Scotland (High Land, Hard Rain)

 

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 driver being their chief complaint. We did the drive in the car we keep in the UK, and I booked the best hotels I could find (still treating this as Tracy’s 60th birthday holiday). In retrospect this was a mistake, more on that later.

We started with a few days in an Airbnb near Oban with Tracy’s mum Elaine, her carer Lizzie and our good friends Lizzie and Harry. Yes, two Lizzies, much confusion. Oban is known for being the gateway to the Western Islands. When somewhere is best known for being the route to somewhere else it tells you a bit about the place. In truth it’s quite a pretty coastal town, if the sun were shining it would probably be lovely. It wasn’t. It rained for four days straight.

To keep the length of this post manageable here is a quick summary of some of the places we visited:

Perth – we only drove through but looked quite nice. With the Georgian architecture it reminded me of Bath but without so much money.

Inverness – pleasant town particularly along the River Ness where we stayed.

Dornoch – quaint village, big rugged beach and a popular links golf course.

Wick – oh dear. The name suggests something you would set light to and spend the evening watching burn. Somebody should. The worst town we have visited since we started our life of travel. Tracy blames the planners for allowing the out-of-town retailers to kill the town centre.

Western Highlands/Islands – no towns of any size but some of the most beautiful scenery you will see anywhere in the world. The land seems to disintegrate as you travel west with increasing numbers of lochs perforating the countryside like the holes in the Scottish football team’s defence. Eventually the water becomes dominant, punctuated by the Western Islands. We didn’t get out to the Islands this time, but we intend to in the future.

Travelling to Scotland for good weather is a process of hope over expectation even in the summer. The reason the landscape is so green and the lochs so full is that it rains a lot. High Land, Hard Rain - now I know what Roddy Frame was on about! We experienced days of complete wash out and others of ‘get the roof down and soak up the sun’ driving. At times when there were no other vehicles in sight if felt like being in a video game as we weaved through the mountains, into woods and alongside lochs. Fabulous!

Now, the hotels. As you will likely know we have travelled through South America and North America before arriving in Scotland. We did not have a single technical issue with any of the hotels and the service we received was excellent. Until we got to Scotland. In Scotland (and I am willing to accept that this might be a British issue rather than specifically a Scottish one), in most places there was something wrong with our room. Normally something to do with the heating (too much), ventilation (non-existent) or air conditioning (ineffective). I know what you’re thinking, I’m an HVAC engineer so over sensitive to these issues, but in my eyes things are either working or they’re not and for the prices we were paying they should be.

What we have come to realise with hotels is that the bricks and mortar (and HVAC) are one thing but what really matters is the service. Our experiences in this regard were very wide ranging. On our last night in Scotland we stayed at the Kimpton Hotel in Blythswood Square, Central Glasgow. Fabulous hotel, exemplary service. The night before we stayed in a country house hotel in the Highlands called Shieldaig Lodge. Beautiful building in an idyllic setting. Service from the Marie Celeste school of hospitality. I had to search the hotel for someone to check us out at 10.30am and eventually found someone in the kitchen! I won’t go into the other issues that irritated us about our stay but when I provided the feedback to the lady who the kitchen rustled up to serve me she quickly offered me 200 pounds off my bill. Which made me realise two things: we paid too much for what we received (but thankfully 200 pounds less than we would have done), and this wasn’t the first time she had dealt with similar complaints. I asked her to get the manager to call me, naturally they haven’t. I feel a Tripadvisor review coming on….

Our second-best experience after Kimpton was a small guest house in a remote location on the very north coast. Next time we are going to seek out similar small B&B’s. Less money than the fancy hotels and a personal service from people who actually give a sh1t.

Next stop after a couple of days soaking up the sun in Lancashire (seriously!) we are off for a long weekend in Vienna to celebrate my birthday. Have booked what looks like a nice city centre hotel, will it be Kimpton style service of Marie Celeste? Will report back next week.