Trip to Scotland - Day 3: Beauly/Black Isle/Cromarty

We started this day with a wonderful breakfast at the B&B and set off to the Bus station. Scottish Tours had already arranged for us to have our luggage placed in the locker room of the bus station. The plan was that we would be taken to the towns of Beauly, Black Isle and Cromarty at 9:45 am.

We started towards the pretty little town of Beauly which means beautiful place in French. There is this old Priory in Beauly and we also spent some time at the information center buying a couple of picture post cards and this Scottish folk tune CD. In case I hadn’t mentioned earlier, I have really loved the sound of the Bagpipes for a very long time. There is something haunting about the music from the instrument which makes me want to listen to it over and over again.

From Beauly, we started by 11 towards Cromarty passing the Black Isle. Black Isle is a peninsula and there are numerous beliefs about the source of the name one of which is that its soil is Black in color. We were to spend some time dolphin spotting at the Moray Firth but our driver (I think his name is Robbie) mentioned that the tide was unsuitable and it was very unlikely that the Dolphins would actually come to the Firth. Though a bit disappointed (not too much coz it wasn’t the highest on our priorities then) we reached Cromarty by 12:15 and had about an hour to explore. This is again a very small town we went to this ancient courthouse and a small Chapel after which we had lunch. The remaining time was spent just walking around the streets all of which eventually led us to the Firth of Forth. Firth or an estuary has water from rivers or lakes flowing into it which is connected to the open sea.



We started from Cromarty by 1:20 and reached Inverness by 2. Since we had already finished lunch, we just spent a few minutes going to the market to get some souvenir. We also got a book on the History of Scotland which fascinated us thanks largely to the information provided during the tour.

By 4:15, we were to start back to Edinburgh and this time, we were taken on another route via Perth where we were to have dinner and then to Edinburgh. The weather on our way back wasn’t as kind as it had been during the 3 days since it started raining a bit heavily. We were really happy the rains didn’t put a damper to our trip. The audio commentary continued till the very end and since this was a different route, we got some new information as well…

Through the past 2 days, a few names were frequently mentioned aside from Mary, Queen of Scotts and the Highlanders – William Wallace, Rob Roy Macgregor, Bonnie Prince Charlie or the young pretender. William Wallace is perhaps popular among us thanks to the popular movie Brave Heart. He is said to be a great leader who successfully led the Scots during their war against the English for independence. Of course eventually, he lost, betrayed, captured and executed. Bonnie Prince Charlie was the grandson of King James II who along with many supporters of his clan (called the Jacobites) comprised largely of the highlanders tried unsuccessfully to claim the throne.

This information relayed to us kept in addition to the scenic beauty of the place kept us occupied throughout the trip. We also had a glimpse of the Blair Castle and made a stop at Perthshire has mentioned before for dinner. After dinner, we resumed our journey and reached Edinburgh at 8. Since we were to take our written bus back to London at 10pm from the same Bus station, we didn’t have to move out of there. Of course we had to wait only an hour since by 9, it was mentioned that there were going to be four buses back to London and as and when one bus filled, it started. Thanks to our early arrival, we were able to start by 9:20 and reached London at 5:30 and were back at Reading by 7.

I am sure no number of adjectives will be enough to describe the beauty of Scotland especially with my limited dictionary. Although I am sure there will be a million other places which are probably better than Scotland, I would definitely say this is one of the most beautiful places rich in both beauty and history. The only regret we had was that we just had 3 days there. And yeah! a big thumbs up to Scottish Tours as well :))))

Trip to Scotland - Day 2: Loch Ness and Inverness

Since we had to report for the Scottish Tours bus at 8:00 am at the Bus station, we decided to start from the Hotel by 6:50 there by giving us time for a cup of coffee and breakfast. If you remember correctly, we were a bit doubtful about the Scottish Tours(http://www.scottishtours.co.uk/) but a part of our concern which was if the tour actually will operate was laid to rest when we saw this particular stand in the station which displayed the timings for the tour departure. Anyway, our breakfast (actually breakfast is an overstatement) was one bagel.

After that we reached the bus station by 7:45 and saw this whole queue of people (mostly comprising of Indians) standing in the Stance we were supposed to board from. Of course, fortunately in this case we were allotted the seats and our driver (If I am not wrong by the name Andrew) took us through what to expect. I must say that right from boarding the bus, it was quite evident that this was a well organized tour. They gave us each an earphone which right from the start of journey gave us a good audio commentary. The bus was fitted with a GPS system and the commentary was made in such a way that we got the history/background of the place we were currently close to. This was one of the most wonderful highlights of the tour.



We started from Edinburgh towards Glen Coe. Needless to say the whole journey was picturesque with hills, lakes and forest all through. And the best part was that not once during the trip did we get bored. A bit of a Gaelic lesson since we will come across these words very often: Ben is Gaelic for Mountain, Loch is Gaelic for Lake and Glen is Gaelic for Valley. We crossed the Stirling Castle and reached this small town called Tyndrum where we had a coffee break. We came across a Loch named Lochy on our way(pretty cool ,eh?) We were told in advance that in order to cover the places, we will not have much time for lunch. From Tyndrum, we went across numerous beautiful sights (the history of most which I don’t remember) and then reached Glen Coe. I am not sure how many are familiar with Scottish History (I wasn’t until this trip…I really should said the tour guys did their job well).

King Charles II, a Protestant, was left without an heir due to which is Roman Catholic brother James II was made his heir. Although there was resentment with a Protestant being the king, it was eventually accepted hoping that after James, his heir will be his daughter Mary II who was a Protestant and married to William III, Prince of Orange, another Protestant. Unfortunately, James II married to a Catholic who gave birth to a baby boy, thereby making a Catholic the heir to the throne. This led to overthrowing and exiling James II and making his daughter and son-in-law joint Monarchs. It was said that many highlanders supported James II but William III offered pardon to the Highlanders if they take an oath of allegiance. The Highland chiefs asked James for permission to take the oath but were not given that until the last minute.

The MacDonalds chief set out to Fort Willam to take the oath but lack of a magistrate there forced him to go to Inveraray where he was further delayed by 3 days to take the oath. Anyway, it was said that the oath along with a letter for the reason for the delay was sent across to the King but John Dalrymple, Master of Stair removed the letter with the reason. This led the King to give orders to attack Glen Coe. For this, they took the help of Campbells who were another Highland Clan. The Campbells entered Glen Coe for shelter and on the specific day massacred about 40 people of which the MacDonalds Chief was one. This gave the name “Valley of the Weeping” to Glen Coe.

Also, the tours gave us this additional optional of Urquhart Castle and a Loch Ness cruise with an added 13 pound per head. The bus reached Urquhart Castle at 1 pm. There is something really romantic and serene about a castle which though in ruins, is filled with greenery and on the banks of a lake. In addition, it has hills on all the sides. How can it be anything but beautiful? See for yourself. We had time till 2:30 to check out the castle after which, a Jacobite cruise took us to Clansman Harbour which was where we were to be joined by our bus and continue our trip back.
 
The cruise again was a wonderful experience and for once I actually stopped clicking (the reason also could be coz there were millions on board who were making a heck of a noise trying to get pictures).
In spite of the chaotic atmosphere inside the cruise, I was able to block out most of them and really enjoy the serene atmosphere on the outside. If there is one thing I loved doing alone, it was going to the beach and losing myself looking into the sea and beyond the horizon. Of course I was also trying to look out for Nessie. By the way for those who assume Nessie is a pet, you are way off the mark. Nessie has the locals call it is a legendary monster supposedly inhabiting the Loch Ness. Though there is no proof that Nessie actually exists with popular belief being that it comes twice a day - 5 minutes before you arrive and 5 minutes after you leave. Anyway, like a million others before me, I wanted to see if the legend was indeed true although I didn’t have much time to spare.

After the cruise was done, we started back on our bus and this time towards Inverness which we reached by 3pm. Since we planned on a 2-day trip, we were to spend a night at Inverness. When we entered, the driver said he was going to leave us for a day and I was wondering who was going to let us know about our accommodation…only to be met by another of the Scottish tours personnel. She gave us this envelope which basically contained all information right from the B&B we were to stay to when we need to take our bus back to Edinburgh. They had a taxi arranged for us to take us to the B&B we were to stay. Once we got settled in this B&B called Duncraig Villa, the hostess gave us this map of the town. We realized that the bus station was actually less than a 10-minute walk from the B&B.


Inverness comes from a Gaelic word Inbhir (Inver) Nis (Ness) which means at the mouth of the River Ness. Inverness is the capital of the Highlands. We took a long walk along the River Ness Path which led us to a very small but pretty island called the Ness Island. The whole walk took us about an hour but it was a really really pretty and wonderful walk. Finally after that, we weren’t very hungry but still decided we will have something light at this Indian restaurant called Shapla Tandoori Restaurant. We came out without eating anything coz in this restaurant, we are not allowed to eat how much we want. Apparently, they will not serve us if we don’t order food less than 11 pounds per person (totally sucks I must say considering this was not mentioned anywhere when we entered and was included in the last page of the menu. I would personally not recommend anyone to that restaurant . The prices were high which I would still not comment on but the workers there need a serious reality check if they want to continue doing business(Of course they might say they have been in business for over 30 years and have done well) since the workers were were stiff and snobbish. They were polite with words but hardly with their actions. Made me wonder if we were the customer or they were. We ended up in a Chinese restaurant and went off to sleep by 9.

Except for that small incident at the Indian restaurant, it was over all a great day. And everyone from the Scottish Tours driver to the hostess at B&B was very friendly and polite.

Trip To Scotland - Day 1: Edinburgh

We started from Reading yesterday at around 8 though our bus was only at 11 since we didn’t want to hurry at the last minute. Thankfully everything went without a hitch. Train from Reading taken at 8:05 reached London Paddington at around 8:30pm. It felt a bit cold so we took and hot chocolate from the station after which we took a tube to Victoria. That went on smoothly as well and we reached Victoria railway station by around 9 – 9:15. The Bus station was about 5 minutes from there and we reached the station well in advance which was in my opinion just as well. Since it was a long weekend, there were 2 buses to Edinburgh and the first bus got filled by 10:30 and we started immediately which was 30 minutes before the scheduled departure. Weird thing about buses here - There are no specific allocated seats…So it is basically first-come first-serve basis.

I wouldn’t call the bus journey comfortable. For that matter I doubt any overnight journey will be for me because I have this weird habit of never sleeping while travelling – bus/train/plane – they all make me stay wide awake. On top of that during the 7-odd hr journey, there were 2 stops for 15 minutes with 2 hour interval which is necessary since it was getting progressively cold and the drivers did need some rest and a coffee break. By 5:30, I lost any hope of sleeping but by then the sun had almost risen and I was spell bound by the beauty of Scotland. I then decided that if that was the pre-cap of what was to expect in the next 3 days, the trip has to be exciting. The landscape all around was really beautiful.

We reached Edinburgh at around 6:30 which was more than an hour before the scheduled arrival time. As I had mentioned before, we planned to freshen up at the station in the morning. Of course a few dozen other people had the same idea…but thankfully we were one of the firsts. Anyway, the next thing we needed was a cup of coffee. We searched everywhere near the bus station…there was even this mall with a food court in which we were the sole occupants. I guess Sunday at 6:45 is not a time food courts open up :D . Anyway after getting a cup of coffee in McDs, we decided to check out to see if there was any breakfast place to have a nice heavy breakfast but as mentioned before, no place was open. So we ended up at the railway station (locating these places were not difficult since we were armed with my directions map and Rams compass) and had some croissant sitting in the East Princes Street Garden.

By the way, did I mention it was frigging cold there? And we had just the jackets with us. Since we were in the City Center and this Garden was right opposite to Marks & Spencer which opened at 8:30 and our first stop was at the Edinburgh Castle which didn’t open until 9:30, we decided to get a couple of thermal vests for us which we knew would be helpful in the Highlands. By the time we came out of M&S, it was 9:15 and we began our walk to the Edinburgh Castle which is on top of the Castle hill…Whoever thought of building a castle on top of a hill, which albeit small was a bit steep, was a sadist. Of course, one can argue that added to the defense of the castle but who cares how things were then? :P

The Castle itself is a magnificent structure but I didn’t completely enjoy it because it was very crowded. Anyway, the tickets to the castle cost 33 for the two of us and we spent the next half an hour listening to one of the tour guides explaining the history of the Castle. One name that we heard in the Castle and later throughout our journey was about Mary, The Queen of Scots. She was this typical example which emphasis that power and money bring misery and enemies. Hers was a colorful and sad life story. The winds were making the climate pretty cold which promptly made us enter a coffee shop within the castle (I have the feeling the first thing they do when they decide to open a castle to public is allocate a room for a coffee shop…not that I am complaining). Since it was close to 10:45, we decide to spend a maximum of another 30-40 minutes there and walk the Royal Mile next. Of course no trip to a castle is complete until we buy souvenirs. We also visit this war memorial inside the castle along with the birth room of James VI(son of Mary, Queen of Scots).

We then started walking the Royal Mile. FYI – Royal Mile is a mile long street which starts from the Edinburgh Castle and ends at the Holyrood Palace which is the Scottish home of the Queen. It took us about 30 minutes to walk to the Palace due to the crowd and we took tickets of 10 pound each into the palace. There was this combined ticket to the Queens Gallery as well which would come at 14 per person but since we were a bit short of time, we decided against it. The Holyrood Palace was also a beautiful Palace but not awe-inspiring. With the help of the Audio commentary, we were taken across to the Palace which was once occupied by Mary, The Queen of Scots. The Palace and the gardens took about an hour after which we crossed across to the Scottish Parliament and went into the Chamber.



It was about 2 by the time we came out, and after having a sandwich lunch, we took a Lothian bus (we took an all day pass since we were planning to make another trip back to the city center) 26 to the Edinburgh Zoo which was next door to the Holiday Inn we had booked our room in. We checked into the room by 3, by then needless to say we were exhausted a bit first with the lack of sleep and also with the walking we did the whole day. We took a couple of hours rest, freshened up and then went back to the city center to have dinner. This was at an Indian restaurant near St Andrews Square which was quite good. After dinner, although the plan was to take a stroll, the cold winds made us head back to the room and since we had a comparitvely early start the next day, we decided to call it a day.

Trip to Scotland - Pre-visit

Scotland or to be more specific, Edinburgh was one of the places which Ram wanted to visit (him having already visited the place once) once we reached England. We knew it would be good to have more than a weekend to visit the place, and since we had the 2nd Bank Holiday for the year coming up in August, we decided that was as good a time as any to visit the place. Since this was a long weekend, and the probability of rooms getting filled was high, we decided to book everything well in advance…about a month before the actual trip. A month before is not a big deal but believe me waiting for something you have been eagerly awaiting for is painful.

First on the list was picking and booking the mode of travel. Edinburgh is at least 8 hours from Reading and since the timings of the trains were not being convenient, we decided to take a bus. Although bus is probably not the most comfortable of journeys it takes comparatively lesser time and the time it reaches Edinburgh was also convenient. Of course the fact that it is 1/3rd the cost of the train tickets helped as well. The National Express tickets we took were from London Victoria which meant we had to take an additional train ticket from London to Reading as well.

Once the tickets were booked, we then decided to book the accommodation as well. The plan was to take a bus on reaching Edinburgh on 29th August morning and returning to Reading on 1st of September. Although we did have to freshen up in the morning, booking a hotel just for that when we were going to spend the rest of the day sightseeing seemed a bit too much. So instead of taking a room from Saturday morning, we decided to check into a hotel Saturday afternoon so that we would only have the expense of one night.

If we took a room for just one night, then what did we do for the next day, one might wonder….thing is a few hours of browsing brought us to this site called http://www.scottishtours.co.uk/ and we decided to take a 2-day tour (Inverness, Loch Ness and the High Lands) from them where they provide us with accommodation for one night. Believe me when I say we hardly found much information about the Scottish tour guys on the net. So we weren’t even sure if they were genuine or not or even if they would provide good service. But the site and the details on it seemed quite good as we decided to go with it since we didn’t have many options to decide on.

With this we had everything done…travel to and from Edinburgh and a 2-day tour. This left us with just the part of covering what has to be done on the day we land in Edinburgh. We weren’t too worried coz we knew there is this Hop on – Hop off bus in Edinburgh but checking the bus tour, we realized that most of the places in the tour are about 5 min walk from each other so there wasn’t much point taking the bus. So I spent the last 3-4 days digging up directions to the places starting from the Bus station to the remaining places.

Now that all the planning is done, only thing left is for us to actually go on the trip….and hope that everything especially the Scottish tours (from whom we haven’t heard anything ever since our booking was done, I must add) we are starting today for the trip.

PS: As always, though I am writing the blog long time after the trip is done, I prefer putting it against the appropriate days

Trip to Wales - Day 2

The first thing Ram suggested when we woke up in the morning was to also try and visit the castle called Castell Coch about which we saw in one of our guide books. The previous day was nothing great to talk about. I would not say it was a bad day coz we did enjoy a lot during the last 3-4 hours in the Cardiff Bay and later Bute Park. But other than that the day was a bit wasted. Anyway, at 8, we started from our room and headed to the Cardiff Central to get breakfast (there was hardly any open anywhere else). After having some coffee and croissants, we also booked tickets to Caerphilly having decided we would either take the 12:05 or the 2:05 train.



By 8:45 we were back near the Cardiff castle waiting for the counter to open so that we can get on with our sightseeing. We went in as soon as the counter opened which was fun since we were the only ones other than the staff in the castle grounds. Unfortunately, we had forgotten that the HOHO tickets that we got also included a free entry into the castle which we didn’t realize until the last minute. The castle and the grounds on the whole is a magnificent piece of work. Who would have believed looking at high walls all around the castle from the outside that the inside takes us to a completely different timeline. After what seemed like minutes but was actually an hour, we decided to first go to the information center before going to the Cardiff Museum.

Since we had no idea about Castell Coch, we enquired about it at the information center and were given a pamphlet which gave us the bus route timing and boarding point. According to the information we had, on Sunday we had a bus every 5 minutes past each hour from 10 to 5 with the return being every 37 minutes past the hour till 6:37 at 3.20 GBP per person. Also, there was a mention about taking a cheaper option wherein we can combine both Castell Coch and Caerphilly Castle for pound 6. Anyway, having already bought our tickets to Caerphilly, we decided against clubbing both.

We had 2 options – Go to Castell Coch at 11:05, comeback by the 12:37 bus, take a train to Caerphilly at 2:05 and come back in a couple of hours. But this means the museum would be out since the likelihood of us reaching before 4 which was when the museum closed was quite low. So we decided to go with option 2 where we first get to the Museum, take the 12:05 train to Caerphilly, come back before 3 and take the 3:05 bus to Castell Coch.

The first plan of going to the Museum went perfectly. The museum itself was quite huge sponsored by the Welsh Government giving everyone a free entry. It was beautiful and informative filled with science and art…starting right from the creation of the universe to how Wales as a country developed over the centuries. After a cup of coffee and a small detour to the Alexandra garden, we went back to our hotel to check out. We reached the station with 10 minutes to spare to catch the train to Caerphilly.

We reached Caerphilly at 12:30 and found that it was a small town. We set of to the Caerphilly castle having received directions that it was a 10 minute walk from the station. I must say it was love at first sight for me as far as the castle was concerned. While the Cardiff castle was beautiful, it had been restored in the last century where as this wasn’t. Most of the castle was in ruins but I think that was what drew me to it. It had a rustic beauty to it which appeals to anyone and I thanked Ram for having wanted to visit this in the first place.

After spending an hour or so there, we decided to take to 2:05 train back to Cardiff. We all made a small pit stop to pick up a sub for lunch. We reached Cardiff Central at 2:20.
After taking a coffee break, we went to the bus stand which was right outside the station and took the 3:05 bus to Castell Coch (Red Castle). The bus on Sundays takes us to a village called Tongwynlais from where it is a 10 minute walk to the castle. This is another small village, a bit hilly and we started our walk towards the castle which though was only 10 minutes away felt like an hour since half way through, the road became extremely steep. Although Castell Coch did not have the brilliance of Caerphilly Castle, it still was nice. Although I must say I felt the walk up to the Castle was picturesque and prettier. Having spent 35-40 minutes in the castle, we headed back to the bus stand and waited for the bus to take us back to Cardiff Central. Reaching by 5, we took a train back to Reading at 5:50 and reached home exhausted and exhilarated.

Can’t wait for our next trip…will talk about it once we come back

Trip To Wales - Day 1

Continuing with our globetrotting our next destination was Wales. Though Wales has got quite a lot of tourist destinations, we decided to go to the Capital, Cardiff. Considering we just had a weekend to spare, we had decided to go first to Cardiff on Saturday and then move to Bristol (in England) on Sunday. We made our hotel reservations at Holiday Inn about a month back. We also took the train tickets to Cardiff with a break at Bristol a few weeks back since it is cheaper here to books tickets earlier than at the last minute.

Our plan was to start by the 8:10 train from Reading to Cardiff since the earliest train was at 7ish and it took more or less the same time as the 8 o’clock one. Unfortunately for us, the train we were supposed to take was cancelled and we had to wait another hour before we could catch a train. So that instead of reaching Cardiff by 9:45, we reached by 10:45. At first glance, Cardiff was like any other city. People there were more laid back and it didn’t have the bustling activity as can be found in London which one would expect considering it is the capital of a Country. Like most of the cities we have visited so far, Cardiff also had a good Information center which is almost the first thing we search for the minute we get into a city. Almost the first because the first is always having something to eat. This time it was some mouth watering apple-cinnamon and honey and lemon pan cakes.

Anyway, after eating, we quickly got the directions to the information center. After a couple of misses with us walking by the same road to and fro a couple of times, we finally found what we were looking for. At the information center, we took the tickets to the Hop on – Hop off bus and also took a couple of books on Cardiff and Caerphilly (along with getting a couple of souvenirs as has been the norm for us). Though Caerphilly was not a part of our original plan, Ram wanted to check it having been interested about it ever since he read about it in a BBC book about historic sites in Great Britain.



The HOHF started from the Cardiff Castle which was about 5 minutes walk from the information center and we were just on time to catch the 11 0’clock bus. As in the rest of our trips, we decided to first take a complete tour of the city, which was about an hour’s trip, once before checking out individual places. After finishing the first trip, we decided to go have pizza for lunch following which we checked into our hotel which luckily for us was in the town center almost opposite to the castle. We started back to take the 3 o’clock bus to continue with our tour. Since we were not greatly impressed by what we saw, we decided to just make one stop which was at the Cardiff Bay. Unfortunately, due to my extraordinary intelligence, I made my husband get down a stop before the actual one. It would have been good had that place actually had something to visit but there was just a Hotel and though it was probably a 15 minute walk to the bay, we were unable to do so since the route was through a motorway. I think I should appreciate that Ram did not get irritated at me for having wasted 30 minutes.

With no other option, we waited for the next bus to arrive to take us to the Bay. The Cardiff bay has a lot of things to see like the Wales Millennium Center, National Welsh Assembly, Norwegian Church, etc. Anyway after spending some time clicking pictures of ourselves, we decided to take a walk on the Cardiff Barrage which is constructed on the mouth of the Cardiff Bay. Though we were not able to completely walk on the barrage owing to time, we spent about an hour walking to and from the Barrage just on time to take the last HOHO bus back to the Castle.

After we returned, we decided to go to the Bute Park which is adjacent to the Cardiff castle and which we assumed was quite a small one. We were forced to change our opinions after having walked for an hour and not finding the end of it. Luckily, they seemed to have a multiple entry-exit points without which the likelihood of us having to spend the night at the Park was high. And as usual, at the exit we were unsure as to which direction we were supposed to take to get back and thanks to a friendly Samaritan reached without losing our way.

Dinner was supposed to have been a Sub but we soon changed our mind and entered an Indian restaurant. As for the next day, we decided to chuck the Bristol plan, spend another half a day in Cardiff and spend the afternoon at Caerphilly. After a good dinner, since my legs were killing me, we decided to retire by 9.

Appearances

The other day I was watching Lois and Clark(Believe me,I like to watch any superman movies/tv series there is except smallville...which of course doesn't count) on television and there was this particular episode in which Clark went under cover and as a disguise used a beard and a moush and Lois was able to blow his cover in a second. Nothing wrong about that but its a bit unbelievable that she is not able to see through his disguise as a superman when the only thing different was the specs? Of course there are bloopers, its a comic book, one might argue.

I find it really strange something so small can bring about a huge change in appearance. In many movies, a person is termed ugly just because he/she wears glasss. Now what is that about? Removal of glasses makes a personal drop dead gorgeous, does it? Of course the days there is another definition of being gorgeous. Be skinny and wear skimpy clothes. It is wierd how perceptions change from person to person.

Anyway, I think it is high time people stop looking at outer beauty and look at the inner beauty of a person.