07.28.06
Scotland, then Italy
Since my last post I’ve trained, driven, flown, and trained. Here are a few details…
I took the train from London to Edinburgh where my brother and nephew met me at the station. They had been in Holland barging before renting a car and taking a fast ferry over to England where they spent a few days in the Lake district before driving to Scotland. The three of us walked from the station to our B&B in New Town. Very posh and a lovely couple who run it. (For their address, see my postcard in the August newsletter). From Edinburgh, we drove first to Rosslyn Chapel (well-known to you Da Vinci Code fans) then to the Falkirk wheel, which is kind of a ferris wheel for boats connecting two canals at very different heights, then on to Sterling Castle, which was fascinating, especially the tapestry workshop where they are making a copy of the famous tapestries that hang at the Cloisters in New York using traditional methods, and finally on to Braemar, the village closest to the Queen’s home in Scotland, Balmoral. The Highlands where gorgious with the heather in bloom. It was just the way I pictured it from all those historical novels. We stayed at a backpacker’s cabin that suited us very well and was not hideously expensive. The next day we did a short hike before driving to Aviemore to put me on the train for Glasgow. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to explore the city since I had to leave the next morning for Bologna.
The flight down was easy with a transfer at Gatwick. Coming out of the Bologna airport I caught the bus into town, then decided to walk the mile to my hotel so I could get some sense of the city. I stayed at a brand new business style hotel, which, besides a good price, promised airconditioning. Extremely welcome in the 100 degree heat. In the morning, after a lovely continental breakfast, I caught the city bus to the train station, bought my ticket from a machine, and then took train for Cortona. A quick change in Florence and a walk from the train station brought me to my niece’s apartment where I got to meet my new great niece Giulia. She is very cute and sleeps a lot. Today we had a lovely lunch up in Cortona with cousins from Texas who happened to be visiting Tuscany. It’s a small world, after all.
I leave for Venice and then Turkey on Sunday.
Ciao!
