Thursday, July 2, 1998

We traveled via IcelandAir (which is a wonderful airline, I must say) to Reykjavik, Iceland.

It was a nice flight. We pulled into Glasgow at 10:15am (their time).

It was about 70° and sunny.

***Travel Tip: When going to a place where the money needs to be converted, first find out if it is possible to use a cash card. With a card you get an extremely better conversion rate***

They did give us a newly issued 2£ coin, though. We saved ours. It's really cool, and had only been in circulation about a week.

Bothwell Castle.

Bothwell is an old ruin of a castle. It's situated on the River Clyde and the view was gorgeous. We walked all around the castle and up some spooky staircases. There were pigeons living in all the little cubby holes. They were everywhere! [Click for photos]

That was enough for our first day there. We relaxed the rest of the evening.

Saturday July 3, 1998

We went out to breakfast at a place called Angelo's. As it turns out, we ended up eating here most mornings. It was the only place in town where we could get anything resembling an American (big) breakfast.

Some observations...bacon, black pudding and instant coffee.

The bacon isn't like bacon that we know, they call that kind "stripy bacon". The stuff we ate was like Canadian Bacon (and really fatty-they don't drain it so there is a pool of grease on the plate). It's yummy though.

"Black Pudding" when we asked what it was the waitress leaned over to ask the owner and she in turn asked the cook. Everyone laughed as he said, "It's an acquired taste" the was enough to warn us not to order it. We later found out it was made with pork blood. *shudder*

Coffee in Scotland is usually instant (blech!) so we were grateful to find real coffee here and it was yummy!

Chatelherault... the place we got married.

Later Jody, Jo, Lacy, Greg and I went to check out Chatelherault. This is where we would be getting married. We got to see the room it was to take place it, The Duke's Room.

We were told about a place called "Hoolet Row Inn". She said they had a nice atrium area good for parties. So we checked it out on our way back. It was perfect, we ended up renting it for our reception.

Saturday Evening.... Many beers and deep-fried everything

We went bar hopping in Uddingston.

After many beers, we got hungry again and went to a take-away curry place where Phil ordered a Shashlik Kabob. It was huge!

The rest of us went next door to another take-away place called Marini's where you can get anything you like…deep-fried! Like a Jumbo Sausage, only it was two HUGE sausages battered and deep fried!

They also offered battered, deep fried hamburgers..I am not kidding! It was disgusting! And I thought Americans had bad eating habits! *Sheesh*

I opted for the steak pie, which wasn't battered or deep fried but I'm sure was still extremely fatty, and they didn't skimp on the salt either!

Later realized we should have all gone with the kabobs! They ended up being the best things we ate there.

At our last pub of the evening, there was a local who was making fun of us. He wanted to see our 2£ coin, he kept saying it was fake. As we were walking out the he was waving at us and saying, "Have a nice day!" (he was making fun of us because Scots don't wave and they certainly don't say "have a nice day').

Sunday July 5, 1998

Went to Edinburgh (say it with me: EDD-in-burr-ah).

We took a detour from the main drag (aka The Royal Mile, which is really MUCH more than a mile) to see Greyfriar's Bobby. It's a statue of a little doggie that sort of claimed an old homeless man as his Master. When the old man died the dog visited his master's grave everyday for years. The town's people fed him and cared for him. When he died they made a statue for him. It's a really sweet story. It made me miss my puppies even more!

Then we went to Edinburgh Castle. Wow, that place is huge. It's really a whole town. I guess it kinda had to be. They had a dog cemetary. The Scot's really love their dogs!

We saw the Crown Jewels and a Crowning Stone that the Scot's just recently got back from the English.

We also saw a HUUGE cannon. (the name escapes me). The exhibit told how it was made and how although it could send a cannon ball two miles, they still took it right up to whatever they wanted to hit and let 'er rip!

Monday July 6, 1998

We met our parents at the Willows Tea Room for lunch. It's designed by Rennie MacIntosh whose presence is well known in Glasgow. It's a sort of Frank Lloyd Wright, Art Deco style. Very Cool.

We piled into their rented van and went to the Kelvin Grove area where there were some museums.

We saw the Glasgow Art Museum. They had a Fairies collection, which was pretty neat, and the Dead Sea Scrolls were there too. They wanted £2.50 to see them though so we just wandered around and looked at the free stuff. Hey, we're on a budget!

Tuesday July 7, 1998

There was an adorable cake shop in town called Special Days, so we popped in and ordered a wedding cake. The woman we ordered from has relatives in Parker's Prairie in Minnesota, so she was excited to talk to us.

We then went to Chatelherault to show the place to my parents. While we were walking around we ran into Phyllis and Rey (Greg's Parents). We learned Scotland is a small world after all!

We saw the wedding room (Duke's Room) and got a little history about the room.

We went to the office to meet the registrar. Her name is Jean Lavelle and she is very neat lady. She was really excited about this. It is her first wedding for a couple outside of Scotland. She even got her haircut for the event! We went over the music and vows with her and she told us how the ceremony would be conducted.

TJ Matthews Kilt Shop.

Dad was first and it took a good half hour for him to get into his Bonnie Prince Charlie outfit. They didn't have the MacDonald Tartan so they gave my dad and Greg the McCrea. Dad was really digging it. Then it was Greg's turn, took him almost as long! When he came out Dad said, "How come I look like Gabby Hayes and you look like Mel Gibson?"

Three-year old Bobby looked adorable in his kilt as you can see form the pictures. He was so good while the guy dressed him. So patient! When Phil came out in his "get up", Bobby said, "You look cute Daddy!"

Strathclyde amusement park...or how to spend $5.00 getting beat up.

First we had dinner while we waited for Phil to go get the kids. We ate curry-type dishes. It was really good! You could order curry sauce on "chips". Actually curry was everywhere and so were chips so I guess it wasn't all that surprising.

We went on a few rides, nothing too eventful…

Then it was time for the big guns. The Tornado! It claimed to be Scotland's biggest roller coaster it was quite a ride. It was tall but not a lot of space to put all the "hills" in so it was very jerky. My glasses got tossed half way off my face, my earring got bent (from smashing my head against the bar) and I got bruises from the bar that goes around your torso. It was painful! Greg said he felt mugged! Well, it DID cost about $5 to ride!

Wednesday July 8, 1998

We went to Edinburgh again. Mainly to go shopping and to see..

We then visited Holyrood House. This is where the Queen stays when she is in town. It was quite a place, except they wouldn't let you take any pictures inside so I just have pictures of the grounds. Very pretty though.

Thursday July 9, 1998

The Groom's Dinner was at a place called, "Di Maggio's". It was an Itlaian restaurant...maybe that is obvious...

The food was very good and Phyllis and Rey gave is a Quiache. It's a silver ceremonial cup that the bride and groom drink out of together. It was really nice. Greg made a toast and we drank wine out of the cup.

We also received a gift from Connie and Bill. It was a flask for Greg, and a six pence for me. There is an old Scottish tradition that the bride wears a six pence in her left shoe for luck. When we inquired about this tradition to the woman at the cake shop, she said she'd never heard of such a thing and that it was probably something that people made up for tourists. I don't think so though, because I've heard about it in a lot of places. I was very happy to have it.

Friday, July 10, 1998- The Big Day

Saturday, July 11, 1998

We spent the day at Culzean was really pretty. It is an old residence as opposed to an actual castle and it is still used for parties.

Down on the main lawn they had a battle re-enactment. Actors dressed up in garb and play-fighting. Very Renaissance Festival-ish. It was pretty funny. Especially when the group of actors "saluted" (came racing at full speed toward) the crowd and made the little Girl Scouts in the audience shriek and wet their pants!

We also ran into Greg's brother Eric there! We were just ambling along and Greg said, "Hmmm that van...that's who my brother works for....that IS my brother!!" We knew Eric was there on business but we did'n't know if we would have time to see him at all.  It was very strange running into him like that!

For the evening's entertainment Rachel, Phil, Greg and I went to the Rowentree again (Jody and Jo stayed home to relax). They were holding a Scottish trivia contest. We obviously were not very good at it, but we had a lot of fun!

Sunday July 12, 1998

Relaxing Rainy Day...

After lunch at The Willows Tea Room again, we came back and went shopping for dinner. We had been promising to make White Chili for days and the timing just hadn't worked out till now.

We got into the kitchen, cranked the GearDaddies, Semisonic and Sarah McLachlan, cracked opened a bottle of wine and went to work.

The rest of the group came back around 7pm and we ate. The chili was the best ever! I guess letting it simmer for hours and the good music making good vibes really helped! Well, that and the pound or so of butter that I later found out Greg through in when my back was turned.

We watched the World Cup final Brazil and France and France surprised us by winning! I really thought Brazil would take it. It was pretty exciting!

Monday July 13, 1998

Greg and I went to Stirling since we missed it the day before. Jody and Lacy went to Loch Lommond. (that's "lach' la-mand' " to us Americans, but it's really pronounced "loke lo'-mon").

We walked up the hill to the castle. What a neat place! It was not as guided as the other castles. They just let you go around exploring all the little nooks and crannies and it was really neat. There were lots of walls that overlooked the town. I was afraid to climb them. The walls had no railings and because it was really windy, I felt like Iwas going to fall off. Plus, I was getting a cold and felt dizzy anyway Greg went up and took some pictures though.

We didn't make it to the Wallace Monument because it was to far away and we were on foot. We thought of taking a cab but then thought we might get stuck there and have to hoof it back. That didn't appeal to us, so we caught the train back.

Tuesday July 13, 1998 Last day there...

We were ready to go home! We did last minute packing and stuff and just relaxed

Our friend, Dan picked us up at the Airport. When we got home we saw that he and Tim (who had been staying with the doggies and kitties) had made us a HUGE welcome home sign. It was soooo cute.

And that was it. Home safe and sound (and with more than a little jet lag). It was a wonderful trip and a great way to get married! I highly recommend it! :)