Semester in Scotland: May 2008

During the second week of Easter Break, my mum came to visit and we spent 5 days driving around Scotland. Literally, 5 days of serious driving. Well, Mom drove and I navigated. Thankfully, I'd had some practice navigating for Zack or else I would've been in way over my head. I still made mistakes, especially prior to understanding the unique British systems of turnabouts, but we usually got where we needed to go without having to turn around too many times. It was a lot of driving, but it meant that we got to see a lot too.

The first day, Tuesday, April 8, we drove from our hotel in Prestwick to St. Andrews, where we walked around, took pictures, had coffee, ate dinner at Bella Italia's, and had tea with my good friends the Stirlings. Then we hit the road headed for our hotel in Pitlochry, about an hour away from St. Andrews. Even though the day had been rainy and overcast, I was still able to take her all around the town and she was able to get some pretty good pictures. I was also glad that she got to meet Jenny and Mark Stirling, who led and hosted my Tuesday evening Bible study and who had been a tremendous encouragement to me over the course of the semester.

Wednesday we drove from Pitlochry, through Aberdeen, up the west coast of Scotland to Tolquhon Castle and then inland to Huntly, where we saw Huntly Castle, and then north to Elgin, where we saw the Elgin Cathedral, and on to Nairn, where we stayed the night in a very luxurious hotel. To our surprise, the hotel had upgraded us to a nicer room. That night, we had a fantastic dinner at an Indian restaurant in town, a dinner which put all our other meals for the rest of the trip to shame.

The next day, we left early to drive from Nairn all the way down Loch Ness to Fort Augustus, where we stopped for lunch and a little shopping. Then we drove on through the Ben Nevis Mountain Range to Fort William and on to Glencoe, which was absolutely gorgeous. We were literally stopping every 5 minutes to get out and take more photos. When we finally made it out of the Glencoe Pass, we drove straight to Inverary, where we stayed the night in a very disappointing hotel. In comparison to the hotel and dinner of the night prior, that evening was very depressing. Thankfully we weren't there very long because we left early the next morning.

The next day was Friday and we drove the rest of the way through Scotland on our way to northern England. We drove west through Ayr and along the southwest coast to Stranraer, where we stopped for a quick lunch before driving on towards Dumfries. We went south and stopped in Whithorn, the site of the earliest Christian church in Scotland. Then we drove on to Kirkcudbright (Kir-coo-bray) in search of a specific book series that I had read when I was little: the stories of Katie Morag, a little girl who lived on some Scottish island and had adventures with her two grandmothers. We were successful and bought a small collection of several Katie Morag stories for mom to bring home with her. By this time it was getting late so we drove on to Dumfries for dinner. That evening, we stayed in a Days Inn in Gretna Green, right over the border in England.

Our last full day together was Saturday and we used that day to explore the Lake District of northern England. We drove from Gretna Green to Penrich for a breakfast of porridge, scones, and tea. Then we drove to Windemere, which was one of the cutest towns full of lovely little shops. For lunch, we found an adorable cafe called Lazy Daisy's Lakeland Kitchen. Mom had fish and chips and I had celery soup and bread. Everything was very tasty! Afterwards, we drove on past Lake Windemere and Lake Ullswater, stopping frequently to take pictures of the lovely though rainy lake district. We stopped in Cumbria and Keswick, also really cute towns, as well as Corkermouth and Maryport. We made our way back to Carlisle for dinner before staying one final night in Gretna Green. The next day, Sunday, we drove to Glasgow where I got on the train to St. Andrews and mom caught her plane to Chicago.

In retrospect, we were probably a bit too ambitious with what we planned to cover in 5 short days and considering our inexperience with British roads and driving. But we didn't get into any accidents and we never got too terribly lost! Thanks to the Stirlings' atlas and a measure of grace between the two of us, our adventures driving around Scotland were diverse, memorable, and a lot of fun. We saw so much together and had many hours in the car to just talk and catch up on life.

When I returned to St. Andrews and started telling people about everything that Mom and I did together, I received so many dropped jaws and incredulous looks in response to my stories. They couldn't believe that we'd accomplished so much and that Mom had been so brave to come over on her own and drive so many miles without help! So that's the story of how Mom became the newest legend in St. Andrews (at least within my circle of acquaintance!). Regardless, she's definitely and eternally the biggest legend in my book. Thanks, Mum, for coming over to the UK all by yourself, going through travel "hell" to get to me, driving like crazy for 5 days straight, listening to me talk for hours on end, and still smiling after it all. You ARE a legend and I love you so much.