It's been a great couple of months here in Scotland...

Susan especially hates leaving!!

But first . . .

What a terrific opportunity we had - attending “England and the 67^th Anniversary of Operations of 550 Squadron, Royal Air Force from North Killingholme Airfield.”  A great friend from Tucson, 87 year old Roy Harris, was the navigator on a Lancaster aircraft which had a crew of 7 and flew bombing missions during WWII from a field nearby.  Twenty of these planes were being shot down by the Germans each night and the crew members had about a 45% chance of returning each time they took off.  Roy was one of 8 original fliers who attended this reunion which is held annually, but there were a total of 80 in attendance, including friends and families. These survivors meet to catch up and honor those who did not return or who have since died – and we were there!

After the Saturday lunch, we marched about a mile, led by the Immingham Air Cadets Band, to the memorial on the “Lancaster approach.”  There was “An Act of Remembrance and the laying of wreaths at the squadron memorial stone.”  Then, right on schedule, the only remaining Lancaster flying in the UK, the “Lancaster Bomber of The Battle of Britain,” made three flypasts - a pretty impressive and emotional sight - then headed off with three waves of the wings.

We all marched back to the village for a “Service of Thanksgiving” at the local church (which has a stained glass memorial window)  then attended a tea for the group in the historical society.  Dinner was fun and festive, the program included songs by a lovely young woman who had come with a group from a small town in Belgium that had sheltered two survivors of a Lancaster crash (those townfolk were caught by the Germans who took 20 of the them away -3 never returned - as punishment). 

No pics, we deleted them by accident!  Whoops!

We took that jaunt down to Kingston Upon Hull (Susan’s maiden name is Hull) not only to attend this event, but also to explore the east coast of England which we had never done.  A key stop was Lincoln, to visit the Lincoln Cathedral and St. Mary’s church where there is a stone carving of the rabbit that was the inspiration for Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.

 

We drove up along the coast, stopping to walk out to the cliff tops and watch the hundreds of thousands of birds – including the super cute puffins - nesting in the magnificent cliff-sides.   Reminded us a bit of Mendocino and last summer, but with even more birds!

We returned to our “Chalet” in Scotland (http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p802854) and began a wonderful 2 months – with 3 Shetland ponies, a sheep and a mass of rabbits in the field next door.  Although The Chalet presented some challenges (uncomfortable beds, up to 4 of the same picture hanging next to each other, thin bottom pots, really crummy sheets, etc, etc.) it was warm and dry, and in a fairly convenient location in a very rural area about halfway between Glasgow and Edinburgh (the two cities are about 50 miles apart).  As we explored in all directions we found larger towns that had grown up around now closed industries, and the still weak economies make the towns pretty drab and uninteresting.  So, we explored the larger towns and cities, and we found some great things, especially just north, around the Firth of Forth.

Our first find was Linlithgow, about a half hour away.  Unlike the towns near us, Linlithgow has a long history, some important sites (notably Linlithgow Palace), and some good pubs and restaurants.  It also has a refurbished canal now used for recreation, and there is an active group of volunteers, having a great time, who maintain the local facility and offer canal boats rides.

A new find for us was the Royal Burgh of Culross (pronounced coorus), on the North side of the Firth.  The town, with a fascinating history, an ancient palace, a ruined abbey and a church with it’s most important character/builder, George Bruce buried with his 5 daughters, 3 sons and wife...possibly David’s long lost cousins! The town was a backwater for a very long time.  In the 1930’s the National Trust began preservation and restoration.  We found it a quiet, delightful look at the past (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culross) with nice, helpful people (which Scotland is full of).

On one of our several visits to Glasgow, we got a taste of the Merchant City Festival, which was a fun mix of food, entertainment and just plain whacky stuff.  One of the strangest things was a group of 10 or so creatures dressed in pink from top to bottom, who pulled pranks and generally freaked out most of the people they came in contact with.  Merchant City reminds us of Soho and Tribeca as they were some years ago – great restaurants & loft conversions happening, but still very commercial.

We thoroughly enjoyed visits from our friends from Spain and from Princeton, NJ.  With the Vergaras we took a 3 day trip up into the Highlands by way of Arbroath (home of the Arbroath Smokies – a delicious fish, and of the Declaration of Arbroath http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaration_of_Arbroath).  We had a delightful dinner in the very typical Scottish home of their friends in Aberdeen, then continued on to Inverness….and down The Great Glen past Loch Ness (we stayed on Loch Lochy), then back for a quick tour of Glasgow.  We also spent time touring the Falkirk Wheel, Stirling Castle and other special places.

August brought several festivals to Edinburgh (book, art, spiritual, etc), and we focused mostly on The Fringe Festival.  The Fringe is about performance – music, comedy, dance and drama.  There are about 250 venues around the city, and anyone can book one if they pay the price, so the events are very mixed.  Given all that, the numbers of things to see and the variety are off the chart.  In 2010  there were over 40,000 performances by more than 21,000 participants!  Amazing, and very difficult to decide what to see.  High Street, from early morning till very late at night is like a carnival!

 We all decided to focus on drama at the Festival, and that helped narrow the choices some.  We went to see three shows the first day, and they were fairly poor overall. But then things picked up…we saw about 10-12 performances over all (including the Intl Breakdance competition which was great) and the range was from great to yucky.  We had a special treat, because a drama teacher who worked for Susan at Service Messenger Co in NYC 25 years ago and who we haven't seen since, brought her high school group to perform.  We saw their show at 9:30 in the morning and caught up with Janet and her husband, Jim,  over lunch.  WOW!! 

When Pat and Jim Hyatt visited, although the main purpose of their visit was the Festival, we talked them into an overnight trip to the Borders region with the goal of seeing several ruined abbeys. Although it rained most of the time it was beautiful!

We are off to Ireland for the month of Sept before returning to the US on 1 October.  We are not yet sure of our plans once back, but will let you know when we know….

 Oh, just before we go, we realized that we didn't tell you about the Highland Games that happen every weekend during July and August  in towns across Scotland.  The photo below is of a contestant in the "heavy weight events" - he is from New Jersey and is wearing a breast cancer tartan kilt designed and patented by a woman in NJ who challenged him to wear it - he was quite the site - we loved it.

And, finally....we attended a Fringe event at the Edinburgh Zoo - "Feeding the People" - we sat in the rain and watched a wonderful, funny performance.   There is a huge population of penguins in this zoo and some of them take a daily walk through the zoo paths... This is the sign on the wall at the top of the very steep hill near the performance space- it resonated with us in a very big way...

Which reminds me of what one young man said to us in Israel -  “The youngsters will lead the way – we are all one.”

Hugs to you all!!