Just a Wee Bit of Fun in Scotland

Let me just start out by saying Scotland greatly exceeded my expectations (and I’ll admit my expectations had lowered a little bit when everyone was freaking out about how cold it was going to be & how we will be staying in hostels that are almost like camping!) Oh boy-but I was pleasantly surprised and everything worked out a whole lot better than I had expected so it was a good reminder to me to not worry about things there is no sense in worrying about (which is exactly what I was doing pre-Scotland) See there I am a happy camper in Scotland-no worries!

So we make the 5-hour train ride to Edinburgh early Wednesday morning. When we get there we first hit up the Edinburgh Castle. Now this isn’t just any castle-this is more like a fortress with over 1,000 years of history sitting atop this rock overlooking all of Edinburgh. It was really fun to just walk around & explore the place as well as get some good pics in. It had beautiful panoramic views at top where I finally decided to bust out my sweep panorama action on my new camera (great feature I’m loving). There is a panoroma pic below atop the castle.

Thursday we had all day on our own to do what we wanted in Edinburgh. We had a list of things recommended but we pretty much had free reign. This means I started off with a morning run up to Calton Hill & through a cemetery with my running buddy Elise (so glad I have someone to run with on trips like this). There we are together on our hike later on in the day!

So Thursday we first went to the Palace where the Queen of Scotland resides and then the Scottish House of Parliament. We unexpectedly but fortunately made it there right on time to see a debate going on which was really neat. The House of Parliament architecturally is a very modern new (built in 1999) and "going green" building-I loved it. After that a few of us went on the most amazing hike up to King Arthur’s seat and through the Scottish countryside. It felt SO great to be out in the fresh crisp air (that wasn’t too cold might I add) and to just be up there seeing beautiful views once again and exploring Scotland. That was definitely the highlight of my trip!

After that I went to the Elephant House-just a little café where JK Rowling thought of her idea for Harry Potter-pretty cool to be in such a simple place where such grand ideas came from! I thought it was pretty funny that the toilet was all HP decked out too.

We went to Annie that night in Scotland which was pretty cute but nothing like the plays we have been seeing here in London (not to be a play snob but my expectations are getting pretty high on that account.) Friday we made our way to New Lanark, which was an old milling site-it was neat seeing where/how wool & cotton were/are made (for the Harry Potter movies too might I add.). But I really enjoyed our little stroll up to the waterfall there where the pic below was taken.

We then made our way to Sterling where we saw the Sterling castle which wasn’t as big of a deal as the Edinburgh one but still cool to say we went to and still some nice views up top!

And Saturday to ended our Scotland experience off right with the Wallace Monument. William Wallace was an important leader who united the Scottish tribes under him to fight the English to keep their freedom. We hiked up the hill and the 246 step staircase to make it up to the top of the tower but it was well worth it (especially for the pic I got with the 2 boys on our trip with Scottish kilts on-oh funny guys!) Well even with the long extended 7 hour train ride home our trip to Scotland was amazing and probably one of my fav places I have been to on this UK adventure so far!