Scotland — Part II

Hello Again! It’s been a busy week here this week, but I’ve finally had time to sort through the pictures of the second part of my trip to Scotland. I’ve discovered that I take way too many pictures, but not always of the right things. Here’s my standard:

**Warning** – Long, Picture Heavy Post

Haha! As I mentioned before, this middle part of the trip was supposed to have been spent with Meredithe and Anne, but, sadly, Meredithe had to cancel her trip plans. Since this part was only a few days of my trip, I decided to go ahead with my visit with Anne and her hubby Malcolm. Pam took me to the Edinburgh airport where Anne picked me up — I got a little teary-eyed at having to say goodbye to Pam, but I didn’t want to be a big baby, so I held it together!

From the minute Anne and Malcolm picked me up, we were on the go. They worked so hard to make me welcome and have a fun two days and we had a great time!  We arrived at their home in The Borders in the evening, just in time for a wonderful dinner and a toast to our missing Meredithe. The next morning we started our busy day with a little walk around their “neighborhood”. Anne and Malcolm live out in the country and the setting is just beautiful. Every direction you turn, the view is amazing. SHEEPIES! And, just down the road is a pretty little churchyard with a cemetery.  And, really fun for me, was to see the arrival of the Fish Man — he delivers fresh fish every Wednesday  morning.  Malcolm just has to go out to the truck and pick out the fish they want for the week.  How fantastic is that???

 

 

 

 

Next, we went into the little town nearest where they live, Hawick. (And don’t be confused like I was — it’s not pronounced HAW-wick. It’s pronounced HOY-ck. Or something like that. That was really hard for me LOL!) Hoyck Hawick has a rich history as a textile town and we went into town to visit an exhibition at the Textile Towerhouse. On the way into town, we crossed over the bridge and we saw the heron that Anne frequently posts about.  Anne ordered the heron to appear and it did!  Hoyck Hawick is a pretty little town and I really enjoyed seeing where Anne and Malcolm “live”.  We saw the fish shop that belonged to the fish deliveryman that we’d seen earlier that morning.  And the entry floor of the Textile Towerhouse was screaming “make me into a quilt”! (For another post full of things to do in Hawick, check out My Scotland Voyage.)

 

 

 

After Hoyck Hawick, we drove over to Jedburgh. There are four abbey ruins in The Borders (Melrose, Dryburgh, Kelso, and Jedburgh). I thought I’d been to Jedburgh Abbey, but I was mistakenly thinking that Dryburgh was actually Jedburgh (if that makes sense!). So, happily, Anne picked the only abbey of the four that I hadn’t been to on previous trips!  After walking around the Abbey, we went to Mary, Queen of Scots’ House.  It’s believed that she stayed in this house, and it was interesting reading a little bit about her history — I definitely want to read more.

 

 

 

(I waited at least 10 minutes for that guy in the background to leave so I could get a good picture of Anne and Malcolm at Mary, Queen of Scots’ House, but I finally gave up. He must’ve been waiting for someone ;-( ).

 

 

 

After Jedburgh, it was off to Abbotsford, home of Sir Walter Scott.  Beautiful, Beautiful, Beautiful.  Abbotsford was built along the banks of the River Tweed and the view from the back of the house to the river was just gorgeous.  As were the gardens.  What a fun place to tour.  I don’t know how Anne kept picking places that I hadn’t been to before, but I loved it!

 

 

 

We zipped home after Abbotsford and Anne dispensed me to the sitting room while she prepared a gourmet four-course dinner. (Did I get any pictures? No-o-o-o. I guess I was too busy eating! Luckily, Anne got pictures, and you can see them here.) Anne wanted me to have a traditional Scottish dinner and it was fantastic. We had Scottish Smoked Salmon on Homemade Brown Bread, Creamed Asparagus and Broccoli Soup, Venison Casserole with Dumplings, and Cranachan — all with champagne!  Yum, Yum, YUM!!!  After dinner, we watched The Great British Bake-Off (can’t wait until the new season starts here!) and we went to bed full and happy!

The next morning, we moved over to Anne and Malcolm’s flat in Berwick-upon-Tweed.  And again, if you’re pronouncing that as it’s looks like you would pronounce it, you’re wrong!  It’s pronounced Berrick.  I’d decided that the w’s are always silent and then we passed a sign to a town called Lowick, so I asked if it should be “Loyck”.  Nope, it’s pronounced “Low-wick” — just like it looks.  So, beats me how they decide these things LOL!

Anyway, after we dropped our clothes off at the flat, we drove down the coast to Bamburgh.  This was the only day on my whole trip that was really rainy, so, even though it was windy and chilly, I felt quite lucky.  We braved the elements to walk out to the beach so that I could take some pictures —  the picture of Anne and Malcolm will always remind me how cold and windy it was that day!  We didn’t last long outside and hustled to a cute little tea room where we shared a delicious scone — just like I like them with jam and cream!  After our little warm up, we walked down the street to The Grace Darling Museum.  It was really interesting to read about Grace and how she, as a young girl, helped save survivors of a shipwreck.  I love little local museums like that.  The museum was right across the street from the local church, so we made a visit to the grave of Grace Darling too.

 

 

 

By now, it was lunchtime, so we drove down the coast a little farther to Seahouses, a cute little seaside village. Anne had posted about fish and chips on several occasions and I’d mentioned how much I’d love some fish and chips, so she very kindly worked that into our schedule. Normally, Anne and Malcolm take their fish and chips down the street to the harbor, but, since the weather wasn’t cooperating, we ate inside. I didn’t really care — it was delicious! If only we could get great fish and chips like that here! Before we left, we walked around the harbor a little — I love little seaside towns and this one was just perfect.

 

We drove back to Berrick Berwick and walked around a bit. Seeing all the beautiful old buildings was fun, and I was really interested in an old abandoned school. It appears to be home to lots of pigeons now ;-D. We walked along the old medieval walls and it was exciting to see a golf course next to the sea. I also managed to get a picture of Anne’s swans that appear in the harbor quite often.  We had a wonderful dinner in Berrick Berwick that night and the sun was just setting as we walked back to the flat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was a Cricket game on tv that night and Anne and Malcolm tried to teach me the finer points of the sport. People say Cricket is a lot like baseball, but aside from the “bat” and ball, I didn’t see many similarities. By the time we were done, I think I was starting to get it, although, I know there are a ton of little nuances to the game and there just wasn’t time to discuss them.

And, just like that, my fun visit with Anne and Malcolm was over. I had a wonderful time and I can’t thank them enough for all their hard work. Oh — and Anne has written much more eloquently about my visit and you can read about it here and here.

Ok, I’ll try not to ramble on so long next time — I’m really sorry, but it’s so hard — it was a packed trip!
Hope you’re having a great weekend!
XOXO,
Anna