Scotland

>>> Bagpipers on Edinburgh Royal Mile >>>
----

"Mr Watson, come here I want you."

Do those words ring a bell ? Well, how about this? –

“Elementary, My dear Watson!”

One real, the other fictional. One the most momentous and defining moment in history, of scientific inventions. The other, attributed to the most famous fictional sleuth. Coming from famous personalities, men of sharp minds, the way these famous words are connected, sounds like eerie coincidences- Watson features in both, and they both are assistants / sidekicks- One, of Alexander Graham Bell; The other of Sherlock Holmes, whose character was inspired by Dr Joseph Bell, professor of Medicine at University of Edinburgh where Conan Doyle studied to be a doctor. Dr Bell had many traits from which the character of the detective was derived.

Alexander Graham Bell and Arthur Conan Doyle were born and brought up in Edinburgh, Scotland. So that really is the connection :) 'Elementary, ...My dear Watson !' :)

On a windy drizzling ‘English summer’ morning in late May, we alighted from the Glasgow-Edinburgh bus, opposite Waverly railway station on Princess St. Second time in the UK, I felt that the look-n-feel of the place being different, and the difference was felt more than that at Bath. This time around it’s not just the buildings and architecture, but the people- Scots seemed more relaxed and welcoming, accommodating and friendly than the English, starting with the ol’ man who stopped by and enquired if we needed help, when trying to figure out from the map, where exactly we were. My adventure of driving thru Edinburgh was to begin later in the morning. Picked the rental car for 3days and somehow reached Scottish Youth Hostel at Bruntsfield. Good facilities and an international crowd.

It’s a Victorian building. Room’s cozy. It’s overlooking an open meadow with some sorta makeshift golf course. Scotland is where golf began, from the ancient Scottish game of Gowf. The golf club was started in 1754 in StAndrew, golfers’ mecca, a coastal town just north of Edinburgh. The club later became The Royal and Ancient Golf Club. The R&A is the world authority on the sport and it administers the rules..

BANGALORE Tandoori Restaurant, Opp King's Theatre, Home St, Edinburgh. Had nothin to do with Bangalore as such, though menu intro proclaimed that it's a piece of bangalore recreated!. Duh.

Took an afternoon stroll towards the castle to the Edinburgh castle and spent 3hrs. The wind at the castle was so strong that you feel the legs are drifting off-course when you lift it during walk !. In the Scottish Army memorial, where all the battlefields where scots played a part are inscribed on the walls- listed among them were Mysore, Srirangapatnam etc., (most likely the battles against Tipu Sultan). From one of the army souvenir shops of the castle, picked a copy of British Army’s elite SAS (Special Air Services) cadres’ Survival Guide, which looked quite interesting.

Another interesting piece of history on the ramparts is The One O’ Clock Gun. Installed in 1861 to provide an accurate time signal, important especially for the mariners who could set their clocks/chronometers accurately before leaving the ports, which they would use it for scheduling and more importantly for navigation when out of sight of land- to find the longitude at sea, the navigator compares the local time aboard the ship (say, by observation of the sun) with the standard time carried on board the ship by an accurate chronometer.

After breathing in lots of history and bloody colonial battle-fields, once out of the castle, walking down the Royal Mile, it was time to smell some whisky at the Scotch Whisky Heritage Centre. The World’s oldest whisky distilled in 1937 was on display, with a bottle @ a kool £10,000. Glenfiddich brand Single Malt variety. Am no aficionado, in fact hate the taste, (and that of the beer. Prefer that of Wines. Champagne was the best ever stuff I tasted.) but with so much of the spirit of the place in it, the history and the whole shebang of the whisky is hard to ignore while in Scotland- visiting a distillery in the highlands is definitely on the cards. (Whisky wasn’t always Scotland’s National drink. In 17-18^th centuries, Claret, red wine imported from Bordeaux was the most favoured here. But the tax on wine popularized whisky as an alternative).

For my Potter-manic kiddo friends, Wanted to get a shot of JKRowling’s favourite café where she used to spend time over a cuppa, writing the initial Harry Potter novels- she cudn’t write from the cozy comforts of home as she couldn’t afford to heat her flat. On my way, was browsing through souvenir shops and also trying to see if I can lay my hands on a £1 note anywhere, which is not available in England, but read somewhere that if you are lucky, might find one by Bank of Scotland if you ask around.

When chatted with a shop-keeper, got a hint of some Scottish words interspersed in his talk, and I asked more about it, he explained a bit- Scots say ‘Aye’ for yes, ‘huus’ for house, ‘heem’ for home, ‘I don’t niken’ for I don’t know’, ‘biyems’ for children etc. The words folks, wee are Scottish. Picked an English-bashing post card with long list of inventions by Scots and how tough it is for a plain Englishman to live without being so dependent on Scottish inventions!.

-To quote from Bill Bryson’s Notes from a Small Island,
“Scotland with her clever cherry-cheeked people, has churned out a rollcall of worthies far out of proportion to its modest size- Watt, Scott, Conan Doyle, Adam Smith, Alexander Graham Bell, Lord Kelvin, John Logie Baird, Charles Mackintosh, Stevenson, JM Barrie, Thomas Telford, Charles Rennie, Ian McCaskill, to name but a few. Among much else, we owe the Scots are whisky, raincoats, rubber wellies, bicycle pedal, telephone, tarmac, pencillin, understanding of the active principles of cannabis…”
Unquote.

Btw, I did find an old man wearing one o those Sherlock Holmes-style deerstalker hat (with flat curved parts that stick out /visor, one at the back and one at the front)

Out on the street again on the way to the café where Potter-mainc’s would want to have a dekko. This time I heard some bagpiper band starting off and rushed towards the sound. They were going towards the Castle thru the streets. Some kids , some old men, all in kilts, the bagpipers were good to watch and listen to.

Bravehearts in Kilts, belting out Celtic music.. Bagpipers' band marching outa Edinburgh Castle. The question naturally popped out- what do Scots wear beneath kilts ? Traditionally its military regulation for Highland soldiers not to wear anything beneath, with some exceptions. But pretty strong winds provided the answer, most did wear stuff :).

Next day started off with the drive, straight outa Edinburgh onto the motorway towards the highlands. Destination Inverness, which is called the capital of the Highlands. Terrain is truly scenic and very unlike the usual highway rides, never got a wee bit tired, throughout the total 720kms, eventhough though mostly it's curvy two-lane roads without shoulders and divider. Still it was thrilling behind the wheels, thanks to the glens and lochs.

When entering the Inverness Youth Hostel, heard someone speaking in Mallu- later caught up with a small mallu gang of 6 students and rookies who are from Cochin, Kottayam, studying/working in Glasgow and Birmingham, they were out there for hiking on Ben Nevis (1344m) near Fort William. Later on the day, exploring the north of Inverness, passed by a very small town, Avoch (next to FortRose by the Moray Firth) with apparently no asians around, but there's a small take-away n Indian restaurant run by non-asians, and two Indian cooks were around. One, Hussain looking in his late 30s, from near my place back home. That was another surprise.

For the highland geography, you need to equip yourself with a wee bit of Gaelic words: Loch- for lake, Glen- narrow secluded valley, Firth- long narrow estuary.

Cromarty, an idyllic small-town by the Cromarty Firth, xploring N of Inverness.

Urquhart Castle by the Loch Ness(of the monster fame), which is the largest body of fresh water in Britain, stretching around 37km with ~3.2km width

In two days, from Edinburgh to Inverness via Aviemore and then back to Edinburgh via Loch Ness and Glencoe, we passed by scores of Glens, Lochs, and Firth of Forth at Edinburgh, Moray Firth and Beauly Firth near Inverness and exploring further north into the small-town of Cromarty, had a very enjoyable drive along the Cromarty Firth, where I had a pit-stop for watching some shore-birds on their migratory pit-stop, from an RSPB hide. Oystercatchers, Dunlins and Mute swans, Common Gulls. That sums up my birding during the trip- almost zilch.

I'd been checking with the staff at YH about the places where highland cows can be seen, but reply always sounded like u may get to see on some highland slopes, they aren't common.. chances are less.. but do watch out.. might get lucky. On the third day afternoon, finally Lady luck smiled. They look something in between a cow and a yak, more appealing than a normal cow with long hair cascading over the eyes. With formidable horns and not giving any clue to its intentions behind the veiled face, I had to approach it pretty gingerly, respecting its space, mustering bold body language, but with each step, mentally preparing like a matador ready to run for the door :)

Highland Cow, near Ben Nevis. Consider yourself lucky if u get to see any highland cows.

On the way back from Inverness, after the uplifting drive along the edge of Loch Ness locked by hills in spring splendour, eagerness started knocking on my head, awaiting my first visit to a distillery- a Scotch one at that, in the very heart of highlands, at the foot of Ben Nevis, UK’s highest mountain at 1344m. The thought was intoxicating, and put the brain on overdrive, to soak-in the brewing tale of barley to the bottle. And the tale turned out to be more appealing than the taste, of The Bottled ‘Spirit of Scotland’.

Where Whisky brews. Ben Nevis Distillery, estd 1825 near Fort William.
It's at the foot of Ben Nevis, UK's highest mountain.
The word Whisky comes from Uisge beatha Gaelic for 'water of life', in time abbreviated and corrupted to 'whisky'. Here’s whisky jargon for the connoisseur.

Though thought of taking the road opp the Ben Nevis distillery to the Silver-sand beach of Morar and Mallaig, had to shelve the plan as we ran short of time. Also known as 'The Road to the Isles', it is said to be one of the most romantic and historic journeys in Scotland thru spectacular Highland landscape, which featured in hollywood flicks including Braveheart and Harry Potter series. In Summer one can also take the steam train from Fort William to Mallaig and back (which runs once a day). From there, there's access to the western isle of Skye.

The previous day on the way to Inverness, around the Cairngorm mountains, near Aviemore, wanted to take detour for watching the Ospreys at the RSPB nature reserve, at Loch Garten near Boat of Garten but there was no other birder in the pack and since Inverness was waiting for us to be explored, I didn’t want to foist birding upon rest of the folks eager to hit Inverness, though I cud be missing the rarest of chances to watch a Capercaillie.

Had dreamt of taking pics of Atlantic Puffins , clown of a bird, and visiting Bass Rock off the harbour, accessible by boat from Scottish Seabird Centre.

Like many outings, as far as Natural History is concerned, this too has left me with a petty grouse- that I couldn’t get myself into the proximity of a Capercaillie, the Largest European Grouse, endangered species and in UK, an endemic bird of ancient Caledonian pine forests of northeastern Scotland. It’s in the Red List of endangered species, meaning, on the brink of extinction, and in its case the second time!, believe it or not!!- it’s already gone extinct in Scotland in the wild earlier in 1785 and was re-introduced in the 19^th century. If at all I cud get to shoot it, I’d be able to add to some photo-archives one more ‘specimen’ for the next generation to come, with the message, ‘RIP- Another Creature, gone bust fighting for its share of earth with the “sapient” creature Homo sapiens.’ Hmm.. that’s another grouse.

The emblem of Scotland Tourism Board is a flower, Spear Thistle. I did watch out for it in the highlands, but never found any. Then I found it on an unlikely place- Bank of Scotland currencies which spiked my curiosity ( That was during another quest to get hold of a £1 note, which is sort of rare but if you are lucky, could lay your hands on it in Scotland ). Was wondering wots uniquely Scottish abt it, but never found the answer during the trip. But later, got it in an unlikely place, where history sources and brochures I hit upon didn’t mention it, found the answer on a Natural History trail - Wildflowers of Britain and Europe sez “Famous as the emblem of Scottish Kings. Occurs throughout Europe including Britain. Flowers from Jul-Sep.” Bang on !. It solves the puzzle, why I cudn’t find any (during May end), and being a common flower, why it got into Scottish currencies and Tourism Board signs.

The Gothic William Wallace monument, near the Stirling Bridge where the he lead the famous victory against English in 1297and became Scottish National Hero..(of Braveheart fame)

By the lake @Virginia Waters, Surrey 

concert @Birmingham

A good 2-hr drive to UK's 2nd largest city Birmingham, thanks to Srinjoy. Well in time for the Sarod-maestro Ustaad Amjad Ali Khan concert at 7:30 in Symphony Hall.

Though the possibility of a Friday evening traffic snarls on M25,'the London ring road' and then M40 was bugging us, it wasn't all that bad- just slow, a few initial miles. It was a cruise on M40 north via Oxford and 'Warwickshire, Shakespeare's county'. Signs showed Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare's birthplace.. ~100m north of London.

The concert was organised by Sampad South Asian Arts.
The ensemble included Amjad Ali Khan, his sons Amaan and Ayaan Ali Bangash with UK based Talvin singh and Sandip Das on Tabla.

By the time we came out of the Symphony Hall after 10, the maestros had really struck a chord.. it was uplifting, soul-filling sounds of the strings with some inspiring and truly enrapturing spells, an intense experience with the sounds..
The acoustics of the hall was also amazing.
(Having said that, as an overall experience, I liked Zakir Hussain's concert back in Bangalore on Jan 8, as a very very charming and witty Ustaad impressed all the more with his words as with his mind-blowing repertoire ! )

Srinjoy had told me about the concert there and asked me about joining. He's got his buddy from Calcutta days (Srinjoy's family shifted to Oz from Calcutta), Visha working in B'ham, who's arranging for the tickets.. She had earlier worked for Sampad
His pal Damien came down to join us at Staines, en route B'ham. Damien is doin a career switch from computers to medicine, about to quit his job and join the Univ. A Punjabi who's nevr been to India.

Had dinner at and 'Indian' restaurant (most Indian restaurants arnd here are owned by Bangladeshis) with Visha and David, her English boyfrnd and stayed over at their place. They've been eagerly waiting some weeks for that Saturday to come, where both of em were invited for her friend's Punjabi wedding at a Gurdwara in Coventry an industrial town nearby. By noon we parted our ways, they heading for the wedding. Eventually David never made it- as Srinjoy's driving back home with me, finding our way outa B'ham, he got an SOS call from Visha- David's car broke down and they r stranded! Srinjoy had to do a detour, pick Visha wanting to be dropped off at the wedding at Coventry, but had to leave David with his car waiting for the service mechanic to arrive. . poor chap, definitely not his day !.

Some parts of B'ham, it's difficult to find non-asians and there were lots of people around, in Pakistani traditional wears. We concurred- it looks more like Delhi marketplace than an english town!

mornin-aftr... n all that : Pretty deep philosophical divide, they say. Ya, cudn't agree more !!
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,11913,1482669,00.html

city of Bath

Roman Soldier, overlooking the Roman Bath.>.>
@ Bath, Somerset, SW England.

The most interestin place in UK I've bn to yet.

During the Georgian era (17-18th century), it was a resort city of the wealthy filthy-rich.Interestingly, the railway station is still called Bath Spa.The look n feel of the place is quite different from other english-towns, which is the first thing that hits u when u step out of 'Bath Spa' station.. they say cos of the Georgian architecture.

[Following is not a trip journal, but the interesting information gathered during the trip, about an impressive aspect of Roman lifestyle, is collated and reproduced from existing websites mentioned in Ref section at the end ; Photos are from my trip album]

The city of Roman Bath and temple of Aquae Sulis, was built around Britain's only hot-spring, which was considered sacred by the Romans and the native Celts before the Romans arrived in 43AD. Since Hot Spring phenomenon was beyond human understanding, it was believed to be the work of the Gods.

<.<.Statue of Goddess Minerva, excavated from the Temple site .

First frequented by Neolithic hunter-gatherer tribes, the springs were later venerated as sacred by Celtic, Roman, and Christian peoples. The Celts, who arrived in England around 700 BC, erected what are believed to be the first shrine structures at the springs. Dedicated to Sulis, a goddess of water, the shrine was a religious center for much of southwestern England. Soon after the arrival of the Romans in England in 43 AD, the Celtic shrine was taken over and the goddess Sulis was identified with the Roman goddess Minerva as a healing deity. Beginning sometime around 65 AD, and continuing for nearly four centuries, the Romans constructed increasingly elaborate bathing and temple complexes at the sacred springs.

Many objects were thrown into the Sacred Spring as votive offerings to the goddess, like thousands of Roman coins. Other special objects like curses with messages inscribed on sheets of lead or pewter, which were then rolled up and thrown into the Spring where the spirit of the goddess dwelt. Special metal pans, known as paterae, might have been used for making offerings of holy water. They are inscribed with the letters DSM or the words Deae Sulis Minerva which shows that they were dedicated to the goddess Sulis Minerva.

<.< where Romans bathed

Here's more about Roman baths in general, across Roman Empire :
http://www.cyberbohemia.com/
Pages/massbathing.htm .>.> Before Emperor Agrippa designed and created the first thermae in 25 BC, the smaller, more frequent balneum had been enjoyed by Roman citizens for more than 200 years.

The thermae, from the Greek word for "heat," became the pet project for all Roman emperors following Agrippa. Each tried to out-do his predecessor, making his bath more spacious, more splendid, more popular. To insure their popularity, entrance fees were ridiculously low, if not free. Without generating enough revenue to maintain themselves, the thermae had to be subsidized. Emperors, of course, enjoyed their own baths, and some were said to have bathed seven or eight times a day.

Like the balneum, the thermae sprung up everywhere in the Roman empire, from sandy African deserts to the snowy Alps, and as far north as England.
The concept of a thermae was an all-encompassing recreational center.Most thermae walls enclosed sports centers, swimming pools, parks, libraries, little theatres for poetry readings and music, and great halls for parties.. [++contd..]

Hot Spring overflow: Surplus water not used in the baths flows out to the Roman Drain. Water at ~46deg C rises at the rate of~1.2million Litres everyday from the spring. The sulphur and minerals in the water stains the stones yellowish orange>.>

[++contd..] At the center, of course, the main attraction was always the baths themselves--hot water baths, cold water baths, hot-air baths, virtually every type of bath that ingenuity and lust for bathing could devise.
A typical routine might begin with a strenuous workout in the palestra, or courtyard, where various sports and activities loosened up the body and stimulated circulation.
Afterwards, the bather would trek through three rooms, progressing from tepid to hot. The first room was known, appropriately enough, as the tepidarium, the largest and most luxurious in the thermae. Here, the bather relaxed for an hour or so while being annointed with oils. Then he moved into the little bathing stalls of the caldarium, much like the halvet in Islamic hammams, providing a choice of hot or cold water for private bathing.

The final and hottest chamber was the laconicum. (The English word "laconic" comes from the regimented province of Laconica where people were characterized as brief, concise and terse.) After an understandably laconic stay in the laconicum, the body was primed for a vigorous massage, followed by a scraping off of dead skin with the strigil. A thorough scrubbing and a cool dip in the pool of the frigidarium was next. Refreshed and smelling like a rose, the bather then retired to the outer areas of the thermae where a library or an assembly room were among several attractions that encouraged intellectual pursuits.

Roman engineers devised the hypocaust (under-floor heating) method to heat bath air to temperatures exceeding l00 degrees C.--so hot that bathers had to wear special shoes to protect their feet from the blistering floor. They accomplished this by heating the marble floor, raised on pillars of stacked tiles. Hot air was supplied from the furnace and the hypocaust system carried the heat around the complex. Central heating worked because hot air moved through spaces under the floors and up the walls, channeled through earthenware pipes in the walls. It took two or three days to heat a thermae, but that mattered little, as the baths were kept perpetually hot.

It was the slaves' job to keep the furnace well stoked up so that the central heating worked.

Remains of the Roman Hypocaust heating: >.>
(Furnace hole and the pilae- pillars of tiles which
supported the floor are seen.)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/romans/tech.shtml -- The Romans were good at building and engineering, but not so good at inventing machines. There were always plenty of slaves to do the nasty jobs, so nobody bothered to think up machines that could take their place. An example of this was central heating which involved lots of effort from Roman slaves. Public baths and rich people's houses all had central heating.

Ref: - http://www.cyberbohemia.com/Pages/massbathing.htm
-- http://www.vroma.org/~bmcmanus/baths.html
-- http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/roman_baths.htm
-- http://www.romanbaths.co.uk/
Roman Invasion of Britain -- http://www.smr.herefordshire.gov.uk/roman/invasion.htm