Tuesday, November 13, 2018

Scotland Part 2

It’s taken a while to finish up my trip blog. But here’s the second part of my trip!

We left Edinburgh on Friday morning and headed north towards Aviemore which is in Cairngorms National Park, in the Scottish Highlands. But on the way we has some sightseeing and made a few stops.

DSC01881

DSC01882

First up, St Andrews where Prince William went to school and met Kate Middleton. Just saying. But there’s also a rather famous golf course there, St. Andrews.

Here’s the driving range-

DSC01886

IMG_2530

And the sea just beyond-

Looking out at the city of St Andrews

DSC01891

We also stopped at the Cathedral and the grave yard

DSC01897

DSC01903DSC01906

I found an Ainslie but this is a bit far north for our Ainslie’s-but maybe not…

DSC01905

We traveled on to Glamis Castle and had a great tour, but you couldn’t take pictures inside. Lunch was fresh soup and sandwiches of which I ate heartily.

DSC01917

DSC01920

The Highland Cow grazing on the grounds-

DSC01923

We stopped in the little town of Pitlochry and had a nice wander.

DSC01929DSC01932

DSC01931

We got to our hotel in Avimore

IMG_2533

IMG_2532

The following day we set out for the battlefield of Culloden, a battle led by Bonnie Prince Charlie to restore a Scot to the throne. The highlanders were soundly defeated which effectively ended the Highlander’s way of life. It’s quite a place. and the history is fascinating.

There was a short demonstration of the hierarchy of the clans and the reason the highlanders went to battle.

DSC01943

 DSC01955

DSC01951DSC01949

I also visited the gift shop and found a knitting book-

DSC01958I didn’t buy it but I found it!

We stopped by the cairns of Clava-

DSC01973

DSC01967

DSC01972DSC01971

We lunched at Inverness

DSC01980

And then headed to Singleton Whisky Distillery for a tour and a tasting!

DSC01988

IMG_2537

Back to the hotel for dinner and then Sunday was off to Loch Ness!

DSC02005

DSC01996

Doing my Insight rep-

IMG_2544

DSC01998

DSC02001

We traveled forth and the weather improved. We saw a castle on Loch Alsh-Eilean Donan Castle

DSC02013

DSC02017

And headed for the Isle of Skye and Armadale Castle. This castle had a fire in 1855 which destroyed the back of the house and it was never repaired. Which is sad because it would have been beautiful-looking out over the sea.

DSC02032

DSC02036

Stairs to nowhere

DSC02031

The view from the house

DSC02035

And the view from the trails below

DSC02042DSC02044DSC02047

We took a ferry to the mainland and headed for the mainland

DSC02057Our bus!

DSC02059

And a selfie over the water!

DSC02055

We made one more stop on our way to Fort William-Glenfinnan

DSC02069DSC02072

That would be the unknown highlander on a plinth.

This is the place where Bonnie Prince Charlie came and raised his standard, he claimed the Scottish and the English thrones in the name of his father James Stuart. However, eight months later he and the highlanders were roundly defeated at Culloden and the highlanders crushed and subsequently oppressed and crushed….but maybe not completely.

DSC02071

And a view of the Harry Potter train bridge

DSC02064

Can you barely see it?

We also stopped and looked at a lock system  which was a marvel but what was more fun is when I got to the top of the steps of the lock I met a Scottish cat

DSC02076Top of the lock

DSC02078My new best friend

IMG_2562

DSC02082I will rub against your leg

DSC02083

What? Leaving—then I will turn my back on you-

DSC02081

I love cats.

We stayed at an interesting place with a sort of unworking elevator. Which was ok cause we had lots of stair training by then. Our room was ok-but the shower was great!

Pigeons hanging out across the hotel courtyard.

DSC02084

We had a lovely dinner and off to Glasgow through the highland scenery.

DSC02091

DSC02101

And a windy wet selfie-

DSC02095

We had a boat tour on the Loch Lamond-

DSC02103

DSC02105

DSC02114

DSC02116

DSC02125

We then drove off to our final city destination-Glasgow.

We toured the city starting with the Glasgow Cathedral-One of the sights of the filming of Outlander-for all the Outlander fans!

DSC02138

DSC02140

The Tomb of St. Mungo-

He is famous for four Miracles

Here is the bird that never flew
Here is the tree that never grew
Here is the bell that never rang
Here is the fish that never swam

He’s very beloved in Scotland.

Outlander Fans----

DSC02143

DSC02147DSC02144

It was a very beautiful place.

We drove about the city in our huge bus-

DSC02157DSC02165

DSC02170

And my favorite place-

The Cat Cafe. That’s what I’m talking about.

DSC02158

The view from our hotel-

DSC02172

DSC02174

Dinner and a beer. This was actually the best beer I had in Scotland.

IMG_2602

Our last day in Scotland was spent at the Stirling Castle, and then to see the Kewpies—both of which were awesome!

DSC02179

The views were awesome-

DSC02180

DSC02181

DSC02183DSC02186

DSC02189

DSC02197DSC02203DSC02222

And Kewpies

DSC02234

DSC02232

DSC02238

We got back to the hotel-Laura went shopping and I chillaxed for a bit.

We went down to the bar

IMG_2615

and off to our final group dinner.

The following AM we were off early and back to the airport and back to where we began the whole adventure.

IMG_2617

It’s so hard to imagine I was even gone. I loved Scotland and I’m sure that in the upcoming years Dave and I will go back and explore all the things I didn’t get to this time.

Puddy was totally glad I was back…..

IMG_2627