Month: April 2015 (Page 2 of 2)

Well, the weather just isn’t giving us a break this week! It’s almost freezing and raining non stop. Only a 20% chance tomorrow with a temp of 45… So here’s hoping we can get out and explore without being miserable and cold!

We started this morning is Glasgow. Meh. I didn’t really feel like there was anything major I had to see or do. It’s a decent city…but sort of like Belfast- a little gritty, a little dirty, a little working-class… Lol (you know I can’t be around the working class! Haha)

There was some great old buildings, we took some pictures from the car. Because it was freezing. Lol

We were on a mission as we headed out of town. Destination: Traquair House. 

The oldest inhabited house in Scotland…and just so happens to brew my favorite beer on the planet in their cellar using tuns that are over 200 years old from when the original brewery on the grounds was shut down. The tuns and the equipment sat behind centuries of collected items in the cellar until the owner (the 20th in a line of family succession) decided to try brewing “real” cask ales using the old process in 1965. His daughter now owns the place and the brewing continues. 

Originally their website said “open April to October to the public”. Well, hot dog- what luck! We will be there on April 1! Then yesterday, while getting better directions on their website I noticed it now said “open April 3-October”. Damn.

I panicked a little. I mean, I’m in Scotland…in the middle of nowhere where this brewery is and I won’t be able to taste a fresh draft version of my favorite beer?? So I did what any normal beer lover would do- I gravelled and begged in an email to please take pity on us. Lol

And thinking all hope was lost, but heading there anyway- we received a response. “Sorry Erin, the house will still be closed but of you’re headed through feel free to come and explore the grounds and stop by the office- we have some ales here and we’ll see what we can come up with for you.”

Jackpot! 🙂

So, we were able to get 2 gift sets (Sorry- ain’t none of you getting a gift set. One is for my belly- the other is for Kegan’s) lol

The sets had 1 of the house ales, 1 Bear Ale and 1 Jacobite Rebellion. I’ll report later on Jacobite. The nice lady there told us if we headed to town we could go to the Traquair Arms pub and they had it on draft so we could get the full experience. 

They also found us some little “trickets” as they called them since we made the trip out and couldn’t tour the brewery. Then as we are piling back in the van, a lady comes out with a souvenir glass from a festival last year that she found for us. Very nice people! They thought it was so funny that this American girl was so into their little brewery. Lol

  The house is beautiful and has some amazing history. There is a set of gates with bears that have been locked since Bonnie Prices Charles went through them in 1745 during the Jacobite Rebellion. The owner of Traquair House locked the gates and vowed no one else would come through them until a Stuart was crowned King of England again.

(If you don’t know about the Jacobite rebellion and want to- comment and I’ll write up a synopsis. But it’s late tonight haha) I’d be happy to nerd out if anyone actually wants the info 😉

We then headed to the Traquair Arms pub to try a draft- turns out they only had the Bear Ale. But Kegan ordered one at noon anyway 🙂

 Lunch was on the go, but we did find the strangest chips. I have to say- not bad! Haha

Next stop was my history highlight of the trip: Hadrian’s Wall.  The year is 122AD. The Roamn emporor, Hadrian, is visiting the northernmost reaches of the Roman Empire, Britannia. The Picts and other barbaric clans keep attacking the Romans and now there is war in other areas as well. He needs to pull men from the area but needs it secured so he commissions his troops to build a 20 ft high wall from sea to sea across Britannia. They put a fort every Roman mile and finished it in under 6 years. It’s amazing. And even more amazing that so much of the stone of the wall remains two thousand years later. Some historians say it was just a show of power or a way to control commerce or taxation for entry/exit… I bet it was a combo of all of those reasons 🙂

The rest of our day was pretty rainy and boring as we drove the 3 hours to Liverpool. 

Beatles museum in the morning and maybe an old  World War Two bunker! 🙂

Today we unknowingly went to the Rockies! Haha Not really but I was quite surprised to find myself in the snowy caps of the Arrochar Alps. When we were there I kept saying “it looks JUST the alps!” Having no clue the name of the mountains at the time.

We were supposed to spend today on the Isle of Mull but the ferries weren’t running due to the terrible weather around here today… (Apparantly its the coldest day of the year here today. Of course! Lol) Here is the ferry sitting in the bay. Sad.

We drove up to the top of the hill in Oban to check out McCaig’s Tower. John Stuart McCaig was a wealthy banker in the late 1800s in Oban and he was obsessed with Roman architecture so he designed this large monument with the intention of having a museum at the center and statues of him and his family inside the outer walls. Now, as narcissistic as this is, I find it hard to speak totally I’ll of him since he employed local stonemasons during the winters to complete it, therefore keeping them working. He had a grand vision for the project…it just included him at the center of it 🙂 unfortunately he died a few years in to the project and only the outer walls were completed.

   View of the city from the top

Since we basically had a whole day we hadn’t planned, we just did a “choose your adventure” day where we just shouted out things we’d like to see along the way from signs or google. 

Norah wanted to see a castle. So we saw a castle:)

Next was the Bonawe Furnace. An old iron furnace in the middle of nowhere. (Apparently I had circled it on a map a few months ago and had no recollection. Go trip-planning me! Ha)

Back in the mid 1700s this would have been a happenin’ place. They were smelting almost all of Englands iron for over 50 years. Some men from the north came and established this furnace here…which at first glance makes you scratch your head because there is hardly any iron ore in the area. They had to bring it in by ship and then out to the furnace site. But what the site did have was tons of trees and in those days they used charcoal to power the furnaces.  It took the equivalent of 2 acres of trees to create enough charcoal and energy to run the furnaces for a full day. There were about 15 men who ran the furnace operation but closer to 600 that ran the fuel operation.

     They used gravity to run the finished iron “pigs” and cannonballs down the hill on tracks that are now covered by grass

Our trip was cut a little short due to a random hailstorm out of nowhere and me falling/skiing/sliding down a muddy hill and getting totally soaked. Lol No bruised bones, only bruised pride! I saved the camera but then bonked myself in the face with it when I didn’t stick the landing Lol

Hail accumulating within just a minute or two. 

Muddy and soaking wet pants! Haha

Next we drove through a little harbor town of Inverary. Cute little town.

And then started our trek into the Rockies lol

The road was called “Rest and Be Thankful” road. No idea of the story behind that one.

Amazing views. I forgot I was in the UK for a bit! Who knew…

But with the good comes the bad, we pulled over to eat our lunch and realized we were on “trash” beach. Why would the town leave it like this??

Ended tonight in downtown Glasgow eating carry out fish and chips from the same block because both Kegan and I both managed to catch colds yesterday. Hoping it goes quick and that Norah doesn’t get it. Damn you cold and snow and rain! This is why I live in Florida. Lol