Storyline: A Glimpse of Scotland
Mallaig was our final stop on The Jacobite steam train (September 9, 2018). Continue reading “Welcome to Mallaig”
Where winding roads, rusty rails, iffy health and lean budget meet the calm
Mallaig was our final stop on The Jacobite steam train (September 9, 2018). Continue reading “Welcome to Mallaig”
Today (September 9, 2018) was to be one of the highlights of our Scottish adventure, and we weren’t disappointed. Continue reading “Fort William to Mallaig”
Diana & Alex:
“I am aware that many people nowadays regard the train as the second-best means of seeing a country. Continue reading “Glasgow to Fort William”
Ali gave us a sleepless night. You know Ali. No, not the loud neighbour upstairs. Ali was the first “named” storm of the season in Britain. Continue reading “Never read the newspaper!”
We came to Scotland, in part, we wanted to experience some of the most highly-rated railway journeys in the world. Continue reading “Trains we took in Scotland”
…. Or at least from all the cities we’ve visited so far… Continue reading “We may have found the cleanest city in the world”
…yes, and for a very different reason. They value their intellectuals more than their politicians and royalty. Continue reading “We already love Scotland…”
“Welcome to sunny Glasgow”, the guest house server greeted us with a lovely Scottish accent, as she served us breakfast, “…it is September after all, it’s supposed to rain”, she added catching our puzzled or rather bleary-eyed sleep deprived looks. Continue reading “Welcome to sunny Glasgow”
Manchester hooked me on gin and Fever Tree tonic. Never thought that in that cold and bone-numbing humid weather I would drink, let alone love G&T.
Does this grey, wet and cold city deserve more posts? To begin with Alex summarized our experience well in his two posts. Yet I enjoyed it a lot, so maybe there are few more words to be said. A short walk in London and the train trip from Euston London to Piccadilly Manchester aside, this was my first impression of England. Grey, wet, dull and cold…Manchester skies so low, almost touching the canal (was this like Jacques Brel’s song “Le plat pays” about Belgium, where I spent a few years of my life?). Not much different on the other side of the North Sea. The photos we took make a lovely black and white canvas. Continue reading “Manchester”
April 12 2018:
Today we are truly visiting my past. We are going to see the house where I lived for my first 13+ years. Last night we researched how to get there on the transit system and found that one bus would take us from Piccadilly Gardens through Salford and Eccles and onwards to Winton. Of course, it’s all Greater Manchester now, and I’m not sure that Winton exists; but the old neighbourhood does. Continue reading “Going “home””
April 11 2018:
Made it through the first full day in my homeland in fifty years. Just. We arrived in London yesterday morning and, jet-lagged and half asleep, had a very filling brunch of much fried, greasy and delicious breakfast food. Spent two hours half-awake on the train to Manchester and, after checking into our small but comfy hotel room on the border of Chinatown and the Gay village, went on a search for a veggie-rich, grease-poor light dinner. Continue reading “Homeland at last”
This is Alex’s first revisit after 50 years and Diana’s first time in England. First impression – dull, grey and efficient. Very efficient from a Canadian perspective. The public transportation system, that is. Sleep deprived and exhausted from a redeye flight from Toronto we found it very easy to navigate through London’s maze of trains, Tube and buses. It was early morning there, and by the end of the day we had to be in Manchester. We had chosen, yes you guessed it, to take a train. And no, it wasn’t for that train that we booked the transoceanic flight to London, not to Manchester. If was the cheapest flight that would take us to UK and then bring us back from Bulgaria. Continue reading “Grey, gray and efficient”
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