Edinburgh/Glasgow/Highlands/Scotland in General
Well, I’m on a train from Edinburgh to London right now and I’m very lucky to be here…lol. I’ll start backwards and tell the “exciting” ending to an INCREDIBLE weekend! (Dad-you never told me how AWESOME Scotland is!)
Anyway, I had my first major travel mistake today but luckily it worked out just fine. I thought all weekend that my train back to London King’s Cross Station left Edinburgh Waverly Station at 17:32 (5:32pm). Believing that’s when the train left Chris and I planned our weekend out to where Monday we could sleep in and do the stuff we hadn’t done yet in Edinburgh and still make it home. After sleeping in (for the first time all weekend), eating an incredible breakfast (for only 2 pounds!!), visiting the castle, going on a Scotch Whiskey making tour, and doing a bit of shopping, Chris and I made our way back to the hotel to get our bags and head to the train station. We timed it all perfectly. We caught a bus from Princes street (main street in Edinburgh) to our hotel, grabbed our bags from the front desk with 2 or 3 minutes till the bus came by to pick us up to go back to the train station. We got to the train station 15 minutes before the train was supposed to leave, giving us enough time to grab some food to take on the train. It all worked great except for the fact the train was at 17:00 (5pm) not 17:32… This wasn’t so much a problem for Chris because his ticket was good on any train back to London today, but my ticket was strictly for the 17:00 train (that was well on it way to London). We decided I’ll just get on the train and hope when the ticket inspector comes by on the train to punch our tickets that he isn’t too great at inspecting and won’t notice that my ticket is for the earlier train. Luckily when he came by he didn’t notice-so I’m safe.
Anyway this weekend has been INCREDIBLE! Edinburgh, Scotland is by far my favorite city/country so far. It has everything I like about London and Paris and Nashville and none the stuff I don’t like about those cities. The weather probably helped my impression of the city a lot. It was bright, warm (85ish?), and sunny everyday I was there. The locals say it normally rains quite a bit and it’s cold in the winter, so maybe I wouldn’t have been so crazy about it if I came in the winter, but I came in July and it was awesome.
(Time out-I started writing this on the train when I was leaving Edinburgh. I never finished it and now I am 2 weeks later…)
Anyway (switching to bullet style) the weekend consisted of the following:
Day 1- stepped off the train to hear bagpipes playing in the background and see a lady with Scottish terriers standing on the platform lol. Then I got on a bus to go to the hotel-the bus had plaid seats. Did an open top sight seeing bus tour of Edinburgh , ate dinner, ate lunch at pub, climbed Arthur’s seat (this really tall hill that over looks the city-it’s really tall. All of the food we ate in Scotland was a lot better than food in London and it was a lot cheaper!
Day 2- 6:30am woke up for a 13 hour Highland tour that included a boat ride on Loch Ness. The Highlands were BEAUTIFUL and the tour was great. We never drove more than an hour and half without stopping for 30 minutes or so in random towns. We stopped at a castle once during the day too. Our tour guide was really funny too and he knew A LOT about Scotland/the Highlands/everything. I actually learned a lot. We also meet some girls from Alabama on the tour and afterwards ate a pub in Edinburgh with them.
Day 3- 7:30am woke up to go to Glasgow for the day. Glasgow basically sucked lol. We took a sightseeing bus tour, went to a river festival and got to go on an old pirate ship. We came back to Edinburgh and ate dinner with Tyler Hood and his family who were in Edinburgh for the weekend also.
Day 4- slept in till 10am, ate an awesome 2 pound breakfast, did the Edinburgh Castle, went on a Scotch Whiskey making tour, did some shopping, and came home to London.
It was a great weekend and it flew by because of how much stuff we did. Time here in London is flying by too. I’ve only got 5 more days of Wild (4 by the time I post this) and only 1 more full weekend in London. Next week I think I’m going to Prague?? I don’t know. I wish I had planned my trips before I came (but that wasn’t possible).
Anyway gotta go for now!
PS. posted this from work another 2 days after I finished it on a train to work after I started it 2.5 weeks earlier on a train home from Edinburgh...
Anyway, I had my first major travel mistake today but luckily it worked out just fine. I thought all weekend that my train back to London King’s Cross Station left Edinburgh Waverly Station at 17:32 (5:32pm). Believing that’s when the train left Chris and I planned our weekend out to where Monday we could sleep in and do the stuff we hadn’t done yet in Edinburgh and still make it home. After sleeping in (for the first time all weekend), eating an incredible breakfast (for only 2 pounds!!), visiting the castle, going on a Scotch Whiskey making tour, and doing a bit of shopping, Chris and I made our way back to the hotel to get our bags and head to the train station. We timed it all perfectly. We caught a bus from Princes street (main street in Edinburgh) to our hotel, grabbed our bags from the front desk with 2 or 3 minutes till the bus came by to pick us up to go back to the train station. We got to the train station 15 minutes before the train was supposed to leave, giving us enough time to grab some food to take on the train. It all worked great except for the fact the train was at 17:00 (5pm) not 17:32… This wasn’t so much a problem for Chris because his ticket was good on any train back to London today, but my ticket was strictly for the 17:00 train (that was well on it way to London). We decided I’ll just get on the train and hope when the ticket inspector comes by on the train to punch our tickets that he isn’t too great at inspecting and won’t notice that my ticket is for the earlier train. Luckily when he came by he didn’t notice-so I’m safe.
Anyway this weekend has been INCREDIBLE! Edinburgh, Scotland is by far my favorite city/country so far. It has everything I like about London and Paris and Nashville and none the stuff I don’t like about those cities. The weather probably helped my impression of the city a lot. It was bright, warm (85ish?), and sunny everyday I was there. The locals say it normally rains quite a bit and it’s cold in the winter, so maybe I wouldn’t have been so crazy about it if I came in the winter, but I came in July and it was awesome.
(Time out-I started writing this on the train when I was leaving Edinburgh. I never finished it and now I am 2 weeks later…)
Anyway (switching to bullet style) the weekend consisted of the following:
Day 1- stepped off the train to hear bagpipes playing in the background and see a lady with Scottish terriers standing on the platform lol. Then I got on a bus to go to the hotel-the bus had plaid seats. Did an open top sight seeing bus tour of Edinburgh , ate dinner, ate lunch at pub, climbed Arthur’s seat (this really tall hill that over looks the city-it’s really tall. All of the food we ate in Scotland was a lot better than food in London and it was a lot cheaper!
Day 2- 6:30am woke up for a 13 hour Highland tour that included a boat ride on Loch Ness. The Highlands were BEAUTIFUL and the tour was great. We never drove more than an hour and half without stopping for 30 minutes or so in random towns. We stopped at a castle once during the day too. Our tour guide was really funny too and he knew A LOT about Scotland/the Highlands/everything. I actually learned a lot. We also meet some girls from Alabama on the tour and afterwards ate a pub in Edinburgh with them.
Day 3- 7:30am woke up to go to Glasgow for the day. Glasgow basically sucked lol. We took a sightseeing bus tour, went to a river festival and got to go on an old pirate ship. We came back to Edinburgh and ate dinner with Tyler Hood and his family who were in Edinburgh for the weekend also.
Day 4- slept in till 10am, ate an awesome 2 pound breakfast, did the Edinburgh Castle, went on a Scotch Whiskey making tour, did some shopping, and came home to London.
It was a great weekend and it flew by because of how much stuff we did. Time here in London is flying by too. I’ve only got 5 more days of Wild (4 by the time I post this) and only 1 more full weekend in London. Next week I think I’m going to Prague?? I don’t know. I wish I had planned my trips before I came (but that wasn’t possible).
Anyway gotta go for now!
PS. posted this from work another 2 days after I finished it on a train to work after I started it 2.5 weeks earlier on a train home from Edinburgh...
posted by Garrett at 4:48 AM
2 Comments:
I also definitely enjoyed Scotland, and with the Gulfstream, it doesn't get that cold, just a lot of fog, and overcast skies. I wish we could have taken a Highland tour instead of going to the golf course.
Enjoy the days, especially the last ones.
hey garrett! all of your pictures look really good. it all looks really fun. see ya around! -jessie
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