Hello! We've just spent the last week in Scotland. Snowy, Sunny(ish), Scotland. Edinburgh is centered around Market Street, with Edinburgh Castle perched on top of a hill at the top end, and Holyroodhouse Palace (official residence of Her Majesty The Queen in Scotland) at the bottom. In between are many small stores and cafes and masses of Scottish souvenir stores. Half way up is Edinburgh Cathedral, in a square popular with buskers which range from traditionally dressed pipers to the worlds most pierced woman. From Market Street we ventured into side streets to find better coffee, cheap pubs to watch football and rugby matches (Scotland vs France) and Greyfriar's Bobby statue. Down the steep hill and across the river that runs through the city center is the other side of town - much more modern with department stores including the famous Jenners and chain cafes. Venturing a couple of streets out find you on St Georges Street, clearly where the rich used to shop with some of the impressive buildings shown below. We liked Edinburgh very much, with its contentment at keeping buildings in their original form. Our first day we decided to walk from our hotel into the city, about an hour, and walked past a large city 'forest' and the enormous estate shown below - after much googling we found out it was 'Donaldson's School for the Deaf (and other communication difficulties)', which moved in 2008 and the building was bought by a property developer and now sadly remains unused... I'll move in ;)
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| Donaldson's School |
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| Busker on Market Street |
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| Edinburgh Cathedral |
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| Edinburgh Cathedral |
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| Edinburgh Cathedral |
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| Edinburgh Cathedral |
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| Market Street |
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| Market Street |
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| Edinburgh Cathedral |
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| In a nearby church used for a marketplace |
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| Cranes outside the Christian Institute |
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| Edinburgh Castle |
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| Market Street |
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| Market Street (bottom) |
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| Edinburgh Castle |
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| Outside Edinburgh Castle |
After walking for an hour to get into the city, then walking for two hours as we explored Market Street and surrounding areas, we decided to take a leaf out of Mr Bean's books and sit and look at this mountain, rather than join in the climb...
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| Beside Edinburgh Castle |
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| View from Edinburgh Castle |
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| Greyfriar's Bobby |
After three nights staying in our luxury hotel in Edinburgh, thanks to Tripadvisors Mystery Deals that landed us with a pool, spa, sauna and gym (ohhhh yeeeaaaah), we set off North to Inverness to get in touch with Matt's roots. The 4 hour journey gave us a beautiful taste of the Scottish Highlands. We drove through miles of conifer forests and miles of snowy mountains that stretched as far as the eye can see. It felt quite magical and we needed no books to keep us entertained.
Our time in Inverness was brief. It was quite a small but busy enough to have lost small town charms. We did enjoy an afternoon looking at the castle and walking alongside the river, and took advantage of the football fields beside our guest house. Oh, and our first taste of Scottish Whisky straight out of the barrel (and a bloody good bacon bap from the bus station). The real reason we came north was to visit Loch Ness - and while we only spent half a day exploring Urquhart Castle and gaping at the stunning expanse of water that is Loch Ness, it was so, so worth it. Loch Ness is larger than I can describe, so deep and easy to imagine mystical creatures filling its depths. It was an honour to stand in such a beautiful place.
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| Basking |
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| Inverness |
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| Inverness Castle - now the Sheriff Court |
From Inverness we returned South and made it to Glasgow. Glasgow is much larger and busier than Edinburgh - feels much more 'lived in' - and filled with swarms of students, but that might have been coincidence. We took an evening to make sure we remembered how to be Aussies by having a parmy, boags and little creatures stubbies in the Walkabout. Our first day in Glasgow showed off some impressive street art, typically stretching the whole side of a building - our favourite was a forest scene with animals and mushrooms that seemed to be hidden behind the cracking walls. We had a look inside the cathedral, with dark stone walls and some very, very old history. The oldest doors from the church were covered bullet holes from various wars. Whilst the cathedral was impressive, it was nothing compared to the graveyard behind it. The graveyard was ENORMOUS, with tombstones ranging from meter high headstones engraved only with names and dates, to massive crypts with coloured iron doors and creepy weeping angles inside. It covered a whole hillside and we spent quite sometime wandering and thinking about the bodies beneath our feet.. Connecting the dots.. perhaps it wasn't so weird that the tardis was close by.
On our last night in Glasgow (on the eve of Valentines Day) we traveled to East Kilbride to see Money for Nothing - a Dire Straits tribute band from Cardiff that were touring around the UK. We got there quite early and tried to find the venue. Upon booking to see the band, we noticed that there were very few seats sold (around 20 in a very modest 300 seat theatre). Our good friend "Google Maps" showed us the way to a modern church with no one in sight on a dark street. We were so close to cutting our losses and calling it a night but on our way back to the small city centre we stumbled upon the theatre where it was being held with a sigh of relief until we noticed that there was only one person inside and another elderly couple stalking it out in a car keeping warm.. had we made a terrible mistake?! We drowned our sorrows in an Oreo ice cream and dirty, greasy potato cakes before the show and worked up the confidence to go back and give it a crack - they had had great reviews and the last show was a standing ovation and we were determined to enjoy the music no matter how many people showed up.
The show was absolutely brilliant - the set list could not have been better!
Calling Elvis
Walk of Life
Private Investigations
Romeo and Juliet
Heavy Fuel
Why Worry
Lady Writer
On Every Street
Telegraph Road
Sultans of Swing
So Far Away
Tunnel of Love
Twisting by the Pool
The Bug
Brothers in Arms
Money for Nothing
Solid Rock
Going Home
We're so glad we went, despite the *older* audience, we had a terrific time.
It was interesting to see the contrast between Edinburgh and Glasgow. Glasgow seems much more practical, but Edinburgh lured us with its (relentless) old school charms. We left the UK with one less pair of glasses (on a bus from Loch Ness we think..) and one more bottle of whisky, on our first flight in 6 weeks and landed in Ireland for St Valentines Day..
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