Getting ready to travel

In an effort to start getting things together for my trip in June I aired out my tent and sleeping bag this morning, then made my way into the city centre to look for a pair of shoes. For the past few months I have only had my Blundstone boots, but as great as they are, they just won't cut it for travelling in the summer. I had a pair of shoes with me when I left Canada, but I managed to wear right through them last summer. I checked out a few shops off Princes Street with little appealing to me. I was down to the last shop and decided I had to get something from there. I found a few that looked alright, but was having a bit of trouble sorting out the sizes. I told the guy I wore a 13 US, which immediately triggered his question, "Is that where you're from?" I told him I was from Canada, and he replied with, "Oh, good! What part?" It turns out that his wife is Canadian and he just spent the past 18 months living in Vancouver, in the Kits area, while working at Valhalla Pure on Broadway. He was asking me what I was doing living over here when I could be back in Vancouver, saying that he and his wife are going to move back to settle down for good at the end of this year. We ended up talking for almost an hour while I tried on numerous shoes playing Cinderella, trying to find a pair that fit, and I found it pretty funny to hear the stuff that he mentioned that he missed, namely sushi and mountains. These are definitely at the top of my list and it was great to see that I'm alone with on these opinions. I eventually found a pair of North Face approach shoes, overpaid, and left to wander around town for the afternoon thinking about how truly nice Vancouver actually is.

Scottish Highlands Tour

After a few weeks of quiet weekends I finally have a bit to write about. Andrew Gillis stopped into Edinburgh for the weekend on his way back to Canada after being in South Africa for work (he was able to extend his stopover in London and caught a train up and back). Some friends from work had been planning a bit of a day trip around the Highlands and asked if we wanted to come along. If you want the quick visual of what the day was like you can see our pics HERE.

We had to get an early start on the day because we had about 600km to cover. My friends from work picked us up at 7am and we drove straight up to Inverness. I was a bit surprised to find that we were right up in the mountains at the snow level on the way up, but it was a great drive. Our first stop was at Culloden battlefield, where the last land battle in Britan was fought (1745), restoring the House of Stuart to the British throne. We were planning on doing a full walkthrough the visitor centre, but when we found out they were asking £10 we decided a selfguided walk around the grounds with an info pamphlet would be preferrable. Next we went a few minutes down the road to the Clava cairn, a 4,000 year old burial ground with huge stone tombs. It was really interesting, but hard to comprehend the history behid the area.

Leaving Inverness we went south along Loch Ness and stopped along the motorway a few times to take the obligitory pictures. The loch was really nice, but all things considered, it is just a lake; I have definitely been spoiled by the sights and scenery of Canada.

Further south we explored Urquhart Castle (circa 5th century). They were having a free visitors weekend, so there was no way we could pass up tramping around the grounds. I have been to quite a few castles in the past 18 months or so, but this one had to have one of the best locations, along the coast of Loch Ness. It is largely in ruins, but has been restored to a standard where you are still able to climb over everything.

Moving on we drove through an amazing mountain range to the Ben Nevis Distillery. Unfortunately the next tour wasn't being offered until Monday, but we looked around their info centre a bit before walking around outside in front at the base of the mountain. Ben Nevis is the highest peak in Great Britian (~1350m; half the size of Blackcomb, or a bit more than twice the height as the CN Tower). We were extremely lucky and the sky stayed clear for the hour that we were driving through Glen Coe, which is apparently usually covered in fog. This was the site of the Massacre of Glencoe. From what I gathered, in 1692 a number of families from the MacDonald clan offered to billet the passing military forces who were collecting taxes for the government. However, the MacDonald's had previously refussed to pledge allegence to King Willam of Orange, who had taken the British throne a few years before. I guess this didn't sit well with royals/military, because on the morning of February 13th the billiting soldier simultaneously began to slaughter their hosts (men women and children) in three different settlements along valley.

By this time in the day we were all getting a bit tired, but had a few spots left to visit on the way home. Our next destination was Stirling to see the Wallace Monument. The view from the top was amazing to see as the sun was setting and had a great view of Stirling Castle in the distance. The only tacky bit was the statue of Mel Gibson, as William Wallace, in the parking lot...

We were going to stop in at another battlefield outside of Stirling, but decided against it and drove straight on home. In total the trip took about 13 hours and gave a great first-hand view of what the rest of Scotland is really like. I'm still hoping to get out to the Isle of Skye or up to the Orkneys in June. It will be great if I am able to do a bit of hiking and spend a bit of time in those spots rather than just passing through them.

Andrew caught the train back to London this morning and is flying on to Canada tonight.
I have another friend, Jack Law, coming out from May 4th-8th, but I will be working for most of that time. I am sure I will still find the time to take him around the city a bit and will definitely make the time to show him a few of our locals pubs. Should be a really good time - I probably won't have another post until then though.

Bye for now.