Swilcan Bridge and More

Maybe the most famous golf course picture spot in the world is the Swilcan Bridge on the 18th hole at the Old Course at St. Andrews.  I can now say I have played the Old Course and had my picture taken on the bridge.  I went on to bogey the hole after a nice drive.  However, I  had just gotten a par on the very difficult 17th; the famous Road Hole so I was pretty delighted.  

This round was the first of a marvelous golf trip to Scotland with major stops in St. Andrews, Machrihanish, and Dornoch.  And while the standard question I receive after I return from a golf trip to Scotland is "did you play the Old Course at St. Andrews", every course I played on this trip was as enjoyable as the Old Course and several much more scenic.

I played nine rounds of golf:

St. Andrews Old Course (Ranked between 4-7th in world)
St. Andrews New Course (not so new as it was built in the late 1800's)
Machrihanish Old Course (Ranked 50th something in world...played four rounds)
Royal Dornoch (Ranked between 6-15th in world)
Fortrose (An amazing hidden gem)
Brora (One of my most favorite courses ever)

On the St. Andrews courses I could see the North Sea on a couple of the holes, but on all the other courses I could see either the North Sea, a Firth off the North Sea, or the Atlantic Ocean from most of the holes on the courses.

All of these courses were either designed by Old Tom Morris or James Braid and while some have had some minor revisions, they still maintain the old design elements that make playing seaside links courses in Scotland the most enjoyable golf experience in the world...at least to me.

While I had driven a car on the "wrong" side of the road in my previous three trips to either Scotland or Ireland, I was quite amazed how quickly I became comfortable driving on this trip, because I had not been comfortable on the previous trips.  And its a good thing as I was making this trip alone and I would drive over 1000 miles on this trip.

While this was a golf trip one does not drive over a 1000 miles from the North Sea to the Atlantic Ocean and back to the North Sea without enjoying the splendor of Scotland.  Yes, it is a beautiful, extremely interesting country with really nice folks.  Of course the Scottish accent of these nice folks made many hard to understand, but I found they had just as much trouble with my US accent. 

Jerry and Anne at the Castlemount B & B in St. Andrews were marvelous hosts.  Right across the street from the Castlemount is castle ruins and right behind the castle is the North Sea.  Son Rich and I had stayed at Castlemount three years ago.  The Royal Hotel in Campbeltown, close to the Machrihanish Golf Links, was fabulous.  My third floor corner window looked right out on the harbor.  And Isla and Hugh are like family...Rich and I had spent several days at their Highfield House in Dornoch three years ago.  And they reserved a spot for me next to their other guests sporting vintage cars.

And may I add that with the B & B's amazing and delicious breakfast's one does not go hungry.  In fact, with just a piece of fruit or quick snack I was good until dinner time.

Making this trip alone was not the original plan.  In fact, I had planned to make this trip in August of 2013 with friend and former business colleague Tom Jones from Phoenix, Arizona.  Tom and I had literally discussed someday making a trip together to Scotland for nearly 20 years.  In that time we both had made trips Scotland, but it simply didn't work out that we would go together.  Then in December of 2012 I contacted Tom and told him I was planning to return to Scotland in the summer of 2013.  Within a month all of our plans had come together and we had our plane tickets, lodging and most of our golf courses lined up.  But a couple of months prior to our departure I had a personal family situation that simply would not allow me to make the trip.  One of the toughest things in my life was to tell Tom I had to cancel.

However, Tom made the trip and I followed his itinerary every day and he did the same on my trip.  In a way it seems like we made these trips together.  We both had splendid times...I believe much better than we anticipated by traveling alone.

Bonjour...Guten Morgen...Gruezi

Just as there are many different "good day" greetings in Europe, visitors to Europe enjoy different things.  Following are some of our special experiences as we ventured off to Europe to celebrate our 50th.

The evening sun was still high in the sky as we departed Minneapolis, Minnesota airport on Icelandair.  We headed north over Lake Superior and east towards Quebec, Canada and out over the Labrador Sea.  Greenland appeared on the left side of the plane and shortly after we landed in Iceland, changed planes and on to London having traveled across six time zones.

Buckingham Place

Thistle Arch

Parliament and Big Ben

Our London hotel was right near the Thistle Arch which at one time was the entrance to Buckingham Place.  While London was not our "cup of tea" it was interesting to see the various sites and then we looked forward to heading to Dover for our English Channel crossing into France.

Cliffs of Dover

English Channel Ferry

Amsterdam Canal

We traveled through the Belgium farm country on to the Netherlands (Holland) and into Amsterdam.  Amsterdam with its unique architecture, canals, bridges and more bikes than one can imagine was very interesting.  But even more interesting was venturing into the countryside and seeing the beautiful small homes and, of course the windmills.

Belgium Countryside

Working Holland Windmill

Rhine River Cruise Boat

Rhine Valley

Next it was on to Germany and cruise on the River Rhine past some magnificent castles and equally magnificent Riesling grape vineyard.  It was then on to the Heidelberg with its huge castle and rustic town square.  That put us very close to the Black Forest which is the home of the Cuckoo Clock and that wonderful Black Forest cake. 

Rhine River Castle

Heidelberg Square

Black Forest Chalet

Han's Horses and Wagon's

Mount Pilatus

Mount Pilatus

Lake Lucerne

Black Forest--Home of the Cuckoo Clock

 After leaving the Black Forest the next nation was Switzerland.  And if we were going to pick just one nation to visit this would have been the one. We were looking forward to this spot since we started our tour and it did not disappoint.  A cruise on Lake  Lucerne,  taking a cable car to the top of Pilatus where we had a great view of the Swiss Alps and where para-sailors glided, and the most favorite of all was visiting the small Swiss farm of Hans and Gretchen where there horse-drawn wagons took us though the meadows to their home.  

Han and Gretchen's Home

It was not time to head to Paris and see our friend David West and visit his favorite markets and sidewalk cafes in addition to see some of the famous Paris sites.  And that we did as David was a great host and tour guide!

Ah Paris

It was a great trip and one of the wonderful thing about traveling is that you get to come home to familiar surroundings and at this time of the year great Fall colors.

Ready for Disney World!

Great grandchildren are growing up and almost ready for Disney World.  In fact, they are now beginning to realize that Disney World is actually a real place.

Great Children Lucy, Kyle and Evie

Dad/Rich Scotland Golf

*Icelandair to Glasgow, Scotland via Reykjavik, Iceland
*Great Pubs...Food
*Five nice B & B's
*1000 plus miles from Glasgow to
Dornoch and Along North Sea to
St. Andrews and then Glasgow
*Beautiful Country...lochs, glenns,
rivers, highlands, sea, forests and
more sheep than one can imagine
*Castle and Church Ruins
*"Wee dram" of Scotch Whiskey at
Glenfiddich Distillery
*AND THE BEST GOLF IN THE
WORLD! Every course was
either an Old Tom Morris or
James Braid design and five of
six present layouts were built
before 1900. Of course, golf had
been played in all of these areas
for centuries.

Royal Dornoch
Brora
Old Moray
Fraserburg
Cruden Bay
Elie

"As for the weather...we usually has rain, wind, sun, calm, warm and cold...and that would be by the 5th hole!"
Amazing Father/Son Scotland Golf Adventure!!!

The North Woods!

One week and then the next!

Mississppi River Headwaters

The Mississippi River's Headwaters are at Lake Itasca near Bemidji, Minnesota. It doesn't look quite the same as the river many see near New Orleans as you can tell by the fact that our Grandson Cam (right) and Son Rich (left) walk across the rocks at its origin. Pretty neat spot!

The spot is also quite a contrast to Bangkok, Thailand where Rich lives and teaches English at Thammasat University.

We spent a few nights at Phil and Mary Gelhorn's lake home on Birch Lake near Hackensack. We were able to get in a bit of canoeing one morning when the lake was like glass. Very serene and if you look closely in the one picture you can see three lake otters that were having a ball as they played with us, but kept their distance from the canoe.

In another few weeks Birch Lake will freeze over and snow will blanket the area; temperatures just may get down to -40 during December or January. Snowmobiles will then replace the canoes!