UK trip - May 2007Map
Photos
Videos
We spent a couple of days in London with our friend Margaret, and by a happy coincidence got to see my friend Jon who had flown in for a business trip. We took a boat ride on the Thames to Greenwich. Sadly the Cutty Sark (a clipper ship built in the 1800s that is dry-docked there) had been set fire to earlier that day and we passed by the arson investigation team.
Next we flew to Inverness. We spent three nights in Smithton (a suburb of Inverness). Although the origins of Inverness are quite old, the city feels very modern. We had a delicious dinner at the Mustard Seed. We traveled to Loch Ness and looked for Nessie, hiked to waterfalls, and visited the site of the Battle of Culloden, famous for being the last battle fought on mainland Britain (in 1746). We also saw the two castles (Urquhart and Cawdor), and visited an ancient burial cairn (Balnuran of Clava).
After that we drove to the beautiful Isle of Skye, where we stayed two nights at a lovely B&B. The scenery there is absolutely stunning. We went on an amazing hike to the Quiraing (one of the places the movie Highlander was filmed). The weather was quite varied--it started with chilly winds, moved into hail for a few minutes, and then was nice and sunny. We went to dinner at the Three Chimneys, an award-winning restaurant that's set in the middle of nowhere. We were there 2 1/2 hours (and our seating wasn't until 9:30 PM!) and had some very interesting food. Chris says his beef was the best he's ever eaten. We also visited Dunvegan Castle.
I was sorry to leave Skye, but it was on to our next destination: Ballachulish (pronounced Bah-lah-HOO-lish), back on the mainland, a little south of Ft. William. We saw another castle on the way: Eilean Donan (also featured in Highlander!). We went hiking in Glencoe, saw the viaduct used in the Harry Potter movies, and took pictures of Castle Stalker, aka Castle Aaaaarrrrrrggghhh from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
After two nights in Ballachulish, it was on to our last Scotland destination, the small town of Dalry. My mother's grandmother was from there, and we walked through town until we spotted the house she grew up in. We spent the night in the nearby village of Burnhouse.
The next day was the long driving day: all the way from Burnhouse (a little southwest of Glasgow) to Nottingham. We had to return our rental car by 4:15. We made it at 4:45 and luckily they didn't charge us extra. After that Chris's parents picked us up and we spent a week with them.
In Nottingham we visited the very cool Galleries of Justice, and went on some walks in nearby Derbyshire. We had beautiful weather and ate several meals outside. We also saw Chris's brothers and went to Birmingham to meet our newest nephew.
On our last full day we took the train down to London. It was a very nice trip, except for the fact someone took one of our bags off the train and left it at another station! Luckily Chris figured this out before we arrived in London and they called and had it put on the next train. We had a nice dinner with my high-school buddy Raffa in Kensington. Then it was up at 5 AM for our flight home.
It was quite a trip for modes of transportation. We took the tube, the bus, river boats and the train in London. We took my first within-UK flight from Gatwick to Inverness. In Scotland we rented a car. In Nottingham we rode the city bus. And we took the train from Beeston (near Nottingham) to London.
Below you'll find links to the photos. This trip we've also got video!
MAP
Here's a map showing the places we stayed in Scotland.
PHOTOS
Links to each set of photos are below. When you click on a picture, it will take you to Flickr. If you view the photos in Slideshow mode and would like to see the titles and captions, click on the big (i) in the middle of the photo.
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VIDEOS
Driving in Scotland (1:56) - Various scenes driving around the Highlands
Burial Cairn (:21s) - An ancient burial cairn near Inverness
Admorn B&B (:29s) - Our B&B on the Isle of Skye
Quiraing (1:12) - Our hike in the Quiraing. Some scenes from the movie Highlander were filmed here (when Sean Connery is training Christopher Lambert). Don't miss the exciting ending!
Misc Scottish scenery (2:27) - Waterfalls, Highlands, a Eilean Donan Castle, and Ben Nevis
Dalry (:44s) - Me in front of my great-grandmother Mary's house
Notes about viewing the videos: The videos that you see on this web page are at the size that has the best viewing quality. However, you can view it in larger sizes as well--the quality's just not quite as good. To do so, click on the name of the video, which will take you to the Yahoo! page the videos are hosted on. The video is larger there, and if you want it take up the whole screen, click on the little button with the arrow in the right-hand corner.
Driving in Scotland (1:56) - Gives you a feel for driving in the Highlands