May 4 Tobermory to Corpach

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We woke up this morning about 6:30am to bright light peeking through the curtains. I pulled them back and the water was just oily and mirror-like and smooth. It looked like a brand new day! I got in the shower and Clay headed straight out to take photos of Tobermory and the smooth bay in the sunlight. We are docked here until 10am.

By the time I got out of the shower, the chop was back in the bay. We went up for breakfast and just ate from the buffet. I had porridge and Clay had fried eggs. Then we headed ashore. It had already gotten much colder and windier than it was an hour ago. We only made it about 1 block from the dock when it started raining again. We hadn’t brought umbrellas so we turned around and went back.


We got seats at the front of the lounge area for the sail away. It was sheeting rain so hard that you couldn’t see out the front windows anyhow. Brian announced bridge tours as we were headed back for our downward angled port side window view from my bed. We got into the first group of 8 to tour the bridge. Clay sent me down for money to make our suggested donation to sponsor the bridge tour and I was trying so hard to read the coins that I forgot Bob. Bob is sulking now because of the rain and low visibility but also because he didn’t get his picture taken at the Lord of the Glens’ controls. I think it was  £2, but I don't remember if that was per person, or if it was  £2 for both of us. In any event, you were expected to pay for the visit on an honor system of a charitable donation to a box on the Reception Desk.

We passed a paddle steamer in the Sound of Mull. Brian did a talk about the Lord of the Glens. I will try to get an information sheet that he handed out. He works so hard, it is too bad that he seems so disorganized and that we feel so ill-informed. He really seems to be trying and wanting to do a good job for us. Oh, I wound up putting most of that ship’s information from that sheet in the boarding day post.

Lunch was at 12:30pm. I had steak pie and Clay had the ploughman’s salad with ham and cheese. It was all good. They also had an omelet option. Lunch came with cream of broccoli soup and crème caramel for dessert.

It is 2:30pm now and we have entered the Caledonian Canal without any announcements. Though given all the thruster maneuvering everyone was in the lounge trying to figure out what was happening. The wind is blowing the rain straight sideways and even our down sloping window is now messed up. Evidently, the wind was pushing the ship sideways and that was why the thruster struggle to get us lined up for entry into the Caledonian Canal through the Corpach Sea Lock.

Here is some information about our sail and the canal from our daily letter. We sailed the Sound of Mull between Mull and Morvern, through the Firth of Lorne and up Loch Linnhe. If you look at a map, this loch follows the same bearing as the Great Glen and is part of the same geological fault line that the canal follows.

The Caledonian Canal was engineered by Thomas Telford and built between 1803 and 1822. The first vessel passed through on the 24^th of October 1822. It’s built in a geological fault line, the Great Glen. There are 4 lochs linked by the Caledonian Canal. They are Loch Lochy, Oich, Ness and Dochfour. (I don't know why they don't count Loch Linnhe since the Corpach Sea Loch connects it to Loch Lochy.) The length is 60 miles, of which 22 miles are manmade. Construction cost was £905580, double the original estimate. There are 29 locks, 15 to the west side of Loch Oich, which is the summit at 106 feet above sea level and 14 to the east. Each lock raises or lowers the canal by 8 feet, with the exception of the regulating locks at the ends of each loch, which can vary depending on water levels.

We get off in about 30 minutes from our overnight dock in Corpach.  We are taking our included excursion to Glenfinnan and the West Highland railway. We went to Glenfinnan NationalTrust for Scotland’s Visitor’s Center to commemorate the start of the Jacobite Rebellion. (Tickets are normally £3.50pp.) We were lucky to turn around on our way to the Bonnie Prince Charlie Monument to see the brown train (without the steam engine!) like they use in the Harry Potter crossing of the Glenfinnan Viaduct. Clay wanted to take the uphill walk to the Viaduct viewpoint, but the trail was a running muddy stream with the heavy rain. Clay went up the tight spiral stairs to the top of the monument instead. I stood at the bottom, out of the way under the stairs after my umbrella got blown inside out a couple of times. Clay met up with Victor and Miriam, who helped him get up and out through the awkward little hole in the floor/ceiling at the top. It must have been very comical because there was a lot of laughter and they were still talking about it days later. I could hear Miriam worrying about getting back down. I stopped a small crowd of fellow passengers from going up because I could hear them coming down and wondering what would happen if they met people coming up.

I went back inside the NTS Visitor’s Center and browsed the Gift Shop before reboarding the coach to the train station. Clay went back to the muddy trail to the Viaduct viewpoint to get some photos.

Included in our in our excursion is a train trip on the West Highland Live over the Glenfinnan Viaduct on a ScotRail train. This ticket would normally cost £4.40. There was an additional charge to climb the tower, but that was included in our fare as well.The train we boarded was on its way to Glasgow. Still, we could see through the rain streaked windows, Loch Shiel and the viaduct curving around. It was like the scene from Harry Potter where the dementors attack the train and frost up the windows, except with no dementors, happily. Anyway. I don’t believe Clay was able to get any photos. His wet camera fogged up when we boarded the overheated train car.

It is 5:30pm and we are back aboard the Lord of the Glens. Brian is showing another black and white film. This one is about the steam trains on the West Highland railway. Evidently, they still run at least one steam engine on the line with the old brown cars, but only in summer.  While our daily letter says the coach will pick us up at the train station and bring us to the ship, there was no bus and so we were all already soaked to the skin and we walked back about 2/3 of a mile.

Dinner is at 7:30pm. Choices were roast pork, seafood risotto, something vegetarian. So, I’ll go ahead and say good night.

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May 3 Oban to Tobermory

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We were docked overnight at Oban. This morning Brian led a walk up to McCaig’s Folly. I think only about ¼ of the passengers braved it. McCaig’s Folly is a Victorian era construction made to look like a ruin of a Roman coliseum. It looked like it was about a football field straight up above the bay and it was cold, windy and raining, so I opted not to go. Clay got up and went. He didn’t tell me I missed anything. I don’t know what he had for breakfast. I had one Egg Benedict and coffee. It was good. 

At 9:30am we were to meet in front of Oban Distillery. We did, but we never saw Brian. Eventually, near 9:40am, a woman came out and asked if we were with Lord of the Glens. The tour is usually £7.50 per adult, but she handed us each a ticket for £3 off the purchase of one 70cl bottle of Oban Malt Whisky and asked us to come on in, go upstairs to look around their little museum  and divide into 2 groups because our group was too big. Since we were leaderless a bunch of late-coming people decided not to wait for group 2 and pushed past us and went with the now too large first group. That meant only a handful of us got left behind and apparently forgotten. At some point a little past 10am, the first woman came back and asked why we weren’t touring and we said we’re the second group. She got flustered because we wouldn’t have time for the full tour unless we started right now and we needed to sail out with the tide, so we couldn’t be late. We did eventually get our tour, but it seemed an unnecessary bit of unpleasantness that again could have been handled with better communication or leadership. We got a sip of a 9 year old Oban single malt scotch whisky from a cask. Then we got a sip of the standard 14 year old. They offered us droppers of water and it was amazing the difference a few drops of water made. They explained that the whisky has an oily kind of surface and just a couple of drops of water breaks it and releases the flavor. I thought it made it better but I still didn’t like it. I wanted to buy a bottle but they did not ship, so sadly we have no way of carrying it onward. They did gift us our cask tasting glasses though. 

All aboard was at 11:30am and that is when we set sail. Lunch was at noon. Choices had to be ticked off this morning for lunch and dinner. Choices for lunch were pasta, game casserole or a baked potato. The table Clay and I were at had 2 pastas and 4 baked potatoes! Soup was some kind of squash puree. Dessert was pear and apple crumble with a vanilla sauce. It was OK.

We sailed from Loch Linnhe by the Firth of Lorn to Craignure on the Isle of Mull. We docked briefly in Craignure to let people off to tour Duart Castle. Duart Castle is the ancestral seat of the Maclean's. (This was included in our fare, like this morning's tour of Oban Distillery. Tickets are normally  £5.75.) Since it was such cold raw ugly weather maybe a little less than ½ got off. They stayed on as Lord of the Glens continued sailing on up the Sound of Mull to Tobermory. The Isle of Mull is about 20 by 30 miles in size. We were told by Steve our bus driver/guide that it has about 18 miles of double track pavement and we drove on 12 of it. That means 2 lanes, one in each direction. The rest is paved as single track, with passing bumpouts. That means a 1 lane road and you have to share it by moving over into a bumpout for oncoming traffic. We drove on both double track and single track. Weird. I would not have liked to live in Duart Castle. I don’t think anyone lives there now. We had way too much time there. It was a long drive all the way up the coast for the length of the island to Tobermory. I guess that usually is a beautiful scenic drive, but once again we couldn’t see anything because of rain, fog, low clouds and mostly the windows all fogged up. Even on the sail over, we couldn’t see anything. It is supposed to be a spectacular scenic sail, but between the windows fogged over and the rain and clouds, cue the foreboding music was all I could think. I'm really hoping for a clearer day tomorrow.

We had a long walk around the curve of the bay from Tobermory Distillery (which we did not visit) to the other end of town where Lord of the Glens was moored. Thankfully Steve, the bus driver, had  pointed out the boat’s location to us since Brian declined Steve’s offer of the microphone. He didn’t have anything to say to us individually when we stepped down to him either. I will give him credit later maybe, after dinner. Our choices tonight are lamb, fish or mushroom stroganoff, the soup is fish and the dessert is orange. Nothing for me. I tried to find someone to discuss this with at breakfast and before lunch. But, finally I caught Brian right before leaving for the castle tour and asked him if someone could save me a baked potato from lunch and he offered me a steak too.  Like I said, we’ll see. We’re still waiting for the extra hangars he told me were on their way.

Brian is replaying a TV show from last night about sea eagles on the Isle of Mull and Tobermory. He is doing lots of wildlife and I wish we had seen anything like what this guy caught on camera. But, I guess you need a clear day and we didn’t draw one. We are here overnight so hopefully tomorrow will dawn clear. Fingers crossed.

Dinner is at 7:30pm. It is 6:05pm. Clay has been sleeping since I turned the TV on. I could have done with a nap myself. Maybe now….

I did have a little nap before dressing for dinner. There was about an hour break in the rain right at dinner time. We saw a tall ship motor into Tobermory Bay during dinner. I did get my steak as promised by Brian, so I appreciated that. Clay had the lamb and liked it. It was cold and windy and wet again after dinner and I don’t think many people or anyone at all went into town. Brain showed an Ealing Studios black and white movie from 1949 called Whisky Galore at 9:30pm (or so) on our TVs. It was set in the Outer Hebrides Islands off NW Scotland and we are docked at an Inner Hebrides Island. Anyway, when Brian announced it in the dining room everyone seemed to know it. We started watching it but we fell asleep about the time the islanders had salvaged the whisky from the shipwreck and so I guess we missed all the fun and action.

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May 2 Oban

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We had a nice breakfast. I had a fried egg with bacon which was a little like country ham. (This will be true of the bacon for the rest of this trip.) Clay had a fried egg with sausages. They were bigger than our breakfast sausages, Clay had a bowl of cereal with a banana to start and I had a cup of raspberry yogurt. We shared a tray of toasted brown bread. I had a little French press of coffee and Clay had hot tea. It was cold in the dining room. We could see people bundled up outside. It is supposed to be 32° F now and get up to 50- something °F this afternoon, but it is supposed to rain this afternoon too. I’ll keep you posted. I still have my fingers crossed for beautiful weather.

The weather never did clear. It didn’t get much warmer and the wind did not die down. (I’ll warn you now that never actually means for the entire Lord of the Glens cruise through the Great Glen did the weather clear. We saw sun again when we arrived back in Edinburgh!)  I am typing this on Friday afternoon moored at Tobermory on the Isle of Mull. We haven’t seen more than about 100 yards due to low clouds, heavy rain, fog, etc. Oh, and it is windy and cold. Not conducive to scenery watching, sadly.

So, we got checked out of McDougal Clansman before 11am and left our bags. We needed to kill time until at least 2pm. We need to catch the Lord of the Glens included shuttle bus to Oban at 2:30pm (“in good time”, per their instructions). We walked across the pedestrian footbridge and went in a Tweed Shop (Highland House of Fraser) where I bought an apron and a couple of bookmarks. We did some more shopping, like when I opened my newest collapsible umbrella for the 2^nd time today and found a hole burned in it! We bought a tartan collapsible. We went in the mall next to the train station as a place to warm up and dry off, went back out looking for a souvenir cross stitch pattern. We had seen a few crafts stores on our wandering quest last night to find dessert and we wanted to go to those stores when they were open.  Success at a very high price! We paid £57.99 for a pattern than is a map of the Great Glen, our sailing route. We only paid about £9 each for the bookmarks. I have no idea why the map was so expensive, but I had to have it and it was one of a kind. I’ll give it to Mom to do and then when she gives it back we’ll get a frame for it. I hope we will. It says it is 7.5 x 23 inches. That seems like a difficult size, though I have looked on line and 8X24 seems to be a standard size. Fingers crossed we’ll be able to find one locally.

We went back to the mall for lunch at the cafeteria in Debenham’s. I had a cheddar and ham toastie. It was white cheddar. I liked it. Clay had battered fried haddock and chips and he didn’t care for it. We didn’t see any dessert we liked, so we moved out to the food court. We had some local ice cream at Mackie’s. We shared 2 cups with chocolate and honeycomb and chocolate and butterscotch. The butterscotch was the best, the chocolate was grainy or as Clay said like eating gritty dirt. The honey was overwhelmed by the chocolate scoop next to it or it was just too subtle in the first place. I did not get any photos from Clay between the pedestrian bridge and the comfort stop in Spean Bridge about half way to Oban. Sorry! If I should find the photos later that I know he took, I'll come back and post some.

We walked back to the hotel early and used the restrooms and waited for a while in their vestibule. The people at McDougal Clansman couldn’t have been more helpful or friendly. I can recommend this hotel. It was an excellent value for an ideal central location.

We walked to where there would have been a 7^th stand at the bus terminal if there had been a number, but there wasn’t. There were already people there and a small bus. It was not our bus. Our bus came quite a bit later and still 4 people had not arrived. We and our luggage were all soaked through by now. We waited until the bus driver had consulted with Brian our cruise director by cell phone about where to find these missing 4 who had chosen to fly in the day of and had a flight delay. We drove to a shopping center out by the airport and finally they walked through the Burger King parking lot dragging their bags. (I’ll just go ahead and put a spoiler here that these 2 couples from Sussex were very special and dysfunctional all week!)  So, then we drove back across Inverness to head for Oban and the Lord of the Glens. It was over a 2 hour ride and mostly zigzagging alongside the lochs and we are told there is no more scenic drive anywhere. That may be true, but we couldn’t see much in the rain and low clouds and mostly because the windows completely fogged up right after we loaded.  There were about 50 soggy people on the bus and when the driver turned on the heat, we started releasing steam!

We drove across a bridge at the Neptune’s Staircase where we will go through a series of locks later. We saw 3 deer by the side of the road like the one I saw yesterday. I also saw a pair of pheasants startle out of the bushes as the bus passed. About midway, we stopped at a scenic little place called Spean Bridge by a river for toilets and shopping. Clay went nuts. When we set off again, the bus driver let us know he’d talked to Brian again. Evidently, Lord of the Glens was having a harder time than just bad weather and mislaid couples. We were told that a larger ship called Ocean Nova was tied up at our berth all day and that had put everybody off their footing. I’ll just say if that’s case, they still haven’t gotten it back today and need to learn to shake it off. They seem at loose ends and are not communicating well. Brian wouldn’t say mud to us if he had a mouthful most of the time it seems. And it seems that is how he does most of his announcements, by going table to table or group to group and randomly repeating himself, or not. Not really the best way to communicate with 52 or so people when you want them all to be on the same page. We are the only Americans onboard and we can’t understand what anyone is saying half the time anyways. Like the information Magna Carta sent us before we came that specified a smart casual dress code with a jacket for dinner and an extra effort for the Welcome and Farewell Dinners. Huh? I posted the question to a British Disboard thread and got back no jeans, no shorts, no t-shirts, no trainers. Well, there are plenty of old Brits aboard in jeans, and at dinner in the evening. So, did we misunderstand?

Anyway, the whole schedule got pushed back. They hustled our bags right to the cabins. They got here before we did. We are in cabin 201, last cabin in the back of the boat on the port side. There is a door at the end of the hall that says crew only. It is the crew mess. There is noise back there and crew come and go slamming the door behind them from about 10 pm to 2 am. It sounds like they have a blender against the wall by the head of my bed. The floor is sloped. Otherwise, we like it. Yes it is small, but I guess we’ve been in training and it is efficiently laid out. It is huge, spacious and well-designed compared to the cabin we had on Cruise West. But there is one similarity with Cruise West. When docked, they put a board up on the Reception Desk. It has two sliding buttons by every cabin number and it is your responsibility to mark yourself onboard or off whenever it is up. We had no name badges and no one ever checked our key cards. No one was manning that board or the gangway or the door. They relied entirely on all of us being responsible enough to use that board to mark ourselves in or out.

So we should have gotten in about 4:30pm, but didn’t get in until after 6:30pm.  Emergency Drill was in the bar at 7:45pm in our “extra efforts clothes” which was not specified on the sheet left in our cabins describing our day. Welcome Party followed by Dinner at 8pm. The small dining room has 3 rows of 3 tables with 6 seats at each table. This is our smallest ship yet. I think it is very attractive, Clay thinks it is ugly. I am trying to bring him around. I am typing this from my bed at the window onboard Lord of the Glens with a view across Tobermory Bay. I think I have seen a dolphin and an otter. But, for sure as I have been sitting here the waterfall across the bay becomes more and more torrential! It is really raining. The clouds roll over and briefly clear out and reappear. Sometimes I can see green in the distance and mostly I see nothing. Anyway, back to last night’s dinner.

We had a welcome drink of champagne or orange juice in the bar on the top deck. They passed around some small canapés with mostly caviar, black or green! Then off to dinner down 2 decks. We had to go by the dining room earlier and place a tick mark by half or full portion of chicken, salmon or bean cassoulet. I had a ½ portion of chicken and got one of those little 4 bite breasts with the little wing joint still attached. It was in some kind of gravy with roasted root vegetables. It was tasty. Clay had salmon.  He didn’t say how it was, but I think he liked the mashed potatoes under it. You got soup up front or nothing. And after you got some kind of bread pudding. It was all ok. Clay had a Cairngorms Gold beer that was priceless. (Looking at our bill, it was £4.15.) It was served warm. The server told Clay they had a big variety of Scottish beers that he could work his way through, but he says that seems unappetizing now.

We left before coffee and tea and went to bed early.

Here is some information about booking Lord of the Glens. This ship was owned by Magna Carta Steamship Co. Ltd. of London. We booked directly with them. It looks like the summer season is chartered by National Geographic. It was actually in a NG brochure that I first learned about the cruise and this boat. I requested a brochure from Magna Carta back then and it sat on the living room table from September 2010 until 2013 when Clay asked me what else was on my bucket list. Cruising the across the Scottish Highlands! But there is an enormous markup when NG takes over the ship. I realize they bring on experts in photography and nature and guides, more activities, etc. but I just couldn’t see paying that much extra for the same cruise on the same ship with the same food and crew, etc. So, we paid £860 pp which equals about $1343 in USD. I mean our cruise had a per diem of $268.60 plus recommended tips and drinks. To compare identical itineraries between Magna Carta and National Geographic; NG is charging $7790 for 9 days on 7/29 to 8/6, but they are calling it 9 days while you actually only have 7 nights aboard, they’re charging $865 per diem the way they are selling it and $1113 per diem if you call it 7 nights. This for the same cabin we were in. Magna Carta sells this same cruise as 7 nights and for the same cabin on 7/16 to 7/ 23. MC charges £1771 which is $2764 and $395 per diem. I just can’t imagine NG is adding that a $5026 value to the same vacation.  

One final point on finances, Magna Carta and Lord of the Glens do not want to take credit cards. We were able to make a deposit by credit card over the phone with Magna Carta because it was the last cabin available on that sailing, so they made an exception but it was like pulling teeth. They assured us verbally and in writing that credit cards would be accepted onboard for tips and other charges, but onboard Brian said no, it was cash only. MC recommended £7 per person per day in tips. Fortunately we had it in cash on the last morning and our bill for extras was only £7. We are still a little concerned about a cruise company, no matter how small, that doesn’t accept credit cards! We had to wire our final payment overseas to their bank. It was a big headache. Plus, if they just shut down with your money you have no recourse as you would with a credit card.  It just still seems strange, but it all worked out ok. That is the only reason I could imagine for sailing on a NG charter of Lord of the Glens, because I am sure they accept credit cards. It still wasn’t worth the huge markup for us though.

But, here is some more Lord of the Glens information.  She entered service in July 2000 with a 7-day itinerary between Inverness & Oban. She was built in Greece in 1985 and was rebuilt at Oliver Designs Shipyard in Bilbao, Spain. She is 41 meters in length and 10.5 meters wide. She has a 2.7 meter draft. She is 729 gross tons. She has a 510 ton displacement and a speed of 10 knots with 2 Cummings 800HP engines that are the only original to the ship. She has a 54 passenger capacity in 27 cabins and a crew of 18.

Our cruise director is Brian Copland. I think I understood him to say that is the first and only cruise director on Lord of the Glens. That is pretty impressive. He certainly always seemed to be rushing around trying to handle all aspects of the management of the ship as a hotel/restaurant as well as handling the passengers.  He was working hard and putting in some long days during the cruising season.  Head Chef is Ian Beaton. Our steward is Victor.

Our first day letter told us that for 13 years Lord of the Glens had relied on its own power generator, but they had complaints from locals where the ship docked about noise. So, this season they were trying out having a truck tow a generator following the ship to meet at all the docks except Tobermory.  They were still working out the kinks, I think. We had some trouble with outages.

The climate control system in the ship was a mess. It was freezing in the halls, which was fine with us, but it was broiling inside the cabin, the bar, the lounge, and usually in the restaurant, but especially hot in our cabin. Our steward saw us the first couple of hours aboard with our door propped open trying to cool it off. He said that the ship’s system can only run heat or AC and it was on heat for this cruise, but he’d get us a fan if it would help. We thought it would help so he brought a small oscillating fan and set it on the desk. We were happy to have it. It was better than nothing, but it was hot in there and then very cold outside. Nothing in between. People congregated on the top desk in the bar and lounge during sailing times and then the windows would fog up. So between the blowing rain, low clouds and fog  and the steamed up windows, we saw very little scenery though we should have been in sight of land the entire cruise.

Hot tea and coffee with biscuits were available all day and complimentary. They usually had an ice bucket and a pitcher of ice water out on the bar all day.

Lord of the Glens has no elevator. There are three flights of stairs in the center of the ship with 11 steep and narrow (one way traffic) steps each on each all with handrails. Lord of the Glens discourages children under the age of 11. (We didn’t have any children on our sailing!)  There is no wifi onboard. There is a complimentary computer at Reception for email/Internet/printing. The kitchen is good about working to satisfy every passenger’s dietary requests. Voltage onboard is 220v with British sockets, both at the desk. I believe I saw 2 2-prong 110v plugs on the bathroom ceiling, but it looked like they were part of the light fixture so they probably only work when the lights are turned on. We never tried them, so I don’t know for sure. The toiletries are from Sea Kelp Scottish Fine Soaps. There is a hairdryer and a mirror in the top of the desk. There is no laundry onboard, but there is a small clothesline in the shower if you want to handwash. Meals are served in a single seating. It is open seating. Mealtime guidelines are 7:30 to 9:30am for a buffet breakfast with a small cook-to-order menu. Lunch is 12:30pm. Dinner is 7:30pm. You have to check off on a list in the morning what you will order for your main course for lunch and dinner and then remember to tell the waiter or waitress when they come around taking orders. The TVs in the cabins are supposed to have a limited number of satellite channels and show a forward view from the Bridge as well as “live GPS” plotting. But we never found anything on except the shows Brian announced he was airing. I think once I found the forward view, but the window was covered with water and I couldn’t really see anything and I never tried it again. The ship is non-smoking in all interior spaces. There is a safe in every closet.  

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May 1, 2013 Inverness

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I’ll just say now that we made all the trains just fine, though it was touch and go at Edinburgh's Waverly Station. Breakfast is included in the room rate at Lakes Lodge, but not served until 7:45am. That would not work, the guy told us we should just show up early and ask for something like cereal. I went up twice. The first time at 7am there was no one upstairs. At 7:15am, I found a woman in reception and asked her, she said yes. She made us tea and coffee, offered toast and a cooked to order breakfast, but we had enough with cereal and bananas and drink and yogurt. By that time the Asian family of 3 who had been on our tour yesterday afternoon had also arrived to ask for an early breakfast, so we just finished up and left. We went down and got our bags and came upstairs and returned our keys. The walk back to the station was uphill this time and seemed longer! We were there a few minutes early and it was the school bus run! This was the Transpennine Express commuter train again. In Oxenholme, we only had to cross the platform again to get the Virgin train to Edinburgh. Edinburgh was were we almost didn't make the ScotRail train to Inverness. We booked this trip online in advance and picked up all the tickets at a Euston Station Fast Ticket machine in London. We paid £64 for the both of us to take trains from Windermere to Inverness. 

When I booked this Virgin train from Oxenholme to Edinburgh, they told me there were no forward facing seats from Edinburgh to Inverness. In fact, we did have to roust someone from our reserved seats and they were backward facing. It was a long couple of hours, but at least we were on the shady side.

We stopped 3 times before we got off the Virgin train. No one checked our tickets! At the Haymarket stop, a preschool joined our train. They loaded 4-child massive strollers as well as loose toddlers into the vestibules of the first 3 cars (we were in B) so we were trapped. We only had 7 minutes to get from Platform 2 in the middle of a preschool to Platform 16. There was a deficit of signage here and we couldn’t get past the turnstiles with our tickets for some reason, but a worker came and checked our tickets and let us through. We were the last ones to jump on just before they closed the doors and it left. I guess that is all that matters. This is a ScotRail train. Interestingly, there was nothing to indicate when we left England and entered Scotland. I knew we had because I told Clay I started seeing a lot of Shetland ponies. He didn’t think that had anything to do with anything, but when we got off the train in Edinburgh, he agreed we were in Scotland.

We should get to Inverness in about 4 hours. We are facing forward in a booth with a table with a mother and teenage daughter. They were staked out on the whole table when we arrived. We have claimed about 35% of it by now. They seem unwilling to cede any additional territory. I guess I won’t feel too bad about spreading my infection to them now. See how everything always works out?

We have about 2 more hours on this train. I don’t have anywhere to put my feet and my right (Parkinson’s) foot is cramping up. I will have to figure out at least how to get my shoe off and then back on. It was sunny and cool when we left Windermere, now it is low clouds and light rain. We have had really good luck with the weather so far and will hope that it holds. The Australian woman on our tour of the Lakes District told us she had been on a CIE Tour of Ireland 2 weeks ago and that it had poured rain for her entire 8 day visit. Geez.

We ate snack food on the train. I had a protein bar with water. Clay bought a Diet Coke from the trolley when it came by once and ate snack food we were carrying. We saw a big whisky distillery with an awesome big old building at one of our train stops in Dalwhinnie.

So we have the afternoon in Inverness. The hotel we booked is only a few blocks from the train station/bus station. Tomorrow afternoon we meet the bus for the Lord of the Glens there. More later.

I am feeling much better today. I have my voice back. Hopefully, the worst is over. We got to Inverness on schedule and walked the few blocks to the McDougal Clansman. (I'm sorry that somehow we have no pictures of this hotel or our room!) Since we meet the bus to the Lord of the Glens at 2:30pm, we’ll have a leisurely morning here tomorrow and we are overdue one. The hotel has a full breakfast included again but we’ll be able to fully enjoy it tomorrow. Breakfast is served from 8am to 9:15am. Checkout is 11am but they said they will store our bags for us after that.  Our room, number 5, is up one floor from the ground and the window has a street light directly in front of it. It never got dark here! The room was quiet, clean, large and comfortable. Strangley, it has a set of bunk beds and a double bed which we shared last night. It has a low chest of drawers with a little closet and 2 chairs and 3 bedside tables. The bathroom is up a step and has another tiny funky shower. Again, it was a very convenient location for us and fine for a night. I feel like I am staying in the Leaky Cauldron. The tilted floors and stairs, the maze-like halls with little extra steps up and down. Everything creaks. We paid £60 for the night here with breakfast and wireless Internet access included.

After we checked in to our room and dropped our luggage we hustled down Church St. to the right of the McDougal Clansman and met the man in the kilt at 3pm for a £6pp historical walking tour. This was Cameron with Happy Tours. He told us that Loch Ness was about 6 miles away and flows North out to the Irish Sea by the River Ness that flows through Inverness. The tour was alright. Clay enjoyed it more than I did. We shared it with another mother and daughter pair. We saw the center of old town, the steeple of the toll booth, the town hall, the Inverness Castle, the cathedral and the River Ness. We didn’t go inside any of the buildings on the tour, but it ended at the cathedral so we went in there. Inverness is a pretty little city that rolls up the central city sidewalks after 6pm. We had dinner at Hootanannny’s at about 5pm and they don’t serve dessert. We walked to a cupcake shop, a mall food court, Marks & Spencer and all were locked up and shut down. We enjoyed our Scottish food at Hootananny’s. I had a Highland beef and Red Kite Ale pie with scalloped potatoes and peas. Clay had venison meatballs with new potatoes. He ate it and finished mine. It was all good. Just hated to miss dessert! Hootananny's is famous for live music as well as good local Scottish food, so we made sure to eat early before the music crowds arrived.

It doesn’t look like there is a distillery here, which seems shocking. We saw one from the train at the Dalwhinnie stop and I was sure there must be one here, but it seems not. So, I don’t know what we’ll do tomorrow but sleep in and have a big breakfast at our leisure.

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April 30, 2013 The Lake District

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We were up and out early with no problems. I was a little slow and had problems getting down my chocolate croissant, so I only ate one instead of my 2 of the pack. I ate it later! We walked with our luggage from the ibis Hotel and got to Euston Station about 10 minutes before they posted the platform. After that it was a mad rush and the train left within 10 minutes of telling us where to be. So far the trains have run smoother than clockwork! We were in Coach B which was the length of the train away. But we made it. My only complaint would be that it was overheated in the train. It was a Virgin Train to Oxenholme. We changed at Oxenholme to Transpennnine Express for a short 10 minute ride to Windermere. It made 4 or so stops along the way! Seats were unassigned on this small commuter line. We paid £17pp for the trip to Euston Station to Windermere.

It really is a 2 minute or so walk to Lakes Lodge. The only thing between the Inn and the train station is Booth’s and the Visitors Information Center. So high points for convenience of location. We were in plenty of time to use the facilities and drop our luggage and meet our LakesSupertour at 9:55am. We could have checked in but they never found their way to that. I will just go ahead and say that they couldn’t seem to get to it when we got back after 5:30pm either. Our bags were where we had left them and we had to lug them down a flight of stairs to get to the ground floor room we were assigned after a very long day! The room was fairly clean and large with a tiny funky shower. I don’t have too much nice to say but partly that maybe my fault, since I got sick during the day long tour.

We took the A- full day tour with Ken of Supertours. We paid £35pp for it. All day we were a couple of women from Australia. The older one had lived in the Lake District during the 50’s and 60’s I think as she spoke about remembering a year when Lake Windermere had frozen completely. In the afternoon, we were joined by 5 more people, but Ken let me move to the front passenger seat. I will have to consult my map to tell you everywhere we went, but we drove over quite a lot of the Lake District that could be driven. It was truly beautiful and in places charming or breathtaking. I will have to get photos from Clay. So, looking at Clay’s sign photos and a map, it looks like we drove north from Windermere and we saw one of Beatrix Potter’s 14 farms, Troutbeck, drove over the Kirkstone Pass, through Patterdale, with a break in Glenridding, where Clay had a locally made Taste of Eden ice cream, through a private farm and turned left on A66 to Keswick for lunch. We saw tons of daffodils and sheep and lambs and lakes and fells (mountains) and valleys. We drove over miles of crazy narrow curvy roads. It was probably about 60 F and sunny to start and about 50F and cloudy and drizzly to end. We had about an hour stop in Keswick (say Kezik). We tried and failed again to have lunch in a pub. We walked until we found one with clear written directions and a menu. Sorry, I don't seem to have anything with the name of the pub, so I can't make a recommendation, but I would if I knew. I didn’t think I could eat. Coke was like sandpaper on my throat. I ordered chips (fries) with garlic mayo. Clay ordered Cumberland Sausage with mustard mash and vegetables. I had a small portion of his. His was good. My fries were really greasy and the mayo was very garlicky.

After lunch, we took a boat ride on Derwent Water from Keswick to Lodore Landing. We had stood on the cliff above this in the morning at Surprise View after the Ashness pack bridge. We drove through Rosthwaite and Seatoller on our way to Honister Pass where there is a working slate mine. They had a lot of tourists there. That would be interesting if you had time. At Buttermere we had a stop at Croft House Farm Café where Clay had another locally made ice cream, English Lakes. We saw Moss Force waterfall. We visited Castlerigg stone circle. We drove on B5322 to Grasmere, where we saw Wordsworth’s Dove Cottage but didn’t go in. We drove through Ambleside and saw the little Bridge House which I’m sorry to say Clay did not get a good photo of it. We drove on to Bowness to drop off 2 of the 5 Asians who had joined us for the afternoon. Ken then returned the original 4 of us to the Lakes Lodge. I am sorry to say that Clay never got a photo inside or outside of the Lakes Lodge.

I came down sick over the course of our daylong tour. I was running snot, had a terrible sore throat and lost my voice but worst of all I was running a fever as the weather went from warm and sunny to chill and sprinkles. I felt terrible, but the Lake District is stunning. It is picture perfect. Read Wordsworth! Somehow Clay was not familiar with the Wordsworth poem about dancing daffodils beside a lake. Somehow he also managed to not get a good photo of the masses of daffodils along Ullswater where he said to me, “Who knew they had so many daffodils?” I told him, “Are you kidding?” He wasn’t. I mean who hasn’t heard that poem? That poem was the reason I was here and I was thrilled with all the daffodils. The Lake District exceeded my expectations.  I asked Ken, our guide/driver, if he knew the poem since he had come up with a couple of other poem snippets by this point. Between him and the younger Aussie they gave us the first couple of verses from memory. But here it is and I don’t think I am violating any copyrights by pasting it here. Since Wordsworth's been dead so long, I suspect it is the public domain.

The Daffodils

  by William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud
   That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
   A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
   And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
   Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced, but they
   Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A Poet could not but be gay,
   In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
   In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
   Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

- See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15925#sthash.NuQsb1us.dpuf

There were embarrassments of daffodils and Herdwick sheep with all their little lambs. Herdies (as they are called by locals are born black and turn color. At one to two years old they are brown. As adults they are a grayish white.) We saw pairs of ducks and rabbits. I also saw a deer with short fuzzy antlers and a pheasant. The stop at Ashness Bridge was crazy picturesque! The stop at Surprise View was stunning and gorgeous.  That said, I am no great walker and that is what is to be done here, so much was lost on me.

We were done when the tour returned us to Lakes Lodge at close to 6pm. It was a fiasco getting checked in etc., which was a mystery since we had started all this with the same guy that morning. Since I had lost my voice since then, at least he realized I had gotten sick while we were out and he carried my bag downstairs for me. I was not up for eating. I had a coughing fit that had been building for hours and ended with me on my knees vomiting up lunch.

We paid £80 for the 2 of us for 1 night at the Lakes Lodge. This included breakfast but it started after we needed to be at the train station in the morning. The guy that checked us in told us to go up 30 to 15 minutes early and tell them we needed to leave early and if we could get a cold breakfast. We did and the woman was very nice and quick about it and even offered to cook eggs and toast for us when we had finished our cold cereal and yogurt and the hot tea and coffee with juice that she brought out. No complaints on that score. Our room, 7 was quiet and on the ground floor, decidedly referred to as not a basement. What we call a daylight basement. There was another room down there across the hall from us. It was roomy with 2 beds, a double and a single. I slept in the double and Clay in the single, then there were 2 chairs, a table, a desk, a closet, a TV and refrigerator. The bathroom was up a small step with a terrible tiny shower. They gave us plenty of towels and toiletries though. Free Internet. I don’t know, maybe it was the fever or maybe it was the wallpaper, but I kept waking up and thinking I had fallen into a vagina. It was not a pleasant night. All the chemists in Windermere were closed for the evening after we got an inventory of our traveling medicine chest. Clay went to Booth’s twice and at least I got what I most needed, Kleenex. There was only a half-roll of toilet paper in our room and we couldn’t make double use of it.  I had used up almost my entire trip’s stock of Kleenex today and I was in a desperate panic. We should be good now though. Clay got himself a cold sandwich and me a raspberry yogurt. I dosed up with cold medicine and Advil and crashed.

We have an early morning tomorrow. We have to be on the 7:55am train from Windermere to make all our connections to Inverness.

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April 29, 2013 The Making of Harry Potter!

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Monday, April 29, 2013

We were both up well before our 7am wakeup call. Clay well before me. Of course he went to sleep last night about 6pm while I held out until after 8pm. Clay had Lance Nabs for breakfast. I had coffee in the room and a protein bar. We had planned to head over to Euston Station at 8am, but we were ready early and went on over. We had seen yesterday, when coming off the Tube, a platform labeled Overland Line to Watford Junction and we had budgeted for that trip on our Oyster Cards. We bought a postcard stamp this morning in the station and then went to the Information Desk to find out where to find the platform we had seen yesterday. The guy advised us that we didn’t want to take the “local” out to Watford Junction. He pointed us to Platform 11 or 9 ahead and told us it was “direct nonstop” and that we could use our Oyster Cards and just board the Midlands Line Northampton train and get off at the first stop in Watford Junction. I was skeptical, but he was right. It was a nice and uncrowded train with no stops for us but ours. It left Euston Station at about 8:09am. This meant that we arrived at Watford Junction at 8:20am. The first shuttle bus operated by Mullaney’s Coaches to the Warner Bros. Harry PotterLeavesden Studio Tour is at 9:20am. We had a full hour to kill. We found the bus lot to the left where we needed to be, but it was far too windy and cold to wait there. We walked to the right of the station, where there was also nowhere to sit and wait. We went down about 2 blocks to the Junction Café. It was a nice, clean and quiet quick service place, but since they were not busy she took our order at the table. I had 2 eggs on 2 toast for 2.20 pounds and a latte for about that much more. (Here's a funny story. While in Ireland we met some Australians who said they couldn't eat fried eggs if they were not served this way and trust me, we didn't see them served this way again! I won't soon forget about it and I hope the 2 women we talked with got to make it to the Studios Tour.) Clay had hot tea and 1 egg, 1 sausage and chips. His was similarly priced. It was good food at reasonable prices. We used the rest rooms and paid up and walked back to the bus lot by the train station. There were about 65 to 70 people there by then, with more continuing to flood out of the station as trains arrived. There was no queuing, people were just surging and shoving when the first double decker bus arrived. We were the next to the last 2 people to get on the standing room only bus. I was very glad we had not decided to wait at the bus stop only to get shoved out of the way when it arrived! It was a longer bus ride than I expected. I am guessing over 15 minutes and we were on what seemed like a major freeway for a good part of that time, so we were covering some distance. We had paid for the Harry Potter tickets online (they are not sold on location for day of visits, btw – you have to pre-purchase online only and then pick them up on arrival – for this reason they ask you to arrive 45 minutes early). Our tickets were £29 each and a digital guide each for £4.95 each. But, we had budgeted double for the train and bus somehow. The train was £4.50 each way on our Oyster Cards and the shuttle bus was £2 for a return ticket. We did each have to make a purchase this morning to come up with £2 each in exact change for the bus. Clay bought a candy bar and I bought a 99 pence postcard airmail stamp.

We got our studio tour tickets from a self-service machine outside and then went on in to pick up our digital guides. They were like I-pods with audio and video features. The voice of Draco Malfoy was the narrator. We found them useful, though some people might just find them distracting. There was plenty of good signage and lots of videos to watch and listen to throughout as well as lots of employees talking about things, so you could easily do without. I think we both thought they enhanced our experience though. We got in line even though our timed ticket was for 10:30am. They admitted us. We saw Harry’s bedroom in the cabinet under the stairs from 4 Privet Lane while waiting as well as one of the Ford Anglias suspended from the ceiling in flying mode. When they let us in the first video room, there were at least 2 classrooms of little kids in there. They all had HP Passports! I had read about these and had meant to ask for one. The guides said they were supposed to look for golden snitches and told them where to find the first one and to make sure they got their stamps. (I will break the suspense and tell you that when we left I asked a question at Information in the lobby by digital guides and a girl there had a stack of them and a grown woman asked for one and she told her no, that they were only included in the child’s admission and she couldn’t get one! I think they would really enhance the experience for any age and I thought that was unfair!)

Next, you sit through a short introductory video with the actors that play Harry, Ron and Hermione. The screen slides away and there are the front doors to Hogwarts! You enter through the Great Hall. I will just say it was all amazing. They told us to allow 3 hours but we were there around 6 hours! We spent most of that time in the first studio, I don’t remember if it is J or K. This is where I found the stamping machines which were actually embossers. I had a small pad of paper in my purse, so even without the passport I collected what I think were all of the stamps anyway. That was cool. I think we also spotted all of the suspended golden snitches, but since we didn’t have blanks to fill in a little book, there is no way to know. This first studio was just jam packed and we got behind on our video viewing until we were in sight of the exit and found a place to sit. We should have gone another 15 feet and done the green screen experience first, but we didn’t realize it was there! By the time we got to it, there was about a 15-20 minute line. Clay didn’t want to do it, but I told him we will never be here again. I am doing it and probably buying the photos because they did not allow any photography here. You could photograph everything else. So, those photos and videos of the green screen area must have been the real moneymakers here! Clay did the first part with me and Bob and we got the photo of us in the Flying Anglia. Sadly, they did not record the flying Anglia video that they did before the still shot! I did the flying broomstick with Bob. I was in a Hogwarts robe. It was cool. It lasted a fraction of the time spent  lined up in front and in line to pay for photos on the way out of the green screen area. You pick up your DVD of video in the gift shop as you really exit the building for good. 

We used the restrooms and went outside to the back lot. We saw another Ford Anglia, Hagrid’s flying motorcycle with sidecar (which we never were able to get near due to the crowds!), the Night Bus, 4 Privet Lane, Harry’s destroyed home in Godrick’s Hollow, the wooden bridge at Hogwarts, Lord Voldemort’s grave (which appeared to state that his parents died 2 years before his birth!?) and a number of pieces of the Wizard’s chess set. We each had a small Butterbeer here. They were smaller and a different flavor than the only other place in the world you can get them at Universal Orlando! They were still good and it was afternoon by the time we got that far and it was needed. Clay had some chocolate Oreo-type nabs and they were delicious scooping the neverending foam heads off our Butterbeers. I also ate a protein bar. Clay’s digital guide battery died and we had to wait around for a new one to be delivered here. It was fine and we both got caught up to current on videos out there.

The next building had a restroom that was bigger than the one in the first studio building. I used both! Then we went through the Creature area, the animatronics, etc. as well as walking down Diagon Alley. But the real gem in here is the house-sized scale model of Hogwarts that they used for all the movies.  It is incredible and impressive. You can walk all the way around it on different levels from high to low and use touchscreens to learn more. While you are in there (if you linger, it goes from light to dark and the tiny windows of Hogwarts light up). A worker there saw us trying to photograph Bob sitting on the railing in front of the Boat House at the bottom and came over and offered to take a photo of all 3 of us. That was nice! Then we exited through the gift shop. It was incredible. It was much bigger than any gift shop we saw at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando. It may have been bigger that all of the Orlando shops put together! It was crazy. Clay found an XXL t-shirt and I got a pair of 07 HP Quidditch pajama pants in XL. They were pretty short legged and sized very small, so we think they were kid’s sizing. We found the same kid’s Dobby t-shirt that I got in Orlando. We picked up our DVD and paid £33 for 2 photos and the video of me on the broomstick and then we returned our digital guides and left. We fought our way onto the next bus and managed to get seats on the upper level for the ride back to the train station. Minutes after we arrived a train to Euston Station left and we were on it. It made about 3 stops before terminating at Euston Station. It was not the Overland Line of the Undergound system either, but another Midlands Line train. It was the same £4.50 on our Oyster Cards.

We came back to the Ibis Hotel. We asked at the front desk for a dinner recommendation thinking of getting dressed up and going out. He gave us a Google Maps printout to his favorite restaurant NOPI. We went upstairs and Googled the menu on Clay’s phone and decided not. Clay asked his phone for Indian restaurants near our location and got about 10 hits on Drummond which is the side street running beside our hotel. We went out and walked along it and it was like Little India. We passed 2 Indian sweets shops, a spice shop, and a bunch of restaurants. I chose Drummond Villa and it was very good and reasonably priced in addition to its very convenient location. Clay had a Kingfisher beer and I had a white wine. He had chicken biryani and I had butter chicken. We also had pappadams and a garlic naan. They brought us each a chocolate with the check but they did not have any desserts evidently, as we weren’t offered any. We were pretty full anyway. We walked back over to Euston Station and bought Clay a Diet Coke, a package of chocolate croissants for the morning and Clay bought himself a bunch of chocolate to eat on the train trip tomorrow.

We have an early start and a tightly scheduled busy day tomorrow. We have a wake up call for 4am. We have to pack up and check out and catch a train to Oxenholme at around 5:30am. From there we change to the train to Windermere. We are supposed to arrive at about 9:30am and we are scheduled to meet our tour bus for our Lake District tour in our Inn’s lobby at 9:55am. I think that tour ends around 5 or 6pm. The next morning we have another very early departure for our train trip to Inverness. But that is later. Tomorrow is the Lake District. Weather is predicted to be like the last 2 days here. Partly sunny and starting out in the 30sF and rising to the 50sF. We are layering! At least there is no rain in the forecast yet. Knock on wood for the weather to hold just as it is and we’ll be happy campers.

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Tremor Update

On Thursday, 6/30/2013, I had an appointment at the PT department of Raleigh Neurology per Dr. Robottom's orders. I met Melissa, who introduced herself as a former ballerina and a Dr. of PT. She had me fill out about 5 pages of evaluation/questionnaire and then she interviewed me. She asked me if it was positive that I have PD. We discussed that since there is no definitive diagnostic test, that there is no way to be positive pre post-mortem. I pointed out it would be moot then for me and anyone that cares about me. She agreed. I told her 2 neurologists thought it was PD and my referring family doctor had diagnosed it as benign essential tremor for years before referring me to RN. I suspect he had changed his diagnosis at that point, but he didn't share that with me and we haven't discussed it since he sent me off. She gave me some physical tests and manipulated my limbs. When she was finished, she agreed that it was classic PD and not Parkinsonism, which is what we've lately been calling it at RN. She said she questioned it at first because one I was not in bad shape and two I was the youngest PD patient she had seen. So, I guess at this point so far we have a consensus of PD for what that is worth. Anyway, she taught me a series of exercises called LSVT BIG to be done in repetitive sets on both sides every day with some hamstring stretches. These exercises are meant to combat the rigidity of dystonia. They take about 15 minutes or so to do. I go back next week to prove I have learned them correctly and that is the end of my PT sessions. I see no reason not to continue to do the exercises at home. Melissa also strongly encouraged me to find a recumbent stationary bicycle to use daily. She says with BIG, that recumbent biking have been shown to cause improvements in PD patients as well as slowing the progression of symptoms. We're still thinking about bike options.

I picked up my generic Artane this afternoon at Kmart. $7.50 for 90 pills which makes this the most affordable PD prescription yet. I will start tomorrow morning at breakfast on the 21 day weaning on schedule and see what happens. The side effects sound debilitating, but hopefully since this is not a dopamine drug I will not have a problem. We'll see. More later.