... NOT in the air...

Well, we (reluctantly) need to leave Scotland to the memory vault, and move on to more topical things like how is the Cracker Barrel coming on their “Now Hiring” campaign..

"Leaving" is kind of problematical…I would love to take you on the day by day journey with us, because each day held such great sights and experiences that could be shared, but it would take at least as long to talk about it as it did to do it, so I am forced to condense.   We've seen some of the magnificant natural scenery, so maybe a few of the castles we saw.   Castles are funny things.  Most were built to provide a place where you could try to lead kind of a normal life, protected by massive walls, defensible positions (like on tops of mountains), many people with weapons, etc.  As I mentioned before, battles, conquests, invasions (from both “internal” and foreign sources) were such a part of life they were forced to fortify themselves.  Mostly it didn’t work.  While some of the castles we saw were from antiquity, some were not.  This is the castle at Drumlanrig, built in the late 17^th century and home of the very powerful Douglas clan, and now the residence of Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch and Queensberry.  It has a fabulous art collection including a Rembrandt.

Much older ones remain, such as from the “reformation” in the 1500’s, during which John Knox and the Calvinists pretty much destroyed many of the Catholic Cathedrals and presumably art, leaving things such as this one in St. Andrews (built in the late 12th century).. how magnificent it must have been to see - a mere 800 years ago!

But we also saw many others in places like

Edinburgh

Stirling

Which had a wonderful exhibit on their kitchen (of special interest to the feeder)

Near Mull

On way to Skye

On Loch Ness (we missed Nessie)

There are more.  Each of course had its story and history, the rise and fall, who and when, why it was important and what part it played in the wild history of Scotland.  I must say most had great exhibits, some had interpreters like Stirling Castle.

It is hard to describe this fellow’s job, although he was pretty graphic about it.  Let’s just say it involved helping the King with his daily duty, and he had a very good view of the backside of the King.. these days he would be in a commercial for Charmin… nuff said.

Tomorrow we’ll delve into the food aspects of the trip and yes, Haggis.

And in closing this phase, you know my usual byline, well, guess what?  Nothing much changes…