Easter in the UK is a big deal. Many businesses take the entire week off for holiday celebrations. Thankfully we booked our Easter weeks ago in the main fashion that we’ve grown accustomed: open up a map and point to a random spot. We landed on Aberdeen, a town that lays along the north-eastern coast of Scotland.

The last week in Edinburgh was really great, especially these last few days on the other end of the city. But we really need a break, and our Easter holiday should hopefully prove to be the perfect getaway.

We woke on Friday, March 29, after a pretty crappy night of sleep. The road noise from our room was terrible, despite the nice accommodation. We are REALLY looking forward to leaving Edinburgh and heading to a new part of Scotland. Hopefully our next flat will be quieter, too!

The bad weather came in late last night and is showing no signs of letting up. Today is a full-on travel day so we aren’t too worried about the weather, however we are told that the next few days will bring freezing rain and snow all through Northern Scotland. We departed our flat early laden with all of our gear and caught a bus to city-center. Jake thought that we should make a quick stop off at the Sainsbury’s for some grub (sammies and tiramisu snacks) before walking in circles trying to navigate to the bus stop.

Even with our phone, we struggled to find the place, but it was easy to understand why, because its underground. How strange is that? Well actually, its not all that weird considering the layout of this city has so many levels. Space is at a premium and I would not have guessed it, but the bus stop is HUGE. Its like an underground airport terminal and completely hidden from the outside.

We chose to bus it to Aberdeen because it was significantly cheaper than the train, however we do lose a lot of luxury. The station was packed full with a lot of “interesting” individuals. Some might say the “undesirables” but its all part of the experience. It was also really loud, the sound echoed off of all the concrete and tile walls, like a cave.

Jake and I were scheduled to pick up our bus, called “Megabus” at noon, so we had a bit of time to wait. We snacked on our food and enjoyed people-watching until a long line began to form right around our seating area. We hopped in line to join the crowd so we could get a good seat. Our bus is double-decker, and I REALLY hoped to sit at the top in the front row, best seats in the house!

Finally the driver let us board and it was freezing outside. We rushed in and claimed the top seats. I was distracted and didn’t immediately recognize how the seats looked and felt more like airplane seats than a typical bus. Each one had its own pseudo-leg rest, air controls, lighting and even little table for food. And of course, seatbelts. I don’t know if they are mandatory, but I didn’t want to risk flying through the giant glass window if we end up in a crash, so I wore mine like a good Jilly. (Jake wasn’t so good, but don’t tell anyone).

The drive was a grueling 5 hours. We stopped 5 different times along the route to drop off / pick up passengers and the weather outside was pretty awful. Sleet, rain, ice and snow mixed with massive winds meant a slow-paced drive. But you wouldn’t think it with our driver, who was kind of a maniac. It made it hard to really watch the sights other than rain and fog and traffic which backed up quite a lot. It had us about an hour behind, which normally wouldn’t bother us, but we had to check in to our next place by 415PM as our host had an engagement and had to leave by then.

When we pulled in the station at 4PM (instead of 3PM), we were VERY happy to disembark. Jake went right for the bathroom but the line for the girl’s was so long I was worried we were already so late. Our flat is supposedly only about 3/4 of a mile from the Union Square Station, so I could hold it a little longer, like a champ!

The biggest issue when arriving to any new city is getting our bearings. We almost always end up going in the wrong direction before we figure out the correct way to go. This time was no different. In fact it was more difficult because all of the streets and buildings were so close together and everything was wet, cold, gray, foggy. With no umbrella and way too much stuff it was a royal pain in the butt.

I spotted a map on a light-post that told us where we were. We determined our direction and moved quickly. With our heads down to shelter us from the freezing rain and wind, it was hard to take in the city. All you could see is gray. Every direction, up, down, left and right, its all gray.

Our place was on Richmond Street, nestled between a large open square and Y-intersection. So when we arrived, we just kept right on walking. The doors of all the apartments blended in so well with the building’s facade that we didn’t even realize there were doors there. I looked up and saw a small number inset into the top of a door, and thats when we realized we walked too far. #17 is ours. We knocked and waited…our host, Fiona, rushed to answer the door with a bright and friendly smile.

Fiona gave us a very quick tour of the place, apologizing for having to rush out. I guess her son was hosting a fundraiser and she was supposed to be there at 4PM. We felt so bad that we were late, due to the weather, but she was so nice and quickly left us to our own devices.

The apartment is fairly small, with a lot of unnecessary spaces with doors and hallways. I think a remodel would really open up the space, but it was perfectly fine for us. Simple and basic, with only a few extra touches. The bedroom was fairly large and contemporary with a large armoire, queen size bed and 2 nightstands! Normally we are lucky if we get one and so this feels luxurious (we don’t have to share). The living space is small, with a sitting room and a foldable table and chairs against a wall that partitions between the living room and the kitchen. The bathroom was down the hall and had everything we could need.

I’m just happy for a place of our own and it doesn’t smell of smoke. Plus its super quiet!

After 5 minutes we were completely unpacked and famished. So we walked one block to the corner where a very small market stood from which we picked up some staples for the next few days. Tortellini with zucchini, chicken fingers, eggs, bread, cheese, some veg and fruit and of course, cookies. This should cover us for the next 24 hours. We will likely come back again to pick up a “proper” meal for Easter. But for now, this will do.

And then the next 2 days passed something like this:

• Jake cooked & cleaned up meals
• Jill planned & booked all of the rest of this Scotland-holiday
• Jake & Jill watch Dinner Date and other movie marathons

I know its not all that exciting. The weather was just as bad the media said it would be. And that made it very easy to make the decision not to go anywhere but our own little toasty-warm hovel. After a solid week of touring it really is nice to do nothing. Plus, this gave us a really good chance to plan where the heck we should go next.

Our plans were pretty loose up to now. We booked the rental car already, both coming and going from Aberdeen. But the next 7 days are pretty much wide open. I was laden with brochures, maps, notes, and basically had everything sprawled out on the floor of the flat. Looking at a map, the best idea I could come up with was to do a sort of ring around Scotland, and pinpoint a few key areas that we definitely want to go. The hard part is our weather will be shit for the next week and there’s not enough time to go everywhere that we THINK we want.

Jake’s only request was with the car itself. He insisted that I reserve an automatic, since a manual car would be a nightmare to drive on the opposite side of both the car and the road. Even though its more expensive, I reserved the smallest automatic they had.

It took many hours to finally make some decisions. We picked out some key places including Inverness, Loch Ness, Skye, Loch Lamont, Tobermory (on Mull) and the Cairngorm Mountain Range. This would have us essentially going in a large circle, ending up back in Aberdeen at the end of a week. I don’t know that we can see all of these, but it was the basis for planning.

From there, I started with places to stay. It took HOURS to finally find and make decisions but we opted for 2 night’s in someone’s house in Inverness. Its a very good deal and our first destination with the car. But I wasn’t feeling too great about how things were shaping up. It was overwhelming trying to figure out where to go next and for how long. What if I choose something bad or what if we miss out on something great?

So I took a break from looking at places to go and focused on activities that we might want to do. One of the many brochures that we collected had a really cute photo of a reindeer on the front. We can go visit a herd of “tame” reindeer in the wild! Both of us definitely wanted to do that, but apparently its a weather-dependent activity and in an out-of-the-way village Newtonmore.

I marked it on the map, and then checked the weather. It appears the worst of it will be early in the week and will progressively get better, so if we plan to do that at the end of 7 days with the car, that would be better.

After hours of research and little decisions made, I would take breaks to watch tele with Jake or eat food. We only left our flat once to go to the market again, to pick up food for Easter dinner. A whole chicken with stuffing, veggies and of course, Hot Cross Buns (pull out your recorder’s people!)

The break was perfect for clearing my head and I refocused efforts to finish up this planning business. We definitely wanted to go to the Isle of Skye, and that proved to be the most difficult place to book because it is obviously very popular, and thus very expensive. Everything was booking up so fast, and so we settled on a hostel for one night. Its £40 which is very expensive for what it is, but it is all that was available and better than sleeping in a small car!

That leaves us with 4 more nights and a car and no real plan. Generally, I would say lets just leave it for later, but knowing that we’ll be out in the boonies, we may not be able to book anything. Plus, I just wanted to feel good about having a less fractured plan. And it was that motivation that had me make an executive decision to book a place that is somewhere in the middle of all the places we want to visit. This way its ONE basecamp that we can move from. Newtonmore is a very small village near the Cairngorms. I found us a pretty sweet-looking space / private apartment that is part of a larger home. It looks lovely and though a bit more expensive than we normally would spend, I think it will be a really nice place to hang our hats at the end of the days.

After 10 hours and 2 days, I’m finally done planning. And not just this next week, but the rest of our time in the UK is now officially planned. I can close the book on that and relax and enjoy.

Aberdeen, Scotland

We didn’t go anywhere for 2 days, but Easter came and brought with it a surprising friend; THE SUN! It was the first time we’ve seen the sun in full since we arrived to Aberdeen, and that means it was a perfect chance to go out and get some fresh air. Plus it’d be nice to actually see what this city is all about.

It was late morning when we left the comfort of our little abode and hit the streets, which were surpassingly-not-so-surprisingly empty. It’s a big holiday so naturally everyone is wherever they meant to be for the holiday, not walking about the streets. Or maybe its just where we are situated but it was strange walking along the cobblestone streets with no sign of people or cars. Just a lot of really large, intricate buildings of the historic persuasion. This city, like Edinburgh, has lots of levels making the walk a bit confusing. We stumbled upon a large park walkway that meandered along the busy roads and ended up in a church graveyard sight. The city isn’t all gray either. There are a lot of really beautiful buildings (which are mostly gray), but a lot of really cool art is infused along the city streets. I could see the sea from one overlook and we opted to make a B-line for it.

It was probably a mile or so before we reached the ocean, or rather, the North Sea. Talk about a completely different feel. Everything here is open and fresh and the beach was gorgeous. We won’t be fooled though, that water is mighty cold. We could see people out in the waves donning full wet-suits. And beyond them were lines of boats going in and out of the large harbor.

If the city was dead, I know why. Everyone is out here on the boardwalk enjoying the brief sunny warmth of the day. It was still probably only high-40’s but it felt really great. We probably spent another hour taking everything in before opting to head back home to start cooking.

I cut up carrots, potatoes, mushrooms, broccoli, onion and mixed it with butter and veggie stock and some herbs and salt. I placed it all in a large tin with the chicken and baked it in the oven for many hours. It smelled like heaven and when it was all done, we devoured everything. The food was amazing as were the buns for dessert. The only downside is that we have to leave here very early tomorrow morning because we have to pick up our rental car at the Aberdeen airport by a specific time (way too early) and it was too late to update the reservation. Oh well.

Scottish Roadtrip Part 1

The alarm buzzed at 5AM…way too early for me. But we have to be out of here by 8AM in order to get to our car pickup on time. And we had a lot of cleaning and packing to do!

It was all a blur and before long we were out in the cold, frosty Scottish air, walking to Union Square Station. Jake and I were discussing how nice it will be to get a little break from the beckon call of mass-transit and being on our own schedule for a bit. Such is the perk of having a vehicle!

We had to catch a bus to the Aberdeen airport, which is where we are picking up the rental. I have to say how weird it is to arrive to an airport that we have never been to in our lives, and have no intention of getting on a plane to or from this place. We are here simply for the car. It was odd walking through the terminal over to the LOOOOOONG walkway that will take us to our rental car. We rented through a discount car app on the phone, but chose Avis as our place. The man who assisted us was very nice and had the loveliest Scottish accent. He was very friendly and took us through the whole rigamarole of car renting procedures; insurance, maps, policy, etc. All was well and before he gave us the keys, he told us how lucky we are that we are getting a FREE UPGRADE to a larger manual car. Woo lucky us. Except we don’t want a larger car, I specifically wanted the smallest car so that we would be less likely to smash into other cars on the road.

Wait, did you say manual?

Yes a manual is what we got, apparently yours truly (Jill) totally effed up when booking the car. I thought the one I chose was automatic, but apparently it was not. And thus our upgrade to a larger manual made more sense. But unfortunately this is all they have and we’re already here.

Jake was not pleased by this but it was too late and we didn’t say anything else as we walked toward Bay #36. Apparently we get a brand new whatever it is. I’ve never seen a car like this before. Automatically I head to the right side and notice the steering wheel…oh yeah wrong side. It only elevated poor Jake’s nerves even more.

It took us a second to load our gear and Jake sat in the driver side, acclimating himself to this foreign car. The manual transmission is on the left (not the right like an American car). The clutch is still in the right spot, so that’s good at least. Not that I know anything about this as I’ve never driven a manual before.

The best thing that I could do is be the BEST navigator possible and to stay positive for Jake. I know that he will be ultra-sensitive at this point and any additional stress might make him explode. I have some hardcore groveling to do since I messed this one up pretty bad.

We left the airport parking lot very slow. The directions to our next destination were very straight-forward. We are to get on an A-class road all the way to Inverness. Scotland isn’t a huge country and the roads are pretty simple here, just like in England. The M-roads stand for Motorways, like the interstate in the USA. A-roads are city streets, generally 1 or 2-lanes tops. B-roads are equivalent to country or farm roads; unfinished, winding and possibly a bit treacherous!

Jake struggled with the controls of the car and driving on the left side of the road, yet the right (incorrect) side of the car. Not to mention the manual transmission with the left hand. But he did say that at least his dominant hand can stay on the wheel. I was extra-vocal with the GPS nav, pointing out every nook and cranny so that all Jake has to worry about is moving forward. It seemed that the biggest challenge for him was getting out of 1st gear. Once we were moving, he was okay. The second biggest challenge was that every mile or 2 we came to a roundabout, which forced him to slow down (to 1st gear) and thus problem one would occur. Not to mention that roundabouts themselves are somewhat tricky.

I just kept telling him what a great job he was doing (even though sometimes we had a few close calls).

The scenery was lovely. Beautiful rolling hills along the countryside. Some were lush and green while others were completely snow-covered and white. Thank goodness we have a semi-clear day for now. And once we escaped the small roundabouts, the drive was mostly stress-free. When we came upon a large city, or more like village, we had to deal with lights and traffic and that was a little more tough. You really recognize how narrow these roads are when you are butted up against other cars both parked along the streets and those coming from the opposite side. I guess this is why some of the best drivers come out of Europe.

Inverness, Scotland

It was almost 2 hours but we reached the outskirts of Inverness and it was exactly noon. We stopped at a big Tesco market, where we bought some ready-made chicken and bacon salads with a bag of chips and some water. We have a few hours before we can check in and so we ate in the car and thought that maybe we could drive out to Loch Ness today. Its only another 30 minutes from here and the weather is better today than it will be tomorrow.

It was a no-brainer. We headed there and Jake was in good spirits. Mostly because he was excited for this driving day to end. First we hit up the Loch Ness Visitor Center followed by Castle Urquhart. While its only 15 miles, the roads are narrow and winding, and slower speeds are required. Jake moaned lot and I was so ready to be there already just to get a break (I know he was also).

The Loch Ness exhibit looks pretty impressive from outside. We saw that many reviewers of the place say that its not worth it, but this is one of those things that you simply HAVE to do. When you are in Scotland, you go to Loch Ness. How often will we ever be in Scotland? So we opted the £8/pp was worth it.

Inside we followed the line of people through the history of Nessie in the Loch. The exhibit was actually really well done. It reminded me of a miniature version of a ride at Disney World. Dioramas would light up and tell a story as you move from room to room. The biggest downfall is that at the end of the exhibit, they basically DISPROVE the existence of Nessie. But isn’t that kind of the opposite of what they should do? If it were me, I would think they would have more success if they let people believe in the myth of Nessie. What if they hire Peter Jackson to build an animatronic Nessie, put it at the bottom of Loch Ness and put it on some sort of timer to come up at random times – maybe only a few times a month? And at different locations. At least that way the dream can stay alive! Plus I bet they would get a lot more visitors to the exhibit. You can’t take photographs, so that was a bummer.

The best part of the whole thing was probably the gift shop. It was nearly as big as the exhibit and was definitely loaded with Nessie crap. Naturally we had to get a Nessie for ourselves.

Outside it began to snow and was freezing cold. We only had to go about a mile down the road to check out the Urquhart Castle, which is more like the Urquhart ruins than castle. But it is very cool looking as it sits on the waterfront of Loch Ness. Its so pretty here, but one could say that it looks like many other lakes that are surrounded with mountains. I suppose its much prettier on a clear and sunny day. We had a lot of rain and fog which made it hard to see much else other than gray.

So we left and headed back to Inverness. Jake couldn’t wait to get to the next place, and I will be happy when we arrive to some warm digs again. We pulled into the drive and walked into our little apartment. Robert was our host and he is super outgoing and chatty. Right away we were engulfed in conversation and barely had a chance to drop our stuff. He was so nice, obviously a native of Scotland. He is a photographer for a real-estate company and thus works out of his home most of the time. He is also an avid kayaker and runner. Basically an adventurer in the making, much like us. So we got along like old chums.

Our room was upstairs and his room was in the attic. I guess Robert likes to rent out the entire place most of the time and so he has no qualm being up in the cold space. Our room was very cozy and lovely. Robert basically let us have completely reign of the flat while we are here and we spent many hours sitting and chatting with him.

This is seriously the best part of travel. The people that you meet are so wonderful. His love of travel and adventure melded well with ours and it was so fun hearing about his life, his struggles and all that he hopes to do. We shared our stories until after our typical bedtime. I melted away into the pillow enjoying the warmth of the bed and the patter of drizzle on the window outside.

9 hours later I came to and the sound of rain was gone. Apparently it was replaced with snow and ice, because the ground outside our window was covered in white and a thick fog was in the air. I guess today will be a full-on snow day!

It actually suited us just fine. We were happy to spend the morning in our toasty room. We were hesitant to go out in the snow but it turned to rain and Jake said he felt confident to go into the city, which is only a few miles away. So we headed out later in the day to downtown Inverness. It seems this is a more bustling city than Aberdeen, and thus parking was a challenge. We found a parking garage near the city center and opted to just go in there. Even that was a challenge though, as all the parking spots are TINY. I’m so glad we got that upgrade to a larger car 😉

Our walk around Inverness was a bit miserable. It was so cold, rainy and windy that we really couldn’t see much. So we stopped off at the Modern Art Museum, which is free and whiled away a few hours learning about historic and modern artists and other histories of Scotland. Much of this information we learned from the museum in Edinburgh, but the art exhibits were really fun (and my favorite part) of the visit. My favorite thing was modern art. There are 4 artist who are featured. One was a series of large geometric wall-hangings made completely out of willow branches. Another series consisted of tiny, intricate mixed-media paper cutouts on wood. Another was interesting pottery and clay pieces and the fourth was a series of detailed line drawings. I couldn’t really photograph this either, though I REALLY wanted to! It was all so beautiful and impressive.

By the end of our touring I was feeling a bit sick and so we cut the visit short. Perhaps a walk around town would make me feel better, but the bad weather did no favors and so we started heading back to the car. On the way, we stopped off at one small market, from which we stumbled upon a REALLY COOL art store. We were oohing and aaahing so many things I forgot I was sick for awhile haha. Naturally, we had to buy some art and all of it was very reasonably priced. Now, we can go.

The rest of our day/night was passed at Robert’s house. Jake and I cooked our host a really big curry dinner that we all shared and enjoyed telling more stories. Robert also gave Jake his kilt to try on and take photos, which was super fun/funny. The rest of our day flew by in such great company.

The Eilean Donan Castle

Another day, another destination…we awoke to light clouds and rain. Jake and I were pretty happy because our plan today is to drive out to Skye. Its only about 2 and a half hours to our hostel, the Broadford backpacker. And we cannot check in until 5PM this evening, so we literally have all day to take our time.

This is exactly the type of travel day we love. With no rush we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast of toast, sausage and coffee. I took a much needed shower, and then we cleaned everything, made some sack lunches and left our humble abode for the road less traveled.

Jake was actually eager for the drive and felt much less stressed than the last few days. Apparently he is getting used to the manual shifting with his left hand, but he still really does not like oncoming traffic and the too-narrow of roads that we have been traveling. Thankfully our journey today continues on down some less-traveled roads…and basically no traffic.

Our weather should be good for today, and especially tomorrow, on Skye specifically. So we will save the long-touring of this little (yet mighty) island for then. Today we focused on the journey. Jake didn’t mind pulling over often so that we could take a lot of photos and stop off at some great lookout areas. At our leisurely pace, time flew by.

We passed by some spectacular sights, going from flat lochs to rising mountains of the Cuillans. There were a few battlegrounds with placards that had some pretty cool and interesting features, and lots of scenic panoramas to take in. We stopped at a random pullout along the way for an easy lunch. It was so fun, relaxing and enjoyable.

As we continued our drive, we spotted a really cool looking castle out in the distance. I checked our map and found a marker for Eileen Donan. We hopped out of the car to take a closer look, though we don’t think that we want to go on the full castle-tour. However our minds were quickly swayed when we got up close and personal to this behemoth. It just looked so bloody cool and it wasn’t very crowded, which is a huge bonus!

I bet you didn’t know this, but the BEST thing about this castle is that its featured in one of the greatest movies of all-time…HIGHLANDER!

But seriously, its a famous landmark and one of the most photographed places in all of Scotland. This icon is absolutely beautiful both outside and in. So naturally, we had to explore every nook and cranny. I was really inspired by the interior spaces, which were unfortunately off-limited to photographs. The rooms were so well designed and decorated. Many of them were staged with realistic figures, dioramas, music, props, sound effects and artifacts that really brought the place to life. Its impressive how well-kept this castle is, and continues to stand for And we explored every nook and cranny that the Eilean Donan had to offer us. It is an impressive specimen.

How cool would it be to live in a castle with all of these crazy hiding spots? Well, believe it or not, people do. And this castle is no different. It is owned by a family who still uses it to this day. They even hire it out for wedding ceremonies (limit to 20 people for space-purposes).

After our tour, we bought a souvenir book that gives tons of details and additional photographs of the Eileen Donan Castle.

This also marked the end of our travel as we found ourselves at Skye Bridge, and the entrance to Isle of Skye. This bridge was initially built as a toll-bridge, but citizens eventually determined that the road should be free to all. And so it is!

With an hour to kill before checkin, Jake parked the car in the hostel’s parking lot. The Broadford Backpacker doesn’t look like much from the outside. In fact, its situated behind a funeral crematorium, which is totally strange and creepy. We walked into town to pick up some food for dinner and then made it back just in time for our place to open up.

The hostel is pretty typical, complete with a lot of mis-matched furniture and brightly painted walls. Its not the cleanest of spaces nor the nicest of accommodations. We had to share a dorm with 8 people, which isn’t a big deal. Its the best we could get for our last-minute reservation and the cheapest we could find. And it lived up to being the dankest, dirtiest place that we stayed in the UK, thus far.

It wasn’t all bad though. We did enjoy chatting to the other people in our dorm. One couple was from Spain and another guy from Holland and another couple from Scotland. So much diversity makes for super fun conversation and lots of great tips on places to visit whilst we’re here. The kitchen was pretty bare-bones, but we made ourselves at home and whipped up chicken kiev and pasta for dinner. We thought that we should call it an early night so that we can get up super early to try to do all of Skye in one day. Really one half day, because tomorrow we drive all the way down to Newtonmore.

TO BE CONTINUED…