Going to Scotland

**Duke Malcolm** · 06-04-2007, 19:44

Originally Posted by Omanes Alexandrapolites

Day 8:
May I suggest the addition of Holyrood House onto your agenda. It's a beautiful English house in Edinburgh which is one of the English Queen's regal places. Consisting of ornate and beautiful corridors and rooms, this historic stately home, covered in history, combined with the informative audio guide, results in an interesting experience. It takes a couple of hours to walk round it's beautiful halls and corridors in their entirety and listen to the tour at the same time, yet the length taken, and the, very high, price, is certainly worth the positive benefits of the walk around the place.

Egad! The Palace of Holyroodhouse is not an English house in Edinburgh! The Palace of Holyroodhouse is Scottish! It is the BRITISH Queen's Royal Palace in Scotland, and whenever She stays there it is closed to the public so you must look and check whether this is the case during your visit.

**Somebody Else** · 06-08-2007, 17:31

Come Monday 11th, some of my unit are firing a 105 from Edinburgh castle - at noon. The royal salute. Could be worth a look-in.

**Caerfanan** · 06-15-2007, 12:28

Originally Posted by Somebody Else

Come Monday 11th, some of my unit are firing a 105 from Edinburgh castle - at noon. The royal salute. Could be worth a look-in.

Shouldn't there still be the 1 o'clock gun up there?
(well, it's not a 105, way too small)

How comes you're firing such a gun there?

**Caerfanan** · 06-15-2007, 12:36

Originally Posted by Lorenzo_H

Ok. Well then there is no reason why you shouldn't enjoy Scotland. Go have fun! (warning: don't let anyone think you are French)

Well, from what my experience told me, being french does not bring particular inconveniences in Scotland.

Too sad I noticed this thread too late, Andres!

I would've suggested the Mary King's close on the Royal Mile, which shows a part of what was Edinburgh in the 17th century. And also, if you were to go to Glasgow, the Tenement's house: which shows how was living the average workers family in the late 19th, early 20th!

I did quite enjoy the Ben Nevis, ad that's right, it can be very tricky if the weather is bad, you wouldn't believe this from 1300m below....

**Andres** · 06-15-2007, 17:52

First of all: thank you all for all the advice

We're back, and this is what we eventually did:

Day 1 : departure in Zeebrugge: boarding our ferry (Superfastferries, we travelled on a vessel of Bluestar company): we enjoyed it very much, the weather was almost perfect and we saw a brilliant sunset on open sea. Very nice start indeed

Day 2: arrival at Rosyth, our rental car was supposed to be just outside the ferry terminal. Alas, we had to pick it up in Edingburgh and had to take a taxi and thus we lost alot of time. My first experience with driving on the left side of the road took place in the centre of Edingburgh. After taking a few detours (women and reading maps

), we escaped the scottish capital and we drove towards Stirling. We had just enough time to visit Stirling castle. Very nice, but we were a bit disappointed because we lost alot of time picking up the car. I'll have a nice chat about that with our travel agent

Day 3 : From Tillicoultry, we departed, heading towards Fort William. We made a detour to Loch Kathrine and made a boat trip on the Sir Willliam Scott steam ship. Very nice, very beautiful. Afterwards, we visited Callander (the Rob Roy centre). We also paid a short visit to Rob Roy's grave in Balquhidder. Then we drove to Old town, near Fort William, making a few stops on the road just to enjoy the amazing landscape. After dinner, we made an evening walk on the shores of Loch Leven. Very beautiful, and the Loch and surrounding mountains by sunset were quite impressive.

Day 4 : Very nice weather, perfect for a walk. I remembered EA's advice about the Ben Nevis and after our trip through the big glen, we decided to make a walk in the Glen Coe. We walked into the Lost Valley (situated between two of the three so called "Three Sisters"). It was a very beautiful walk. In the afternoon, we wanted to cross the valley and climb further, but all of the sudden, it became very cloudy. We didn't trust the weather and decided to come back. Still, a very nice walk in almost perfect weather conditions.

Day 5 : Remembering Sigurds' advice, we decided to take a detour to Eilean Dolan castle on our way to Nairn (near Inverness). We visited the ruins of Inveraray Castle and paid a visit to the Ben Nevis distillery first. Than we drove towards Eleian Dolan. The views we had on the road alone, were more than enough to justify the detour. The castle itself was very beautiful and the surroundings splendid. We drove further and visited Urquhart Castle. Tired but very satisfied, we arrived in Nairn.

Day 6: we visited the Inverness museum and the castle. Afterwards we made a "dolphin cruise" on the Morray Firth. Unfortunately no dolphins. Still a nice boat trip, but I was a bit disappointed. No worries though, since they served double whiskies in our inn that night.

Made a nice evening walk at the Nairn beach as well. There was alot of mist (no, this had nothing to do with the double whiskies I had) and the scenery was quite special.

Day 7 : We drove back towards Inverness to visit the Culloden battlefield. We also visited Cawdor castle, which was quite impressive. We had alot of fun getting lost in the labyrinth in the gardens. From Cawdor, we drove towards Ballater. We made a small detour to Elgin, to visit the ruins of the cathedral.

and we also paid a visit to the distillery of Glenfiddich, one of my favourite whiskies.

In Ballater, we had alot of fun in one of the local pubs.

Day 8:: From Ballater we drove to Balmoral Castle were we spent half a day. Then we drove towards Dunkeld, stopping a few times on the road to enjoy the landscape. We made a detour to Perth and visited the Scone Palace. Afterwards we continued to Dunkeld.

Day 9: Off to Linlithgow, but first to Stirling, to the William Wallace monument, which we missed on our first day in Scotland. It was very well worth the visit. Afterwards, we went to Linlithgow, were we visited the Palace and St Michaels church. We also made a short walk (there's a beautiful little Loch there as well).

Day 10: A visit to Edinburgh. After a few detours (when woman finally learnt to read map, man decides to ignore woman and to drive in the opposite direction than the direction indicated by woman), we reached the centre and parked the car. We visited Edinburgh Castle. From there, we went to Mary King's close and as Caerfanan says, it is a very pleasant experience and we had alot of fun. Certainly a must do for every visitor of Edinburgh. Afterwards we visited the John Knox house and the Saint Gilles cathedral. Unfortunately, we forgot the time and it was too late to visit Holyrood House. We'll have to come back ...

Day 11: After bringing the car back to the rental company, we took the bus to the Rosyth Ferry. We had a rough sea and acces to the outside decks of the boat was strictly forbidden. Nonetheless, we enjoyed an excellent dinner onboard and went to the movies (300, not exactly my cup of tea, but enjoyable).

Day 12 : arrival in Zeebrugge and now I'm back home. Pictures will follow later.

**71-hour Ahmed** · 06-15-2007, 20:59

I'm glad you had a pleasant visit. I used to live in Nairn as a child so I'd be interested in knowing where you were staying there.

**Martok** · 06-15-2007, 21:06

Awesome, Andres! Am so very jealous of you right now -- color me green.

Looking forward to the pictures.

**Andres** · 06-15-2007, 21:16

Originally Posted by 71-hour Ahmed

I'm glad you had a pleasant visit. I used to live in Nairn as a child so I'd be interested in knowing where you were staying there.

Covenanters Inn, in Auldearn, about 2 or 3 miles away from Nairn. We made a short walk in Auldearn as well. Apparently, there has been a battle between the Covenanters (?) and the Royalists around 1650 near or in Auldearn. They had a viewpoint over the former battlefield.

**Fwapper** · 06-15-2007, 21:37

Dundee? Well... the folks up in the freezing north that is 'Aberdeen' never mention that name. (It is always referred to as "Scumdee") However as an Englishman I am obviously totally impartial etc. etc. etc...

**Andres** · 06-15-2007, 21:38

Originally Posted by Martok

Awesome, Andres! Am so very jealous of you right now -- color me green.

Looking forward to the pictures.

Well, here's Loch Leven: