Epic European Adventure, Volume 7

After Hugh and I had been up for 3.5 hours (with about 3 hours of sleep) we met up with our free tour and headed out towards the Highlands. The day promptly turned from cold and sunny to cold and rainy. We started out of town and but first stopped to take pictures of a bridge. It’s a cool bridge, and if I could recall the name I would tell you. It is very cool looking, though.

Hugh spent the majority of our travel time during this tour sleeping. I might have dozed a little myself, but who can blame us? We’d been up for hours and then sat in a small tour bus for a long drive. The weather was gloomy and we were SLEEPY! Hugh and I probably spent $25 this day on hot drinks and coke. Every time we stopped we were looking for something to help keep us awake.

The highlights of the day trip would have to be the William Wallace monument, meeting Hamish the famous cow, the pretty “drunken” loch, and the Monty Python castle. The William Wallace monument is really interesting. The structure is beautiful and it’s high up on a hill. It took us about a 10 minute hike in the rain, but it was worth it for the view. Unfortunately the rain was coming down at a pretty quick rate so we didn’t pull the camera out. Hugh did manage to get a few pictures from the bottom of the hill looking up at the monument, but there’s condensation on the lens. At this particular location we both drank some hot tea to try and wake up.

Hairy Coo’s!!! I know in a previous post I mentioned that the name of the tour was called The Hairy Coo. (Coo=Cow when you have a brogue) Did I mention that the bus was actually painted to look like one? It was orange, had a smile face and two ears hanging off the side. We stopped in a small town where we got to meet Hamish the famous bull. Hamish is a bull that had spent his life on the roadside where people would stop and feed him. According to our tour guide he’d even starred in a few movies. He’s quite large and had the required Justin Bieber hair cut. A few years ago England was struck with a spreading case of Mad Cow Disease. All cattle that were under the age of 7 would get a vaccine, but any cattle that were older would have to be put to death. At this time Hamish was 10. The woman that owned Hamish started a petition to have his life spared. Apparently he gets thousands of visitors a day so she was able to rack up a large amount of signatures. The petition ended up on the Queen’s desk and she granted him a royal pardon. She even came out and visited him one day. YAY!!! Hamish was saved! I do have to say that the cows were cute. Much cuter than our cows. You can buy parsnips to feed them, but if you touch a cow when you’re overseas you can get into trouble with the customs people. Humans can transfer Mad Cow Disease (aka Foot & Mouth disease) and they don’t take that very lightly when you’re coming through customs in Houston. Hugh and I just took pictures and let the Scottish guide get his hands slobbery. Oh, I think we had a coke on this stop.

I love, love, LOVE Monty Python. Hilarious. Simply hilarious. If you’ve never watched Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail you must correct this oversight. It’s awesome. We stopped at the castle where the movie was filmed. It was fun to walk around and hear the story of how it was the comedy troupe’s only option for a castle. Apparently they’d been trying to rent a castle for a while but nobody wanted to rent out their castle to them. Our guide had some coconuts on a string that we walked around with while we were there so we could sound like the “horses” in the movie. This is also where Hugh decided to pull out our new lens and take a few photos of the flowers on the property. He did a great job!

Our last stop for the day was at some various lochs through the Highlands. They were all gorgeous. It’s hard to put into words the beauty of the land. Hugh and I decided that if we ever make it back to Scotland we’d like to spend some extended time out in the Highlands. You can hike forever and all of the water you see is crystal clear (and cold!). My only wish would have been for it to have rained a little less. We were prepared with our raincoats; but it’s still a hindrance. However, as green as Scotland is I have a feeling that the rain is a common occurrence.

We finished our day by coming home and going to bed! We were exhausted but happy that we took the tour and see the Highlands.

 This is the really cool bridge on the way out of town.

 The William Wallace Monument from the bottom of the hill. Now that I look at it I see that it kind of looks like a penis. Hmmm..

 Loch Drunkie: Its name comes from a time when bootleggers would toss barrels of whisky into the lake to hide from the authorities. There's a small wall on the right side that is actually ruins from the Normans.

 Oh yeah...we rode around in this.

 Hairy Coo!!! Notice the bangs?

 Hugh and the Hairy Coo. It sounds like a great name for a children's book....or one of those shows that require a subscription to watch.

 The Monty Python castle. 

 Hugh's practice with the fixed 50mm lens. Love the flowers!

Alright guys...I've only got London and Stonehenge left to write. I might break London down into two parts so I can give the British Museum its own post. :)

Love,

Epic European Adventure, Volume 5

EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND

If I had to choose one place from our trip to actually live, I would have chosen Edinburgh. It’s a beautiful capitol city, and yet it seems so quaint and friendly that you’d never know it. Hugh and I chose to visit Scotland for a few reasons. Hugh’s favorite drink is scotch (whisky is what you call it over there) and with a last name of McCrea, it’s obvious that this is the ancestral lands. Now, I have to say that Germany was the most beautiful place we visited but Scotland stands out because of the people. 

Hugh and I wanted to stay at Bed & Breakfast, and in my exhaustive search I located a place to stay that doesn’t advertise. They don’t have a website, and you won’t find them on trip advisor. All they have is a listing on Scotland’s version of HAR for vacationers. I had originally contacted a B&B about staying for our trip and the owner was going to be out of town. She referred me to a good friend of hers and promised that we’d LOVE the property. The price was right and the two pictures I saw looked great so we booked it. I was a little nervous that I was making a mistake but we were both shocked beyond belief. We stayed in a ground level apartment beneath an impressive residence. It was located on a crescent which is what you and I would call a cul-de-sac. Come to find out, the street we stayed on is considered to be the most expensive property in all of Edinburgh. It was gorgeous! We had our own entrance with a small kitchenette, a beautifully decorated bathroom that couldn’t have been cleaner if it’d tried, and the most comfortable room we’ve had the pleasure of staying in. There were fresh flowers on a small table in our room, two wingback chairs, and a gas fire that was simply lovely. Hugh and I would have happily lived there. 

Our host, Stephen, was exceptional. He pointed out a few places to eat and suggested a pub at the end of the road. Hugh and I chose to hang out there on our first night and we ran into Stephen while we were there. He invited us to join him and we had a very interesting night. He mentioned that he was retired from the hotelier business. He then mentioned something about trains. Come to find out, he was the owner of the number one luxury vacation train in the world. A few weeks before we’d left for our trip I recalled reading something on MSN about luxury train travel and I’d actually read about his train. It was incredible! Here we were staying in the house and having drinks with very famous hotel owner. He was so very interesting and so genuinely nice. He shared great stories from his experience in owning and operating the train and telling us about how he came up with the idea. Needless to say, this is one part of our trip that we’ll never forget. 

Stephen suggested that we visit a few places while we were in Edinburgh. One of them was Kay’s Bar. This is a tiny little pub run by a man named Fraser. He has a true handlebar mustache and he’s a former rugby player. Hugh and I escaped a rain storm one afternoon by ducking in to the bar. Fraser was very sweet and we enjoyed the locals immensely. This place is known as a “posh” bar by some people because the clientele are mainly college professors, lawyers, and judges. You’d never know it seeing as how warm, cozy, and non-pretentious it was. Stephen had told us to mention his name when we went and Fraser insisted that we sit at the actual bar and entertain him. We had great food and drinks, and he even removed three beer pull tabs from the wall that were from a beer called Houston and Texas and gave them to us as a souvenir. He asked us if we’d tried haggis, to which we both replied “NO!”. For those of you who don’t know; Haggis is sheep heart, liver, and lungs all mixed together with onions and spices and then cooked in a sheep stomach. It’s a national dish in Scotland and they take it very seriously. In fact, they even have a holiday devoted to it. Well, Fraser went back to the kitchen (he’s also the cook) and brought out a very gourmet looking plate of haggis for us to try. It was haggis on the bottom topped with ‘neeps (turnips) and then garnished with mashed potatoes. We both gave it a try (the two gin drinks I’d enjoyed seemed to help with the bravery) and honestly: It was quite good. I was prepared to hate it but I was pleasantly surprised. Overall, the visit to Kay’s Bar was quite unforgettable.

Hugh and I wandered around the city. It’s beautiful, and we took tons of photos. We went through the Whisky Experience which is essentially a distillery tour followed by a visit to the world’s largest collection of whiskies. It was a lot of fun and I know Hugh really enjoyed getting to see the collection; so much that he had six bottles of not-cheap scotch shipped back to our house. 

We took a tour out to the Highland’s and I’ll share that in the next post.

This is one of many churches in Edinburgh. They all have the dark stains from coal soot that can't be removed. The stone is sandstone of some sort and is too porous to be cleaned.

 I had to include this picture because Hugh did a great job of getting it backlit with the sun. So pretty!

 The whisky collection and tasting. 

 Some of the collection.

 More of the collection. The Johnny Walker company bought the collection from a private collector for the equivalent of $5 million U.S. Dollars.

 Edinburgh Castle.

 Part of the Royal Mile-it's a very long hill.

 

This is the street we stayed on. 

 

 Our entrance.

 Bedroom.

 The fire, window, and chairs. We would open the window and turn on the fire and just sit and relax.

 This is the cute little kitchen!

Love,