Adam Smith's Edinburgh

Just as you might associate Athens with philosophers, Florence with artists and Manhattan Beach with volleyball players, Edinburgh takes great pride in the talent and popularity of writers who have lived and worked there.

While walking on the Royal Mile, we spotted a sidewalk sign for the Book Lover’s Literary Tour that would meet by the Writer’s Museum, and my daughter Amy immediately insisted that she must take it. I joined her.

Interestingly, we passed within 50 yards of a statue of economist Adam Smith, whose brilliant and reality-transforming Wealth of Nations and other writings illuminated the path for the progression of Western Civilization. 

Dr. Watson and Holmes of CBS's "Elementary"

But this tour was not to be about non-fiction, even if the man leading the tour, Allan Foster, is himself primarily a non-fiction writer. I would argue, however, that the theories expounded by Adam Smith made international literary success possible. Actually, the fact that tourists from Australia, Denmark and, of course, the United States arrived in this distant land with money to spend on such a frivolous expedition is further proof of Smith’s theories.

In any case, the tour revealed many interesting stories about the birth of literary giants as we passed the primarily unmarked places where they found inspiration. Yes, there’s a small marker designating the restaurant where J. K. Rowling created Harry Potter, but you’d be unlikely to stumble upon it.

While in the 1700’s Adam Smith certainly could not have predicted technology that would subsequently be developed, his “invisible hand” of capitalism made it all possible to unfold: audio books, kindle downloads, motion pictures based on the novels, video sales and advertising giants making free viewing of the stories on television possible, supplementing massive printed book sales in mega-book stores and eBook sales over the internet around the world, or probably even a potential audience of people with the ability to read and enough disposable income to lap up individual copies, standing in line at Barnes & Noble with friends on the evening before release rather than waiting to borrow it a couple of days later or getting a free loan from the local public library (which Ben Franklin was pioneering in America during Smith’s lifetime) in a few weeks, 

I may not have read all of the Harry Potter books like Amy (in fact, I never read any of them, though I did see all the movies), but when I was in college, I read all of the Sherlock Holmes books (no, I wasn’t a contemporary of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle). On the tour, we learned of the genesis of some of the great characters in fiction, including Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes.

When Arthur Conan Doyle was attending medical school at the University of Edinburgh, he became the assistant of Dr. Joseph Bell, who had an amazing ability to quickly and accurately diagnose patient maladies based on his keen observation of minute details of appearance in conjunction with the medical symptons.  

Sound like a familiar modus operandi? If not, watch one of the Sherlock Holmes movies starring Robert Downey, Jr., or the great TV series "Elementary."

"Fwendy" and Not Harry Potter

We also meandered past the pubs and publishing houses, hospitals and other haunts where Rowling, Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, Sir Walter Scott, J.M. Barrie and other famous authors found characters who became fictional stars more famous than their creators.

We heard many fascinating anecdotes, from how Barrie coined the name Wendy for the “fwendy” of his Peter Pan to how Sir Walter Scott hid his creation of tawdry popular novels to avoid besmirching his esteemed position as a dour-faced, wig-wearing lawyer in the very proper Edinburgh court, but it’s not my job to put Allan Foster out of his by telling all the stories he researched. You can go to Edinburgh and easily join the tour yourself.

The essence of Adam Smith’s economic philosophy is that individuals, pursuing their own self-interests and allowed to trade freely among themselves without coercion from government or other outside forces will create a marketplace and world of ever increasing abundance, as if guided by an invisible hand. If you’ve read many of my ramblings, you know I have no doubt that invisible hand is God’s, but whatever you choose to call that force, it is responsible for a man who enjoys literature being able to support his family by showing up outside the Writer’s Museum to lead a random group of strangers around Edinburgh whenever he puts his sign on the sidewalk. It’s a beautiful thing.

And, by the way, notice this article is Adam Smith’s Edinburgh, not Edinburgh’s Adam Smith. Allan Foster’s omission of Adam Smith could be justified even if Foster included non-fiction writers in his tour. While a monument to Adam Smith has his statue overseeing the free market hustle and bustle of Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, Adam Smith was born in nearby Fife, Scotland, and educated at the University of Glasgow. Most of his career was spent in England. The generically named Smith was, after all, a product of free choice. And lest there be any doubt, the invisible hand extends far beyond the literary world.

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Isle of Skye and Its Sheep

Sheep by road to Dunscaith Castle

"As for the Highlanders, I comprehend them all in two sorts of people: the one that dwelleth in our mainland that are barbarous, and yet mixed with some show of civility; the other that dwelleth in the Isles and are all utterly barbarous." ---King James VI of Scotland



Dunscaith Castle Ruins

Clan MacLeod's Dunvegan Castle  is a sharp contrast to Dunscaith Castle, the ancestral home of Clan MacDonald.

Dunscaith has a far lovelier natural setting than Dunvegan, though I recognize that preferring more greens of trees and pastures to the brown hues of moorelands is a personal bias. The fact that Dunscaith is in ruins, however, cannot be denied.

Sheep On the Road to Dunscaith Castle

As we drove the deteriorating one lane road to Dunscaith, sheep wandered aimlessly across the road in our path. What might have once been family farmland is now overgrown. 

Beautiful, to be sure, but also a feeling of something lost.

Footpath to Dunscaith

We hiked along a rugged path to the gorgeous site that held ancient rubble. 

Amy reached the castle before me and was teetering on a six inch edge of what I assume used to be a bridge over a hallway, but the wood had rotted away centuries earlier.

Amy Enters the Castle

Taking hand holds where she could on the wall of eroded boulders, she made it across, to my relief.

Jay took an equally perilous way, climbing higher to a ledge a foot wide where he stood and walked across, leaping down at the other side.

I took a third route, on the opposite side from Amy where I thought I could get a better hold of the top of the five foot wall, wondering as I edged along how I would get back if I fell and broke my legs.   

Jay Takes a Picture of Amy Atop the Castle

The fall would have been over twelve feet to jagged rocks, and for Jay actually another five feet more.

We made it safely to the panoramic view atop the castle, imagining what it would have been like as a seat of power hundreds of years ago. We gazed at the loch by which the stone outcropping was perched and surrounding pastures, taking it all in.



Jay's Picture of Amy Atop Dunscaith Castle

Unfortunately, we found no other way back down, so back we went to creep along the edges, grasping the rock wall. Jay had his 35 millimeter camera dangling from a strap around his neck, and he realized trying to protect it made either climbing back up to the wall he walked across or edging along the narrow ridges even more perilous. He sat the camera on top where he walked previously, and then creeped along the edge. Then he jumped back on the wall, walked over to where the camera was, leaned down to pick it up, and then walked backwards across the wall. We were all happy he made it back without breaking his crown and laughed about his double derring-do to protect his camera.

Back to history, Clan MacDonald had absconded from Dunscaith about 100 years before the Jacobite Uprising of 1745, so it wasn’t backing the wrong side that cost them this particular castle. In fact, at one time, Clan MacLeod had won and occupied Dunsquaith, but the MacDonalds took it away. The tides of history don’t always flow in the same direction.

Based on the Glenfinnan Monument to Highlander loyalty to Bonnie Prince Charlie and his quest to have his family line restored to the throne, you might well assume some longstanding mutual admiration. The Highlanders undoubtedly felt Scottish pride when King James VI of Scotland, the son of Mary Queen of Scots, became King James I of England, but as the quote above indicates, he viewed them with the sort of contempt that often seems to be leveled at the modern day Tea Party by those in the American government.

Mary Queen of Scots

King James V’s daughter, Mary Queen of Scots, on the other hand, would have preferred to live out her reign in the Loire Valley had her husband, King Francis II of France, not died as a teenager. She was not thrilled to be forced to return to Scotland after having lived in splendor on the continent.

Nonetheless, life goes on. Mary married her first cousin, Henry Stuart (Lord Darnley), and they soon had a son, James. A few months later, Lord Darnley was murdered, and Mary was imprisoned and forced to abdicate, based on specious charges, to their son, James VI of Scotland, who at the time was 13 months old.

James VI grew up under royal guardianship with a considerably different mindset than his namesakes who spoke Gaelic as at least one of their languages and respected Highlanders, who at the time were the majority of the population of Scotland.

James VI proclaimed Highlanders to be crude and terribly flawed.

He derided Gaelic as “Erse,” or Irish, and as such foreign to Scotland. He proclaimed it as a cause for Highlander shortcomings, and Parliament tried to abolish it as a language.  Essentially, Highlanders were treated worse than illegal aliens in their own country, where their direct ancestors had lived throughout history.  Apparently by the time of the Jacobite Uprisings, these insults were forgotten.

King James I of England

King James VI of Scotland became King James I of England, and though he wanted to combine the crowns, that would not come until later.  He did, however, rule England and Ireland as well as Scotland under separate crowns in what became known as the Jacobean Era.

Despite what he said about Highlanders, he wasn't all bad.

We all know of at least one accomplishment. The King James English translation of the Bible was completed under his watch.

Under his rule, the Golden Age of Elizabethan Literature continued, with the magnificent literary contributions of William Shakespeare.  James was an excellent scholar himself, writing several books.  And in an age without Fox News, perhaps the Highlanders never knew what he really thought of them.

Following plenty of succession drama, his ancestor King James II (King James VII of Scotland) was replaced by his half-sister Mary and her husband William, leading to the Jacobite Rebellions.

In 1689, they declared that Catholic King James II (aka VII) had “deserted” the kingdom and proclaimed that no Catholic could ever again become king, because “it hath been found by experience that it is inconsistent with the safety and welfare of this protestant kingdom to be governed by a papist prince.”  This more than any particular action by any James probably spurred Highlanders to the Jacobite cause.

While some Highlanders like the MacLeods were loyal to the official government and curried favor, Highlanders in general were held in contempt as backwards and worthless by the elite in the new government, a belief stoked by Highlander support of the Jacobite Rebellions. It’s natural to paint enemies in an unflattering light.



"The Commons" Painting of the Highlander Clearances

However, the government also knew that Highlanders had proven themselves to be the most loyal, tough and gallant soldiers of the British military.  

Because they were such valiant warriors, the government justifiably feared they may rebel again after the '45 Rebellion was suppressed, and so when Bonnie Prince Charlie skirted off to France in 1746, the Parliament passed the Act of Proscription designed to crush the clan system. This basically put teeth in the Disarming Act of 1715 which had not been strongly enforced.

The Dress Act made it illegal to wear a kilt or tartan in Scotland, with the only exception being for soldiers in the Black Watch Regiment of the British Infantry (Royal Highlanders), which still does to this day.

It also made it illegal for anyone in defined parts of Scotland to keep and bear any “broad sword or target, poignard, whinger, durk, side pistol, gun, or other warlike weapon." Obviously this stands in stark contrast to the U.S. Bill of Rights which asserts the right for law abiding citizens to keep and bear arms, and the framers of the Constitution undoubtedly knew about this precedent.

Farm With Pastureland Near Dunscaith Castle

Around the same time that the Jacobites struggled to regain the throne for their Catholic King, other big changes were afoot.  

In the era of clans, “crofters” worked the lands controlled by the clan chiefs very much like share croppers. These small farms produced enough food to allow the farmers to feed themselves and provide some excess to the clan. Starting in the 16th Century, the Scottish Government began requiring clan chiefs to come to Edinburgh once a year to post a bond for the people under their control.  

Each generation, clans grew larger and more like towns than families, which made clan chiefs feel more like landlords and tax collectors than father figures. They started finding that raising livestock and droving herds to sell in the lowlands was more profitable and easier than handling landlord problems and collecting the estate's share from the crofters.

Talisker Distillery on Isle of Skye

With the advent of the industrial revolution and excitement about immigration to the colonies, some of the more industrious risk-takers left the family farms to seek fortunes elsewhere, either in city factories or claiming lands of their own to farm in the Americas or Australia, but the change wasn’t happening fast enough for clan chiefs and others seeking to maximize profits.

Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand was forced into an iron glove.

Clan MacLeod “experimented” with clearing out crofters starting around 1732, and what became known as the Highland Clearances shifted into high gear in 1762.  Clan chiefs brought in factors and other outside experts in sheep farming from the lowlands to help increase efficiency.  

Some clans found it easier to sell out completely, allowing other landholders to become more powerful.

On the Scottish mainland, the Duke of Sutherland came to own 1.5 million acres in the Highlands, and the level of his wealth can be described in a quote from Queen Victoria upon visiting his estate. “I have come from my house to your palace.”

Painting of the Highlander Clearances

Needing more grazing lands, landowners evicted crofters, sometimes burning their thatched roofs to hasten their departures. This forced population exodus was euphemistically called “necessary improvements” by wealthy landlords.

Families were left to freeze and starve without their means of livelihood. Immigration to the colonies seemed the best choice for most, and there are now more descendants of Highlanders in North America than in Scotland.

In 1840, 30,000 non-English speaking Highlanders were forced to move to Glasgow, where very few spoke Gaelic, to work in factories.  Not all could find jobs in the city.



Portree Harbor

As Americans on holiday, we drove from the ruins of Dunscaith in our Fiat 500L several generations after the Clearances, and sheep looked at us as if to ask what we thought we were doing on their roads. There still seem to be more sheep than people on the Isle of Skye.

We meandered into the village of Portree, which still survives as a central marketplace,  and we visited the Talisker Distillery, indicating the whiskey industry has prospered.  Tourism certainly now plays a huge role in the economy, but most of the island is sheep country. It’s a lovely place to visit, but I don’t think I’d want to live there.  

On the Statue of Liberty, which has become an international symbol for welcoming immigrants to the USA, there’s a bronze plaque featuring “The New Collosus” by American Poet Emma Lazarus, including this excerpt:

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

A Welcome Sight for Displaced Hihglanders in the USA

These words were not an invitation to a welfare state but a challenge to prove the class systems of the old world was wrong in pushing them out of their former homelands.

In the long run, the Clearances proved to be a blessing for future generations of Highlanders who grew to their potential under our freedoms, as well as for America, which benefited from their strengths.

Before moving on, let’s consider an alternative viewpoint of the Highlander situation. We can understand why the emerging British Empire gradually uniting England and Ireland with Scotland would require assimilation of Highlanders. They certainly didn’t want to simply put up a wall like the Romans when they saw a sort of manifest destiny for their mainland to be united similar to that expressed by the western expansion of the United States from the original 13 colonial states.  

Statue of Economist Adam Smith In Edinburgh

Modernization in all its forms, including science, technology and economics, was coming regardless of whether the Highlanders preferred to stay in feudal times or not. Feudalism relies on subservience rather than freedom, and freedom leads to greater happiness and prosperity in the long run.   

Squabbles and outright battles among clans were counter-productive, and like it or not, those who want to be successful in business in Western Civilization speak English, not Gaelic. 

As the old saying goes, you can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs. And man does not live by haggis alone.

Benjamin Franklin's 13 Virtues: Moderation

"Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve."

--- Benjamin Franklin on Moderation

When I wrote about Temperance, I mentioned that what Ben called Temperance, I would call Moderation.  It's not unusual for words to take on different meanings over time, but beyond that, there are obviously different interpretations among contemporary friends.

Moderation regarding food and drink, of course, would be to avoid over-indulging.  As such, a model of Moderation in terms of diet would be enjoying a delicious Thanksgiving dinner but not stuffing yourself with huge meals and multiple desserts every day.  In drink, it would be to perhaps savor a glass of wine or beer without that leading to worship of the porcelain god or calling in sick for work the next morning.

The short definition Benjamin Franklin used for his Virtue of Moderation indicates he specifically was addresing Moderation of temperament.

That's something we definitely should all evaluate in our own personalities.  Most of us aren't manic depressive, but all of us at one time or another have become so convinced about a proposition and advocate it so emphatically that we can no longer see other sides of the issue.

We certainly should be willing to make a stand for what we believe, but as Ben Franklin wrote, "forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve."  If in the end an opposing view wins out, that's not the end of the world.  Set your sights on the future, hopefully making corrections to better equip yourself to handle the next challenge more formidably.

In other words, you may not be able to completely forget offenses against you --- and in fact you should not unless you want to be run over again by the same bus on a different day --- but remember that shouldn't be the focus of your life.

This is not for the benefit of those who oppose your positions, but for your own peace of mind.

Have you ever seen someone who becomes so intent on seeking revenge that they waste months, years or even their entire life working to get back at those who wronged them?

How much more ahead would they have been to cut the offenders out of their life and carry on to make their own lives as happy as possible?

If you remember the old TV show Dallas, you may recall how Cliff Barnes wanted revenge on the Ewing Family so much that for the most part his character became little more than a bitter loser.  Even after he found success, he could not get over the Ewings.  If you become what you think about, then if you bitterly think about losing all the time, what else would you be considered?  So much the worse when such hateful obsession involves a politician or celebrity you've never met.

If you mentally live in a world of limitations, what economists call a Zero Sum Game --- and if you are blessed to be an American citizen, you should understand here and now that those walls are entirely of your own making --- then subsequently you may naturally believe the only source of compensation would be to simultaneously bring down your "enemies" who "ruined your life."  Better to hope that everyone becomes enlightened and comes to understand reality as best possible in light of their unique experiences.

As with his other Virtues, Benjamin Franklin could not claim personal perfection on the topic of Moderation any more than our Founding Fathers could claim such perfection while crafting a government designed to encompass ideals of the Age of Enlightenment.

Ben would strive to practice Moderation for a week at a time, hoping to form a positive habit, but he harbored a less-than-Cliff Barnes-like obsession of sorts with the Penn Family, whose ancestor William founded Pennsylvania.

Early on, the Penns saw Franklin as a dangerous potential leader of the "mob" against their proprietary interests.  “Mr. Franklin, though a very crafty and subtle Man, I think errs in this, that when he is provoked will go too far, and advance things without a proper foundation."

As a rational man, Franklin could not understand why the Penns could not see that by doing what was best for colonists that it would better their own fate, too. 

While living in England, Benjamin Franklin became friends with Adam Smith, the great economist.  Ben obviously grasped Smith's "invisible hand" economic concept, but he developed something of a blindspot for the Penns, probably because the ancestors of William Penn had not earned their position of prominence through exceptional Industry or Frugality but been born into it.  

Perhaps the biggest issue came down to the fact that under their original charter, the Penns paid no taxes, and presumably this would go on in perpetuity.  Lacking the ability to reap potential taxes made Ben's grand plans for Philadelphia and greater Pennsylvania difficult to fund.

When the Pennsylvania Assembly sought to form a militia, Quakers would not pay taxes to fund any military which because  of their religious conviction to the Commandment "Thou shalt not kill."  The Penns again refused to be taxed, but they subsequently voluntarily donated 5,000 pounds to the cause, which the Assembly accepted.  

William Penn's son and heir Thomas Penn became something of an arch nemesis for Ben Franklin.  

Ben went on to spend many years in England attempting to convince the British government to convert the proprietary colony of Pennsylvania into a royal charter ruled more hands-on by England.  In fact, that might have been against the best interests of the relatively laizzez-faire Pennsylvania which he served, but he felt the Penns did not always treat colonists justly.

Obviously, that campaign against the Penns did not stop Franklin from living a full, very successful life.  With Moderation as an ideal, he did not allow it become an obsession.

Scotland's Cuisine (Featuring Stirling)

Our B&B in Callander.

Haggis.

With the properly disgusted contortion of face and body language, Jay Leno regularly makes the “Tonight Show” audience laugh by merely saying the word, “Haggis,” despite the fact that most Americans have never tried it.

You probably don’t want to give any more thought to how Scots make haggis than what Americans put in hotdogs, but when I ate haggis with my full Scottish breakfast at Red Squirrel on our first morning in Edinburgh, I found it tasted very much like delicious American breakfast sausage but with the texture of deviled ham.

While not everyone ate haggis, we all agreed with my son Jay’s assessment that the morning feast at Red Squirrel was “epic.”



St. Cuthbert's Church in Edinburgh



The full Scottish breakfast also came with egg, hot tomatoes, sautéed mushrooms, English banger (more like a short, fat hotdog than an American breakfast sausage) and bacon (to my American eye it was pan-fried sliced ham). The coffee also proved to be very good.

So, despite warnings about Scottish cuisine being horrible, I found it quite satisfying.

I enjoyed slight variations of haggis when I had similar full Scottish breakfasts at our B & B's in Ayr and Stahray, so it wasn’t exclusively Red Squirrel’s take on Scotland’s signature dish.

Another mainstay of Scottish cuisine, pub food, proved to be consistently edible if not always aces.

Wes and Jay at the Castle Arms in Edinburgh.

In the UK and Ireland, I’ve tended to order fish and chips frequently in pubs, always finding that ubiquitous meal delicious, and the same holds true in Scotland. The best was on the Isle of Skye at the Hebridean, which was basically the only choice for dining within walking distance of our B & B.


Unlike a cruise, where onboard watering holes are a short walk from our room, on a land trip there are unfamiliar roads and traffic rules, including driving on the wrong side of the road and shifting gears lefthanded in the UK, turning an already risky proposition of driving after alcohol into something considerably more perilous, so we simply won’t do that. And for me, enjoying pub food for dinner includes tipping a pint or two of Guinness or some local beer like Belhaven’s Best, so I almost definitely will do that.



Isle of Skye

The fried haddock at the the Hebridean was enormous: thick, wide and too long to fit on the dinner plate that also held a mountain of chips (British for French fries). As usual, plan to throw away the odd-tasting pub vegetable side dish. Eating the chips with salt and vinegar rather than the American way with ketchup completes the perfect pub meal.

We ate at the Hebridean twice, and the second night I had the house specialty, smoked salmon in sweet chili sauce, which was tasty but not nearly as filling or satiating to me.

Guinness (an Irish brand that enjoys international fame including across the short sea crossing to Scotland), English bangers and sweet chili sauce for the salmon foreshadow my point; Scottish restaurants do not serve haggis and other native foods exclusively. After centuries of fighting off foreign influence, it’s easy to recognize that Scotland now welcomes it.

Wes kayaking on Loch Lomond

Still, Scotland held out about as long as possible from intermingling with the civilized world. An internet joke said the Scots have only two levels of security preparedness alerts: pissed off and let’s get the bastards. Make no mistake, everyone was nice to us, but historically Scots have not taken kindly to aggression.

When the Romans arrived in Scotland after civilizing most of Europe and the surrounding Mediterranean region, they found primitive tribes of red-haired savages who painted their faces blue, rattled their sabers and fought with all their might. After several unsuccessful military campaigns, the Romans finally had enough.

Edinburgh Castle from park below

Roman Emperor Hadrian basically said, “Look what we can do, you crazy Celts. We have the technology to build a tall wall longer than you can see to seal you off from civilization, where we have the best modern products, clean water in city fountains, public toilets and baths, theaters, restaurants, hospitals, roads and coliseums for gladiatorial games. You can keep your haggis on your side of the wall.”

In ensuing decades, the Roman Empire didn’t so much fall as morph and split into new empires, but Scotland carried on alone.



Statue of Robert the Bruce at Stirling Castle

England, on the other hand, after absorbing the cultures of conquering Romans and Normans, grew to international prominence, and naturally they saw Scotland as a connected territory to be brought into the British version of civilization.


The Scots fought the English off, winning and losing control of their country several times. At our B & B in Skye, we watched a terrible movie about Scottish hero Robert the Bruce, who won independence (at least for a while), for Scotland, and of course there’s real-life wild man Mel Gibson’s masterpiece “Braveheart” that tells another story of their struggle for independence.

If you’re like me, perhaps you found history in high school boring, because it only seemed to deal with date memorization and wars, but the stories of the changes of power and the subsequent societal evolutions are fascinating, especially when you visit the lands where it transpired.



I respect the Scottish love of freedom from outside rule, but being self-reliant doesn’t mean you have to ignore what others do well or avoid copying it. That would be the definition of ignorance.

Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh

So, while Scottish cuisine is not the horror you may have perceived based on jokes, it certainly doesn’t hurt to have other options. At “our pub,” Footlights, which we found on our first evening and returned to each night we were in Edinburgh, they combined everything you would want in a Scottish pub, from fresh beer taps to darts to rugby or European football (soccer) on TV. While I'm not saying you must go to Footlights, it is fun to have your "own pub" during a short stay. It allows you to get comfortable taking your usual table, playing darts and just feeling like one of the locals.

Footlights' menu broadened from simply Scottish foods to include multicultural treats like Cajun Chicken Nachos, which turned out to be excellent.

The British influence has become ingrained in Scottish culture over the centuries, but I still found it surprising that what I assumed was simply a tourist trap, Café at the Palace by Holyroodhouse, served a light, delicious scone that was better than any I’ve tried elsewhere.

Views on the hike to Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh

Three of us purchased a cherry-berry scone and tea while waiting inside for Jay to get back from hiking to Arthur's Seat, which I'm a little ashamed to say I decided wasn't worth ascending the final 150 feet of vertical when harder rain was imminent. What started as a somewhat obligatory purchase to justify taking up a table and seats in the winter garden turned into a treat.

Other traditional British dishes, including Sunday roast beef and Yorkshire pudding with gravy, new potatoes and veggies, were featured at the Old Racehorse Hotel in Ayr (hopefully that wasn't an old racehorse we were eating, but if it was, I wouldn't say, "Nay-a-a-a-ay.").  It was a wholesome meal for 7 pounds 99. 

The British Empire ruled India for decades, so it's no surprise that Indian food is widely available. When we visited Stirling, a strategically important city for control of Scotland in the Middle Ages, we found a delicious, modestly-priced Indian buffet at Mr. Singh’s Indian Cottage.

Jay and Amy on Seal Boat by Dunvegan Castle, Isle of Skye

This was perhaps the best meal of the trip, with great quality meat as well as vegetable dishes and freshly cooked-to-order naan bread included for 6 pounds 99. Jay and Amy, who have a lot more experience with Indian restaurants than Julie and me, agreed it was the best Indian buffet they’d ever had.

We found good Chinese food served family style in Edinburgh at a nice but far from ostentatious restaurant, Shanghai. In addition, I saw a Jamaican café, French restaurants, pizzerias, kebob joints, tapas lounges, Mexican food and other international foods, but American cuisine had a greater foothold in Scotland than most, probably due to the American desire to have tastes of home even when traveling in far off lands. We found a great hamburger, chips (British for French fries) and soda for 6 pounds 99 at the Castle Arms, a beautiful, upscale pub just off the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, but we also had one of the worst burgers, albeit at a great price of 4 pounds 99 for a burger, fries and pint of beer, at a pub in Callander near our B & B.

Edinburgh Castle at night

Our Callander B & B was Cragshotel, which has a pub with the hardest working bartender/hotel front desk receptionist in Pubdom, constantly pulling taps for a pub full of customers eager to buy 2 pound 40 pints between intermittently showing guests their rooms, and that was NOT where we had the bad burgers.

What made the burger so bad? To start, it was very fatty meat that resulted in a greasy end product. What bothered me most, however, was that I kept chomping into little sticks which I assume…make that hope…were matches to relight a faulty grill and ended up beneath my burger as it cooked. Why did I keep eating it? Good question. I will point out that this was one time I didn’t clean my plate. Fortunately for that pub, I don’t remember its name.

Awkward photo of Jay and Amy in Sterling

My point is that sticking with "safe" American fare proved to result in the worst meal of the trip, and it’s not always what you expect….except at McDonalds.  While we didn’t have McMuffins for breakfast or McDoubles for a quick and cheap lunch abroad, we did stop in for 69 pence vanilla ice cream cones a couple of times when someone needed a loo (restroom) break while driving, and as usual for McDonalds, they were as good as back home.

Taking it all full circle, we also went to what I would call an Americanized version of a pub in the otherwise somewhat odd town of Stranraer the evening before taking the ferry to Northern Ireland.



Dunscaithe Castle ruins on Isle of Ske

The village didn’t seem that odd to me, but Jay and Amy seemed to think it was right out of the Twilight Zone, and the suped-up little cars driven by young people that kept circling the streets fed their perceptions. I should have referred them to “American Graffiti.”

Anyway, the Custom House was the size of two to four normal pubs and served a TGI Friday-type menu of foods. We split a couple of big orders of chicken wings, and they were delicious. The fact that an emcee was leading trivia games, like on a cruise ship, seeemed a bit odd, especially with questions geared to Scots about which team won some regional finals in Rugby six years earlier, obscure Scottish politicians and TV shows I’d never heard of.

As one final pub food twist, on our last night of the trip at the Fiddlers Arms, Amy ordered a deep fried Mars Bar while we enjoyed some live, acoustic music.

Jay at Grassmarket in Edinburgh

I’ve already rattled on way too long on this subject, but if you’re still with me, I should point out that not only was Scottish cuisine international, the employees working at the restaurants were too. Indians operated Singhs and Chinese ran Shanghai, but we also, for example, were served a Scottish breakfast by a Polish waitress at the Coffee Mill Café in Edinburgh. She was a cute little pixie who I first thought was French. I’m not sure if the owner of the place was also her husband or Polish, but he was not Scottish.  He was very friendly, at least to paying customers. When one passerby walked in to use his restroom, he called her out on it. After she left, he said, “You’d think she’d at least buy a tea or coffee.” Then he came over to our table to talk to us.

When he learned we were from California, he put his arm around Julie and said, “How ‘bout we trade. I take your wife and go to California, I give you the keys to my café and you stay here. We trade, no?”

Statue of Adam Smith by St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh

By the way, that was a great breakfast, and our host custom made a huge bagel sandwich that Jay and Amy split, combining ingredients from a couple of different sandwiches.

Three hours later, at the counter of Auto Europe where we picked up our rental car to begin the motorways and backroads portion of our trip, the representative said she was also from Poland. As in America, there are lots of people born in other countries working in the service sector in Scotland, drawn to the freedom and opportunity of Adam Smith's free marketplace world.

Better service leads to better trips!

Happy 4th of July

The biggest problem we Americans face is that our dreams are no longer as big as the comfortable existences we already enjoy.

Considering all the problems we see on the news every day, that's a pretty bold statement, but think about it.

From man's earliest known history, and we're talking several thousand years back, until the 1700s, most individuals in the world lived lives of quiet desperation, unsure where they might find their next meal.

"Give us this day our daily bread." You've probably prayed these words, and while we certainly now explore the metaphysical implications, for most of history having enough bread to fill empty stomachs daily was an answered prayer. Now most of us must control our bread and expensive snack intake to avoid getting too fat.

On July 4, 1776, thirteen loosely federated colonies declared independence from the greatest military power in the world, and the rest, as they say, is history. An exceptional nation was born, a nation where every child could grow up to be whatever he wanted to be. America threw off the class system that relegated able humans to live in subservience to the aristocracy as they had throughout history. A compromise allowed slavery to continue a few more decades in the United States, as it did throughout the world and had since earliest recorded history, but the seeds of freedom had been sown.

Almost simultaneously in 1776, Adam Smith released his landmark book, "The Wealth of Nations," in which he further developed his concept of the "Invisible Hand" of free commerce that results in people, pursuing their own self interests freely, inadvertently helping others and increasing the prosperity of their communities. Had slave owners truly understood the Invisible Hand, they would have abolished slavery without waging war against President Lincoln and the Union.

The very American concept of "making money" by providing valuable goods and services to others for a profit allowed our ancestors to develop the free and prosperous country we inherited.
Others around the world saw America as a shining light on a hill, an inspiration to liberate their own countrymen, and of course many people came to find their fortune and future in the land of the free and the home of the brave. They still come today. We don't have walls to lock our citizens in.

For those of us fortunate enough to have been born in America, we should regularly thank God for motivating our founding fathers to create this Exceptional Nation and embrace our personal freedom. That freedom makes it possible for every American to chart his own course and create the life of his dreams. In so doing, the Invisible Hand makes the world a better place.

Waiting for the government to solve our problems is a fool's goal, and it leads only to a life of self-imposed slavery. Make your personal life work now.

What would you do if you knew you could not fail? Where would you go if you could go anywhere? Your future, as an American, is whatever you make it. I hope you decide part of your future involves taking a cruise or some other dream vacation, and booking it through me. I'm always happy to give the Invisible Hand a high five! "Better service leads to better trips."

Why should YOU take a World Cruise?

Quite frankly, many people may dream of traveling throughout the world, but most cannot afford it.

If you're an American, however, you start life with a much greater chance of exploring the world's greatest destinations than most.

About 70% of the world's poulation subsists on less than $10 per day.  It takes more wherewithall than that to take a very inexpensive cruise, which many Americans take for granted as almost a right, or at least a rite of passage.

Someone cruising for a weekend trip to Ensenada or Nassau is living like a king compared to most of the world, and lots of travelers have stretched their horizons to see many more parts of the world, often combining air travel with cruises.

Those successful enough to consider a World Cruise probably understand how Adam Smith's Invisble Hand of the free market enriches others when you pursue your self interest.  Countless impoverished individuals are helped directly and indirectly when you spend your travel dollars.

If you've never been on a cruise, then you're unlikely to be reading this blog about a World Cruise.

I mean seriously, take a cruise in the Southern Caribbean or Mediterranean and get back to me, because a World Cruise is a huge commitment.

You'll be spending months at sea, so you should at least see if the experience appeals to you on any given cruise line.  And don't be mistaken; there are definitely differences in cruise experiences, whether a country club casual approach of Oceania or Azamara or the considerably greater formality of Cunard or Crystal.



Because this is a World Cruise, you shouldn't expect to find a young crowd as you would on Carnival in the Caribbean.

Those taking a World Cruise are frequently commemorating a lifetime of achievement, often having recently retired from successful careers, sold their family business or perhaps celebrating a milestone anniversary.

World cruisers tend to be more mature as well as more affluent than the average cruiser, and of course you must have a voracious appetite for travel.



Not everyone has time to take the entire world voyage, but it is possible to take shorter segments of World Voyages, like 15 or 45 days, as many people do.

Over the course of a few years, you can piece together segments to have experienced all of the regions visited on your ideal world trip, understanding that each year the world voyages add new ports and skip others to keep the experience fresh for repeat World Travelers.



And believe it or not, while most initially sign up for a World Cruise as a once-in-a-lifetime adventure, many find it so spectacular that they take it again...and again....and again.

World Cruises are so popular with repeat guests that frequently they sell out early.

Viking Ocean's first World Cruise has only  two categories of Verandas still available for their first ever World Cruise in 2018, so imagine how hard it will be to get a room on one of their subsequent World Cruises.

Several cruise lines offer early booking incentives, which can add thousands of dollars in value to your World Cruise booking, so don't procrastinate.

For more information, contact Wes@CruisePlanners1.com.

Is Travel Selfish?

It's only human to want to help the disadvantaged.

Even before our schools and churches ingrained in us a duty to give aid to those who need it, we instinctively see this as the right thing to do.

We support a government that not only taxes our earnings to redistribute significantly to the less fortunate in the form of welfare and food stamps but also has a negative income tax at the bottom rungs where "tax payers" get refunds larger than what they pay in.

As we grow older, some may appear to become more callous. While those with physical and mental deficiencies still tear at our heart strings, encountering an able-bodied young man lounging outside the grocery store begging with a Starbucks cup might seem more worthy of tough love, mumbling, "Get a job," rather than tossing a few coins that he seems likely to spend on liquor or drugs to perpetuate his downward spiral.

It brings to mind the old adage, "Give a man a fish, and he'll eat for a day; teach a man to fish, and he'll eat for a lifetime."

Do you believe that is truly the best way to help others to a better life?

Long ago, Adam Smith theorized that when individuals provided goods and services to others in order to earn money to care for their own families, an "invisible hand" acts beyond selfish intentions to lift all touched by it.

Therefore, while you may initially feel a bit selfish when you indulge on your first cruise vacation, you are in fact helping others. In fact, I truly believe it is far better than any government foreign aid policy.

Aboard most cruise ships, you'll find a hard-working crew sourced from around the world. Your friendly room steward may be making far less than US minimum wages, but those standard gratuities paid by guests on the final bill add up. At the end of a six month contract, many room stewards and restaurant staff go home to third-world villages where their wages create jobs for others.

In earning that money by providing valuable services, they've learned valuable skills they can apply back home, teaching others to do the same.  If you want to help the third world, give a bigger tip to those who excel when serving you.

Yes, it is still great to choose a charity like "Food for the Poor," which helps truly poor people in the Caribbean and Latin America, and the American government will continue to provide foreign aid even to countries that hate us, but you as a traveler do much more by pursuing your own dreams, which indirectly teaches them how to earn a living through service.

Cruise ships strive to perpetuate traditional cultures of places visited by bringing their stories, entertainment and cuisine on board.

In addition, cruise ships provide wonderful opportunities to support the arts. Each ship hires many talented musicians and singers, providing venues for classical music, jazz and musical theater in addition to classic rock, country and pop.

Regardless of whether or not you attend an art auction, the cruise line always has a collection on display throughout the ship.

Are you ready to do some good for the world?

Book your next great vacation today. 

Writing About Scotland

Time to Leave Edinburgh

 

 

As we sat at "our pub" in Edinburgh one last time, we discussed what the favorite part of the trip had been for each of us, and while the trip had been to Scotland, it was the side trip to Northern Ireland for a day that seemed to most entice the others. I said Edinburgh, playing darts and hanging out with family and locals, but as Julie pointed out to my sister upon our return, "I think Wes enjoys writing about the travel better than the actual travel."

Based on the amount I wrote about the trip, and all the sidetrips I took into history while writing it, perhaps she has something.

Here are links to my posts about our trip:

Adam Smith's Edinburgh

Scotland's Cuisine

Edinburgh

Sir Walter Scott Monument In Edinburgh

The Downside of Packing Light

You Take the High Road, and I'll Take the Low Road...

Houses of the Holy

Northern Ireland Featuring Dunluce

Sea to Ayr to Highlands

Dunvegan Castle On the Isle of Skye

Isle of Skye and Its Sheep

The Loch Ness Monster

Bendarroch and Aberfeldy

In looking back over those blogs, I realize that somehow delving into whatever history I found interesting at the time, it all came together to give an overview of the history of Scotland, which I didn't realize I was writing at the time. 

A logical approach to writing includes a thorough outline, but from the first time I received a creative writing assignment in elementary school, I would always simply begin writing. By the end, I might need to go back and revise it all, having found that my initial opening no longer made sense based on what I had learned about my characters or the subject as it materialized on the page, but I found that a better approach than following an outline.

While this totally illogical approach makes no sense to most people, I heard a quote from the late, great Sydney Sheldon that he couldn't wait to sit down to write the next chapter of a book, because he wanted to know what happened next.

That was the first time I ever heard of anyone who thought about writing the same way I did. If it's fiction, the characters take me where they want to go and the plots twist unexpectedly from any pre-conceived notion I might have had.

The same was true when I wrote essays about non-fiction in high school and beyond, primarily because I rarely read anything about the subject before starting the assignment. The teacher would make an assignment, and I would find a book on the subject and try to find something interesting. I would then follow up on that interesting point rather than continuing in a linear path. Granted, I had a general idea of what points the teacher expected to be included by the end, because in elementary school my mom had sat down with me and a couple of encyclopedias to help me follow it all in a logical manner, as the academics who wrote the articles found relevant.

Why do I bring all of this up? Mainly because it was on my mind this morning, and I may delete it all, since it truly is far off topic, but in thinking back on our trip, I doubt anyone, including the three family members with whom I shared the car, would have come up with the exact same interpretation of events or selection of tangents to follow.  That's the beauty of travel, and I hope I conveyed that only through experiencing life for yourself will you find your own existential truths.

The Beach I Often Ignored to Write

Julie's insight that I enjoy writing about travel more than travel itself probably is a bit of an exaggeration, but I do find it more relaxing to sit down to complete something on my mind than to "relax" at the beach leaving it undone. I'm not a big person for schedules in general, preferring instead to take care of something as soon as I know it must be done. As illogical as it may be, writing a travel blog that is only read by a handful of people on a good day is nonetheless compelling for me.

Trying to find the exact Sydney Sheldon quote I paraphrased above, I came upon this quote: "I have worked 7 days a week as long as I can remember. A business manager of mine gave me $25 worth of tennis lessons. I went down to my tennis court and we played once a week. I really enjoyed it. Playing with the pro one day, my teacher said to me that the money had been spent and did I want to continue. I started to say yes, then I realized that I didn't want to be out on the tennis court. I wanted to be in my office writing. That was 25 years ago and I haven't been on my tennis court since."

I'm not quite that driven, which in addition to talent is one reason why I'm an unpaid writer while Sheldon sold over 300 million copies of his mysteries and created some of my favorite TV shows including fun mystery "Hart to Hart" and the goofy "I Dream of Jeanie." I can't say I've read all of his books, but the ones I did read were page turners. He also won Oscar, Tony and Edgar Awards, so it isn't just me who has enjoyed his work.

However, it is comforting to know that I'm not totally insane. Just a little crazy.

If you're wondering, Sydney Sheldon wasn't Scottish.

And lest I leave you with the impression that I am more dedicated to writing than I truly am, I should say that I also found time to cook some meals, work on the travel business, go places like Getty Villa, listen to live music or dine at assorted venues, walk tons of places and also, I admit, just goof off by the beach or pool quite a bit.