Pug’s Place

In Paris now, still without luggage. It’s possible I’ll get my suitcase today. I’m not sure if I should trust the airline. BMI seems great as a cheap airline as long as you don’t do anything unusual, but their inability to return my bag in a timely manner seems to remind that they are indeed very cheap…

I’m not yet impressed by Paris and my accommodations. I’m the least comfortable I’ve been. The French so far seem pushy and I dislike not understanding signs. We’ll see where things go from here.

Well, I’ve said hello to the IB people who lowered my art grade. Sort of! Visited Cardiff, Wales (the capital) after visiting a beach-side/cliffside town called Rhossilli on the point of this peninsula that harbors Swansea. We’ve all decided that while the major roads are all well marked here, the smaller ones suck for that. We’ve gotten turned around 4 or 5 times here in Wales simply from having missing or misleading street signs.

I’ve nothing really to say about Cardiff. We didn’t really spend much time there, just had dinner and walked around a bit. The beach-side place, though, was very cool. Lots of goats and sheepseses walking around the grassy cliff overlooking a beach 400 feet below us. Three false steps could have sent us to our doom, broken our bodies onto the rocks below! I got some good pictures.

I write this over the remnants of my morning pot of tea in southern Wales. I’ve just stumbled upon breakfast here at our next place of residence. We got here last night after midnight, driving from Manchester. We were delayed an hour by showers at Heathrow from taking off. Then I found that even with an hour of extra time my luggage was lost. BMI (our airline, sort of like Britain’s AirTran) wasn’t even sure where it was since the barcode was never scanned. They will try to get it to me by Tuesday morning - how bad is that? Tuesday morning we’ll be driving back to Heathrow for a flight to Paris. So hopefully I’ll have everything in Paris. I’ve a mostly clean-shaven face this morning since BMI gave me a nice overnight bag with all the toiletries I need, but they packed some cheap razor and I’m doubly spoiled - I normally use my electric, but when I do use a standard razor I use a Mach 3 Turbo - swiveling head and all that.

The directions to this place absolutely sucked. We had to find a gas station (a feat in itself here!) that was still open (another feat!) to get even a clue where the roads we needed were. Here in wales it must not be en Vogue to put up street signs!

Wales seems a lot like the rest of Southern England but with a lower population density. Like Scotland it is very green, but not as green. There are also more trees here, and at 11:30 pm last night I got to see for the first time in my life the other side of the Atlantic. The wind is chill and salty, the gulls smaller than those in Inverness. Yesterday morning our host at the lodge in the highlands said in his exceedingly thick Scottish accent, “Wales! Yeh won’t be able to understand them there, lad!” Very scary, coming from him. But people here so far have had fairly nice British accents so all is well.

Also yesterday, before driving to the airport we visited the Clava Cairns. Three Cairns made 4,000 (or 3,000 in one case) years ago. We took a small bundle of pictures and I walked on springy mossy ground - that was really springy! - for the first time in my life. Was very cool.

Waiting at the same gate as Friday in Heathrow. Have I mentioned exchange rates yet? Even though the pound is twice the value of the dollar, everything here’s price in pounds is about equal to the price in dollars back home. So in short terms, everything’s twice as expensive. I mention this since I just bought a $68 lunch. I should have paid in cash since I have >£210 on me which will likely require changing later. I reflexively reach for my check card.

We’re flying to Manchester and driving through Birmingham to Wales and Swansea. Swansea was not our original destination and it shows by the travel route. We’re flying to Manchester to make the drive to our final destination easier to manage. But it turns out our flight to Manchester adds 50 miles to the trip compared to driving from Heathrow! Whoops!

Oh well, this way we sorta visit two more cities.

We saw a lot but with less effort than is needed in London. Tomorrow we leave for Swansea, Wales! But today:

• Culloden Battlefield, the spot where Bonnie Prince Charlie made more than one mistake and had his army of Scotsmen crushed by the crown ~250 years ago
• Cawdor Castle, and I did some Macbeth reciting, let me tell you! (Weird fact: A perfect katana and wakizashi were on display there, as the late Thane of Cawdor was an Aikido master!)
• Urquhart Castle, the ruins of the defense of Drumnadrochit, blown apart in 1692 to keep it from the hands of the Jacobites.
• Much more of Loch Ness - didn’t see Nessie…

I also tried on a kilt but no one had any non-Stewart tartans in my size. So I guess I’ll just have to order one. ’sokay, because the prices aren’t any better in person.

I’m standing outside gazing through brisk-moving wind at our friendly white mare who grazes right beyond the heather in front of me. I saw the dawn this morning but I did not see the sunset - it had not set by 10:00 pm, and the sky was bright at 3:10 am this morning! I closed my curtains and went back to bed (excuse my writing, the wind is catching and blowing this page about).

It is so quiet here. All I can hear is a bird-song and the wind’s turbine-like whistling through the trees.

I took breakfast this morning at 7:30 am and was apparently the first guest awake. Home cooked, all of it. Freshly baked brown bread with preserves, fruit, cereals and whatever you ordered the night before. Scottish bacon and sausages for me. The sausage was fine abut I must say the bacon was funky! If you think that Canadian bacon is weird, wait until you get a look at this. Good though.

You can hear the baaaaaaa of a sheep from enormous distance. And the flowers here all have such tiny, delicate blossoms.

The quiet beauty and stillness of this place touches my heart. I am reading The Last Unicorn (thanks Katie) and easily imagining this place as part of the Unicorn’s forest. When time permits I will have to return here, perhaps even to this lodge, to spend some time in tranquility.

After a lot of hassle in finding an automatic transmission rental car, we are here at this charming 8-bedroom bed and breakfast southeast of Inverness. I have my own room in this place with a view overlooking (from closest to farthest) the lawn of the house (with a pheasant), a gravel road, heather, some plowed field, tall-becoming-shorter grass with sheepses and other animals and forest sloping to a river bisecting the horizon… Going outside now!

Well, this morning we’re traveling to the cold, cold northlands - Inverness, where Nessy will be enjoying the 14 degree C weather - Brrr!

That was the best Indian food I’ve ever had. True, I’ve only had Indian 2 times before (in Gainesville both) but now I’m never eating Indian in Gainesville again! I’m spoiled! This was amazingly tasty and now I understand that curry stuff I had before was crap! As we walked into this place we passed this black marble rectangular pool with drifting flowers upon it and entered this ultra-modern dining room with art-deco bas-relief walls like an unsolved jigsaw puzzle with pieces lying at odd angles on top of each other. I felt like I was in a movie.