Kathleen and I went to Scotland on Saturday morning and got back last night, so I'm going to tell you all about it. We woke up bright and early on Saturday morning and Hilary, who just happen to be going to Cambridge at the same time, dropped us off at the Melton train station. There we began our 7 hour train ride to Edinburgh. On arriving in Edinburgh we went to the main attraction of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Castle. The castle was amazing! There were so many things to see within the castle walls such as the Scottish National War Memorial, The Scottish National War Museum, The Honours of Scotland, and the Mons Meg cannon which could fire a gunstone almost two miles. After leaving the castle we went down the street to the Tartan Weaving Mill. At the mill you could buy tartans and different souvenirs and also get your picture taken in different kinds of Scottish wear. We then checked into our hostel, the Art Roch Hostel, and then went for supper across the street at the Made in Italy restaurant. When we were done our supper we walked to the Haggis Adventures Tour office to make sure we knew where it was so we would have no problem the next morning finding it. After finding it we browsed some more tartan shops and found Kathleen a scarf made of the Kerr Clan tartan. Afterwords we went back to the hostel, played some cards, and then went to bed.
The next morning we got up and headed to the Haggis Adventures Tour office. Upon arriving at the office we checked in for our tour and then were on our way for our Loch Ness Hunter day tour. After leaving Edinburgh our first stop was at Trossachs Woollen Mill at Kilmahog where we had breakfast and met Hamish the Highland Coo and his girlfriend Heather and baby, Honey. Before continuing I just thought I'd let you know that a "Coo" is a cow, a "Ben" is a mountain, a "Loch" is a lake, and a "Glen" is a valley. Our next stop was Ben Nevis. Ben Nevis is the highest mountain in the British Isles at 4409 feet. After taking many pictures of the area we were on our way to our main stop, the Loch Ness. On the way to Loch Ness, and through out the tour, our tour guide proved very informative and told us many things about Scottish heritage. He told us about William Wallace, Robert the Bruce, Scottish/English wars, what clans held what territories, and general clan history. When we reached Loch Ness we had a bag lunch provided to us from the tour itself and then had a little free time before our boat tour of Loch Ness. We took the boat tour with Cruise Loch Ness and learned new things from the boat tour guide about the Loch Ness and Nessie. After our hour long boat tour we returned to the bus and headed back to Edinburgh. On our way back to Edinburgh we stopped at the Commando Memorial which is a memorial dedicated to the British Commando Forces of World War II. After leaving the memorial we got back on the bus and returned to Edinburgh. When we got back to Edinburgh we had supper at the Filling Station Restaurant where I had haggis, and it was delicious. After supper we walked around Edinburgh for a while and then headed back to the hostel where we played table tennis and pool (or at least tried to), watched a bit of television, and then went to sleep.
The next morning, because I liked the haggis so much, we ate at the same restaurant where I had a traditional Scottish breakfast of haggis, fried egg, bacon, and beans. After breakfast we stopped at a few different shops of which I bought a couple ties made of the Graham Clan tartan. We then hopped on a Edinburgh Tour bus and explored more of Edinburgh. After the tour we had lunch and then caught the train back to Melton. It was an awesome experience and we learned so much about Scottish history.
Till next time,
Rocky
No comments:
Post a Comment