The Back Story : Part One

I am the youngest of three boys in my family. For the most part, I grew up outside of Chicago, in a relatively modest, middle-class neighborhood. However, my parents implemented a practice in our family that each of the kids, when we were 10 years old, could choose anywhere in the world to go for a 2-week trip with one parent. This had three major effects – first, each of us spent months researching the rest of the world and where we would want to go, second, for the most part, it was each of our first international / overseas trip, and third, it was a really special bonding moment with one of our parents. I asked my Dad years later why 10 years old, and he said something along the lines of “you’re old enough to remember the experience, not yet old enough to dislike your parents, and it makes you remember not everywhere is like home.”

There were really only a couple of rules – 1. You couldn’t go somewhere that any of your other siblings went (I got the short end of that stick being the youngest), and 2. It was recommended to stick to places where you could easily communicate (we spoke English at home).

My oldest brother and my dad spent two weeks in Australia, driving from Brisbane to Melbourne (still to this day I don’t remember seeing any photos from that trip). My middle brother took the Queen Elizabeth II from New York to Wales with my mother, then traveled around England. And me? My dad and I flew to Scotland, traveled through northern parts of the county (more on this later), then took an overnight train from Edinburgh to Wales, took a ferry boat from Holyhead, Wales to Dublin, Ireland, and drove the southern route of Ireland through Waterford, Cork, Killarny and finally flying back to the US out of Shannon, Ireland.

The Back Story : Part Two

My parents were pretty active in our local Church when I was growing up, in fact they still are where they currently live. The Church that we attended outside of Chicago was active with an organization called the Ulster Project when I was getting into my teenage years, the intention of the organization was to have teenaged kids from Northern Ireland, split between Protestants and Catholics, come to the USA to attempt to show them that they were not that different, and there didn’t need to be war / conflict in Northern Ireland (I still privately find it almost comical that it was referred to as ‘the troubles’). We hosted a Northern Irish teenaged boy for five summers in a row in the later 1980’s.

The Back Story : Part Three

Last year was the 40th anniversary of that trip that my dad and I took together (obviously don’t have digital photos from that trip, (being back in 1984). About a year before, in 2023, I phoned him up and said, “Dad, we went to Scotland and Ireland together 40 years ago – do you want to do it all over again?” Of course he said yes. He took care of the route and the train / bus schedules, and I booked in the hotels. Now, I should say that my Dad has worked in public transportation (as far as I know) his entire career – so as a result, we DID NOT rent a car on this trip, I can only remember one or two times that we even hired a taxi, we took buses or trains nearly the entire trip.

The New Trip

Our more recent trip was roughly the following, and was in June 2024 :

Flights to Scotland

I currently live in Sydney, Australia, so my flight route was :
Sydney – Hong Kong – Helsinki – Edinburgh, . Slight mishap at the start of the trip in that my Cathay Pacific flight leaving Sydney was 3 hours delayed, which meant I missed my connection in Hong Kong, and instead Finnair routed me through Amsterdam, with finally a connection to Edinburgh. The overall flight time was ~28 hours, and I was extremely tired from the flights, so I ended up taking a cab from Edinburgh to Glasgow and checked into the Hotel Indigo, which was lovely, and highly recommended to patch my wounds, try to get some sleep and recover.

Glasgow

Glasgow is a lovely city, especially the Old Town. A couple of fun stories. After I nursed my jetlag at the Smokin’ Fox, Dad finally arrived the next day from Texas, and I did my best to keep him awake to try to adjust to the new time zone. We had lunch at Barolo, we walked a bit through the Old Town , and just had dinner at the hotel.

Speaking of the Smokin’ Fox, I somehow have this image of Scottish guys as being relatively rough and tumble, you know, the type that would happily have a punch up. However, the bartenders at the Smokin’ Fox were some of the nicest guys I met with in Scotland!! There was this ginger-haired guy, pony tail past his shoulders type – but absolutely friendly and accommodating. Couldn’t be more helpful or friendly.

All of the Old Town was great to walk through, and I especially enjoyed George Square, and the historical Glasgow City Chambers.

Glasgow City Chambers in George Square | Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | f/5.6 | 1/640th | ISO 320

I found a walking trail on AllTrails (subscription required) through Glasgow that starts at the Central Train Station, and winds through the city, heads up to the Cathedral District and the Necropolis, before heading back into the Old Town. All up, nearly 8 kms, around 11,000 steps, a couple of hours walking, depending on how fast you walk, but a great overview of the city.

My family name / surname is Mitchell, so I was quite pleased that along my route I bumped into this.

Mitchell Amusements | Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | 57mm | f/5.6 | 1/80th | ISO 320

I ended up doing the walk on my own first, then with Dad a couple of days later.

Glasgow Cathedral | Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | f/5.6 | 1/400th | ISO 160

University of Glasgow is in the background, and I’m still so happy to see the University was flying an LGBTQIA+ flag.

The Necropolis

The Glasgow Necropolis is a sprawling Victorian era cemetery with some 50,000 people interned.

The Glasgow Necropolis |Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | f/6.3 | 1/800th | ISO 200

Me and Dad

Well, me and Dad | iPhone 12 Pro | Front Camera | f/2.2 | 1/1150th | ISO 25

The Infamous Bus Trip

The following day, I’m still not sure if my Dad was having a laugh or not, but he asked the woman at the Front Desk of our Hotel if she could recommend a bus route to “see how real Glaswegians live”. She recommended we take the 3 Bus out of the City. We ended up riding it for about 40 minutes before we finally got off (I’m not normally squeemish in Urban settings, but it was legitimately getting dodgy), crossed the road and got on a return bus back to the city. However, half way back, we hopped off and took a walk through the University of Glasgow. It was a lovely few hours wandering through the campus.

A peek into the other University of Glasgow | Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | f/7.1 | 1/125th | ISO160

College opposite the Huntarian | Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | f/7.1 | 1/160th | ISO160

The University was beautiful, and actually reminded me of Hogwarts (not that I have ever seen any of the Harry Potter films). Just as we were leaving the University, it of course being Scotland, it began to rain, so we ducked back into the University, and waited out the rain in the Huntarian Museum – which was surprisingly good!! Egyptian exhibit, paintings, a cafe, and beautiful building!! We wandered around for around 45 minutes to let the rain pass, then got back on the 3 Bus into the City.

The Cloisters | Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | f/4.0 | 1/30th | ISO800

Oban

The next day, we left Glasgow and took ScotRail from Glasgow to Oban. It was an easy enough ~3 hour trip, and we spent the majority of the train ride just chatting and catching up. We had only seen each other once in-person since the start of Covid, so we had lots to chat about. We had really only planned to stay in Oban for a couple of hours before spending the night in Fort William.

My Dad remembered that there was a Fish n Chips shop that Rick Stein had previously promoted as the ‘third best fish and chips in the world’, so of course we had to go for lunch!! I admit – the fish and chips were very, very good!!! After lunch, we walked up the main road towards the Dunollie Castle and Museum.

The Harbour in Oban | Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | f/6.3 | 1/640th | ISO100

Unfortunately, neither of us bothered to check on opening hours, and we happened to be in Oban on a Sunday, and the Castle grounds and Museum were shut. This was the first of a couple of ‘broken plays’ throughout the trip, but we recovered, made a new plan and made the most of it.

Dunolli Castle | Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | f/6.3 | 1/640th | ISO160

Lesson learned : not everything is open 24/7 in the rest of the world, and we both had a good laugh at our lack of foresight, but easy enough to make another plan, so we walked back into town, up the hill and up to McCaig’s Folly. I hadn’t remembered it, even having been in Oban forty years earlier, and had never heard about it otherwise, but imagine a Roman Colluseum type of structure, up on a hill, overlooking the town of Oban, the water and the Isle of Kerrara across the way. Apparently, the back story is that the builder wanted to give local stonemasons work, but also that he was quite fond of Italy and wanted to recreate a bit if Italy in Oban.

McCaig’s Folly | Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | f/6.3 | 1/640th | ISO160

View of Oban Harbour from McCaig’s Folly | Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | f/7.1 | 1/640th | ISO200

Entrance to McCaig’s Folly | Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | f/7.1 | 1/200th | ISO125

One last thing about transport in Oban. When we alighted the train, myDad went into the station house to ask for directions to the bus, which was part of our rail ticket. No good luck here. The station agent said in no uncertain terms, “I don’t deal with buses and can’t (or maybe won’t) answer your question. All I can say is that the buses stop down the street.” So much for intermodal coordination.

Fort William

We had a small break at the train station before taking Scotland Stagecoach from Oban to Fort William. After lunch, a decent walk up the road, and up the hill to McCaig’s Folly, I decided it was time for a beer, and popped into The Corryvreckan. All very relaxed, on the pier between the train station and the water. It was easier (and more direct) to take the Bus from Oban to Fort William, and we arrived in ~90 minutes. We were both a bit tired from the travel and the walking, and we both just looked out the window and napped a bit, getting into Fort William just before dinner.

The Scottish Highlands | Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | f/2.8 | 1/1000th | ISO500

Fort William the town is ~2 blocks wide, and ~5 blocks long for the high street – so not very big. The rest of the town is residential. As it were, our hotel, Hotel Muthu, was on the opposite side of town from the train / bus station, so we dragged our luggage the five blocks and got to the hotel. It was also the most unique hotel of the trip. As the name suggests, it was not your run-of-the-mill place in which you called it a night. Half renovated,myroomretained its Higihlands theme. Dad’s room, however, had been completely renovated in tiles of brght colors, red, yellow, blue and green. It was an assult of colors that literally screamed at you as you walked in door. Exciting is a word I would use.

I should note, I am an absolute soccer / football nerd. It just so happened (I may have planned this slightly), that our trip coincided with the Euro 2024 tournament in Germany. I should also note that my Dad doesn’t drink alcohol, so he wouldn’t normally be found in a bar / pub. However, we made a point to catch any of the interesting matches on a TV somewhere. The night we arrived in Fort William, the earlier match was the England v Switzerland quarter-final match, which ended in Penalty Kicks, with England going through. However, the funny part of the story was that I picked out a ‘pub’ prior to us arriving called The Tavern, to have dinner and watch the match – which was completely full and *very hot and stuffy* by the time we arrived, we couldn’t get a table, so we tried another pub, called The Geographer, which had a dining room on one side, and a bar with TV’s on the other, but you couldn’t eat and watch the match at the same time, we tried one more restaurant and they weren’t playing the match at all, so we ended up back at our hotel and caught most of the rest of the match. Dad went to bed after the first match, I tried to stay up for the Netherlands v Türki̇ye match, but only got through half-time and called it a night.

We had a bit of time after breakfast, but well before the transport was scheduled. We walked to the other side of ‘town’ and popped onto Great Glen Way, which we only walked just under 4 kms out-and-back, but the entire hike is some 79 miles / 125 kms, starts in Fort William and ends in Inverness. I had a roller bag, so there was no way I was walking to Inverness…

Start of Great Glen Way | Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | f/7.1 | 1/50th | ISO25

I realize that we were in Fort William for only about 18 hours, but this is funny story #2. My Dad is a ‘high-verify’ type of person, which has no doubt filtered down to myself and my older brother (and maybe my nieces and nephews). My Dad had planned a route from Fort William that would have had us take a train to (I think) Glenelg, then a ferry boat across the water, and two separate buses to get to Kyle, which would have taken ~7 hours all-up. We arrived to the train station for a ~12 PM departure and Dad goes to speak to the Station Attendent for verification of his plan. The Station Attendent says (in his very Scottish accent), “Why on earth would you do that? You can take a bus directly to Kyle and it’s only 2 hours!!”. So Dad pulls out a paper transit schedule, and I pull up Google Maps, and we both conclude that yes, we can take a direct bus, but the next bus option doesn’t leave for 2 hours. We grabbed an open table at the local cafe inside the grocery store, had a snack and waited for the next bus. The lesson learned : it’s good to ask questions of the locals and make sure your plan is correct. The below photo is from the bus as we’re entering the Highlands.

Kyle of Lochalsh

Now, I’m not trying to be rude here, but Kyle of Lochalsh is a town about 2 blocks wide, by 2 blocks deep. There isn’t really much there. I think the biggest draw is that the bridge to get to the Isle of Skye connects in Kyle. And once again, we happened to be there on a Sunday, so nearly everything was shut. According to TripAdvisor, there are 13 restaurants in Kyle, and literally 2 of them are open on Sunday. So we walked up the footpath next to the water, took in the view to the bridge to the Isle of Skye (which didn’t exist when we were there last 40 years ago), and went back and had a quiet dinner at our hotel and called it a night. I do remember that we were one floor up from Ground Floor and this was the only hotel we stayed at that didn’t have an elevator.

Bridge to the Isle of Skye | Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | f/7.1 | 1/320th | ISO125

Eilean Donan Castle

The next morning, before we left Kyle, we took one of only a couple of taxi rides for the entire trip to Eilean Donan Castle. This is one of the more rare examples of a 13th century castle, that was destroyed in the 18th century, but was purchased in the early 1900’s, and has been restored, ending ~1940, and has been maintained, upkept, and turned into a tourist attraction to give you the feel of what it would have been like to live there in the 17th and 18th centuries. The castle has a lovely bridge that connects its’ island to the ‘mainland’ and as we walked the grounds, a lone bagpiper filled the air with the traditohnal sounds of Scotland.

Eilean Danon Castle Entrance | Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | f/5.6 | 1/250th | ISO160

On the ‘mainland’ side of the Castle, there are a series of bogs or marshy areas on either side of the bridge entrance. My Dad liked to tell a story that my 10-year old self had the most wonderful time bouncing and jumping between the bogs – so of course I had to at least have a walk around and a few ‘small’ jumps – just to test the bouncy-ness. The Bogs are at the very bottom of the photo below.

Eilean Danon Castle Bogs | Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | f/5.0 | 1/1250th | ISO500

Me and Dad at Eilean Danon Castle | iPhone 12 Pro | iPhone front camera | f/2.20 | 1/380th | ISO25

Inverness

I remember thinking the train station in Kyle was quite unique in that it was literally right on the water. There is only one way to go out of that station. We took a train from Kyle to Inverness that morning, it was a ~2.5 hours and we mostly just chatted about our extended family (7 grandkids for Dad, Neices and Nephews for me – no great-grandkids for him YET), as well as how to think about life as you progress. We remarked at how different I have been when I was 10 on our last trip to Scotland, then into my (terrible) teens and 20’s, then getting married in mid-20’s, then in the move to Seattle in my early 30’s, and to Sydney in my late 30’s. It was an interesting reflection from one of the only other people to have a front-row view to that growth along the way.

The station in Inverness turned out to be quite convienient as our hotel was literally on the side of the station, just outside the main door. Now, the hotels that we booked were all over the price list, and the quality map – it really did depend on the town / city. But the hotel in Inverness was probably the most extravagent (not on purpose), and nicest hotel we stayed in. We checked into The Royal Highland Hotel, and before we got settled in we asked about high tea. It being five minutes before 3:00 PM,theperson at thedesk had to ask if tea could stil be served. Themanager came over and ushered usover toacorner ofthelobby with fine high back chairs and small tables. Tea appeared shortly thereafter and then three tiers of cakes and biscuits. A more elegant snack we never had, either before or after. With tea done, we went to our rooms and then gathered in the lobby and once again went for a long walk through the city. The room rate that I had booked included a ‘High Tea’ service, and we got to the hotel just in time to fit it in. We quickly ate the cakes, I had a glass of wine, and off we went for a walk.

Royal Highland Hotel Inverness | Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | f/2.8 | 1/60th | ISO200

Prior to this trip, I had take *a lot* of time to plan. I had found multiple blogs and tours and ‘best Instragram spots’ web sites for each city on what we should do and see. Being a passionate ameteur photographer, I didn’t want to miss any ‘hot spots’, even though I haven’t posted to Instragram in years. In Inverness, I found 6-8 spots we shouldn’t miss, and went on a walk through the city.

Inverness is basically split in half by the River Ness. We left from our hotel, crossed the bridge and stopped by Inverness Cathedral.

Inverness Cathedral | Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | f/8.0 | 1/200th | ISO160

We went to the bridge that crosses the river in front of the Free North Church of Inverness, built initially around 1560, and more or less finished around 1890.

Free North Church of Inverness| Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | f/14.0 | 1/500th | ISO500

As well as the Old High St Stephen’s, which has been a site of worship since the mid-6th century.

Old High St Stephen’s Church| Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | f/14.0 | 1/400th | ISO500

We had dinner at (what I can only imagine is a chain) called Bella Italia, which was lovely and the staff was great. Decent dinner and early night for Dad. I popped down to an interesting bar called Playback, that had ping pong tables, axe throwing (in a bar??), beer pong, and billiards.

Loch Ness

Early on in the trip, I made an off-handed comment that I regretted that we didn’t have an extra day in Aberdeen so that we could go to Loch Ness and see if we could find Nessy!!! My Dad’s reply was, “you don’t go to Loch Ness from Aberdeen, you go from Inverness.” So this one wasn’t so much of a broken play, but more of an accomodation. We looked at the train schedule from Inverness to Aberdeen, figured out we could take the 2-hour train ride a few hours later in the afternoon, and booked in a boat trip on Loch Ness for a couple of hours. We booked in with Jacobite Cruises for a ~2 hour boat trip out and back. There was an option to get off the boat, tour Urquhart Castle for a few hours, and then return, but we had our transit plans to Aberdeen set, so we just stayed on the boat, enjoyed the blackened waters of the Loch and ultimately got back to land.

Entering Loch Ness| Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | f/9.0 | 1/320th | ISO125

Urquhart Castle| Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | f/9.0 | 1/400th | ISO160

Aberdeen

After our Loch Ness cruise, we took the midday trip from Inverness to Aberdeen, with the trip a brisk two hour fifteen minute trip. So we had a good amount of time to catch up, and I think we spent most of that train ride talking about living in Australia, travelling and ‘getting older’. I think this was my first ever visit to Aberdeen, and the only thing that Dad said about it was that it is called “the granite city” due to many of the older buildings being, well, built out of this grey granite from a local quarry – which gave a lot of the public buildings a very particular style. The only other thing I knew about Aberdeen was that is where Sir Alex Ferguson was from (only the greatest football manager in Premier League history).

The arrival to Aberdeen was a bit odd in that the train station, basically, emptied into a Mall, which you then had to navigate out of with whatever luggage you had on you. I had mapped the path from the train station to our hotel, the Sandman Signature Aberdeen Hotel, and it appeared to be a 10-minute walk – surely not far enough to hire a taxi. However, the path took us in a really strange direction, out of the mall, through a residential neighborhood, through a park, around a church grounds, then (we figured it out eventually) up a staircase, through another mall, and around a winding road that really only featured parking lots, and finally to the hotel. We were both pretty confused.

Once again, we set out on foot to take in the sites. We didn’t have a pre-planned path, just a few highlights that we wanted to take in. The first two are of Marischal College, and the last is the Kirk of St Nicholas in Aberdeen.

Marischal College | Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | f/5.6 | 1/200th | ISO250

More Marischal College | Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | f/5.6 | 1/200th | ISO250

Kirk of St Nicholas | Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | f/5.6 | 1/250th | ISO250

We did pop into the Aberdeen Maritime Museum for a walk-through.

That evening was the first of the Euro 2024 Semi-Finals, pitting Spain v France. I found a sports bar called The Old School House, which seemed like it could work. Dad had a work call at 5 PM local time, so I went to make sure it would work out – yep, I was just right, it was going to work perfectly. I went out for a walk, and we went back to the pub for dinner, then to watch the match when it started at 8 PM local time. I found this lovely park that sported a big Aberdeen sign. Also in the park was a statue for William Wallace (yes that Braveheart guy) as well as Prince Albert.

Union Terrace Gardens | Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | f/6.3 | 1/80th | ISO250

The pub had some dining tables 1 floor up from Ground, and they also had two large TVs over the bar, which just happened to be in perfect eye level for sitting upstairs. In the end, Spain won 2-1 over France (with France having now lost a World Cup Final and Euro Semi-Final 2 years apart….). It was also a break-out game for the young Spaniard Lamine Yamal and his was one of the goals of the tournament!!

The next morning, we met for breakfast and talked about a plan. It was on/off raining outside, so we set out for the old town again. Dad remembered he had his favourite fish-n-chips at a pub in Aberdeen, and wanted to try for lunch before our 1 PM train. We determined the coast / beach was probably too far to walk and get back into town for lunch. So we wandered around again in the Old Town. Now, for a long time I have worn these Nike fabric knit style shoes, so everytime I walked through a puddle, the water was getting into my shoes. This is the story of broken play #2. We find the pub, and we walk in around 11:30 AM. The guy working says to grab any table we want, so we do – I should note we were the only people in the pub. He takes 5 minutes and comes back and asks for our drink order, Dad says he’s keen on the fish-n-chips, to which the the bartender says, “oh, the kitchen doesn’t order until noon.” Now, we had to get back to our hotel (~15 minute walk), then make it back to the train station (again ~15 minute walk), and it was still raining on/off. We decided to scrap the lunch plan, and head back for our luggage. We got back to the hotel, picked-up our luggage, and tried a different route to get to the train station. That didn’t work because there was a bit over the train tracks that was blocked by an office building, so we had to re-route to (ironically) the path we took when we arrived, down the stairs, through the church grounds, through the residential neighborhood. We finally make it back to the train station – only to realize that there was no 1 PM train that day – the next one wasn’t until 2 PM. Our luggage was wet, my shoes / socks were soaking, and we were both getting quite hangry. We ended up sitting down at (of all things) a TGIF restaurant (in SCOTLAND) and had a quiet lunch. I popped into the toilet and changed my socks (maybe a good thing I had my luggage with me?), and tried to let me shoes air out and dry while we ate. We finally made the ~2 PM departing Aberdeen to Edinburgh.

Edinburgh

I don’t remember too much discussion on the train from Aberdeen to Edinburgh. However, after some quick map sleuthing, I figured out our hotel was out of the (correct) train station exit, go left for only half a block, and there is our hotel!! Again, we stayed at the Hotel Indigo, this time in Edinburgh. The hotel was absolutely great. Reception was 1 floor up, and we were both on Level 6, but a few rooms apart. We went out for a walk, crossed the bridge from our hotel and walked downhill on the ‘royal mile’.

Off the main street of the ‘royal mile’, there are these small entrances that lead to a ‘close’. Some can be stairways, some can be private property entrances, or some can be entrances to a garden.

Gardens in a Close | Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | f/5.0 | 1/25th | ISO400

We ended up walk down to the bottom of the ‘royal mile’ to have a look at Holyrood Palace.

Holyrood Palace | Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | f/5.6 | 1/125th | ISO200

Our walk ended with a short visit to Scott Monument, which was only a block down from our hotel, into the park. Again, I don’t remember it, but I’ve seen it before, but the fact that it really stands alone in the park, and you can see it from either side of the Old Town, the Monument really stands out.

Scott Monument | Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | f/7.1 | 1/250th | ISO200

We took in the view of Edinburgh Castle, but we had plans to visit two days later. It’s really an astonishing site, up on top of a hill, and you could imagine in the middle ages having this vantage point to see any incoming armies.

Edinburgh Castle | Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | f/5.6 | 1/640th | ISO200

At the end of the day was the second Euro 2024 semi-final with Netherlands v England. I found a suitable restaurant called The Newsroom which was a few blocks from our hotel. We arrived and surprisingly, most of the restaurant was nearly empty so we got ideal front-row seats with good views of the televisions. England ended up winning the match with a goal from Ollie Watkins in the 90th minute!!!

Saint Andrews

We did discuss an option to stop in Saint Andrews on the train between Aberdeen and Edinburgh, but it all seemed too hard with our luggage and finding a place to manage it all, so in the end, we decided to take a small back-track from Edinburgh to Saint Andrews for a day trip. The trip was a quick 1-hour train ride, combined with a 10-minute bus into the town.

After a short walk, our first stop was lunch at the Mitchell restaurant – which happens to be our family name. I must have ordered something off the daily special as I don’t recognize anything on the standard lunch menu, I also ordered a glass of white wine. Now again, here is somewhat funny / somewhat cringe story. We were sat at a two person table, just in front of the window and next to the wall. There must have been four or five two person tables along the front window. Our drinks are delivered, and in walks a couple to the table next to us. The woman is slightly overweight, there wasn’t much space in between the tables, and the woman is carrying, what I can only call, a purse dog. She turns side-ways to get through the tables, and unfortunately, knocks over my glass of white wine. Also, unfortunately, most of the wine splashes onto Dad, and he has to go try to dry off in the toilet. The woman apologizes profusely, and the waiter replaced my glass of wine. We finished the rest of the meal quietly, and head off for a walk.

Mitchell Restaurant | Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | 58mm | f/5.6 | 1/400th | ISO160

First stop was to walk to walk to the old St Andrews Cathedral. This is another interesting example of not attempting to rebuild or repair the Cathedral, so you had random parts of the Cathedral that are still standing, while there isn’t really a solid structure.

St Andrews Cathedral | Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | f/5.6 | 1/400th | ISO160

St Andrews Cathedral | Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | f/5.6 | 1/250th | ISO160

After the Cathedral, we walked through the University of Saint Andrews grounds, and finally over to the practice greens of the Old Course at Saint Andrews. Neither of us golf, so we didn’t stay for too long.

Finally, we jumped on the bus back to the train station in St Andrews, and caught an afternoon train back to Edinburgh.

Edinburgh : Part Two

We got back to Edinburgh mid-afternoon, and had more than enough time to do some more walking / site-seeing. This time, we decided to tackle Calton Hill before dinner and before the sun went down. The entrance to the Hill was at the end of the same street that our hotel was on, so we walked down, and then started walking up!! The hill wasn’t terrible, not super steep, and there were winding paths to get to the top of the hill. The park wasn’t too crowded, and the views from the Hill over the City were astonishing.

Dugald Stewart Monument | Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | f/8.0 | 1/250th | ISO200

Nelson Monument | Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | 59mm | f/8.0 | 1/640th | ISO320

View over Edinburgh| Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | 70mm | f/11.0 | 1/500th | ISO400

After the walk, we decided to switch up dinner. We had been eating quite a bit at pubs and fish and chips and generally fried foods. We found a japanese restaurant, that was delightful!!! Short dinner and a was back to our hotel.

We found a lovely japanese restaurant, mostly to switch things up, but also a lovely meal. We found : Hope Izakaya, and it was as delicious as could be.

This is the story of failed plan : part three. The next morning, the plan was to visit Edinburgh Castle. After a casual breakfast, we cross the North Bridge and stroll up towards the Castle. As we got closer, there were signs on the street that indicated all the tickets for admittance to the Castle has already been allocated for the day. Neither of us had considered that we would need to pre-book tickets to Edinburgh Castle.

Edinburgh Castle| Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | 65mm | f/7.1 | 1/200th | ISO100

We walked back down the Royal Mile and pick out a café to try to come up with a plan. I remembered my go-to when in a different city is either the New York Times ’36-hour in xxx city’ or The Guardian ’72-hours in xxx city’. I pulled up the NY Times 36 hours in Edinburgh article, which highlighted Craigmiller Castle, which was just a 25-minute bus drive south-east of Edinburgh. The bus stop that would take us there was just up the block from our hotel, so we hopped the bus and off we went. The castle, as you can imagine, was much smaller than Edinburgh Castle, but we were probably among the dozen or so people that were there – much more pleasant than elbowing your way through the crowds.

Cragmiller Castle| Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | 49mm | f/4.5 | 1/160th | ISO64

Due to the success of the ‘replacment castle’, we decided to follow a couple of the other recommendations. We took the bus back into the city and walked to Stockbridge neighborhood, one of the highlights was thebeautiful Saint Stephens Theatre, which was originally built in 1827, but flipped to a theatre in 2017.

Saint Stephens Theatre| Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | 45mm | f/5.6 | 1/800th | ISO160

We kept following the recommendations, and ended up walk down Circus Lane, which was a lovely curved laneway where most of the houses had lovely plants and flowers, brightening up the laneway.

Circus Lane | Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | 50mm | f/7.1 | 1/250th | ISO125

Again, keeping with the recommendations, we wandered into Dean Village, which has a small river running through it, and could be plucked out of a German or Austrian village.

Dean Village | Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | 37mm | f/7.1 | 1/125th | ISO125

There was a path along the river, and we followed the path and chatted a bit. I remember Dad saying something like, “I’ve been to Edinburgh a number of times, and I would have never imagined a small river and wooded path in the middle of the city!!” We finally left the path, walked up Queen Street, past the National Portrait Gallery, all the way Leith Walk and had an early dinner to Mamma Roma, which was once again, a lovely traditional Italian meal. Back to the hotel for an early night as we were flying out the next morning. All in all, that day we logged in over 28,000 steps, a solid outing.

Ireland

Again, the trip that did in 1984 was one week spent travelling around Scotland, took an overnight train from Edinburgh to Holyhead in Wales, and took a Ferry across to Dublin. This time, we took the short flight from Edinburgh to Belfast.

Londonderry

Our friend from Backstory : Part Two collected us from the airport, and we took the coastal road from Belfast to Londonderry. It wasn’t the most direct route, but there were a couple of highlights along the route. The first was Dunluce Castle, set just on the coast, dating back to the 16th century.

Dunluce Castle | Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | 31mm | f/7.1 | 1/400th | ISO200

Our second stop, we pulled off the road and drove directly on to Downhill Beach. We literally just pulled up on the beach and walked around a bit. Got a decent look around, stretched our legs, and saw Mussenden Temple and Downhill Demesne from the beach. We didn’t make our way up the hill or on the walking trails, but a nice stop.

Mussenden Temple | Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | 70mm | f/6.3 | 1/500th | ISO125

We finally made it to Londonderry and checked into the Da Vinci Hotel for the night. We decided to make it easy and have dinner at the hotel. It was quite the catch up, as the three of us haven’t seen each other in person in over 40 years. It’s interesting to talk through the differences from a mid-teenage kid to a 50+ year old adult, and in his case, a parent of two. All in all, it was a lovely 3-hour drive, and then another couple of hours at dinner.

The next morning, our friend picked us up, and drove us down to a carpark, at the Peace Bridge over the river connecting to the Old Town.

River Foyle | Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | 37mm | f/6.3 | 1/1000th | ISO250

There is a walk around the top of the Old Town walls, that date back to the early 1600’s. As opposed to dinner, our friend brought his wife and kids and we had a lovely discussion, making our way around the top of the Old Town walls. The walk isn’t too long, clocking in at around 1.5 kms / 1 mile. We took our time, stopped for a few photos, got a bit of history about the town, and more importanly got to hear a bit about their family and their history.

Over Londonderry | Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | 70mm | f/6.3 | 1/640th | ISO100

One of the more fun stops on the walk was a mural of the characters from the TV show Derry Girls (well worth a watch, but you might need to turn on subtitles if you aren’t from Northern Ireland).

Derry Girls | Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | 59mm | f/6.3 | 1/320th | ISO100

The walk ended with us crossing back over the Peace Bridge, and the obligatory ice cream stop for the daughter.

Peace Bridge | Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | 70mm | f/6.3 | 1/1000th | ISO100

The family has a prior obligation in Belfast later in the day, I think a family member birthday, so we split up, and our friend, his daughter and me and Dad drove to Belfast, where they dropped us off at our hotel, the 10 Square Hotel, and said our leave, but not before having a late lunch along the way at the Old Thatch Inn.

Lunch at The Old Thatch Inn | iPhone 12 | 4.2mm | f/1.6 | 1/125th | ISO32

There are two major highlights to this trip. First, this is probably the longest solo-time that I have spent with my father in well over 30 years. Normally, my mom, one of my brothers, my partner were always with us. That relatively short 12 day trip was completely invaluable, especially when we all know and realize that it won’t be available forever. And second, to see our friend, after 40 years, and the ability to catch up, understand how life has evolved, and especially meet his family, even if just for a day or so, was so rewarding.

Belfast

We only had the one night in Belfast before splitting up and both of us heading home. It also just happened to be the night of the Euro 2024 Final, which I was desperate to watch. First things first, we scoped out a few pubs to watch the match, and settled on one a few blocks away from our hotel. It seemed large and reasonable.

Next, we set out on foot to explore Belfast, we had a good 4-5 hours before the Euro 2024 Final started. I might say, we were getting quite good at this as it was our 10th city in as many days to figure out where to go, see the sites, get some photos. In Belfast, we got quite lucky as a building a block from our hotel, and across from Belfast City Hall, had one of those window wraps, but the topic, over two large windows, was the top 12 sites to see in Belfast. Challenge accepted. First up was just across the street, the Belfast City Hall.

Belfast City Hall | Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | 38mm | f/4 | 1/160th | ISO160

We kept walking, and came across the Presbyterian Historical Society of Ireland. I’m not really a religious person, but some of these buildings are just beautiful.

Presbyterian Historical Society | Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | 33mm | f/6.3 | 1/80th | ISO160

The route was basically a big loop, which is helpful when just wandering. I’m skipping a few, but one of the latter highlights was the Union Theological Society College.

Union Theological Society College | Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | 25mm | f/5.6 | 1/320th | ISO160

Both Dad and I got a kick out of this part of the walk. It was probably between 4-5 PM and while I have a backpack / sling, I was just carrying my camera in my hand just in case I wanted to get a quick snap. There were at least 3 occasions of a group of Northern Irish that would stop and ask me to take their picture!! I would take a snap, show it, they would cheer and move on. It was obvious to me that all of them had likely spent most of the afternoon at some pub or another, but we both certainly got a laugh out of it.

One of our last sights was the Queens University. Much like Glasgow, I felt this must be like what Hogwarts would look like, if it actually existed. I’ve known friends that have gone to classic and beautiful Universities – mine was not like that – but I couldn’t imagine going to a building like this for classes for a few years.

Queens University Belfast | Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 mm II | 35mm | f/5.6 | 1/200th | ISO160

We were finally heading back to the center of the city, and I was starting to get nervous about getting to a place to watch the Euro 2024 Final. We went straight to the Sports Pub I mentioned earlier, and it was already quite crowded, was very ‘sweaty’, had about 16 TVs and the volume was well over the top. It was the kind of place I would have loved at 20, but not really at 50 years old, and certainly Dad wouldn’t enjoy in his later 70’s. We opted to move to option #2, which was just around the corner, and got a table and a drink. However, it was on 7 PM and both of us were ready for dinner. I went to ask about food, and they replied they could only offer bags of crisps. I asked about sitting down for a full meal and they said their ‘partner’ restaurant would be happy to serve us. I headed in to enquire about a table and where the TVs were – they said they don’t have TVs in the Dining Room, where we could both eat and watch the game. I asked if there was anywhere nearby where we could both eat AND watch the match – the Host suggested one more restaurant, right next door. We got a table and menus, and it took me a few minutes, but it was literally the restaurant at the hotel we were staying at!! We missed the first ~20 minutes popping around, and ended up at our hotel restaurant. Ah well, easy enough, light meal, watched the match, which ended with Spain winning in the 86′ at 2-1 score. We said our goodbyes, Dad’s flight was relatively early in the morning, while mine wasn’t until 9:45 AM, so we didn’t see each other in the morning.

My Return

I left Belfast at 9:45 AM, arrived back to Edinburgh airport around 11 AM. I had one more night in Scotland before the trek back to Sydney. I stayed at the Moxy Edinburgh Airport for the next ~36 hours, before catching a flight back to Helsinki, then two back-to-back overnight flights from Helsinki to Hong Kong, and then Hong Kong to Sydney.

Overall, it was quite the trip. On occasion, we made firm plans, but most of the time, we just figured it out. We made good use of ‘go see these sites’ for most of the cities / towns, had a great amount of time to just chat and catch up, and obviously, saw the tail end of the Euro 2024 Tournament on TV. Would do it again in a heartbeat, but I think th only thing I would change would be to get up to the Scottish Highlands. I see it’s beautiful country up that way.

Full Photo Album.