Blogs from Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland, United Kingdom, Europe - page 12

Our last night here - hard to believe the trip has gone so quickly! So the past few days have been uneventful, but about 400 miles of driving total. We did have a few stops to break up the driving. Yesterday we stopped at Eilean Donan Castle, the Ben Nevis distillery and a few shops along the way. We did have quite the drive down a road that was closed due to construction - but the construction worker let us through, rather than detour - so we went with it. We were both relieved that we didn't wake up to flat tires on the car this morning. Today, there was an accident on the road we intended to drive on that completely closed the road. So, we had to use our map reading skills to divert ... read more

Yesterday was all about exploring Edinburgh, the beautiful capital of Scotland. Our group actually started exploring Wednesday night, arriving in the city to explore some Scottish city nightlife and stay in a hostel. My first hostel experience was actually not that bad, with most of the group getting to stay together and the beds actually being more comfortable than the ones in our school dorms. We arrived by train, and the instant we stepped out onto the streets we were greeted with the centuries old architecture that looked absolutely breathtaking in the setting sun. Our day of exploring began by taking a trip to Edinburgh castle and walking the grounds there. We then grabbed some lunch and went on a Harry Potter walking tour, on which we saw the café that JK Rowling first drew her ... read more

...and no, it's not Sam and I stumbling into furniture after too much whiskey ;o) Day 3 in Edinburgh - we've had a blast here! We are excited to be moving on toward St Andrews tomorrow, although a bit nervous about picking-up our rental car and learning how to drive on the opposite side of the road. Today was a great day - but very busy. We started out by visiting the Britannia, the former yacht to the Queen until it was decommissioned in 1997. Highlights of the yacht include the state dining room, the Queen's bedroom, and the Queen's office. We spent about two hours exploring the yacht, and enjoyed lunch at the tea shop on board. Very exciting - how often do you have the opportunity to explore a former royal residence and see ... read more

We successfully made it to Scotland this morning! Very low-key flight, although neither of us slept much on the plane. We were able to drop our bags off at the hotel (awesome location - pretty much walking distance to everything tourist-y!), and then went exploring around Edinburgh. My first priority was breakfast, because I was super hungry/near hangry. We found a cute Café on the Royal Mile, and had a traditional English fry breakfast and a latte. Much needed! We wanted to take it easy-ish today, so we decided to activate our 24 hour hop-on, hop-off bus tour pass this morning. Also very helpful to begin learning the city. Unfortunately, we stayed on the bus longer than we anticipated because we both took impromptu naps during the first tour loop. We finally hopped off the bus ... read more

2 June what a night the wind just stronger and stronger and neither of us slept well - the van was shaking for the wrong reasons. Still very windy but dry as we packed up to move onto Edinburgh We liked Whins though and look forward to returning there on the way back south. Journey to Edinburgh was easy enough with a following wind we averaged 36 mpg. The road through the Borders and Midlothian was lovely (A702) arrived at caravan park amid strong winds but sunshine. Decided not to put the awning up until the next day when the wind will hopefully have dropped. However this was the start of a number of problems beginning the car making a Strange noise, then the TV packed up followed by a long drive around Edinburgh looking for ... read more