We walked around a lot and saw the backside of Westminster Abbey (going inside tomorrow), Parliament, Big Ben.

We then walked towards Trafalgar Square, through the Theatre District for some High Tea at a really fancy place called Sketch. I’m including the menu here because there was so many different kinds of food we had it’s impossible to remember. Really tasty, delicious tea, complete with a three piece string trio playing music. Very enjoyable and glad we were able to experience something like that.

We then walked to Fortnum & Mason a huge \240posh tea company (three floors, they also sell a lot of other things like fancy tea sets, an entire section of honey, exclusive label wines and spirits, they even have a butcher and cheese monger.

We then walked to the Churchill War Rooms, which was phenomenal. In the massive basement-converted-bunker of Whitehall, Churchill and several hundred staff managed the UK’s war efforts for 6 years. Through the blitz, to VJ Day. At the end of the war, they just turned off the lights and closed the doors, where everything remained untouched until several decades later where the rooms were sealed off with glass and made into a museum. Extremely well curated, with loads of interesting artifacts. We were able to walk the same halls and look at the actual maps used in the war, the war rooms, the “bedrooms”, kitchen, telephone rooms etc.

We then walked to Covent Garden, a beautiful outdoor market surrounded by restaurants, bars and shops, and surrounding an old church with a beautiful English rose garden- perfect spot to relax and sip our drinks as we rested from all the walking.

To finish it off, we went to a good spot for dinner, and capped the day with some whiskey tasting at a small pub specializing in scotch. Gerry took us through several different drams of scotch ranging from peaty, and lightly smoky, to maply sweet.

Then we went to the Tower of London (full disclosure- I wasn’t entirely sure about this one, but it was SUPER cool.) We walked passed the Monument of the Great Fire which commemorates the Great Fire of London which burned down a large section of the city in 1666.

The Tower of London was incredible, we walked through a good portion of all the bldgs, with the highlight being to see the Crown Jewels- sorry no photos allowed with very strict security. I can’t even begin to describe the vast amount of artifacts and ornate jewels held here. I think the coolest thing was simply how old the Tower is (finished around 1090). Throughout history so many famous (and infamous) people have been through here or held prisoner here. There’s photos from the Great War being staged on the lawn, an absolutely unbelievable amount of artifacts, weapons, torture devices (we got to see the infamous rack and scavengers daughter) and even carvings from prisoners being held in the towers in the 1500’s. Throughout history this place has stood the test of time and it’s so cool to walk through the same area and take the same steps.

We then walked across the beautiful Tower Bridge, then walked along the Thames to an overwhelmingly crowded Borough Market. It’s an absolutely stunning, old outdoor market very reminscent of Granville Market in Canada or a MUCH larger and MUCH more crowded Pike Place. I always have to tell myself that this is one of the worlds largest cities, but this was pretty overwhelming. Regardless, we got some delicious seafood paella and some mussels in a white wine cream sauce. Cool thing about a city this size is definitely the amazing food.

After we finished eating we took the tube from London Bridge to Westminster to see Westminster Abbey, but the lines were outrageously long, so I just took some photos of the front. What an extremely beautiful sacred place, the detail in the stonework, stained glass. I can understand why kings and queens and the most famous of the English entombed here. It’s a shame I wasn’t able to go inside- this time.

Afterwards we went to a pub nearby for food and drinks. On the way home I caught some nice shots of a nearby local church and Kings Cross Station in the setting sun.

We went to Dean’s Village, walked a nice trail along the Water of Leith to St Bernard’s Well which was beautiful and very peaceful.

We then went to Calton Hill that provides some great views of the city.

We went to the Royal Botanic Gardens, which is the second biggest in the UK after Oxford. Loved it, so beautiful.

We took a Harry Potter and hiking tour where we walked around the city looking at all of the different sites that inspired JK Rowling when she wrote Khrystyan’s favorite books. We then went and hiked up Arthur’s Seat, the tallest hill (Scotland doesn’t really have mountains) and got some amazing views of the city, the firths and islands. We walked through Greyfriar’s Kirkyard (super old cemetery, I saw lots of tombstones dated to the 1700’s). We heard the story of Greyfriar’s Bobby (little dog, look it up), as well as Covenanter’s Prison- one of the most haunted places in the UK, where over 1000 Covenanters we’re imprisoned in a very small room with no windows, fed 4oz of food a day and all died. There are a lot of storied of people going inside the prison and leaving with scratches, and stories of hearing and seeing odd things. It’s locked up now, and I definitely wouldn’t even consider going in there. We walked by an old school for the orphans that inspired the look of Hogwarts, the Elephant Cafe where JK Rowling created and wrote a good part of Harry Potter, and we walked by the Palace one more time where I got a pic. Great time!

This was my first day driving here, Gerry had been doing most of it the last few days. It sucks, I hate it. The roads are terrifying, they’re mostly one-lane roads with a bunch of pullouts to let oncoming traffic pass, they’re filled with blind corners and steep hills and everyone drives so fast around the blind corners here it’s terrifying. Nevermind the fact that it’s the first time I’m driving on the left side of the road in the right seat of the car.

Anyways- we drove around to Isle of Skye, passing Loch Ness (the PNW-looking lake in the first photo below). We didn’t see Nessie, but it was pretty cool to see the lake where the myth originated. We stopped at Eilean Donan Castle on the way, one of the most picturesque castles in Scotland.

We then continued on our way to the stunning Isle of Skye. Rolling vibrant mossy hills with lots of small waterfalls, creeks and rivers zig-zagging their way around with deeps firths of the sea cutting their way into the hills. It’s like the Cairngorms drive a few days ago, but with more waterfalls and sea views with majestic cliffs. Unbelievably beautiful and impossible to capture with a camera. Our Airbnb stay for the next 3 days is on the coast in a very remote area outside of Portnalong and is perfect. It’s a newly redone cottage that’s very clean and bright, has a washer (big plus), comfy beds and a beautiful kitchen and living room. Very relaxing place to stay for a few days.

Afterwards, we drove to the Quiraing, a landslide on the northernmost summit of the Trotternish on the Isle of Skye. Before we get there, here’s some photos of the drive there.

Ok so- the Quiraing. The most beautiful scenery ever. Mind-blowing, just absolutely beautiful. I didn’t think it could get better then you walk another 100 yards and the views changed and now you’ve got a waterfall added or something of the like. It honestly looked like some CGI stuff out of a movie or video game. I’ve never seen any landscape this beautiful. Millions of years ago during the ice age, ice was hundreds of feet thick and the weight of it carved out these cliffs in the rock escarpment. We walked on a trail hugging the escarpment along a ridge overlooking the vast valley below, listening to the sheep around us. Couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful walk in a more beautiful place.

Afterwards, we went to the tiny town of Porters for lunch. Super quaint town on the sea, I liked all the boats in the bay we walked by.

We got some fish & chips again, because there’s literally nothing else available. I’m not complaining, I love fish & chips; it’s just a little different here. They take an entire large piece of a white fish, batter and fry it rather than smaller pieces we’re used to in the states. After that, we drove to go see the Old Man of Storr (rock formation below).

We then drove to see Lealt Falls nearby:

Then, we went to go see Kilt Rock and Mealt Falls. If you’ve seen the movie Thor (I haven’t) apparently this cliff is in the movie.

Afterwards, we drove a few minutes away to a beach where just 20 years ago a little boy was walking with his dad and the little boy found what he said looked like dinosaur tracks in the fossilized mud that runs along the beach. Eventually some dinosaur experts came out and confirmed it was a dinosaur track from a Megosaurus, and then found 17 more! The tracks aren’t marked or noted or anything, and there’s quite a few people walking around looking for them. We think we found one of them, it matches one of the pictures pretty closely on a nearby sign. Pretty cool to walk on the same place a Megalosaurus did many millions of years ago.

And here’s the other pictures from the same beach. Khrystyan had a fun time playing in all the cool tide pools. She found a crab, a bunch of bright red sea anemone and a ton of snails.

Lastly, it’s so awesome to come back to a wonderful Airbnb. This is our favorite by far on this trip, it’s so nice and relaxing. Here’s the beautiful view from our living room window.

We then drove over to Neist Point on the tip of the island where a lighthouse sits. The fog was very, very thick, the winds were blowing hard and the rain had picked up. The trail from the car park to the lighthouse was seriously steep (hold onto the handrail the entire way down or you’ll slip and fall down). The rest of the gang stayed in the car while I went down. I was rewarded with some great views of the beach, some tall cliffs and a bunch of sheep of course. There’s more sheep than people here, they’re on every hill and field the whole time you drive around. They run across and along the roads also so you have to be really careful not to hit one. There’s no natural predators here so they’re not afraid of you or your car. The lighthouse was very pretty, the fog lifted once I made the steep drop down the hillside where the car park is.

It was hell coming back up though.

The next couple of hours was spent driving to Oban. We were expecting it to be a smaller town like normal, but were surprised to see that it’s pretty big and busy with about 24,000 people and a lot of tourists.

We drove through the area where the James Bond movie “Skyfall” was shot, overlooking the same beautiful hills and valleys. Here’s some of those pictures:

Finished the day in Oban where our Airbnb stay is for the night. We did some scotch tasting at the famous Oban distillery (not bad, not my favorite but does make a decent whiskey.) We also did some shopping in some of the little shops. I finally got my wool jacket I’ve been looking for from a small independent Harris Tweed weaver. We met the owner who was a hilariously good time (he even gave us all free knit hats) and gave me a really good deal on the wool jacket.

If you’re unfamiliar, Harris Tweed is made by people on some of the outer remote Hebrides Islands. They’re regulated so only tweed made by three mills on the islands are legally allowed to have the name Harris Tweed. The jacket I bought is made from an independent weaver of Harris Tweed (go check Wikipedia on Harris Tweed if you’re still interested what that all means so I don’t drone on forever about how much better Harris Tweed is than anything else out there.

For dinner we had some amazing Mediterranean food at a Michelin recommended restaurant and then some gelato from a small shop nearby. Good day!

Today was a heavy travel day so that’s all the pics I took for the day. After Spring Bank we drove and took a 2 hour ferry ride to the island of Islay of the western coast of Scotland. We’re staying near Port Askaig, the only real thing to do is taste and drink whiskey as there’s about 5-6 big distilleries here and not much else. So lots of scotch tomorrow, we’ll spend the night in Port Askaig again and be off to Glasgow tomorrow for a couple days.

While he was doing his Laphroaig tasting Laura, Khrystyan and I drove to a lighthouse and beach about 20 mins away. It was absolutely beautiful! Perfect sandy beach (a bit rare for Scotland, doesn’t even look like a beach you’d think was in Scotland), with cool jagged rocks jutting up out of the sand. I kicked off my shoes, rolled up the pants and had a good time walking through the cool water.

After the beach we met up again and all four of us went to Bruichladdich for some more tasting. These guys are a “progressive Hebridean Distillery” which basically means they like to experiment with different types of casks and such. We had a really good time, I actually really liked their “Biodynamic Project” bottle and got one to take home. It’s the worlds first carbon negative scotch and made with a biodynamic process (this concept was new to me, so check it out if you haven’t heard of it so I don’t explain it incorrectly.) After Bruichladdich we went and grabbed some food at the grocery store to make dinner at the Airbnb and watched some Netflix. The scotch was definitely the highlight of Gerry’s day, but that beautiful beach was mine.

Anyways, once we got back we drove an hour to the Loch Lomond area for a delicious lunch (no fish n chips today!), then another 40 or so mins to a local farmhouse brewery that I’ve seen around the stores. I thought it might be fun to get a pint from them since we were driving right past anyways. Beautiful working farm with highland coo’s and a huge selection of beer. They had just won Scotland’s beer award in ‘21 for a citrus hoppy blonde ale I tried. To be honest- none of the beer here or in London comes close to awesome beer from the microbreweries we’re blessed with in the PNW. This one was good, but definitely not great. Just made me grateful for our local breweries at home, fun experience nonetheless.

After a pint we drove to Glengoyne distillery, we tasted a few delicious drams (another bottle picked up for home). They have a beautiful distillery, probably one of the nicest ones we’ve seen, complete with a little walking path to a small waterfall around back. These guys pride themselves on having Scotland’s slowest stills and doing everything slowly and carefully to get the best tasting scotch. Hard to argue with what we tasted, Gerry (the Scotch snob) said they’re known for tasting extremely similarly to high-end Macallan but for less money. Macallan is good, but super expensive and you pay for the brand recognition and label anyways. While we were there Gerry hand-filled a bottle from their distillers cask, labeled and sealed it up.

Afterwards, we drove to our flat in Glasgow. We moved all our bags and stuff inside, then Laura and Gerry had to go drop off the rental car. While they were gone, Khrystyan and I started some laundry and went to go get dinner. Right up the street a couple blocks away is Coia’s Cafe which looked very nice and inviting and SUPER BUSY. Most everything else was closed or didn’t look too good, so we put our name on the list and walked around for half an hour checking out our little local neighborhood of Dennistoun on the east side of the city. We saw a beautiful old gothic church, some picturesque neighborhood streets and I even found a geocache near a statue of Buffalo Bill. Apparently he and Annie Oakley brought their Wild West show to Glasgow in the 1800’s for three months. I guess the locals loved it so much they made a statue of him. Pretty funny and odd to see a western cowboy statue in the east side of Glasgow, Scotland. Anyways, we went back to the restaurant and had a seriously incredible seafood dinner, totally worth the wait, now I get why it was so busy!

Very sad that tomorrow’s our full last day before we travel back home. Looking forward to exploring Glasgow and getting back home, but time definitely flew by.

From the Necropolis we walked to the central Glasgow downtown area, so here’s some photos of that journey. I love the huge painted murals on the buildings! You’ll see pictures from Glasgow Cathedral, parts of the University of Glasgow, Merchant’s Square, St. James Park.

From here we split up a bit. Khrystyan and I got lunch at a sushi place, then went to Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum which was really interesting. They have everything from old Monet’s, to a bunch of marble sculptures from the 1700’s, to ancient Egypt exhibits and dinosaur bones. They even have a massive pipe organ someone was playing.

From here we walked to the huge Kelvingrove Botanical Gardens where the indoor greenhouse exhibits are the stars of the show. We walked around a duck pond where we saw a mama duck and her babies struggling to get through the chain link fence back to the pond, so Khrystyan held up the fence and I walked behind them to usher them through.

From here we took the best Uber ride to the People’s Palace. Everyone in Scotland is so friendly, but this guy was above and beyond. He pointed out some cool landmarks, told us some awesome stories and history on the ride, even recommended the best pint in Glasgow (we went, he was right!)

Turns out the People’s Palace is closed for some upcoming concerts, but we were able to walk around it and see the really beautiful fountain out front. It’s the world’s largest terracotta fountain and really is a work of art.

After this, we walked back to the flat, crossing a cool suspension bridge over the River Clyde. We relaxed and did some laundry (our first place with an actual dryer!) then went and got some yummy Italian food from a small spot up the road.

It was a great day to end this awesome adventure. We’ll miss you Scotland!