#1 in My Beautiful Book

by | Jun 12, 2024 | Food Experiences, Photography

We have been to a lot of places. At last count, we have visited 52 countries. Norway next week will be our 53rd. Up until this trip, I was utterly convinced that the most beautiful place in the world is New Zealand. We were blown away by the incredible views of nature when we visited on our trip Down Under in 2009. 

But after this trip, I have changed my mind. Scotland is the MOST BEAUTIFUL PLACE on earth. Seriously—have you seen my photos? Of course, I don’t mean the cities as much as the country overall. I was becoming increasingly convinced as we traveled through the countryside, but when we went through Glencoe the other day, I realized this was it. The most beautiful place on earth…at least for me. I know that many of you would prefer a warmer climate, but for me, give me the constantly changing weather of Scotland.

I say this with the knowledge that we live in the Pacific Northwest, where the natural beauty is also amazing, but it’s what man has done that has tarnished Seattle and the Northwest for me. All of the places we have been I can never remember saying to myself, WOW and WOW and WOW, so often.

So, let’s sum up our trip so far and give you some honest recommendations about hotels and restaurants.

First, this has been an awesome trip so far, marred by only my catching a cold. And I am thrilled to say that other than an early-morning cough and a slightly runny nose, I am cured. We have had the best time. Where we stayed and what we ate had a lot to do with that so here’s a recap and recommendations.

Lodging

Nights 1-3: Leeds, England

  • Hotel: Howard Bed and Breakfast—Leeds
    • Bed: Excellent
    • Room size: Great, but no closet space left for us to use ?.
    • Hosts: The best of the trip. They not only took great care of us at the B&B, but they picked us up at the train station and then later toured us all over Yorkshire and took us back to the train station. 
    • Breakfasts: Excellent and plentiful.
    • What they did best: They made us feel like we were part of the family.
    • Things they could improve: Less stinky cheese.
    • Problems you will have in staying there: You can’t book this place. You have to become friends with owners, and then you stay at their house, they stay at yours, you cruise all over the world with them, and then you get to stay there…again.
    • Would we stay there again? Only if the hosts from there come to see us first. It’s their turn.

 

Nights 4-5 and 11-12: Glasgow, Scotland

  • Hotel: Grasshoppers
    • Bed: Subpar on the first part of our stay and better on the second. The first bed we had needed to be replaced. When you sat on the edge of it, it felt like you would slide right off. On their website, they call their beds, “kings.” Not by US standards. They are basic queens to us. We sleep in a king at home. This is NOT a king.
    • Room size: First stay, a typical small European experience. Second, stay in a bigger room that we liked a lot better. Both bathrooms were the same, adequate size.
    • Hosts: The people there were very helpful. We had to have our keys remade about six or eight times, and they never complained. Not sure why I had such problems with my keys but it might be my magnetic personality ?.
    • Breakfasts: Excellent and plentiful. Complete choice of everything you could want for breakfast, from baked beans to granola. They did have the BEST whole grain bread for toast. I could eat that by the loaf. The only fall down here was cold plates. It would be best if you never had to put their excellent scrambled eggs on cold plates. 
    • What they did best: For me, it’s their location. Since they are above Glasgow’s Central Station, we got off the train, walked out of the station, around the corner, went up to the sixth floor, and we were there. When we left to come down to London, we walked out of our room at 10:00 am, and we were on the train at 10:15. Try that in an airport. They also had the absolute BEST water pressure on this trip and great bath towels—big and absorbent. I could still be in the shower if we hadn’t had to catch the train. Did I mention the free, always-available cakes and ice creams?
    • Things they could improve: Use hot plates in the breakfast room. And get a new mattress in 603.
    • Problems you will have in staying there: Book early. But realize they don’t open booking until six months prior. By that time, I had all the other hotels on this trip booked. Also, please note that the entrance at street level is difficult—a few steps to climb to get into the building before you get to the elevator. Tough with heavy luggage. 
    • Would we stay there again? If we were going back to Glasgow by train, we would. Doubt that will happen but you never know. We can recommend Grasshoppers very highly.

Nights 6-7: Oban, Scotland

  • Hotel: The Manor House 
    • Bed: Just fine, but a “double bed,” not even a Queen. Keep that in mind. It was cozy.
    • Room size: A typical small European experience in a historic inn. The bathrooms were adequate in size, but because of the dormers on the roof, the shower ceiling was very low.
    • Hosts: The incredible David took such great care of us. When he learned we would be missing breakfast due to a tour, he made us a sack lunch we could take with us. Both nights, we were regaled with stories over a round of whisky.
    • Breakfasts: Due to our early tour on the first morning, we only ate breakfast once. It was just fine, if a little fancy. When I am out on vacation and may miss lunch, I prefer a heartier breakfast. Theirs left much to be desired in terms of quantity. Worst bread of the trip. The toast was like eating warm Wonder Bread.  
    • What they did best: One word: David. He made our visit.
    • Things they could improve: It shocked me at breakfast in the classiest hotel we stayed in to be given the flimsiest paper napkins I have ever seen. Kleenex tissues have more substance. For a place like this not to have linen napkins? No excuse. They could also get better bathroom linens. Of all the places we stayed, these were the worst. 
    • Problems you will have staying there: If you are tall like me, book a ground floor room. The dormers in the upstairs mean that the showers in the bathroom will have no headroom. Not only did I have to bend over in the shower (no jokes here please) but I kept banging my hands into the ceiling when I was trying to apply shampoo.
    • Would we stay there again? Yes, but only if David is still there and we have a downstairs room.

Nights 8-10: Portree, Scotland

  • Hotel: Balintoy Bed and Breakfast
    • Bed: Excellent.
    • Room size: The biggest room we stayed in on this trip. We loved all the extra room. It is well laid out and well furnished. 
    • Hosts: As good as David was at the Manor House, Gillian positively affected our entire trip. She is the best. We corresponded before the trip, and she gave us some great advice that paid off while we were there. She’s the one who told us to book restaurants at least three months early. I can’t stress enough that you need to do this. She was exactly right. She also would check in with us at breakfast every morning about what we were doing that day and the best way to get there. She became less of a host and more of a friend as the three days passed. She always asked about our touring and dining on the previous day so she could pass the knowledge on to future guests. 
    • Breakfasts: Excellent. Done as a light buffet. And the BEST COFFEE on the entire trip. Strong and hot. She brought an entire French Press to our table…just for us. We always emptied it.  
    • What they did best: One word: Gillian. We also loved the location. It was about a mile from downtown, so it was very quiet but still easy to get to. 
    • Things they could improve: Not much. But one little thing that would be an easy fix—some small shelf in the shower, please. Lining up our shampoo, conditioner and soap on the shower floor was a pain. Just a hanging rack from the shower head would work. See how minor that is? This place was great.
    • Problems you will have in staying there: It took a bit of back and forth to make the reservation. I do wish that the Balintoy took credit cards, but they only accept cash or bank transfers. With much help from Gillian, we finally got the bank transfer thing to work. I still prefer having the safety of a creed card. 
    • Would we stay there again? You bet we would—in a minute.

Dining

Because of Gillian’s recommendations, I booked restaurant tables for dinner every night we were in Scotland other than the one night we did our 15-hour tour in Oban. I couldn’t get any restaurant to book after 8:00 p.m. and we couldn’t be sure we would be off the ferry by then. As it turned out we weren’t off until around 8:30 p.m. and there was nowhere that still had a kitchen open (It’s a small town).

Nights 1-3: Leeds, England

  • Night one: Howard Bed and Breakfast—Leeds
    • Delicious chicken dish. Lots of other great stuff to go with it.
  • Night two: Murgatroyds—Leeds
    • Really good Fish and Chips. Kind of a big family restaurant out by the airport. The fish was excellent. I am tired of chips. But I wasn’t when we had these, but could someone make crispy, thinner chips… please?
  • Day three: Lunch at the Wensleydale Heifer in Wensleydale
    •  had eaten dinner at the Heifer when we last visited Paul and Gail, and it was just as good then as it was this time. A HUGE lunch. Absolutely would go again, and you should too if you are ever in the area.
  • Day three: Howard Bed and Breakfast—Leeds
    • Dinner was just cheese, crackers, olives. No one wanted anything more. But then they brought out the stinky cheese. If you eat there, skip that.

Nights 4-5 and 11-12: Glasgow, Scotland

  • Night one: Banca di Roma
    • One of the best meals on the trip. How much did we like it? We went back again on Day 11. It was a nice break from local food to have some high-end Italian. Best appetizer of the trip. A four-item dish with some of the best chicken I have ever had. I have to learn how to make it. For entrées, Kathleen had eggplant parm, I had a bolognese sauce made from octopus. Not as good as it sounded but still delicious. 
  • Night two: The Ivy Cafe-Glasgow
    • Fun and quirky. Delicious shepherd’s pie. We would eat there again. We are eating at another Ivy with the same basic menu in London tomorrow night.
  • Day ten: Ardnamurchan
    • This place identifies itself as a “traditional Scottish restaurant.” That does not mean you have to eat haggis. I had a venison stew which is one of the two best meals I had on this trip. It tasted like candy…it was that good. My lovely wife had a lamb shank and I got to taste it. It was also amazing…but not as good as my stew.
  • Day eleven: Banca di Roma
    • See my note above. Still, the best appetizer we had. This time we had an entrée for two that was a delicious pasta dish but they gave us way too much.

Nights 6-7: Oban, Scotland

  • Night six: Ee-Usk
    • Even though it has a really different name, this place was outstanding. Kathleen had the halibut and I had a seafood salad that had more seafood than salad.
  • Night seven: No place
    • We couldn’t find anywhere to eat after we got off the ferry at 8:30 p.m. so we starved to death. The rest of this trip was finished by our doppelgängers.

Nights 8-10: Portree, Scotland

  • Night eight: The Antlers Inn
    • Just a good place for a quick meal. We had a big lunch in Mallaig so we just wanted to have a quick bite. This place was perfect. The best thing about dinner was the great service and the talk we had about the awesome music with the servers. It was a fun and memorable night. One of those you love to have when you are traveling. 
  • Night nine: The Rosedale Inn
    • As good as the seafood salad at Ee-Usk was, the seafood linguine at the Rosedale was better. And Kathleen had a gnocchi that rocked. It has sweet potatoes in the sauce and it made it taste just perfect.
  • Night ten: The View Restaurant
    • This place was tied for the best restaurant with the Banca di Roma. It has a gorgeous view (of course it did) but the food was amazing. The bread service came with an unexpected surprise—pickled walnuts. They are awesome! I immediately thought I needed to make it myself but when I looked up the recipe it turns out it takes A MONTH TO MAKE IT because the walnuts have to ferment. I think I will just buy it by the jar on Amazon. Our entrées were also amazing. Kathleen had the chicken which she really liked and I had “shins of beef and spring garlic risotto.” WOW! To find this kind of food this far north in such a small town was phenomenal. 

That about covers the food and lodging. Just a few more kudos to award. Except for some photos of the dishes of renown. Enjoy and feel free to look at these on your phone. That’s what I used to take them.

Best Scotland surprises:

  • How well I adjusted to driving on the “other” side of the road. The first couple of days Kathleen was freaking out because I was driving to close to the left curb. But after some much-needed direction from her I wised up and things improved. Until the last day when I actually bumped a curb with my rear left tire. I think it jumped out at me ?. 
  • How awesome the food was. Be honest, when you think of British and Scottish food, you don’t think of great cuisine, right? Well, that changed for me on this trip. All our food was amazing…except the chips.
  • How incredibly beautiful Scotland is. I knew it was beautiful, but WOW! There, I said it again.
  • How small Scotland is. Getting from one place to another took us no time at all. We were able to drive almost two-thirds of the country in six hours or so.. Try that in California and you will still be in California and have a ways to go.
  • How many fewer tourists we saw compared to what we expected. Pretty much every day (except returning from Portree to Glasgow) the traffic was just fine. Sometimes the car parks could be a little full but the downtowns of Oban and Portree were not that crowded. 
  • There were no midges. The pest of Scotland did not show up. We brought midge spray, we planned to wear dark clothes so as not to attract them, we did our research but no midges. Kathleen thinks that’s because the wind was always blowing and the temps stayed low.
  • The Scottish weather and how fast it changed. You could literally be in bright sun one minute and two minutes later be in pouring rain. And it kept going back and forth for the entire trip. On most days (as you can see in my photos) I had plenty of great weather to shoot in. In fact, I preferred the big fluffy clouds to a flat blue sky. We are so happy we are doing this trip and not the Med where the temps have soared into the 100s this week.

Biggest bad surprises:

  • How many people in Scotland (especially Glasgow) still smoke. It was everywhere. Every doorway, every street corner, and every place we went (thankfully not indoors) there were people smoking. We know that people smoke more in Europe than in our Pacific Northwest but this was much worse than we had seen in Greece, Italy and Spain two years ago. 

The one Scottish experience I never want to have again:

  • Trying to use the facilities on a 30-foot boat moving 25 knots an hour on a water surface with six-foot swells. I still don’t believe I survived that with my body intact. A close second would be waiting for a city bus for two hours in downtown Tobermory.

The one Scottish experience I really would love to have again:

  • This is a toss-up between my experience shooting the puffins on Lunga and just driving through Glencoe. After struggling through Fort William traffic I almost told Kathleen that we should just bag Glencoe and drive back to Glasgow by the shortest route. Thank heavens I didn’t.

For me, this sums up Scotland: beauty everywhere, great weather and wonderful people. I am happy to be married to a woman of Scottish ancestry so we have an excuse to come back someday…I hope. I would truly hate to think I won’t see the beautiful place again.

I am attached to the west coast of Scotland – it’s gorgeous to look at and challenging. You have to contend with the possibility of being blown away or rained on. And in the summer months, you can be eaten alive by midges.  —Clive Anderson 

Thirteen hours, three islands and WOW!

by | Jun 7, 2024 | Photography

There was no post yesterday because we had the longest day of the trip so far (and probably for the rest of the month). We had booked a tour with West Coast Tours out of Oban that took us to the islands of Mull, Staffa and Lunga in the Treshnish Islands. And the longest day of the trip, means the longest post I have written in ages.

Daybreak in Oban

Our day started at 5:45 when Kathleen jumped in the shower so we could be ready for me to drive her down to the ferry landing to catch the ferry to the Isle of Mull at 6:55 a.m. I need to mention that although we booked with West Coast Tours, they don’t do all the transportation. The part of the tour they do is the boats that take you from Mull to the other islands. So you start with a ferry ride that anyone else could take. They do get you tickets for this ferry but they e-mail them to you. You never see anyone from the tour company until you get to the small boats. It was us and about 350 other people aboard the ferry, many heading to work or other activities on Mull. Only about 40 of the people on the ferry were doing the tour we were doing. The ferry took us from Oban to the town of Craignure on the Isle of Mull.

Here are photos I took on the ferry ride headed to Mull. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

From there we caught the island bus (basically it was the city bus for the entire island—anyone could take it–it was not a “luxury motor coach”) to drive down the island to the village of Torbermory where we boarded the tour companies’ boats to head to the islands we really wanted to explore. Luckily for us, we all fit on the city bus and got down to meet their boats on time. And the tour company had purchased seats on the bus for us in advance—round trip.

From Torbermory (more on this quaint village later) we departed for our tour of the Isles of Staffa and Lunga. Depending on the weather and the sea conditions they visit one or the other first and last. We got Lunga first, then Staffa. That was fine with me because I was there for Lunga and her famous…PUFFINS!!!

Every moment on board these boats (when they were in motion) was like riding a mechanical bull. We were bounced and trounced and banged around. Moving on the boat, once you were seated, was a total adventure. Using the facilities on the boat was more than an adventure, it was kind of a nightmare. But as you can and will see from the photo above and my pictures below, it was worth it. Here are a few photos I took off the bouncing boat on the way to Lunga.

Lunga Bunga!

When you disembark a boat on Lunga, they attach a floating dock to the boat and the boat rams the floating dock onto rocks along the shore then you walk out to end of the floating pier and get off on to dry rocks. Then the boat pulls off and waits for two hours or so until it is time to pick you up again.

I almost forgot to mention one of THE most important things that happened yesterday…the weather was PERFECT! No rain, lots of big fluffy clouds and a blue sky for them to float in. For photography, it was a dream day. Haven’t had another like it since the Galapagos. Before I show you my photos from Lunga, I have to tell you that there are a lot of them. I took almost 1200 photos yesterday. Many were the result of me holding down the shutter to take multiple action photos of puffins flying. I probably shot 500 of just those, so it really isn’t that many. Especially when you hear that out of those 500 action shots, I got one I liked. Yup, ONE! But I really like that one. I am breaking these Lunga photos into batches. here is the first one—my puffin gallery. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

Next up are photos I took of the island itself. Landscapes, fauna and such. We were there for two hours and I shot just about everything I could think of shooting.

One thing I didn’t mention was how difficult it was to climb off the rocks. On our way up the gentleman in front of me tripped and started falling backward. His head was headed to some big boulders. I grabbed his backpack and his daughter who was walking in front of him grabbed his hands and we were able to get him back on his feet without fully falling down. Whew! I have always had a much harder time going downhill than uphill. so I made sure to come down much earlier than the rest of the crowd. Still, it got a little iffy at the end of my trip down.

Stimulating Staffa

After two hours on Lunga, it was off to Staffa which was all about geology as opposed to birds. Staffa has two very large caves and some amazing columns that reminded me very much of Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland, just across the sea to the west. When we were in Northern Ireland and visited the Causeway we were told a myth about the Causeway being built by an ogre who wanted to attack Ireland from Scotland. When you see Staffa, you might agree he started there. Here are the photos. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

It’s been a long day in Tobermory

That headline is sung to the tune of  “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary” for you folks who want to sing along ?. But it really sums up our time in Tobermory. It was the only hiccup of the day. When you get off the boat, the tour company is kind of finished with you. All you do is board the local bus (you already have your return ticket) and head back to Craignure to catch the ferry (you already have your ticket) back to Oban. The only problem is they don’t tell you that the bus doesn’t leave for two hours. At this point, you are exhausted from the hiking and the bouncing boat ride and all you want is dinner and bed. But you have to hang out in this very beautiful and quaint village for two hours. It wasn’t late enough to eat dinner yet (did I mention that when you take this tour, they tell you to bring your own lunch–we were lucky because when we told David at the Manor House the tour we were doing, he told us that he would make us up sack lunches to take with us since we wouldn’t be eating breakfast–WOW, that’s service.)

Back to our Tobermory time. We wandered a little, took photos (of course), got some postcards (yes, we still send those although if the price of stamps keeps going up, we won’t be mailing them until we get home) and just sat and waited. To be honest, we really weren’t sure who would take us back, (there were four buses parked with no drivers at different times), when we would go back or how we would get there. I say how because by then there were a lot of locals not part of our group who wanted to take the bus as well. Some with very large dogs so now they had more than 55 people and dogs than they could fit on one bus. They ended up having to take a second bus. So finally around 6:15, we were off to Craignure to catch the 7:35 p.m. ferry. While we were in Tobermory, I did take some pretty pics and here they are. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

Finally, off to Oban

We finally got back to Craignure, boarded the ferry and headed back to Oban to a nice dinner in a restaurant of our choice. David had told us we should be fine just walking into someplace around 8:15 when the ferry got in. Sadly, on this one thing, David was wrong. Every restaurant we walked into had people eating but we were told, “Sorry, our kitchen closes at 8:00 p.m.” So no supper for us. That’s OK, we have been eating well on this trip and I was still trying to work off the lunch in Wensleydale we had with Paul and Gail, not to mention the amazing dinner at Banco de Roma in Glasgow. So we grabbed a taxi for the short ride to The Manor House and were off to bed. We got back there about 9:00 p.m. so this day had been a 15+ hour excursion. We were wiped. But not enough to miss having a whisky with David at The Manor House before bed.

I almost forgot, here are a few late photos I took on the ferry ride back to Oban.

Whew, I bet it almost took longer for me to write this, and you to read it, than it did for us to live it. Thanks, so much for sticking with it. And if you didn’t read all the way to here, shame on you ?.

After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, and so on – have found that none of these finally satisfy, or permanently wear – what remains? Nature remains. —Walt Whitman

 

Driving on the other side…to Oban

by | Jun 5, 2024 | Food Experiences, Photography

Surprise! Two posts in one day. This is because we have to leave our Oban hotel tomorrow morning by 6:45 to get on a ferry to three islands at 6:55. I will have a complete report on that tomorrow (or, more likely, on Friday morning). But today was fun.

Our day was built around picking up our rental car and driving it from Glasgow to Oban by way of Inveraray. But nothing goes perfect on a trip, and this morning was but a minor inconvenience. Of course it didn’t seem so at the time because I was already a little stressed out just because I was going to have to rent car with the steering wheel on the “other” side and then drive it on the “other” side of the road. Please note that I did not say the “wrong” side of the road.

We were supposed to have breakfast at 7:30 and then call the rental car company when they opened at 8:00 a.m. At exactly 8:01 a.m., I called and was told the shuttle was very busy and couldn’t be here until 9:00 a.m. It’s really strange how so many people called in at exactly 8:00 a.m. to beat me to schedule the shuttle.

The woman on the phone said that the shuttle couldn’t be there until 9:00 a.m. we should take our bags and wait outside at 9:00 a.m., and if he didn’t show up by 9:15, we should call back. So out, we go onto a not-too-great street at 9:00, and there is no shuttle. I called at 9:15. She said he was held up in traffic and would be there by 9:30. This is about when it started to rain. We can’t really wait in the hotel as it is on the sixth floor of an office building attached to Glasgow Central Train station. So we waited. He finally showed up at 9:45. It was only an hour and forty-five minutes after we had originally scheduled to be picked up, but hey, what’s more than an hour between friends?

The driver (a very nice Scotsman) drove us to the car hire office at the edge of Glasgow. The “in-training” person took almost an entire hour to get us set up and on the road. We were finally out of there by 10:30 or so.

We wound up with a very nice, blue Mercedes-A-Class sedan. Just the right size to be big enough to carry us and our bags but small enough to fit on the narrow country roads. And some of them are VERY NARROW! When the car rental trainee said he was giving me a Mercedes, I said NO! I remembered that our friend Mike had put a very large Mercedes in a ditch when he drove here on a trip. Kathleen keeps freaking out because she says I am too close to the right edge of the road. She should have driven behind Paul when we were in Leeds ?. Then she would have seen what getting close to that edge is really like.

We headed north out of Glasgow towards our first stop, Inveraray. On the way we drove along Loch Lomond for most of the balance of the morning. Absolutely beautiful. We stopped at a small campground at the top of the Loch (a place called Firkin Point) so I could take photos. The light was about as close to perfect as you can get at midday, and the sun kept going in and out behind big, puffy clouds. Behind the clouds was a VERY blue sky. One minute it would be bright and sunny and the next a torrential downpour. Here are some pics from our first stop, including a photo Kathleen took of me when I was first driving on the “other side” of the road.

After our Firkin stop, we headed off to Inveraray, a lovely little seaside town. Or should I say Lochside town? Either way, it was cute and quaint, and it had a castle that was closed (boo hoo ?), but I still was able to walk all the way around it and then saw a sign that said that even if it had been open, no photography was allowed inside. We are sorry we missed the inside but there was nothing I would have been able to show you. Here’s the pics. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

From there we headed north and west to Oban. On the way, we stopped at The Pass of Brander, where a major battle took place in 1308. I took one pic up Loch Awe (which is the largest fresh-water lake in the UK), and then we went on to Oban.

When we arrived in Oban, the first place I had been told to see was McCaig’s Tower. It’s an old relic sitting above Oban. It is overgrown but stunning, and the views are amazing. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

And the only thing left to show you before I head to bed (remember we have to get up REALLY early) is dinner and the hotel. We went to a very cool seafood place (incredibly fresh seafood) called Ee-Usk and then back to our hotel where I took a photo of her in front of the door. We are staying at The Manor House, which is an old (but updated) British Inn. The service and room are WONDERFUL so far.

There are two seasons in Scotland: June and Winter.  —Billy Connolly

 

Been awhile…but it’s almost time to go again

by | Apr 27, 2024 | Air travel, Photography

Greetings, loyal (I hope) readers. It’s been a while—like since New Year’s Eve. I just wanted to give you a heads-up about some upcoming posts coming your way in late May and pretty much all of June.

Yes, it’s time to travel again. And what a trip we have planned. A full month in Europe will first take us to see two of our oldest and dearest friends, Paul & Gail, in Leeds, England. But before that, we get to try an entirely new airline that will take us from Seattle to Heathrow—Virgin Atlantic. We have never flown with them before, and to make it even more special, we have never (after more than 230 flights) flown on a 787 Dreamliner, but we will on this flight.

When we get to London, we will transfer to Kings Cross station for our train ride to Leeds. That should be fun. We are with Paul and Gail for a long weekend and then we are off on another train to the west coast of Scotland. Both Kathleen and I love everything about Scotland, and since we have spent a lot of time on the eastern coast  (Edinburgh, Inverness, Stirling, etc.), we thought we needed to do the west side, including Glasgow, Oban and the Isle of Skye. Here’s what our route looks like.

Once we finish our Scotland journey, we grab a train back to London (actually Greenwich) for a couple of days. While we are there, we are going to do two things I am really looking forward to. First, we are traveling to Richmond to take a one-of-a-kind Ted Lasso tour. This tour goes to all of the places where they filmed my absolute favorite television show of all time. That night, we are back in the West End to see a new musical (that was nominated for an Olivier Award), Kathy and Stella Solve A Murder!

The next morning, we start the BIG second half of our journey, a Viking Ocean cruise down the Thames River to the North Sea to sail to Edinburgh, the Orkney Islands, the Shetland Islands, Scotland as well as Honningsvåg, Tromsø, Bodø, Geiranger and Bergen, Norway.

After the cruise and a day in Bergen, we fly back to London (via Copenhagen), where we will spend the night at an airport hotel before another ride on Virgin Atlantic’s 787 back to Seattle.

All this means lots of photography and, hopefully, my usual daily updates for the full month of June. So stand by. We leave on May 30th. I will check in again before we go.

Adventure is just bad planning.  —Roald Amundsen