Act V- A Jaunt up North

 My weekly post is a little late this week. Why you may ask /demand ? The simple answer is that we were having too much of a good time up north for me to stop a record it all. Luckily I took a lot of pictures so hopefully I won't forget too much of what we did. For a more complete picture you can check out my friend, Jenna's blog , for it was for her and her family that we headed up to Scotland in the first place.
 We found out only a few weeks ago that the Alfonso-Reinbold family was going to be spending the semester a mere six hours north of us in St. Andrews, Scotland. Since their kids were to start school this week we decided last minute to run up there and visit in the interim between their arrival in the country and the start of school. At the time trip planning needed to take place I was busy finishing up a commissioned painting before a hard deadline so Kurt took on all the planning and I must say he did a masterful job :)

 Last Thursday we set out bright and early aiming to break up the trip with a stop at Hadrian's Wall. For those of you who are a little spotty on British history, one of the many peoples who invaded this fair island was the Romans at the height of their empire, staying from 55 BCE to about 410 CE. They conquered most of the Britons in the south, pushing those that would not submit to the north and eventually erecting what came to be known as Hadrian's Wall to keep them up there. The wall ranged in height from 10-20 feet high and was dotted with forts and watchtowers. One of these forts was called Vercovicium (today called Housesteads) and its ruins still grace a high hill in Northumberland, possessed on one of the best preserved Roman latrines and the remains of a few buildings with central heating. The day we visited was absolutely gorgeous and the boys spent quite a few hours climbing all over the place and while we enjoyed the view.  Our recent the Museum of Classical Archaeology in Cambridge turned out to be a great asset when trying to explain all the history of the fort to the boys. They at least had a starting point and it made it even more amazing to see the Roman technology in practice. 
  That evening we ate on the patio of a lovely pub still in view of the wall and stayed at Ald White Craig Farm Cottages. The inn keeper was very friendly and just happened to be watching her two grandkids that day. She invited our boys to help them settle the chickens for the night employing Leif to pick up one of the less cooperative hens and push her into the hen house. As a reward for their good behavior throughout the day we let the kids watch the second Harry Potter movie (though we haven't finished the book yet!) I'm just so happy that they are finally getting into the series- I'm hoping it will make them more ok with having to wear school uniforms when the time comes.
 

The next day we struck out for Edinburgh after a brief visit to another of Hadrian's watchtowers near where the wall abruptly ends due to the position of a later quarry. The view was still great and it was fun to look out over the fields and guess at which houses and walls were made from stone siphoned off the Romans' great project. 
   Both Kurt and I have been to Edinburgh before and found it to be nice but not really somewhere we had vowed to go again. So the impetus for this particular visit was really a fine men's clothing shop, Walker Slater, recommended to us by Kurt's rival for best dressed Gettysburg prof., Professor Ian Isherwood. I did not have any good gift ideas for Kurt's last birthday so I made him promise that he would get a suit at said suit shop while we were here. Thinking it would help him to not be bothered by the kids and I, we left him there, waded through the crowds at the famed Edinburgh Fringe Festival and went to tour the Edinburgh Castle. Owing to the festival, everywhere we went was crowded and so our tour of the castle probably wasn't ideal (we skipped the crown jewels entirely due to the line). Also the kids just seemed disinterested in old things (unlike the Roman ruins) that they could not climb all over.

After about an hour Kurt texted to let us know that he was ready but when we met up with him, to my shock and horror, he was empty-handed having been unable to pull the trigger on such a high-priced purchase. I was not having it- I forced him to go back to the shop and this time I set the boys up with some activity books so that I could monitor his shopping progress. In the end, he came out with a beautiful three piece that defies color description. It needs hemming but fortunately I know someone that can take care of it. Only 7 months late Kurt has his birthday present.
  That evening we finished the drive to St. Andrews at last meeting up with Joe, Jenna and their adorable kids Isaac and Eleanor. They took us to dinner at Forgan's, a restaurant with one of those fantastic interiors that make you feel like you are in a movie about super-hipsters and to top it off the food was amazing. Afterward because they were good and because it was Eleanor's birthday (Happy Birthday, Ele! We felt so lucky to spend it with you!) we let to kids partake in some of the activities at the carnival that just happened to be taking place in St. Andrews that day. For 3 pounds a pop the kids climbed all over one of the coolest bounce houses I have ever seen, complete with a raft that periodically bucks its passengers and a child swallowing cheetah. Meanwhile we laughed with Joe and Jenna about how this "medieval festival" and 3 Octobre in Leiden fell short of our American expectations when thinking of what a medieval festival in Europe would be like.
 

Next morning we went for a walk on the Lade Brae's path, a beautiful walkway that cuts through the city, and had a picnic at one of Isaac and Eleanor's potential schools and its obstacle course playground. Later that day we toured some of St. Andrew's famous ruins- its castle and cathedral. The castle having changed owners and shape throughout history is most famous for being the ocean-front home of a prominent Catholic Archbishop, James Beaton. After sentencing a protestant leader to a fiery death, Archbishop Beaton was inturn murdered by a group of Protestants who then took up residence in his home. In an effort to retake the place, the Catholics secretly began tunneling under the walls only to be discovered and routed by the Protestants who dug their own intercepting tunnel. The castle is now in ruins but the tunnels are still there and open to the public for touring. The kids made it through no problem with Kurt and Jenna but I lost my nerve a few feet into the tunnel, my claustrophobia spectacularly overriding my interest in history . 
 

The Cathedral ruins left me feeling more comfortable though it somewhat challenged Kurt's fear of heights. He, however, overcame it with a bit more grace and climbed the extant central tower of St. Rule Church (the predecessor of the Cathedral located just next to it) to enjoy the view of the ruins and St. Andrews itself.   From both up above and down below we marveled at the remains of the cathedral and its extensive graveyard. The building, which judging by its outline, was enormous, was begun in 1158 and completed in 1318 but fell into disuse at the time of the Protestant reformation and was just left to rot. Like Hadrian's Wall, later town residents carted away many of the stones for other building projects leaving just one remaining wall and only 3 of the 6 towers which once made up the place. As much fun as it was to walk around the place, I couldn't help but grieve for all the wasted hours of labor all the medieval craftspeople must have spent on the cathedral, which I am sure they believed would last forever.
  On Sunday we left St. Andrews with the Alfonso-Reinbolds and headed to Stirling Castle, our first

stop on the way to Loch Long. Like Edinburgh Castle, Kurt and I had already seen this particular Scottish attraction but unlike Edinburgh I definitely wanted to return to Stirling, which upon our last visit was undergoing some restoration. This restoration of the Renaissance Palace
part of the castle had included a ambitious project to recreate the Hunt of the Unicorn Tapestries. The originals, which are housed in the Cloisters in New York State, were flown one by one to Stirling and London where two authentic looms were built and a handful of weavers copied their compositions using old techniques and materials. At the time we last visited the weaving was in-progress and as amazing as that was to witness, the finished projects are even better and I could have spent hours in the Queen's reception room where they are now displayed. Alas our kids won't stand for that kind of thing but they did let us have a pretty through gander before we got back in the car. We had planned to visit a distillery that day but due to some unforeseen car issues we all decided to head straight for our vacation rental on beautiful Loch Long. 

 


 Loch Long is what is know as a sea loch. Like a fjord is it open to the ocean, has a layer of freshwater atop a layer of heavier salt water and has tides that go in and out every 6 hours. Our rental house, The Rossmay, was right on the water and the kids spent quite a few hours exploring the shore while we adults enjoyed a wee dram and the impressive hills that surrounded the place. There was plenty of room in the house for everyone (four bathrooms!!!) which was nearly fully carpeted in blackwatch tartan carpeting and sported such a beautiful view that we pulled rank over the kids and the adults took the front bedrooms. 

 
I awoke happily to this view the next morning but mostly I was drawn out of my sleep by the nearby flapping of small but frantic wings. At first I thought that it was merely a bird bathing itself outside the window but quickly came to realize that this little sparrow was on the same side of the glass as us. Luckily Kurt deftly caught the poor thing in a towel and shoved it back out the open vent window where it had presumably flown in unwittingly.



 After breakfast we attempted a group hike up one of the many
beautiful hills of the Trossachs National Park but we didn't make it too far. Between the misty rain, the height of the place, and the narrow slug-filled trail the kids were not super interested in completing the prescribed hike. Seeing as this was supposed to be their vacation too, we had some mercy on them and abandoned the trail for a boat ride on nearby Loch Lomand. Lomand has a history of rich residents and residences which has made it a generally more touristy place. It was a very low-key tour, too quiet and relaxing for the kids really but they managed to stay on the boat for the entirety and then burned off their excess energy on the grounds of the Balloch Castle, a 1901 version of a medieval castle.

 The next day it was time to say good-bye to our friends but not before we squeezed in the distillery tour that had been denied to us previously. After a tearful good-bye to The Rossmay, we arrived at the Glengoyne Distillery just in time for the 11 o'clock tour with Gordon. The last time I toured a distillery I was not a fan of single malt whiskey but luckily my tastes have changed and I was able to enjoy not only the setting and the process but also the final product. Glengoyne unlike many Scotch whiskeys is not dried with peat so it is distinctly un-smokey, which the operators claim makes their delicious whiskey an even greater achievement as there is no smoke to hide behind. Needless to saw we were impressed.
  After a great lunch at the Beech Tree restaurant, which advertises itself as a "beer garden with animals" we at last had to part with our friends but with promises of hosting them in England the next time. 
 

As with our trip up, Kurt scheduled another stop to break up our journey home, this time in the Lake District of England. We stayed in the small village of Portinscale, right next to Keswick. We arrived a little too late to really enjoy either town but enjoyed a comfy rest in the pleasant Derwentwater Manor house. Good thing too as Kurt had big (and early) plans for us the next day. Indulging my attraction to prehistoric stone circles, Prof Andresen bundled us all in the car at 7:30 a.m. and drove us to the nearby Castlerigg Stone Circle. While not as impressive as Stonehenge, this 4,500 year old megalith is also a celestial calendar created solely with the diligent observation and sweat of a prehistoric people. We only had time to visit this one be apparently this area sports the largest concentration of stone circles in the British Isles.
 
     After Castlerigg, Kurt led us on the reportedly "family-friendly" hike up to the Cat Bells ridge and
peak. I'm convinced that guide book writers do not have children or must think that the only parents considering a hike with children are ones that have "children" who are upwards of the age of 12. In the end our kids made it through with a surprising lack of complaint but had I known the trail previously I would have said there was no way they could do it. The hike was 3 hours start to finish with a 500 meter assent (and later dissent) often straight up with several hands-and-feet scrambles. To my pleasant surprise the boys really embraced the adventure of the hike though I think they were a little scared by the winds at the top which seemed like they could easily push us all off (see picture).
   Exhausted we all piled in the car for the four hour ride home and made it just in time to return the car with only one pit stop and one tooth loss along the way.