As some of you may be aware, the period over Christmas and new-year is treated as one big holiday season here when most things come to a standstill. Everyone is so busy with holidaying, Christmas shopping and partying that most work is put off for the period. A great time for those who are tired of working, but not exactly great for people like me who are expectantly waiting to hear from possible employers. So rather than sit around waiting for something to happen I decided to spend my time on another journey.
This time it was to Scotland. Scotland – the land of the brave, the land of Macbeth, the land of mountains, moors, lochs and glens, the land of the loch ness monster …and more popularly Scotland the land of “Braveheart”.
As mentioned in a previous blog, we are having a pretty cold winter here in U.K. and together with near minus temperatures I had to come to terms with the overwhelming holiday traffic on Britain’s roads as I made my way over to my Cousin Thomas` house in Doncaster. From here my cousin Josi and I planned to drive down to his place in Scotland and spend two days there.
It had already snowed and melted and the water on the roads had frozen again to ice to make driving conditions extremely dangerous. Across the radio we heard several reports of accidents and skids. Worse still our journey was doubtful with still further snowstorms expected overnight and on the morrow..
However the forecasts proved inaccurate and although the road conditions remained the same it didn’t look too bad and we started our journey that evening, with Josi driving and me providing directions off a map.
We stopped over in Sunderland with our cousin Mili and husband Sony, and although it was meant to be a brief stopover, a sumptuous dinner and cosy small talk made us drift into the night making it too late to continue.
We did however make an early start next morning and were soon across the Scottish border, to be welcomed by a sudden amazing change in the weather conditions, with the snow melting off to reveal the greens and browns of the Scottish landscape.However the respite did not last, almost as a gesture of brief welcome and the snowy icy conditions returned to escort us all the way to Stirling where Josi had his house.
With barely two days and a lot of area to be seen, we decided not to waste any time and began our tour with a trip to Stirling University. Reputed as one of scotlands top universities, it is set in an amazing campus of 310 acres, and includes a Loch (Scottish for lake) and a castle. Even though we arrived in freezing conditions, the snow did little to mask the beauty of the place.
What awaited us was an entire lake frozen across with a few pools of unfrozen water, teeming with all kinds of water birds including swans, ducks among others. 
After an attempt to cover as much of the campus as possible, without freezing ourselves, we decided to move on to the next location.
The next place was a monument dedicated to none other than Scotland’s famous hero William Wallace or “brave heart” as we know him. This structure, which is visible from anywhere in Stirling, was built in 1869.
Sir William Wallace led the scots to victory over the English in 1297, at the battle of Stirling Bridge.
He was however betrayed and killed later in 1298. It was already getting dark as we returned home, across a city decked out in splendour, all set to usher in a new year. 
We did welcome the New Year, but with nothing fancy to do, other than watch the fireworks displays set off from the city,. and look forward to a fresh and exciting year and an exciting day on the morrow.The next day being New Year, we decided to head for the capital city of Scotland – the historic city of Edinburgh.
A city with breathtaking splendour and beauty filled with historic and architectural marvels. I have never seen such a majestic city as yet.Unfortunately none of the pictures we took will do justice to its splendour.
We walked along the streets looking at one historical building after the other in succession.
The Scott memorial, a tribute to the memory of the noted writer SirWalter Scott; 
The Jenners department store, a large multi-floored Victorian building , functioning since 1838 and home to more than 100 departments; A series of national art galleries 
housing renowned paintings such as Titans, Raphaels, Rembrandt and a whole lot of famous artists that would make more sense to art lovers.I`m sure every single building along our way had something significant by way of history,
but all we could do was move along so as to get in as much of it as possible before the daylight ran out....We finally made our way up the hillock overlooking the city to reach the Edinburgh castle.
The foremost attraction in Edinburgh…and lo behold who should be waiting outside the gates of the castle but “Braveheart” himself ! This person has been dressing up as William wallace for visitors and raising money for charity.
We then made our way across to the scotch whisky heritage centre,
displaying the whole variety of scotch whisky and even managed a few free samples. This was followed by the Tartan weaving mill where the traditional Scottish tartan Quilts are made;
and then to the huge Royal museum
, by which time it was getting quite dark and i was almost exhausted...
However we still managed to pull off a visit to the Scottish parliament, noted for its innovative (weird) architecture.
We capped the trip with a trek up the adjacent hill in almost complete darkness for some night photographs. Unfortunately mine turned out like this.
It was entirely dark by the time we stumbled down the hill and made our way back to the car exhausted but satisfied with a day of amazing sights.
I came down with a bad case of flu the next day and was quite relieved to be able to take some rest, but as I looked back upon the week gone by, I realised that I had made a journey stretching almost across the length of the country to experience the flavour of a culture brimming with history and trying to hold its head above a future that will eventually overtake it
. I still haven’t grasped what the United Kingdom truly is. The more I see of it, the more intriguing it gets. I am fascinated by its history and I wonder about its future. This was once the most powerful country in the world. Today it seems to have more in its past than in its future. Where does its future lie? What drives this nation? I don’t know if I’ll ever answer these, but as this country looks forward with hope to the new year, so do I!
