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Scotland landscape

I’m still working on the full out blog post for our Scotland and Ireland trip at the end of June. We had a tremendous number of photos to sort and most needed retouching due to coal particles the lens picked up on the steam train. Whooops. The weather was phenomenal in Scotland and Ireland; warm and partly cloudy – that is, blue skies with big fluffy white clouds – for most of the trip in regions known for excessive wind and rain. Luckyyyyy!

I do not have the large versions online yet. Hope you enjoy the photo tour! ๐Ÿ˜‰

Landscape.
Waterfall, east Isle of Skye
Landscape.
Ellishadder waterfall near Kilt Rock, Isle of Skye
Landscape.
Uig, Isle of Skye
Landscape.
loch, Scotland
Landscape.
Glencoe lake, Scotland
Landscape.
Brook Linn, Callander, Scotland
Landscape.
Island on Lake of Menteith, Scotland
Landscape.
Loch Lomond, Scotland
Landscape.
Loch Lomond, Scotland
Landscape.
Highlands from the front seat, Scotland
Landscape.
Highlands from the front seat, Scotland
Landscape.
Mallaig, Scotland
Landscape.
Church seen from Jacobite Steam Train, Scotland
Landscape.
St. Stephens Greens, Dublin, Ireland
Landscape.
St. Stephens Greens, Dublin, Ireland (better in color…?)
Landscape.
St. Stephens Greens, Dublin, Ireland (or sepia…?)

Scotland 2010

On Father’s Day, we boarded a flight to Edinburgh via Dublin. Renting a car, we made our way to the Bonham B&B where Herr’s parents were at and enjoyed a lovely meal with them. Afterwards, we took a long walk around the neighborhood basking in the great weather we will have experienced the entire trip (this, we have been told, is highly unusual).

We woke to bright skies and drove south to Rosslyn Chapel. Rosslyn has beautiful masonry, but the chapel is privately owned and thus no photos. ๐Ÿ™ It was also undergoing major repairs รขโ‚ฌโ€œ thanks to the increase in patronage รขโ‚ฌโ€œ but we got the general idea before heading farther south to Melrose Abbey. Melrose is a lovely area, and the abbey was destroyed a few centuries earlier in the general strife between England and Scotland. It’s massive size is definitely worth visiting. We spent some extra time in Melrose, stopping by for some ice cream, visiting the local book stores and public library, and a few other shops. If we had stayed longer, we could have seen some summer festivities (a horse race followed up with a lot of drinking I believe… guaranteed to be entertaining). Unfortunately, we weren’t going to be there overnight and trekked back north to a very-hard-to-locate B&B out in the farmlands. They were extremely friendly though and educated us on the proper pronunciation of Alnwick, our next destination.

Rosslyn.Melrose.

In the morning, we left for the south to Alnwick, known for some scenes from Harry Potter films. I was very excited to visit this for the renovated gardens, which we walked through first. The entrance opens to a water garden with several water statues and featured a bamboo labyrinth (fun!). Green archways snaked up along the large fountain to more gardens atop a hill. From the gardens we took a path to Alnwick. Walking up to it was intimidating; it is surrounded by tall walls sitting on a hill. We took a guided tour of the grounds before entering the castle itself. A side note: the words castle/fortress and palace are not interchangeable. Castles are dark and mostly stone with whitewash painted on to brighten it up. Very utilitarian. Palaces could pass as really fancy hotels with an emphasis on opulence. So, imagine our surprise when we enter this castle and see what appears to be a palace interior! Marble everywhere. No pictures of the interior because it is still in use, but again, worth visiting!

Alnwick.Alnwick.

From Alnwick we followed Hadrian’s Wall รขโ‚ฌโ€œ or what’s left รขโ‚ฌโ€œ to Carlisle. Along the way we stopped a few times to see some of the forts that lined this disputed border and walk along the wall ruins. The ruins aren’t terribly easy to find though, so I’m glad we were able to crawl over at least one section. We hunkered down in a fancy four-room color-coded B&B in Carlisle to prepare for the races the next day.

Hadrian.

Before we left for the track, I determined I did not have appropriate attire. Herr and I checked out the shopping district and purchased a lovely linen suit complete with hat and bright pink heels. ๐Ÿ˜€ To my dismay, breaking in tall heels at the races is a bad idea. Not much seating, and it was not nearly as nostalgic as it seemed to be. That is, if one reads historical romance novels from England, the races are NOT like that anymore. Herr placed a few two pound bets (lost every time too) before we gave up and drove north to Callandar.

Races.

The B&B in Callandar was a quaint house atop a winding road. We ventured into town for dinner and found a restaurant/bar. I should mention the World Cup was going on throughout this trip, and as we ate, we were able to observe one of the matches with another couple. Having our fill of football and angry drinkers, we called it a night for a big day tomorrow.

Our first stop out of Callandar was to Lake Mentieth. The weather was drizzly (one of the few instances the weather wasn’t all that great) as we putted in a small tug of a boat out to the island that houses the ruins of Inchmahome Priory. We were the first group of eight people out to the island, so we had run of it to explore. Once we had our fill of destruction, we walked the trails around the peaceful island. It was all very lovely, even in the mist.

Menteith.Inchmahome.

We piled in the car and drove to Stirling Castle. Along the way we spotted Doune Castle – well known for Monty Python and the Holy Grail รขโ‚ฌโ€œ so of course we stopped. It’s a very square castle, but Herr recalled several of the scenes for our amusement (they were also highlighted on the audio tour). A bit more of a drive brought us to the city of Stirling; a beautiful area with the occasional cobblestone street. Stirling is at the very top of the hill (notice a trend…?) and had absolutely spectacular views. By this time, the weather had cleared up as well, so we could see quite a ways out. Stirling looks like a hodgepodge of structures and is under some heavy renovation, so we didn’t get to see too much of it. We took the tour of the grounds spotting several unicorns along the way, had some lunch, then began the drive north to Fort William on roads that wound alongside several scenic lochs.

Doune.Stirling.

In Fort William we had a B&B that faced the loch. A few blocks away we ate a lovely seafood dinner. Herr had reserved first class roundtrip tickets on the Jacobite Steam train, which takes most of a day. What spectacular views too! The only drawback is the airborne coal particles that gets in everything, and the large puffs of coal smoke that soaked through the cabin while passing through tunnels. I stuck my head out the windows most of the trip back to get some fantastic photos but spent half the time rubbing pieces of coal from my eyes (and the camera). Even if you aren’t a Harry Potter fan (this is the train used in the movies), the scenery is incredible and worth taking the trip.

Jacobite.

After the train ride, we took the next day to drive alongside the rail tracks back to Mallaig (the northern point where the train turns around). From Mallaig, we were able to take the car ferry across to the Isle of Skye. The island is much smaller than I thought it was, so we were able to have lunch in Portree, a fantastic little port city. We rounded the Trotternish Penninsula to see some of the natural wonders including Kilt Rock and a couple lovely waterfalls. We pulled off the road to check out a reconstructed village that highlighted early Scottish life. Most other places were closed by the time we left, so we drove back down to the southeastern tip to stay at a B&B right on the harbor.

Sunday brought in some large fluffy clouds that we chased across the bridge back to mainland Scotland to see Eilean Donan Castle, also known as one of the most beautiful castles. It sits on a mound accessible by a stone bridge, and with the hills and lochs of Scotland as backdrop, it is hard to disagree. No photos of the interior though; it is still privately owned and used on occasion. This was the last leg of the Scotland trip, so we drove back south alongside the lochs until we found our B&B at a bagpipe school in Glasgow. It was here, after a morning whirlwind bus tour of the city, that we went separate ways with Herr’s parents, drove back to Edinburgh, and caught our flight to Dublin, Ireland.

Eilean Donan.Glasgow.

See more photos in a previous blog entry.

Edinburgh Day 3

For our last day in Scotland, we had a marvelous trip planned up north. We walked a mile to a car rental office, and Herr got his first experience driving on the left side of the street, and with a manual shift no less! He did remarkably well, but there were many times on the way north that he overcompensated and had us driving on the shoulder and nearly into some bushes! I almost had a heart attack.

The first thing we did was cross the Firth of Forth. Once on the other side, we pulled over so he could take photos of the rail bridge and road bridge. We saw beautiful Scottish countryside and lots of sheep before we came to the next bridge across the Firth of Tay. The Tay rail bridge is infamous for having collapsed a hundred years ago, so the reconstructed bridge is super fortified beyond what was really necessary. Herr took many photos. ๐Ÿ™‚ The town of Dundee is just north of the Firth of Tay, where we stopped at the information center along the bay before going north to Glamis Castle. I really cannot explain how we got through Dundee, just that Herr seemed to know what he was doing. The directions weren’t any help!

Sheep.

Glamis Castle is about thirty minutes north of Dundee. It has one of the longest driveways I have seen, but what a view as you near the castle! It also has many highland cows roaming around its peaceful countryside lands. The Queen Mother lived there in her younger years. It kind of smelled like an old lady house too… but it was interesting to see. There were other castles I would have preferred to see, but they were much farther north. Another trip back to the Scottish highlands, woohoo!

Castle.
Cow.

After Glamis we rode yet farther north to Dunnottar Ruins. Now that was incredible! Luckily, I had decided to put pants on under my dress (it was chilly) because wow, the wind! Dunnottar is situated on the cliffs of the North Sea, and one can only imagine how magnificent it was when still intact. It really felt like a magical place, and very beautiful. When it closed up, I took a detour around to a nearby outcrop, where we ran into a rabbit colony dug right in the soft cliffside. Rabbit holes everywhere! It was a little scary walking the narrow path with such a steep cliff into cold vericious waters below, but wow, what a view. Dunnottar was definitely the highlight of the day!

Castle.
Castle.

On the way back, we took the old scenic road along the North Sea. We stopped in a small town for ice cream and took some photos of a lighthouse across the street from the restaurant. I wanted to see so much more, but really we’ll just have to go back. A few times. What a place! My brother and sister-in-law enjoyed the bus tour they took to the south of Edinburgh, but poor Rie had her allergies acting up. There is so much to see there!

Lighthouse.

Edinburgh Day 2

We split from my brother and sister-in-law for the rest of our trip since they had seen a lot of the sites during a previous visit. Herr made sure to eat Scottish breakfasts at the bed and breakfast every morning while I stuck to toast. Our first stop was Edinburgh Castle. Before we started the ascent to the castle, we came upon an adorable farmers’ market. We took our time perusing the booths and had some hot chocolate while taking in the view of the castle.

Market.
Castle.

It was terribly windy and chilly once we got inside the castle, but it was still quite enjoyable. The castle is steeped in intriguing history, especially when the crown jewels were stored in a privy for one hundred years. We saw the gun salute or whatever it was. Really they shot something out of a huge cannon-like gun. ๐Ÿ˜› A special service was being held in the chapel, so we couldn’t see that, but we saw the crown jewels, prisons, living apartments, etc. I had the most delicious tea at one of the castle cafes (which I still have to buy for myself!) with lunch.

Cathedral.

Our next stop was Saint Giles’ Cathedral. We paid to take photos, which was worth it. ๐Ÿ™‚ Then from there we started walking towards the Royal Botanic Garden. We stopped by the Scott Monument (as in Sir Walter Scott, the author) and had some ice cream. We had a pretty good view of the city from the castle, so paying to walk up the monument was not a priority.

Monument.

At the corner were bus stops of the standard double decker buses that would take us right to the gardens. We, of course, sat up top to get a better view. The royal gardens are free, and boy was I in heaven! Herr took the opportunity to slow down and at one point took a nap as I took photo after photo of all the rhododendrons and other flowers in bloom. The greenhouse was lovely, but in the end we decided not to pay to walk inside. We spent many hours in the gardens before heading back. We stopped at a quaint restaurant a few blocks from the gardens, but I was still full from all the other food and could barely eat my fish and chips. At least we walked off all the calories, since we went nearly everywhere on foot!

Flower.

We did get a little lost walking back to the bed and breakfast, but not terribly so. We got in a bit more distance, and it was nearly dark by the time we got back. We were both happy to take off our shoes and crash.