Day 17 – Edinburgh Castle, Royal Mile

We took the bus into Edinburgh on Day 17 and didn’t really do much.  We wanted to see the Edinburgh Castle and walk along the Royal mile – and maybe some other stuff – but the heat and these little bugs that were EVERYWHERE just made it really annoying and irritating.

If it weren’t for the bugs the castle would have been pretty cool… but those bugs ruined everything.  You couldn’t get away from them when out in the sun and of course the castle is 99% outside… whatever.

We’re close to heading home and I’m close to seeing my Princess Lizzy! Cat once again!

Beer tallies (34 total)

• Guinness: 15
• Ringwood Brewery – Best Bitter: 1
• Thwaites Brewery – Lancaster Bomber: 2
• Black Isle – Red Kite Ale: 1
• McEwan’s – Export: 1
• McEwan’s – Champion: 1
• Caledonian – Deuchars IPA: 2
• Isle of Skye Brewery – Red Skye Midge: 2
• Isle of Skye Brewery – Red Cuillin: 1
• Isle of Skye Brewery – Black Cuillin: 1
• Isle of Skye Brewery – Ardmore Beast: 1
• Isle of Skye Brewery – Cuillin Beast: 2
• Isle of Skye Brewery – Hebridean Gold: 1
• Tennent’s – Ice Cold: 1
• Mordue Brewery – Radgie Gadgie: 2

Day 16 – Falkirk Wheel, Firth of Forth Bridge, Roslin Chapel Abortion, IKEA, Costco

Day 16 started off again with a Scottish breakfast but I made some tweaks -> no mushrooms, no tomatoes and I wanted the egg center cooked and not runny.  Well, that didn’t help.  Immediately after eating most of it I felt like crap – pun intended – for the next 5 hours or so.  We waited around at the B&B for a little bit – until I felt like I’d be able to journey for a bit without needing a bathroom ASAP – and headed for the Falkirk Wheel.  Along the way we stopped at many “services” and other stops that had bathrooms.

I was really excited to see the wheel but my enthusiasm wained due to me feeling like crap – again pun intended.  It’s a really cool boat lift and apparently is super energy efficient – like only costing 10 pounds a day in electricity or something.  From afar – and through a camera lens – it almost looks like a futuristic city.

Futuristic City Or Bad Ass Boat Lift?

After that we headed for the Firth of Forth Bridge which is a 1.5 mile long rail bridge that was built back in 1890.  It has over 8 million rivets and looks quite awesome.  It’s been called ugly by some but I think it looks pretty sweet.  It’s the bridge on the right.

Road Bridge On Left Rail Bridge On Right

After that we backtracked a bit to get to Roslin Chapel which is supposed to have some awesome ceilings and was also used in the DaVinci Code movie.  When we got there it was under HEAVY construction and the ceilings weren’t visible due to scaffolding and hardly any of the outside was visible either – again due to scaffolding – and they want like 7 pounds to get in.  F*ck that.

So as we drove away we found an IKEA and Costco, and because we needed to waste time before checking in to our B&B, we went for a walk around each.

I like the modern designs in IKEA but I hate the cheap-ness – quality-wise – of everything.  I had never been in an IKEA so it was cool to walk around.

After that we walked around Costco and it felt just like we were back in the US.  Some of the prices on things were amazing – like a huge back of crumpets for 1 pound 50 pence; that’s cheap as hell even after converting to dollars!  Amber ended up getting a cottage pie from the hot food area and I got a slice of pizza.  SOMEONE please remind me that I hate pizza here (and in Ireland)!  All pizza has this nasty flavor – I think Italian seasoning – that leaves this really gross soapy taste in your mouth for hours.  UGH.

It was still not time to check-in but we headed to the B&B anyway.  The place is right on the beach so we ended up sitting along the boardwalk watching the ocean for a bit.  It was sunny, not too windy and not too cold so we didn’t care one bit that we had to wait.

Eventually, and after we got settled in, we went out to dinner at a place the B&B owners recommended and it was just okay.

After that Kathy went to her room while Amber and I walked barefoot on the ocean for a bit before heading in, doing some laundry, and going to sleep.

Beer tallies (32 total)

• Guinness: 15
• Ringwood Brewery – Best Bitter: 1
• Thwaites Brewery – Lancaster Bomber: 2
• Black Isle – Red Kite Ale: 1
• McEwan’s – Export: 1
• McEwan’s – Champion: 1
• Caledonian – Deuchars IPA: 2
• Isle of Skye Brewery – Red Skye Midge: 2
• Isle of Skye Brewery – Red Cuillin: 1
• Isle of Skye Brewery – Black Cuillin: 1
• Isle of Skye Brewery – Ardmore Beast: 1
• Isle of Skye Brewery – Cuillin Beast: 1
• Isle of Skye Brewery – Hebridean Gold: 1
• Tennent’s – Ice Cold: 1
• Mordue Brewery – Radgie Gadgie: 1

Day 15 – Gardens, Bothwell Castle, Patrick Feels Sick, Glasgow Cathedral

Day 15 started out with a full Scottish breakfast – eggs, bacon, sausage, mushrooms, tomato, beans, potato scone/pita thing – and it eventually came back to haunt me.

Right after breakfast we walked around a nearby park and I played on some equipment and then we headed out for Bothwell Castle and some other castles but we never made it to the other castles.

See Saw

Ride Em Cowboy

Bothwell was kind of cool but a lot of it was under work so you couldn’t see much.  Amber and I did get ambushed by a bird as we walked down a dark corridor and it suddenly appeared and flew overhead; Amber screamed and her scream made me jump!

After Bothwell we ate at a nearby Subway and my sub just didn’t taste ‘right.’  Something was off and as we drove to our next destination I started feeling not so good.  At the first place I could find off the current windy road we were on I ran in and used the bathroom… for a while.  I was shaky and felt like I was going to throw up and just wanted to get back to the B&B so I could lie in misery in bed so we aborted our plans and headed that way.

Once back at the B&B I laid around for a couple of hours or so until feeling better-ish and we headed out to the Glasgow Cathedral.

We all had much higher hopes for this cathedral – after all the hyping in the travel books we have – but it was kind of melodramatic and anti-climactic.  It too, was under work, and there was a lot of scaffolding set up outside.

After that it was off to the Asda store where we bought dinner for the night then back to the B&B where we ate said dinner.  I had no beer due to still not feeling well – something in that Scottish breakfast did not like me.

Beer tallies (29 total)

• Guinness: 15
• Ringwood Brewery – Best Bitter: 1
• Thwaites Brewery – Lancaster Bomber: 2
• Black Isle – Red Kite Ale: 1
• McEwan’s – Export: 1
• Caledonian – Deuchars IPA: 2
• Isle of Skye Brewery – Red Skye Midge: 2
• Isle of Skye Brewery – Red Cuillin: 1
• Isle of Skye Brewery – Black Cuillin: 1
• Isle of Skye Brewery – Ardmore Beast: 1
• Isle of Skye Brewery – Cuillin Beast: 1
• Isle of Skye Brewery – Hebridean Gold: 1

Day 14 – Castles, Castles, Castles!!!

Day 14 was a day of castles!  We’ve had to pass by many castles on other days due to having other things planned but on day 14 it was my day: Scotland Castle Day.

First up was Inverlochy and it was kind of drizzling at the time so it was more of a quick jump-out-and-take-some-pictures-before-you-get-super-wet type of stop.  According to Wikipedia “it has remained unaltered since it was built in the reign of King Alexander III.”  It was small-ish and just a rectangle but I still liked it.

Second up was Dunstaffnage and it was cooler than Inverlochy because we could go up on the battlements and walk around the top area.  It had some elements that had been redone since the original castle was made but I can overlook that; most seem to have been re-built or had portions re-built anyway so it’s nothing new for us.  There were some awesome looking rocks that the castle was built on -> Wikipedia says this is a “conglomerate bedrock platform.”

The last castle we saw was Kilchurn and we approached it from the wrong road and ended up walking through boggy area before realizing we couldn’t get to it from where we were.  After a little driving we found the right road and I trek’d alone to the castle (it was quite a walk to it on it’s little used-to-be-island-y thing it lives on).  There were even more areas to explore in this castle when compared to Inverlochy and Dunstaffnage and I made sure to check them all out.  I went down, I went up,  I went all around and even pee’d behind it.  Wikipedia says the castle “was badly damaged by lightning and was completely abandoned; the remains of a turret of a tower, still resting upside-down in the centre of the courtyard, attest to the violence of the storm” but whatever, it was a freaking sweet castle!

Lastly, we finally arrived at our Glasgow B&B and because it had its own area where we could cook our own food, we went to a Wal-Mart owned store named Asda, and got some miscellaneous stuff and ate food at the B&B.  I also had some beer I got from the Isle of Skye Brewery -> Cuillin Beast and a Hebridean Gold; both were pretty good with the Beast being better.

Beer tallies (29 total)

• Guinness: 15
• Ringwood Brewery – Best Bitter: 1
• Thwaites Brewery – Lancaster Bomber: 2
• Black Isle – Red Kite Ale: 1
• McEwan’s – Export: 1
• Caledonian – Deuchars IPA: 2
• Isle of Skye Brewery – Red Skye Midge: 2
• Isle of Skye Brewery – Red Cuillin: 1
• Isle of Skye Brewery – Black Cuillin: 1
• Isle of Skye Brewery – Ardmore Beast: 1
• Isle of Skye Brewery – Cuillin Beast: 1
• Isle of Skye Brewery – Hebridean Gold: 1

Day 13 – Isle of Skye

We started out with breakfast as usual and then were off to drive around the Isle of Skye.  We hit a bit of rain and some road works but neither lasted too long.  The first thing to see was the Old Man of Storr which is some rocky pillar thing.

We saw some more things along the way: Kilt Rock, some Quiraing overlook thing (which was pretty cool!), Duntulm Castle (couldn’t actually get to it due to the site being “unstable”), Isle of Skye Brewing Company’s shop (I got several beers!), some of the shaggy cows you see on post cards and then it was back to the B&B.  I realize I didn’t go into much detail there but it just wasn’t that exciting; we were hoping for something similar to the Dingle Peninsula in Ireland but the magic just wasn’t there.

After our drive we relaxed a bit then headed out to the same restaurant as the night before -> Red Skye.  It was terrific once again and Kathy joined Amber and I this time.  They’ve only been open for 2 weeks.  We got there kind of early for Europeans – 5:45 PM – so we basically had the place to ourselves for the entire dinner.  About the time we were leaving – 6:30-ish? – is when others started just showing up.

It was then back to the B&B and time for laundry, shower and sleep.

I did try a new beer today – one that was aged for 2 months in casks that a local distillery uses.  This distillery also uses peat when making their scotch and due to this the casks have the peat (and other scotch flavors) in them as well which leads to the beer being peat-y … and it’s quite overpowering and not very good.  This beer was a limited edition – only 200 were made – so that part is cool but the peat part is totally not cool.

Beer tallies (27 total)

• Guinness: 15
• Ringwood Brewery – Best Bitter: 1
• Thwaites Brewery – Lancaster Bomber: 2
• Black Isle – Red Kite Ale: 1
• McEwan’s – Export: 1
• Caledonian – Deuchars IPA: 2
• Isle of Skye Brewery – Red Skye Midge: 2
• Isle of Skye Brewing – Red Cuillin: 1
• Isle of Skye Brewery – Black Cuillin: 1
• Isle of Skye Brewery – Ardmore Beast: 1

Tired of blogging…

I’m tired of making the day to day blog stuff entries; I like Kathy’s so much more as she devotes actual time and energy to looking up facts and other stuff.  I recommend reading hers! ha

http://rhodylady.wordpress.com

I’m still going to be posting stuff but make sure you’re checking hers out as well!

Sheeps

Sheep

Day 12 – Loch Ness, Urquhart Castle, Eilean Donan Castle

Patrick & Nessie

We got out a bit early and headed to Loch Ness.  We stopped at the visitor center and watched a couple quick movies about Nessie and the lake then got some pictures and video with a fake Nessie that sits outside in a pond.

Quite soon after seeing Nessie we stopped at Urquhart Castle which would have been way more awesome with way less people.  It’s right off the main road and super close to the Loch Ness visitor center that everybody and their brother stops there and too many people at a site like that really detracts from the experience.

Urquhart Castle

Eilean Donan Castle

After that we saw that another castle was along the way – Eilean Donan Castle – but after seeing how full the parking lot was and also reading that it’s decorated and what not inside we weren’t interested in seeing it.  We did get a few pictures from outside, though. This castle was allegedly used in a Highlander movie and a James Bond movie.

We then continued driving to the Isle of Skye and to our B&B where we relaxed for a bit before heading out to view some castles.  We couldn’t figure out how to get to one castle -> Moil, another was on a private road -> Knock, and a third that was closed by the time we got there -> Armadale.

Back at the B&B Kathy headed to bed so Amber and I went out to dinner at a place we had driven by earlier and it was good.  The place had only been open for 13 days.  I got 2 different beers both brewed on the Isle of Skye.  I liked both.

Beer tallies (24 total)

• Guinness: 15
• Ringwood Brewery – Best Bitter: 1
• Thwaites Brewery – Lancaster Bomber: 2
• Black Isle – Red Kite Ale: 1
• McEwan’s – Export: 1
• Caledonian – Deuchars IPA: 2
• Isle of Skye Brewery – Red Skye Midge: 1
• Isle of Skye Brewing Company  - Red Cuillin: 1

Furry Sighting

Yeah… so there were some furries out and about today at Urquhart Castle… lol

Furries @ Urquhart Castle

Why? #4

Most of the rooms over here get so humid/damp/wet when you take a shower.  B&B’s, have you ever heard of a decent bathroom fan?  I’d open a window but there are no screens so the gnats, flies and mosquitos come right in because it’s dark outside and light inside.  I hate to think how much mold is in each room from the constant moisture build up.  I’m glad we only stay in places for a couple of days at a time.

Mix in a decent fan in the bathroom?