Scotland

Wes and I had a great trip to Scotland earlier this month with his mother, Kathy, brother Travis and Trav's girlfriend, Amy. After some travel delays, Wes picked up the crew at the airport in Manchester and they headed over to Edinburgh on Friday (29 June).





After a day of sightseeing, Annette arrived on Saturday morning. We all went to Edinburgh Castle, the Writer's Museum and then a long walk down the Royal Mile to see the new Scottish Parliament building. Being Scotland, it rained on us quite a bit.





On Sunday, we took the MacBackpacker's tour from Edinburgh to Inverness. We stopped at some waterfalls, Edradour Distillery, Ruthven Barracks, Culloden Battlefield and finally Loch Ness before spending the night at a hostel in Inverness.






On Monday morning, we headed north to the Sutherland region to visit the homeland of the Sutherland Clan. We visited Dunrobin Castle, the Falls of Shin, and spent the night at Carbisdale Castle.






On Tuesday, we headed even further north by car and by ferry to reach to Orkney Islands, the homeland of Annette's great-great-great-grandmother. We visited the many ancient standing stones and cairns, as well as the ancient settlement at Skara Brae.






On Wednesday, we visited the ancient Highland Park whiskey distillery (which charged a whopping $10 for the tour!!). On the way back to the mainland, we spotted a few puffins and dolphins, but no luck on largest wildlife that is in the waters (sharks and whales). Then, we hit the road back to Inverness to stay at the hostel.





On Thursday, we joined back up with MacBackpacker's for the trip from Inverness through to Oban, with stops at Rogie Falls, Eilean Donnan Castle, the Isle of Skye, Fort William and Glen Coe. We had dinner of fish and chips, then played pool and trivial pursuit at the hostel in the evening.







On Friday morning, the tour continued from Oban through the country side, with a boggy hairy kuh stop and a stop in Stirling, on the way to Edinburgh. Annette left the group in Stirling to head to the airport to fly on to Germany.








The remaining group enjoyed another day in Edinburgh before heading to London (Wes) and Manchester (Kathy, Trav, Amy) on Saturday evening. Sunday found Wes packing to return to Hong Kong and the rest of the crew enjoying the international festival in Manchester. By Monday night, everyone was home safe and sound.