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Scotland photos

Decided to stop worrying about how to post my travel pictures and splurged for a FlickrPro account – so you can see all 71photos I took during the week in Scotland here.

Scotland 2005 Scotland 2005 Scotland 2005

Quick run-down of what we did:

Friday
Travel to Glasgow. Exploration of the lively West End/university quarter (where our hostel was), including a very nice meal at a cute Italian restaurant and drinks at a renovated church.

Saturday
Glasgow all the way – seeing the sights (cathedral, university, The Lighthouse museum, Mackintosh House), enjoying the city. Tea with . At night out with Regina's friend Alex and some of his mates.

Sunday
Trip by train and ferry to Alex' home Inellan, near Dunoon at the Firth of Clyde. Absolutely fantastic weather, perfect for savouring in the sea. Spending the night enjoying the hospitality of Alex' parents.

Monday
Trip to Edinburgh by bus. Climbing Arthur's Seat for a fantastic view (and freezing wind). In the evening exploring the New Town, having Fish n'Chips and seeing In Good Company in the cinema.

Tuesday
First snow, then pouring rain as we continue to enjoy Edinburgh. Regina goes to explore the castle (which I've already been to last summer), while I go check out a bookstore. Then we walk down the Royal Mile, since the sun was out again, and have a look at the fantastic modern Scottish Parliament. In the evening we play Snooker, a strange version of Pool, at the hostel. I even win once. 🙂

Wednesday
Quick trip to Leith, which would have been nice if it hadn't been cold and raining. Then catching a bus back to Glasgow, where we unsuccesfully try to find a tearoom still open for scones. But I do find the 'Forbidden Planet' fantasy and science-fiction bookstore.

Thursday
A loong day, as I spend much time waiting around for planes to catch back home, while Regina takes the train to Brighton to see a friend.

Once again I discover I really love Scotland. And I finally come to the decision that, as a place to live, Glasgow is absolutely fantastic, much better than Edinburgh, beautiful as it is.

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Feasgair math duibh, dhaoin uaisle.

Guess who's back from Scotland again (although she'd have liked to stayed longer – maybe forever)? 😀

Regina and I had an absolutely fantastic time, in Glasgow, Edinburgh and a small village on the Firth of Clyde called Inellan. More about all of this some time later, as it's been a looong day, considering that we left the hostel this morning around 9am. Although luckily, the hours spent waiting at airports by myself (since Regina took a train down to a friend in Brighton) were made much more bearable by the good books I bought… We all knew that I wouldn't be able to resist, didn't we? *g*

But all of this are stories for another day… When I've caught up with everything. G'night!

Crossposted to the blog and travel log.

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Scotland here I come again!

Just got off the phone with Regina – we’re leaving for a week in Scotland (mostly Glasgow, but also a bit of traveling) on Friday. Yay, I’m slowly getting all excited! I can’t really afford it, but I just love Scotland and couldn’t say no when Regina asked me…

Glasgow is great (I finally want to see the Charles Rennie Mackintosh museum), and I hope we’ll get the chance to catch a bit of the nightlife, since she’s got a friend there who plays in a band and is therefore bound to know the good places for live music. We’ll also visit Edinburgh, because that’s just a must for any Scotland trip, and might go see a bit of the countryside, too. It’s all very much not planned – we’ve got a twin room at a hostel for the first two nights, after that it’s all open… The weather will probably be even a bit warmer than it is here – we had some lovely snow again today.

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Scotland wallpaper

Märrie made an awesome wallpaper from some of our Scotland pics – thought I'd share it, because I still haven't gotten around to sharing any photos. Bad Eva! *g*

This is also a test of the upload image feature here – click the pic for the full-size version…

Scotland wallpaper

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Almost over…

Sadly enough, today we'll be leaving Scotland behind. Our plane leaves from Liverpool tomorrow morning and we'll spend the night there already, to make sure that we'll be on time.

Scotland really has been a wonderful experience and I'd have loved to stay on and see more things. I think my favorite part was the trip up North, to Carbisdale Castle, but basically it was all an awesome journey. Yesterday, we even managed to meet here in Glasgow, which was a lot of fun.

Well, time's almost up, so I'll say bye for now and will talk to you on Monday, when I'm home.

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Hello from Scotland!

Maerrie and I are enjoying ourselves enormously – we rented a very nice car in Liverpool and drove up North through the Lake Country. On our journey so far we've seen castles, ruins, vast landscapes, impressive coastlines – and even men in kilts. 🙂

Stopping points have been Kendal (at the entrance of beautiful Cumbria), Stirling, from where we visited Edinburgh, Inverness, from where we went to see Culloden Moor (site of a famous battle), Loch Ness (with the impressive ruins of Urqhart Castle), and the breathtaking loneliness of the Highlands here up North, including the fairy tale castle of Dunrobin. So many impressions in so few days – it's hard to believe…

Right now we're in Carbisdale Castle, which, believe it or not, is a Youth Hostel. It's quite high in the North, as from today on we'll be travelling southwards again. Having a car really gives us enormous freedom, and we've travelled some pretty remote roads. Luckily Maerrie is an excellent driver, but I've also been behind the wheels a couple of times, without any accidents! *g*

Scotland is really all I'd hoped for – so beautiful! We're also quite lucky with the weather – we camped last night near Loch Ness (without seeing Nessie, though *g*) and didn't get rained on at all. And now the sun is shining, with the promise of beautiful weather for the next few days. We intend to fully enjoy those!

Hopefully all of you are doing fine – I'm not online much but will probably check in at least once more before flying back to Germany to celebrate Maerrie's birthday with her family. *hugs*