16 June 2008
Scotland, Part 1 in which we arrive and depart
it is a little-known fact that i was raised by birdwatchers. serious birdwatchers, one at least second-generation. now that i'm out of the closet about that one, it shouldn't be too surprising that when i asked my parents to come visit me after I moved to Europe, they suggested a birding cruise. always up for nature-y and new, and wanting to see things like standing stones and chambered cairns, i was all for it.
understand that when we started talking about it in October 2006, the May 2007 cruise was booked. so we had to wait for May 2008.
In the meantime, I had time to read about the monuments we'd probably see, and catch up on some of the fiction written about these locales (Sir Walter Scott's The Pirate). I scoured my copy of Lonely Planet Scotland, because that's just what I do, and I took my new DSLR camera to a photo course (in german) so i could capture images that would be more than tourist snaps. specifically, i wanted to be able to photograph some of the remotest islands of the UK, and the wildlife that considers only these nearly inapproachable bits of rock to be suitable habitat. I'm pretty well thrilled with the results. it was too many photos for one post, so i'm breaking it up over the course of our itinerary.
first, we arrived in aberdeen. I got there first, got the lay of the land, saw an english film (with english sound! not dubbed in german!) and generally tried not to buy too many books.
I picked mom and dad up from the airport - lookin a little rough from their transatlantic journey. after some strategic napping, and with regular feeding and watering they were on their feet, and we were off!
our big mission in aberdeen was to find ourselves some wellies. before we could even start shopping, though, we saw kilty men in the cemetery! (and had our picture taken in front of them)
there were bagpipes, and a bunch of guys with big gold chains - mayors, maybe? - and they all went on a little parade. we were very happy to find that the stereotypes are true!
and then we ate haggis.
right after haggis we all scored wellies at an outdoors store, for about 10 quid apiece.
In some of our between-times, we ate things like rock cakes and treacle. we are all big harry potter fans, and we just had to find out about Rock Cakes and Treacle! treacle is just a weird britword for molasses. so now we know. but treacle toffee is definitely yum. The Rock cakes we had were really just raisin cookies. Not bad raisin cookies, just raisin cookies.
We had an extra day, so we visited the Castles Balmoral and Crathes in Royal Deeside. Balmoral is the summer cottage for the queen of england and her pals. It was nice for its facade and gardens, but mostly for its Royal famousness.
I also caught the not-at-all-elusive european robin on film ..er.. electrons.
Crathes was not so impressive from the outside, but inside there was much more to see. It was all still furnished in antiques. The ceilings had been painted in the 1700's, and was still visible. Crathes castle also had a very Lewis Carroll Queen of Hearts Topiary garden.
Then it was time for our Cruise to start!
We tried to board the boat in Aberdeen. We were sure we were supposed to be on the boat BEFORE 4pm. so we tried around 2pm with all our bags and gear. ha. we were supposed to be there AT 4pm, so we spent the between time chilling out at the pub in the train station. there was ale, and we chatted about the Stanley Cup games with some very nice Canadians.
When we did go back to the Quay AT 4pm, we found there was a bit of a waiting line. the harbor security was practically undressing everybody before we could get on the boat. i could only shake my head, and be glad that the tour leaders were walking up and down the line chatting with their new charges.
After an hour wait, and watching my parents get strip searched (weird!), we got on the boat and settled in. As we left the Harbor, we came right out on what they were calling "lumpy seas". that means the boat does a whole pitch, rock and yaw dance that put 90% of the group at the altar of the porcelain goddess.
the next morning, i will call it the morning of Day 1, we were supposed to land on Fair Isle. the rough seas kept us from arriving.. kept me from getting a genuine fair isle sweater. verdammnt nochmal! i was ready to swim to shore, but was advised not to, even though wool stays warm when wet. now i'll just have to go back on my own. the other thing i was looking forward to on Fair Isle was walking amongst the nesting puffins. they burrow, so we wouldn't see the young or the eggs, but puffins are so darned cute, i wouldn't mind just hugging the adults a bit. ..see this photog's website for some good puffin pix.
We kept cruising, and by evening the seas had calmed. our first shore excursion was to visit the Iron Age Broch (tower) on the small, uninhabited island of Mousa.
To get there, we duded up in our lifejackets and got to ride in a little rubber Cousteau boat!
we have it on good authority that the Mousa Broch is the tallest remaining example of this kind of architecture, popular in the northwest isles about 2000 years ago. it's constructed from an inner and an outer skin, with a stairwell in between. wonder of wonders, we were allowed to climb to the top (this would never happen in the US, had we such relics). I submit for your enjoyment, some of the pictures from Mousa.
stay tuned for the next episode of our scotland trip (we're a serialized photonovella!), in which the intrepid vacationers climb into an ancient burial chamber graffiti'd with runic script! Do they survive to tell the tale?!
understand that when we started talking about it in October 2006, the May 2007 cruise was booked. so we had to wait for May 2008.
In the meantime, I had time to read about the monuments we'd probably see, and catch up on some of the fiction written about these locales (Sir Walter Scott's The Pirate). I scoured my copy of Lonely Planet Scotland, because that's just what I do, and I took my new DSLR camera to a photo course (in german) so i could capture images that would be more than tourist snaps. specifically, i wanted to be able to photograph some of the remotest islands of the UK, and the wildlife that considers only these nearly inapproachable bits of rock to be suitable habitat. I'm pretty well thrilled with the results. it was too many photos for one post, so i'm breaking it up over the course of our itinerary.
first, we arrived in aberdeen. I got there first, got the lay of the land, saw an english film (with english sound! not dubbed in german!) and generally tried not to buy too many books.
I picked mom and dad up from the airport - lookin a little rough from their transatlantic journey. after some strategic napping, and with regular feeding and watering they were on their feet, and we were off!
our big mission in aberdeen was to find ourselves some wellies. before we could even start shopping, though, we saw kilty men in the cemetery! (and had our picture taken in front of them)
there were bagpipes, and a bunch of guys with big gold chains - mayors, maybe? - and they all went on a little parade. we were very happy to find that the stereotypes are true!
and then we ate haggis.
right after haggis we all scored wellies at an outdoors store, for about 10 quid apiece.
In some of our between-times, we ate things like rock cakes and treacle. we are all big harry potter fans, and we just had to find out about Rock Cakes and Treacle! treacle is just a weird britword for molasses. so now we know. but treacle toffee is definitely yum. The Rock cakes we had were really just raisin cookies. Not bad raisin cookies, just raisin cookies.
We had an extra day, so we visited the Castles Balmoral and Crathes in Royal Deeside. Balmoral is the summer cottage for the queen of england and her pals. It was nice for its facade and gardens, but mostly for its Royal famousness.
I also caught the not-at-all-elusive european robin on film ..er.. electrons.
Crathes was not so impressive from the outside, but inside there was much more to see. It was all still furnished in antiques. The ceilings had been painted in the 1700's, and was still visible. Crathes castle also had a very Lewis Carroll Queen of Hearts Topiary garden.
Then it was time for our Cruise to start!
We tried to board the boat in Aberdeen. We were sure we were supposed to be on the boat BEFORE 4pm. so we tried around 2pm with all our bags and gear. ha. we were supposed to be there AT 4pm, so we spent the between time chilling out at the pub in the train station. there was ale, and we chatted about the Stanley Cup games with some very nice Canadians.
When we did go back to the Quay AT 4pm, we found there was a bit of a waiting line. the harbor security was practically undressing everybody before we could get on the boat. i could only shake my head, and be glad that the tour leaders were walking up and down the line chatting with their new charges.
After an hour wait, and watching my parents get strip searched (weird!), we got on the boat and settled in. As we left the Harbor, we came right out on what they were calling "lumpy seas". that means the boat does a whole pitch, rock and yaw dance that put 90% of the group at the altar of the porcelain goddess.
the next morning, i will call it the morning of Day 1, we were supposed to land on Fair Isle. the rough seas kept us from arriving.. kept me from getting a genuine fair isle sweater. verdammnt nochmal! i was ready to swim to shore, but was advised not to, even though wool stays warm when wet. now i'll just have to go back on my own. the other thing i was looking forward to on Fair Isle was walking amongst the nesting puffins. they burrow, so we wouldn't see the young or the eggs, but puffins are so darned cute, i wouldn't mind just hugging the adults a bit. ..see this photog's website for some good puffin pix.
We kept cruising, and by evening the seas had calmed. our first shore excursion was to visit the Iron Age Broch (tower) on the small, uninhabited island of Mousa.
To get there, we duded up in our lifejackets and got to ride in a little rubber Cousteau boat!
we have it on good authority that the Mousa Broch is the tallest remaining example of this kind of architecture, popular in the northwest isles about 2000 years ago. it's constructed from an inner and an outer skin, with a stairwell in between. wonder of wonders, we were allowed to climb to the top (this would never happen in the US, had we such relics). I submit for your enjoyment, some of the pictures from Mousa.
stay tuned for the next episode of our scotland trip (we're a serialized photonovella!), in which the intrepid vacationers climb into an ancient burial chamber graffiti'd with runic script! Do they survive to tell the tale?!
Labels: adventures, birds, scotland, travel, wildlife
