But let's get started.
A little background. My granny (My mom's mom) has forever dreamed of traveling to Scotland. She is big into genealogy, and has trailed our ancestors back to this MacDonald clan, that was from the Highlands of Scotland. Way back in the day (1692) there was a massacre of the MacDonald clan of Glencoe. Click here to read the story.
So we skipped the country for two weeks. Hopped on a plane Monday, and arrived in London Tuesday morning about six. We got on a shuttle to the rent a car place, had I mentioned we were renting a car? We met an older gentleman on the shuttle, when we told him we were renting a car to drive through England and Scotland he just laughed. I'm thinking, what are we getting ourselves into.
After getting our car rented we set out. Within the first few minutes we almost have a wreck. Remember this is LONDON, they drive on the WRONG side of the road, on the WRONG side of the car, and it's a manual. I have to say, for that first day I was wondering if I'd make it home alive. We got really lost, and after awhile I just stuck my ipod on and made myself sleep. When I woke up, we seemed to have finally made our way out of London. The countryside is absolutely gorgeous, everything you'd imagine.
We randomly came upon the Stonehenge, so we stopped for a minute just to check it out. It was raining so we didn't stay long.
We plunged on, more driving and driving. Trying to find a main interstate ((or carriageway)) But no luck. We drove through a lot of super cute little villages, and I wanted so bad to stop and take pictures. But we kept trudging on. Unfortunately too, on the roads, there aren't any places to pull over and take pictures. Their roads are nothing like our roads. So a lot of the pictures were taken from the car.
After getting lost in this one day, we drove by the auto shop to ask for directions. We ended up talking to this very nice fella named Pete. He told us his wife would be there soon to pick him up, so we could just follow him out and he'd lead us to the main highway. He ended up showing us this cute little pub to eat at, and gave us his navigation system! Bertha saved our lives!
That night we stayed in this cute little Best Western.
The next day we trudged on. Bound for Glasgow.It was dark by the time we reached Glasgow, and it was quite the time trying to find our hotel. To finally get there, it took us a new map, to add to our already growing map collection, a taxi driver lady, and Jim going into a gay bar. In the process of this all we turned down a wrong way street and had numerous people running after us waving and yelling "Your going the wrong way!" Did I mention how crazy the driving is over there?
We found our hotel, got checked in, ate a bite and off the bed. The next day found us venturing off the Edinburgh! The Military Tattoo was our main reason for being there.
Edinburgh Castle!
The Tattoo. Those stands became completely filled!
This was just one of the many shows that took place.
The next day we ventured out into Glasgow on a Hop on Hop off bus.
We stayed one more night in Glasgow. Then Glencoe bound we were.
Driving!
Getting up into the Highlands.
My Granny!
Can we say, gorgeous!?
We made it to Glencoe, visted the visitors center and whatnot. Glencoe was teeny, really not much of anything there. Just houses mostly.
We drove on the Fort Williams where we stayed the night. It was a adorable little place!
The next day we decided to go see Loch Ness! On the way up we visited Urquhart Castle!
This is Loch Ness! Do you spot Nessie??
Later that day we drove town and stayed at Pethshire (Where my last post took place) and say the Blair Atholl castle. We toured the inside but you weren't allowed to take pictures. It was amazing inside! Though I personally like the ruins of castles better.
Cute little draft horses!
We drove, drove, drove some more, ended up going back into Edinburgh, saw Hadrians Wall. Stayed the night in a Premier Inn, and the next day visited Scone Palace!
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We kept driving and ended up back in London! Slept, and the next day hopped on another Hop on Hop off bus and toured!
Buckingham Palace!
Big Ben.
Westminster Abbey!
((If dead people are your thing, this is the place for you!))
The next day we got on a plane and came home.I feel like I left out a lot of detail. But it's hard to throw two weeks of travels into a post. I also took about 981 pictures, so weeding through all them was something else too.
The countryside was absolutely gorgeous everywhere we went. I think I loved the country going from England into Scotland the most. Everyone we met was super nice, minus the drivers. I drove the last three days! It was a lot of fun, and I only almost killed us once (: But the roads are narrow, and if there is a speed limit its not paid attention too. I'd be running 80-85 and everyone passed me.
The Pubs have really good food, and they were just fun period. We got into a conversation with this cute old man in one in Edinburgh. Who said we had to be republicans because there weren't any democrats in Texas, not alive ones anyway.
I still love the accents, but their brogue is so hard to understand.
There is way more I could share, definitely more pictures. But I'll just have to leave you with this, and say sorry for the lengthy post. ((It's only taken me three days to complete it!)) and blame our internet connection for it taking me so long.
Until next time!
