2016 Scotland Trip

Vacation to Scotland

I haven’t posted anything since the Iditarod. We have been busy getting in our firewood and taking care of odd jobs around the house. Lynn and I went to Scotland to visit Victoria as well as Lynn’s aunt and cousins. Jessica joined us there for her first trip outside the United States. The weather was as expected for this time of year, mostly cloudy and rainy which is what we had in Galena. We flew to Fairbanks and then to Anchorage where we caught an Iceland-air flight to Keflavik. We then flew from Keflavik to London where we caught a British airways flight to Edinburgh. Lynn’s aunt was nice enough to allow Lynn, Jessica and I to stay at her place for the duration of our visit.

Trip to Orkney

We took a bus trip to Orkney that lasted four days. Our bus driver kept us entertained and pointed out the sights as we traveled north. We spent one night at a bed and breakfast in Fort Augustus and two nights at a bed and breakfast in Kirkwall. The trip to Kirkwall required a one hour ferry ride to get to Mainland. While in Orkney we took a tour of several neolithic sites such as Maeshow, the Standing Stones of Stennis and Skara Brae. We also went past Stirling castle which we later toured on a one day excursion. On our way back we visited the battlefield at Culloden.

Day Trip to Stirling and Loch Lomond

We also managed a day trip to Stirling castle, Loch Lomond and the Glengoyne whiskey distillery.

Edinburgh

We spent a lot of time touring the various parts of Edinburgh including Edinburgh castle, the Royal Mile, the Royal Yacht Britannia and the Scott Monument on Princes Street. Lynn and Jessica were able to do some shopping and we had several good meals in town. We also spent time visiting with Lynn’s cousins and their families and generally relaxing. The night before Jessica left we attended the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. The weather was very windy so they canceled the fireworks show afterward but we thoroughly enjoyed the performance.

I took a lot of photographs on this trip and have uploaded a few to an album on my Flickr account. Clicking the photo at the top should open the album. There is also a link to the photographs on the right side of the page but there is more information on the Flickr site.

Trip Home

The trip home was uneventful except for a problem with the computers at the Keflavik airport that kept the planes on the ground for a while. We got back to Anchorage on time though and did some shopping before turning in for the night. The next day we flew back to Galena.

Back to work

I go back to work on Monday, moose season is coming up and I plan to take a couple of weeks off to make sure we get meat for this winter. I’ll try and be a little more diligent about posting in the future.