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This blog is a record of our December 2006 wedding in Edinburgh and winter vacation through Scotland, Ireland, and England.

Tuesday, 09 January 2007

Jane Austen's Bath —

Before catching a train to York in the afternoon, we spent a little time at the Jane Austen Center learning about the famous author's connection to the city.


Monday, 08 January 2007

Saturated Stonehenge —

We took a train to Salisbury, a wrong turn looking for the bus station, the wrong bus to Amesbury, then the right bus to Stonehenge. During all of this it was raining, so we were wet already by the time we got to Stonehenge. And then it got windy, so we didn't stay long, but we did witness big rocks in a field.


Sunday, 07 January 2007

An unexpected trip to Wales —

The runways at Bristol airport were in the process of being resurfaced and the temporary surface combined with the wet weather had caused a few planes to slide off the runway earlier in the week. Rather than risk a slippery landing, Aer Lingus opted to fly us into Cardiff and then bus us over to Bristol where we caught a train to Bath. We then checked into a nice room below a soon-to-be-opened restaurant which plans to serve both sushi and crepes.


Saturday, 06 January 2007

Dublin —

We saw both the Book of Kells and the Guinness Brewery today, but I am afraid we took photos of neither.

Friday, 05 January 2007

Kinsale —

From Valentia Island we drove on to Kinsale, a small town south of Cork and supposedly the "culinary capital of Ireland." What we enjoyed most about our visit though was the very warm hospitality of Tom and Chris at The Olde Bakery B&B.

While in town we spent some time taking photos of Charles Fort.

And then we took our trusty Panda to Dublin.

Thursday, 04 January 2007

Valentia Island —

Having stayed in Limerick the previous night we headed for the Ring of Kerry and the Island of Valentia. In addition to the stunning scenery, we located the landing site for the first Transatlantic Telegraph Cable connecting America to Europe. Also, there were more sheep.






Wednesday, 03 January 2007

Donegal tweed —

This is our B&B not far from Donegal.

In Donegal, a town known for its tweed, we did some shopping at Magee's. Sara bought a jacket and Sid bought two jackets and a hat. Whilst shopping the salesman demonstrated how the weavers make Magee's hand-woven tweed on looms like this one in their own homes.

A note from the editors —

We have added some small photos to previous posts. Improved versions will be available in the future.

Tuesday, 02 January 2007

Making a run for the border —

Not much exciting stuff happened today. We hustled to move our car by 8am when parking enforcement kicked in and drove to do some laundry. After that, we headed out of Belfast, crossing into the Republic of Ireland. The tales of the boringness of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic are all true. (For those who don't know, there are no customs or border controls of any kind at the border.) We crossed a bridge, the speed limit and distance signs changed to kilometers, the road signs became bilingual with both English and Irish, and that was it. The change from miles to kilometers was a welcome change because our little Fiat Panda measures distances and speeds solely in kilometers. We bought a new SIM card for my phone in Ballybofey and made our B&B arrangements for the evening, supped, etc.

Monday, 01 January 2007

Off to Ireland —

We drove down to Stranraer where we picked up a ferry to Belfast. The ferry was particularly large and somewhat resembled a casino inside. To celebrate the new year we were given a free bit of whisky or Irish cream. Also, we were serenaded by a bagpipe. Once in Belfast, we were greeted by a very friendly representative of our car hire company who gave us direction and even stopped in front of us and walked back to our car to re-direct us after we missed a turn.

Sunday, 31 December 2006

Ancestral pilgrimage —

Our first stop was at the Charles Rennie Mackintosh designed Willow Tea Rooms in central Glasgow where we had tea and scones. We then started our pilgrimage to my ancestral Closeburn Castle, former seat of the Kirkpatrick family. Google told us it was in the village of Closeburn, but had no further information as to its location, so we bravely set off thereto determined to find it on our own. After being diverted by police around a tree felled by the previous night's gale force winds, we arrived in Closeburn, but we couldn't see the castle anywhere. We queried a local who gave us directions to the best vantage point, perhaps half a mile from the castle, and we proceeded to photograph. Also, the Closeburn parish church was nearby.

We headed back to Glasgow via an alternate route since many of the roads we'd taken down had been partially flooded in places. After supping, we repaired to our room to listen to the various sounds of Hogmanay both within and without the hotel as the clock struck midnight.

Saturday, 30 December 2006

Don't ask for Scotch —

We visited Linlithgow Palace not far from our B&B (also in the background of some of the photos our photographer took). The Castle was the birthplace of Mary, Queen of Scots. The locals in Linlithgow are affectionately termed "black bitches" for their connection to Mary.

We then headed back to the big city (Edinburgh) to visit the Scotch Whisky Heritage Centre where we took the tour and followed it with a tasting. Part of the tour featured a film starring an American tourist who bellied up to a bar and made an ass of himself by, among other things, asking for "Scotch." In Scotland, where all scotch must mature for a mimimum of three years, it's whisky.

While in Edinburgh, we spotted celebrations of Hogmanay, the Scottish new year festival.

Friday, 29 December 2006

Introducing Mr and Mrs Cammeresi —

We were married today. We decided in the morning to pick up some flowers for the occasion and were lucky enough to find a florist who agreed to whip something up for us. After some shopping and picking up the flowers, we met up with our photographer, Gordon Jack, who took us on a whirlwind tour of town taking outdoor photos in true Scottish weather before our ceremony. The photographer and another local acted as our witnesses. The cremony was short, sweet, and sincere. After the ceremony, we stopped briefly for more pictures and then went back to Linlithgow where we had a nice steak dinner.

Thursday, 28 December 2006

Whisky —

We left Inverness and headed toward the Edinburgh area by way of the Highlands Whisky Trail and, in especial, the Speyside area (between Aberdeen and Inverness). Unfortunately, all the distilleries were closed for the holiday season. (Glenfarclas was closing as we arrived and told us to return the next day, which our schedule would sadly not permit.)

We continued south through the Grampian mountains and found the terrain some like Colorado, but much wetter. We would very oddly be in an area of heavy, snow-like frost and then descend and find the terrain very nicely green.

We had to call for more detailed directions to our destination B&B again (beginning to become a common theme), but finally made it to the Arden Country House in the Edinburgh suburbs. After refreshing ourselves with tea (Sid, driver) and mulled wine (Sara, navigator), we dined on pizzas at Bar Leo and returned to our room to retire in advance of a very busy day....

Wednesday, 27 December 2006

Across the Highlands —

After a night in Inverness, we headed out on the recommendation of our B&B host to the Isle of Skye. Skye, by the way, is directly west of Inverness off the opposite coast. We drove for a while along the infamous Loch Ness where we spotted and stopped to take photos of Urquhart Castle. The drive out was pretty, and along the way we saw plenty of sheep. We went as far as Uig (even our Scottish B&B host confessed to having trouble pronouncing that one) on the Northern third of the Isle before turning around to head back to Inverness.

Tuesday, 26 December 2006

Happy Boxing Day —

Today is the day of big sales, when everyone "boxes" back up the Christmas gifts they don't want to return them. Instead of shopping, hwoever, we secured breakfast and then picked up our hired car.

So, yeah, I knew driving on the left would be weird, require some adjustment, and then would get better over time. The getting better over time part, I had that about right, but let me tell you, driving on the elft is werid nearly beyond description. Ten years of reflexes and instincts are all, suddenly, completely wrong. It was very lucky that we were given an automatic transmission because we had enough going on without worrying about shifting with our left hands.

I bought a SIM card for my mobile phone to make phone use cheaper and then we hightailed it out of the harrowing big city.

We began by heading for Perth and quickly found ourselves on motorway-class[1] roads, and they were relatively easy driving. As time passed, however, we had to progressively downgrade, first to a dual carriageway A-road and then to just a single carriageway.

By this time, night had fallen, and driving on wet, two-lane, country roads in the dark, in a foreign country, in areas where the National Speed Limit (70 mph) applied became somewhwat nerve-wracking. But then our saviour arrived! We came upon another motorist who we pegged as a recently landed tourist armed with a GPS because he drove badly and slowly (at times causing cars behind him to queue for half a mile), but in towns, he always negotiated the roundabouts expertly and always knew where he was going.

He eventually went a different direction, and we made the last part of our journey to Inverness at a more reasonable 60-65 mph. After some experimentation (turning down poorly signed streets), we finally made it to Bunillidh (meaning by the sea), our B&B for the evening.


Monday, 25 December 2006

Safely in Edinburgh —

[By Sara]

We arrived safely after a couple of relatively unnoteworthy flights. We did encounter perhaps the only TSA agent with a sense of humour.

Sid has shown remarkable progress in his conversion to the carryon-only lifestyle. He managed to pack all of his items into one large and one small but rather heavy pack. I only had to pack two of his sweaters in my pack, and he ended up with the sneakers I nearly forgot, so I guess we're about even. If he hadn't insisted on bringing two cameras (in addition to my one) he might have even come out ahead. For my part, I figure I've earned bragging rights for packing my "wedding gown" into a carryon bag. In the end, each of our bags weighed about 18 pounds, except for my purse of course, which was considerably lighter.

We arrived in Edinburgh rather tired having had fitful sleep on the plane and we had to wait a bit for a taxi as it was Christmas morning. Thankfully, our hotel kindly let us check in early so that we were able to shower, nap, and eat.

By evening, we were ready to venture out and found our Christmas dinner at the only open restaurant we found not attached to a hotel: Rendezvous Peking Cuisine. The place was festive, offering a holiday feast complete with paper crowns. We opted out of the feast, but had a nice dinner and left with a 2007 bamboo calendar.

Saturday, 23 December 2006

Introduction —

Just to make sure everyone is caught up, on 4 August 2006, I asked Sara to marry me, and she agreed to do so. Her ring is white gold with a blue diamond and some smaller, princess cut side diamonds.

For our marriage and honeymoon, we are going on a three-week tour of Scotland, Ireland, and England. We leave tomorrow and will arrive on Christmas morning. We will be married in Edinburgh on the 29th at 15:30 (that's 9:30 am CST) and will spend the rest of our time travelling around Scotland and Ireland by car, the Irish Sea by ferry, and England by rail. Click the map on the right to see some of the places we're going to hit.

Let me anticipate a few common questions up front.

Why Scotland? — We wanted to go away on a big trip to get married, but most countries have arduous requirements for non-citizens to get married within them (generally requiring so many weeks of residence). Scotland has no such requirements, only some paperwork that needs to be completed. The British Isles are also convenient in that they speak English. Coincidentally, some of my ancestors lived in Scotland, although this was not a consideration in our decision.

Will the marriage be recognised in the US? — Yes, the US recognises any marriage as long as the marriage is consistent with US laws. This basically excludes only men with multiple wives and other similarly exotic unions.

How does one get married in Scotland? — (1) Pick where you want to get married, call the General Register Office for that area, and reserve a time for your marriage to be solemnised. (2) People who are not UK citizens or have indefinite leave to remain (US: green card) must get a visit-for-marriage visa even if they do not normally require a visa to enter the UK. This involves paying some fees of about £50 per person, assembling some documentation to show you have the means to support yourself whilst there and to show that you're actually serious about getting married there, and then mailing all this and your passport to a British consulate. (3) Both people must lodge marriage notice forms with the registrar where they will be married, supply birth certificates, copies of their passports and visas, and the requisite fees (£112 for the statutory fees and two copies of one's marriage extract; some locations charge additional fees). Details and forms are available from the General Register Office for Scotland.

We intend to post pictures and updates as we go and as we have Internet access, so please sit back, relax, and enjoy the flight.


Copyright © 2006-2007 Sidney Cammeresi and Sara Dietrich. All rights reserved.
The moral right of the authors has been asserted.