Ceud mìle fàilte...Welcome to Scotland!

Us in front of Urquhart Castle...Loch Ness, Scotland   

What a bonnie adventure we had in Scotland!!!

As with any trip we take, I had to do the research first! ;p  There is so much to do, & for a family of 6, we can't just go and do without pre-planning! However, on this trip, our daughter was unable to go, so there was just the 5 of us--me, my husband and our 3 teen aged sons!
Okay, first order of business is always to decide our mode of transportation! Are we going to drive or fly?!? Since it was only 5 hours away, we chose to drive our own car! :D

Next, we had to find an affordable place within a decent proximity to the things we wanted to see!! Ordinarily, I use http://www.vacationvillas.net/ to find our vacation home, but this time, I found our apartment on http://www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/ . We booked property #421647 (for 5 people) which was located in Edinburgh. We emailed several times with the owner, Stefania, and she always promptly responded.

After securing the apartment, I set about trying to figure out what activities were available and what we could enjoy & afford! We decided that we would be there for a 3 day weekend...so Friday & Sunday would be more or less 1/2 days. Makes for a lot of running in a short amount of time depending on your family and agenda! For us, we always are on the go-go-go and like to cram in as much as possible! As a rule, I prefer to book our activities before we take the trip...or at least have an itinerary with directions, prices, open/close times etc. So, I began to plan!

Since Friday would be a 1/2 day, we needed something that we could do that evening once we arrived. My oldest son, Weston, said he'd heard about an aquarium there in Edinburgh! So, I looked it up and found it at http://www.deepseaworld.com/ and bought our tickets online! Once there, we stayed for hours and had the best time! The aquarium has a seal sanctuary--awesome show by the seals!!!,  touch pools to get 'hands on' experience with many different types of aquatic residents; and the biggest attraction for us was the flat-floor escalator that would take you through a 'seemingly' underwater paradise! The fish, the sharks, the starfish, the crab....all sorts of ocean life swam around us! It felt like you were right there with the ocean life because the 'tank' was on both sides and above us! It was fantastic! We especially liked watching the sharks swim over our heads. It was easy to imagine swimming with them as the floor escalator kept useffortlessly gliding about as if we were in the water too! The aquarium also had a large souvenir store, a cafe and took our foto to put in a souvenir book--we, of course, bought the souvenir book that gave us a picture of us there and several postcards with out foto on them and the book itself had info on the aquarium. All in all, a very nice place to spend a couple of hours for the whole family! After that, we went and ate dinner, found a nearby grocer & got snacks and went back to the room to crash for the night!

"Angus...the Bull"

On Saturday, which was our only full day there, we booked a tour up into the Highlands of Scotland!  We were so excited!!!  I had booked an all day excursion with Scotline Tours, http://www.scotlinetours.co.uk/ , to take the Loch Ness Adventure Tour! This tour was by bus and we had a tour guide. We met up around 0800 at their store in downtown Edinburgh and pulled out! We saw 'Rob Roy' country and it was beyond words! Normally, it would've been covered in the heart-pulling purple Heather, but due to the late frost, the land looked wild and fierce...funny, it still looked like something right out of a romance novel and won my heart immediately! Our tour took us to the Glen of Glencoe (massacre of 1692), Spears Bridge, to Fort William where we can see Ben Nevis (Britain's highest mountain), along the Fourth Rail Bridge, Inverness, Aberdeen, Grampian Mtns., Pitlochry and to my fave, Urquhart Castle  & Loch Ness! The background on my blog is one of my own fotos of Urquhart Castle and then I have a foto of our family in front of the castle.

The water around the castle is the famous Loch Ness! We walked through the castle ruins and imagined what it had been like in it's glory days...ah, to have been there! On the shores of Loch Ness, I contentedly watched my husband and 3 sons play together in what apparently is a male-bonding ritual of skipping rocks along the surface of the water...it was extremely enjoyable and the stuff that memories are made of!  Then, we took an optional boat ride along the Loch Ness--incredible!

Skipping rocks on Loch Ness...

The scenery was just incredible and the air had a slight chill in it...perfect setting for a long-time dream to be fulfilled! We got back to Edinburgh around 2100 that evening, grabbed dinner and collapsed back at our apartment!

For Sunday, I had booked us on the open-top tour buses, www.sightseeingdirect.com/tours , to leisurely peruse the ancient and formidable city of Edinburgh! Our senses were titillated on every front as mouth-watering aromas seductively invaded our sense of smell; our ears were serenaded by a symphony of blended city sounds that roared to life all around us in the most musical & hypnotic way...all the while our thirsty eyes were drinking in every movement going on in every direction! These tall, elegant & ancient buildings/monuments seemed to form a picturesque frame around the hustle & bustle of a booming city full of all sorts of people, dressed in all types of clothing, speaking any manner of languages. Alas, the Edinburgh Castle, in its majestic splendor, sat upon its high perch as if to watch over the city below...a quiet & wise castle that was born of yesterday, living in today and striving for tomorrow in order to protect its precious city that, quite enthusiastically, was bursting at the seams to deliver itself into the modern age.

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Scotland is a must-see for romantic souls! It is savage and fierce like a fire-flamed passion and as happy and hospitable as being with family! Charm emanates throughout the whole of Edinburgh & the friendliness of the Scots is contagious...we thoroughly loved the kilts, bagpipes & of course, the haggis!

Mòran taing (MAW-run TAH-eeng) & mar sin leibh an dràsda(mahr shin LEH-eev un DRAHSS-tuh) !! (Many thanks & ta ta for now!!)