[Travel Tuesday] Scotland

Brian has family in Scotland so we were lucky enough to arrange a visit and stay with his Aunt and cousin while we were visiting the beautiful country.  We stayed in Branchton and used that as a base to get everywhere by train.  We found the train system to be very easy to understand and there were many options to get us to/from our daily destinations.  We visited in May and the stereotype was true.....it rains ALL...THE...TIME.  Overall we really enjoyed our time here and hope to get back someday. 

Port Glasgow

Sightseeing
St. Andrew's
Glasgow
Edinburgh
Arran
Branchton

Helpful Tips

• Bring an umbrella, it will rain out of nowhere.  When we travel, we don't let weather impact our plans.  You can't control it so we just go with it
• Use the trains!  They are clean, comfortable and efficient
• If you are an adventurous eater, there is plenty for you to explore....haggis and blood pudding are Brian's favs.  I stuck to fish & chips
• Bring comfortable shoes, we did ALOT of walking
• Buy the Historic Scotland Explorer Pass.  We saved money using the pass versus paying for entrance fees individually.  Plus as a bonus we avoided the ticketing lines. 

On one of the many trains we took 

St. Andrews
This one one of my favorite spots in Scotland and it wasn't because it was the only day it didn't rain ;)  Similar to Oxford, I love universities....the history, opportunities, knowledge etc.  I love the atmosphere!  Aside from that, the history rich town had many other great sights to explore.  

Downtown St. Andrews

Our first stop was the remains of the Cathedral.  This used to be Scotland's largest cathedral until it was destroyed in the 16th century.  The remains are impressive therefore we could only imagine how impressive the complete structure would have been.  

St. Andrews Cathedral Remains

 

He thought this would create a cool shot

In the back of the property is St. Rule's Tower.  We climbed the 156 steps to the top (are you keeping a running count of how many steps we climbed during our time in the UK?).  The views were breathtaking!  The location right on the water's edge was stunning and added to the already beautiful town.

St. Rule's Tower - 156 steps to the top

Stunning View from the top of the Tower

Following our visit to the cathedral, we took a short walk over to the remains of the Castle.  While the water views were once again breathtaking, the structural remains were not as impressive.

St. Andrews Cathedral Remains

Taken at the Castle remains with a view of the Cathedral in the background

Our next stop was to St. Andrews Links golf course which is known as the home of golf.  It has one of the oldest courses in the world.  While this was not on my "must see" list, Brian couldn't wait to get a picture across the "famous" bridge.  He said I would recognize it once I saw it in person.  To his disappointment, even after seeing it in person, I had no clue!  I do not know how people golf here, the day we happened to be there was SUPER windy.  I can't imagine driving a golf ball with that type of headwind!

St Andrews Links

The famous bridge

Obligatory bridge shot

We finished our visit with a stop at the local fish & chips joint.  Overall it was a fun day and we would highly recommend a visit to the town during your trip to Scotland.

Glasgow
Brian's cousin was attending Glasgow University while we were there so we took the train with him one morning to spend the day sightseeing while he was in class.

Downtown Glasgow

This umbrella came in handy several times!!

Our first stop was a visit to Glasgow Cathedral and the necropolis. I am normally not a fan of cemeteries however I had never seen elaborate, ornate tombs like they had here.  It is worth the hike up the hill to take a peak.

Glasgow Cathedral

Necropolis

Amazing tombs

Inside of the Cathedral

Stunning stained glass

Our next stop was the Glasgow Square and City Hall.  After viewing a few of the historical sites, it was great to get a glimpse on how things are run today.  Plus I am a sucker for any building that has the local flag when traveling.  They make for such cool shots :)

Glasgow City Hall

Glasgow Square

Inside city hall

We took a break from fish & chips to treat ourselves at Jamie's Italian Restaurant.  It was founded by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver.  We enjoyed a great meal of fish which included the entire fish!!  We thought American portions were large but as you can see below, we did not leave hungry!

We also stumbled upon a bag pipe museum as part of the piping school.  While I wouldn't make a special trip to see this, it is worth 45 minutes to browse through if you are in the general area and learn a bit of the history of the iconic instrument.

The National Piping Centre

Edinburg
Edinburg was my favorite of the major Scottish cities we visited.  It was quite large and the castle was very impressive perched up on a hill.  

View as we walked up the path to the castle

Entrance to the Castle

I loved the views out of the canon lines.  

Ready for battle!

The castle was huge with many moving individual parts to visit.  We spent several hours that morning exploring.

View from the Castle grounds

Following our visit to the castle, we walked a short distance to the Cathedral.  Once again, our umbrellas came in handy!!

More evidence of the need for an umbrella!

Intricate details within the Cathedral

Following our visit to the Cathedral, we planned for a walk through the city to get to the Palace of Holyrood which is where the Queen stays during her visits.  To our disappointment, it was closed to visitors the day we were there.  While we enjoyed the long walk to get there and take in the sites, I would recommend knowing the schedule in advance.  



Isn't it a cool city?  The architecture was amazing!

Our only view of Holyrood Palace

One of the views from our "hike" to the Palace

While our schedule did not allow us to get up to the northern countryside, we did take a day trip to a little island off the coast called The Isle of Arran.  Brian chose this place as they had a whiskey distillery that has won awards.  We had to take a ferry to get there and that was a fun experience as well to experience the views from the water.  

The Isle of Arran

 

As a bonus, when we arrived at the distillery we found out they were having a founder's day celebration therefore they offered several "extras" including a scotch whisky tasting.  I am not a fan of whisky however since we were in the only country you can get true scotch whisky, I figured it was a rite of passage!  Following our tour, we were seated in a little room to begin our tasting experience.

 

Following the tasting, there were tents set-up with more tastings and snacks.  The people were extremely friendly and very surprised to see Americans on the little island.  We made several friends who loved hearing our accent!  

I need to share one of our travel stories that still makes us laugh several years later!  We had planned to leave on the second to last Ferry to get us back to the mainland.  We figured we would give ourselves a buffer in the event something went wrong so we still had one more option to leave.  We boarded the shuttle bus back to get back to the port, half way through the bus ride I realized I no longer had my backpack which included our PASSPORTS!  Brian quickly asked the bus driver to drop us off in the middle of no-where.  She looked at him strangely but obliged.  We had about 1.5 mile walk back to the distillery where I hoped I could find my bag and still have enough time to get back for the last ferry boat.  We were truly in the Scottish country side as evidence of the below herd of sheep we had to maneuver through to get back to the distillery!

After our scary run/hike back to the distillery as we were running through every what if scenario had the passports been truly lost, we were grateful to find my purse still hanging on the back of my chair in the whisky tasting room!  I blame all of the whisky tasting on my lapse in judgement.  Now every time we go somewhere, it is a standard question that we ask to ensure one of us has the passports.  Luckily we made it back in time to catch the last ferry of the day!

Port Glasgow
Since we had purchased the explorer passes, we decided to use it one afternoon to visit a lesser known castle.  While it wasn't as impressive as others, we had it all to ourselves therefore it was fun to wander about!

The flag makes the picture :)

Beautiful view from the top of the Castle

Branchton
Finally we took several evening walks around Branchton which is where we were stationed for our trip.  It was great to see some benefits from all of the rain we experienced throughout the week!

Overall it was a great country and we look forward to getting back someday to explore more of the countryside and also take in a Highland Game!  

~A

P.S.  One other tip that we always abide by when traveling, be prepared for something to go wrong.  We flew from Chicago to Newark to London to Glasgow to get here.  Our flight from Chicago to Newark was delayed therefore we missed our connection and had to take a later flight.  Unfortunately our checked luggage did not get the memo of our new flight time.  When we arrived in London, our luggage did not arrive.  It ended up that United lost our luggage.  We were concerned since our United ticket ended in London and we used a different airline to get to Glasgow.  Fortunately United found our luggage and they delivered it to our doorstep in Branchton 4 days later!  Hope that explains the reason we are wearing the same outfits in the pictures above :)  While the lost luggage was a pain, we were grateful that it was found and delivered.  Bottom line, we did not let it spoil our trip and now we always pack a carry-on with the essentials in the event we ever experience this again!