Monthly Archives: May 2011

May 25 2011
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Scotland

Castle Campbell, Dollar

It’s hard to plan things to do when you know it’s going to be raining and probably windy… even tougher when that has been the weather in Scotland for most of the last few weeks.

One of the castles that I’ve really wanted to visit was Castle Campbell – AKA Castle Gloom; the pictures that show up in the guide books and calendars are so phenomenal and really peaked my interest. And since those who wait for perfect weather never go anywhere I decided to make the trip this past Saturday.

The castle overlooks the village of Dollar in Clackmannanshire – about half way between Stirling and St Andrews. It’s a very rural county and Dollar is a very small village (not near the motorway) so I had to first go to Stirling by train and then catch a bus.

I had read that the castle was about a forty minute walk from the town and was located in a large Glen – this location is why it is considered one of the most scenic in Scotland. But I found out that this was one castle that you really had to work for. In reality, the castle is barely visible from Dollar. The thick covering of trees that make up the Glen means you can only see the very top of it and only if your view is not otherwise obstructed, which was rare.

In a situation that is not unique in a country with so many castles (and such a love of golf), the castle provides a stunning backdrop for the local golf course.  This was pretty easy to see from the trail that I was following up the hill.

They say it’s supposed to be more about the journey than the destination, and this trip was a great example of that. I easily enjoyed the Glen and the network of trails surrounding the castle more than the castle itself.

The path up the hill was steep, narrow, and winding – any open clearings were covered in bluebells. Every castle needs a nearby source of fresh water and the stream that winds through the glen had dozens of spectacular waterfalls. The thick covering of trees also kept me mostly sheltered from the rain and wind that was pretty constant through most of the hike. I stopped for a few a photos so it took about 45 minutes to walk all the way up to the castle.

Clan Campbell is one of the biggest and probably the most famous Scottish clan. Their power came from their powerful fleet and ability to choose the winning side to almost any conflict. However, they were traditionally based around Argyll and a few of the islands. The castle was built in the 15th century originally by the Stewart’s but would provide an eastern power base for the Campbell’s when it passed to them by marriage. The powerful families of those days all wanted to have property within a short journey of the capital – so they could plot, scheme, and asskiss their way to more power and land. This would be part of the reason the clan was not so popular. However, they were not unique in Europe as every kingdom had families who would come into wealth this way. They also supported Robert the Bruce before it was popular, so that has to count for something too.

When I arrived at the castle, the first thing I noticed was the scaffolding. I seem to have pretty bad luck when it comes to visiting castles under restoration, but this time there were only a few areas where I could not go. One of my next thoughts was about how difficult it would have been to build a castle here back then. It’s a steep walk, and there would have been no road to get all of those heavy stones up to this remote spot.

The view from the garden was amazing. You could see Dollar, the Glen, and the two larger hills on either side of the castle. This castle really did feel remote. Besides the sheep farm on the slope, there is nothing behind it but more hills.

The castle has not been occupied in a very long while. After the civil war, and when the king had been brought back, the Earl of Argyll was killed for betraying the king and choosing Cromwell while the castle was burned by the Ogilvy’s and the McLean’s.

It’s a spectacular ruin and very well looked after, but I only stumbled around the keep and a few of the rooms for a short while before heading back out to try some more trails.

The little boy in me just loves running around the woods by myself. You can run up a hill, jump over a log or around a tree without feeling even a little self conscious. Because of the weather, the thick woods and winding trail, you would not even notice another person until they are almost on top of you. There is no one around to see you or pass judgement. It’s the most innocent kind of play time.

I had a great time and the only drawback from the trip was how wet it was.

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May 22 2011
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Travel

Ireland – Day 5 – May 8 in Dublin

Trinity College

The campus is amazing. Obviously, a lot of famous people have gone here. Its actually a little weird walking around campus as a tourist while people around you are going to and from classes. We’re not the only tourists of course because the Book of Kells is here, which we didn’t go in for.

Merrion Square and the Orwell Monument

This is just a stone’s throw from Orwell’s old house near Trinity College. His birthplace is only one street over. The national gallery is here too, and there were painters selling their work all around the outside of the square. Aarti found one that she loved but we didn’t want to carry it around and we’d didn’t get back there in time to pick it up that afternoon. The Orwell monument was great and had some of his most well known sayings. Its too bad that people were so close minded in those days and he was forced to leave to Paris.

Post Office

Bullet holes and all. This was where Irish Revolutionaries made their last stand in 1917.

Writers Museum

I was expecting something else. Ireland, like Scotland, hits far above its weight in the literary sense. I was expecting James Joyce, Johnathan Swift, George Orwell, George Bernard Shaw and maybe one or two others. The museum seemed to focus on dozens of writers almost equally, and not just focus on the major heavy weights. I really had no idea that Irish literature was so heavily influenced by censorship, so it was educational. I obviously expected that English rule and the troubles would have had a huge impact, but there seemed to be some really stuffy people in Ireland in the 18th and 19th centuries. These are the fools who ran off Oscar Wilde for being gay/bisexual.

Guinness Storehouse

Very cool and I loved hearing about how its all done. The advertising section was really cool because I’ve always admired the Guinness ads. Having a pint at the rooftop bar felt like being on the top of the city.

Temple Bar

This is probably the most famous music venue in Dublin, and I had to go in and check it out. The place was packed which was a bit of a surprise for a Sunday night.

St Patrick’s Cathedral

This is where Johnathan Swift was Dean, and chilling out in the park was not a bad way to spend a few minutes.

St Stephens Green

This was one of our last stops in Dublin, and the end of a very chilled out but frantic trip.


May 22 2011
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Travel

Ireland – Day 4 – May 7

Waterford

The thing I remember most about Waterford is the good waffles we had. I’m fairly simple that way. Of course Aarti informed me that Waterford Glass is very famous and there was a pretty massive shop devoted to it. I just thought it would be an interesting old city to visit. Reginald’s Tower is apparently the longest occupied building in Ireland. Also, there is apparently a tall ships race there and we know that because we saw a series of massive cloth billboards hanging down from a few waterfront buildings while we were checking out the tower; also the bandstand along the shore was shaped like a ship.

Avoca

Very quaint little village that we stumbled into by accident. The town was little more than the main street, but it had a very picturesque parish church and is also on the tourist map for its weaving.

Wicklow

I’m apparently not very good. We thought by going through Wicklow, we were taking the coastal route, but there was no water to be seen from where we were at. It was actually a pretty cool little town, but like usual were trying to make up time so we could back to Dublin and return the car.

Dublin

I hate toll roads sometimes. I probably had to go on and off the N50 four times. After getting into Dublin and getting off where I thought we needed to be for our hotel, we found ourselves lost again. After asking for directions, we headed back, but then I took the wrong direction and we had to back track. Both of us were pretty exhausted but we managed to find our hotel and spend Saturday night out in Dublin.

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May 22 2011
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Travel

Ireland – Day 3 – May 6

Killarney

Very cool national park.

We stopped at Ross Castle, and Aarti and I were attacked by a really happy dog. There were ducks around the creek, and the dog was having a great time scattering them. We spent a couple hours and did a walk around Muckross Lake, which had some pretty spectacular views. It would have been nice if we could have done the ring of Kerry, but there was no time. Its pretty famous, but apparently it would have taken us about five hours to do.

Blarney

Blarney castle was really cool. Aarti and I kissed the Blarney Stone, which is supposed to give you the gift of the gab. I don’t really feel any more well spoken, but maybe it takes a while to work. There’s also some pretty cool caves around the castle that used to have some secret passageways.

Cork

Cork is the food capital of Ireland, so we spent a night out wandering the city streets. After some food, we went out for some traditional Irish music and a couple beers. Good times.

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May 19 2011
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Ireland – Day 2 – May 5th

Day 2 was all about a proper visit of Galway

Galway

After a quick drive around Kennedy square, we parked for a bit of a walk around. Just around the corner from where we parked, there was a really cool rock music mural – split into three sections: it had Elvis reaching for god (like the scene from the sistine chapel), the other had rockstar heaven with the likes of Johnny Cash, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, etc, and the final had famous rock stars still alive like Bono.

We walked through the old part of the town, and there are a few streets that have loads of pubs.  Galway is supposed to be big for music, but there wasn’t as much of that early in the morning besides a couple of buskers. Also, we were there a bit early for a visit to the pub.

We did see the Galway cathedral, St Nicholas Church, Lynch Castle, the Spanish  Arches, and a few of the canals.

Lisdoonvarna

According to our book, this  is a matchmaking hub for a few weeks in the summer. The place was  a bit quiet, but we stopped for lunch and I had my first Guinness in Ireland.

Burren National Park

Very cool, very big park. The hills were a kind of purple and looked amazing. We were probably driving through this park for at least an hour. It would have been nice to walk some of the trails, but there was no time.

Cliffs of Mohor

Amazing views. Lots of bugs and some funny safety signs.

This was pretty awesome.

Adare

Near Limerick, this is a pretty little village so we stopped for a little walk around the park and up the main street.

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May 19 2011
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Travel

Ireland – Day 1 – May 4th

After flying in early Wednesday morning on Ryan Air, Aarti and I had only the most general of itineraries. Luckily, she bought a travel book two days before and we were able to educate ourselves while on the plane. Despite growing up mostly in the US, she was born in Belfast and had been to Northern Ireland a few times so we were content to explore the Republic of Ireland and skip the north.

Good thing too because our initial itinerary was far too ambitious for the amount of time we had to spend in Ireland. Even driving, it felt like we were always trying to catch up.

Sword

We just drove through here very slowly, no stopping so soon after leaving the airport. There was a very strange looking castle on the end of the high street – it had only been partially rebuilt, so it was also part ruin.

Tron

This castle and village was our first real stop. According to our trusty guidebook, this castle was used for the filming of Braveheart so it has a celebrity connection.

The sun was out and we managed a quick walk over to the other side of the river to check out the nearby tower and manor house– not part of the castle. While walking around the castle, the importance of the river came into sharp focus. Land has since been reclaimed making the river side more accessible but at the time of its construction, it would have been a powerful fortress.

Also, I was misbehaving a little so was put in the pillory for a while.

Hill of Tara

This is apparently the ancient seat of power in Ireland. Ditches all around mark the place of ancient wooden fortresses and outbuildings. Apparently, there is even a spiritual connection to the place because of its early connection to celtic and druid ritual.

The ancient history was interesting, but I was much more impressed by the view of the surrounding valley. The visitor centre was closed when we arrived, so it was basically just us and a handful of others standing atop a windy hill. However, it started to bustle as we were leaving as people were coming to the teahouse in droves.

Kells

Should have skipped it. There was almost nothing to see here and no one really around. This is the original location for the famous Book of Kells, which is now under a locked display case in Trinity College.

Galway

Very short time here – mostly a drive through because it was already starting to get very late.

Spiddal

We camped in Spiddal for the night. Very nice beach.

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May 13 2011
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England, Travel

Newcastle – Part 2

No trip to a city called Newcastle will skip over a visit to the castle that gives the city its name. The city has been called Newcastle since the old wooden castle was replaced by the keep in the 13th century and Aarti and I spent almost an hour exploring the castle keep. There were excellent views of the river (including the bridges) and of the train station from the top and plenty of narrow corridors to explore. It’s a little unfortunate, but even though the city is called Newcastle, the castle keep itself was strategically useless after just a few centuries. This was mainly because a massive city wall was constructed.

By this time, I had also realized that Newcastle is not far from where George Stephenson was born, and the city claims the father of the steam railways as their own – Stephenson Rocket. There was a big statue of him near the train station. The station is truly massive. It’s also got a bend in it, which is much easier to spot from up above.

That evening we joined up with Luca and Morgane to go out and do what Newcastle is known for. We probably tried half a dozen clubs at the Gate.

It’s hard to describe what I saw, but it’s safe to say that I’ve been scarred for life. The girls, even the ones who looked way too young, were wearing the sluttiest clothes imaginable and way too much bright coloured make-up. There were a few near fights, among both genders, but I have no doubt that we’d have seen more than one had we stuck around. Also, plenty of crazy costumes for the stag and hen nights.

The club we spent the most time in was playing classic rock from the 70’s and 80’s. It was pretty cool that all of us were rocking out to YMCA. We also chilled out in a salsa bar in a failed effort to find dancing, but a successful effort to find mojitos.

The next morning we walked down to the riverside outdoor market for some breakfast and to check out some of the shops. About 30 minutes before we had to leave, the Millenium Gateshead Bridge began to open, and that is a very cool piece of engineering. Instead of opening in the middle, the bridge tilts up on its side. We managed to get a few photos of the whole process – it was very impressive.

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May 13 2011
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England, Travel

Newcastle – April 14th and 15th – Part 1

A night out drinking in Newcastle is not exactly a rare outing for Scots. In fact, there are probably as many Scottish Stag Nights and Hen Do’s there as there are anywhere else in Glasgow or Edinburgh.

The timing of this trip worked out well, because of French friends who were visiting Newcastle the same time as us. The train deal I found was a bit cheaper, but left very early on Saturday morning, 6:15 am.

The first things on our minds was dropping stuff off at the hotel and finding some breakfast. It actually took us a fairly long time to get around to the latter. We walked along the river and checked out the bridges, Sage Gateshead, and some public art before walking up the hill to find somewhere to eat.

After having a bacon sandwich at a French cafe near the arcade, we wandered off in search of Grainger Street Market, which we found quite accidentally – we were advised to go there, but made no effort before hand to find out exactly where it was.

We went through the entrance by the Black Garter pub – I am keeping a running collection of amusing place, shop, and pub names, and that one sounded very saucy. The market reminded me a lot of the Granville Island Market, but had to be at least twice the size. It was split into a few parts, but it looked like it could have been a converted warehouse like the one in Vancouver. It had a high glass ceiling, and all of the large open spaces were filled with vendors selling fresh produce, deli meats, cheeses, clothes, and tourist knick knacks.

While walking around a few of the other shopping streets, we stopped for a moment to listen to some buskers, and were met with a very nice surprise. We were expecting to meet up with Morgane and Luca at the train station later that afternoon, but there they were sitting on a bench not far away.

Now being a foursome, we walked around a bit more and eventually made our way over to the Laing Art Gallery. They were doing an exhibition on a Victorian painter (named John Martin) that we all really enjoyed – lots of vibrant colours, vivid landscapes, and stories from ancient mythology and the bible. One of these days, I’ll actually have to read the bible front to back because I always find there are a few gaps when I try to remember the stories.

We arranged to meet up later, and split into pairs again. Aarti and I went by bus out to the biggest mall I’ve ever seen called Metrocentre, which kind of sounds similar to a place in Burnaby where I used to work. It dwarfed that one. IT’S A BIG, BIG, MALL.

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