Leeds.
I've safely returned to Leeds from my trip to the ICE 3 conference on the shores of Loch Lomond, Scotland. Given the cost of flying to Glasgow, and the unreliability (and sadly, occasional catastrophic failure) of the British rail network, I ended up driving myself to Scotland and back in a rental car, and this worked out pretty well overall. As I crossed the North Pennines into Cumbria, the snow-streaked landscape did look as bleak as the frozen steppes of Siberia, but happily things improved again as I approached Glasgow. I stopped for lunch and a spot of sightseeing in Glasgow itself, and promptly lost my way trying to re-enter the motorway towards Loch Lomond, but this minor diversion was nothing against my confusion on the way back - I guess it would have helped had I known that on Scottish roadsigns, "Carlisle" is the codename for the south (providing overt directions to England is considered to be in bad taste, perhaps?). Although this cost me an hour, there were no major other problems on the way (except for the occasional Fiat driver appearing to suffer from the delusion of being at the wheel of a Ferrari) - and kudos also to the good folks at Google Maps, whose directions served me well in getting to Scotland and back.
I stayed at the Winnock Hotel in the village of Drymen (pronounced 'Drimmen') - very nice place with literally over-the-top bedroom décor and a dining room built in 1702 (try the Angus steak on a bed of paté!). Like most small villages here, I imagine, Drymen boasts 'the oldest pub in Scotland', which at any rate did come complete with properly hand-pumped beer, a great selection of malt whiskies, and a collection of crusty locals discussing the day's events in the community. Having my own car also enabled me to go for a bit of a drive before the start of the conference, from the village up the eastern shore of Loch Lomond until I ran out of road some 11 kilometres later. Beautiful countryside, but freezing cold of course; relatively windstill, though, which in my photos shows in the gorgeous reflections of the far shore on the water of the Loch.
The conference itself took place at Ross Priory, ten minutes from Drymen and directly on the shores of the Loch. This proved a great location for a small-scale, exclusive conference like ICE 3 - it offered a very collegial atmosphere in beautiful surroundings (and the food wasn't half bad either, including the haggis we were served at the conference dinner). Congratulations to the ICE 3 team of Fiona, Jen, Siân and Ray for a job very well done - and I hope that in spite of what we heard this one won't be the last in the series. Perhaps it's time for a name-change, though - from ICE (Ideas, Cyberspace, Education) to SUN (Students, Universities, Networks)?
