Our first stop in Edinburgh (after dropping our stuff of at the B&B) was the castle! We walked over there, up the hill and once again, were amazed by the weather we were having.
We started off inside the castle, looking around at the exhibits and reading the information around the castle. Lee had a really great time reading more about Scottish history after our first educational trip in Stirling.
We spent the rest of the day walking up and down the Royal Mile. We got lunch at a pizza place and dinner at the Elephant House. It was fun being there at night because we had a good view of the castle at night, with all the lights and stuff.
In the middle of the night it snowed! It was really cool (and freezing!) to wake up to Edinburgh covered in snow. It wasn't a lot of snow, just enough to make it pretty, and a little slippery.
In the morning we went back to the Royal Mile to meet up with our highland tour. Lee and I were expecting to be the youngest ones on the tour by at least 20 years, but there was another couple from America (studying abroad also) and some guy from Germany who was probably in his mid-20s. Our guide's name was Steve and he wore a kilt the whole time, even in the snow! Our first stop on the tour was Doune Castle, the castle from Monty Python and the Holy Grail!
The gift shop had the coconuts from the movie, so Steve asked if we could see them and then took pictures of us playing with them!
As we continued up into the highlands we saw some highland cows (I got to feed one!).
The mountains got continually larger and steeper as we moved up north. It was so beautiful, especially with the snow. We passed through Glen Coe and heard the story of the masacre (Steve told us about more Scottish history throughout the weekend). Basically the day was awesome and beautiful and we got to see the amazing highlands.
As the sun was starting to go down, we made the quick decision to detour over to the Harry Potter bridge! This isn't actually it's name, of course. It's the bridge that Ron flies through in the second movie in the flying car. We got to walk down to the bridge from the road and see it as the sun was setting. It was beautiful, but made it a little difficult for the pictures.
Our second day in the highlands was more exciting, but not necessarily in a good way. It had snowed more the night we were there which made the roads a little more slippery. We started off by going to this Loch Ness exhibition center thing that had exhibits about the past monster sightings and the general geography of the lake. Then we stopped by the side of the lake to do a little hunting ourselves.
As we continued back down to Edinburgh, the snow picked up quickly and heavily. Eventually the roads were completely blocked and cars were getting stuck left and right. Soon enough, we were stuck too. Steve got out and helped push some cars as they tried to drive past. Then the tractor came and pulled us out.
Basically, it was a disaster. The police officers on the streets were telling us to find a hotel because there was no way we would make it back to Edinburgh before morning. Once we got to the hotel we were going to stay at for the night, Steve got a call from his boss telling him to try to get down to Edinburgh anyway. Luckily, Steve knew some back-roads that bypassed a big accident on the highway so we ended up making it to Edinburgh with 10 minutes to spare before the last train to Glasgow. Despite the drama, still an awesome weekend!
So I haven't done this in a while, and this blog post is really long anyway but I need to do a thank you. Thank you to Steve for knowing Scotland well enough to get us home safely after making our weekend in the highlands truly memorable.
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