Haggis, anyone?

We have now been in three different lands... Ice, Scot, and Eng.  :)  As I write this blog post, we are currently in Manchester, England, at a hostel called Hatters.  We have already left Scotland, but let me fill you in on what our brief but enjoyable time in the venerable northern UK held.  We got up early yesterday for our flight from Reykjavik to Glasgow, which was only about 2 hours.  My dear husband, who is ever so skilled, managed to make the transition from an automatic rental car in which he sat on the left and drove on the right in Iceland to a rental car in the UK, which was manual and in which the drivers seat is on the right while you drive on the left (and the gear-shifter is in the other hand, too).  He had to switch his brain all around in a matter of just a few hours, and he didn’t even crash any cars doing so!  :)  Very impressive, but confusing enough to get my heart racing a few times as cars go zipping and veering in all the wrong directions.  Jim is doing great on these narrow winding roads, but it still just feels backwards.  I have several times walked up to the passenger door and been legitimately confused as to why there is a steering wheel in my seat!

Anyway, driving from Glasgow, aside from bending my brain a little bit, was a fine ride.  We drove up to St. Andrews, where my old college suite-mate Justine is living while she works on her PhD thesis in Medieval History.  It was so great to see her again after not seeing her for years!  

We met her at her “flat” (which is actually more three-dimensional that it sounds) and, after a quick tour around the lovely and historic St. Andrews, set off for the Scottish highlands.  We contemplated going to Loch Ness to visit everyone’s favorite imaginary Scottish lake monster, but instead decided to visit Nessie’s less famous imaginary lake monster cousin, Taylor, at Loch Tay, which was a shorter drive and made sense given our time constrictions.  The Scottish highlands are lovely - the rolling green hills populated with sheep get steeper and craggier as you travel farther north.  The gorse (a thorny shrub) on the slopes has beautiful bright yellow flowers that contrast nicely with the rich green of the scenery, and clumps of deep dark dense forest give the region a certain mystique.  

This morning we had a full English breakfast and then wandered around St. Andrews.  It’s a really pretty town, and one of the highlights is the ruins of a gorgeous cathedral built hundreds of years ago.  At least, it was gorgeous until the Protestants decided to blast it to bits because they didn’t feel that the Catholics should have such a nice church, so they turned their cannons on it.  However, judging by the ruins, it was a heck of a cathedral!

It was lovely to drive around the highlands.  We had dinner a delightful countryside inn, where the brogues were thick and the venison was tried for the first time (by me).  And we got to make a quick stop at a castle where the environs inspired Jim to strike a James Bond-esque pose.

Jim and I got to see Justine’s office area in the university, complete with Latin dictionaries, old old manuscripts, and nerf guns, as any PhD candidate’s work space should be.  Then we said goodbye and continued on our way.

We drove through Lockerbie and went to the memorial for the victims of the bombing in 1988.  It was touching.  It’s such a pretty area and so sad to imagine it filled with the aftermath of a plane bombing.

After that solemn memorial, we went to a more whimsical town: Gretna Green.  It’s apparently well known apart from our source of knowledge, but we went there to see the town that we know from Pride and Prejudice as the “shotgun wedding” town.  It was just over the border from England and had fewer restrictions on who could marry and how, and so it was a common destination for weddings that were hurried for any reason.  It seems like it was the Las Vegas of Olde England.  :)  

And that’s it for now!  We’re off to see more of England and some old friends tomorrow.