Ever since we moved to Munich, I had Scotland on my list of
‘must-see’ locations. When my brother,
Logan, and his wife, Ashley, decided to come for another visit in April, we all
decided that Scotland would be the perfect place for three gingers (and Noah)
to visit. I can say that after spending
9 days in the north of Britain, I found I enjoyed it even more than I expected.
We arrived in Edinburgh Saturday afternoon and picked up our
rental car. Noah mastered driving on the
left (again) quickly, and even navigated the city with only a few wrong
turns. After locating our hotel and
dropping off our bags, we decided to walk around the town a bit. Logan’s destination was a Barclays bank to
avoid ATM fees, and on the way there we passed some beautiful architecture and
views.
After the Barclays stop (which ended up being the location
where someone swiped Logan’s ATM information and stole a few thousand pounds….
watch out Americans without a chip on your debit card), we stopped for a
pre-dinner dinner of 5£ fish and chips. It
sure wasn’t the best fish and chips we had on the trip, but it was enough to
hold us over through our next stop – sunset at Calton Hill.
While we didn’t capture the dramatic sunset I was hoping for
(lack of clouds), we still had a great time and were able to get a few group
shots and some nice photos of the city.
Once it was dark enough, we wandered back down Princes St
and found a pub near our hotel. Here is
where I remembered that the UK has cider!!
Cider wouldn’t be ‘pure’ enough for the Bavarians, though I guess a
Radler is as close as I will get.
We woke up Sunday and officially began our weeklong road
trip. First stop – St Andrews. I clearly needed to brush up on my UK trivia
as I had no idea that this was the place Will and Kate met, nor that there is a
famous golf tournament held there. I
just knew that there were some pretty ruins I wanted to see – the St Andrews
Cathedral. It was built back in the 12th
century as a Catholic cathedral (the largest ever built in Scotland), but after
Catholic mass was outlawed in the 16th century, it fell into
disuse.
After exploring the ruins, we wandered through the little
town and saw the St Andrews Castle ruins from afar (it cost £ to go in). We
then had delicious ice cream at Jannettas Gelateria – only afterwards learning
that this is THE place to get ice cream in the area. Definitely worth the long line.
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| Cute stone buildings |
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| The Castle |
Our drive continued through a nice rain/hail/snow storm, and
we made it to Dunnottar Castle (more ruins!!).
Luckily the hail/snow and most of the rain wore off by the time we
parked, so we pushed on to make it to the ruins before they stop selling
tickets. After the small hike out
towards the cliff edge entrance, we purchased our tickets and made our way
inside… just as the rain returned. We
ran around the grounds in our raincoats and umbrellas… oh wait, it was only me
with both. I ran around with my raincoat
and umbrella while the others got a wee bit wet with just raincoats, and tried
to see everything in the hour we had before closing. Just as we left the gate and began walking
the path back up the mainland, the rain stopped and gave us a few clear shots
of the castle.
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| On the drive |
5 minutes after getting back on the road, the snow
came. Of course – it is late April, why
wouldn’t it be snowing?? We arrive at
our B&B for the night, and the owner let us know that this weather is NOT
normal, so I decided to consider it lucky to experience this strange spring
snow. But the poor little babies that
were recently born (the lambs and calves we saw everywhere) probably didn't agree.
We ended the night at the Lairhillock Inn pub where us gals
had the best fish and chips ever, and the guys had equally delicious Scottish
roast beef. YUM.
Noah and I decided to wake up early Monday to try to catch
sunrise back at Dunnottar Castle. Again
the clouds could have done more for us, but I never regret getting up
after-the-fact (while the alarm is going off though… that is another
story).
Noah and I returned to the B&B to collect the Steffens’,
and we decided to check out the town of Stonehaven before starting the day’s
drive. It was a cute town with a pretty
beach, but not much in the way of shopping or food that we could see.
Based on the recommendation of the B&B owner and the
route Garmin naturally gave us, we decided to make our way to Loch Ness via the
Cairngorms National Park. Our timing was
good because just the day before, the pass over the top of the mountains was
closed from that hail/snow/rainstorm.
But while we were in Stonehaven that morning, they had plowed the roads
just for us! The drive was gorgeous – I
had no idea how ‘high’ the highlands would go.
Plus I had my first close up sighting of a highland cow, my new
obsession. These guys are so adorable
with their fluffy fur and rocker hairstyles.
Eventually we made it to Loch Ness, and visited… you guessed
it!... another set of castle ruins!!
This one is called Urquhart – and it dates from the 13th
century. I am usually not a fan of
informational movies at sites like these, but they do a really good job with
it. And they have a very nice gift shop
– I found my red wool tartan blanket I had been searching for.
For dinner we ventured into Fort Augustus based on a recommendation
from the hotel. Our destination was the Boathouse
Restaurant – and not only was the food delicious, but the lighting in Fort
Augustus was fabulous.
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| Ashley and I waiting on the food |
Tuesday morning we woke up to light drizzle, but that didn’t
stop us from going back into Fort Augustus to sign up for a Loch Ness boat
ride. What did stop us was the fact that
only 2 other people had the same idea, and 12 are needed for the boat to
run. Since Logan didn’t want to shell
out the money to buy up the other 6 seats, we instead entertained ourselves by
watching two boats make their way down the series of locks towards Loch
Ness.
Our next stop on the Scotland Road Trip 2015 – Eilean Donan
Castle. Nope, they are NOT ruins! Well, they were left to ruins in the 18th
century, but Lt. Col. John MacRae-Gilstrap restored them in the beginning of
the 20th century. So we
finally had a castle to visit that had a roof!
Now it was time to begin heading to the Isle of Skye – the
main reason for the giant road trip. I
mean why can’t Edinburgh be a bit closer to this island?? We took our time enjoying the drive, stopping
along the way at the Sligachan Stone Bridge, for me to stalk my next highland
cow, and then for us to see Mealt Falls.
I won’t include the photos of Mealt Falls here because we went two more
times and those are better photos.
By the time we arrive at the gorgeous Flodigarry hotel, the
lighting outside was incredible. And as
Logan and Ashley had asked me to take some maternity photos during this trip, I
demanded that we spend the next hour outside while I photographed the expanding
Steffens family.
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| It isn't easy getting Logan to be serious |
We had planned to do a hike out on the Isle of Skye,
specifically hike the Quiraing. But the
bad weather we had faced on the mainland the days before had also hit the Isle
of Skye, turning the paths into mud and puddles. As the Quiraing hike was on the edge of
mountains, we decided to change tactics and hike the Rubha Hunish. Unfortunately for Ashley, the mud was too
much for her tennis shoes, so us non-pregnant folks made the trek to the point
instead. It was a beautiful hike – with
views of the coast all around and the Quiraing in the distance.
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| Ok, they were only on the drive to the hike - but they were too cute to leave out of the blog |
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| The Quiraing on the left covered in clouds... good choice to stick to the coast! |
Lunch on Wednesday will go down in my books as the best meal
I had in Scotland – savory and sweet pies at Skye Pie Café at the Glenview
hotel. Oh My Goodness, I would consider
moving here just to eat at this place every day. Noah and I shared two pies – a tomato sauce
based seafood pie and a crab, cheese, and spinach pie. Noah and Ashley who aren’t really into pies
(I think they need to be tested for a psychological disorder) thought they were
good, for pies… The sane siblings however knew how to enjoy this lunch/dessert
combo (dessert was an apple crumble pie that I ate too quickly to get a photo).
As we had no real plans for the rest of the day, we decided
to drive around the north part of the island.
We of course went back to Mealt Falls/Kilt Rock (named because the rock
formation looks like a kilt), and drove across the Quiraing to Uig, then along
the coast back to the hotel. Naturally
we stumbled upon some ruins (Duntulm Castle) and saw lots and lots of sheep.
The sun was shining Thursday, and we decided to begin the
day with a dinosaur hunt… or more specifically for fossilized dinosaur
footprints at Staffin Beach. There was a
plaque with an incredibly unhelpful map of where to locate the footprints, and
we all set out searching for them in the mossy rocks. After about 10 minutes I gave up and went to
take photos of the water instead. 20
minutes later the other three are still searching, and I decided to move from
my spot over to the sandy beach. As I am
making my way across the rocks further down from the amateur fossil hunters, I
happened to look down and see the footprints – MUCH further down the beach than
the map suggested. All’s well that ends
well though, and we got to check out the footprints and I got to play with the
camera.
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| It's like a Where's Waldo/Wally/Walter of dino-track searchers! Noah is up at the map trying to guide them, but that map sucks too much. |
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| Meanwhile, I am enjoying the beach |
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| Ta-da! |
As we were moving to a different part of the island today,
we did the same drive across the Quiraing, only this time with blue skies and
gorgeous views. Oh – and of course a
third and last trip to Mealt Falls/Kilt Rock to say goodbye.
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| Now they have blue skies behind them! |
Our next stop was yet another castle – Dunvegan Castle. This is Scotland’s oldest continuously
inhabited castle – home of the chiefs of the Macleod clan for over 800
years. This castle had gorgeous gardens
all around – I think I enjoyed the tulips more than the castle itself. We also got to tour around inside, but no
photos were allowed in the castle itself.
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| I was in love with the tulips |
We had yet another fabulous dinner at The Old School
Restaurant in Dunvegan. I have forgotten
how much I love seafood as Bavaria isn’t really known for good seafood (apart
from steckerlfisch). Scotland continued
to impress me with the delicious restaurants.
We had to wrap up dinner early as I had another sunset
location on my itinerary – this one out on Neist Point, about 30 minutes from
our hotel in Dunvegan. Well it would
normally be about 30 minutes except we encountered a nice Scottish traffic jam…
of a sheep herding. No worries – it was
more fun to sit and watch the dog do its thing and move the sheep down the
road. Except at the end, when it was
time for the sheep to turn into the gate and they panicked and made a 180
towards our car. Luckily the woman in
charge managed to stop them from escaping, and they all successfully made it to
their final destination.
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| That dog sure knew what to do! |
We stopped to thank the woman for the nice show, and she
ended up thanking us for not being jerks on the road. Apparently earlier, she was moving a
different flock and a tour bus came up the road. These roads are small backcountry roads not
designed for a bunch of traffic, but the tour bus kept creeping forward and had
its tires at the back feet of the little lambs.
What a jerk! I mean clearly the
tour bus was full of tourists – I feel like tourists should always have to
politely defer to locals in these situations…. not try to run over these
people’s sheep! End rant.
We made it to Neist Point and its lighthouse with right as
the sun began its final descent. As is
true with the other attempts at capturing an amazing sunset/rise, the clouds
just didn’t want to cooperate. Oh well –
it was still a beautiful sunset and an enjoyable end to a great day.
I woke up Friday morning and looked out the window to see
that there were AMAZING reflections on Loch Dunvegan. Naturally I threw some clothes on and ran out
towards the lake to snap some pictures.
Next up on the itinerary was the Fairy Pools at Glen Brittle
– definitely the highlight of the trip for me.
I am sure the gorgeous weather didn’t hurt. It was a short hike from the parking lot to
the various pools along the tributary.
The water is perfectly clear, the blue sky reflecting on it made it look
turquoise, and if it wasn’t so cold I think we all would have jumped in with
our clothes on. I do have to say that
the photo you find online when you google the pools is this set of waterfalls –
we did make it there, but these falls are only about 1-2 feet tall…. It is all
about the angle of the camera!
After we had our fill of the fairy pools, it was time to
head to Talisker for a whisky distillery tour and an amazing fresh seafood
lunch at the Oyster Shed. We have no
photos of the tour, but I do have a photo of Noah’s and my lunch of fresh
lobster, mussels, shrimp, fish, and scallops.
Now that we were done with our time on the Isle of Skye, we
had a long road ahead of us to get back to Edinburgh. To help break up the drive across Scotland,
we stopped for the night in Loch Lomond.
I am sure the place deserved more time than we gave it, but the next morning
we were back in the car towards Edinburgh.
We arrived back in our starting city in the early afternoon,
and made our way to Rose Street for lunch.
On the walk through the city, we saw a wild fox roaming the street. I ended up googling this to see what was
going on, and apparently Edinburgh has been having an issue the past few years
with feral foxes entering the city. Hope
people have their small dogs and cats locked up safe!
After lunch we made our way up to Edinburgh Castle – it sits
atop a hill with beautiful views of the city.
The castle is a definite tourist hotspot – there were a lot of us there
that Saturday, even though the weather was overcast and had spots of
drizzle. There are plenty of buildings
that you can explore, including the old prison and a military museum.
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| On the right - a member of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guard |
As luck would have it we timed our visit so that as we were
ready to leave, the castle was closing.
We wandered down the Royal Mile and back to the hotel. That night we enjoyed our last meal of fish and
chips and then hit up a pub for dessert/drinks.
We awoke to our first full day of rain on Sunday. No worries – we had plans to hit up Camera Obscura, a cool attraction Noah had discovered.
The actual Camera Obscura is in the top floor of the building. It is an old exhibition observatory built in
the 1800s. Basically it is like sitting
inside a camera where the lens can be moved all around the top of the
tower. You sit in a dark room with a
round table while the guide moves the camera around. You can see all around Edinburgh, the people
visiting the castle, the cars driving past the Royal Mile, etc.
Then the rest of the floors are their ‘World of Illusions’ –
filled with holograms, tricks of the eye, a mirror maze, and a rotating vortex
tunnel. We did rush through it a bit on
the fast side since a huge group of (very loud) school kids were on our heels.
Now I am officially out of pictures for the rest of the day
– so the delicious Mexican food lunch with FRESH CHURROS as dessert will not
have photo accompaniment. Neither will
the drive back to the airport and the journey to the apartment, but you can
believe that there were two little pups that were very happy that our trip had
come to an end.
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