There is no direct way from Cambridge to Edinburgh, so our indirect route took us five hours. We went up on a Thursday evening, and spent Thursday night in Edinburgh. Christmas lights get put up early in the UK, so we got to see all of the lights on the stores at night. This was also right before Veteran's/Armistice day, so all of the cathedrals had poppies on their lawns in honor the fallen soldiers. It was very pretty at night.
Friday was spent in Edinburgh. We didn't really have any plans for what we wanted to do, so we just wandered around for a little bit. We went up to Edinburgh castle, and on our way down, we came across the Scotch Whiskey Experience, a company that sells whiskey and gives a whiskey tour and tasting. During our tasting, we got a little introduction about how scotch whiskey is made and got to taste a little scotch from one of the regions where it is made. There were five different ones we could taste, and since there were five of us, we each got to taste a little bit of whiskey from each region. And in the end, we got to keep our whiskey glasses :).
World's largest collection of Scotch Whiskey
In the afternoon, we wandered around town and stopped in little shops. We also took a hike down to the water, and got there just as the sun was setting. Some of us (Nichol) were not thrilled that we walked down there for nothing, but she eventually got over it and we got some nice pictures :).
On Saturday, Kathryn went home and the other four of us that were left took a train up to Inverness. For those who don't know, Inverness is probably the biggest city in the north of Scotland, and sits at about the same latitude as Alaska. It is also the home of the famous Loch Ness.
We took a boat tour of Loch Ness. We had the boat to ourselves and our tour guide was awesome. He was one of the original volunteers to work with the Loch Ness Investigation in the 60s, and he took one of the videos that supposedly showed the Loch Ness Monster. He showed us a video that he had made with footage from when he was working on the loch, and gave us many possibly explanations for what we could be seeing on the lake instead of a monster. He even let us drive the boat at the end.
After wandering around on a trail through the Scottish highlands, we went back to Inverness for dinner. We stumbled upon a lovely local pub called Hootenanny's, and decided to eat there. I had skink, which is a fish and potato soup, and SOUPER good (see what I did there?). After we were done eating, there was live music played by a guitarist and an accordion player. They were two of the best musicians I have ever heard in my life, and they played traditional Scottish folk music all night. I had the best time listening to them and dancing all night long.
Our Sunday was spent mostly on trains. The trip from Inverness all the way down to Cambridge again is about eight hours, not including train stops and switching trains. By this point, we were all so tired that we slept most of the way down. All in all, it was a fantastic weekend, and I would go back to Scotland in a heartbeat.
As always, questions and comments are welcome!
Until next time,
Stephanie
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