Goodbye Scotland

We've been back in Scotland for a week now and fully into the swing of things after our wonderful Italian vacation.  We didn't really get a chance to extend the relaxation as we came back to a full slate.  Fiona's birthday needed celebrating, which I attempted to do in style but managed with only limited success.  Hopefully the present of a new camera waiting to be picked up in Houston will make up for some botched lobster thermidor.  I can't wait to see what brilliance she can produce with a state of the art system in her hands.

We've also had a couple of deadlines hanging over us that don't really allow for a whole lot of down time.  We're off to Houston on Thursday morning.  It's that time once again to get our re-entry permits re-done, so we've booked a couple of weeks in Texas. We'll spend a week with Fiona's mom in San Antonio and another week making some last minute purchases in Houston, all the while waiting to put our fingerprints on the new documents.  It shouldn't be a very stressful trip, but it's trans-Atlantic travel so it's never going to be problem free.

The other deadline is the fast approaching move date that will see us pack up and head over to Oman.  It seems that there are a million things to do, all of equal importance, and a relatively small amount of time to get them all done.  We're trying to work through the list while making sure that neither of us succumb to the stress or go mental.  The uncertainty of what to expect in Oman makes it even harder, as you try to think of all the different things that you may have to prepare for.  But we're still excited about this massive change in lifestyle and are looking forward to a lot of new adventures.

These new adventures should get their own corner of the internet and to that effect we'll be making this the final entry in The Scottish Trip.  As of next week we'll start posting our thoughts and stories on our new blog: Gone to Oman, which can be found at http://gonetooman.blogspot.com.  We hope you'll check in on us there every once in a while.  I imagine it will start like the Scottish Trip did, with frequent updates on the oddities of life in another part of the world, before morphing into our travelogue accompanied by more world-class pictures by my beautiful wife.

So that brings this adventure to a close.  It's hard to try and put four years of experiences together into one or two paragraphs.  It's taken hundreds of megabytes and pages of text to get it all down, so I don't think I will even attempt a full recap.

Scotland has been a wonderful experience and we have no regrets about taking the posting.  Yes, there were times when the rain seemed like it would never end, but we also had our fair share of nice days on the beach, and long summer evenings in the back garden.  We also learned that you should never let the weather determine your schedule.  

A major component of our Scottish adventure was the people.  We met so many interesting folks.  There were the local Scots who we met while out and about - always gracious and interested in hearing about you.  They also all had at least one relative in Canada whom they had always wanted to go see but had never had the chance.  There were wonderful colleagues, many who turned into good friends.  We've been blessed in both houses with great neighbours - welcoming and helpful.  We also met many, many great people in the ex-pat community.  It was tough seeing them come and go, usually just as we were getting to know each other, but it was a good reminder to make the most of the time you have with people.  The movement of these new friends across the globe now means we know more people in more places, which is never a bad thing.

We saw and experienced so much history that it boggles the mind.  The castles were fantastic to visit and really brought the place alive.  I'm glad we went out and saw as many as we did - more than 30 at last count.  The wilderness areas with no one around will also be a strong memory.  It's a shame that as few people take advantage of the world-class combination of nature and history, but we're glad for the times that it allowed us to tour a historic ruin or forest all by ourselves.  We always said that Scotland would never have been on our list of places to visit had we not come here, but now that we know the place we would recommend it to anyone and everyone.

We also took full advantage of the posting.  To the detriment of our savings account, but the advantage of our life experience, we took every opportunity to go out and see both the surrounding countryside and the rest of Europe.  We've seen a plethora of European capitals, eaten fantastic food and marvelled at the museums of several other countries.  We even got to go on our 'trip of a lifetime' through southern France.  The experience has been invaluable and has helped form a large part of who we are now.

A lot of the posts have been about the European travels, but the Scottish ones will likely stick with me the most.  The open, barren, countryside, the mountains, the rivers, the beaches and the sea-cliffs were all so memorable.  The day-to-day particulars of life here, including an almost entirely new language, and a rich culture, steeped in history have all made a deep impression.

We'll take a piece of Scotland with us wherever we go.  Certainly to the deserts of Oman, and most likely to any posting beyond that.  Thanks to Scotland for enriching our lives.

''Ye banks and braes o' bonnie Doon, 

                                                                           How can ye bloom sae fresh and fair?

How can ye chant, ye little birds, 

And I sae weary fu' o' care? 

Thou'lt break my heart, thou warbling bird, 

That wantons thro' the flowering thorn: 

Thou minds me o' departed joys, 

Departed never to return.''

Robert Burns

Italy - Day 18 - Rome to Amalfi

Although this was supposed to be a travelling day, the must-see status of the Galleria Borghese and the lack of opening times on Monday meant that we were up early to go see one last Roman attraction.  We checked out of our nice hotel, the Hotel Canada, and hiked alongside the ancient walls of the city.  It was a nice day for a stroll, but the humidity and heat were both rising and we were glad that we would be spending the day in either a temperature controlled museum or an air-conditioned car.

The Galleria Borghese is not an easy museum to get in to.  You have to book at least three days ahead of time, through the internet or on the phone.  This gets you a voucher for entry during a specific two-hour window during the day.  Your time inside the museum is limited to the two-hours - no dilly-dallying.  They only sell 360 tickets per window, so you're not competing for space in front of the Berninis.  There is also a very strict bag check policy - you are essentially not allowed to take anything into the museum and photographs are a definite no-no.  You have to show up a full half-hour before your allotted time slot to claim your ticket and then are forced to wait for the window to start.  They first herd everyone into the gallery containing the painted art, where your time is again further limited to a half hour.  It's almost oppressive.  We ended up dubbing them the Museum Nazis.  We were doubtful that whatever lay behind the closed doors would be worth all the effort.

Boy were we wrong.

If you like art, the Galleria Borghese is a must.  There were all sorts of amazing paintings in the first gallery, all competing for your attention in lavish rooms with faux three-dimensional frescoes painted on the ceilings.  Our favourites in this section were likely Raphael's Girl with Unicorn or some micro-mosaics by Marcello Provenzale.  We even gained an appreciation for Titian, although the Carvaggio's still failed to impress.

But we were there for the sculpture and we saw some of the most amazing pieces.  There were three major works by Bernini worth mentioning - the Rape of Presopone, where you can see the tears carved on her face and the indentations made in the flesh of her thigh where she is being held by Pluto; Apollo and Daphne, where the delicate work on her fingers, face and the leaves of the tree she is being transformed into need to be seen to be believed; and David, where his mastery is not quite as obvious until you look at the detail work on the rope of his sling.  I invite you all to do a quick Google search on Bernini and have a look at some of his work. It is truly amazing and I will be forever grateful that we were able to see it in person.

After the museum we were back in the car and onto the roads of Rome.  I'm used to the traffic now, so it didn't seem like much of a problem navigating through the city to find the autostrada towards Napoli. You just need to be flexible on lane control and keep an eye on what's in front of you.  Italian drivers are just as eager to avoid accidents as anyone else, so they may act strangely but never put you in any real danger.  Just don't expect to be able to maintain the 'bubble' of space around your vehicle that they teach you about in North America.

The drive south was nice - easy and reasonably scenic.  We went around the outskirts of Napoli, with the sea on one side and Mount Vesuvius towering over the city on the other.  We thought we would have another nice easy stretch into Amalfi, but the Tom-Tom told us to go off the autostrada and it was like we entered a parallel universe, where up is down, hamburgers eat people and ABSOLUTELY NONE OF THE RULES OF THE ROAD APPLY!  As we picked our way through the small villages on the cliffs it was as though complete madness had take control of everyone.  Road signs were not ignored but blatantly disobeyed.  Passing was only done on blind corners.  Right of way was not given but taken.  Luckily for us we managed to break free from the herd and get clear into the small winding roads that took us up over the mountain and down to Amalfi on the other side.  It was some of the most insane driving I had ever done, like the road between Lecco and Bellagio, but on steroids.  There was one particular corner where a full-sized tourist bus and my little Hyundai had to do a delicate dance of forward and reverse to ensure he had the extra two or three centimeters to get by me on a corner.  This trip is not for the faint of heart.

But once we arrived, what a paradise we found.  We knew that we would be a little bit knackered from all the touring by this time so we found ourselves a nice high-end place to settle down and relax.  We were greeted by name on arrival by a nice man who told us "We will take care of everything".  And so far they have.  We've abandoned any noble ideas of taking some time and doing day trips out to Pompei and Capri.  We're going to take our down time and fill it with swims in the Golfo di Salerno, massages and reading on the balcony.  I imagine we'll spend quite a few hours just staring out of our window onto the sea.  Large luxury boats criss-cross in front of us.  On the right is the rest of the hotel, dropping almost straight down a few hundred metres into the sea - we have to take an elevator down a dozen floors to get to the pool.  A lemon grove takes up space on one side, with bright patches of flowers interspersed.  On the left is the village of Amalfi, with its small port flanked by a long pier.  It creeps up the side of the cliff and just sort of sits there, absorbing the tourists and the sunlight with equal measure.  The weather is a brilliant mix of bright, hot sun and cool breezes, making dinner on the terrace a couple of floors below us an absolute treat.  The staff are courteous and helpful and we have yet to hear the word no.  For dinner yesterday we had the most amazing Chateaubriand for two.  If it is an indication of what the rest of the dining experiences here will be like, than sign me up.  It is just going to take all my willpower not to look at what it is all going to cost.  But maybe that doesn't matter. I am under no illusion that the next 6 months, with the move to Oman and the new job, will some of the most stressful and difficult of our lives.  We've been working hard in Aberdeen.  We deserve it.

And I think that is likely going to end the blog posts for this trip.  There will be no more exciting things to visit, just downtime by the pool, which even an illustrious author like myself will have a hard time making exciting to the wider world.  If we manage another great picture, we'll post it.  In the meantime I'll take this opportunity to stow the computer and extract every drop of relaxation from this little Italian paradise.

Italy - Day 17 - Rome

Not a lot to report on our last full day in Rome.  Most things are closed on Mondays, so our options were limited.  Keep this in mind if you're ever planning your own trip.

We chose to spend the day in the park around the Villa Borghese.  While we would have to wait until the next day to see the wonderful things within the museum, we could wander the park and enjoy the beautiful day.  We got another late start, so only started our wanderings around noon.  The park is actually quite big and has many smaller museums in it, along with fountains, archaeological ruins, walking paths and ... a zoo.  We saw that the zoo was open and Fiona agreed to indulge my child-like fascination with zoos.  I love everything about zoos, except, of course, the concept of putting wild animals in cages.  The better the zoo, the less conflicted I feel about enjoying myself.  This one was about average.  There were a few really good enclosures, where it was clear the animals had everything they needed.  But there were also a few that clearly needed a little more TLC.

Our favourite was the small monkey habitat.  Monkeys themselves are quite adorable.  When you shrink them down to the size of your fist it just amplifies the effect.  We did also spend quite a long time viewing the macaques and a pygmy hippopotamus that really seemed to be taking too much pleasure from his mud bath.  We did our usual competition of 'spot the animal' in the reptile house - I think it was a draw.

Post-zoo we decided that instead of walking around the park we would try another mode of transportation - a two person bicycle, or bici as they are called here.  We hopped on and I soon found out that the small electric motor that kicked in when the rpm's of the pedals got too low was a blessing indeed.  Once we found the right balance of pedal power and motor we were zipping all over the park. We had quite a good time on our 'day off' in the park.  I'm glad we had the time in the schedule to do it.

After a quick cool down at the famous Harry's Bar where we managed to put away a couple of nice cold mojitos, despite the 18 euro price tag, we made our way to the only other Roman attraction that we hadn't seen and was open on Monday - the Spanish Steps.  While they were quite lovely, I hesitate to suggest when might be the best time to take them in.  Clearly it wasn't on Monday afternoon.  It was crawling with tourists and while it was still a scenic spot, it wasn't like in all the books.

We did find a Lacoste store nearby which was both significantly less busy and air-conditioned, so we spent some time going through it and picking out some new polos for me to wear in Amalfi.  After that we went back to the hotel and freshened up for dinner, which we had just down the street from the hotel.  I think this may be the one piece of advice we give to anyone coming to Rome.  Seriously think about booking a hotel with a restaurant in it.  After a full day out on the streets you really want to come back and shower before dinner.  The problem is, once you're all cleaned up, you really have no desire to go back out into the hustle and bustle again.

After dinner we packed up our bags and set an early alarm.  Our tickets for the Galleria Borghese were for 9am and we had to be there at least a half hour before, so our string of sleep-in's would be broken.  Oh well, everyone says that the Galleria is a must-see for art lovers, so we're pretty confident it will be worth it.

Italy - Day 16 - Rome

I've got my feet up on a balcony overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea, with a Cuban cigar and a glass of Drambuie, the lights of Amalfi on my left and my gorgeous wife on my right, so forgive me if I'm not entirely focussed on blogging tonight.  The Amalfi coast is everything we wanted it to be.  But there are still adventures from the Eternal City to cover so I will try to get through those before fading into a relaxed schedule of massage, Mediterranean dips and mojitos.

Having covered all of the great attractions in Rome, we had another couple of days to spare to pick up the leftovers.  First of all we booked some tickets to the Galleria Borghese, which, like most Roman attractions, is closed on Mondays.  We got tickets for the first showing on Tuesday morning, meaning we had a slot between 9 and 11 am.  With two days to burn until then we decided to spend our Sunday fairly close to home, which meant the area in and around the main train terminal.  I think if we were coming back to Rome that would be the one thing we would change.  We would probably spend a little more and get a hotel in another neighbourhood.  It may mean spending more money, but it would probably be worth it.  We would also look for a hotel with a restaurant because after a full day of wandering about the city it would really be nice to just shower and go downstairs for dinner instead of going back out again looking for food.

We decided to start our day at the Baths of Diocletian, a large museum complex just across the street from the Terminal.  It housed a great collection of old Roman antiquities from the old Republic through the grand days of Empire.  All the displays were well explained in English, a luxury not seen in other museums.  We actually liked this museum more than we thought we would and would probably recommend it as a stop for all those interested in Roman history.  The actual Baths themselves are quite impressive in size.  Originally they were designed to hold 3,000 people.

Our next stop was just across the street at the accompanying Palazzo Massimo.  Besides a forgettable temporary exhibit showing the Queen of Denmark's handicrafts there was some fantastic sculpture and a cool exhibit of wreckage recovered from floating palaces Caligula had built on a nearby lake.  We took our time going through both sides of the museum and quite enjoyed the exposure to so much Roman art and history.

Our last trip of the day was to a nearby church to take in yet another Bernini, this one of the Ecstasy of St. Theresa.  It was, as you can see, absolutely stunning.  The man was a master of his art.

y

Italy - Day 15 - Rome

We started this day in Rome differently than any of the others on this vacation, with a good, long sleep-in.  It was pushing noon before we finally managed to get out on to the street and into the subway.  I don't necessarily see this as a bad thing.  Looking back on our planning process now, we would probably tell you that we may have scheduled one, or maybe even two, too many days in Rome.  If you're putting in good long days and have a good itinerary planned for each day, you can probably hit a lot of the highlights in 3 days.  It's been nice to have those two extra days as a cushion.  It means we can have a sleep in without feeling too guilty and that we can take our time perusing some obscure corner of an ancient Rome.

Our first stop of the day was breakfast on the street, which could be quite scary in most places, but we took advantage of one of Rome's better features, roving fruit vendors.  These carts carry great, fresh fruit and melon combinations that are the perfect accompaniment on a hot day.  The day itself was hot, and more than a little muggy.  We ended up having to take cover under a second century archway on the Palatine Hill near Domitian's palace.  The entire complex on the hill was quite an enjoyable place to wander around.  There were fantastic ruins with imaginative flower arrangements that really made them pop.  We walked around the ruins of several palaces, built one on top of the other in some of the best real estate in ancient Rome.  We got to see the house of Augustus and the one of his wife Livia, separated by a few hundred metres in an old school attempt to give his lady her space.  Even though there were a few raindrops it wasn't enough to keep the dust of the footpaths from accumulating in your sandals, a unique connection to Romans who likely had the same problem 2000 years ago.

From the Palatine Hill we wandered down to see the Colosseum.  To be honest, when you come down the hill it doesn't look big enough to merit the colossal designation.  History buffs would now likely point out that it is called the Colosseum not for its size, but because it stands on the site where a colossal statue of Nero once stood.  Once inside, though, you could really get an appreciation for its immensity. There was an excellent little interpretive path you could take with English translations telling you all about the history and use of the arena.  It is truly stunning the imaginative and barbarically cruel ways they found to kill criminals, Christians and vast number of ostriches in the name of 'entertainment'.  I always wondered if two guys in the nosebleed seats on the third deck ever watched a group of criminals forced to wear tar-soaked shirts set on fire and said to each other - "You think maybe this is a little much?"

After the Colosseum we took a good look at the Arch of Constantine, earned after his victory over a rival emperor at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge.  We then wandered over to the Capitoline Museum.  We were running a little low on energy and the trek to the top of the hill didn't help, but there was an extremely interesting exhibit going that instantaneously had us hooked.  It was all about documents from the Vatican Archives.  It was amazing the vast swath of history covered by these documents.  There was a birch bark letter from the Chief of Canada's Ojibwe people to the pope asking for additional missionaries.  There was a 60 metre scroll covering all the details from the trial of the Knights Templar, as well as a letter from the British nobles requesting the Pope's approval of Henry VIII's annulment from Catherine of Aragon.  There were even notes from the trial of Galileo Galilee.  For a history buff like myself it was beyond cool to see so many original documents concerning so many of history's important turning points.

The rest of the museum had some more great sculpture, including some bronze pieces from what must have been a truly gigantic statue of Constantine.  But it was all a little less impressive than the temporary exhibit of letters.  

We struggled back to the hotel after a long day and managed to make it back in just in time to watch the Holland-Denmark game.  While the Dutch dominated, they couldn't finish and the result was a little disappointing, but we still have hope for the rest of the tournament.  Hup Holland Hup!