I went to write an annual review and realised that I hadn’t even written up about last Christmas, so over the next 12 days, I’m going to attempt to cover our travels from the last 12 months, starting with our Scotland adventures last Christmas!
2021 ended with us in Scotland, Christmasing with Kevin, a carpenter that Jared used to work with in New Zealand. He was kind enough to include us in his family Christmas gathering in Edinburgh, and then show us some of his home turf.
Edinburgh at Christmas is utterly beautiful! We spent Christmas Eve at the Christmas markets, sampling moonshine at 11am. I tried haggis as part of lunch, and I must say, it is delicious, I quite enjoyed it.
We did a few touristy things like walking the Royal Mile, touring the Palace of Holyrood with an audio guide, having devonshire tea on the Royal Yacht Britannia, and then finishing the day in a pub with much whiskey and mulled wine.
Christmas day was spent ingesting moonshine with Kevin’s family, and Boxing day we explored some of Kevin’s stomping ground around Fife.
Our final day in Edinburgh, we did an amazing chocolate factory tour where we got to make Loch Ness monster chocolate and have samples from all over the world, then went to Edinburgh Castle in time for the 1 o’clock gun (which actually goes off at 12:59:53 so that the sound travels to the port in time for 1pm). Edinburgh castle is an amazing structure steeped in history and offers some very impressive views out over Edinburgh city.
Jared and I finished the day with an evening walking tour, finding out about the dark side of Edinburgh.
After Edinburgh, we hired a car, and went to Inverness via Aberdeen to catch up with a friend who I used to hang out with in Auckland.
We arrived to an icy Inverness, roads frozen, and skated across the car park to our hotel. After finding one of only a few pubs open, and enjoying cullen skink (fish soup), we went for a drive into the hills to see what we could see. We discovered a glittering icy wonderland but it was absolutely freezing, so we headed back to the warmth of the hotel.
The next day, we braved the rain, found a historic bookshop, tried some excellent pancakes, and set out for the Isle of Skye. Our travels took us past Loch Ness, and we went hunting for Nessy at the Loch Ness Centre and Exhibition, but alas didn’t find any conclusive evidence.
We continued on, admiring the snow-dusted Scottish countryside, eventually finding our way (through more rain) to Armadale on the Isle of Skye.
The next day we went on a tiki tour and found a waterfall going nearly horizontal due to the wind, a walk up a hill that the wind just about blew you back down again, and several other attractions that we were keen to check out, but discovered upon arrival that they were closed.
In conclusion, I wouldn’t recommend Isle of Skye in the winter. Lots of things are closed until May, and the weather is…wintry.
We did eventually discover a lighthouse out on the coast which looked like it had some stories to tell.
There was a steady stream of people going both ways out to it, and since the cable car wasn’t working, we elected to slum it with the pedestrians.
We stayed long enough to get the mandatory snaps, then hoofed it back to the car to avoid the rain and race the dark back to our hotel.
The next day we headed to Glasgow, arriving in time for the New Year’s Eve festivities. Alas, Covid meant that most places were still closed, and there was very little in the way of craic to be had.
We found an excellent comedy show at The Stand, and then wandered the empty streets looking for something to do when the clock struck 12. We found a few fireworks going off in George’s Square, admired a statue of James Watt, who invented the steam engine, but were generally underwhelmed by the goings-on, or lack thereof.
The next day we did a self-guided walking tour learning all about how Glasgow’s wealth was built on the back of the slave trade, walked along the river, and went to an indoor mini-golf that was way too crowded and slow to be fun, then continued on towards Edinburgh to return our car and return ourselves home.
We stopped at the Kelpies along the way, which are based on a very interesting Scottish story designed to keep small children away from water.
Finally, we stopped in Culross, where parts of Outlander were filmed. It is a beautiful village and it was surreal to see the town square where the boy got his ear nailed to the post for stealing, and the various houses of different characters that are portrayed in Series 1 and 2, such as Geilis Duncan’s home. Everything was closed and the place was basically deserted. It was a beautiful bright clear morning, but utterly freezing, so I’d recommend going another time of the year.
Jared’s fave: Loch Ness visitor centre, and catching up with Kevin
Lauren’s fave: Sticky toffee moonshine and Edinburgh Castle (and also hanging out with Kevin)
Things I would recommend in Edinburgh:
- Chocolate tour
- Edinburgh Castle – be there in time for the 1pm gun (which goes at 12:59.53 so that it sounds at the port at 1pm)
- Toffee flavoured moonshine at the Christmas markets
- Makars mash – brilliant food
- Whiski tasting flights – if you’re into that kind of thing
- Haggis – in every form, everywhere.
- Walking tour about Darkside of Edinburgh
- HMS Britannia
- Holyrood castle tour
- Walk the Royal Mile
My List of things I’d still like to do in Edinburgh
- Vaults
- Climb Arthur’s seat