Scotland: Edinburgh

On July 16th we drove to Edinburgh, and we had 2 nights there. Our first evening was a very traditional Scottish evening, where we had the chance to try a traditional Scottish dish: haggis, which is a meat dish made from sheep’s heart, liver and lungs and encased in it’s stomach. Needless to say, it’s description sounds extremely unappetizing. I was kind of hesitant about trying it but I figured since I was in Scotland I had to at least have a small taste! It was a lot better than I imagined! It was served with a layer of mashed potatoes on top, and it tasted almost like a liver-flavoured beef patty covered in gravy.

The best part of the evening was a traditional Scottish bagpiper show, with a well-known Scottish bagpiper dressed in a kilt and traditional Scottish clothing. Bagpipes are a strong tradition in Scotland, and our bagpiper was really good – at both bagpiping and at making us laugh. He told jokes in between songs, and kept us well entertained through the whole evening. It was a great show!

While in Edinburgh we had a full day free to explore the city, and so my first stop was the Edinburgh Castle, which is Scotland’s most visited paid tourist attraction. It sits on top of Castle Rock, and can be seen from all over the city.

Once we got up to the Castle it was just as amazing close up as it is from afar.

Luckily our tour manager had purchased our tickets for us online in advance so we were able to skip the 2 hour line-up to purchase tickets at the door! We spent a couple hours walking around and exploring the grounds, and manoeuvring around the hundreds of tourists!

Edinburgh Castle is also the location of the Scottish Crown Jewels, but unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos in that room. They were beautiful though!

From the Castle we had a great view of the city of Edinburgh.

After visiting the castle I decided I wanted to explore the city by just walking around. We spent most of the day walking down the Royal Mile – a main street in Edinburgh that runs about a mile long housing lots of shops, attractions and historical buildings.

I loved the feel of the city, it felt very historical, but had a modern feel popping out here and there. For example, there are many old historical beautiful buildings, and then amongst them there would be a modern building. A good example of this is the parliament buildings. They were designed by a Spanish architect in a very modern style, and they visually stand out from other buildings in Edinburgh.

The city is very easy to take photos of as it is very pretty in every direction. As you walk down the touristy streets there are lots of shops, and even bagpipers playing traditional Scottish music.

As we walked we would see cool buildings or monuments, and although we did not know what they represented or housed, we enjoyed seeing them and took lots of photos throughout the city.

At the end of the Royal Mile is the Palace of Holyrood House, which is the official residence of the Royal Family when they are in Edinburgh.

Next to the palace is the palace shop, where you can buy many official Royal souvenirs. It was in this shop that I decided to purchase an official replica of Kate Middleton’s gorgeous engagement ring (which was formerly Princess Diana’s ring, that William gave to Kate when they were engaged).

I enjoyed my time in Edinburgh. It is a bustling city filled with lots of life and culture. It is one of my favourite cities I’ve seen so far in the UK (with the exception of London!), and it’s definitely my favourite Scottish city so far! If I am in Scotland again one day I would definitely come back, as there is so much more to see in this amazing city, and I feel like I only got to see the tip of the iceberg here!

Scotland: Gretna Green and Hadrian’s Wall

On July 15th we said goodbye to England and hello to Scotland! 

Our first stop was Gretna Green, a small town on the border of England and Scotland (on the Scottish side), famous for performing run-away marriages. The town became a wedding destination in the year 1754 after Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act, which placed restrictions on marriages in England. At the time, many very young wealthy teenagers were getting married to people of lower classes, and so this new Act required that couples wishing to get married must first marry in a Church, and they had to be over the age of 21 (unless they had  parental consent). The goal of this act was to stop all the young marriages between people of different classes. Scotland however refused to put this Act into place, and marriages in Scotland were valid in England, so young couples began running away up north to Gretna Green (the closest town over the border in Scotland) to get married. Many couples were chased by the father or brother of the bride trying to catch them in time to stop the wedding. Today many marriages are still performed in this town for traditional reasons.

Our next stop was Hadrian's Wall, a 117.5 km long Roman wall extending across England, near the Scottish border. It was built during the rule of Emperor Hadrian, around 122 AD and it is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was built when the Romans were conquering Europe, and this wall signifies the farthest north they got in England, never reaching as north as Scotland, and the wall was to separate the Romans from “the barbarians”. Some parts of the wall have grass growing on top (as in the photo below), and other parts are more preserved (as in the 2nd and 3rd photos).

The scenery around the wall is beautiful, with greenery in all directions.

Scotland so far is just beautiful! I love just looking out the window while we drive, and watching how green and beautiful the countryside is. I also have been enjoying seeing cows, horses and other animals in farms along the road. I have also noticed the difference in the local Scottish people’s accents. The accents are much stronger here, and sometimes I have to concentrate pretty hard on what people are saying for me to understand! I’m getting used to it, and I love listening to the different accents! I’m curious how different the accents will be once we reach Ireland.

England: York and The Lake District

We left Liverpool and traveled to York on July 13th. Unfortunately we only had a few hours to explore York, and since I had such limited time I only hit a few key sites. The city was founded by the Romans in 71 AD and still has structures intact from that time, including the famous city walls. York is surrounded by a city wall, and today the walls are still in extremely good condition; they are the most in-tact city walls today of all of England. One of the first things I did when I arrived in York was to climb to the top of the city walls and walk along them.

 

Clifford’s Tower is also a big attraction in York. Clifford’s Tower is the shell-keep of the York Castle. It is a famous landmark in York, but unfortunately I did not have time to explore it further, or to visit the York Castle Museum.

The York Minster is one of the biggest attractions in York, and it is a huge cathedral. From the outside it is very impressive, one of the largest I have seen.  I did not have time to enter, but I hear that it contains beautiful stained glass windows all throughout the cathedral.

Another thing that York is well known for is their pubs, it was said (years ago) that you could visit a different pub every night of the week for an entire year and still not run out of pubs to go to! Today there are not as many as there were before, but there are still at least a couple hundred pubs, and York has more pubs per square kilometre than anywhere else in England.

Walking through the streets of York you can see how cute the town is. You can find quaint little stands selling lemonade and other goodies.

There are also many pedestrian shopping streets filled with little stores. 

York has a river running through it (the River Ouse), and along the waterfront is very beautiful. (As a side note: in every city in England we’ve been to so far – London, Liverpool and York – we have seen a Ferris wheel! York is no exception and the Ferris wheel can be seen in the photo below)

Finally, York is famous for being haunted. It has been said (and apparently proven) that there are more ghost sightings in York than anywhere else in the world. In the evening we did a ghost tour of the city in order to learn about the different areas of the city that are haunted by different ghosts. It was an interesting tour, but I’m not quite sure I believe in all of this ghost stuff!

I enjoyed my short time in York, I thought it was a quaint city with some cool culture.

The following day we traveled to the Lake District National Park in northern England and we visited Windemere, the largest natural lake in England. Driving through the Lake District reminded me a lot of northern Canada, but specifically cottage country north of Toronto. The area is very green, with lots of trees and wildlife. The Lake District is a popular area for the English to have vacation homes (cottages) and many English travel there for their weekends and holidays.

While in the Lake District we visited Castlerigg, a stone circle built about 4,500 years ago. Castlerigg was used for prehistoric gatherings and ritual ceremonies. The stones were a lot smaller than I had anticipated, but it was cool to see the site of prehistoric rituals, within the stone circle.

Driving through the Lake District we could see many wind turbines, and I found that they added to the beauty of the area:

I enjoyed my time in the Lake District. This was the last area in England we would visit, as the following day we were traveling to Scotland!