Content:
Hello ladies and gentleman,
My name is Eckart Diezemann, I joined the 2003 GLC II excursion to Edinburgh/Scotland.
As the group had experiences and adventures, learned a lot about the country, its people and its capital, we thought of a way to let YOU participate as well in that nice trip – so, here’s our
Scotland Diary !
The texts are written by the GLC II students, and in the red lines I try to give explanations, make comments and link this to a complete picture of what happened.....the emphasis is on “ I try... “, because I can only write the things from my viewpoint – I’ll do my very best to be objective!
Check-in Amsterdam at about 16:30, departure at 18:00. Having stored the luggage in little 4 berth cabins, we enjoyed the strong sea breeze and explored the “boat”...I think ship is the better word for that size! The highlight of the “rocking” evening was without any doubt the so called “horse race” – the plastic horses you could bet on, numbered from one to six, were moved when the “cruise manager” rolled the dice. Spectacular!!
How to make Sigi sweat... 2003-06-20
Sigi, our bus driver, must have been very displeased by the tiny little winding English and Scottish roads – but I always felt safe with Sigi driving!
Rollin’ down Arthur's Seat...
Imagine you arrive after a 20-hour journey at Pollock Halls having the most beautiful view of Arthur's Seat, but yet not knowing that you would have the pleasure to climb it the same day. Although you can only think about a foot bath, some coffee and a shower after a sleepless night, rich with turbulence, on the ferry to Newcastle, you receive the order to get ready within 30 minutes in order to explore beautiful Edinburgh.
The mercilessness continued when the decision was made to climb Arthur’s Seat: Although we could not feel our own feet anymore, we had to surmount this “hill” (= huge mountain!!!), as every real tourist has to do.
Having reached the destination, the really overwhelming panoramic view of Edinburgh was disturbed by the fearful thought of how to get down again: hopefully not the same way we had just climbed up!! – highly recommended for people who are not afraid of heights!
We decided to take the way leading down through soft Scottish grass. Thanks to the unbelievable tiredness lots of strange ideas for getting down were invented: instead of calling a helicopter or praying for wings the method of rolling down the hill became popular, which proved to be the cheapest and most comfortable way. But only Scotland’s bravest had enough courage to do so! That’s Rock ‘n’ Roll!
A lovely town, a hunter, lots of information and Ceilidh Dancing 2003-06-21
Our first full day in Edinburgh was bristling with highlights. A good day usually starts with a good breakfast. For us, this was the first time we could taste typical Scottish breakfast at Pollock Halls: eggs, bacon, toast and even porridge for those who liked it. For those who liked it – hopefully it tasted better than it looked – I wasn’t brave enough to have a try...
Full of curiosity and motivation we went on our guided city tour at 9 am. After a short ride through the town we picked up our tour guide Gavin Hunter at Queen Street in the New Town. This was the beginning of an interesting and informative three-hour sightseeing trip with heavy rain and fog. But the weather did not prevent us from enjoying and getting to know the charm of the Scottish capital. We found out that Edinburgh is full of historical buildings and monuments such as for example St.Giles Cathedral and Walter Scott statue. But Gavin Hunter did not only confine himself to historical sights; he also recommended many museums to visit during our free time (e.g. National Gallery of Art, The Writer's Museum). Ideal places for shopping are Princes Street and Royal Mile, Edinburgh's two most famous streets. Finally, our tour ended just below the castle at midday.
The sun came out and we were
divided up into different groups who had lunch and worked on an Edinburgh city rally which
Phil had created for us. At 3 pm we met again at the castle.
When everybody was actually quite exhausted we started our second guided tour
of the day and visited Edinburgh Castle. This time our guide seemed to be even
more tired than we were – wouldn’t you be tired of telling
the same stuff twenty times a day to people whom you know don’t understand your
Scottish accent?? and we had trouble following him....maybe not only his fault, taking into consideration the
consumption by a large number of us of free whisky, which was offered in the
castle store – but except for the “language barrier” it was definitely worth
visiting the old castle. I specially enjoyed the part where the crown jewels
are kept.
When we were finally released, we had two hours to get back to our dormitory and get ready for the CEILIDH DANCING. Some of us had heard about it but the majority was a little sceptical about it. Sigi brought us to the Caledonian Brewery where we discovered that we ALL could learn how to dance in a traditional Scottish way. Some instructors in kilts encouraged us to get up and dance and after two hours of such dancing with only short breaks everyone was exhausted again but happy indeed…
We returned to Pollock Halls at about 11 p.m. and nearly everyone was eager to jump into bed and dream and dream, and…..dance!
On
Sunday we went to Loch Lomond; the direct border between the Lowlands and the
Highlands. The first task was to climb up the 300-metre-high Conic Mountain.
During our two-hour trip we could see the awesome Highlands and maybe feel a
little like William Wallace (Braveheart) or Robert Roy McGregor (Rob Roy) had
done....I actually thought I had seen Wallace and his
warriors running down in that glen...but my view might still have been a bit
influenced by the tasty Caledonian brew we had had Saturday evening.....
Just wide green spaces with small streams and innumerable sheep disconnected
by long and small walls of stone. After reaching the top of the hill we all
felt like we had done sport for the last 24 hours but we were rewarded by an
incredible view of Loch Lomond and the Highlands. Then we climbed down the hill
and went on a little cruise with small boats on the famous Loch. Being really
overwhelmed by what we saw, we left the Highlands on our way to Glasgow but
in most of our minds we still had the wonderful impressions of the Highlands
trip.
We drove to Glasgow where we had a brief city sight-seeing tour in our bus. Having seen the highlights of the city, we satiated our hunger in the student quarter. Then we drove back happily to our main camp in Edinburgh.
Individual Project day... 2003-06-23
This day was called “project day; my personal project was – after I went shopping - to catch up on a bit of sleep which I had missed the past few days...
Some of us proceeded in their projects which they had begun during the GLC II courses, the final results of which were to be presented on the Scottish Fair (July 17). One project was to visit a Scottish school – here’s an extract from these students’ experiences, entitled:
“As far as your feet will carry you”
After having our typical Scottish breakfast, Phil “tortured” us by talking about every single answer of our Edinburgh quiz. Unfortunately it took us so long that we had only twenty-five minutes to get to the railway station on the other side of the city where we were faced with a wrong train. Arriving in Dunfermline for our visit to a Scottish school, we took the wrong subway, of course, but after our odyssey we finally reached St Columba’s High School, just ten minutes late.
We had an informative conversation with Mr Nolan, a German teacher, and were given the opportunity to talk to some students. Surprisingly, on the way back to Edinburgh no further problems occurred.
With aching and totally damaged feet we walked another million hours through yet undiscovered streets of Edinburgh. Because of this exhausting day we deserved a cold drink in one of Edinburgh’s sweetest pubs in the evening!
I chose this heading, because for a few of us and our “Guide” Phil Mothershaw the destination for this day was “Falkirk Wheel” via the Port of Leith. The first attraction for this day was the port with the Royal Yacht “Britannia”. Until 1997 the Britannia was used by the Queen and the members of the Royal Family to make their foreign visits – but in times of scarce money, the Queen made a popular decision and mothballed the boat. Now it’s open for visitors, but not for free – one has to pay a fee and take a guided tour....
Phil: “…how many years did I pay taxes which were used to run that yacht? – and now they don’t let us get nearer than this without paying another fee...but let’s not get too political...“
On our way we made a short stop down at the river Forth, right between the old railway-bridge and the car-bridge – both masterpieces of engineering!
Round midday we reached our final destination: The Falkirk Wheel! The first and only rotating boat lift in the world! Indeed another masterpiece! As I am not very keen on engineering and such stuff, it wouldn’t be very fruitful for you as a reader if I explained this huge thing. So here’s a picture...
...impressive!
But as I said only a few of us went there; here’s what the others did:
We started the day with a good breakfast - porridge - at our beloved home for one week: Pollock Halls. After that we decided to do little shopping (we grabbed lots of Scottish souvenirs - original Scottish kilts!!!! ) and we went to the very recommendable and interesting "Camera Obscura". While waiting for some members of our group we sat down on a bench and were soon involved in a conversation with a 75-year-old mumbling Scotsman for over an hour. He told us a lot, but we understood a little ;)
This highlight of our final day was only topped by the morally questionable but definitely extremely entertaining and exciting "Laserquest Edinburgh" where some of our excursioners stalked each other through a dark and gloomy labyrinth while pointing at each other with laserguns.
In the evening, nearly the whole group, had their last drop of whisky in "The Last Drop". After an - by some ;) - overdone session of alcohol and with the Scottish whiskey as a most pleasant sleeping-tablet, we spent our last night in the comfortable beds of Pollock Halls, only dreaming of Edinburgh - for sure!!! :)
Time for departure and time to say goodbye to Phil, who wanted. after another hiking tour in the Highlands, to mow the lawn at his house in Wales...
On
our last day we decided to leave right after breakfast as we wanted to see some
nice places on the east coast. First we stopped at Holy Island but the tide
was high so that we couldn't stay at the island for a longer time. Our bus driver
Sigi, determined to experience an adventure, took a short turnaround trip to
the island although the water was already on the causeway. We then headed for
a place where we could have lunch. After a while we reached Bamburgh, a picturesque
village with a breath-taking castle. Behind this castle there was an awesome
beach with white sand and turquoise blue water. We had a lunch break for two
hours and were all happy about finding this wonderful place. Some students actually
went swimming (although the water was quite cool), some others collected shells,
and almost everyone waded into the sea. We have to mention that the weather
was really fine, even though the wind blew strongly. After finishing our break,
everyone returned sadly to the bus, which was to take us home.
At four o’clock we finally arrived in Newcastle where we embarked on the ferry. We had a wonderful time: we enjoyed the horse racing, the games (in which we were quite successful and won some bottles of champagne!), the shows, the swimming pool and the pubs. And then, after a long day, we went into our couchettes (...I think this is French euphemism...) and were all rocked to sleep by the ocean’s gentle waves…
Well I don’t think there is anything important to add on this last day, except that Martin had helped to plan the route for our way back to Newcastle – well done mate, I couldn’t imagine a better place for a lunch break!
And the award goes to... 2003-06-26
The last hours of our trip were characterised by 1. watching “Braveheart” and 2. Cathy making awards to every single participant. I can’t remember all of them, so here is a little selection:
· Award for the most colourful participant
· Award for the bravest..
· Award for the best consumer of alcohol
· Award for the sunniest
· Award for linguistic support
In the early afternoon I think everybody went home with one laughing and one weeping eye:
The laughing eye for being back home and having time for a rest!
The weeping one for: “This trip was simply too short...”
So - that’s about it! I hope you enjoyed our trip! I did definitely!!!
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