Scotland Day 3: A munro, some haggis, many neeps and tatties.

 It gets light at 4AM in Scotland which means Paul wakes up and so do all the loudest birds. Many hours later we went to Blair Castle where we heard our first blaring bagpipes. 

The tour was self-guided so we didn't have to dodge old people all day and we could enjoy hanging out with all the guns and antlers (even a bunch of narwhal tusks that they sold as unicorn horns). 

After celebrating the murder of hundreds of deer with insanely perfect antlers and learning all about how important it was to make male babies, we went for a walk in the castle gardens. Cris left me for them, so the following entries in this blog will just be Paul-flavored. *note the poppies as big as her head*

Every hour in Scotland it rains somewhere between 5 and 65 minutes, but we timed it pretty well today and managed just a constant light moistness all day. No need for wellies yet. We decided after walking around all morning we should spend our afternoon hiking up a munro (mountains over 3000 feet).

There are 282 munros in Scotland so it's not all that impressive, but still a good workout. The further we went up the worse the wind was. Near the top it got so windy that we had to crouch and grab rocks to avoid being blown over. Also, the path turns into boulder-hopping near the peak. I always roll crit fails on agility checks so we bailed before making it to the summit, but we'll pretend that this pic is the top (don't tell anyone).

We ended the day with some haddock, chips, haggis, neeps, and tatties. It took longer to translate the meal than eat it but it was super delicious. Then we ended the day again at home with some Atholl Highlander whisky which is made special for Blair Castle. Tomorrow we go north to the sea!

*bonus pic from the "peak". Can you spot the sheep in the photo?

Scotland Day 2: More Hadrian's Wall and Lots of Hermits

We woke up on Day 2 still feeling a bit fuzzy from jetlag, but also excited for our first official day of vacation and adventures.

First up, we decided to visit another section of Hadrian's Wall. This is partly because Paul loves to spoil me (AWW!) and partly because, as Paul told me, "I was pleasantly surprised about how cool that wall ended up being." Of course it was cool, Paul, it's flippin' Hadrian's Wall! 

This time, we stopped by the section called Walltown Crags. You simply park your car in a tiny parking lot and climb up a hill full of sheep. There was no path or anything, and it's so hard to get used to that kind of casualness about walking wherever you want.

This section of Hadrian's Wall was super beautiful. There were rolling hills full of sheep and curvy wall remains for a long way in both directions. We brought our morning coffee up there with us, and that was such an amazing way to start our day. We sipped coffee and casually strolled up and down along the walls, drinking in the scenery and caffeine.

After that lovely start to our day, it was time to start our Scotland adventures. We had a few hours of travel to do in order to get into Scotland and our first stop was to the Falls of Acharn. We had thought that the pretty parts weren't going to be for a few days yet, but the pretty mountains of Scotland started early. And we also thought that the narrow roads in the middle of nowhere wouldn't start quite yet, but we got down to business right away. 

Despite the Falls of Acharn being "in the heart of town", in order to get to this "town", we ended up going straight up a mountain (with warning signs about needing to have small cars and not to take this route in winter) and we were all alone on this narrow "road" with incredible scenery. It was a delightful surprise for our first excursion in Scotland.

The road to the Falls of Acharn (yep, that's not a driveway, that's a road!)

We finally got the one street village of Acharn and parked and started our 1.5 mile hike to see the falls. In order to see the falls, you have to walk through a cave called "The Hermitage". I don't know if a hermit actually lived there at one point or what, but I like to imagine there was a hermit who lived there and got to stare at a waterfall all day long. Unfortunately, the falls weren't really doing much besides a trickle, but it was still fun to walk through a cave to get there. There was also a gorge full of rapids and bridges crossing the gorge so it was a very pretty hike.

Acharn Hike

From there, we tried to find a local stone circle, but we couldn't find it. Boo! Then we drove to something in our notes called "Hermitage near Dunkeld walk to Ossians Hall".

Apparently, back in the 1700s or 1800s, a local Duke wanted to create a "pleasure garden and walk" and basically made a large park to entertain him. It was a lovely 3-ish mile hike, past waterfalls and rapids and super old magical forests. 

There was a building called Ossian's Folly (basically a fake building to show off his wealth) and also a manmade area called Ossian's Cave, also called The Hermitage. Again, I'm not sure if a hermit lived in the cave or not, but I'm pretending the Duke followed the weird tradition at the time of hiring someone to be a hermit in your pleasure gardens. Aristocrats were really bored and weird back then. 

Looking at the Waterfall from Ossian's Folly 

Pretty waterfall!

After the hike, we made sure to drive past Meichleour Beech hedges, which are HUGE and super old hedges along the road for a short distance. They were really cool but there wasn't a good place to stop to take pictures.  Here's one from our friend google:

Then, it was time to crash at our airbnb and try out a new-to-us whisky, which was recommended to us from a local we met at the grocery store. It was a delightful first day in Scotland!

Scotland Day 1: Airport Lessons and Dreams Coming True

 Day 0 and Day 1 were mainly made up of airplanes and airports, plus picking up our rental car and then 4.5 hours of driving, BUT we did manage to make a trip to something amazing that I've wanted to see for over 20 (!!) years. 

But first let's talk about airport lessons. Dear future Paul and Cris, read this entry before your next big trip. You guys, if you're going to be stuck in a layover somewhere for 7 hours, please pretty please just pay the extra $50.00 to get access to an airport lounge (according to their dreamy descriptions, they have couches and sleep pods). 

We thought that sounded too steep of a price, and we also assumed that we would be able to find a comfortable place to pass out for the next 7 hours. LAUGH, what innocent dreamers we were. By the time we had given up on finding anything more comfortable than a metal chair in a crowded area, it felt like it was too late to actually make that expensive lounge worthwhile. 

We basically didn't sleep (because it's very difficult to sleep in an upright metal chair) and I've honestly never been that tired in my life. I was so tired that I felt nauseous and woozy. Paul was equally exhausted. FYI: Dublin's airport is NOT comfortable (unless you want to pay for those pricey lounges...).

By the time we got on our final airplane from Dublin to Manchester, we fell asleep the moment we sat down in the chairs. That's right, we thought that airplane seats were comfortable enough for sleeping! Once we landed, we worked really hard to stay awake (with caffeine and cold air) because we had a 4.5 hour drive ahead of us before we could pass out for the night.

We had landed in Manchester, England instead of Scotland because all of the Scottish airports were crazy expensive. The nice part about landing in Manchester and adding 8 hours of driving to our trip was that we got to make my 20-year dream come true: visiting Hadrian's Wall. 😍

Exhausted and yet also elated at Hadrian's Wall

I've been gabbing about Hadrian's Wall to people for over twenty years now, and there were quite a few friends/family who, when they learned we were going to Scotland, jokingly asked "Are you finally going to go see Hadrian's Wall?" 

Yep, we added that to our list immediately. This magnificent wall (I could seriously talk to you about it FOREVER, if you want more info...😉) was built in the 100s A.D. when Emperor Hadrian of the Roman Empire decided he wanted a boundary to slow down expansion. It goes all the way across the land from sea to sea (about 80 miles!) and there were originally guard towers every half a mile. SO much work to keep those crazy Picts out of the way. 

We chose an airbnb near Hadrian's Wall, so it wasn't out of the way to stop by there before passing out for the night. I might have wept a few tears (a combo of exhaustion and elation, I'm sure), because I honestly never thought I would see it in person. We don't ever plan on visiting England, and it was too far south to originally add to our Scotland trip. So thank you, Manchester airport, for being the cheapest option. 

I was impressed with how good of shape the wall was in. It went off in the distance for a quite a long ways. We stopped at the Birdoswald Roman Fort section of the Hadrian's Wall. The Roman fort ruins were closed for the night, but we walked past them and WOW that was a HUGE fort. 

After I got to spend some amazing time with my beloved Hadrian's Wall, we left for our airbnb. It was in the middle of nowhere, and in order to get there, we had to drive down some narrow roads in the middle of fields. At one point, there was a few miles of adorable traffic jam in the form of nursing calves and mama cows and nursing lambs and mama sheep. They were all over the road at sunset, casually nursing and completely ignoring us.

Our first Airbnb, not another house in sight.

It was a great first sign that Scotland is going to give us that Wildness that we were hoping for. I don't really remember the airbnb. We pretty much crashed and woke up at 8am the next day to start out for Scotland. 

The Dainings are Going to Scotland!

 

In just a few days, Paul and I are headed off on a 3 week adventure to Scotland. Finally, after co-vid ruined our travel plans for WAY too long, we are getting out of here!

The travel bug has been hitting us hard, and we are itching to explore this beautiful world again.

As we've been excitedly telling folks that we're going to Scotland, we've met with a lot of curiosity about "Why Scotland?" so I thought I would write about why we chose Scotland this time.

Why We're Going to Scotland

1. We LOVE wild (and beautiful) places.

When we went to Ireland (start here for those travel entries), the thing we loved more than anything else was the wild magical atmosphere of the place. It was so beautiful and sparsely populated and we LOVED the hikes into the wilds of Ireland.

When we went to Germany, Netherlands, and Austria, that wildness was a bit more...lacking. Germany and Netherlands like things nice and tidy, which is lovely, but we missed the wilderness aspect that Ireland had. Austria, however, also had that wild feeling to it and we absolutely LOVED it, but we were only there for a few days (we hope to go back for a full three weeks in the future).

So as we were researching where to go next, Scotland's Highlands were calling out to us. Scotland is divided into two parts: the Lowlands, where most of the population lives, and the Highlands, where it's more wilderness and national parks.

There are SO many incredible hikes and things we want to see in the Scottish Highlands that we are spending almost our entire three week vacation there and it's STILL not enough time to see all the things we want to see.

I just think that is so incredible that a country as small as Scotland can hold so many wild and beautiful places even just in half of their country. The Lowlands of Scotland probably have some incredible places too, but we'll have to postpone thorough-adventuring in that section for a future visit.

2. The food sounds AMAZING.

I know people snub their noses at Haggis, but Paul and I actually like those types of foods, so that's no problem for us. However, one thing that pleasantly surprised us was learning that Scotland is WAY into seafood. 

Ireland didn't have much as far as seafood (though Paul still raves about all of their seafood chowder), but Scotland is in the right area on the gulf stream to get all the goodies from the sea. So we'll be eating lots of: lobster, scallops, mussels, oysters, crabs...mmm...

The Scottish folk also love smoked fish, and they have plenty of trout and salmon to smoke. So we'll be eating LOTS of smoked fish as well. 

Finally, the whole place is practically overrun with deer, so venison is on the menu almost everywhere. Venison happens to be one of my faves, so this will be amazing as well.

3. We're OBSESSED with Scottish Whisky. 

Anyone who knows us will not be surprised that we're going to Scotland. After all, we LOVE our peaty Scotches. YUM. 

Currently, our daily plans in Scotland go something like this: 5 mile awesome hike, whisky distillery, 2 mile hike, whisky distillery, hang out on some beach with good food. 

Perhaps at some point we'll get tired of going to distilleries, but there are also these cool whisky tasting rooms where you can try different whisky from all of the area. We're pretty excited about a large variety of tastings, especially for trying ones that we can't buy in America.

Side note: they're also getting into gin, my other favorite drink, so we're hoping to stop at some of the gin distilleries as well.

P.S.) We are not alcoholics. We just really love scotch and gin. 

 4. Random other reasons...

Paul is looking forward to fly-fishing for salmon and/or trout and also is planning a trip for fishing on the ocean in someone's boat.

I'm looking forward to the weather. 😍 I absolutely LOVED Ireland's summer weather and Scotland should be very similar: super windy and in the upper 50's or lower 60's with lots of clouds and random bouts of misty drizzly rain. Sigh...my dream summer weather. I can't wait! Paul isn't as keen on that as me, but he does love the fact that it will be light until 10-11pm (aka lots of time for him to go fishing after our adventures wind down for the day).

It's also nice that Scotland uses the same language as us (in theory) and so it will be easy to understand the road signs (although it will be on the opposite side of the road, which will be great fun for Paul on the first day). 

Overall, we're super excited and hope to write a bunch here on our adventures on our Scotland trip (and hopefully we don't burn out on writing about it like we did for both Ireland and Germany...).

~Cris (and Paul)

Germany Day 19 - Is that an Eibsee I See?

Apparently, when we made our vacation plans, we were really clever and made sure to slow down a bit right at the end of our German adventures.

All we had planned for today was a hike around Eibsee, a beautiful and very clear lake that is surrounded by mountains. The hike is 7km long, and is a bit up and down hills in places, and it was a lovely hiking path.

The bad part was that we went on a Sunday, during a freak hot weather pattern. ALL the locals came out to cool off in the water of Eibsee. Paul and I talked about how it reminded us of going to Holland's state park on Lake Michigan on the weekend growing up. You know, lines and lines of cars waiting for parking, people all over the place with beach gear, etc. You can't have motors on this lake, so instead of jet skis and motorboats, it was a lake full of those people who stand on surfboards and a few paddleboats.

The nice thing though was that most of the crowds were here for swimming. So the hike was mainly quiet and calm. It was a nice change of pace from our hike yesterday at Hell Valley! Paul and I strolled the hiking paths at a nice meandering pace, while holding hands, and soaking in the beauty of the forests, lake, and mountains. It was cool, one side of the lake had rolling green mountains that reminded me of the Appalacians and the other side was huge craggy Alps. 

At about the halfway point, we stopped for a picnic lunch and swimming. It was weird to realize that we had ALL day to chill at the lake, with no other plans, and it took us a bit to really relax. We went swimming in the clearest water ever, and it was the perfect temp!

After swimming, I read a book while Paul napped. Then we walked a bit longer, found another lovely spot, and sat and read our books for some time again. At no point did we feel the need to check the time.

We finished the hike at a slow, relaxed pace, while soaking in the incredible beauty. You should visit Eibsee! It's incredibly beautiful.

We finished off the day with a 2 hour drive to our last airbnb on our vacation. This one was in Austria, and I was a bit nervous about crossing those steep Alps to get there! However, there was a tunnel under most of the steep part and the drive was very safe. We've got a great view from our airbnb balcony, and we ate dinner on the balcony watching the sun set behind the mountain majesty.

Germany Day 18 - Heck Valley

There are some days where you just feel really fortunate. I've got my health, enough money to travel a bit, and a wife that will do things with me even though they terrify her (ask her about the time we wrestled anaconda in the Congo). Today is one of those days (the blessed thing, not the anacondas). We embarked on the most spectacular hike I've ever been on. When asked how she liked it Cris admitted that she was also present on the hike. Welcome to ... Hell Vallley:

The pictures don't do justice to the terrifying heights, powerful waterfalls, and awesome tunnel network. Back in the WW2 era the quite pleasant German army needed a lot of lead so they created tunnels along this gorge and mined like crazy. There were a bunch of pictures in a little museum of miners carrying wooded ladders and bridging across crazy caverns. Luckily, there's a bunch of volunteers that maintain the rickety bridges and slippery tunnels for danger-hungry folks like Cris.

I usually try to be nice and not give Cris a hard time about her fear of heights and this place was genuinely scary in places. However, there was one point where a girl (in pink in the below pic) was heading back hugging the wall and Cris was going the opposite direction also creeping along. They had to pass each other on this little walkway and I couldn't help but laugh. Pink girl's boyfriend was guiding her along while I watched and laughed as Cris shakily passed them on the scary side of the path.

There were a bunch of places where there was still snow over the river and at one point it made a really slippery bridge across.

It was a long, uphill hike but eventually we made it to the wide-open vistas where deer were frolicking. Like most hikes in Germany there was a beergarden on the top of the mountain which was packed with people. Seriously, every hike we went on there was at least one restaurant along the hike that was miles from the nearest road. Gotta stay hydrated on a hike with beer I guess.

The walk back was pretty easy but we were still exhausted by the time we got home.

Germany Day 17 - Toboggan? More Like TobogFUN!

We made what we thought would be a brief stop this morning at a church in a small town. It's really just a few houses and farms and then a huge church on the hill, not sure why they needed such a big church. When we got there the Thursday morning service (I guess that's a normal catholic thing?) hadn't finished yet so we had to wait for a coffee-filled while. 

Back in 1738 in Wies there was a little Jesus statue that started crying (that's the story at least). As a result people from surrounding regions started flocking to this tiny town in a sort of pilgrimage. The Abbot of the area decided that they needed a church for these people to worship in so the Pilgrimage Church of Wies was born. 

Outside the church was a bit strange. Most churches we've seen this trip have been free and didn't really have anyone selling souvenirs besides candles, but this one really wanted to cash in. We had to pay for parking and then there were several buildings solely for selling cheap church-themed junk and they had pay bathrooms as well. The coffee was good and the church was stunning. It is pretty similar to the Ottobeuren abbey we saw a couple weeks ago but the paintings on the ceiling were bigger and better in this one. However, Ottobeuren was better overall, just way more to look at. The Church in Wies is still ridiculous:

After the church it was Summer Toboggan time (obviously). This may be the biggest disappointment of my young life: the toboggan was closed for maintenance! Youtube 'Steckenberg Summer Toboggan' and you'll understand my devastation. Luckily there was an alpine coaster down the street which is pretty similar. It's on a track like a coaster instead of a toboggan but was still super fun. 

I went up on the ski lift and then rode down the track on a probably totally safe kayak type seat. There were hand brakes and a seat belt from a car and they just shove you down with no instruction. It was fast (40ish kph), twisty, and fun. The top half had views of the alps and after that it was pure speed through the woods. It took several minutes to get down, it's surprisingly long. Youtube Oberammergau Alpine Coaster for this one.

Once I came down from the adrenaline rush we went to the equally exciting Mittenwald. They're known for their violin making so we were hoping for a cool violin-making demonstration or something but it was basically just a touristy shopping town. Besides making violins they also make beer so at least there was something to do.

Our new thing the last couple days is to make our own food for dinner at home. We've been pretty whelmed by all the German food we've had and it isn't cheap at restaurants. I bought a huge tub of sauerkraut and each day we just grab a meat and a fruit from the grocery store. It has been more delicious and much cheaper. Most German food we've had is just boiled sausage with dry bread or fries so we can definitely do better at home. Here's one of the many cute buildings in Mittenwald (photo taken by JJ Abrams):

After dinner Cris wanted to relax but I still had restless energy so I went for a hike. Germans are great at road signage but don't like to tell hikers much of anything. There was an arrow pointing toward a waterfall so I just started walking. And walking. I pretty much climbed the whole mountain but the waterfall and views at the end were worth it.

Twas another great day and now we're in the Alps! Oh, also the water in Austria is weirdly blue: