August 13 - Lochs, Castles, and Haggis

On Wednesday morning after crossing the Irish Sea, we anchored off the little town of Dunoon.  The itinerary says we’re in Holy Loch; the map says we’re in the Firth of Clyde.  I’m not really sure where we are except that I know we’re in northwestern Scotland. For the sake of clarification a firth is essentially a fjord, although usually not as deep as the latter.  A loch is a Scottish word for a body of water which may be fresh or salt and is almost completely surrounded by land.

Dunoon from the ship

Anyway, back to today.  Some of us  may have heard of Holy Loch because during WWII it was used as a Royal Navy submarine base and from 1961 to 1992 during the Cold War it was a US Navy ballistic missile sub base.  After the collapse of the Soviet Union it  was no longer deemed necessary so the base was closed, although I think the Royal Navy still has a presence here.  This port was one of the few for which I booked a tour in advance when I decided to come on the cruise.  From here I was able to visit Inveraray Castle, a place I was excited to see.

I’m a big fan of Downtown Abbey so before I left home I binge-watched the whole series again.  For all the DA fans who may be reading this, Inveraray is the place the Crawleys went to visit “Cousin Shrimpy” in the Highlands of Scotland.

We tendered ashore and boarded our bus for the drive  through the highlands to the little town of Inveraray.  The countryside was quite beautiful with what I’ll call small mountains most of which were covered with pine forests.  Our guide Elspeth told us that around the beginning of the 20th century the forests had been pretty well cut down.  The government began a program to reforest and this area looks like it was successful.  The terrain looked quite different from the part of the highlands I visited a couple of years ago further north.  There I saw mainly sheep pastureland.  This area today reminded me a lot of parts of western Virginia around the Blue Ridge mountains.  All of the countryside we drove through belongs to the council of Argyll and Bute and the castle we visited is the ancestral home of the Duke of Argyll.

These are a few photos of the countryside

After an hour ride we arrived and I wasn’t disappointed. As we drove up the driveway and the castle came into view I could imagine the Crawleys riding up to be greeted by Shrimpy and his family.  Elspeth told us that if a flag with a gold and black triangle and two white bars was flying from the turret it meant that the Duke was in residence, and sure enough it was.  We entered and the first room we saw was the dining room.  It was set splendidly with china, crystal and silver and several golden ship models which added to the sparkle of the table.  The walls and ceiling were adorned with paintings and friezes and it was all very impressive. On small tables in two corners there were photographs taken during the filming of the DA episodes here.  One was a photo of the late Dame Maggie Smith, the Dowager Countess (by the way my favorite character in the series) and the other of the TV family dining at the table.  I asked one of the castle attendants if a piper still comes in to play as one did on TV.  He told me that occasionally a piper comes to play for a special event, but it’s not the norm.

And here are more pictures of the rooms than anyone but I want to see.

Dinner is served!

If you've seen Downtown Abbey this photo and the next should bring back memories.

We also visited a drawing room, similarly decorated, a room described as what used to be the Duke’s library (but the cabinets on all the walls were completely filled with lovely china) and what used to be the main entrance hall, which I remembered from the TV episodes.  That room reminded me a lot of the entrance hall of the Governor’s Palace in Colonial Williamsburg.  If I’m remembering that correctly it’s similarly decorated with lots of swords and muskets arranged on the walls.  I’m guessing the décor was meant to either impress or intimidate visitors who came to the castle.  The Duke and his family actually live in the castle so our visit was mainly confined to those few rooms.  People who wanted to go up one floor could go and see one bedroom used in the filming.  My knees don’t like steps much so instead I chose  to use my few steps to go down to the old kitchens which I found much more interesting.  The kitchen is partially below ground and I thought it was fascinating.  The walls had shelves holding a fortune’s worth of gleaming copper pots and there were several wood-fired stoves.  One had a huge spit with a fake pig roasting on it.  There was a large pulley system above that stove to raise and lower the spit when it held a large piece of meat.  In my mind I could see Mrs. Patmore and Daisy bustling about preparing grand meals for the guests upstairs.

The drawing room

A lovely harp to provide a little entertainment

This was supposed to be a library but I didn't see a single book!

The entrance hall that reminded me of CW and the Governor's Palace

These next photos are my favorite room in the place - the kitchen! I could practically hear Mrs. Patmore yelling at Daisy not to let the gravy get cold or to take the pudding out.

Outside there were some gardens but after the ones at Powerscourt in Ireland these paled by comparison.  The one attraction was that a man walked by who someone said was the Duke out for a stroll. I don’t know it he was and I didn’t try to take a photo, so I’ll never know if I was close to such a high nobleman.  I didn’t feel any tingles.

We got back on our bus and headed back to Dunoon.  I have to say something about the weather.  One always hears about the dreadful weather in the British Isles.  Perhaps I’m blessed because we have had absolutely glorious weather these past few days. Today it was in the low 80°s and the sky was a gorgeous blue.  I got back to the ship in time for a jam-packed afternoon of games and lectures.

The Shamrock Tenors whose performance I saw last night were a lot of fun.  I won’t say they were the best singers I’ve ever heard but they were enthusiastic and it was good fun to watch.  They had everyone clapping and singing along when we knew the words.  Tonight’s show was an English singer who has appeared on the BBC and at Albert Hall.  She sings a lot of jazz and songs from people like Frank Sinatra. It was the kind of music many of us passengers can relate to so I think we all enjoyed it very much.

This is a very long blog post but I want to remember lots of things so bear with me.  Tonight at dinner my host was a really interesting guy.  He is a professor of vulcanology at the University of Uppsala in Sweden.  Having a vulcanologist on this cruise is especially nice because we’re spending a few days in Iceland which is one of the most geologically active places on the planet.  This man was born in Würzburg, Germany, just down the Main River from where I was born. We had such an interesting conversation about volcanoes and earthquakes because of all the activity that’s been going on in the last month or so around the world.  He was quite disappointed that the Icelandic volcano that had been erupting has apparently shut down for the time being.  At dinner each tonight the Chef has at least one local themed dish as an entrée.  Tonight it was haggis.   Now I’ve read about haggis but never seen it on a menu anywhere, so I had to try it.  I ordered a small portion and another more normal entrée.  The professor also decided to try it.  Well, surprise, surprise!  It was actually very good.  I have no idea if it was authentic but it tasted quite nice.  Of course, the fact that it was nicely dressed in a lovely brown gravy with onions may have had something to do with that.  But I liked it!

So, it has been a lovely day and a wonderful cruise so far. I did go dancing until very late.  I have to be a little careful about how much I move because I can feel my joints complaining, but I still have great fun. I won't even try to say "bye for now" in Scottish gaelic.  TTFN.