We met our group for the first time, and a word of explanation about our tour. Terri and I have never joined a major organized tour, but we decided to celebrate Terri’s real retirement by purchasing a guided tour/cruise marketed to us by the Alumni Association of the University of Tennessee. A few years ago, Terri and I had a marvelous month in Ireland where we organized things ourselves, by which I mean Terri organized it all. So, this was a chance to see what can be gained with professional assistance—and I have to admit, it was well worth it. The real tour company was Gohagan and Company operating from Chicago, and this tour was designed to show us the Scottish Highlands.
I started the tour in typical Jack fashion by ignoring the repeated request to bring our name tags. That made me the only one of the participants without one—but our Director, Fiona Brennan, was so kind as to create one for me. On our return I found the tag I was supposed to bring still languishing in the kit box they gave us, so here’s a photo of the two tags so you can appreciate Fiona’s artwork!
After a great breakfast served in the hotel, our first tour with the group was, of all places, Edinburgh! We would therefore have a great comparison of the official tour guide with our friend Nora. And not surprisingly, we saw many of the same things as we did with Nora, but in much greater detail. After a short ride on the tour bus, we disembarked near what is called “The Royal Mile”—the street which leads up to Edinburgh Castle. We were given much description of the shops along the Royal Mile as we ascended to the Castle, the first of about a dozen castles we would ultimately see on the tour.
The usual tour spots included the Castle chapel and other quarters, and probably the best part of it for many was the breathtaking view of Edinburgh below. Perched against the exterior wall was one of the largest cannons ever made, nicknamed “Mons Meg.” It was a gift from the ruler of Burgundy to King James II of Scotland in the mid-15th century. This cannon had to be dragged many miles by horse and oxen, and then slowly winched up to the wall. It must have been quite a chore to provide the giant cannon balls that were its ammunition, each one of which weighed almost 400lbs! It was used against invaders in several sieges until about 1600, but thereafter only for ceremonial occasions. In 1680, having been stoked by an English visitor, it was fired in honor of a visit of the future King James VII, and the barrel burst. Of course there were various allegations of deliberate sabotage, but eventually, the English dragged it off to the Tower of London. In 1824, with the aid of Sir Walter Scott (yes, that Walter Scott!), George IV allowed it to be returned to Scotland. The barrel has since been repaired, and it is now one of the great attractions at the castle.
The mention of Walter Scott reminds me that one of the great pleasures of all this touring was the attention and affection the Scotts devote to their literary heroes. Along that Royal Mile there is a great “Writer’s Museum” with exhibits devoted to Scott, Robert Burns, and Robert Louis Stevenson. Without any need to cater to “diversity” we found great attention to artists and writers in all our travels, and much discussion of the ethnic groups and daily life of the Scotts everywhere we went. The castle exhibitions always included discussions of family life, and the roles of the women who supported those families.
After admiring Mons Meg, our next stop was the Scotch Whiskey Experience which Terri sadly dissed. She went off to explore the Underground City while I stayed with the group to taste some scotch! I learned quite a bit about scotch, especially about the regional differences. It turns out that I am somewhat unusual for the American tourists in that I gave the highest marks to the peaty-est of the samples. Probably because I was introduced to it by my dear late friend Aryeh Seagull, my personal favorite scotch is Lagavulin, a deeply peaty brand. The tour guide gave a tip of the hat to Kentucky and Tennessee. For those unaware, bourbon casks can only be used once, so Scotland purchases the used bourbon casks which are then used and reused in the production of scotch.
Our second Edinburgh journey featured a revisit to Greyfriar’s Bobby. And then we were released to find dinner on our own and spend our last evening at the Sheraton. Terri had decided that we should find a coin-op laundry so we could do the cruise with refreshed suitcases, so she headed for the concierge to ask where we could find one. The Concierge acted like she was asking about Mars space missions and told her that he knew of one that was some sort of combination coin-op and café. And of course, we would have had to figure out how to get there and back with the laundry. So, we accepted his suggestion and let the hotel service take care of it. I found it amazing that a city like Edinburgh wouldn’t have laundromats, and after we returned, I looked into it—don’t know whether the concierge was just shining us on, but Edinburgh has a dozen or more laundromats. As I said, it was probably for the best, might have been one adventure we were well to avoid.
And now, it was time for us to take the journey to meet up with our ship!