what do you expect?

[The Wizard of BC]

My interest in Scotland is probably different that most as I have no Scottish roots that I can trace. However I have broken down my reasons for wanting to visit into 3 categories.

1. Professional - I'm a Kiltmaker and Shop Owner. Some of the items I offer in my shop come from Scotland. So I would like to pay a personal visit to some of my suppliers. Also, I would like to visit the mills that produce the wonderful Tartans we all covet.

2. Tourist - I would like to walk the Royal Mile in Edinburgh to experience the "Tartan Tat" phenomenon. I understand it from a business standpoint but understanding something and seeing it first hand is different.

I would like to visit for the beauty of the country that I have seen pictures of all my life. I love to experience the shock when finding that picture perfect spot that is on all the post cards and then turn around to see the car park, with the crazy, camera toting tourists, pilling off the coaches and heading straight to the little shop that sells the same tat that I can find at home.

I would like to visit my favorite distillery. And say thank you.

I am fascinated by things like the Falkirk Wheel and the Glasgow Tower. Engineering at it's best.

I would like to visit my fishing estate in the highlands. I am the 2nd Laird of Lochaber. OK, OK, the thing is 12"x12". but heck, I have the deed. Perhaps I'll bring one of those little painted castles and put it there for a trick photo.

My wife is an avid reader of the "Outlander" series of books. OK, bodice rippers, but stuff like that is important to women. So to allow her to walk through, over and around the areas described in the books would make her very happy.

3. Personal - There are a lot of members of this forum who live in Scotland, (and slightly further south) that I would like to meet in person. Their posts here have let me into their lives and I feel like they are my friends.

[ccga3359]

I was born in England, came to Canada in '76 ant the age of ten and have not been back since '81. I expect Scotland to be similar to England culturally speaking (having never been north of London). But hugely different that my distant memories. If I were to venture bck it would be to show the wife and kids the England of my youth. When I retire though I really would like to travel the canals of all of Britain.

[Archangel]

When I came to Canada, I always dreamed of going back. I went back as a teenager intending to stay. I realized the different way of life, the unemployment, violence and chose Canada.

My wife would like to see Ireland and Scotland. I have little interest. However, to be honest, the photos and experiences here are starting something.

[Fox]

Too much to list to be sure. However, I would like to experience some of the hills described by your own Cameron McNeish. I've been listening to his podcast of late, and enjoy the history as much as the discriptions of natural beauty.

[gilmore]

What I would probably expect to see is rainy, bone-chilling weather and dour folk of few words intent on separating tourists (and fellow Scots and Englishmen) from their money.

Due to Cessna's wonderful photos, I don't feel I need to see as much as I used to. He gives you the feeling of being there and experiencing the country.

I would like to take a look at the lands my ancestors came from, the Hebrides and Galway, but most of the historical sites don't really ring my bell. When travelling outside the US, I usually avoid places where there are tourists---unless it is something really overwhelming such as European cathedrals, temples like the Jokhang in Lhasa, or palaces like the Potala there, the Red Fort in Delhi, or Versailles. I prefer going deep into the countryside in a foreign land armed only with a Lonely Planet guidebook and a phrasebook, where the local folk don't speak much English, and interacting with them. I would like to meet a variety of Scots, doing things that they do in the usual course of their lives, such as a football game with the Tartan Army, a weekend with impoverished and preferably addled-pated aristocrats, the Glasgow slums, fishermen in Caithness, the Royal Mile in Edinburgh with its tat shops, etc. And Samye Ling, the first Tibetan Buddhist monastery in the West.

[James MacMillan]

When I was but a lad of 28, I had the good fortune to be stationed in Scotland for 6 months. It was everything that I wanted it to be and more.

Sure the history is cool, the traditions and the roots that some of us have, but the thing that made Scotland a great experience for me was and remains the people.

The Scottish people are some of the most friendly and open that I have met anywhere.

If I ever get the chance to go back, and the chances are slim, it will be for the people!

Thank you Scotland!

[Mr. MacDougall]

Going someplace new with expectations of what you will experience when you arrive somewhat defeats the purpose, doesn't it?

[beowulf67]

Personally, the majority of my ancestors were from Scotland, Ireland or Wales and I would like to visit just to see where they came from. And to visit some of the significant historic sites and battlefields.

For me it would be kind of like going to the Civil War battle fields I have visited in the U.S. You go and walk around and look and what do you see? Well, some grass and trees, a few hills. Some cannon and a rock wall or two. Maybe a bluff overlooking the river, or a small pond in a field. Not much really.
But what I feel when I'm there is something very different. The fear and excitement of the people who are willing to give all for a cause they believe in. Or standing at Shiloh and looking down at the river thinking about what kind of men it took to attack an enemy holding the high ground when you have to drag all of your stuff up a bluff to get to them.
I'm sure I would have the same feelings at Culloden or Sterling. Or Normandy beach or any of the other battefields around the world.

Just seeing the historic places, whether I have any tie to them or not would be worth the trip for me. I don't have any romantic notions I'll see William Wallace or Rob Roy running through the highlands. Well, only in my minds eye. :-)

[O'Neille]

I'd like to see if I could still find my Grandma's house in Livingston, West Lothian. I'd also like to find the hill where I had my first bike wreck into a hedge. My next trip will just be a motorcycle tour from central Europe heading west until I run out of land and ferry transport options. I don't expect or do anything differently when I travel than when I take trips in the U.S., except maybe put fewer miles on in a day.

[cessna152towser]

Gilmore wrote:-

And Samye Ling, the first Tibetan Buddhist monastery in the West.

I pass by there often enough on my way to and from Dumfries kilt nights; less than an hour's drive from here or from Ferintosh.
I posted a photothread about Samye Ling on here recently:-
http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=30356