Category: 2018.08 – Scotland 2018

Well, we planned to go to at least five different places today. We ended up going to two (with one more to come). We missed out on going to Audible Presents podcast recording, and to the Scottish Photo Experience. Don’t worry, Martin, I’m sure we’ll find another opportunity for the photo experience while we’re here.

The reason we missed those things was totally worth it! We visited Hopetoun House and Midhope Castle. Both are owned and managed by a trust created by the Hope family.

Lord Hopetoun and his family still live in a wing of the House. The rest of the House is open to the public, and is magnificent! The House is considered Scotland’s finest stately home, and displays throughout it the history of the House and Hope Family.

They have converted the attached stables into a wonderful restaurant. They have a ballroom that is available for booking events. The original part of the House was built in the late 1600s and was designed by William Bruce. It was later altered and extended by William Adam. Both men were noted architects of their times, and have designed multiple buildings throughout Scotland.

The lawn appeared to be well-groomed primarily by the goats, which were kept in check by the Ha-Ha. Good luck Googling that. The Ha-Ha is what they call the stone-walled ditch separating the grounds from the access road. We got a kicked out of it.

Before I forget to mention, we did have lunch at the Stables Restaurant and enjoyed our first bowl of Cullen Skink. We’re old hats at haggis, now, but hadn’t gotten around to Cullen Skink. Turns out it’s just fish chowder. Really good fish chowder, but fish chowder nonetheless.

Outlander reference: the Paris street scene where Claire and Mary get in trouble, the room Mary is brought to at Claire and Jamie’s, the duelling scene, and the Duke of Sandringham’s room were filmed there, and the outside rear view of the house was used to represent the Duke’s residence. Oh, yeah, the existing stables were used for the Edinburgh brothel, the bowling green was where Jamie and Lord John Gray played chess, and the path where Geneva Dunsanay fell off her horse into a mud puddle was filmed on one of the paths of the forested grounds.

Midhope Castle was a shorter visit as we could not explore inside. The interior of the building is in a dangerous state of disrepair, although the outside still looks solid. It’s really too bad it wasn’t kept up, because it looks like it would have been a fine home. We certainly understand the attraction for the Outlander producers to use the site to represent Lallybroch. As Dan has mentioned at least three times today, this is the first site we’ve seen that you knew where you were the moment you saw the building. I wonder if Dan is going senile…?

About five hours later we returned to Edinburgh. You know that point when you’re so hungry you don’t know what you want to eat and therefore cannot decide on what to eat? Yeah, here, that resulted in eating Mexican food in Scotland. The Mexican food was really good, despite not exactly fitting into our Scotland theme.

On our way to find food, we happened to walk up alongside the Edinburgh Castle terrace. You know, the one surrounding the esplanade where the Tattoo is performed? Yes, that one. You can’t really appreciate the engineering of the bleacher support structures until you see them hanging over the rock face. Dan’s comments: “Last night whilst everybody in the audience was swaying in unison while singing Auld Lang Syn (sp), I was gauging the deflection in the floor to see if a resonant structural failure was imminent, while simultaneously looking for an exit route, be it over or through women, children or old people. And there were LOTS of old people.”

Now we have an few hours before our next show (Rachel Parris’ A Musical Comedy), so thought it best to take the opportunity to write this blog. Especially appropriate since we won’t get out of the show until Midnight, and we drive all day to our next destination tomorrow.

We promise not to have any more noteworthy adventures today. But if we do, I’ll tell you about it tomorrow.

Adelle and Dan

It rained again today. But it’s okay, because we started the day spending money on two new rain jackets, so we didn’t get quite as wet as we could have. Despite taking a boat ride.

Yes, a boat ride. And we even stood on the top deck for the outward sailing. In the rain. Where we couldn’t see half the points of interest referenced by the guide due to the fog. Stupid Canadian northerners, you’re probably thinking. But you’d be wrong! Because in this case it was the destination that was worth the journey. We went to Inchcolm Island and explored Inchcolm Abbey. Or what’s left of it. Which is actually quite a lot. It is the best preserved medieval abbey in Scotland. The Abbey was built by King David I on behalf of his late brother King Alexander I. Alexander went and got himself stranded on Inchcolm Island in 1123, where he and his retinue were helped by a hermit living on the island until they could be rescued. Alexander was so grateful to the hermit, he promised to build the abbey there as a thank you. Now, as I type that, I find myself wondering how appreciative a hermit would actually be to suddenly have a bunch of monks sharing the small island with him…

Anyway, we had a great time exploring, we saw some grey seals, and Inchgnome Island.

Our next stop was supposed to be to see Frankie Boyle’s show, but I underestimated when we’d be back to shore from Inchcolm Island, so we missed the show. Instead we took a leisurely stroll up The Royal Mile, I got me some dark chocolate fudge, and we made our way (in more rain – good thing we have proper rain coats now) to The Scottish Cafe and Restaurant. Why there? Because I splurged and got us the Piper’s Package to see the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, that’s why! The package included a light supper at the aforementioned restaurant, with a piper’s escort to Edinburgh Castle, and reserved seating at the event.

So we sit at our designated table at the restaurant and an older couple sits down with us, so we start talking. You know, where are you from, what do you do, that kind of thing. The couple, it turns out, are originally from England, but have been living in Australia for the last 50 years. I’m helping the lady put her hospitality wristband on and she makes a comment about her husband being an engineer. I look at her and comment that so is mine. Her husband says he’s a mine engineer. In my head I’m like, seriously? A mine engineer from Australia? I look at him and Dan and say, you two need to talk. So you say you work at a mine? Yes. Which one? Rio Tinto. Really? Yes. So does he, I say, referring to Dan. So, yeah, they talked. What are the odds? We had a lovely conversation over supper.

After supper, as mentioned, we walked up to the castle for the tattoo. Which was a great show. The theme this year celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Royal Air Force and young people. There were performers from all over the world. And my favourite thing of all: Switzerland’s Top Secret Drum Corps was there! Don’t get me wrong, everyone was great, but Top Secret is just phenomenal! Precision drumming at its finest. YouTube them! Right now! Go on…

Adelle and Dan

P.S. Bonus points to anyone who gets the title reference.

So it rained today. Well, the majority of the day. But if we were looking to get away from the weather we’ve been getting all summer in Yellowknife, well, Scotland would not be where we would go. We did not come to Scotland for the weather; we came to Scotland for castles and battlefields…and Outlander…and Fringe…

We got three out of four of those things today, after a delightful breakfast that included haggis.

Blackness Castle was first. We drove about 40 minutes from the B&B to the southern shores of the Firth of Forth to what would have been a spectacular view were it not cloudy, rainy, and foggy. Despite getting waterlogged — turns out Dan’s water resistant jacket was unable to resist that much water, and the rain jacket Jarod made me believe was mine did not in fact fit — the visit was pretty cool.

Blackness Castle is a 15th century fortified castle shaped like the prow of a ship, which while odd is rather appropriate given its location. It was originally built as a residence for the powerful Crichton family, and then soon became a garrison fortress, state prison, and then ammunition depot. When used as a state prison it often housed both noble prisoners as well as common prisoners, although they enjoyed vastly different accommodations. While the common prisoners were left to rot in the pit, the nobles lived in the four-story tower with their families and servants, and they were able to continue working.

For the Outlander fans, Blackness was used to film the Fort William scenes (ie Jaimie’s flogging, and saving Claire from Black Jack Randall).

Next, and not far down the inland road, was Linlithgow Palace. The palace was used as a peaceful residence (pleasure palace — that’s what they called it) for the Kings and Queens of Scotland and then England. James I built the palace in 1424. James V and Mary Queen of Scots were born there. It declined after James I and VI moved to London. The North quadrant fell to the ground, but was rebuilt about 13 years later. And then about 120 years after that the palace was destroyed by a great fire. It never recovered. While James V reigned, he commissioned a tiered fountain, which remains at Linlithgow Palace as the oldest functioning fountain in the United Kingdom.

For the Outlander fans, Linlithgow was used to film the Wentworth prison scenes.

The rain calmed down a little bit while we went on a boat cruise to the Avon Aqueduct. Linlithgow Canal Centre offers the two-and-half hour round-trip cruise. The Avon Aqueduct is the largest in Scotland, second largest in the United Kingdom. It’s really a lovely little tour. Don’t let my having a little nap on the return leg fool you, it wasn’t because of the cruise, that was the jet lag talking. All of the volunteer staff were wonderful and very kind.

We drove back to the B&B, making a couple of wrong turns on the way (Lady Sat Nav sulked for a little bit). We still managed to make it back with enough time before our first Fringe show to stop for supper at a place we happened upon called Buffalo. The food was really good, but nothing unusual or that we hadn’t tried before.

Okay, so, the first show was David O’Doherty. Now, this whole trip and during the planning stages every time I pronounced David’s last name as it’s spelled Dan would correct me and insist it was pronounced O’Dockerty. My mouth resisted that pronunciation, no matter how much I wanted to believe Dan I just couldn’t do it. So we go to the show, and the man says his own name. And how did he pronounce it? That’s right, he pronounced it how it’s spelled! I just looked at Dan, and Dan didn’t say anything for a bit. Then he says to me, I guess Jimmy Carr was saying it wrong…on purpose maybe? Turns out David O’Doherty has been a panelist on 8 Out of 10 Cats Do Countdown and Jimmy Carr has been introducing him as David O’Dockerty. Uh-huh. Insert eye-roll emoticon here.

Moving on, we went to The Best Of Scottish Comedian of the Year. The host and two comedians performed. One was a finalist in the Comedian of the Year competition, the other actually won it. I don’t remember which was which, but I really enjoyed Ray Bradshaw’s show. Turns out he has another show he’s just started that he gives simultaneously in English and sign language. He was born to deaf parents, so his first language was actually sign language. It should be a lot of fun, so if you get to see him I recommend it.

And that’s about it for today. Have a great one!

Adelle and Dan

So…very…tired…

That overseas overnight flight is going to kill me if I keep thinking I can do things when we land. I did manage to get a couple hours sleep between Halifax and Glasgow, though. Once we landed we took a cab to Glasgow Central Station, where we had breakfast and went for a walk before catching the train to Edinburgh.

We managed to catch the tail end of a marching band parade, something to do with being the sons of King William. I heard the drums as we were walking out of the station, then I heard the pipes and ran to see if I could catch them at all.

We got first class tickets on the train, which put us in the front car. Unfortunately our seats faced backward, which was just ugh. (All the seats faced backward, just to be clear). We’re optimistic it will be reversed when we return to Glasgow.

The car rental wasn’t quite ready when we were, so we went to get our Fringe tickets. That ended up being way faster than we anticipated! Their computer kiosk is so much more efficient than I’ve seen before. All I had to do was put the credit card I paid for the tickets with in the slot, the system found my tickets and printed them. That’s it. Crazy!

By the time we got the car, dropped it off at Kingsway B&B, and cabbed it back to The Stand Comedy Club, we had no time for lunch before watching Jessie Cave perform. She was funny, but still relatively new to the game. How did one critic put her show? I think it was described as awkwardly funny.

We followed that up with a walk to The World’s End for a very late or very early supper (perspective, right?), which was actually really good. The place isn’t very big, it’s a pub/restaurant, but it was decent.

Then I suckered Dan into going to Hamilton and Young’s jewellery store Nd picked myself up a likeness of Claire Fraser’s wedding ring as described by Diana Gabaldon in the Outlander books. Yes, I did that. Go ahead and call me a dork, but I think the ring is lovely. Don’t you?

Last show for the day was Ari Shaffir. Also a very funny show. He clearly has more experience than Jessie. The guy in the front row with the distinctive laugh kept making Ari laugh, which was funny too.

But we are back at our room now. Before I close, I want to apologize for this boring post, but as I opened with…so…very…tired.

Signing off. Talk to you tomorrow.

Adelle and Dan

…but Javaroma sorta made up for it with their blueberry oatmeal muffin.

Yes, we are on our latest adventure to Scotland. As the title implies, our beautiful daughter graciously got up to take us to the airport at 4:15 this morning. No trouble checking our bags, and security was a breeze. Of course, we did beat the rush, so that might have had something to do with it. To be fair, though, the airport just renovated the security screening area. It’s still only one line, but there’s more room before and after the scanner to get your things out and pick them up. I choose to be optimistic that the new setup will adequately serve Yellowknife’s needs.

The flight to Edmonton was uneventful, despite flying on the ever-so-cramped Q400 (Dash-8) for nearly two hours. We both actually slept on the flight, which is normal for Dan but not so much for me. I admit, I felt better when we landed.

Our connection in Edmonton allowed us to get the obligatory Cookies By George. Happy camper here. We assumed Wok Box would not be open so early in the morning, and did not learn we were wrong until it was much too late to get something to bring on the next flight. Dan got a kick out of finding the University of Alberta vending machine. It’s true, they have a vending machine at the airport to sell their logo’d shirts, sweaters, hats, and other swag.

The remainder of our flights were on 737s, and Plus seating to boot, so definitely no complaints. Toronto airport was actually pretty boring, but we did a lot of walking while waiting for our next connection; gotta make sure the blood is circulating before the longest leg of the trip, avoid deep vein thrombosis, and all. I hate to admit it (or act it) but we’re not getting any younger here…

I decided to try out the WestJet Connect Internet connection during our last leg. I’m writing and posting today’s blog at 39,000 feet in the air between Toronto and Hamilton. So weird! I’ll try playing a couple of my online games in a little bit, see how well that works.

Anyhoo, we land in Glasgow Saturday morning at about 1:00 am Yellowknife time, 8:00 am Glasgow time. I intend to try and sleep for some of the Halifax to Glasgow leg. Talk about to you tomorrow!

Adelle and Dan