The family decided on another beach holiday in southern Denmark, specifically Marielyst, close to where we had been two years ago for a few nights. First we spent a few days in Copenhagen where the girls walked aand walked to some of the major sightseeing sites, they then decided that their favorite place to be was the harbor swimming pool where they could jump high or low off a tower.
Near Marielyst was our summerhouse not too far from the beach so the girls managed to swim three times a day; (the adults happily swam once a day in the cold North Sea. The girls busied themselves with art projects, especially painting rocks. They consumed gallons of yogurt that was easily poured from liter cartons and muslei. After ten days, I went to England, the other families met Jim at the airport and then went to Arhus in Jutland. Later they visited relatives and found more beaches..I went to Berwick-upon-Tames to visit friends, Jane and Lars. I had taught English with Jane for many years in Copenhagen.
I flew from Copenhagen to Edinburgh, then took the train south to Berwick where I spent a few days with Jane and Lars. One day we explored the Holy Island which is separated from the mainland by a causeway. One has to be sure to plan ahead or else one might get stuck on the island when the tide is in. It's a lovely peaceful place with a castle, ruins of a priory and a church. We ate delicious crab sandwiches. The permanent residents are fishermen and they also depend on tourism. We spent a day in York visiting a friend and reminiscing about the intense English weekends course on York that Jane and I taught. Another day we took a boat trip from the town on the Tames river out to the ocean. It's a very beautiful old town with a majestic 400 year old bridge. Jaane and Lars know a great deal about the history of the town.
From there I took the train to Inverness in northern Scotland where my friend, Lynda, lives. She is part of the traveling five Chile teacher group, now four with the passing of Glenda. Lynda lives in a lovely cottage, part old and part new. Her daughter with her two teenage sons live in the large country home. It's a beautiful property over looking a loch. We picked plums, then cherries and finished off with blueberries. Lynda has two robots that speed around the property cutting the grass ocasionallly greeting each other. In the kitchen she has boiling water that comes from the faucet. I was impressed.
We went to a Highland Games competition which takes place in August and September. We watched Highland Dancing and listened to bagpipes.There were strength competitions: shot put (a stone weighing 20-26 lbs), hammer throw (metal ball of 2lbs attached to a wooden pole), caber toss (a long pole is lifted up then thrown, jumps, running races, cycle races, kids races. Some of t;he men were very big and strong .It was a fun afternoon.
Another day we took a two-day trip to the northeast stopping in Cullen for Cullen Skink, a cream soup made of potatoes, leeks and smoked haddock.We continued south hoping to see gardens, but they were closed. We went on to the Haddo House where we walked around the very formal gardens. The roads were always very narrow. there were shining fields of cut barley that shimmered golden brown in the sun. in contrast to green fields of potatoes and grass. Towns were small with grey stone buildings. we followed the directions which were quite complicated, turn right, turn left. continue left, then veer right.We couldn't find our hotel inspite of contacting them three times. Somehow we kept missing the illusive road to the village of Lunphanan and the Hotel Macbeth Arms. Finally we made it and were cheered upon our arrival. The next day we visited the Crathes Castle and climbed the forever spiral staircase, then walked in the gardens with their many flowers and plants. On the way home we drove among the hills covered with purple heather, absolutely gorgeous. All in all it was a lovely tour of the Scotish countryside and it was. very nice being with Lynda again.
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