Agricultural Rock

Spring continues to tease us with the outdoors temperature rising and then being replaced with chill breeze before warming up again. But I can tell that it’s going in the right direction. Book club on Wednesday at Susan’s had a few undercurrents, regarding school stuff. Teachers have a difficult job and I think it’s even harder for them now. I had a walk with Alison T in Pollok Park on Thursday followed by coffee at the Burrell, it was lovely to see her but what can I do to make her feel better? Nothing at all except be there for her. On Saturday evening James and I went to Jethro Tull; James’ choice since he liked them in their heyday. The Royal Concert Hall was sold out, and the ageing fans (I include ourselves in that!) enjoyed the quirky folk-rock music very much. No one enjoyed themselves more than founder and lead singer Ian Anderson, who pranced about with his flute, tootling away and often standing on one leg, tapping the rhythm on it with his other leg! The songs were about countryside life, politics, religion, homeless people to name but a few. It was a great concert, much better than I had expected! 

Happy 30th Birthday Cat

Yesterday was Cat’s 30th birthday; I can hardly believe that the lovely teenager we first met has become an accomplished, beautiful thirty year old woman. She spent the weekend with her Mum and Dad in Vienna and we will celebrate with her and Ally when we visit London in May. 

James and I had a pleasant chat with Jamie this morning (his evening) about our visit to New Zealand in October. Then I had a dentist appointment. It was a fine, sunny morning. As I left the house I could see Tom standing on the doorstep of our new neighbours’ house across the road, peering into their hallway through the open front door (they are getting work done in the house so there are workmen going in and out.) As I watched, Tom stepped delicately over the threshold and disappeared into the house. How nosy and cheeky he is! I know that he once sneaked into Suzy’s house and greeted her and the children, but then left in a hurry when he met Brian in the hall; Tom recognises a fellow Alpha Male when he sees one! 

Next, I saw Duke of Edinburgh group walking along Brownside Road. They were unmistakable with their huge backpacks and maps, obviously practising carrying the heavy backpacks and doing a bit of urban navigation. It made me feel quite nostalgic to see them, but so glad that I’m not responsible for pupils’ safety any more.

My dentist appointment was to get my new crown fitted. Unfortunately it didn’t fit despite the dentist chipping away at it for ages and forcing it into the gap between my other teeth about fifteen times. So he had to take another impression of my teeth in order to get a new crown made, and back in went the old temporary filling for now.

When I got home Tom greeted me at our front door and I noticed that the door across the street was now closed; I wonder if he was spotted prowling about inside the house and had to flee or if he exited quietly without being spotted.

I do enjoy cooking at leisure i.e. not in a rush, so I enjoyed pottering about making lasagnes (both meat and vegetable) in the afternoon for Gordon and Morag’s dinner. And I made extra ragout as well to freeze. We used the first of this year’s rhubarb to make a crumble, which turned out very well. We had a very pleasant evening and good chat with our guests. Tom was so friendly to them that he tried to climb onto the table and had to be ejected from the room temporarily! 

The Mavericks

We have had a pleasant and even quite social time since our return from our trip to Islay and Jura. Forrest and Marjory came round on Saturday evening and we had a Chinese meal from Peking Palace, which was tasty. I had tofu with satay sauce, which I haven’t tried before, and it was really good. We all had a good chat and catch up, while Tom and Flora sat on the back of the sofa and listened intently to our conversation. 

On Sunday we met up with Heather and Ewan at Amarone because we had missed our planned curry with them due to our postponed flight. We met in town because they were going to The Mavericks concert at the GRCH later, and James suggested that he and I could go to the cinema. He had looked at going to the Mavericks too but it was completely sold out. I was not to be thwarted however and kept my eye on the Gumtree website. Mid afternoon the offer of two Mavericks tickets appeared, at a nicely discounted rate since the concert was only a few hours later. After a quick flurry of messages I arranged to collect the tickets from Renfrew on our way into town. We had a lovely meal with Heather and Ewan and a great chat, and the concert was fantastic. Our tickets were up high right at the back, facing the stage, in a seating area that I hadn’t even noticed before! They were deemed “restricted view” because a handrail crossed in front of one of them, but James could see over it easily and we thought that they were great seats. The band were tuneful and joyful and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I don’t know much of their music apart from “Dance the Night Away” and I didn’t even realise, until Ewan mentioned it, that it is Country Music. I realise now that it is indeed Country, with a bit of Cuban and Tex-Mex. It was a great evening. 

Unexpected Extra Day on Islay

We woke up to brilliant sunshine, which I felt was an appropriate compensation for being delayed on Islay for an extra day! After a very nice breakfast using the ingredients provided in the luxury kitchen of the apartment, we packed up and headed to Machir Beach on the west coast of the island. We went on a circular walk recommended by the Walk Highlands website. This started at the ruined church with its intricately carved Celtic cross in its graveyard, and continued through a field with lots of sheep and lambs, whom we were careful not to disturb, then up the hill. Eventually we arrived at the beach. Oh boy was it beautiful, a long sandy beach and blue, blue sea, with waves lapping gently on the shore. We had a picnic sitting on the sand dunes with a flask of coffee. It really was idyllic. Then we went to the nearby Kilchoman Distillery, a modern and (to us) lesser known Islay distillery. What a find! It is the most nicely set up (for visitors) distillery that we have seen so far. It is really spacious and smartly decorated with a big circular fire and comfy armchairs, and tables made out of the tops of whisky barrels. It even has a wee restaurant with a lovely display of baking. We didn’t take a tour but James was given two wee complimentary drams of whisky which he drank before his tea and cake, and we had a good look round. And then it was time to make our way to the airport for our flight, which was initially delayed by 50 minutes, but the pilot made up some time so we arrived back to Glasgow less than half an hour late. Another bonus of our unplanned extra day on Islay was that the lovely weather today enabled us to see lots of islands and coast during our flight - yesterday would have been too cloudy. 

Cancelled flight

As forecast, the sunny weather was a mere memory when we woke this morning and it was raining for most of the day. We thought nothing of this, feeling that we had been lucky with our two days of sunshine, and didn’t suspect that it would have an impact on us later. We checked out of the hotel and James went for a Distillery tour while I went to the Antlers Café and read my book. James joined me for a coffee there after his tour, and then we caught the ferry back to Islay - more terrifying reversing onto the wee ferry for me! We went to the Islay Life Museum in Port Charlotte, which turned out to be a great place to spend a bit of time on a rainy day. It had all sorts of objects from the old days on Islay; butter churns, a ship’s whistle, old Christening gowns (just like ours!), a cradle shaped like a boat, old agricultural tools and much more. It also had information on how World Wars 1 and 2 had affected the island; as well as young men dying on the battlefields of Europe there had been a bad air crash and two military shipwrecks in the 2nd World War which had unfortunately resulted in many deaths, quite a few American. The islanders had rallied round to rescue the survivors and bury the dead, for which they were praised by the American President. There were also old photographs of Islay life; dances and theatre productions and school days and milking competitions. We both found it to be fascinating. Back in Bowmore we had a mid afternoon coffee before heading to the airport. It wasn’t until we arrived that we found out that our flight back to Glasgow was cancelled because of low cloud. I had received a text message forty minutes before but hadn’t seen it. James, who knows a lot about aeroplanes, was surprised that it had been cancelled; the cloudy weather didn’t seem all that bad. However there was nothing that we could do, and more unwelcome news was to come; the morning flight tomorrow is fully booked so we won’t get home until the evening. This meant that we have had to cancel a curry at Rasoi with Heather and Ewan that we were both looking forward to (the company as well as the food of course!) To be fair to Loganair they booked us into a very nice hotel in Bowmore and arranged to transport us there by minibus. We decided to extend our car hire in order to give ourselves a bit of independence tomorrow, and set off to the welcoming and newly refurbished Harbour Hotel’s apartments, which are very smart and clean. So here we are, unexpectedly still in Islay. 

A walk at Tarbert on Jura

Today was supposed to be cloudy and indeed it started that way, but the clouds dispersed to reveal another sunny day - we have been so lucky! After another excellent breakfast at the Jura Hotel, we drove to Tarbert, the narrowest point on Jura, where sailors used to carry their boats across when sailing from Colonsay to the mainland at Kintyre. It avoided the dangerous Corryvreckan whirlpool and was a shortcut. It was a lovely walk and very peaceful, there wasn’t another soul around. On the way back to Craighouse (Jura’s main and in fact I think its only village, where there is a shop, a café, the Jura Hotel and the Jura Whisky Distillery) we stopped for a walk on Corran Sands. The colours were beautiful, the pale sand made the water turquoise beside the shore, changing into darker hues as it got deeper. It was an absolutely beautiful day. We went to the Antlers Café where it was sheltered and warm enough to sit outside in the sunshine to drink our cups of tea, and then strolled around Craighouse, down to the pier and back. During dinner we were eavesdropping (as is our wont) on the next table of young people and realised that they were executives from Whyte and Mackay, who own the Jura Distillery. They were chatting quite loudly but when their main courses were served they all became absolutely silent as they got tore into their food - a tribute to the fine cooking of the Jura Hotel! 

The Paps of Jura

We were delighted with the Jura Hotel when we arrived last night. It’s a typical old fashioned Scottish hotel in many ways, but has been well kept, is very clean, and the en-suite bathroom in our room is brand new. The location is lovely; right on the water with beautiful views of the sea and some wee islands, with Kintyre in the distance. 

This morning, after a hearty breakfast, I dropped James off at the bridge 5 km north of Craighouse for his hill-walking day. His aim was to climb the three Paps of Jura, so named because they are conical in shape, like breasts (yes, three breasts!) The highest one, Beinn an Oir, is a Corbett, another one to tick off on James’ list, and the main reason for our trip which is my Christmas present to James.

I decided to head up as far north as possible in the island. The main, and only public road in the island, is shaped like a giant letter J. We crossed over from Islay at the bottom left of the J, and today I headed up to the top of it. The road is single track with passing places, and it’s a surprisingly long way, but I was in no hurry and took my time, enjoying the views of hills and moorland and sea. I arrived eventually at the Lussa estate, where I had a bit of an unwanted adventure. 

When the road passes the distillery and farm buildings at the estate, it then descends to an absolutely beautiful bay. I decided to park the car and have a walk around. I carefully backed onto a piece of grass, which seemed firm because I tested it first with my feet. Meanwhile, lots of mummy sheep and their beautiful little twin and triplet lambs went past me, and there were some geese on the beach. Two friendly ladies rode past me on horseback and warned me that the grass (which is actually going to be a hayfield in the summer) is not as firm as it seemed. I was embarrassed to have backed on to their hayfield and went to move my car straight away. Sure enough it was stuck fast and when I tried to move it, the wheels just span. Claire Fletcher, who turned out to be the lady laird, phoned her husband Andy to ask him to tow me out of the field. She said that it would take him a little while to arrive because he was dehorning calves this morning. The delay didn’t bother me because I was just grateful to get the help and I went for a little walk up and down the bay. Soon Andy arrived and towed me out of the field. He said that they used to live in the West End of Glasgow and if his father hadn’t died, they probably wouldn’t have moved back to Jura, but they felt that they should hand it on to future generations. They live in such a beautiful place but I bet it’s hard work to make ends meet. For example he mentioned that they have tied cottages on the estate for workers, and they are now being charged double rates because they are deemed second homes, which is really not quite true or fair. To say thank you I went to the distillery in which Claire is a partner, and bought some Lussa gin. The lady in the distillery who sold me the gin told me that they were glad to hear that we were staying in the Jura Hotel because it’s really struggling to get visitors especially with the ferry problems over the past few years; people are reluctant to book holidays if transport is going to be a problem. 

I collected James from the bridge at 5.30 p.m. arriving in perfect time when he was only about 100 yards away from the car park, he was ravenous for his tasty dinner back at the hotel and told me of his adventures including some scary sounding slides down scree fields. He had managed to climb all three hills. That was a very big walk for him today and he was pleased to have achieved it. He fell asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow. 

Flight to Islay

To the confusion of the cats we were awake particularly early and left the house at about twenty past six in the morning, in order to catch our 7.50 a.m. flight to Islay. I nipped along to the postbox to post a letter and Tom followed me all the way! I didn’t even notice because I was hurrying along but when James drove along to pick me up at the foot of Calder Drive he pointed Tom out, still standing beside the postbox, and said that he had been at my heel the whole way! All went smoothly on our journey although when we arrived in Islay it was raining and we were even treated to a burst of hailstones after we picked up our hire car. On the other hand there were also lengthy intervals of blue sky and sunshine; the weather is very weirdly mixed today. 

Neither James nor I have been in Islay since we were teenagers, each with our own families, so it was interesting to see it again. There are lots of Whisky distilleries around the coast of the island so we naturally called in at a few. First was Laphroaig, then Bowmore, and then Bruichladdich, where James booked a tour with cask whisky tasting. Each distillery was beautifully appointed next to the water, with comfortable lounges and / or tasting areas, and very knowledgeable and friendly staff. When James went for his tour I walked along to a nearby café where I got into conversation with some pleasant Ileachs (they explained to me that is the same for someone born on Islay.) But when I asked if they might have known another Ileach (Maggie’s Mum) who came from Port Ellen, they said “Oh no, that’s another place entirely!” One elderly man told me that he had been in the merchant navy and he had travelled all around the world twice before he first visited Port Ellen when his ship put in there. He then took the bus across the island back to Bruichladdich, seeing places in Islay that he had never visited before! 

I went down to the beach and took some photos of a shag standing rather magnificently on a rock, and I read my book for a while until James appeared back from his whisky tour. 

We made our way to the ferry at Port Askaig which was called “James” and after being expertly guided by the ferry man to reverse onto the boat, we had a rather choppy crossing which was great fun. This is the first trip to Jura for either of us. 

Pierogi fail

I’m in the process of clearing out our freezers by eating things that have been lurking in there for a while. One of these things is a bag of frozen pierogi, which I bought last year after our trip to Krakow. I loved eating pierogi in Krakow so on our return to Glasgow I visited our local Polish shop and bought a big bag of them. This evening I cooked them for dinner, and served them with a beetroot and horseradish sauce. The results were rather disappointing, in fact James remarked that it was a new low in my catering! We put the leftovers out on the bird table, hoping that they won’t do the birds too much harm! This reminded me of a story that my Dad used to tell, about when my Mum put out for the birds the remains of a fruit cake that had turned out to be far too heavy. My Dad claimed that he saw a bird standing with its wing wrapped around a clothes pole, and the other wing holding its sore tummy! And that another bird tried to fly away but the fruit cake it had consumed prevented it from taking off properly and its belly kept bouncing along the ground as it tried to gain height! 

In other news I had a lovely facial and head & shoulder massage on Wednesday at Ocho Spa in Speirs Wharf, which was part of my Christmas present from Ally and Cat. It was very relaxing and my skin felt glowing afterwards. 

Back to good old Blighty

Today was last day of our holiday and we had pains au chocolat for breakfast in Café Mamatte on the Rue de la Republique. Our last stop on the way to the airport, appropriately I thought, was Compiègne to visit the place where the Armistice was signed on 11th November 1918. The railway carriage is not the original because the Nazis burned that after taking it to Berlin during the 2nd World War. However it’s very similar to the original one and there are a few pieces of the original in a glass case. The railway carriage was (and is) refurbished as an office, with desks and armchairs and a conference table where the last details of the Armistice Treaty were discussed and then signed.

Our onwards journey to the airport went smoothly, but we had a worrying moment when the car hire official found a big scratch on the front bumper of the car which she did not have noted in the paperwork from when we hired it. Luckily our hero Davie had taken photos of the car when we picked it up and one of them showed that the scratch was already there so we were in the clear. It was a slow process through baggage drop, security, and passport control, to the extent that we were beginning to be worried that we wouldn’t arrive at the departure gate in time for the flight! But we got there and shuffled on at the back of the queue. By 3.45 p.m, only a quarter of an hour late, we arrived in a drizzly Glasgow, noticeably cooler than France and Belgium have been. When we got home and said our farewells to Davie and Chanel, I dived into bed absolutely exhausted; my sleep last night was disturbed by early morning deliveries and bin lorries right outside our hotel. Flora was extremely affectionate and cuddled on top of the duvet beside me. Meanwhile James and Tom were having a loving father / son reunion, it was all very heartwarming! I got up for some supper later and I’m now back in bed looking forward to a good night’s sleep. 

Amiens

After such a warm and sunny day I was surprised to hear it raining hard during the night. We woke to fresh blue skies and sunshine and had another delicious and huge breakfast. The owner of L’Histoire de L’Eclair, Annick, told us about the history of the house which is more than eight hundred years old! 

The owner of the house in the Middle Ages was a tailor, and he also rented out rooms. He rented out a room to a handsome foreigner who caught the eye of his two daughters. One of the girls had a fiancé, the local baker, who was jealous of the stranger, so one night he followed him. The stranger went down to the canal (which in those days went under the house) and mysteriously stayed out all night. The two sisters went into the stranger’s room one night while he was gone and found that he had left his trousers behind. The trousers had no opening at the front and a hole at the back; this led them to believe that he was the Devil and the hole at the back was for his tail! The family kept the discovery of the trousers quiet because they did not want their fellow townsfolk to think that they were in league with the Devil, so they tried to burn them. But instead their house was set ablaze (presumably by the vengeful Devil.) The baker fiancé kindly sold pastries to raise money for the restoration of the house, the stranger / Devil never returned, and they all lived happily ever after. Outside the house, there is a carving on the wall deputing the two girls holding the Devil’s trousers! 

Annick then took us down to see the cellars of the house which they are carefully restoring; the intricate brickwork is absolutely beautiful. 

Our next destination was south to the Thiepval Memorial to the missing of the Somme, near Amiens. We looked  around the informative small museum, and then we walked the short distance to the memorial. It was very quiet and this made it particularly moving. Onwards to Amiens where I had booked a boat tour of the Hortillonages, which we first visited in 2018 with Heather and Ewan, and where a scene near the beginning of Birdsong by Sebastian Faulkes is set. We arrived at the place where the boat tours depart only to find out that I had somehow booked with a different company! I hadn’t realised that there was more than one company! Luckily this was only five minutes along the road and we got there in time. It turned out to be a one boat company run by the very pleasant and handsome Rémi. He is taking delivery of another boat next week (and presumably will be employing someone to drive it.) The tour was an hour long, fifteen minutes longer than the other company, and it was excellent. We were pleased to get the boat to ourselves (plus Rémi!) because I reckon that there was room for eight. It was so peaceful and quiet; we saw moorhens and ducks and coots, and we saw a jay fly past us. Davie and Chanel, who had watched the Birdsong mini series in preparation, thought the boat trip was very enjoyable. 

We checked into the Mercure hotel which is very central, in fact we have a splendid view of Amiens Cathedral from our balconies, and had a brief rest before separately going for a wander. James and I looked round the Cathedral which is huge (twice as big inside as Notre Dame de Paris) and then had a pre-dinner drink in a nearby pub with Davie and Chanel. 

Our dinner, to which Davie and Chanel insisted on treating us, was at Restaurant Le Quai (recommended by Rémi), and it was splendid. What a lovely final evening of our holiday. 

A sunny day in Bruges

A copious continental breakfast lay in wait for us on the 1st floor of the b&b, served by Nicoletta. The b&b is called L’Histoire de L’Eclair. Our rooms are up under the eaves of this traditional old house just around the corner from the main square; the rooms are very pretty with huge beams crossing just above our heads. During breakfast Chopin’s Marche Funèbre was playing, quite a coincidence because Davie had been talking about it the day before. Then when we were getting ready to go out, the church bells were chiming from all directions and one of them was ringing the tune Over the Rainbow. How lovely. This continued on and off throughout the day, with a medley of Abba tunes while we were having coffee on the open air balcony of the town museum. Before that we went on a canal boat trip which gave us very pretty views as we passed lots of church towers and buildings with stepped gables. 

The weather was very warm and sunny, and people that we spoke to assured us that it is the best day of weather that they have had since last summer! After coffees and teas in the pub above the Historium, sitting out in on the balcony overlooking the main square we went for a long and extremely pleasant walk through the streets of Bruges, enjoying the slight breeze which stopped the warm day from being completely sweltering. We had lunch in ‘t Nieuw Walnutje sitting outside in the little square in the warm sunshine, and it was absolutely idyllic. Our next activity was a tour of the De Halve Maan Brewery, an excellent suggestion of Davie and Chanel’s. We were told by our enthusiastic tour guide that beer has been brewed at its location for approximately 500 years. The current brewery has been run by the Maes family since 1856. In 2016 they constructed a 3.3 km underground beer pipeline to connect the brewery with the new bottling plant on the outskirts of the town. We had good views from the roof and James, Davie and Chanel enjoyed a beer at the end of the tour. 

More adventures were to come. We climbed up the 800 year old Bell Tower in time for the 7 p.m. chimes, which were very loud! From the top we could see all the way to Zeebrugge. Then we had dinner in a pretty restaurant, where James, Davie and Chanel had mussels (not the best ones they have had, they all agreed) and I had asparagus à la Belge, and then we all had drinks sitting outside the lively Café Pick near the main square. Even though it was dark it was still warm. 

From Ypres to Bruges

Today we bade farewell to Ypres and headed north east to Ghent. I was very keen to see Jan (and Hubert) van Eyck’s Lamb of God Altarpiece in St Bavo’s Cathedral, and the other three kindly joined me in my enthusiasm. James and I learned about this in our course on the Northern Renaissance last autumn, and it was incredible to visit it. We parked in an underground car park right in the centre of Bruges and walked to the cathedral. We could hear church bells ringing and Davie recognised it as Liebestraum No. 3 in A-flat major by Franz Liszt. I recognised the tune too and was very impressed that Davie knew who had composed it. I had booked tickets for the Cathedral tour; it was augmented reality which meant that the VR images were superimposed on the real background of the cathedral crypt, which I liked. It was very informative, about both the details and the history of the much stolen altarpiece, and I was so excited to be there. At the end of the tour we saw the actual altarpiece and it was bigger and brighter than I had anticipated, I loved it. It’s the most stolen artwork in history - by Napoleon and Hitler among others! Interestingly, one of the two panels which were stolen in 1934 has never been found, and the person who stole it is long dead. Before they died they implied that it is hidden in a public place; we were all speculating about where it might be. 

After a light lunch we continued our journey onwards to Bruges. 

Bruges is as lovely as ever and it has been our sunniest and warmest day of the holiday yet. We started our evening with drinks at De Vloamse Trine, discovered by Davie and Chanel in a little square just round the corner from our quaint b&b, and it was so pleasant that we ended up staying there for dinner. We had a fun evening of chat and a great deal of laughter, finishing with a night time walk around the Market Square.  

Café de l’Erable

We went just along the road to Milk and Sugar for breakfast; a very nice café in Ypres which is so popular that you have to book for breakfast. Then we set off about an hour and a quarter south towards the Somme to visit Loos and Vimy Ridge. Having to retrace our journey south to visit that part of the Western front is the price we have paid for spending three nights in Ypres instead of moving hotels, and I think it has been good to base ourselves here, although we were all very tired by time we got back at 6.30 p.m.

It was David’s idea to visit the Memorial at Loos (pronounced “Loss.”) The Battle of Loos took place from 25th September to 8th October 1915, and despite the British using poison gas (for the first time) and bombarding the German trenches by artillery fire, the Germans were mostly able to hold their positions and the British, Commonwealth soldiers and French suffered huge losses. Again a sad and in this case unsuccessful battle. 

We then pressed on to Vimy Ridge, which we have visited before. On the way we stopped for lunch at Café de l’Erable, a small French bar and restaurant where all of the customers seemed to know each other and there was only one choice on the menu; steak and chips (I had chips only!) The steak was very rare but James, Davie and Chanel ate it bravely and with enjoyment. We wondered what Erable meant so I looked it up later; it means Maple, which of course makes sense because it’s very close to the Vimy Ridge Visitor Centre which is Canadian. We had a tour of the tunnels from a friendly Canadian student, one of fifteen who work in the Visitor Centre. The Vimy Ridge is very memorable because you can see trenches and shell holes all the way up to the striking white twin columns of the memorial at the top of the slope. 

We then set off back towards Ypres, an hour in sometimes quite busy traffic. Our final stop before going back to the hotel was the very interesting Yorkshire trench which is in an industrial estate and was excavated in the 1990s. It’s a small section of trenches and very interesting because it was completely undisturbed until its excavation so it was like a time capsule full of artefacts. 

We all had a rest at the hotel and met downstairs for drinks before another delicious dinner at one of the restaurants in the town square. 

Ypres, Tyne Cot and Langemark

Rain was forecast in the morning so this was a good opportunity to visit the In Flanders Fields Museum in the Cloth Hall in Ypres. After a tasty breakfast in a café we went to the museum; it's such a detailed and comprehensive museum. We made our way through the different exhibits and then headed up to the bell tower. As we emerged onto the roof the sun came out from behind the clouds, lighting up the town and illuminating the golden dragon weather vane on the spire. After coffees and teas in the museum café we set off by car to Tyne Cot cemetery and from there to Langemark German cemetery. Both were sobering experiences, and it’s difficult to comprehend the huge numbers of dead young soldiers. Tyne Cot is huge with nearly 12,000 Commonwealth soldiers buried or commemorated there, but I hadn’t realised that the smaller (in geographical size) Langemark cemetery has more than 44,000 soldiers. It seems smaller because 25000 of the dead are in a mass grave and also the graves contain multiple bodies rather than one per grave. It’s very sad. 

Back in Ypres we had a drink at the cosy Ypra pub before Davie and Chanel laid their wreath during the Menin Gate ceremony. The actual Menin Gate is currently undergoing renovation so the ceremonies take place on the adjoining bridge. The ceremony was solemn and moving and when I saw Davie and Chanel move forward with their wreath my eyes filled with tears. As we discussed later, it’s so important to remember the war dead, and also to hope that lessons can be learned. 

We had a lovely dinner and also a great chat about science and education and languages and all sorts. 

Back to Belgium

This morning James, Davie, Chanel and I boarded our 10.35 flight to Paris Charles de Gaulle airport. We flew over London (but more to the west than Ally and Cat’s flat in Limehouse) and then passed over a long sandy beach with white capped waves and over the Channel. It wasn’t long before we started descending to Paris. After the usual footering about collecting our luggage and hire car (a smart BMW 3 series) we set off northwards towards Ypres. We stopped at Fins New British Cemetery north of the Somme to pay our respects to James’ Great Uncle Hugh and all of the other young British and German soldiers who are buried there. Then we drove the short distance to the St Quentin Canal at Honnecourt sur l’Escaut, where Hugh was wounded a couple of weeks before he died in a field hospital in October 2018. It’s James’ and my fourth visit to the 1st World War battlefields of France and Belgium, David’s second visit * and Chanel’s first (although she has visited Belgium before, with her Dad.) Our first visit was in 2009 with Ally and Davie (Jamie was already at university so could not accompany us.) We have visited with Heather and Ewan in 2018, with Ally and Cat in 2019, and we are keen to hand on the baton of the family history to our children and their partners. We are so lucky that they are all interested in History. 

Onwards another hour and a half to Ypres, we were all excited when we crossed the Belgian border. Ypres is as pretty as ever despite the damp weather; we are pleased with the smart and well appointed Ariane Hotel, and after checking in we went out for a tasty dinner at In’t Klein Stadhuis which is tucked into the corner of the village square beside the Cloth Hall. My cheese croquettes were delicious and I am assured by my three fellow travellers that the Flemish stew was excellent. 

* David and I also visited Ypres very briefly with the Duncanrig music department in 2013. 

A Spring weekend in Glasgow

On Saturday Heather and I had our afternoon tea at the House for an Art Lover. It was delicious and we were so full! This was my birthday present for Heather and Ewan. We had time for a short walk around the walled garden, which was looking spring-like with daffodils, crocuses and forsythia. We headed into Glasgow and parked at Concert Square and had a quick browse around John Lewis before meeting James and Ewan at the Tap Room in West Nile Street. A convivial afternoon and evening followed, and we sensibly didn’t make it too late a night, mindful of the clocks going forward during the night, therefore losing us an hour of sleep. I insisted on giving Heather and Ewan a lift home and when we got to the car park I handed James what I thought was the parking ticket so that we could enter. It turned out that I had accidentally handed him an old train ticket, which I thought was very funny! 

We woke to an absolutely beautiful morning on Sunday and while James went for his customary big walk, I hastened over to David Lloyd where I had a lovely outdoor swim and then a spa. I then met James at the Finnieston for lunch; it’s very much a fish restaurant and the vegetarian choices were a bit limited. We had a nice time and then headed home to relax with our kitties.