Scotland has a bum rap when it comes to food. Think of Scotland and you think of haggis, a local delicacy made from "lesser ingredients."The reputation is so poor that I came close to cancelling the trip to Scotland in favor of Italy. "Let's go where they know how to cook food," I said. What a mistake that would have been. Four of us ate three meals a day for a week and none of us had a bad meal. The Scots do a really fine job with seafood, venison, lamb, and beef. We are thinking of a seafood restaurant down by the waterfront in Oban with especially fond memories (halibut, scallops). All of the B & B's advertise a "Scottish breakfast" that would satisfy a farm hand - porridge, eggs any way you want them, mushrooms, tomatoes ("to-MAH-toes"), various cereals, fruit, toast, jellies, orange juice, coffee. . .enough to do you for the rest of the day, or at least until you see a good place for lunch.For lunch, you can get almost anything from fish and chips, "pub grub," soups, sandwiches, you name it. You can order haggis for lunch. Some castles and museums have both gift shops and places to order lunch, a convenient way to stay on schedule. Speaking of haggis, see the photo above. That was the haggis I ordered as a "starter" for dinner at Culcreuch Castle. In a restaurant, you don't get the full-size, uncut haggis which is the stuff of legends and the focus of ceremonies. You do get a nice sampling, though, with veggies on the side. Did I mention "lesser ingredients?" The overall effect was more on the order of meat loaf. You get lesser ingredients in sausages, kielbasa, German wursts, and American hot dogs, all of which I love in the wurst way. Don't ask, don't tell, just eat and enjoy! Desserts? Oh, yeah. Desserts are an art form in some restaurants. Our favorite dessert was "sticky toffee," which we tried out in different restaurants to see how many ways there are to make it (we got no two alike, all wonderful). I tried to upload a photo but Blogger is rebelling. Maybe later.
No, we aren't passing anybody. No, the photo hasn't been "flipped" left over right.Laurel wanted to try her hand at the wheel and I was grateful. That put me in the passenger seat, which in this case meant the left side. Driving on the left is the first thing you notice in the UK. Even as a pedestrian, you have to look right instead of left, and then look left halfway across the street.Note the stone fence on the right side of the road. Note the narrow shoulders. Sometimes the stone fence is on the left with the same narrow clearance. This isn't too bad on a dry day if you have no tour buses hogging the road. On a rainy day the road seems narrower. We had only a day and a half of rain but my passengers thought even that was too much. Driving in the cities is a whole 'nother story, which I'll get around to later.
People go to Scotland for a variety of worthy reasons. Some go to play golf. Some go to drink good whisky. We met one young lady from Pennsylvania who went to Edinburgh to work on a master's degree in photography. But a lot of people, like us, go to see the historic castles, churches, and ruins that dot the countryside. These photos were taken at Jedburgh Abbey. (Click to enlarge.)
Note the ledge and crossbar above the door in the background, below the lower of the two windows. That's where Laurel was standing in this picture.
To get there, we had to go up and down these stairs. Note the toe of my shoe, bracing me against the wall to take this picture, which gives you some idea of the small size of these steps. No room for fatties, here. The spiral staircases are as amazing as the ornate stonework in the rest of the building. The steps had to be cut identically to fit the staircase. The inside corners of the steps stack on top of each other, forming a column, and the outer edges are anchored in the wall. That's a rope going around the column, our "handrail."
Just got back from a very fine but too-short nine days in Scotland. Watch this space for further details and photos, to be posted later. Right now my body is telling me it is an hour or two until sunrise and I'm going to have to sleep off the jet lag. ZZZzzzzzzz
Sometimes you've got to stop and appreciate the beauty of the world around you, such as this view of the building next door to our building (click to enlarge):
I want a subject less somber, less serious, than hurricanes and the foolishness of our President and his top-level advisors such as Rummy, the Secretary of War. No, that was the old title. The current title is, Secretary of Defense. So, the latest hurricane is going to roll into the North Atlantic in time for us to fly over it on our way to Scotland. Should be a fun view from 40,000 feet or whatever altitude we're cruising at. That's as close as I want to get to another hurricane. And, believe it or not, a few Floridians noticed a faint treble from an earthquake in the Gulf of Mexico yesterday. Really, really faint. So now we can add earthquakes to hurricanes, tornados, sharks and alligators as reasons why you Yankees ought not to sell the family homestead and move to Florida. The Bucs lost their opening game, the Red Sox are killing themselves, the Devil Rays can't get started, . . . no wait, here's some good news: The FSU Seminoles held on to edge Troy. Troy? TROY?I'm still looking for a fun, frivolous subject, here. I'd share a "joke" I heard on Sunday but, nah, I'd better not. It wasn't all that funny.Thursday, we leave for Scotland. Now, that should be a source of fun topics but you will have to wait until we got back.
We just finished our primary elections in Florida, thereby (almost) putting an end to a heavy barrage of the sleaziest, slimiest election campaign ads that we've seen in a long time - that is, since the last election. In Florida, the way you run for office is to pin the liberal tail on the donkey who is your opponent. That's donkey as in jackass, not donkey as in Democrat. Even the Republicans, whose mothers undoubtedly taught them never to say unkind things about other Republicans, were trashing each other. I'm happy to say that most of the worst offenders lost their bids for office, but not all of them. I wish I could report that Katherine Harris' political career came to an end, but she embarrassed the party leaders by pulling in almost half the vote in a four-man. . .er, four-body. . .race. This is the Katherine Harris of Election 2000 fame, the Katherine Harris who calls separation of church and state a "lie," and the Katherine Harris who immediately went on the offensive by calling Senator Bill Nelson a liberal four times in a speech that lasted less than four minutes. We have to cope with this for two more months. I'd rather cope with hurricane season, which is also in full gear.
