Magical Scotland

October 1-8, 2025

The last time I wrote I told you all about our whirlwind 24 hours in Glasgow with the lovely cat, Jake. Since then, we have been to an additional 3 countries, and I still haven't had time to fully process everything we saw and did in Edinburgh and Stirling. I apologize for the delay and appreciate your patience--between long travel days, iffy Wi-Fi, and all the experiences to be had, it is hard to find a minute to sit down and capture it all.

On Wednesday, October 1, we took the train from Glasgow to Edinburgh in the afternoon, arriving in the city around 5:30 pm. One of my favorite things about train travel is the flexibility and promptness; we had a ticket that allowed us to travel on any of the services to Edinburgh that day, and after resting up with Jake we headed to the station just ahead of the 4:15 service, knowing there was a 4:30 we could also catch. We arrived at Queen Street at 4:08 and made the 4:15 with about 30 seconds to spare!

When we arrived at Edinburgh Waverly, I knew immediately I was going to fall in love with this city. There is a magic in the air that is palpable, even just walking the streets to our hostel. We stayed at one of our favorite hostels yet--High Street Hostel, just off the Royal Mile. The location was excellent, allowing us access to all the sites we wanted to see, but there was also great social opportunities. The night we arrived there was a free Cèilidh (Kay-lee) dancing session at the pub down the street. Even though we had walked all day in Glasgow and our feet were already aching, we both agreed we couldn't pass up the opportunity. For those of you camp folks who read this blog, the process of teaching the dancing to the room full of beer-laden adults was distinctly similar to how we teach Square Dancing to our delegates.

The next day we set out to get our bearings with the help of our old pal Rick Steves, who has a free audio tour of the Royal Mile. We started at Edinburgh Castle, made our way through St. Giles Cathedral, and paid a visit to the Writer's Museum where we got better acquainted with Robert Louis Stevenson before working our way down to Holyrood Palace. Along the way, Rick made note of a store known for their blends of Scotch, so we had to pay them a visit on our way back to the hostel for lunch. Cadenhead's makes their own blends of Scotch right in the shop, with large jugs you can see from the window that are continuously added to and filled, making for a unique blend of never-ending Scotch that never tastes the same way twice. We bought a bottle.

After lunch, we made our way to visit Greyfriars's Bobby and his namesake cemetery before spending the rest of the afternoon in the National Museum of Scotland. At this point in our trip, we have learned that Cal and I take museums at different paces, and find different types of things worth lingering over, so we split up and agreed to meet back at the entrance at closing. I elected to follow the Highlights Audio Tour, which took me through some of the "greatest hits" of the museum. I knew this would keep me from getting overwhelmed by the collection, as well as keep me moving to see as much variety as I could in our limited time. The tour took me past the skull of a sperm whale, the skeleton of a T-Rex, a set of Samurai armor, an elegant 17th century gown, Dolly the sheep, and the jewelry of Mary Queen of Scots, among other things. Cal followed his own path. His highlights include: a giant ram's head tobacco carriage that could be wheeled across a feasting table for guests to help themselves, the skull of which could be opened to reveal the tobacco products inside; the neat scale replica of a tower clock with a gravity escapement; ten foot tall ceremonial swords belonging to the Scots; and antique rings adorned with uncut gemstones.

If this wasn't enough of a day already, we continued into the night by joining the hostel pub crawl, which promptly took us back to our college days. We played Jenga on a pool table, enjoyed free shots with strangers, and got to experience some of the city night life. We did not stay out the whole night--we made it to 3/6 pubs--but Cal did with a free t-shirt by showing off the finely-honed "splitting the G" skills we had practiced in Ireland. (I--frustratingly--was about a millimeter off in my attempt, which I will be annoyed about for the rest of time).

On our final day in Edinburgh, we started the morning off by exploring the Castle. We saw cannons and grand halls, and most importantly amazing views of the city. (If this description seems a little wane, it is because we were truly blown away a few days later by our visit to Stirling Castle, which had many similar features but an overall better experience--I will describe below!) In the afternoon, I made a short pilgrimage to Valvona & Crolla, a specialty Italian store that features heavily in the Scotland Street book series, which I have been reading on our journey so far. I'm also just a sucker for a specialty grocery store, and this one did not disappoint!

Friday afternoon we took our train to Stirling for our next cat sit. At this point, the weather was getting fierce--high winds and rain--but we were fortunate enough to get a pocket of calm for our short walk from the station to the flat where we would be staying for the weekend. Our hosts--Michael, Steph, and kitty Fergus--were leaving early the next morning, so they were there to get us settled, and even treated us to dinner that night. They also gave us the heads up that due to high winds forecast for the weekend, many of the monuments and sites in the area would be closed the next day, which was all the blessing we needed to spend a cozy day inside, doing laundry and getting to know Fergus.

Sunday we set our for a traditional Scottish breakfast--including Haggis, which I found delightful--before making the trek to the Wallace Monument. There are busses that go from the city to the monument, but we had time and the weather had calmed, so we walked the hour's trek and got to see a bit more of the city. The monument was completed in 1869 and is said to stand where Wallace watched the incoming English forces before the famous Battle of Stirling Bridge. The monument includes a large tower with a narrow, 246-step staircase leading to each of 4 floors. The first is the Hall of Arms, where you can learn more about Wallace and see his long-sword on display; the second is the Hall of Heroes, which pays tribute to some of Scotland's most important national figures; the third is the Royal Chamber, where you can design your own coat of arms and see how Stirling has changed since Wallace's time; and the fourth and final floor is the Crown, which is open to incredible views of the countryside, as long as you don't mind the incredibly powerful wind!

On Monday we set out to Stirling Castle, which was only a short walk from the flat and, as I mentioned above, was incredibly well-curated. The castle is known to have been a favorite of the Stuarts, and features many eras of history in its walls. We took a free tour of the castle, which showcased how each royal added to the property, and then got to explore inside the royal chambers. Here, there were several curators dressed in historical clothing giving in-depth presentations on different aspects of medieval life. One woman explained 15th century hygiene and cosmetics, while another went through the tapestries and the process of recreating one traditionally for the modern castle. Overall, the presentation of the castle was truly excellent, and we learned a great amount about the Stuarts and Scottish history.

On our final day in Stirling--our final day in Scotland--we allowed ourselves a bit of a breather. We had to leave early the next day for our flight to Vienna, and as you can see we had jam-packed each of our days with a lot of exploration (aka WALKING), so we were happy to have a less scheduled day. We explored the city center, visited a couple of pubs, purchased a classic tartan scarf for me, and, of course, did laundry. Overall, our time in Scotland was truly lovely, and I loved the country even more than I expected to. The people were kind and welcoming, the culture fun to explore, and the sites more beautiful than could ever be captured on film. Our first month of travel was spent entirely in the Isles, and we have been happy to get to Central Europe and have new places and cultures to explore, but I can say our time in the UK--and Scotland particularly--was magical.