Sunday, November 20, 2011

When in Scotland, Do as the Scots

Fall is a special eating time in our area, fall festivals, Oktoberfests, pumpkin pies, apple pies…all this food made me think of some international experiences my family and I have had with food.

When my daughter was a junior in college, she spent a semester studying abroad in London. As she was making plans and packing for her adventure, I was organizing a family spring break vacation in England and Scotland. We shipped her off in early January, and I began making reservations and writing itineraries.

Husband, son, and I flew into London on a Thursday in April and drove our rental car to the British American Drama Academy where my daughter was studying. It had been three months since I saw my baby girls and there were lots of tears of happiness when she walked out of the classroom to greet us. Then we were off!

Our next stop was a trip to her apartment to pick up her bags for our Easter weekend British escape. There were no classes at the academy on Friday, so we had decided to take an Easter holiday in the northern part of Great Britain. After a few hours of driving, we stopped to spend the night just outside of Liverpool. Our British culture-experienced daughter helped us make our dinner selections and then it was time to go to bed for a good night’s sleep.

The next day we rose early for a day full of site seeing. We stopped at Hadrian’s Wall on our way into Scotland. I wanted to see where the Romans had decided to end the empire. We also toured a Roman camp located near the wall. I was feeling quite like a relic.

After lunch, and some shopping, we opted for a scenic route into Edinburgh. We meandered through the hills of Scotland and I made my husband stop several times so that we could visit with the sheep and lambs grazing on those hills. Little did I know that we would be eating their ancestors the following day!

We had an afternoon visit at the Edinburgh castle and then were off to our hotel. The next morning, we went to the hotel restaurant for our Scottish breakfast. My husband had told us all about haggis. A traditional Scottish dish, haggis is the theme of Robert Burns’ poem Address to a Haggis. Haggis is a sausage made of sheep organs. Knowing all of this, my children and I feasted on haggis that morning. My husband, who has traveled all over the world and experienced all sorts of cultures, decided to pass. The kids and I had decided that while in Scotland we would do as the Scots!

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