European vacations

Edinburgh is a beutiful area steeped in history and mystery. The area itself is a magnificent physical setting tied to key aspects of Scottish history. With spectacular scenery and lots of places to shop this is the place to go.

With friendly people who greet you. Nice Scottish breakfasts sure to put the pounds on. Oat cakes galore. It is hard to avoid spending lots of money in Edinburgh as their are so many clothes and gift shops. This really is the best vacation destination.

A few months ago, I decided that I wanted to go to Scotland to trace out my roots. I wanted to see where my family came from and why my grandfather was so full of pride when he spoke of Clan Ramsay and the Dalhousie family of Scotland. I wanted to go and see our famed castle, the Dalhousie Castle, and experience life as it could have been if my ancestors hadn’t of come to American several hundred years ago.

Edinburgh Review by Leslie Watson (eider@barrow.com)

Edinburgh, Scotland Tuesday, September 3rd

We arrived in Edinburgh and went right to Edinburgh Castle where we met Keith, our guide for the rest of the day. He was a large Scotsman fully dressed in the traditional kilt and everything. He was an extremely funny and entertaining guide with a booming voice.

This past summer I had the great pleasure and opportunity of visiting SCOTLAND along with a cruise to NORWAY and several jaunts into ENGLAND. I’ll just be writing about SCOTLAND here. I was fortunate enough to have a pen pal from SCOTLAND so her and her husband invited me to spend a few weeks with them and see their country. She’s coming over here next summer so I hope to show her my beautiful TENNESSEE.

Edinburgh is a great city to visit and to use as a jumping off point to visit other parts of Scotland. It is full of historical sights and is also a very modern city.

Edinburgh castle is a great place to visit to get a sense of Scotland’s past. The tour is very informative and military buffs will find it very interesting. Just outside the castle gates is another tourist stop that is well worth the visit. The Whiskey Society has a tour where you can learn the history of Scotch Whiskey, how it is made and also sample many of the different varieties that they have from all over the country. If you are going to go on the whiskey trail then this should be a first stop before leaving Edinburgh to obtain maps and to find out which distilleries have tours.

I can remember landing at the Glasgow Airport on September 10, 1998. It was rainy as usual, but my curiosity had the best of me. I remember my classes started in October, so I didn’t have much time to tour Scotland. I wanted to emerge myself in the culture and really get an appreciation for the Scottish right away.

PLACES I VISITED AND MY EXPERIENCES:

-ABERDEEN was an industrial kind of city, but I was intrigued to see it looked most like a modern US city than any other in Scotland. I spent just a few hours here, not much for tourism.

Glasgow International Airport - airport code GLA -( or Abbotsinch for those of us with longer memories ) is visible from the M8 motorway about 8 miles out of Glasgow and a mile or so from Paisley. So is very accessible to reach by car. It is my local airport and I have flown from here many a time on both international and domestic flights.

One thing to confirm, if you are using a low cost airline, is which Glasgow Airport you are going to. There is another - Glasgow Prestwick ( airport code PIK ) which is about 25 miles south of Glasgow.

I received several requests for more information, both about the places we went and the graciousness of the people, so I have substantially amended this review to include that information. Thanks to the people who took the time to request it. New material is in italics.

I fell in love with bagpipe music as a child and always wanted to visit their ancestral home, so when I finally did so, it was a huge thrill for me. I expected to find dreary, drizzly landscapes; dour, sour people; and pipers wandering around the countryside in kilts.

If you don’t mind a little wet cold weather and you want to see gorgeous scenery and meet some of the nicest people in the world, you must visit Scotland. Best time to visit, weather wise, is June through August. Time it right and you can catch the Edinburgh festival and the Military Tatoo. Edinburgh, known as Athens of the North, is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. The center piece is the castle which will give you many great views of the city. If you travel north you can take in the coast and stop off at St Andrews to see the international home of golf. With it beautiful coast line but ware a coat. There are many other great places to see, such as John O’ Groats and of course Loch Ness. There are many castles open to the public and lots of Museums.

What do you want? Bit of history? There’s a lot of Roman stuff in Chester and York. If you prefer medieval go to Stratford, there’s some nice places round there. The West side of the country is a lot nicer than the East. Try the following trip:

1) Weymouth, on the South coast - not interesting in itself, but find the Portland heights hotel (on the coast road towards Portland Bill). There is a go kart track opposite, walk through it and you’ll be in a quarry which was given to the local Stonemasons college. There is some weird stuff in here. It’s cool. You won’t find any signposts.