It's Not A Secret, It's Just Off The Beaten Path

 


When we travel, we like to get off the beaten path.  Indeed, my wife Fiona was born in a place off the "beaten path".  There are a surprising number of things to do in places that are off the beaten path. 
They are not hidden, but can be difficult to find, which makes them a little more enjoyable. 

 

The last few days on the Isle of Lewis, in the remote northwest of Scotland, have been full of activities and things to see.  In the main city of Stornoway, there is a big impressive castle on a hill overlooking the town.  It's just been renovated, and includes a nice museum.  

 

And the history of this place runs deep, clear back to the days of Stonehenge.  In fact, there are the Standing Stones of Callanish on a remote hilltop near the Atlantic Ocean.  It's an amazing place; the setting adds to the atmosphere.  Some of the stones are twenty feet high. 

How did the stones get here?  Who erected this puzzling arrangement?  Why did they do it and what does it represent?  After much study and research, these questions remain unanswered.  There are some ideas on who, what, and why, but nobody really knows ...

And how did these fine folks live?

So, what was life like for the early Scots in the old days?  Well, you can see for yourself as it's preserved in many restored sites.  Life was harsh back then, but somehow those folks stuck around, and even today that region remains a rugged and challenging environment.  

I was fiddling around with this picture and added the text graphic, it looks like a brochure cover!

 

They built most things out of stone so we have evidence of their lifestyle.   It's a rocky island so there are plenty of building materials.  It takes a lot of careful effort to build like this, but once done, the structures last for centuries.  

And for all its tough appearances, there are places of beauty and tranquility all around.   The Castle Grounds is a great place to hike, with a variety of trees and the Creed River running through it.  The brown color of the water comes from peat, an almost coal-like soil that gives Scotch Whisky it's distinctive color flavor. 

 

They even burn peat in their fireplaces, like coal, to heat their houses.  It gives a very identifiable smell that reminds Fiona of "home".   

This trip was a special treat for Fiona because two of our grandees were along to see how and where she grew up. 

A person might wonder, while walking around these ancient ruins and castles of old, how would we preserve our own history?  Will people in the distant future be puzzled by our buildings and formations?  

Will we take care to honor the past?  Or is it more like what happens in reality ... a farmer, plowing his field, hits a rock and wonders how that rock got there, and the archaeologists show up and identify a "prehistoric" civilizations that did this - so long ago we can't even explain why?

---------------------------

Oh, and one last thing - the these islands are known for their connection to the production of Scotch Whisky, as mentioned above.  We took a tour of one distillery, (that also makes the top notch Harris Gin), and they have Whisky in barrels aging for release in a few more years.  All Scotch Whisky is aged, and has to come from Scotland.  One such barrel, or cask, is shown below, with the owners name on it. 

  

  

How Far Away is Home? It Depends ....

We passed through Inverness on our way here, it's at the north end of Loch Ness, you know, where the monster lives ...

 -----


We have traveled on from Aberdeen Scotland to another place in the last couple days.  The journey included in sequence: a long walk, a bus ride, train ride, bus ride, an ocean going boat, and a car.

The weather was nice when we left Aberdeen.

 ---


What is the destination worthy of that effort?  None other than the Isle of Lewis, off the north west coast of Scotland.  It's where Fiona comes from and much of her family still lives. 

 


You see, Fiona was born and raised on the Isle of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides (pronounce Heb-rid-dees).  She left home to go to college where we met, in Aberdeen.  

One of the goals of this trip was to see the fam, you know, the rellies, the Scottish side of our family tree.  There are a bunch over here.  And to top that off, on the boat, we connected with our daughter Alison, and her clan (Husband Brandon, and boys, Jackson and Sam).   They are here visiting as well.  

The roots run deep here on this Island, much of it in and around the main town of Stornoway.  Fiona's brother Duncan and his wife Donna and family live here, along with a few other apples that didn't fall far from the tree.  

The fact is, these are a bunch of wonderful people, we love 'em, and today we had a wonderful foodfest with all of 'em.  

We expected mixed weather and this is what we got.  Today was almost like a winter day in Oregon, rainy, windy, wet, foggy, and a bit cold.  
What a change from the last few hot sunny days.

There are several places we will see in the next week.  We're just getting used to the time change and so forth, but we are ready to go!

------------------------------------- 

In the meantime, on the train yesterday, we came across a wild bunch on a "hen party" - like a bachelor party for girls.  They were having a rowdy time on the train and they had an inflatable doll - it was a male and it was, ahem, anatomically correct.   I had to be careful with the picture, I could only show the back side!  

Granite Countertops? How About a Whole City of Granite?

A reflection from a pond in one of the beautiful parks in Aberdeen. 

 

 

Aberdeen Scotland - The Granite City

Fiona and I find ourselves today in Aberdeen, on the north east coast of Scotland, sitting right on the North Sea.  This place used to be booming, but has hit some harder times recently, as the price of oil has dipped.  

In fact, the original oil boom of the early 1970's brought me to this city as a young lad in search of work (more below).  It is here that I met my wife Fiona, and we've come back to spend a couple days here revisiting our old stomping grounds. 

The City

For over 300 years, granite quarried from the nearby hills supplied the building material for the growing city of Aberdeen.  Although gray in appearance, this particular granite has a high concentration of mica silicate, which can make it sparkle in the sunlight.  

I tried to capture some of the twinkling granite, but it didn't come out very well.  

 

The use of granite construction is obvious throughout the city, and has earned Aberdeen the nickname of The Granite City.   Of course, this stone lasts a long time, and the most of these grand buildings have already lasted a few hundred years.  

After spending the last couple days here and looking around, I would describe this as a no-nonsense kind of place.  It has a serious, organized, well-built atmosphere about it; it's clean and well maintained.  

However, one might not describe this as lively, or creative, or inspiring.  I'm not saying it's bad here.  Some places are wild and wonderful, but they have potholes and the street lights don't work.   

Not here.  This place is ship shape. 

It was so many years ago ...

I came here forty-five years ago, broke and desperate.  I had been traveling around Europe with my friend Paul, and ran out of money, and prospects were slim.  I got a job here on the North Sea oil rigs, which turned out to be dangerous work.  

And I met a young Scottish college student named Fiona.

She and I have come back to pay a visit here and have a look around, with more travel later in the next week.   Things have changed here in Aberdeen, but also remained the same.  The place where we originally met has morphed into something much different. 

But many of the old haunts still exist, in much the same fashion as 1973 when I was first here.  This is a city not only built of granite, but full of beautiful parks.  We spent much of the day walking through them. 

There is no better way to experience a place than just walking, and we did plenty of that today.  Much to our surprise, the weather today was fabulous, sunny and almost 80 degrees Fahrenheit.   We covered almost 14 miles, and enjoyed every minute of it.

Aberdeen has been recognized as a champion of British green parks, and that's saying a lot in this country, which probably has the best parks and gardens in the world.  

We went to Johnston Park, rather on the small side, which was rated the best park in Britain a few years back.  For good reason.  It was charming and beautiful in its simplicity.  

And there was the massive Hazlehead Park, several hundred acres in size, with every ingredient a park should ever have, including a large maze.  

It's always interesting to visit a location that holds a key place in your life history.  This is one of those places.