what do you expect?

[gilmore]

What I would probably expect to see is rainy, bone-chilling weather and dour folk of few words intent on separating tourists (and fellow Scots and Englishmen) from their money.

Due to Cessna's wonderful photos, I don't feel I need to see as much as I used to. He gives you the feeling of being there and experiencing the country.

I would like to take a look at the lands my ancestors came from, the Hebrides and Galway, but most of the historical sites don't really ring my bell. When travelling outside the US, I usually avoid places where there are tourists---unless it is something really overwhelming such as European cathedrals, temples like the Jokhang in Lhasa, or palaces like the Potala there, the Red Fort in Delhi, or Versailles. I prefer going deep into the countryside in a foreign land armed only with a Lonely Planet guidebook and a phrasebook, where the local folk don't speak much English, and interacting with them. I would like to meet a variety of Scots, doing things that they do in the usual course of their lives, such as a football game with the Tartan Army, a weekend with impoverished and preferably addled-pated aristocrats, the Glasgow slums, fishermen in Caithness, the Royal Mile in Edinburgh with its tat shops, etc. And Samye Ling, the first Tibetan Buddhist monastery in the West.

[James MacMillan]

When I was but a lad of 28, I had the good fortune to be stationed in Scotland for 6 months. It was everything that I wanted it to be and more.

Sure the history is cool, the traditions and the roots that some of us have, but the thing that made Scotland a great experience for me was and remains the people.

The Scottish people are some of the most friendly and open that I have met anywhere.

If I ever get the chance to go back, and the chances are slim, it will be for the people!

Thank you Scotland!