Road trip to the Isle of Skye

So I learnt how to drive a manual car! We hired a little Fiat hire car (so manly) and well, I had to learn fast. After a couple of crunching gears and several stalls at lights, I was getting the hang of things. So we had an epic road trip in front of us. 

Little Fi the Fiat was comfy 

Out the front window mountains everywhere

Driving along in my automobile 

A ‘5 hour’ journey up to the Isle of Skye, an island situated northwest of Scotland. Wow. What a picturesque journey it was. An hour out of Glasgow is Loch Lammond National park, a massive stretch of water between two mountains, with green canopies covering the windy road that snakes all along the bottom of the western side.

snack stop at Fort William

Leah also got to test her map reading skills directing me to different little towns for a couple of stop over’s during our trip. 5 hours is what goggle maps told us the trip would take and factoring in our stops we thought we were travelling at a good pace. In total our trip took 8 hours and well worth it with views like these…

so many parking places for amazing photos

So many Mountains

So our first full day we set off for the beach and to hike around Glen Brittle. Again, amazing views and a fun hike.  With there being no such thing as trespassing in the Isle of Skye, we could basically walk anywhere we wanted, as long as we closed the gates and didn't chase the sheep (very hard for Leah). We started by following the track for a while then we ventured off a little to walk higher up to some hills and follow some waterfalls. We walked and walked and walked over hills and trudged through bogs just like something from Lord of the rings. After some lunch we drove to the Fairy Pools, beautiful clear waters falling down waterfalls every 30 metres. We walked along this track for 40 minutes finding perfect swimming spots along the way.

Fresh mountain water

Fairy Pools so clear

walking towards huge mountains alongside the Fairy Pools 

Chilling in the Fairy Pools

Clear waters

There are a lot of single lane roads in Skye with lots of passing points (made me think why couldn’t they just make it all wider). It gave me a lot of practice with changing down gears and lots and lots of hill starts. We drove all around the north of the Isle that afternoon, had a pub dinner and slept very well that night in our hostel.

Loch Eynort

On our last day we drove to a place called Kilmarie to walk over a hill to a secluded beach. The walk took about an hour and a half each way but was very relaxing as we ate our lunch in the sun next to a river that led to the sea. That afternoon, we drove around the west of the island while Leah was yelling out the window at the sheep.

from the top of Kilmarie

Kilmarie 

about 10 minutes away from our Hostel

Overall The Isle of Skye comes very close to being one of my favourite trips so far. What an amazing place to explore and relax in nature.

 Arvi

Glasgow

Glasgow seems very innovative and stylish, with numerous galleries nestled amongst the old buildings.  We stayed in south Glasgow, in a quiet little neighbourhood that was only a 10 min train ride from the city. That afternoon, we set out to find the flat where Nan grew up, as it was within walking distance.  We were not sure if it was the original building or not but it was still great to see the street and the nearby Kings Park.

Nan's old home

With only 1 full day to explore Glasgow, we set off for a full day of walking and sight seeing. We visited the lighthouse, a gallery of all things creative. Here we saw an interesting exhibition of the famous Architect Macintosh from the early 1900’s, who was originally from Glasgow and designed many of the city’s buildings.

Stair case in the lighthouse

Dreamer.

Footballer.

We also visited Glasgow green and the Museum in the People’s Palace. We both thought this was a really awesome museum, especially because it was free! It gave an interactive insight into how Glaswegians lived from the 1700’s to today. This was particularly interesting for me as it gave me an idea what life would have been like in Glasgow for Nan and Dad.

the fountain in Glasgow Green

Mock shop in the museum.

mmm Buttercup Dairy

After getting lost and soaked in the middle of a downpour, we finally found the Glasgow Cathedral. I’m so glad we got to see inside. Pictures just do not do the beautiful stain glass windows justice and the medieval lower church was really beautiful.

Outside the Cathedral 

Inside the Cathedral 

That night, we headed to the pub for some delish fish and chips and some pints. There was live traditional folk music at the pub that night complete with an accordion, guitars, fiddles, little flutes and hand held drums. It started with about 5 musicians casually playing together in a little circle, drinking pints and chatting in between songs. Random musicians kept joining and by the end of the night 9 people all playing together. Great atmosphere, it sounded straight out of medieval party.

Yummy beer.

On our way out of Glasgow, we stopped off at Bon Hill, where dad was born. I was so excited to see that the original terrace was still there, surrounded by beautiful views of rolling hills.

Bon Hill flat.

Rolling Hills

Dilichip Terrace 

-       Leah xx

Sunny UK

First stop Edinburgh.

Edinburgh is an amazing city with everything made from stone and the streets give you a feeling of a medieval town. Cobble stone roads, grand churches, palaces and the Edinburgh castle with views of green hills in the background.

View of the castle from our hostel

Our first stop after we checked into our grand castle-like hostel was to find a pub and eat some Haggis! Oh we did, and it was delicious! With a beer of course.

Haggis!

The Walking tour of Edinburgh city was informative about history and little details like the heart shape formation of stones along the royal mile. This represents where the jail and tax office used to be situated and is now spat on daily by many of the locals because as it was always a hated place. We saw the café where JK Rowling wrote the first two Harry Potter novels and visited the grave of Tom Riddle, surely inspiration for the character ‘He who must not be named’.

Tom Riddles grave

After not having a chance to do any real hikes the last few months the prospect of a descent sized hill was too good for us to pass up. Arthur’s seat was a good 300 metres above sea level. We were rewarded with awesome views back on to the city and surrounding areas, a great way get your heart rate up and sore hamstrings. We had a little bit of rain but not enough to dampen our spirits.

Views to the city centre 

Views off to the sea

Eating some lunch near some ruins of an old church on the mountain

On our last day we got to see a Scottish marching band play out the front of the Edinburgh castle before our visit. The castle is situated right at the top of a rocky cliff, a good advantage during a siege in medieval times. We got to walk around and into the different buildings in the castle grounds. We saw the Scottish Honours a sword, a crown, the stone of destiny and the crown jewels. We also saw the old prison cells and explored some of Scotland’s military past. We waited for the 1pm canon fire but still jumped when it went off, like all the other tourists.

War Painting in the museum 

At the Edinburgh Castle

Arvi

Denmark – Copenhagen

So after our shitty train that kept being delayed mid journey we made it to Copenhagen: city of bikes (second I think to Beijing). We stayed in a one-bed apartment in the trendy part of town surrounded by lots of little bars and food places. We ate an awesome burger from Banana Joe the first night, what a legend.

Me in front of something big

Us in the royal palace 

Copenhagen is a pretty place, expensive but very pretty. We saw old churches and town halls that had been burnt down and built again only to be burnt down several times again even after relocation. It was good to go on a walking tour again, to hear about Copenhagen and the stories and history about the area. Leah lost her shit when she heard about Tivoli, one of the oldest amusement parks in the world. Created in 1843 and its said that Walt Disney got a lot of ideas from Tivoli for his theme parks.

Leah on the loop de loop

Big chair swing

Yay! Leah can ride the rides!!!

So of course off we went to see what all the fuss was about. We started off with a rollercoaster made in 1912, then on to a floating boat alien shooting ride, then a spinney spin ride that threw us around a bit, then on a high swinging chair ride (that was scary) then another rollercoaster and that’s when I cracked… I got off that ride. I sat out the next 2 while Leah went on the scary rides. I joined her on the giant drop and we were done for rides for the day. Every Friday at Tivoli during summer they have a band come and play in the park for free. So many locals rocked up for the performance by a band we would describe as the Danish Coldplay. It was a very weird experience being in the atmosphere of a festival with beer, shots and tipsy people and then an occasional kid running through the crowd collecting cups to trade for more ride tokens.

like a festival

We visited the Danish palace and waved to Mary and asked Freddy if she could come out to play (they didn’t answer).We also pushed through tourists to get a picture of the little mermaid (my pose is better). For lunch one day we feasted on a herring buffet at Nyhavns Færgekro (thanks for the tip Rein and Leah).  We enjoyed different types of delicious herring from sweet mustard, smoked, baked, and creamy to a sweet blueberry variety. Overall, we found Danish herring sweeter than Estonian herring.

Leah waving to Mary (royal palace)

Little Mermaid

Little Merman

Nyhavn

Drinking on the street (its legal!)

So much Herring

Our last visit was to a place called Christiania, a social experiment town created in the 70’s that is now independent from the EU. This colourful little town looks straight out of the hippy era, full of colourful murals, reggae music, free love and marijuana being sold in the ‘green light district’.

Gates to Christiania 

We had beautiful weather in Copenhagen, now off to the rain and clouds of the UK. 

Arvi