Home of the McKenzies
Ahhh Scotland, you just can't beat a morning when you wake up, look across the park outside your hostel and you hear the distinct sound of bagpipes. You can be nowhere else. Arrived in Glasgow late in the evening, like about 01.30 and didnt quite make it to the hostel before 2am so by then I was ready to find a bed and just sleep and I did just that, only to be woken by someones damn alarm at 07.30 the next morning. You know that state of mind when you are half awake, half asleep just wishing it would be quite, your mind is not the most responsive. So after almost a minute of this damn alark, I got up properly to discover that it wasnt infact an inconsiderate hosteller, it was infact the fire alarm of the hostel and we were being evacuated... Hooray... We're all ushered onto the street with 3 fire trucks approaching to check it all out, I couldnt smell smoke or see fire, but it turned out that someone had let something burn in the kitchen and it caught fire, only minor... Welcome to Glasgow huh?
Being up I decided to check out Glasgow early. I really wish I had stayed longer, to see more of Scotland but with the extra days in Nice and Paris, meant I had used up 'free' days. As I said, it was the week of the World bagpipe championships and there were groups everywhere. I went over to the Glasgow Uni and there were different groups from all over the world practicing in different green bits on the campus. Saw an Aussie contingient, which were easy to spot despite their tops which had the distinctive 'AUS' on the back, but they were all in thongs, boardies, Oakley's and had a tan despite the cold weather over there. Yep, they were Ausies alright.
They were good, and so were the rest and because they were so close, it was almost deafening. The way it should be! Walked around Glasgow and saw the two 'mst see' things which were the Glasgow Cathedral and the Necropolis (City of the Dead). They were both of course very cool and it was amazing to see how much effort some of the old folk went into grave stones. the Necropolis is on a hill top and has some of the oldest and largest headstones (read: marble and granite houses) in the UK. These things were massive! Must have been a sale on Granite. The cathedral was adorned with the tell tale stained glass windows and huge gothic ceiling.
That night was the bagpipe show at the Glasgow concert hall and it was very cool. I am always amazed at the drummers because the military drummers are always so accurate and loud while the other drummers with the larger drums on their front with the spinning beaters (?). I am really surprised they didn't come off their hands beacuse they were spinning them so fast it was a blur some of the time. All in all a good show had by all I think.
The next day I went up to Stirling which is about a hours north of Glasgow, it forms the 'brooch between the highlands and the lowlands'. And you can definitely see it too. One side has the craggy mountains/hills of the highlands and the other side has the curvey, soft hills of the lowlands. The town is very nice, old school construction and I had a wander around before making it up to the castle. The view from there was a mazing and you could tell why it was chosen because you really could see for miles around. The castle was the last place any Scottish cannons were fired in anger. The castle itself has been restored in many parts but it was still quite complete and undamaged for most of its life. I'll have to check up on the details of the kings and queens there (was a while ago now) but alot went on.
Really, the 2 days spent in Glasgow were too brief and I want to go up again for a longer tme and do Haydrian's Wall and more of the MacKenzie trail. I was at the site of one battle of the MacKenzie's near Stirling and I picked up a brief history of our clan. It was Tres cool! Incase you're wandering, we were a MacKenzie Clan before we came to Australia and dropped the 'a' to become McKenzie as we jumped ship and needed to hide under an Irish spelling of the name.
From Glasgow came the Lakes Distict in England where I caught up finally with Bron! (For those not playing from home, Bron's my mate from Adelaide who has been working in the UK for 14 months). The Lakes District is a beautiful place of hills, mountains, lakes (funnily enough) and an altogether good feel about it. Meeting Bron after all this time really didnt seem that weird and felt like I still had seen her last week really, was good. Went back to Newlands where she worked and it is an adventure place for kid's school camps and other corporate adventure things. You can Kyack, canoe, mountain climb, bike ride, go Ghyll Scrambling (going down mountain streams) etc. Was really fun!
On the first day Bron and I took our packed lunches (All food is included and I think I ate as much in those five days as I had eaten in about the two weeks previous) and went up a really big hill (maybe mountain, forget the height threshold) Blencathera. It really was awesome and there were mountain sheep everywhere and other 'ramblers' (Older folk who go walking with sticks, haha) too. It was a really overcast day and upon getting to the top after scrambling across a high ridge (which we later found out several people had fallen from and died) we got to the top just in time to be covered by clouds and experienced a white out. In every direction we could see maybe 10m infront before it was a white wall of clouds. Oh by the way, it's damp and clouds smell like 'wet', haha, what are the odds? Then the rain started... So soaked through and after I managed to stack it a few times in the mud, we made our way back to the pub for a quiet pint of real English Ale. Big day, a lot of hours gone but was glad I'd done it.
That night we went into Keswick (closest big town) and went out on the town. Best thing with Keswick being a tourist town is that every second shop that isnt an outdoor shop is a pub. With one club in Keswick, it was the last stop. Was a good night and despite forgetting that English pints are larger than ours back home yet still drinking them as if they were the same, there was no hangover :D
The rest of the stay was spent hiking up to 'CatBells', an easy climbing hill overlooking Newlands, and reading at the top in the freezing wind, going Kyacking, my first experience on water like that, and Ghyll scrambling, which was SO fun. It is where you get layered up (like four jumpers and two sets of pants) and you go slipping and jumping down a mountain stream of freezing water. And by freezing I mean it. Ill put the pics up later but it was a mind expanding experience because you get to push yourself a bit more than I normally would on my own. Some of the little waterfalls you jump off are fairly high, maybe 10-12 feet and the water is deeper underneath but with our awesome instructor Johann I felt safe. Guess that's the point right? And I also figured if 10 year olds can do this, so can I!
I really wish I could have stayed longer, but the rest of the trip was calling and from the Lakes District I went down to Birmingham for the night, went to Shakespeare town, Strathford-Upon-Avon, saw his birth place, the church where he and his wife Anne Hathaway are buried and got to see where the Royal Shakespeare company has its many theatres. Couldn't see any shows because they finished too late to catch a train back to Birmingham, but it was cool to see where they do the shows.
From Birmingham was Cambridge, the old University town (pics to follow eventually), where you really would feel a sense of prestige if you graduated from one of the many Universities that make up Cambridge. There is no one 'Cambridge University' like I thought, but lots in the town. Kings Colledge and Trinity are probably the two biggest and prestigous.
Met Hannah too, and we checked out the Kings College which has the most enormous cathedral in it which I suspect would rival most of thre large churches in Adelaide. Every year the Kings choir sing on Christmas eve and I am told the waiting line for tickets extends into years. The roof is unbelievably ornate and high! (HIGH!!) while the stained glass is just as impressive. The Cambridge waters are filled with punts which are the boats used like in Venice, with a guy or girl on the back with a long stick to push the boat through the canals. It is VERY easy to spot the students taking tours to the tourists trying to punt themselves, haha. Spending the day with Hannah was great, gem of a personality and a great local tour guide. We had lunch where DNA was announced to have been found. Go the double Helix and the Cambridge professors! Got to see where Steven Hawkings works/studies and was shown a lot of cool little places. I'd go back in a second. Clean, neat and old, like much of England I spose.
That's all for the minute, Ill update later with the coolest weekend this side of the 40's as I spent it with Chris dressed as a Britsh Soldier who drove lorries and the like uring the second World War. I even got to carry a gun! The photos are cool so they'll be here later. But the whole weekend was a 1940's at an old airbase with the Saturday night ending in a huge dance in the main hanger. Couldn't have been a cooler evening. I tried and failed to swing dance (Bro and Kate I need tips) but it was a good night. Re-enacting the war time was really fun and I now need an excuse for a 1940's theemed party, so look out 23 December!
Next is Oxford, Basingstoke, Brighton before finally finishing in London. My trip is now in its dying weeks and I'ma bit sad really. It has been so cool, but there is still two and a bit weeks left before I say goodby to Europe and head home to Down Under.
Til then, Bruce, signing off ;)
Comments
Hi Son,
John an Joyce r home, if u can give them a call 2 say hi it would b great.
Havn a ball in th UK thats cool hope u learnt a bit more about our NAME SAKE.
Take care son c u soon.
Love Dad