And then the sun came out!

Sunday May 31st
Balmoral and the Highlands, Scotland

Here's the thing about Scotland: there is lots of daylight here. Lots. Like it's fully bright at 5:00 am. Pretty hard to sleep without darkening the room, and I am a terrible sleeper. So I was up pretty early. Yay for scripture study before 6, I guess!

Breakfast was okay... The French hostess was impossible to understand. I had cereal with milk (which is not like American milk, oddly enough) and some toast with marmalade. Yum!

We left right after breakfast for Balmoral Castle -- the Royal Family's Scotland home! We stopped at services (aka rest area with restaurants and petrol stations) to fill up with petrol and get some caffeine (diet cherry coke!) then headed on. The drive was motorway for less than half, then was country roads. Really crazy. There's no shoulder on the roads here, so it's always a tight squeeze. And when people park on the street? Even worse!

But the drive was worth it! Absolutely gorgeous countryside and little towns. Low hanging clouds made everything so cool and very Scottish. Lots of gorse, which is a weed-like bush with stunning yellow flowers. And a drive with us characters makes for some hilarious moments. Like when we wrote two versions of the 12 Days of Christmas, one for our trip and one for our souvenirs. And when we did a Chinese fire drill yesterday in the middle of nowhere Scotland... Today's highlight was "Bridge! River! Disabled people!" (There was a traffic sign that actually said disabled people... Leave it to the Scots to be blunt!)

How cute is this little drive?

One lane bridge. Not scary at all, right?

Typical Scottish weather and roads

There was some crazy long and intense bike race going on once we got off of the motorway and headed into the highlands. There were hundreds of cyclers up there! Dangerous and winding roads, hills, fog, nasty winds... It was not the sort of race I would have liked to cover as a trainer, let alone do! And since there's no bike lane and no shoulder, they were on the road... So we had to pass them. In winding roads and no shoulders and hills and rain and mist. Scary stuff!

So pretty in rustic, natural way.

Typical Highlands scenery and weather. I LOVE IT.

The Highlands are full of sudden bits of magic.

Terrifying time with the cyclists in the highlands.

It was amazing to see the difference between the lowlands and the highlands. It was like a completely different country, and yet it still had the same breathtaking beauty and majesty.

UGH. I couldn't take enough pictures!

Can you blame me???

Then we got there. BALMORAL CASTLE. Amazing and glorious. The most perfect castle ever. Freezing cold and drizzly, so perfect for Scotland. We took an audio tour of the grounds, which was so interesting and cool! Awesome exhibits there. Then we bought stuff and had lunch at the cafe. I had a meat pie and homemade shortbread and hot cocoa, and it was fantastic. Perfectly Scottish and so yummy.

STUNNING. I can see why the Queen loves it here.

The most perfect castle ever.

And then....the sun came out. And we stayed longer and walked around more and had sunshine to change the whole landscape. Steph and I twirled on the lawn at Balmoral, knocked on the door (no one was home), and walked by the river.

This is real and natural. Can you believe that?

This completely took my breath away.

I couldn't get enough.

Can I just live here?

We took more pictures and then drove back, and the ride was even more gorgeous than before. We got out randomly in the middle of the highlands to take pictures of the area and of each other, doing our now traditional "middle of the road selfie", this time with some Highlands flare.

I mean, REALLY, Scotland???

I couldn't breathe, it was so gorgeous.

We had to pull off and take pictures.

Oh, my heart... I fell in love.

I couldn't believe the difference in what we were seeing. My eyes couldn't see enough, I couldn't take it all in, and it took everything I had to process the colors and beauty of that area. My heart belongs to the Highlands now. I gave it away fully and freely.

Pure unfettered joy. I adore this place.

Please let me follow that road wherever it goes.

Once we got back to Edinburgh, we took a bus back into the city centre and sat up top this time. I will always recommend sitting up top on a double decker. You can see everything! And it makes it much easier to see where you are headed and when to get off. We were still full from our amazing lunch, so we skipped dinner.

We wandered Edinburgh and the Royal Mile (the mile long shopping strip with pretty much everything you could want) and finished up shopping, took a picture of some bagpipers, walked the park by the castle, wandered a cemetery, circled the castle, and got a few things for our drive to the coast tomorrow.

The sun makes everything magical in Scotland.

Edinburgh is just so cool.

This is 10:00 is at night. SERIOUSLY, Scotland?

It was a long day and we didn't walk as much as normal, only 4 ish miles, but we did so much! It was a great day, and I'm exhausted. It's almost 10 and the sun's not down yet. Scotland doesn't mess around with daylight hours! 

Tomorrow is more Scotland adventures. Off to Rosslyn Chapel, Inveraray Castle, and then Cairnryan (our little coastal town that we're taking the ferry from). Road trip! Let's hope my phone lasts -- it's so full of pictures!

I am going to Gretna Green!

Saturday, May 30th

Gretna Green and Edinburgh, Scotland

Hey all!

We are EXHAUSTED, which seems to be a typical feeling now. 

We did have a lovely night's sleep at the Premier Inn, as they advertised. We wanted to stay there forever. We had a continental breakfast of the same sort of fare we've been having, so I just had bacon, eggs, grilled tomatoes, and yogurt with granola and berries. Yogurt tastes completely different. Runnier and less sugary or sweet. Still good though.

Tiny elevator selfie!

We left right after breakfast for Gretna Green. We got to see the angel Moroni of the Preston temple as we drove up the M61, which was really cool.

Driving up the M6 into the north was gorgeous. Less trees than we'd seen but lots of hills and mountains, and lots of sheep. Scotland is amazingly gorgeous. 

The first of many, many Scottish drive by pictures.

Scotland is my favorite!

Sheep!!! They have accents there, you know.

Too pretty. Ugh.

I couldn't look around fast enough!

Gretna Green was an adorable little stop. The history of the place is that couples have been running away to get married there for hundreds of years because the laws in Scotland were way less strict than in England, basically anyone could perform a wedding, so the blacksmiths on the edge of town usually did, and Gretna is the first town across the border. We saw the Olde Blacksmith Shop where weddings and elopements have been taking place for hundreds of years. Lots of shopping and pictures. No special rings, but we did find husbands. Sort of.

GRETNA! WE ARE SAVED!

Such a cute little place!

Not quite husbands, but it was the best we could do.

We got into Edinburgh around 2:00, and we couldn't check in until after 3:00, so we hit the town. First stop was Edinburgh castle. We found a free tour inside and it was fascinating. So much history and neat facts! The Scottish Crown Jewels were amazing, the buildings were so cool, and despite the crowd, we had a great time. But there were too many Asians! They had a war memorial for all of the Scotsmen who died in the First World War, and that was surprisingly emotional. Then we saw the National War Museum, and that was way cool. Classic uniforms and weaponry, history, etc. Very, very cool.

Oh, that? Just a castle on a hill...

The long, slow migration to the castle...

And looking back towards the city.

What an incredible view from the top! We got so lucky this day.

Love that flag waving so proudly at the top.

After the castle, we went shopping on the royal mile. We went a little crazy there, but we couldn't help it! Getting all of our souvenirs back should be interesting...

The Royal Mile... A challenge in its very name.

We had dinner at the Filling Station, which is not a Scottish place, but that's okay. I had the Mac n Jack.... Macaroni and cheese with bacon and spices (SO GOOD!) and then some ginger beer to drink. So good. I love that.

GOODNESS GRACIOUS GIVE IT TO ME.

Ginger beer in the middle of the street... So what?

We wandered and shopped a bit more, listened to some awesome street musicians, and enjoyed the fact that it was a partly cloudy and slightly warm day in Scotland -- UNHEARD OF! Great day.

Our hotel tonight is a house that was made over, each room is large and family sized. We're sharing a room, and there's a double bed and 3 twins, so lots of space.

Cutest hotel!

The "family" rooms. So many beds!

Tomorrow is driving up to Balmoral Castle, the Queen's residence, and more wandering of Edinburgh! I'm almost done with souvenirs for everyone, which is great because there is almost no room in the inn!

This is an awesome trip and I love it. If I came more often, I wouldn't need to get so many things! 

"You go, and then we'll go, and then we'll all go together!"

Friday May 29th
Dublin, Wales, and Manchester

Today was a bit nutty…
I took it easier at breakfast. Just porridge and Irish bacon. And some toast. And cocoa. But we were so early that it was cold cocoa, so it was like really good Nesquik. It was all still so good! We found the brand of the cocoa, we will be hunting for it.
Traffic in Dublin was nuts. We had to get across town to the port and the GPS on the phone and on the Garmin had no idea where we were. We were almost late. It took forever to find the Dublin Port. But some nice people in a gas station helped us. Go Irish. If we hadn't have had priority passage and boarding, we wouldn't have made it.

Headed onto our lovely little ferry!

Our boat called the Jonathan Swift. He's the author of Gulliver's travels. We paid extra for Club Class and it was so worth it. It was like being on an airplane, only roomier. We thought it felt like the Titanic, but without all of the iceberg stuff.

Club Class. Very classy, no? We did think about all of those little people in steerage...

We were up on Deck 5. I went out onto the deck and it was amazing. Chilly air, very fresh, and I could feel the boat turning. Perfect day for being on the water. The only way I can describe it was that it was very bracing. So invigorating.

I LOVED being on the deck of that ferry.

The last views of Dublin.

The views were stunning, I couldn't believe it.

We had to use a code to get back into our seating area. That’s how special we were. And the food and drinks in Club Class were free. We may have had some diet coke before 9:00.
Once the boat picked up speed once we were out of the harbor a ways, it was SO HARD to get balance. I actually felt a little sick from it. Mom would not like it at all. We went shopping in the gift shop and the bottles of booze kept shaking and we were falling into things and it was hysterical. We laughed our heads off. Because this boat is a faster ferry, you pay the price and it's a rougher crossing. So weird. But we got to park the car underneath the boat, so that was cool.
Once in Wales, we started driving around and headed for Manchester in England. Driving on the A55 was SO GORGEOUS. And MUCH nicer than the scary streets of Dublin. We stopped for a walk and bathroom break in Old Colwyn in Wales, and it was gorgeous. Wales is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. They also have the strangest language. I have no idea how to say anything, and all of their traffic signs had things in English and Welsh, so we could see what it was, but WHAT DID IT SAY? It was nuts. 

Driving off of the ferry into Wales!

Wales was STUNNING. Next time, I'm staying longer there.

Such a gorgeous coastline!

Colony Bay beach! So awesome.

We got to Lyme Park (aka PEMBERLEY) around 2:30. It was amazing. Absolutely amazing. Perfectly restored, so much history, so many fun things! We literally saw the whole house. Then we walked the grounds for ages, just loving it, even though it was cold.  We even saw some deer grazing by the rhododendron gardens. I tried to find Mr. Darcy, but he seemed to not be at home. More’s the pity. But we took tons of pictures and had lots of fun. We may have forgotten to eat lunch, so we got some fudge to make up for it.

IT'S PEMBERLEY!!!!

Where is Darcy?!?!?

When the house and gardens closed at 5:00, we walked up to the hunting lodge up on a ridge and the wind was CRAZY and the views were amazing. I couldn't breathe, and yet I'd never been able to breathe so freely. I may have cried a little. I took some panoramic shots, but there is no way to capture what I saw. So beautiful.

Such gorgeous countryside, the walk up to the hunting lodge was so pretty!

It was a bit of a hike, though. And the wind was NUTS.

The view from the top. I can't even describe it.

We drove into Manchester after that and went to our hotel, which promises, from the front desk, a wonderful night’s sleep. We could all use that, so we will see about that. We walked across the street to the mall, and it was fantastic. Trafford Centre is the coolest mall EVER. So huge, so many fun stores, and again it was like Titanic. Literally, the fine dining area of Titanic was the food court. And there were SO MANY RESTAURANTS.

The Titanic dining court... I mean, seriously...

But we knew what we were doing. Five Guys. Or as we called it, Five British Guys. It was the best thing we have done all trip food-wise. Five Guys was so fast, way faster then the States. The food tasted just as good, maybe even moreso because we wanted it so badly. They had beer available, of course, and MILKSHAKES. Yes, you read that right. Milkshakes. How many times have we said Five Guys needed milkshakes and HERE THEY WERE! We almost died. They said we could add bacon to the shakes if we wanted, but we opted not to. All mix-ins were free, though. And they are GOOD shakes. So amazing.

We came, we saw, we conquered...and it was SO GOOD.

Not quite British food, but THAT MILKSHAKE. No regrets.

We did some shopping at the mall briefly, and Steph and I ended the day watching the Pemberley scenes from Pride and Prejudice to bring it full circle. We took a picture of our picture in "the spot" and held it up to the movie, and we were so right. We're such dorks.
LOTS of roundabouts today. We came up with a theme for it, since they are nuts here. We said “You go and then we’ll go and then we’ll all go together!” It worked for roundabouts, exits, traffic in general….life…. It’s a good motto!
We barely made 8 miles today, which is light compared to the rest of our trip so far! Nice to keep it easy… Blegh. My feet hurt! But my heart is happy, so I’ll take it.
Tomorrow we head up to Scotland. Gretna Green is first, lots of fun history there that I’ll talk about tomorrow, then up to Edinburgh! WOOHOO!