Highland Trip, Day Two, Fort George and Elgin

That stupid baby started crying at about six in the morning. Somehow, Amy convinced me to go to him, a rare event. I wandered down the hall and scolded him for being up so early telling him I was to get him a bottle and he was to return to slumber. I walked out into the kitchen of the cottage and was making a bottle when I looked out the sliding glass doors to this scene!


So the baby was forgiven (mostly because of the above scene and the fact that he went back to sleep) and we were able to sleep for another fifty minutes or so. Then, we all got up, breakfasted, Amy packed a lunch, and we got in the van headed for Fort George. Fort George is an old military installation, which still houses the 3rd Scots, an infantry battalion. The drive was lovely and the arrival uneventful.

We gaily raised our hands when walking into the fort as an attendant asked if anyone was members. Even she knew this was a bit much and said, “Oh wow, we’re raising our hands!” If the girls were three years older they would have died from their embarrassing parents’ hand raising. We got inside the fort just in time for the grand entrance. There were re-enactors for the Romans through modern times. That was all well and good, but not overly amazing. What was very cool was the fort itself, the arrival of the Golden Lions (UK Military Parachute Team), their complete lack of reserve in letting you handle weapons, and a ridiculous bombing/strafing raid demonstration by a Spitfire.



Here are a few photos for you to get an idea of the fort. It was used to protect the strategic city of Inverness and the north of Scotland.



When I lifted this guy up to see over the wall, he said, “Awesome, a beach!”


There was an interesting ease with which the two boys approached and handled the weapons. They were never afraid of them, needed no instruction (well, “Don’t drop the sniper rifle” but…), and were only hampered by their lack of size (both from an inability to fit to the weapon and from other bigger boys “caring to a have a go").

You’ll notice that only one daughter has pictures here with weapons. That is not surprising to anyone who knows the younger of the two at all. She wanted absolutely nothing to do with touching them, but she did climb around in the vehicles.

Spotting and getting effects on target (MPMG, UK equivalent to the M60)



Manning the comms



GET DOWN ON THE GROUND YOU ... ...



Hell hath no fury like a woman with an RPG. (This was confiscated in Iraq.)



Three days in, the sniper continues to wait patiently for the right target, the right shot.



The British Kevlar looks this stupid on them too. They told me they were getting new ones. This looks exactly the same as putting a US Kevlar on backward.



Damn, Dad, we got branched Transpo!



I was waiting for a young girl to emerge from the water closet when I heard a big roar. It dawned on me that this must be a plane and then suddenly, like out of every WWII movie you have ever seen, between the buildings of the barracks came the Spitfire. It couldn’t have cleared the rooftops by fifty feet. It was surreal, eery, unsettling, and totally awesome. I am certain that the civilians of European cities witnessed this exact thing but with far more terror and destruction. The spitfire flew around demonstrating all sorts of attacking and defensive maneuvers for about fifteen minutes. It was easily the most impressive thing I have ever seen in the air. (Okay, actually it is tied with the time I called in close air support from Apaches in a training exercise and watched them annihilate the target we were painting with our GVLLD.)

After the Spitfire demonstration of which I took no pictures as my jaw was hanging open, we headed to the car where we waited for the second and final jump of the parachute team. It sure was cool and the kids thought it was almost as awesome as I did. The best part was in the afternoon jump, the last guy to jump had a smoke canister burning off his bott as often is the case. But, this time, he decided to dive straight down for as fast and as long as possible, pulling his chute very late. It was pretty cool, the others had their canopies over their heads well before he pulled his chute and he was at least 80% of the way to the ground from their canopies. I tried to sound cool and reminded the kids that I had jumped before to which the eldest queried, “Like that?” “Well, no, Honey, … not like that.”

From there we headed to Elgin and the Spynie Palace ruins. This was a great introduction to ruins in Scotland. The reason is that we had never seen one before. This was incredibly impressive with a tower you could still climb and amazing views. We just didn’t know that was not nearly as amazing the ruins to come.





After those Ruins, we headed into Elgin to the Cathedral ruins. The gates were closed but the ruins clearly present.




We then drove back to the cottage for dinner and a whisky tasting. I’ll write about that next.

Drinking to Denmark

After security, a lady was asking you to taste her whisky if you would give her your email address for a chance to win a huge collection of whisky. I not only wanted to win the prize, I wanted to do a little tasting. I asked for the Balvenie Doublewood (I own some, but I haven’t tasted it) to which she suggested I try the airport duty free store exclusive: Glenfiddich Rare Oak. To be sure, there was nothing “rare” about the oak, but the bottling is probably exclusively bottled for the duty free whisky store. It was ten years in an American Bourbon cask followed be four years in a Spanish Sherry cask. It was really rather good. It was sweet, but smelled strongly of bourbon. Although, remember, I am standing up drinking this out of a very small plastic sampler just past security in the airport.

I sweet talked the lady into a taste of the Balvenie Doublewood. After the sooth and sweet Glenfiddich I had just had, I must say I was mildly disappointed. It tasted a little harsh, but I won’t pass full judgment until I can I get a wee dram in an arm chair.

I walked over to look at the purchases they had available and, well, to trick the tasters. So I made it to the front and looked longingly at a few bottles until I was invited to taste something. I selected the Aberlour since we had just missed visiting there last week on the Highland trip. Anyway, the Aberlour was really nice. Again, I’ll need a better, more thorough investigation, but this was good.

I checked on my boarding time and headed for the gold star alliance lounge where I hoped free wifi awaited me. I was happy to see that free lots of stuff awaited me, like free Jameson and a Budweiser. So I had a bit of Budweiser and then a little taste of the Jameson. This is super smooth, but the nose is totally disappointing. It didn’t have a solid smell to it all, which has become my favorite part of the Single Malts from Scotland. Maybe I didn’t give the Irish standard a fair shake, but on this trial I wish it smelled of something, anything at all.

So, I got to the airport a little early and managed to sample three single malts, drink a little Irish whiskey, have a beer, and do a little work, including writing this little piece here. I never did manage to get online, even after asking for help (which wasn’t very helpful). I then slept like a champ on the plane.

So I am in Aalborg for a conference and a presentation. Maybe I’ll have enough time to write about Days 2-4 on the Highland trip.

Highland Trip, Day One, Abernethy Highland Games

The previous post laid out a tentative itinerary for a family trip to the highlands. We had first made a plan, then looked for a place to stay. This turned out to be a bit tricky as the highlands are apparently popular so we switched to finding a place to stay followed by making a plan. The previous post was the result. In the next few posts (possibly interrupted a time or two) I hope to tell you a bit about this trip. The trip lasted four days. Day one was spent traveling to and attending the Abernethy Highland Games, and finally settling in to our cottage. The second day included a trip to Fort George for the reenactment followed by ruins near Elgin and finishing with a lovely Speyside themed tasting at the cottage. Day three started at the Glenlivet Distillery, moved on to the Balvenie Castle, and finished with a trip to the Adventure Playland in Tomintoul on the Glenlivet Estate. The final day started at the Glenfiddich Distillery, moved to the Huntly Castle, and the trip home included the Kildrummy Castle and some intense driving on “single track” roads through the moorlands.

Day One: Highland Games

We wanted to get on the road early enough to make it to most of the events at the Abernethy Highland Games in Nethy Bridge. The drive was not so long, maybe three and one half hours and provided the disconcerting experience of driving over the Firth of Forth on a see-through bridge (the shoulders and center of the bridge were just grates and you could see the one hundred fifty feet down to the water). High speed left side driving took a bit of getting used to, for example cruising in the left lane. We arrived a little later than desired and the parking was starting to fill up. We were redirected to a new parking lot that was not doing so well after weeks of rain. For fun, the attendants directed us to the soupiest mud hole in the field where we spun our wheels for some time. (Ultimately, I went back during a bit of sunshine and moved the van without assistance, but passed several vans and a camper with drivers, passengers, and parking attendants all scratching their heads wondering who was going to pull them out.)

The games were rather entertaining, especially the “Heavy Events” of the traditional highland sort: shot put, weight for distance, weight over bar, Scots hammer, and caber. All these Heavy events must be performed in a kilt. We saw a junior “smash” an 11 year old record in the weight over bar, besting the old record by a foot with his sixteen feet nine inches. It was surprising how thrilling it would be to watch an enormous 18 year old fling an anvil up in the air. The caber (or caber toss) is probably the most recognizably Scottish Highland Game. The athlete tossing the caber (no jokes please) would run with a judge running just behind him and another two on the sides. The point is not to throw this for distance, but to toss the caber skillfully so that it flies straight, lands directly on its end, and arcs over for a flat landing on the gound. Speed is also important. I can only assume this was invented during the days of illicit distilling when the cask-strength whiskies were probably around 80% ABV.



There was a bag pipe competition, with eight pipe and drum bands attending. Throughout the day, the massed pipe band (all eight bands in one, or seven if one was competing) would just enter the field and march around the track. The band actually marched out onto the track in the middle of the women’s 800m. This was too bad for the ladies who had run 400m of that race already.



There was a Scottish dancing competition. Now I didn’t watch too much of this, but apparently some of the dances were different than others as there were many categories. I think without training, you would not be able to tell. My favorite part of this competition was the music. The dancers, in every dance, for the entire day, on two different stages, were dancing to a piper piping. They rotated about six pipers between the two stages, but one would play for an entire event. I guess this was for fairness. If the piper stunk, everyone in a single competition would have the same stinky piper. The massed pipe band entering the field and drowning out your singular piper was not cause for a do-over.

The High Chief of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma was the Chief of the games. It seems the clans of Scotland and the tribes of Native Americans have many similarities. The clan of the games was the Clan Grant, and the High Chief of the Cherokee Nation, Chad Smith (Really, that doesn’t very Indian?) was the sixth great grandson of a pioneer from the Clan Grant. The Cherokee in attendance put on a demonstration of their battle sport called stick ball. In ancient times, two bickering tribes would agree to settle disputes via stick ball rather than wage war on each other. There were few rules and much bloodshed. In modern times, the game is men and boys versus women and girls. The men must use the sticks to touch the ball and cannot hit, while the women are not obliged to follow any rules whatsoever. The oldest kid played in this demonstration.

The largest event was the Abernethy 10 mile run, a trail racing event that drew roughly 120 participants. When I found out about it a few days before leaving, I certainly regretted my lack of running in recent weeks. Had I been running regularly, I would have run this race.

The fee to enter the games was also your entry fee for all the events. I had hopes of winning the 100m, but failed to sign up in time. I went to the registration tent and asked if I could sign up for the 100m. I was told I could only sign up for events beginning after the 800m because all the other events were already out with the officials. My choices were caber toss, 1500m, 400m (handicap). With no kilt for the caber and having not run in a few weeks, I thought a full out 1500m would be a bit harsh on my body and ruin our trip, so I opted for the 400m. I had to enter as a scratch. The handicaps that were awarded were 30m to two runners and 60m to another. That’s 7.5% and 15% of the race, quit a head start in a sprint. I wouldn’t have won a fair race, but I would have placed second I think. Instead, I came in fourth running my 400m in 68.83s. That’s not going to make the high school track team, but it does meet the gold standard for the German Sports Badge for 30-39 year-old males.



After the games, we drove for another hour or so and followed the GPS to our cottage. After about fifteen minutes on a single lane road that the GPS called simply “road”, Amy mentioned that she had found our cottage available on the web page “undiscovered Scotland.” It was as remote as one might get in Speyside. The best part was when the GPS (street speaking) lady said to us, “Navigate off-road for .5 miles.” So, Amy made some dinner, kids ran around, and the owner pointed out the Glenlivet Distillery in our panoramic view.

Off to the Highlands

Last weekend was parades and this weekend, we are off to the Highlands. I'll post more about when it is over, but a brief itinerary for you to wonder about over the next several days:

• Highland Games (I hope to compete in some event)
  
• Military History reenactment & parade
  
• Distillery Tour (Glenlivet and I hope another)
  
• Some Castles and churches
  
• Some hiking in the Scottish country
  
• A decent view of the ongoing meteor shower
  
• Enjoying our cabin (ten minutes from the Glenlivet Distillery)
  
• Too much scary driving
  

I'll let you know how it all goes.

Cavalcade

The day after bagpipes and the castle was the parade we intended to attend that opening weekend of Festival, the Cavalcade. This parade has most of the bands involved in the Edinburgh Military Tattoo and floats from many of the shows in town for the festival. Due to construction of a totally unnecessary tram in Edinburgh, the Cavalcade was in Holyrood Park last year and again this year.

We went early thinking this was wise to get good vantage point. Turns out, this wasn’t so necessary. We arrived ninety minutes early to a completely empty parade route excluding roughly nine other people. Still I laid down a blanket and spread out on it for a nap while Amy and the kids went to the entertainment area (carnival?). I sort of assumed that Amy knew how far a way it was.

They made it all the way to the entrance, but not one step further. Blocking there steady advance was a few chaps on stilts dressed as though they were riding an ostrich. I’m not sure if you have met our second daughter, BC, but if so, you already know that this spelled doom for her; she simply turned around and left. No fits, minor tears, but a full force “about face” and “forward march” back to Dad and the absence of ostrich-stilt people. So, Amy and the crew had to follow due to legal obligations.

This was an all out parade, not just bagpipes. In fact, our children cheered and yelled out, “Yeah, a REAL marching band!” when a bagpipe free crew passed by. The parade started with 150 motorcycles and some sports cars. Many kids would think this was cool, but ours just covered their ears and waited for the exhaust and noise to clear. They were happiest with the bands. The very first float was the Lady Boys of Bangkok, which Mary caught on to right away. She, however, thought they were just being silly.

All was fun and games until the Chinese dragons came down the path. This put BC into full out tears and a face-down-in-the-picnic-blanket hiding spot. But, she kept coming back for more. Dancers, fine; show songs, fine; anything in a (non fairy) costume, horror!

At the end of the parade we were told by two children, “That was awesome.”

Bagpipes and Castles

Amy and I had decided we needed to take the kids downtown for a day of home town tourism. August is the month of the Edinburgh Festival and the population of the city supposedly doubles to one million. So we decided to go for it, head down to High Street with the Festival goers on opening weekend. There would certainly be no parking, so let’s take the bus. Our children absolutely love the double-decker buses.

We took the bus to High Street (although I made us get off one stop too soon and walk) and turned up hill from George IV Bridge toward the Castle. We had decided to purchase a membership in the Scottish historical society so we could get into all the castles in Scotland with no further fee, and the place to buy such a thing is the castle. As we got closer, we noticed that the steps along the sides of the streets were filled with people waiting but we couldn’t tell what they were waiting for. When we got around the bend, we saw a few bagpipers and decided to stay for the parade. We didn’t really consider when the parade would start, but found a spot on the route in the front and planted the children on the steps to eat their lunch. The parade started roughly one hour later. It was the festival bagpipe parade. Have you ever heard Scotland the Brave?



Whenever a new bagpipe band approached I’d ask the girls, “Hey, what song do you think they’ll play?” They thought this was funny twice, but there were a lot of bagpipe and drum bands.

After the parade, we headed to the castle and decided to go on in and tour the place. I think the kids thought it was pretty cool. Aaron was out cold from the jarring of the cobblestones when we got to the cannons and waited for a tour to start. Amy had the other three up on a cannon when one of those super annoying photo company asked if she could take their photo. I recognized the Aussie accent (with the previous knowledge that Kat from the Heatherlea was one of these photo people) and went and gave her a hug. This was disconcerting to my wife and children. We did however score free pictures, although we’ll have to pretend that Aaron is IN the cannon. (They look something like this, although this is not one from Kat and the photo people.)



After a tour the three ladies went in to see the crown jewels. Upon emerging from the chambers, I excitedly asked the girls if they liked the Stone of Destiny. They looked at me and said, “What’s the Stone of Destiny?” So then I just asked if they saw a big square stone in with the crown jewels. “Um, I don’t think so, why?” Nevermind. Amy ensured me that the Stone of Destiny was still there.

We left the castle and headed to the Fringe. I’d like to explain what the Fringe is, but it is totally unclear to me (and the link won't help you either). What we experienced was a massive number of people handing out flyers to their shows and very bad street performers lining High Street. Oh yeah, and about 100,000 people irritated that I kept jamming the stroller into them when they wouldn’t move.

We decided to leave to meet some friends for lawn bowling. Seriously, we finished the day with lawn bowling at the Falcon and a picnic dinner. Very relaxing. One can best understand the day by this guy…

“Look kids, Big Ben, Parliament”

After being in Edinburgh for ten days, we took the kiddos to London. I wanted to take the kids to London of course, and I was considering driving there. I also wanted to take them on some train journeys, and then East Coast Trains offered a ridiculous deal: £9 each way. Seriously, I couldn’t drive to London for this price, so for £108 we had six table-reserved seats on the 5 hour train to London. I think the kids loved the train travel.



In London we did most of the obligatory tourist stuff, save the museums. You see, four kids don’t all agree simultaneously on when you should go inside a museum. We also didn’t go inside anything else, because in London they charge you for everything. Seriously, we went to St. Paul’s Cathedral only to see that it would cost us roughly $50 to take the family into the church. A CHURCH! I went in as far as I could. It was nice, but it was no $50 church. I’ll take der Dom for free, or Notre Dame, or St. Peter’s, or, well, any church not in London. Okay, I got sidetracked. Point is, we really saw everything from the outside due to the need to pay our mortgage.

We took the train on Saturday and found our hotel. It was interesting with incredibly uncomfortable beds but worked. Sunday, we took the tube (not handicap or stroller compliant in 2010) to St. James Park and scampered to the changing of the horse guards. Then, we walked back through the park to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. Aside from the baby nearly choking to death (for real, people around us were very scared) the kids waited like champions for the festivities to begin.



I didn’t see too much of it, but the kids saw short bits when I would hold them up over the crowd. Okay, two guard changes, then we went back into the park to the playground. We had a picnic. We saw a pigeon rescued from the algae on the pond. We returned to the horse guards to catch a photo with a guard.



I wanted to go to 10 Downing Place so we headed that way. When I saw the radical Islamist protest, I thought that might be a fun experience for the kids. Then I saw police pulling some of them down and things getting thrown back and forth across the street so we turned around and headed for Trafalgar Square. No kidding, vans filled with riot police went by for about twenty minutes.

Later that day we took a boat on the Thames. It was fun and a good way to see a lot of the city in a fashion the kids found to be entertaining.



The next day, we asked the girls what they wanted to do. Without hesitation, “Ride a double decker bus and an 18 meter bus.” We were able to work that into the plan with the double decker taking us to St. Paul’s Cathedral (where one girl had a 40 minute nose bleed) and catching an 18 m bus (one of the extended flexible mid-section buses) when the boys were in bed. So that day we did the outside of Tower Bridge, Tower of London, St. Paul’s, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Parliament, the Eye, and Kensington Gardens. We spent the longest time at the Diana Princess of Wales Playground, the most amazing playground we have ever been to.

The baby spent most of the trip in the backpack which has carried all four kids to many interesting places. He didn’t complain too much, but he was probably still reeling from the pain of getting a granola bar ripped out of his throat by parents’ hoping to save to his life.



Oh yeah, he also had a low grade fever the entire trip. Sadly, this made him lethargic and easier to have along.

The train back was at first horrible. The car we had reserved seats in was about 100°F. Then, they announced that the AC was broken in the car and we should move to a different car. This gave us a trip home in First class as you can see on the seat back (if you are able to see past the hair).