Yes, I know, Christmas was over a month ago (and last year! haha), but things have been crazy and I haven’t devoted the time to write on this ol’ blog of mine.

But I just had to share the photos from an amazing trip that my husband and I went on at the beginning of the month. It was a surprise trip; his Christmas present to me…

A trip to Scotland!

PHOTO OVERLOAD

We left on an evening flight on Thursday, January 4th, flying from Boston to London. We arrived at 5AM and oh my gosh, is Heathrow huge and bustling! We had a 4 hour layover so we got some coffee, read a little, and brushed our teeth! Then we were on our way to Inverness.

Friday, January 5th

After we landed, we got our rental car and headed to the hotel (Kingsmill). David did all of the driving since I wasn’t sure how I could handle driving on the left side. It seemed to be intuitive though, so he did a great job.

We checked in, got settled, showered and then walked down to the center of the city.

We found a pub on the river where we played some pool and had a pint. You know, at that time (3PM) it was the hardest thing to find some food. Either the place didn’t have a kitchen or they weren’t serving until 5. We were starving after traveling all day, and we finally found a place that was serving: The Auctioneers. David got the fish and chips and I had a chicken sandwich. And oh my gosh, the chips in the UK are the best. They are literally the same at every restaurant and I didn’t mind that at all. They were delicious.

We were exhausted by the time we got back to the hotel and we crashed at 6:30PM. It was only 1:30PM to us but we didn’t sleep at all on the flight to London. We ended up sleeping about 12 hours.

Saturday, January 6th

David was hoping to get a hike in and the guy who worked at the car rental recommended the Storr on the Isle of Skye. It was about a 3 1/2 hour drive but we didn’t care how far it was! Plus, what better way to see the country then to drive around it! We had the breakfast at the hotel and then loaded up. We made a few stops along the way to see the views. We drove past Loch Ness and Eilean Donan castle (which was closed until February, boo). At least we got to walk around the castle grounds. It always amazes me to see buildings older than our country.

We truly lucked out with the weather for this hike. It rained a few times on our way there but we had clear skies to be able to see the landscape around us.

Breathtaking! We did a total of 3.4 miles and just had an amazing time.

On the way back, we stopped in Portree, hoping to find some dinner. Since it’s the off season not much was open. We went to the Isles Inn and enjoyed some beer and appetizers. I had the carrot and curry soup and David had the ham and chicken terrine. Both were delicious.

We decided to find someplace else for dinner but it proved to be challenging! I thought I had found a cute pub in Dorie but that ended up being closed. Thankfully the hotel next door was open and had tables. We enjoyed a hearty dinner with some more beer. (I had the butternut squash curry, but I can’t remember what David had.)

Sunday, January 7th

On Sunday we kept it closer to Inverness and visited the Culloden Battlefield in the morning. As a big fan of Outlander, and with my husband’s family name being Fraser, this was a site that we certainly couldn’t miss. We learned that the grounds of the battlefield are mass graves and the bodies of those who died were never removed. They used x-rays to see what was under the soil and marked them with stones. (I assume the barricade around the Fraser marker is due to the popularity of the show.)

After we visited, I attempted to drive the car, and while driving on the opposite side wasn’t difficult, the narrow two-way roads had me a bit nervous. I drove from Culloden to the Clava Cairns (about 2 miles) and that was enough for me, haha. After seeing the 4,000 year old structures, we looked for a spot for a late lunch. David found the Cawdor Tavern and it was exactly the kind of place I had envisioned having a meal in while we were here. I had the Scottish steak and Orkney pie and David had the burger. Another fantastic meal.

And the day didn’t stop there! We wanted to visit a whiskey distillery while we were in Scotland and we happened to find one that was open on a Sunday: Tomatin Distillery. We ended up getting there just after 3 (last tour leaves at 3) but since it was just us, we got a private tour. The gentleman was named Alastair and he provided a very entertaining and educational tour.

We also had a tasting and picked up some souvenirs to bring back home. I’m not a huge whiskey drinker but hey, when in Rome! They had a whiskey that they only create two weeks out of the year, and it’s heated with peat moss! If you’ve ever smelled peat, you know what I mean when I say it smelled heavenly. (Or maybe I’m just really weird, haha.)

That night we walked back down to the river and ended up having dinner at Johnny Foxes. (Haggis spring rolls to start. I will say that the texture of haggis reminded me of tourtiere, so it wasn’t all that bad. David had fish and chips again and I had a burger.) It was so quiet in the restaurant and we asked the waitress if that was usual this time of year. Since it was just after the new year, a lot of restaurants will close on slower nights for their holiday parties. It was so refreshing to see restaurant workers enjoy their job because they make a living wage. Everyone we spoke to was so friendly and welcoming.

Monday, January 8th

Our last full day in country and the weather was foggy and cold. Another on the “must visit” list was visiting a castle. Unfortunately a lot of them were closed because (again) it was the off-season, but there was a really cool spot, open on the west edge of Loch Ness.

Oh! I should mention that before we visited the castle, we toured the Loch Ness Visitor Center and Museum. It’s interactive, with David Tennant as the narrator. It takes you through the history of how the loch was formed millions of years ago (23 miles long and over 700 feet deep!) up through to the 30s when the “monster” was first seen. All in all, a fun experience.

And on to the castle! It’s the ruins of a castle from the 1200s but there were still some intact buildings that we were able to explore. We loved it! (And noticed how quickly the fog would come and go while we were there.)

When we got back to the hotel we finally made use of their pool, to unwind. Then we headed back downtown and had dinner at Black Isle Bar. We were just going to have a beer and a pizza and then find another spot for dinner. But after we walked around for about 10 minutes, we ended up coming right back because the beer and pizza were so good! (And there were no other restaurants open or if they were, they were only serving drinks.)

This was pepperoni, red onion, chili pepper and honey! So good!

Tuesday, January 9th

Traveling home day. We had breakfast again in the hotel. By the way, I loved the variety of options for the buffet each day. They had fried eggs, scrambled eggs, hash browns, black pudding, baked beans, fresh fruit, porridge, yogurt, cereal, so much! Every morning I had something new to try.

It was a cold and foggy day and was even snowing a bit when we left. Our first flight was at 12noon. I should also note that Inverness is definitely the smallest airport I’ve ever visited. It took about 10 minutes to get through check in and security.

It was blue skies when we got above the clouds and the 2 hour flight to London was uneventful. We had a 5 hour layover at Heathrow and had a late lunch/early dinner before our flight at 7PM. The time flew by actually.

For both long haul flights, they were pretty uneventful. The seats were a bit tight, but we had our noise cancelling headphones and lots of movies/tv shows to choose from. The food actually wasn’t that bad either. When we landed in Boston it was windy and rainy. Thankfully our flight was able to land without incident and my mom picked us up.

Overall, an absolutely amazing trip and another country to check off the bucket list!

What’s been your favorite trip? Have you ever been to Scotland?