It’s that time of year when fall is 100% over, you know you’re not going to get a random warm day, the power’s been out at least once, and you’re due for a snow storm. I’m pretty sure this is usually the time of year when vacations seem especially wonderful and I get the planning bug while my husband rolls his eyes and gets out his suitcase. Last year this time I was planning for our trip to Scotland, which we took in May. I wrote about half of it here, and now that I’m getting antsy but can’t plan much more of our trip this summer, am going to cope by going through photos from the rest of our epic adventure.

If you want the quick summary this is it – we got SUPER cheap tickets to Edinburgh out of Newburgh, New York and had the chance to spend a week with my very good friend Tara who is living in England.  She has seven kids and is there for two years (which are now almost over).  I suggested we come visit her and she said “I want to go to Scotland” so we did.

After we left Loch Lommond and the Trossachs park we headed to Oban, a small town on the west coast of Scotland. The roads were a little bit reminiscent of Ithaca, but much narrower with more cars parked on them, and perhaps a little scarier since we were driving a rental on the wrong side of the road… with a standard transmission.  By we I mean my husband.

It was not really a driveable city, per se, and if you wanted to walk anywhere your quads would thank you for it the next day. I could have spent a week here but we only had a full day or so. We took a one car ferry across a very small sound to a tiny island call Kerrera.

It was breathtaking. We went on a 1.5 mile hike to the tip of the island where there were ruins of an old fort and signs telling a disturbing story I fortunately blocked from my memory.

We’d invested some serious time and energy into rain jackets because who needs rain jackets in New York? We had ridiculously wonderful weather the whole time. This was the only day we were cold and the only day we used our jackets – but not because of the rain.

We didn’t have much time in the actual town of Oban but did manage to enjoy some delicious food and my then 2 year old had some time to pretend he was a dog in the middle of the sidewalk.

My friend Tara whom we’d gone to visit had one request – that we see Loch Ness. It’s basically required on a trip to Scotland but to be honest, it did not disappoint.

The Scots have a sense of humor.

And how often can you say that you got to wade in Loch Ness? (which reminded me SO MUCH of the Fingerlakes and was equally freezing).

We went on a Loch Ness Cruise which wasn’t quite as exciting as it sounds. The more interesting part was actually the Loch Ness Experience where they went through the history of the monster and the extensive searching done to find it.  The conclusion was of course how there couldn’t possible be one. It was surprisingly educational.

After Loch Ness we headed north to Inverness in the Highlands.  It was not quite as awesome as everywhere else. There was a huge castle but you couldn’t go into it because it was a government building. There was a beautiful playground, park and river walk, but not a whole lot else. We never eat at McDonald’s but on that particular morning someone hadn’t eaten breakfast and I’d never been happier to see one in my life. I think there are a total of four in the entire country.

We then headed through the Cairngorms National Park on our way to St. Andrews and stopped at the three recommended things to do – the funicular railway, the reindeer and the beach.

The most educational thing here was the meaning of the word funicular – a train that is counterbalanced so it uses very little energy. In other words, there were two cars that passed each other and counterweighted each other.

The railway took you to the very top of the tallest mountain in the UK, which they said repeatedly, and which (I love you Scotland!) was every so slightly difficult to be impressed by. It was just not very high.

But it was above the cloud line. For environmental reasons you couldn’t leave the building but they did have a place for picture taking. They also had a cafeteria which we expected to be awesome but wasn’t. Tara said it was very English and I was thankful for all the international options we seemed to have elsewhere. I would seriously go back there just to eat. She joked she’d never seen so much quinoa in her life. Also “rocket” (arugula).

The reindeer received top marks on Tripadvisor. Our kids weren’t super impressed. Maybe they’re just not reindeer oriented… this photo is basically the same as the actual experience.  You’re welcome.

Afterward we headed to a nearby beach for some sun and ice cream.

Then we headed to St. Andrews on the east coast.

We stayed at a person’s house who still lived there (but rented it out through Airbnb) in a VERY small village which was a bit of a cultural experience. We went in to a tavern where they refused to serve us. We couldn’t quite wrap our mind around it but Tara said their perspective on customer service is not the same and they probably just didn’t want to deal with serving 8 people.  Interesting.

The next day we headed to St. Andrews, which was one of our favorite stops.

The castle there was our favorite of the trip – it was huge and a blast to explore.  There was even a tunnel underneath that you could climb into.

And of course, it was right on the beach. We had to say good bye to our friends here and it was sad. The trip really did fly by and I would go back in half a second.

An American girl who was living in the village while her mom cared for her dying grandfather said we HAD to go to an ice cream place in St. Andrews.  Daniel was adventurous and got chocolate.

On our way back to Edinburgh we stopped at one more castle.

The Edinburgh airport actually had a grocery store where you could buy things like fresh blueberries. America you have so much to learn!

And that was it. Europe I miss you! Especially on this snowy winter day. On the list now… Lego House in Denmark, Iceland, and France… also Italy. Now when I name a country my husband just laughs. And packs his bag.

A huge shout out to Airbnb and Norwegian Air for making this trip cheaper than going to Devner! Norwegian’s flights out of Newburgh, NY are ridiculously inexpensive, IF you’re willing to travel light and skip the extras, which we definitely were for the chance to go.

I might have actually picked a warmer spot, but my very dear friend Tara is living abroad with her seven kids for two years and suggested we meet up in Scotland.  We love traveling, but love it even more with friends, so it felt like one of those once in a lifetime opportunities.

We brought half the clothes we needed and stayed in places with washing machines. We brought some screens and a few legos and that was basically it. Each person had a backpack and if it didn’t fit it didn’t go. It turned out to save us in baggage fees and also car rental fees when our car ended up being some kind of micro-mini van with no space for luggage.

A friend of a friend had suggested a circular route around Scotland which involved staying in 5 different places over 10 nights and visiting 10 different towns and cities.  It was one of those need a vacation from your vacation kind of vacations, plus five hours of jetlag. Slowly, very slowly our mojo is coming back.

The first two nights we stayed in Edinburgh, which is best known for its gigantic beautifully maintained castle, scary driving and amazing transit system. Roads are smaller in Scotland. For example, what we would call a one lane road here is a two lane road there that people can park on – on both sides. The first day we parked in a garage and it was a huge mistake. Then we realized that the buses run everywhere, all the time and they have an app that makes it fool proof. It was perfect for jet lagged Americans.  Especially ones that manage to somehow lose their car.

Our trip to Edinburgh Castle was followed by a trip to the National Museum of Scotland.

And even though it was a little bit of a touristy thing, we did stop by Camera Obscura on the Royal Mile which is like the Ripley’s Believe It or Not of optical illusions. We needed a place where our kids could run around and not be shushed. Interestingly, it was started in Edinburgh by a Scottish woman in the 1850s.

We didn’t expect the food in Scotland to be amazing… apparently we forgot it was in Europe. Even though the UK isn’t known for its culinary sensibilities, the global culture still meant the selection of restaurants was astounding. Even in the smallest of places where we’d have vending machines they’d have wood fired pizza. Which is all to say that we ended up eating out A LOT more than we thought we would, and it was fabulous.

(Their bagels weren’t amazing. And apparently Mexican food hasn’t really made its way over to Scotland either).

Next we went to Falkirk, which is known for its wheel. When canals went out of vogue some were filled in and houses were built on top. Later as a rejuvination project, they wanted to reinstate the canals but couldn’t go through the previous route. So they built a wheel which is like an elevator for boats.  It uses counterbalancing to be extremely energy efficient. It connects the two canal sections and will lift or lower boats 79 feet.

Falkirk is also known for its HUGE Kelpie Heads.

They weren’t as interesting as we thought they might be for the kids, who were a little done with sight seeing for the day. There was an amazing playground a “wee bit” down the road… if you’re Scottish. If you’re American it was about a mile away. I’m not totally sure we ever adjusted to walking distances.

One of our very favorite spots was the Wallace Monument. They were really good about a balanced history of who he really was and what he did and didn’t accomplish. The actors in costume were also a great touch.

We also stopped by Doune Castle where Monty Python and the Holy Grail was filmed.

After that we went through Loch Lommond and the Trossachs National Park on our way to the Western coastal town of Oban. We went on a difficult but breath taking 3 mile hike that involved a lot of carrying and just about made me pass out, but then we had ice cream so it was okay.

Some of us felt inspired to do hiking of the more hard core variety.

Phew! And that was half of the trip… installment 2 to come!