Diane
and I brought in 2017 with a fine group of friends at our annual New Year’s Day
meal at Harry and Nancy’s. It was nice
to see Ellen the next day since she would be leaving soon on her annual trip to
India. Pam, my fellow treasurer, and I
completed the fourth quarter Muleskinners Ethics Report and filed it with the
state. I copied my Tax Cut program to a
flash drive and took it to my friend Chris’s house so she could get started on
her taxes. I had already gone through
the Tax Cut interview for Diane and me.
Diane started physical therapy again for her shoulder after a fall
aggravated her old injury. We went to a private
True/False preview party.
Since year-end totals were available for
2016, I could do my RMD (Required Minimum Distribution) accounting for that
year and set up the withdrawals for 2017.
All of these calculations were accomplished using an Excel template I had
constructed for that purpose. Plugging
in the 2016 dividend totals, I found it was only the second year since I
started withdrawals in 2011 that the RMD amount withdrawn exceeded the
dividends reinvested. Usually, I was
earning and reinvesting more than I was taking out. The total of the dividends over the six years
since I was required to take the RMDs was still greater than the total paid out. Due to a rising stock and bond market, the
value of my retirement holdings was much greater than it was in 2011 when I
started the withdrawals. It reflected
how well the stock and bond markets had been performing. So far, I was feeling financially secure
about my retirement years.
Events prior to this year’s True/False Film
Festival were beginning. We attended the
preview party open to most passholders and started watching the postings on the
website. David Wilson was scheduled to
review the films at Osher. Prior to the
festival, Diane and I volunteered to go to New Jersey to help my sister Earlene
move. She and her husband Vince had
lived in their Princeton, New Jersey house for over 30 years. After Vince died, it seemed like Earlene was
always traveling. Vince was the one to
take care of the large lot on which their house sat. He enjoyed being outdoors maintaining the gardens
and the forest of large oak trees that populated their lot.
Earlene had been keeping track of the new
apartment developments being built in Princeton, and she found one she
liked. She sold her house and signed a
lease on a three-bedroom apartment.
After living in their house for so many years, downsizing wasn’t easy. First task was cleaning out her house and
helping her decide what to take with her.
I thought back to when Diane did this for my mother’s house. I’m not sure it gets any easier. I asked Diane to take charge of her
specialty, the kitchen. Meanwhile, I
started with my specialty and disconnected the computer equipment in my
sister’s office. To illustrate how she
and her husband accumulated stuff, I found one drawer in the living room that
had three pairs of binoculars, only one of which worked. This was not an isolated incidence. Cleaning out my mother’s house was easy
compared to this. I made a list of
everything she wanted the movers to take and, on moving day, checked that it had
been taken. Of course, Earlene took too
much. The clothes closets in her
apartment were crammed full. Framed
pictures were stacked up in the guest bathroom, even in the shower. It was a happy day when we were able to return
to our home.
Earlene came for the week of the True/False
festival, and then Diane and I had two and a half months of our regular
activities before May, when we were off on another international adventure. Previously, we had seen only a little bit of
Scotland. Now we were again going to be
with Road Scholar, this time for The Best of
Scotland.
The tour started in Glasgow. We stayed in the Copthorne Millennium Hotel across
the street from George Square, named after King George III. It showcased an important collection of
statues and monuments, including those dedicated to famous Scots such as Robert
Burns, James Watt, Sir Robert Peel and Sir Walter Scott. We were glad to see at least one statue of a
woman, the only known equestrian statue of a young Queen Victoria that was
moved there in 1866 beside her husband Prince Albert. It was a nice place to stretch our legs and loosen
up after our flight over the Atlantic.
We met our fellow travelers at the welcome dinner and orientation that
evening.
Queen Victoria
After a lecture on Scotland’s history the
next morning, we boarded a bus for a city tour.
It started with the nearby Merchant’s House. It was topped by a domed tower with a ship
perched on a globe, symbolizing the worldwide trade in which the merchants were
involved. We stopped at the Glasgow Cathedral and went inside to view its
architectural wonders. We drove by the
highly decorative five-tier Doulton Fountain of Queen Victoria in Kelvingrove
Park and the commemorative obelisk in honor of Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson in
Glasgow Green Park. We had lunch at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum
followed by a tour of the exhibits. Diane
and I walked from there to the Riverside Museum before the long, exhausting
walk back to our hotel.
Worldwide trade symbol
Inside the Glasgow Cathedral
The 2,889 pipes of the organ at the
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum
Floating Heads at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum
Me with antique auto at the Riverside
Museum
Our first visit the next day was to the
Culzean Castle, the home of the Kennedy Clan.
During his lifetime, the owners reserved an apartment for General Dwight
D. Eisenhower in recognition of his service during WWII. Robert Burns, Scotland's national poet, was
the center of attention in the afternoon.
Our guide recited his poetry along the way. We stopped in Alloway to tour his birthplace,
the Burns Cottage.
Culzean Castle
Robert Burns Cottage
Sculpture, likely Tam o' Shanter, from
Robert Burns' famous poem
After leaving Glasgow the next morning, the
bus first stopped in Helensburgh where we toured the Hill House, built by
Charles Rennie Mackintosh for the publisher Walter Blackie. Diane and I thoroughly enjoyed it as a prominent
example of the British Art Nouveau style. We then continued into the Highlands
driving along the shore of Loch Lomond. It started to rain as we drove by Loch
Awe and visited St. Conan's Kirk, a Victorian church on its banks. It was an eclectic church having an example
of almost every style of church architecture: the Norman doorway, the Gothic
flying buttresses, a Celtic cross, the Arts and Crafts carvings, the Saxon
tower and even a Stone circle. We drove
on to the Oban Bay Hotel and Spa to spend the night.
Example of the British Art Nouveau style at Hill House
St. Conan's Kirk
The ferry to the Isle of Mull was close to
our hotel. It was then a long drive through
meadows under overcast skies for the ferry to the much smaller Isle of Iona. We walked to a hotel where we enjoyed hot
soup for lunch. The main attraction on
this island is the early Christian Abby.
Not being of religious natures, Diane and I spent some time viewing the
contents of its small museum, walked through the other buildings and then back
to the small restaurant by the ferry landing.
It was a cold and dreary day, just perfect for a large hot toddy or
two. The rest of the group finally
showed up, and we all went back to our hotel via the two ferry rides to spend a
warm, quiet evening.
Me on the ferry
Display in the museum
The bus drove through "kidnapped
country" the next morning, and we were entertained with readings from the
book by Robert Louis Stevenson. We
stopped to see Stalker Castle, a four-story tower house or keep. It was set on
a tidal islet on Loch Laich, an inlet off Loch Linnhe. Monty Python fans love to visit here,
recognizing this as the ‘Castle of Arrrgh!’ from the Holy Grail movie. We then drove to Loch Shiel
where we took a cruise on the loch with views of the
Glenfinnan Viaduct. This viaduct is
the longest concrete railway bridge in Scotland, but is most famous to fans of
the Harry Potter movies. It was often
seen during the train journey from Platform 9¾ in London to Hogwarts. It is a great tourist attraction with the
times the train can be seen on the viaduct advertised. We stopped in Glenfinnan
to see a replica of the Hogwarts Express as it sat in the train
station. We then traveled on to the Ben
Nevis Hotel in Fort William.
Stalker Castle
Glenfinnan Viaduct
Hogwarts Express
It was very foggy the next morning, so we
drove to a couple of other sights before going up the mountain. First, we saw what is called Neptune’s
Staircase but is the Caledonian Canal.
It is an amazing structure that connects the eastern coast of Scotland
at Inverness with the western coast at Corpach near Fort William. Second, we visited the Commando Monument which
is dedicated to the men of the original British Commando Forces raised during
World War II. It was still foggy. Luckily it lifted enough so we could ride a
gondola up Ben Navis, the highest mountain in Scotland with a summit at 4,411
feet. We then boarded the West Highland
Line train from Fort William to Crianlarich via Rannoch Moor. The scenery was beautiful, but stark. We were met by our bus which took us to the
Glencoe Visitor Center where we were told the early history of the area including
a local massacre. The Scottish are tough
people.
Neptune’s Staircase
Commando Monument
Gondola ride up Ben Navis on a foggy day
Our destination the following day was
another island, but we didn’t need to take a ferry. Instead, we drove over the Skye Bridge to the
Isle of Skye, sometimes called ‘the Misty Isle’ because the sun can be so unpredictable. The bus drove us through the Black and Red Cuillin
mountains in the Highlands to the town of Portree. The colorful mountain rocks are a product of
the highly varied geology of the Isle of Skye with a wide range of rock types:
sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous. We
had a lovely lunch in Portree and walked around the harbor. After returning to the mainland, we stopped
at two castles, the Eilean Donan and the Urquhart,
before we reached our lodging in the Tulloch Castle in Dingwall.
Eilean Donan Castle
The Urquhart Castle
The next day we visited Cawdor Castle, the
place where Duncan was murdered in Shakespeare's Macbeth. We toured the many rooms and ate lunch at the
Castle. It was a blue-sky day so it was nice to walk in the castle gardens. We visited Clava Cairns, a prehistoric cemetery
and strolled among its monuments. Then
on to the visitor center at the battlefield of Culloden, the site of the bloody
last battle of the Jacobite Rising.
Wall hanging in Cawdor Castle
Clava Cairns
In
the morning, we rode the bus to the Tomatin whisky distillery. After the tour and tasting, we proceeded to
Carrbridge. It is known for the old
packhorse bridge, the oldest stone bridge in the Highlands. After lunch in the Carrbridge Hotel, we drove
on to the Kingussie Leaut Farm for a sheep dog and sheep shearing
demonstration. Our day ended at the Fishers
Hotel in Pitlochry.
Tomatin whisky distillery
Stone bridge
Sheep and sheep dogs
The next morning, we rode on the bus to
Dunkeld, one of the best-preserved towns in Scotland, where we visited the
Dunkeld Cathedral. From there we went to
the Scone Palace, the crowning place of Scottish Kings. It is the original resting place of the Stone
of Scone, an oblong block of red sandstone that has been used for centuries in
the coronation of the monarchs of Scotland.
It is also known as the Stone of Destiny. It was seized by Edward I's forces from Scone
during the English invasion of Scotland in 1296 and only returned in 1996. It
is now kept with the Scottish Crown Jewels in Edinburgh Castle. We ate lunch at the Scone Palace and walked
the grounds, encountering a beautiful white peacock. We returned to our hotel via the Loch of the
Lowes Nature Reserve. There was a bird
blind where we could view an osprey nest.
The ospreys have been on site here for decades.
Choir practicing in front of organ pipes at
the Dunkeld Cathedral
White peacock
Osprey nest
On the way to Edinburgh the next morning,
we stopped at Culross with views across the Firth of Forth that is known in
modern times as the location for the romantic TV series Outlander. The drama is a romance about an English
combat nurse from 1945 that was mysteriously swept back in time to 1743. We toured the Merchant's Palace with its low
ceilings, narrow stairs and doorways. After
that Diane and I had enough of tight, small places and passed on going through
the Bishop's Study. After sitting
outside and eating a packed lunch, we drove over the Firth of Forth on the new
modern bridge and proceeded to the Rosslyn Chapel with its ornate stonework.
The chapel became world famous after being featured in a conspiracy theory in
Dan Brown's book The Da Vinci Code.
It was then time to check-in to the Royal Terrace Hotel in Edinburgh.
New bridge over the Firth of Forth
Rosslyn Chapel
We did a thorough tour of Edinburgh Castle
the next morning, even seeing the crown jewels.
As in our past trip to Edinburgh, we walked from the castle to the
Mussel Inn to have our favorite pot of mussels cooked in a light white
wine. Our farewell dinner at the hotel
that night concluded our tour and we felt like we really did see the “Best of
Scotland.”
Looking down on the tourists in Edinburgh
Castle
