Visited: June 2018
In mid June 2018 I had a friend Kendra come over from America to visit the UK. She had never been in Europe. I knew her from 2014 when I went on a ski trip with her in Colorado. She spent some time self-touring London then we went together to Scotland for 4 days!
Another Friend's Visit!
Kendra visiting from Colorado for 8 days, 4 of which were in Scotland - it's an odd story how we got to become friends which I'll happily recount over a beer or scotch.
She arrived at LHR in the evening which is odd coming from North America but that's how she planned her travel. I picked her up at the airport and we came back on the Piccadilly Line. I guess the best part of her coming late was she could go right to bed and get a good sleep!
Before we went to Scotland she toured around London a bit. I joined her for a few things:
I took her on one of my classic walking tours and we ran into the E2 leaving for The Trooping of the Colour, which is meant to celebrate her birthday. Oddly the event is in June even though her birthday is in April.
Of the trooping ..."This impressive display of pageantry takes place on a Saturday in June by her personal troops"...
We happened to be walking from Hyde Park Corner (which itself is an interesting spot) where we got off the tube through Green Park towards Buckingham Palace where there was a huge crowd. We had no idea why but it turns out it was because E2's family and her were on their way to the Trooping.
We also went by the British Museum. Like many museums in London it's free to enter and has a ton of amazing things to see that are either British or err... borrowed from others by the Brits for display in their museums.
Below: British Museum / Displays, Piccadilly Circus and a busker!
One of my favorite spots to see is the Natural History Museum. It's full of amazing exhibits and has one of the most impressive entrances. We stopped by there for a walk around and also headed up to Camden (and the Market - which is a giant maze of stalls and food, somewhat touristy) where we also went in Cyberdog a super rave store which is worth a visit for sure.
Below: Cyberdog, Camden Market and Canal, Natural History Museum Entrance and a Green building of some kind!
Kendra saw many more things on her own as I had to work and didn't want to join for everything!
Get out your bagpipes, we're going to Scotland!
The highlight of my time during Kendra's visit was going to Scotland. I've wanted to go for years and while I didn't spend as much time as I wanted there I still managed to see a lot in a short time.
First off we took the train pretty early from King's Cross so we could have the afternoon in Edinburgh. The train was smooth and on time as usual - 4 hours or so, passing through a lot of Northern England including Newcastle.
Photo from a crossing of River Tyne in Newcastle.
Upon arriving we checked into our cute little hotel called the hub by Premier Inn, close to the train station (Edinburgh Waverley) and the city centre. First stop after check in was to walk up the Royal Mile to Edinburgh Castle.
Lucky me I got in free to the castle due to my English Heritage membership - suffice it to say I have abused (well just taken advantage of) the pass since I got it. Edinburgh Castle is located on the Castle Rock which is an imposing Volcanic Plug sitting high above the rest of the city. Much of Scotland's features are made from volcanic activity (many millions of years ago), which is why (I was told) a lot of stonework is very dark - due to the volcanic ash component).
As usual I won't dive too deep into the details because you can research it if you want more information but the original castle was built in the 12th century by David I, and continued to grow and be of major importance as a royal residence until the 17th century. It played a prominent role in many battles including the Wars of Scottish Independence.
As for visiting the castle I would say it didn't feel quite the size and prominence of the Tower of London or Dover Castle, however it was filled with typical grand rooms, apartments, defensive system and interesting sets of information both historic and current. It is a must see in Edinburgh even if you aren't a huge castle lover.
Below - Castle entrance, yes they had cannons and a view from the castle.
The Royal Mile
The Royal Mile is a street (or apparently a set of streets, although it seemed like one to me) through the centre of the Old Town in Edinburgh. It's primarily filled with buskers, tourists, shops, government buildings, churches (including the beautiful St. Giles Cathedral) and restaurants. If you like touristy stuff this is the place for you! It also has many beautiful buildings, again in the ashy dark stone colour. You can even find the Adam Smith monument there.
I'm not sure why I didn't take more photos around the Royal Mile so here is one general shot, one of the Adam Smith statue (and Kendra.. and St Giles Cathedral), plus the Royal Mile sign and a bonus additional photo of Cyberdog (it's that cool).
After the Royal Mile we hopped into a pub for some food and crushed a couple (few) drinks.
We went back to the hotel and it was I feel like 9PM but still very light out. I've written about this before, but as dark as it gets in the winter in the UK, the summer days are long! We hiked up Calton Hill, which is filled with too many monuments to list, government buildings, Holyrood Palace (E2's official Edinburgh residence) and a bunch of youngsters and middle age folk enjoying the view.
It took forever for the sun to set I remember, I feel like it didn't really set until much later so lets say we waited for it to go below the horizon, but it was dusk forever as you can see from the photos below on our walk around the Old Town post Calton Hill.
Below - some fancy buildings and in the top left photo Arthur's Seat (named possibly after King Arthur).
Yikes - a long day but well worth it.
Day 2 - A drive to Inverness
There is really no way to describe driving in the Scottish Highlands aside from saying it's stunningly beautiful. We drove on and off the next 3 days and it only got better the further away from Edinburgh you are (no offense Edinburgh).
We picked up the car at the Edinburgh airport and first headed towards Stirling Castle. It was the first time I had driven on the left side since a trip to Australia in 2013. Stirling Castle sits atop another castle hill, this time formed from an intrusive crag. Similar to Edinburgh Castle, Stirling Castle was the home to many Scottish monarchs and saw many crowed there. It was also often sieged (at least 8 times) including many times during the Wars of Scottish Independence.
I would say the castle is worth visiting even if you've already seen Edinburgh castle. Each one has its own tales and history and this one was interesting. It's quite large and has a lot of rooms to visit, including rooms where some monarchs were born. There was also a free tour which was decent except the tour guide was so loud at times we did sneak out part way through.
A9
From there we drove up the A9 through the Cairngorms National Park stopping at Dalwhinnie Distillery along the way. One disappointment that we continued to have was that each distillery we went to had been bought up by Diageo so while each one was somewhat unique they all smelled of corporate control, right down to the displays, types they sold (they brought in all their brands) and pricing of the whiskey. This didn't stop us from having a taster though!
Photos: Taster, the distillery, our dinner restaurant Rowanlea Bar & Cairn Hotel and dinner including haggis lasagna our first and not last haggis on the trip.
Post distillery we kept driving north and this time quite famished tried to find a restaurant before we got to Inverness. After stopping in Aviemore, Boat of Garten, Dulnain Bridge and finally Carrbridge we found Rowanlea Bar & Cairn Hotel which was so small town Scottish we did get a few stares going in and eating there - but the friendly hello visitor ones, not the we are going to chase you out of town type.
Last but not least we drove to our B&B By The Brae (yes go there!), a lovely place very near Inverness. We did go into Inverness quickly before bed - not a ton there but we walked around the River Ness (by some accounts there Loch Ness Monster was first seen).
Some shots of Inverness, the castle (built 1836 and not open to the public!?) and the River Ness.
Day 3 - Applecross
We debated back and forth at breakfast the next day where we would set off to. We ended up deciding on going to Applecross to start with and see where we ended up. For those who haven't driven in the Highlands it's impossible to sufficiently describe its beauty - at least in my own words!
The roads are two lanes through most, and then one lane for two directions, with small pull offs from time to time. You are driving through curved roads, hills and mountains, passed streams and rivers, and all in areas filled with lush green, yellow and brown colours so deep you think they are the shades other colours are built off of.
Many times you come across a car going the other direction and one of you has to pull off in the tiny pull off spots. It's a bit hair raising at first but somehow it just works!
The highlight of the drive (although it was also a bit scary) was the Pass of the Cattle (Bealach na Ba), a 2000 ft pass on the one lane road with heavy fog and sharp turns all around. The scenery was beautiful and I tried to sneak peeks from time to time when I could take my eye briefly off the road. The road was the only one linking Applecross to the rest of the country until the 1970s.
Applecross itself is a tiny village, so small apparently the locals just refer to it as the street. I could see why as it's quite small and even though the village has been around for 1300+ years it doesn't seem to have more than a couple hundred residents.
Applecross shoreline. Somehow I didn't get a photo of the street, but you can look that up.
We stopped there for a couple hours. Enough to eat lunch and enjoy the scenery and then it was back on the road. Fortunately this time the pass was much less foggy and I knew what to expect.
Eilean Donan Castle & Skye
Scotland has many picturesque castles and Eilean Donan is certainly one of them. We visited the castle on a very gusty and rainy day so we scurried across the lovely bridge but did manage to snap a few photos.
The castle has been there in many forms over the centuries and was actually reconstructed in the early 20th century by one of the clan families which held it (The Mackenzies primarily held it but the Macrae's rebuilt it). The castle interior is pretty traditional with multiple levels including the some grand rooms. The notable difference here is the family still resides in the upper levels and runs the other parts of the castle like a tourist attraction.
Some photos of the castle and Irn Bru!
After the castle we had enough time and light to make a run for the Isle of Skye. Unfortunately we did not have enough time to deeply explore it but it is very beautiful like the 'mainland'. Apparently if you go up North there are some amazing natural formations to see like The Storr or The Quiraing as well as Dunvegan castle. Having seen a lot of beauty already and certainly having had our fix of castles we instead did what any two sane people would do which is go to another distillery - this time Talisker. Again unfortunately we found out it was owned by Diageo!
It was then back to Inverness for a crappy dinner at a local restaurant who's name I forgot (yes it was that bad)!
Day 4 - Loch Ness, Oban & a Birthday
Does Nessy exist? We may never know. It's unlikely anyone reading this wouldn't have heard of the Loch Ness Monster. But have you seen it? Since 1933 there have been many supposed sightings of Nessy and many sketchy photos as well. We went on a boat tour in Loch Ness which itself was nice (if not quite chilly), with great views of the long cigar shaped lake and a stop / view of Urquhart Castle (which are actually ruins); however we did not see any signs of the Loch Ness Monster. Although with the dark water, the big distances you can see up and down the lake and all the wildlife you could be forgiving for looking at something in the distance and wondering just a little.
We had a little wine on the boat and enjoyed the talk of the monster and commentary on the different parts of the lake. Normally I would suggest skipping a touristy visit like this but it wasn't overly expensive for a couple hours at £14. Book ahead if you're going.
My take on Nessy? One of the best marketing efforts out there.
The rest of the day was mostly devoted to driving back towards Glasgow to get Kendra to her flight the following AM. We did try to spot a few time but the weather finally got the best of us so we missed Ben Nevis behind a lot of cloud and rain. We ended up going to Oban though which I enjoyed. The distillery was owned by ... you guessed it .. Diageo, but we still visited it. Afterwards we walked around the port which was really quaint and picturesque (I need a new word to describe Scotland - but that's what it is!)
After Oban we headed to Glasgow. At some point on the drive I managed to get out of Kendra that it was her birthday! She wasn't going to offer the info but I got it once the conversation went that way. In Glasgow we just checked into a hotel and had some dinner. I got her a mini birthday cake. I can't tell if she enjoyed it or appreciated the gesture. She holds her cards close to her.
Bye Bye Kendra - Hello Glasgow
Getting up early I dropped Kendra off at the airport. I can say she was decent company, not what I expected but we had some good times and laughs.
Taking advantage of my location in Glasgow I went back to the hotel to sleep more! I don't think I slept much but I did clean up and head out to Glasgow to see the downtown quickly.
Driving in I didn't know where to go but the traffic in the centre of the city was not bad and I pointed the GPS to a square in the centre called George Square named after G-III. As I was driving in towards the square I met a parade head on pointed in my direction. Amazingly no one including the police patrol in the front seemed concerned I was driving at them. At first it was from 200 meters+ away but I was for sure within 100 meters at one point.
I wasn't going to play chicken so I pulled up a very steep side street and parked the car. Little did I know when I returned to the main street (Argyle?) I would find Tim Hortons! I obviously went in and the staff did seem genuinely interested in me, I think I had my Jays cap on.
I enjoyed my coffee (did it taste the same? I can't remember) watching the end of the short parade. I then paraded myself around the square and ended up getting a snack in a Sainbury's. Or did I get a snack then go to the square. Goodness knows - I need to write these posts day of! In any case I got into a conversation with a relatively difficult to understand Glaswegian security guard who was going on about relatives in Mississauga.
Well that was fun!
After Glasgow I went back to Edinburgh to drop off the car. I did end up there really early relative to my train back to London so I had some food, sat in a cafeteria for a while and then read until my train was ready to go. Off to London with another adventure in the books!
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