Scotland and back!

Sorry it's been a while since the last post... dicey internet combined with hanging out with the French family has left me a bit lazy... didn't know my fans would react so strongly... so... here goes.

We woke up to a beautiful mix of sun and rain on the Isle of Skye in Portree...

After our typical breakfast of eggs and rocking Scottish sausages... we headed into town to see what kind of trouble we could get in to... Portree is a sweet little Mendocino of a town...

Here's Harmo and Hadden cruising Portree...

Here's the little Harbor right in town.

In Portree, we stopped in at the "Yes for Scotland" office to talk politics.  It seems that the Scottish people are voting for independence on September 18... so we had to check out the skinny.  Of course being the Americans we are firmly in the Yes camp... wondering why anyone would vote no... No one in Portree could answer that either!  Go Scotland!

After hangin in Portree for a bit, we decided to drive on!  We headed in a northeasterly direction towards the infamous... Loch Ness... thought we'd go see Nessie.  Here is another picture of the amazing scenery in the Highlands... you could literally take pictures like this for miles and miles and miles... quite magical.

Here we are doing a little scientific investigation of the largest body of water in the UK.  Cool little exhibit...  not too terribly touristy if you can believe it... and "SPOILER ALERT HERE"... most of the evidence they presented would indicate that Nessie has left the building... or may have been a large sturgeon... hmmmmm...

That night brought us to Aviecollie Scotland... still in the heather covered hills in the Highlands...very remote place... beautiful and quiet.

Waking up at Aviecollie was a very special morning... Hadden's birthday!!! Complete with birthday chair and cake.  We ended up sharing some birthday cake later that evening with some "neighbors" at the campground... an English family with daughter, son and friend...  Here's a (blurry) picture of the birthday boy! 15... wow!

Needing to get back south... as we had an impending appointment to return the van, we then made our way down out of Scotland through England...stopped in Essex, England to go check out some fancy ballet point shoes... and camped that night near the historic "white cliffs of Dover, England".  It is so wild to think of history of places like this... imagining all of the American GI's stationed and training there... ready for D-day...

When we crossed the Channel and got into France, we were all eager to get some family time with the Chamigny crew, so we headed east to Paris for a couple days of R&R.   There is a really cool castle that Hadden and I visited close to Uncle Ron's house in Chamigny that we decided to share with Harmony and Heather.  This chateau has an amazing and crazy story... but basically was constructed by Louis 14th's main financial advisor.  Apparently it was so nice, that the King got a bit jealous, and also fueled by lies told about the advisor, arrested and imprisoned him for life.  Seized his chateau and all of the belongings... took all of the designers and had them build Versailles.  So... this place is the inspiration for one of the most famous castles in the world.  It is super cool... relatively unknown by most tourists and very accessible.  Here are some pics of Vaux le Vicomptes.

They've got a cool museum in the old stable portion showing all of the old carriage technology... the Ferrari's of their age.

Here are some pictures from the north side of the chateau.  Notice how you can see through the central portion.  This was a design feature that allowed visitors to see through the building into the massive gardens beyond when first approaching.  Still very impressive.

Typical rooms inside... not bad.... you know.  Amazing paintings and tapestries (which were originally all taken by Louis 14th when he arrested the owner... what a bummer for that guy!

Here's the family at on the south side of the building standing next to the moat... full of big ol carp!  Mouths wide open looking for a piece of bread.

On Wednesday the 26th... Heather and I celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary by driving the RV back to Nantes.  Originally the kids were going to stay at Uncle Ron's, but we figured that we all started the adventure together... so we were going to finish strong... I'm glad we did.  Though we had our moments... this was truly a great trip for me to get to know my children and wife a little better.  I'm truly blessed.

While waiting for our train back from Nantes to Paris, we were able to check out a nice park just next to the Gare.  Apparently Nantes is the leader in sustainable building and wait for it... green development in France.  It was very nice... though a bit mosquito-ey.

So... we took the TGV back from Nantes into Paris... we we're going to stop at a museum in Paris, but decided just to head to Chamigny... (we'll go in another day this week)... rode from Paris out to Chamigny on the suburban train... got here... and here I sit.  Heather and Stepanie went shopping (oh god... ), Harmony and Hadden are hanging out with Juliette...

Harmo... glued to her technology and sweet little Juliette!

"There can only be one..."

After a restful night at the Pine Trees Resort, we headed further north and into the real Scotland Highlands.  The landscape is truly unbelievable, something from another planet, yet very familiar too.  So green and lush... though sparse.  Definitely one of the most amazing places I've had the pleasure to experience.

Scottish Highlands just south of Fort William, Scotland.

 

Here's the family for a photo op... it was a little chilly for the girls.

 

Hadden and I took a short hike out on one of the many trails the criss cross this area.  Totally stunning.  The West Highland Trail (Way) paralleled the highway for miles... we saw many backpackers trekking their way through this land... surely this would be an epic journey.

We crossed through this remote country... up through a series of Lochs (Loch Leven, Caledonian Channel, Loch Lochy (no kiddin')) until we reached Fort William.  There we did some grocery shopping as we headed deeper into the north.... on our way to the Isle of Skye.  The tiny roads here made for some very exciting driving as we passed large trucks (lorries) sailing past us in the oncoming lanes... one lane bridges, etc.  But well worth it as we traveled through this magical country.  Just before we crossed over the bridge at Kyleakin which takes you to the island.. we saw this ancient ruin of a church and cemetery on an inlet of the Sound of Sleat.  We had to stop!  Here are some pictures...

 Small church and cemetery that had mostly graves from the McCrae Clan... some dating back to the 1500s!  Whoa!

 

Beautiful Heather everywhere... and the flowers aren't bad either!

We had our sites set on Portree on the Isle of Skye... on advice from some wise travelers... and we had found a camp just above Portree... with internet!  So... here we are... just as we arrived the rain began in earnest... so we had our tea, pie and raspberry trifle... sent the kiddies to do the dishes and we're sitting here enjoying the rain on the roof of our little home on wheels.  Yeah Scotland!  We'll see where tomorrow takes us.

Here's the view from our camp just above Portree... on the Isle of Skye... obviously the rain hadn't started yet!

The British Invasion: Highclere Castle, James Herriot, the Dales and Scotland

After spending a restful night in Cantebury, we decided to head west to about an hour south of Oxford, to tour the beautiful Highclere Castle... this is the amazing home of the 14th Earl of Carnarvon, his wife and son... also the home of that truly British television hit... you recognize it?  You guessed it,  Downton Abbey.  Quite a sweet pad in my opinion.

Though, obviously, quite a castle of a home... there were family pictures throughout complete in cheezy $3.99 frames... and one of the bedrooms on the tour was obviously THE bedroom... complete with messy nightstand, pens, pencils, etc... definitely gave it a homey vibe that you wouldn't anticipate from the outside!

Of course when visiting a castle in England... you must have tea and cakes... yum!

Here's us... considering making an offer on the place... though we ultimately decided not to as I didn't want to have to mow all that lawn!

We camped that night south of Oxford at a small farm... quite uneventful.

The next day, we decided to push a little further north in an effort to get to some of the rural Northern England that we really wanted to check out.  Our first destination was Thirsk... home of the James Alfred Wight (aka James Herriot) museum.  If you're not familiar with Mr. Wight.. he was a large and small animal veterinarian and author of the All Creatures Great and Small books that chronicle the life of a young vet in the Dales of England working with farm animals.  Visiting his museum... you really do appreciate his life and work all the more.  Here's us doing something all vets in this area must become familiar with:

 

Ewww... we could use a handwashing after the museum... kidding moms and grandmas!

Harmony and Hadden on set at the James Herriot museum!

Here is a picture of the church in Thirsk... just to give you an idea of the flavor of the little town... very sweet.  After checking out the museum, we decided to go check out the real Yorkshire Dales... the place that James Herriot made famous to us... a great and special place in Northern England (a national park in fact), that is very agricultural, with flowing hills, sheep, quaint villages... I'd say the type of place that most Americans would think of when they think of England.  As we were cruising out there... the GPS got a little confused by the new road construction that had been going on.. and I managed to miss some crucial turns... but we decided to go on anyway... we knew the general direction and the town that we thought we wanted to go to... Leyburn.  Anyway... as we were driving these spectacular roads, we realized from painting on the road... and little yellow bicycle signs that we were actually driving on the route of the part of the Tour de France that just took place here in England.  We followed this route for a long time, until finally... so impressed with the scenery... I said... "the next camp sign I see... we're stopping"... sure enough I saw a camp sign and we entered a fairly long private road... which... not quite sure if we were trespassing or not... we kept going.  Luckily... what a beautiful spot we found... privately owned by the family that owned the classic Dales farm.  In fact... this was a farm that was featured on the "All creatures great and small" TV show... so... we'd arrived.  Very nice people... had the run of the fields, where the few fellow campers were running their dogs.  Heather and I even took the public footpath up into town and had a beer at the pub!  Here are some pics:

Entrance to the camping place at in the Yorkshire Dales

We camped in the upper pasture.. with about 8 other vehicles...! Decent view eh?

Kiddies down in the lower pasture in front of the typical Dales pasture barn

This is George the Goose.  According to the farm owners... he is over 25 years old!  They'd all forgotten actually.  He has a bad leg which causes him to limp a bit... but he likes bread... took a little chunk out of Hadden when he tried to get him to eat out of his hand.  Notice the mirror... I guess George gets a little lonely... his partner was killed 15 years ago.

Here was the view of the Dales that we had waking up this morning!

 

Apparently the Tour de France went right through downtown Leyburn... (click on the picture to enlarge)... the locals referred to it as the Tour de Sheep!

Waking up in the Dales was great.  After a nice breakfast of fresh scones and tea, we made our way to Leyburn to do a little shopping.  We bought some meat pies from the baker (and more yummy scones)... did a little tourist shopping... then back in the RV with our hearts set on Scotland!  After about 3.5 hours in the car... we made it.  We came up through Glasgow and followed the shores of beautiful Loch Lomond... and now we're safely installed at a small RV campground on the north end.  Actually this campground is a way-point for the West Highland Trail which is an overland route from Glasgow to the Fort William.  It's about 150 km.  So... there are lots of hikers here now... all real tired.  Anyway... we're stoked to have the internet... we're all alive and doing great!  Tomorrow, I think we're going to try to make it to the Isle of Skye!  We'll have more pics up if we have internet!

Hiking part of the West Highland Trail... from the campsite into the small town nearby.  The kids are getting "grounded" with barefeet.

Denmark to the UK…

So… after that last post, this one will be slightly less… emotional… maybe.  So we woke to a beautiful morning in Denmark, in a little channel between Sweden and Denmark on the Baltic.  We had to get our feet wet… nearly stayed to do some sun bathing… but… we being the traveling Sorter crew… had some miles to get on to.

Traveling from Sweden, some nice folks at the Siljan Lake campsite gave us the hot tip to take a ferry from Sweden to Denmark… cross Denmark's main island north to south… and take another short hop ferry ride from Denmark to Germany.  After 10 days in the RV with the family… we could use a little of this (but have none)!

All told this saved us a few hundred miles and cost a bit less than the bridges would have cost so… heck ya.  Here's the ferry from Denmark to Germany… even a train got on it!  Surprised us all when she rolled on behind us!

Here's the train pulling onto the ferry… quel surprise!

We got off on a small peninsula in Germany, Puttgarden and proceeded to drive out to just south west of Bremen, Germany (trying to get a bit closer to Calais where we were to cross the English Channel or La Manche as the French call it).  Heather found us a cool campsite out in the country southwest of Bremen… but getting out there, the GPS took us on a bit of a Texas Chainsaw Massacre route… through cornfields, down dirt roads… and finally out into this nice campsite… which was closed.  Fortunately, a nice man rang the bell for the attendant who reluctantly let us in (spoke 0 English).  Very quiet… clean, spartan accommodations.  We woke up this morning, had a nice breakfast and showers… and off to the races again.  We crossed the rest of Germany (stopping at a nice bakery for some Barliners)… a bit of the Netherlands and Belgium (got some grocery shopping in… had to get the good Belgian beers with no tax!) to Calais, France, where we caught the "Shuttle" or the Chunnel, which is literally a tunnel on the floor of the English Channel that takes you across from France to
Folkestone, England.

Here's a shot of getting on the train… tried to post a video… but get an error every time.

We arrived at a sweet spot that Heather found in Cantebury, England, not far from where the train let us off.  Of course driving on the left side of the road is a bit strange and scary… but we're doing it!

Here is our spot in Cantebury…

Well… that's about it for now.  Getting some sleep tonight… no early morning tomorrow!  Headed north this week…  look out Scotland!

Wow... Famous in Sweden?

Sorry it's been a couple of days, but our internet was a bit dicey last night.  So... where to start... I guess where we left off... the Sorter family was high on a cliff... clinging on for dear life... Lassie.. Lassie.. go get help!  Er.. ummm... wrong entry maybe.  Oh yeah... we were in Stockholm, Sweden.  What a cool little campsite tucked in a cove on an inlet in Stockholm.  This place reminded us all of Vashon... and the whole region of the Puget Sound... So much water everywhere!

 Here is the body of water that was just a quick hop from our RV.  We took a nice walk along the water on one of the many awesome walking trails.  I'd say Europe has the outside scene dialed!

Here we are at sunset on the water.  Maybe a little profiley... but maybe make a cool album cover for our newest LP.

Okay... so we woke up on Wednesday, excited to finally make our way north to the homeplace of many of Heather's family (Grandma Gean's mother's family specifically)... the city of Leksand in the Dalarna region of Sweden.  We drove Northwest from Stockholm for about 3.5 hours through some of the most stunning areas of Sweden that we had been through... as we traveled... the road became smaller and smaller... more and more remote fields of wheat giving away to forest.  As we drew closer, I could see in Heather's eyes that she was living the emigration of her elders... wondering why they had left this place... feeling their homesickness as they longed for the lakes of Dalarma.  Lakes, big and small, surrounded us.  It seemed that we passed one every couple of miles... and the weather was beautiful in between short squalls.  As we came within 30 minutes of our destination, we hit a road block... not to be deterred, we mapped an alternate route that took us the wrong direction for about 40 minutes, but landed us on a road that would ultimately deliver us to Leksand.  Talk about a very fortunate detour... I'll explain why.  When we finally entered the small burb of Leksand, Sweden we headed straight downtown... our trusty GPS had a museum finder in it... so we set it on the only museum that we could locate in Leksand, hoping that it would get us close to the place we had seen in pictures... the museum that Heather's great, great, great grandfather had founded.  Sure enough... as we approached a beautiful local park in the heart of Leksand, we recognized one of the small houses that we had seen on the museum website and from the old family pictures that Beverlee had shared with us for our trip.

This is the first of Jones Mats Perssons collection

Very excited, we parked the van, and made our way out to the structures.  Soon we were surrounded by the very collection that Jones Mats Persson had started in 1899.  We read his name on the plaques... saw that he was credited with starting the collection (which had been added onto over the past 115 years).... wondered if anyone would be around to speak with about this Jones.  However, the museum and all tours were closed as of 8/4.  Coincidentally, we saw a group leaving one of the ancient structures.  Heather approached, clutching the family images that Beverlee had given us.  As Heather explained to the leader of the tour who she was, and he began looking through the pictures... I could see his eyes light up... and his recognition set in.  He had just been contacted the day before to give a special tour to a small group... which he reluctantly agreed to complete.  Had we been earlier... we would have missed him.  Long story short... he invited us to join the tour... he went and got keys... opened up the first of the Jones Mats Persson collection (a home constructed in the 1700s) and there was a pencil drawn portrait of the man himself... clearly drawn from the photo that Heather had brought with us... anyway... I could go on and on and on... this was a very emotional time and our guide (Peter) told us all of the history that he knew of Mats Persson and even took the time to show us where he was buried.

Oldest of the original Mats Persson collection, circa 1606.

Another of the original four Mats Persson collection.  Circa 1740s... used as a home and school house

Last of the original Mats Persson collection.  Communal Mill House (~1720s).  One of three known remaining in Sweden

Sorter family at the Jones Mats Persson house.

Inside the first of the Jones Mats Persson homes (circa 1700s) with collection

Heather inside the first of the collection with the portrait she had brought which matched the pencil portrait inside the house.

Plaque commemorating the life and work of Jones Mats Persson... great grandfather of Grandma Gean.

In short, Mats Persson was a very poor farmer who had taken a seasonal job in Stockholm.  While in Stockholm, he had visited a collection of historic houses.  One must note that these houses are very modular... meaning they can be deconstructed very easily so that they could be inherited (literally houses were equally divided among children both male and female).  After returning to Leksand, Mats Persson took it upon himself to preserve some of the local structures from the Dalarna region, unknowingly starting the earliest collection of structures in the region.  Our guide, slightly embarrassed, stated that early on, the local people thought the Mats Persson was a bit of a lunatic because he collected houses and other artifacts and moved them to his site.  Even forcing Mats Persson to get rid of some of his collection, burning some items.  After a local dignitary took note of his collection, he invited the King of Sweden to view Mats Persson's work during one of his visits to the country.  The King stated that Mats Persson's collection was a valuable national treasure.  This understandably changed the perspective of the local people, and Jones Mats Persson became a local hero.  He, his wife, son and daughter are buried in a very prestigious portion of the cemetery in a very peaceful plot next to his beloved Lake Siljan amongst famous local artists, composers and the very dignitary that invited the King to see his collection.   Needless to say, there was a lot of pride from the Sorter family... what a great story.   Believe it or not... we were contacted by the local Leksand newspaper to do a story on our visit... we sent them some pictures and will hopefully see a story soon (though we won't be able to read it cause it will be in Swedish)!  More stories about our Leksand visit will come when we see you all in person.

Heather and family at the grave of Jones Mats Persson... beautiful and peaceful on Lake Siljan

Here is the church where he is buried.  We camped across the lake and this was our view that evening.

The family baptized in the waters of Lake Siljan... see the church?

 After spending the next morning re-visiting the museum of Mats Persson and taking some more pictures of his original collection, we made our way south... and took a ferry from Sweden into Denmark.

On the Helsingborg-Helsingor ferry

 We landed in a beautiful little Danish city of Helsingor and found a campsite right on the water... kind of a theme of ours... as you've probably deduced.  We had some "french style" hot dogs... are working on getting the laundry done (sure could use some drawers!) then in to bed. 

Looking across the water at Sweden from our campsite... not too shabby.

Well... hopefully this entry wasn't too wandering... I had a lot to say... but a bit tired.  Hopefully you'll all understand what a interesting, powerful and emotional time the last few days have been.