England – Be Back Whenever

10/2025 Almost the end of the trip

After Shetland we still had a few places on the itinerary. We picked up a car in Aberdeen for some lefthand driving and headed back to the Highlands for a few more ditillery visits. We were honestly pretty burned out of tasting whiskey and only visited 3 more distilleries, one of which was just for a bathroom stop!

The lovely Ladies Toilet at Glenfiddich Distillery.

Walker’s Shortbread Cookies were founded in Abelour. No tour of the factory, unfortunately, but we visited the company store.

The whiskey comes after you finish the run.

We couldn’t figure out why all (about 3) of the hotels in Ableour were full. Then we heard about the Dramathon – running with whisky at the end. We REALLY wanted a t-shirt from the event but that’s not part of the swag. If you want to run it, beware. This area is NOT flat!

Glasgow was the next stop for a few days. It’s a much “grittier” city than Edinburgh and parts reminded me of Brooklyn. The food was good, though, and we visited two art galleries along the way.

The BEST scallops at a tiny place in Glasgow. Thanks to Darcy for the recommendation.

A bicycle locker by the university in Glasgow. Does this tell you how much it rains??

This is the Glasgow version of sticky toffee pudding.

Back to Edinburgh, for the 4th time, before we took the train to Cambridge for a weekend with Mark’s cousin, Darcy, and husband, Kelly. They are always fun to spend time with. They like whiskey so we found a home for all the driver’s drams and half of the tasting glasses we’d accumulated.

Cambridge was packed because it was a graduation weekend. It took us 4 tries before we found a coffee shop with seats. We shared an elevator with a Thai student dressed for graduation in the morning. He’s graduating with a Ph.d in Engineering – Computer Science and AI. Has a position at Stanford already and just came back for graduation. We ran into him later in Cambridge and he showed us the huge framed diploma each graduate gets at graduation. How will he get that back to Palo Alto?

A visit with Kelly and Darcy in Cambridge with the required stop at a pub.

These are the little driver’s drams we collected along the way. Kelly and Darcy got all of them after we had a little tasting at their house.

This was in the WC at the Polar Museum in Cambridge.

Last stop was London for a few days before we flew back to Denver. We visited the Tate – Britain, went to see “Wicked”, did a little shopping for whiskey, met an Iowa friend for drinks, and had one of those amazing small world travel encounters. We were in a very crowded Kings Cross train/tube station on a Friday evening, looking for the exit we needed when we hear “I know you.” It was Richard from the Islay whiskey tour. He recognized us.

We saw “Wicked” in London at a Sunday matinee with all the kids. Susan had a broken seat! It was time to switch after intermission.

We met Sam, a U of Iowa friend, in London.

I had to eat mussels one more time before flying home.

More signs along the way

We spotted many long winded British signs. Australia learned their sign making skills from the Brits in many locations.

Thanks to Darcy for starting us on the task of recording signs!

Oxford had to explain that the paths might be slippery if it’s icy. Really?? This is the same country that cancels train service with the excuse “Leaves on the track.”

We found this sign in Oxford University at the Sheldonian Theatre.

The firefighters have to be told how many hoses to use in Port Macquarie?

Yes, this sign was REALLY in one of our bathrooms!

These signs just made us smile!

University parking is a problem all around the world. This one is in Hobart; coincidentally across the street from the Hobart Brewery.

All the rules about riding a train in Perth. The sign creator had a sense of humor at least!

Students MUST give up their seats. How often does this work??

“Signs, signs, everywhere a sign” – apologies to Five Man Electrical Band

Signs are everywhere. Some we could read; others, not so much. Some are pictures giving directions and some are just bad translations. Some are written by the Brits; easy to recognize by their length – as in long. Here are some of the more amusing or puzzling or long signs we’ve seen along the way!

Spelling is a problem both in English and non-English as a first language countries.

This sign is in Fort Augustus, Scotland where English is the first language and they still can’t spell – or proofread!

No room for the “T”

Spelling is not always perfect in signs. This one’s in Thailand.

Then there are the signs about phones and computers!

A library coffee shop in Oxford wants to keep the tables free for patrons.

One of our favorite little pizza places in Rome has this sign.

No selfies with the penguins! We found this sign in South Africa while watching penguins.

This sign was on the train between Edinburgh and Inverness.

We like the “etc” on the hotel advertisement on this Jodhpur hotel.

The fort in Jodphur tried to discourage smoking.

The coffee shop at RMIT university was closed when we walked by.

No parking sign in middle of parking spot

This sign takes up a perfectly good parking spot and there were 3 or 4 of them in Porrt Macquarie.

Advertising Tasmanian sparkling wine.

Rome – Cash only economy!

Just in case you can’t figure out that water in a sink might be hot. This was in a Scottish toilet.

Don’t you dare feed the kangaroos!

Mark used the toilet in Terminal 21 in Bangkok. We saw many Japanese tourists there and we assume that’s why they had a Japanese style toilet with all the bells and whistles. At least they posted these directions on what the functions of the various buttons are on the toilet – sort of! It goes along with some signs we saw for how to use a western toilet – SIT on the seats!

Make sure you sit on the western toilet. We found this sign in Bangkok.

A few days in Oxford

Our friend Tim has a position at Oxford University in the Said Business School and he graciously agreed to let us leave our winter clothes at his apartment. Now we have to plan a trip for next summer to come retrieve the clothes we’ve left all over Europe!

This Oxford Dining Hall as used in the Harry Potter movie. If you’re a Harry Potter fan, you can take some tours of the various locations.

Oxford Divinity School – one of the oldest part of the university

We’re in the Divinity School here. A hospital scene and a ballroom scene from Harry Potter were filmed here.

We spent the weekend in Oxford and Tim showed us around the University. He can take guests into many places that usually cost (Oxford has figured out they can generate income by charging people to see the various colleges and chapels.) so we visited the Library with books from the 1600’s. The library smells like old books.

A pizza debate in Cambridge

How do you split a pizza in half – along the Equator or down the International Dateline? We were in Cambridge, England, visiting Darcy (Mark’s cousin) and her husband, Kelly.

Darcy and Mark at a pub in Cambridge

They took us to a lovely musical program at the Round Church in Cambridge after which we had a beer at the Student Union (Discount with the music program secret code), followed by pizza and beer at a local pub.

We found this sign in the Student Union.

Kelly and Darcy shared a pizza and couldn’t agree on which half of the pizza belonged to whom. Kelly says pizzas are split across the middle. Each person takes the half closest to that person – north or south of the equator. Darcy insisted pizzas are split from top to bottom. Each person takes the left or right side of the pizza. After a long debate with all four of us involved, no settlement was reached but the pizza somehow disappeared.

How do you split a pizza? Of course, if the pizza has different ingredients on the two sides, this isn’t an issue!

This is the First Court at Christ’s College at Cambridge University in Cambridge. During breaks, they rent out student rooms to visitors. It was not expensive and is right in the middle of Cambridge. The room was pretty good considering that the building was built around 1640. We had breakfast in the Upper Room which is the cafeteria for the college’s students. It’s wood paneled and had pictures of famous grads, such as Darwin and John Milton.

“Ugly sweaters” seem very popular in England. We saw them all over the place – hotels, stores, bars, Starbucks, Tesco. Our lunch restaurant had ugly sweater napkins just in case you didn’t have your own sweater.