Scotland Day Two

Scotland Day Two

I'm sitting in the room at the Isle of Mull Hotel and Spa. It's in Craignure, and our room overlooks the bay. We're drinking tea again. We can't figure out if the tea is actually better here, or if it just tastes better because we're drinking it in Scotland.

We started out this morning near Glasgow, going north. Our guide, Allison, is from Glasgow, and she said there is a 'friendly' rivalry between Glasgow and Edinburgh. Glasgow is sort of a low-brow city of blue collar workers, shipwrights, businesses involved with trade. According to Allison, the Glaswegians say, "You'll have more fun at a Glasgow funeral than at an Edinburgh wedding." I think that captures the essence of the difference between the two largest cities in this country. Also, if there is something that is outstanding or wonderful, in Glasgow it's "pure dead brilliant." That may have just become my favorite phrase.

On our way north, we stopped at the Village of Luss, a tiny touristy way station. We visited a small shop where an old man tottered around inside with a plate of Scottish shortbread for all customers. The village is on Loch Lomond, famous for a poem and song that include the words, "You take the high road and I'll take the low road, and I'll be in Scotland afore ye," written about a pair of friends who were imprisoned. One was to be executed the next day (the low road) and the other was to be set free.

From there we drove to Inverary Castle, home of the Duke of Argyll. This castle is occupied by the current Duke, whose wife is an heir to the Cadbury chocolate empire. The duke is from the Campbell clan, and in fact Argyll was the headquarters of that clan. Since the family name Burns is a sept of the Campbell clan, I guess I was visiting my ancestral home. Didn't see anyone I knew. While we were there, we had lunch in the cafe at the castle, lentil soup and ginger beer. The ginger beer is not to be confused with ginger ale. It is made of fermented ginger root, but has only a negligible amount of alcohol. The closest taste I can think of is Vernor's ginger ale, as it is rather strong and catches in the back of the throat. I probably would not drink it very often.

The castle was built in the 1700's, and it overlooks Loch Fyne. It is furnished in a French provincial style, including tapestries on the walls reminiscent of Versailles. There were pictures everywhere, both of the ancient dukes and duchesses, and modern ones of the current family. They have small children, 3, 5, and 7 as I remember. The duchess acts as 'lady in waiting' whenever the ruling monarch visits. That's sort of an aide who sets up meetings and official dinners.

From Inverary we went north along Loch Awe (pronounced "oh"). It's the longest loch, at 25 miles in length. By now, these lochs are all running together in my head, because I can't really tell much difference between them. They are all fabulously beautiful. Anyway, we arrived in Oben, where we caught a ferry to the Isle of Mull. Oben is picturesque, and with any luck I'll be able to send some pictures. By the way, I sent some this morning (last night to you 'Zonies), to Facebook, so if you want to find me on Facebook, the pics are in an album labeled "Scotland."

Somewhere along the way, before or after the village, we crossed into the highlands. You can tell when that happens, because the signs are suddenly in two languages: English and Gaelic. The Gaelic (pronounced "gallic") in Scotland is very different from Irish Gaelic. It has only 18 letters, and is inscrutable to me.

From Oben we took the ferry to Craignure, the largest town on Mull. Large is a term that should in no way be applied to this place. The term "wee" would fit quite well, in fact. The ferry ride gave us a spectacular view of the islands surrounding the open water between the cities. By the time we left Oben, it was late afternoon, so the land around us seemed shrouded in mist, with a mountainous horizon to the north and east, and rolling green hills to the south and west.

After settling in at the hotel, we had dinner. This one was not a amazing as last night's, but it was still pretty good. Then we took a walk. We left the hotel at a little after 8 PM, in search of the nearest castle, which we understood was about 1.5 miles away. We finally reached the Torosay Castle a little after 9:00, and of course it was closed for business. Like yesterday's castle, it is occupied, so we didn't feel good about jumping the fence and looking around anyhow. I didn't like the idea of spending the night in a Scottish jail. We got back to the hotel a few minutes before 10 PM, having walked at least five miles round trip. So much for their distance estimates. It was still light enough outside to take a picture without flash. It's easy to forget how far north we are until the sun sets after ten.

Tomorrow, we'll be going to the Isle of Iona.