Tuesday, April 15, 2008

We've haggis a great time!

Ok, so the posts a little late... sorry about that. I have been sick in bed most of the week without the strength or motivation to lift my head so we're a little delayed on this Scotland post. You will have to forgive me, anyhoot... I'm on the road to recovery and excited to tell all you avid readers about our thrilling week in the land of Scots!!!

Our trip started with a 5ish hour train ride out of London and along the coast hitting into Edinburgh at around 2 in the afternoon. We found out hostel relatively quickly and strolled along the Royal Mile towards the impressive Edinburgh Castle. Where we foolishly purchased an audio tour each and no sooner had we collected them were we offered a free guided tour, oh well! We wandered the Castle learning all about Mary Queen of Scots, James VI and I (of Scotland and England respectively) and all the scandalous details that any good Castle endures during its reign. We concluded the day with a pretty standard hostel dinner and a ghost tour of the vaults where J was treated to a little spanking from our guide and had Bec scared out of her mind the rest of the evening!

The second day we tried (and tried ... and tried) to collect our car before lunch, but despite our efforts we were told to come back around 2ish, so we opted to head to Holyrood Palace and the Scottish Parliament. Both equally amazing in their own right, I'd show you the pictures but due to a small camera fault most photos were deleted... but we wont go into that. In the afternoon we jumped in our car and successfully navigated our way to St Andrews. J spent the afternoon admiring the old course and Bec stood baffled as to why one big stretch of grass had captivated Jarratt so. We raced around to the ruins of the Cathedral and Castle and within 2 hours had efficiently 'done' St Andrews and both agreed we'd set off early the next morning for Balmoral Castle.

Soaking up as much of St Andrews golf course as he could, the next morning J ordered breakfast and marched us down to the R&A for one last happy snappy. Afterwards we jumped in the car and headed out to Balmoral via the Grampian Mountains where Bec proceeded to go mental at the amount of snow, as I'm sure you'll appreciate when you look over the video we have uploaded. Balmoral was amazing in the sense that you walked around going "Who lives like this?Oh right, the queen... whoops" but without the snow I don't think it would have been half as spectacular. After a Venison Burger at the Queens Cafe we made a beeline for Inverness and the Battlefield of Culloden, passing many a snow-covered Highland Cow along our way. Culloden proved to be quite an insight into Scottish history and really triggered great interest in us both to find out more. Afterwards, exhausted from a long day of driving we headed to our modest accommodation for the evening, Culrain Castle (!!!!!) Little to say, i was a bit excited! :) Despite being an amazing building and everything I hoped for, amazing big gates, atop a hill and... haunted... We had a great, well lit sleep!

Day Four saw us head to the Isle of Skye via Loch Ness for a brief session of Monster Watching! Both Loch Ness and Isle of Skye proved to be very picturesque, with amazing gorges, beautiful mountains and sweet little boat houses hugging the shoreline. We spent one relaxing night there and then headed back to the main land via the Skye bridge passing Scotland's most romantic castle, Eilean Donan. We continued on our way to Oban stopping twice along the way. The first was at Fort William, home of Ben Nevis (Britain's tallest mountain) where we followed the Ben Nevis lookout road all the way to the end, continually quizzing each other with "is that it?' as we went. Upon arrival at the lookout we were told that "you can't see Ben Nevis here because you're too close and other mountains hide it from this point" Of course you can't, how silly of us to think that we could actually see the Ben Nevis mountain from the Ben Nevis lookout point (?!?!?!!). Our second stop was at Glen Coe, the home of the most famous clan massacre in all of Scotland. When we finally reached Oban we were welcomed by a strange little hostel owner and his dog and two wonderful glasses of Oban's finest scotch whiskey! All in all a good day was had.

The next morning we played bargy bargy for breakfast in the kitchen of our hostel and then headed out to Kilmartin Glen. The birthplace of Scotland... and the finest examples of ancient standing stones and cairns! However, since these are off the beaten track (literally... you need to navigate through paddocks to get to them), there wasn't your normal plethora of fellow tourists to snap a picture for us, so we resorted to timer photos... and boy! did we have fun with those! (As you can see by the evidence below) Afterwards, we dropped into Glasgow for an obligatory whirlwind visit (as we were not impressed with the place in the slightest) and ended our day cooking dinner in an amazing Stirling apartment and watching Braveheart!

Stirling proved to be an amazing place in the world, full of medieval features such as castle gates, city walls and cobbled streets... but more importantly host to the historic Scotland weekend and in full support for free entry to all its attractions and sights (yay!), taking full advantage J and I headed straight to Stirling castle and then on to the Wallace Monument before ending at the field where the Battle of Bannockburn took place! We ended our day in the city walls (pub) drinking Scotland's finest and eating some Haggis!

Our final day saw us racing back to Edinburgh to recreate some happy snaps that had been earlier deleted, rolling through the Scottish history Museum and listening to how Whiskey is created on our Whiskey Experience tour! We strolled onto our 3:30pm train at about 20 past and within 6 hours were home, unpacked and in bed! You gotta love London......

Tomorrow we're off to Turkey and cannot wait!!!! But enough about us... how have you been? :P


Jarratt at the 18th hole of St Andrews Old Course

Us at the first hole of the Old Course at St Andrews.

In the excitement I may have forgotten to put on my jumper... maybe that's why I got my cold (tee-hee)

Snow-covered Highland Cow

Our intimate castle accommodation, with J and our transport for the week in front.

On monster watch at Loch Ness.

At Scotland's most romantic castle, Eilean Donan.

Us at Ben Nevis, (we think) its the one peaking out from behind covered in snow!

Oh what a feeling! Stone Circles! Defying gravity through the magic of timer photography.

At Stirling Castle's Gates.

Stirling Castle's lookout over the Royal Gardens.

Great Scot!!! That's a lot of snow!

13 comments:

Quad-deks said...

To slow boys..... :-)
Whats doing with those glasses J?? Sexy!! ("always knew there was something different about you" Said Dean)
Love the Video, great to talk to you guys, glad you're feeling better Bec. will make sure the lists are longer for dad next time, cant believe that was 1.5hrs talk.
Awesome photos - esp oh what a feeling. Stay safe in Turkey. Catch up soon.
Capri loved meeting her Aunty J & Uncle Bec.

Love you both
Allaha ısmarladık (good bye in turkish)

Quad-deks said...

To slow boys..... :-)
Whats doing with those glasses J?? Sexy!! ("always knew there was something different about you" Said Dean)
Love the Video, great to talk to you guys, glad you're feeling better Bec. will make sure the lists are longer for dad next time, cant believe that was 1.5hrs talk.
Awesome photos - esp oh what a feeling. Stay safe in Turkey. Catch up soon.
Capri loved meeting her Aunty J & Uncle Bec.

Love you both
Allaha ısmarladık (good bye in turkish)

lazy sundaes said...

Hey you two! thanks for the video. It's great to hear you are sounding as aussie as ever. Great pics as well, love the one of you jumping.
anyways will update you soon.
love, laura

awyatt said...

tipped off. No good!

Good to see your having a great time.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
GypsyJohn said...

Hey great video! J you are not henpecked are you?? Hashanah I am only kidding, I know things will change later.
The pictures are great - Turkey will be great BUT go see the war fields of Northern France where Australians were very successful and are still remembered with great respect, not many Australians visit its a pity.
Am off to do my Volga Boatman Trip next week!
Безопасные путешествия и получайте удовольствие! Oh Russian for Safe travelling and have fun!!

GypsyJohn said...

Hi you Aussies,
Love the great photos, nice to see you are keeping trim! I see Mr. J has become a real Pom! Pommie Fritzs (Chips) with German Saugage!! really mate!
Your May Day was enjoyable, I had mine in Rostov, Russia and it was most enjoyable as well. The Volga Trip was fantastic.
You got your summer touring plans together yet?
Safe travelling and have fun

gypsyjohn said...

WOW that was a Chrissy to remember, in the big apple! J where do you get your headgear from - Oxfam! hahaha just taling the M*#@y
From NY cold to SYD heat back to LON snow,some many changes in 8 weeks - Have fun, Can not wait for the first London posting later this month!!! hahahaha

gypsyjohn said...

Sorry J - I was just returning Becs call, anyhow you sounded so great for 4am, sure I woke you!!!
Great to catch up with "yous" here and hear all your experiences - now that I have discovered phone cards that give me calls to the UK for 1c a minute, expect more calls - beats this $#!( typing!
Safe travelling
PS Just discovered that I will be in Japan early July!

gypsyjohn said...

You didnt stay with Mary from Tassie when you visited Copenhagen?! I hear her place is very central as well -
You certainly will be 'experts' on overseas fare and the amber liquids. Will you be able to cope with the Australian food?
Hope you are prepared for the colder weather in Russia? Enjoy the culture, buildings and music - safe travelling - HAVE FUN!

gypsyjohn said...

ENVY ENVY ENVY - sorry I dont know how to do those funny little round faces on here!
You have me looking in the travel books again - maybe I should do a trip to Europe! it has been great seeing it though your eyes.
Gosh the great honeymoon is coming to an end and it will be back to OZ - errrrrrrrr work hum dum.
Have fun and travel safely

gypsyjohn said...

Blame Dean!!!!! really sounds like you lead this poor man astray! Well you certainly had a great time doing just that - GOSH coming home! I wonder how long that will last? it is so boring here you know hahahaha
Can not wait to see your next post! Oh that barbeque looked more like a cremation! Have fun it nearly all over

gypsyjohn said...

Hey the dream holiday is almost over aye? How are you going to settle back in OZ? I wonder how long you will stay before heading off again!
What a great 2 years, with so many experiences, Thank you for sharing them with us, it was as if we were there, have a safe trip back BUT have fun