UK Vacation (day 8)

(July 23, 2008)

Day eight--Edinburgh, Stirling

Started the morning off right....coffee and cereal. =)

Since Shane, Si and Gabriel were coming with us to Edinburgh (I was totally excited about this) we decided to make a game plan (in the event Gabriel didn't feel good...he was teething while we were there). The game plan was to pack up the car and head out to Edinburgh during Gabriel's nap time so he'd sleep in the car and be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed by the time we reached Edinburgh castle.

Plan worked like a charm.

Gabriel slept almost the entire drive and when he wasn't sleeping he was just looking out the window....so freakin cute...ok...moving on....

We reached Edinburgh Castle...it was situated at the top of a hill and it was....massive.

Jody and I had purchased explorer passes when we visited Urquhart Castle at Lochness so we didn't have to pay to get into this castle. (sweet!)

We hiked straight to the top of the castle and got an amazing view of the city....

The structure, the stone, it was all magnificent. I had a hard time looking at any one thing because there was SO MUCH to look at.....

The highlight of the castle (for me) was definitely the weapons room. (Eric...brace yourself lad...)

Swords, axes, spears and armor lined the walls. Guns made up a wheel of fortune of death. It was insane.

The massive amount of tourists (and massive amount of walking) starting getting to us (Jody mostly) and Gabriel was starting to get tired so we left Edinburgh castle (knowing we only saw a fraction of what that castle truly had to offer) and went in search of lunch.

Just down the royal mile we ran into none other than William Wallace.....well...the guy who is famous for playing William Wallace in Edinburgh. (Don't know his real name but have seen him featured on PBS Globetrekker and various other travel shows).

It must have been the testosterone I still felt after walking around in that weapons room...because I immediately walked up to him and challenged him to a fight. (No...I didn't. In fact I waited patiently as someone else took their picture with him and then asked if I could go next.)

FREEDOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok...back to the search for lunch....

We had a TON of options...

but decided to go with the Elephant House Cafe instead (the birthplace of Harry Potter)....

Apparently J.K.Rowling penned most of the first Harry Potter book in this cafe.

I can see why she was inspired here....the view of the castle from the cafe is astounding...

And the cappuccinos weren't bad either....

We lingered at the cafe as long as we could before having to rush back to the car (we had to make sure we didn't have any parking tickets) and then made our way to Stirling.

Stirling castle was also included in our explorers pass, but what I wanted out of Stirling was the William Wallace monument.

I wanted to see where the battle of Stirling took place. I wanted to look out on the horizon and visualize the battle.

When we got to Stirling, I could see the monument in the distance....(it's hard to miss actually)...but as we got closer, I appreciated the structure so much more...

Like most of the castles and monuments in Scotland....it was massive. I have no idea how tall it was...but I know the structure itself was built at the summit of a hill that was a bitch to climb! LOL!

Once we reached the top...it was totally worth it......we were now looking down at what once was a bloodied battlefield.....

When we reached the top we happened upon one of Wallace's soldiers retelling the story of the battle of Stirling.

I could have listened to him talk all day...

And now...I give you the only two pictures we have of Scotland with both of us in it..courtesy of Si. =)

After the Wallace monument we headed over to Stirling castle.

It was later in the day when we got there...so lucky for us...we had the entire castle almost to ourselves!

We also had a fantastic view of the Wallace monument from the castle....

One of the things I LOVED was that flowers and weeds continued to grow through these stone crevices throughout the castle walls.....

Another thing I loved.....Stirling kitchen...

It was great to be able to interact with the locals....

And you couldn't quite beat the view....

After a few hours we were kicked out of the castle....(I've never closed a castle down before....awesome)...

and eventually made the journey back to St. Andrews.

T'was a grand day!!!!!!!

UK Vacation (day 7)

(July 22, 2008)

Day seven---St. Andrews

Slept in for the first time since the vacation began.

Shane and Si's room is so awesome, they have this HUGE baywindow that overlooks the rooftops of St. Andrews....

Seriously...that's the view....it's FABULOUS! And the sky is really that blue!

Took a nice leisurely shower, got dressed and headed out with Norm, Si and Gabriel in search of cappucinos and snacks. (Shane had to study in the mornings...he's doing heavy research for his dissertation.)

Had cappucino and bagel at this really neat coffee shop called BeanScene and then walked around St. Andrews a bit before meeting Shane for lunch.

We grabbed sandwiches and walked across the street to one of the quads...I believe the medical building quad (gorgeous) and had lunch.

Pictured is us girls fashioning our glamo sunglasses and Shane tossing Gabe around.

After lunch, Shane had to go study again so Si and Gabriel took us on the walking tour of St. Andrews.

Obviously....St. Andrews is gorgeous. The weather was VERY warm that day....a nice 70 degrees....a bit too hot for the natives. =)

After a long day of walking and exploring Shane cooked up an amazing dinner and we all planned our next adventure....Edinburgh and Stirling....

UK Vacation (day 6)

(July 21, 2008)

Day six--Isle of Skye to St. Andrews

Woke up early, had another AWESOME breakfast, packed up the car and headed down to the south of Isle of Skye to get a view of the Cuillin Ridge.

On the way, we hit Talisker Distillery where we indulged in some tasting...

This also helped later when I would pay tribute to Saucy Mary at Castle Moil. =)

The whiskey we tried was.......flavorful. I swore I tasted flowers...and soap?

I found out I'm not really a whiskey kind of girl.

Purchased some whiskey as gifts from the distillery where a cashier proceeded to tell us we could get the tax back on the purchase at the airport. Another cashier explained the policy and then said, "The UK really needs all the tax it can get you know, to pay for your wars."

Ouch!

My husband and I kind of laughed and could see this guy wasn't joking.

"Well, we're here on vacation paying twice as much for everything...so that should help."

We smiled and walked away with our purchase. If we really wanted to make something of it, we should've just made them go through the hassle of taking the whiskey back and refunding our money, but I was ready to move on, and I really did want to bring some whiskey back....so....we continued on.

We could see see the red cuillins on the drive (apparently there are red and black cuillins)...and numerous stone bridges....

Finally, we reached Elgol and had a great view of the black cuillins.

Took in the view for a little while and then headed for Kyleakin, home of Castle Moil.

We continued on the scenic path for awhile and there it was....Castle Moil calling to me from the hill above the town...

As we started the trek toward Castle Moil, we saw Saucy Mary's lodge, hostel and tavern...snapped a few shots and then searched for the trail that would lead us to the castle.

The trail wasn't easy to find, we kind of guessed where it was and happened to guess right.
We had to walk through a neighborhood to get to a dead-end dock where the trail picked up behind a parking lot next to the dock.

We walked through seaweed stuff.......pushed our way through thick greenery...and finally, we could see the castle...

Climbed to the top of the castle and had an awesome view of Kyleakin and the Skye Bridge that connects Isle of Skye to mainland Scotland...

There was nobody else at the castle....we had it all to ourselves...

Sat at what once could have been a window for a little while wondering if Saucy Mary had once lingered here...taking in the view....

Ok, ok, you're wondering if I paid tribute to Saucy Mary......

of course I did! However, I'm not about to post a picture of that on a public blog. =)

I will say though...after "paying tribute" I did feel this wonderful sense of freedom....
I was really sad to leave Isle of Skye...we had been there only 2 days and it already felt like home....I long for it even as I type this blog.....

but alas, I must move on.

After Castle Moil and saying cheers to Mary, we started the journey back to St. Andrews.

On the way, we drove through Glen Sheil to snap a few photos of the most photographed Castle in Scotland...

Eilean Donan....

Continued on to St. Andrews and slept really really well that night.

UK Vacation (day 5)

(July 20, 2008)

Day five--Isle of Skye

Sunday morning we woke up to a fantastically filling Scottish breakfast. (Fried egg, Canadian bacon, scotch pancake, grilled tomato, toast, juice, cereal and coffee) YUM!!!!!!!!

After scarfing down breakfast we asked Tracy where the best places to hike were and she directed us north toward Uig and Staffin. She said there would be a car park between the two towns with trails that lead into the highland mountains and along cliff-side hikes.

We packed up the camera, got our hiking shoes on and hit the road.

What should have been a 25 minute drive ended up taking about 40 minutes due to all the....traffic:

The drive north was beautiful. Everything on this island is beautiful.

We reached the car park Tracy told us about but we didn't see any clear signs for trails....we did however see another couple in front of us that parked and ended up hopping the fence of a farm and hiking that way...so we followed them.

Apparently in Scotland you're legally allowed to walk on anyones property so long as you're not damaging it or doing commercial activities. Free reign baby! Whoo-hoo! I was starting to feel like one of the sheep since they get to go anywhere they please on the island! =)

The ground was very mushy because of all the rain but it was still absolutely gorgeous!

With water to our left, rolling green hills to our right and mountains straight ahead...it was a little bit of heaven for both of us.

Apart from a few sheep and the couple that was hiking well ahead of us (we kept falling farther and farther behind because we kept stopping to take pictures) it felt like we had the entire island to ourselves. There was no noise aside from the ocean, a few birds that apparently live in holes in the hills, some sheep bah'ing and the wind.

With some major hills ahead of us I told my husband that we needed to bag our first munro. A munro is a hill over a specific height (I can't remember what the exact height is) and bagging a munro (I'm told) means climbing to the top of that hill.

We hiked in wide open hills for about an hour before we reached bigger hills and stronger winds...and then we knew we were getting close to the top when it started to rain.

Finally, we could see the top and we both ran for it (well, I ran for it, my husband hung back with the video camera).

The view was amazing from the top of the hill.

The cliff-sides were GORGEOUS!!!


I sat on the very edge of one (I know Mom, I'm not smart) and felt completely at one with the world.
We were so high we were looking down on flying seagulls!

Eventually, we started trekking back toward the car...which at that point was miles away.
We made it back to the car without incident (well, I did have to pee outside and at one point was almost charged by a sheep) and then we headed on to the next destination...Dunvegan.

On the way to Dunvegan...something magical happened.....

HIGHLAND CATTLE!

We spotted highland cattle and I nearly jumped out of the car! I'd been waiting the whole trip to see these guys up close!!!

Highland cattle are the CUTEST!!! And they're HUGE! I want one.

Ok, moving on.


Dunvegan Castle is said to be the only castle in Scotland that is still lived in by the owning clan. Members of the Macleods still reside here. Yup, you've heard that name before. =) Highlander baybee!

I actually read a lot of blogs and travel sites before we got to Scotland and most of them said Dunvegan castle was cool from the outside and not really that impressive inside...so we opted out of paying for a tour....we did however pay for a boat tour that would get us some great shots of the castle from the water....as well as a few other inhabitants...

After our seal expedition and exploring the gardens at Dunvegan we tried our luck at getting into a fancy hotel restaurant in our dirty hiking clothes....no problem! We had a great dinner (best salmon ever) and then headed back to the B&B.

After a shower and some dessert (our hostess left cookies and biscotti in our room with coffee and tea) I decided to walk around outside and shoot some photos. It was about 10:00 p.m. when I took the following pictures:

I tell you...I could live here.