So my last trip to a new place was far and away my favorite. Even though getting there and getting home was a miserable experience, I still loved this trip. That says something. I think maybe I’m still on a high from the trip itself, but I really, really, really loved Scotland.
I wasn’t entirely sure I would even make it to Edinburgh on Tuesday evening. The ticket lady at the train station in Maastricht had sent me to Venlo to get a bus to the Dusseldorf-Weeze airport. However, when I arrived at Venlo, the ticket man there (who was far too combative) told me that the bus only comes if you make a reservation, which I obviously had not. Luckily I was about 3 hours early, so I called the company and begged them to send someone out to take me and they were able to find a driver to get me to the airport in plenty of time. Thank goodness. Once I arrived in Scotland, it was easy to get where I was going, though. There is a bus that runs from Edinburgh airport to the city center every ten minutes, and my hostel was across the street from where that bus drops people off. It was awesome. I should also note here that the trip to Scotland was made less stressful because I had made some pre-Scotland preparations that kept me entertained. Yes, I rented Braveheart and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. So on the way there I watched Braveheart, immersed myself in the struggle for Scottish freedom, fell in love with William Wallace, and had a grand time overall.
After I finished the last little bit of Braveheart, I fell asleep in my 4-bed hostel in Edinburgh prepared for my tour of the Highlands the next morning. The tour pick up point was only about a block from my hostel too, so it was no problem getting there in the morning. I was in a sixteen-person coach with a driver in a kilt named Alistair from 8:30am until around 8:30pm. The tour went from Edinburgh up through the highlands including Glencoe, then up to Loch Ness, and then returned. We stopped at various places along the way for pictures and to walk around a bit. The Highlands are absolutely stunning. The Lowlands are nice too, with their rolling hills and green fields. But the Highlands, my goodness. The mountains jut up into the sky, black against the grey of the clouds. It looks so barren, but at the same time so alive. There’s not much grass up there. It’s mostly heather, which is brown until it turns purple briefly later in the summer. There is also lots of swampland and bogs. Glencoe was the most stunning part of the trip. The mountains, surrounded by mist and clouds, look so unforgiving and yet I was drawn to them anyway. I know this sounds super melodramatic, but honestly, it was amazing.
Actually, the landscape scenes of the Harry Potter movies were shot in Glencoe. It feels very mystical and ancient up there. I LOVED it. By the way, on the way to Glencoe we drove past Doune Castle. Doune Castle was the castle used for Holy Grail and it was fun to see it in real life. As we drove past, I couldn’t help humming “We’re knights of the round table! We dance whenever we’re able…”This was about the point on the tour, however where it started getting stressful. Alistair was a fine tour guide, but he wasn’t amazing. He told us that he was heading to vacation the next day, and I feel like his mind might have already been there. He would drift in and out of his stories, forgetting where he was in the process. He wasn’t the world’s best story teller and I don’t think he particularly likes being a tour guide. He didn’t do anything wrong, per se, but it just wasn’t amazing. He knew a TON and he told us all sorts of awesome history stuff, but he let it get boring sometimes. The poor guy was having a rough day, though. The coach we were on was brand new, and he was all excited about it at first. Then the check engine light came on about 2 hours into our tour and the van refused to go over 30 miles per hour unless we were going downhill and could pick up some momentum. As it turned out, there was a pipe thing that was loose in the engine that wasn’t allowing us to accelerate. Now, in the Highlands, this is quite a problem since we were supposed to be driving through mountains. Poor Alistair was very stressed out. Eventually we stopped at a garage and a guy ran out and “fixed” it. Everything was gravy for the next 4 hours, and then it wiggled loose again somehow. So you can see how it would have been a rather stressful day for a tour guide who also drives. But even with all of that, it was a fine tour. I learned a ton and got to see a lot of the Highlands.
After we drove through Glencoe, we headed up to Fort Augustus, which is the gateway to Loch Ness. We had the option of taking an hour’s boat cruise on the loch, and even though it was raining, I took advantage of that. Loch Ness is HUGE.
We didn’t even come close to making it the whole way, and we were out there for an hour. It’s not the biggest in area or the deepest loch in Scotland, but it does have the most volume. Apparently if you dumped it on England, it would cover the entire country in six inches of water. Crazy! 
The boat we were on had Sonar equipment and detection software so that we could hunt for the monster…haha. I didn’t see Nessie, but I sure thought that loch is gorgeous. Really, really beautiful place. 
When we got off the boat, I shopped a bit and then grabbed some food to eat on the coach for lunch.After Loch Ness, we stopped at a couple of other places before we made it home. One was a memorial to the Scottish Commandos from WWII. The coolest this about this memorial wasn’t even the memorial itself. If you stand with your back to the statues and look out over to the mountains, you can make out an X in the trees because there are trees of a slightly different color green. These were planted as a memorial to Scotland’s patron saint, St. Andrew, and they actually turn brown in the winter. That, I’m sure, makes it even more striking to see this giant X on the hillside. It was really neat. The X is because St. Andrew was crucified, but insisted that he didn’t deserve to be crucified in the same way as Jesus. He asked that they turn the cross sideways, and that is why the Scottish flag has the X on it. After the Commando memorial, we also stopped at a town called Pitlochry which was all but closed down for the evening. Not the most exciting stop. When we finally made it back to Edinburgh it started pouring buckets and hailing violently. This continued for about 10 minutes and then stopped as suddenly as it had begun. Apparently that’s just the way it is there. Haha…I walked back to my hostel, had dinner (and a Bulmer’s which is delicious alcoholic cider…yum), strolled around the city center a little bit, watched The Holy Grail, and promptly passed out.
The next morning I was supposed to go on a tour to Loch Lomond and Stirling Castle with the same company I had used the day before. When I got to the pick up point, however, I wasn’t on their list. Apparently their online system has a glitch where it takes people’s money and then puts them on the cancellation list instead of the tour list. I had already paid online before I left for Scotland, so I was sort of distressed. They apologized and helped hook me up with another tour company doing a similar tour that day. They paid for the other tour for me and took me over to The Highland Experience tour company across the street. I’m so happy this happened because the new company provided far and away the better tour. First of all, my tour guide Chris was not wearing a kilt. Now, as much as I enjoy a delicious Scot in a kilt, it does seem a little gimmicky. They only wear them on special occasions, so it’s kind of weird that Alistair was wearing one all day long. Chris’s lack of kilt was indicative of the Highland Experience’s commitment to going past the Scottish stereotypes and really showing people the “real Scotland.” Chris loves Scotland. He’s incredibly proud of his clan and his heritage. He is an amazing storyteller and he did an unbelievable job of keeping his histories from getting boring. He was such a great tour guide. This tour was a bit different from what I had wanted, but I didn’t even mind because he made it so much fun.
My tour on Thursday went from Edinburgh to Glasgow to pick up more people. Then we drove up to Stirling Castle. From there we had a lovely drive that ended with lunch near Loch Lomond, and finally we hit a Scotch whiskey distillery. I was happy that I at least got to see Glasgow. I’m so glad I decided to go to Edinburgh rather than Glasgow. Glasgow is fine, but it feels like any other big city. It looks like it could be pretty shady in parts, and I would not have enjoyed my trip nearly as much if I had been there. An older couple from New Mexico joined us in Glasgow and sat by me. When Chris asked where we were from, I told them Chicago. The couple from New Mexico said that they were originally from there too. Then we started talking and it came out that they were both Kelley grads! Haha…What a small world. Well, they were IU Business grads. It wasn’t called Kelley yet when they were there. So funny, though.
When we got to Stirling Castle I was pretty excited. I really enjoy looking at the old stuff like that. This couple from Michigan invited me to explore with them and we had a really fun time wandering around together. Avery is an anesthesiologist and Karen is a middle school English teacher. They were very funny and we had a good time. There was a free tour in the grounds of Stirling Castle that was actually really good.
The tour guide gave a really succinct but full history of the castle and showed us different significant places within the grounds. This was the favorite castle of Mary Queen of Scots. Incidentally, I learned that we really are descended from the Royal Stewarts because Mary Stuart changed the spelling from the ‘u’ to the ‘ew’ because she thought the u was too French sounding. So that’s pretty cool. Haha…Anyway, Stirling Castle was really neat and offered great views of the William Wallace memorial and the countryside in general. The castle is built on a big volcanic rock so the views were quite beautiful. On the way to the castle, Chris told us the first half of the real story of the Wars of Independence (aka Braveheart). Alas, the movie is completely historically inaccurate and most Scots think it’s Hollywood trash. Sad story. I still love it though. Apparently, William Wallace actually left Scotland in quite a lurch and didn’t do a good job. Chris said that he would just drink with his soldiers instead of getting them new equipment and stuff. He got everyone all riled up, but it was really Robert the Bruce who got the job done. Chris was saying that he’s terribly disappointed that the movie wasn’t about Robert the Bruce instead. He told us that the French princess who helped William Wallace in Braveheart was actually only 2 at the time of the wars. Ick. Hahah… Robert the Bruce was actually the selfless hero who just wanted freedom for Scotland and who made famous speeches that sound an awful lot like the ones that Mel Gibson gave in the movie. Oh well…I still love Braveheart.After Stirling Castle, we headed over to Loch Lomond to have lunch. The drive to the loch was absolutely stunning. We actually had to take a detour because the road Chris normally takes was closed for construction, but I was glad because the countryside there is just beautiful. It made me want to get off the bus and just wander around taking naps whenever I pleased on the grass. And the lambs!! There were all these teeny tiny lambs running around being adorable and I just wanted to run around and play with them. Lambs are the world’s cutest animal; I’m certain of it. The restaurant at which we ate was really good, but the food took a long time and we were unable to spend any amount of time seeing the loch. By the time I finished eating, I only had time to run over to the loch, take a quick look and a couple of pictures and then we had to get back on the coach. The part of the loch we were on wasn’t even really the loch. It was a little harbor section thing that was not very impressive. I was a little disappointed with that stop on the trip, but stuff happens. After our “Loch Lomond”, but really lunch stop we headed on to the Glengoyne scotch distillery. These Scots love their whiskey, that’s for sure. We went through the world’s smelliest tour (…which was of the distillery itself. I am really not a fan of whiskey’s smell or taste.) and got samples to try. I took a tiny sip of mine and hated it so I gave it to Avery who loved it. Haha…
The funniest part of both of the tours was the way that the guides and everyone associated with the companies would make a huge stink about the fact that I was “a Stewart.” When they learned my first name, they made an even bigger deal. It was really funny. “Oh! We have a royal with us today, ladies and gentlemen. Please be polite and watch your backs…” It was really funny. Tiffany asked me if Stewart was like Smith and I didn’t think it was because I hadn’t run into any other Stewarts. But then when I was at a war memorial I saw a list of the dead from just one unit and there were three pages of Stewarts. There were at least 5 Alexander Stewarts and a couple of Malcolm Stewarts. So it is exactly like Smith. There are a million Stewarts. Haha…I’ve never claimed that I don’t like attention, especially from gorgeous Scots. I have to say that I think all those Scots are just wonderful. I would be in big trouble if I’d have studied there. Did I mention that I’m keeping University of Edinburgh on my radar for grad school? Haha… I’ll find me an adorable Scot to marry! Haha…
When we arrived back in Edinburgh, I decided to go on a ghost tour of Edinburgh that I had heard about through the New Europe company. I went back to the hostel first to chill out and eat some dinner and drop some stuff off. When I was in my room, I noticed that one of the girls in my room was just reading in her bed. So I asked her if she wanted to come with me and get scared like little girls together and she agreed. Her name is Aleta. She’s from Australia and she’s maybe Tiff’s age, maybe a little older. I LOVE her. We talked all night and did the tour and had a drink afterwards and it was so fun. I told her to come visit me in Chicago and she said I could come visit her on the Gold Coast of Australia. Yes please!
The ghost tour was pretty fun. It wasn’t that scary, but we really had a fun time. Our tour guide, Grant, was good at telling the creepy stories and he showed us all sorts of stuff that really did seem weird. He told us all about the Scottish beliefs about death and how they believe that your ghost will haunt the world if you don’t have a memorial or if your body is exhumed or anything.
There really has been some creepy stuff that’s gone on in Scotland due to the violent past. One really crep one happened during the plague. The government walled in a whole bunch of people living in underground tenements because some of them had contracted the plague. CRAZY. Anyway the ghost tour was really pretty fun and it was really nice to get to know Aleta.The next morning, I wanted to visit Edinburgh castle and go on the long free New Europe tour to get a little more information about the city itself and make sure I wasn’t missing anything huge. I went to the castle first and happened to show up just as the guard installation ceremony thing was starting. It was really cool.
I actually have no idea what the ceremony was called, but this bagpipe band marched out and then this formation of kilt-clad soldiers marched out in formation. Then these two officers marched around and inspected the soldiers. It was funny because one of the inspecting officers’ socks had fallen down….haha…Anyway, the castle itself was really cool inside. It was also built on top of a big volcanic rock like Stirling. There’s a beautiful war memorial built at the top to all the fallen Scots from every war on record. There are books for each regiment with the names of each person and it’s really striking. I’m an emotional type, obviously, but it definitely got to me. The Honors of Scotland are there too. It’s the sword and crown of Scotland including the Stone of Destiny. Pretty neat. All the old Scottish kings were crowned on it and then the British stole it. It was given back in the 90’s.After the castle, I went on the free tour and it was awesome. Grant, the same guy from the ghost tour from the night before, was the tour guide and he was even better at the regular tour. It was actually a three-hour tour, but it was awesome the whole time. Grant told lots of really good stories and showed us all the important stuff. There was a nice guy on the tour with whom I went to St. Giles Cathedral after the tour. We wanted to see the angel playing the bagpipes that Grant had told us about. After that, we went to a pub to have dinner. I finally tried haggis. I was really afraid to do it because I know what’s in it, but thank goodness I did it because it’s one of the most delicious things I’ve ever eaten. Haha…bizarre.
Getting back from Edinburgh was a huge problem. Using the Dusseldorf airport is really difficult to do because there's not a train that goes near it. So I had to go from the airport to Kevelaer because the bus to Venlo wasn't there. Then I had to get on a train that would hopefully get me to Maastricht. But the ticket machine was broken, so I had to just guess and get on a train (by this time it was almost 11pm and so I needed to guess right or the trains would stop running). So I guessed and got on the next train because it was headed in somewhat the right direction. When I tried to buy my ticket to Maastricht from the ticket guy on the train, he tried and tried for like 15 minutes to figure out where to send me but there was no way to get me home. So eventually I had him just sell me a ticket to Cologne where I knew there was a Hotel Ibis in the train station that I could hopefully sleep in. Unfortunately, the Hotel Ibis was all booked up, so I walked in what I thought was the direction of the hostel I used when I stayed in Cologne. Unfortunately, I was exhausted and it was almost 1:30 am by this time and I just wanted to sleep. So I stopped in the next hotel I passed and booked a room for the night and fell asleep. I slept really well, but it sucks SO bad that I had to do that. I made it back to Maastricht the next day without incident even though it took FOREVER.
Anyway, I LOVE Scotland and I do believe that it is first on my list of places to which I want to return as soon as possible. I would like to go back and spend like 10 days. I want to do some of the tourist stuff more thoroughly, but I really want to do a bunch of outdoorsy-type stuff. I would love to hike the Highland Way, which is a 95 mile trail through the Highlands. I think that would be amazing, but I don’t know who I’d do it with. We’ll see. I also think it would be really fun to go on a day long or two day long trip into the Highlands on horseback. Not that I ride horses at all, but for some reason I think it would be amazing to do that. I really can’t wait to go back to Scotland. I was really sad when I was leaving and I honestly feel like Scotland could easily feel like home, Edinburgh in particular. It’s an absolutely incredible place.
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