June 2004 Anniversary trip - "Homage to Oliver's Travels"
The following trip report is about our trip to recreate the travels of a certain Oliver who was a professor of Comparative Religions in a University in South Wales. His odyssey through England and Scotland with a police detective, Diane Priest is a mixture of romance, comedy, suspense and mystery. We decided to retrace their trip from Hadrian's Wall to the Orkneys for our 35th anniversary celebration. Following is the adventure.
To learn how we found many of the locations you can check out Oliver's Travels website. Also you can go to another page to read the plot.
We flew out of National connecting in Philadelphia to land in Glasgow Scotland using award mile tickets. We actually slept an hour or two. USAir outdid itself with bad food. We had greasy ziti for dinner and a horrible, cold donut for breakfast that upset my stomach for hours.
We claimed our bag and went to rent our car. A moment of fright that we couldn't figure out which car company we were supposed to go to. AutoEurope rented us a Renault Megane. It was a little, ugly car. It was a diesel and instead of a key there was a card that you inserted into the dash and then pushed a button to start it. Only the French!
We headed south toward Kilmarnock. We had to visit it because of our town on the Northern Neck with the same name. They must have named the one in Scotland after it. It was not a notable town. It turns out that our route was all about Robert Burns. There were numerous houses where he lived and worked, museums and a tomb where he lies still. The road was beautiful. It followed a river valley and everything was green and blooming. The day was fine and sunny and warm. One funny thing though, as we got farther from Glasgow the radio seemed to fade and lose the signal. We got out to check and sure enough, there was no antenna! We would want the radio on the longer hauls for sure.
We stopped in Dumfries for lunch. It was a really nice town. The lunch was not. I thought I'd get a jacket potato but it turned out to be dry baked pieces. Ugh. I vowed it would be the only truly bad lunch we'd have.
We left Dumfries and found the Gretna Green tourist route. It followed the coast to the border. It was another really pretty drive. It came to the town of Gretna. It turns out that is where the British went for quickie marriages.
We crossed the border into England and in 15 minutes we arrived in Brampton, our destination. It was a darling small market town with lots of pubs. We bought a Hadrian's Wall hiking book and went to have a pint one of the pubs in town. We sat outside and it was very pleasant.
These are all pubs in Brampton |
We checked into our hotel, the Kirby Moor which was cute but dumpy. Its claim to fame is from when a WWII plane crashed into it when it was trying to land. The room was not so nice but had a pretty view across incredibly green fields. After a short nap and a wonderful shower I felt human again and ready for dinner.
Dinner was fine. We arrived in the lounge and had a couple of glasses of Chardonnay while we decided what to have for dinner. We chose locally raised, aged steak tenderloins with onion rings, salad, mushrooms and a big bowl of veggies. The steaks were perfect. We didn't order appetizers and it was a good thing because it was a lot of food. We had a South African Pinotage, a couple of drams of single malt and off to sleep.
Tuesday June 8
The day dawned overcast but not cold. We slept fairly well but woke several times during the night. We had told the innkeepers 8AM for breakfast and we woke at 8:01. We headed right down and were first but everybody showed up right after us.
You could order anything you wanted so we each had fried eggs with bacon (me) and sausage (Luther) and toast. My bacon was more like ham.
By 9AM we were on our way to Hadrian's Wall to hike. We drove for about 1/2 hour to a Roman fort called Househead. There was a car park there. It is one of the most complete parts of the wall. We headed out. It was cool and breezy and very hazy but good for walking. We headed up a pretty big hill and Hadrian's Wall followed the ridgeline. You could only walk on a short stretch of the wall. Mostly you had to walk parallel to it. It was quite rugged walking with lots of ups and downs. We passed Crag Loch with an enormous cliff towering over it upon which we walked. I didn't like the height. By 11:15 we were headed toward Twice Brewed, as opposed to Once Brewed, which was right next to it. There was a Public House there.
View of the Wall snaking over the hilltops | A mile watch-post | Hiking parallel to the Wall | Path through woods-Wall is on left |
We walked on a small road down off of the hill and came to a National Park information center. We bought more film and water and headed to the Pub. A whole busload of people got there just before us but they just had tea. It was a big, ancient, very long and skinny building. The bar was in the center with rooms on either side.
We got a couple of pints and sat down. We had two Northumbrian beef hamburgers, which were quite good, and I had a Stella Artois pint because I wanted something cold. Luther had another Bitter.
Off we went to get back to the car. It was tough. After all those ups and downs my legs were shot. We took the lower, flatter path at first but my over eager spouse whinged (British word for whining) so we went back to the high trail.
Lunchtime Pub | Cow sentinel | On the way back |
We finally got back to the car. My feet hurt and my toes were bruised from bumping into the front of my boots on the downhill sections. We went back to the hotel but were locked out! Now THAT'S a first. We went into town to run errands and had a half pint at the Nags Head. By the time we went back we could get in.
After a relaxing shower and reading a while we went to dinner. We relaxed in the lounge and ordered. Luther ordered the steak and I had the Steak and Guinness Pie. Mine was dry. I should have gotten the gravy. We were the only guests, which was a little strange. We went back into the lounge so Luther could smoke his cigar. So all in all it was a very nice day.
Wednesday June 9
Day dawned not too bad. Overcast. We had our breakfast, packed and left the Kirby Moor Hotel. The innkeepers, Janelle and Craig, are young and have only been there for nine months. We wondered if they could make a go of it. They did have award-winning dogs. Hugo (black lab) and his brother Henry (blond lab) they were very friendly. Hugo wagged his big club of a tail so hard his whole body wagged. And you really had to watch your drink when he was around.
We found the missing radio antenna. I had been sitting on it. Glad to find it as we were all set to buy one.
Off we set for Plockton on the west coast of Scotland. It was a gorgeous drive after Glasgow up along Loch Loman. I was totally amazed that rhododendrons grow wild and huge here and they were all in magnificent bloom along the roads and up into the woods. I had no idea. We drove in rain through lunch, which was in Ft William at the Ben Nevis Pub. I had mince and tatties. Of course I had no idea what it was when I ordered it. It turned out to be ground beef mixed with canned peas and served with mashed potatoes (tatties). I guess the mince was the beef cum hamburger helper. Filling if not very good.
Ft. William is touristy. It has a long pedestrian shopping street. I bought Scotch whisky for all my friends! They were all little bottles, very cute and all Islay, my favorite.
After lunch the scenery got even more spectacular and the traffic disappeared and the sun came out (occasionally). The mountains had dark clouds and mist on top. There were waterfalls everywhere. The mountains were bald and green. There was always a loch next to us.
Mountains in deserted desolate countryside |
We neared Oliver's Travel territory now. We turned down a road to Letterfern. A one lane road with passing places that was supposed to pass the church where Oliver preached his famous "What's that supposed to mean?" sermon. We found it! And took pictures.
Then we found the abandoned farm where their car was strafed by the helicopter. It looked a lot different. We didn't find the place where Michael was dropped off (but did on our way back) nor did we find where Baxter threw his phone out of the window.
Little church where Oliver preached | Picture from the movie | Abandoned farmhouse | Picture from the movie |
We did stop at Eilean Donan, the castle where the 13th Baron Kite lived. It is actually the most photographed site in Scotland. It was a gorgeous place and setting. The wind picked up and the rain came so we left without touring it.
Eilean Donan - where the 13th Baron Kite lived |
Next we headed to Plockton, our destination. We were staying in the Haven Hotel. It is kind of cute; typically British with mismatched everything but the sun streams in and the birds sing so it is nice. We reserved in the pretty dining room for dinner and went to find a pub.
Much harder than it should have been. Plockton is a pretty seaside town with gorgeous views and it basically one long street with one side street. It even has palm trees (gulf stream micro climate). There was only one pub that we could find (there was another but not found until later). It was in the Plockton Hotel, which was my first choice, but they were booked when I was reserving our rooms. They have an award winning all local seafood restaurant. Wish we were eating there both nights. But we reserved for the next night and had a pint in the nice pub.
Plockton Harbor | Plockton looking out of the harbor |
We bought a map to hike tomorrow and Luther got his Guardian newspaper and we went back to read.
Dinner turned out to be excellent. I am glad we booked here. They brought soda bread and butter and tiny herb scones with creamy filling. I ordered creamy parsnip soup and Luther had fried spicy whitebait. The whitebait was heaven. My soup was luscious. We had Chardonnay with the starter and Luther ordered a Premier Cru Burgundy, which was super. My main course was trout with small shrimps and toasted almonds. Luther's was duck leg confit. A plate of veggies came too and they were all good.
We moved back to the lounge and were joined by an elderly woman who is here alone. She has shorn gray hair - could be chemo but not sure. We started talking. I ordered scotch and learned how to say Islay. It is pronounced Eye-la. We had another couple join us and we all had a very interesting talk. We kept ordering wine and scotch and tea etc., etc. since we didn't want the conversation to end. They were all from Aberdeen. It was great.
Thursday June 10
It rained steadily all night long. We woke to grayness. We planned a hike anyway. We'd see how it worked. The breakfast was excellent. The eggs the creamiest I've ever had. We said goodbye to our friends from last evening. They all would head home that day.
We drove about 3 miles to a small village and parked our car. The walk was circular with a spur that went up to a radio tower on the top of a rocky mountain. It started out sunny and warm. Everything was soaking wet from the rain. There were streams and rivulets everywhere. The forest had the thickest carpet of moss I've ever seen. It covered everything. And there were thousands of ferns. It was a great example of northern rain forest. After a while the pine forest became so dense that not one tiny speck of light could get to the floor. It was PITCH black like the blackest night after a few feet. I've never seen the like. I tried to take one picture of a bare pine tree that had a ray of sun illuminating it and surrounded by the blackness. I hope it comes out.
Soon enough it clouded up and began spitting rain. We were not too far from the tower. There were work men up there regraveling and grading the road and the rain got harder. I talked Luther into turning around. He wanted a more strenuous walk. I didn't see the need. It wasn't all that pretty up there anyway. We headed back and the rain stopped. The path got very pretty. We came to an isolated farm and the road followed the edge of a beautiful loch. It was almost too perfect.
We were back to our car and had walked about 1 hour and 45 minutes. We headed into Kyle of Locklaish. It is where the bridge goes into Skye. The toll was 5.80 so we decided not to cross.
Wild rhododendrons | Sunlight on dead pine in darkest of forests |
I finally managed to mail my postcards then we went to a waterside hotel for lunch. It advertised fresh seafood but we couldn't find it. We had BLTs and pints of bitter. It was fine. The sandwiches were good. There was lots of activity on the water and it's edge to watch from the big sunny windows.
In the dining room an older couple had an enormous Irish Wolfhound names Oddie (phonetic). He was pretty and friendly and they were nice.
Scottish highland cow |
Later, we had dinner at the Plockton Hotel. It was much much busier and rowdier than the Haven. The dining room had bare wood tables and an airy room. It was nearly empty. The food was excellent but I think the Haven had it beat. I had dressed crab served cold in its shell and Luther had salmon three ways. Later he had smoked haddock filets and I had scallops drizzled in garlic and chili oil. It was all locally caught and very nice.
We headed for the bar which was really crowded but there was a back bar and no one was in it. We changed the TV channel to a nature channel and settled in.
A single guy showed up. We talked a little about football (he wore a Croatian football shirt - Scots don't root for the English). We all three watched about red kestrels, badgers and gray squirrels. Another couple showed up and watched too. We encouraged them to change the channel so it was golf.
We also watched a game of pool. When we left it was raining again - what's new.
Friday June 11
Up by 8AM and breakfast. It was great. I had grapefruit sections, OJ, scrambled egg with smoked salmon and a roasted tomato. Yummy.
We got on the road by 9AM. It was pissing down rain as they say. It did that nearly to Inverness. The rivers were torrents of white water and waterfalls were everywhere again.
We stopped in Inverness, a dumpy town. We shopped their pedestrian area and Luther got his crossword books.
We now drove up the east coast over firths and along the North Sea. Oil derricks on tall legs were all along a river and out in the sea. We stopped in Brora and had lunch at the Bridge Restaurant. Unfortunately it was not a pub. I has brave and ordered the special of the day, Haggis, neeps and tatties. Surprisingly it was delicious. The haggis had a nice spicy zing. Luther had venison sausage with mash. Sounds good but who knew they'd bread all their sausages like they do for breakfast sausages. Not good.
On we went. We stopped in Wick, another dumpy town with nothing much to see and splattering rain too so we left.
We passed John o Groats to go to Gills Bay to find the ferry. Then back to John O Groats, which was a touristy trap place with a derelict hotel overlooking the water. Sort of Scotland's answer to Lands End.
Nancy in John O Groats |
We went to the only pub and killed time reading the paper and nursing a beer. The ferry left at 6:45 and was to take an hour. I sat in the queue and finished writing this entry. Next stop ORKNEYS!
The ferry trip was smooth and we even saw a whale. First the dorsal fin a couple of times and then the water spout from its exhalation.
First sighting of the Orkney Mainland Island | St. Margaret's Hope from the ferry |
We arrived at about 8:30 - much later than advertised but apparently that is normal. We drove off of the ferry and down the road to St. Margaret's Hope. There are only two streets, Front and Back. We found Front and our hotel called The Creel.
Of course it was the middle of their dinner rush. The sun was still high in the sky. They quickly took us to the annex, which had a living room, bedroom and bath. We quickly freshened up and went to dinner. We were starved.
We had the front table at the window overlooking the harbor. The food was excellent. I had grilled squid on arugula which was on top of pesto. It was lovely and different. Luther had salt cod with smoked salmon. He liked it - I didn't. For entrees I had the Diver Scallops with salsa. The salsa was avocado and onions and had a distinctly southwestern taste. Good but strange in that place. Luther got REALLY brave and ordered Seaweed Fed Mutton Chump (no really, not chop but chump!), a specialty of the Orkney's and Haggis. When it came there was a tiny personal haggis in its skin. I tasted everything and it was marvelous. Strong flavors. I think I am evolving in my tastes because I really love strong tastes.
We moved to the lounge for more white wine but it was ugly and cramped so we went to our patio behind the annex. It was a beautiful warm evening and sitting outside was perfect. A fat black cat named lucky who lives at the creel came to visit. A very long day but I enjoyed it.
Saturday June 12
It was the most brilliant day! It was very windy and quite cool. There was no plan yet but at least it wasn't raining. We had the big Scottish breakfast. Mine was a whole smoked herring with a poached egg on top.
So off we went with blue skies and puffy clouds keeping us company. We drove along and the scenery was beautiful. We crossed four Churchill barriers. These were built after a German sub snuck through and sunk the Royal Oak there.
We stopped at the Italian Chapel. This we knew from Oliver's Travels. During WWII a lot of Italian POWs were kept there and they missed having a place to worship. They made a Quonset hut into a cathedral of sorts. Quite amazing.
The Churchill barrier from the Italian Chapel | Outside of the Italian Chapel | Inside of the Italian Chapel |
Next stop, Ring of Brodgar, a circle of standing stones 5000 years old. We managed to find the two photo ops from Oliver's Travels and I tried to take pictures almost the same as in the movie.
The Ring of Brodgar | |||
Where Mr. Baxter talked to Oliver and Diana | Same place from the movie | Where Oliver and Diana stood | Same place from the movie |
Next was lunch. Unfortunately sub par. We thought Stromess would have ample choices. Wrong. We ended up at the Crown Hotel with a pretty nice pub but our BLTs didn't measure up.
Next we drove to Scara Brae a prehistoric village that was buried in the sand for 5000 years. A big storm came in 1857 and uncovered it. It was quite impressive. Houses and furniture all made of stone.
Scara Brae |
We also toured the house of the landowner who had found it. It had a signed autograph of Elizabeth R. The widow lived there 20 years and never left her bedroom. It is very remote and on a stark coastline. I cannot imagine it.
I went to the gift shop which was supposed to have local cheese but didn't. They DID have some decent crafts. I found a pretty small gray pot but it was almost $100 and I felt I couldn't justify it. But in the end I did. I had always regretted not buying the Italian pottery that I liked in Deruta last year.
Then we went to Maeshowe. It was a burial mound circa the same time as Scara Brae and the ring of Brodgar, about BC 3000. The tour was good. We had to crouch right down and walk that way for about 30 feet into the middle of the mound. Inside are burial chambers off of a central room. The roof was destroyed when Vikings looted it in the 1100s. Also a cow fell through once. The Vikings left Runes all over the walls, graffiti from 900 years ago! They were there for 3 days during a snowstorm and 2 of them went mad.
Maeshowe entrance |
We stopped at the Highland Distillery on the way to buy some whiskey and I got some chocolates too.
It was a long day of sightseeing.
Dinner was not as good tonight. I think they had some sort of problem. I saw a man come in with a bucket that looked full of fish. All of the diners in our room had gotten our appetizers but it was a really long time until our entrees came. I had the fish soup with hunks of white fish. Quite substantial so I wasn't hungry for my big meat main course. Luther had fishcakes and baked wolf fish with fennel and leeks. He liked it. I think more people ordered wolf fish than expected.
We sat outside where it was plenty light out and Luther smoked his cigar and drank the 18 year old Scotch I bought for him. Then I watched some TV. We decided not to eat there again tomorrow night.
Sunday June 13
This day we planned a long hike. We went to breakfast. The breakfasts are huge. They expect you to order multiple courses! I had Müsili with raspberries, strawberries, apples and orange on it. Then scrambled eggs with smoked salmon.
It was a gray morning. We left and drove to Burray, a village about 2 miles from St. Margaret's Hope. The sun came out now and then but it was windy and gray on the whole.
Once we found the beginning of the hike it was easy. We walked down a bridle path between fields and soon there were hundreds of birds in the sky all screeching angrily. It took a bit but I finally figured out their chicks were in the rock wall we were passing. I could hear them. No wonder they were angry. It was the first of many bird disturbances.
We walked through a farmyard and over to a long causeway connecting our island with Hunda, another small uninhabited island. Along the shore and the causeway we observed large metal structures, sort of round cages. We figured out that it was how they cultivate (farm) seaweed. Very interesting and unusual. I guess they feed that fodder to the Orkney sheep. We proceeded to circumnavigate the island. At the eastern end we found an ancient burial cairn and two solitary standing stones. Amazing to think there were people living on this remote island 3000 years ago.
Causeway to Hunda | Baby chick |
As we came around the north side we found places where people had dug pits into the peat. It looks much like coal, very black and hard.
On the west side of the island was the major bird disturbance. They whirled and called angrily. Then Luther came upon a chick hidden in the path. All soft and downy and totally still. Then we saw another. No wonder they were mad at us! They really let me know because one shat in my hair. Ick.
We finished the circumnavigation and walked on back to Burray. The walk was seven miles in total, all relatively flat. I could feel it in my legs and feet.
We went to the Sands hotel, which has a nice pub for beers. We talked to a young man who worked on fishing boats and was lamenting the fact that he was paid in US dollars. When we left we made reservations for dinner.
We drove to Kirkwall to the Safeway and bought cheese, ham, bread and wine and made a picnic when we got back to our room. We napped and read and we could hear the wind really kicking up. I went to the restaurant several times to let them know we wouldn't have breakfast and were not dining there and to check out early if possible. Finally someone was there. It was Joyce, the owner. She is not very friendly or comes across that way. She was not happy that we were not dining. The menu had gotten steadily smaller everyday. It was Sunday and not a fishing day I suppose.
Anyway we went to the Sands and it was nice. I had a pear and walnut salad and Luther had deep fried Orkney cheese (!) then he had lamb and I had salmon and leeks. All very nice.
The world cup game between England and France was on in the pub and we watched it for a while as we finished our wine. We left and on our way home we find out the French won the game. It was 0-1 England when we left and France won 2-1. As we walked through St. Margaret's Hope to a pub we saw in a house a crowd of cheering people. Later, when we found out the score we realized that they were cheering because England lost! No love lost between the Scots and the English. Luther was disappointed that he'd missed the end.
Miller in the Orkneys ! scandalous |
Monday June 14
We got the 7AM ferry and it was awful weather. Rain and drizzle and wind. The ferry was definitely rocking and rolling that day.
We drove south, south, south. The weather in typical fashion was alternately sunny and drizzly but today everywhere was windy.
We stopped for lunch in Kilgussie. The best looking place was closed up so we went to the crown hotel and had bitters and I had a ham, cheese and tomato sandwich grilled. I liked it. Luther had the Scotch pie.
Nothing was notable on the drive except maybe the absence of any towns or people for long stretches. We arrived in Glasgow at 4 PM and found Malmaison, our hotel. It was an old church once. The rooms are really nice and very modern with every amenity from mini-bar, CD player to bubble bath. We decided to eat in the hotel after Luther's choice was closed. Bon Appetit had written ours up as good and it looks very nice.
We did some shopping, Luther bought more scotch and we had a final beer in a great pub. I took advantage of the bubble bath.
Dinner was only ok. Service was not the best. We left next day for the long trip home. A very successful Homage to Oliver's Travels.
EPILOGUE : A consolation to us is that it is now July 14 and the summer has been one of the coldest on record in Europe. I have checked the temperatures and rain since our return and I think we had better overall weather than they have had since. Daytime temperatures have been averaging 52. So I feel better now.