8/7/2016 zoo

We spent the night at a Days Inn in Gretna Green and had Starbucks for breakfast.  (Realized that today is Sunday, so keeping with my normal life.)

We got an early start because we wanted to get to the Chester Zoo when it opened.  This is the highlight of Calder's trip.  It is the number 6 zoo in the world.

One of the reasons is that their elephants are all related, so make up a true family group.

The exhibits are fabulously done.  They recently added islands that you go around in a boat and then can walk around more. There were many baby animals as one of the criteria for a world class zoo is a good breeding program.

For all that, these were the most popular with the toddler group.

Jef wasn't feeling well, so spent most of the day in the main dining area.  Branwen was really enjoying herself until she got peed on in the bat exhibit.  We convinced her to go to see her favorite animal  ( aye-aye) with me, but she was resistant.

After Calder and Alec had seen every animal we headed off to Wales.  This is the Branwen part of the  trip.

On our way into Wales we stopped at the town with the longest name.

From the Days Inn to a castle.  What a difference!

Tre-Ysgawen had an inside swimming pool so the kids could swim before we left in the morning.

Staircase

Portrait of the owner's dead daughter.  There were about twenty five of these in different colors, but with the same face done from a photo.  The overall effect was a little creepy.

Jef having cocktails before dinner.  We drank, had nibbles, and chose our dinners here.  Then after awhile we were ushered to our table.

Sweet potato and fennel soup, seared salmon, white fish carpaccio for starters.

Fried squid on avocado on salmon, lamb, beef for mains.

A nice bowl of veggies.

Peach and raspberry trifle, except we didn't really find the peaches.

Sticky toffee pudding.

It is pleasant to just go upstairs to bed after dinner.  Alec went back to the bar to have a wee dram and some alone time.

Stewart was the bell captain.  When he heard Branwen's name, he was quite excited.  He remembered hearing the legend of Princess Branwen when he was in school.  He printed it out so she could see it.  It turned out that he also liked Calder's favorite computer game. (Zoo Tycoon). He was a big hit with all of us.

8/5/2016 Bagpipe lessons, Willow tea room, 5 Sisters Zoo

LThe kids were signed up for an introduction to bag piping.  They started learning the notes on the chanter.  This looks like a recorder but is played a little differently.

In the museum they tried the whole thing.  Much harder than it looks.  You need to blow up the bag, squeeze with your elbow for the drones, and play the notes with your fingers all at the same time in different rhythms.

Lunch at The Willow Tea Rooms designed by Macintosh.  He designed the font also.

Alec was a happy camper.

He had rarebit.

The tea tray with its 3 levels.

Went to the zoo in West CALDER.  It was small but charming.

After the zoo, we went to the train station for a photo op.

The kids were exhausted so we picked up chicken and chips take away from downstairs for them and the adults went to a pub up the street for dinner.  They had several kinds of pies which were all ready.  They just popped them on a plate with beans or mushy peas if you liked.  This was very classic pub like in books.  There was a noisy bar part and a quieter lounge/snug behind the bar with a pass through window.  We were in the lounge.

Kids ready for bed when we got back.  We all fell into bed.

8/4/2016 wandering Glasgow

We had a big day yesterday, so decided to take it easy today.  We have an apartment on the 7th floor - luckily with an elevator.  We are really liking the apartments because we can all be together, but with space to spread out.

The Scottish breakfasts are superb -  Eggs, pancakes with fresh fruit at Brown's.

We tend to visit "fan shops" all over.  The kids love to get jerseys of the teams.  Calder's is an alternative Celtic and Branwen's is Wales.  They get them pretty big and wear them for years.

Walked up to the art school that had been designed by Scotland's most famous architect, Charles Rennie Macintosh.  Alec and I had been all through it on our trip.  There had been a serious fire a few years ago (the night before the final projects for the year were due, so all of the students' work was being set up) so Alec wanted to see what was happening.  The building is being reconstructed, whew.

We visited the gallery across the street.

These signs always get us - our minds fill in an I and we think we have found a loo.

Glasgow has lovely flowers thanks to the rain.

Dinner at The Sisters.  Starters: scallops.  Mains: Ham with mash and cabbage, lamb with bean stew.  Dessert: Merangue with caramel sauce and honeycomb.

Off to bed.

8/3/2016 Scottish games, Glasgow & Celtics football game

I forgot to mention - after dinner we walked around Inverness catching Pokemons.  As we walked by the river to a footbridge we met a group of guys, all playing Pokemon.  There were 2 lures there so Pokemons were showing up in abundance.  The guys were surprised to see me playing too.  It might not be as cool now.

We got up very early to get on the road by 7.  There was a MacDonalds right across the street, so we picked up breakfast to eat in the car.  We want to get to the Killian Highland games.

The very first booth we came to was selling wool from their very own blue leicester sheep.  I bought a pretty skein for a shawl and Jef bought some for a hat for Branwen and a kit for B to make a bear.  They didn't take credit cards, but said we could PayPal when we got some place that had WiFi.

Caber tossing.  One almost hit a piper competing, everyone but the piper laughed.  One said, "they're a dime a dozen, one less is no loss."

Only one small pipe band.  They marched from the center of the town - one block- with the local lord to open the games.  They did it 2 hours after everything got started.

It spritzed a little during the games, but nothing serious.

We continued on to Glasgow, found our apartment, (on the 7th floor with elevator) and headed off to a Celtic football game. This was a quarter final international match.  The young man who took us to the apartment, pointed out the stadium from a window and told us to just follow all of the people dressed in green.

It rained hard on our walk to the game, but everyone was in a glorious mood as they poured out of pubs along the way.

Before the game everyone holds up a green and white striped scarf and sings You'll Never Walk Alone.  Thousands of male voices singing this is incredibly moving.  The scarves sort of look like caterpillars from a distance.

We had "dinner" at the stadium.  A scotch pie.

Everything in the place was striped green and white.  The paper towels in the bathroom were in single colors, either green or white, but when they were in the trash, striped again.

New fans

Two men sat next to me.  When I tried to pull up the hood of my raincoat, one asked if I was cold and loaned me his extra hat.  He had changed to a green one for the game.

We got quite chummy during the game and during halftime learned all about them.  They even offered us a 3 bedroom house for free in Glasgow if we didn't have a place to stay.  (That may have been the whiskey in the coke bottle they had smuggled in. They offered me a sip - I passed.)

WE WON right at the end.  We were really happy because we really didn't want to have to stay for overtime.  It had been a very long day.  (Also, happy fans are much nicer than ones who had lost.)

I returned the hat and my new friend whipped off his Celtic one and popped it on my head as a gift.

Taxi back to the apartment.

8/2/2016 Loch Ness, Urquhart Castle

Looking over Inverness:

Our apartment is on the far side of the tower on the top floor.  The whole inside of the building has been redone.

Had our picture taken with the foremost Nessie researcher.  He was signing his book.

Nessie in the logo.

In  a stagnant pond.

On to Urquhart castle.  Calder with the explainer.

Castle overlooking Loch Ness.

Dinner at Café 1 in Inverness.  smoked Salmon 

Branwen's chicken and potatoes.

Chicken liver pâté.

Venison 

Crepes