Exploring the Scottish Borders

No worries, as they say here in Scotland.  I did not roll out of the bed as feared.  That could be partially due to the wedding celebration that was taking place just around the corner from our room, and lasted until about 3:00 a.m.  I'm not complaining, as it is duly noted on the webpage that the hotel hosts such events, and I was forewarned.  I was just a bit surprised to hear "Achy Breaky Hart" as one of the apparent favorites of the night. We are in Scotland, after all.

Today was spent venturing out along the hills and dales of the Scottish Borders, named appropriately as it involves the land that is adjacent to England's "border".  (thereby the name, Border.)

Throughout history, these lands are considered to be the bloodiest, meaning that more battles were fought here just because of the proximity to England, whose sovereigns were intent on invading.  But driving along the little roads of this area, with sheep scattered on nearly every hill on sight, there are few remnants of those days of past.

Tucked off a little road is a viewpoint called "Scott's View".  This was a favorite of Walter C. Scott's.  You can see the river Tweed in my zoomed-in photo.  If you look closely, you can see a little fishing boat on the river.

The panoramas offered from this viewpoint were amazing.    I can only imagine how much more beautiful they would have been had the weather not been overcast and drizzling.

The story goes that Scott's horses were so accustomed to stopping at this point, that when the funeral procession with Scott's body (on a cart pulled by his horses), passed by this point on the way to his burial, the horses stopped just as they would when he would visit this spot.  It's not difficult to see why it was considered his favorite.

Not far from here there is another pull-off with a walk through the woods, that leads to a statue of William Wallace who stands upon a hill, looking south over the River Tweed.

Do you remember the movie, Bravehart?  Well, this is the man who was represented in the movie, played by Mel Gibson.  The movie is not historically accurate, but it certainly is close enough to give you an idea of the battles that went on attempting to keep the country of Scotland from being controlled by the "southern" England.  

This giant statue stands alone, about a third of a mile from the road, and you can only get there by foot. I didn't notice the statue anywhere from a distance, so I find it very interesting that it would be placed so far out of the way.  One really does have to know to look for it.  William Wallace was considered larger than life by his fellow Scotsman, and I can say that the statue definitely represents that aura.

Driving just a bit further down the road, we came to Dryburgh, where an abbey ruins still remains, the spot where Walter C. Scott is buried next to his wife and his son. 

Before we actually entered the grounds of the Abbey, we parked the car and headed towards the entrance.  We were quite surprised to round the corner and see these two ladies, which kind of looked like mirror images, bringing a chuckle to both of us.

They were having a grand time munching on the moss on the trunk of that tree.  

And, as usual,  it didn't take long for Marty to find a friend.

Once we entered the grounds and walked toward the abbey, the sight was pretty amazing.

Dryburgh Abbey was founded in the 12th Century by a sect of Augustinian monks known as White Canons.  Due to its location, it was burned by the English, and rebuilt by the Scots on several occasions.  After the reformation, the ruins were gifted to the Earl of Mar by James VI.  They are now owned and kept preserved by Historic Scotland. 

By this time we were beginning to get some glimpses of sun!  We jumped in the car and began the drive to Jedburgh, which had been our original destination before we got side-tracked.  But we were so glad that we did!

One of the amusing points of Jedburgh is that it did once hold a large castle.  But the townspeople took a real beating attempting to defend it during the nearly constant battles initiated by the English who attempted to overtake it.  In the early 1400's the council of Jedburgh decided that it would be easier to dismantle the castle than to try to defend it from attack.  So a castle has not stood there since the 15th century.  

The one item of interest to me in the town was the Mary Queen of Scots house.

This is an extremely well preserved house where Mary stayed for a spell while she was traveling through the area.  The bedroom where she stayed is in the turret that you can see in the photo.

The house is amazingly well-preserved, and we were at leisure to walk through it.  It isn't furnished in period, but, rather, it has a lot of information regarding the history of Mary Queen of Scots.  It contains a copy of the death decree written by Elizabeth I.  And it also holds a copy of the letter that Mary sent off the night before her execution, explaining that the reason for her death was because she would not relinquish her Catholic beliefs.  She wanted people to know that she held her Catholic Religion dear and was not willing to compromise her beliefs in order to live.  Quite an interesting piece of history to read.

Although there was plenty to see in Jedburgh, we decided to head to Tranquair.  I knew that it closed early at this time of the year, and we wanted to get there in time to tour the building. Unfortunately, it was not so easy to find, and we arrived 35 minutes prior to closing.  

Since the last house tour was an hour prior to closing, we were out of luck.  The building dates back to 1107 and it was originally built as a hunting lodge for the kings and queens of Scotland.  Mary, Queen of Scots, stayed here with her infant son, James VI of Scotland.

In later years, it became a refuge for Catholic priests in times of terror.  Traquair supported Mary Queen of Scots and the Jacobite cause.

As fascinating as the interior would have been to see, we had to satisfy ourselves with walking around the grounds.

This place brews its own beer, and we were able to pop our head into one of the buildings that explained just how they made their special Traquair ales.

                                         

Here's a brief description of the method.

I can tell you with certainty that the guy with the beard has relatives working at the place, because two fellas, who looked an awful lot like him, were walking around in plaid flannel shirts and knit caps on their heads acting as ground guards.  I wasn't quite sure if he was a guide or a tourist, as he had the long beard and wasn't dressed as a guide, but I dared to ask one if he knew where I could find a bathroom.  

He peered at me with his beady eyes and said "We din na have that here, but there are the woods yonder" while pointing in the direction of the woods.  By that point, I saw a name tag on his jacket. 

Real funny, I thought.  My response?  "Yeah, I'll bet!"  He then directed me to a door which said "Cloakroom".    Sure enough, behind the door, there were restrooms.  Don''t know if I'd have figured that one out myself as I thought that Cloakrooms were for hanging coats, but really, had I been desperate enough, (and I was close, believe me) I probably would have just started opening doors in search of one, despite the scary men guarding the place.

Well, we were running on short time before the place closed up, so we headed out in an attempt to get a meal since we hadn't eaten since breakfast.  About 12 miles down the road, we drove into Peebles.

What a lovely town along the River Tweed.  Unfortunately for us, no one was serving dinner prior to six o'clock.  But we did find a restaurant that was still serving lunch at 4:00, so we settled on that for dinner.

Then, we headed to Rosewell for evening mass and arrived with about 5 minutes to spare.  I don't know much about the history of the place, but I can tell you that the grounds are huge.  And the church was actually toasty, although everyone in the place, including the lectors, and ministers kept their coats on.  

When we returned to our hotel, we were in for quite a surprise.  We had mentioned at breakfast that there was a peculiar odor in our room which was affecting my breathing.  Also mentioned that the bathroom door did not close, which Jude was quite aware of.  She told us that she would be more than happy to switch rooms.  Just leave our luggage and they'd even move them for us.

When we arrived for the evening, we were escorted to room 6.

A four poster bed room, complete with a turret.  Just like the place where Mary Queen of Scots stayed, only much larger.  (Let's hope that there is no connection!)

I did notice that the bathroom door doesn't close in this room either. When I mentioned it to Marty, he said that he thinks that it is a hotel rule.  No bathroom doors can close.

He may be onto something, but I don't plan on taking a survey or sneaking into any rooms to see if there is a trend.

I'm looking foward to a great night's sleep!

Tomorrow will be my last day in Scotland.  We're hoping to make a great fun day out of it.

First stop:  The Scottish Mining Museum.  Marty's idea.  Sounds like fun, don't you think?

I'll keep you posted......

Bizarre Happenings in Bonnyrigg

So, here's the Real Story.....

We were supposed to be in Ireland this weekend...in Co. Donegal.  Marty scheduled two vacation days, and the plan was to leave early Thursday morning, drive to the west of Scotland, take a ferry over to Ireland, then finish the drive to Inver.  We were going to finally meet Annie Harvey Burke.  Her father, William, was the younger brother of Mary, who was Marty's great grandmother.

I've been corresponding with the woman, who is a delight, for about 5 years, and this was going to finally be the meeting that we had hoped for.   Genealogy at its best!

Unfortunately,  issues involving Marty's work here in Scotland resulted in our plans being cancelled, and I found myself scrambling around with some place to stay this weekend.

I have mentioned before how I seem to have bad planning when it comes to getting rooms, and this time was no different.  Apparently British students were off for the week, and don't return until Tuesday, and their families use the opportunity to travel to Scotland, thereby limiting the room availability.

Why bother with the true confessions?  Because I feel the need to explain just why we are sitting in an extremely bizarre hotel rather than enjoying ourselves in a comfy B&B.  This was the only place that could assure internet for Marty and give us 3 straight nights, and be within close proximity to the airport.  After making requests at dozens of places, the Castle Retreat was the only option that could satisfy my criteria and not cost a ridiculous amount of money.

The Retreat Castle Hotel....

It's certainly different, I'll attest to that.

The woman who greeted us, Jude,  went out of her way to welcome us and help us find a room that actually had wireless available. It was one of my stipulations and Marty needs to be able to access the internet for his job, and she wanted to be certain that it worked for him. 

Well, the first room did not, so she shifted us to this one, where the bathroom door does not close, and, quite obviously, never did close since the door is wider than the jam.  

And, although the bathroom is huge, the shower and the sink share the same space, with a drain in the middle.  No shower curtain or anything to keep the water from splashing up the bathroom, which is exactly what happened when Marty took a shower.

The bed is much smaller than the original room, and very soft.  I'm kind of worried that I'll be rolling out of it later.  If you don't see a blog tomorrow, you'll know why.

We decided to try the hotel pub since there is nowhere nearby for dinner  that we could find, and that in itself was an interesting experience.

I'll admit, I  found these guys to be a bit entertaining.

But I don't quite get the cards on the ceiling.

And, I couldn't resist taking this photo

I'm just not sure why someone feels the need to be watching me while I'm eating dinner.  

Creepy.......

Add to that lights that suddenly pop on while you walk down the hall, and one could get a sense that someone was really watching them.

On that note, I better bid farewell.......

Good-bye to Fife

The week is coming to a close and it will soon be time to say good-bye to our wonderful hosts here at "The Roods" in Inverkeithing.  Pat and Isobel have been the best of hosts, even going so far as to drive us to Mass last evening for the holy day of All Saints, and, afterwards, to the Ferrybridge Hotel for Dinner.  But something tells me that we are not unique and that they offer the same warm hospitality to every customer who walks through that door.

These people love what they do, and it is obvious by the way they enjoy just sitting and chatting with us when we have a few minutes.

Let me show  you a view of the lovely backyard from my bedroom window.

You'd never guess that we were right across the street from the train station, which by the way, we never heard from the confines of our bedroom.

What makes this place so special?  Is it the "extra" touches like a plate of fresh fruit placed in the room everyday?

Or the breakfast that we choose from a personal menu the night before which could feature fresh croissants and cheese?

Or, could it possibly be the hand cut fresh fruit salad that could include as many as 12 fresh fruits?

Or just how about the morning French Press Coffee?

Or the beautiful conservatory where we sit for breakfast admiring the beauty of the backyard and listening to the pinging of the rain falling on the ceiling?

Well, I'd say that it could be any of these.  But what I absolutely love about this place is the fluffy towels, hot water and WASH CLOTHES!

Ok, so I'm a spoiled American and I still haven't figured just how Europeans get clean without using a washcloth.  And, to be quite honest with you, I don't really want a lesson on how to do this either.

I generally pack my own washclothes when I travel out of the country, but it still was refreshing to find one among the many towels for our use in the bathroom.

And, of course, having a fellow member of the Steeler Nation was great entertainment for Marty, who doesn't put the same stock in Wash clothes that I do.

Put all of the above together, with a quiet room featuring a comfy bed, and I'd say that this place just can't be beat.  It was FABulous!

Last evening's dinner was a pleasant surprise.  We had booked a table at the Ferrybridge Restaurant in North Queensferry (named after St. Margaret for when she was Queen and she arranged the ferry for pilgrims to cross the Firth back in the 12th century.)

We had the place to ourselves.  After having a drink next to the cozy fire in the distance, we were sitted at Table #5, in an alcove by the window.

 Marty enjoyed his beer:

 

I enjoyed my Cabernet Savignon:

And dessert was heavenly:  Banoffee Tart.   Wow!

But let me share the best part of the evening.  The rain had stopped and the moon finally appeared for viewing:

And, most spectacular:  The Firth Rail Bridge, built in the 1800's, peeking behind the houses of Queensferry.

And the best view of all, taken down the street, near the Firth of Forth.

Just spectacular, don't you think?

Just who would have thought that one could have so much fun staying in Inverkeithing?  Not many, take my word for it.

But now, we'll be off again,  this time with a last minute reservation in a town called Bonnyrigg. ( Plans changed so we had to adapt. )  

But not before I head off to morning Mass with Pat.  Catholics must be few and far between as patrons here, because he seems very excited to have me here to chat with!

Rest assured, I will be praying for all of those unfortunate victims of Hurricane Sandy.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed today's post.

Until tomorrow.......

Steeler Nation in Scotland

Could there be a better way to begin the day than by enjoying breakfast in this lovely conservatory at The Roods?

Well, actually, there could be:

Being greeted by a fellow member of the Steeler Nation.  Something tells me that we just may see Pat tomorrow wearing a different shirt, but we'll have to wait to see.

As I mentioned, the proprietors here are really quite entertaining which makes the time spent inside rather enjoyable.

I did venture out to try to see the town today, but it was pouring buckets and I got very wet.

But, here's a glimpse at what could be out there to see:

A house built in 1666 by John Henderson still stands on Church Street, one of the few original buildings in Inverkeithing.

Through the rain mist you can see a large vessel on the Firth of Forth.

Very near here is the construction for the new Forth Bridge.  There are two men staying here at the Roods who work at night working on the project.

As most towns here have, a mercat cross stands in the main part of town.  This is a common statue in what would have been "trade" towns.

The first good closeup of a Mercat cross that I have been able to get. Thanks to the clouds, I could zoom in and not have the background light wash out the white unicorn.

There is a war memorial behind the Scottish Church.  It pays tribute to the men of Inverkeithing who died in World War I as well as World War II.  The names are inscribed on metal plates.

 This cannon stands in front of the Civic Center in town.  Someone apparently found it in their background, buried, while they were doing some excavating, and they donated it to the town.

The Cannon dates from 1780 - 1810.

While walking about, I wandered into the Civic Center, hoping to find the local museum.  When I asked  about it, the woman said that one could only tour the museum by appointment, so I crossed that off of the list of things to do in Inverkeithing. Actually, that was the only thing on the list!

But, while inside the center, I spotted this huge picture of the town:

So, I  thought I'd try to recreate it, but it wasn't that easy to do in the pouring rain.  Plus there was no horse and carriage handy.  But, here goes:

The church is a practicing Church of Scotland.  It is the original building, built in the 14th century.  A plaque on the building states that it is on the site where St. Erat preached in the 400's.

By this time, I was really soaked, so I gave up the self-guided tour of the area and headed to the B&B where I then hung my coat to dry.  It was still wet as of last evening, so I wore my cape into Edinburgh for dinner.

Marty and I caught the train and walked to a French restaurant where he had been on one of his business dinners.  The staff annoyed me, as they pretended not to understand me and they spoke with very thick French accents so that you couldn't understand them.  They were young girls, so I found it very hard to believe that they didn't have better English speaking skills.

I had reserved a table online for 7:00 p.m., and Marty and I laughed when we walked in and we were the only two in the restaurant.  A few more people showed up, but we really did have the place to ourselves.

 Marty chose this HUGE French beer to have with his dinner.  Needless to say, we took advantage of the train travel.

As I mentioned yesterday, Isobel is quite into the Halloween decorating, although she was very quick to take everything down as if the event never happened.  But let me just entertain  you with video from two of her querky items.

Yep!  It certainly has been fun!

The Roods at Inverkeithing

We finally made it to our new B& B, the Roods at Inverkeithing, after an interesting course of events, one of which involved the minor emergency room at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy.

Rest assured that all is well, but Marty had some issues with a back problem and after two days of suffering I finally convinced him to get someone to look at him.  After 2 hours of waiting, he was examined by a highly competent doctor who gave him some meds for the pain and sent us on our way.

She did mention that Physical Therapy would be of great help, but was not an option, since the waiting lists are quite long and it would take more than two weeks for anyone to actually schedule an appointment with a PT here in Scotland.   Free healthcare might be great, but it seems to me that waiting more than 2 weeks for relief would be quite a drag.

Our original intention was to get a prescription for muscle relaxants since they had proven affective in the past.  We were surprised when the doctor told us that they do not prescribe muscle relaxants in Scotland because there is no way to monitor who is receiving the medication in order to prevent abuse of the drug.  So the thinking is that strong enough pain relief will essentially stop the back from spasming.

We were certainly relieved  that Marty's problem stems from simple back strain and not something more serious.  And, thanks to my jaunt to ASDA yesterday morning, we now own a hot water bottle with a nice fuzzy white cover.   Can you beat that for a souvenir?  I figured that white was the best choice since the other options were a super hot-pink fur and cookie monster blue fur.  Actually, put a couple of eyeballs on it, and it would look like you were squishing cookie monster.  Yep, white was the best option and it has already gotten great use.

But I digress.  As I was saying we finally made it here, and I stress the word finally because, as it turns out, we were ringing the bell of the next door neighbor quite by mistake.  Marty called the B& B number, and the man who answered was explaining that the doorbell no longer worked, but I heard it ring no less than 4 times.  (Ok, so I rang it twice....I knew someone had to be inside!)  Quite luckily, the neighbor was not at home, but when I told the story to Isobel, she laughed and said that I should have simply yelled "Trick or Treat" had they answered  the door.

I have the feeling that the poor neighbor must put up with this quite a lot as The Roods is definitely not standing out in view.  I'm just relieved that they weren't home, or if they were, that they chose to ignore us.  Really, quite embarrassing, but after the morning that we had, I was just anxious to check in to the place.

Now that we are here, I can tell you that we are once again in for a real treat.  Pat, Isobel's husband, was home to greet us, and he immediately told us that he owned a Steeler's shirt with Santonio Holmes name on it.  I can't recall how the subject came up, except he seemed to think that everyone from the United States was a Steeler's fan.   He went onto brag about how Holmes scored the winning touchdown in the last Steeler's superbowl.  Now, would you have guessed that there would be Steeler's fans in Scotland?

He also went on to tell us of a previous guest, who when Pat mentioned his ties to the Steeler's, began to frown and say that he did not like the Steelers.  Pat was shocked by this comment.  He said that he told this guest that he thought everyone liked the Steelers in America.  The guest  commented that there were plenty of people who hated the Steelers because they played "dirty".

Before Pat could go any further, I stopped him and said,  "Let me guess, they were Baltimore Raven fans.!"

Guess what?  They were from Baltimore!

Can I call it or what?  Pat was really surprised that I was right on the money in identifying where this man came from.  I personally think that any Steeler's fan would have been able to come to the same conclusion as I with no further prompting.

But now, Pat is eager to wear his Steeler's shirt tomorrow so that he can share his enthusiasm with us.  Opportunities like this don't come along too often.

The ties to Pittsburgh here never cease to amaze me!

Isobel was out when we first arrived, but when I snuck down to meet her upon her return, she was quite excited to share some of her Halloween fun that she has ready for tomorrow evening. She showed me a bowl filled with candy which has a skeleton head attached.  When  you reach for a piece of chocolate, the head lunges forward and the skeleton yells "You can't have that!  It's all mine".  Quite entertaining.

What's even more entertaining is hearing that it scared the bejeepers out of Pat last night who was obviously attempting to sneak a piece of chocolate only to be caught by surprise.

In any event, Marty had a very long meeting via teleconference today, and when he was finally finished, Pat drove us to the next town to a lovely restaurant called the Clubhouse.  We were going to take the train, whose station lies just across the street, hidden behind a stone wall, but he insisted on giving us a lift, and we took him up on the offer.

Dinner was fabulous,

 and when we were finished, we easily walked across the street from the restaurant, hopped the train, and were back in Inverkeithing within 3 minutes.  You just can't beat that for convenience!

Let me leave you with a photo of my scrumptious dessert:  Chocolate iced terrine with raspberries and Vanilla Ice cream.  Served on a slate.  I have no idea why.  But, I can tell you that it was quite decadent.

Yep!  I have the feeling that it's going to be a great couple of days.

Laying low at the Dunnikier House Hotel

Today was an off day for me, as we are staying in a B&B off the beaten track, north of Kirkcaldy and any adventures would involve me hiking about 2 1/2 miles to the train, and after all of the walking this past week, I decided just to stay and enjoy my surroundings.

Our room is on the top floor in the front of Dunnikier House Hotel.  It is on the far left of the photo as you look at it.  We have a lovely view of the Firth of Forth from the room.

If you look closely you can see two little white dogs romping along the path with their owners strolling along behind.  I had a great time watching those two dogs running back and forth in circles on the property, always returning to their owners when called.  Great afternoon entertainment.

I ventured out this morning for a walk since the weather was perfect.  Sunny with just a bit of a chill.

As I walked along, I turned around to photograph the  Dunnikier

And here is a photo from the street. The hotel is there in the middle, believe it or not.

As you can see, the place is more than a wee bit from the road. 

And,  just for the record, golfing is obviously not permitted on the front lawn. 

 I had quite an enjoyable walk, returning through Dunnikier park which is adjacent to the hotel.  In the back of the hotel there is a golf course which was quite busy today. As I could hear them on the other side of the hedge, wondering if I needed to worry about a errant ball hitting me in the head, I actually thought to myself, that if I played golf, this would have been the perfect day to do so. 

But instead I spent the day enjoying a great meal in the restaurant for lunch, and reading a book, first by the fire in the lobby, and then by the window of the room.

So, today's blog doesn't have anything too exciting to share.  

Wait!  Except that being in Scotland, I was able to watch an episode of Downton Abbey that will not be released in the United States until January.  Amy and I have enjoyed this Masterpiece Theater program in the past, and we were both looking forward to Series 3.  So, this was definitely a treat for me! 

Unfortunately, it was obvious that a LOT happened since this new series began, but I still  have those episodes to look forward to this winter.  And, don't worry, I don't plan on leaking any secrets in the meantime.

Also, something that I've been meaning to mention.  This is in reference to the word, Slippy.  Coming from Pittsburgh, I never realized that this word is not one that is used regularly in other parts of the country until I moved to Berks County, where the local people were not familiar with the word.  I just added it to the list of Pittsburgh words like Yinz, gumband, worsh, etc.  

But guess what?  I've heard the word several times while in Scotland.  Particularly in Dunfermline.

So, I have a theory.  I can't help but wonder if the word originated in Pittsburgh from Andrew Carnegie and the Scots who emigrated to the Pittsburgh area.  After all, there has to be some link.

Oh, and I also forgot to mention a VERY important fact related to Stonehaven.  This is the birthplace of the man who invented the pneumatic tire, Robert Thompson.  Now there's a great piece of info to pass along, don't you think?  Everywhere we go, we find some interesting fact worth passing on.  You really must admit, the Scots really do have an incredible history.

In the meantime, I leave you with an evening view from the window in our room, taken just as the sun was setting.  The light blue in the background is the Firth.

Tomorrow we transfer to a different hotel, closer to a train link, so that I can go out exploring if I choose to.  It won't offer this type of view, but I'm fairly certain that there will be some type of excitement that I will be able to share.

After all, I haven't disappointed you so far, have I?