Happy Birthday Mom!

Before coming to Stirling I spent about a week and a half with my mom. First was eight days in Amsterdam and then two days in the Orkney Islands.

On our first day in Amsterdam in the Reijksmuseum..  

Day trip to Zaanse Schans an outdoor museum to see some of the few still running windmills. The first one visible behind Mom is used to cut lumber.

Another day trip but this one to Delft! We went on a tour of the Royal Delft, the premier delft porcelain maker of the area. this in in their shop where they make the pottery that is later painted on

Pretty plates!

While in Delft we went to see Johannes Vermeer's house which has been turned in to a museum all about his artwork. On one of the floors a studio was set up where if a picture was taken from where they said it could look like you were in a Vermeer! The above photo looks pretty good!

At the flower auction house in the Netherlands. A small city of flowers being sold and shipped around the world.

In Orkney. This is Maes Howe, a 5000 year old tomb built by the stone age people who lived on Orkney. Inside there is 1000 year old viking graffiti on it. Amusingly, it is much the same as we write now: "so and so was here" "so and so is the best rune carver in the whole world"

A hop skip and a jump away from Maes Howe is the Ring of Brodgar the third largest standing stone ring in Britain. 

Thank you for travelling with me Mom! I love you! Happy birthday!

Beautiful Ben Ledi

I'm not sure why yet but many of the hills in Scotland are named Ben Something. Last weekend I hiked Ben Cleuch with the University of Stirling Mountaineering Club but this weekend was Ben Ledi.

We got a pretty early start, leaving from the downtown Stirling bus station at 8AM (which involved a 7:20AM bus for those of us on campus). After a forty minute bus ride from Stirling we arrived in Callander which neighbors Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park. This may be recognizable to you if you have heard the folk song.

 

 On the hike up

To begin we were all covered in many layers to avoid the chill morning air. As we hiked up and the sun shone brighter layers were stripped off. Once at the top all the layers came on again as we stopped for lunch with no protection from the breezes. The wind wasn't nearly as bad today as it was last week but it was still there. The weather though was great! Not often there are sunny days without rain around here.

That's a decent lunch view

Another view from the peak of Ben Ledi

It's a good day when a mountain is conquered before lunch

A quick look back 

(Ben Ledi is off to the left, not really visible)

Hiking Scotland

Stirling is beautiful! Scotland is beautiful!

Now that I have my bearings pretty well set the weekends are beginning to fill up with adventures. Some of those adventures are organized with the new friends I have made while others are with the groups I have become a part of.

During our first week here several of us on the floor put together a bucket list. This list had various places to visit or things to do in the UK and Europe while we are here. Only a few of those things have been accomplished thus far but many will be in the coming weeks. One that we have accomplished is "Climb a motherf***ing mountain".

Other accomplishments include: "Draw a dragon on the bucket list" and "swim in the loch"

There have been two hikes up Dumyat Hill (our residential "mountain") made by the residents of our floor. There was much rejoicing had by all when we reached the peak and all of Stirling lay before us.

Success! The peak of Dumyat marked by the stone on the right. Stirling spread out below on my left. 

Hiking being such a great way to get out and about, get some exercise, and have fun I have joined the University of Stirling Mountaineering Club! They are a great group of students who enjoy hiking and climbing around Scotland. There are hikes most weekends and climbing excursions most Wednesdays. The climbing is mostly indoors at this time of year.  

On Sunday we hiked Ben Cleuch. We took a bus to the town of Tillicoultry about 15 minutes out of town, wound our way through town and then just headed up. Starting at the valleys between the hills the temperature was good and there were trees and shrubs. When walking along the ridges the wind was enough to unbalance us on occasion and make every layer necessary to keep warm. 

In the valleys...

Along the ridges...

  

Windy at the peak!

On Saturday I am going on another hike with the club. This one will be all day and about 9 miles round trip. I debated signing up for the longer hike but I worried about whether or not I was prepared. I will know more of where I rank as far as hiking preparedness after this weekend.