Stories and People

     This first post of 2016 goes back to some travel stories and photos of interesting people we've met in our travels.  As always comments are very welcome.  Have a Great New Year!

Portland Highland Games

Portland Highland Games

Blackford Highland Games, Perthshire, Scotland

Bachelor Party at Deacon Brodie's in Edinburgh.

If It’s For Sale, Don’t Go

It was early in October when we had a couple of nice days on the Isle of Skye in the northwest of Scotland.  This day we had already driven up to the Quiraing which in Old Norse means “Round Fold.” It’s a series of tables, pinnacles, spires, and escarpments that are part of Meall na Suiramach, the highest mountain in this area of Skye. We’d also visited Flora MacDonald’s grave; she is famous for helping Bonnie Prince Charlie (the Young Pretender) escape from the British after the Jacobean defeat at Culloden. We were definitely looking forward to having lunch in Uig on Skye after fighting 80-100 mile an hour winds at Castle Duntulm, a much ruined McLeod castle on the point of the Trotternish peninsula. The ferry terminal village of Uig (ferries to the Outer Hebrides) faces Uig Bay and has a pottery shop, a brewery with gift shop, a pub, a restaurant, and a couple of tea rooms.  I talked Anne into going to the Tea House because we only wanted a quick sandwich or soup.  Bad choice!

Tea Room Conversation, Kirriemuir, Scotland

The Tea House advertised itself as a tea room and B&B.  The insides it could have been described as quaint, but really a better description would be tattered and sparse. Only one other couple was in the tea room and they were just getting ready to leave—it was a clue we missed. We had to wait quite a while to get any service—that was another missed clue.  We ordered a ham and tomato toastie to share and a coke each.  The cokes came in their cans with no glasses or ice and the sandwich came shortly after.  The sandwich was barely toasted bread with two ultra thin slices of tomato (one in each half) and a similarly thin slice of rubbery, tasteless processed ham--no condiments or sauces.  Anne described it as an ”ugly sandwich.”  We each drank our cokes, nibbled on our sandwich halves, and left the Tea House as soon as we could.

School work bored him to death!

     It was on the way out we noticed the For Sale sign on the property’s fence.  Damn, I couldn’t even review the Tea House on Trip Advisor.  I made up for my poor lunch choice by taking Anne to dinner at the Harbour View Seafood Restaurant in Portree (one of the best in town).  From now on I look closely for those For Sale signs.

TV actress in a feature filming at Stirling Castle.

Bar keep pours a round for a tasting at Famous Grouse in Crieff.

Piper busking at St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh.

Study in Red and Black in Oxford.

Beware the Mead

On our trips to Ireland we kept seeing ads for Medieval Castle Experiences at Bunratty Castle, Knappague Castle, and Dunquaire Castle.  Finally, we decided to give in to the ads and take in a show—unusual for us because we generally steer clear of things that seem too touristy.  We visited Dunguaire Castle in Kinvarra Village (near Galway) in Co. Clare just outside the Burren (interesting geological area).  We toured the 16th century tower house castle, named for King Guaire, a legendary king of Connacht, and then purchased tickets to that evening’s dinner show.  

In the evening we drove about a half hour from our B&B in Galway to the castle.  The evening’s entertainment consisted of a medieval dinner (soup, chicken, potatoes of course since we were in Ireland,veg, and pie), music, songs, storytelling, and poetry (Yeats, Shaw, O’Casey, Synge).  

Anne, with the pitcher of mead right in front of her, she couldn't resist.

     The star of the show, at least for Anne, was the mead (a fermented honey and fruit or herb drink) that was served before and during dinner.  I had a small taste, but since I was driving I stuck mostly to water.  Anne, on the other hand, had her before dinner cup of mead and mine and more at dinner—she thought it was very tasty.  It was strong as well—mightily strong!  Anne fell asleep in the car on the way home to the B&B and it was lucky the directions back were simple—with my lack of sense of direction we could have ended up in Limerick instead of Galway.  The next day was a slight fog for Anne; she ate lightly at breakfast and can’t recall too many details of the golf we played later that day.  So be warned: Beware the Mead!    

One of Edinburgh's more colorful characters.

Street performer in Edinburgh.  Bet nobody messes with him.

In a small pub in Bridge of Earn, Perthshire, we visited with a gentleman who had played many of the same courses we had.

This is so wrong for many reasons! (Rockcliffe in southern Scotland)

Free Is a Good Price, But You Have to Wait for It

Recently when we have an early morning flight, we’ll stay the night before at a Red Lion Hotel near the Portland airport (the Best Airport in America) which offers a park’n’Fly program—stay the night and leave your car for free for up to ten days (avoiding airport parking charges). On one trip, after checking in at the hotel, we drove to a nearby mall to eat at Famous Dave’s Bar-B-Q.  The meals at Dave’s aren't gourmet, but they usually are tasty, plentiful, and reasonably priced.  On this occasion the place was quite crowded.  We were given a beeper and told the wait would be about 15 minutes.  The bar had room for us to have a drink while we waited.  And waited.  And waited.  After about 35 minutes I asked the manager to check on a table for us.  He came back and told us that we weren’t checked-in.  I showed him the beeper.  Sputtering now, he said he’d check again.  We got a table in about a minute with the manager’s apologies for “losing us.”  After we ordered, the manager said that our dinners were on the house with more profound apologies.  We had to wait for it, but a free dinner was a great way to start a week of vacation in Las Vegas.

The Master of the Tables in the dining hall in Oxford.

Jim Craig, famous Scottish footballer (soccer player). visiting at Merlindale B&B.

Oregon Poet William Stafford at a conference on the Oregon coast in the early 80s.

Just your average visitor to Balmoral Castle in the Scottish Highlands.

Home Again, Home Again....

Jet Lag.  The longer trip, this fall’s trip was forty days in Scotland, has led to more and deeper jet lag.  Our body clocks are having the devil’s own time of adjusting to PDT time--and now we have to switch to PST.  Because our trip was longer than normal it is taking longer than normal to adjust back--for several days one or both of us would be up at 2, 3, or 4 AM, and both of us were ready for bed by about 8 PM.  I would have thought that after 24 European trips in 13 years I’d be getting more used to the time change, but research actually shows that the affects of jet lag increase with age--the body becomes less able to deal with it as we get older.  At least Anne and I are both more bothered by east to west travel (coming home) than west to east (going)--it would be awful for one to be dragging one way while the other is ready to go.  

Autumn in the Highlands

All this discussion of jet lag is in explanation of why it has taken so long to get this post ready to go.  Blame it on jet lag.  Now, to an End of Trip Summary and an Homage to Food at Merlindale B&B.

End of the Trip Summary:

In forty days in Scotland we drove our rented Ford Focus (from Arnold Clark Rentals (http://www.arnoldclarkrental.com) a little over 2400 miles.  

This is the car we would have liked, except there's no room for our gear.  Our Focus was fine.

At 30 mpg that was 80 gallons @ £1.30 per liter (about $9.36 per gallon).  You do the maths from there.

   Golf:

Aboyne GC, near Aberdeen.

19 18-hole rounds on 17 courses, four of which were new to us.

Downfield GC, near Dundee.

4 9-hole rounds on two courses, one new to us.

St Fillans GC where we're members.

378 holes of golf.

Strathmore GC, near Blairgowrie, near Alyth, near Forfar, not far from Carnoustie.

105 miles walked on golf courses, though Anne did take a buggy a few times because of a            sore back and injured ankle.

   Attractions:

More than 50 visited (castles, churches, cathedrals, historic or ancient sites, cultural attractions, gardens, etc.).

Bridge at Spittal of Glenshee.

Kilconquhar Parish Church.

Most were historic/ancient, religious, or picturesque, 15 were new to us.

Sunhoney Stone Circle.

Drummond Castle Gardens, near Crieff, central Scotland.

   Eateries: 

We visited Restaurants (10),

the Watermill Tea Room and Bookstore, Aberfeldy.

Tea rooms, coffee shops, cafes (18),

Moulin Inn, one of our favorite pubs, near Pitlochry.

Pubs (9), and 13 were new to us.

   Days of rain or weather bad enough to make us change our plans: 2, only 2!

Fourteen miles of single-track road through Glen Lyon.

A fantastic trip, highlighted by the next part of this post.

Homage to Meals at Merlindale B&B

One of the advantages of rooming in a B&B in the UK is that the meals, breakfast and sometimes dinner, are better than you’d get eating out.  This is certainly true at Merlindale B&B in Crieff, our Scottish home.  Since we are family [I think there’s a song in there somewhere.] we not only get the great Scottish B&B breakfasts but we also have some fantastic family dinners--and yes, we do our share of the cooking and the cleaning.  This fall's trip turned out to be exceptional for food.

One night when special guests were expected, Jacky, a Le Cordon Bleu trained chef, prepared a seafood and chicken mixed Paella, a Valencian rice dish often referred to as the Spanish national dish.  

The pan, at least three feet across, had to be smuggled from Spain in Jacky’s suitcase, and the grill ring gas unit smuggled in separately.  I often wondered what the Xray security technician thought.  The Paella takes several hours to prepare and not nearly that long to consume.  It turned out that the special guests didn’t arrive until the next day which meant more Paella for the rest of us.

When the ladies from Canada arrived at the B&B a special formal dinner was prepared for them.  Jacky fixed mustard coated pork chops, boiled potatoes, and salad; Anne added steamed broccoli; and I prepared a hot pasta and veg dish.  

A special B&B dinner at Merlindale.

The ten of us made short work of the table full of food.  Anne and I did our share of cooking during the time we spent at Merlindale.  Besides the veggie pasta, one day for breakfast we fixed Tolovana muffins, a broiled toasted English muffin (in Scotland they are simply called “toasting muffins” for obvious anti-English reasons) coated with a deviled ham and cheese spread mixture--the original recipe comes from the Tolovana Inn in Cannon Beach, Oregon..  One day I put together a seafood pasta dish using calamari, salmon, and brown crab claws.   And at the request of Jonathan, John and Jacky’s 23-year-old son who was heading off to Mexico as a tour guide, we made our version of Southern fried chicken and refried bean dip with crisps (taco chips)--it’s Jonathan’s go to meal.

The most special meal during our stay was not cooked by Jacky or ourselves.  Instead, Zoe and Eddie (who is chef at an upscale Chinese restaurant in Llandudno, Wales, took over the kitchen and whipped up

Jacky looks on while Eddie and Zoe cook.

--pans flying, flames shooting, mess everywhere--a lovely Asian repast for ten of us.  On the menu were two preps of chicken wings, fried aubergine (eggplant), pan seared sea bass,

I hate it when dinner stares back at you.

sweet and sour pork, and enough rice to feed Portland’s Chinatown.  

Dinner is served in the B&B kitchen.

Lovely dinner and all we had to do was clean up.

I do have a running food joke with Jacky.  When nobody is looking I draw faces or pictures on several of the eggs which are always left out on the kitchen counter. This brings up the question: why do we always refrigerate our eggs and the Scots never do? Jacky knows who does the “art” but never knows quite what she will find on the breakfast eggs.  

On our last morning before flying home, my breakfast plate came complete with decorated shell. As much as Anne and I relish our meals in the tea rooms, pubs, and restaurants of Scotland, most special are the great feedings at Merlindale B&B, our Scottish home.  

A view of Mt Hood says we're close to home.

We haven't missed the fall colors at our house in Canby.