Aye its Edinburgh and Stirling

Aye we have arrived in Scotland. The land of bagpipes, kilts and whisky… and the most incredible scenery!

To make sure we are making the most out of our days driving we have tried to prepare routes. This is what happens when you forget the routes and need to reflect on what on earth you had planned the night before at 11:30pm…

Disclaimer: the car was not being driven at the time of this photograph

 Simon has been extremely excited about being in Scotland and insists that because he is here, therefore he is Braveheart and should attempt the accent and yelling Scotland at random times, usually at high places. So far Amy has successfully kept a lid on him. 

Getting there.

On our way North over the border we made a few stops.

The Angel of the North is a 200m steel statue erected on the freeway to Scotland over old mining shafts. It’s a memorial to those who perished in the mines and a beacon of the future moving into the information age. It is massive and completely dwarfs you when stand below. It’s seen by 30 million people a year driving nearby, that more than 1 every second.

 

We couldn’t cross the real border without crossing the ancient one. We stopped in at Hadrians Wall and an excavated Roman Fort. The Romans built a walls across the width of England to keep the Scots out and erected forts all along it to man the wall and defend it. When Rome collapsed the wall was abandoned and over time buried along with the forts. Excavations along the length of the wall have unearthed remarkable artefacts left behind by the Romans, lots of them on show at this museum.

 Eventually we crossed the modern border and found that Scotland is worse than Victoria for speed cameras. There were no less than 13 speed cameras from the English border to Edinburgh and we weren’t even on the main motorway. This theme has followed along any major road we’ve been on since, they are everywhere and it seems more than a little excessive.

Edinburgh

Arriving in Edinburgh we checked into our hotel and found a gorgeous local pub. We relaxed in a cosy cushioned corner surrounded with candlelight and enjoyed real Scottish Angus Beef burgers and a well-deserved bottle of red wine (Australian of course). It was the perfect way to cap off a seriously long day. 

For some reason we were expecting to arrive in Edinburgh to the sound of bagpipes and walk the streets to find men in kilts. Alas, this is a bad stereotype. However on the second day we did manage to spot this guy!

On our first day we walked an hour into town to reinvigorate our legs after they have had the luxury of getting used to a car. We explored Edinburgh castle and saw the Scottish crown jewels, which have not been in service since the uniting of the kingdoms. 

The one o’clock gun went off with an impressive bang and then admired the amazing views from the top of the castle. 

We left the castle and met Simons friend Peter a native Scotsman who showed us all over Edinburgh. This was really wonderful as it made us see the city in a way we wouldn’t have just doing it ourselves and find areas we would come back to the next day to explore further. Massive thank you to Peter who is now a blog reader!

After a day of exploring this beautiful city by day we decided to come back to take some night time shots but alas Edinburgh is awful to drive in and finding a park was incredibly difficult and to be honest there wasn’t too much lit up to take nice pics of. Or maybe we just didn’t know where to look, either way. No night time shots but plenty of night urban stop start driving.

After a great day we capped it off by returning to our pub of the previous evening for more relaxation and sure enough it was trivia night. Why not we thought. We realised we were handicapped by a few things working against us. A) We do not speak fluent Scottish although we are getting better. B) We haven’t read the news in over 5 weeks, let alone local Edinburgh news. C) We were a team of 2 competing against much bigger teams and D) We were having some drinks and generally relaxing without taking it too seriously. Despite all of this we managed to finish 5^th out of 8 teams and make friends with the table next to us. FYI in Scotland, Salt and Vinegar chips come in blue packaging. Everyone knows that’s for plain chips. 

The next day we decided to climb a seat. Arthurs seat. This is the volcanic plug that overlooks Edinburgh and gives dramatic background to its skyline. We drove around it the day before with Peter and decided it was climbable in a morning so we had it. In usual Scottish fashion just when we were far enough away from the car for it to be inconvenient (ie: 15 minutes away) the skies opened and we were drenched. The wind was whipping at us and after we summited we made our very sketchy descent on the slippery grass and mud soaked to the bone. It was gorgeous up there, but we could barely get the camera out without it being completely destroyed by rain. 

Not the climb just some scenery

A slight insight into the climb

The point at the top left is the top of our journey

We returned to the city (heater cranked in the car to dry out) to get some more photos of places we had wandered yesterday but we just couldn’t find the groove. Amy bought a tartan lambswool scarf you will see in later pictures.

We moved on to an exhibition at the Queens Gallery we had heard about from a Scottish couple at the BnB we stayed at in The Cotswalds. The exhibition features Leonardo Da Vinci’s drawing and works on the human form and internal workings. This is 300 years prior to anything similar being developed by later medical scientists. Unfortunately Da Vinci died before his works were published and they fell into obscurity. It was only 100 years ago that these works were re-discovered and the ground breaking work and the incredibly detailed and accurate drawings are shown. If Da Vinci’s work was published medical science may have advanced much earlier. The intricacy and accuracy is remarkable.

The exhibition itself was remarkable, we both agreed it was one of the best either of us have ever been to. If this ever comes to Australia or you happen across it in your travels. GO.

There are too many tourists in Edinburgh and we have come to realise that we don’t like tourists despite the obvious fact that we are tourists. Overall, Edinburgh has so much to offer and it is rich in culture and history, and is architecturally beautiful. 

Stirling

After the exhibition and quick bite to eat we hit the road to Stirling. The drive up the road was pretty quick in comparison to some other days and we made good time. We drove straight to the William Wallace (aka Mel Gibson in Braveheart) Monument. This was erected in the 1800s on a wave of Scottish patriotism and public donations from Scots all over the world. It has one heck of a viewing platform on top. We listened to the tale of William Wallace as retold by a man in costume wielding an axe. 

We checked into our accommodation for the night which was a farm let, basically a hotel room attached to a rural property. Nice and quiet for once.

After driving into town and downing some take-away porridge (this needs to catch on back home) we walked up to Stirling castle. This castle has major historical significance to Scotland as one of its premier castles and of massive strategic relevance. In the wars with England in the 1300s it changed hands between England and Scotland EIGHT times.

We crawled all through its small rooms and palatial state rooms, audio guide glued to our ears taking in stories of Kings and Queens gone by. 

After a good time there we got back in Maddy and drove up to Pitlochry stopping at Drummond Castle and Gardens. The castle is privately owned so you can’t explore it but the gardens are magnificent are some of the best formal gardens in Europe. Heading into winter they were all but deserted so we had run of the place allowing us the time to completely explore and take lots of photos. There was enough of summer left though for enough flowers to be out to get a feel for what it would be like in the peak of its bloom. 

When planning our Scotland and Ireland trip we planned it pretty thoroughly mapping out key highlights to see and from there our destinations we would be staying. It was a shame that when we arrived in Scotland we realised that somewhere along the way we had not stored all this info. So we knew where we were staying but couldn’t remember why we chose this place and end up spending time each night checking out what the new day will have in store for us. 

Thought of the day. Some of you may know that England, Ireland and Scotland whilst all being part of the UK and using the pound, each country has its own notes. And within that variations on each. For example Scotland has 3 different sets of notes and Ireland has 4. Honestly who thought this was a good idea? What is the point of this?

Xoxo Simon and Amy

This is here just because we can!