Spring Break 23

Many of my co-workers headed straight to Hawaii for Spring break. We went to Scotland. They bought swim suits and Mai Tais. We bought a raincoat, a scarf and plenty of pints.

We made it to Scotland after a plethora of traveling mishaps. Canceled flights, re-booked on the Airline we wanted to avoid and the airport we wanted to avoid, a late take off, missed connection and we got to sit next to the crying baby…. We were retelling a fellow Hungarian traveler how it was all going. He said, “How come you’re laughing about it?” We said, “All we have left is our attitude, we’re picking a good one.” Then I got him to teach me a bad word in Hungarian.

I’m pretty sure it just means, “darn it”.

We did make it to the lovely town of Pitlochry where even the back sides of the buildings are charming.

We stayed in a pup/hotel in what was called a ‘cozy double’ (cozy might mean charming and tiny). I said I wasn’t going to eat it, but I did.

Haggis…not bad. My tall cider was delicious, while My Loving Spouse enjoyed his Bitter all the while questioning the glass it was in.

Stonehaven on the Scottish coast was booked primarily so My Loving Spouse could stand in this B&B and see the North Sea.

The Bay Water B&B had everything we needed including a coveted parking space. All you had to do was make a left here.

I thought I was going to have to buy some grease and rub it on both sides of the tiny rental car, but My Loving Spouse took a deep breath and squeaked that baby in.

The car was lavender, so we named it Heather. It was a small China made MG. It had no guts and no glory. The GPS was ‘pretty‘ good, but did show some attitude. At one point in our wanderings it got mad at us and sent us down this road.

We were supposed to make a “right” but turned around when we reached a barn. We didn’t know which path was the ‘road’ and which would end up taking us to the farmhouse.

We’re not city people, but Edinburgh doesn’t count. What a fabulous historical, magical place. It will take 10-20 more visits to do it any justice.

I couldn’t get a good enough picture of the writing on this building, but the words in Gaelic are the answer Jesus gave when asked what was the most important commandment.

The Scottish people are the friendliest people, even if we couldn’t always exactly understand what they said. We’d smile and nod, then look at each other.

“What did he say?”

‘I have no idea.’

Scotland we’ll be back

…and we are blessed.