Scottish Highlands Wild Mountain Thyme

We had perfect weather the 3 days we spent in the Highlands of Scotland. It was something to behold. It reminded me a lot of one of my favorite traditional songs-"Wild Mountain Thyme"the chorus of the lyrics go as follows:

     And will all go together
     to pull wild mountain thyme
    All around the bloomin heather
    Will ye go  
     lassie
     go
The fields are spectacular and not crowded. Scotland is about the same geography as England and has only about 5 million people where as England has 30+ million people. There are parts of the Highlands that are truly remote.

While we did have perfect weather, I am told and have seen pictures of some pretty rotten weather in the Highlands so our visit is by know means representative of the weather all year.

We recommend to everyone that they include the Highlands on their personal bucket list of things to do before they die.
Tomorrow Isle of Sky

Edinburgh February 25, 2016

People always ask me what is your favorite country and what is your favorite city? If the truth be told it usually is the last place I have been. That place is still fresh in my mind and there was a good reason for my being there. Either I read about the place in a book or on the internet and wanted to see what it was like myself.

One of my favorite places has been Scotland and especially Edinburgh. We stayed in the old section of the City and happened to hit the City at a particularly good weather time. We have very little rain the week we were in Scotland.

Most people know the City for the Castle and the Royale Mile, both are interesting but that is not what I wanted to experience. I wanted to see what the food scene was like.
I learned in Edinburgh that one or two owners were buying up a lot of the old Pubs in the UK and "commoditizing" them. They weren't changing the appearance of the building, but the food was all the same. We noticed that when we went to one of the famous Pubs on the Royal Mile that the food the menu was the same as the Pub we were in the day before in London. Curious, I asked the waiter and he explained that the Pubs are now owned by one or two individuals.

I can't say the food was bad, but clearly the variety was not there, it was like we went to an American Version of English Pub food. Something you might find at Disney World.
However, we did have some terrific food in Edinburgh. One night we went early to a place suggested in our guide book call the "outsider". We were early enough that we got a window table. We happened to be there one of the few rainy nights in Edinburgh. The view was of the Castle and a light rain coming down on an old City. It was everything that I pictured the City would be. It was truly magical. I took this picture with our small pocket camera and really love the image.

I will write about the rest of the country tomorrow.

February 24 2016 Copernicus

This is my beautiful granddaughter. She, her mother and brother came over for dinner last night and we went to the park. It was such a good day, and it was still light at 6:00 PM and still warm. I love taking pictures of her and will use this blog to celebrate her and others in my family from time to time. I will generally try and post images on a daily or weekly basis mostly from my travels since that is the purpose of the blog.

It is my intention to share with any who read it the beauty and majesty  of the world, and all that it has to offer. I hope that people will find the blog interesting and useful and the ideas fruitful. It is my first attempt at blogging so I have no roadmap or guide to follow only the blogs that I have read over the years. I will not introduce any politics into the blog, that is not my purpose.

When I was in high school, I worked out at an old fashion gym, way before weight machines, just real free weights. They were always sweaty so before you used them you would need to wipe them down with a rag you brought with you. On the wall of the gym in big letters, so everyone could see it were the words- "no talk of religion or politics" in the gym. I am not sure that would work today with the 24 hour news cycle, but it worked back then. I will stick to that principal in this blog.

Lets see where this goes. Eric