jane1144

Prologue
We have just returned from a month long trip to Scotland. We had a wonderful time and I am grateful to many of you from whom I gleaned information and ideas. I downloaded all posts related to Scotland and read them voraciously, cutting and pasting here and there, until I had developed an itinerary. I also asked a few questions and was delighted with all the advice I received.
DH and I were the primary travellers on this trip, but we were joined by DSIL, one DD and one DGD at various times, so our itinerary reflects their participation. The other thing that makes this trip a bit different is that for two weeks of it, we were participating members of the Pipes and Drums of Canada who were playing at various venues around Scotland. This was the part that ruined my rule of carry-on luggage only! With uniforms and instruments, we were forced to contend with checked luggage. All went well, but we had to lug around extra stuff which is a nuisance.
A little about us. DH and I recently celebrated our 150th birthday! (He is 80 and I am 70). We are reasonably fit and naturally our fitness levels improved as we walked around (and UP) on this trip. Marching with our various bands helps the cause as well. We have been fortunate enough to have travelled quite extensively around the world. We were skiers and sailors earlier in our lives. When we travel we like to do basically the same things, although DH would spend more time in markets than cathedrals! He is the chef in our family and gets “cooking-deprived” after about a week away from home. How lucky am I?! We are not extravagant travellers but will spend extra for special experiences. We are early risers and rarely go out past dinner time when travelling.

Days 1& 2 Aug 10 & 11 - Off to Glasgow
We were up and finishing our final packing early. We drove to Toronto for our West Jet flight to Glasgow, with a stop in Halifax. We allowed lots of time to fight the traffic and deposit our car. Once we were through security we pretty much filled in time until we were ready to go.
We boarded and actually left a bit early. Unfortunately, we were directly ahead of an unhappy two year old. She didn’t cry or scream…she screeched for the WHOLE trip to Halifax. The parents and the crew tried valiantly but she was having none of it. At some point another passenger, who said he had a child the same age, produced an iPad with kid stuff on it for the child to watch. That worked for at least three minutes.
We were exhausted and we were only in Halifax! Happily, that family disembarked there. When we took off again at 10:45 we had an infant in front of us, but he only whimpered when his ears hurt on takeoff, and was otherwise a happy camper.
We landed about 5 minutes late after an essentially sleepless night. We were not our usual scintillating selves, grumpy really. We stopped at the ATM for cash and got charged what we thought was an outrageous amount on the exchange. It turned out that the machine had first converted GBPs to US dollars and then to Canadian dollars. More about this later…….
It was sunny, breezy and cool, a lovely day. We took a bus into central Glasgow and got off, as instructed, at Bothwell Street. When we were looking around to get our bearings, a lady asked where we were going (the City Hotel). She, unfortunately, sent us walking in the wrong direction which resulted in a route march over hill and dale. Well OK, no real dales, but certainly UP HILLS. We eventually arrived at the hotel and left our luggage, deciding we might be better with a little lunch.
We found a spot for Paninis and coffee. With improved moods we set out to explore our neighbourhood a bit. We finally made out way back to the hotel where our room was ready. It was lovely, but quite tiny. We always stay up on the first day of a European vacation to try to conquer our jet lag early, but we had concert tickets for that evening and we knew we would never stay awake. We napped for two hours, showered and felt relatively human again.
We had a light supper on our way to the concert. We arrived early to exchange our voucher for our tickets. We milled around in a cocktail room where we met several people we know. Oh, I didn’t tell you it was a Piping Concert put on by the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band from Vancouver, an excellent Band which has won the World Pipe Band Championship several times. We loved the concert and made our way home by 11:00pm. We figured out the TV, but fell fast asleep almost immediately.

jane1144

My apologies...I left spaces between paragraphs and put my titles in "BOLD", but somehow all that formatting was lost when I posted...aaarrrggghh!

Nikki

I'm looking forward to reading about your adventure.

janisj

Hi Jane1144: going back up to read your report -- but re the paragraph breaks . . . you need to do a double return to get breaks (a 'normal' paragraph break only gets you what you got )

janisj

Oh and re the <B>bold</B> . . . I wouldn't bother bolding in Word or what ever you are using. After pasting into the text box just highlight the words/phrases you want to <B>bold</B> and type < B > w/o the spaces in front and < / B > w/o the spaces after.

janisj

Great start . . . "charged what we thought was an outrageous amount on the exchange. It turned out that the machine had first converted GBPs to US dollars and then to Canadian dollars. More about this later……."

So you got bit by the voracious DCC bug. Nasty beast (Warning to others - never ask the machine to have your currency to 'converted'. Ask for £ and get £ - leave the conversion to your bank back home - or you get a double whammy like what happened to jane1144)

jane1144

Hi Janis,

I have already double spaced my next instalment, but thanks for the help on the bold part.

We didn't ask for a currency conversion, we just tried to withdraw pounds from our (Canadian) bank account which we have always done all over the world successfully. This particular ATM was attached to the currency exchange booth, so that was likely the problem. Being jet lagged, we really didn't notice that until we were back at the airport. However, we ran in to this again later at HSBC. We went in to the manager and even he couldn't help us withdraw from their ATM without a conversion to USD. We were fine at the Bank of Scotland. We tried one more HSBC with the same issue. It is the strangest thing.
I did however get caught in DCC with a credit card purchase in Scotland in 2009, before I had ever heard of it. Now I warn people against it.

LCBoniti

Very much looking forward to following along on your adventure.

RM67

More soon please

scotlib

A whole month! Maybe someday .. sigh .. save, save, save the $

jane1144

DAY 3, THURSDAY AUG 12th - GLASGOW

I had requested a room at the back of the hotel to be away from any street noise, and luckily they had one, BUT...they are demolishing a building behind us!! Deconstruction starts at 7:30 so it's a good thing we are early risers.


So, we were up and going in good time. We walked towards Buchanan St., and grabbed breakfast and coffee on the way. We stopped to listen to a Sikh pipe band from Malaysia which is here to compete for the first time. They were in white pants, shirts and turbans, with a Royal Stewart Plaid over their shoulders. ( A plaid is a long piece of tartan worn over the shoulder, in this case hanging all the way to the ground.)

I guess I didn’t mention that our primary purpose in Glasgow was to attend the World Pipe Band Championships, as well as to work on a little genealogy. We ambled down Buchanan St., gazing at the sights and listening to various street performers. We went to George Square, where we have played before, and watched some of Piping Live, which consists of performances, featuring some of the competing Bands. It was sunny and, actually, we got too hot...in Scotland!! We moved to the shade, and had decided to have lunch. We had a hog roll, which was really pulled pork and fried onions on a bun, washed down with a pint of Piping Live lager.


We were to take a short train ride the next day, so, since we were near Central Station, we decided to scope out where we would have to go. I'm glad we did as we were able to buy our return tickets and find our way around the massive Victorian station. We acquired some wine and came home for a drink.


After showering and having a glass of wine, we went to a pub for dinner. It was “curry Thursday”. I had butter chicken and DH had a lamb dish. We each had generous portions which included more wine....a great deal.


We decided on an early evening as we would have a full schedule on the following day.


DAY 4, FRIDAY, AUG 13 – STEWARTON and GLASGOW



We were up early on a cloudy and cool day to go to Stewarton where DH’s ancestors are from (according to his DNA testing). We walked to Central Station where we had a bagel and peanut butter and surprisingly good coffee. Our train left at 9:12 and arrived at 9:40. While we were on the train, an older gentleman sat across the aisle from DH and started a conversation. The problem was that he had such a broad Scot's accent that we couldn't understand a word he said. That didn't stop DH who chatted happily away. I'm sure there were two completely independent conversations going on! I would have understood more if they had been speaking French!


We arrived and followed our directions for a 5 minute walk to the Historical Museum where we met David and his co-worker Mairi. They had been doing some family research for us and proudly showed us their little museum. They also sent us to the antique store to meet another man with our last name whose family has been here since the 1500's. We still haven't made an exact family connection for DH’s great grandfather, but it feels like we are getting closer.


Stewarton is a little farming community, south-west of Paisley, with a population of about 7000. At one time it was the primary supplier of Glengarrys and Balmorals (hats that pipe bands wear).We walked around town a bit, and went to the parish church cemetery where there are graves with our family name as far back as the 1700's.


We stopped for a snack of scones and coffee, and then caught the train back to Glasgow. We walked to Glasgow Green (about 15 minutes) to see the World Pipe Band qualifying rounds. I bought a rain cover for my drum and DH got a new Inverness (rain cape for his uniform). We watched a few rounds of the Grade 1 bands, and then found out what bus to take home, arriving about 4:30pm.


We had a glass of wine and went back to the same pub as the day before. This night’s special was fish and chips and they were quite good.


There is a pipe band staying in the hotel across from us and we have heard them practicing before. We heard them again that night, which probably meant that they had made it through their qualifying round.


We stayed in for the evening, and were looking forward to the championships the next day.

jane1144

Janis, in spite of your assistance, I still haven't managed "bold"! I highlighted the words, but, when, I start typing the <B>, the highlighting disappears. (this is on a pc). I have put the titles in caps, so perhaps that will have to do.

Mimar

A bagel and peanut butter in Glasgow station. Truly the world is a smaller place.

jane1144

Now how on earth did I get "Bold" in my message above??!!! I wasn't even trying.

janisj

"Now how on earth did I get "Bold" in my message above??!!! I wasn't even trying."

Its magic

I would have loved to be in Glasgow for the Championships. Used to go to the SF Caledonian Club games (first in Santa Rosa and later in Pleasanton) every year and have seen Simon Fraser many times.

Did Mr. jane1144 submit DNA through ancestry.com or some other screener?

jane1144

Hi Janis,
It was FTDNA

jane1144

DAY 5, SATURDAY, AUG. 14 – THE WORLD PIPE BAND CHAMPIONSHIPS, GLASGOW

Sunny, cloudy, rain, sunny, cool, cold



This was the day of the World Pipe Band Championships, our reason for being in Glasgow. And, to get in the mood, we went to our local pub for full Scottish breakfast which consisted of eggs, bacon, baked beans, sausage, black pudding and something they call bread which is dense like a pancake and deep fried....sounds like Canada's food guide to me!


Once we could move, we walked to Glasgow Green which was already packed with people. They announced that there were 50,000 people with ten thousand being competitors. Of the 10 thousand pipers and drummers, 20% were under the age of 21. That is a good number for the future of Piping and Drumming.


Around noon, it was sunny and we felt quite hot. I briefly thought I should have worn capris, but, within the hour it got cloudy, cold and rainy. We had three seasons...everything but snow. All through the competition, I wished I had my fleece, gloves and a turtleneck!!! It would certainly teach one to dress in layers. (We were in jeans, and T shirts, with our nylon wind jackets and hats). Eventually we resorted to plastic rain ponchos to cut the wind…very chic!


We started out by walking all around the venue. There were vendors of all sorts, varying from a man making pipes to fudge, etc. We ran into several people we know from home.


Everywhere, there were bands practising, many with very young players. We watched the drum major competitions for a while. It is amazing to see them toss the mace 30 feet in the air and catch it easily.


At some point we stopped for lunch. There were only three picnic tables in the whole venue, so we spread out a plastic poncho on the ground. Stew handed me the beer and started to sit down. He lost his balance and tipped over...pretty funny. The people behind us were just leaving. They felt sorry for us and gave us a seat at the table. There are some advantages to being old. The other lucky thing was that we were sitting just under the edge of tent. When it started to pour rain and we were both seated and dry.


After that round of rain, we watched heavy events for a while, including log boxing, where two boxers try to fight while maintaining their balance on a log. There were also highland dancing competitions.


After it stopped raining, and we made our way to our seats. We kept our ponchos on, more to try to keep warm. It rained occasionally, but was consistently windy and cold. First we watched the Juvenile Novice finals. Many players were under ten years old.

Finally, it was time for the Grade 1 medley final. All we can say is that it was just awesome! We have watched this event many times on line, but it is thrilling to be there. There were 3 Canadian bands that made it through to the finals, Halifax Citadel, Triumph Street, and Simon Fraser.


We left after the competitions, but before the results were announced. We figured it would take a month to catch the bus when 40,000 of our closest friends were trying to leave at the same time. Eventually, a Scottish band, Shotts and Dykehead were the winners. It's the first time the title has been back in Scotland for quite a while.


We came home, had some wine and went out for dinner. I don't know if it was because we were later or because it was Saturday, but it was really busy and really loud. Overall, we had a great day.

jane1144

DAY 6, SUNDAY, AUG. 15 - OUR LAST DAY IN GLASGOW



Sunny, cool


We slept in and went for a quick breakfast at McDonalds. Even that was better for us than yesterday's breakfast! We went back to the hotel and walked to the laundromat, which took about 15 minutes. We did two loads. It was 4G BP per wash, including 50p for soap, and another 2 pounds for 30 minutes on the dryer. While we were there we ended up talking to Bob Worrall, a well-known Canadian piper, who does the colour commentary on the World's for BBC television. Even famous people do laundry!

We dropped off our clean clothes back at the hotel, and walked down to the pedestrian mall. We had snack of tea cake and coffee at Costa.

Then we went to an art exhibit. The day before, various artists brought their blank canvases to the concert hall to be stamped. They then went out and drew or painted whatever they wanted to that was representative of Glasgow. At the end of the day they returned their masterpieces to be judged and hung for sale. We had watched a few people painting, so it was very interesting to see the final projects. Most were quite good, but there were a few by people who had never done anything like this before, and even they were interesting.

We continued to walk around as it is a beautiful summer day, still cool in the shade. We have enjoyed Glasgow. Although this is our 4th time here, we have never stayed for more than a few hours before this trip. It has a different feel than Edinburgh. It seems a little grubbier on the side streets, but reasonably well maintained in the pedestrian, high end shopping areas. The city is very walkable, but with some significant hills. We noticed right away, how many more smokers there are, especially women. There is no smoking in pubs, etc., but you have to run a gauntlet of smokers to get in or out. We also noticed that everyone jay walks, although we are not really sure how they decide when it's safe. We just followed the locals. We also saw many young women (girls) who were vaguely orange from their "tan in a can". They were especially orange and blotchy around their ankles. I imagine that they were feeling beautiful!

The people were very friendly, actually eager to talk with us. The hotel staff was very helpful. Of course, Piping Live was on all week to keep us amused. We would like to come back and take in in some of the sights that we had to miss this time. It was a good start to our Scottish adventure. We ate in that night….salads. We needed a break from pub food. We would be leaving in the morning to meet some of our fellow band members at the airport and to take the band bus to Edinburgh

jane1144

DAY 7, MONDAY, AUG.16th - OFF TO EDINBURGH

Sunny, with a few clouds, warm


For some reason we had trouble sleeping through that last night, but we eventually got about 4-5 hours. We got up around 7:00, had breakfast, and came home to pack our last minute things. We got a taxi to the airport where we waited in the arrivals area for some of our Band group to arrive. While waiting, we had the most expensive and worst coffee of the trip, which was so bad that we had to throw it out.


The gang finally arrived and then it took another hour or so to organize the buses...good grief!!! Eventually, we drove to Edinburgh, eating a cookie along the way for lunch (!), and got checked in to the University of Edinburgh Residence which functions as a Bed and Breakfast in the summer. It is convenient and is able to cater to a large group such as the Band. We have about 85 players and most people have spouses, partners or friends who are here but who are not players. We also noticed that there were several groups who are playing in the Tattoo staying here as well.

We unpacked and got settled in to our home away from home for the next two weeks. We had a drink and then went to dinner at the Southsider with friends. We got home about 7:30 and DH went off in search of our information package. We had an early evening to unpack our instruments, etc. for practice tomorrow morning.


DAY 8 TUESDAY, AUG 17th – EDINBURGH

Cloudy, sprinkles, cool, rain



We got up around seven and went for our first massive breakfast. One eats in the student cafeteria and there is every imaginable type of breakfast from corn flakes, to haggis, to eggs, to croissants, etc. etc. It was difficult not to completely stuff yourself every day. After having eggs the first morning, I finally settled on muesli, yoghurt and fruit with coffee as being somewhat reasonable.


We had a practice from 10:30 for about 2 hours, and met our fellow band members from across Canada, some of whom were with us when we were here in 2009 for “The Gathering”. There were also a few players from New Zealand and Australia, who have joined us for our first performance.


We ate our lunch and headed downtown. It was sprinkling rain but not enough to wear a raincoat. The Royal Mile was closed off above Bridge St for the Fringe Festival. There were street performers everywhere and pedestrians shoulder to shoulder. We went in and out of a few shops, but finally gave up because of the crowds, and went for coffee . Fortunately someone was just leaving and gave us his table. We had a drink and a muffin, more to sit for a while than anything.


We walked down to Holyrood House, looking for a bagpipe store we had been to last time, but we didn't find it. We were getting tired and the rain started to pick up so we trudged home. We picked up dinner at Tesco.


We came home and had a drink. We joined some friends from home who were also dining in. There is a common room on every floor with some basic kitchen facilities so you can make whatever you want….a nice change from eating out. It worked out well and we had a good time.

irishface

Looking forward to the rest of your adventures!