Off-duty Investigations

I am looking forward to my next trip to Scotland. So much to do and so little time! I was introduced to Scotland through my wife’s work with Scottish Development International. I have the pleasure of coming to Scotland as a tourist whereas my wife comes to work. I tag along for a week or ten days and we vacation before she heads into the office and I return to Texas.

On our first trip to Scotland we flew into Glasgow, picked up a rent car at the airport, looked at a map, and decided to head south. English is the spoken language and, although they drive on the "wrong" side of the road, how difficult can it be to get around? Well, first off, make sure that rent car has an automatic transmission! I had the economy stick shift the first time and not only was I driving on the "wrong" side of the road, I was shifting backwards with the wrong hand. I met lots of curbs and scared the wife silly dealing with cars parked along the streets. Then there were the roundabouts! Not many of those in the U.S. Once we got our bearings and adjusted to the driving experience everything started to get better. We were off!

We like the idea of a vacation with no itinerary. Just pick up a rent car and go. Scotland is very amenable to that kind of freestyle vacation. We have yet to end up where we couldn’t find a bed and breakfast as well as a pub which serves good food and drink.

You have to remember that us yanks think of history as the past two or three hundred years. Scots have a somewhat different timeline perspective on history. I can’t imagine a person who upon seeing their first castle doesn’t immediately feel a considerable sense of awe and, just as immediately, want one of their own!

Our first Scottish vacation was what I like to refer to as a castle crawl. We purchased an explorer pass to historic properties and in a week on the open road we saw Caerlaverock, Threave, Crichton, Dirleton, Craigmillar, Edinburgh, Linlithgow Palace, Blackness, Stirling, Dumbarton, Seton Church, Sweetheart Abbey, and the Wallace Monument.

Castles! There is nothing like them in the U.S.

Did I mention that along the way we spotted a very small sign along the road pointing to the birthplace of John Paul Jones, the father of the American Navy? Oh, yes. He’s considered as somewhat of a Scottish rogue: American admiral, off to serve as admiral in the Czarina’s Navy, and dead at an early age. His remains were brought back and interred in the chapel at the U.S. Naval Academy. That same John Paul Jones? Yep, there it was – a small, whitewashed cottage on the south coast. Isn’t it interesting what you see when out for a drive?

Can’t wait for our next visit.