Highs and Lows

Panorama of historic Lincoln Castle

With repairs on our campervan nearing completion, we headed back to Bristol but couldn't resist one more stop to explore Scottish history. We spent several hours touring the Highland Folk Museum. 

Farm implements, pen and home.

What a face!

There are many buildings representing over 250 years - from a 1700’s township to a 1930’s working farm. Each area was well-explained in a booklet but there were many implements we couldn’t figure out.   Of particular interest was the recreation of a Highland town from the middle ages.  

Click here for more information on the Highland Folk Museum.

Quite a few buildings were both home and a means of making a living. For example, some including quarters for livestock and one included a large loom. People dressed in period clothing provided additional insights. This site was used in the filming of some scenes in the Outlander series as well.  

Our photos here.

In a completely unexpected turn of events, Dermot got an email from a colleague he had worked with when Siemens sent him to India for two weeks in 2017.  Sundram had spent hours of his own time showing Dermot around India and made Dermot's trip so much more meaningful and fun. Sundram had been following this blog and knew we were in Scotland so he reached out to see if we'd be coming to Lincoln where he was currently working on a short term project. 

One of the great joys of travel is reconnecting with friends around the world. So we toured the historic Lincoln castle and saw one of only four copies of the Magna Carta while waiting for the end of the workday. We met up with Sundram and his friend, Gorava, who also works for Siemens. They took us to a wonderful Indian restaurant where we ordered far too much food and traded stories of home, travel and work. You just never know what surprises might be around the next corner!

Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, England. 

Our next surprise was much less enjoyable. With major repairs completed, we happily reunited with our campervan and prepared to head to Belgium. Restocked and with two hours driving behind us, the engine light came on - AGAIN! This time we called for a tow. Now we’re back in Bristol waiting through the weekend to hear back from FIAT. The suspension bridge we visited below reflects our current situation.

From Liverpool to Inverness

Scottish Highlands!

Our cruise was over and we had to deal with the reality of daily living again. 

The Bad news: The engine and other bits of our campervan are disassembled at the dealer and they are still waiting for parts from Italy. 

The Good news: The dealer gave us a loaner van to use until they're done. It's not a camper but we decided to head to Scotland to take advantage the smaller size vehicle. We downloaded Rick Steve's Great Britain Guide and made a loose route plan.

First leg: Drive from Bristol to Liverpool and spend the night.

Second leg: Drive thru England's lake district through the strange, sandy colored hills there and spend a night in Glasgow. 

For LOTS of pictures with information click here.

St. Conan's Kirk

Third leg: Follow trip route drive into the Scottish Highlands towards Oban stopping at Inverary and St. Conan's Kirk which includes examples of nearly every church architectural style and made a real impression on us. It was undergoing extensive renovation but still managed to seem both whimsical (downspouts were bunnies and dogs) and elegant. Link to Stconanskirk.org.uk

Fourth leg: Follow Rich Steve's trip route drive from Oban to Inverness and were directed to this iconic spot: Castle Stalker. Here's more information about the place and the Monty Python link: Wikipedia on Castle Stalker

In Glencoe we learned a bit of the tragic and brutal history of this area and did a bit of hiking in the highlands.  We took many pictures of the magnificent scenery there then drove on to Inverness. Our centrally located guest house turned out to be in a rough-feeling section of the city and though we searched for a place to listen to traditional music we never did really find the right fit for us. We spent a day touring Culloden Battlefield.  This was the site of a pivotal battle that had repercussions around the world and for many years. For more on the history:  Wikipedia on the Battle_of_Culloden

If you're a fan of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series of books and/or the series, (I think the books are better) you've had a taste of the landscape and desperation of this time.  A visit here brought it home for me. 

We also visited the nearby Clava Cairns (ancient site) and Cawdor Castle which felt like an actual home (because it still is) and had a wonderful natural area to walk through (including sequoia and redwood trees!) beyond the manicured garden. 

We had such beautifully sunny and warm weather here that Dermot feels he hasn't really seen the true glory of Scotland.  However, he's been watching the Ireland v. Scotland Rugby World Cup game as I've been finishing up this post.  Ireland's victory just made his day and we'll probably hit showers on the drive back to Bristol so it's all good.

Estonia, Latvia, Germany and Southampton

Tallinn, Estonia
Before we left, I knew nearly nothing about this area of the world. Tallinn, Estonia was part of Sweden at one time and part of Russia later. I still know very little of this area's interesting history and language but I'm intrigued enough to learn more when we get back. 
Here's more info for the history buffs.

We enjoyed the city very much and I put lots of information in the photos:

Our photos here. Click on the "i" to see descriptions.


Riga, Latvia
Riga is the biggest city of the Baltics. It has a history of being part of other nations including Sweden and Russia, gaining independence following WWI,  then losing it becoming part of the USSR with WWII.  It later regained independence and still has a significant Russian population. They also have the finest collection of Art Nouveau buildings in Europe and we really enjoyed finding the beguiling details on the facades.  Here's more info for those interested:
Wiki's take on Art Nouveau architecture in Riga

The river you see running through the lovely, long park was formerly the town's moat.

Warnemunde, Germany

A nice small town, good for a stroll with a nip into the park. The wind was strong at the beach but it was too cold for these Floridians so we just watched the daredevil kite-surfers flying high in the air.  Not much in the way of interesting history though.







Southampton, England
We added a few pictures of the Southampton harbor.

Sleeping sailboats in Southampton

Next up: Back to Bristol and more disappointing news on our campervan.

Cruising to Norway, Denmark and Russia

I’ll skip the descriptions of the typical cruise activities everyone has experienced but there were some differences on this P&O Cruises. For example, there were no towel animals - too whimsical, perhaps? Beyond the usual food service, they also served afternoon tea. I only made it once but I tried scones and tea biscuits with clotted cream - much nicer than it sounds. Dermot and I were sometimes assets on a team with Brits in the quiz challenges. Embarrassingly however, we did not know the origins of ZZ Top. 

Kristiansand, Norway

When you think of Norway, you picture magnificent fjords with the occasional colorful village thrown in. Our time in Kristiansand, Norway was wet - ranging from drizzle to downpour and there wasn’t a fjord in sight. We attempted a self-guided walking tour but truncated it a bit and everything looks pretty gray in the pictures. As far as I can tell, the main reason our cruise stopped here is that it’s conveniently located along our route to St Petersburg, Russia. I spent that evening and the next day drying out my shoes, backpack contents, and new “waterproof” jacket. 

Copenhagen, Denmark

We were forecast to have fair weather during our stay but experienced more rain. After attempting to wait it out, we gave up, bought plastic ponchos and carried on. Copenhagen is a lovely city where bike-riders take the right-of-way on wide paths and pedestrians nervously pick their way along narrow even pavers and (often) uneven cobblestones. I wished we had more time to visit the reportedly wonderful National Museum or fit a canal tour in but time was too tight. On our way out of Copenhagen we had more rain and then a double-rainbow. 

Our Photos Here

St. Petersburg, Russia

This was the big draw for us and we took a “Splendors of St. Petersburg” excursion that had us hopping for two days from one impressive palace, artwork, and fountain to the next. There were 14 people in our minibus and we enjoyed riding in comfort with explanations from a young native Russian. Since we hadn’t arranged a special visa prior to leaving home, we were restricted to a led tour and there were no opportunities to chat with locals. We got a pretty rosy description of current life in Russia and descriptions of historical events were told with a similarly positive perspective. I once asked what happened to churches and cathedrals after the revolution and civil war and was told that of course, they lost some of what they had but that most churches were turned into museums.  

History for those interested

Though we did see many splendors of St. Petersburg, we didn't see much of the Hermitage and left feeling that we only got the barest glimpse into all the cities we visited.  I guess that's the trade-off between vandrifting and cruising.