My Copilot Is A Troll

Driving through the highlands we saw a lot of lochs.  The lochs have an interesting geography. They can be up to 300 meters deep, but they can also have places that you can walk across them, if you are a local and know the secret route! Scott (our tour guide) told us the story of a loch being so pretty, that some people from Ireland tourism took a picture of it and used it in their advertising. The Highlanders took exception to this cultural appropriation. One man walked out, on one of these secret routes, and planted a flag in the middle of the loch. When we arrived at Fort Augustus, the village on Loch Ness, we had a choice of three things. We could eat lunch, explore the village and/or take a boat tour of the Loch. However, we only had time to pick two of those. Since we didn't have a packed lunch, we had to eat. Of course we were going to do a boat tour of the Loch. How do you go all the way to Loch Ness, and not go out on the Loch? That's crazy talk. So we had to forgo the

Stirling Castle We are now down to our very last day of the "trip of a lifetime". Remember when I told you we booked a bus tour? Well, this is it. We spent 12 amazing hours on a comfortable coach touring the Highlands with a visit to Loch Ness! This will have to be split into two posts, there is simply to much in this day to fit into one! William Wallace's Monument We had a fabulous guide, Scott, who told us stories of history and geology and geography as we went. We saw standing stones, Stirling Castle, William Wallace's monument, highland coos (not a typo, they like to call the fuzzy ones coos, instead of cows), and a piper in full kilted gear.  Many places we only saw from the road, so good pictures are in short supply. It only made me want to come back and see more! Not a fabulous Highland cow picture,  but I almost forgot to take one because of my time chatting with Jamie! You may remember seeing pictures of young Jamie, born in Medicine Hat, Alberta! While every

Steak and haggis pie topped with puff pastery I had some specific goals for Scotland. I wanted to try 3 specific  foods - haggis, blood pudding and Scotch Eggs. It turned out that I loved haggis, it's like a savory sausage made with oatmeal and not in a casing. The first time it was in a haggis and beef pie, the second was stuffed into a chicken breast. Blood pudding was disappointing - it was dry and crumbly and didn't have any particular flavour. Scotch Egg with Whiskey Sauce  I also enjoyed my Scotch egg, which happened to be a haggis egg. It's a hard boiled egg, wrapped in ground meat or haggis and coated with a crispy crust. It ends up being the size of a tennis ball! Very filling and quite tasty! Scotch Egg cut in half I also wanted to do a whiskey tasting tour. Not just try it in a pub, but with some information, instruction  and guidance. Get You Guide did not disappoint. It gave us several to choose from, all easily accessible from Prince's Street or the Royal

**Warning, this post contains references to some not so nice parts of history that some may find unpleasant- I will warn you before we get to it!** Also - this is a long one, so get yourself a cuppa!! Unlike our previous locations, our time in Scotland, six days, was centered completely around one city, Edinburgh. After weeks of moving from city to city every 2-3 days, it was delightful to unpack, settle in and actually get to know a place. It was a very good decision. Edinburgh is especially easy to get around in. You can just tap your card when you get on the bus in the morning and get a day pass for 5 pounds. If you just get single trips, the system will cap it at 5 pounds, so you never pay more than the day rate. Prince's Street We were fortunate that our Inn was on a good bus route. We only ever had to take a single bus, no matter where we were going. I'm sorry, "Good Old #5" from Venice. The "44" might have replaced you in our hearts! If you are a tour

 I am already firmly in love with Scotland in general and Edinburgh in particular. We have made firm friends with our breakfast companion, who's visit is overlapping most of ours. A lovely man makes us coffee and breakfast every morning and we see our favourite waitress/bartender each evening. It is so easy to get around here and it doesn't matter where you go. In any direction we are surrounded by beauty, amazing architecture and history. Edinburgh is a very green city, with parks, gardens and trees everywhere. It has blended old and new beautifully. Across the street from Holyrood Palace, which began as a medieval abbey, there is an ultramodern, architecturally stunning government building. Behind both is an ancient volcanic cliff, Arthur's Seat, as in King Arthur of the Round Table. Tradition says that if young women climb it before dawn on May 1 and wash their faces with the dew from the grass, they are assured of beauty. (They aren't wrong - exercise and good skin

 We have finally arrived at the final leg of our journey; Edinburgh, Scotland!  After moving from city to city, and country to country every couple of days, we decided to spend the last 6 days in one place. We chose a charming Inn outside the city center that has a pub attached.  This turned out to be a fantastic decision. There is a bus stop on a main road, right outside our door. We can have supper or drinks here, if we like. We made a lovely friend, Katrina. She Scottish, but lives in Bergen - we were actually on the same flight! She comes here once a year to visit family. We have had breakfast together every morning in the pub, which has been so much fun. Across the road is a trail that follow the Leith River for miles and just beyond that is farmland. It's a beautiful place to walk and get some fresh air.  Our first full day, we took the trusty #44 bus down to St. Andrew's Square, in the heart of Edinburgh. We were fairly confident that we would find the Hop On Hop Off the

 One of the goals of this trip was to do as much travel by train as possible. Most of our time was going to be spent in the heart of big cities and we wanted to see the countryside as well. I'm a crafty person, and I usually have a project handy for any time I have a moment to sit. With several 6-8 hour journeys, I thought I would get all sorts of things done. Turns out that I couldn't tear my eyes away from the window. For most trips between cities you can reserve seats. This is handy, as a lot of locals are also using these trains to commute for work, school and shopping between towns. So if you happen upon a busy route during a busy time, there is no guarantee of a seat otherwise.  There are some that have four seats facing each other with a table in between and some that are like airplane seats, two together with trays that flip down. If we both wanted a window seat, it meant that one of us had to travel backwards, which I don't mind. There was often wifi (or claims to

Bergen is beautiful seaside city with a historic harbour district, and is a UNESCO World Heritage City. If you do an internet search for Bergen, you will get stunning photos of amazing, colourful  buildings, straight out of a fairy tale. The whole time we were there, it rained. We did attempt the funicular (cable car) up the side of the mountain. The views weren't too bad because the clouds were high enough, but the winds threatened to blow us right off the mountain. We took pictures, to prove we went up, but they would not make good postcards! It was obviously time to find indoor things to do. The buses and trams were simple enough to get where we needed to go, so we didn't bother with the Hop On Hop Off bus. We spent the morning at the Aquarium, which was much bigger on the inside than it seemed. There were outdoor areas for the penguins and sealions. There were demonstrations throughout the day - feeding penguins, sealion show, tide pool talk etc.  Then you descended into th

 Our last day in Oslo was divided by two major attractions. We spent the morning at the Norsk Folkemuseum and the afternoon at the Munch Gallery. The open air museum has gallery exhibits and about 160 historic buildings on it's grounds. The one I was most excited about was the Stave Church from the 1200s. Seeing it was one of my biggest goals of coming to Norway. When you stepped out of the sunshine, into the shadows of the church, you could smell the centuries of smoke that permeated the timbers. The door frames and floorboards were worn from countless people, long gone. Seeing one of these churches has been a dream of mine since I first heard about them Stave churches, from the 13th century, have Christian iconography and Norse carvings - gotta hedge your bets, in case this new-fangled religion is just a fad!  There was a wonderful exhibit on the Sami people, the reindeer herders of the North, who have a distinct culture from the rest of Norway. We saw many similarities between t

A fountain in the park Our first morning in Olso, it was about an 80 minute walk from our accommodations (and I use that term loosely) to the starting point of the Hop On Hop Off bus. Since it was a lovely day, a mostly downhill walk, and nothing opens until 10 anyway; this was not a problem. It gave us a good chance to see some of the lovely architecture. Oslo is a beautiful city, rich in history. Statues like these line either side of a long bridge I had a bit of time to chit chat with the young man who sold us the passes, while Janis went in search of coffee for us. He strongly recommended starting our day at the Vigeland sculpture park. It really was a lovely park and it turned out the 200 sculptures were all a single exhibition from an artist.  A walk through the park, across a bridge and up flights of stairs, leads you to these sculptures A view from the top, back at the way we came It was an absolutely glorious, sunny day in Oslo, so we thought we best take advantage of the weat