I'm doing a little bit of catch-up here. Usually when we have guests and/or travel is when we generate the majority of our blog posts. Our latest batch of visitors, my parents, plus their and our good friends Annie and Rinus, have been here for six days and no blogs - what gives?
We've been kept so busy with day trips and dinners that blogging has lost it's ranking amongst other critical tasks such as sleeping. I'm going to attempt to get through it all, so put on your reading glasses and enjoy.
We picked the guests up early on Saturday morning - not ideal as we had been invited to the neighbors house the night before for dinner and drinks and had indulged a little too much and a little too long. Nevertheless we arrived on time and suitably attired. I had put on my kilt to give them a proper Scottish welcome. It also had to do with our destination for the day - the Braemar Gathering. The Gathering is the last and most celebrated of the Highland games summer circuit. After dropping the cases at home we made the drive up into the mountains. Braemar is a beautiful setting and after two straight days of rain that resulted in many cases of flooding we had a day of spotty sunshine - enough to leave with a sunburn anyway.
The Braemar Gathering is a must-see event for anyone who happens to be in Scotland that first week of September. We walked in and took our seats around the arena. Things were happening everywhere you looked. Highland dancing, sprints, distance runs, relay races, jumping events and the so-called "heavy" events, where unusually large men throw combinations of heavy items (hammers, stones, weights and cabers) for distance, height or accuracy. They seemed to be the most popular events, which is not surprising given some of the characters participating. Mom was particularly enamored with Mr. Sebastian Wenta, a guy I recognized from previous World's Strongest Man Competitions. He really got the crowd involved as he went for a new record in the aptly named "Weight over Bar" competition. Dad was particularly impressed with the Hill Run, which involves a 5km race - you guessed it - up and down a nearby hill. Annie and Rinus kept a close eye on the military inter-service tug-o-war. Each team had its own coach yelling encouragement and tactics (pull harder?). My personal favorite - the nice warm bacon rolls. Actually, the massed drum and pipe bands were most impressive to me. I can imagine a cold shiver running up and down your 16th century spine if you heard that coming up over the hill and you happened to belong to the wrong clan.
At about three o'clock Queen Liz (in the royal box with the yellow hat - or was that Charles?), Prince Phil and Charles showed up. We all sang a rousing chorus of "God Save the Queen". They left an hour later. I did not see the Queen eat a bacon roll.
We rolled back into Aberdeen with just enough time and energy to order some very un-Scottish pizza for dinner. Dominos were discussed but not played. It turns out that it takes just as much energy to watch someone do a hill run as it takes to do it yourself...
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