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Stirling Castle and Dublin Day 1

I got up and repacked my bags for my upcoming flight then left my car at the hotel and hiked uphill (of course, everything is uphill here!) to Stirling Castle. I passed by some cool old buildings along the way on cobbled roads with historic structures which were pretty neat. I spent a couple hours wandering the castle before heading back to my car and hitting the road to Edinburg. I’m happy to report that despite road construction and a bunch of obstacles, I made my way to the rental car return without scratching or denting the vehicle. Woo hoo! After dropping the car off I hopped on a bus to the airport and wandered around until Aer Lingus got us on a mud skipper propeller plane to Dublin. The flight was short and uneventful, which is always good. I checked into my hotel and was thinking about going out for a drink, but decided instead to hit the hotel bar for a cider and some Irish BBQ wings and chips. Tomorrow will be a busy walking day around Dublin!

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Edinburgh Day 3/Scottish Highlands Day 1

Oof, what a stressful day.  It started out fine, I slept in and leisurely packed my bags to check out at 11am.  Then I went to the café and filled out postcards and mailed them then walked to the train station where Enterprise is located for my pickup.  I was there early, so I went ahead and did the paperwork then hung around for a bit until the car was ready.  They misquoted me on the car price and wanted to add almost another $100 to my bill so I argued with them for a while before giving up and deciding I’d figure it out later when I get back and have more time. On top of that, I had reserved a small economy car and they gave me a big ass, brand new 2019 SUV type car, and maneuvering it around the narrow streets is a nightmare.  I hit a bollard just trying to get out of the parking lot and bumped a couple curbs trying to get out of Edinburgh because it barely fits through anything in the narrow streets!  Fortunately none of that seems to have done any damage.  FYI it’s not a good idea to pick up your rental car from a major metropolitan area with super crazy traffic. In hindsight I should have taken a train to the airport and picked it up there. Lessons learned! I did successfully get out of town with only three people honking at me for driving slow and/or not knowing roundabouts, but no accidents.  It was funny though because when I got to the Highlands another car pulled out into my lane, obviously used to driving on the right, and came at me head on. I saw him and slowed down and sympathized with him after seeing the look on his face once he realized.  Once I got out of town driving got a lot easier, it was a long but uneventful drive up to and through Inverness, and I made it down Loch Ness to Benleva Hotel Bed and Breakfast in Kilmore.  Once I checked in I went to the lounge and ate some delicious mac and cheese and the best garlic bread I ever had.  I crashed out pretty quickly after that. I’ll be hunting sea monsters tomorrow!

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Edinburgh Day 2

Edinburgh is amazing, I loooove it. The place smells like baked goods and sweets, it’s fairly easy to navigate since there are so many big landmarks, there is so much to do, people seem happy and active. Sure it has its problems, it has homeless folks and petty crime and is expensive like any other major city…but I really, really like it! Today I stopped by an old church called St. John’s near my hotel and the huge old graveyard attached to it with Edinburgh Castle behind, then to Ross Fountain, and walked down to Holyrood Palace. The actual palace is pretty typical, it felt like walking into Windsor Castle all over again, but the destroyed abbey remnants were pretty cool and spooky, both from inside and out.  Despite no rain in the forecast, it started pouring fast and hard in between peaks of brilliant sunshine leading to a series of beautiful, big rainbows while I was at Holyrood. I jumped into a ramen shop and ate while one bad rain patch passed through, it was pretty good ramen…mid-level, a little bland, but good on the stomach.  It’s funny, the British really don’t use salt all that much considering how many people they’ve historically killed for it.  Anyway, once the rain cleared I hiked up Calton Hill to watch the sunset, then decided to call it quits early because it was super windy and cold! I needed to get my hotel and rental car scheduled for tomorrow (pray for me driving in the UK for the first time) and buy some new shoes because the walking shoes I got are apparently not waterproof like I thought they were.  Good thing they have normal shoe stores here, like Skechers, so I got some waterproof boots.  Then I went back to the hotel to pack up for the big trip up to the Highlands!