Scotland

I've wanted to go to Scotland for awhile now.  Shanna went a few years ago with her friend who was working in England, so she didn't have a desire to go back.  She stayed at home for this trip, and my friend Fred and I made it a guys weekend.  On Friday I picked him up at his place, and we hit the road. We'd gotten a dirt cheap Ryan Air flight, but the downside was it didn't fly out of Stuttgart...it flew out of a town called Memmingen, which is just south of Munich.  Thankfully it's a small airport, so parking and check in were a breeze.  It was a direct shot from there to Edinburgh, and before we knew it, we'd touched down.

After cabbing from the airport to the hotel, we got settled in, then hit The Royal Mile.  It's called that because it's a road that is approximately one mile long, and connects Edinburgh Castle to Holyrood Palace.  All along the way are shops, but more importantly, pubs.  That night we were both beat from traveling, so we just hit a few pubs.  One of the things I was determined to try, despite knowing what it was, was Haggis.  I figured I'd start easy...the first pub had an appetizer that was fried Haggis balls.  I was hooked from the first bite...it was AMAZING.

One of reasons I was excited about heading back to the U.K. was the beer.  German beer is good, but I miss variety.  Specifically, I love Ales and Germany sells almost exclusively Lagers.  Not just Ales...Cask Ales (a.k.a Real Ales).  They are not very carbonated (if at all) and are served at cellar temperature.  The result is you get a lot of flavor in the beer.  That would be my drink of choice all weekend.

We eventually headed back to the hotel and crashed.  The next morning we didn't have anything planned.  I wanted to take a Highlands tour, and in looking at the weather report for the weekend, the weather was going to be bad and worse.  Bad on Sunday, worse on Saturday.  So I scheduled our Highland tour for Sunday.  That meant Saturday was left to explore Edinburgh.  We started off by having breakfast at Deacon's House Cafe.  It's named after Deacon Brodie, a legendary figure in Edinburgh history.  He was a master woodsmith and Cabinet Maker in the late 1700's.  What people didn't know is that by night, he was a gambler and in a lot of debt.  He solved this by making copies of keys for the houses he delivered to, then would sneak back at night and rob the place.  He got away with it for awhile, but was eventually caught during one of his robberies.  He fled to Amsterdam, but was caught there and returned for trial.  He was convicted and hanged.  The irony is he was the first person to be hanged on Gallows he had designed and built a year prior.  Legend has it that he wore a steel collar during his execution and slipped away later.

After breakfast we continued down the mile and headed to Edinburgh Castle.  We opted for the audio guide and I'm glad we did...the history of the castle was amazing.  As a Dog lover, one of the places in the Castle I thought was the neatest was the cemetery put in for dogs that belonged to soldiers there.

There was a small chapel in the castle where you can register to have your wedding at.  If you do, though, it'll be a small guest list... I don't think you could fit more than 20 people in there.  Up top there was a beautiful view of the city and the surrounding loch's, but unfortunately it was a rainy cloudy day, so you couldn't see much beyond the city.  I'm sure on nicer days the view is amazing.

We walked around the castle for almost 3 hours.  By the time we were done, our feet were sore and we didn't feel like touring anymore.  So we did the other thing we came to Scotland for...pub crawled.  Fred had a good idea at that point...take a picture of every pub we visited.  I think we got most of them...you can see them in the pictures section linked at the bottom of the post, or by clicking any picture in this post.

Later that afternoon, we grabbed dinner at a pub that also offered live music.  That's where we spent most of the evening until calling it a day and heading back to the hotel.

The next morning we got up early and hiked up to the meeting point for the Highlands tour.  We'd both woken up pretty early, so we decided to walk around the Royal Mile, taking side roads and exploring.  In doing so, we stumbled upon the old city wall, where we got a great view of Edinburgh Castle.

We also found a plaque in the wall that marked the spot of the last public execution in Edinburgh in 1864.  Finally we made our way back to the meeting point and started our tour.  Our guide, James, was a wealth of knowledge.  He jumped all over the place, giving us the history of areas we were driving through, and even describing various plants and trees we were seeing on the side of the road.  Unfortunately for us, the weather report got it wrong...Saturday was actually a nicer day (relatively speaking) than Sunday was.  The morning started off beautiful, with not a cloud in the sky.  Within 30 minutes of driving, the clouds rolled in and the rains started.  Our first stop was Stirling Castle.  It's where Mary, Queen of Scots was born and coronated.  Outside the castle is a statue dedicated to Robert the Bruce.

As you'll see in the pictures, off in the distance you can also see a monument dedicated to William Wallace, a.k.a. Braveheart.  Walking through the castle was neat, but not unlike previous castle's we've visited.  We saw the royal bed chambers, the meeting room for dignitaries and the banquet area.  We stayed there for about an hour and a half, then hit the road.

The next stop was a brief one to see Nessie, the oldest Highland Cow, at approximately 30 years old.  For reference, most cows only live to be about 8 years old.  The funny thing is I remember looking at the scrapbook Shanna made of her trip to Scotland, and she has a picture of Nessie too!  One of the other things I noticed while we drove around was the abundance of sheep, both young and adult.

Next stop was Loch Lomond and lunch.  I have to admit, this part was the biggest disappointment.  Lunch was good, but when we walked out, we only had about 30 minutes to explore, and the point we were dropped off at didn't really give you a good view of the Loch.  We had some great views while driving, but I waited to take pictures until we got there so I could get a better view up close.  Now I wish I'd taken the pictures when I could.

From there we went to my favorite part of the tour, the Glengoyne Distillery.  We took their tour, which was fascinating, and ended it with samples of a 12 year old and 18 year old Scotch.  I really liked it, and after sampling the 21 year old bottle, I had to get one.  I also noticed a barrel they had set up with writing on it that said it was their first Bourbon, distilled in 1999.  They had just tapped it a few weeks ago, and if you wanted a bottle, you could bottle it, cork it, and stamp it yourself.  I tried a sample and WOW...it was strong.  Since it was straight from the cask, it was Cask Strength.  Whisky and Bourbon are watered down a bit from the cask to the bottle, giving you an average alcohol percentage of 40-45 percent.  Cask Strength whisky is usually between 55-60 percent.  This particular Bourbon was 56 percent and man...it tasted strong.  But once you got passed the strong alcohol taste, the flavor of the Bourbon was amazing.  And because Fred and I both took the tour, and he wasn't buying anything, I was able to use both his coupon and mine to save 10 pounds!  What a deal. :)  There was a bottle of 40 year old whisky that I briefly considered buying when I thought the price said 375 pounds.  I wouldn't have, but the thought briefly crossed my mind.  Then Fred pointed out the extra 0 at the end...as in 3,750 pounds.  If I even had the slightest thought of buying it, that killed that idea.  But man...it was a pretty bottle and I'm sure delicious.

From there we drove back to the meeting point in Edinburgh.  At this point (of course) the clouds were starting to part and the sun was coming out.  We saw a rainbow going over Stirling Castle in the distance.  Unfortunately, since we were on the road, I couldn't get a good angle on the picture of the rainbow to show it going over the castle.  Instead you'll see the rainbow on the right and the castle on the left.  When we got back into town, we finished off with some more pub crawling, dinner, and called it a night.  The next morning we packed up, cabbed back to the airport, and headed home.

Scotland was fun, but I wish the weather had been nicer.  We might have to go back to visit further north in the country where all the distilleries are.  I'll just have to leave my wallet at home. :)

Check back in mid July for the next post about our week long trip to Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia.

To see pictures, click here or any pictures in the post.