Author: BrennaAbroad96

On our seventh day in Scotland, we got on the road right after breakfast, leaving our B&B in Glencoe around 9 in the morning. We drove back through the Rannoch Moor area that we had seen in the rain the day before, this time being able to see them a bit better.

The bit of mist there was provided us with a spectacular rainbow!

It wasn’t long after leaving the mountainous highlands that we entered Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park area. The area was certainly pretty, but seemed a bit lackluster after the more dramatic scenery we had seen prior.

We drove on down and back around Loch Lomond and were then on our way toward Stirling. The scenery here was much softer, with rolling green hills dotted with sheep, yellow fields, pretty farms, quaint villages. I actually like the area quite a bit, but the sun was also shining, which never hurts.

All of a sudden, Stirling Castle was before us, up on a hill.

Anthony decided to take a quick detour into the city, and got a glimpse of the William Wallace monument as well.

Afterward, we finished our journey to the Edinburgh airport, where we had a very long and confusing ordeal dropping our rental car off. We caught the airlink bus all the way to Waverly Station, where we had about a 15 minute walk, primarily uphill, with our luggage, to our amazing flat.

We walked in, and there was a dram of whisky waiting for us (gross, but thoughtful), and right outside our window was the Grassmarket. Our bed was up a couple steps directly opposite the windows looking out at the Grassmarket, providing perfect people-watching.

As we only had a day and a half in Edinburgh, we didn’t waste time before heading out to explore, which was rather easy to do as the city was at our doorstep. Edinburgh is a very walkable city, which I love.

We wandered down to the Royal Mile, and since it was so nice out, we stopped on a patio to have a pint and watch the buskers and people walking by. We listened to some street-side musicians and bagpipe players.

We wandered around, stopped in some shops, and eventually got some tapas-style Indian food for dinner. We ordered way too much, but everything was so good, we couldn’t really help it. I could probably eat Indian food for every meal.

Afterward, we decided to check out The Elephant House, a little café decorated with elephants everywhere. Oh, and JK Rowling wrote the Harry Potter books there. (!!!!!!!!!)

I walked into the bathroom, and Harry Potter graffiti and messages were EVERYWHERE.

And my two personal favorites:

We sat there with our drinks at the café in Edinburgh, Scotland, where JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter, listening to everyone around us having philosophical Harry Potter discussions, and the Kansas City song came on the radio (“And I love you dear, but just how long Can I keep singing the same old song? I’m going back to Kansas City…”) It was such a bizarre clash of worlds for me.

Back at our flat, we watched out our window at the various rowdy Stag parties wandering by which was quite entertaining to say the least. The commotion outside went on way past when we went to bed, but then again, we are an old married couple.

Anyway, Edinburgh is a super cool city. I’m not typically a city person, but I could spend some time here.

Day 6 was our only full day in Glencoe, unfortunately, and still more unfortunate, it was rainy.

Since we are being quite spoiled and staying at a classy little B&B now, we went downstairs for our breakfast. I had the vegetarian version of the “full Scottish breakfast” which was SO. MUCH. FOOD. But it was delish, so I ate it all. Anthony got the smoked salmon and eggs, which also looked wonderful. After that fuel, we decided to take advantage of the couple hours we would have without rain and started walking toward the Glencoe Lochan trail system.

This trail system was at the base of the mountains, a beautiful forested area with pretty lochs.

Everyone we passed had their dogs wandering around with them, and I just kept thinking that that is one thing I really, really love about the UK. They are so dog-friendly here. Everywhere we go, people have their dogs with them. Going on a walk? Nearly everyone you see will have their dog/s with them. Heading to the pub? Dogs are there. Driving through the countryside? You might think you see a stray dog, but no, their owner is just a few steps back. I love it.

And then we saw a mother duck and her spastic little baby duck, and I was in love.

Once we felt the drizzle starting, we decided to walk on back to our B&B via Glencoe village.

We grabbed our backpacks and headed out again, a short drive toward Castle Stalker on Loch Laich, originally built around 1320. Its more recent fame was an appearance at the end of Monty Python and the Holy Grail as “The Castle of Aaaaarrrrrrggghhh”.

Tis a very “wee” castle, but cute and in a rather picturesque setting (probably more so if it weren’t so freaking gray out).

Once we arrived back in Glencoe, we stopped in for some lunch. Menu options included “Really big haddock” as well as a “Tasty wee haddock”, and the server was just so very Scottish, I couldn’t help but laugh. She got confused a few times while we were there and just kept saying, “Just one o’ those days. I can feel it in me bones.”

We saw that the sun was trying to peak out, so we took that as our queue to continue on. That was a mistake. The sun was just being a ginormous tease, as about 5 minutes down the road, we were in the worst weather we’ve had so far this trip. Any time I tried to get out and take pictures, the wind would be blowing me backwards, the rain would be pelting my camera, and it was just so, so cold. So we drove on through Rannoch Moor, but I can’t say we saw much of it. Nonetheless, the area was shown in both Harry Potter and Outlander, so I suppose I will content myself with just checking off that box.

All that rain made us sleepy, so we came back to the B&B for a nap. The next time the sun started to come out, I jumped up, put my shoes on, and rushed Anthony out the door, so we could go walking some more. We went back to the trail system that we had gone to that morning, and took the mountain trail this time.

It would have been nice to do a bigger hike around the area today, but I really did enjoy the Glencoe Lochan walking area. It was very pretty and peaceful. Definitely better than being cooped up in our room all day. Oh, and on the way back to the B&B, I drove on the left side of the road for the first time! It was quite terrifying, but we survived.

This morning provided us with yet more rain on our drive down to the southern part of Skye where we were to catch our ferry.

This was my first ferry experience. I’ve decided I like ferries. I listened to the crewmen working and joking with each other, saw a dolphin, and snapped pictures of our oncoming port.

We were first in line to get off the ferry which for some reason made me giddy.

They let the ramp down, and off we went. We decided to drive along the coast to Arisaig and just happened upon some gorgeous beaches.

After Arisaig, we turned toward Glenfinnan, passing through various mountains and lochs. Anthony was in love with the area.

We then came around a curve, and BAM, a steam train was passing! I barely had time to get my camera out and snap a picture from the car.

We made it to Glenfinnan where I realized that I had planned out everything in order to see the steam train pass on the viaduct only to leave all of that planning elsewhere. I was a bit stressed as I was so determined to see the “Harry Potter train.” We found a little parking lot, and decided to try it out and hope for the best. We walked along a path, and apparently went too far along that path because I realized we really wanted to be up and back. We decided to just start marching up the hill without a path and ended up in the right place. We set up shop and waited for it to come across.

Of course, after I had my tripod set up and had been waiting for half an hour, an old English man decided to walk on down right in the middle of my view. Screw that. Anthony walked down to him and asked him if it would be ok if he moved just a bit to the right, and he seemed quite indignant at the idea. “No, no, I have to be away from the people. I was here just this morning, and I was up where you are, and some bloke’s phone went off, and it messed up my whole video, and I didn’t get the sound, and I really wanted to get the sound.” Anthony sympathized, but then pushed a bit more. “I understand, that sounds rough. But maybe you could move just a step or two this way? Would that ruin your shot?” And so the man reluctantly moved to the side, and Anthony was my hero.

At last, it came. I have now seen the Harry Potter train.

Right after, the sun decided to come out for the day and bless us on the rest of our stunning drive to Glencoe.

We made it to our B&B, walked past some chickens and a wee garden, were led up to our room, and took in our spectacular view.

We took advantage of our shower and laundry facilities, ate a picnic outside looking out over the loch, and walked around the beautiful town a bit.

Afterward, we made our way to the pub for a pint before tucking in for the night. The pub had stuffed animal heads (like, I do mean stuffed animals, not real, dead animals) hanging over the bar which I thought was hilarious. The TVs were on the sports station, discussing cricket and rugby and soccer. Anthony ordered a pint of Guinness, and I ordered a pint of “extra cold” Guinness (because apparently that’s a thing?). Overall, a very, very pleasant day.