Touring with the Kinates - Loch Lomond, Glencoe and the Glenfinnian Viaduct

So it has taken me a ridiculously long time to find the time to catch up on our adventures, but now that I'm a house spouse I don't really have an excuse.  So be prepared to see a lot from me over the next couple of weeks.

Luke and I decided when planning our time with Aunt Benja and Uncle Chris that while the highlands are amazing, we knew that there were other parts of Scotland that we hadn't yet seen that would be just as amazing.  So we took the opportunity to do some exploring of the unknown.  And Aunt Benja and Uncle Chris were total troopers and joined us for the ride.

A few of the things on our bucket list were Glencoe, the Glenfinnian Viaduct, Eilean Donan Castle and the Isle of Skye.  So we planned a trip based on spending a couple days on Skye and seeing what we could between Edinburgh and Skye.  I booked a cottage in Duirinish, a small crofting village just on the mainland side of the Skye Bridge (picture below).  You can also get to the island via ferry but that can add up.  Also, Eilean Donan Castle is only about 10 minutes away from the Skye bridge.  

Photo thanks to the Kinates

It takes about 5 hours to get from Edinburgh to where we were staying so we opted to make a day of it and make a few stops along the way.  The first stop was Balloch Castle and the Balloch Castle Country Park on Loch Lomond.  

Loch Lomond lies on the boundary fault between the highlands and the lowlands and is the largest inland stretch of water in GB.  It is a very popular holiday destination so we decided to check out the hype.  

Balloch Castle was okay from the outside.  It had some restoration work being done and you can't explore the inside so that was a bit of a bummer.  But the park grounds were lovely.  Just like at the botanic gardens, there were tons of flowers in bloom.  And we took a nice stroll down to the lake.

Photo thanks to the Kinates

Photo thanks to the Kinates 

Photo thanks to the Kinates 

After leaving the park we stopped for a bite to eat.  We had a more difficult time than normal finding a place to go to with Luther, but we were able to find a nice restaurant with some outdoor seating and had a nice lunch.

From there we headed to Glencoe.  Luke is a huge Daniel Craig Bond fan and portions of the latest movie were filmed in Glencoe.  The entire region was amazing.  It is really hard to describe and there's really not much there except mountains and lochs, but every couple miles there is a place to pull off the road because there are so many picturesque views.  And we seriously stopped at most of those places.  

Luther watched while Luke, Aunt Benja and Uncle Chris went down the the water.  He wasn't allowed because he wouldn't be able to resist getting in the water and we still had a bit of a drive to go.

We lucked out and had an amazing day.  It was overcast but that added to the mystery of the mountains.  And there was no wind so we were able to get some amazing reflection shots like the ones below.

Photo thanks to the Kinates

Aunt Benja and Uncle Chris decided to get artsy with their pictures.

Photo thanks to the Kinates

At the far end of Glencoe - just past Fort William is the Glenfinnian Viaduct.  If you're a Harry Potter fan you'll know that this is the bridge that the Hogwarts Express crosses on it's was from Platform 9 3/4 and Hogwarts.  There was no way we could allow ourselves to be that close to it without stopping to check it out.  If you time it right, you can plan your visit for when the stream train crosses it - but I wasn't that extreme.  

From here we headed to our cabin to rest up for the night after a long day exploring.  There was more to do with the small amount of time we had before we headed back to Edinburgh.

Hope you enjoyed this adventure.

Love you & miss you,

Aubs, Luke & Luther

Touring with the Kinates – St. Andrews and South Queensferry

Because the Old Course is (usually) closed on Sundays and open for the public to walk, we again hired a car and headed to St. Andrews.  Unfortunately we didn’t get another Audi but we did get a KIA SUV which gave us all a bit more room.  Luther still felt the need to sit on my lap for most of the trip.

As you drive through Fife you see field after field of these beautiful yellow flowers.  I had a suspicion that they were rapeseed fields but didn’t get than confirmed until later.  Rapeseed oil is sold at most grocery stores in Edinburgh and can be used the same way that you would use olive oil.  However, after the I got back to work I found out that most Scots aren’t fans of the rapeseed fields because of the smell.  I found it quite pleasant so I’m not sure what they’re talking about.  As we were driving around Aunt Benja was attempting to get iPhone pictures from the car window but that’s not always easy to get good ones.  Luckily we found a small side road right next to a field and were able to make an extra loop in a roundabout to make a small detour.  The yellow fields just add an amazing contrast to the rest of the green landscape.

This time around I wanted to make sure that we got to walk around the St. Andrews Cathedral and the St. Andrews Castle so we found a parking spot and headed straight for the cathedral.  When mom & Steve were in we were too late and were only able to take pictures from outside the gates.  I could tell it was beautiful then and it was even better up close.  The building that used to stand there must have been really impressive.  We had a lot of fun just walking around and looking at all of the headstones and markers.  Aunt Benja found one that simply said “She did what she could”.  It quickly became our motto for the week. 

There is a small area with 4 in ground tombs.  Of course Aunt Benja and I decided to crawl in and lie down.

After a picnic lunch, we put Luther in the car and headed over to the castle.  Even though it’s a ruin, he’s not allowed in because you have to walk through a display in the visitors centre to get to the castle.  He was probably ready for a nap though.  St. Andrews is one of the smaller castles we’ve visited.  It was pretty and had great views, but I was a bit underwhelmed.  Until we found the tunnels.  Then I was happy.

From the castle, we stopped off at the car to get Luther and headed into the town centre for a few souvenirs before heading to the Old Course.  We passed University of St. Andrews on our way so of course we stopped in to take a look.

As I said earlier – the Old Course is closed on Sundays but a ladies tournament was taking place that particular day.  We were still able to walk the course but we have to be careful of flying golf balls.  Since the tournament limited where we could go a bit, we made sure to take Uncle Chris’ picture on the bridge and then headed over to the beach.  We happened to hit the beach when the tide was at its lowest so the beach looked HUGE.  But Luther had lots of fun running around like a crazy man.

Before heading back to Edinburgh, we stopped off for dinner at a little pub and then opted to drive the Fife Coastal route home.  The drive was quite pretty.  As we were coming into Edinburgh at 9:30 the sun was starting to set.  We decided to make one last stop in South Queensferry at the Forth Bridge.  I’m really glad we did because the sunset was beautiful and the bridge was lit up really nicely.  And I got my first ice cream of the summer!  Up until then I’d had a hard time imagining ever being warm enough to make me want ice cream in Scotland but it was fantastic.

After the sun was set, we headed back home for the night before we left for our west coast/island adventure the next day.

Love you & miss you,

Aubs, Luke & Luther

Touring with the Kinates – Arrival Day – The Royal Botanic Gardens

Just two weeks after my mom & Steve left Edinburgh, Aunt Benja and Uncle Chris arrived.  Luther and I took the bus to the airport to pick them up and brought them back to our flat.  We had amazing weather for the majority of their visit.  Unfortunately the day they arrived it decided to sprinkle.  The nice thing about Scottish rain though is that most of the time you don’t even realise it.  I had looked at the forecast and we weren’t expecting rain so I opted for my trench coat instead of my hard shell and still wasn’t really all that wet by the time we made it to dinner. 

Aunt Benja and Uncle Chris have an uncanny amount of knowledge about plants and trees stored in their brains so taking them to the Botanic Gardens was definitely a good idea.  And because spring had been delayed by about a month this year, the gardens were in full bloom.  Luke and I had gone about a month earlier and there was definitely a big difference between the two visits. 

When Luke first arrived, our friend George took him to the botanic gardens.  Luke posted some pictures on Facebook of the Chilean Pine (or Monkey Puzzle) and Aunt Benja commented on how much she loved them.  Ever since they have been renamed “Benja’s trees”.  Needless to say she was pretty happy when we got to the “Benja’s trees” section of the garden. 

Since it was sprinkling, we decided to quickly finish or walk through the gardens and head to a pub for dinner.  Since we were in Stockbridge we were told to head to a new pub called the Scran & Scallie.  It definitely wasn’t your traditional Scottish pub – it’s a bit fancier and has a really cool atmosphere.  We had our first of many pints during their trip and really enjoyed the food.

From there, Luke and I decided we had probably better let them hit the sack since they’d been traveling all day and we were heading out to St. Andrew’s the next morning.  So we took the long way back to the flat through city centre and then called it an evening.

A good picture of New College with no scaffolding and no banners.  A rare occurrence. 

Other than the little bit of rain, it was a great way to start their trip.

Love you & miss you,

Aubs, Luke & Luther