Hairy Coos and Glasgow

So today was kind of a travel day… we left our fabulous castle kind of late and headed to Glasgow, the largest city in Scotland. 

We did make two pit stops on the way there – one to see some “hairy coos,” AKA Highland cows. These are a sort of unofficial mascot of the Scottish highlands. They’re hairy and adorable and they love carrots and selfies. Well… carrots anyway. (And no, for those who know me, I do not have the baby cow in my luggage now. They wouldn’t let me bring it on the bus…) 

The second stop was at Stirling, and the William Wallace monument. This was at the top of the hill and we hiked up in a bit of drizzle, and then climbed a whole lot of stairs (246 of them in a lovely narrow spiral staircase), but the view from the top is amazing.

 Unfortunately we weren’t able to visit Stirling Castle today, but we did have lunch in Stirling and we went on to Glasgow where we had a free afternoon, where I did a little shopping and sightseeing, including this famous statue. 

Statue of the Duke of Wellington

Tomorrow, we move on to Dublin and I am incredibly excited for Ireland!! 

A Day in the Scottish Highlands

Let me start off with a disclaimer… Today was a very long day and I may not make much sense. The scenery here is drop-dead gorgeous. Ridiculously, amazingly, pretty. I got some awesome photos today and I’ll share a few here in a minute.

We we started off today from our tartan (plaid) covered hotel and headed toward the Isle of Skye. We drove through some amazing countryside and we were lucky enough to have the clouds break in time for several photo stops.

On one stop, (read from here in a thick Scottish accent) they told us a story about two rival clans who were going to unite their clans with a peace treaty settled by a marriage after much fighting. One clan picked out their most beautiful girl and sent her to the other clan to be married. But on the way, as she was crossing this bridge her horse spooked and threw her, causing her face to be smashed on the rocks. She didn’t know what to do, since she would no longer be beautiful enough to marry and unite the clans, so she sat and cried until a troll emerged from under the bridge and offered to make her a deal – he would make her beautiful enough to marry and unite the clans, but after she did, the power of both the clans would be his. Having no other choice and fearing more war, the girl agreed. So the troll gave her his magic stone and told her to go wash her face in the stream. She did and became even more beautiful than before. So she returned the stone and continued on her way. After arriving at her new home and telling her new husband what happened, the men made a plan, they would go and steal the stone the troll needed to do magic. So they got up early and snuck into the troll’s home and stole his stone. To hide it they buried it in a pile of stones and they say the troll is still looking for it. In order to keep him from finding it, travelers today are encouraged to stop, pick up a stone and bathe their face in the water in hopes of becoming more beautiful, then adding the stone to the pile.

We then stopped for lunch in the town of Portree and visited the Eilean Donan castle, which is definitely historically significant, but just as importantly is the castle from the wedding in the movie “Made of Honor.”

Then we headed for dinner in Fort William and as we rolled along “Sweet Home Alabama” began to play on the radio… Which I then had to explain to several Canadians that it is not country music.

Finally, our journey became a bit longer because they switched our hotel on us, but, it’s a castle so I’m not complaining!

In Search of Nessie…

This morning we said goodbye to Edinburgh and piled on a bus to head into the Scottish highlands. Our first stop was St. Andrews, which is famous for several reasons- it is home to the university where Prince William and Kate met and it is the birthplace of the sport of golf. There are also ruins of an ancient cathedral. 

After the stop there and some very good hot chocolate, we headed north again to Pitlochry, where we stopped for lunch and tea. 

Finally we made our way to Loch Ness where we took a cruise and afterward several more intrepid souls jumped in (not me, I’m not intrepid at all). 

Our hotel tonight is a bit rustic and quaint with an abundance of Scottish flair. Take that as you may, but there is no wifi, so I’m standing outside trying to get enough service to post this… 

Edinburgh Etc…

Edinburgh Castle

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day. As you can see, it was sunny and nice and pleasantly sort of warm. It was about 65 degrees Fahrenheit with a perfect breeze, which the locals said was the best weather they’ve had in weeks. We started the day with a guided tour of Edinburgh Castle – one of the perks of going on a group tour like Contiki is having that sort of thing prearranged and included. Our tour guide was named Sabella and she was both informative and highly entertaining.

One of the anecdotes she told us was about how in medieval Edinburgh, there was incredibly poor sanitation and the streets were very narrow, so everyone drank alcohol all the time because the water would kill you, so, often drunk people were walking the streets. Well, there was no indoor plumbing and nowhere to empty your chamber pot except out the window into the street below. People would call a warning before they dumped it, but the drunker you were, the more likely you were to stop and look up instead of dodging… Hence the term… “Shitfaced.”

I have no idea how true that is and I promise she was much better at telling the story, but she did give an amazing tour of the castle.

 

Edinburgh Castle has some incredible history, and is a great site to visit – my photos really don’t give it justice. We were also able to see the Scottish Crown Jewels, although no photos were allowed.

Next, I went with a small group to eat lunch and do some shopping, but then my solitary tendencies kicked in and I decided to do some exploring on my own. I’m not sure how many of you are Harry Potter fans, but if you are, I’m sure you’re aware that J.K. Rowling wrote all of the books here in Edinburgh, so supposedly many of the local sites were inspiration for the books and I set out to find at least one – in Greyfriars Kirkyard, there are several names familiar to Harry Potter readers including a Tom Riddell (Tom Riddle) and a McGonagall. There is also a school located nearby that was said to have inspired Hogwarts. Plus, the architecture. Look at it. It looks straight out of the movies.

 

Tom Riddell’s gravestone

Outside Greyfriars Kirkyard, there is a little statue of a dog, called Greyfriars Bobby. If you want to read the story, it’s here, but maybe get some tissues first.

Greyfriars Bobby

 

Lastly, today they gave us a bus ticket that was good all day and the public transportation here is AMAZING. It’s clean and safe and the buses have wifi! It was great and very easy to get from place to place. I still walked more than five miles, but I also took the bus several times and I wish we had something similar back home.

View from the upper deck of a double decker public bus

I finished up the day with some souvenir shopping and then took the bus back to the hotel for a group dinner. Tomorrow we take the tour bus up to St. Andrews and then we go for a cruise on Loch Ness! Maybe I’ll have some photos of Nessie for you tomorrow night!

Haggis, Bagpipes, and Still No Sleep

So I still haven’t slept yet… I’ve now lost my ability to do basic math, so someone do it for me and leave it in the comments – I got up at 7 a.m. ET on Thursday and I haven’t slept as of midnight local time in Edinburgh. I am sitting on my bed ready to sleep as soon as I finish this, so please do not be concerned. 

Tonight I met my roommate and the rest of the folks on the tour – everyone seems very nice. Contiki is geared toward adults 18 – 35, and I think I’m one of the older ones at 29 and 3 halfs. 

We had a very nice welcome dinner at Murrayfield Hotel restaurant – I have officially tried haggis, the official dish of Scotland and as long as you don’t think about what it actually is, it isn’t bad at all. 

This is haggis, which, according to Wikipedia, is “a savoury pudding containing sheep’s pluck (heart, liver and lungs); minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, traditionally encased in the animal’s stomach though now often in an artificial casing instead.”

The dinner was followed by a performance by Andy the Piper – he was great and very funny. He’s even performed for the Queen before! Alright, I’m going to sleep now since I’ve been up for… however long. Busy day tomorrow! 

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SCOTLAND!!

Guys. I’m in SCOTLAND! Also, I haven’t slept yet so please excuse me if I’m a little punchy. Morning comes awfully fast when you fly directly into it. That photo is sunset, I think. Hard to tell. I was on a plane for a long time. 

No travel woes getting here – some of you may remember my marathon of a trip to Bermuda a few years back, but this time everything went pretty smoothly. The only wrinkle was waiting to go through passport control entering Edinburgh (which if you read things in your head like me, is pronounced Ed-in-bur-ah). Anyway, we had to wait in line over an hour, which was really long considering there were no bathrooms before this wait… Go before you get off the plane, people! 

After that, it was easy to get my bag and find a taxi and the driver brought me straight to my hotel. Of course it’s way too early to check in – only 9 a.m. local time, but the kind lady at the front desk let me leave my bag there and gave me a handy map and I set off in search of coffee. 

So here I sit, enjoying my coffee and a cinnamon bun in SCOTLAND! Look at the VIEW! 

I’m not sure if I’m sleep deprived or just overly excited. Maybe both. More later after I catch up with the tour and maybe a short nap… 

Off to Europe…

So… I’ve never blogged before… I’ve never traveled to Europe by myself before either. So now I’m doing both at once with little to no plan… really, I’m winging it. It feels like a good idea. Maybe. 

Anyway, this morning, I did something else I’ve never done, which is use Lyft to get to the airport. I had a fantastic ride with a retired physicist named Randy. I had to laugh a little, because I’m sure everyone has seen this Geico commercial. 

It was a good way to start what will hopefully be a great trip. I’m on my way to Edinburgh, Scotland, where I will join a Contiki tour which will conclude in Ireland 12 days later, then I hope to spend some time checking out the homeland of my mother’s family in Wales and finally, I’ll meet my cousin in England for a few days. 

I’m excited to share my trip with you, and I’ll try to keep it short and entertaining.