Danna

Trip Report Scotland, East Riding of Yorkshire, Amsterdam and Stuttgart.

Part 1. First I want to thank you who have provided excellent assistance with this and earlier trips. On September 16, 2004 my husband and I embarked on an excellent adventure. We drove from our house at 8 a.m. CST (US) to Minneapolis. I thought, if we were at the airport at 11:30 a.m. we'd for sure get the emergency row seats. The Icelandair staff don't start check-in until 3:30 p.m. in Mpls for the 7:00 flight, oh well nice idea.

We then went to see our daughter's new apartment, where we would leave our car, and then out to lunch. We have been on a low-carb diet for 8 months so our lunch of pasta salads was pretty exciting. WOOHOO two weeks of carbs here we come! Nachos at the airport? Sure, you betcha!

Returned to the airport about 2:45 and were ready for the check-in line. We were in luck, the Icelandair staff weren't there yet and the group most likely to challenge us for a leg room seat had teens it. AHA! That group's luggage was tagged for inspection and we moved to the front of the line. We were able to get emergency row 9 on both the MSP/Keflavik and Keflavik/Glasgow legs. If you are on an Icelandair flight row 9, be sure not to get the window seat, it's probably more uncomfortable than the rest. Room in front, but your legs have to wind around the door. Row 8 only has two chairs that look like they have a lot of legroom.

7:00 p.m. then 6 hours (along with some breaded chicken with rice) later we arrived in Iceland. It's rainy and I think that maybe I'll get a better picture of the cliffs in the distance on the return flight. Big mistake! My advice? Take that picture now (wherever you are) because it's bound to be really raining on the return flight. An hour in the airport just leaves enough time to go to the bathroom and shop. It's too bad I don't know the worth of the Icelandic Kroner because I could have planned for return trip shopping. We think we will return to Iceland for a quick trip.

1? hours later we are in Glasgow where it is 11:00 we find our way to the car rental desk. Unfortunately the lady next to us is trying to rent a car using American Express and stating that they pay for the insurance. This had been my plan too. I listened to the exchange between the American and the car rental staff and decided to just take whatever insurance they offered, less hassle. BIG MISTAKE! This 2 day rental cost us about $450. We should have just signed whatever release they had and whatever damage would be between us and our card. We got a car two years ago from Arnold Clark using American Express and paid what I was thinking we'd pay this time. Now we pay about 3 times more. Oh well, live and learn.

Danna

We drove to our favorite place Kirkcudbright about 100 miles to the southwest. Got a little lost in Glasgow, stopped and asked for directions. I feel the most successful cry for assistance is a pitiful one. ?Help, we?re lost!? ?No your not.? came the reply from behind the counter, ?You?re at this store and I know you.? Yes, we were in Scotland where the folks are very fine. Another fellow gave us some good directions, go to Arnold Clark and turn right, it?s dead easy. I conveyed the dead easy message to my husband we laughed. We found the motorway. We are used to cloverleaf interchanges, not driving along on smaller streets between motorways. 2 ? hours later we arrived. It?s too bad we were so worried about driving and so tired we didn?t get to enjoy the view. The travel through the Galloway Forest Park was new for us, wow, the view from the road were beautiful, forest covered hills, huge trees, pheasants. I can only imagine what else it holds.

Got settled in the Gordon House Guesthouse, 116 High Street (83.50GBP per night.) When we decided to go get cash we realized that neither of us remembered the PIN to our newest bankcard. We got a debit card on one of our other accounts so we weren?t dependant on just one account. Of course we were ?sensible? and did not write it down so someone else could use it. Now we couldn?t access that cash. After a few trips to get a phone card, trying to call the bank, we quit and decided to charge on that card and use our usual one for cash. Luckily this plan worked. Enjoyed walking around in this lovely town again. The flowers were still blooming, my first photo is of a bush with rosehips about the size of walnuts. Walked along the harbor, visited the Hornell garden. Stopped at our favorite pub and then returned to the hotel for our dinner and bed. My husband had whitebait with salad and grilled mozzarella with pesto, tomatoes on pastry. Kind of looked like fried minnows to me. I had a potato, leek and ham bake, a carb dream that. We shared a crannochan dessert (berries w/ biscuit, whiskey and cream.) We slept verrry well.

Next day we at our first full Scottish breakfast, it?s a wonderful thing. Drove to Castle Douglas to buy beer from the Sulwath brewery and cheese from the Sunrise Whole Foods store. Enjoyed a pint and a chat at brewery, on our last visit we enjoyed a tour by the owner, a very friendly fellow who makes good ale. Bought Scotch Pies and Cornish pasties from the corner bakery to snack on. We got some lovely Loch Arthur creamery Criffel cheese made in Dumfrieshire and a white Lanark. When we returned to Kirkcudbright we chose a 4-mile roundtrip walk along the River Dee, about 4 miles. We got a nice brochure of area walks from the Tourist Center. It was very windy, leftovers from one of the many hurricanes that hit Florida. The path started in town and included a park where an archery club was practicing and then later it walked along a field with cows. My daughter described one of our pictures from the walk as ?looks like the Shire? Tolkien?s Shire that is. A late afternoon snack of beer, cheese and an apple on that windy shore was just perfect.

Danna

We headed back to the Masonic arms for a pint and then to the Lighthouse Bistro for dinner. We shared a mushroom appetizer and my husband loved his pork medallions in a mustard, cream and wine sauce. I had seafood linguini that was huge. I saved room for one of my food goals of the trip, Cream of Galloway whiskey, oatmeal and honey ice cream, heaven!

We got up early and drove back to Glasgow airport to return the car. Took a train to Aberdeen. The Granite City is a beautiful city. We have friends there who showed us the sites. We really enjoyed Old Aberdeen and King?s college. The Aberdeen Art Gallery is really interesting. I particularly enjoyed the head made from burned wooden matches. It?s hard to explain but pretty interesting. It also has 12 or 13 pillars of granite each from an area quarry. The difference in the colors and patterns of granite were surprising. The Provost Skene?s House museum has rocking horse that sits on a 6 foot rocking platform, almost the size of a merry-go-round horse, a child?s dream, heck it looked fun to me! Even as late in the season there were still plenty of flowers to make visiting the gardens well worth it. We saw a pictish stone in the midst of a housing development.

Probably the most unusual sight we visited was the Loanhead of Daviot. Two stone circles, one about 5000 years old and another that had cremated remains inside. From this sight you could see another circle on the next hill. There are many many stone-age sites in Aberdeenshire. We checked out the Maritime Museum before taking our flight south. The Tollbooth museum was closed, too bad.

Can?t wait to return. My husband enjoyed sampling a fair number of whiskies. There are many sights to see in the Northeast, it was grand, and we will be back.

We flew Eastern air to Humberside airport in NE England, very expensive but free drinks. The airport website stated that there was a bus route to Hull, this proved incorrect. We shared a taxi into town and the driver helped us find a place to stay. We landed at the Portland on Paragon Street for 68 GBP per night. It was a small room but the central location was great. We were in Hull to do some genealogical research on my husband?s family.

Hull is a port town. It?s got a busy downtown that seems to close up pretty quickly after 5:00 p.m. The BBC has a presence in Hull and they offer free web access along with a HUGE television in one of the city squares. The Hull City Archives staff gave us suggestions for our research and we were able to look through a ledger of apprenticeships handwritten in the 1600?s. The art gallery is very good. ?The Deep? a submarium is a large aquarium that has a path beneath the tank, the manta ray circling above was different. The Portland Hotel had a nice restaurant my husband enjoyed a sticky toffee dessert and I enjoyed a nice haddock w/prawns in wine sauce on our last night.

Danna

We got a bus to Leeds, we really do like taking the bus. Met a couple who gave us advise on the airport bus and luggage storage. Downtown Leeds is a shopper?s dream. Neither of us are shoppers but we browsed for a few hours. I had a lovely celeriac soup and my husband had carrot cake at a café in what looked like a stained glass covered city street. It was unusual because each building mirrored the one across the street. Must have been planned. Took a Jet2 flight to Amsterdam for 23E each. Nice price, service and flight.

Arrived in Amsterdam 9:00 p.m. It took awhile to find where to get the right tram. I?m glad we had something as big as the museumplein to use as a landmark in the dark. We dragged ourselves through the rain to the Hotel Washington, about 10:15 p.m. Ate the cheese, fruit, wine, chips and chocolate we had carried along. Fell into the most comfortable mattress we?ve ever slept on. I dreamed about it while I was sleeping in it. It is more expensive (120E per night) than it used to be, but they now have a website www.hotelwashington.nl (see Fodor?s hotel recommendations.)

Saturday morning we walked to the Centraal station to buy train tickets for Monday?s trip to Stuttgart. It?s important to read the signs that say, ?International tickets purchased on track 2A.? I only realized this after finally getting to the front of the line only to be told to go upstairs for a ticket. Go upstairs, get a number and settle in for a wait. We got our tickets to Stuttgart along with seat reservations. Remember, that a ticket gets you from here to there, but seat reservations guarantee you can sit down. We watched many folks bouncing from seat to aisle who didn?t have seat reservations.

Walking and eating seem to be the recurring themes of this report. Walking around Amsterdam is one of my favorite things to do. It?s the kind of city that you ?know? you are in Amsterdam. Other cities look alike, but Amsterdam like San Francisco, New York and New Orleans are distinctive. We had soup at the Eetcafe CDijk46, very nice soups and turkish breads with garlic butter and a lot of musical instruments on the ceiling. Continued walking south and I got a nice picture in Chinatown that shows a sign for Café Dijk and then a sign in Chinese behind it. We visited a coffee shop and then bought munchies (that became our evening meal) at the underground grocery store at the south end of the museumplein. A good time was had by all.

Danna

Sunday a.m we walked to the to the Artis Zoo. The day was not too cloudy and not really sunny, just right. On Sunday morning the city was quieter for a bit. Our photos show a canal with a lush tree-lined bank a windmill?s blades poking out from the top. There was this weird lion?s skin on a very tall post outside the Heineken brewery, don?t know why but it makes for a good photo. After visiting the zoo we remembered that almost all of them are depressing. We had a lovely lunch at the DeBamboeseur between the zoo and botanical garden. After curried mussel soup and a smoked salmon bagel and we were ready to tackle the Hortus botanical garden. The Hortus is one of the oldest botanical gardens in Europe. It was established in the 1600?s as a medicinal garden. Took the tram back to the museumplein and then visited the Vondel park. It was a lovely autumn evening and the park was filled with walkers, dogs, and folks like us just strolling about.

For dinner we revisited The Knijp, Van Baerlsestraat 134. We ordered oysters for an appetizer and then a great spicy fish stew and a tillapia dish. Crème caramel and dessert wine finished the meal. It was lovely.

Monday morning we started walking for Centraal station at 6:30, there was a tram driver?s strike. I didn?t look at my map, just kept heading in the ?right? direction. Well, luckily I realized after seeing the Waterlooplein that we were a ?bit off target.? Asking for directions is ALWAYS a good idea, whether you speak the language or not, finger pointing works. Luckily we made the train with 10 minutes to spare, and it hadn?t started REALLY raining, yet. My husband is a very patient traveler!

The train from Amsterdam to Mannheim got interesting after about an hour. At 9 or 9:30 six German gentlemen, in their 60?s, sat in the seats in front of us. After getting settled one brought out a flask and a shot glass was passed throughout. Then the bags of cheese, wurst and grapes were set within reach. This was followed by 3 hours of wine, numerous flasks (of something) and a lot fun. By the time we were departing the train at noon at least four bottles of wine had been shared and they were starting to sing!

The transfer to the Stuttgart train was very easy. Each track had pictures of each train and where you would find your car. Made me think of a party in Glasgow who spent many trips around the train to find out if they were in the right car. Actually the German stations were the only ones that we could understand the announcements. Most often they sound like the adults in a Charlie Brown Peanut?s special, ?woo wooaa wo wo.?

Danna

Then next day we explored the Markthalle, the market and Konigstrasse pedestrian way to the Haupbahnhof. I think I?m mostly impressed visiting markets. It?s hard not to have a kitchen to be able to more use of the wonderful offerings. Got a photo of tall pointed cabbage, not anything like we grow here. We got our tickets reservations for the trip to the airport. We explored the part of the Schlossgarten near the train station. This greenspace reaches from the center of town north to the Neckar river.

We caught the ubahn to the Staatsgalerie. This art gallery is really two buildings. It?s a huge collection with works from the middle ages to very modern art. The most striking piece was a realistic wax sculpture of a washerwoman who is washing the floor in one of the galleries. We expected her to move, she?s situated in a gallery from the 1700?s. It?s the oddest thing I?ve every seen in a museum. The collection of Picasso?s work covered 5 decades and included both paintings and sculpture. We had very tired feet this day and bought food at a natural foods place and ate a late lunch in our room.

That evening we walked to Eberhardstrasse in search of Kochelofen restaurant, this also features swabian cuisine. Looked up and down Eberhardstrasse and couldn?t find the restaurant, so we just tried to find a place and then there, a ? block off Eberhardstrasse, was the Kochelofen, I didn?t get the addressing scheme. The place was busy and the service very friendly. My husband had cheese spaetzle with ham and I had the rostbraaten (beef with fried onions and lovely gravy.) They forced a side dish of spaetzle on me.

Our last day we headed to the reason we?re here, the Cannstatter Wasen Volksfest. There is a Volksfest line added to the Ubahn schedule during the fest. We visited during the day, and it was kind of hopping at 1:00 p.m.. There were little kids and elders all having fun, singing and swaying. I can only imagine what it?s like at 10:00 p.m. If you?re into barbeque you haven?t lived until you see a whole oxen turning on a spit. We ate wurst, wine kraut and pureed potatoes.

That evening we finished our trip with a Swabian restaurant just down the street. The Murrhardter Hof, Winzerstube und Weinhandlung at Wilhelpsplatz 6. I had cheese spaetzle and my husband had maultaschen in broth. We stopped at the gasthaus just outside the hotel, had at least one too many viertele of riesling.

Caught the 9:27 to Frankfurt airport. The trip was uneventful and we arrived yet again before the Icelandair staff. You?d think that being first in line would help. Instead on our Keyflek to Minneapolis leg we sat one behind the other. There was a surprising amount of legroom on each flight. We didn?t miss getting an emergency row.

Danna

We finished our carbohydrate fun with tomatoes and mozzarella on a baguette at the airport and some kind of toasted cheese sandwich on the first flight. All in all a lovely trip revisiting old favorites, meeting new friends and exploring new places. I found I could eat all the carbs I want if I walk 4 to 5 hours a day. Since that?s not going to happen it?s back to the low-carb life. That is until Thanksgiving then it?s ?pecan pie here we come!?

Danna

Rats Rats and double rats. I thought there was some problem with composing these in Word, it's those darned quotation marks become question marks. Oh well, my apologies.

Kascha912

Danna, thank you for this wonderful trip report! I'm German and I had to chuckle at tyour description of the group of Germans with wine and Wurst and grapes in the train.
Although it surely isn't the norm I have come a group like this before. Actually you're more likely to meet them on a Saturday morning when groups set out to go hiking and use the cheap group ticket for regional trains on weekends.

Danna

Oops, I think I cut rather than copied the section where we arrived in Stuttgart. The Tourist office outside of the bahnhof has a good public transport help desk. You tell them where you're headed and they print off directions and connections. We found the Ubahn very easy to use. We purchased the Stuttgart card with 3 days of free transport and discounts on entry fees and other throughout the city.

We stayed at the Hotel Abalon Ideal, Olgastrasse 79. It's the oddest thing, the main entry is through a parking garage, with double decker parking stalls. We have a great picture of a porsche on the bottem layer, my friends are aghast.

The Hotel was around 100E a night, no view but very comfortable, mostly business travelers.

We walked around and found a cafe and had a quick bite of onion tart and my husband had a plum pastry. Then found a wineshop so we could purchase some local trollinger and lemberger red wines. These and the area's rieslings are served in viertele glasses, which are quarter litre cups with handles. We looked all over for them and finally made our big souvenior purchase, two cups for 6.80E total.

The first night in Stuttgart we ate at the Schellenturm, Weber Strasse 72. I had the maultaschen and my husband had schweinbraaten. Maultaschen is a bid ravioli filled with spinach, meat and cheese. My husband's porks smelled lovely. We found the salads which had greens and warm vinegary potato salad in them were wonderful. Then there's the sides of spaetzle. The Swabian cuisine was as great as I had been anticipating.

Keith

Great report, but you made so hungry that I had to get some popcorn before finishing.

When are we going to see those photos yuo kept mentioning?

Keith

Danna

Updates. WOOHOO! We lodged a dispute with National car rental. Their representive just emailed refunding 84GBP in charges that we disputed. We never thought we'd get a reply let alone a rebate. It's a good thing.

Keith, I am amazed I got a trip report done, albeit badly. I've seen messages about websites for pics, I may exlore it. Will post a message if I do. I have to say I did like my pictures.

caroline_edinburgh

Danna, glad to hear you made the most of Scotland's fine ales & cheeses ! Interested to hear about Kirkcudbright - I've never been. If you're in the area again you may like to check out the Andy Goldsworthy sculptures dotted around the countryside north of Castle Douglas - the tourist office in C.D. can supply a map showing where they are.

Danna

Caroline,

When you have a chance please visit Kirkcudbright, it's an amazing community. We certainly plan to be in the area again. I've seen pics of the sculptures around Castle Douglas. I don't know that I'll get my husband to the Continent, but I'll get him to visit Scotland again, I'm sure.

KT

Well, opinions do differ. I finally got to Kirkcudbright on my seventh trip to Scotland and found it nice but actually a bit of a disappointment. Maybe it's because I missed out on the legendary light (it was pouring the day I was there), or because I was over-anticipating, or because I don't like Hornell's art, or because I didn't stay longer. In any case, I can think of many places in Scotland that I prefer. But that's just me.

Danna

Keith... while I don't have all of my pics online. BUT I submitted one that was selected as #2 on the BBC's "your pictures: Scotland."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/3763992.stm

I've been looking at this weekly collection for years, and now I'm there.

KT, sorry you didn't become as enamored as I. You are correct, different strokes for different folk, thanks for your commentary.

Keith

Thank you Danna!

Keith

sheila

Great report, Danna.

That's the first time many of THOSE things have been mentioned on Fodors!!