The Road Goes Ever On

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Ascent of Morrone Hill

The hill immediately above the village of Braemar is Morrone, and climbing it is one of half a dozen short walks one can do out of Braemar. I climbed it Friday afternoon in a couple hours. Little did I know that its summit and return is the "hill climb" of the Royal Highland Games, and Saturday I would see someone do the complete circuit in 17 minutes!

Morrone Hill, from the Duck Pond above Braemar

Compass

Below, the Royal Princess and Duke of Fife Memorial Field, where the annual
Royal Highland Games take place, and to the right of the fields and stands, the
village of Braemar

In the distance, Invercauld Castle, owned by the Farquharsons, the local nobility,
who sold Balmoral (a few more miles down the Dee) to Queen Victoria

Highlands

After touring the Britannia, we drove north into the Highlands, stopping at Braemar, on the rivers Dee and Clunie, in the Cairgorms, Scotland's central mountain range. We rested mostly for two days, studying up on Scotland...mostly reading, but Vicki watched Braveheart (which I detest) and together we watched the old Ian McKellen version of Macbeth (that was Gandalf?!). As expected, even in early September, it was wet, windy, and cool. But the place is enchanting. And it got better.

Purple mountains' majesty....the heather was in bloom

everywhere

Highlands, nearing Braemar

Campsite, on a lay-by over-looking the River Dee, all to

ourselves

Cairngorm view, from near Braemar

The River Clunie, in the village of Braemar

The area is world-class salmon fishing country (and hunting,

and walking, and climbing, and skiing

HMY Britannia

Thursday we packed up and left Mortonhall, driving through Edinburgh to its port of Leith, to tour Her Majesty's Yacht Britannia, now permanently berthed there. Britannia was in commission from 1954 to 1997 and carried the Queen and family members to a variety of official and holiday destinations, as far as Australia, as near as the Western Isles. Touring the ship provided a rare glimpse into more casual moments of royalty as well as a sense of personal tastes and interests. The Britannia was manned by a crew of 240, Royal Navy and Marines, and commanded by an admiral.

A painting of HMY Britannia

The Queen's stateroom

The Queen's office/study

The state dining room

Sitting room

Family photo aboard ship; one of many

The Royal Barge (44 feet)

Strangely enough, the American movie replica of HMS

Bounty was nearby

Elephant House and a Flying Dutchman

The Elephant House, where J. K. Rowling wrote the first several

tomes of Harry Potter; it is on George IV Bridge amid the

museum, national library and related buildings

The view out the back room windows is stunningly inspirational

Me, seeking inspiration; it did not come from the MacLachlan

ale, the worst beverage I have ever had

Vicki, who has read all the books and seen

all the movies, also was inspired

The decor is mostly representations of, um, elephants

We moved on at length to Usher Hall, where we saw and

heard a performance of Wagner's Flying Dutchman, by the

Hamburg Opera (part of the Festival); oratorio style, but

with the singers acting their roles as much as the setting

permitted; the conductor (conductress?) was a bit of a

dancer, but I guess that's the style these days; she obviously

had the respect of the musicians, and it was a memorable

performance, received gratefully by the fullest hall I have

ever seen

Gimme That Old-Time Museum

Our experience at the Museum of Scotland was a disappointment. The building itself is a curiosity, at least in its setting. The museum is less chronological than theme-oriented, the themes don't work all that well (there's much they don't capture), the language tends toward nine-year-olds, the displays are odd and sometimes poorly lit or identified. All this in a structure and exhibition that is merely a decade old. Not a place to get your Charles, James, Bonnies, and Jacobites all in proper order. Nor to get much more than an oddly episodic and strangely organized notion of Scottish history. Oh well. We moved on.

Museum exterior on George IV Bridge

There were perhaps twenty of these "life-sized" transformer-

beings grouped together in the paleolithic area; look closely--

they are each holding or carrying displays of barely labeled

paleolithic artifacts

Drinking and driving...a Pictish depiction?

The Lewis chessman--from the Western Isles, the oldest

known chess-set (wait a second; I thought these were in the

BM...)

Corliss steam engine

Uniform associated with 1745, Bonnie Prince

Charlie events

Edinburgh Castle

Sometime in all the Edinburgh rambles we also visited Edinburgh Castle, took the official tour, and enjoyed the history, memorials, and views.

Edinburgh Castle from the Stable Road below

Margaret Chapel, oldest building in Edinburgh, part of Castle

complex

The newer chapel and part of the war memorial

A claymore--giant ceremonial sword--in the

great hall

Old cannon trained on the Scott memorial

A Year on the Road

Monday also was our one year anniversary on the road. On the early morning of August 31, 2008, in great haste, we left Missoula, most of our possessions sold or given away, the rest in storage, and flew, first to San Francisco, then to Tokyo, and then to Beijing, for the beginning of our retirement adventure. It has been an incredible year, on four continents, unlike any previous year in our 41 years together, and, also unlike any previous year, chronicled in some detail in our blogs. We marvel that we have been able to do all this, that we're still together, that the mishaps and surprises have been small and few. And so, without losing a step, we're on to the second year. Perhaps in the new year there will be more time to reflect on what we're doing, how we're doing it, what works and what doesn't. In the meantime, we're still having too much fun....

Ascent of Arthur's Seat

Edinburgh is built on seven hills. No, wait, that's Chicago. But Edinburgh is in the midst of some very old volcanic country, and some of the old cones are important sites and landmarks. One is Arthur's Seat, which rises out of Holyrood Park and overlooks the whole old city area. We had walked the Royal Mile down to Holyrood Castle, but then decided not to do it--more pricey than we felt it was worth. Besides, Vicki wanted to go see the latest Harry Poppins movie and didn't want me around to spoil it, so she saw the movie and, owing originally to the advice of Montana friend Lyndel Meikle, I climbed the Seat. It was every bit as good as Lyndel said it would be.

Arthur's Seat, from the Ribs

Holyrood Castle, which the current Royalty use when on Edinburgh business

Adam's Ribs, which I inadvertently climbed en route to the Seat; never, no, always,
look at a map before starting out....

A bay of the North Sea, south of Edinburgh, with volcanic cone

Summit view compass

Edinburgh Castle in the distance

It's true, I have a nose for blackberries

Still More Edinburgh

Monday we covered yet more of old Edinburgh, beginning with the Robert Louis Stevenson house on Heriot, the Real Mary King Close, more of Royal Mile toward Canongate, and then an ascent of Arthur's Seat, overlooking it all.

Vicki at (very) distant cousin Robert Louis

Stevenson's house on Heriot; the relationship

accounts perhaps for her literary and travel

interests

I was never in to individual philosophers; but if

I were, David Hume would be my favorite; alas,

this is not how he probably dressed

Ladystairs, now the Edinburgh Writers' Museum

A close, in Edinburgh, is one of the many alleys

that led from Royal Mile back down the hill to

the Forth (the open sewer of Edinburgh till it

was filled in in the 18th century); a close

would be lined in buildings/tenements, many

10-12 stories owing to the slope of the hill.

We toured one of the older ones, under the

present city hall, the Real Mary King Close,

which goes well back into the 15th century.

The tour was commercial and cheesy,

complete with ghost stories, gore, and very

bad jokes, but the environs were interesting.

Pictured is another, older close.

Home of John Knox, the Presbyterian firebrand and

Reformation leader; not a guy you'd want to have a

drink with

Home of "Invisible Hand" Adam Smith, patron

saint of free-market fundamentalists; just

purchased by Edinburgh U Grad School of

Business, to be turned in to a musem (seriously);

I can't believe they had not already done this

The very old toll-house near Canongate, with its

clock and tower, where lots of famous people

were jailed, tortured, disappeared

Vicki adds:

Edinburgh, Scotland September 1, 2009

Mark and I left Rebecca's for Tokyo one year ago today. We have packed so much into this year that it seems much longer. We are enjoying Edinburgh and the festival. August is definitely the best time to be here though everything is crowded. But it feels more exciting than overwhelming. I am sure Mark will post pictures of the Tatoo (which was wonderful) and the the Book Festival. Our commute to town takes 40 minutes each way plus walking 15 minutes to the bus stop. Cities are hard to tour from campgrounds. Edinburgh is putting in a new tram so the roads are torn up which makes bus travel very difficult. Also only the sightseeing busses are allowed to drive on the Royal Mile—if you ever come here one of those passes including the castles would definitely be worth it.

Edinburgh Sights

Sunday we did some more respectable sights, the Georgian House at Charlotte Square and the Gladstone Tenement on Royal Mile, as well as more walking and gawking.