Niest Point Lighthouse Isle of Skye

Scotland turned out to be everything I had heard from my friends who have visited the country before. We were so lucky to have fantastic weather on all the days we stayed there. The temperatures were in the high 70s to low 80s, sunny always. The technology there seemed pretty advanced. When we entered the cab, there were multiple signs saying how the taxis had free WiFi, they accepted credit cards and touch free payments from the phone. When we asked for a taxi that accepts credit card, the airport staff looked at us like “why are you even asking me this question!”

We stayed in a nice hotel in the Old Town near all the usual attractions and walking distance from the University of Edinburgh, where my wife had a conference. We walked to almost all the attractions nearby and burned a few calories, advantages of the big cities! It is a safe place and the fact that there is sunlight from about 4:30 AM till almost 11 PM meant we had a lot more time in the day to explore the city, which we did. One day I walked all the way from where I was staying to Leith, which is a port.

We also took Uber to a couple of places, which was a piece of cake. The Uber drivers were friendly and one of them was telling me how he cannot understand why people drive for Uber part time because it is a pretty poor return on investment. Ok, noted!

I putted that ball in, really!

I drove alone to St Andrews one day to test my luck on getting to play in the Old course. Of course I had made sure that I will be getting a car with automatic transmission, which I did. I am not afraid of driving on the left side, though it takes a bit of time to get adjusted to. It was doubly challenging this time around because I needed to listen to the Google Maps instructions and deal with too many turns in the roundabouts. Long story short, I was pretty close to playing in the Old course, but the woman, who was trying to get me in, finally advised me to play in Jubilee course instead because it was not going to be possible to get me on the Old course. Oh, well, I tried. I played with a gentleman from Arizona in the Jubilee course, who said he has a 10 stroke advantage over me in terms of our handicaps. And I am very proud to say that I did extremely well, given that I walked all 18 holes carrying my clubs and played 8 strokes better than my partner, who was using a rolling cart!

Beach – St Andrews

Mountains and the fog – Isle of Skye

My wife and I drove for four days. We thoroughly enjoyed the sceneries, the castles, the mountain ranges, the beaches, just the greenery for however long the eyes can see and the friendly people of Scotland. Vegetarian food was a non issue wherever we went. Bed and Breakfast where we stayed were comfortable.

Google Maps and Waze were fabulous in directing us. Waze was also cautioning me about the speed limits and speed traps, thank you! They both failed miserably in directing us to gas stations, restaurants and coffee shops. They are simply not accurate in Scotland, especially in smaller towns. In one case, it took us to a Starbucks in Aberdeen at the University there. Unfortunately Starbucks is closed on a Sunday. Not only that, they only open Monday-Friday from 8:30-3:30. Just when I thought Google knew everything, it failed me. At that point, I really wanted a Starbucks coffee and was looking forward to it. We were almost out of gas when we let Inverness to go to Loch Ness. Google said there is a gas stations 9 miles from where we were. When it said you have arrived at your destination, it was right, that we were 9 miles south of Inverness, but no gas station was in sight. We found it the old fashioned way. We asked a human who said, you are better off going back to Inverness, which is what we did, a narrow escape from some unpleasantness.

I am not going to bore you with my travel details, except to say that we drove to the Cairngorms National Park, the Isle of Skye, Speyside, Aberdeen and the Angus Costal route to St Andrews again and back to Edinburgh. The advantages of driving are clear. We got to make so many unplanned stops and changed plans a couple of times.

On the way to Isle of Skye, we were amazed to see an Indian restaurant called “Taste of India” soon after we entered the Isle after crossing a beautiful bridge in Kyle. We wanted to check it out, but were not hungry. It will turn out that many of the small towns we crossed on the way had an Indian restaurant! On the way back, we found it again and stopped for dinner. The parking lot was full and the restaurant was packed! We were seated and were instructed to order everything at the same time because if we wanted to order something later, it will take time. Well, we ordered what we could eat. The food was average. There is a minimum of 10 pounds per person, as in British currency and not weight of food! We finished and gave my credit card for 21.30 pounds. The guy taking it said I can pay 20 pounds in cash rather than charge. Sure, that was a good discount!

We went all the way to the westernmost point in the Isle of Skye – Niest Point Lighthouse. An area with fantastic views of the Atlantic Ocean and cliffs. The drive was a bit unusual in that a long stretch of it is a single lane and you need to negotiate which side is going first. There are spots for one side to park and let the other side go. It was all so civil and well executed. Some of the drives were through small villages and I have the same exact question that I always have – where do they get their groceries, what exactly do they do for a living (most likely farming or fishing), where do they get their petrol and diesel (because I did not come across many gas stations on the way), and where do they buy cars and get them serviced? I was tempted to stop and ask, but then, they may think I am a nut job! If and when I retire, I want to travel differently and stop and ask these questions. They nag me to no end!

One of the places we stopped on the way that was fabulous – Dunnottar Castle Joys of driving.

Carnoustie

We made two unforgettable detours. One is to Dunnottar Castle and another to Carnoustie. The Castle, it turned out, was the best detour we made. Absolutely wonderful setting and views. Carnoustie, of course, is where the next Bristish Open will be played in 3 weeks. We can see all signs of the course getting ready – electronic scoreboards are to be seen at the 18^th green. It is a small town with a few tight roads and I wonder how the town will deal with the massive crowds that will descend on them.

We ended our drive by stopping at St Andrews and walking a few holes. That’s right, on most Sundays, the golf course becomes a public park of sorts and the public can just wander around. A few greens are off limits, but other than that, you can wander as you please. I am amazed at the trust placed in the visitors to not do any damage to the course. There were no staff babysitting the visitors!

Walking the St Andrews Old Course

With the exception of Isle of Skye, there was absolutely no issue with cell and data access in Scotland. This time around we decided to sign up for the AT&T deal of $10 a day where all the data consumed is charged to your own existing plan (I have unlimited data!). And guess what, you can also make phone calls to the US. I couldn’t believe it, so I double checked and it was confirmed. We made some phone calls back home and I will find out if this is a deal that holds! This was a blessing because I didn’t have to worry about turning data roaming on and off, configuring Google Photos to not sync when not connected to WiFi etc. In the larger scheme of things, for a travel like this, $10 a day seemed like a no brainer.

Now, back to work to earn a living, so I can go on my next vacation in December…