travels with an ageing punkrocker/publisher
That’s better, back to my usual readership of maybe 3 people, nothing like a good bit of drinking to thin the hits. Today’s entry might even get me down to 1. We kicked off with a trip on the ferry to Jura, well first with M, P & G trying to kill me by suggesting we walk the 20 or […]
Read moreFirst full day on Islay, an island of whisky, peat, and history. We did a bit of all three. We kicked off the day at Ardbeg, a distillery currently thriving but went through some challenging times through the 1970s to the late 1990s. Last time I was here they had not long restarted distilling, and I bought a bottle of […]
Read moreIn which driving is done, a ferry is caught, whisky is drunk, purchases are made; also introducing Margaret the supergrass. Following a fairly decent breakfast at the Oyster Inn, we headed south, first to fill up with fuel and then to get cash, as, according to guides to Feis Ile, it isn’t unknown for electronic banking to fail, and ATMs […]
Read moreWas a busy day of stops and travelling, so I set my alarm for just after 7am, and of course was awake at 6am. Google told me that Cafe Arriba, place of yesterday’s full breakfast, would open at 8am, so figured that I’d be right to grab breakfast there once I packed and sorted everything. I don’t know if today […]
Read moreThe morning kicked off with my first full Scottish breakfast of the trip, basically all the good stuff: black pudding, bacon, potato bread, flat sausage, beans, egg, mushrooms, half a tomato, and toast. Happily, no white pudding to be seen, it’s been a while since I last tried this, but having had it several times, the best I could describe […]
Read moreA bit of a long day, with a bunch of driving, walking, and dealing with painful customer service. I’ve been getting around with Optus international roaming, at $5/day it’s a bit expensive but has convenience. They also recently changed it from the kind of clunky charging by the week or day, to now charging by the day with auto activation. […]
Read moreOur last full day in Inverness and, once I finish this entry, I’ll have caught up on the backlog of days. G wanted to have a quiet day pottering around the B&B and town, possibly a little burnt out from our “short trip to Dufftown” yesterday where he was the driver. M&P wanted to do some wandering around Loch Ness, […]
Read more“A short trip to Dufftown”, words that will live in infamy almost as long as the Duke of Cumberland’s orders of “No quarter” at Culloden. Travelling with a member of Clan Donald, a visit to the battlefield of Culloden was on the itinerary. You won’t get a history lesson here, as a chunk of what I know is derived from […]
Read moreWriting this two days behind, while G, who has been part of the team keeping me up drinking some quality drams, complains that I’m not up to date. Last morning in Glasgow was uneventful, I did the usual wake up too early so was left with a bit of time to wait before I could check out of my room […]
Read moreNow where were we? Then it was walk, kebab, sleep, hangover. Welcome to Glasgow. Ah, I remember now. It was a rather slow morning, doing as little as possible while my liver and kidneys did what I brought them along to do, and the paracetamol kicked in to help some. I was upright and mostly human by around 11.30am, just […]
Read moreEarly start in Frankfurt, as my flight to London was a 7am departure. I figured if I got to Frankfurt Hbf a little after 5am I’d be fine. It took me a little while longer than expected to get everything together, not helped by a crap night attempting to sleep while my brain kept poking me to make sure I […]
Read moreThe final actual day in Frankfurt, and I’ve done a lot of walking the last couple of days, so I took things a bit slower. I had planned to take in a couple of museums, the Senckenberg Natural History Museum and the Stadt Museum, but I stuffed up on the research as the Stadt is closed on Mondays. Fortunately the […]
Read more