Blog By James

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Unfortunately we didn’t have a lot of time to spend in Edinburgh at this point. We ambitiously thought we’d drive all the way to Pembroke, Wales from Aberdeen in one day and also stop to see a few things along the way. This ended up not being such a great idea after all… more on that later.

As we pulled into town we immediately saw that Edinburgh is just full of beautiful old buildings:

Once we made it to Edinburgh castle and found parking, we began the hike up the hill. What an incredible place!

As you can see below, we were not the only folks visiting the castle that day. This was the line for the castle tour:

Due to our time restraints, we didn’t make it into the castle for a tour. But we did at least get a few pics of Edinburgh from the hill. Below is one of the better shots:

For lunch we ate at “The Witchery” which had the most incredibly Gothic atmosphere which we absolutely loved. A meal there is a definite must for anyone visiting the castle:

A block or two down from the restaurant…

Walking down from the hill we found ourselves in the stunning Princes Street Gardens:

Edinburgh is such an incredible city and we look forward to spending a couple of days there when we can. We barely scratched the surface of what a place so rich in history can offer. We got back on the road and began our very long trip to Wales. Pembroke is where we were catching a ferry over to Ireland for the second half of our trip. As we made our way into Wales, we started losing light and the roads began to get smaller and curvier which slowed us down considerably.

Things got a little scary for a while because not only was it very dark and the towns continued to grow farther apart, but we were quickly running out of petrol. It was late on a Sunday night, in the middle of nowhere in Wales and finding anything open at all seemed impossible. With our trusty Vauxhall Astra running on fumes, we finally found a town (which I can’t recall at the moment but I am sure was impossible to pronounce) with one open gas station. It was just about midnight at this point and after such a long day, all we wanted was a place to sleep. Eventually we arrived at Pembroke and after driving around for what seemed like hours trying to find an open bed and breakfast or hotel with vacancy, it was close to 2am before we slept.

More on Pembroke and our journey over to Ireland up next… Pt.9

I am very happy to say that we’re finally going out to California to visit my mom and family for a few days this weekend. It has been entirely too long and thanks to the “stimulus” checks we could afford the $1100 air fare. We’re looking forward to it. And after losing our luggage both ways on our wedding trip last month, we’re not checking a damned thing!

I took my new ride along with the rest of my cymbals over to Ryan’s on Saturday. Since I have no place to setup and play my drums at home, Ryan was nice enough to let me bang on my cymbals on his kit. I was overjoyed to find that the Blue Bell ride sounded perfect with the rest of my cymbals. They sound to me like they were made to compliment each other musically. I just can’t wait to play them with my Pork Pie kit!

Along with the new Opeth and Textures records, the new album from bassoonist Paul Hanson entitled “Frolic in the Land of Plenty” has been getting my attention as well recently. Not only is he a spectacular player and composer, but the fact that he saw this project through to fruition demands total respect in my opinion.

And finally… New Spock’s Beard DVD out next month!!:

View the previous parts here: [1|2|3|4|5|6]

We made it to Inverness with plenty of light to spare. We checked in at the lovely Trafford Bank and then took a walk downtown. Here’s a shot from one of the pedestrian bridges crossing the river:

We thought about checking out one of the local clubs to see some live music that night, but we were both so pooped already that a late night out wasn’t going to happen. So we had dinner at a place called Johnny Foxes pub and snapped the below shot before heading back for some rest:

The next day we walked around town some more and checked out the Inverness Museum and Art Gallery. We also walked around Inverness Castle and took a few shots from up on the hill. Once again, the weather was just beautiful that day:

After leaving the delightful Inverness, we drove to Culloden which was only about a half hour or so away. The new Battle of Culloden visitors center was just remarkable. We weren’t allowed photos inside but once we made it out to the battlegrounds we took some pictures. We walked the entire path of the field which turned out to be a lot longer than we thought. But we were glad we took the time to experience such an incredible place of history:

Next up was our stay with the Edgars in Aberdeen which truly was a highlight of the entire trip. Robert and I have been virtual friends for at least seven years now, meeting originally on my little Rush forum. It was such a treat to officially meet Robert and his lovely wife Angela and daughter Samantha. We were greeted with open arms and treated like family from the moment we arrived. Allison and I had such an unbelievable time during our stay and are already planning on returning as soon as we can afford to. Our gracious hosts did indeed take us out to see Aberdeen on Saturday but like a dope, I forgot the camera. So although we don’t have any pictures of downtown Aberdeen, we did get a picture of us all together back at the house. Thanks to Robert’s handy tripod, I now have one of my favorite pictures of all:

Moving on to Edinburgh up next… Pt.8