Tag Archives: United Kingdom

Essex

Andreas needed to go to LA for ten days to visit his family. While he was gone, Alekka and I rented a car and did some exploring. Our friend Katie in London mentioned that there was a nice little folk festival coming … Continue reading

Posted in UK | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

College spring break

You know the kind of vacation where you’re more worn out when you get home than when you left? That’s the kind we just had. But it was productive. Alekka has a much better idea now of which schools she … Continue reading

Posted in Elsewhere, Family | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

So long and thanks for all the fish

The last two days of our summer vacation were given over to a shop-til-we-drop London scavenger hunt. The list of required items was long and varied. We split it in half and raced separately around the city in search of … Continue reading

Posted in Elsewhere, Expat experience | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Glasgow

We had planned to visit the whisky isles – Jura and Islay – but after our last day on Mull, we thought that anything else we might do in the islands couldn’t compare with our trip to Staffa and Lunga. … Continue reading

Posted in Elsewhere | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Don’t let a little Cullen skink scare you

Scottish cuisine gets an undeservedly bad rap. Everyone likes to poke fun at haggis (see the video clip in this post from my old food blog if you’re into haggis humor). But the great chieftain of the pudding race gets … Continue reading

Posted in Elsewhere, Food | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Staffa and Treshnish

Wow. We’ve seen some great stuff on this trip, but this really puts a bow on it. We booked a daytrip to Staffa and Treshnish through Turus Mara. A little bus picked us up at Salen’s village center and delivered … Continue reading

Posted in Elsewhere, Islands | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Iona

Today we took a boat from Mull to the even smaller island of Iona. Iona was a hopping center of Celtic Christianity back in the day. St. Columba arrived there with twelve of his Irish buddies in the year 503. … Continue reading

Posted in Elsewhere, Islands | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Mulling it over

Sorry. I know my titles get pretty cheesy sometimes. We spent last night in Oban, then this morning made the short crossing by ferry to the Isle of Mull. We dropped our bags off at a B&B in Salen, and … Continue reading

Posted in Elsewhere, Islands | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Mucking about

Today we took the long way back from Rum. Most days of the week there is a ferry that goes from one small isle to another, but on summer Saturdays there is a ferry that starts on the mainland and … Continue reading

Posted in Elsewhere, Islands | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Midges and magnates

This morning we took the the ferry from Ardvasar to Mallaig, on the mainland. There we boarded another ferry that took us to Rum, the largest in a group of four islands called “the small isles.” Rum has plenty of … Continue reading

Posted in Elsewhere, Islands | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment