this is a strange place

Well, we have been without internet access since Saturday, so that’s why no posts. The Isle of Arran was beautiful. We took the train from London to Glasgow, then made a change to the train to Ardrossan where we took a ferry to Brodick, which is the main city on Arran. We took a bus partway to our campsite at Glen Rosa, then walked the rest of the way. The island was absolutely gorgeous, mountains and forests. It reminded me of Colorado a little bit, but greener. And the mountains obviously weren’t as large since it’s a small island, about 10 miles by 20 miles. The ferry ride was fun, we watched a very intelligent seagull that was going from Ardrossan to Brodick using the draft from the ferry to stay aloft. It didn’t flap its wings a single time.

Our campsite was beautiful, right on a little river. There were three fields, one was pretty full (it was right next to the toilets), one that the Scottish version of the Boy Scouts was using, and one smaller field that had only one other tent on it. We actually ran into the people who were staying there, and they helped us find it which was good since it was somewhat hidden. The only disadvantage was that it was a 10 minute walk to the toilets, and there was no hot water, so no showers. Fairly primitive, but that wasn’t a problem.

Our first night we decided to stay up to see the sun set, but gave up around 10:30. It was still light out at 11:30 when I woke up. We weren’t quite completely prepared for how cold it was. We had a couple of fleece blankets, and it was enough to keep us from freezing, but not really enough to keep us warm. Fortunately, the sun came up at 4:30, which warmed things up so we got some good sleep after that.

Sunday we went to Brodick Castle, walked around that and the gardens. Then we climbed Goat Fell, the tallest point on Arran. It was about 3,000 vertical feet, and the trail was probably four or five miles long, but we made it. Unlike in Colorado, the altitude wasn’t a problem, it was just a long walk. The view was absolutely spectacular. It was almost as good as any view I’ve seen in Colorado. The air was clear and you could see for miles. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to experience anything like that, and I’ve missed it. This was the first real mountain that Grace had ever seen, much less climbed, and she had never really seen the wide-open places before (above about 2,000 feet there were no trees, from overgrazing by deer and sheep). She experienced first-hand how distances can be deceptive when things are wide open.

After that walk we were pretty bushed, so we headed back to the campsite and hung out by the fire for a bit, then headed to bed. It didn’t get quite as cold that night, so we slept better. Monday morning we were still pretty sore from Sunday’s hike, so we slept in, broke camp and took the ferry from Brodick back to Ardrossan at 1. We took the train to Wemyss Bay, where we were going to camp for the night. However, the place we were going to camp had changed ownership, and they no longer allowed tent camping, and the nearest one they knew about was a mile and a half away. Grace and I just didn’t feel like doing that, and I couldn’t get a decent set of directions, so instead of wandering around with all our stuff we just found a cheap-ish hotel (which was the only hotel in town) for the night. It ended up working out well, since it rained that night. We would have been alright, we have a nice tent, but it still would have been annoying. Plus, we wouldn’t have had a chance to let anything dry that had gotten wet, so it all worked out for the best. The hotel (Wemyss Bay Hotel) wasn’t real nice, the rooms were old, not particularly clean (but not too bad) but they had hot water (the shower was nice) and a comfortable bed. It was owned by an Indian, and it had a restaurant with some superb Indian food, and lots of it, for pretty cheap. I might not stay there again, but I would eat there again. The only weird thing was that there was no shampoo in the bathroom, and when I asked the guy didn’t know what I was talking about.

Tuesday morning we took the ferry from Wemyss Bay to Rothesay to see Rothesay Castle. It was the first castle we had seen that looked like how I envisioned a castle to look like with a moat and a wall and towers and all that. It was in ruins, so the towers weren’t standing any more, but it was still really neat. It had played a large part in Scotch history dating back to when the Vikings occupied the western islands of Scotland.

We spent a couple of hours there, then took the train to Glasgow. We got into our hotel in Glasgow (we had always been planning on a hotel in Glasgow kind of at the midway point of our trip) and it was nice, particularly after the hotel the night before. Free internet, shampoo and spotlessly clean. We dropped our stuff in our rooms and took off for Stirling. Stirling Castle was nice, in much better shape than Rothesay Castle was. I knew it before I came, but it never really struck me how much history they have here. Stirling Castle was started two or three centuries before the Americas were discovered by Columbus. William Wallace and Robert the Bruce both fought battles outside of Stirling Castle during the battles for Scottish Independence, several members of the Stewart Family ruled Scotland from Stirling Castle, it has been said of Stirling Castle that he who controls Stirling controls Scotland, due to Stirling’s strategic location. The buildings that are there today obviously aren’t original, Robert the Bruce razed the previous castle that had stood there to prevent the English from using it as a stronghold, and his son re-built it later.

We also saw the Cathedral of the Holy Rude, which is one of the older cathedrals in Scotland. It was where Mary Queen of Scots was coronated, and it is the only cathedral standing that has witnessed a Scotch Coronation. It had a lot of beautiful stained glass windows, and I discovered that stained glass windows photograph extremely well, with all the light that comes through them.

We headed back to our hotel a little after 6, ate supper at the restaurant at the hotel. I had this pumpkin ravioli thing that wasn’t very good, but Grace’s chicken was excellent, despite the fact that it took them 45 minutes to give us our food. I’m not sure exactly when I will be able to post again, but I will definitely when we get back to Kentucky.