Hello everyone! We went off to explore Scotland last weekend. It is an awesome country, very green with rolling hills in some parts, mountains in others and a whole lot of water everywhere! Large lochs, small lochs, waterfalls, bogs, streams, rivers, rain... you name it, Scotlands got water! Oh, it's also got wind too! A whole lot of knock you down strength wind!
We started via a 4 1/2 hour train ride from London Kings Cross to Edinburgh. Edinburgh is really really cool. It looks so old and gothic in one section and very lively and happening in another. In fact, I think there is literally an old and new town. I was surprised by how close to the sea it was which means that there are lovely views from the castle - check out the pictures! I was also impressed with the amount of space they have put aside for parks and general public gatherings. We had great weather on Sat and Sun so everyone was out on all the grass areas soaking it up! A good idea I think for a city to get it's community together.
So we walked around the city a bit, checked out the castle (I like castles, but I have to say, I'm getting a bit over them!) and then stayed that night just outside the city.
The next day we took off and drove from Edinburgh, up all the way to Inverness checking out the different scenic things along the way. To begin with the land we saw was very lush farming area, then as you start to climb in the highlands it gets a lot less lush even though there is water everywhere. It's kinda like gorse and short stumpy bushes covering lowish brown hills. I can't adequately describe it but I just kept thinking that it's very different to anything I'd seen in England, Australia or even New Zealand which I thought it may be similiar to.
After Iverness we drove to Loch Ness and said hello to Nessie on the way! We even caught it on camera - check out our photo! That night, we stopped at a place called Glen Nevis. Turns out it is England/Scotlands tallest mountain, not heaps tall but enough to have snow on top! It got quite cold actually and that night the wind and rain came in... Brrrr! I truly loved the Glen Nevis area. On the Sunday the weather was great so we were able to see the hills in sunlight and all the bubbling brooks. Then the next day after all the rain overnight the hills were shrouded in cloud and waterfalls were cascading off the sides everywhere! We checked out some falls on Monday which weren't very tall but had a lot of water gushing down! Very cool.
After that, we went to Loch Lomond which was very big and quite pretty, not as mysterious looking as Loch Ness perhaps but just as nice. It was at a cafe here that I tried Haggis. It's delicious! The drive from Loch Lomond to Glasgow on the way back to Edinburgh was amazing. I didn't take any photos for some reason but that area is just awe inspiring. It was very hilly/mountainy and the main road was following the valleys. I think we must have been pretty high up because there wasn't much vegetation, just that gorse type bush but there was water everywhere! What you thought was dry land was really marsh. It was also incredibly windy. It was really hard to drive actually because the roads were narrow and the wind was literally pushing the car either off the road or into the oncoming traffic. Thank you Johnnie for driving through that bit!!! There were actually a lot of accidents which is not that surprising considering how the Scottish drive! Crazy! I've never seen such close calls when they overtake. Took my breath away!
That's about it really. Got back to Edinburgh just in time for the 7pm train back to London and arrived into London at 12 ish so it was an exhausting weekend but lots of fun!
