July 7-13, 2018

July 7-13, 2018

Our recent trip to Britain was like an Oreo cookie. The filling was good, but it started poorly with an unexpected flight cancellation and unfortunately ended worse. I found out my mother passed as we were flying over my hometown. With a one-day turn-around to pay bills and clean the pool, we started the 24-hour two-day drive to the Midwest. On the plus side, it is always nice to visit with seldom-seen siblings and cousins.

We stayed with my sister and brother-in-law as payback for their previous visits. They are fortunate to live near the huge Weldon Spring Conservation Area that runs along the Missouri River. We took a hike with them after the wake and funeral. Little did I know it was the Nuclear Waste Adventure Trail. Apparently the park was the site of a WWII explosives plant and then later a Uranium purification facility. Cleanup occurred and then the rest was entombed in a huge mound and covered with rock.

From a parking lot we hiked a mile along a wildflower-lined trail to the disposal summit, the highest point in St Charles County. We then visited the nearby Interpretative Center. Aimee and my sister were getting the willies being so close to a Superfund Site. Neither would drink from the water fountains. I wasn't terribly concerned as Uranium is not particularly dangerous. It has a 4.5 billion year half-life. Uranium atoms rarely disintegrate and release radiation. And the water comes from the municipal drinking supply of the Missouri River. Unfortunately I did learn that local companies found the site a convenient dumping ground for everything hazardous, so we quickly hiked back to the car.

We made the long drive home. As if our latest adventure couldn't have more surprises, Interstate 10 was closed at the Arizona border due to a dust storm. The detour added an extra hour getting us in after dark on Friday the 13th. My mom would have been 98 today. I can see her shining down from heaven!

July 5, 2018

July 5, 2018

We started the long return home today from Manchester, UK. Instead of our original direct flight, our rebooked one had a stop and left much earlier. We were out the door at 3:15 in the morning. Four flights and 27 hours later we landed in Tucson.

Despite the rocky start, Aimee thought this was one of our best trips. For me that is all it takes to make my top list too. A major contributor was the great weather we had. It was sunny and delightfully cooler than Tucson. The UK is a picturesque hilly country never far from the sea. It abounds in scenic walks and hikes.

Most of the cities we visited we wished we had stayed longer. Britain has a long history from Prehistoric to Victorian Industrial. The Brits have done a great job modernizing the country while preserving this history and maintaining the charming small town character.

I can't believe I am saying it but we enjoyed the food much more than France. The British diet has evolved from its old days of meat pies. Being an island the old standby of Fish 'n' Chips is still widely available and delicious. The Brits now enjoy spice in their food. Curry is popular. Thai and Indian restaurants are now as ubiquitous as Pubs.

Unfortunately for Aimee, I am still humming the “Old Spice” theme song. It was adapted from a traditional Scottish bagpipe melody and I can't get it out of my head.

The one thing I won't miss are the sheep, although I wish I had tried the lamb chops. Their droppings litter every field in England and Scotland. Tread carefully!

July 4, 2018

July 4, 2018

It was very cool spending the night in a room high in Durham Castle overlooking the Cathedral. We heard the great bells tolling the hour all night. A reminder that the Middle Ages, was the Age of Faith, where the church was omnipresent.

Our breakfast was in the Great Hall of the castle. We sat next to an Australian couple with whom we had an interesting conversation about traveling.

We were scheduled to leave after breakfast but changed our plans because Durham looks very appealing. We stopped at the Visitor Center, intending to see two films about Durham but were waylaid by a very talkative docent. It was perfect; he was far more interesting and entertaining than any film could have been. He related the history of the University and how Durham was ruled by a Prince-Bishop, the only one in Britain.

We took the guided castle tour, but it was uninteresting and led by an uninspired docent. I was also distracted by a swarm of tiny beetles who confused my neon-yellow shirt for flowers. We ditched my shirt in the car and took a nice walk down the peninsula of Old Durham and back along the river where we got a nice view of the old mill and the Cathedral.

Our British Adventure is at an end so we drove back to Manchester. I couldn't resist stopping at one last World Heritage site on the way. Saltaire is a well-preserved Victorian textile town built by the enlightened mill owner who thought happy employees would be more productive. The mill closed many years ago. We had an early dinner in the Boat House Pub along the river, one last Fish 'n' Chips. Delicious as usual. Before leaving we walked the remarkably intact town.

At the airport our great holiday came to a screeching halt. Because of construction and poor signage, even with three GPS's, it took us an hour of circling the airport before we found a gas station and the rental car return. Finally at our airport hotel room I fell back in exhaustion. It's the 4th of July and I am celebrating my Independence from the rental car. This is the second year in a row, returning the car has been an unwanted adventure.

July 3, 2018

July 3, 2018

From Edinburgh we followed the eastern shore back into England. Our first stop was at Holy Island of Lindisfarne. Although right now it really is Holy Peninsula, as the tide is out exposing the causeway, letting us drive onto the island. We have a couple hours to visit before we are trapped here. After St Columba setup his monastery in Isle of Iona, he sent monks to Christianize Scotland. A monk named Aidan was sent here to Lindisfarne to work on the Anglo-Saxons. Cuthbert continued Aidan's successful work earning Lindisfarne the nickname "Cradle of English Christianity". Beside proselytizing, they also copied books producing the famed Illuminated Lindisfarne Gospel. Like Iona, Viking Raids caused the monks to flee to the safety of Durham taking the Gospel and the reliquary bones of St Cuthbert with them.

On Lindisfarne, we toured the small museum and then walked the ruins of a later priory built atop the original monastery. We left Holy Island with the rising tide lapping at our heels!

Following the relics of St Cuthbert, we drove south to Durham. Just north of town we stopped at a modern iron sculpture named the 'Angel of the North'. Aimee and I both think it looks like a man with airplane wings.

Durham is a small hilltop town situated, for protection, on a tight bend of the Wear River. We are staying in the castle tonight. Our room is on the top floor of the central Keep. This is student dorm housing of the University. Our room has a view of the castle courtyard and the Cathedral. Unfortunately castles don’t have elevators. 126 stairs to our room up a spiral staircase!

After checking in we toured the nearby World Heritage Cathedral. It is simply magnificent. Built in just forty years, a millennium ago, it has a harmonious Norman Romanesque style. Since it predates Gothic, the arches are round, and the pillars are massive but decorated with geometric designs.

We then walked the town below the Castle. It is like one giant Pedestrian Mall, albeit very vertical as the narrow roads spiral down to the river below. Two of the original bridges remain.

We had dinner at a pub, choosing a traditional English meal of Mince and Dumplings. It is similar to the Shepherd's Pie that Aimee makes. We ate early because most pubs will be crowded with fans watching Soccer. The Brits are playing Colombia tonight in the World Cup in Russia.

July 2, 2018

July 2, 2018

This morning we visited St Andrews’ British Golf Museum that covers the history of the game. Like baseball in America, Golf has a long history and has been played for probably 500 years in Scotland. Fans have always been obsessed about it. So much so that more than one king banned it because players were neglecting their Archery practice. Equipment has improved over time but the game has surprisingly remained consistent for generations.

We watched golfers teeing off on the now busy Old Course, then left town back toward Edinburgh. Before crossing the newest road bridge across the Firth of Forth, we stopped at the base of the World Heritage Railroad Bridge. Voted Scotland's greatest man-made wonder, this cantilever bridge opened in 1890. The sun wasn’t favorable so we crossed to the south side for a better photo near Hawes Pier. The weather is again beautiful so we had a light lunch on a terrace with a great view of the bridge.

In Edinburgh, we checked into our student dorm accommodation and then visited the National Museum of Scotland. We only had an hour. Interestingly it tried to cover almost every subject albeit in brief. It could only have a few artifacts per subject but those were mostly exquisite. For example, it has the oldest surviving steam locomotive. Happily for Aimee, there was a large exhibit on fashion which kept her attention the entire time.

We then walked the city area south of the Castle. Edinburgh is a great city to walk and has lots of places with character and colorful scenery. We had a Thai dinner just off the Royal Mile.

July 1, 2018

July 1, 2018

From Inverness, Scotland we drove southeast. Shortly after entering Cairngorms National Park, we made a brief stop in the little town of Carrbridge to see its packhorse bridge, the oldest stone bridge in the Highlands.

After skirting the western perimeter of the Cairngorms, we left the highway and drove south to Loch Tay. On the shore of this busy lake we visited the Scottish Crannog Centre. There are hundreds of tiny islands along the shores of most Lochs. Archeological digs discovered that these were man-made from piles of rocks and originally had an Iron-Age stilt house (Crannog) built atop them. This site has a reconstruction of what it probably looked like.

We immediately joined a guided tour led by a very interesting and knowledgeable archeology student. The Crannog is very authentic even including a very dusty hay floor. It is not known why they were built. Perhaps defensive but a land-based fort would have been easier and faster to build. Or perhaps it was just a status symbol to have a lake house.

Next we went to three different stations that demonstrated the crafts and skills Iron-Age peoples were found to have. A hand-driven wood lathe was interesting, but I was more fascinated with the making of fire. I have seen it many times but this time, the details were demonstrated brilliantly. We spent a few minutes in the small museum before heading out.

In the late afternoon, we arrived in the seaside town of St Andrews. Being golfers our first stop was the Old Course at St Andrews. Our pilgrimage begins on the first tee and ended on the 18th green. I was surprised to find that the course is a long narrow strip surrounded by four other courses. As a golfer, I should want to play it, but it looks a little boring. The "Links" fairway is hard and dry and treeless. The difficulty is the occasional thick rough and deep pot-bunkers. We then did some shopping in the Pro shop, and had dinner in their clubhouse.

After dinner we did a quick walking tour of this happening city. The central core is dominated by golf and the University of St Andrews.  The relics of St Andrew, the patron saint of Scotland, made this town an ecclesiastical center and place of pilgrimage. Unfortunately the Scottish Reformation made it also a focus of battles between Catholics and Protestants leaving the Bishop's Castle and Cathedral in ruins.

June 30, 2018

June 30, 2018

After checking out of our hotel, we drove a couple miles east to Duncansby Head, the most northeasterly point of mainland Scotland. Besides a lighthouse there are several sea stacks off the eastern cliffs. Sea Stacks form when the piece of land connecting them to the cliff falls away. We had to tiptoe across a field full of sheep droppings to view them. The trail was giving Aimee the willies because the area was showing clear signs of subsidence with new sea stacks ready to form. I am hoping not until we get back to the car!

From John O’Groats we retraced our route back to Inverness. We made a 5-mile detour to visit Camster Cairns, a Neolithic burial site. From a distance it just looks like several piles of industrial rock debris on a hillside near modern windmills. Closer up you can see entrances with tiny passages to a central burial spot. People must have been shorter 5000 years ago as I banged my head hard trying to crawl down one of the passages.

We also made a stop at a memorial called “The Emigrants”. This is in reference to the Highland Clearances. When the farmers were evicted they were replaced with sheep. Scotland now has more sheep than people. This became clear a few miles down the road, when traffic stopped to let shepherds move a herd from one pasture to another. This may be coming to and end. Sheep in Scotland is an anachronism that only exists with huge subsidies from the EU. After Brexit, the money will dry up unless the UK picks up the slack.