Scotland (and happy 100th!)

Apparently this is my 100th post - congrats to me! I'm not sure what category that milestone goes in but it's a milestone nonetheless.

I have promised to write a blog post about our recent trip to Scotland, and have unfortunately not had a free moment to do it until now. Work, work, work all the time! I worked the last 8 days out of 9 and the one free day I was busy with other things (like going to Piccadilly Circus to find the lone London branch of Tim Horton's and having a Boston Cream - important stuff!).

But here I am! Ready to regale you with stories of our Scottish jaunt. We flew from Gatwick bright and early Saturday morning and arrived in Edinburgh an hour later. Now that is the way to travel. Especially since in that hour we were served a full hot English breakfast onboard! Score one for BA! At Edinburgh airport we picked up our rental car and headed out for the highlands. We meandered our way up towards Inverness, stopping here and there for a photo op of the hills and heather. In Inverness we stopped for lunch and wandered around the town a bit, up and down both sides of the River Ness. No time to be wasted, though, and we pressed on down the western shore of Loch Ness. We stopped and visited Urquhart Castle on the shores of Loch Ness, dating from the 1200s. We also had ourselves a photoshoot as it seemed appropriate with one of the world's most famous lakes as a backdrop. Noise is insistent that he saw Nessie but I remain sceptical.

Saturday evening we spent in a small place called Invergarry, just south of Loch Ness. We stayed in the Invergarry Hotel, and it was absolutely lovely. If anyone ever wants to stay in Invergarry, I know just the place. We were somehow assigned the biggest room in the hotel, on the corner with a view out over the river. Dinner was included so we enjoyed the full 3 courses down in the restaurant and then retired to the bar with a pint. And that's about when we crashed, having been up at 4:30am to get to the airport.

On Sunday we headed south again, making a stop at the Nevis mountain range. They have a gondola system there which takes you 650m up on Aonach Mor. In winter it is a ski hill. This was the only day that it rained on us in Scotland, for which we are grateful, but it was unfortunately a bit unpleasant on top of this mountain... it was so windy that it felt like we might get blown off the side! Noise's hair was standing straight up and he looked like Kramer. But the views down over the range and of Fort William and the lochs was beautiful. In Fort William we stopped in to a shop selling woven goods and bought a couple of souvenirs (a blanket for our living room, and also a beautiful cashmere scarf for me). Our journey then took us through the beautiful area of Glen Coe. We stopped a few times to take some photos and at one point had a bit of a dilemma when we couldn't get the car doors shut against the wind! We drove on over the Rannoch Moor and finally to our goal - Loch Lomond. We drove all down the western side of Loch Lomond and then around the southern edge, before detouring off our route and down a tiny side road to Rowardennan to get some photos. Of course for the entire drive we had to sing - "ye take the high road and I'll take the low...."

We spent Sunday night in the small village of Killearn, at the Black Bull Hotel. The resident dogs were a Westie and a Scottie - a bit cliche if you ask me, but cute all the same. Monday we set off to return to Edinburgh via St Andrews. Noise had been to St Andrews a few weeks previously with his friend E, but was quite insistent that I should experience the thrill as well. (The truth being that he just really wanted to go back.) It really is a lovely town, and since the sun was shining we took a walk along the edge of the course to revisit Noise's triumph (or lack thereof) on the 17th and 18th holes of the Old Course. I enjoyed seeing where he had hit the roof of the hotel on the 17th tee as I hadn't fully understood before how it was possible.

We returned to Edinburgh and dropped off the car, then caught the bus into the city. After checking in to the Hilton (booked cheap on hotwire, as usual) we set out to explore. What a gorgeous city! As the Fringe Festival was on, there was of course a lot of buzz, and the Royal Mile was jampacked with crowds and street performers. We found the booth selling Fringe tickets half-price and bought tickets to that evening's comedy show at the Caves. Then we found a store selling bagpipes and bought a set of practice pipes to learn on. Oooops. For the record, I am not coordinated enough to manage it, but Noise can at least make sounds on them. Dinner was in fact Italian that night, before we made our way to the comedy show. While the comedy left something to be desired, the setting was very cool! It was in a little bar in a "cave", built down below the archways of a bridge. You walked in through this stooped little hallway, and then all of a sudden were in this big open room with arched ceiling. Very neat.

Tuesday we had some time before returning to the airport, and decided to go check out The Elephant House, the cafe where JK Rowling wrote (or at least started writing) Harry Potter. We got ourselves a drink and a cookie and settled down in the back room where it is said she did her writing. There was a gorgeous view of Edinburgh Castle from the windows there. We also wandered up to see the castle close up but didn't bother to go inside. After a final wander down the Royal Mile and view of the performers we collected our luggage and headed back to the airport.

Although it wasn't a fancy or exotic trip, it was a fantastic time all the same. No work, no pressures, no worries. Just lots of laughter, memories, good food and good wine. Photos are here.

Not much else in the way of news. Noise has been working on a big project at work which has kept him late this week. Work is the same for me. We do have a few things coming up to take our minds off work- less than 2 weeks until I return to the homeland! A long weekend in the Toronto area, then the weekend after I return from that we are heading to Greece for a week. We'll be flying into Athens on Saturday, then Sunday morning taking the ferry to Santorini. We've booked 4 nights at the Reverie in Firostefani and intend to not do much more than eat, sleep, and swim (and rent a scooter to drive around the island). Then we'll return to Athens before flying back to London. And 2 weeks after that we will be flying to OTTAWA!!! And that should get us through until November. Then I need to plan another Christmas markets trip for December. :) The planning never stops!

Tomorrow we are planning to pop up to Cambridge to visit some friends from Ottawa who are in town, and meet their new additions. Then we're going to dress up and go out somewhere posh for dinner to celebrate Noise's 30th. He seems less distressed about it than I expected, so hopefully he won't break down and cry. We'll have to get a few cocktails first. Tonight we're going to build a fort in the living room and camp out with Buggy, he likes it when we do that. A nice treat for him.

I'm out! Till next time!