Scotland

We have been in Croatia for over a week now but I have been so busy that I am just now sitting down to write about our last country…Scotland!

Here was our itinerary for Scotland:
Edinburgh- 2 days
St. Andrews- 1 day
Loch Lomond & Trossachs National Park- 2 days
Oban & Glencoe- 2 days

Scotland and I did not get off to the greatest of starts haha. We landed in Edinburgh a late in the afternoon. We waited to grab our bags at the carrousel and when they came out they were completely soaked! We shrugged it off, strapped them on, and headed for the exit. The airport was so crowded and there was a performance being done with goats in the walkways! I forgot to mention that Fringe Festival was going on while we were there. Fringe is largest arts festival in the world. They have other festivals in other cities, but Edinburgh is the biggest! It is impossible to explain the scale of this thing. There are hundreds of comedians, dancers, bands, circus acts, short plays, etc…the list goes on and on! They perform in hundreds of venues all over the city, all day, for a month. There are also tons of street performers! That is the best way I can described this Festival…it’s insane. Anyway, back to the airport. So, as we were leaving there was a Fringe performance going on inside the airport and they had goats. It was so random and trying to navigate around them and all the people trying to leave the airport was crazy! Then it got worse. We got to the exit to catch the train into town and it was absolutely pouring down rain and no one knew what to do. All the tourists were just standing in front of the doors, blocking the exit and panicking! It was such a mess! Ross and I were somehow able to find a spot to step to the side and put on our rain gear. We geared up, pushed and shoved our way through the carnage, and made a mad dash for the train in to town. The ride was very easy, the train dropped us off right in the middle of the city so we only had to walk 5-10min to the hotel. Lucky for us, the rain magically stopped once we arrived in the city and we had a nice dry walk to the hotel. That night we basically just went and had dinner and chilled in the room since we had a busy day planned the next day.

Leaving the airport in the rain

We woke up the next morning and I reluctantly pulled aside the curtains expecting the worst…I was wrong! It wasn’t perfect weather but it also wasn’t raining! We got out early exploring the city and I realized that my 1st impressions were not the best. The city was beautiful! It is full of UNESCO Heritage sites and is brimming with history! We walked up to Edinburgh Castle and then down through the Royal Mile. The Royal Mile is a big, long street that forms the main thoroughfare of the old town. There are tons of bars, and shops and, since Fringe was going on, there were street performers everywhere! We took our time just walking along, listening to different performers, some good and some bad (there was a guy in terrible drag, playing heavy metal music and he couldn’t sing at all!) The city was absolutely buzzing and by this time the clouds had cleared and it became an absolutely gorgeous, sunny day! We walked by the Scottish Parliament Building and decided to check it out (it was free!) Inside you could tour Parliament and they also had the World Press Photo Exhibition there. I really enjoyed seeing all the photos and learning about Scottish Parliament. We then headed to Holyrood Park to climb up to Arthur’s Seat. The walk we beautiful, the weather couldn’t have been more perfect. Plus, the views from the top were fantastic! You could see the whole city from the top! Who would have thought that such a huge park with so many hiking trails would exist in the middle of a big city like this? On our walk back into town we waked through Grassmarket Square. There were dozens of bars lining the streets and bands playing. We grabbed a seat at one of the outdoor bars, ordered some drinks and just listened to the music and people watched. Ross loved this area.

Royal Mile & Fringe Festival 

Edinburgh Castle 

View from Arthur's Seat 

The next day we were up and on our way to St. Andrews. We rented a car for our week in Scotland so we had to head back to the airport to pick up the car. The beautiful weather from the day before was gone and it was cloudy and immediately starting raining on our drive.

Side Note: It became the running joke of the trip that it only rained in Scotland while we were driving. This was sooo true! Every time we had to drive to a new city it would pour down rain and then clear up as soon as we arrived.

It absolutely poured the whole way to St. Andrews…the road was actually flooded at one point! As I said earlier though, as soon as we arrived in town, it stopped. We stayed at a B&B right near the beach. We had a bedroom and a little sitting area that overlooked the back garden. We spent the day walking around the beach and up to St. Andrews Cathedral. Even though it was a little chilly, the beach was very pretty. There were tide pools all along the walk that we could stop and explore. St. Andrews Cathedral was the highlight for me. As I have said, I love old ruins and that is exactly what the Cathedral was! It was built in 1158 but was damaged and fell into disuse after Catholic mass was outlawed in Scotland during the 16th century. The grounds were massive with a few old cemeteries and remnants of the original cathedral, walls and towers. These were by far my favorite ruins in Scotland! The next day we walked around the city, St. Andrews Castle and St. Andrews golf course. It was an absolutely beautiful day and we spent a ton of time walking around the golf course and just watching the golfers. For as expensive and iconic a course that St. Andrews is, I was not impressed with the level of play. I was almost hit twice by rogue balls while I was walking on the sidewalk outside the course! Ross really wanted to get a picture at the 18th hole. I don’t know much about golf so he explained to me that every few years the Open is played at St. Andrews and the winner gets their picture taken on this little bridge by the 18th hole. In between golfers playing their rounds you are allowed to run out and get a picture. Ross now has a picture looking like the Open Champ haha! St. Andrews was such a pretty and quaint little town. I would not have made a stop there if it had been up to me, but I am so happy that Ross suggested it. I really enjoyed our day there.

18th Hole at St. Andrews

St. Andrews Cathedral

Exploring the tide pools

From St. Andrews we made the 2 ½ hour drive up to Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park. Again…it rained the whole drive and again, it was beautiful and sunny once we arrived! The park is very long a skinny and runs up both sides of Loch Lomond and covers about 64 square miles. We stayed right at the entrance to the southern part of the park at basically the only hotel around that had a bar and restaurant (score)! There were tons of backpackers hiking and camping through the area and loads of trails. Our first morning there we decided to hike Conic Hill. There were tons of reviews kind of poo pooing this hike but we thought it looked beautiful. I am so happy we did not listen to the reviews because it was the highlight of Scotland for me! It was not a super long hike (2-2 1/2 hours round trip) but it was very steep so we felt like we got a decent workout. What made it so great though were the views! It looked back over Loch Lomond and all the little islands around the lake!

Side Note: I had been asking Ross for a few days if he thought we would see any yaks during our trip. I love the way they look…all fluffy with what looks like bangs covering their faces. They are so stinking cute and I was dying to see one! He had told me that he thought they were pretty far north and that we probably wouldn’t see any.

We were about 20 min from the top of Conic Hill and hiking up a pretty steep section. Ross was a little bit ahead of me and was coming up on a curve in the path that I couldn’t see around. He started motioning something to me but I didn’t know what he was trying to tell me. About 30 seconds later I came around the bend and to my delight, there, in the middle of the path, were about 10 yaks…just munching away on some grass! I just about died with excitement! There was one that was standing perfectly in the path, looking straight at us, with Loch Lomond in the background…the most photogenic yak ever! We snapped a few pictures and then I had Ross get one of me with the yak….highlight of my trip! After getting over my yak siting excitement, we reached the top. The views were spectacular! We just sat there for about 30 minutes looking out at the whole national park…it was breathtaking. I would highly recommend this hike to anyone! We got back into town just before dinner. It was such a beautiful, sunny day that we sat outside at the bar in our hotel and had a beer and enjoyed the sunshine. Honestly, we couldn’t have asked for a better stay in Loch Lomond!

View from Conic Hill hike 

Posing with my new friend on Conic Hill 

Most photogenic yak ever!

After our 2 nights in the park we headed north again, this time up to Oban to stay and hike around Glencoe. Like clockwork…it absolutely dumped rain our whole drive up. It was a bit disappointing because the drive through Loch Lomond is supposed to be beautiful and we could barley see the road, let alone any scenery. Since the weather was so grim we decided to just skip any exploring that day and go to the movies. We both really wanted to see the new Lion King movie so we booked tickets to see it in Oban. The movie was fantastic and sure enough, when we came out of the theater, it was sunny! We went back and checked into our B&B. It was on the outskirts of town in this cool, huge, old house. The room was very nice and it was right on the water. The lady who ran the place was soooo weird though! I had no idea what she was saying. I thought maybe it was just that I could not understand her accent so I just smiled and nodded. She rambled on forever! Once we got up to the room though Ross was saying how strange she was. She was just rambling about god knows what and making no sense at all haha! Very very odd woman. The next day we drove into Glencoe to explore and do some hiking. The area around Glencoe Valley is known for its waterfalls, hiking trails, beautiful scenery and the 3 Sisters Mountain Peaks. There are tons of places to just stop along the drive and take photos and also do hikes anywhere from 15 minutes to a few hours. We stopped to hike An Torr, which was kind of a bust. It was supposed to have this beautiful view, but in reality, you hiked about 15 min, climbed this rock, and the view was completely blocked by a big tree…fail! There were other trails around that area though that were really nice. We also stopped at Loch Achtriochtan. It is just a beautiful spot to take pictures, with a bridge to stand on and views of the lake and mountains in the back. Naturally, there were tons of tourists there. There was this one crazy guy who was sprinting around taking pictures of god knows what (literally the parking lot, the bus, the ground…it was hilarious). We waited until there was a break in the crowds and got some amazing shots. We then headed up to Three Sisters viewpoint. The Three Sisters are 3 mountain peaks that are all side by side. There are numerous hiking trails and waterfalls in this area and it is just stunning. We stopped and took a few photos and decided to do some hiking. We had picked out a trail we wanted to do but accidentally went down the wrong one. After hiking for about an hour we realized our mistake and decided to head back. It was still beautiful though. We essentially were climbing up the side of one of the sister peaks and the views were incredible. We spent the whole day driving through Glencoe and had an early night. We were flying to Croatia in the morning and we had to drive 3 hours back to Glasgow for an 8am flight…boo!

River near An Torr hike 

Three Sisters 

Loch Achtriochtan 

Side Note: Ross has been a trooper for the past 3 weeks! I do not know how to drive a manual car so he had to do all the driving! It rained a lot and the roads were not exactly great. Plus, he was dealing with a strained groin muscle that I know was causing him a lot of pain. He never complained once though and literally drove the whole time!

Overall Thoughts: When it is not raining in Scotland it is absolutely breathtaking! It is so green and lush and mountainous! The views are absolutely epic! When it is raining though…yikes! I would recommend a trip here to anyone and just pray for good weather! My favorite spot was Loch Lomond and my yak! I would come back to Scotland for sure. I would love to head further north and see the Isle of Skye.

Negative: I am sad we didn’t get to see any of the views driving through Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park. It rained the whole drive through it to Oban and was dark on our drive back to the airport the morning we flew out.

We are actually flying to Switzerland now after 10 days in Croatia. I will get that blog up soon!