Today we left Edinburgh and headed back to London. We had to get up early in order to refuel the car, return it to the rental place, and then walk to catch our train. I loved the challenge of driving in the UK, but I’m glad it’s over.

The train ride was long, but we got to see a whole bunch more of the brilliant countryside. WiFi on the train was our first chance to really reconnect with the outside world. And we watched a movie on my iPhone (Away We Go), so the 6 hour ride wasn’t bad.

Once back in London, we navigated the mobs and located our B&B. After dropping our luggage, we headed out to fund a cash machine (thanks NFT London) and some dinner. The area we are in has a tons of yummy looking eateries and pubs.

Tonight is Halloween, so we got to see a bunch of kids dressed up, and laugh at a bunch of adults in costumes.

After today, I’m thankful that we won’t have to travel with all out luggage until we leave to come home. Managing those bags while travelling is a PITA.

We got on our bus tour today, heading up to the Scottish highlands. It was certainly nice to get some time out of the drivers seat and see the countryside. At almost 12 hours from departure to return, it was a long trip which was well worth it.

Our first stop was at Glencoe. A stunning valley with huge mountains on either side. It was just a quick photo stop, since there is no castle/abbey/etc to tour.

Our second stop was Loch Ness. We jumped on a quick boat tour and got to see the loch from out on the water. The boat guides were very entertaining and the boat was equipped with some fancy sonar and they had screens on board so you could watch what was beneath us. After the boat landed, we had lunch in a little pub, nothing special there, except I don’t recommed burgers in scotland.

On the long trip back, we stopped in Pitlochry and had a quick snack and walked the town a bit, then jumped back on the bus and slept all the way home (it was 100% dark at this point).

We got up early this morning prepaired to do some self-guided touring. So we got our list of sights to see in line and headed out.

We had planned to see:
1. Alnwick Castle
2. Bamburgh Castle
3. Holy Island
4. Melrose Abbey
5. Roslyn Chapel

Driving today was much more comfortable. We took our first large motorway (the A7) which was a new experience.

Our first stop was Holy Island, which is a castle, brewery, etc out on a small island. Unfortunately, the road out to the island becomes covered with seawater at high tide, and of course we arrived just as it got too high.

So we headed south to Bamburgh Castle. We took a small tour of the castle and looked around. Beautiful architecture, as expected, and amazing craftsmanship.

It was getting late as we left, so we skipped Alnwich castle and headed to Melrose Abbey. We rolled into the village of Melrose and grabbed a parking space. We stopped in a small tea house for lunch. It turned out to be a great little shop and we had some great food.

After refilling our bellies, we jumped in the car and drove around the corner to walk around the abbey. Melrose Abbey is AMAZING. We realized, as it was getting darker and darker, that we really could have spent a lot more time here. We couldn’t take pictures fast enough. There was so much neat stuff to see.

As we left Melrose and headed to Roslyn chapel, we realized that it was officially night time. We drove on some amazingly narrow roads and really tested our UK driving. We arrived at Roslyn, about 30m after it closed, so we could only peek over the fence. What we saw was extremely enticing. If only we had another half day we could gave seen it.

We headed back over to the supermarket, and got more groceries for dinner. I’m really glad that we’ve had most of our meals at home.

Another long day, which is fantastic.

The overnight train from London to Edinburgh was quite an experience. I knew sleeper cars were small, but we could barely fit our luggage and ourselves in the berth at the same time. But we managed to get settled in and get to sleep.

The next morning we were awakened with some hot tea, as we pulled into Edinburgh. We jumped off the train and made our way to the rental car facility.

We got our Mitsubishi Colt and jumped into UK driving with both feet. It was pretty nerve wracking, but I got used to it fairly quick.

We arrived at the Marriot Dalmahoy at about 10:30 am local time and were pleased to find put we could check in early. It was really bice to finally have a place to settle in to.

After getting set up in the room and taking a few minutes to relax, we jumped back into the car and drove back into Edinburgh to check out the castle and get some lunch. We ended up parking a fair walk from the “Royal Mile” but after a quick hike, we were touring the most quinticential castle. It was a really neat place, especially because of its location on top of a huge rocky crag. We ate lunch at the castle in the cafe overlooking the city. The cafe had some pretty good food. We had pea & ham soup with tuna & cucumber sandwiches.

After finishing our tour of the castle we walked down the Royal Mile and looked at all the amazing old stone buildings. There was so much to look at and so much great archtecture. Near the end, we stopped in Clarinda’s Tea Shop and had a pot of tea and some treats.

It was getting dark as we left, so we started hiking back to the car, which at this point was about 45m walk. We headed back to the car a different route and saw a whole bunch more of the city.

For dinner tonight we decided to trek to another nearby town to go to a grocery store and get some cheap grub. Getting there was a bit of an experience, driving in Scitland is one thing, driving in Scotland at night is a whole different experience. But after a…..interesting & stressful journey, we hit the grocery store, only to find out – it’s a Walmart. Years and years of avoiding Walmart, only to be forced into one in the last place we would have expected.

Cheese, bread, salami, some apples, and rice pudding for treat, and it was time to take our first showers in 72 hours. Yeck! But boy did that feel nice. And then we get to sleep in a real bed. It’s about time!