Blogs from Scotland, United Kingdom, Europe - page 483

Hello all After my time in Edinburg I decided that with my flight to Italy rapidly approching that I needed a more efficient way to tour Scotland. To this effect I jumped onto the MacBackpackers jump on-jump off bus tour. It is pretty cool. You get on a bus, have accomadations guarenteed and make many stops along the way. We went to the Erador whisky distillery, old forts and even went for a wee dip in Loch Ness, which was very cold. Ended up in Inverness and am making my way to the Isle of Skye for a couple of days. The tour is cool because while you are on the bus you get a comentary about all of the different places you pass by and you get to stop at them as well. I would ... read more

Hey all, I survived the massively rainy UK. Well, mostly it was Scotland. I met up with a friend, Steve, in Switzerland on the 24th and we flew to London for a one day stopover. It's amazing what you can see in one day. After we flew to Edinburgh, and ended up on an amazing hop on-hop off bus tour through the highlands. I love Scotland, despite the crazy weather. I've been lucky too, and have eaten decent food from the pubs. Other people haven't been as lucky :) Steve and I parted ways in Fort William, which is next to Ben Nevis, the big mountain in Scotland. I spent another night there doing some small hikes and walks, and then went on to Oban. Oban is a really cute little town, I recommend it. I ... read more

I went to Scotland over the Easter Holiday for 5 nights and 6 days. I took the train from Chester to lovely St. Andrews Scotland, where I met my friend Laura who attends St. Andrews University. The university was founded in 1403 and is the 3rd oldest in Britain, so St Andrews was a college town almost a century before Columbus sailed the Atlantic, and it looks it. It is a gorgeous little town built almost entirely out of grey stone, and it has the ruins of a castle and a massive cathedral. About half of the population of the town St. Andrews is comprised of university students, and half of those are American females. This is surprising for a British university except when you consider the “Prince Factor.” Prince William attends St. Andrews, and as ... read more

After the sketchy details on my previous journal, it's time to expand on what I have seen during my tim here in Edinburgh. Last Thursday I spent over 3 hours exploring Edinburgh Castle. The castle itself is built on an extinct volcano and is the centerpiece of the city, it can be seen from practically anywhere. The main reason for this is simply because the city council won't allow building to be built higher than the castle, so as to spoil the skyline, or so I once heard.. The castle is fantastic, and the amount of history contained within it's walls definitely makes it a must-see when visiting Edinburgh. After a short 30-minute guided tour that explains some of the history, and helps you get your bearing with the layout of the castle, I went wandering. ... read more

We got back into Thurso on a warm, bright, sunny Friday to stop at the bank, store and the TIC. Of course we got the best weather on our last few days! We took the A9 and A99 to Ulbster and found the Whatamore Steps that I had read about in my Lonely Planet Guide. There were 318 steps that led down to an alcove which was scenic and peaceful. Again, we were the only people besides the birds. The climb back up was rough. We then found the Hill O'Many Stanes which has over 200 stones in a fan shaped pattern in 22 rows. These were small stones and date back to 1900 BC. We were driving along the coast when we came upon a village called Lybster. It had a small lighthouse and the ... read more