Timeout 2012: Holiday in England/Scotland

16th – 26th August 2012

After the Olympics had finished, Ralph joined me in London. We planned a tour in England and Scotland and have therefore rented a car, a Peugeot 3008, perfect for our needs. We left London not too early on Thursday morning and drove towards Nottingham. We aimed to visit our friends Lena and Russ up there. They were expecting us. We were excited to seeing them again. To our surprise, they invited a few friends in the evening which we also know from the annual skiing holiday in Verbier: Ruben, Ness and their kids, Chris and Lorraine, Andy and Cath. Great to have met them again! We spent a joyful evening in the garden, chatting, eating, drinking and joking. The next day, Russ took us to his company Redcliffe so Ralph could say hello to the employees as he knows them from his former work (ok, I said hello as well, I know how to behave properly). Russ then invited us to an outstanding lunch in a very famous English restaurant. Dave and Bronja joined us and we spent a lovely afternoon with them. Thank you very much again!

The following morning we left Lena and Russ after a tea and a last chat. Our next destination was Edinburgh in Scotland. At this time a year, the city is very busy. The Fringe Festival and the Military Tatoo attract many hundred thousands of visitors. One can say that we really were at the right time in the right place. And we were very happy as we could live in Emma’s apartment in the city of Edinburgh. Our week in Scotland combined exploring the city, Scottish lifestyle, culture, music and theatre. The first evening we attended a concert at Greyfriars Kirk. The Orchestra of the Canongait played Ma Vlast (My Fatherland) by Bedrich Smetana (1824-1884), a journey through the cycle of six symphonic poems in which the composer glorified the Czech homeland. We enjoyed this challenging piece very much. As Emma played the violin in this orchestra, we met her, her friends and family afterwards for a drink in the pub. Another evening we attended a musical called “Departure Lounge”. The musical comedy was about four teenagers. They were coming back from their holidays in Spain, waiting for the flight back home to England and telling their experiences with girls in the past week, certainly exaggerating but also with a certain depth. These Brits on tour gave us a pleasurable, humorous and entertaining evening.

Surely, the Military Tattoo was a highlight of our week. The show on the Castle Hill was brilliant, highly professional and a unique experience. These remarkable musicians and dancers provided an unforgettable open-air performance on the esplanade of Edinburgh Castle.

In addition to exploring Edinburgh we made excursions to other regions of Scotland. We drove up north to the region of Perthshire, Angus and Dundee. This part has soaring peaks to the north and west as well as sea cliffs and long sandy beaches on the east coast. It is a very varied terrain. The Trossachs National Park is situated in the northwest of Glasgow and is “Rob Roy MacGregor’s Land”. Rob Roy MacGregor (1671-1734) is a popular hero who tried to lead his small town to a better future. Loch Katrine is the beautiful lake where we took a ship to one end and cycled back along the Loch. We admired the beautiful and magnificent scenery although it was a typical Scottish summer day (it rained on and off).

The Union Canal is a cycleway which runs along the canal entirely off the roads from Edinburgh towards Glasgow. We enjoyed this path and rode about 50 km. We then took the train back to Edinburgh happy for this experience. Our stay in Edinburgh ended with a concert of Scottish Traditional Music at Canongate Kirk. The Whistlebinkies presented music from all over Scotland. It was an astonishing combination of instruments: fiddle, drum, flute, clarsach and pipe. We liked it very much. The concert was joyful with light, tragic and historical elements, smoothly and well played.

On our trip back to London we drove through the Scottish Borders, another exceptional landscape. Did you know that there are two borders between Scotland and England? One is the official border and the other one the Hadrian’s Wall. The Roman Emperor Hadrian built a wall of 120 km from Newcastle in the east to Carlisle in the west. It was built in AD 122 as a defensive fortification in Roman Britain. An impressive heritage!

We spent our last night in Keswick, Lake District. The Lake District is well known as a holiday area. Lakes, mountains and forests invite to all kinds of outdoor activities such as hiking, sailing or cycling. We could only admire the countryside, as we still had to drive a few hours to get back to London.

We spent unforgettable 10 days in England and Scotland.
Monika & Ralph