All Things Scottish, Day 1

Finally have some time to sit down and write some thoughts on the Scottish vacation thus far. Sitting here in Kilmicheal Glassary, Scotland, without any cellphone service but WITH high speed internet, and catching up on the last 5 days.

Pictures will likely not be posted until after I get back -- It's hard to revert to this small laptop screen for editing, compared to the 27" at home -- plus I don't necessarily think many of the places I'm be visiting will appreciate huge photo uploads, high-speed be damned.

The journey started up well with last minute packing the day of departure (I always leave the packing and planning to as late as possible..) travelling via Air Canada and Continental with a 2 hour connection in Newark direct ongoing to Edinburgh. Last Sunday weather in the eastern states was dicey, so the flight from Toronto was delayed almost 90 minutes, meaning I was running inter-terminal to catch my flight.

Of course they were holding the Edinburgh flight for other delayed incoming connections as well, so all worry was for naught -- and in the end even my bags made it without problem.

First sign that all things in Scotland might not be ideal was the fact that the captain had the attendants prep the cabin for landing 40 minutes out and then strap themselves in. It was a bumpy ride, and luckily we landed right into the wind as otherwise the gusts to 60 kph would have had us divert... elsewhere.

On landing, the weather was horrible -- at EDI the walk to the rental car center is quite lengthy, and partially outside, and partially "under covered walkway" which isn't much help when it's raining sideways.

Happily, once at the rental center, the car that will be my home for the next 16 days was nice -- an Audi A3 Sport with a small 1.6 TDI (Turbo Diesel Injection) engine and a manual transmission. It has all the nifty "eco" features like auto engine start/stop -- which, interestingly enough, also instantly restarts the engine if you stall it in gear (which, *cough*, doesn't EVER happen.)

Actually in this case the whole car is part of the Hertz "Green" selection and the vehicle seems designed for high fuel economy. In fact, I've been averaging under 5L/100 so far. Why this type of vehicle is not offered in North America is beyond me -- Audi only last year offered the A3 TDI, and at that gives you only the larger 2.0L TSI engine, and only the automatic transmission. Bah.

Anyway it was the car I wanted, and I have a room in the South of Scotland booked for the evening, so the first place on my agenda was a visit to the famous Rosslyn Chapel. Unlike "the movie" (The Da Vinci Code) which places it in the vast highland plateau, it's actually in what's essentially a suburb of Edingburgh. Very interesting place, and with the added bonus that you only see the INSIDE -- the outside of the building is completely undergoing restoration and is wrapped in scaffolding -- after the roof repair took 14 years!

For reference, the release of The Da Vinci Code book and movie quintupled the number of visitors to Rosslyn. If you like interesting carvings and decoration, Rosslyn is worth a visit. Why the added bonus? Because on Monday, the weather in much of Scotland was truly horrendous. 100kph gusts, heavy rain and, in some places, hail. So being inside a chapel is good.

In the fiercest part of this, I pulled into a nameless town Car Park for a quick nap (I did take the redeye flight) which ended up being 3 hours. Oops -- but probably best not to be driving on the Wrong Side of the road when lacking sleep!

Finished off the first day with an attempted visit to Hermitage Castle, down near the English border. OK, first big less about Scotland -- things close at 5PM! Even things like rural castles on windswept moors! So back up to Jedburgh for the night.