Okay, so just 2 days after I got home from Spring Break, my Mom and Tom came into town!!!
So while they were in Scotland, we decided to go see the Highlands and a little bit of the Lowlands. I had classes still for most the time when they were in town. But when we got to do things, we DID things!!! lol. In Stirling, we climbed to the top of the Wallace Monument, which was very neat. It's this tower on the hill next to my University. It is in honor of the late and great William Wallace! He is the guy in Braveheart. So we climbed the 246 stairs to the top of the Wallace Monument, and then we decided to get a pint at the William Wallace Pub. This was an old man's bar, but they were really nice.
On Friday, we decided to get up and go to Edinburgh. We got up early and trained over to Edinburgh, and planned our attack on Edinburgh. Of course, we started by getting a Starbucks on the Royal Mile. Then headed to the Edinburgh Castle, which is fabulous!!! We saw the "Honors of Scotland", which are the crown jewels. We also went to the National Museum of Scotland. Tom was really excited to go there, because they had an exhibit of his favorite art, which doesn't get to come to Reno that often. We also went down to Hollyrood Palace, which is at the opposite end of the Royal Mile from the castle. We saw the new Parliament building too for Scotland, which is "interesting". To put it kindly..... lol.
So during the weekend, we went on 2 tours, one to the highlands and one to the lowlands. For those of you not up on the geography of Scotland, let me show you where we went. I live in Stirling, which is north of Edinburgh and Glasgow. With my Mom and Tom, we went to Loch Lomond, and then to Loch Ness.
We stayed the night before the first tour in the Old Waverly Station Hotel, which is a nice hotel in Edinburgh. It's right on Princes St, which is where some the major shopping in Edinburgh is.
We got up early and (of course) got STARBUCKS!!!!!! (:D) then got on our tour.
We started the tour in Edinburgh, because that's where the company is based out of.
The first stop was at the Queen's Ferry Bridge.
The second stop was in STIRLING!! lol. So we went to the Stirling Castle for a bit, which is awesome.
Then it was back in the van, to Loch Lommond. This part of the national park in the lowlands.
After seeing the Loch, then the tour did a distillery tour!!!!! YUM!!! lol.
So we went to Glengoyne Distillery. They make a single malt scotch whiskey, which is amazing! the tour was really interesting and we got to sample some of the scotch they make.
While at the Glengoyne Distillery, I saw 2 things that CRACKED me up! I took pictures of these for Amy, but I wanted to share them with everyone.
I know it's childish to laugh at the "crapper" on a toilet, but that was hilarious! I know Thomas Crapper invented the toilet, but it was funny.
 |
| My mom bought a flask...lol |
After this, the tour went back to Edinburgh. We got dinner at "Made in Italy". I was rather impressed with this place, because I had pretty much given up on getting cheesecake in Scotland. But my mom insisted on getting cheesecake for dessert, and it was GREAT!!!!!
We stayed the night again in the Old Waverly Hotel, so we could be in Edinburgh for the tour the next day. Well this whole time my mom had set out to find which whiskey she liked the most. She decided to stick in the single malt family, and she had been trying a different one every night. We had been mapping which ones she liked on a map. It was very fun. lol.
The next day we headed out on tour #2 which went to the Highlands! This was my first time out of the lowlands/midlands. So I was excited. Again, the tour started in Edinburgh and the first stop was in Stirling. This time the tour guide took us to the Wallace Monument. We had already been to the top, so we decided to take the time and stretch, rather than do it again. lol.
The next stop on our journey was in the Trossach's at the Trossach's Weaving Mill. This was a funny lunch stop. This is the home of Hamish the Hairy Coo. This was hilarious, Hamish the coo, looks EXACTLY like Tom's dog as a cow.
Hamish has a wife named Heather, and at the time they were having a naming contests for their baby hairy coo. We put in the names Harriette, Paprika, and Hillary. lol. Although none of them won we had a good time coming up with names. So we ate lunch at this stop, and then it was back on the bus and off again.
The next stop was along Loch Ness, in Fort Augustus. This fort is known for it's lock system of getting boats through to the next loch. We watched a boat go through a couple of the gates. It was actually really interesting. I know we've learned about these with the panama canal, but it was really interesting.
Next stop was at Urquhart Castle. We didn't get to go inside because it was closed, but it was really cool. It's a castle on the edge of Loch Ness. It is close to where the majority of Nessie sightings have been.
After Urquhart Castle, we made it to the town we were staying at for the night. I can't for the life of me find where we stayed, but we stayed in a hotel there.....lol. We walked in town for a drink, and then kept walking to find a place to eat dinner. We got a recommendation to go to a hotel for dinner. It looked absolutely janky from the outside, but we went in and had the most excellent service.
 |
| The dessert I'm in love with, Sticky Tofee Pudding. |
The food was possibly the best we'd eaten the whole trip. This is where my mom fell in LOVE with the Scottish dessert Cranachan. It's an oatey, berry-y, whipped creamy thing. It was great!!!
 |
| Another Funny Sign |
We went back to our hotel with FULL bellies and went to sleep.
The next day it was back in the van, and we went on a boat tour of Loch Ness. This where we got a great view of Urquhart castle. Sadly we didn't see Nessie... :(
 |
| Nessie.... jk |
Early in the tour my Mom and Tom had asked the tour guide if he knew of any standing stones, and the tour guide took us special to some standing stones. My mom and I had read a book series set in Scotland that involved standing stones. So that was REALLY neat!!! These are meant to be magical or something, and it was interesting. It was really neat that he took us there special.
After the standing stones, the tour guide took us to the battle field of Culloden.
This was one of the worst standoffs between the English and Scottish. There's quite some background with this fight, so I'll give a brief one. Before England and Scotland were united under one crown there were two separate rulers. Well through marriage and birth the two crowns were united. Something happened and someone got the crown that Scotland didn't necessarily think should have got the crown, and they instead said it was Bonny Prince Charles. Well some clans in Scotland got together and were backing Prince Charlie, and they were taking land in England working their way to London. Something hap pend and they didn't take it. So they retreated to the North and made it ALL they way up to Culloden. The English came all the way up to the Culloden and that's where the nasty battle took place. Some fighters and Prince Charlie got away and hid though. So the English went searching for him. They also put laws into effect that Tartan couldn't be worn. So not only does Culloden have a sad battle for the Scottish with it, but after that their whole lives changed.
But on the tour we got to go into the battlefield of Culloden. It was really one of the powerful moments, kind of like going to Arlington Cemetery in DC. It is just a powerful place that you know these people gave everything. So that was a neat moment. There was a little bit of silliness there, as on some of the signs, the Scottish fighting lines were shown in blue, but the English in pink.... lol.
On our way back to Edinburgh, we stopped and got some ice cream and went and saw a waterfall. It was a really cool waterfall!!!
It was really nice that the tour guide let us get off in Stirling. So we were back in Stirling for the night, and my Mom and Tom took my friends out to dinner.
The next day we went back to Edinburgh because my parents were leaving the following day. We went and saw the castle, and went hunting for Cranachan!! We found some at a cute shop called Mum's Comfort Foods.
 |
| Behold Cranachan |
I was soo happy to see my family, and was EXTREMELY excited to have them in Scotland. It was exciting to show them where I live.
Sad to see them go....
