Brad's England Journal- March 24th Entry 

Monday, March 24, 1997

My friends came, and kidnapped me this past Saturday. Well, perhaps kidnapped is to strong a word, but they did drag me on a whirlwind thirty hour trip of Scotland. Jeff arrived Saturday morning at around 8am, his flight having arrived one hour early due to a tailwind on the trip over. We walked around campus and went out to lunch while we waited for Alex, who had arrived the previous day in London, and was now driving up in a rental car. Originally, the plan was to just hang out in Birmingham on Saturday, and then see Warwick Castle on Sunday. When Alex arrived at about 2pm, though, he suggested that we just go up to Scotland, spend the night and Sunday and come back, since Carrie was arriving on Sunday night (well, Monday morning early). To put this in perspective, Scotland is 300-400 miles from here, the equivalent of driving to LA for a day. I argued with them, saying it wouldn't be worthwhile, but they still wanted to go out on an overnight trip. Eventually we agreed we would go to Wales, which is considerably closer. We all hopped in the car and headed out, and about one hour into the trip, Alex looked at the map, and said to Jeff, "You know, the M6 [the motor way we were on] goes all the way to Scotland. You want to go?" To which Jeff replied, "Sure. We're going to Scotland!" At this point there was little that I could do, but, knowing them well I had grabbed a copy of the Scottish Hosteling guide before I left, so at least we could find a place to stay the night. And to think that we laugh at British who come to the States and think of doing a day trip to Los Angeles from San Francisco!
Mirror Smooth Surface of one of the Lochs we Passed
A Hill Side Near the Glen Nevis Hostel
Hill with Mist Near the Glen Nevis Hostel
Alex and I with some Spectacular Scenery

Scotland Scenery
Having said all this, I will admit that we saw some spectacular scenery on the trip through Scotland, although 95% of it we saw outJeff and Alex by the Glen Nevis Hostel the window of the rental car considering we were driving most of the 30 odd-hours that we were gone. Having established that we were going to Scotland, whether I liked it or not, we all collaborated on choosing where to go. We decided on Ben Nevis, the highest peak in Great Britain, which is located near Fort Williams. We dragged ourselves into the Glen Nevis Hostel at the foot of Ben Nevis around 11pm, determined to climb the mountain the next day. Unfortunately, Jeff and I near a Stream by Ben Neviswe never made it up the mountain, since we read the mountain report, which said something to the effect of: "Periodic Blizzard-like conditions and gale winds can be expected on the mountain. All climbers should wear multiple layers of clothing, and carry ice climbing equipment." Since we only had light jackets, and Jeff only had tennis shoes, we decided to give it a miss, and just had a look at some of the scenery around the base of the mountain instead. It was a gorgeous sunny day, however, so the scenery even at the base of the mountain was quite impressive (see photos, above, left and right).
Alex and I
Jeff and Alex

Views from Anoch Mor
We were still a little disappointed at not having been able to climb the mountain, so we decided to take the tram up a nearby mountain, Anoch Mor. Anoch Mor is almost as high as Ben Nevis, but since there is a ski resort at the top of it, you can take a tram to the top. Once again we had some impressive views since the day was so clear. We didn't stay long, however, since Jeff and Alex had decided they needed to see Loch Ness and Edinburgh before the day was out, and it was almost noon already.

We drove up to Fort Augustus, located on the southernmost point of Loch Ness, took the compulsory photos (see left), ate lunch, then headed down to Edinburgh. It was very beautiful driving through the mountains and hills of Scotland, and it was startling how desolate most of it is. Unfortunately, we Parade Ground of Edinburgh Castlearrived at Edinburgh at 4:45pm, just missing the last entry time for Edinburgh Castle (see photo in the parade ground at right). We did get a chance to see the city views briefly, though, before heading back to Birmingham, in a desperate attempt to make it in time for 'The X Files', which was on TV at 9pm.

Unfortunately, we did not make it until 9:30pm, so we had to settle for "Millennium" which was on at 10pm. In a thirty hour period we had put over 800 miles on the rental car, and been all over England. Admittedly the scenery we saw was fantastic, but I am not sure it was worth spending that much time in the car for me, as I probably will see it again this summer. For Jeff and Alex, however, it was probably worth it, since they may not be back for quite some time.

Finally, last night at 1:15am we picked up Carrie at the downtown bus station. I unfortunately took us to the wrong bus station, and there were a few minutes of panic as we tried to figure out how to get to the right one, but we did make it eventually. Carrie's trip had gone fairly smoothly, and soon enough we were all home asleep.

Today we have decided to go to Warwick Castle, instead of Stratford, and then we will go to Stratford to see "Much Ado About Nothing" tonight.