Deep Scottish Love (DSL)

Hello everyone!

I'm sorry it's taken a while for me to post about my most recent trip to Scotland last weekend. It was such a busy, fun-filled weekend that I felt a little overwhelmed about trying to type it all up in a blog. I have a lot of really good pictures- about 300 to be exact- from the Scottish Highlands which I wish I could post but I'll have to show you all when I get home. The scenery was just beautiful! Everything was so picturesque with the highlands, mountains and rolling countryside stocked with sheep, cows and hairy coos. (Obviously I was very excited about the cows because I LOVE cows!) This was also my first multi-day tour with tour guides and a set itinerary. It was a neat experience and I would definitely try a tour like this again sometime. While there were some times where I wished we had been able to stay longer, we fit a lot into 3 days and I think it was the best way to get a good overview of Scotland. The last night we were there (Sunday night) we spent a few hours in Edinburgh before boarding our coach bus back to London Victoria Station. While it was cheaper than a train or plane, 9 hours each way on a coach bus is extremely uncomfortable and I don't anticipate doing that again if I can help it- especially if I am going to be on a bus for the rest of the weekend during the tour!

So the name of the tour we went on was "Skye High" Haggis Adventure, and it was led by our guides, Matt and Debs. We drove a bright yellow bus with "Wild and Sexy" written on the outside of it and our guides were pretty cheesy but very entertaining! We were almost late to the tour because our coach bus was late to the station but we hopped on a taxi there and made it in time. "We" refers to Catey, Jess, Amy, Shari and I (all from Drexel). So just to make it easier since we did so much and it is hard to include every detail, I'm just going to write an outline of each day. Here is a map of the route we took in Scotland during the tour:


Friday:
- Arrived in Edinburgh at 8:30 for tour
- Dunkeld- shimmering River Tay and the ruined Cathedral. Back to the Lowlands!
- Through the Cairngorms National Park to Kingussie for lunch (venison burger)
- Drumochter Pass- the highest road in Britain
- Inverness- meaning ‘At the mouth of the River Ness’
- Culloden Moor- where Bonnie Prince Charlie led the Highlanders in the doomed final Jacobite
uprising, and changed Scotland forever
- Clava Cairns - prehistoric burial chambers
- Past Perth- an ancient capital of our nation
- Forth Road / Rail Bridges
- Drove the full length of mysterious Loch Ness, past ruined Urquhart Castle
- Talk and demonstration of authentic scottish dress, bloody history of clans, weapons at The
Clansman Centre in Fort Augustus
- Dinner at Morag's Lodge hostel (haggis! chili)
- Stayed the night at Morag's Lodge

Saturday:
- Breakfast at hostel (toast, porridge, OJ)
- Loch Garry- affectionately known as “Scotland’s Loch”, and on to ‘The Road To The Isles’
- Eilean Donan Castle on Loch Duich
- Lunch at MacKenzie's Cafe (chicken and sweet corn bridie, macaroni pie)
- Isle of Skye & Cuillin Mountains
-Glen Shiel & the Five Sisters of Kintail
-Broadford and ‘Beinn na Caillich’
-Sligachan Glen
-Portree and Trotternish
-Glamaig
- Kilt Rock
- Dinner at Scot Kitchen in Fort Augustus (Local scottish-caught salmon)
- Quizzo and 'toga party' at hostel
- Stayed the night at Morag's Lodge

Sunday:
- Ate my own snacks for breakfast
- Glencoe- site of the infamous bloody massacre in the winter of 1692
- Fort William and Ben Nevis- the highest mountain in the UK
- Great Glen- Lochs Linnhe, Lochy, Oich, and.. Ness! & where Harry Potter Quidditch scenes
were filmed)
- Lunch at the Green Welly Stop in Tyndrum (Cullen Skink - the finest Mallaig peat smoked
Haddock, with onions, tatties, fish stock and cream & sticky toffee pudding)
- Visit to see Hamish, a famous hairy coo
- Through the Trossachs- Rob Roy MacGregor country
- Rannoch Moor- the largest expanse of uninhabited wilderness in Europe!
- William Wallace Memorial
- Stirling passing by Linlithgow Palace
- Arrived back in Edinburgh
- Went to Elephant House for hot chocolate (where JK Rowling wrote first two Harry Potter
books)
- Dinner at Whiski (Steak and ale pie, raspberry and currant cider)
- Bus back home at 10 pm

I think that is all pretty accurate- I'm not sure all of the times are right (before lunch, after lunch,etc.) but those were the places we saw each day. It was a VERY busy trip but I had so much fun and I would love to go to Scotland again! The Scottish Highlands are just beautiful and it was a nice escape from the hustle and bustle of London for a few days!

I am going to head to bed but I'll post tomorrow with updates about London! Cheers!

P.S. The name of this post is "Deep Scottish Love (DSL)" for the strong emotions the guides told us we would inevitably feel about the highlands and about our tour-mates while we were there.