Edinburgh

Since I had been planning to go to many countries in Europe, I took it for granted the other states in United Kingdom. Before my assignment, I have to admit that I wasn't too sure what the differences between United Kingdom and Great Britain. If you're not either, I can now educate you on that. There are 4 countries under United Kingdom, which are Northern Ireland (Belfast is the capital), England (London), Wales (Cardiff) and Scotland (Edinburgh). The last thee are called Great Britain.

I read about the Highlands which is located in Scotland from Rick Steves' website. It talked about one of the most beautiful train rides in the world, one of them was in the Highlands.

I booked a weekend trip leaving on Friday night from London City Airport to Edinburgh. This is the first time I flew from this airport, which is located in the city. Heathrow is West of London, and it would take me an hour to go from the office to there. London City is half of the time, plus it is a small airport, so security lines are a lot shorter. A lot of bankers fly in and out of this airport, including weekly commuters from Edinburgh to London. The flight is less than an hour. I got to Edinburgh pretty late because the flight was delayed. Even though it was 10PM, the sky wasn't completely dark yet. That's the beauty of Summer in UK, but we do pay the price in the Winter, when it was dark before 4PM.

Still light outside. Walking to the hotel from the bus stop past 10PM

I stayed for free at Hilton using my points that I collected a while back ago. The hotel was fine. There was a wedding party that had way too much too drink. There was a woman screaming in front of the hotel while two men were throwing punches. Luckily it was short and I didn't hear anything else after that.

I booked the Highland tour the following morning. The day didn't start too well because it was kinda cold and rainy. I was hoping to take great pictures, but I wasn't too worried because the weather in UK can change from hour to hour. I walked to the tour office that was about a mile away from the hotel. I passed the Edinburgh castle on the way. It was massive and sat on top of the hill. There were tons of people that took the Highlands tour that morning. They had 4 minivans, each can fit up 16 people. My tour guide was Daniel. He's Scottish with some accent but not too strong. My power company is Scottish Power. It's probably one of the worst service companies that I ever dealt with. I had the pleasure of calling their 1-800 numbers multiple times. I always call between 8 and 9AM, and the machine operator always told me that the queue is long and I can leave my number and expect to receive a call back in 3 to 4 hours due to high demands. I think high demands mean we don't have enough customer service reps during the morning shifts. When they call back, it's a crap shoot for me. Sometimes the rep had a really strong Scottish accent, I comprehend 30% of what they say. I'm not kidding. They're so hard to understand. I had to repeat to make sure I get their point.. "so you said, you haven't seen the payment that my company sent 3 weeks ago?" It took a lot of patience. I got used to it now.

The tour covers Glencoe, Loch Ness and Highlands. Loch means Lake. This is where Nessie, the famous Loch Ness monster, lives. I remembered that I first read about her in the Indonesian version of Reader's Digest. I was in elementary school at the time. It's really cool to think that now I'm going to this lake. Just for fun, I asked Daniel early in the tour about the Scotland independence referendum that will take place in a couple of months. This is really a big thing for Scotland. They're going to decide whether they are going to separate from UK and become an independent country. He chuckled because he couldn't believe I asked him early on the tour. I said I was just curious what the locals think. I don't really have strong opinions about this, not that it matters anyway. But I think if they vote to separate, it would be a long hard road, which I'm not sure if they're ready for that. I would say it was similar to a woman that had been married for 50 years to a man that was the breadwinner in the family. The woman does have a little saving account in the bank, but she never has a mortgage, a credit in her name, no high paying job,  not much networking outside of her country club, and now she's getting a divorce. That's my two cents.

I'm kind of behind in my posts and I don't have time to update my blogs (I have time now because I'm sitting in Heathrow's Sky Lounge waiting to board.... back in Atlanta for a week). I'll post the pictures and add some comments. A picture speaks a thousand words anyway.

You can the terrain started to change. Hills in the background.The first stop in the tour, actually just a bath room break. From the parking lot.

A small pond across the street from the parking lot.

Old Bridge in a quaint park

This is where Highlands meet Lowlands

The lowlands and highlands came together hundreds of years ago. Here's a good explanation that I found online. Until 410 million years ago, Scotland was separated from England by an ocean wider than the present day North Atlantic. When the two halves of Britain, which were part of separate larger continental land masses, began to drift towards each other, so the ocean began to close inexorably. The two ancient continents, originally on opposite sides of the vast ocean, were now joined.

A greenhouse by the first rest stop. I love flowers so I always take pictures of them.

Never seen this until I got some cash from the ATM in Edinburgh.

Taken from the van on the way to Loch Ness

An old aqua duct

Just beautiful. Lots of lakes with green lush mountain in the background

War Memorial

Loch Ness where Nessie lives

To control water in and out of the lake

Little town by Loch Ness

Fort August

The bridge swings out to let a boat to enter the lake

Glen Coe

The tour ended around 8PM and I walked back to the hotel. The next day I had a really good breakfast at a local cafe. I think this is the only sit down meal I had for the whole weekend.

Scrambled eggs, smoked salmon and wheat toasts

The next day I went to Edinburgh Castle

Princess Garden next to the castle

Edinburgh Castle's Coats of Arm

View from the castle

St Mary's Cathedral

A bag piper by the Royal Mile street.

Royal Mile

Narrow alleys, very common in Edinburgh

I took the bus back to the airport and flew back to London that afternoon. Great weekend trip! Edinburgh and Highlands are checked and off the bucket list.