Monday: "To the Gentleman in the Black Velvet Coat"

Today was a lot fuller, so it will be hard for me to summarize, or even to put into a logical order.

We boarded our coach early in the morning and drove out of Glasgow, passing by the University of Glasgow with its beautiful stonework and 16th? century architecture, and through what seemed like suburbs and kids in black school uniforms carrying rucksacks. Ian listed off the four big differences between Scotland and England:
1. Scotland is allowed to print its own banknotes, thanks to the Treaty of 1705, although England does mint all the coins, and both areas accept the other's notes.
2. Scotland's official religion is the Presbyterian church, not Episcopalian
3. Scotland's education system. It has different holidays, more subjects, etc.
4. Scotland has different laws, much as state laws can differ from one another. In addition, the court juries have fifteen jurors, not twelve, and they ask for a majority vote, not unanimity (unanymousness?). And if the jury feels that the defendent is guilty but there is no evidence, they can be pronounced "not proven" as an official verdict.

We hit the road towards Loch Lomond. We were allowed to stop "to have a photo".

"it grew and grew like topsy"
Ian also uses "pop" a lot, as in "Okay, I will pop right out and into this office here."

Ian also decoded the mystery of the kilt. In the Highlands, the heather grows to about knee-height and is likely to be wet to walk through, no good for trousers, hence the kilt length to above the knees.
And why do they drive on the left? Way back in the day, you walked on the lefthand side, so as to fight an approaching enemy away from your body (or your right-hand man could fight for you). Then in later days of the stagecoach, the guard would sit on the left to fend off the highwaymen and the driver sat on the right. Voila!
We drive on the right because of the French tradition and our desire to distance ourselves from our colonial oppressors.
Speaking of the French, a large number of streets here are named Waterloo.
inch = island
firth = estuary
inver = mouth of [Inverness means "mouth of Ness"]
aber = mouth of [Aberdeen means "mouth of Deen"]
glen = narrow valley (from the Celtic)
dale = valley (from the Norse)
strath = wide valley
down = hill [Watership Down]
crag = mountain

Ian, on Nessie: "Personally, I think it's a bit daft, but if you can't do some daft things on holiday, then when can you?"

So after Loch Lomond we drove along a very twisty road through one or two small villages. The road was more like a one-lane road, and caused trouble when we passed other coaches or a logging truck. You new UTS drivers at home might cry to think about it. In an effort to encourage more people to move up into the Highlands, the Scottish Parliament has funded a new, wider road and improvements for the existing one. These improvements currently make the narrow road even narrower. Luckily, the drivers up here are courteous. As are the traffic signs. "Thank you for driving with caution!" You're welcome, Mr. Traffic Sign!

Cautiously we drove into Glencoe ("Valley of Tears", named for the crying appearance of the crags when it rains) where the massacre of Bonnie Prince Charlie's (here shortened to BPC) supporters occurred, against Highland hospitality. Scots are very angry about the Campbells still. We passed by Rannick?, where the Picts defeated a Roman legion in the bog. Rather, the legion "disappeared" after they were ordered to the area. As you can imagine, then-Emperor Hadrian threw in the towel and built a defensive wall in the north of England. Scotland is the one place in Europe untouched by Roman influence. Only later did the Celts move in, only to be terrorized by the Norse.

The Nine of Diamonds is the unlucky card in Scotland.

Never before have I been able to understand what one means by "Highlands". It was amazing to pass through, I could visually tell where the glaciers cut thousands of years ago. Sudden, wide lochs between steep, bare mountains, and everything currently covered in bloomed heather, we caught the perfect time of year for the heather. But mostly it was brown with short stubbly green, and occasionally fluffy white of sheep on the slopes. Beautiful.

Through Fort William (from King William III), a part-industrial, part-resort town that no longer has a fort at all, to Glenfinnian where BPC rallied five thousand men, then to Mallaig, a little fishing village whose sole existence seems to depend on several B&B's and the ferry to Skye. The local Fisherman's Mission has a cafeteria in which our tour filled the tables over-capacity. Luckily we got in about first, and found room at a table with an older couple from near Liverpool, visiting on holiday. They were so friendly! The woman asked us where we were going and made sarcastic comments like "You're really getting a whistle tour of Scotland, ain't ye?" We are doing in 24 hours what she and her husband are doing in a week.
Scottish Pie is a kind of meat pie, like a Shepherd's Pie or Steak Pie, maybe.
Irn Bru is the Scottish soda brand. I convinced Dad to buy one with our lunch and it really grew on me. Like Mountain Dew, the flavor is "ambiguous citrus". It is bru'd in Glasgow! A woman from our tour asked me what I was drinking; Dad was impressed I had even heard of it. "When a Scot's not drinking whiskey, he's drinking Irn Bru."

A ferry took us across the Sound of Sleat to the Isle of Skye (skye means mists) to the town of Armadale. Armadale boasts a Celtic college---a university where all the classes are taught in Gaelic. The school has 38 children attending. More Highland topography, but now the houses were scattered, with sheep along the side, less barren but more isolated. The town of Portree has our hotel, and a beautiful view of the---loch? water, anyway. Also a grocery store, which as far as I can tell might be the only one on the entire Isle of Skye, an Esso (Exxon), a coffee house (fair trade), and a handspun yarn shop. That is Downtown. Beyond it is nothing, just houses.

Right now I can imagine living on Skye with a sheep farm, but on rainy days the tourists ask how anyone can bear it.

The bridge back to the mainland was short but cost so much to build that the Scottish Parliament enacted a toll to cross and promised that when the bridge was paid for the tolls would be eliminated.
For a coach, 40 pounds (~$80). For a car, 20 pounds (~$40).
After 18 million extra revenues were collected, the toll was removed.

On the mainland was access to Eilean Donan, "Island of Donan", actually in the water between Skye and mainland. It is probably the most photographed castle in Scotland, and really is beautiful. You might recognize it in Braveheart or Entrapment. Actually the original castle was destroyed by cannons in the 18th century, completely destroyed, and laid in ruins for two hundred years. In 1912, a MacRae invested the time to recreate the castle and the money to build it. I suppose it is as accurate as could be made, I was surprised to learn it's only 100 years old. The inside was not done with 'period' pieces, although a few artifacts were there---lances, standards, portcullis, that sort of thing. Most of the carpeting were large tartan swathes. Hard on the eyes, maybe.

Leaving the castle, we were deafened by a sudden roar as a military plane flew along the loch, behind the castle, and down another valley. Does the RAF do Star Wars-style agility training through canyons?

Last stop for the day was the local pub, a "wee little place" with "PUB" painted in black on the roof. Inside we tried pints of a locally-brewed beer, something along the lines of Donan Ale. Surprisingly, it was served cold. We were escorted out before the locals arrived, lest they be dismayed at the sight of so many bloody Americans.

The Scottish flag of the red lion rampant (as opposed to the Welsh "sleeping dragon") on yellow is the royal flag, most here seem to fly the blue and white St. Andrew flag---St. Andrew was crucified on a diagonal cross.

There are 5.5 million people in Scotland and 10 million sheep. !