The Tundra Swans are heading North

 

One of our spring rituals is watching for Tundra Swans visiting our area on their way to their northern breeding grounds. Last year's migration was spread out over a longer period, so we saw very few swans migrating though our area on a given day. 

Although we haven't seen numbers this year like we did a few years ago, there were quite a few around when I dropped in to our viewing spot yesterday:

 

 

 Here's a short video of some of the action:

 

FYI, the swan viewing area we usually go to is near the Lambton Heritage Museum, on Hwy 21 near Pinery Provincial Park. The swans are usually found along Greenway Road (aka Road 5), which runs off Hwy 21 near the museum. 

 

 

A few more pictures from today.

Today there were likely twice as many swans in the main viewing areas along Greenway Rd, on both sides of the road today:

 

 

 

 

 

Once back at home we went to see what Lake Huron looks like today. A beautiful-looking day but with a cool breeze from the east. The lake ice is shrinking and shifting daily:

 

An Autumn afternoon in the Bayfield area

Sunflowers are ripening

It was a nice bright fall afternoon, so we took a little drive around our home area. Fall colours are not fully out yet, but there are hints of things to come.

Ball's Bridge

 

Lots of spider activity this time of year

Some crops are being harvested, but some are still in the field:

And on to Little Lakes, a scenic spot anytime, but especially when fall colours come out:

Imagine coming home to this place for Thanksgiving!

Sorry about the so-so picture of this really nice house. The family dog didn't like me so close to his place. :))

Retrospective on our recent trip to Scotland

As I had mentioned in the introductory post for the Scotland trip series, this trip was the first guided tour we've ever taken. As taking our usual land-based travel camping trips with our van is becoming more difficult as we age, we wanted to see if the "guided trip" is for us. Our feelings about that are mixed.

<Link to our first Scottish post>   (That first post is followed by daily trip posts)

This all-inclusive (mostly, except for most lunches) tour was through the Seniors Discovery organization. The trip was well-managed, and we got what we expected. We did enjoy the trip overall, Cathie especially enjoyed seeing parts of Scotland she thought we might never get to.

However we've decided that this exact kind of trip isn't really for us. There was a  lot of bus travelling, and changing hotels. We think a trip that was more oriented to going to a central location for a few days and taking day trips out from there would be less tiring for us, especially if it was via a smaller tour bus. The trip will definitely help us make future trip decisions. It would be nice to avoid air travel too. Maybe the Queen Mary would be an option!

 

Internet Access:

At home we use Koodo prepaid for our cellular access, for phone, text, and data. Of course this wouldn't work in the UK, and Koodo had no good options for us.

We decided that since we were on this fully-arranged tour, we could live without phone and text for the trip, so looked into getting UK data.

I've never used an eSim before, but it seemed a good option as our phones support adding an eSim. There are lots of choices for eSim data for travelling. We opted for a 5Gb plan from aloSIM, a Canadian-based company. The plan (we just put one on my phone) cost us $20 Cdn + tax for 30 days or 5Gb, whichever came first. We used 4.5 Gb on our 2 week trip, so just the right amount.

Improvements for next time: 

We did miss having texting on both our phones. Not a big deal, but we're used to having text to contact each other when shopping or whatever if we need to reconnect. We didn't miss phone service this trip, as we didn't need to phone ahead for accommodation etc.

I had put the eSim on my phone, then turned on the Hotspot function when Cathie wanted data on her phone. That worked ok, but we'd prefer having data on both phones. One thing I didn't realize was that when my phone was providing hotspot data, battery use increased quite a bit. It did the job for us though. 

 

UK travel trivia:

We did learn a number of things while on the trip that we wish we had known earlier. I'll list some things here that we "discovered" about Scotland travelling, in case it helps somebody. Mostly hotel trivia:

- If you want to plug in to a wall outlet using a Canadian plug, you'll need a adapter to the standard UK wall plug. Easy to find on Amazon etc, and we got one before the trip. Our adapter also included 3 standard USB "A" outlets, very useful at times.

- I assumed the adapter takes care of the voltage change, but many  adapter plugs including ours do not change the voltage from the UK standard 240 to 120 volts. Canada/US wall plug voltage is about 120 volts, but UK plugs are 240 V. 

Many North American USB plug adapters can handle a  range including both voltages, so are ok. Not all do though.  Check your devices before plugging in.

- Light switches are Down for On, usually. Most outlets must be switched On for power. 

- Bathroom light switches were usually (maybe always) on the wall outside the bathroom. Usually no night light in the bathroom.

 - Most hotels had no clock in the rooms. Not a problem really, as most of us have smart phones for time and wake-up alarms. 

- No rooms we were in had a fridge.

- Hotels didn't seem to have ice dispensers, or laundry facilities.

- no washcloths provided

- only 1 hotel we were in had a room safe

- only 1 hotel provided Kleenex-type tissues  

- bed covering was a duvet mostly. The rooms were warm enough that the duvet was too warm for us. We'd prefer just a sheet, but none provided. One fellow traveller just unzipped the duvet and took out the stuffing, then used the cover as a sheet. Wish we'd thought of that.

- Midges can be an issue. Kind of like a small version of our Black Flies. They swarm and will bite. If you're going to be outdoors much consider bug repellent, or even a head net if you're especially sensitive.

- Gasoline prices ranged from 1.40 to 1.60 per litre. That's pounds though, so about 2.50 - 2.80 $ Cdn per litre. Just something to consider if renting a car.

 

Scotland Day 14 - our last day in Scotland this trip

Our tour group, at the Clansman Centre presentation

Thursday Sept 5

Our last day in Scotland, we were still in the same Maldron Hotel. It would have been a good day to roam around freely and see more of Glasgow than we have already. A lot of things of interest are walkable right from the hotel, and there are buses and trains easily available for going further afield. Good weather today.

Unfortunately my cold was settling in, bringing a very low energy level. I just didn't feel up to touring so spent pretty much all day in the hotel room. The most activity was a fire alarm evacuation when we had to go outside for a few minutes. Luckily it turned out to be a fire drill, so all the evacuees were quickly allowed back in.

Earlier, Cathie had gone out for an hour or so on her own to a nearby pedestrian mall along Buchanan Street. Lots of shops along there, including several book stores. She also brought back some lunch to share.

Not the way we had expected to celebrate our anniversary, but really this whole trip was in part for our anniversary.

We did need to rest up today, as tomorrow would be an early start for a long day.

 

Friday Sept 6

On to the bus for a 4:30 am departure to the airport. The hotel provided a bag breakfast for those interested in breakfast this time of day.

The trip to the airport was uneventful, very little traffic this time of day. We got there in plenty of time to get checked in, get through the still long security lines, and make our takeoff time, 8:35 Glasgow time. The direct nonstop flight was scheduled to arrive in Toronto at 11:00 Ontario time. We actually got in an hour or so early, and were able to connect with our transit service back to Bayfield a bit earlier than scheduled. Safely back home about 1:30 pm.

We were both out of pep by this time, with Cathie's cold developing too, so a quiet few days for recuperation. Once things settle down I'll post a trip wrapup.

 

 

Our tour group at Urquhart Castle

Scotland Day 13 - Touring Glasgow and a distillery

Glasgow Cathedral

This morning we'll be touring Glasgow on our tour bus, with our driver acting as the tour guide as well as driving, as he is a proud Glasgow native. It's a beautiful sunny day, and we had a leisurely start about 9:30. 

Our first stop was the Glasgow Cathedral. Nowhere near the size of Stirling Castle, it's still a very large and old (by our North American standards) cathedral, with much of the present cathedral dating from a major rebuilding in the 13th century. It's hard to imagine the man-years of labour that went into this.

Lots of scaffolding here too, way up there

Some of the common cobblestone surfaces outside

Some Outlander scenes were shot here

Outlander content was shot in a number of places we've been around Scotland. There were several fans of the Outlander series in our tour group.

 

More cobblestone

Odd to see a satellite dish on this old place. It does look like an old dish.

We then moved on to view the Doulton fountain. The fountain is unusual in that it's made from terracotta, and has 4 faces with each side representing one of Britain's former colonies: India, South Africa, Canada and Australia.

<Fountain info link>

Link suggestion: many of these sites tell you they require you to allow cookie storage. If you select a "manage cookie preferences" though, you can turn off all but the basic required cookies, which reduces any tracking.

Later we drove by the not-so-famous Leaning Tower of Glasgow:

For lunch today we were let loose on St George Square. Lots of shopping around there, and lots of pigeons and gulls that liked all the statues, which usually had a bird or two perched on them:

 

After lunch we saddled up and headed to the Rosebank distillery for a tour and tasting. The Rosebank started up around 1840 but fell on hard times and closed in 1993.

See the full story here.  <Rosebank history link>

 

Because the renewed distillery bottled their first distillation just over a year ago, none of their own whisky was available for tasting yet. Scottish law says spirits must be aged for at least 3 years before they can be sold. Rosebank was resurrected by Ian Maclean Distillers though, who started up a couple of other distilleries in the past number of years, so the tasting was well supplied from these other distilleries. 

The distillery interior and tour is beautifully done:

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Fermentation vats

Special barley is malted as the base ingredient

Different ingredients are used and blended

Distillation stills

They were quite proud that their whisky is triple-distilled. Apparently this is rare.

Barrelled whisky quietly aging.

3 distinctly different whiskeys to taste

We were back at the hotel by 4, ready to hit the streets for night life!

No, you're right. We flaked out, and got a hotel pizza to eat with our premixed gin & tonic Cath had found yesterday. I'm starting to really feel the cold I picked up recently, likely from someone in the tour group. Cathie is starting to feel one coming on too.