The Boat Show

For our last day in Scotland, I’d booked us tickets to the Traditional Scottish Wooden Boat Show in Portsoy, Scotland; it seemed like the perfect event for my Dad. When we arrived it was cold and rainy, and since we were on the coast, there was a cold wind blowing in off the North Sea. The weather really diminished our enthusiasm, but the festival looked like it would have been a lot of fun if it wasn’t so cold and rainy. There was an outdoor stage were a group was singing sea shanties, but I couldn’t bring myself to sit in a wet chair in the rain to listen to them.

Yellow Pants doing most of the Work
Portsoy, Scotland

The weather was apparently part of a much larger storm and a lot of the boats were setting sail to try to avoid it. The show was supposed to last until 7pm that evening, but when we arrived at noon, only 2 large boats remained, and they shipped off within the hour. These departures were actually the most interesting part of the festival. The ships were traditional crafts, so the crew used traditional methods to exit the 300 year old harbor—no outboard motors.

Safely exiting the harbour
Portsoy, Scotland

To exit, two lines (nautical speak for rope) were connected to 2 “tie up thingies” (also a nautical term*). The whole crew would pull on the first line to pull the ship away from the harbor wall, and then they would start pulling on the second line to turn and exit out to sea.

The first boat was manned by an experienced crew and they managed a beautiful exit. Some of the men were old and just standing around though; one young guy in yellow pants appeared to be doing the brunt of the work, but he was clearly capable of working alone.

Notice the rope they're tugging on
Portsoy, Scotland

The second ship was crewed by a bunch of newbies, unused to working together as a team. It took them much longer to exit the harbor and their departure wasn’t nearly as smooth. With a few months at sea, they’ll be able to manage turns better in the future.

After the big ships left, there wasn’t too much else going on. There were smaller boats and even some dinghies, but their captains weren’t around for chatting. We also visited some of the shops, but my Dad is full up on lines and buoys, so we didn’t buy anything. My Mom and I did visit a bead shop where a woman was selling beads out of her motor home.  There is a bead store in Regensburg where I get my beads so I was all set. I also wasn’t thrilled that her crystals came from China and were priced higher than the genuine Swarovski crystals I’d been buying. But I guess that’s what happens when you aren’t next door to Austria.

*Thanks to Google, I’ve learned the proper term for the “tie up thingies”. It's bollard.

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Traditional Scottish Wooden Boat Show

Nessie!!!!

Just one of the many vistas through the Cairngorms.
Cairngorms National Park, Scotland

Day 4 in the UK took us up to Inverness and Loch Ness. This was the farthest north we travelled, but I would have loved to go even farther to see some of the northern islands like Skye and Shetland. I think Scotland is the most beautiful country we have visited; our drive went through the Cairngorms National Park, and I made Joe stop the car several times so I could take pictures. It really is a wild landscape with few cities marring the view. The weather reminded me a little of Florida, in that it rained every day, but it was also sunny every day. It wasn’t hot and humid though.

A fresh water plesiosaur obviously lives here.
Loch Ness, Scotland

We arrived on the shores of Loch Ness around lunch time, so we popped into the Clansman Hotel for a quick lunch before our 1 o’clock boat tour with Jacobite Cruises. The food was excellent and we managed to order, to eat, to pay, and to make it down to the docks in under an hour—a rarity in Europe. While we ate though, a storm was gathering.

Our tour was to take us across the Loch to a spit of land where the remains of Urquhart Castle stand. Here we would disembark and explore the Castle and gift shop for an hour before the boat returned for us and sailed back down the Loch.

Top left: could that anomaly be Nessie? 

On our outward voyage, the clouds followed through on their threats and unleashed a storm; the weather was perfect. With rain and wind the surface of the Loch became choppy and shrouded in a thin layer of mist; the exact weather I imagined would plague the Loch on a regular basis. Under these conditions, I easily believed in the monster. Loch Ness is the 2nd deepest lake in Scotland at 755ft and is fed by the River Ness. The river and loch have been stained black by the peat they flow over. The black water limits visibility to about 12 inches, but our vessel came equipped with sonar for detecting any underwater anomalies (Nessie!). In fact, on the way back from Urquhart Castle we observed a curious shape in the sonar screen—perhaps the legends are true.

Remains of Urquhart Castle
Loch Ness, Scotland

As I said before, Urquhart Castle stands in ruins, and in this case, a ruin means almost no roof. Since it was still pouring, we didn’t spend long wandering the castle’s grounds. My parents gave up and went inside, but Joe and I defiantly, albeit quickly, explored all the sections of the castle before joining them in the gift shop. We were soaked, but we got our money’s worth. In the gift shop we sipped hot beverages while waiting for the boat to return. I wish I could say we were warm and dry by the time the boat docked, but damp and chilled is a more accurate description.

A dog in the Loch Ness Brewery
Loch Ness, Scotland

During the ride back down the Loch, the storm cleared up, so by the time we reached our next destination, The Loch Ness Brewery, we were reasonably dry. Breweries are always fun places to visit, especially the smaller ones, as I think microbreweries have more flavor. The Loch Ness Brewery is on the shores of the Loch, and it incorporates this locale into the names of the beers. All the beers end in Ness; HoppyNess, WilderNess, RedNess. The brewpub was small and dog friendly; we met a small, friendly dog inside. The beer was tasty and we were able to mingle with locals—but we still felt like tourists.

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Pictures from Our Trip!
Cairngorms National Park
The Clansman Hotel on the Shores of Loch Ness
Jacobite Cruises Homepage
A History of Nessie from PBS - Back to Roman Times!
Urquhart Castle from Historic Scotland
Loch Ness Brewery

A Very Full Day in Scotland

The remains of Hadrian's Wall near Cawfield's Quarry
Haltwhistle, England

After breakfasting with some Polish athletes we left Newcastle. I think they were soccer players, but they were all so tall and skinny they could easily have been basketball playing gymnasts. We walked off our breakfast while visiting Hadrian’s Wall at Cawfield's Quarry; remnants from the Roman Empire. When new, the wall was 16-20 feet high, but now it’s only chest height. The stones were pilfered after the fall of Rome, but they were reused in the fencing and houses of the locals.

Milecastle 42 at Hadrian's Wall
Haltwhistle, England

The wall was very precise; every mile was a milecastle gate, and every seven miles was a fort, regardless of natural topography. The part we visited skirted the edge of steep incline, but Milecastle 42 was there. The wall functioned as the northern-most boundary of Rome, and there are conflicting accounts as to why the Romans didn’t press further into Scotland. One account claims the Scots were ferocious fighters who held the Romans off; the other maintains that the Romans looked at the sparse, rocky land and said “keep it”. It should be obvious which account the Scots prefer. We paced the wall for a bit, playing centurion, and then we pressed deeper into Scotland.

In April my sister and I rode the train from King’s Cross station in London to Edinburgh in Scotland, and it passed close to the Scottish coast line; we followed a similar route when we drove north.  I love the landscape of Scotland; it feels so open and grandiose. The drive was beautiful, but it was a bit time consuming, and we arrived late for our whisky tour in Edinburgh.

Part of the world's largest collection of Scotch Whisky
at the Scotch Whisky Experience, Edinburgh, Scotland

Luckily tours run all day and we were able to join a later tour. The only apparent downside: we had to share our tour with a stag party. However, it was still early in their night and they weren’t rowdy. The tour started out with a barrel ride where a ghost detailed the instructions for brewing decent whisky. Most interestingly, the size and shape of the still can change the taste of the whisky. There are a few tour options at the Scotch Whiskey Experience; my dad chose Gold but the rest of us selected Silver. Gold tours come with 4 bonus drams in addition to the 1 dram everyone in the Silver tour receives.

Wandering the Beautiful Royal Mile
Edinburgh, Scotland

There are 5 flavor profiles of whisky in Scotland, but Campbeltown Malt is rare and wasn’t really discussed during our tasting. Of the 100 or so brewers in Scotland, only 3 produce the Campbeltown Malt, and rarely is it exported. Since there were 4 remaining flavor profiles, and 4 of us on the tour, we each selected a different style. I do think my Dad and I ended up drinking most of all 4 though. After the guided tasting, we were led into a room with wonderful views of the Royal Mile and Holyrood Park, where my sister and I hiked last time. Here Dad received his additional 4 drams; one of each style. We asked for some dark chocolate, and he and I proceeded to share the drams; cheeks growing steadily redder. Mom and Joe ordered beers, but they didn’t like the one that tasted like caramel popcorn. I found that caramel popcorn beer was a great chaser for the smoky Speyside whisky. Then, in case we hadn’t consumed enough, we went to Whiski for dinner. As before, it was delicious.

Poor guy. He did not see this coming!
South Bridge Vaults, Edinburgh, Scotland

When we finished dinner we wandered the Royal Mile a bit before meeting the Mercat Cross for our Ghostly Underground Tour; the same tour my sister and I were on in April. This time though, our tour was in the final time slot for the evening; no one would be entering the vaults after us. It was still damp, dark, and eerie, but we didn’t feel anything supernatural. We did take some pictures this time, and Joe managed to accidentally blind a guy with the flash; it was so dark we couldn’t see him until it was too late.

That night we stayed in the Edinburgh Hilton which was a labyrinth of passages and stairways. It felt a little like Hogwarts; I kept waiting for the staircases to move. The bed was giant and old, and it’s creaking was a little scary after the ghost tour, but we managed to sleep well. The weird thing is, the rooms on their website look nothing like the historic room in which we stayed.

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Pictures from our Trip!
Hadrian’s Wall an English Heritage Site
Hadrian's Wall near Cawfield's Quarry
The Scotch Whiskey Experience in Edinburgh, Scotland
Learn more about Whisky from the Scotch Whisky Association
Edinburgh Tourist Information Site
Holyrood Park from Historic Scotland
Whiski Bar and Restaurant: Whisky on the Menu and in the Fare
Ghostly Underground Tour from Mercat Tours
Book a Room at the Edinburgh Hilton

Read about my previous Adventures in Holyrood Park with my Sister
Read about my first encounter with Whisky

Read about our first ghost tour!

My Name is Zack Bagans . . . and these are Our Ghost Adventures

When Joe and I first started dating, we would stay up late and watch Ghost Adventures, a show that used to scare the bejeezus out of us. In one episode, the team went to investigate the Edinburgh South Bridge Vaults, and it was a very active episode. Loving a good, terrifying thrill, I booked tickets for my sister and me to tour the underground chambers.

Tours are run by Mercat Tours, and there are 2 tour options for visiting the vaults, historic or ghost; we chose ghost. The historic tour is during the day and utilizes electric lighting. The ghost tours are at night and the vaults are lit only with candlelight. This was a simple way to set the mood without the use of costumes; when the vaults were in use, the only light source would have been candles. Candlelight is pretty inadequate; living or working in the cave-like vaults would have been depressing.

When Edinburgh’s population became far too large for the city limits, the city built a bridge to extend outward, the South Bridge. The area under the bridge was built into useable space by constructing various chambers underneath. These were connected by passageways, and for a while, they were used by respectable business owners. When the bridge was built though, the builders cut a corner and didn’t waterproof the vaults. Water and other nastiness seeped in from the streets above, and the legitimate businesses fled. In their wake, dozens of illegal uses for the vaults sprang up.

The vaults were filled in the 1860s and then rediscovered in the 1980s. When people began revisiting the vaults, they noticed spiritual activity. Most of the spirits in the vaults seem to stem from its nefarious past. There are rumors that the Hellfire Club met in the vaults; that some pagans accidentally opened a portal to hell; that body-snatchers used vaults to store corpses. Some of the rumors are true, but fact or fiction, spirits remain in the vaults.

We visited a room where a child named Jack frequents, and my sister said, after visiting that room she just didn’t feel right, and begged to leave as soon as possible. We stayed long enough for me purchase some books (mmmmmmmmm books). We also talked briefly with our guide to see if we were in the evil, haunted hotel. While its exact location is a mystery, we at least weren’t staying in the same neighborhood.

I didn’t feel much, just temperature changes, but it was hard to focus on any errant sounds or smells in a large group. Furthermore, there were other tours taking place, so distant sounds could be attributed to them. I would love a more private tour of the vaults, one in which I might notice more of the supernatural.

Useful Links!

Mercat Tours

Edinburgh South Bridge Vaults

Ghost Adventures

Rumors of Spiritual Activity in the Vaults

Hellfire Club on Wikipedia

Mine! Mine! Mine!

Forth Rail Bridge, built in the 1880s.
Edinburgh, Scotland

The Firth of Forth is a curiously named waterway just North of Edinburgh. Forth is the name of the river, and firth means estuary, so the Firth of Forth is the mouth of the river Forth. Boat tours leave the port town of Queensferry, and this town can be reached from Edinburgh by bus. We arranged to take a bus/boat tour with Forth Boat Tours aboard the Forth Belle, and we left Edinburgh at about 10:30am. We had a beautiful, albeit crisp, day for our tour. The boat took us out the Firth to Inchcolm Island, where for an additional £5, you could disembark and spend an hour and a half wandering around the island.

Seals basking in the spring sun.
Firth of Forth, Edinburgh, Scotland

Incholm Island has the ruined remains of Inchcolm Abbey, among them, the best preserved medieval cloisters in Scotland. Like many ancient buildings in Europe, the abbey reached its current size through many generations of builders adding to it. The earliest buildings of the abbey date from the 1100s and the most recent ruins are the battlements from WWII. There is a paved path from the dock to the abbey, but to reach the battlements and the southern tip of the island, you must be prepared to do a bit of hiking. You have permission to roam all over the island during your visit; time and physical ability are your only limits, though they recommend you don’t approach the wildlife.

Inchcolm Island and Inchcolm Abbey
Edinburgh, Scotland

When we arrived, we bypassed the crowds at the abbey (the 1^st sight) and headed uphill toward the southern coast of the island; we were on a puffin hunt. The captain of our boat announced that the first puffin had been spotted the previous day; apparently they are like robins. The vegetation has been allowed to grow wild, and the ground is very uneven, punctuated with rocks and tufts of over grown grass. The area acts somewhat as a wildlife preserve, with seals and gulls sharing the space with puffins in the summer. Hundreds of gulls were on the southern hillside, and the noise was deafening. The island was beautiful, but the ground was covered in poop—look but don’t touch anything.

Inchcolm Abbey
Edinburgh, Scotland

We hiked downhill toward the water, and on our return hike up we encountered Maude and her friend. The girls, about 6, were exploring the island with their dads. Maude was very precocious and invited us to hike back down to the water with them in search of the seagull nest factory; she assured us it was located there. We declined, as we had just been there, and parted ways with the promise of a progress report later.

Seagulls on Inchcolm Island
Edinburgh, Scotland

We returned to the abbey and climbed the tightest and steepest spiral steps I have ever encountered (so far) to the roof. We visited the chapter house where my sister sentenced me to jail time, and pondered the ruins of the choir; somehow the choir retains half an arched vault without succumbing to gravity.

Our final stop was the north end of the island to visit the old war ruins. The entire firth was heavily fortified during both world wars as it was an important port. Other islands in the firth were fortified as well. Inchgarvie Island was fortified in a specific pattern, and against the horizon it presents the silhouette of a battleship.

Ruins of the Choir
Inchcolm Island, Edinburgh, Scotland

We reached the ruins by marching blindly into a dark, scary tunnel. We were emboldened by the arrival of another visitor who assured us that the tunnel did indeed go through to the other side, and that it was perfectly safe. We walked in, and it was scary, and then it was over. The tunnel was actually short, but it was curved, so it looked endless. Once through, we saw the mouth of the Forth and looked toward the North Sea, but there were not puffins to be found. It must have been too early in the season still.

The "battleship" island
Inchgarvie Island, Edinburgh, Scotland

As we were walking back to the boat, my sister slipped on the pavement (Scots for sidewalk) and cut her knee. The boat only had gauze, so when we returned to the mainland I went into a small store and asked if they had band-aids.

The clerk said “No, but the bikers might”

“Bikers . . . .?”

“Next door.”

The bikers next door were Harley Davidson riders, and they looked like a tough bunch. But, as anyone but your mother will tell you; never judge a book by its cover. They were very kind and concerned, and they got us set up using supplies from their aid kit—free of charge. The place where they hang out is called Biker's Cove, and everyone reports them to be a friendly bunch. It was a very interesting afternoon.

The creepy, dark WWII tunnel
Inchcolm Island, Edinburgh, Scotland

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Forth Boat Tours

Inchcolm Abbey

Incholm Island
Biker's Cove

I’m Seeing Hogwarts!

This trail was ridiculous.
Holyrood Park, Edinburgh, Scotland

Our 2^nd day in Scotland was easily my favorite. We started out with a hike in Holyrood Park, the very large nature park adjacent to Holyrood House, the Queen’s residence in Scotland. We rose early and spent some time climbing a ridiculously steep path shortly after sunrise. We walked for about an hour before returning to our hotel for a shower. This park is one of the many reasons I want to return to Edinburgh; the views were great from midway up, but I want to reach the summit.

The view from the midway point.
Holyrood Park, Edinburgh, Scotland

Our next stop was the Elephant House, an unassuming coffee shop with views of Edinburgh Castle. The castle sits high on a rocky crag and has various towers and turrets rising from the rocks. Below the castle is Prince’s Street Gardens, a park on the site of a former lake. The Nor’ Loch was drained when the residents realized the health hazards associated with using the lake as a sewage dump.

I ordered a jasmine tea and a shortbread cookie in the shape of an elephant. Snack in hand; I wandered into the back rooms of Elephant House to see the castle. Looking out the windows at the castle, and imagining a clean lake below it, I saw Hogwarts Castle appear in my mind’s eye. And perhaps I was looking at the inspiration for Hogwarts; before the mania, JK Rowling used to sit in this café and write.

The Elephant House Coffee Shop
Edinburgh, Scotland

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Holyrood Park

Holyrood House

Elephant House

It Cures What Ails You!

I usually prefer the sweet drinks, except when it comes to tea—sugar free baby. So when we went to the UK I was drinking cider like it was going out of style; which it was, cider is pretty slim on the ground in Germany. They had all kinds! On draught! In the bottle! Flavored! Subtle! Crisp! According to the National Association of Cider Makers, “45% of all apples grown in the UK are used for making cider.” I was in cider heaven, and I cannot wait to go back. I wonder if we can make our own cider? You can make beer . . .

                                                                   

In Scotland, all ciders aside, they drink whisky. Or scotch. I’m pretty sure it’s the same drink, but I’m also not positive. I’ve never had a taste for whisky; I think my experience was limited to trying Jack Daniels once, and hating it. But it was Scotland; you have to taste the whisky . . . unless you’re allergic to gluten. Being such a whisky novice, I figured I should find a place to help guide me in my experience; also, a place that might have corn or rice whisky for the gluten intolerant. I found the perfect place; it was right on the Royal Mile (main street) in Edinburgh: Whiski Bar.

Whiski boasts 300 whiskeys on their menu as well as locally sourced food. The food was amazing. It was also mostly traditional Scottish fare, and it complemented my whisky and my cider, oh yeah I went there, perfectly. During our visit I had a lovely cold, and I couldn’t stop coughing. Once I was about halfway through my dram, my coughing stopped and my chest felt all warm. I felt like Harry drinking Firewhiskey for the first time. For dessert they have a regular menu and a cheesecake of the day. That night, the cheesecake was whisky cheesecake. It. Was. So. Good. I didn’t even care that I’m lactose intolerant. Somehow they combined the best parts of whisky with the best parts of cheesecake; mainly the delicious parts.

I bought a travel sized bottle of whisky at a nearby whisky outlet. I got to taste the various kinds while we were shopping, and they all tasted pretty good. I think it’s that first sip you have to get past, and then it goes down a little smoother. Or maybe it’s just the atmosphere of drinking whisky in Edinburgh, because when I got back and we opened the bottle, it was a bit more than we could handle. Regardless, I’ll be drinking more on our next trip northward.

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Whiski Bar

Whiski Bar Menu

Mary King’s Close

Our first night in Edinburgh, we toured the underground remains of Mary King’s Close. A close is, quite simply, a narrow alley: in some places only shoulder width apart. There are many closes that are still at street level in Edinburgh, but Mary King’s is under the city chambers.

The close and the rooms/apartments off the close are remarkably intact. They are like caves, with only an entrance in the front, and no windows. It was very depressing to think of the people packed into the small rooms about the size of a bathroom. Edinburgh was very over crowded in the 17^th century, and the city built both up and down since out was not an option due to geographical constraints. Some buildings in the closes were 14 stories high, with many more layers below ground, dug into the soft stone. Due to this overcrowding, the area was very susceptible to disease, and in 1645 the plague swept through, eliminating roughly 50% of the population.

Since so many of the former inhabitants living on Mary King’s close had died, the neighborhood gained a reputation for being cursed or haunted, and people refused to live there. There were even rumors that the victims of the plague had been boarded up inside the close and left for dead. This wasn’t true; they were cared for by plague doctors, but most died anyway. By the mid-1700s, the neighborhood had become rundown and derelict; the government did in fact brick it up and use it as construction material. They built the present city chambers over top of the existing close, much like the necropolis under St. Peter’s basilica.

Underground, the temperature is pretty constant, and it was warmer than outside. It was damp and filled with stale air, the kind that gave way to irrational worries about catching century old diseases. The walls were stone, and because of the dim lighting, the whole place looked as though it were under a sepia filter.

The only way to access the close is with the tour company, and it was completely opposite of the Jack the Ripper tour. Our guide was a ghost; the shadow of a fictional man who lived on the close during its heyday. He had a lantern and was costumed, and there were various gimmicks throughout the tour designed to startle you. The tour did contain a lot of history and the guide knew what he was talking about, but I think the whole tour would have been better if it were more straightforward. 

Useful Links!
Mary King’s Close Tour
Mary King's Close at Wikipedia

Craigmillar Castle

Craigmillar Castle is a veritable rabbit warren.
Craigmillar Castle, Edinburgh, Scotland

 On Tuesday, Joe returned to Germany, and my sister and I continued onto Edinburgh, Scotland. We took the train from King’s Cross Station and arrived in about 4 hours. Shortly after arriving, we took a bus to the outskirts of the city so we could explore Craigmillar Castle, a ruined castle abandoned since the 1700s. I wouldn’t say uninhabited though—some very brave pigeons have taken up roost, and they do not enjoy being disturbed. When we visited, there was only 1 other couple on site, so it’s possible the birds aren’t disturbed often, thereby increasing their ire when it does happen. Rarely would we enter a room and not be greeted with the sudden, frantic flapping of wings—a sound that has always made me duck and cover my head, lest I get pooped on.

Every castle needs a pleasure garden. Craigmillar Castle's
had a pond in the shape of a P for Preston,
former owners of the castle.
Craigmillar Castle, Edinburgh, Scotland

Abandoned castles tend to have very high ceilings, but in their prime, the rooms were much shorter. They had wooden ceilings that have since been lost to time, thus a single story room now would have been a two storied room then. This accounts for the doorways and windows some 10 feet off the ground. However, in Craigmillar Castle, the windows above the ground seem ordinary, not extraordinary. The castle has been altered so many times; it’s a veritable maze with dead ends, switch backs, and secret stairways.

Playing on the Curtain Wall
Craigmillar Castle, Edinburgh, Scotland

I loved climbing the curtain wall and being in the guard towers. They provided wonderful vantages of Edinburgh and the Firth of Forth leading to the North Sea. It was a mostly peaceful way to spend an afternoon, and I only say mostly because every flurry of wings caused minor heart attacks.

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Craigmillar Castle