Don't Worry Be Happy

And Ross on our honeymoon in Waikiki.

Now that I've had a chance to do the laundry and say goodbye to jetlag, I'm going to post a few more details about the trip, much of it in response to questions I've had (and mostly so I won't forget). Although we had internet access on the boat it was not completely reliable and I was generally too exhausted from the day's ride to get into too much detail in my blog posts during the trip. The company I booked my trip with was not the actual company that manages the boats.  The company is an Italian company Giro Libero .  They run quite a few bike trips and another bike/barge from Venice to Mantova. The crew was mostly Italian, so I didn't get much chance on the boat to practice my French! The boat is a converted barge which was upgraded about 5 years ago. The name of our boat was Soleo and for this trip it housed 18 clients and our 2 guides. The rooms are below, each with ensuite and portholes. Though small, the rooms are very efficient - kind of like ...

Well at least we're learning the lingo - a nip is one finger and a dram is two.  A single malt is a whiskey made in one distillery unlike a blend which could come from 2 or more. And if you're having it before noon you're having a 'morning'. We had a morning yesterday because it was before noon when we travelled up some pretty narrow, windy paths to get to the Glenlivet distillery. We got a pretty good overview of the whole distilling process and a nice little nip at the end. Some of this terminology we also learned from a Scottish gentleman we met at lunch. Surprisingly he has travelled the entire route Alexander MacKenzie travelled all the way to Bella Coola. He worked in Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk and wrote documentaries for the BBC. Very interesting fellow and very helpful when it came to informing us about Scottish ways. He also convinced us that we HAD to see the Isle of Skye. Dunvegan Castle has been the ancestral home of the Chiefs of Clan McLeod for over 800 y...

First the good news - Marj's suitcase has been found and retrieved and you might have heard her sigh of relief from there! Earlier today we walked around the old course at St. Andrews - they have 6 other courses as well.  And of course we got our photo on the Swilcan bridge - you might recognize it. Strange as it may seem you can just walk on to the course any old time you want - just watch for golf balls.  They must not have the same lawyers as we have in Canada. We're staying at a lovely farmhouse about 10 miles from St. Andrews surrounded by huge green fields that seem to go on forever. This is the view from our second story window and even though you can't see it in the photo at the bottom of the field is the Firth of Forth. I  think Marj may finally get some whiskey tasting tomorrow.