I want to take you with me back in time to one of my most favorite trips, two years ago in July 2011. Since working in the airline industry makes it so easy to hop on a plane and fly from place to place, this road trip kept me grounded in a country that has far more natural beauty than most might expect.
I flew into London's Heathrow airport and took the
Heathrow Express to Paddington station where I connected on a long rail journey to Glasgow, Scotland. The trip was pleasant enough, but with not a whole lot to see and jetlag setting in I swiftly fell asleep to ready me for the exciting adventures to come.
Svenja, whom I was meeting in Glasgow, used to live there, and still has friends there, so I got a bit of a locals tour of the city. In exploring around we did a little shopping and both got some kickass new shoes at '
Schuh' - I had my first experience at the british based chain noodle bar '
Wagamama', which, for a chain restaurant, had good quality noodles and curries.
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| Wagamama |
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| Scottish Shoes! |
The second day we walked the whole center of the city and lunched at Jamie Oliver's,
Jamie's Italian. It was my first time at a JO restaurant and I thoroughly enjoyed the mix of italian cuisine with UK pub fare and a modern cafeteria atmosphere. At our table we tested out a massive stacked burger with a side of 'posh chips' tossed with parmesan cheese and truffle oil, fried zucchini flower, a prosciutto and pear salad, and wild mushroom panzarotti. Everything was delicious, particularly the fiori di zucca!
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| Panzarotti |
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| Burger & Posh chips |
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| Fior di zucca |
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| Prosciutto salad |
Onward on our journey we stop in Edinburgh for a day to meet friends and explore. Popping in at
The Elephant House for a quick nosh of shortbread and hot cocoa, it was my second visit (both to Edinburgh, and to this particular cafe). The Elephant House was made famous by the story of how JK Rowling would sit all day, nursing a cup of coffee, while writing the first passages of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, gathering inspiration for Hogwarts by looking out the windows upon George Heriot's school for orphaned children. The millionaire's shortbread was well.... shortbread - good. Caramel - good. Chocolate - gooooood!
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| Hot Cocoa at The Elephant House |
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| Millionaire's Shortbread |
Our final and most outstanding culinary exploit in Edinburgh was at one of the best seafood restaurants I've ever had the pleasure of dining, known as
Fisher's in Leith. A multi-course seafood extravaganza unfolded before us starting with a ceviche of Queenie scallops from West Loch Tarbert topped with a broad bean and red onion salsa. Followed by my favorite dish of the trip, a fillet of wild sea trout and a spinach, ricotta, and pine nut stuffed leek over a red pepper and basil sauce. Our main comes out, split for two persons, and it is a shellfish bonanza. Lobster, langoustines, clams, oysters, prawns, and more. A friend had the mussels, and for dessert we all had a bite of the sticky toffee pudding. It IS sticky, its not toffee or pudding, but I promise you it's one of the most amazing things you'll ever eat. Svenja's friend, wee Carla (she's tiny!) was generous enough to pass along her grandmothers' recipe to me and I have since made my own - I must say it came out amazingly, I only hope I did her family recipe justice.
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| Scallop ceviche |
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| Sea Trout |
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| shellfish shellfish shellfish |
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| Mussels |
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| Sticky Toffee Pudding! |
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| A slice of my version of sticky toffee pudding from Carla's family recipe! |
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| yellow = outbound, red = return |
Here's where we begin the real road trip: the goal is to go where the wind takes our little Vauxhall, but in the direction of the Northernmost tip of the island to experience the true beauty and solitude of the Highlands. As we head out, the scenic landscape gets more and more sparse of homes and people and denser with mountains, lakes, and sheep. We pass ruins of castles 600 years old and unbelievably some that are still intact. Cemeteries pop up seemingly out of nowhere and old churches whose rooves rotted or burnt out long ago, dot the countryside.
When we reach the northernmost parts of the highlands, looking back on the 'lowlands,' is a thing of beauty. Mountains stretch across the landscape a hundred miles south of us as we stand at the edge of the ocean. With the North Atlantic to the West, the distant Faroe Islands and Norwegian Sea to the North, and the North Sea to the East, it feels as if we're at the end of the Earth. Along the way, bed and breakfasts served our respite from the lengthy drives between destination points. We stayed at lovely B&B's in Dingwall, Ullapool, and Durness. I can find the names and contact information of the proprietors for anyone interested, they were wonderful hosts!
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| Svenja and I at castle ruins |
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| Loch something or other =) |
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| Scottish castle |
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| View from one of the northernmost points of Scotland |
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| View south, back over the highlands |
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| Cute town in the highlands |
So we plan to return back to Edinburgh for one last night before I have to catch a plane. With the beauty and the splendor of the country and seaside at our backs, we head south on a single-track road (for those of you city folk, thats just one lane, not one in each direction, but just ONE shared lane) between a mountain on our left and a lake to our right. Driving a stick shift with my left hand in a right-side-drive car going around a leftward curve, I hit a sharp rock that juts out to the edge of the roadway. Thirty miles from any semblance of civilization, completely out of cell phone range, and I pop not one, but TWO tires on the left side of our car. A single-track road is tricky because when you want to pass someone, you can't, and its difficult to get around oncoming traffic. The good thing about a single-track road when you have two flat tires, is that the first person who comes upon you MUST help you, because they can't go anywhere until you're out of the way! I swapped the front left tire for the spare and by the time I was done a father and son team from the south came to our rescue. They took us 45 minutes away to the nearest garage (it's in a town called Tongue - honest, respectable and fast service!
I don't know the name, but I swear its the only one around) bringing one of the damaged tires with us. When we arrived in Tongue I dealt with the garage owner and Svenja handled the rental insurance company. After the garage guys took their lunch break, the new tire situation got sorted, and waited for the repair to be complete, we were back on the road in about 7 hours after 'the incident' -- It could've taken 2 days if we had to wait for new tires to be brought in, so I was rather impressed!
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| The culprit |
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| Sad face =( |
In just enough time to get a tiny bit of sleep, we made it to the airport for my flight out. I flew from Edinburgh to Paris, Paris to Salt Lake City, Salt Lake to Los Angeles, and LA to Maui to meet my friend Erin for a week of beaching, surfing and fish tacos. Then, "on the way" home we decided instead to go from Maui to Honolulu, and Honolulu to Tokyo to spend two days or so in Japan - instead, we got caught in an Earthquake in the middle of the night and cut our trip short, flying directly back to New York!
Remember how I said this road trip kept me grounded? I lied.
