"All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, thane of Cawdor"

 Cawdor - sabbatical 2, week 4

Although Shakespearean Macbeth is awarded the title "Thane of Cawdor", the first recorded person with that title was a couple hundred years after Macbeth, and this castle wasn't built until 1454.  It was expanded through the 17th century to the structure that currently exists, with various improvements continuing on the inside and the grounds.  For example, a modern kitchen was installed in the 1990s, and there is a cabinet in the sitting room containing a television set.

One recent "famous" Thane of Cawdor was John Campbell, 1st Baron Cawdor, who led the British defense in the so-called Battle of Fishguard, when French revolutionary troops and their American commander landed an invasion force.  After a few days of maneuvering, Campbell demanded and received the French troops' unconditional surrender, without having to fight an actual battle.  Therefore, the last invasion of Britain occurred in 1797, over 50 years after the last battle in Britain at Culloden Moor.

The taxi from Inverness was a convenient way to get there.  The ticket price includes a tour of the castle (where the current dowager Lady Cawdor still lives 6 months of the year), multiple large gardens, picnic areas, and even a playground.  Green fees for the golf course are extra.

The '45

 Culloden - sabbatical 2, week 4

Another train ride took us to Inverness.  The hop-on-hop-off bus has two loops, the first out to Culloden Moor, site of the last "land battle" to take place on the island of Great Britain (but not, oddly, the last invasion of Britain - more on that next post!).  It took place in 1746, between the Jacobite forces of Bonnie Prince Charlie and the English forces under the Duke of Cumberland (and featuring a young officer named James Wolfe, who later won the Plains of Abraham).  It resulted in a rout of the Jacobite Highlanders and the start of years of oppression of Highland culture.  Craig had already visited (with brother Paul in 1993), but the visitor's centre is much expanded and improved since then.  There are plenty of artifacts and interpretive signs, and of course the moor/battlefield itself, with flags demarking the starting positions of the two armies.

Just down the road (or a 30-minute walk, which is what we did) from the moor are the Clava Cairns, 4000-year-old bronze age burial chambers.  There are also a number of standing stones on the site, which will look familiar to fans of the Outlander series (as Yolanda is), as the site of Claire Randall's time-traveling.

"I was feeling part of the scenery"

 Edinburgh - sabbatical 2, week 4

A 5-hour train ride took us from King's Cross (platform 5, not 9¾) to Edinburgh.  The train was packed because of a "problem elsewhere on the line", so only Andrew got to sit the whole way.  We were happy to get into the hotel (close to the station) and eat at the Conan Doyle pub.  Unfortunately the statue of Sherlock Holmes was removed for roadwork.

That's Edinburgh Castle in the background

We took a walk in the evening, wandering down to the pier where the Royal Yacht Britannia is on "permanent" display.

The next morning we took a walk through the Royal Mile in the old city then a hike up the Salisbury Crags (not the Solsbury Hill Peter Gabriel was singing about, but I still like the quote).  The day was clear and sunny, and the views out over the Palace of Holyroodhouse and the rest of Edinburgh were very fine.

THE Championships

 Wimbledon - Sabbatical 2, week 4

While the boys were enjoying the big air of the Eye, Yolanda attended quarterfinal Tuesday at Wimbledon.  She lucked out because the biggest match of the day - local boy Graham Norrie vs. David Goffin - was not at Centre Court but rather Court 1, for which she had tickets.  The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were in attendance, having to sit with the unwashed commoners since there is no Royal Box at Court 1 (unlike Centre Court or, incidentally, the Eye).

Niemeier

She also saw Tatiana Marie defeat Jule Niemeier in one of the women's quarterfinals.

The lineup to get strawberries and cream was too long, so Yolanda settled for strawberry ice cream instead.

Reefie 2022

 London - sabbatical 2, week 4

No trip to a new city would be complete without a visit to the aquarium.  The Sea Life Centre is next to the London Eye (and Shrek's Adventure!) and is laid out similar to Toronto and Barcelona.  There are large tanks of reef sharks, clownfish, etc. etc.  In this case, the highlights were the especially large sea turtles and penguins.  Sorry, I mean penguins!  (how can you not put an exclamation mark there?)

From Andrew and David's point of view, though, the aquarium was merely to pass time before our appointment with the London Eye.  It is always busy but the operators still saw fit to prepare a Royal Pod for the Jubilee, which was full of flowers and royal bunting, but no passengers (perhaps because they were at Wimbledon - more on that later).  The view from the apex of the wheel was, of course, spectacular.

The Thamesmen

 London - sabbatical 2, week 4

We are now all together in London.  Arriving mid-afternoon was convenient for checking in to the apartment (found on AirBNB), not so much for sightseeing right away, so we put Wimbledon on and slept (various amounts) before venturing out for sustenance.  So let's skip right to today, the 4th of July, with nary a creepy stilt-wearing Uncle Sam to be seen anywhere.

The men spent the day in and around the Thames (Craig hesitates to call themselves "the Thamesmen" because, as a drummer, he is the most likely to be found exploded).  A 25-minute walk from their AirBNB in Shoreditch, through the financial district (using the Gherkin building as their guide) brought them to London Bridge (not the one in Arizona).  They made their way along the bank where they took the Tower Bridge tour, which includes access to the upper level and a museum/tour of the drawbridge-lifting mechanism.  They then boarded the HMS Belfast, the largest remaining British ship that served in WWII.  Another engine room (somehow more complex than the one in Tower Bridge) gave them their steam engine fix for the vacation, along with exploring the various messes, gun turrets, bridge, etc. of a fighting ship.

Lunch followed then a tube trip back to Shoreditch for continued acclimatization (naps!) for a couple hours.  The whole family then repeated the walk back to the City for a boat tour.  We picked up the boat at the Tower docks, which meandered its way down to Westminster Bridge, with an entertaining audio commentary from the tour guide of course.  As always, the corner around the statue of Boudicca under Big Ben's tower was teeming with tourists.

Some Liverpool miscellany

Canada geese and the CBC?

Liverpool (sabbatical 2, week 3)

Here are some observations and pictures that didn't really fit elsewhere.

I mentioned some similarities between Halifax and Liverpool.  Here are some additional reminders of home.  Craig asked his collaborator here about the CBC pattern on the Backstage window - he's seen it but it's a new building, it is not some remnant CBC studio.  We guess the interior designer just liked the way it looked?

A few previously unmentioned sites bear mentioning.  The first is the Tate Museum (Liverpool branch).  It is a thoroughly modern collection, the oldest pieces that Craig could find were by old-time PACA resident Matisse.  There are some interesting pieces, although not a large collection; to see them all completely would take quite some time, however, as several pieces are performance-art films/recordings/etc. that take their time.

left: Lambanana! right: Craig with another set of Roger's drums

Second is yet more music: along the waterfront you'll find these Superlambananas (named after an original sculpture and sort of a symbol of Liverpool) with local musical acts drawn on them.  This particular one has Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark, Echo and the Bunnymen, and, of course (at the front of the picture) A Flock of Seagulls.  Following these sculptures down the docks will bring you to the British Music Experience, a "pop" music museum tracing what would have been popular music in each era, starting with big-band/jazz.  It is not large - one big room - so there's not a lot of detail and several missing bands.  Craig was disappointed (if unsurprised) that Dire Straits did not make the cut, but even Led Zeppelin was reduced to one artifact (one of Jimmy Page's shirts), and Sting/Police are nowhere to be found.  The highlight is the end, where they have several instruments (electric drum sets and real guitars) with recorded lessons from modern pop acts that teach you how to play along with their songs.

Finally (at least for this visit): the World Museum of Liverpool, located in a grand old building.  It is the most vertical museum  in town, spanning 5 floors including a planetarium and an aquarium (but perhaps it's not big enough to rate a separate entry in the "Aquarium List").  And of course, being a British museum, it houses large numbers of Egyptian artifacts including some very well-preserved mummies.  Of course, there is no mention of culture theft, even beside the displayed letter from an English Egyptologist unironically telling the story of  how he and his crew "rescued a site from plunderers."