To Float on the Wayward Wind

Among all these posts about my excursions and trips (yes, for those interested, France is coming, if not by this weekend then early next week), I wanted to be sure to put up a post about some of the things I did in London, particularly right before I left for France while my friend was visiting London from Milan, where she is studying. We went to Westminster though it was closed, to the Tower of London, and up the London Eye. She did a lot more but I had some other commitments, like an extraordinary performance of Verdi's  Les vêpres siciliennes ! Also, I was shown around the Greenwich area and university by a wonderful young woman who studies there and works for FIE in London. Westminster Cathedral was an impressive sight from the outside. Of course to get there we also walked by the shadow of Big Ben and the House of Parliament, which was great for photo opportunities and for my friend to be that close to them. It could not have been a nicer day for those kinds of activitie...

My trip to the Scottish Highlands started off on a somewhat gray, drizzly, but pretty morning from Edinburgh up into the fog-shrouded, more drizzly northern regions of Scotland. It began uneventfully with plenty of opportunities for beautiful scenery, and it ended up as a wild adventure! The first major stop was at Glen Coe, a spectacular, legendary place. It is supposed to be beautiful in more clement conditions but as it was it had a sense of mystery to it with the low-hanging clouds and slight fogginess. This is where (or near where) the Campbell clan executed (literally) their famous massacre of the other clans as power shifted at the upper echelons of kings and lords in England and Scotland and their allegiances shifted, too. The history is haunting, and the place reflects it. Though the name of the Coe river predates the massacre and even the language, it is often said to be called the "Glen of Weeping" because of all the rivers that run sinuously down it, someti...

For my second day in Scotland I was off to the "Borders." The thing that was somewhat surprising to me about this was that a not insignificant part of the tour was actually back in England. Now I probably should have paid more attention to the "Borders Tour" name on the website, and I probably should have read more closely. Still, it did talk about the "Scottish Borders." Regardless, it was a great trip, with a lively guide who gave us an honest, legitimate, not always touristically propagandized version of Scottish history while still informing us about all the great details of legendary figure like Robert the Bruce. The first stop was Rosslyn Chapel, a very, very old chapel built by one of the great landlords of the region, William Sinclair. Unfortunately, as such things go, he died before it was completed and then the family ran out of money. Thus, it is much smaller than the original ambitious plan, as some of the seemingly random outside walls de...