A Kingdom of Heaven!!

A View from Sterling Castle......

Yes, I'm talking about Scotland. Hopefully, this will be my last blog of the year and it would be unfair on my part if I don't write anything about this lovely country. Well this opportunity came as a surprise to me, when I was in Edinburgh last week on business. The original plan was to spend the whole week in Edinburgh. This was my second visit to this historic city, but it looked very different this time. The whole princes street was transformed in to Christmas wonder land, like a mela out there. There were food, mulled wines, Scotch, Ice skating, Joy rides and many more. One such ride was the wave swinger, which attracted my attention. It was not something I haven't seen before, but as I heard the kids screaming, it had generated an unusual curiosity in me. And with no further hesitation, I took a ride. I love being a kid sometimes. The feeling of being a kid is great and wonderful. For few moment, I felt on the top of the world.Oh so fresh! relaxing !! That's what you want, ain't you? After spending two days in Edinburgh,I decided to take a short bus tours to the highlands. And believe me, this was such a wonderful experience, nothing could bring such tranquility after a series of chaotic and frenzied moments of past few months of my life. This was absolutely fantastic. Every part of the Highland is so pristine that it felt like, I'm in an unexplored piece of land. People call it a wasteland, as no one lives here, but believe me the God lives here. Even the winter storm failed to bring down the eternal serenity of these rugged mountains. The snow showered mountains look like the Santa Clause sitting obstinately wearing a white cap and beards eagerly to welcome the X-mas. I regretted for not bringing my Camera along and Iphone was of little help to capture only a glimpse of it. Nevertheless, the views were unforgettable. We often get so caught up with our desire to record and capture every experience that we forget to enjoy and live our experience.

So, quickly after I finished my work on 20th Dec, I book a tour for next day to Western Highlands and the Loch ness. But, to my misfortune, I overslept and missed the Bus. So, the tour guys offered me an alternate tour for next day, but this tour was to sterling and the Loch Lomand. This was more about the History of Scotland, the Stuarts, Roberts the Bruce and remember the William Wallace from Brave heart and Rob Roy. Sterling castle was great vantage point for the Scots, as strategically it is located at the border of highlands and the lowlands. Many great battles were fought here between the English and the Scots. The Scots take a great pride in it, as this is the place where they defeated the mighty English several times in the past. And William Wallace was the 13th Century war hero, who brought freedom to his country. Rob Roy was another character, who lived here and also a local hero like William Wallace. Rob Roy was like a half Robin hood, who looted the riches but never distributed them to the poor. Anyways, the Castle is not that great, but is historically very important.

Next, I headed towards Loch Lomand. The beauty of Loch Lomand was actually holding the clue for the highlands, what could be more stunning if go further into the western highlands. Along the way, I came across the only lake of Scotland called lake Menteith. If you surprised, this is the truth. This could be nice a pub quiz, '' How many lakes Scotland has? '' . Only one ! As every other lake is actually a Loch. In Scottish native language Gaelic a lake is actually a ''Lock''. As Menteith is the guy who betrayed the Scottish and joined hands with the English to help catch and execute William Wallace in the 13th century. To remember this betrayal, the Scots named it as lake Menteith, which is a English name. So, Imagine how much the Scottish hated the English.This trip was actually ended at the Loch Lomad, but I was so intrigued by the stunning beauty of these rugged mountain range that, I wanted to measure the whole nine yards now. So, the next day I decided to took another tour to the Western highlands up to Inverness via Fort Williams.

The best part of the tour was my tour guides Neil and Liam. Everything I'm writing here also partly borrowed from their Fairy tells. So, expect like every fairy tell is a bit of lie. And the other misconception was, there are no goats in Scotland. I saw some wild Goats in the highlands. But, there are more Sheep. In fact, in Scotland there are 12 million Sheep and only 6 million people. So, the ration is 2:1, one to keep and one to eat. There are no real predators in Scotland. So, we have to eat lamb to keep the life cycle going. Anyways the driveway to the Inverness via Fort Williams was really Scenic. At Fort William, I got a glimpse of Ben Nevis, which I wanted to scale this winter. My Guide told me some bizarre stories about Ben Nevis, how once a Canadian tourist rescued twice while hiking The Ben Nevis. But, it looked scary in the extreme weather conditions during this time of the year. So, from here actually we drove along the Great Glen Fault. Great Glen Fault is a strike slip fault and is a St. Andreas version of UK. If you are interested in knowing, how these mountain ranges and the the Great Glen fault, I recommend to watch the History channel documentary series, '' How the Earth was made ''. It is actually far more interesting geologically than you can imagine. Even my guide is not that poor in Geology. I guess, that is the only similarity between them (the tour guide and an Geologist), both tell good fairy tells. And every fairy tell is a bit of lie...

In Gaelic, Ben means mountain and a glen means a valley. So, we followed the great glen fault to reach the monster. Yes, the Lochness. Unfortunately, the weather was not very friendy to allow me to take a boat trip across this Loch, which is about 23 miles long, but I'm ready to wait until next visit.

By and large, I really enjoyed these few days out of my one month vacation. Before I end, there are few facts about Scotland, in case you don't know:

1. Scotland is the Birth Place of ''Golf''
2. Iron Brue is the Number one sift drink of Scotland, not Coca-Cola. They say, it kills the Hangover.. Well who knows better than the Scots or the Scotchs...
3. Kilt is the traditional wearing of Scotland. If you don't know, nothing is worn beneath their Skirt/Kilt. So, it's for ladies to check!!!
4. And don't forget to taste some Haggis, a Scottish national dish from the Heart, liver and lungs of Sheep. The other famous dishes are Fish n Chips and Cullen Skink.