November

Bronx River Trail

On the first weekend in November, we ventured north, to the border of Westchester County in the Bronx, to ramble the Bronx River Trail.  We started at Muskrat Cove and almost made it the full 9.5 miles before heading towards the nearest subway at Bruckner Blvd, just north of where the Bronx River joins the East River, due to waning daylight and no clear path across the rather busy expressway. The ramble was mostly disappointing as it's not very well marked (hence our early departure), still under construction in parts (which caused us to miss "one of the most striking features...the roaring waterfalls at River Park"), and not terribly picturesque due to all the litter.

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon inflation

Moving on towards the end of the month, our Thanksgiving celebrations began on Wednesday night when we ventured over to the Upper West Side to watch the balloons get prepped for the next day's parade.  We wound up missing the actual parade on Thursday morning but still had a lovely day, leisurely wandering down to our restaurant in the Financial District.  We had such a great time stuffing ourselves full of salmon, beef and turkey that we completely forgot about giving thanks.  Though we didn't think to take a moment over dinner to give thanks, we are of course thankful that we were able to stuff ourselves full of salmon, beef and turkey.

Sleepy Hollow, Old Croton Aqueduct trail

We rambled the rest of November away, venturing north to Sleepy Hollow to walk the Old Croton Aqueduct trail and out to Queens to visit the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge.

Westchester County, from Tarrytown to Irvington, was just lovely.  The people were super friendly, the towns we passed through were super charming, and the vibe was super artsy (craft ales, art house theater, etc.). We can't wait to venture back up to Tarrytown again, this time heading north to the Rockefeller State Park Preserve and beyond.

Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge

The Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge was disappointing.  The refuge itself was hit rather hard by Superstorm Sandy and parts of the main loop trail were completely washed away.  Though the view of Manhattan was rather interesting, the views in the other directions were dismal at best, with a lot of orange construction tape in the bay on one side and JFK airport on the other. Overall, I couldn't believe this was actually a national park. We went to a similar arrangement in Mallorca, the S'Albufera Natural Park, which was exponentially more impressive in regards to the facilities alone. One would expect a national park in New York City to be better maintained than a similar situation on a small island in the Mediterranean, far from any major city. Very disappointing.

Lyndhurst, Westchester County

As we wrap up November and begin the final days of 2013, we'd like to wish everyone a belated Happy Thanksgiving, a delayed Happy Hanukkah and a preemptive Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Happiness and good health for all!

October Travels

Our October was filled with travel.  The fall colors have been particularly intriguing to us and we're doing our best to see them before they're gone.  Beyond the changing leaves, the weather has proved very interesting as well.  The month couldn't decide if it was summer or fall, which caused much confusion for the locals.  It'd be 70 degrees (F) and you'd have people commuting to work in their winter coat, boots and scarves because the day before was in the 40s.  Poor confused locals. Mike & I, for our part, are doing just the opposite.  Holding tightly to summer, we're the ones wearing short sleeves and sandals when it's 40 degrees out.  We're awesome.

Bear Mountain Oktoberfest

Our first trip of the month was up to Bear Mountain for their Oktoberfest celebration.  We took the bus up early one Saturday morning, hiked to the top and then celebrated upon our return to the base with some delicious beer and brats.  Bear Mountain is gorgeous and it was such a fun day out.  Definitely a highlight and something I'd definitely like to do again.  If we were staying, this would be an annual trip.

Watkins Glen State Park

Our next trip was up to the Finger Lakes region for Columbus Day weekend.  We were particularly interested in Watkins Glen state park.  We had seen a picture of this park on the subway, as part of the NY tourism campaign, and were so enamored we immediately began making plans to check it out.  It was as amazing in person as advertised.

Ithaca Falls

We stayed in Bath, just south of Keuka Lake. Though we didn't have a chance to explore Keuka Lake at all, we did enjoy roadtripping around Seneca and Cayuga Lakes. We also had a chance to explore Ithaca and the beautiful Cornell University campus.

The Finger Lakes region is well known for its wineries but we didn't have the opportunity to check any of them out. Since we were driving, and the wineries were charging for tastings, we opted against investigating this aspect of the region.  Hot tip: not one of the many wineries we visited in the Sonoma region of California charged tasting fees.  They're samples, folks. One shouldn't charge for samples.  Nor, for that matter, should one be willing to pay for samples.  Greedy vintners.

1999 (left) and 2013

On our return drive from the Finger Lakes we noticed we would be traveling very near where we had honeymooned back in June 1999. Thus, we made a slight detour.  It was fun returning to the area and discovering that our memories were surprisingly accurate.

Oyster Bay, Long Island

Our final trip of the month was out to Oyster Bay on Long Island for the Oyster Festival. Oyster Bay is beautiful and, although it was a relatively short distance from Manhattan, felt like a world away.  It was such a great way to spend one of the last summer like days of the year.

Urban Camping

Marine Park, Brooklyn

Summer is quickly becoming our favorite season here in New York City.  Overlooking the constant and intrusive smell of urine, and even with the suffocating humidity, New York City is really coming alive right now and our calendar is just filled to capacity with all the free cultural events and outdoor activities on offer.  From outdoor movies and concerts to kayaking on the Hudson, the free activities are vast and plentiful and we're doing our best to experience them all.

Nature hike

One of the highlights of this summer will no doubt be last weekend's urban camping adventure.  New York City Parks and Recreation has this great Urban Park Rangers program which I just stumbled upon because, much like Coney Island, the coolest things occurring in this city are well kept secrets.  The Urban Park Rangers program offers many free, ranger led activities, including canoeing and birding, and this past weekend we got to participate in the family camping component.

The family camping program is designed to expose city kids and families to the experience of camping and occurs in city parks throughout the five boroughs of New York.  Our urban camping experience took place at Salt Marsh Nature Center in Marine Park in Brooklyn.

making s'mores

The program was supposed to begin at 6pm on Saturday night but our subway train was delayed and we didn't get there until 7pm.  Luckily, they waited for us before beginning (the whole night was really friendly and welcoming like that) with a couple of ice breakers for the group of twenty one (though another family of four did join us later in the evening).  After learning everyone's names, we headed out on a ranger led nature hike through the marsh (with ranger-provided binoculars for everyone), including a stop at an osprey nest with three chicks and two very protective parents.  We got back to camp and set-up our ranger-provided tents and had a dinner of ranger-provided MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) before heading out on another, much shorter, night hike to hear the sounds of the night creatures whilst allowing the rangers back at camp the opportunity to set up for s'mores.

Salt Marsh Nature Center (our campsite)

Bedtime was called at around 11pm but the nature center was left open for private use throughout the night.  We were woken up at around 6am the next morning, packed up camp and were home by 8am.  The whole experience only cost us the $2.50 subway ride (each way, per person) and allowed us the opportunity to camp again without having to re-outfit ourselves nor rent a car.  What a great program and what a memorable experience!

Mike & I hope to do at least one more of these family camping nights before the summer is over.  The registration process is via lottery and, though this one was under-subscribed, I get the feeling that's probably not the case for all of them.  If it turns out the program is as popular as it should be then we'll consider ourselves very lucky to have gotten in on our first try.  We had a great time.  Also, those MREs are really quite tasty.

Mid-March Update

Here we sit.  It's now March 14 and we don't have much to show for it.  We're still both unemployed.  As I suspected, I failed at my first attempt at my dream job.  Luckily, they saw my potential and offered me the opportunity to interview for another position within the organization.  I had my final interview for that position this past Monday.  Sadly, I won't know if I succeeded this time until next week.  Preliminary reports say I 'interviewed very well' so I'm cautiously optimistic.  Mike's had no luck whatsoever though.  Poor guy.

Brooklyn side of the Williamsburg Bridge

We're continuing to explore our city on foot to help fill our days.  We just discovered that there is pedestrian access on more than just the Brooklyn Bridge so we've decided to walk across all the bridges.  We started this past weekend with the Williamsburg Bridge.  With fewer people than the Brooklyn Bridge, and separate paths for bikes and pedestrians, it made for a much nicer walk across the East River.  It's also somewhat protected from the elements and has the added bonus of being used for the J train.  The pedestrian and bike paths are above the car and train traffic so you get to watch trains pass below you while walking across the river. I thought that was fun.

Bumping into a friend from London in the LES

While walking from Chelsea to the Lower East Side for our Williamsburg Bridge walk this past Sunday afternoon we bumped into a friend from London.  We're just walking down Bowery when someone yells my name.  It was so awesome!  Seriously, what are the odds?

This has happened to me once before though.  We were in Washington DC in 2008, staying at a small B&B in Columbia Heights, when one of the few people also staying there turns out to be someone I went to high school (or junior high) with back in Utah.  Crazy how small this world is, right?!

Anyway, that makes two friends from London and zero friends from the US.  I'm not sure why that's something I'm keeping track of.  I just find it interesting.

Hopefully next week brings good news for our family.  We need some good news.

Bring On March

Our second month in New York City is coming to an end and, unfortunately, both Mike & I are still unemployed. My temporary assignment, though meant to be long-term, was not what I was looking for so, in my infinite wisdom, I quit. My thought process was that being unemployed would be better than working somewhere that wasn't my ideal. Well, this is week two of unemployment with no other job on the horizon. Well played.

Mike did have one interview we thought went well but it's been over a week and he hasn't heard anything yet.  I had four interviews at my dream organization, the last one just this past Friday, but I haven't heard anything since and my pessimism is setting in.  Mike did get a short-term gig by exploiting a connection he made whilst in London.  He's spent the last couple days helping to set up an exhibition at a Chelsea gallery.  Otherwise, the job hunt continues.

Mike's art in our flat

We've extended the lease at our current apartment until July.  We're really loving our neighborhood and, though we hope to never live in a basement again, we're really enjoying our flat.  We do dream of living a couple floors up in a one bedroom in the East Village though.

Williamsburg Bridge, East River

Since we have so much free time, we're spending a lot of time walking around the city.  We prefer the East River over the Hudson, though both are attractive.  The East River has lovely bridges whilst our part of the Hudson has views of New Jersey and the Statue of Liberty.  As previously mentioned, we like the East Village more than our current area but that might just be a 'grass is greener' mentality.  Honestly, we haven't encountered a neighborhood we wouldn't enjoy living in.

Steve (from London) and me
The High Line

Unlike our move to the UK, where we didn't get our first US visitor until the tail-end of our 2+ years there, we had our first UK visitor here in early February.  Our good friend from London was here for business and we were able to spend an entire Saturday with him, definitely one of the highlights from February.

Happily, February has been more fruitful than January was and, though we have no employment prospects and our savings is dwindling, we're rather calm about the whole thing.  When the boredom isn't affecting us, we're rather happy and in good spirits.  Who knew unemployment and poverty could be so enjoyable?

August Wrap Up

the view from my office's rooftop terrace
in Trafalgar Square

August was a great month for us!  We're really adapting quite well to London and we're having a great time! Our flat is working out quite well, even with the super crap futon we're sleeping on.  If these last two years have done anything they have made us very flexible when it comes to our sleeping arrangements.

August brought us lovely weather, steady income, and increased fortunes.  Thanks to our Yelp events, we're finding our social calendar quite full, which is a huge change from our recent solitary existence in Dundee.  I'm probably the most friendly and social I've ever been.  It's weird.  I'm not sure if this is a permanent change or just a blip but I'm having fun and meeting some great people so we'll see how it plays out.  Maybe London Desi is Friendly Desi?  I hope London Desi is also Less Embarrassing Desi because I could really do with a little less of that.  I'd also like London Desi to be More Articulate Desi because all that solitary living up north has left me with an inability to convey any coherent ideas verbally.  I'm really just a big ball of beeps and ticks at this point.  I usually give up trying to convey any ideas mid-attempt, which actually goes against my hope for Less Embarrassing Desi because beeping and ticking whilst conversing is actually just as embarrassing as it sounds.

We started investigating alternative commuting methods.  We've been commuting via bus, mostly because it's cheaper than via tube but it's also more convenient.  But, with the nice weather we gave the Boris Bikes a try.  Riding a bike in London is almost as heavenly as it was in The Netherlands and definitely not as bad as the war zone that is Seattle.  I have no idea how I used to commute via bike in Seattle.  Those drivers are actively out to get you (I had one actually stop and get out of his car, like he was going to fight me...for riding my bike).  Walking back home along the north bank of the Thames was also fun for a few evenings.  We'll probably wind up sticking with the bus, especially when the weather turns, but it's nice to know we have so many options.

Surrey Docks City Farm

We didn't travel anywhere in August but we did ramble along the Thames.  We didn't get farther east than Greenwich but we did discover a lovely city farm with goats and chickens and pigs (oh my).  We also experienced one of our most magical evenings, watching 'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel' in a courtyard in Covent Garden with Bollywood dancers pre-show and free drinks and popcorn.  We also got to go to the industry screening of 'Great Expectations' in Leicester Square (where all the London premiers take place) where the director, Mike Newell, actually spoke to the crowd.

Bollywood dancers

Although August was a great month, September is already shaping up to be an improvement upon it, which is hard to believe but totally appreciated.  It's also hard to believe we've already been in London for two full months but, at the same time, it's hard to believe it hasn't been longer.  As expected, our time in Dundee is already fading from memory and being replaced almost entirely by pleasant London ones.  September will hopefully continue that trend.

Is This Summer?

We have been enjoying summer-like weather for a week now.  It's rare to have a solid week of lovely weather and all of Britain is making the most of this phenomenon.

Yesterday Mike & I walked along the Tay for 5 miles, to the beach in Broughty Ferry.  We haven't returned since our first visit, back in August 2010, mostly because there hasn't been a nice enough day to entice us.  Luckily, we've now had the good fortune to see the Dundonians at play and it made for some interesting people watching.

We spent hours watching the Dundonians on the beach and, before yesterday, I'd never seen anyone walking on a beach whilst wearing socks. Shoes and socks, sure.  Just shoes, okay.  But, socks no shoes?  Like sleeveless t-shirts tucked into denim short shorts, that's apparently the style in these parts.  Similarly, I'd never seen a stroller on the beach before yesterday.  I'm not sure what others do with their kids; I've never really paid any attention before.  All I know is that seeing a whole lot of strollers being pushed on the sand appeared bizarre to me.

After enjoying the people watching at the beach we headed back home where we realised we had actually become sunburned.  Are we in Mallorca?

Today, although burned and tired from our 10-mile walk yesterday, we still wanted to enjoy the lovely day so we headed back down to the Tay where we saw sunbathing sea lions (or seals, I don't know the difference).  We sat on the river wall for a bit, enjoying their company, before heading back home.

Knowing this fine weather won't last, we're trying to make the most of it and appreciate it while it's here.  At the same time, we wouldn't mind living where this kind of weather is known as summer rather than a phenomenon.

Epic Fail

We spent this past weekend in Inverness thanks to our Sainsbury's vouchers.  On Saturday morning, we grabbed the 9AM train and were in Inverness by noon.  Upon arrival, we immediately dropped our bags off at our hostel, where we'd be spending Saturday night, and began exploring the area.  Inverness is super cute and, like everywhere else in Scotland that we've visited, we liked it tons more than our own town.  Dundee is a shit hole.

Ness Islands trail

We decided, because of our late start, we would stick around Inverness for the day and explore Loch Ness on Sunday.  We headed west along the River Ness to explore the Ness Islands (lovely), with the intention of walking the first part of the Great Glen Way, a 117km walking trail from Inverness to Fort William.  Unfortunately, due to our late start and stopping for a meal, we didn't quite make it as far as we'd hoped before we had to turn back.

The part of the walk we experienced wasn't terribly exciting though.  There were no amazing views or great scenery.  Apparently, 'the capital of the Highlands' is a misnomer because Inverness isn't in the Highlands.  It's pretty though but that really isn't a replacement for what we had expected.

Great Glen Way

Our first night was spent uneventfully and we awoke on Sunday morning psyched for our day at Loch Ness.  Though we had originally hoped to get to Foyers on the east coast, for their legendary falls, no buses run to Foyers on the weekend, at least not during low season, so we were heading to the west coast of Loch Ness, to Urquhart Castle, as our Plan B.  Unfortunately, when we got to the bus station to buy our tickets, we were told the schedule we were using to plan our whole day was out of date and that there were actually no public buses running to Urquhart Castle, or anywhere along Loch Ness.  There was, however, a private tour company operating an all day tour for £27 per person that we could purchase.  We were screwed.

River Ness

Inverness is cute when just passing through but trying to kill a whole weekend in that small town proved difficult.  Saturday had been fun because we didn't expect to spend any additional time there.  Stranded for another whole day, Inverness quickly loses its charm.  Any shops or restaurants that were going to open on Sunday (not many) weren't opening until noon, leaving us with a few hours to kill before we could get a drink or go shopping.  We were bored out of our minds and it wasn't even 11AM.

We rallied as best we could and decided to take the scenic train route, via Aberdeen, home.  We jumped on the 3:30pm train and were enjoying ourselves until Elgin when we lost our seats to an old man claiming to be disabled (we were sitting in the priority seats).  The train was full and we wound up in the doors for 1.5 hours, without much of a view or comfortable seats.  By the time we were back in normal seats it was dark and the 'scenic' part of our train ride had passed.

I'd been having a pretty tough week, even before this weekend's epic fail, so I was absolutely broken by the time we got home, around 7pm Sunday night.  The whole purpose of spending a weekend in Inverness was to explore Loch Ness and we left without having even seen it, or much else.

November

Not much to report for the month of November.  Stateside, our Seattle house should close early next week.  We had to short sell, which wasn't ideal but, with our reduced circumstances, necessary.  Although we'll miss our first house, we're actually thrilled to be rid of it.  We're still going through a period of shedding adult responsibilities and living simply with the goal of no monthly payments and no financial responsibilities.  Of course, we still have council tax, rent, mobiles, and internet, and probably always will, but nothing we can't just walk away from.  We have a bit more Stateside debt to shed before we're where we want to be but soon we'll begin to resemble the financially carefree souls we were in our youth (but, hopefully, a bit wiser).

On this side of the pond, November proved to be relatively quiet.  We didn't do anything for bonfire night (Guy Fawkes Night, 5 Nov) nor the Christmas lighting celebration in the city centre this past Friday.  We did, however, venture out for the NEoN Digital Arts Festival where we enjoyed a PechaKucha night and I got to volunteer as a photographer at the debating event.  We also headed out to explore Blair Atholl and Glen Tilt for our November ramble.

As we were reminded recently, last week was Thanksgiving back in the States.  We haven't started celebrating American holidays over here yet and, consequently, it almost completely went unnoticed.  Celebrating American holidays abroad is perhaps something people do when they have children or a larger ex-pat community or perhaps if they're longing for 'home' but, since we're none of the above, we haven't yet felt the need to export any of those celebrations or traditions.  Besides, Thanksgiving is kind of a bullshit holiday.

Forgetting the bullshit origin stories about the harvest or pilgrims and indians and just looking at what Thanksgiving has become, I get that it provides a chance to give thanks and blah blah blah but doesn't the existence of a day to give thanks allow for the option to not give thanks the rest of the year?  Shouldn't one always be giving thanks?  Like the signs I see on public transportation labelling a few seats as priority for the disabled or pregnant; shouldn't all seats be priority seats?  Shouldn't everyone be empowered to offer their seat to anyone who might need it?  The existence of those signs seemingly absolves those sitting elsewhere of the moral obligation to offer their seat when necessary.  I reject the idea that being nice requires a sign or a holiday.  Just be nice.

If you did celebrate Thanksgiving, however, we hope you had a happy one.  And, if you didn't, we hope you enjoyed your Thursday.

October

Whitelees Windfarm

October has seemingly flown by.  We started it off with a trip to Glasgow and ended it with the same.  We're spending a lot of time in Glasgow.  Desi has been finding herself there on business for a day every other week or so and this past week she got to stay for the whole week, staying in a fancy, modern hotel on the company dime just like old times (ish).

As part of her new hire induction programme she spent the latter part of this past week visiting existing economic development projects, including Whitelees Windfarm and Loch Lomond Shores, and some tourist sites, like Dean Castle and Country Park.  Mike joined her in Glasgow on Thursday night, spending Friday on his own visiting galleries and museums until Desi was able to join him.

Loch Lomond

In between trips to Glasgow, we spent October exploring other areas of Scotland still new to us; we rambled the Knock of Crieff and explored the Pitlochry area.  We've gotten a bit carried away with our rambles though and will be cutting them back to just once a month, as we did last year, but both towns were a lot of fun and very pretty and we're looking forward to our next ramble, in mid-November.

Black Spout, outside Pitlochry

Dundee is currently host to both a Literary Festival and Science Festival and next week we have a Digital Arts Festival to look forward to.  In fact, including the Oktoberfest celebrations from earlier this month, we've been kept very busy this month with all these festivals and we're having a great time.  We're going out with friends, participating in cultural events, seeing the country, and enjoying ourselves immensely.  October has been a great month!

Spring Ramble

Dundee in the distance

We decided to stay close to home for our March ramble.  We've been wanting to walk across the Tay Road Bridge since August, which is just down from Dundee's city centre area.  Today we made the journey.

The bridge is 1.4 miles long and has a dedicated pedestrian/bike path down its centre.  On the south side of the Tay is a cute little car park with a 'kiosk' where we purchased supplies for an impromptu picnic on the green before heading back towards Dundee.

Newport on Tay

Our walk only took about 3 hours and was super low effort.  We had been concerned about possible wind and cold in the middle of the Tay but the weather wound up being lovely throughout our walk.  There was really no traffic noise or debris from the passing cars, either.  The pedestrian path, besides being a bit narrow, is actually very well suited for a leisurely stroll.

In Like A Lion

Wild flowers

We experienced some lovely spring weather this past week, with warm and sunny days and wild flowers beginning to bloom.  Hoping this meant winter was finally behind us we were looking forward to this weekend for our March ramble, our first spring ramble in Scotland.  Unfortunately, the weather turned on Friday and we've had snow mixed with rain ever since.

Although the temperatures have stayed above freezing, so there is no accumulation on the ground, we are nonetheless deterred from rambling this weekend.  After the lovely weather we experienced on our February ramble, we have no interest in returning to January ramble temperatures two months later.  There should be some progression.

A lovely spring-like morning

Thus, rather than a traditional ramble yesterday, we found ourselves wandering about the city centre.  Mike wanted to try paella so we headed out into the elements for some ingredients.  What we thought was going to be a quick trip turned into a lovely afternoon of window shopping and city rambling.

Desi, as yet unimpressed by the High Street stores, actually found a couple clothing stores she might like to return to, New Look and a cute boutique in the Wellgate unfortunately called Zion: A Star Is Born.  We also stopped into Currys for a quick look at future electronics purchases, we need a new external hard drive and are still looking for a better way to digitally store and play our music, and wound up having a great conversation about new technology with a salesman there.  Upon returning home, Mike made an amazing paella dinner, which we will definitely be adding into our rotation.

Although spring's not quite here, if this week's spring weather teaser was any indication, we expect it will be our favourite season in Scotland and we look forward to the opportunity to ramble in its loveliness.  Until then, Mike's paella and window shopping appears to be a pleasant diversion.

Newburgh to Abernethy

We found our February ramble, Newburgh to Abernethy, online at http://walking.visitscotland.com/.  We started this morning around 10:30 am with a bus ride from Dundee to Newburgh, via Perth.  We arrived in Newburgh before noon and were home by 4:00 pm.  Although this was a short, scenic walk with no real elevation gain, we thought the day worked out perfectly and we're happy we ventured out.

Because our walk started near the town entrance, we didn't get to see much of Newburgh's city centre.  But, we did have a fun little exchange with a publican and some locals upon disembarking the bus.

We asked the publican, sweeping the pavement outside his pub, where the path to Abernethy could be found.  He pulled two locals into the conversation and they all agreed that the path along the water 'only goes so far' so we were instructed to take the path up the hill instead.

Although we were pretty sure the walk we found online said something about walking along the river, we decided to take the locals' advice and headed up the hill.

This higher path greeted us with wonderful views of the surrounding area and introduced us to our first proper 'right of way' experience which included passing through several gates marked 'private property' and being constantly afraid we were doing something wrong.  The occasional signs confirming our right to be there helped ease our fears and, upon exiting the trail, we were met by a couple of locals inquiring about the state of the 'right of way', reassuring us even further.  We advised the locals that it was a bit wet and muddy and they said, 'that's no good.'  We assured them though that we still had fun and that we considered it an adventure, which they seemed to think was pretty funny.

Lunch in Abernethy

Upon our arrival in Abernethy, and with an hour to kill before our bus back to Perth arrived, we wandered through the cute little town and found an adorable little inn where we decided to grab a pint and something to eat.  Coincidentally, our 'right of way' friends were dining at the same inn and we had a chance to talk with them a bit more.  They told us walking in Scotland requires the right gear and, upon seeing Desi's heelless Earth shoes, advised her that some wellies and a nice wool hat would be better.  Good advice indeed.

Braan Walk

waterfall on the River Braan

Yesterday we ventured north-west into Perthshire for our first ramble of the new year.  We selected the Braan Walk for this occasion due to its close proximity to Dundee and also because it was one of the few walks we've found in our Scotland walking book with a recommended time of year as January/February for the waterfalls and snowdrops.

Bridge to Dunkeld from Birnam
over the River Tay

Our ramble started from Dunkeld & Birnam train station, which is actually only about 40 minutes away from Dundee but, due to our layover at Perth train station, wound up taking us closer to two hours one way.  Regardless, we arrived in Birnam before noon, walked into the tiny town for a coffee, and then set off on our ramble.

We began by walking along the River Tay and then branching off along the River Braan into the Hermitage.  The scenery we encountered was beautiful, reminding us quite a bit of the Pacific Northwest.

The Hermitage

The weather was chilly, probably warming to only about 1 or 2 degrees Celsius, but did not prove to be too much of a problem.  On the other hand, the snow and ice, and especially the ice, did prove challenging, adding a bit of excitement and comedy to an otherwise serene adventure.  Next time though we'll remember to bring extra pairs of socks and wear more weather appropriate shoes.  Scotland is a year round rambling destination only if the correct kit has been selected.

River Braan

The ramble was about 6 miles long with barely any elevation gain.  We started our walk around noon and ended around 4PM.  We saw several small and lovely waterfalls along the river but, besides seeing evidence of deer and/or rabbits, we had no wildlife sightings beyond a red squirrel.

On The Road Again

This past weekend we rented a car for some good old fashioned road-tripping.  We were a bit worried about driving on the right side of the car and on the left side of the road but we were excited about experiencing this aspect of UK culture.

We had planned to spend Saturday touring Speyside distilleries but during our planning we found most of them would be closed for the winter (or at least no longer offering weekend hours).  Undeterred, we headed north to Dufftown to tour Glenfiddich, one of the few distilleries still offering weekend hours and the only distillery we really wanted to see anyway.

Dufftown

The scenery up north was beautiful and we were able to experience a lot of the picturesque side roads coach travelling does not allow.

View from the road

On Sunday we had planned to visit the modern engineering marvel that is The Falkirk Wheel.  Sadly, but unsurprisingly, whilst planning this day trip we learnt the wheel would be closed for maintenance during the month of November.  We rationalized, however, that although this closure meant we wouldn't get to take a boat cruise through the wheel we would still be able to tour the grounds surrounding the wheel, which includes Antonine Wall and what's left of a Roman fort (nothing but hilly landscape), visit the museum, and see sights we have not yet seen.  Thus, Sunday morning we headed south to Falkirk.

The Falkirk Wheel

Although the museum and cafe proved wholly unimpressive, the wheel was pretty cool.  We're looking forward to visiting again when its working so we can see it in motion.  The grounds were also very lovely.  We spent a long while wandering Antonine Wall and taking pictures in the lovely landscape.  It was a very nice walk.

Antonine Wall (on the left) and the Roman fort ruins (everything else)

On our way back home we stopped in Airth to see Airth Castle (now a hotel) and The Pineapple, a semi-eerie former Duke's home.  We took the scenic coastal tour back to Dundee, driving through Aberdour, Elie, and St. Andrews before crossing the Tay Road Bridge into Dundee.

Airth Castle Hotel

The Pineapple

It was a lovely weekend of scenery and although everything we attempted to do seemed to be closed we still enjoyed ourselves immensely and would do it again.

By the way, Mike did all of the driving and handled himself like a champ through all the roundabouts and other obstacles the UK road system threw at him.  Even hitting a pheasant on the Fife scenic coastal route didn't break his concentration.  Well done, Mike!