Travel – Page 2 – Curious Bystander

Dunkeld in Scotland and my favourite retail shop – Jeffreys Dunkeld

Have I blogged about this before? I’m not entirely sure. But Dunkeld is a charming little village nestled between Perth and Aviemore. And as you can tell, driving there, the fog had still not lifted yet.

It’s also known as the home of Beatrix Potter. In the 19th century, I’m uncertain whether she lived there permanently or just during the summers, or if she did any writing there. I’ll delve into that in another post. However, they do have a new museum dedicated to her, along with a café.

As we wandered into Dunkeld; we passed by a statue of a violin player named Neil Gow, who was apparently the foremost player in all of Scotland during the 17th century, if not the world. It’s a wonderful statue in the park just before you reach the bridge.

Once you cross the bridge into Dunkeld proper, you’re greeted by a multitude of boutique shops, numbering around fifteen to thirty. The air practically oozes affluence here, yet it retains a refined, classical, and quintessentially Scottish middle-class vibe.

We decided to visit one of the many cafes, The Scottish Deli. Local kids were working there, no doubt earning minimum wage or more. The atmosphere was friendly and inviting, and the coffee was, indeed, perfect.

But that was just the beginning. We then stumbled (again) upon my favourite home furnishings shop in the entire world, Jeffreys Dunkeld.

What a name!

It’s like a treasure trove, always stocked with everything under the sun and more. Housed in an old church, or “kirk” as we say in Scotland, it caters to the upmarket home furnishing market. It’s tastefully decorated, resembling someone’s luxurious home rather than a store.

I can’t recall if we purchased anything significant, perhaps just some candles. The prices were reasonable, although some items bordered on the expensive. If you ever find yourself in this neck of the woods, do yourself a favour and pay a visit here.

Modern European Holidays – Time for a Change?

Isn’t it amusing these days (btw I’m in Germany)? It seems like everyone’s perpetually jet-setting off on holidays. But does anyone truly enjoy it anymore? Or is it just too crowded, too pricey, too overrated to actually like them these days? I’ve heard so many people recently tell me, that they’re glad the holiday is over, as they can now finally relax!

Everywhere you go, tourist spots are packed, and even the less-travelled paths are swarming with people. What could the future of vacations possibly look like?

Consider the above photo, for instance. They’re both completely happy in posing for this photo, a pose they’d never dream of indulging in back home or in front of their friends! Yet, here they are, unabashedly racing down this Rodelbahn on holiday. It makes you wonder just how insane people become when they’re on vacation. Haven’t we all done something on a trip that, upon reflection through holiday photos or Facebook posts, makes you cringe and question, “What possessed me to do that?” – I have.

I vaguely recall an article that was written pre-COVID, about the summer vacation scene in Europe; it was in either by the Wall Street Journal or The Economist, and spoke about the sheer numbers of people that would descend upon Europe each summer; and the number of businesses banking on this.

Equally, the attached photo that was at the start of this particular article exemplified this: it featured two young ladies, probably between 20 and 25, in inflatable balloons you could walk in. And that is exactly what they were doing. In this case (if I remember correctly), casually in front of the largest church in Venice, St Marks Basilica.

The audacity! The churches must be rolling in their architectural graves.

Now, talking about the future of vacationing or, rather the need for modification, cities are finally waking up to the chaos and are implementing new rules & taxes to regulate the overwhelming influx of tourists. And Venice itself has decided to do this, undoubtedly intended to either finance tourist-friendly improvements or maybe just to spite them! Perhaps the city believes it provides either too much or too little for tourists, but nothing for its own citizens . . . an intriguing idea indeed. In this case, everyone over 14 will have to shell out 5 euros a day, just to enter the beloved city.

I blogged about a similar scenario last year when I travelled to Brussels, back in January, thinking I’d have the city to myself. How wrong I was! The old city during those three days was like a mass evacuation drill. Thousands of tourists running amok, yelling, screaming, and bumping into each other while simultaneously trying to take selfies. It was absolute chaos. The same story also unfolded to me about five years ago in Amsterdam during March, expecting a respite from the summer crowd. Wrong again. It was bursting at the seams.

Then, we embarked on a biking tour, heading to Leiden, famous for Rembrandt. But guess what? It was just as mobbed. After a few days of this insanity, we tried Harlem, and it was also packed. Even securing a dinner reservation on a Saturday or Sunday night proved challenging. Clearly, something needs to change in the future.

Ideas? –

One, impose more tourist taxes, channelling these funds into better infrastructure for visitors. With this extra cash, a city might not even need that many tourists for certain areas to survive.

And two, why not consider a drastic idea? Given how airports are currently akin to cattle markets, maybe a one-time cut in flights, say 10%, with a corresponding rise in airfares, could be the answer.

I’d happily pay a little extra for some legroom, a more leisurely airport experience, or the luxury of booking half-empty rooms near the tourist hotspots, even if it did cost more.

The Cateran Trail – Part 4 – Bridge of Cally to Blairgowrie – 2 years after the last post!

It’s been some time for us to post here about this walk, and we STILL have a couple of stages to do.

This was a very much shorter version of the trail and we did NOT travel from Kirkmichael, but from Bridge of Cally. So as as of now, there are only two parts remaining; Bridge of Cally to Kirkton of Glenisla & then onwards to Lair.

The first part, to be honest, was a mess of detours, gravel and confusing signposting; but we got onto the moor in the end. Just follow the fence for a few miles!

In total, it was just under seven (easy) miles on foot, with brilliant weather and all in a southerly direction. The terrain was also quite easy but with outstanding views.

It was actually a very easy walk, and the weather was outstanding.

Once on the “high” plateau, it was more or less downhill, with not much in between.

As I remember, there was only one, very small settlement on the way, that offered eggs for sale!

And there were still enough signs to encourage you that you were on the right track.

From here, it was more or less downhill to Blairgowrie (forgive the simply awful website!)

It was interesting, that Blairgowrie calls itself the Raspberry Capital of Scotland, and coming down from above, no doubt it being in a valley, contributes to its “warmer” Scottish temperature. You can see the raspberry plantings / farms below.

Before we arrived, we noticed an abundance of garlic under many trees, but believe that it is not edible? We didn’t try it!

The town itself was very clean and looked exactly as I thought it should. We decided to catch a reliable bus service, back to Bridge of Cally (it was very easy to do this), and have our tea there, at the Bridge of Cally hotel where we were staying.

I believe there are only a few stages left; which I hope to finish in 2024.

Was für a Christmas Market – Edinburgh 2023

Hello! We recently visited Edinburgh to explore its Christmas markets, and it was of course, delightful with a fantastic atmosphere. What’s interesting is that there were so many tourists. We weren’t exactly sure that there would be such a large crowd, but there was. It was also interesting to hear all the different accents – German, French, Italian, along with English and American ones – thoroughly cosmopolitan. Unlike Glasgow, it wasn’t raining, or at least not too much!

What’s also intriguing is how Edinburgh easily lends itself to the experience, much more so than Glasgow. Once again, there’s a certain rivalry between the two cities, but Edinburgh boasts that castle, the huge mound, and the deep-ravine so close to Waverly train station. It’s a natural amphitheatre, and is just so much better than anything Glasgow could offer, at least in terms of atmosphere and natural topography.

We chose to stay in a nearby hotel because, from past experiences, coming back to Glasgow on the same night simply never worked out before. In this case, we could stay as late as possible and then make our way back, even if the hotel was completed overpriced (Editor: Aren’t they all!?).

I won’t disclose the exact amount because I can’t count that high, but it was a treat from someone I know.

However, after a walk of about 1 km, with a light show, you could finally get into the market, and spend a lot of money whilst in. One instance was £5.80 for gluhwein, or in this case, a Kirschwein (cherry wine). What irritated us was that some booths had a tip box for this overpriced stuff. Come on! This is utterly ridiculous. I shouldn’t need to pay a non-service tip.

If I want to tip someone, it should be for a service, such as serving my table with food, and NOT just for the point of sale. You can stick it up your ass!

As usual, there’s the atmosphere, the prices, and the fact that it was overly crowded. Where we went to, was the East Princes Street Garden market, which was the main one, but in reality it was part of the Edinburgh’s Christmas, with (see the Map above) several other places nearby.

A walk around Moulin, just north of Pitlochry in Perthshire Highlands

As I am actually part-living here in the Highlands nowadays, it’s giving me the opportunity to do more “things” here, without the need of hurrying back down to Glasgow after each trip – what a relief!

First, forgive the photos as I had set the camera to the RAW format for some reason, and then had to convert to JPEG.

Moulin is basically a sister “city” to Pitlochry just to the north, and is a wonderful wee walk to go around the north side of the town, whilst walking around the periphery of it. There is also a possibility to use this path to walk the nearby Corbett of Ben Vrackie.

What is interesting here, is not only the Moulin Hotel, but the attached brewery.

It wasn’t open at the time of our Sunday walk, but is during weekdays. I’ve had the beer in the hotel bar, and it’s well worth the effort to come here.

Following on from here, we went west and then headed a bit south, with us winding up in the Pitlochry Golf Club restaurant. I thought it would be empty – it wasn’t! (Ed; Is there anything else to do here on a Sunday?) – How dare you! Of course there is.

What I found quite interesting here, is not only that the course was 18 holes (I thought it would only be a 9 hole course), but that it also has a 6 hole pitch & putt course, that is ideal for children or for people who wish to work on there short game; something that is quite progressive and something that I feel golf must do, to make the game more accessible these days.

In addition, I noted from an information board that Pitlochry was once called the “Switzerland of Scotland”; this was something COMPLETELY new to me!

Tomintoul, Highlands, Scotland – A quick hot chocolate

I’ve been here in Tomintoul before several times; one after seeing a cheap deal on Wowcher or Groupon, and the second time, when I did the Speyside Way with friends, and used the youth hostel here for several nights accommodation. Well worth it!

Whilst there in the youth hostel, I was told that not only did the village have many more people years ago, but that it was a Gaelic speaking one. He also noted that the pronunciation should be, “DAW men dowl”. Finally, he stated that many of the existing houses are now AirBnBs, and the village tends to come to life in the summer when more people are living there.

It’s an interesting place, with not only a distillery for Tomintoul whisky just before the village, but it also has a very basic, grid street system.

We came here for a quick hot chocolate after seeing that the hotel we had stayed at years ago, the Richmond Arms, was not only open, but was advertising their wares with a street sign.

I noted that the village square is still there, and has a “designer” hotel, a village shop, pub restaurant / hotel, The Glenavon, and a tourist info / museum building, that provides much needed info on this area.

For those interested, there is the nearby Glenlivet Estate (yes, the same name as the whisky!), where a myriad of activities take place.

Kids? Families? Should there be flights only for Adults?

Naturally, everyone should have heard this before, but there was a recent Tiktok post, where in my opinion, an obnoxious, rich, American, sitting in first class, bemoans the fact that at times people ask her to swap seats in order to be by their children or families?

Really? In first class? And that’s why I did not really take this so seriously, as it seemed that Ms Peters, was merely rubbing it in, that she had enough dosh to afford first class to begin with.

https://uk.yahoo.com/news/influencer-applauded-refusing-swap-seats-124505416.html

At the time, the above video had over 900,000 views, with the blogger, an Audrey Peters, toasting the camera with a glass of champagne or Sekt. Her caption read:

“when a family asks me to switch seats on the plane so they can sit together”, followed by a raised eyebrow emoji.

The video now has over 175,000 likes; so apparently she has struck a nerve somewhere.

But I take her point.

But just how would this work, if there was ever to be be flights for “adults” and flights for “families?

Several observations:

At times, this is exactly what we have already, where flights at school holidays are almost exclusively for families.
What if you booked only for adults, and then later added children? Would they be booted off?
Would there be a very strict vetting process, presumably based on passports, so that the age restrictions would be stuck to?

Since I started to do this post, I’ve come across an unbelievable amount of websites, blogs, rants, deranged anger, etc – all about this type of topic. And it is always divided into two parts:

I hate kids!
You don’t have children!

You’d think in this day and age, we could have some form of tolerance – nope!

So a solution; let there be a list of passengers with their ages, that is constantly updated, with seat locations, so those in Category 1 (above), can choose seats / flights.

Secondly, let the airlines have completely segregated flights, where there are indeed, age restrictions – one for families (and children), the other for adults, and let the market work.

I know many would not want this, but I’d believe the two above options would still be in the minority of flights, and hence the vast majority of travel would still be what we have presently.

Yes, you can ski in Scotland – A trip to The Lecht ski resort, Aberdeenshire

Since living in Scotland the last few decades, I’ve only been skiing two or three times, the last at the Glenshee Ski area in north Scotland. The snow was a bit wet in late March, but the skiing at the top was perfect and it was sunny.

Ditto that for a recent trip this month to The Lecht ski area in northeast Scotland. Whilst I am still recovering from a recent illness, the other half took full advantage of the conditions (and it seemed that EVERYONE in Aberdeenshire also did!); the place was packed!

The conditions were sunny, slightly windy, with a temperature of about 0 – 2 degrees – perfect.

I stayed predominantly in the café; a typical, dreadful one, with the usual suspects of food – stale sandwiches, God-awful chips, and something that looked like chili? And with a side order of a queue of 30 minutes, as there were only about two people serving & cleaning, I had an awful time. Though when I finally found a seat with my egg sandwich, I was just fine.

As I get annoyed just so quickly nowadays, I noticed the typical behaviour of dreadful families, who only consisted of two or three, who were not only hogging a table for eight, but had also brought their own food! I naturally was furious; but PLEASE patrol this Lecht staff, as it is completely not on!

With more snow falling in north Scotland whilst I write, who knows, maybe in the next week or two, I’ll do some sliding.

Train trip to Budapest – Glasgow, London, Paris & Zurich – Part 3 – How are the trains / night train?

The Zurich to Budapest “old school” night train

We originally took the train (Scottish Sleeper) from Glasgow to London. I must say that this one has improved recently, with a massive investment for new rolling stock.

Equally, inside, the train was sleek and clean.

From there, after a two day stay in London (will blog later), we went with the train to Paris, with the “trainport” at St Pancras being similar to any airport departure lounge.

The Eurostar trip was incredibly fast, and after a little bit over two hours, we were there in Paris, at the Gare du Nord. The train was clean, spacious, and it was easy to find the restaurant car!

From here, after one night (will blog about this later), we used the TGV to go to Zurich (below). What a train! Extremely quick, with little to no noise. And there was even enough space for my bags (at least in my opinion!).

*A mad dash in Paris, to get the TGV to Zurich*

And man, did it fly! I can’t remember, but I thought it said its speed was something like 361kmph? Though the photo is slower.

Amazing. And plenty of enough space for baggage, though I must admit, I went First Class on this leg.

It was also no problem to have some food on the short journey of about 2+ hours. Also talked football with the kitchen staff (it was the World Cup afterall).

From there, we were in Zurich, but for only a short, two hour stay (more later). We boarded (below) the night train to Budapest. As above in the very first photo of this blog post, this train was from a time long ago; I loved it. I was only in Zurich for about 2 hours, but would like to return (below).

The train’s sleeping compartment was completely old school! There were actually 3 beds there, and the ceiling was quite high. In addition, they delivered us a small breakfast the next morning; tea / coffee and rolls. Which is what I expected.

I must say, it was rather a rough ride. I always sleep better sitting for some reason?

The beds were very comfortable and communication / attitude of the staff just fine. They spoke a strange German so it was not a problem to communicate, so I did not speak too much English. I wouldn’t think that this is a problem for the non-German speaker.

I can only say, that compared to the MUCH higher cost of going on the Orient Express; I preferred this!

November Eurotrip Part 2 – Budapest again- The Gellért Thermal Bath

Amazing in all reality!

I’ve never really seen anything as opulent as this, with it NOT being a hotel, museum, or footballer’s mansion.

Yes, I’ve been to thermals /saunas before as they’re called in Germany, but this one had a key difference; you had to wear clothes! What a relief, and also it was completely indoors, as the outdoor pool was closed (It was freezing anyway.).

The baths from the outside

What must be said, is that we did this in a tourist, old-fashioned way – we had no towels and decided to go to the venue to buy tickets.

Please buy online, as the place can quickly become very busy (I believe that they limit customers at busy times of the day.). In addition, BRING YOUR OWN TOWELS! They do NOT rent them, so we had to buy two “deluxe” ones, at 30 euros each! What a rip-off!

Two more shots of the interior

Obviously, we have no pictures of the indoor pools, but there are plenty of those on the website links.

I will say, there was a very mellow vibe here, not a lot of noise, very respectful patrons and a lack of English speakers.

Final montage, note the “buy online” sign

Finally, there were families here, all ages, tourists, and everyone seemed to get on with each other. As for the price, I thought it was only about £10 to get in. We went there on a Tuesday afternoon, and there did not appear to be a time limit for your stay. Unlike this country, where a gang from the Stasi would inspect your ticket, and repeatedly warn you that you had to be “oot” at 3:30.