Personal Site & Travel Blog
The annual Amsterdam Pride Canal Parade was about to set sail, so I put on my Pride of LGBT tartan kilt, and headed to Amsterdam, to run the Amsterdam Hash House Harriers’ “Gay for a Day” trail again, and of course watch the parade!
No photos of the Canal Parade itself this time, just a couple of photo impressions of my trip and the run. And of my kilt, of course!
Last full day of my trip, but I was not about to slow down! On this Monday’s schedule: a visit to the Isle of Bute, and my last run in Scotland for a while…
After breakfast at Social Bite—I really appreciate what they are doing for the less fortunate—I still had time for a coffee at Riverhill Coffee Bar, before catching my ScotRail train in Glasgow Central.
I had to get to get onto a ferry in Wemyss Bay, but its train station actually was an attraction in itself!
The CalMac ferry brought me from Wemyss Bay to Rothesay, on the Isle of Bute. It was quite windy on deck, so some people might have seen more of me than I intended! The risks of wearing a kilt…
The Bute Museum is a cute little museum, but you don’t need much more than half an hour to see everything. That meant I had to some time left to visit Bonnie Bling, a jewellery maker also serving coffee from the local Isle of Bute Coffee roasters.
After that Rothesay Castle finally reopened after its lunch break. Once again I was confronted with Norwegian king Hakon… In the courtyard they were even flying the Norwegian flag, alongside the Saltire and the Buteshire flag!
After escaping from the prison pit, I headed to the Bute Yard. It’s a magnificent space, but a bit empty on a Monday afternoon, and no food vendors. Luckily the bar of the Bute Brew Co. was open, so I enjoyed a couple of their beers.
After returning to the mainland, I skipped a train and take some time to have fish & chips from Macari’s, a place that was highly recommended to me. No place to eat in inside, but luckily the seagulls left me in piece while I enjoyed my food sitting on a bench outside.
Back in Glasgow I had just enough time to get changed in the hotel, and take the beloved subway—finally, because they were on strike when I wanted to use it earlier—to Inn Deep.
There I met up with the Glasgow H3—for the third time already—to run and drink with them along the river Kelvin and beyond.
Since I still had all my packing to do, after the last beer at Inn Deep, I then went straight back to the hotel.
Even though I’m staying in Glasgow, this Sunday I headed east again, even past Edinburgh, to Dirleton Castle in East Lothian…
I didn’t take the ScotRail train back to Edinburgh, and then a 90 minute bus, to visit Dirleton Castle, though. I got up at 7.30 and travelled all that way, just to run with the Edinburgh H3, for the very first time! It was a lovely run though: very sunny, great sights, and we came very close to getting on some sandy beaches again! And it seems almost inevitable when running in Scotland: we passed yet another golf course…
I didn’t stick around for lunch at The Castle Inn, since it would already take me long enough to get back to Glasgow.
After a shower and change in the hotel, I had my highly necessary coffee at Laboratorio Espresso. Then I checked out the guest beer list at the Innis & Gunn Brewery Taproom. Well, it was short this time…
For dinner I went to Buck’s Bar. Not sure why I put this place on my list, but I think The King burger on the menu had something to do with that: fried chicken with spicy peanut and sriracha satay sauce with sweet chilli jam.
The day ended with a couple of beers in very pleasant company at Stereo.
Wednesday was another travel day—although this time just the one train from Aberdeen to Edinburgh—but also another hashing day, with The New Town hash this evening.
The day started a bit earlier than expected: I had to go back to the NorthLink Ferries terminal to pick up some haberdashery (hashing gear) that didn’t make it to the event in time. Once back in my hotel with the loot, I enjoyed breakfast there, and then finished packing.
Well before my train was due to depart, I went to Aberdeen station to relax a bit in the First Class Lounge.
It would take the ScotRail train about 2h20 to take me from Aberdeen to Edinburgh Waverley, but I was well provided for, since on board too there was an unlimited supply of water and shortbread. And I did get some great sea views for a large part of the voyage!
After arrival, I went straight to my hotel—Hub by Premier Inn in Rose Street—and after a cup of tea in the lobby, I could already check myself in.
For my coffee I didn’t have to go too far, since it was just around the corner. I actually had even visited Wellington Coffee before!
Completely new to me, however, was BrewDog Edinburgh Waverley, a BrewDog franchise bar in the main train station. I took me a while to find it, but while The Shaw OG hot dog was really nice, the beer choice on the other hand was rather disappointing. It really is a bar where you’d only go to kill some time while waiting for your train, and definitely not a beer geek destination…
Time to change again, and hop on a bus to get to the start of this week’s The New Town H3 run. It was a nice turnout, and an even better trail! Somehow the TNT runs I join are always quite hilly, though…
Back in the centre—and freshened up and back in my MacLaren kilt—I had a couple of beers at the Edinburgh Fierce Bar.
After a quick late night dinner at Jollibee, my last stop of the evening was at Vessel, a restaurant and bar run by the Pilot brewery. Since it was almost closing time, I was their last and only customer, which gave the bar staff plenty of time to provide me with loads of recommendations of places to go in Edinburgh!
This weekend was all about the main event of my trip, the Shetland Simmer Dim Hash! A hostel full of hashers running and walking on both Shetland proper and Bressay, and getting a taste of local culture, food, and beer!
After a restful night and a nice breakfast in the Magnus Lounge on the Hrossey, all the hashers gathered in the lobby to debark together. In the arrivals hall we were greeted by some local hashers—although only one of them actually lived on the island—and fiddle music.
There was a coach already waiting to take us to the hostel to quickly drop off our baggage, and then on to the start of trail, a good hour’s drive away.
I’m sure a run around Lerwick would have have been lovely, but the drive was worth it, and Saturday’s trail was just stunning! The weather was surprisingly un-Scottish, since it was incredibly sunny, albeit quite windy, and the bogs invariably soggy…
After trail we had the opportunity to visit the Hillswick Wildlife Sanctuary, which was hosting a grey seal, and the caretakers passionately told us all about it. Some others were crazy enough to take a dip in the cold sea…
We then had a sandwich lunch and circle at the nearby St Magnus Bay Hotel—also serving local beers—after which the coach took us back to Lerwick, so we could get settled in our rooms. It had been a while since I had shared a room with ten other guys!
By sheer coincidence, just before we were about to leave for dinner, the Lerwick Midsummer Carnival parade passed right by our hostel. As so much on Shetland, it was very Viking themed!
Dinner and the rest of the evening program would take place at the nearby Lerwick Town Hall. The main hall was beautiful, with a wooden vaulted ceiling, and stained glass windows, many of them featuring Norwegian monarchs.
The dinner buffet was excellent—lamb pie made with local lamb—the beer aplenty—cask and keg from the local Lerwick Brewery—and the ceilidh—I even brought my dancing ghillies for it—a lot of fun for everyone!
Since it was overcast and rainy by then—we even had a thunderstorm that night—the ‘dim’ was a bit darker than it usually is… It still was a very short night, though!
As is customary at events like this, there was a hangover trail on Sunday morning—even though my hangover was less severe than on Saturday morning… Less customary was the trail length: even longer than the Saturday trail! Since I would need my trail running shoes by Monday evening again, and I prefer them to be dry, I decided to do the walk.
For this trail we actually had to cross the water, as it was on Bressay. Considering the weather—mostly wet and misty—this had been a smart choice to not run today, as they most definitely would have gotten even wetter… As nice as the beach at the ‘swim stop’ looked, I couldn’t be tempted to go in the water! I did get to see a seal in its natural habitat, though!
After trail we had another marvellous lunch: I just couldn’t stay away from the buttered bannock with slices of lamb…And again: Lerwick Brewery beer on cask!
Then we had to run to catch the ferry to Lerwick again. There we had another drink together, before picking up our bags and the ride to the NorthLink ferry terminal.
Once on the Hjaltland, I enjoyed another dinner in the Magnus Lounge, before joining the other hashers in the front bar for the last couple of beers.
