Post & Rail Travel Club, Scotland 2017: June 2017

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Tuesday, June 13

Quick update for now:
Entire group reunited Monday! Spent day in Stirling where 2/3 of us engaged in a 3D battle at Bannockburn battle field, had lunch at Nicky Tam's Bar and Bothy and then happily reunited with the Seal's and Fiorino's now that Tony and Shari have made good friends at the US Embassy in Dublin. Group dinner at the castle last night, lot of wine, little bit of whiskey. Up and at 'em fairly early today. Meeting up in Edinburgh, some via train, others via motorway. More detailed and interesting write up later. I've nearly used my 15 min. of free wifi on the train.

Clan's all here! (Stirling Castle)

William Wallace monument atStirling

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Sunday, June 11, 2017

1/2 of the troupe has arrived in Scotland

Lee and Karen arrived via motorway, entering Scotland at the crest of a hill. Teresa, Tom, Annie and Chris arrived in Roslin via the Edinburgh airport. We are all staying at the Original Roslyn Inn which happens to also be the only place in town that serves food until 9pm. As Lee and I were driving here and passing through various towns, I realized that no people were out and about despite the fact that it was around 7-8pm on a Saturday night! The towns are gorgeous--neat, tidy, clean, pretty. But they look like ghost towns. Strange.

Shari and Tony are spending another day and a half in Dublin. They couldn't pull themselves away from the beer and potatoes. Seriously though, they have a story but it isn't mine to tell. Shari and Tony, please fill all our readers in on the events of the past few days.

Roman ruins of fort at Hadrian's Wall

BaaaBaaa black sheep, have you any wool?

Even the Tyne River is the color of tea!

Friday, June 9, 2017

Update from Lee & Karen

The Ireland consortium has had a setback. Everyone is fine but some snags need to be sorted out. Once things are resolved, I expect a lot of whiskey and pints will be shared. In the meantime, we will try to keep you entertained by sharing antics of the Arnold's.

We arrived in London Thursday morning and spent a few hours getting reacquainted with UK driving. One trip down the M4 was plenty so, after a nap and shower, we then resorted to taking the 485 bus from Hammersmith to Barnes, overcome by intense nostalgia. We had a wonderful reunion with Marian and Andy, punctuated by political analyses from both sides of the pond and catching up on our lives. Afterwards, we escorted Jo and Colin to their polling place followed by a lovely dinner and conversation at Olympic on Church Road. As Jo pointed out, it was like opening the book up to the page where we left off. And, Colin explained to me that my hip issue is not a medical problem. Apparently, it's an engineering problem--a new perspective for me to consider. We intended to be awake to witness MAMIL (middle aged men in lycra) commuting to the City on bicycles, as Londoners have really embraced cycling to work over the last decade. However, my body refused to rise so, I will have to leave the image of Colin in Lycra to my imagination.

Party sign in Barnes

Very passionate conservatives

Side street in Hammersmith

Friday, June 9, 2017

Drove north. Countryside is spectacular here! I could sit and stare at it the way I do the ocean. It's stunning! Checked out Roman Fort ruins in Housesteads and we are now tucked in at the Railway Hotel in Haydon Bridge. We had a fantastic dinner and made a few friends in the pub downstairs. Our room is literally right above the pub. We can hear the music clearly and smell the food. When Lee checked in, the barkeep asked him his name and then pulled a set of keys out of a metal box from behind the bar. No ID requested. Love it!