Anniversary in Edinburgh

For our 5 year wedding anniversary we decided to spend the weekend in Scotland.  It was the last big city on our "To Do" list for the UK so why not? We got into town about 2 pm local time and checked in to our hotel.  Since we really didn't get a chance to eat before we left we immediately went out in search of food.  We walked down to a place called the Brew Dog pub and brewery.  Dave found this beer when we were in Ireland last year and fell in love with it. As such we had to make a stop there at least once.  Unfortunately, they really didn't have any food. Just bar snacks and chips but nothing substantial.  So we had a beer and left. I'm  not too fond of their beer so I didn't suggest we stick around for more than one.

We walked back up to the Royal Mile and decided to eat at a place called Deacon Brodies.  Inside Dave found alcoholic ginger beer. He was loving it. We just walked around and went back to the hotel kind of early because we're old now and tire out easily. :)

Dave and his alcoholic ginger beer.

 The next morning was spent at Edinburgh Castle.  It is one of the most amazing places I have ever been.  Still mostly intact and has a stunning view.  No wonder there's been a castle on that spot for over 1,000 years.  Location, Location, Location.

 

Can you just imagine what this would have looked like a couple hundred years ago? A thousand years ago? Wish I could have been there.

View from the castle.

Scottish street performer.

Oh and by the way, the fried Mars bars are amazing! :-) I watched the episode of Samantha Brown's Passport to Europe on Edinburgh and it was one of the first things she did.  It wasn't the first thing I did but we did do it on Saturday and it was well worth it.  Gooey, warm, decadent and oh so lovely. 

Fried Mars Bar!

It was lambing season while we were there and these cute little buggers were all over the place.  I am a sucker for baby animals as the hubs will attest to.  I made some comment about it while on the bus tour passing yet another field full of lambs and I said something about how cute they were and he made a comment about how tasty they were. I smacked him good of course and told him he had to get me a puppy to make up for it. :-)

Baby sheep!

We stopped multiple times on the way to Loch Ness and one of those stops was at this old church. It was the traditional burial ground for one of the clans in the area but I can't remember which one it is now.  It was on top of a hill overlooking a beautiful valley.  It looked like a very serene place to be put to a final rest I suppose.

Old Scottish Church

And here we have the great Loch.  It was pretty impressive if you ask me. Not much to look at on the surface but if you figure it's about 27 miles long and is deep enough to cover the Eiffel Tower you begin to realize how impressive this lake is. 

Loch Ness

And of course there was debate about the Loch Ness Monster and who is a believer and who isn't.  The hubs fancies himself as "practical" and "logical" and doesn't believe.  I, on the other hand, think there might be something down there.  On the bus tour we were listening to some history in the area and they were talking about the legend of the monster and when it began.  The idea was put forth that if we proved there actually was a monster it would surely be subjected to tests and scientific pokings or would be turned into a sideshow freak.  On the other hand if you conclusively prove it doesn't exist no one would want to visit anymore.  It would kind of ruin the tourism market in that area to an extent because people would quit coming to try and get a glimpse. 

Just caught a glance of the monster :-)

This picture of the hubs is us horsing around.  He was trying to take a picture of me while I was taking a picture of him.  All while standing outside a castle that is over a thousand years old.   How I love Europe!

View from the bus of incoming weather

This Hamish, the oldest bull in Scotland.  He was pretty cute.  We stopped to see him on our way home and he was very friendly.  He's literally a roadside attraction so I imagine he gets used to a lot of people coming around. They even have a store that, when it's open, you can buy food to give him.  Sadly it was closed when we were there but it was fun to see him nonetheless.

Hamish the "hairy coo'"

All in all it was a fantastic trip.  I'd love to go back sometime and spend some more time in the country.  The city is beautiful though and I highly recommend going if you can.  Our next trip is to England and then to Brussels (again, yay!) for the flower carpet.  I absolutely LOVE Brussels so I can't wait.  England will be fantastic with our friends Mark and Megan so I'm very excited about that one too.  So hopefully I'll get some more updates put up soon.  But don't hold me to it. :)