Scotland: Old Man of Storr

After our crazy long drive we finally reached Isle of Skye. Then we had to keep driving to reach our destination point, Old Man of Storr. I had read about the hike online and thought after that much driving we needed to get out and move. The hike wasn't too long, about 3 hours total, but it was killer. It was pretty straight up, and I really wanted to quit when I had already been going up for a while and then saw the mountains looming right ahead of me. I'm so glad that I didn't though, the views from the top were amazing.

When we reached the base of Old Man of Storr there are 2 trails, one is pretty much straight up, and the other curves out to the side a bit, and is probably a bit easier. Hal took the straight up and I took the side one. I'd suggest taking the side one, because it leads you to a different look out point first, and then it's easy to talk over to Old Man of Storr from there, and then you can climb down the straight up path. Best of both worlds.

 This is the point where I wanted to quit, but I was so glad that I didn't.

There was a lot of logging going on at the front of the trail. It was a bit sad to watch them cut down those beautiful trees.

Scotland: Drive through the highlands

In order to get to the Isle of Skye from Colintraive where we were staying, we had to take a 5 hour drive through the highlands. I had heard that Isle of Skye was the most beautiful place in all of Scotland so I was really hoping the drive would be worth it. Let me just say, I think that the drive was the most beautiful drive I've ever been on. We saw stunning mountain views, saw Loch Lochy which is the most crystal clear lake I've ever seen, and we even got a glimpse of Loch Ness before making it to Skye. The drive was long, but it was totally worth it.

Are you ready to be blown away in pictures? Most of these were taken right around Glencoe. We really wanted to stop there, because has was born in Glencoe...Minnesota, so we had to see the namesake for his birthplace. The town isn't much, but the surround area is stunning.

Scotland: Dunoon

Our tiny little Colintraive village is too small for a grocer store, so we had to drive 30 minutes to the closest town, Dunoon. The first time we went to Dunoon it was raining very hard and we didn't get to see too much of the city. We loaded up on our water and bueno and got out of town (which side note, how delicious is Kinder Bueno?)  Well it seems that we're grocery store frequenters, so we made it back to Dunoon again. This time we went to Castle House Museum. It's a tiny little museum and was relatively cheap at 2 pounds. I wouldn't go again, but it was nice to support the community.

Dunoon is full of beautiful old churches, each with their amazingly beautiful cemeteries. The town is definitely worth walking around.

Also, we had the best fish and chips at a place called Anselmo's in Dunoon. I got chicken and chips, and my sister and I both agreed it was some of the best chicken we've ever eaten. A big improvement over the random fish and chips shop we ate at in Glasgow.

Scotland: Colintraive

After we spent some time in the bigger cities we decided we wanted to stay in the countryside for the rest of our time in Scotland. We ended up renting a house in a tiny little town called Colintraive, which is about 2 1/2 hours west of Glasgow. It's situated on an inlet from the ocean and the view from our front window was stunning. It looked out across the Isle of Bute. We saw sailboats floating by all day long and even saw a few dolphins!

It rained almost every single day we were in Scotland. And I mean it rained. Our last two days we finally saw some sunshine and soaked it up while the tide was out.

Colintraive is the greatest little picturesque Scottish countryside town. I'd highly recommend it if that's the vacation you're looking for. The Colintraive Hotel is also lovely. I highly recommend eating there, even if you don't stay there. I had the best homemade tomato soup I've ever had before!

Scotland: Glasgow

After spending 2 days in Edinburgh we took the hour long train to Glasgow for a day of fun. We stayed at the Sandyford Hotel, which is about 2 miles from the city center. You can take buses into the city center very easily, but we ended up walking all the way from our hotel to Glasgow Cathedral on the other side of town. Sadly, by the time we walked there the Cathedral had just closed. Boo! We still were able to look around it and take wonderful pictures. We also spent a while walking around the Glasgow Necropolis which is connected to the Cathedral.

We had a good time in Glasgow, it had a much more laid back feel to it. It also appeared to have a huge night life, which really surprised me on our walk back to the hotel.

It's a good thing we did so much walking in the cities, because we ate like starving people. Especially Hal and I who had unlimited access to western food for the first time in 8 months. For dinner in Glasgow we ate at the Konaki Greek Tavern.  It was super close to our hotel and was fabulous. We ordered 2 chicken kabobs with potatoes and veggies, and hummus and pita and stuffed ourselves silly on wonderful greek food. I'd seriously recommend eating there if you're in the area.

Scotland: Edinburgh

Hal and I flew into Glasgow airport from London and met up with his best friend, also named Sam at the airport. We took a bus to the Paisley station (the closest one to the airport) and went to the Exhibition Center stop which was close to our hotel.

We were freezing. SO cold. It was 90 degrees with 50% humidity every day when we left Cambodia. It was snowing when we landed in Glasgow. We pretty much wore every warm thing we owned the entire time we were there. This is my first official picture of myself in the country I have been dreaming of going to for years and years.

We spent the night there and took a train the next morning to meet my sister and her husband in Edinburgh. Edinburgh is beautiful. I love that they have preserved SO many old buildings. The first day we spent mostly in new town and the second day we visited old town and the royal mile. We went to see Edinburgh Castle, which was very cool, but not the castle experience we were expecting.

Want the beautiful castle experience you think of, when you think of castles go to the Holyrood House, it's the Queen's palace where she stays when she comes to Edinburgh. We walked there from the castle, along the royal mile, but it was closed by the time we got there. There is also a beautiful hilltop cemetery around the corner from the Holyrood House.

After visting the cemetary which had graves older than America we started walking back in the direction of our hotel. We saw the mini hike up to Calton's hill and decided to do it. It was very beautiful up there. It's not a hard walk up the hill, and there are stunning views of the city up there. Definitely worth it.

Those are the main things we did in Edinburgh, but it's such a beautiful city I couldn't help posting some pictures of scenery and beautiful buildings.

Scotland Teaser

Hal and I are back from our dream vacation to Scotland. Apparently going back 6 hours is a lot easier on the jet lag than jumping forward 6 hours. Since we're still slow going, trying to recover from jet lag I thought I'd post some teaser pictures from our vacation. Hope you enjoy.