Sunday, September 14, 2003 (Near Stranrear - Scotland)
With my deteriorating health, will we continue to
enjoy ourselves? The remoteness and isolation of he Scottish coast.
Day 186. The deteriorating health I was
suffering from yesterday didn’t just magically go away. I barely slept a
wink all night and was coughing and spluttering through most of it. I awoke this
morning to what seemed like full-blown influenza. Since I’m always
completely miserable when I’m ill, Sandy was also not in the best of moods
as a result. Honestly, I don’t know whom to feel sorry for the most when
I’m ill, her or me. I almost never had the flu when we lived in Florida
but must have been hit with it a couple of times a year at least when we lived
here in Europe. It must be something in the air. The problem has moved from my
throat to my nose now but who knows what I’ll be complaining about
tomorrow morning.
Because of my flu
symptoms, we got off to a late start this morning and drove into Belfast to
visit the Odyssey complex not long before noon. Our ferry crossing was booked
for around five in the afternoon. With a one-hour check-in, we had little time
to take in much of Belfast and there was an interactive science museum called W5
in the Odyssey complex that we particularly wanted to see. When we got there, it
almost looked like the place was deserted but this turned out just to be because
it was Sunday morning and, according to the car park attendant, the people of
Belfast like to lie in on a Sunday
morning.
Had we come here just a few
days ago, we might have had the chance to visit a Star Trek exhibition. As it
was, however, we did enjoy visiting the interactive play area and getting our
hands on all the various scientific experiments. The place reminded me of the
Jacksonville science museum but on a larger
scale.
The whole complex is much more
than just the science exhibit area. It encompasses shops, restaurants, a bowling
alley and even an ice skating rink. We decided to have lunch at the Hard Rock
café but this turned out to be extremely disappointing. So much so, in
fact, that we both sent our food back and left. The manager must have conceded
to the problem of poor service and lousy food as he let us go without having to
pay the bill. At least the Buffalo wings were
good.
We went back into the W5 area
after the failed lunch attempt to finish off some of the things we missed the
first time around. After attempting to build a bridge and various figures from
sticks, we finally made our way back to the brick and then on to the ferry dock.
Sandy made us a chicken lunch there before we boarded and bid our farewells to
Ireland - the jewels of Scotland awaited
us.
Still a bit grumpy as a result of
my flu, we made a half-hearted attempt at figuring out a plan of attack for
Scotland. We have only a very rough idea of where we want to go and what we want
to see. We did pick up some leaflets as we disembarked the ferry and Sandy has
been perusing these this evening. For the immediate future, we will explore the
area immediately South of Stranrear before turning towards Glasgow. With our
fifteenth anniversary just a couple of days from now, we have high hopes that
there will be some worthwhile means of celebrating this fact in a large city.
Perhaps an evening out at the theatre or some such thing can be
arranged.
We followed the coast road
for half an hour or so before finding a roughly flat area just off of the road
where we’ve now parked for the night. So far, Scotland is proving to be
even more remote than Ireland was and we haven’t heard another vehicle
pass for hours now. At least we’re not likely to be bothered.
Posted: Sun - September 14, 2003 at 01:25 PM