Adventures in Scotland

So we left London on Wednesday and took a train to Edinburgh, Scotland. The train ride was nice and relaxing and we made plenty of friends who told us about things to not miss while visiting. We arrived at the train station almost exactly four hours after leaving London, found our hotel and immediately went out to get dinner because we were starving!

We ended up finding a cute little pub in Grass Market and enjoyed a leisurely dinner

And a leisurely beer...

Then we explored the city for a few hours before it got dark and we went back and crashed...

Scottish Parliament

The hike up Arthur's Seat (which we did the following morning)

A picture for my Dos...not to be confused with Hilary's Bizarre

Shopping for tartans...

Edinburgh Castle

Hollyrood Palace

The next morning we got up and had free, delicious breakfast at our hotel (score!!!) then hiked up Arthur's Seat! St. Anthony's Chapel (seen below) is about a quarter of the way up or so.

Almost the top

A view from the top

After our hike we went on a tour of Edinburgh Castle. I can't say enough about the guided tours we went on during our travels. They were really great and a great way to get a bit more history than you would just showing yourself around...and they are included in the cost of your ticket - bonus!

After the castle it was on to Scotch tasting....

At the end of our little tour we got to see the largest collection of Scotch in the world....3,400 bottles

It was actually quite fascinating (even for me who thinks scotch tastes, and smells, like nail polish remover). We learned about the process of making scotch and the different regions which single malt scotch may come from. Each region has its own unique characteristics and flavors. We also learned that there is no such thing as double malt (only single malt, Brian might have already known this) if its not single malt then its blended. And we learned that scotch no longer ages once its been bottled...so if you have a 10 year old bottle you've been saving for 50 years...sorry to break it to ya but its still just a 10 year old scotch!

The tour included a taste at the end but for just a few pounds more you could sit at the bar and enjoy 4 more tastes - so for some of us this equaled 6 tastes...

6 tastes later and Brian really learned what flavors and regions he really liked and did not like. Very educational, and nice for me to know what kind to tell Santa to put in his stocking!

After such a busy day we rested up then went back out at night for some night pictures...we even hiked halfway up Arthur's seat again at dusk for some great city views, but decided to hike down before it got completely pitch black...good call!

The next day we explored the city even further by walking down Leith Street. We of course had to stop at Scott Monument (For Sir Walter Scott) to get some pictures because it reminded us of the munch!

The coast...

We got to see the Britannia as well...

Our last day in Scotland we took the train to Stirling to see the castle and explore the town for a while...

I really loved this little garden...

Stirling castle (part of it at least)

Scottish countryside...just stunning!

In the little garden I loved so much...

The great hall in the middle of the castle

Drat...I forgot to bring my zoom lens...so waaaaaay off in the distance you can see the Wallace Memorial

Trying out the thrones....perfect fit!

Scotland was completely wonderful in so many ways. First of all it was the perfect place to be in the middle of our trip. It wasn't so crazy and big city as London and Paris. Everything was a bit slower paced. The people were nice beyond measure, by far the nicest people we met on our trip were in Scotland! We thoroughly enjoyed just strolling around the city and peeking into shops and taking our time doing things!
I fell in love with the highland cows, although we didn't actually see any, just pictures everywhere, and we sent Scott a postcard of one and Brian even found him a book about a highland cow...too cute!!! The food left a little to be desired, for me at least, but I survived, soup of the day works wonders! I loved the accents, the lady who was helping us at the train station wanted to take a look at the screen to figure out how to help us best and said, "let me just have a wee looky!" Imagine Mrs. Claus saying that in a Scottish accent...I'm telling you the nicest people in the world!
After four and a half days in Edinburgh it was off to Glasgow to catch a flight to Paris....