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.

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-

And the sea just beyond-

Looking out at the city of St Andrews

We also stopped at the Cathedral and the grave yard

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

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.

The Highland Cow grazing on the grounds-

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

We got to our hotel in Avimore

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.

 

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

I didn’t buy it but I found it!

We stopped by the cairns of Clava-

We lunched at Inverness

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

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

Doing my Insight rep-

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

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.

Stairs to nowhere

The view from the house

And the view from the trails below

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

Our bus!

And a selfie over the water!

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

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.

And a view of the Harry Potter train bridge

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

Top of the lock

My new best friend

I will rub against your leg

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

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.

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

And a windy wet selfie-

We had a boat tour on the Loch Lamond-

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!

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----

It was a very beautiful place.

We drove about the city in our huge bus-

And my favorite place-

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

The view from our hotel-

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

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

The views were awesome-

And Kewpies

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

We went down to the bar

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.

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…..