Scotland!

Our trip to Scotland was amazing. For those of you who don't know I have ALWAYS wanted to go to Scotland so it was a dream come true to be able to spend my honeymoon with my best friend there. Everyone always says how rainy and dreary it is in Scotland but it was actually nice. Yeah, it was pretty chilly and when we were up high sometimes pretty windy but it only rained a little bit once or twice. It was actually more rainy here at home. We were able to squeeze in so many things in the 5 full days we were there so let me share some of our adventures along with some pictures!

Day 1 - After spending about 2 years flying from PDX to Salt Lake then to Paris then finally to Edinburgh (it wasn't really 2 years but it felt like it) we made it to our hotel Sunday night. It was dark and cold so we just headed across the street to the Sainsbury's to get some snacks and water for the hotel then to the KFC for dinner. The first thing we did on monday morning was hop on a double decker bus and headed down to Princes Street, walked through the Princes Street Gardens and up to see Edinburgh Castle. Here we got to see them shoot the 1 o'clock cannon which was pretty awesome. After seeing the castle we headed down the Royal Mile, stopping to eat lunch and see Greyfriar's Bobby. He is a dog who, after his owner died, would not leave his grave until he died 14 years later. We stopped by the library (where I punched a dalek) and a few shops around Old Town and looked at some neat buildings and places before heading back to New Town and catching our bus back to the hotel.

 

 

 

 

 

Day 2 - We decided to start in Old Town today to have breakfast, but before we made it there we ended up checking out St. Gile's Cathedral first. It was pretty amazing. After breakfast we headed down to Holyrood Palace. They wouldn't let us take any pictures inside but it was pretty amazing. The queen stays here when she visits Edinburgh and Sean Connery was knighted here! From there we headed up Calton Hill where we climbed 143 steps to the top of the Nelson Monument. It was so windy up there we thought it would blow us right off of it. We walked back down through Old Town and New Town then headed back to the hotel to watch a little bit of the election but not much was happening yet around midnight Edinburgh time so we went to sleep.

 

 

 

 

 

 


Day 3 - Today was the day we were going to climb Arthur's seat. This is the peak of an extinct volcano that we read was a pretty rough climb but we made it up pretty quick and painless and got a beautiful view of the whole city. It was super windy up there as well. We walked down the other side heading down to Dunningston village, stopping at the loch, church and the Sheep Heid Inn for a snack before catching a bus back to old town. We stopped by the Scottish National Museum but only spent around 1 hour on 1 floor because I was pretty tired after Arthur's seat and wanted to rest before our next activity. Which was a spooky ghost tour. Our tour guide took us around Old Town telling us about the olden times then took us underground to see where the poor and homeless people used to live and learn about midieval torture. Unfortunately we didn't see any ghosts.

 

 

 

 

 

 


Day 4 - We went to see the Royal Botanical Garden hoping some things would be in bloom and were lucky that there were some things in bloom and it was so green and pretty there. We then headed back to Old Town where we went up to see Camera Obscura. This was pretty amazing, with the sun, mirrors and a lens we were able to see a full 360 degree view of the city. They also had some optical illusion and 3D stuff on the other floors that was pretty neat. We also went to see John Knox House which was a little museum in the house he lived in. We also checked out the Grassmarket area and had amazing meat pies and Jon had a pork sandwich at OINK.

 

 

 

Day 5 - On our last day we had to finally climb the 287 steps up Scott Monument. Jon had been wanting to do this all week but we kept running out of time. When we got there it wasn't open yet so we were going to go see the floral clock in Princes Street Gardens only to find that it was currently being re-planted so there was nothing there. By the time we got back to Scott Monument it was open so we climbed up to the top, took some pictures and a quick video then climbed back down. I know what you are thinking.. why do two people who are scared of heights keep climbing really high stuff? We don't know either. After that we took a quick walk through Princes Street mall just to see what it was about then through Waverley Station. Then we went to the Scottish National Gallery. Here we saw some really amazing art that unfortunately we weren't able to take any pictures of. We saw some Monet's and Van Gogh's that Jon was upset that I didn't find amazing and kept teasing him that my 12 year old brother could have painted them. I liked the paintings that were amazing and looked like photographs a lot better. We were sore and tired from days and days of walking and climbing stuff but we had to go back and finish the Scottish National Museum. I felt like my feet were going to break but we made it through most of it and saw some really amazing OLD OLD things in there. We went back to the Royal Mile, stopping to take a picture of the Elephant Cafe were supposedly "Harry Potter was born" and went up to the Witchery where we were going to have dinner but there was nothing on the menu that looked good to me.

 

 

On saturday morning it was time to say goodbye to Edinburgh and head home. Luckily the trip home wasn't as long as the trip there and before we knew it we were back home. We decided to take a "nap" and ended up sleeping about 13 hours. It's good to be home but I already miss Scotland.