Swooning over Scotland
From Windermere, we drove on through other places in the Lake
District (also called Cumbria) to Ambleside, Grasmere (this place
is famous for its gingerbread), Keswick and Penrith.
Many of these places were deserted by 6 PM... probably because they knew that Vinoo
Dada was on the prowl. That night, after missing several turns on the road and
then some, we finally arrived in the quaint Scotch town of Tarbet on the Loch Lomond (that's where the Scottish Open Golf
tournament was played 4 weeks back). Our host, Jim, was a very hospitable chap
and told us all that he knew about Scotland and about the
roads we should take to see natural beauty at its best. The best part of his
talk was the wonderful Scottish accent which had Vinoo
and me hooked in no time... from then on, we were talking like pucca clansmen... had we been in kilts and boots and
bagpipes, no one could have guessed that we were desis
from India. Jim's house was over 400 years
old... it used to be a toll house in the days past and it is considered a
heritage house... so much so that when they had to build a railway line from
there, they changed the route of the train line so as to preserve the house.
The
next day, we drove all over...basically seeing the beautiful scenery... Oban, Inverary, Glencoe, Fort William... several
towns, villages, and hills and valleys did we cross before finally arriving at
the Glengarry
Castle - where we stayed that night. The castle was a wonderful
experience... good food, good wine, good service, good views, bad prices (oh
NO!!). The following day, we drove to the Eilean
Donan Castle on the western coast of Scotland. For Hindi
movie freaks, this is where Rani Mukherjee and some chappie
danced for some movie... i think it was Kuch Kuch Hota Hai
- we were given this information by the ticket booking clerk at the castle).
The castle has a few rooms that have now been restored and that was good to
look at. That night, we finally arrived at Inverness at the northern
coast of Scotland, after having
driven several kilometres on the banks of the Loch Ness. Opinion is
divided amongst us as to the existence of the Loch Ness monster (who Vinoo has affectionately begun referring to as Nessie, much to Anji's
consternation). I can vouch for a fact that I saw Nessie
loom its head above the surface of the lake and she even winked at me. However,
no sooner did it look at the back of the car and set eyes on the more handsome
and dashing Vinoo, it ignored me. Unfortunately, Vinoo was dozing at that time, and Anji's
head was on his shoulder (she was dozing too)... when Nessie
saw this she was so heartbroken that she let out tears from her eyes... we had
rainfall accompany us all the way into Inverness!
The main thing the boys did at Inverness was the laundry.
The main thing the girls did over there was shopping. The main thing that all
of did together was go to a highland dancing show that evening. The show was
very nice and the after effects of the same were felt by Vixabs...
as they had to carry the slightly injured Vishanj all
the way back to the bed and breakfast (they were trying out some highland
dancing steps right after the show and kinda missed a
step or two). From Inverness we drove to Edinburgh and spent two
days there... looking at hundreds of years of history all around us. By this
time though, we were quite jaded, our minds were numb with 10 days of
sightseeing, our hearts were burdened with too much time spent too close to our
sweethearts and our wallets were bulging with... credit card slips. Only Vix had the presence of mind to realise
what was going on and he produced his special magic to build up the enthu once
again... everybody (as in, all adults) was force fed hot chocolate drinks every
hour on the hour and hot coffee every hour on the half hour. As for the child, Anji was given generous doses of warm water with honey by Sabs, ostensibly to cure her cough, but I seem to remember
having overheard Vinoo tell Sabs
that... "Bhabhi, can you transform my sweetheart
Anji into a honeypie for
me? ...", but I can't be too sure I heard that... I was under the
influence of caffeine myself.
From
Edinburgh, we set out for York, but not before
stopping at the Glenkinchie distillery for the
traditional "one for the road" and looking at the entire process of
making whisky. Sabita took extensive notes and since
our return here, I've been witness to a lot of purchasing activity... barley,
malt, large vessels... stay tuned and check with me in 18 years time to see if
a cask of single malt Hong Kong Whisky is finally ready.
York... York... what can I say about
this place. It is a very old town... and retains its charm. While Bath is old too, it is very
Romanesque and European in its appearance and ambience with its stately
buildings etc. York, on the other hand, is
all rustic, its narrow lanes bustling with tightly packed houses... like Florence perhaps, if I had to find
a counterpart town in Italy. The most imposing
structure in York is the Minster - which is a funny way to spell Church/
Cathedral/ Chapel, but the story goes that once upon a time, they banned all
words beginning with "CH" in York... this was around the time that
the Minster was being built and they couldn't think of a suitable alternative
name for the temple to God that they were building. Finally, as is usually the
case, the task of choosing the name was assigned to a lowly guy in the ministry
of religious worship. Now this chap wasn't all that well educated, but he
surely knew how to ensure his promotion up the bureaucratic ladder... He wanted
to call the building "Minister" in an attempt to please his boss...
but as I said before, he was a drop out from school... and the best that he could
come up with was "Minster". Ironically, his boss didn't notice the
mistake either, and neither did the tourist guides all the way till the time
when 4 eager desi
tourists... 2 from Dubai and the remainder from HK landed up there... the
minute they saw the board pointing towards that building, their hands went up
to their open agape mouths and a collective "Haaaawwwwwwwwwwww"
was heard all the way in London. Anyway, the building itself is amazingly
beautiful and is highly recommended.
The
next day, we left York early in the morning (er... make that 9:30 am), and drove (Vix)
and drove (Vix) and drove (Vix)
and navigated (Sabs, Vinoo)
and slept (Anji) till we reached Heathrow airport.
Over here, we returned our car, heard that Brazil had won the 2002 World Cup, and after
packing and repacking, finally boarded our planes to end a memorable holiday.
Poetic license has been
used hajjaar
in the writing of this mail.
© Vixabs
Vacations Unlimited
September 16, 2006