Ant Trails Ramblings

  Before telling you about Vienna, a quick update on Shieldaig Lodge. I posted my Review on Tripadvisor which elicited a long apology email from the manager. She thanked me for my detailed feedback. I’m imagining her gritting her teeth as she watches the horse depart through the stable door! Thankfully no such dramas at our Vienna hotel which was excellent. I may even give them a Tripadvisor review too, although I’m put off by their gifts of chocolate tagged with “we look forward to reading your review” as we left. This is not the first time we have been encouraged to provide a positive review in this way. I understand why they do it but find it a bit distasteful. I have to confess that in my school days history was my least favourite subject and I dropped it as soon as I could. Given how interesting I now find the topic I can only imagine that it was badly taught. When I think back to what Vienna meant to me in those days I’m reminded of a girlfriend who I dutifully took to see he...

  We’ve been travelling in Scotland, not as glamorous as Peru or Galapagos, although I guess if you were from Peru it would be. One of the things I’ve come to realise on our travels it that faraway places seem exotic until you get there and then when you do they’re just, well, here. What I think I mean by that somewhat obtuse observation is that everywhere is home to some people and for those people what seems exotic to us is just normal for them and vice versa. Despite living in England for 42 years and travelling to many places far and wide in that time I spent no more than three days on Scottish soil. Tracy, having Scottish heritage, has been many times and was keen to show me how beautiful it is. We decided to do the NC500, a drive around the coastline of the highlands (the bit at the very top). Dreamed up by the Highlands tourism people in 2015 it has been a great success in encouraging tourism. Although some of the locals are not so happy with the curse of the hired motorhome...

  I try to be informing and amusing when writing these posts in the hope that some people might enjoy reading them. I am going to start this one by sharing something informative. It may be that your knowledge of geography is better than mine in which case grant yourself the right to raise your eyebrows and consider me a fool. But here goes… Key West, where we have been for the last few days, is the furthest point south in the United States and, being in Florida, on the East Coast. We flew here from Guayaquil in Ecuador, which is on the west coast of South America. When we took that flight, I knew we were flying from the Southern Hemisphere to the Northern Hemisphere, but I also thought we were travelling Eastward. You know, towards Ol’ Blighty, our next destination, over there to the right on the map. Wrong! Guayaquil: 79.9 degrees W, Key West 81.8 degrees W. South America is south of North America but it is also, in the most part, to the east. No wonder I was so easily fooled, the...