Saturday, July 13, 2019
We left London around 10am and drove 4-hours north in our
rental car to York where we checked into our hotel, the Grand Hotel York which
was actually not so grand. But no worries, as York is a really cute town with
roots going back to the 1st century when the Romans came to the area
and built roads, aqueducts and cities.
Like London, the Romans built a wall around the city of York
and much of that wall and two of the original towers still exist. Liz and I were
able to walk the top of about a third of the wall and noticed that many of the
locals use it for strolling and even commuting.
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| York Minster |
We also visited York Minster (listed as the top attraction
in York) which is a cathedral dating back to 1080 and truly is a must see. From
there we walked to Clifford’s Tower, which is all that remains of York Castle
built by William the Conqueror when he came to England and took over in what is
commonly called the Norman Invasion in 1066. And no visit to York would be
complete if you didn’t walk “The Shambles”, a narrow, winding street dating
back to the 14th century primarily consisting of butcher shops back then, but now a series of local artisan shops.
Finally, take a stroll through the ruins of St. Mary’s Abbey. Following Henry
VIII’s rebuke of the Catholic Church, as part of the Reformation, he ordered the
destruction of all monasteries and abbeys in England. St. Mary’s was not
spared, but one can see from a view of the ruins, that it was once a marvelous
structure and underscoring that “reformation” doesn’t always mean reforming for
the good.
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| St Mary's Abbey in York |
Our stay in York was brief – only a single night and less
than 24-hours before we were on to our next destination. We should have planned
better as there is much to see and do in York. It was voted European Tourism
City of the Year by European Cities Marketing in June 2007, and was also voted
safest place to visit in the 2010 Condé Nast Traveller Readers’ Choice Awards.
In 2018, The Sunday Times deemed York to be its overall 'Best Place to Live' in
Britain. Who knew? Well, now you do.
Sunday, July 14, 2019
From York, we now drive 2 hours north and east to Whitby, a
small (population 13,000) seaside town on the east coast of the UK with a
harbor on the North Sea. Here we meet up with a mutual friend of ours, Leanda
Falcon. Leanda was among the 30 or so fellow travelers who joined us in 2016 on
the Pachamama Alliance Founder’s Journey to the Ecuadorian rain forest – the
very same journey in which Liz and I met for the first time and culminating in
our wedding less than a year later. Leanda was Liz’s roommate in Ecuador and
had traveled from the UK to join us at Lake Tahoe for our wedding, which also
happens to be the last time we had seen Leanda.
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| Malcolm & Liz with Leanda (Whitby Abbey in background) |
We meet up with Leanda and make our way to Trencher’s who
are among the dozen or so restaurants in Whitby proclaiming themselves to be
the “Best Fish and Chips in Town”. And they are good, just as you would expect
from a quaint little town perched on the North Sea.
After lunch, we make our way over to the hilltop on the east
side of the River Esk to Whitby Abbey, another ruin courtesy of the
“Reformation”. It is even more spectacular than St. Mary’s in York, both in
size and owing to its location high on a hill with fantastic views of the town
below, accompanying countryside and the North Sea.
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| Whitby Abbey |
From the abbey, we headed back over the river and up the
opposite hillside to see the Captain Cook Memorial. Captain James Cook began
his sailing career in Whitby where he sailed throughout the North Sea
delivering and retrieving cargo everywhere. This training led to his epic
circumnavigation of the world from 1768-71 a feat he would repeat two more
times in 1772-75 and 1776-79. In all, Cook spent nine years sailing around
the world – an accomplishment that continues to puzzle today’s members of The
Flat Earth Society.
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| Leanda & Liz at the Captain James Cook Memorial (Whitby Abbey in background) |
We followed this with a visit to a pub, because that’s what
you do, then we had dinner at our hotel and bid farewell to Leanda. It was a
great day in Whitby and a great day with Leanda. She is a very special person
and will always be extra special to us. We love you, Leanda!
Today, our destination is Edinburgh in Scotland, a 4-hour
drive north along the coast. But first, a few stops the first of which is
Whitby Beach- a short distance from our hotel. It is low tide when we arrive
and you can literally walk for hundreds and hundreds of yards in any direction which we did.
Simply beautiful.
Then we are back in the car and, at Leanda’s suggestion,
headed to Bamburgh, a coastal town just over halfway to Edinburgh. Leanda had
mentioned a terrific castle in Bamburgh and a hotel in which we would find the best
tea and scones ever. We, of course, did both and Leanda’s advice was spot on.
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| Bamburgh Castle |
Originally constructed in the 5th century during
Celtic times, then passing between the Britons and the Anglo-Saxons several
times until being destroyed by the Vikings in 993, Bamburgh castle eventually
became the property of the English monarch under William the Conqueror. As the
years went by, the castle was abandoned and fell into disrepair until it was
purchased by William Armstrong in 1895 and the castle is still owned by
descendants of the Armstrong family.
Armstrong was an inventor and industrialist who amassed
considerable wealth in the production and sale of armaments. When asked if he had
any regrets over his chosen field of expertise, he said, "If I thought
that war would be fomented, or the interests of humanity suffer, by what I have
done, I would greatly regret it. I have no such apprehension." He then further elaborated, "It is our province, as engineers to make the forces of matter
obedient to the will of man; those who use the means
we supply must be responsible for their legitimate application."
It’s those last several words upon which his conscience
rests - those who use the means we supply must be responsible for their
legitimate application – and isn’t this the same refrain we hear from every
manufacturer of products that have led to the killing of people and the
destruction of our planet whether it be AK47’s, cigarettes, RoundUp, fossil
fuels, etc.?
With that said, Bamburgh Castle is a spectacular building in
an equally spectacular setting set high on a hill overlooking the North Sea.
Well worth a visit.
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| Interior of Bamburgh Castle |
And the tea and scones? Well yes, the high tea at the
Victoria Hotel is worth the drive alone. Leanda was spot on again.
We are back in the car and headed to Edinburgh arriving in
the late afternoon.
Edinburgh and Scotland
Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland and has been since at
least the 15th century. With a population of 520,000, it is second
only to Glasgow in size. Edinburgh is located on the southern shore of the Firth of
Forth, an estuary that is the combination of several rivers and empties into
the North Sea to the east.
The earliest known human inhabitants of Edinburgh dates back
to 8500 BC, although things didn’t start to pick up until the Romans arrived in
the 1st century AD and, even then, the Romans didn’t stay long
finding the tribes of Scotland to be particularly fierce. In 122 AD, Hadrian
ordered the building of a wall (Hadrian’s Wall), that runs from the North Sea
on the east to the Irish Sea on the west at roughly the narrowest point of the
island landmass that is now the UK – a distance of 84 miles. The wall’s
location is a full 100 miles south of Edinburgh and its purpose was to protect
what the Romans had built in Britain from the marauding tribes in Scotland.
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| Hadrian's Wall |
And Hadrian was right. For the next millennial, the Scots
and the Brits were frequently at war including the First War of Scottish
Independence popularized by the movie Braveheart starring Mel Gibson as
William Wallace. While Wallace initially had great success against the Brits,
he was eventually defeated and in 1308 captured, turned over to the British
King, Edward I (“Longshanks”), tried for treason, convicted and gruesomely
executed at the Tower of London.
One of the other prominent characters in Braveheart
was Robert the Bruce, who, in real life, took over the fight against the
British after Wallace’s death. Bruce had even more success against the British
driving them out of Scotland and arranging for the Pope to recognize Bruce as King Robert I and Scotland as a country separate and independent of
Britain.
But all was not peaceful between the two countries following
the Pope’s declaration, not the least of which was Henry VIII’s succession to
the British crown in 1509 and his denunciation of the Pope, the Roman Catholic
Church and launch of the Reformation Movement which soon brought an abundance
of British troops back to Scotland including the burning of Edinburgh in 1544.
And then, in 1603, King James VI of Scotland succeeded to
the English throne as James I due to the fact that when Elizabeth I (the Virgin
Queen) died, there were no remaining heirs from Henry VIII or from the
House of Tudor. James was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots and the great, great
grandson of Henry VII which explains how he ascended to the British throne
while also being the King of Scotland. And thus began the Stuart dynasty in
England which would last for 111 years.
One hundred years after James united the thrones, Scotland
and England signed the Treaty of Union effectively uniting the two
parliaments which further paved the way toward a United Kingdom as it stands
today. With that said, our experience in Scotland suggests a country that still
maintains its fierce independence harkening back to the time when Hadrian
determined a wall should be built and later when William Wallace declared “they
will never take our freedom”. The latest challenge is Brexit which is opposed
by most Scotlanders and, if ultimately approved by the UK, is likely to lead to
discussion in Scotland about succession. Perhaps we will see descendants of
Wallace and Bruce lead that charge.
Tuesday, July 16, 2019
Our stay in Edinburgh was only for one night as we will be
returning here before eventually leaving Scotland. While we walked around old
town a bit, I spent most of this morning at the Apple Store trying to fix my iPhone.
While we were in London, my phone began to act abnormally. It was, as if, the
screen was possessed. I could literally lay the phone down and then watch as it
opened apps, switched screens, scrolled through text without any human
intervention at all. I had stopped by
the Apple Store in London for help at their genius bar. This led to executing
a “restore” which effectively wipes out your entire phone, returning it to a
state similar to a brand new one. Prior to the restore, we backed the phone up,
but I later discovered that the back up did not include my pictures including
hundreds of photos documenting our adventures. I’m still trying to get over
that.
The restore worked for about a ½ day when the screen became
possessed again necessitating another stop at the Apple Store in Edinburgh.
Fortunately, they agreed to replace the screen at no charge and the problem is
now solved.
St. Andrews
With my phone now properly restored, we headed north and
east for the 1½ hour drive to St. Andrews, the site of the university which
bears that name and the home of golf. With its location on a bluff over the
North Sea, St. Andrews is postcard picturesque.
After checking into our hotel, we took a long walk around
town and through the university. The University of St. Andrews is the third-oldest
English-speaking university in the world and considered the 2nd best
university in the UK behind only Cambridge. It is also where Prince William
attended university and it was there that he met Kate. Not surprisingly, there
are university buildings scattered throughout the town. They are old, well
preserved and beautiful.
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| University of St. Andrews |
Next, we walked the perimeter of the peninsula that houses
the most famous golf courses in the world including the oldest, simply referred
to as “The Old Course”. There are six courses in all on the peninsula (five
18-hole and one 9-hole) and the walk is beautiful with the bluff and sea
on one side and the perfectly maintained courses on the other. We completed our
walk with a stop in the Old Course Hotel, Golf Resort & Spa which is a
building fitting for the “home of golf”.
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| The Old Course 17th Hole, St. Andrews |
Wednesday, July 17,
2019
The next morning, we headed south along the Fife Coastal
Path. The path or trail runs for 117 miles beginning in the south at Kincardine
which sits where the River Forth ends and the Firth of Forth estuary begins
(about 50 miles west of Edinburgh), follows the coastline east and north
through St. Andrews to Tayport where it then turns to the west and ends at
Newburgh where the River Tay meets the Tay estuary.
Our walk would only cover six miles (12 total as an out and
back) of this 117 mile trail, but it was beautiful the entire way. We couldn’t
help but to dream of taking a family trip someday to walk its entire length.
With that said, we ran into other hikers who said, while the Fife Coastal Path
is excellent, if you want an epic long-range hike in Scotland, then do the West
Highland Way on the west coast. Whichever hike we choose, both of these
hikes are reason enough to return to Scotland.
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| The Fife Coastal Path - south of St. Andrews |
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| St. Andrews Castle |
The castle, in particular, was involved in numerous
adventures during the history of St. Andrews including multiple encounters
between the British and the Scots. But it was Henry VIII’s Reformation that
turned each of these prominent structures into today’s ruins. Skirmishes
between the Catholics and Protestants continued with the Protestants taking
hold of the castle in the mid-1500’s with their leader John Knox. But then,
Jacobites from France, eager to restore Catholic rule in Scotland, bombarded
the castle with cannons from their ships at sea, drove the Protestants out and
executed John Knox.
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| St. Andrews Cathedral |
By the end of the 16th century, the Reformation
was complete throughout Scotland, the Catholics had been fully suppressed and
these three beautiful structures had been abandoned and left to become the
ruins that exist today. It’s amazing to see the destruction left in the wake of
religion. Its hard to imagine a God that would be pleased with what mankind has
done in Her name.
Thursday, July 18, 2019
Today, we drive just over an hour north and west to
Blairgowrie. On the way, we stop at Dundee, the 4th largest city in
Scotland with a population of only 150,000. At first blush, it’s a rather nice
city with a cool pedestrian walkway with retail shops and old buildings
scattered here and there. We visited the McManus Museum which tells the history
of Dundee right up to contemporary times. It would seem that Dundee was an
industrial town based upon textiles and primarily jute - a long, soft, shiny
vegetable fiber that can be spun into coarse, strong threads. In addition,
whaling became a large industry primarily to supply the jute mills with whaling
oil. But, today, all of that is gone and the economy is largely dependent on
the service sector. To our eyes, it felt a bit like a retirement community and
a town struggling to find the jobs that will keep its youth staying in town
after they graduate from college.
Our next stop, before driving to Blairgowrie was the Scone
Palace in Perth. From at least the 9th century, Scone Palace was the
crowning place for the Kings of the Scots and home to the Stone of Scone also
known as the Stone of Destiny. In 1296, Edward I (“Longshanks”) while fighting
the Scots, removed the Stone and brought it back to London where it was placed
in Westminster Abbey where it has been used in coronation ceremonies for
English monarchs. The Scots have remained unhappy about the theft of the Stone
for centuries. Four college students, on Christmas Day in 1950, broke into
Westminster Abbey stole the Stone and returned it to Scotland, breaking it in
two along the way by accident. The Stone was repaired and was later retrieved
by the London police and returned to Westminster Abbey. In 1996, as a gesture
of goodwill, the Stone was returned to the Scots by the Brits and it is now on
display at Edinburgh Castle.
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| Scone Palace in Perth |
Other historical points of interest involving Scone Palace
include Robert the Bruce’s coronation in 1306, the raid by John Knox and his
mob of Protestants in 1559 that severely damaged the palace and a visit by
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1842.
The palace is surrounded by nearly 4700 acres of woods,
beautiful gardens and walkways. The visit to Scone Palace far exceeded our
expectations and we would highly recommend it to anyone who visits Scotland.
By late afternoon, we arrived in Blairgowrie a town that was
built on the growing and harvesting of jute and now is a town that time left
behind. We took a nice walk along the River Ericht and ate dinner at Little’s,
a restaurant that once was a church, but today serves delicious food.
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| Little's Restaurant - a converted church in Blairgowrie |
Friday, July 19, 2019
We spent the night in a lovely B&B named Ivy Bank Lodge
and they served a terrific breakfast in the morning. After breakfast, we drove an
hour north to Braemar in Cairngorms National Park, part of the renowned
Scottish Highlands. In Braemar, we stopped and toured Braemar castle built in
1628. The castle itself was more impressive on the outside than the inside,
although we did learn that Robert Louis Stevenson spent time at Braemar
and is thought to have written Treasure Island while living in Braemar
and based several of his characters on inhabitants of the nearby village.
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| Braemar Castle |
Our next stop was Balmoral Castle, one of the residences of
the British Royal family first purchased by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in
1852 and still used to this day by Queen Elizabeth and family where they spend
the month of August each year. Sitting on 50,000 acres, the castle and
surrounding estate are absolutely amazing. Having not previously heard about
this castle, Balmoral was a complete surprise and not to be missed when
traveling through Scotland.
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| Balmoral Castle in Ballater |
From the castle, we next drove a short distance to our
B&B in Ballater, a small town within Cairngorms National Park about 40
miles due west of the coastal city of Aberdeen on the North Sea. Tonight, we
would be having dinner with John and Freda Nimmo who are the parents of Jacqui
Kotula, our dentist back home. Liz and I were introduced to Jacqui and her
husband, Clark, by my son, Jordan, with whom they are great friends (and now we are too). As it turns out, Jacqui and Clark share a
similar start to their relationship having met in Peru where Clark was a river
raft pilot and Jacqui was visiting from Scotland. Well, once down the river,
Jacqui never went home again. They were soon married, continued to work in Peru
until, eventually, relocating to the Bay Area.
What a great story and what a great couple. We have grown to love them
as family over the years.
Before departing on our trip, we had mentioned to Jacqui
that we would be spending some time in Scotland. She immediately put us in
touch with her mother (“mum”) with the hopes that we might be able to meet up
with her parents and, perhaps, get some advice on what to do and see while we
were there. We are grateful that she did, as almost our entire itinerary while
in Scotland was scripted by Freda and we had a most excellent time. But the highlight
for sure was our dinner. When we entered the Rothesay Room, I quickly scanned
the room and when my eyes fell on Freda, I immediately knew this was Jacqui’s “mum”
and she, just as quickly, recognized me as “Max”, Jordan’s dad.
We spent over 3-hours enjoying dinner together and talking
about most everything. Ballater is a small town of 1500 which closely resembles
the town I grew up in – everyone knows everyone and everyone is related. One
difference, however, is that Ballater is surrounded mostly by rural farm land
and the national park. With very few job opportunities for young folks, they
generally do not return to Ballater after graduating from university, and, so,
Ballater is rapidly turning into a retirement community. Which suits John and
Freda just fine as they are retired and John spends his days playing golf while
Freda gardens and plays cards. It was a true pleasure to meet them and we now
anxiously await their next visit to California to visit Jacqui, Clark and their
two adorable sons.
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| Malcolm, John, Freda & Liz at the Rothesay Room in Ballater |
Saturday, July 20, 2019
After a terrific breakfast at our B&B, we jumped in the
car for the 3-hour drive back to Edinburgh. We had planned to stop and take in
the Highland Games in Tomintoul on our way back, but it was raining, so we
decided to skip those plans and just head directly to Edinburgh.
After checking into our hotel, we did our much-needed laundry
(there was actually a washing machine in our room!) and I blogged for several
hours having fallen weeks behind on this duty.
Sunday, July 21, 2019
The next day was a busy one. First, we visited Edinburgh
Castle which sits on a hill and dominates the skyline of this beautiful city.
The castle was first built during the 12th century and the reign of
David I and remained a royal residence until 1633. Over the years, the castle
was involved in numerous conflicts. In fact, during its 900-year-old history
there were 26 sieges, giving it a claim to having been "the most besieged
place in Great Britain and one of the most attacked in the world". Today,
the castle – the most visited site in Scotland – is home to the Scottish Crown
Jewels as well as the aforementioned Stone of Scone or Stone of Destiny.
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| Edinburgh Castle |
From the castle, we walked the 2.5 miles to Arthur’s Seat
which sits high up in the hills just outside of the city. Another one of
Edinburgh’s main attractions, Arthur’s Seat is quite busy on this Sunday, but
the rigorous hike is well worth it as the views from the summit are spectacular.
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| The view of Edinburgh from Arthur's Seat |
From Arthur’s Seat, our next stop is Holyrood Palace which
sits at the west end of Canongate Rd with Edinburgh Castle one mile to the west,
also on the same road, which is more commonly referred to as The Royal Mile.
Holyrood is the official residence of the British monarch in Scotland and Queen
Elizabeth has made a practice of spending one week at the beginning of each
summer at Holyrood Palace.
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| Holyrood Palace |
Built in the late 17th century, Holyrood is
another exceptional building with a beautiful interior as well as exceptional gardens
and grounds on the exterior. Adjacent to the palace is Holyrood Abbey, first
constructed in in 1128 by order of King David I. However, like almost every
other abbey and monastery throughout the UK, the abbey was badly damaged during
the Reformation and today it stands in ruins as yet another symbol of man’s destructive
power in the name of religion.
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| Holyrood Abbey |
We finished the day with a visit to St. Giles’ Cathedral in
the center of Edinburgh on the Royal Mile. Our previous attempts to visit this
beautiful cathedral were thwarted due to either services or funerals, so we were
pleased to be able to get in late on this Sunday. Dating back to the 14th
century, this magnificent cathedral is still in operation. During the 1500’s,
John Knox served as pastor at St. Giles – the very same John Knox who raided Scone
Palace and, later, St. Andrew’s Castle where his exploits led to his capture
and execution.
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| St Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh |
This was a busy day for us, but also a terrific day.
Edinburgh is a great city to visit with a rich history and so many interesting
places to see. In fact, that goes for every place we visited on this long road
trip through northern Britain and Scotland. We are excited to now be thinking
of returning someday.
Tomorrow, we head to the airport for a flight back to Bilbao
and Northern Spain where we will meet up with two of my sons, Travis and
Jordan, their wives, Stephanie and Ashley, respectively, and their combined six
children – four boys and two girls ages 5 to 13. They have planned a week of
hiking and beaching along this beautiful stretch of Spain’s coastline.
Musings…
Loved seeing our friend, Leanda! So fun to catch up with
her and get the latest news on her life. And her recommendation to visit
Bamburgh Castle was the best. Highly recommend everyone visiting this fabulous
little village on the coast - great stop (and the best scones!).
We continue to be blessed with perfect weather - great
for hiking and touring all the cool sights in Scotland. Similar to Ireland, but
has it’s own personality. St. Andrews is where I would spend a year of school
abroad if I could do it all over again - such a lovely village on the sea. And
for golfers, it’s paradise. Wild flowers graced the areas we drove, friendly
faces greeted you everywhere, stone houses dot the landscape, and the food was
delicious. Edinburgh is a very old medieval city - a bit crowded for me, but
great to feel and see all the history. Hike up to Arthur’s Seat offered magical
views.
And we got to meet our friend, Jacqui’s, parents in her
hometown. Freda, as Malcolm mentioned, really planned our whole trip for us through
Scotland - what a gift that was (one less planning exercise was greatly
appreciated). We had such a nice dinner - look forward to another in our neck
of the woods when they visit.
Continue to be amazed at how many wars have been fought
all over this continent - seems like it was non-stop for hundreds of years.
Most in the name of religion or was it power…? History just kept repeating
itself, scary thought. It did, however, leave us with amazing castles and
relics to admire for years to come.
Well…as of Scotland we were finishing 3 months. Hard to
believe that much time has past and really hard to believe how much time we
have to go;)! Yikes. Lots of very exciting adventures left so we’re looking
forward to more fun. And also looking forward to catching up with some familiar
faces in the coming weeks - nice to get a touch of home.
Cheers!
Haste ye back!
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