Reflexiones 2024

Friday, August 30, 2024

IN THE NORTH OF THE UK

WE ARRIVED IN EDINBURGH WITH A BLUSTERY LANDING which, at the time, we did not know was a preview of things to come. Just like you see in a YouTube clip about difficult landings, our plane was rocking sideways in the middle of a very dark day, with a cover of black and gray clouds. But our British Airways pilot clearly had done this before because he set the plane down unto the tarmac, like a fly to flypaper.

The airport is old and run down, with the floors worn, the lightbulbs dim, the paint tired, and the shops from the 80s. We waited for our luggage, which came out like a saline dripping solution, one drop at a time, with a bag every six feet or so, in a slow carrousel that stopped several times. When we reached the taxi stand, after pushing our cart up a very steep ramp (much more so than LAX International) we made it to the taxi stand. It had been already one hour and twenty minutes since we had landed.

Then, maybe to increase employment figures, one of two attendants typed out our destination in a machine and told us to wait, along with about 30 or so groups of passengers, all waiting for non-available taxis, that started arriving, one by one, every few minutes apart. Two additional attendants called out the names of the groups of passengers as each taxi arrived, to indicate their boarding area. This took another 25 minutes. We were finally on our way to our BandB, where we arrived with great joy after this curious welcome.

We settled into our apartment, walked to the supermarket, dealt with the carts that needed one-pound coins to be made available for shopping and bought our victuals for the evening (chicken curry pies) in preparation of exploring the city the following day.

HOP ON HOP OFF BUSES ARE A GREAT INVENTION FOR TOURISTS as they allow people like us to take a look at the city before embarking on exploring it by foot, or getting off, walking a bit and waiting for the next bus to come and continue our journey. We could have done that but chose not to, since we wanted to get an overall view of the city, and also because our guide was an elderly man who was great fun to listen; and to learn about this wonderful city. Apart from some horrific modern buildings that make one wonder with the traditional ”What the *&%#@ were they thinking?” most of the buildings date from the mid 1700s on and have a wonderful stately quality to them, à la Charles Dickens. The Castle is the most important monument and dominates the whole urban center; the hills around the castle have been intensely settled with stout buildings and steep streets. We got a good glimpse of all the city has to offer and enjoyed our very appealing discovery in every way except one: the weather. In one word: COLD! London certainly was overcast and drizzly from time to time but Edinburgh’s weather is dominated by gray, heavy, overcast skies with threatening drizzles that often turn into light rain, with one invariable element: the temperature is well below 200C at all times. Oh! And then there is the breeze. Not the tropical kind that you see in films about the Pacific in Hawaii, but the one that you see in films about the winter in Alaska, except it is now only the end of August.

We walked around quite a bit, looking at some buildings, peering into some shop windows, walking into the Apple store to buy an iPhone cover for Sabâ and a UK cable connector for my computer, and generally “getting a lay of the land”, as explorers would say, eventually getting back to our BandB that is quite modern, nicely decorated, clean, with lots of lights and lacking enough cable outlets for our electronics and, also, HEAT. By Golly, this place is cold. We fiddled with the thermostat, got it to feeble work and promptly received a message from the owner telling us to stop it because we risked blowing the electrical circuits which could create the need to bring an electrical technician to repair the whole house circuit. So much for a gentle welcome to our hesitant beginnings of a trepidating adventure.

SABÂ HAS A WONDERFUL DEVICE THAT KEEPS TRACK OF how many steps we take in a day. It also measures how many stairs we climb, so we cannot cheat with our daily exercise. Although we aim to reach 10,000 steps, we really have been walking over 5,000 a day, which is not Olympic quality but reasonably satisfying. We have walked around the city more to get a sense of the flow than to discover buildings or monuments. There are museums that we have not visited, monuments that we have not explored, statues that we have not admired, but we have seen a lot of wonderful streets, many shop windows, dodged many cars, (since they insist on driving on the wrong side of the street) and generally had a wonderful time exploring a beautiful city and enjoying the rhythms and feel of it. We discovered a wonderful shop of a young ceramic artist, John Burgess, where we walked in, looked at his creations, had a wonderful conversation with him (he lived in California for a while) and bought some of his objects. His glazing technique is quite extraordinary, somewhat reminiscent of Japanese glazes, mixed with sections that he has left rough and unglazed, creating a tension that plays with the esthetics in a compelling fashion. We will be happy to display them, and use them, in El Paraíso. We have shipped them since we already have quite a bit of luggage and many travel days ahead of us.

WE WERE GETTING READY TO TAKE A TOUR TO LOCH NESS and see a bit of the Highlands. The day promised to be beautiful, the sky was blue, the temperature was stable and no breeze in the horizon. We stood in line, at 7:30 in the morning, with about 80 other persons and boarded the first bus where we were the last ones of 40 passengers. The seats were terribly, incredibly, uncomfortable and we were very unfortunate to be sitting apart, which prompted an instant reaction of disappointment, discomfort and seething anger at the way the whole tour was being handled. With Sabâ’s immediate agreement, we got off the bus, came back home, celebrated our decision and got organized to spend another day in the city, looking for kilts, tartan pants, jackets and other Scottish paraphernalia. We were unsuccessful this time around but did not feel disappointed since we thought we had found some clothes the day before.

We finished the city visit reflecting on the incredible amount of tourists that we have seen in Edinburgh. The center is full of people who are loud, walk everyplace en masse, go into shops and buy nothing, fill the cheap pubs and restaurants with long lines waiting on the street and generally invade the space. We are reading articles about the onslaught of tourism around the world and are now living it everywhere we go. It has given us much food for thought about our future travels.

IN SEARCH OF A KILT could be the title of one of our adventures in Edinburgh. Sabâ has her heart set on a Scottish Christmas at the end of this year. That is one, a very important one, of the reasons that brought us to this part of the world. At the time, we did not think or imagine that the Summer here would be in the teens of temperature in Centigrade, nor that it would be overcast or rainy. Rather, we imagined, like the 30-odd documentaries that I have seen about the Highlands of Scotland, the green pastures, the sheep, the blue skies and the happy people, that this would be what we would find. We have had the happy people. Blue skies from time to time. But our search for tartans, kilts, cashmere sweaters and other Scottish wear has been rather disappointing because we only seem to find the cheap shops catering to tourists, with cheap quality clothes and high quality prices. We have searched high and low; east and wet, I mean west; north and south; and after a very exhausting couple of days the only place we have been able to find was a rather sedate tailor that had super good quality wear, where we think we will be able to fulfill our search. One of the problems, of course, is that, if I were to buy a kilt, I would have to join the New York Police Force, learn to play the bagpipes, get myself into incredible shape; wait for St Patrick’s Day parade to march, (to play the pipes while marching), in order to use the kilt once a year. AND it’s not even a Scottish celebration. It ain’t gonna happen. So I need to figure out something else for Scottish Xmas…but I’m, getting there. Also, I am not quite sure how I would look in a kilt, in 90 degree weather, with a heavy woolen skirt…Maybe if I shave my legs…

PUBS HAVE BEEN GOOD TO US IN THIS PART OF THE WORLD. Sabâ has made it a focus to find for ourselves pubs where we can have a late lunch, enjoy the local food and atmosphere and get a better sense of Edinburgh. She has succeeded marvelously. When we walk into these semi dark places, with wonderful wood furniture, a highly polished bar with taps for draft ales, sometimes with a sparkler to provide a better head for the ales in this part of the world that does not have artificial carbonation. With a great variety of whiskies on the back wall of the bar and with short food menus that have certain similarities across pubs. We have had bangers and mash; several varieties of meat pies with gravy; fish and chips; scotch eggs; haggis and natties; some salads; and pudding with cream as well as dark chocolate tart with ice cream. (These last two have become my favorite desserts!) The food has been consistently delicious and suits the weather just fine. We cannot imagine eating these foods, heavy on calories, in the middle of our normal summers, but here, they are fine. We have one meal a day, around 2 or 3 pm, after our regular breakfasts; sometimes we will have a couple of slices of cold cuts at night, or a yoghurt, or some grapes or berries to tide us until the next day. But the pleasure of eating in a pub, talking with the servers or listening to the guests and their fabulous accents is truly a special delight. We have gone to a couple of French wanna-be restaurants but we definitely prefer the Scottish pubs! And a delightful fish place we visited after our tour of Britannia.

BRITANNIA IS NO ROYAL YACHT; IT’S A DESTROYER SIZED VESSEL. This was our impression when we went to visit the Royal Yacht, so beloved by the late Queen Elizabeth. It’s a curious blend of a royal Navy Destroyer disguised as a Royal Yacht. Queen Elizabeth, having a hard time keeping Prince Phillip occupied and happy, came up with the idea of asking her husband to take charge of designing their royal yacht so they could travel around the Empire, in style, comfort and grand luxury. When times changed, perceptions changed and budgets changed because there was no more Empire, the yacht was decommissioned, despite the constant entreaties of the Queen, Phillip, Lord Mountbatten and anyone else she could convince, to lobby the government to refurbish the yacht or to build a new one at government’s expense. It was all to no avail and Britannia is now moored in the area of Edinburgh called Leith, next to a harbor on the North Sea, open to the public for all to see. It is huge. Truly a destroyer built with the sole purpose of keeping the Queen (and Phillip) happy and jaunting around the world. It is a schizophrenic yacht, with one area looking like the inside of Buckingham Palace and the other like a regular unarmed destroyer. The Royal part includes a fireplace, yes a fireplace, in the living room; a dining room for 30 people at a long table, fit for a State Dinner; 16 cabins for guests, the Royal Bedchambers (plural) for the Royal Couple, drawing rooms, game rooms, bars, His and Hers offices, Butler’s Pantry; Silver Pantry; ad hoc Kitchen, beautiful sitting rooms and two HUGE decks for sitting around, enjoying life or waving to Her subjects. Also a garage for her Jeep and Rolls. And 10 Officers, with their own bar, game room, sitting room and comfortable quarters supported by a crew of 44 sailors with less stylish accommodations. All this for decades before the mega yachts of today, that may be more efficient and even longer but certainly do not surpass in style, elegance and Royalty the fabulous Britannia. It is said that the Queen shed a tear when the ship was docked forever. So did Princess Diana, when Charles left her on her wedding night in the yacht, to scurry off for fun and games with the now Queen Camel, I mean Camilla. And this, after having a large bed installed in the yacht because Charles was not allowed to use the Royal Bedroom.

WE TOOK A QUICK TRIP TO GLASGOW FOR 24 HOURS which proved to be a marvelous escape from the masses of Edinburgh. The city is beautiful; fabulous size; totally manageable; wonderful food; great stores; gorgeous parks; impressive statues; fun people. We had a wonderful time walking around, riding an On and Off bus, eating in a very nice restaurant, quiet and well served, staying in a warm hotel and benefitting from blue skies during our back and forth trips, looking over pastoral scenery, lush and green fields, and generally ending our trip with a fabulous exclamation mark. Scotland has been exactly what we wanted to have: discover a new place, experience new sights, understand a little bit better the United Kingdom and its fabulous diversity, (even the currency bills have a different image than the English bills), taste new foods, understand a wee bit more our fast evolving world, search for alternative clothing and prepare for a fabulous Scottish Christmas. The summit of it all is Sabâ’s expertise in her new Scottish accent which is, to say the least, as impactful as the Britannia. And no schizophrenia there!