Travel: February 2005 Archives
The last major stop of our Scotland trip, Sterling Castle. It sits on top of a huge rock outcropping, with this 100-foot cliff to protect its back. This shot only shows the top half of the cliff; you can tell from the background how high the castle sits above the surrounding land.
In the distance, but not visible in this shot, you could see a large monument to Mel Gibson, I mean, William Wallace. Freeeeeeeedommmmmm!
Overlooking Edinburgh, Scotland, UK from the Edinburgh Castle. The hill in the distance is Arthur's Seat; we climbed to the top in the pouring rain, but that afternoon while at the castle the sun came out and shone brilliantly on the hill. I've pumped up the colors in an attempt to get the photo to look exactly as I remember the actual scene. After a gray, rainy day the moments of sunshine in the evening were very, very welcome.
Going back into my archives is turning up some neat photos and nice memories. It's nice to have a forum to share a few of the shots that until now have only been displayed in my scrapbook. I have three or four more to post from my trip to Scotland in 2002.
These are some of the remnants of St. Andrews Cathedral down the road from the more famous St. Andrews golf course. The tower in the distance is St. Rule's tower, which you can climb for a nice view of the surrounding town and Scotland coast.
To continue yesterday's story...
The ferry arrived in the town of Stromness, Orkney Islands, Scotland. We rented bicycles and rode around the island visiting prehistoric sites. We parked our bikes wherever we could, in this case, leaning against the post that pointed to the standing stones across the road.
Ok, here's the thing. Instead of saying every day this weekend that "I need to get out shooting," I'm going to instead not make any pretenses of getting out this week and post a few favorites from my archives. :)
This one was taken early on the morning of September 11, 2002. I remember the date because it was the one year anniversary of the World Trade Center destruction. I remember thinking how odd it was that a year ago I'd been in the U.S. watching hell unfold on TV, and now I was on a ferry to the (pretty darn remote) Orkney Islands north of mainland Scotland.
I watched the sun rise through the condensation on the windows of the ferry.
For this week's Photo Friday, Rural, I dove into my archives and found this shot from a trip to the Provence region of France in January 2003. I was visiting my friend Nick.
One day we hopped on a bus out of Aix en Provence and got off at a country intersection. We walked 4 miles down a rural road to see this aqueduct in the middle of fields and trees. This is not the famous Pont du Gard (built by the Romans) and was "only" built in the 19th century. Still very cool though.
