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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!

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London to Edinburgh

I once again was up and at the coach station at 7:45am, but Expedia had the time wrong and it didn’t leave until 8:20am, which sucks because I could have stayed at the B&B and enjoyed a nice breakfast there.  Anywho, I grabbed a coffee and boarded a really neat vintage double decker bus for a tour around town.  Due to the climate protests all over central London our tour was altered and traffic was heavy, but we stopped at Buckingham Palace for a while then drove past the Eye of London, down Fleet Street, past St. Paul’s Cathedral, over the London and Tower Bridges amongst others, and then stopped at the Millbank Millennium Pier to catch a boat.  The boat tour was pretty quick, basically over to Tower Bridge and back, but offered wonderful views of Parliament, the Eye, Tower Bridge, Big Ben (covered and under construction until 2022 though I think) and everything else along the water.  Honestly, if I did it again I’d do it at sunset or at night, I bet that view is gorgeous.  Once we got back to the coach station I picked up my bags from the B&B and took the Victoria line to Kings Cross station.  Of course I needed a cheesy photo taken at Platform 9 ¾ and I sat and waited for my train.  Unfortunately, someone was hit by another train along our route and there were trespassers along another major route, so almost all of the trains were delayed or cancelled.  My original 3:30 train to Edinburg was delayed, then they loaded us in, then they kicked us off and cancelled it.  There was about an hour of confusion before I got confirmation that I could jump on any of the other trains that were running, so I jumped on the 4:30 train and crossed my fingers that I’d eventually get to Edinburg.  Fortunately I was sat next to two lovely people and we chatted and exchanged stories for a couple hours (mainly me talking, travelling solo I don’t get my daily words out!). A Dr. Eeyan Pepper stayed with me until Darlington and was a super nice guy, travelled lots himself and owns a place in Florida.  The second leg I was pretty much by myself so I plugged the headphones in and zoned out for the rest of the trip.  It was after 10pm when we finally arrived, so I scurried through the cold to my hotel about a mile away.  Yotel is in an old building but they completely modernized it, so everything is new and neon and very eclectic.  I was starving, so I went around the corner to KFC and got an interesting combo bucket including a chicken sandwich one (1) thigh piece, a weird salad, and fries. Then went back to the hotel and crashed.