Oban Scotland

We left London by train and headed to Glasgow Scotland for one night so that we could catch our first train ride of our "Grand Tour of Scotland by Train" on Monday morning.  The train ride up was pretty and interesting since it was mostly a ride out in the country.  Spring is in its early stages here.  Along the way we saw fields of some plant that has a vibrant yellow flower.  While we were still in England, you could look out the window and just see those fields forever.  As we got further north we started seeing a bush that was blooming with its own version of the vibrant yellow flower.  Towards the end of our trip north, I saw yellow daffodils blooming at a couple of the train stations.  We also got our first glimpses of the North Sea which was fun and the topography changed from flat to rolling meadows to hills that were steep and finally to the sea.  Oban is a seaside town.  In fact it is the seafood capital of the UK. Hmm think I just combined the 2 train rides into one there - oh well.

Oban 

Oban is a small town, but like our home it is a big tourist destination.  However Oban tops out at 24,000 people with its tourists whereas that is the population of Gulf Shores.  So we are in a nice seafront small town.  The train station which we came in on backs up to the ferry terminal and the front street is flat but then you start going up hill.  We are staying in the Heatherfield House which is a 6 room Bed and Breakfast partially up a hill.  Our trip arranged the hotel and the full day tour we took on our second (main) day in town.

Heatherfield House B&B

McCain’S Tower at top of hill above Oban 

Our tour includes a write up for each destination and some recommendations.  One of them for Oban was to eat at a restaurant called Coast and to make reservations.  We followed that advice and had a wonderful dinner our first night in town.  I ate off their light bites menu and had salmon and a salad while Jeff had lamb (I think it was on his brain after all the sheep we saw in the meadows).  We finished it off with some sticky pudding and port wine which was quite good then it was a short walk back up to our BandB.

Next morning after breakfast we got in line for the ferry and found ourselves in the middle of an American church group from Ohio.  They were taking several ferries to get to an island where they were going bicycling while we were going to the Isle of Mull to start our 3 islands tour.  The ferry was a good sized ship with cars in its hull and a couple of levels of seating and eating areas.   It was about a 40 minute ride from Oban to the Isle of Mull.  We passed Duarte Castle which was a  nice looking place from a distance at least.  We arrived in Craignure and caught a bus to Fionnphart.  The bus ride took about an hour and included commentary on local landmarks.  It is a small island so key things were a schoolhouse and a memorial to a man who cared for a family of strangers with small pox or scarlet fever and then when he contracted it no one would care for him so he got a memorial.  They also talked about wildlife of which we saw none.  Oh I should mention that the road is a "single track" which means it is only big enough for  a single vehicle; every so often you will see a widening  off to one side and a note that this is a passing spot as in where 2 cars can easily go in opposite directions.  The bus driver had to be careful to accurately space  the bus in the middle of the narrow bridges.  After the bus ride we hopped on a smaller "rib boat" and headed out to Staffa a pint sized island

Example of “Passing Spot” on single track road

Yes our Double Decker bus drove over that narrow bridge

Duarte Castle

Staffa is famous for Fingals Cave and its hexagonal pillars of basalt.  Looking at it you would swear man had some how cut the exterior of the island into tall pillars rather than mother nature.  Happily our way to Staffa was exciting.  First we saw some common seals and then lucky us - yes really lucky us.  We saw Orca whales.  First all I saw was these 2 tall (say 3 feet) spires pointing our of the water then I was able to get a better viewing spot and started seeing them come up and spout out water and even the tops of their bodies.  It was cool.  After a few minutes we needed to move on as had the Orcas.  Our boat first circled the island so we could see it all.  There are 2 sea caves in the island one quite large which is Fingals cave.  It has been around and impressing people for hundreds of years as in Mendelsohn wrote an opera for the outer Hebrides Islands and there is a piece for Fingals Cave.  The water was very calm the day we were there so we did not hear some of the sounds the cave makes.  Once we docked we had the island to ourselves for an hour.  Like most people Jeff and I headed over to the walkway to the cave and went inside it a little ways.  This not an island with beaches but rather drop offs so we carefully followed the singlefile  walkway to the cave.

Orca Whale

Fingal’s Cave the namesake for Hebrides Overture Op 26 (Fingal’sCave)
I enjoyed performing this piece in High School and was thrilled to see there was such a place.

Note the people on the right to judge the scale of the cave

After the cave, we walked over the center part of the island to an area where puffins are nesting this time of year.  We were within 10 feet or so of some of the nesting birds.  They are as cute in person as they are in pictures with their big orange beaks.  It was interesting to watch them fly.  When they are coming in for a landing it looks like flying is not a natural activity for  them, but then you watch them fly off towards the ocean and they fly quite well.  It is nesting season for them and the island is a favorite spot.  After that it was time to go back to the boat annd go to our final island: Iona.

Hundreds of Puffins

Look behind the center Puffin to see the other coming in for a landing

Iona is also small but it has permanent establishments and a small town on it.  Iona is the birthplace of Christianity in Scotland.  There is an old nunnery and abbey (St Margarets) there and a chapel(St Oran) that is supposedly the final resting place of many Scottish Kings including Macbeth.  The cemetery there is still active and has a recent prime minister's grave (John Smith).   Iona is a special place for religion to this day.  There is a group called The Iona Community.  Then it was time to go back to the Isle of Mull.

Nunnery 

Nunnery 

Abby

This time we went by yet a different ferry.  This one was about the size of those you see on rivers in Missouri or the Fort Morgan Ferry in Alabama.  The distance this ferry took us was quit small as in a 10 minute ride.  So we could hop back on the bus to go to the other ferry terminal.  This time on the drive back we did see some animals.  We saw red deer.  First it was - hey was that a deer or a horse off in the distance then they were up close to the road.  The site that amazed me was a deer in a home's front yard.  The deer was on one side of the front yard and with only a walkway between them was a spaniel dog just laying quietly on his dog bed.  Now I have owned 3 spaniels and I can assure you none of them would have just sat there and watched a deer in their yard!  

At the end of the bus ride, we were back at the larger ferry stop where we all queued  up and got on it.  Jeff and I wandered for a little bit and then saw a server with some fish and chips and it looked good.  We decided to eat on the ferry which turned out to be a good decision as we overheard some other American commenting on how so and so was right the food was good on the ferries.  We got back to Oban at 8:30 - 9:00pm and thus ended our tour of 3 Inner Hebrides Islands.  We walked till we found a spot with a view and some local whiskey  where we got a glass each and drank it watching the sunset.  When we went to bed that night we both felt like we were on a moving vehicle of some sort!

The next morning we had an hour or so to kill before we caught our train to our next stop - Spean Bridge so we walked up the hill all the way to McCaig's tower.  When you first see it you think - oh just the shell of the building is left.  Nope it was always only a shell.  Seems Mr. McCraig had local stone masons build it as a source of work during the depression and as a monument to his family.  Once you get up the hill, there is a great view.  You can see across the island just outside of the harbor and we could see the Isle of Mull.  Then it was time to go catch our next train.

London England

 

Our first stop on our UK journey was to London.  We were only there a couple of days before we headed up to Scotland, but we kept ourselves plenty busy while we were there.  Happily for us, we did not experience  a single rain drop while we were there, it was unfortunately cooler than normal though.

Delta Airlines dropped our half awake bodies off at London Heathrow airport at 7 in the morning.  Early in the morning for me any day of the week let alone one that had 6 hours chopped off of it!  A kind gentleman in Atlanta had told us to take the Paddington Express train into town so we did and took a taxi from there to our hotel.  London taxis are wonderful.  In the US, a taxi is just a car for hire.  Not so in London!  It’s door slides open kind of like a mini van door to a big open cavern with a bench seat for 3 on one side and the ability to pull down more seats on the other side so plenty of room in the middle for suitcases.  They were always wonderfully clean and the driver has an intercom system to talk with you.

Very clean train stations and cars has made travel easy

Part of our trip to London was to accomplish a couple of tasks.  We now  have UK sim cards in our phones and Jeff got fitted for his morning suit for the Royal Ascot in June.  Oh and I finally got a battery for my watch.  We spent the rest of our time wandering and visiting some touristy things from our hotel in the West End.

After the suit fitting which took a very long hour and a much needed nap, we headed to the London Eye and South bank area.  Riding the Eye ( a large Ferris wheel) was fun.  We shared a large enclosed cabin with a family of four so plenty of room to move around and check out the view from all of the angles.  It was a good first day activity since it gave us a little bit of a feel for where things are.  We saw the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, the Shard and other new buildings plus the River Thames.

After the Eye we walked around the south and north banks before we headed back to our hotel since everything was closing for the day.  We wandered into the Whitehall gardens.  After dinner, we were in bed before 10 and slept soundly!

White Hall Gardens

Friday morning, we started leisurely and then headed out to the Tate Modern  Art Museum.  The main collection is free and that is what we did.  By chance, they were into art making political and social statements so it was not the expected visit although we did see a Matisse.  We were about to leave, when I realized they had a bar area up high that might have a view.  The building is a former power plant.  So up to the top we went and happily found 2 seats along the wall of windows.  Side note here, while in London our lunch tended to be a glass of beer or cider and maybe a bag of crisps (potato chips).  Very healthy I know, but tasty!

We had reservations for the Universal/Harry Potter Studio Tour for the evening so we hopped on the train and headed out of town.  The studio tour includes 2 different large sound studios that are connected.  We knew the tour took on average 3 ½ hours and had planned on eating dinner after the tour.  Well halfway through the tour is a backlot café for the tourists which was good because we were hungry!  Two fried chicken sandwiches and butter beers later we were ready to continue on the tour.  The butter beers were as good as we remembered from the Universal Studio’s in Florida but the sandwiches left a lot to be desired.  The tour – we had gotten an audio option which was a waste of money on us at least because it really had nothing to do with what you were looking at!  The tour is amazing at times, impressive at times and theme parkish at times.  There is a bunch of pre tour stuff, but when you start you are in the great hall of Hogwarts.  From there you  wonder around sets for most of the key scenes of the movies.  Harry’s bedroom, Slytherin and Gryffindor's common rooms and a discussion of how they were designed to install certain feelings.  Like no reds at all in Slytherin so it felt more ominous versus lots of red tones in Gryffindor. 

The potions room was there and they told you what types of things they had used to fill the glass tubes in the room.

We went to the forbidden forest and Hagrids’s Hut.

The had a couple of really impressive versions of Gringrotts bank lobby.  The first one was your basic bank lobby although an opulent one.  The second one involved the scene when the dragon escapes from the underground vaults.

The tour ends with some interesting videos on how make-up artists make masks for people.

Saturday was our last full day in London and we knew we wanted to go to the theater so we headed off to one of the discount ticket spots.  We got tickets for a play called “The Ocean at the end of the Lane.”  The ticket booth was in Leicester Square which had statues around it of various theatrical stars such as Charlie Chaplin and Mary Poppins.

After that we wandered on some pedestrian streets and ended up at Piccadilly Circus.  The area is quite touristy!  There was a shop there called “Lilly White’s” and turned out to be an athletic store – a very large athletic store – 6 floors.  We checked it out and may visit it again in June when we are outside of London.  We did get Jeff a new coat since he managed to get to London without his warm coat and we knew he would need it on our next trip segment.

From Piccadilly Circus, we wandered through China town on our way to Covent Gardens.

I had heard that Covent Gardens had been revitalized and a fun place to visit.  All was true.  We spent a couple of hours there including time for beer and croissants this time.  There were stalls with small business people/artisans and some shops in buildings of more established businesses.  I liked the  mix of services:  high end chocolate stores, custom perfumes and Chanel to inexpensive jewelry stores.   Then it was time to get ready for dinner and the show. 

We had walked past a restaurant that looked interesting so dinner spot it was – L’Oscar was the name.  Turned out it was the name of a 39 room boutique hotel.  If you head to London and the West End is a good location I would recommend staying there.  The restaurant was on the darker side with birds out of opal glass and lit up scattered on the walls and little lights on the ceiling and nice big banquettes to sit on.  The ladies' room had butterfly handles on the faucets.  Seems it is a former church so the bar was the main chapel.  No idea of cost to stay there but from a building perspective very cool.  Then it was on to our play. The Ocean at the end of the lane If you want a well done, creative play then this is a good choice.  It is not your typical storyline.  Unless you consider storylines with serious witchcraft overtones as typical.  The show was enjoyable, the theater neat so a nice final evening in London. 

River Thames with London Bridge in the back ground

St Pauls Cathedral

Mardi Gras is back in the city where it began in the U.S. Mobile AL

Covid makes an appearance

Last year the parades were canceled and we had to find other ways to celebrate Mardi Gras.  (Mardi Gras during Covid)  This year, there is a full schedule of parades.  In years past, we have enjoyed small to large parades from Fort Morgan to Mobile.   

The Carnival season begins with King's Day (Feast of the Epiphany) on January 6th.   Here the first parade was January 29th.  Click the link above to see the volume of parades that escalate until Fat Tuesday on March 1st this year.  

Normally we would have gone to one of the early parades on Dauphine Island, but the weather wasn't conducive to the Ferry ride over.  So Friday, February 19th was our first parades of the season.   Almost a month after the first parade here.   

We opted to join the Snowbirds wintering at The Beach Club.   The Resort has set up the most convenient means to enjoy a day of parades in Mobile.  A charter bus picks you up at noon on the property and takes you to The Gulf Coast Exploreum Science Center.   After crossing the bay bridge, you see hundreds of RVs camped out under the overpasses. Then you begin to see thousands of cars parked.  We drive past and pull in front of the Science Center where a reserved parking spot awaits us.  We step off  the bus, walk 30 yards and are standing on the parade route.   About 45 minutes later the fun begins.

We are actually watching 3 parades back to back.  Each put on by a different Krewe. 

It's not just beads.  The Krewes give out "Throws."  (Learn the lingo)  Mainly by throwing things from the floats, but also by handing objects typically to small children as they walk or ride electric scooters in the parade.  This year we came back with beads, Doubloons with Krewe name, nerf balls, giant dice, Moon Pies, Ramen Noodles, Frisbees, small stuffed animals Koozies, cups with the name of the Krewe, things that glow and a whole lot more. This is even after handing things to families with small children.   (We are hoping our daughter will take some for her students.)  If not, there are many uses for beads including recycling.  I already started decorating the building lobby.

After the afternoon parades are complete, its off to the Science Center.  Our ticket includes admission to the Science Center, its IMAX theaters and a catered dinner.   We enjoyed all it had to offer and headed back outside a little after sunset.

Night parades are my favorite, as the colors of the floats stand out.  Some of my favorite night parades are those on the Two Fridays before Fat Tuesday in Fairhope AL.  Those floats are elaborate and brightly illuminated.

So by now, you have decided you can't wait to go to the next parade.  Remember these three things:

1)  Find a spot behind lots of small children as the Krewes love to throw to them and it gives you someone to unload much of the stuff you catch.  Not to mention how valuable their smiles are.

2)  Make eye contact with those throwing.  Maybe bring a sign or stand out.   I wore my red Georgia Bulldawgs hat and had several fast balls straight at my head.   One guy was wearing a shirt with a large letter A and an image of an Elephant.

3)  Don't take your eye off the throws, the clumps of beads and stacks of cups are intended to separate in flight.  If they don't, they can hurt.  

Check out the two videos below, so you can experience the crowd's excitement as Throws come their way.  The other video is of The Magic City Dance Krewe "a performance and parading krewe inspired by a love of the funk and groove of 1970's and 1980's disco."