Mini Tour of Scotland

Finally made it to Scotland! I've wanted to go ever since I ever heard about it probably but just had never made it there. Here at school in Brussels, two of my friends are Scottish and in thinking about a multi-day trip with all of us, John and Gillian amazingly offered up their homes.  This will probably more of a photo blog post but I'll give you the parameters. 

TRAVELLERS: (In L-R order of photo below) Brian from North Carolina, myself from Tennessee, John from Aberdeen in Scotland, Gillian from just outside of Dundee in Scotland, Lauren from Pennsylvania and Angela from Colorado. 

At Linn of Dee

DAY 1 we went to the village of Braemar and to the waterfall Linn of Dee. The drive was gorgeous, if a little rainy.  We had lunch at the Fife Arms while the rain slashed sideways. But it finally stopped and we were able to go to the Linn of Dee and climb all over the rocks. 

Braemar

Inside Fife of Arms

Linn of Dee

Linn of Dee

DAY 2: Aberdeen. It was quite rainy and cold so we opted for shopping and staying in town. Started off at the Gordon Highlander's Museum, which was a specific regiment in the military. It's a great interactive museum and the people that worked there were so nice and wonderful. Kind of loved it.  For shopping we opted for shopping in malls. But we also got to walk around the city a bit. We found a nice book shop where I bought some Robert Burns poetry. And yes, sometimes, occasionally I can understand it.

Mannequin of Gordon Highlander

Angela in traditional garb

Gillian and Angela Dress Up

Angela and Lauren in WWII uniforms

One of the lovely docents at the museum stopped in as we were wondering around to tell us more of the history. 

John and Brian headed up the stairs in Aberdeen

Aberdeen

Sunset in Aberdeen

DAY 3: We headed to Dundee and then to St. Andrews. Mostly wandered around the small town in the rain, but I got to meet up with a former student from Bel Air Presbyterian in LA. She's from California, but is in the last year of her degree at St. Andrews. It had been several years, but we got a coffee and got to quickly catch up.

Lauren, myself, Gillian and Gillian's mom, Joyce

Former student and current friend Courtney

DAY 4: Made the train to Edinburgh. There we split into smaller groups and the girls stormed the castle. The city had several Remembrance Day services. They shot cannons from the castle to mark a city wide two-minutes of silence. Up at the castle, we got to watch the cannons fire. Down in the city John and Brian saw everyone just stop wherever they were, whatever they were doing and silently stand for the two minutes.  Up on the hill we got to see a parade and even met with some re-enactors of WWII. It was a short day but a great day and we headed back to Brussels that afternoon.