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Scotland 2003 July 1 - July 10
Together with two friends from work I went on vacation to
Scotland this year. We flew to Scotland with Ryan Air and went on a
jump-on-jump-off trip with MacBackpackers and visited
Glasgow, Edinburgh, Pitlochry, Inverness, Isle of Skye and Oban before
coming back to Glasgow again. I highly recommend MacBackpackers to
everyone. It's a cheap and simple way of getting around and the staff
are all world class (if they wouldn't be driving buses around Scotland
they would all make perfect stand-up comedy shows I think). It's also
a great way to meet people from all over the world. It came somewhat
of a surprise to me (Struth man!) that the majority of the tourists you meet up
there in the Scottish highlands are from Australia. For some reason it
seems to be popular for them to track down the roots of their
ancestors...or something.
Glasgow 1 July
The plane landed in Glasgow but all we did there was basically to jump
on the train towards Edinburgh so we did not stay long.
Edinburgh 1 July
Edinburgh is a lovely old town with lots of nice old buildings. And as
any Scottish town that claims to be something it has a castle of
course. In some ways it reminded me of the old town in Stockholm. It
was a pity it rained all day here.
Edinburgh - Pitlochry 2 July
Then we started our jump-on-jump-off-tour with the first leg between
Edinburgh to Pitlochry. On the way to Pitlochry we stopped that the
beautiful Hermitage were the photos below were taken.
Pitlochry 2-3 July
We jumped off the bus in Pitlochry which is on the border to the
highlands. It's a cute little village with two whisky destilleries
where we went on a guided tour to the smallest destillery in Scotland
- The
Edradour. It's a great whisky I must say so it was well worth a
stop. The rest of the time spent in Pitlochry was spent walking around
along the nice scenic walks around the town. Beautiful!
Pitlochry - Inverness 3 July
Then we jumped on the bus again to go to Inverness. On the way there
we stopped at a place called Soldiers Leap - known for the fact that
an english soldier chased by highlanders with broadswords jumped the 5
meters over the water and escaped. The pass of Killiecrankie, where
Soldier's leap is located was the place of the start of the
rebellion against the English king - the
Jackobite rising. The scotts are extremely proud of their history
and they are proud of their independence.
We also visited the clava cairns which are 6000 year old burial
chambers and we of course took a stop at Loch Ness to say hello to
Nessie. The day ended at Blackfrier's Inn in Inverness. They serve
great battered haddock I must say.
Inverness 4-5 July
Inverness is a great town. Since the weather was nice we decided to
rent bikes and travel around that way. We followed the Caledonian
Canal which is a canal that connects the four big "lochs" in
Scotland.
Inverness - Isle of Skye 6
July
On the way towards Isle Of Skye we stopped at Rogie falls and Loch
Carron.
Isle of Skye 6-8 July
Isle of Skye is probably one of the most beautiful places in
Scotland - the land of the fairies. Unfortunately the weather was not
that great when we were
there but despite that it was amazingly beautiful. We took a one day
tour on the island which started with the compulsory blessing by the
fairies (everyone dipped there heads into a waterfall). We also
visited Fairy Glen where you, if the fairies like you, can make your
wish come true. My wish hasn't come true yet but I hope it will.
On Isle Of Skye we also learnt a
song about a chap called Donald. I also played football (I will
not use the word soccer ever again - the name of the game is football
as the Scotts say it) with the locals when I was there. A crazy
game I must say. They are sore losers up there :-) (especially if you
say the bad word "celtic" too many times)
Isle of Skye - Oban 8 July
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