May 27 Day 20
We finally made it to Scotland! I have never been this far north on land before. THe sun sets around 9:45 PM and rises at 4:45 AM. It is beautiful and green here. No wonder, we drove through a driving rainstorm that made umbrellas useless. Thankfully, we stayed dry for the most part in the car, but it made driving a bit treacherous. Before we entered Scotland, at the northern frontier of England, we encountered Hadrian's wall. Hadrian was a Roman emperor who, in about 130 AD ordered this wall built to help keep out the Celtic people to the north. The wall was about three feet wide and twelve-fifteen feet high. It ran from the east coast to the west coast. OVer the centuries, the stones on the wall were uses as ready-available building material for castles, homes, etc., so little of the wall remains today except in certain sections. We saw a pretty good section that cuts across farms and the countryside for several miles. It is only about 4 feet high at this point, but you could see how well it was constructed.
Hadrian's WallWe are staying at The Wee House, a small cottage on the edge of a golf course (golf was invented in Scotland!) in Muthill, near Crieff. IT is centrally located betweed Edinburgh and the Highlands. We are enjoying our beautiful country view here. THis has seemed to be our pattern for choices of lodging. Much more relaxing than staying in a city, even though that means a little more driving. It was fun going to the supermarket to get some groceries. Everyone sounds like Desmond Hume (a character from "Lost", for those of you who don't follow that). Some people's accent is thicker than others and is hard to understand, others are more subdued and you can tell that they have spent some time in the south. We're looking forward to spending several days up here.
The view from the Wee House
The view from the Wee House