May 26th, 2007 Lionel, Isle of Lewis, Scotland (near Eoropiadh)

May 26th, 2007 Lionel, Isle of Lewis, Scotland (near Eoropiadh)

No, they do not have toy trains here, well, they might but not so's you'd notice. There is a bus that goes through though.
It looks cold out there with winds out of the west southwest at the usual gusty 20mph or so.
Our fun promised to be spoiled today by the marathon or 10k run (don't really know the distance)and all the streets will be closed in Stornoway. Thought it wouldn't be prudent trying to drive
on the other side of the road when we don't know where we are going anyway. Might take out the whole of the Stornoway 10k club. Then we'd have to do time or pay a large fine and it would really screw up the itinerary. Might get us thrown out of Scotland too, and that would really put a damper on the rest of the vacation.

We had plans to go in and shop today but we may have to put that off until tomorrow.
It turns out that I didn't bring enough clothes. At least not the right ones. Just before I left I did decide to bring my down vest after all which was a lucky thing. It's been in the 40's with a strong wind blowing every since we got here. There is a local gal that weaves hats and scarves, we may go see her today. I also saw a sign in front of a house that promised hand knit jumpers but that was a little closer to Stornoway than where we are.

Terry and I went out last night looking for a wifi signal. We found one that was probably strong enough but it was locked down. There was some speculation on what the penalty would be for theft of bandwidth from the local constabulary but we restrained ourselves. Well, that and we couldn't figure out if the local constabulary had any bandwidth to thieve.

So we expect we'll drive around in our rental ford with our tin foil hats and laptops open trolling for wifi sometime today. It'll give the locals something to worry about.

UPDATE....

Well, we did go shopping today and met the most wonderful guy at the Lewis Loom Center which is a local distributor of the rafters goods. They had jackets, coats, hats, mittens, gloves, blankets, and sweaters ...er...excuse me jumpers of all styles. I bought a few things as gifts and a few things for me. The best part was the guy that runs the place. He was just wonderful colorful character who was just exactly the type of guy that my father would love. He could tell by looking at you what size jacket you wore and gave us the low down on all the local restaurants, what sights we should see, which butcher in town he used and that the other one charged too much. He was delightful. We returned his enthusiasm by purchasing a bunch of products. If you're ever on Lewis in Stornoway stop in at the Lewis Loom Centre and take your credit card fully charged and ready to go.

He was a solid man he claimed to be about 14 stone, maybe in his late fifties and stood probably 5'6". His thick wavy white hair went it's own way as he talked. He buzzed around from room to room as if he'd just forgotten where he put something and couldn't quite remember what it was he was looking for. He spoke rapidly with a brogue that was entertaining but not too heavy to understand. Oddly he was interested in American Football and actually knew who the Kansas City Chiefs were. Usually we get that whole Dorthy TOTO thing, but not from him. The store was dark and he took care to point out the several locations where the floor bumped up from joining another building. It was crowded with tables stacked with beautiful tweeds and knitted goods. The sweaters were heavy hand knitted ones that would fill a suitcase on their own. In fact when we left the owner recommended that we stop by "Woolies" (Woolworth's) to pick up a luggage set to take home. We're only on our third day and already I've nearly filled a new suitcase. I'd tell you what I picked up but some of the things are gifts and I'm not ready to give it away yet. Look for a photo to come from Terry or Meg with several of us out front of his store. It really was an awful looking place from out front but the moment you entered it you knew you had hit the jackpot. The prices were very good values. I guess I spent upwards of $400 dollars on woolens. Now, watch it will be hot the rest of the trip...

While still in Stornaway we stopped at the Lews Castle park. It's a pretty site that gives you access to the water in Stornoway harbor. There were some interesting things to see there. The views were really spectacular though as usual the
road signs were confusing.

We also took the long way home. We got to see some of the power generating windmills that the bloggers have been talking about. Two of the three were running. You can see them
here and here.

We also stopped at the Callanish standing stones and had a look about.
It's an interesting site. I think we plan to go back. On the drive we had a chance to go past most of the signs for the sites we plan to take a look at so all in all it was a very pleasant day.

Oh, and about the wifi? The two bars we were able to find but couldn't connect with are from our land lady (Ellspeth) next door.
She has graciously offered to let us come into her kitchen and use her wifi.
It seems that the house is so well grounded or wired or something that we can't get the wifi through the walls between the units. She explained that the house having previously been the wireless operators cottage was fairly well shielded as well as being connected to a grounding web of copper that stretches out under the machair behind the station. The tall radio towers used to be located out there. Now it's just sheep but the copper webbing
remains and the wifi is blocked.