Walking near Pitlochry

Last weekend I went back to Pitlochry to do some walking. I had passed through Pitlochry twice before but only stopped long enough to grab some food and then continue on. I had noticed, when stopping for food, that there were many trails that started and ended in the town so I took the train up, picked the Bealach Trail and started walking. I really enjoyed the walk - it went up in to the hills (and snow!) and then back along a river valley.

Snow! It was so peaceful and quiet.

Back below the snow line

The River Gary (what you can't see is the bungee
jump platform a bit further down the river)

A lot of trails in the UK go through farm fields used for grazing sheep or other livestock and this is never my favorite part of any trail. Sheep freak me out. They generally out number you and just stand there staring creepily at you. Plus some of them have horns. I asked a co-worker once whether you should be aggressive around sheep or avoid eye contact and back away slowly (like when you encounter a bear). He looked at me like I was nuts and said "They're sheep. You just walk by them."

The majestic (and creepy) sheep

I also had an encounter with some ducks on the trail. Like sheep, birds also tend to freak me out a little (maybe my healthy respect for nature is becoming a bit unhealthy) but I figured I could win in a fight with a couple of ducks (maybe not horse-sized ducks but these were duck-sized ducks so I was pretty confident). I was resting on a bench and three ducks came out of the water, waddled right up to my feet and promptly fell asleep. It was really sweet.

My three feathered friends.

Ducks apparently sleep standing on one leg.

Cambridge

I went to Cambridge with my aunt and uncle a couple weekends ago to see the university and the rest of the town. The weather was fantastic! It was sunny and warm and very spring-like. The trees were budding and all the daffodils were in bloom.

Daffodils by the River Cam

The university was not what I was expecting (although I'm not sure what I was expecting). The colleges were interesting but all seemed a bit secluded from each other even though they were right next door to each other. There's definitely a lot of history there and I wonder if you would really take it all in if you were studying there or if you would be so wrapped up in university life that the fact that your dorm room was 500 years old would just be a part of the background.

Mathematical Bridge

Kings College (and its pretty grass that you can't walk on)

We also went to the Kettle's Yard House, which is a collection of art displayed in a house. If you're interested, see here: http://www.kettlesyard.co.uk/. I found it interesting and, for me, it was easier to take in the art when it was displayed in a less pretentious way than at a traditionally gallery. The architecture of the house itself was nice as well.

Old books in a library at Cambridge

The same weekend, we also stopped in at the Museum of Natural History in Tring. It's a large Victorian House that is filled to bursting with dead stuffed animals, most courtesy of the former owner Lionel Walter, 2nd Baron Rothschild. There are an incredible number of animals in the museum which is quite awe inspiring when you first walk in and then starts leaning towards creepy the longer you stay. There was so much to look at that I actually didn't notice the two mounted elephant heads hanging on a wall until the second time I walked by them.

I Heart Libraries! (Plus, the Water of Leith)

Libraries make me so happy! I know that I should get with the times and get an e-book reader thing but there's just something about libraries that makes me feel like a kid in a candy store. It's like walking into a bookstore and knowing that you can get whatever you want for free. I will be so sad when libraries cease to exist because everyone's got a Kindle/Kobo/whatever. Then again, I love to read. If you don't like reading, libraries are probably just useless buildings filled with a bunch of paper.
(This weekend, I finally got around to getting a library card.)

Before going to my happy place, I walked along the Water of Leith in Edinburgh (something I've been meaning to do since I got here). There's a path along the Water of Leith all the way from Balerno to Leith. I did about a third of the path - from near where I'm staying to Leith. It varied from being a dirt track between a fence and the river to being a fancy concrete path. There were some really picturesque parts of it, especially near the centre of town. I'm glad I got around to doing it.

Water of Leith

 

Water of Leith

Anglesey, Wales

At the end of February, my mom was in Manchester for a week so I went to meet her there and we rented a car and spent a long weekend in Anglesey, Wales. Anglesey's an island so we did a lot of walking along beaches and cliff tops, which were spectacular. We saw some of the damage from the storms they've been getting this winter and it looked quite frightening. I'm all for watching waves and rough seas but not when the breakwaters and sea walls are being pummelled to the point of crumbling.

Beach near Moelfre

The town names on Anglesey were mostly Welsh (go figure), which led to some creative pronunciations and mumbled directions ("Turn left towards... uhh... Llan...errrr... uh... Turn left!").

Beach near Rhosneigr

North Stack, Holy Island

The weekend also provided me with my first opportunity to drive in the UK (on the other side of the road!). It took quite a bit of concentration at the beginning but by the end of the weekend, I mostly had the hang of it - although every time I got in the car, I reached on the wrong side for the seatbelt. I'm proud to say that no people or animals were harmed by my driving. I did hit a couple of curbs (or "kerbs", as they say here) but they had it coming.

Sunset over the ocean

Random Notes

Whiskey Tour
At the beginning of February, I went on a tour of a whiskey distillery. Turns out I don't like whiskey. But I did learn about the distilling process, how whiskey gets its flavour and the difference between single malt and blended whiskeys. Plus the tour also stopped off at Scotland's tallest tree and Scotland's oldest tree (not the same tree). Overall, an informative day.



The view from Queen's View (another stop on the tour)

Irish Dancing
I'd been itching to try something new and found an ad for Irish Dancing classes and thought "perfect!". The classes were advertised as a "keep fit" class so I went in expecting a mild workout, maybe break a bit of a sweat but oh my god was I wrong! I like to think I'm in reasonable shape (jog 3 times a week and seem to do a lot of walking) but that class kicked my ass. I was not expecting the planks, and the one arm planks, and the squats, and the wall sits and all the prolonged jumping exercises (this may have been the Irish Dancing part...). That was Monday night. Today is Thursday and I'm still a bit stiff but at least I could get up from my desk without grimacing. That being said, the class was also pretty fun and I'm planning on going back next week. Everyone was super nice and I wasn't the only newbie who didn't have a clue what was going on.


UK Culinary Experience
I am developing a serious thing for potato leak soup. It's heading towards "best soup ever" territory.
On the other hand, the below display from the Museum of Scotland made me a little wary of Scottish butter:

I am Canadian
It took relocating to a different country for me to realize how much I love Canada and how proud I am to be Canadian. I think we have an amazing country filled (or not really filled... it's a big country) with amazing people. All Rob Ford and Justin Bieber jokes aside, I love the reputation Canadians have and the way that people from other countries view us. So, to my fellow Canadians: let's not screw that up.



Canada House, London

Perth

The day after I went to Berwick-Upon-Tweed, I took a train in the other direction and went to check out Perth, which is north and a wee bit west of Edinburgh. It used to be the capital of Scotland. I got some advice from a coworker who used to live in Perth who told me to check out Kinnoull Hill, which is a park on the edge of the city. It has a bunch of trails that wind through a forest and up a big hill. It was really pretty and had fantastic views. I spent a couple of hours happily wandering along trails and enjoying the scenery (and the weather!).

Perth and the beautiful snow covered hills

The view from the other side of the hill

The River Tay runs through/around Perth and I learned that the river that runs through the town of Perth, Ontario is also called the Tay River. It's not that we're copycats or anything... maybe it's more a case of mimicry being the greatest form of flattery? I have recently learned that a lot of people who have shaped Canada were Scottish - John A. MacDonald, Alexander MacKenzie, Tommy Douglas, Alexander Graham Bell (kind of amusing how both countries claim to be inventors of the telephone... and come to think of it, we can't claim the telephone and basketball - that's just having our cake and eating it too... although why you would want cake without eating it, I'm not sure). Anyhoo, I didn't realize Canada and Scotland were so linked (you would have thought "Nova Scotia" would have tipped me off but apparently not).



Berwick-Upon-Tweed

Having visited North Berwick the Saturday before, this past Saturday I decided to go to the other Berwick: Berwick-Upon-Tweed, at the northeastern tip of England. It's an old walled city on the coast at the mouth of the Tweed River.

Berwick-Upon Tweed Wall

I really enjoyed my day there - it was raining when I first arrived so I browsed some shops until the rain lessened and then followed the path along the top of the town wall before heading across the river to check out the coast line in Spittal. The waves on the coast were large enough to remind me that I'm afraid of the ocean (they weren't even that big... I think it was just that I had walked out to the end of a long pier and was surrounded by them). By the end of the day, the sun had even come out.

Coastline

Oceanfront in Spittal

Sunset from the train station