Scotland

Before I go on about our trip to Scotland, first a word about the hotels in the UK.  Maybe we just got lucky, but almost all the hotels we stayed at on this trip were waaaaaaay better than the others we have stayed at over the past couple of years in Europe.  The one below, although messy from the night before, was so big compared to what we are now used to.  Most hotels had extra beds made up for each kid, and all of them served a full English breakfast.  "Full English Breakfast" was new to me on this trip - think protein, protein, protein...

The view from our hotel window...Scotland is so green!

Our first stop was Edinburgh where we made our way up the Royal Mile - their notorious shopping street - on our way to Edinburgh Castle.  It was a misty, foggy, and dreary morning, as was almost every morning so far on our trip.

Here's a peak inside the castle courtyard...

It was a pretty great castle and I especially liked seeing the crown jewels and the "Stone of Scone" aka: the "stone of destiny" which has sat beneath the coronation chair of Scotland's kings since the 9th century.  It was swiped by the English, of course, but the lovely Queen Elizabeth II graciously returned it in 1996 back to the Scots on one condition - that it be returned to Westminster Abbey in London for all future coronations.  It was so interesting to read about this thing, apparently the ancient kings actually believed that their power and authority came from this stone.  Very mystical.
On the way back down the Royal Mile, we really stopped to take in all of the interesting sites...

Ryan stopping to pose by this statue of Adam Smith, the father of economics.... 

We also had a look at St Giles' Cathedral and the Scottish Parliament Building as we did our quick walking tour to get a taste of Edinburgh...

There are two national heroes in Scotland that we really got into on our visit there - William Wallace (braveheart, obviously) and Robert the Bruce.  After a quick once over of Edinburgh, we headed north to Dunfermline Abbey, the burial place of Robert the Bruce.  Regrettably, we skipped Melrose Abbey (where Robert the Bruce's heart is buried) on the way up to Edinburgh because there are only so many hours in the day.  So we had to make it a point to stop at Dunfermline to see the place where the rest of his body is buried...

Next stop, Stirling Castle, to dive in to the William Wallace side of things.  As the old Scottish saying goes, "He who holds Stirling, holds Scotland."  That makes it a must-seee in my book.  It was another really well done castle that you could spend all day wandering around...

They also had some great activities for kids there...

Because the weather was just so uncooperative, we didn't make the hike up to the William Wallace Monument in Stirling.  We could pretty much see it from the castle, and that was good enough for us. We also yelled "FREEDOM" several times throughout the day, so I figure our respects to William Wallace (or at least to Mel Gibson) were paid in full.

The next day, we drove clear up to Inverness because we absolutely had to see if we could spot Nessie, the Loch Ness monster.  

We stared and stared into this water.  Carver was especially focused.  But that Nessie is very cunning, you know.  After all, she has eluded any real detection for decades now...

On the far side of the Loch is Urquhart Castle - a bit in shambles, but just right for four wild children to explore...

Here is a foggy view of the castle and more of those beautiful yellow rape seed blossoms...

We got a quick break from the cold and rain inside at the visitors center, where we watched a historical recap of the castle and the loch.  Then, it was back to the boat to head back to our starting point.  

After some Scottish shortbread, scones, and fudge, we headed back to the car for more driving.  This time, we were heading down to Ayr where we caught a ferry over to Northern Ireland.  Oh to have time to stop in Glasgow, or even head over to the Isle of Skye, Oban, and the like for some canoeing and more exploring.  But Ireland was calling our name by that point, so we had to settle for the amazingly beautiful drive through the Scottish highlands.  It did not disappoint.  Finally, the sun came out for the first time all week, and we pulled over several times to try to capture the beauty of this gorgeous country...