UK graduation trip June 2015 (part 1)

In order to connect to our Emirates flight in Kuala Lumpur Helen and I had to leave Penang very early. We had about three hours to wait in KLIA as sullen thunderclouds rolled towards the airport. We were in fact delayed by half an hour as a thunderstorm raged and crackled.

The flight to Dubai was relatively straightforward. We had a spare seat next to us so there was room to stretch. The food was average and the entertainment system was not offering a lot. I had quite a good view over Dubai as we landed…it was a bit hazy on the ground but I was forward of the engine so had an unobstructed view. We had only 90 minutes on the ground in Dubai and we were then on our way the Amsterdam.

In Amsterdam we were to spend three nights with an ex-housemate, Maureen and her husband Edwin. Their 20-year-old son Christopher after finishing his studies was also back home. Maureen picked us up from the airport and around 45 minutes later we arrived at their large house in the countryside near Amersfoort. 

In the next few days we were spoilt with gourmet food and had long walks in the country to exercise their two Labrador dogs. The large young male was particularly energetic chasing sticks…..and eating my sandals. We visited the ancient walled city of Amersfoort.  Amersfoort is the second largest city in the province of Utrecht in central Netherlands. The city is quickly growing but has a well-preserved medieval centre. It is also has one of the largest railway junctions in the country because of its location on two of Netherlands main east-west and north-south rail lines. The city celebrated it s 750^th birthday in 2009.

Amersfoort is translated as the ‘boulder city'. This originated between two land-owners who had a bet and the loser had to pay with a boulder, which was laboriously rolled in. Netherlands does not have many boulders and later embarrassment led to the boulder being buried. It was resurrected in 1903 and features with further boulder donations from other countries. There was a jazz festival going on in various town squares and it was very pleasant relaxing and listening to good music. Canals run through the town, which includes a museum to Piet Mondriaan, the artist who specialized in white backgrounds with black grid lines and the three primary colours.

 The Dutch have a nice custom when their children finish their time at school. Their schoolbag is hung with the Netherlands flag outside of the family house or apartment.

From Amsterdam we flew via KLM to Glasgow. We were again delayed leaving as the plane in front of us had hit birds when taking off. Gerry, Helen’s brother-in-law, met us and took us to their home in Bothwell where we to spend three nights. 

Ann and Gerry took us to see several local sights during our stay. which were all noteworthy. The first was a relatively new installation in Falkirk called ‘The Kelpies’. Kelpie is the Scots name for a shape-shifting spirit that inhabits the lochs and pools of Scotland. These Kelpies are 30 metre-high horse-head sculptures. Standing next to the new extension of the Forth and Clyde Canal and near the river Carron. The sculptures were designed by Andy Scott and opened to the public in April 2014. The sculpture is a monument to the horses who pulled barges on the Scottish canals. I read one review by an art critic that slammed the work but I was impressed and I am sure the public is too…and that is what matters. They will become a Scottish icon. We had a guided tour of the installations which included an inside view.

Despite my claim of iconic status for the Kelpies I may have preferred a large statue another version of a Kelpie.

Another impressive engineering works was the Falkirk Wheel The Falkirk Wheel is a rotating boat lift connecting the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal. The lift, named after the nearby town of Falkirk, was opened in 2002. It reconnects the two canals for the first time since the 1930s, doing away with a number of locks. The wheel had stopped working for the day when we arrived but it was still revealed to be an awesome piece of engineering and planning.

On another day we visited the Rosslyn Chapel made famous in Dan Brown's novel 'The Da Vinci Code'. The Chapel was formally known as the Collegiate Chapel of St Mathew and is a 15th century chapel located in the Midlothian village of Roslin. The chapel was for Roman Catholic worship and remains in the Sinclair family. Since the late 1980s the chapel has featured in speculative theories concerning a connection of Freemasonry, the Knights Templar and the Holy Grail. The walls have many carved icons, some rather weathered and worn but all contributing to connection theories. The chapel is not large and photography inside is forbidden..... for commercial reasons the shop sells any desired image. Those interior images seen in this blog as therefore a figment of your imagination or a Freemasonry plot . It does not help when you are trying to be sneaky in the best undercover traditions to have the woman standing next to you....fired a flash.

 From Roslin we journeyed to the picturesque town of Peebles in the Scottish Border region. Peebles was originally a market town and played a role in the woollen industry up until the 1960s. Although one woollen mill remains functional a number of residents are involved in the summer tourist industry or commute to work in Edinburgh. Peebles lies at the confluence of the Tweed River and the Eddleston Water (the Cuddy). The ancient coat-or-arms is three salmon of a red background. Salmon migrate yearly up the Tweed River. The sun tried to barge its way between heavy black clouds while we were visiting but the clouds won and it started raining on the way home. There was a parade later in the afternoon where a local lassie was to be crowned a queen, albeit a pagan one.

During our Bothwell stay we dined at two nice restaurants; one in a casino in the heart of Glasgow and another in a leafy suburb called The House of an Art Lover. The building was constructed in 1989-96 on a design of 1901 by Charles Rennie MacIntosh and is situated in Bellahouston Park near where Helen’s cousin Brenda lives. The food was very good and the setting was pleasant and green.

From Glasgow Helen and I journeyed in stages in a rental car down to Cambridge picking Dani up at Durham along the way. We were upgraded to an Audi that had a built-in and very necessary GPS. The weather was cloudy, cold and indifferent as we headed to the small seaside town of Seahouses where we were to spend two nights. It is from Seahouses that daily access can be made to the Farne Islands just offshore. Seahouses is a little south of the Holy Island and the famed Lindisfarne. We were staying in the Links Hotel. The room was compact and the folding door to the en-suite toilet never closed properly. The next day I had booked a six hour trip out to the islands mainly to photograph nesting puffins. Helen went for a long walk to Bamburgh Castle. 

My day was curtailed when I found they messed up my booking and I returned to shore around lunch-time. This was not too bad as for recompense Helen and I both had a 3 hour trip the next day. The sea was relatively calm although the sky was a little leaden. We were shown the inner Farne Island and the outer islands. It was from one of these, Longstone Island that Grace Darling, a lighthouse keeper’s daughters made a daring rescue in 1838 of shipwrecked seamen from the 'Forfarshire' along with her father. Grace became a public heroine but sadly died four years later from tuberculosis. Grace's bedroom where she sighted the wrecked ship was the top window on the white band. The lighthouse is not manned any more as solar power has taken over on most lighthouses.

We landed on the large Staple Island in the inner Farnes and were given an hour. Rangers from the National Trust stay on the islands for most of the year and ambush visitors for a fee upon landing. There are a number of species nesting as can be seen from the appended list. Puffins nest in burrows that collectively look like Hobbitville. The clown-like birds were busy feeding their chicks with beaks full of sand-eels that they catch offshore. Their design enables them to swim like penguins using their wings like flippers and barbs on their tongues enables them to clip fish on and catch additional ones. They are not exactly designed for flying with chubby bodies and the stunted wings. They fly in a straight line and flap fast……..approximately 300-400 beats per minute. Photographing them in flight is therefore difficult and very high speeds are needed. When they arrive on land their troubles have just started. Herring and Back-faced gulls lurk amongst the burrows to rob them of sand-eels before delivery to the chicks is achieved. Most puffins hit the ground running but occasionally one seems to have forgotten where the burrow is and stands around like an ideal photographic model.

I had a repeat morning the following day and Helen came along too. I was fighting a stomach bug…so was hoping I was not going to add to the copious amounts of island guano during the day.

From Seahouses we travelled south to Durham to pick Dani up at the rail station. Durham looks very nice but there was graduation ceremonies going on at the University and a one day cricket international between England and New Zealand…so we decided to keep going. Our main target was the seaside town of Whitby but since it was the weekend it was booked heavily so we stayed at a sport club near Middlesborough. We had a three person room but the towels and cups were for two. This was supposed to be rectified but wasn’t. There was a wedding dinner underway with tattooed, overweight smokers decorating the entrances. We had dinner in the restaurant and were well fed and looked after.