Scotland Trip - October 15-20, 2008 (Part One)

Day 1: Arriving in Glasgow

After arriving to Glasgow by train, we checked into our hotel and explored around. It was too late to visit any museums, so we went on a quick walk around the hotel area and went back to the hotel to eat. I tried Haggis for the first time with neeps’ and taties’ (turnips and mashed potatoes).

My first bite of Haggis BTW Haggis is a combination of sheep’s heart, liver and lungs along with various spices and is prepared by boiling it in the intestine of the animal. To me it looked and tasted like ground beef but with a pasty texture to it. It's pretty decent considering what it's made out of. Day Two: Exploring Glasgow We started off by having a hearty Scottish breakfast. I tried another traditional Scottish food that has disgusting origins. The majority of Black Pudding is made out of cooked blood that becomes congealed when it is heated. They toss in a meat filler which has a lot of fat in it. This wasn't as good as Haggis. From there we went to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery Museum.

Stephanie making friends with a statue

They had a lot of interesting things ranging from a Salvador Dali painting to a tacky Elvis with a glowing halo.

Stephanie with angelic fat Elvis

Call me uncouth, but I liked the tacky Elvis better. From the museum we had an early afternoon tea at the Willow Tea Room. It was designed by an artist named Charles Rennie Mackintosh, which I think was supposed to impress me. Seeing as how this was more for Stephanie than for me, I acted impressed and enjoyed a good cup of tea.

Russell enjoying an afternoon tea

After our tea, we walked to the University of Glasgow where we paid for a cheap, but very infomative tour of the campus. The U of Glasgow was home to Lord Kelvin (the father of Thermodynamics), James Watt (is cool because he has an electrical unit named after him), and Adam Smith (the father of modern economics). Honestly, I'm not a very big fan of Lord Kelvin. I can't remember my exact grade in Thermo, but I know it wasn't good and I hated the class. I did not become a civil engineer to remember pv=nrt. I'll never forgive him for taking up space in my brain that I desperately need for an equation that I'll never use.

Russell sulking in front of Lord Kelvin's statue

Other than their infatuation with Lord Kelvin, the university was a great place to visit. It had beautiful archicture and a really old feel to it.

Stephanie in front of the main building

The south side of the main building

Before leaving, we were told to check out the Hunterian Museum on campus where they had on display Robert the Bruce's toe. We saw the toe. Upon leaving the museum we decided to take a walk through Kelvin park. We ate at a restaraunt called Blas where we tried Cullen Skink, which is basically just chowder. It was good though, and we were able to see Kelvingrove Museum lit up at night.

Kelvingrove Museum at night

Here I am the next day describing the food we ate in an awesome Scottish accent. I totally blended with the locals.

Day 3: Glasgow/Inverness/Tain

We did a lot of traveling on Day 3 since we had to make it up to Inverness for a boat cruise out of there the next day. The train ride was six hours long, but we were able to see a lot of the scottish countryside and the William Wallace monument in Stirling.

The William Wallace monument in Stirling. "FREEDOM!!!"

We arrived in Inverness and then took a cab to see the Glenmorangie Scotch distillery in Tain.

Russell enjoying scotch at the Glenmorangie distillery

The cab was driven by a country music listening Scot that spoke both English and Gaelic. It was a very entertaining ride. He was especially excited to know that I was named after John Wayne (Wayne's my middle name). We arrived at the distillery and received three "wee drams" of scotch for tasting. They let us keep our nosing glasses and gave us a free hardback book about the history of scotch. We were able to walk around, look at the stills, go to their tasting room, buy some scotch and see where it was aged.

The Glenmorangie whisky stills, the tallest in Scotland

From the distillery, we walked to the Morangie House Hotel. It was the nicest hotel that we stayed in during our Scotland trip. It was even nice enough for both the Queen Mum and Prince Andrew to visit.

Stephanie in front of the Morangie House Hotel

Russell and Stephanie enjoying the posh environment

Dinner was delicious. We each ordered an appetizer and decided to share a main course (chicken stuffed with haggis, yum). It turned out to be a great idea, because my appetizer was huge. We went to bed tired, but with an empty stomach.

Russell with his appetizer - mussels