Great Scot!

Sara has allowed me temporary access to be able to tell about a 'recent' (as in 2 months ago) adventure of a Euro-dad. After 6 months in the Netherlands I figured Sara needed a break and so treated her to a plane ticket back to the States to get some QT (quality time) with her folks since here in the Netherlands they have a 'herfstvakantie' or 'autumn break.' She took Jillian which left me with the other 3. So what to do? Why, I had the unbelievably inspired -- but short-sighted -- idea of taking them with me to Scotland! After a little research I discovered that there was an overnight ferry between Amsterdam & Newcastle. The thought of spending the night on the boat (a mini-cruise I kept telling myself) seemed like a fun alternative to Schiphol airport. And the fact that I could drive my car right up onto it made it even more attractive.

So, the plans were set. We would get on the boat Saturday afternoon, get to Newcastle Sunday morning and be off on a 'circle tour' of Scotland. We departed on time and spent a few hours at an airplane museum not far from our house in Lelystad. Kids and I enjoyed it and I was feeling pretty good about the trip so far. Then, en route to Amsterdam we hit a traffic jam (which are EVERYWHERE here in Holland!). We sat. And sat. And sat. Boat leaves at 5:30 p.m. We sat some more. Finally things started moving again and TomTom told me it would be tight to make it on time. No problem in the States -- but here there is a highway camera about every kilometer so speed at your own risk (and expense). We made it just in time.

So, we are on the boat. And after we leave the serene Amsterdam harbor we hit the full force of a raging North Sea. I thought it would be fun to have a berth (room) on the outer side with a window. Bad idea. We went from being underwater to being 2 stories above the ocean to being back underwater again all night. 3 of us felt sick ... 1 of us got sick. Needless to say, it was a long night. And this dad doesn't do well w/ sick children. Just ask Sara. No problem, though -- we were to arrive in Newcastle at 9 a.m. ... that is, until they got on the loudspeakers @ 8 a.m. telling us that due to the high winds we would be delayed until 1 p.m. So I went and got the trash can again ...

On the bright side, we arrived into Newcastle with the sun shining which is rare according to the locals we met on the boat. Also, it turns out the British (in case you didn't know "Great Britain" is actually the combination of England, Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland) drive on the wrong side of the road. I had forgotten about that and can't tell you how hard it is to fight against 20 years of driving habits! But we survived ... for the most part. We did get a strange look every once in a while when people thought that Graham or Jayden were driving the car -- until they saw the Dutch plates and realized we were from the continent. Jayden got to ride shotgun first. And he was given responsibility for taking pictures as we drove. I only had to ask once ... I heard a few pictures being 'snapped' along the way, but when we stopped at a rest stop he had taken about 200 pictures in the span of 30 minutes. So we had a little discussion about photography. And it worked ... he took some fantastic pictures and was my main camera dude for most of the trip. Although he did prefer the self-portrait most of all ...

Our first stop en route to Edinburgh was Hadrian's Wall. I had never heard of it before but had been listening to some BBC history podcasts recently during my 2 hour daily commute to Abbott and they mentioned it. It was literally a wall (think Chinese wall, but a little smaller and mostly earthen) that goes across the entire country of northern England and represented the furthest north in the UK that the Roman empire extended. We stopped at an old Roman fort that had been excavated to reveal old foundations. I liked the history ... kids just liked running around and crawling on the rocks.

And then we headed north -- and knew immediately when we crossed into Scotland as we were higher & it got much colder.

After Hadrian's Wall it was off to Edinburgh. The itinerary called for 2 days in Edinburgh, 2 days in Inverness and 1 day in Glasgow. Edinburgh was as advertised -- very old, very hilly & very little industry (compared to Glasgow, anyway) -- but a lot of tourism. We spent Monday morning at Edinburgh castle. Very cool. Saw the crown jewels. Saw lots of kilts. Saw lots of Asian tourists.
After 2 days in Edinburgh (pronounced Ed-in-burr'-oh, by the way) it was off to Inverness and our attempt to find the Loch Ness monster "Nessie." On the way, we stopped by St. Andrews. It was a chance visit and was not really pre-planned. However, I am glad we did. I had a Presbyterian upbringing thanks to my Scottish roots and I didn't know half of the history before our visit about Scotland's role in the Reformation (and, coincidently the Netherlands role also!) & all the conflicts it created then and are still there even today (e.g., Northern Ireland). A really fantastic ruin is that of St Andrews church which was destroyed during the Protestant Reformation. It would have been amazing to see the church in its prime -- the building is HUGE as can be seen below. The kids are playing at one end of the church and you can see the other end in the distance.

We also stopped off at several castles in Scotland. (Next time I'll also stop on the whiskey tours!) One of the coolest was on the east coast called "Dunnottar Castle" and apparently at one time housed the Scottish crown jewels. Kids loved it -- especially the route to/from the parking lot -- which involved about 1,000 steps. It was actually a nice day (rare we were told as it is on the coast) and we got some great pictures.

Needless to say, we were unsuccessful at finding Nessie (although Graham swore he saw her swimming across the lake) but enjoyed the pursuit. I didn't realize but the Loch Ness is very narrow (only about 1/2 - 1 mile across) and very long (20+ miles). There is a very nice road that encircles the Loch with many picturesque 'bump-outs' along the way.

Our last stop was in Glasgow and I was worried that it would be too short a stay. However, afterward I was not a big fan of Glasgow (at least not as a parent) and found it less appealing than the Highlands and Edinburgh. Ironically, though, it was close to Glasgow that some of my family heritage originates. In fact, it was interesting to see a lot of signs on shops, passing trucks and billboards with family names "Graham" and "Kay." I think Graham counted about 10 during one stretch of road. We stopped at the Scottish national football stadium & museum (football as in 'soccer' of course). We were the only ones there (except for a committee that was evaluating the stadium for Olympics) and so we got a private tour of the stadium -- very cool!

After Glasgow it was back toward Newcastle and the much-feared return trip to Amsterdam. Fortunately cheapskate me bought inner-berth tickets so it was not nearly as bad a trip back -- and winds were actually at our back which allowed us to get back in time for the boys' soccer game Saturday morning.

It will be interesting to see how much Graham, Jayden & Helen remember about our trip to Scotland -- and how their version of the story compares to mine!