I’ve been AWOL for the last few days so I’ll try to catch up this afternoon. Sometime after we left the Isle of Bute on May 8 my lower back issues got much, much worse. On the 9th we stopped in Greenock, the port for Glasgow, and I took the tour I’d booked which sounded like it was mostly driving and riding. We stopped for a look at Loch Lomond (maybe you know the song “You take the high road and I’ll take the low road” in which the singer will never meet his true love again on the “bonny, bonny shores of Loch Lomond”). Anyway, it was a Saturday and there were lots of people on the shores enjoying a food market with vendors selling such traditional Scottish dishes like nachos, gyros, burgers, and satays. I didn’t see a single one selling anything I thought sounded Scottish. I got a little glimpse of one end of Loch Lomond. There was a path to a promontory overlook, but no way was my back going to let me do that. I’ve taken one from online that is much better than my little glimpse.
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| The good photo of Loch Lomond |
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| This is what I saw of the Loch |
We moved onward to a scotch distillery for a tasting (I don’t even like scotch, but the tour sounded easy). Just as we arrived at the distillery, which by the way is owned by Suntory, a Japanese company, the skies opened for a good old-fashioned downpour. The bus couldn’t park near the entrance which was down a steep slope, so I stayed on the bus. As it turns out I had a lovely time talking with, and learning a lot, about Scottish politics and the relationships among the countries which form the United Kingdom from Jamie and Jerry the tour guide and bus driver. Let me tell you, it may be called a “United Kingdom” but there are apparently lots of undercurrents and fractures beneath the surface. Reminds me of another country I know whose initials start with U and end with A.
When we returned to the ship I was really feeling very sore. I had dinner with some friends and then skipped the show and turned in early for me. Sunday we arrived in Belfast, Northern Ireland. I’ve been there before and so I had booked what I thought would be another easy tour without a lot of walking. I was supposed to visit Hillsborough Castle outside of the city. It’s the royal residence when the monarch visits Belfast. When I woke up, I felt as though someone had cut off three or four inches from my hamstring in the back of my thigh and I just couldn’t face a tour. I called the spa and managed to get an appointment for a hot stone massage; several friends had said that might help.
I hadn’t had a massage in many years because they’re just not my thing. Well, the massage felt pretty good, but it did absolutely nothing to improve my back and leg pain. It did cost me nearly $350, and the masseuse tried to sell me juniper cream, a gait analysis, acupuncture and advised me to come back in two days for another $350 massage. I told her I’d think about it. (I’ve thought about it and I won’t be going back.) I did go to play trivia and one of my teammates who used to be in a ski patrol gave me some Advil (I only had Tylenol which isn’t an anti-inflammatory). By the end of trivia, the Advil had kicked in and I was feeling so much better. I still had some twinges, but nowhere near as bad.
That brings me to yesterday the 11th. We anchored in Oban, Scotland. I had a tour booked called “Scottish Highlands and Glencoe.” I decided to try it, but first I went ashore early to find some Advil of my own which I did in a local chemist shop (that’s a pharmacy here in the UK). I had extra time so I wandered into a seafood restaurant for a Scottish lunch. I chose wisely because it felt like I’d died and gone to food heaven! They had local oysters on the half-shell and I ordered them followed by some traditional fish and chips. If I’d known how big the oysters were I would have skipped the fish and chips. These were mega-oysters and they were so good!. The fish and chips were great too, but I couldn’t do them justice.
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| The waterfront in Oban |
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| The Ee-Usk Restaurant in Oban |
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| Look at these oysters! |
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| and how about these fish and chips? |
Oban, Scotland is a fishing and vacation town on the Firth of Lorn in the Argyll council area of Scotland. Perched atop the hill above the town is one of the more interesting sights, McCaig’s Tower (AKA McCaig’s Folly). John Stuart McCaig was a wealthy banker in the 19th century. He wanted to build a lasting memorial to his family while at the same time providing work for the stonemasons in the area in the winter months. He also was in love with Roman architecture. So he commissioned what was to be a large tower which would incorporate a museum and gallery inside. He was his own architect and he spent the equivalent of about $1 million on it before his untimely death of a heart attack. The only part completed is the outer shell of the tower which bears an uncanny resemblance to the walls of a Roman colosseum perched on the hill above a Scottish fishing village. It definitely is a lasting memorial to him, but not for the reasons he wanted it to be.
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| McCaig's Folly |
After lunch I boarded my tour bus for the trip to the Highlands. Our drive took us inland to the western Scottish highlands. The area is one with very dramatic mountains and lochs (lakes) which are very sparsely populated. There are forested areas, but those are primarily planted for the timber industry. For the most part the mountains are covered with sparse grass, not at all lush and green as in Ireland, lots of yellow gorse shrubs and many stones in the landscape. Much of the terrain is actually peat bogs and not suitable for farming or even for grazing. Therefore, while we saw some sheep, there really weren’t that many along the way. What we did see were quite a few people walking along a highland trail. The area is evidently a favorite place for people to go on hiking and walking trips. In the distance we could see the last bit of snow on the northern slopes of the mountains.
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| A pretty church along a loch |
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| These are a couple of the desolate highlands |
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| That's mainly peat bog out there and not much will grow. |
Glen Coe (Glen is a valley) is a valley carved by glaciers and the area is part of the Scottish National Heritage Trust. It’s the home of Scottish mountaineering. It’s also an area rich in Scottish history, famous for a massacre in 1692. In the 17th century after the creation of the United Kingdom after Queen Elizabeth I’s death and the ascension to the throne of King James I of England (James VI of Scotland) and following James I’s death, the country went through a complicated series of revolutions and rebellions which our guide explained to us but I’m not going to recount here. I’ll just say that for a while there wasn’t a monarch; instead Oliver Cromwell ruled. Then a monarchy was restored but one king left the country and the upshot was that two people wound up on the throne with names familiar to my part of the world, William and Mary. Anyway, when that pair wound up on the throne everyone was required to swear an oath of allegiance to them. Up here in the western highlands the MacDonald clan supposedly didn’t take the oath on a timely basis. As the story goes, orders came from on high that every MacDonald was to be exterminated for that offense. Members of the Campbell clan were charged with that duty. In the highlands when a stranger or traveler came through the custom was to offer them hospitality – lodging and food – and no harm was to be done to them. The story goes that the Campbells arrived and after a few days of the MacDonalds feeding and housing them, in the early morning of February 13, 1692 the evil Campbells massacred 38 men from the clan MacDonald and raped and murdered some of the women. A few managed to escape across a mountain pass where they were then trapped for the rest of the winter by snows and avalanches. The upshot is that in this part of Scotland there are still some places where signs are posted saying no Campbells will be welcome or served.
We stopped briefly at the Glen Coe visitor center where there are three films shown about the place. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to see them. (I should take this opportunity to say that the Seabourn Shore Excursion department did a pretty poor job of planning and timing this particular excursion. Not enough time was allocated for what we were supposed to see and do.) The visitor center had a nice viewing place of the mountains around the glen and the area around the building itself was covered with beautiful bluebell flowers.
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| I'm sorry I didn't get a better picture of the bluebells. Take my word for it they were lovely. |
Our ride back to Oban took us past another ruined castle with a story stemming from a little later. Charles Stuart (Bonny Prince Charlie) had a claim to the throne and lost his bid at the Battle of Culloden in 1746 which ended any claims to the throne of the Scottish House of Stuart. After the defeat a woman named Flora MacDonald helped to disguise the Prince as a maid and helped him to flee the country. Flora was caught and arrested and imprisoned for a while in the ruined castle we passed. She was supposedly so charming that she was taken to London and freed. Eventually she married and emigrated to North Carolina. My tour got back very late and we were on the last tender back to the ship.
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| This isn't a ruined castle; it's actually one that has been bought, renovated and is lived in. It's called the"Stalker Tower." |
That brings me to today. We were supposed to be in Ullapool, Scotland. Unfortunately it is a tender port again and the seas and wind were going to prevent us from doing that so we’re having a sea day. Mind you that’s fine with me, but I think some of my shipmates weren’t happy. The Cruise Director had to quickly come up with things to entertain us so there were lots of games. My trivia team won (we’ve won three sets of cumulative games now and are getting dirty looks from other teams). I played Name that Tune with the same people and we won again. Out of 17 songs I only knew one so I’m really guilty of stolen glory. As we were playing the Captain came on the PA to tell us we were sailing past the northernmost point of the British Island, a place called John O’Groats. My English teammate Mark went out and took a photo which he sent me. Evidently a popular fund-raising thing in the UK is to walk from John O’Groats at the tippy top in the northeast to Lands’ End down at the very furthest southwestern point in Cornwall. He told me people can take 9 weeks to do it.
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| That's John O'Groats. If you zoom you can see the furthest north lighthouse. |
So now I’m caught up. If you’ve read all this you know more about Scottish history than you probably want or need to know. I write this stuff down because it helps me to think about what I’ve seen and done. And who knows, one day a trivia question might be what is the northernmost point of Britain and maybe I’ll remember it, or maybe not.
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