading British Army in 1297.  Home to the Stuart Kings, Mary Queen of Scots was crowned here.

Eilean Donan at low tide

Eilean Donan Castle is the most photographed castle in Scotland.  Still an active residence by the family's owners, it sits at the confluence of three lochs.  The arched stone bridge and the associated views give it that iconic photo.

Doune Castle was used to film exterior scenes for the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  We recreated the scene where Arthur and his men "Run Away! Run Away!" to the best of our ability.

The ruins of Urquhart Castle sit adjacent to the banks of Loch Ness.  Home to a thousand years of Scottish highland history, the castle was blown up by its English owners -- loyal to William and Mary -- in 1692 to prevent the Jacobites from taking it.

Isle of Skye -- A Day In Pictures

Dunvegan Castle

Kilt Rock

While on the Isle of Skye, we stayed at the Dunvegan Hotel in the village of Dunvegan.  Skye is a very rural area, with lots of sheep farming, fishing, and other similar activities.  Villages are few and far between.  On Saturday, Ken and the girls, Cindy and the boys, and Mona and I set off on a driving adventure around the Trotternish Peninsula to check out the sights and to do a little hiking.  We hiked a little, saw lots of sheep, hunted for dinosaur tracks, and discovered lots of beauty.

Waterfall at Kilt Rock

Hiking the Quiraing

Ken at the Quiraing

Finding the Elusive Black Sheep

Flora MacDonald Memorial

Isle of Skye Museum

Duntulm Castle Ruins

Portree Harbor

Puffins!!

After Edinburgh, we drove to the town of Oban on the west coast of Scotland.  Oban is a main ferry center for people wanting to visit the various islands off of the west coast.  We booked an entire day trip that took us to three islands -- Mull, Staffa, and Iona.  We were on a large ferry boat that was transporting large vehicles and cars, as well as people.  Mull was the first stop.  It's a larger island that has about 3,000 people living there.  We road a bus for a little over an hour across the island to the next ferry stop.  The scenery was wonderful -- mountain peaks, lush greenery, and innumerable waterfalls cascading down the mountain side.

Fingals Cave

Once we arrived to the other side, the wind picked up and the rain started.  Unfortunately, it remained with us the rest of the day.  We loaded onto a much smaller boat that had little covered area.  Not all of us were able to sit here, so the rest donned bright yellow rain ponchos provided by the ferry.  Our next stop was Staffa.  People come to Staffa to see two things -- Fingal's Cave and Puffins.

Fingal's Cave is formed by hexagonally-shaped columns of basalt.  They were formed by the way the  lava cooled.  These are neat to see in person, especially for the geology buffs in our group, but for me, I was more excited to see the puffins.

We had to climb up stairs from the beach and then hike about 15 minutes across the top of the island to where the puffins were nesting.  The top of the island was one big grassy field, with lots of undulation and rocky outcroppings.  There were no real trails here, but the path to the puffins was well worn and very easy to follow.  Unfortunately, the wind was whipping and the rain was blowing sideways, but that didn't deter us from reaching the nesting point.  Our efforts were worth it as we could get mere feet from the puffins and take lots of pictures.  I'm not sure anyone had dry clothes on after this hike, but it

was a small inconvenience to be able to catch puffins in person since they spend a large amount of time at sea.  This was definitely one of the trip's best moments so far!

Our final stop was the island of Iona.  Iona is where Christianity took root in Scotland and is home to a well known abbey.  This is where the Book of Kells was created (circa 800 AD), a copy of the four gospels with intricate illustrations and ornamentation.  The Book of Kells is housed at Trinity College in Dublin.  We've seen it before, and it was nice to see the spot where it were created.  David spent a week here at a retreat immediately prior to our arrival in Edinburgh.

Iona Abbey

After Iona, we retraced our steps across Mull and back to Oban.  A very full day, but one that was richly rewarding.

Kelpies and a Giant Wheel

We said goodbye to Edinburgh on Tuesday morning to make our way over to Oban on the west coast of Scotland.  After picking up our van for the week, we loaded up and headed west.  We stopped along the way to take in various sites and two certainly qualify for off the beaten path and not on the typical itinerary.  Both are near the town of Falkirk.

First up -- giant metal horse heads.  Kelpies are shape-changing mythological Scottish creatures that often take the shape of a horse.  The artist used Clydesdales as the models for these sculptures.  They are located next to the Forth & Clyde Canal and were completed in October 2013.  They were pretty cool to see, but we didn't think it was worth it to take a guided tour and go inside of the sculptures.  We had our photo op.

Just down the road about four miles is the Falkirk Wheel.  To me, this was much more impressive.  The Wheel is a rotating boat lift that connects the Union and the Forth & Clyde Canals.  This replaces a stair step series of 11 locks that were previously used and took an entire day to traverse.  This canal system is important to the transport of goods between the east and west of Scotland, and the new wheel makes the journey much easier and faster.  Boats enter the top or bottom of the wheel, and while the wheel rotates, the chamber holding the boat also rotates so the boat always remains level.

The Wheel itself has become something of a tourist attraction and folks can ride on a boat and and experience the Wheel themselves.  It is over 100 feet tall, yet only uses 1.5kWh of electricity to rotate 1/2 turn -- the equivalent amount needed to boil 8 kettles of water.  The Falkirk Wheel opened in 2002.

Click here to see a video of how it works.  The pictures below show how the orange boat starts on top and as the wheel turns, moves to the bottom.

So, tell me how you really feel

The Palace at Holyroodhouse as seen from Calton Hill

Most of the buildings in Old Town Edinburgh and along the Royal Mile date back a few centuries and represent the classical architecture of its day.  What's referred to as New Town was built in the 1800s and has the classic Georgian style that you would see in Williamsburg.

The Palace at Holyroodhouse was built in the 17th Century and sits at one end of the Royal Mile.  It is grand and stately and what you would expect for a royal palace.  Across the street from the palace sits the new Scottish Parliament Building which opened October 2004.  It is modern design that architect Enric Miralles said was a building "growing out of the land."

Front of the Parliament Building

I was chatting with a local police officer about our travels and asked what he thought of the the building.  "Honestly," he said, "I don't like it.  It makes my eyes bleed."  Ok then.

View from the right side of the building

View along the Royal Mile

Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Castle sits at one end of the Royal Mile, on rock that is perched above the city with great views.  The castle has served as a focal point of Scottish and Edinburgh life for centuries -- as the home of kings and queens, and most recently as a military garrison.  It's actually a collection of buildings linked together with cobblestone walkways, all behind massive stonewalls with cannons strategically placed for protection.

St. Margaret's Chapel was the first

building constructed -- it dates to 1130 -- and is the oldest building in Edinburgh.  Parts of the Castle have also served as a jail including housing American prisoners during the Revolutionary War.

The esplanade leading to the the castle entrance has been temporarily transformed into a small stadium in preparation for the Edinburgh Tattoo that's held every August.  The Tattoo brings together the best pipes and drums groups from around the world.  This is frequently shown on PBS.  Every year they erect the stadium
seating for this event and then remove it in September once it's over.  Our apartment overlooks the esplanade and typically has great views of the castle.  Unfortunately for our stay, we see the underside of stadium seating.  We all agree that's a small price to pay for having such an awesome location for our Edinburgh stay.

Setting up for the Tattoo