Saturday August 12, 2017

We decided to do a day in Stirling today.  A very lovely city we both felt at home in and like it very much.  We had been here before but had only passed thru we went to Stirling Castle that day but did not have time to do anything else.

Sam had booked us five days here this time because of its close proximity to so much.  We have been able to walk to many places.  After breakfast we went to find the laundromat we had found on the map but alas it was a laundry so we left our bag there and and collected it all clean and folded later in the day what a good service Fresh N Clean, all I had to do was iron it and ready to pack again for our journey to Edinburgh on Monday.

We took ourselves up to The Church of the Holy Rude absolutely amazing really.  "Rude" or "Rood" is an old medieval word signifying the Cross of the Crucifixion.  The first Church on this site was founded by King David 1, King of Scots, in 1129,but destroyed by fire in 1406.  Shortly afterwards a grant was made by the Lord Chamberlain of Scotland to have a new Church built and the Nave, South Aisle and Tower were completed about 1414.  This part of the Church with its rounded Scots pillars, its Gothic arches and its original oak timbered roof now appears, after many changes, much as it did when first built. It was added to between 1507 and 1546.

In 1656, following a quarrel between the two ministers of the Church and their followers, the Town Council built a partition thus forming the East Church and the West Church each with its own minister. This continued until 1935 when the two congregations were united under one minister.

As always it is the generosity of members of the congregation which enable these places to exist today otherwise they would not be here for us to see.  A fellow by the name of John Rich and his daughter defrayed the cost of the organ, built in 1939, and a stained glass window.  This was kept in safe storage during the Second World War.

There has been lots of restoration the latest being between 1987 and 1993 costing 1,250,000 pounds. A beautiful stained glass window depicting the First World War has been installed about 18 months ago.

Mary Queen of Scots, worshipped in this Church.  Mary's infant son, James, who later became King James 1 of England in 1603, after the death of Queen Elizabeth, was crowned here as as King James VI of Scots on 29th July 1567 making this Church the only Church in Britain, in regular use for worship, apart from Westminster Abbey in London where a Coronation has taken place.

We went to a concert there this evening joined in with the locals and had a glass of wine afterwards met a very nice chap called Finlay who is part of the Church gave us lots of info told us how they have celebrations of all of these events throughout the year full pipe bands etc etc.  I love all this info poor Sam is suffering info overload.

We walked down the street and went to a very busy pub and wandered back to our hotel.  Sam cannot believe he has anor 8 weeks of info gathering to go.

There was also anor fellow Alex Cunningham  who in AD 1809 generously gave 4,000 pounds to educate poor boys who would not have received an education and also 1,000 pounds for the benefit of the widows of Spittals Hospital.  If not for the philanthropy of such people that education would not have been given which would have benefited countless people as it went down the line. Amazing stuff really.
 
Sabine and Sam  

Brig O' Doon

.Friday 11th August 2017

Today we started out with a train  from Stirlingto Glasgow Queen Street Station then headed on foot to Glasgow Central to catch our train to Ayr.  When we arrived in Ayr we contemplated walking to Alloway but it was raining a little so we caught the bus.  We alighted from the bus outside the cottage where Robbie Burns was born.  We handed over our National Trust cards and the lovely gentleman guided us to what we should do and see.  We went to the cottage first where we met anor lovely gentleman who gave us the story of Robbie's early years while we were standing in the home where he was born. Robbie Burns was the first child of William and Agnes born on January 25, 1759 then followed by his brother Gilbert two years later a sister Agnes and Anabella then William John and Isabella.  His father William wanted more for his sons so he formed I guess a partnership with five other families closeby and they employed a teacher by the name of John Murdoch who was 18 to teach the children in the Burns family home. Robbie was 6 and Gilbert 4 but they learned quickly and well they could speak French as well as English.  The education they received at such a young age gave them their future.

The teacher lived with the family as did Betty Davidson a cousin of Agnes she helped about the house and the dairy in return for board and lodging and her influence on Robbie was far-reaching.

Time went on they moved to different farms being tenant farmers. Robbie had a thirst for knowledge and his education far reaching he remained friends with John Murdoch and wrote to him always. He became a Freemason at age 22 he had nine children by different women two sets of twins one set daughters born in March 1788 died in infancy.  He became an Excise man as well to earn money and keep his family.  He wrote endless poems and is of course responsible for Auld Lang Syne.  He died in 1796 it is thought heart disease.  The first "Burns Supper" was held in a cottage in Alloway in 1801 and they are still held to this day in many places around the World.

We then made our way to Brig O' Doon which was way more stunning that I could ever have imagined I had always wanted to see Brig O' Doon since childhood it was worth the wait.  There is a hotel

called Brig O' Doon House just by the bridge and there was a wedding there today a very beautiful bride.  We went thru the gardens quite outstanding and then the Museum and there are many thousands of artifacts one could have stayed there all day.  We had coffee in the coffee shop then went to the present Alloway Parish Church of Scotland which was built in 1858, but the recorded history of the Church in Alloway dates back to 1236.  The now ruined Alloway Kirk, across the road from the Parish Church was built in 1516 this is where William and Agnes Burns lay at rest. The Church was beautiful and very welcoming and the stained glass windows stunning.

We walked back to Ayr about 45 mins then caught the 16.52 train to Glasgow Central Station and then walked to Glasgow Queen Street to catch our train home to Stirling arriving at 7.00pm.  This was a big day we walked back to our hotel and had dinner there as well.  Very special day indeed.

Tomorrow is a day around Stirling and a visit to the laundromat in readiness to head to Edinburgh on Monday.  I hope I have all of this correct.  Sabine and Sam  

August 9 and 10 , 2017

Wednesday 9.08.2017 and Thursday 10.08.2017

There is a 12 day gap which I will catch up with.

We have spent the last 12 days, 4 with Donald, Sam's cousin and then anor 8 days the three of us spent that time together with Sam's cousin Katy and her husband Joe in Huntly we had a very lovely time together being looked after going beautiful places generally being very spoilt.  Lots of laughter and catching up to do I will fill all this in later.

We left Huntly Wednesday about midday, Katy and Joe took us to the station and we travelled to Stirling where we are staying at Friars Wynd very close to the station it is a very cosy boutique hotel.  We went out when we arrived to orient outselves, it is a very beautiful place, then we had something to eat and then Thursday after brekky we caught the train to Glasgow beautiful architecture we both really liked Glasgow.  The beautiful architecture being because it was built from all the richness of Glasgow's position in World Trade in the early 19th Century. Much of the wealth came from the trade in tobacco and sugar, which was very much based on slavery in America and the West Indies.  There are many bridges over the Clyde all contributing to the city's economy, these bridges were all built with the latest civil engineering technology available at the time.

We saw a lovely Cathedral which turned out to be St Andrew's Roman Catholic Cathedral there was a wedding in process when we visited very lovely.  I must admit I know little of St Andrew on his Feast Day is November 30 and I have not ever known of a Roman Catholic St Andrews.  After a google he was Simon Peter's brother and one of the Lord's disciples.  You learn something new every day.  We really spent our day seeing as much as we could and went to the Gallery of Modern Art beautiful building.  We caught the express to Stirling train home had dinner at our hotel and tomorrow we are booked to go to Ayr and from there we will walk to Brig o" Doon.

26 July 2017 Inverness

We had another early start today with our train to Kyle of Lochalsh leaving at 8.57 arriving at 11.30.  Very wet when we arrived Sam said I think it is too wet we should just catch the train at 12.07 back so that is what we did.  Kyle of Lochalsh is where the bridge goes over to Skye.  Today it was not the destination but the journey.  We arrived back in Inverness at 2.30 so we went to The Royal Highland Hotel and had a high afternoon tea.  I have put in a snap I took about what this Hotel did during World War I.  We wandered home did not need dinner after our afternoon tea.  We did a lovely walk around where we are staying.  We have not planned anything for tomorrow just take it as it comes I think as we leave here on Friday.  There are lots of B&Bs where we are.  We have met lots of other travellers at breakfast, French Germans all doing lots of journeys.  Each day there is someone new.  Sabine and Sam xx

The Royal Highland Hotel

Our B&B

25 July 2017 Inverness

We rose early this morning had our breakfast and set off to catch our 10.42 train to Dunrobin Castle.  Lovely journey as they all are.  The castle is most northerly of Scotland’s great houses.  It is the largest house in the highlands , with 189 rooms and is one of Britain’s oldest continuously inhabited houses, dating in part from the early 1300s.  It is the historic home of the Earls and Dukes of Sutherland.  The railway station was built by the Earl of Sutherland as his private station.  Today it is one of many request stop stations.  When the conductor checked our Scottish Rail passes at the beginning of the journey we let him know we were alighting at Dunrobin.  If we had not done this the train would not have stopped.  We had two hours at the Castle before our return journey and we had to wave our train down.  It is well worth a visit all of the main rooms looking like they would have in the 1800s.  No photography inside.  The gardens were laid out in 1850 by the architect Sir Charles Barry, who was responsible for the Victorian extension to the Castle and who designed the Houses of Parliament.  The arrangement of the Gardens, inspired by those at Versailles, have changed little in the 150 or so years since planted.  There is also a Museum housing many objects of interest.  We did not have time to see the Museum.  We made our way to the train arriving back after 5.00 we had booked ourselves into a lovely restaurant The Mustard Seed for 5.30 beautiful meal and we wandered back to our B&B exhausted.  Lovely day indeed.   Sabine and Sam xx

The station, not the castle!

This is the castle!

23rd and 24th July - Mallaig to Inverness

We had an early start this morning leaving Mallaig 10.57 arriving in Glasgow at 3.30 then train to Perth at 3.45 arriving in Perth at 4.46 then train to Inverness at 5.07 arriving just after 7.00.  This was an epic journey but extremely beautiful. The landscape is diverse.  The trains all very busy again the rail system really is stretched beyond with all the travellers and their luggage etc do not know how they remedy this but perhaps an extra carriage on most lines would go a long way to relieving some of the pressure.

We arrived in Inverness just after 7.00 tired and hungry by then.  There is a lovely hotel at the station called The Royal Highland Hotel so we went in with our luggage etc and other travellers with their luggage as well.  We were not staying there and it was very busy we had some dinner and I have to say their staff are to be congratulated they were all delightful.  We felt a million times better after a meal we then caught a cab to our B&B where we had stayed in 2011.  It was lovely to be back here we even have the same room our hostess and host are a lovely couple very kind, we are here until Friday.

Today we found ourselves a laundromat did all our chores etc .  It was a beautiful day sunny warm just general sightseeing today but a lovely day indeed.  We are booked on the 10.15 train tomorrow to go to Dunrobin Castle it is a request stop so we will have two hours there and then catch the train back.

Inverness is a very lovely place with a population of around 46 thousand.

All the best Sabine and Sam xx

The viaduct which carries Hogwarts Express in the Harry Potter movies

River Ness

Mallaig 21 and 22 July 2017

Friday morning and we set off from our hotel in Oban to catch the 8.57 train to Crianlarich.  After arrival at the station the scene became quite worrying, many many backpackers many many baby boomers suitcases rolling along.  How many people are catching this train?  Our two carriage train arrives, kept closed until prepared for its next journey, where all this luggage is going to go the least of our worries, we get on all seats with their reserved signs poking up gracious me thankfully Sam finds two seats at the back of the carriage with no apparent reserved signage we went for them our cases in the designated wheelchair spot thank heavens no wheelchairs.  We have reserved all our rail journeys in Europe but we had not here.  We get to Crianlarich hop across the platform for our train to Mallaig same situation all reserved thankfully we find two unreserved seats masses of people then the same thing again at Fort William lots alight Sam said do you want to move I said no better the devil you know than the one you don't luckily more humans get on all the seat vacated all reserved again.  We breathe a sigh of relief as we did not have to move.  I do have to say the scenery the entire journey was breathtaking and from Fort William to Mallaig very stunning, lots of young men from every country on earth by the sounds of them doing this journey because we cross the Glenfinnan Viaduct (the Hogworts train in Harry Potter crossed this viaduct) we will get a pic tomorrow as we go back that way.

We arrived here in Mallaig walked to our B & B a very beautiful view over the Harbour.  There is not one vacancy in the town as there never is in these towns any more.  This is a vastly different journey than our one in 2011 one could have been flexible then not now.

We walked everywhere extremely pretty.  It is a very busy harbour fishing which is how this village began in 1846 it has varied and changed over the years.  Lord Lovat owned all the land around here and he built the first wharf to assist the local fisherman after the potato famine. The railways came in 1901 and of course this changed how the fish went to market etc. The fishing changed during the two World Wars some for better some not.

This is a very busy port and fishing vessels and many ferries use this harbour crossing back and forth from Skye, Rum, Eigg and a couple of other islands.  All sorts of other smaller vessels taking many many pleasure seekers young and old on all sorts of different journeys.

We are about to head out and something to eat and then get prepared for tomorrow we have an epic day tomorrow our first train 10.10 back to Glasgow then one to Perth and then one to Inverness where we will arrive at 7.30 (we have reserved our seats for all of these journeys).

All the best Sabine and Sam   xx