Rhonda Bracey: At Random

Today we started off with a drive to the Seaforth Harris Tweed premises, where we spent 2 hours learning all about Harris Tweed – its provenance, how it’s made, the processes that MUST be done on the Outer Hebrides islands to be called ‘Harris Tweed’, the act of parliament that preserves the tradition of it being called a ‘hand-woven’ fabric, the ups and downs and ups again of the textile industry, etc. And we watched Iain, the foot-pedal weaver, demonstrate how the tweed is made. Fascinating stuff!

The day started off brilliantly – no wind, lovely sunshine, just a magnificent day. One of those days where you say to yourself ‘I could live here!’. But 2 hours later the weather turned really bad, with heavy rain, grey skies, bitingly cold wind that at times was horizontal, and a wind chill factor of maybe 1C (the max was 6C). The sort of day you say ‘Who the hell would choose to live here?’ 🙂

How the day started

Arriving at the Seaforth Harris Tweed location

1934 Hattersley pedal-driven weaving loom

Examples of Harris Tweed made by Iain

2 hours later…

We visited the Blackhouse Village and had lunch there, and saw the Atlantic Ocean beating down on the beach, then we went to the Callanish Stones, one of the oldest standing stone circles in the world, and much much older than Stonehenge. Along the way we saw lots of cute little white cottages and homes, but equally a lot of abandoned ruins that were likely abandoned many years ago during the land clearances etc. It was bitterly cold at both the Blackhouse Village and the Callanish Stones — and the bus was invitingly warm and comfy and we were wet and chilled to the bone! By the time we returned to Stornoway (just 16 miles away), the sun was out again! Go figure.

Atlantic Ocean from the Blackhouse Village

Callanish Standing Stones

It was a long day of coach travel today. Grey, rainy and misty when we started out from Fort William. The rain mostly lifted as did the fog, but it remained quite cloudy.

Our first stop was Glenfinnan to see the viaduct featured in the Harry Potter movies. Next was Urquhart Castle ruins on the banks of Loch Ness, where we had some steady and penetrating cold rain. Then Ullapool and the 3.5-hour ferry ride across to Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis, where we arrived at the hotel well after dark. The bus came on the ferry too, so we’ll have it all the way back to Edinburgh, though our driver (the lovely Willy) has to change after 6 days.

Viaduct at Glenfinnan

Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness

We had the most beautiful day travelling north from Glasgow today. Sunshine the whole way, except the last couple of minutes around 4pm, just as we were arriving into Fort William. I took well over 140 photos and got some from others too. The scenery was just magic! The enormity of the towering (and glowering) mountains/hills, the geology of it all (volcanoes, glaciation), the insignificance you feel as a human in that landscape. It was all wonderful, especially the area around Glencoe. Wow, just wow! What a place, and what a day to see it. It was cold outside, especially in the wind, but it WAS sunny and mostly cloud-free. You can’t ask for better than that!

Some of the places we went included the small village of Luss on the edge of Loch Lomond, Inverary Castle, where we had a really interesting guided tour and lunch (it’s still lived in by the current Duke of Argyll [Campbell clan] and his family), Glencoe, and the picturesque Fort William. We saw highland cows (hairy coos!), running streams, waterfalls, towering peaks moulded over aeons of time by glaciers, glens (valleys), quaint cottages and villages. And we learned that Inver means river mouth, so Inverness is the mouth of the river Ness, Inverclyde the mouth of the Clyde etc.

Just stunning in every possible way.

Luss, on Loch Lomond

Inveraray Castle

A hairy coo!

Before I forget, some thoughts on 5 days in London, a place I’ve only visited once before and then only for 1 day back in the early 1980s.

• For the number of people living there, the areas we saw were very clean, with little litter.
• We had some amazing weather. For most days, I dressed in a short-sleeved shirt (early October) and jeans—and got hot. We encountered only a shower or two of rain over the 5 days.
• SOOOOO many people, sooo many tourists, even at the start of the ‘off’ season, sooo many places of interest just packed with people/tourists, of which we were just a few (yes, I’m aware of the irony of being a tourist making observations about the number of other tourists!). I found the numbers of people just too much.
• Incredibly multicultural, and despite what you may read or hear on the news, everyone just seems to get on with each other and is accepting of each other. Of course, this is just an outsider’s perspective looking at a micro slice of a complex society of approximately 10 million people, but in all the interactions I saw, there was no indication of racism, sexism, etc.
• Getting around London by anything other than the Tube is SLOW. The Tube is amazing and quick and some of the trains were exceptionally clean (all were clean, but some of the newer ones just looked more clean). Everyone’s behaviour was great — people were just going about their daily lives and I saw no evidence of any aggro. And yes, we travelled the Tube at night for nearly an hour, on the way home from ABBA Voyage.
• However, the Tube has some serious shortcomings if you happen to have any sort of physical disability, whether temporary or permanent, or aren’t as nimble on your feet as others (e.g. the elderly). There are SOOOO many stairs and escalators but few lifts. I only saw a couple of signs for lifts and I believe not every station has one. And then the lifts are tucked away at the ends of platforms and aren’t convenient at all. Also, the gaps and height differences between the various trains and platforms would make getting around on the Tube almost impossible if you weren’t in good health and fitness. This is not a transport system designed for all—yes, a lot of retrofitting has been done to a system that was built around 150 years ago, but they have a LONG way to go to make it accessible.
• There are almost NO bins to be found on the street. You can end up carrying your trash a long way back to your hotel or home as there are few places you can dispose of it. I heard that this lack of bins is a hangover from the days when the IRA was active and placed at least one bomb in a street bin. But seriously, that was in 1993, some 30+ years ago.
• There are very few toilets, and often the only way you can access a toilet is to go into a café or restaurant and purchase a drink or similar and then use theirs. Places like the Tower of London seem to only have one set of toilets, and so the queues are long and the walk to get to the loo even longer. Yes, I understand that there would be all sorts of logistical issues retrofitting loos to places like the Tower and Westminster Abbey, but the situation now is not good. Not everyone has an ironclad bladder, and this lack of loos must be really daunting for anyone with bladder or bowel issues, or who forgets to go before they leave their home or hotel. A city like London is FULL of tourists, and whether we like it or not, all are drinking and eating, and at some point in the day (sometimes several times a day) they need to go to a loo. Often, a tour will last 4 hours or more, and tour buses typically don’t have loos either.
• Uneven pavements, no handrails etc. Too bad if you’re not fit and healthy and nimble on your feet, or if you’re wearing high heels. The uneven pavement on roads, footpaths, and in historic places (e.g. the Tower, where there are extensive areas of cobblestones; or in Westminster Abbey where there are uneven steps and often no handrails) is a fall just waiting to happen. You really do need to watch where you’re walking, which can detract from viewing these historic sites. Handrails are essential, especially with uneven steps, but not every set of stairs had handrails, even on one side, let alone two.

All in all London is a beautiful city with far more attractions than you could see in a lifetime. But it’s way too busy for me, so I doubt I’ll be back except perhaps to use it as an airport hub to get somewhere else.

Today’s free day was filled with 2 visits. The first was to Glasgow Cathedral (built and extended over 300 years, starting in the 1100s). Amazing place and very few people visiting today as they were closed for an event from noon. The stained glass, in particular, was phenomenal.

The next visit today was to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum (6 passengers in an Uber was challenging!). We arrived just before 1pm and were present for the pipe organ recital at 1pm! How lucky was that!!

I found the most interesting bit to be the areas that focused on the Glaswegian art, artists (e.g. the Glasgow Boys), and designers (e.g. Mackintosh). Yes there were also French artists and Dutch masters, as well as one of the most famous of Salvador Dali’s paintings. Interestingly, yesterday our tour guide explained that when the gallery purchased the Dali from Dali himself in 1952, just a year after it was painted, there was a lot of backlash from the art students at the time about how the money could have been better spent on them, but most importantly he told us that the gallery purchased the copyright to the artwork from Dali directly—no lawyers were involved in the transaction. Supposedly, the revenue from this copyright ownership has kept the gallery in revenue sufficient to maintain the buildings, buy more artwork etc. Very shrewd, even very canny!

One of the other really interesting things was how they approached writing about everything on display. It was all in plain language, and there was no ‘wanky’ and pretentious writing about anything.

But best of all were the signs that dealt with things like racism, colonialism, slavery, stealing of artefacts etc. head on. Kudos to them!!

Tomorrow we leave Glasgow for the Highlands.

Today was our first full day in Glasgow. It started with a morning bus tour around some of the sights, including the esteemed Glasgow University, led by the very knowledge and lovely Stephen.

Glasgow University

Then we had a tour of the Willow Tea Rooms (designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh) and finally, lunch there in the upper salon, a very special room that used to be the ladies part of the tea rooms.

One thing that became very obvious to me was that while Rennie Mackintosh is known around the world for his architecture and Arts and Crafts furniture and design in the early 1900s, the 2 main women in his life — Margaret McDonald, his wife and a fellow artist, and Catherine Cranston, the owner of the chain of tea rooms and his boss — were not. And yet they were as important as him, if not more so. Cranston seemed a formidable but very fair woman, making sure she gave her employees every opportunity to learn and to progress themselves. And she had quite clear notions about how she wanted her tea rooms designed, even when that conflicted with Mackintosh’s artistic aesthetic.

My lunch consisted of a haggis parcel, baked wild Scottish salmon, and a sticky toffee pudding. All courses were delicious, but the haggis stood out. I’ve never eaten it before but if this was representative, then count me in! Inside the filo (?) pastry parcel was like a shepherd’s pie, with spicy/peppery haggis on the bottom and mashed potato on top. It was surrounded by the richest, thickest and most delicious gravy/sauce, which the server said later was whiskey based, though I couldn’t taste whiskey in it at all.

Tonight was something completely different… Yep, we’re going to play Bingo at a big bingo hall!

We took the #2 bus there and the subway back. I came close (one away) from a full house and 100 pounds, but one of our group got 100 pounds on her first game (it was 200 but someone else also got it, so it was split)! No-one else won anything. But we had a bit of fun. I thought it would be much more full with people and engaging — the one time I previously went to bingo (in the US), it was packed. The regulars had their spots and their little good luck charms spread out around them, different coloured dabbers, snacks etc. And based on our tour leaders’ experience this time last year, they were expecting that too. But this was a bit sad. Our group was put upstairs, which was a good idea, but when I looked down about halfway through the evening’s games, the main hall was basically empty. Still, we now have our dabbers and membership card if we do this again in Inverness.

Just one away from a full house (bottom game)

Almost empty bingo hall

What a day! The 4 to 5 hour train ride to Glasgow is certainly the way to go! You’d spend almost as much time if you were travelling by plane, what with waiting around at airports, checking in, going through security etc. plus getting to/from the airport. Instead, we left our London hotel, went to Euston station and boarded the Avanti West Coast Line for Glasgow. No security checks, no baggage drops. The train can travel at 180 to 200 kph. I’m not sure we were going that fast, though we were certainly moving along. On arrival at Glasgow station, we almost literally walked across the road to our hotel. Not so easy on a plane!

Tonight we had a group dinner with a very special surprise the hour or so beforehand—we were treated to an amazing amount of Gaelic history by the Inverclyde Waulking Group. Waulking is the process of softening fabric (typically the wool used in tweed) and has a long and ancient history, accompanied by very old songs that were sung when women did this work. This group of 5 women explained the process of working the wool, from shearing to cleaning to carding, and then spinning. After that the wool is woven and tweed is the result. But that’s not the end— the tweed is very rough and has to be softened, and part of that process is waulking. We all participated in the waulking with the women as they sang the songs associated with this work. This was not something on the usual tourist route, and we were very privileged to learn and participate.

One of the Inverclyde Waulking Group showing traditional spinning on a spindle. The women would walk around with these spindles tucked into a pocket or a waistband, and in any free moments would spin yarn using the power of gravity and the spinning nature of the spindle. The spinning wheel changed all that—it tied women to the home to spin.

Today was our last full day in London. It was a free day, but a small group of us went to see the Horse Guards near Trafalgar Square, then on to the nearby National Gallery (free) where I was very quickly SOOO over the medieval artists’ penchant for half and fully naked women, Madonna and child, showing breasts, and babies that had the faces of old men and the body lengths of 4 year olds! Plus, after watching Hannah Gadsby’s ‘Douglas’ several years ago (or one of her comedy routines), I was on the lookout for some other commonalties, and I found it in dogs! Almost every one of those medieval scenes with multiple people in them in awkward poses also had 1 or more dogs, typically in the lower left or right corner. Who knew there were so many dogs!? I got quite lost in the medieval section (literally – the place is like a rabbit warren) but eventually found the Gainsboroughs, Turners, Monets, Van Goghs, Seurats etc. It was in interesting morning and I can now say I’ve ‘been there, done that’, but it wouldn’t be on my agenda again. And the people! SOOO many people! The place was packed, though it was a Sunday, so I’m not surprised.

But the absolute highlight of the day and actually of the trip so far was ‘ABBA Voyage’ which we went to this evening at the specially built ABBA Arena. We had 2 adjoining dance booths, and I have no idea how much it cost, but it was absolutely worth every last cent! What a phenomenal show. 4 hours later and I was still buzzing! The light and sound and how they brought ABBA to life was just amazing. We were only allowed to take photos up to the start of the show and were warned that anyone taking photos or videos would be ejected, which was a great policy — didn’t see a single glow from a screen anywhere. If you’re in London or anywhere else that this might go, go along and see it – you won’t be disappointed! (well, you might be if you know nothing about ABBA and their music!)

We got out of the city today, and I for one was quite glad as I was a bit overwhelmed  by the number of people and my painful feet. First stop was Stonehenge, and we couldn’t have asked for more prefect weather. It was a MAGIC day. Sunny, patchy cloud, warm but not hot, slightly chilly on Salisbury Plain when the wind picked up.

The next stop was Bath, where we went to the Roman Baths. Surprise find – a fudge place in Bath that had a lemon sorbet fudge that tasted JUST like lemon meringue pie!!!!! Of course I had to buy a slice! (the fudge was quite a bright yellow, not like the cheesy yellow in the photo)

Today was a free day, and many of us chose to take to Tube to the V&A Museum (FREE entry!). You could spend a week there and not see it all, so I focused on just a couple of areas: glass, architecture, film and theatre, jewellery and fashion. I didn’t take a lot of photos as the light in many exhibitions was quite dim, and with the limited time there, I just wanted to take it all in.

Outside, it was blue skies and sunshine and a lovely 18C.

Yes, this is GLASS!!!!

I don’t know what this was or how they moved it, but it was MASSIVE. Check out the size by comparing the size of the man with the backpack in the lower right corner