Shelby shared part one of our time in Scotland last week, and today I’m going to share part two. Traveling is definitely one of our passions, and Scotland is somewhere we truly enjoyed visiting, and would return to in a heartbeat. Shelby had spent the summer doing an internship in London, so our Mom and I decided to meet her at the end of her trip to spend some time all traveling around Europe together.
We flew from JFK to Heathrow and then took the four hour train ride up north to Edinburgh, Scotland. Little tip- buy a first class train ticket if you can. It’s not that much more expensive and you get food and drinks (just like on a plane).
Day One (day two for Shelby)
I had been to Edinburgh before, during my time studying abroad in London while I was in college, however, Mom had never been, so I was excited to show her around. We spent the morning walking up and down the Royal Mile and we saw the Queen was in town! We never spotted her though 🙁
That afternoon we hopped on a bus and headed to visit Rosslyn Chapel, which is located about 7 miles from Edinburgh. If you’ve seen the movie The Da Vinci Code, then you’ve seen Rosslyn Chapel (it’s the place at the end where they discover everything). Although I must say, it’s a lot smaller in person than it appears on TV. Honestly, this was one of my favorite things we did that trip, and admittedly, while the chapel was lovely, my favorite part was the latte I drank while sitting outside their little cafe overlooking a beautiful Scotland day.
Day Two (day three for Shelby)
On day two we took off on a day trip northwest of Edinburgh. We used Heart of Scotland Tours and I could not recommend them more. We did “tour 2” on this day which took us to Stirling Castle, the Highland Lochs (aka “lakes”) and on a whiskey tasting tour through a distillery.
Stirling Castle was fun to visit, and as it’s situated high on top of a hill it gives you excellent views of the surrounding area. After a little tour, Mom and I found ourselves in the cafe enjoying yet another latte. We deemed “lattes at castles” a new tradition and one I will gladly uphold.
We stopped to say hello to Hamish the highland cow. While this was a planned stop on our tour, strangely enough, Shelby ran into her pack of highland cows at about the same time. Right after the above picture was taken Shelby was texting me “I JUST TOUCHED A BANGED COW!!” And you guys, our life was made. I don’t know what it is about these cows but their “bangs” just make us happy. Apparently it was naptime for Hamish so I didn’t get to touch his bangs.
We stopped for lunch in the cute little town of Aberfoyle (which sounds like a character from Harry Potter).
On this particular day it was a bit rainy (rain, in Scotland?! shocking i know) so the views around the lochs were not as great, but it was still cool to see.
We ended the tour with a whiskey tasting at Glengoyne distillery. After a tour, and some sampling, we perused the gift shop and picked up some souvenirs for a few lucky people.
We made our way back to Edinburgh where we met up with Shelby and Allix.
Day Three
Reunited!
On this day, we took another Heart of Scotland Tour (tour 5) along the coast with a stop in Lindisfarne before visiting Alnwick Castle (the setting for many movies and television shows including scenes from Harry Potter (where he learns to fly!) and Downton Abbey. Technically, all of our stops on this tour were located just over the Scottish border in England, but since we were based in Scotland, I’m including in. Deal with it 🙂
Alnwick Castle is very picturesque. It’s easy to see why so many movies and tv shows use it as a filming location.
On our way back to Edinburgh we stopped off in the village of Etal, England. I use the term “village” very loosely. It’s literally a single street, but this village gave us the once in a lifetime opportunity of having tea at a post office/general store/garden center. Can’t say I’ll ever find a post office that serves tea (and plants!) in the states. We sat out in the garden with our tea and lavender scones simultaneously remarking on how strange it was while enjoying the beautiful weather.
Day Four
Shelby and Allix hadn’t seen much of Edinburgh since we had spent the previous day off on a day trip, so on our last day we did some more exploring and souvenir buying (do you like our cashmere scarves?).
I truly loved every minute of our time in Scotland, and as you can see, it’s really easy to base yourself in Edinburgh but still get out of the city to see what other parts of Scotland have to offer.
Have you been to Scotland? What was your favorite thing you did or saw?
-Ashley xx