Pre-history in Scotland - A Trip Back in Time

When I travel to Europe, I'm always amazed at how old some of the buildings are, but then am even more amazed by structures that have survived that are thousands of years old. In Inverness, we went to one such place called Clava Cairns. It's very near to the Culloden Battlefield. To get there, you have to travel a short way down a single track road, it's a good thing it's short as you can see the cars coming back out along the road and therefore know not to try to enter as the only pullout is at the car park for the cairns. 

It's pretty amazing that these people understood the movements of the sun and moon enough to build these ring cairns so that on the summer solstice the sun would shine into the cairn. 

To find and move all these stones would have taken quite a bit of effort and certainly a lot of time. I would have thought that simpler structures would have sufficed.

We spent about an hour walking around the four cairns and other stones that were there. On our way out, we saw this little resident. He didn't see to be afraid of all the large humans around him. 

On the Isle of Arran, we had thought to go the Machrie Moor Standing Stones but when you only have one full day to visit the island's attractions, walking an hour to see some Neolithic standing stones would really have taken up too much time. Instead we decided to go see a cairn that's just off the highway. It was only about a five minute walk up the hill.

By not walking for hours to the standing stones, we had enough time to visit Lochranza castle and to stop at the the Arran distillery before heading back to Brodick.

At the distillery, we all had a bite to eat and did a little shopping in the gift shop. I sampled some Arran Gold, a cream liqueur made with single malt whisky. It was really good, better than Bailey's but unfortunately I can't buy it here.

On getting back to Brodick, we went out to dinner, only to find that our ferry the next day had been cancelled due to an engine problem but that's a story for another day. 

I hope you enjoyed this trip back in time. My brother said, good thing you didn't touch the stones. Not being an Outlander fan, I didn't understand that's how they travel in time. But we had touched the stones so I guess we really had travelled in time when you think of the thousands of years they've been there.

Prague

With the Amawaterways journey over, we took the train from Vienna, Austria to Prague, Czechia. Rail service in Europe is quite good, we had booked tickets on a nonstop train. We arrived in Prague in the early evening. We walked from the train station to our hotel: I was glad it wasn't too far as wheeling luggage over cobble stones isn't always easy. The street our hotel was on was a little dreary, but the hotel was nice, and we were right off of Wenceslas Square and very close to the Old Town. After checking into the hotel, we walked back to the square and found a nice place for dinner.  My sister and I shared a jumbo kebob with chicken, beef, zucchini, corn and red pepper washed down with a Pilsner beer for which Czechia is famous.

The next day we toured the Old Town. The Old Town in Prague is quite extensive, and you could easily spend two full days there exploring all the little side streets. We saw the astronomical clock on the Old Town Hall, walked to Charles Bridge and all the way down to the Dancing House where we stopped for iced coffees. We also did a river cruise in the evening. It was nice not to have to meet a schedule. 

Charles Bridge

Dancing House

Evening view of Prague Castle

The next day we went to the Prague Castle which was on the other side of the Vltava river so off we went again to cross Charles Bridge. Little did I know that there would be many stairs to walk up to get to the castle.  There are quite a few places to explore in the Prague Castle, the palace, the church and the Golden Lane depending on which ticket you buy will determine what buildings you can tour in the castle complex. We didn't do any of the towers, I didn't mind as I wasn't up for more stairs. The tickets are good for two days which is why we went on our second day as then we knew we wouldn't have to rush to see everything and could, if we wanted to, go back the next day.

The memorial to the Victims of Communism was also on the same side of the river so we walked along the river until we found that memorial. There was no one there when we got there which was nice because the group of people who showed up a little later seemed to be making fun of the memorial.

On the first day as we were walking around the Old Town, we noticed a tour guide pointing up to show a group of people a statue and we found out in Prague you have to look up or you'll miss some things.  So, on our third day, we decided after visiting the Museum of Illusions to go on a hunt for some of Prague's whimsical statues. I'm sure if we went back we would find ones that we missed.

On our last day, we went back across the river to Waldstein Palace Gardens to see the Dripstone Wall.  The gardens have an avenue of statues, a pond with large koi, and peacocks wander around certain parts of the garden and, of course, the dripstone wall. 

On our way back to our hotel we stopped at the Pilsner Beer Experience. Pilsner beer was invented in the town of Pilsen, about an hour and half from Prague, and it is still brewed there today.

Prague was spectacular and you could see much of it without spending a lot of money. There is so much to see just walking the streets. I certainly wouldn't mind going back to Prague.