Tamarack Pond

Sara’s family tree includes the Leslie clan and she learned that the homeland of the clan was located in Aberdeenshire in the town of Leslie.

Looking for castles and ancient sites.

We went to Aberdeen to visit Kate and Scott.

I’ve been somewhat absent-minded about bringing my camera along on outings. Sara has some pictures from Brad & Billie’s visit and from Edinburgh castle. Maybe I’ll get some of those posted here. Meanwhile, here are some of my pictures from Scotland.

The room we stayed in was in this building. It was on the sixth floor, but the clerk explained to us that the apparent ground level which you see here is actually the fourth floor of the building. The street is built four stories above another street which is the real ground level. It’s almost like a city underneath the city. Here is a view down into that other world:

This is only for a few blocks because of the hills. The street is actually a bridge but it is rather seemless. You’re not really aware of where the bridge starts and stops.

In 2002, two Peruvian shamans visited the Eden project and while they were there they made these paintings on the wall of the tropical biome.

On Wednesday we took the train to St. Austell to see the Eden project. It has the largest tropical greenhouse in the world, and a separate Mediterranean greenhouse, plus lots of displays and gardens.

It was built on the site of an old clay mining operation. The clay was used to make china. The hole in the ground that remains after the mine is done is a lot like the big gravel pits at home.

The legends say that Tintagel is where Ygraine, Duchess of Cornwall, gave birth to Arthur. Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote about it in his history of Britain in about 1100. People of Cornwall are skeptical of that, but it created a good tourist business. In about 1250 a nobleman built a castle here to associate himself with King Arthur. Most of the ruins are from that time but there are also ruins from earlier times.

These ruins reminded me of what it felt like at Machu Pichu in Peru.

We have been watching old Doc Martin episodes so it was fun to go to Port Isaac, the town where they film the series.

To the left is the old school were lots of scenes are shot.

That’s Tintagel in the distance, about 12 miles away. That’s our next stop.