Scotland, Isle of Skye, Highlands, Edinburgh and Glasgow

This year we decided to take a trip to Scotland, we booked a weeks holiday, and knew about half of the places we wanted to stay. We didn't book any accommodation, but had a tent in the car just in case, and didn't have any specific sights in mind, but we had a lot of friends with great suggestions! As such we are hoping to pass on a little bit about what we did in 7 days, so you can choose what you want to do too!

Don't forget to drink some Irn-Bru, try some whisky, eat some vegan Haggis, Scones, and your weight in shortbread, or empire biscuits! Donate some of your change to a bagpipe player too and take some time to enjoy their tunes.


We started our trip with a 7 hour drive from Hampshire to Glasgow we left at around 4am and arrived at lunch time on the Sunday. We were very lucky that one of my University friends now lives in Glasgow, and said we could stay in their spare room, they even cooked awesome dinners for us!

We spend day 1 & 2 exploring Glasgow by foot, and subway, getting a guided tour of the city.

First stop was the botanical gardens which was a lovely way to spend an hour, some amazing and exotic plants! There were two huge glass buildings each with little pockets of plants in different rooms. One of the rooms was humid, hot and wet, watery mist being sprayed constantly. Some giant plants looked like something from jurassic park, or made you feel like you had been shrunk as the leaves were so massive in scale. 

Then we headed up the 'Lighthouse' in Glasgow center, which had a few art and architecture exhibitions on the various floors. The curved stairs were also great to admire. From the top we got to see some great views of the city from above. 

Next stop the GOMA, Gallery of Modern Art, with this famous and always comically well dressed sculpture of the Duke of Wellington out front. Inside I saw some work by Warhol, a selection of installation art, and some very Scottish art. Around the city there is some amazing street art, with the theme of Robins. 

Seems to be a theme here. 

Last stop of the day was the Kelvin Grove Art Gallery, with it's interesting floating head sculptures in the foyer. Inside was a collection of work by the Glasgow Boys, French Impressionists, Mackintosh furniture, and the Scottish colourists, 

On Day 3, we then headed up north to Loch Lomand and the Trossachs national park, stopping at Luss. On our route north, through the lovely scenic roads, our car exhaust fell off!! In all fairness, it was a bit rusty and needed changing, luckily we called the breakdown service and they patched it up with some wire, a cola can, and some jubilee clips, and that helped us for about another 4 days until we were in a city again.  

On our way we made a slight detour to see Kilchurn castle, lovely ruins to walk around, doesn't look like you're in the right place, but there is a walk around the back, and they're doing some kind of building work, possibly for a train line. The views from inside and up high were great. 

On the walk back from the castle to the car we saw a highland cow, he walked up towards us, there is a note on a fence to not interfere with the cows, but he walk towards us then went off to the side. 

Next up on our route was Castle Stalker, which was a lovely and photogenic castle, the view being uninterrupted by modern buildings, there was a little cafe nearby and we were a bit behind schedule and in need of a tea and a toilet break, so stopped here around 4-5pm. We decided against walking right down the hill to the castle, but I think you can get a boat over to it at certain times of the day. 

Second to last stop of the day was Glen Coe which was spectacular, we did a loop around this beautiful lake, from the nearby car park. Be warned the midges come out at dusk, so bring your midge spray. We only had a short walk around this one area but it was beautiful. Would pencil a bit more time to explore this site, nearby Fort William.

Arriving in the evening in Fort William (home of Ben Nevis mountain), we stayed in a lovely bed and breakfast (the most common accommodation type around this area). 

Day 4 and that morning, after a lovely breakfast including freshly baked scones, we had a walk up, the cloudy Ben Nevis. It was fairly busy on the route, we met lots of folks going up and a few coming down. we did a strange relay with some folks, as we would go slow and they would rush and then rest and visa versa, we would stop to take photos. There were loads of people with dogs, and a lot of families with kids too. We walked about a third of the way up, conscious of time, as we were heading to Skye, and knowing we were not going to have a view at the top.

Afterwards we ate brunch in a cute cafe in the town, called Wildcats, and set off with our journey.

Views were amazing when the sun peeped out to see us. 

We made our way to Isle of Skye, choosing the road bridge over the ferry, we stopped briefly to admire the Castle Dornie, which has a big visitors center not pictured, and they were constructing another building when we arrived. However for free you can have lovely shots like this and enjoy the view not far from the car park. 

That evening after cooking our dinner on a camping stove, we went for a short drive to see Dunvegan Castle, and explore the coastline near Dunvegan.

 That night we had booked cheap accommodation, sleeping in our camping pod on the Loch. It was really cold the first night, and not too bad the second night, we saw no-one else was camping those days, possibly a bit on the cold side. However the pod was dry and comfy and a break from the wind.

Around the campsite was lots of small birds, some bright yellow and some blue and light pink coloured, the most amazing thing was watching them jump to take off, they almost hover in the wind, as it was so strong it kept them at a stand still until they put a bit more effort into fly forwards.  

The next day we did a big tour around  Skye, possible a bit too much to do in one day.  

Old man of Storr, which was peeping behind the cloud, as such we walked for about 30minutes to get a good view, but it was windy, rainy and he kept hiding in clouds. 

Kilt Rock, more of a photo opportunity that a nice place to chill out, but still worth a quick stop. 

Uig harbour, very pretty view from a far, and there is a beer shop here. 

Fairy Glenn, which is just the most enchanting little area of random shaped mounds and rocks to climb into and admire the surrounding views. We felt really at peace here and enjoyed exploring the little hidden aware area for a while. 

Portree, is the main city in the center of the island, and a good place to stay if you're looking to drive around, there are B&B's all the way leading out of town. It is a town, so not very exciting, but has a nice view if you walk up above the harbour. Camping shop, and a Co-Op, restaurants and pubs. 

Silgachan, this was a cool 5 minute stop on the main road between a few areas on the south of the island. Really cool old bridge, with a mountainous background and some moody cloud. 

Fairy Pools were lovely, you could spend a good 1.5 hours total trip here, walking from the car park to the main pools, but you can see the first pool within about 30 minutes. Definitely one for the walking boots. 

Day 5 and we were leaving the Isle of Skye, we visited Plockton on our way east in this sleepy little seaside town we had lovely lunch walk around and did a boat trip to see seals. We would have liked to venture to Applecross too, but time didn't allow for it. 

 Our second stop of the day was Fort Augustus, home to the Loch Ness...and it's monster. We had previously visited in February 2013, and the sunshine made quite a difference, possibly there have been some modernisations over the years too.

Along the road we saw a big tourist attraction of Urguhart Castle on the Loch, we just stopped and had a look but didn't go into visit.

To finish the day, we drove to Inverness for a dinner and to admire the architecture of the city.
So many churches, lots of lovely little bridges, and a castle to admire in the moody sky!

Day 6, started by dropping the car to get the exhaust changed, eating pancakes in the town centre and visiting tourist information. I had seen info about the Cairngorms in the B&B, and learned that it is the biggest national park in Britain, twice the size of the lake district. We were a bit unsure at what to do with just a few hours to spare as there were so many walks and activities to do and see. 

We decided to visit the RSPB Osprey centre, where we saw wild Red Squirrels eating from the bird feeders, lots of birds also, and learned about the history of Ospreys in the UK and in the area. After the visit we decided to go on a walk nearby from Loch Garten to Loch Mallachie. I loved seeing all the tree routes which have become exposed. The woods was very quiet a few dog walkers, and other tourists.

On Day 7, our last full day we spent in Edinburgh, a beautiful city, we had less than 24 hours here, as we have previously visited the city for an extended time. It was lovely and strange to see the city again, the sunny weather a welcome change to our previous February trip.
Our trip to the modern art gallery was one of the highlights, including the free zero emissions bus to and from the gallery.

On route home, and only about an hour and a half from Edinburgh was Bamburg Castle, a beautiful landmark, rising up from the surroundings, built in the 11th century, and on a base of volcanic rock, this site may have been used as a fort before hand; around the year 400-500 before becoming a castle. You can walk all around the castle and to the beach for the best views.

Another stop on the way home, right off the A1 motorway in Gatehead was The Angel of the North, very famous landmark, that I had never seen. A sculpture by Anthony Gormley which can we seen from some distance but you can also park and go right up to it. There was a lot of information about the construction and planning that went into such a huge scale piece of work.

We briefly stopped in Newcastle for a bite to eat, and arriving home around 1am, very tired. We haven't yet visited newcastle, so will pop that on the list for northern England adventures. 

Hope you enjoyed our week long trip of Scotland, we have been inspired for a follow up trip and dedicating more time to certain areas. We would love to go see some Puffins off the Isle of Mull. We would love to have more time to explore the Cairngorms too, it's huge! We still need to see north Scotland too!

If you would like any more info, please comment below.

Or if you have any amazing recommendations, let us know! 

Varanassi - India - May 2012

We got over the border from Sunauli with a few tiny problems, but they were soon sorted. It appeared we had not got our exit stamp from the Nepal side, so we had to go back to Nepal (only 300 yards away) and get our exit stamp, so the Indians could stamp us in, in India, yay. Probably the most relaxed border known to man, with people just walking back and forth with no one stopping them.  We looked for food but people were only serving sweet and tea, so while looking for the bus to Gorakhpur we stopped at the Soda shop and got a lovely ice cold soda pop each. We then headed off to get the bus. On the bus we were at the front and had the heat from the engine but got to keep an eye on our luggage. The drivers were really lovely as they made sure they stopped us near the train station and hotel area.  After looking at some bad rooms for high prices we settled on a shabby room for 350INR and settled in after some diner. The next day we tried to get sleeper tickets from a special booking office but they had no tickets so we had to get 2^nd class seated (unreserved) for the trip. We left later that day at 3pm for Varanasi.

 

After leaving Gorakhpur we traveled via train for 5 hours in 2^nd Class seated and it was not that busy so was quite comfortable. We arrived in Varanasi and had to negotiate with the tuk tuk driver and when we had reached the price we desired we left for Assi Ghat and the driver took us to a hotel and we checked the price and looked for more hotels. The only problem was the fact the driver would not leave our side as he was waiting for his commission at the hotel we went to. After searching many hotels we settled on the first one we came across as the price was right and it had air con. The driver after we settled had left presumably with his commission.  As it was getting late we had dinner at the hotel and slipped of to get some much needed rest.

 

On our first day we decided to just explore the area and we realised that we were not staying in Assi Ghat, but just a little above that, but we were happy with our hotel and the comfort of our bed, for the price we paid. While walking through the waterside of the River Ganges we saw some great graffiti and some people and animals bathing in the river. While walking towards the burning Ghats some guy tried to attach himself to us, giving us advise and trying to be our guide. We politely said that we didn’t need a guide and said we would not pay him so please leave us alone. Eventually he left us alone. After a while of walking we seemed lost, however found our way back to an internet cafe that served food and drinks. We then navigate our way back to our hotel through the many back alleys. When we arrived back at the hotel we had a nap and rested for the remainder of the day in our air con room, as the heat outside was very hard to take.

 

The next day we decided to buy an Indian sim card, to allow us to call hotels and to aid in using the Cleartrip website (that allows you to book our train tickets online). We decided to head to the Ramnagar Fort and did this on foot, in the hot summer sun, stopping along the way to buy water and rest. When we arrived at the river side we had to cross the pontoon bridge that looked very unstable. Then we walked to the fort and went inside. There were many different things inside, from lovely old cars, finely crafted weapons and regal carriages it really was quite lovely. We then carried on following the signs and got to the place were you had a very lovely view of the Ganges. After this we stopped for a limca and a fanta then left and headed back over the bridge. Once over the bridge we decided to get a cycle rickshaw back to the hotel. However the man riding this cycle rickshaw was out of breath after 3 or 4 meters, so we paid him and walked until we found an auto rickshaw and haggled a price, and got a ride back to our hotel. Again we rested in our air con room to recover from the heat and later that afternoon we headed to Assi Ghat and found a very nice soda shop selling pump soda for 20INR per cup and it was lovely and refreshing. We carried on to the water side and found this pizza place recommended in the LP Guide and we ate there and the pizza was very lovely. After this we slowly made our way around to the waterfront where many different people tried to sell us a boat tour around the Ganges. We haggled and haggled and finally got our boat ride. We set off down the river in daylight and then came back in the darkness. The ride was very lovely and seeing things from a different view was most awesome. After boat ride we made our back to the hotel to relax for the remainder of the evening.    

 

 

 

The next day we woke up and feeling a little worse for wear and having packed some stuff ready to send home, headed to the post office to send it back to England. We found the Post Office ok and a gentleman helped us and gave us all the details we needed to get our parcel sent, that included goin to see a gentleman who wrapped up our parcel in cloth and sealed it with sealing wax. It really was a funny experience as the parcel looked like a sack with red wax all over it (not normal looking). It cost 2700INR to have the parcel send direct via air, the other option was by sea and air, but someone said that often they split stuff up into bigger or smaller packages and this can cause things to go missing, so we went with direct air deliver. After this we headed back to the hotel for some rest and later headed out to Sarnath just 13 km up the road. We got a tuk tuk there and made our way around the place where Lord Buddha gave his first sermon. The place was very small but still very lovely and before we knew it we were at the local Tibetan temple and after getting some drinks were back in Varanasi resting and sleeping the rest of our day away.

The last day in Varanasi was very chilled and we slept in a little, then went for a walk around the place again along the Ganges and back to the burning Ghats, but we decided to see how far the Ghats went and they went on for a long time. While trying to find our way home, we decided not to get a tuk tuk and seemed to get lost. While finding our way back we saw lots of people holding a body that was on a wooden style stretcher but wrapped in shiny orange cloth ready for burning at the Ghats. While in Varanasi its a very common sight that makes you realise how much the Indian people face death. Its very in your face but death is as much part of life as anything els is and they understand that. We found our way back to the hotel and rested and packed our bags ready for our train ride the next day that would take us to Gaya.