02 April, 2024

2023 Scotland/England Adventure (Part 1)

 
Finally I can share our two month Scotland adventure. 
After spending hours and hours of sorting my photos, 
one by one going through my phone as all the numbers
 mixed up all the photos. I have managed to cut them down from 
4,342 photos to around 150 or so (maybe more, maybe less!)!
We flew into Edinburgh and picked up our
 "home away from home" van. Can you see the name of the
 company we hired it from? McRent! Noel liked the name of it.
We spent three days in Edinburgh before heading off.
Edinburgh Castle.
We saw the Honours of Scotland which are the oldest 
Crown jewels in Britain. Unfortunately 
you aren't allowed to take photos of them.
Greyfriars Bobby.
The Kelpies, Falkirk.
They are lit up at night and continually change colours.
 Robert the Bruce at the site of the Battle of Bannockburn.
This is "Andy the Highlander" at Bannockburn. 
We follow Andy on Facebook. He is a tour guide and 
posts lots of great videos about Scottish history.
Balmoral Castle. 
We arrived there on the anniversary of Queen Elizabeth's 
death and missed seeing King Charles and Queen Camilla 
arriving back from a church service by about an hour. 
Dunnottar Castle. 
We saw lots of lovely fishing villages.. This is Findochty.
Enjoying a Guinness at The Admirals pub, Findochty.
 
 Battle of Culloden site.
 

Culloden battlefield.

Clava Cairns near Culloden. 
Going through the stones to find Jamie!
Haha! I found him!
Urquhart Castle.
Eilean Donan Castle.
The Fairy Pools, Isle of Skye.
We did lots of hiking. We hiked to the Fairy Pools 
from the base of those trees way in the distance
 (it's a bit bare where the carpark is) and 
continued even further along than this photo.
  
We also hiked up to the Old Man of Stor, Isle of Skye.

Cooking with a view. An Crubh, Isle of Skye.
I celebrated my 60th birthday at the Tongadale Hotel
 in Portree on the Isle of Skye.
This is the lovely enamel thistle necklace Noel gave me. 
Noel actually ordered this on-line from the Isle of Skye 
and it arrived the week before we left for Scotland. 
He did this as he didn't know where we would be on my birthday. 
The funny thing is we actually drove past the shop on my birthday!
So it's a well travelled necklace having flown from
 Scotland to Melbourne to return Scotland and finally back to Melbourne! LOL

5 comments:

Janice said...

What lovely memories. You saw so many beautiful places. It brought back memories for me as well, from our previous times there. Sadly, it was raining when we saw the Kelpies. I’ve following Andy the Highlander for a while. Have you come across the YouTube Channel “Living the Skye Life”? It’s a young couple who have relocated there. They enjoy their hikes as well. Your birthday gift was rather beautiful. I bet if the gift had not been pre purchased you would not have been there on the day.

ButterZ said...

That is a beautiful story about your necklace. I loved the Isle of Skye and Portree. It is a beautiful place to visit. It’s good to hear you had a special trip.

Chookyblue...... said...

Oh yeh finally your trip.......
Beautiful necklace......

dq said...

I truly enjoyed visiting Scotland on your virtual tour. It looks like a beautiful country. I wish I could go somewhere for a month, maybe some day.

The necklace is so beautiful. Glad it arrived in time.

Ondrea said...

Looove your necklace. Such beautiful sites and great adventures.