Looking Forward

 

With this post I begin a new installment of "Scottish Travels."  As yet I remain in California, but a few hours from now I will be on a plane flying to, as Charlotte Bronte called it, "mine own romantic town."  Though this is happening, it still feels very surreal to me.  Last year, in March 2020, I was on sabbatical, for which Edinburgh was to have been the concluding city after 8 weeks in the UK.  A pandemic, however, intervened, and I found myself fleeing London for home as everything shut down and the US state department put the UK at "Level 4: Do Not Travel."  At the state department website it said to return to the US immediately or be prepared to shelter in place.  Since I had no way of doing the latter, I did the former.  Below are pictures of some "signs of the times" I was seeing in London as this whole thing began to take over our world:

Store shelves started to become bare of everything and restaurants and hotels were closing, so, yeah, I came home.  It was pretty traumatic.  Despite it all, I made plans to return this past spring. CERTAINLY the pandemic would be over a year later.  Sadly, I found myself week-by-week this spring canceling reservations, first in Edinburgh, then in Eyemouth, then in Oxford, then in Somerset, and finally in London.  In my sadness this summer I've occasionally posted a picture from the UK on Facebook commenting, "I can't wait to go back!"  (The picture at the top of this post is one such.) Well, the UK opened this week to fully vaccinated travelers from "amber list" countries.  I have about 3 weeks before school starts.  I'd like to give a talk this year on mathematician John Napier, and more time in his home country of Scotland would help, and Edinburgh is my heart's home, so off I go!

This might come as a surprise to many of my friends, given how overly cautious I have been and still am about COVID-19, but all passengers on the plane must be fully vaccinated, be able to show a negative COVID test from within the last 3 days, and wear a mask in the airport and for the entire flight.  That sounds a lot safer than some of the places around home!  Scotland is also far more cautious in general than the US, and I will be spending a great deal of time wearing a mask.  I have also been offered SO GRACIOUSLY a home to stay in, a home that I can remain in even if I am not able to get back into the US on August 17 as planned.  I know I am in good hands.

This was a very sudden decision, and planning it in just 4 days in the midst of a pandemic (lots of additional regulations and paperwork and testing and such) was a VERY stressful experience, but at least I've only had 4 days to be stressed!  I fly out today, and I hope by Saturday or Sunday to be RELAXING next to the Water of Leith where I was back in 2019, which is the content of the video below.

The highlight of this trip, if all works as it should (which is a BIG IF) will be to FINALLY get to visit the ruins of Fast Castle where mathematician John Napier, with a reputation for sorcery, was contracted to search for treasure, which was perhaps Templar treasure.  If I actually am able to get there, I think I will just fall to the ground and cry tears of joy before I even look up and take it all in.  So  .  .  .  HERE GOES!!