Dundas Castle...Here we Come!

To the countryside we went today to take part in the Highland Games at Dundas Castle. We got to play make believe and pretend that we inhabited this stately castle that is still privately owned today. We drove up by a coach...

 (bus) to be greeted by our own pipes and drums.

We looked out over our lands as the sun was shining down on us and marveled at their beauty.

The rhododendrons were a bloomin and the firth sparkled in the distance.

We pulled our coach into the carriage house and proceeded to our clan leader for we were participating in the Highland Games!

McKenzie was the competition for we were the Clan MacDuff...proud and strong

tossing hay bales over tall poles with a pitch fork while 

seeing who could swig the most Scotch.

We tugged the rope, threw the wellies, shot putted the stones, rolled the hagis, hurled the logs and even had to fill in for one of the drum corps. We excelled at everything but the drumming and my partner's Clan even took first place! Although he be of Clan MacEwan...he is well loved.

After participating in such a rousing afternoon, we were plum tuckered out so we felt it was time to get a brief respite from the activity by heading inside.

As we passed under the flickering candles of the hall

and then past the fireplace, we remembered that we needed to check on our lands from our "Keep" for we had been gone for some time.

As those that have gone before us, we circled up the stone steps and ascended to

our great Hall

 where we checked on our meal preparations before heading further upwards.

All looked well in our kingdom below, 

so we descended down our stone staircase which would take us to the main part of the castle where we could freshen up and maybe take a short nap in my blue and yellow covered toile bed chamber, one of my favorites!

"Honey, no you cannot leave for the beach tomorrow for your friend has left already,"

"What? Who did he go out to dinner with?"

"It's okay, mom will be home soon. I know that you are bored and want everybody out of your house."

"The recipe for the Gazpacho is in my office closet in the wicker basket in the manilla folder. It isn't in there? Try the file sorter on my desk. Not there? How about the file cabinet to the left of my desk?????

As I was brought back to reality by the phone call across the Atlantic, after another changing of the guards,  I thought to myself,

"Downtown Abbey...here I come!"

What a fabulous day!

Until tomorrow~

Meg

Edinburgh ~ a Most Glorious City

It feels like Groundhog's Day, for yet again, Chris got up at 4:00 am to travel back to St. Andrews to play another course. When in Scotland...Golf! Shane and I had other plans. We were hitting the pavement to tour the city that was bustling around our hotel. Unfortunately, we missed the am departure and hit the after lunch crowd. Shane has been a trooper as long as he fuels up on lots of sleep. Okay by me, he is here with us and I am so very thankful that he is experiencing the sights and sounds of this glorious city. He was my translator for all the Latin inscriptions on buildings and monuments and it was certainly much more fun to have a partner! I will not bore you with text but show you instead what we saw today...and we did not even put a dent in all that Edinburgh has to offer!

Edinburgh Castle rises from the stony cliffs and presides over all of Edinburgh. We are being hosted at a dinner there tonight for which I cannot wait!

The Scott Monument~ Shane questioned as we drove into the city and saw this from afar, " What is the building that looks like a drippy castle?" We walked up the 287 steps to climb the "drippy castle" and it was worth it for the views were fantastic.  

I do have to say that the stairs were quite narrow for this is a view of the wider section going down. You literally had to press yourself against the wall to let people by going in the opposite direction.

View of of Princes Street, the main street in Edinburgh into the heart of the New City as they call it in Edinburgh. The heart of the city is basically referred to as the old and the new. The new being around 300 years old. You can only guess what the age of the old is!

Monument on Calton Hill which is Edinburgh's first public park that overlooks the city. As you can see it was quite a gray day so I hope to capture better views on Thursday. It is called the Acropolis of the North for there are all sorts of monuments built up here that resemble the Acropolis in Greece.

We did not see the interiors of any buildings today except for the Public Records building, circa early 1700's,  which had an incredible domed ceiling where Wedgewood medallions were interspersed in the ceiling...beautiful!

We passed by lots of iron work gates where tiny alley ways led off in the distance.

Flowers were a reoccurring theme that beautified so many surfaces and gave light to this gray city on a gray day.

The pictures from our dinner at the castle will not transfer from my phone to the computer so they will have to wait. 

Until tomorrow~

Meg

Musings from Scotland ~ Day 3

Stunning views were had today on our drive over to Edinburgh. We left the quaint town of St. Andrews around 1pm after sleeping in yet again. The one and only complaint that I can voice on this trip is the lack of sleep. They tell you, to avoid jet lag, you should stay up the remainder of the day when you arrive even though it is 1 am in the time zone you are accustomed to. I only made it until 4:30 the first day we were here. Not a very valiant effort but once I sat down on our hotel bed when we checked in, I was done! Unfortunately, my body woke me up after it's little power nap at 8:30 that night. Chris was golfing, Shane was sleeping and try as I might, sleep would not come again. That is the night that I looked out the window and saw the magnificent rainbow. Maybe that is what woke me up...the magic was calling. Anyway, sleep found me again around 1:30 am, then 3:30 am last night. That deviation in sleep was caused by a late night "decaf" cappuccino had in the pub at our hotel. I think the waiter had a smug little smile on his face when after my request, he replied, "Decaf...of course." The caffeine combined with multiple texts and phone calls at what began at 11:30 pm Scotland time to the kids and the "changing of the guards" back home was a deadly combo for a blissful nights sleep. 

Enough about my lack of sleep. I was fortunate enough the next am that Chris had decided to follow the route that might be his only chance to play the Old Course at St. Andrews and that was to arrive at the "Pro-Shop" (forgive me my ignorance of the game for I do not think that is what it is called here) at 4 am.

So as I was going to bed at 3:30, he was getting up to hopefully be successful in his attempt. He was, and after teeing off at 6:30 am, he returned at 10 am to wake us both up to tell us about his "Jeeves" moment (non golfers...look it up.) Shane and I in our sleep induced haze quickly got it together, ate breakfast and we were on the road.

This is the only shot I was able to get on our much better attempt at our, driving on the other side of the road, journey to Edinburgh. Our late departure caused us to hightail it over to our next destination where the conference was being held. We drove into Edinburgh stunned by the beauty of this city clothed in grey stone. Our heads were on swivels as we tried to find our hotel. Think Philly traffic, with few traffic lights, much more narrow roads, road signs that use few words and the beauty tempting you to take your eye off of where you are going! 

We arrived at our destination and after finding out we were on the 6th floor (top floor), could not wait to see the view out our window of this beautiful city!

Okay...You can't win them all but if you craned your neck and looked up...

you could see the other side of the clock tower!

We only had a short bit of time before we had to be at a dinner in which Shane was not attending. After looking in the fridge in the room that contained the Honors Bar we deemed that it would cost a small fortune to keep him hydrated ( Shane has to drink close to two gallons of fluids a day.) Off to the concierge I went who kindly directed me to a mall very close to the hotel. Upon entering the mall I walked past a "Pound" Store. It looked vaguely familiar and lo and behold, it turned out to be a Dollar Store! I stocked up on large water bottles and munchies and back to the hotel I went. Of course, I could not resist heading into the Starbucks that I found at the bottom of a flight of stairs heading underground. It was aptly named "Waverley Steps Starbucks". 

We again ended our night at a pub and in a country famous for it's Scotch I felt that it would be a betrayal to order a "decaf" coffee so I ordered a vodka and tonic. Sorry, no offense but I just have not been able to acquire a taste for Scotch.  I swear, that if they had this kind of tonic at home...it might become a problem. The most delicious vodka and tonic I have ever had! The bottle stated that it was a botanically brewed tonic with herbal additions. Have you ever heard of that? If you have and know where I can get me some...please give a shout out!

”Edinburgh is an experience A city of enormous gifts Whose streets sing of history Whose cobbles tell tales.” Alan Bold

I cannot wait until morning when I can hit the cobblestones of Edinburgh and experience those tales!

Until tomorrow~

Meg

Musings from Scotland~Day 2

We got a late start today for a variety of reasons:

1) The jet lag on already limited hours of sleep.

2) Waking up Shane is like waking the poor souls who were buried beneath the magnificent tombstones we saw at St. Andrews earlier in the day.

3) My husband felt the Old Links calling to him as Shane and I crashed in our room at 4 pm yesterday. He snuck out to squeeze in a round of gold by himself since there were no tee times for him during the day for there is a tournament going on here. Crazy golfer got back to room at 11pm! It stays light here until that time.

All that I can say is that our 2nd day equaled the first and if I had to leave tomorrow I would be totally satiated sensory wise by all that we had taken in in only 2 days time in Scotland! I am so very glad that it is not the case and while we will be leaving St. Andrews tomorrow, we will be heading towards another experience of sights and sounds in the capital city of Edinburg.

We ate a late breakfast where we drank lots of caffeine so that we would be totally alert for the other side of the road driving experience and the multiple roundabouts. After only one misfire on a roundabout and  two or three close calls almost knocking off the mirrors of cars parked on the side of the road, we made it safely to Glamis Castle about a 45 minutes drive through the verdant countryside. Unfortunately the skies were dark grey and the pictures that I took are hard to discriminate where the dark green lands and the dark skies merged. Hopefully better weather on our ride tomorrow. That did not dampen our spirits and our jaws dropped as our eyes alighted on the castle. My first real, honest to goodness castle, in its flesh of aged stone, right before my eyes!

This castle is made famous by Shakespeare, although his writings were untrue about what happened here but it is still owned by the same family that it was built by SEVEN HUNDRED years ago!! No photography was allowed inside but if your travels ever bring you to this neck of the woods in Scotland, it is a must see. I also found out that Queen Elizabeth's sister was Princess Margaret Rose. Ahem...that is my name! Well, not the princess part although it totally makes sense now! My dad used to try and wake me up as a teenager ( I began my night owl habits then so mornings were not my cup of tea..) by announcing quite loudly, "Margaret Rose, it is time to wake up, your polo ponies are waiting." I knew what came next if I heard those words, a cup of water was politely splashed on my face.

 Speaking of tea...it is my favorite and I think I died and went to heaven here! I can have tea anytime of the day and in a real tea pot and tea cup! Strange coincidence that the pot they served mine in today when I coerced Shane and Chris to have tea with me, matches ones that my grandmother Nan gave me. And guess what? they have roses on them!

As I mentioned before, our senses have been filled to the brim with all that we have experienced so far. I will post some pictures to give you a feeling. 

The quintessential cottage with smoke billowing from the chimney. Imagine how that smelled...

Scottish cattle (this one is for you Cam!)

A door along the street ensconced in flowering vines...yet again

The window box outside of the restaurant we ate dinner at...

The Doll's House...tucked in a small side street.

Chimneys' outlined in the sky. These are everywhere and I feel like I am on the set of Mary Poppins.

Delightful meat and cheese shops.

Another rainbow...almost!

But the crowning moment of the day came at the end when Chris and Shane were able to walk on the Old Links Course of St. Andrews, one of the oldest and most historic of courses, and get their picture in front of the club...

As well as on Swilcan Bridge.

Here, you would have thought Chris had died and gone to heaven. I am so very glad that he was able to share this experience with one of his sons. What history, architecture and design are to me...golf is to Chris.

It was an honor to walk this course with them and take their picture from behind as the sun was beginning to set at 10 pm. Cold and windy as the dickens...but an honor never the less!

It is an honor to be able to share this blog with you on my trip and parts of my life! I feel that we all can learn so much and experience so much through others as well as through the past. It took me 40 something years to get here and some of us might never get where they have dreamed of going but a peak into someone's dreams might spark even more desire to make their dreams a reality. 

Until tomorrow~

Meg