Wednesday 13 April 2011

From War to Peace

DAY 4 part 2
Jim - After touring through the visitor's center at Culloden and the actual battle field, I have a much better understanding of the actual event. There are many lessons to be learned about preparing for battle, taking care of your troops, and basic soldiering. Of course, these are my thoughts as a military member. It was excellent! This afternoon, we got to tour a cottars house, which I found very interesting. I have a much better understanding of what it would have been like to live in a thatched roofed house that is heated by a peat moss fire. It is not a life I would like to live, but it is a dry place to sleep. This tour is a great way to see Scotland. We would have never seen or experienced Scotland like we have this week had we tried to do this on our own. Thanks Scot and Samantha!

Claire- Hello!! Touring today was partialy exiting. I say this because we visited Culloden... I found it very interesting, but very sad. After seeing the battle field and museum thing we visited the standing stones...sorry, some standing stones. It was really cool to see what it was like with the cairn and all that stuff. Then, finally we went to Cottars house. It was realy cool to see the thatched houses with the actual things inside.


Oh... yes, I almost forgot, big... no, HUGE thanks to Scot and Samantha for the AWESOMELY AWESOME sheep stuffed animal, I love it!!!! (^@^)~

Scot - Aven suggests "Rupert" fort the sheep. Or perhaps "Serta the Mattress Sheep", which she will no doubt explain the meaning of. I'm for "rainbow socks" which you'd have tae see it's feet to understand.
We gave Jamie beag a book about the last battle on British soil - Culloden. He likes his military and is a lad of detail, so the book seems to serve.

This evening we had ale, the new Kilchomain malt, which was sgoinnel gu dearbh. There was a plaid demonstration which is best pictured through the lady of the house - her expression on seeing her menfolk clad in plaid and not a lot else. (Sorry, no photos of that. The ladies amongst you will just have to imagine or come on a tour. Beats a youtube video, I'd say.)


I told a Tale of the Silkie folk and then it was time for me to say good bye. I'm off to Breizh (Brittany) in the morning to tell some Scottish Tales at a festival. Sam meanwhile takes the crew to their doom - Go Ape. Lots of high wires, zip lines and clambering around in the tops of trees. I've been there. I can say that the longest zip line in the UK is REALLY long. You hook on and you can't even see the far end of it, almost half a km away. That's where you're supposed to land, some good time later... at speed. It's nothing to do with the J&C Tour of course, but this is a private one and Sam's put in something for the bairns. They've been looking forward to it all week.
There will be photos, if they are not too bloody.

I've enjoyed the company of our mad wee crew. I will miss them. It's been a short tour, made shorter by my departure. No doubt we'll be meeting our new friends on the net and maybe we'll meet again in Germany. There is a plan.

Sam is thinking of offering a shorter J&C tour soon. It's likely to be described as "No frills but all the thrills" and be 5 days.

Declare your preferences and interest through email.

Mar sin leibh an-drasta, luchd-leanntainn
Good by for now, followers
Scot AnSgeulaiche