Visiting Edinburgh, Scotland, 2017/Carlos Pueblo

Visiting Edinburgh, Scotland, 2017/Carlos Pueblo

Edinburgh was the old capital city of the Kingdom of Scotland and the

last monarch, Queen Anne, had ceased in the beginning of 17^th century.

Scotland and England have formed the Great Britain ever since and become

a great Empire. We arrived to the city early in the morning and found our way

to the hotel smoothly by shuttle. A seagull was waiting outside our room at a

balcony and we could have a nice view of the Edinburgh Castle. Our daughter,

Michelle, used her hotel points to give Amy as a birthday present. We went

out toward the Castle to start this three days tour. We had covered the Castle,

National Gallery, East and West Princes Street Gardens on the first day; the

University of Edinburgh campus, tapestry museum, and Walker Slater a Harris

Tweed Jacket store on the second day; Carlton Hill, the New Town and walked

to Stockbride outside of the tourist map on the third day.

The weather was lovely, no rain for the entire three days as Eugenia of Hong Kong

showed me her i-phone photos last year in Frankfurt, Germany. The unique architecture

of building are well kept and the Scots are very good manners and friendly indeed.

The Castle was built on a hill formed by a young age volcano, solid rock base. Tourists

and their buses are piled up on the uphill road side to the Castle. We walked into the

Scotland National Gallery, a free menu of arts. One of a big painting on the wall is

about an old flood scenery of the old town and later has become the East and West

Princes Street Gardens, they are on both sides of this Gallery. I have been mostly

impressed by the green lawn of Edinburgh, as a matter of fact, Scotland entirely.

It must be the mild climate and plenty of rain.

I was determined to visit the famous University of Edinburgh campus, it was outside

of the tourist map; yet not far away from the hotel. We walked through the old town

Edinburgh with lovely churches of Protestants and Catholics and memorial architecture

in the Scottish history. There is even a permanent stone sigh to explain the King’s Stables

Road and the square of stores of one portion. I chatted with a missionary of the Jehovah

Witness at the entrance street of the campus just next to a newly addition of the University

, an abandon hospital. I always love to visit a famous institution when I travel around the

world. The University can be tracked back to several centuries with a high school building

still stands and now is a museum. We walked out of the campus down to a street and found

a tapestry museum and got a clear idea of Harris Tweed Jacket which I should describe later.

A fellow guest from Wales recommended Amy visit the Carlton Hills and the new town of

Edinburgh and we did on the third day. Carton Hills is a place to over view the harbor and

the New Town is on the north of Princes Gardens not that huge. We walked pass the

boundary to Stockbridge outside the tourist map again.

  

蘇格蘭愛丁堡行/莊峻華

蘇格蘭愛丁堡行/莊峻華

愛丁堡是古蘇格蘭王國首都，仍舊是蘇格蘭之中心，我們搭機抵達

，轉車到旅店，已是午後，愛丁堡市給人印象，就是整潔美麗和安

靜。琳兒安排我們住在老街，從房間可以眺望愛丁堡城堡，窗外小

平台，等候著一隻灰白色海鷗，時時觀望玻璃室內，放下行李，我

們立刻衝向城堡，環繞城堡一周王子街花園，第二天，我們仍在老

街徘徊，拜望愛丁堡大學，第三天，健行到卡爾頓山，眺望愛丁堡

港，然後行軍到新市區地圖外，非常有趣。

城堡建築在新生代火山熔岩上，非常堅固美麗，但蘇格蘭在十七世

紀初，已與英格蘭王國合組大不列顛王國，公尊倫敦之英皇為元首

，所以蘇格蘭無王，已經有四百餘年，最近蘇格蘭人提議，脫離英

國，尚未成功，但獨立者，仍主奉今日英皇室，我需要再研究。我

不喜歡買門票參觀宮殿，所以艾美遺憾，隨我參觀蘇格蘭國家美術

館，然後散步東西王子街花園，美術館中有一巨畫，描述當年老街

淹水，非常生動，老街砌石高樓學院仍在，低漥地就是今日美麗之

東西王金屋子街花園，愛丁堡草皮綠地，非常美麗特殊，綠油油一

片，比美高爾夫球場綠地。

走到愛丁堡大學老校園，需要經過愛丁堡老街，老街美麗整潔，毫

無暄嘩，老長老教會，都有四五百年歷史，大學在地圖外，古今合

我和耶和華見證會傳教徒，談論聖經，如今宣導者都是高科技，人

手筆記型電腦，隨時引經據典，於是我提到有日，耶穌口渴之故事

，女士一時無法辯解，艾美聽我胡說八道一生，果然另有一番解釋

，然後道別，繼續參觀，有一攤販告知，大學當局，已購下牆外一

廢棄舊醫院，正待翻新，愛大醫學院，已經搬到新校區。逛到街上，

參觀一繡帷博物館，將有專文記述，還有蘇格蘭毛衣西裝等故事。

我們在旅店晚餐飲酒，有一威爾斯人夫婦，推薦卡爾頓山崗，就在

王子街老街盡頭，緊接華鐵廬村街，然後就是山梯道登山，這是熱

點站，引來許多遊客，其中有三景觀點，都可以看海，連山丘上草

皮都是第一級品。下山後，我就跟艾美逛新市區，經過公園綠地，

一家蘇格蘭歷史博物館，借用廁所，然後不知不覺，走出地圖外一

郊區，問路後始知迷路矣，所幸愛丁堡市區不大，步行可及，回旅

店後，準備注册機票，始知行前倉促，訂錯日期，無法補救。

，

Visiting Queen Mary Rose Garden, London/Carlos Pueblo

Visiting Queen Mary Rose Garden, London/Carlos Pueblo

I have finally seen the rose blooming at Queen Mary’s Rose Garden in

the Royal Regent Park in London, United Kingdom after at least three

attempt. Those photos taken from the garden have been uploaded to

my hard desk of my desk top with some other worldwide famous rose

gardens in my traveling collection such as Buenos Aires city rose garden,

Copenhagen’s Royal Palace, Malaga’s city hall, Vancouver’s Queen

Elizabeth Garden, Frankfurt’s riverside of Mains, and the old subdivision

of East Berlin right under the Berlin Wall memorial between French and

Soviet lines, just name a few.

We entered the rose garden from a side next to a pizza restaurant and

the bloom was disappointed; however, I still tried to savage the last roses

of summer, as you recalled that famous folk song. The rose hips were

carried on the long stems of this year from about a foot to six feet high

by now. I could only do a single closed up, one flower after another, stem

by stem. There was an oriental lady nearby did the same. Amy had already

quitted her search due to the consideration of her i-phone battery. I kept on

walking roll by roll toward additional sensation. I saw some volunteers of

London Horticultural Society to manage ground weeds. This portion was

still fully blooming and very much attractive to visitors.

Amy finally found me at this side and indicated that she asked that Japanese

lady where I was. We met her husband later with a very enjoyable conversation

about travelling. They are from Yokohama, Japan where we are planning to

visit next May. She asked me why I liked to travel along and I said because Amy

was picky, this word picky confused her so I used a common household Japanese

in my home, urusai, one of the meaning on Google was shutup, yet some other

meanings. The lady smiled and asked me how did I know Japanese, then Amy

explained the historical background of Japan and Taiwan. Actually, both of our

parents were under Japanese rule between 1895 and 1945 while their language

were indeed Japanese and practiced some vocabulary at home in Japanese. I

have been circling Japan by high speed train, Singanshen, several times and

am familiar with the map of Japan.

We went to London Chinatown afterward for Chinese soup noodle and fruits and

took Piccadilly Line back to the hotel. A manager came out to greet up for our stay

because our daughter Michelle pointed it out that the stay was really a gift to Amy

for her birthday in November. We had a club benefit treatment due to her president

status with the hotel.

倫敦瑪莉女皇花園賞花/莊峻華

倫敦瑪莉女皇花園賞花/莊峻華

甫下飛機，旅店放下行李，立即搭倫敦地下鐵匹卡地莉線，換車到

皇家攝政王公園，尋找瑪莉女皇玫瑰花園，這是我之三顧茅廬，首

次在2011年春初，花株新茂起，園丁曰必待初夏，2015年五月再

訪，仍舊枉然，2016年從小鎮運河，走進花園，仍然太早，這次中

秋季節，惟恐太晚，但確值一試。我深喜玫瑰花，追溯到幼年，幫

助老師稻草灰施肥，高中音樂課之兩曲，夏日最後玫瑰和路旁野玫

瑰，仍深刻腦海，這久候六年間，我已經賞玫瑰花幾處，甚而至擴

充到其他花朵，較大型玫瑰花園，如阿根廷布宜諾斯艾利斯市立玫

瑰花園，西班牙瑪拉卡市政府旁，丹麥哥本哈根老皇宮前，加拿大

溫哥華伊莉莎白女皇玫瑰花園，還有兩處德國民間社區庭院花園，一

處在法蘭克福緬因斯河畔，一處在東柏林圍牆旁，法蘇交界處。

攝政王公園甚大，終於找到玫瑰花園，從一處比薩餐廳旁開始，花株

高大，而且已是結實累累，玫瑰果實，顏色紅橙不一，而且深淡有別

，真是秀色可餐，其實我查谷歌，歐洲人是取食玫瑰果，匈牙利人甚

至釀酒白蘭地，其餘果醬，泡茶等，亦可繁殖用，我開始有些失望，拍

攝只能單花特寫，有位東方女士，和我一般熱愛，也是一株株，一排排

，一畦畦，仔細欣賞拍攝，然後我舊進入另外一區，就是當年首遇處，

真是秋花怒放，增加許多仕女觀賞，有三位園藝社義工，正在除草，此

龐大花園，係由倫敦園藝協會認養，艾美終於跟上，原來她正在觀切手

機儲電量，詢問這位東方日本女士，她也注意到我之熱衷玫瑰。

原來她們夫婦，來自橫濱，橫濱是我們明年旅遊之計劃，於是我們開始

始聊起日本旅遊，我因寫過遊記，因此可以清楚描述橫濱和日本，我在

提到艾美意見很多，使用之英文單字，匹記，她有困難了解，於是我順

口說到先母家庭用語，煩心，烏魯塞，女士會心微笑曰，何以識日文，

於是艾美開始解釋，此女士以為我將製作玫瑰花明信片，我驕傲曰，我

所收藏各地之玫瑰花園相片。這位日本女士，已是中年無懸念，但身材

苗條，稍有華髮，仍舊美貌迷人，艾美仔細曰，其夫稍年輕於彼。

我們無法趕到他處，只好在華埠吃碗麵，喝杯青島啤酒，買一送一，回

旅店，經理特別來會曰，女兒有交待招待艾美生日，有晚點心和早餐招待

。

Disembark at Punta Arenas, Chile/Carlos Pueblo

Disembark at Punta Arenas, Chile/Carlos Pueblo

After leaving Puerto Chacabuco, Chile, the ship was two days at sea through

the fiord of Chile, Southern Hemisphere. I comparing with the Northern, the

time of our arrival carried less snow or glacier in the South. I could lazily stay

in the room and observed the fantastic scenery outside. The ship disembarked

at Punta Arenas, Chile, the southernmost city of that nation. The port was very

popular before 1914, the opening of Panama Canal, as a major shipping route

for commercial vessels between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. I had almost

finished my routine walk of the old town until I ran into Lucia of Brazil again on

a street. She invited me to join her to tour the city on private hired taxi and of

course we had developed a way for me to pay her back. We did have a very

interesting tour indeed.

The driver, an elder gentleman, brought us back to his company’s command post

to register the new venture, a tour of the government housing projects, driving

along the coast line to a small fishing harbor, over viewing a newly established

medical center, and finally dropped us off at a free port shopping center. He pointed

out that the housing projects were all over the nation including the capital city,

Santiago. Chilean citizen can own the house, a single dwelling with a small yard with

minimum monthly payment and eventually have the title and deed. It was started

a term of presidency of Michelle Bachelet, the current incumbent. He said that she

was very aggressive at her first term and quite slowly on this second term for such

project. I admire her very much and so does Professor Jim Drumond, the lecturer at

the ship. This is an old story or current history of South America including Richard

Nixon, CIA, Henry Kissinger, Salvador Allende, Pinochet’s Coup. I always like politic

and my interest of such knowledge sometime surprises newly acquaintance.

The elder driver is a gentleman as Lucia says with grown up children as lawyer and

teacher. Before he dropped us off in front of the tax free port mall, he clearly instructed

us how to get back to the old town terminal. I bought a cowboy hat made in China. The

taxi is really like a small scale of bus or van for public transportation. Passengers can hop

on and off with a fixed rate per person by distance. I didn’t see any of the city bus at all.

Lucia and I had had a very fine late lunch at a fancy restaurant with lobster, abalone, and

a bottle of red wine; however, my share was U.S.$90 which stopped me in the future to

join her for another taste of cuisine.

Coming back from Edinburgh, Scotland/Carlos Pueblo

Coming back from Edinburgh, Scotland/Carlos Pueblo

The fall trip of Scotland was consisted of three nights stay in Edinburgh

in two parts, first we flew in to London to have a complete visit of Queen

Mary’s rose garden at the Royal Regent Park, then we flew north to Scotland.

During the three days stay, we visited the old town Edinburgh including the

world famous University of Edinburgh, then we took a train back to London

and a shuttle bus to the cruise terminal at Southampton to hop on a 11 days

transatlantic voyage to New York City. On our way back, we disembark at

Lerwick, Shetland Island of Scotland,  Reykjavik, Iceland, St. John’s, Newfoundland,

Canada, Portland, Maine, and finally Manhattan, New York City. Every city has

stories to tell even at Laguardia Airport waiting for the plane to come back.

Finally, after three attempts to observe the rose blooming at Queen Mary’s Rose

Garden, I met the fall blossom. I took about 350 shots on my Canon for my records

Of the famous rose gardens around the world, for example, Malaga City Hall in Spain,

the Palace Rose Garden in Copenhagen, Denmark, the city Rose Garden in Buenos

Aires in Argentina, Queen Elizabeth Rose Garden in Vancouver, Canada, the Buthart

Gardens of Victoria, BC, Canada. I also gather some photos of Rhododendron, cherry

, tulip, peony, mums, and dahlia etc. from all over the world where I have visited on.

In Edinburgh, we did reach the old town campus of the University of Edinburgh and in

a result of that we also visited a tapestry museum nearby and I learned a life time favorite

issue, Harris Tweeds and a store named Walker Slater on Victoria Street. A well learned

front desk clerk at the operational museum answered my question about the wool fabric

suits of Scotland which I admired so much even living in Houston, Texas. A sale clerk at

the store clarified that the one I mentioned was really made in either England or Italy

while Harris Tweeds were heavier and for severe cold winter. Harris tweeds is actually

located in the North Scotland that I shall find my opportunity to visit during my life time.

I still keep about five or six wool suits in my closet even though I don’t have the chance to

wear them nowadays.

The most enjoyable time of this fall trip to Scotland was actually on the ship. I was anxious

to see my sweet hearts from my previous transatlantic voyage from Houston to Barcelona,

Spain at the same ship. I missed my eldest adopted daughter Christina by one week due to

her leg injury; however, I did see Mylene, the younger daughter and  Aiza, another honey,

and furthermore, Amy and I have adopted seven more daughters from Philippine and Peru,

another two are fellow passengers from Ireland which I visited in 2016 and my recollection

did impressed them.

愛丁堡和跨洋行歸來/莊峻華

愛丁堡和跨洋行歸來/莊峻華

前晚從愛丁堡行，搭郵輪回紐約，輾轉返家，心情愉快，極欲

描述旅行高潮，只好暫時擱置我的南美行，我現在是落後南美

行之一大半，百慕達行之美洲盃帆船賽，還有此次蘇格蘭行，可

以忙碌作文到明年春天，然後再旅行日本，搭船回國。這次旅行

，在倫敦遇上攝政王公園內之玫瑰花開，在愛丁堡參觀愛丁堡大

學，心儀一生之哈里斯特威特夾克西裝，誤機回倫敦，改搭火車

，穿過美麗之英國原野，傳奇誤車到郵輪碼頭，及時改搭郵輪專

車，在船上像是返家，新認七位美麗養女，真是開心。

瑪莉女皇玫瑰花園，在皇家攝政王公園內，規模甚巨，我曾四次

錯過花開季節，瑪莉是伊莉莎白一世之大姊，同父異母，先後入

繼英皇，故事傳奇，剛找到花園，秋花零落，倒是花株高大，結

有串串玫瑰花果，後來漸入佳境，另一大區，仍舊怒放，朵朵巨

大，不若春花，這是我多次旅行中之最佳回憶，另外一提幾處稍

大玫瑰花園，西班牙瑪拉噶市府旁，丹麥哥本哈根皇宮，阿根廷

布宜諾斯艾利斯市立玫瑰花園等，當然還有許多迷人之櫻花，牡

丹大理花，均藏在世界各處角落，都是我之最愛，我常比喻花開

，像是少年美女。

愛丁堡大學是一馳名全球之學府，台灣之許信良先生，曾來此校

深造，本校校園就在愛丁堡老街區，校園整潔美麗，新收購一緊

鄰醫院，準備整修，醫學院已經遷離本校，我們很仔細參觀校園

，然後參觀一毛繡帷博物館，繡帷是一種藝術，來自中東毛毯編

織，博物館牆上，有張成品相片，介紹此館替紐約百事可樂總部

，繡帷作品，真是令人嘆為觀止，我在樓下詢問一位聰明美麗之

蘇格蘭小姐，就是短紅髮，碧目雀斑，她聽聞下，立刻知曉，拉

我到其電腦前觀看圖樣，然後寫下店名，臥克史列特，產牌哈里

斯特威特夾克，在不遠老街維多莉亞街上，我從小即愛蘇格蘭毛

製西裝。

上船前，尚發生兩處危機，錯訂返程機票，改搭火車，又買不到

赴碼頭巴士票，及時改搭昂貴郵輪專車，當天港口下雨，因禍得

福，專車直接開到船旁，行李直接送到房間內，更妙者為，郵倫

甚至給予若干優惠額，我也無心追問，船上尋找菲律賓長女，發

現她已經一週前回馬尼拉養傷，船上十一日，橫渡北大西洋，容

我後述。