Scotland, England and Wales - Last days in the United Kingdom

We finished up traveling around the United Kingdom, so here is what has been happening:

Scotland - Edinburgh, Inverness & Glasgow:

Day 24 Thursday, June 11th - Lydia and I began our travels around Scotland, making our way up to Edinburgh. We took the train from York, England to Edinburgh. We have only been traveling by train for a couple days, but we have figured out the BritRail network fairly quickly. The train ride, itself, was comfortable, but the journey to Edinburgh was a bit long.

When Lydia and I arrived in Edinburgh, we had to hike up a giant hill to get to our hostel, Edinburgh Backpackers. The hostel was alright, definitely better than what we stayed in our first time in London, back in May. Our room was up a few flights of stairs and the hostel didn't have a lift, so we had to carry all our stuff up; not something we wanted to do after hiking up the hill to get to our hostel.

After Lydia and I checked-in to the hostel, we walked up and down the Royal Mile for a little bit, before finding a spot to eat at a small cafe. That night, we relaxed in the hostel, where we made a few new friends who convinced us to go out for a few drinks. One guy, Greg, took us to a few bars, which included a Aussie Bar to play pool and later a wing bar for some late night snacks.

Day 25 Friday, June 12th - This morning, Lydia, our new Canadian friend Greg, and I went on a walking tour of Edinburgh. We saw some of the historic sites around the city and learned some of the history of Scotland. It was interesting to hear about how Scotland became part of the United Kingdom and how Edinburgh supposedly played a huge part in inspiring J.K. Rowling with Harry Potter. After the walking tour, Lydia, Greg and I walked to go to the supermarket to grab a quick bite to eat. Lydia and I decided to stop in the park to enjoy a couple sandwiches we purchases, before heading back to the hostel than heading off for that afternoons activities.

That afternoon, after the walking tour, Lydia and I decided to explore Edinburgh Castle. The castle, like the Tower of London, is like a giant museum and is also home to the Crown Jewels. Lydia took a quite, free 5 minute tour around the castle, before checking out some of the sites and exhibits. While at the castle, we saw the Crown Jewels of Scotland and the Stone of Destiny. The Stone of Destiny has an interesting history alone, from its origin in Scotland, to its time at Westminster Abbey, to the time it was stolen from Westminster Abbey and accidentally cracked, to its return to Scotland, where it is currently on display in Edinburgh Castle.

That night, Greg and I went on a pub crawl around Edinburgh, while Lydia stayed at the hostel. The night was unexpectedly fun. When I say unexpectedly, I mean, the pub crawl started off a bit dull. Greg and I met some "interesting" people, but we quickly found some people we connected with and had a great time. I found some German girls who I hung around with. At one of the last bars, one of the German girls ordered a Magners thinking it was a beer. When she took her first sip, she almost sip it all over the place; she wasn't a fan of Irish cider. My favorite bar of the night was a Frankenstein themed bar, which a few of us returned to end the night.

Day 26 Saturday, June 13th - Today Lydia and I hopped on a train to Newcastle, England. We were originally hoping to visit the Newcastle Brown Ale brewery, but after we got to Newcastle we discovered that Newcastle Brown Ale was no longer brewed in Newcastle. This was a bit of a disappointment since we took the train all the way there for a fun afternoon.

We decided to walk around a bit and ended up at the Discovery Museum in Newcastle for a little bit. The Discovery Museum reminded Lydia and I of the Betty Brinn Children's Museum in Milwaukee. The museum had some interesting aspects, but was aimed more for a "younger" audience. We were not at the museum very long, before we left to hop on the next train back to Edinburgh.

When Lydia and I got back to Edinburgh, we had a more relaxing night. We made ourselves dinner to save some money on eating out and hung out in the common room for a little bit. Later, Lydia and I watched a little Orange is the New Black; I am hooked. This show is amazing!!! We watched a couple episodes before heading to bed.

Day 27 Sunday, June 14th - Today Lydia and I made our way even further north to Inverness, Scotland. It was an extremely beautiful city. When we arrived in the hostel, we were a bit hungry and asked for a good place to try some traditional Scottish Haggish. Reception directed us to a place down the road, right by Inverness Castle. I had an idea of what Haggis was before I tried it, but I was glad I waited until after I tried it to actually Google what it is. The Haggis we tried was actually really tasty, and it might have been because it was served with a delicious whisky sauce, but the thought of what it actually is made of can be a bit unappetizing. I would come back to eat it here again, but I can't say I would go out of my way to order it anywhere else in the future.

That afternoon, Lydia and I took a walk along Ness River, making our way to the park, before making our way make to the hostel to make dinner.

That night, when Lydia and I were sitting down enjoying dinner, we made friends with a few other people in the hostel. It was interesting talking to them because, for some, english was not their first language, but it was the common language for all of us. A few, Spanish was the first language, and others, French was the first language, but English was the common language that allowed us all to communicate.

The sunset in Inverness. The sun didn't start to set till around 10:30-11:00pm

At about 10:00 pm - 10:30 pm, a couple of us walked up to Inverness Castle to get a picture of the sunset. It was weird being so far north and having the sun-set so late, but rise so early. The sun would completely set at close to 11:00 pm and would rise around 4:00 am. The view was spectacular and I keep thinking how lucky I am ot have experienced this.

Day 28 Monday, June 15th - Lydia and I decided to visit Inverness to have to opportunity to get a glimpse at Nessy, the Loch Ness monster, and today was the day we would have that opportunity. That afternoon, we took a boat cruise down Loch Ness, hoping to spot the monster, stopping at Urquhart Castle. Loch Ness is one of the deepest lakes in Scotland and, from my perspective, quite large. When Lydia and I arrived at Urquhart Castle, we had about an hour-and-a-half to explore before catching the bus back to Inverness.

Urquhart Castle was quite interesting, it was mostly ruins, but the framework still stood to allow the mind to imagine what the castle might have been like when it still stood. There was a lot of history here and the castle played a role in Scottish Independence and beyond. When Lydia and I left Urquhart Castle to head back to Inverness, our bus driver stopped to allow us to take pictures of some Scottish Cows and was proud to share her love of Scotland. When we got back to Inverness, Lydia and I had to run back to our hostel to grab our luggage and catch the train to Glasgow, one of our last stops in Scotland.

Some monument in Inverness. It has as unicorn on top, which is the national animal of Scotland.

We were staying pretty close to the train station in Glasgow at a budget hotel. We were pretty lucky because the minute we got to our hotel, it began to rain. The hotel was not the nicest, but it was nice to have a room to ourselves. Lydia and I went to the market for some take-away dinner and watched a little TV in the hotel room, while we did some bathtub washing. We were using our time in Glasgow to relax and recharge from our constant running around from the previous few weeks.

Day 29 Tuesday, June 16th - In Glasgow, Lydia and I were staying in a budget hotel. This was a nice change from the hostels we had been staying in. We were glad to have some privacy and took advantage of it by sleeping in a bit. When we finally started our day, we decided to take a walk and check out the museum and art gallery.

The museum was interesting, but it was starting to get old; we had seen so many museums over the past couple weeks that this was just the same old stuff. One part of the museum that I did enjoy was the weapons exhibit, which showed the ancient weapons of old civilizations and how they were used and have changed over the years. That afternoon, we walked around the town for a little bit before heading to the market for some food and a bottle of wine and relaxing in the room.

Day 30 Wednesday, June 17th - Today we decided to make our way closer to the Scottish Highlands, by making our way to Balloch for a nice day of hiking. We spent a few hours in the town hiking around. The views were amazing. The afternoon, however, we were a little lost as to where we were going and the clouds started to come in, so we decided to make our way back to the train station to head back to Glasgow. It was lucky we left when we did because it began to pour very shortly after we boarded the train.

That night we hung in our hotel room since it was raining. We packed for the next day's trip to Liverpool, before finally calling it a night and heading to bed.

England and Wales - Liverpool, Cardiff & London:

Day 31 Thursday, June 18th - Today we took the train from Glasgow, Scotland to Liverpool, England. We got to the hostel, then decided to walk around to find a place for lunch. The options we typical for a tourist spot. Lydia and I stopped at a restaurant for some burgers, before making our way to the supermarket to grab snacks and drinks for dinner later that night.

Lydia and I enjoyed our drinks in the hostel, playing some classic battleships in the hostel hang-out-room. An Aussie, who was also staying at the hostel, convinced us to head up to the bar to play a few drinking games with some of the other people staying there. We were a little reluctant at first, but we ended up joining them. Well, drinking games turned out into actually going bar hopping in Liverpool, something Lydia and I were not planning on.

The night out was some unexpected fun. We bounced around to a few different bars. One of the first stops was a tequila bar that had a variety of flavored tequilas. I believe that special was 1 euro tequila shots, so we enjoyed a few shots and drinks before making our way to the next bar. The night ended up getting a little fuzzy with all the drinks we had. I remember a couple vodka red bulls, beer, and dancing on a stage. Eventually, we left and stumbled our way back to the hostel after making a quick pit-stop for some food.

Day 32 Friday, June 19th - After the craziness of last night, Lydia and I had a lazy, hangover day. With the mixture of alcohols from last night, our heads were hurting a little bit. In the afternoon, after some time to recover, we walked around to see some of the local sights. That night, we hung around in the hostel with some of the people we met the night before. The Aussie that convinced us to go out the night before tried to convince us to go out again this night, but the thought of all that alcohol was disgusting.

Day 33 Saturday, June 20th - Today, Lydia and I left Liverpool, England and made our way to Cardiff, Wales. This was our last main stop in the United Kingdom before stopping in London and flying to Amsterdam. Lydia and I had our own room in the hostel, which was nice. The privacy was a nice, considering we have had been shared dorm rooms for for much of this trip.

When Lydia and I arrived in Cardiff, we walked around for a bit, checking out Cardiff Castle, the park and town hall. On our way back to the hostel late that afternoon, we stopped at the market to grab some food to make dinner. That night, we hung around the hostel, skyped our families and watching a couple episodes of “Orange is the New Black.”

We didn’t have much planned for Cardiff and didn’t know exactly what there was to see. Our original plan was to head to Stonehenge from Cardiff, either as a day trip or on our way to London, but, to our luck, Stonehenge was closed Saturday and Sunday for the Summer Solstice. Lydia was really upset about it and so was I, but I looked at it as another reason to return to England in the future.

Day 34, Sunday, June 21st - Today was our last day in the United Kingdom. We hopped on the train in Cardiff, Wales and made our way to London. We were leaving for Amsterdam, Holland on Monday, so London was just an overnight for us. Lydia and I were staying in a Holiday Inn hotel near Gatwick airport, a bit of luxury before going back to shared hostel rooms once we got to Amsterdam. We were originally booked to stay in Smart Hyde Park Inn Hostel, the horrible hostel we first stayed in when we were in London back in May, but we had no intention of going back to the “nasty,” so we upgraded to the Holiday Inn near the airport.

We decided to spend our last night in London by catching some dinner with our Aussie friend Alex, who Lydia and I met on our Ireland tour but was living in London. We got some Thai food and then stopped for a couple drinks. Lydia and I were telling Alex all about our adventures over the last month and how excited we were for Amsterdam over the next couple days. Well, Alex had off work for the next couple days and spontaneously decided to book a flight to Amsterdam and join us for the next couple of days. After a couple drinks, we said goodbye, excited about being reunited for the next few days in Amsterdam, and headed back to our room before our flight tomorrow.