How I Spent My Summer Vacation …

When last we spoke, I showed you a new travel bag that I made.  And then I went on a long (3 weeks!) trip.  And then I came home and have been too tired and busy to post LOL.  Now, through the magic of a day off of work, I can squeeze out a post about our trip.

If you follow me on Instagram, you already know that I’ve been to the UK and back.  The real purpose of the trip was to go on The Grand Shetland Adventure.  I’ve wanted to go to Shetland for YEARS and finally, I begged my knitting friend Bonnie to go with me.  I’d mentioned this trip two years ago to Bonnie, but nothing ever came of it, so this past year I must have cried or threatened or something, because Bonnie finally said yes.  YAY!  We had a great time, and for the purposes of posterity (haha) I like to keep records of such fun things here on my blog.  Hopefully, in the next few weeks (or months or before I’m dead), I’ll write about the Shetland part of the trip and put it in the travel part of my website (the part that has been sadly neglected).

MAN IN KILT!!!

Bonnie and I flew to London separately and met at Heathrow.  We were both worried that something might go wrong with our schedules, but everything was PERFECT.  We met, right on cue — well, except that Bonnie was wearing glasses and I wasn’t really sure it was her LOL.  From Heathrow, we went to Kings Cross train station and took a train from London to Edinburgh — my VERY favorite way to travel in the UK.  It was so fun to relax and chat and catch up on the four-hour train trip — and get ready for our adventure.  Bonnie had never been to Scotland, so we spent two days in Edinburgh, before taking another train to Aberdeen to catch the ferry to Shetland.

We stayed in a great little hotel, The Inn Place, right in the heart of Old Town.  The location was perfect — just a short hike up the hill from the train station meant we didn’t have to drag our suitcases too far.  It was also the perfect location for seeing all the sights — a short walk to The Royal Mile and all the Old Town sights, and a short walk in the opposite direction to New Town and lots of good restaurants.  We lucked out and got a room on the top floor (the 4th floor), so it was very quiet (well, except for the garbage pickup early in the morning !)  Here’s a rainy view out of our window:

The first day in Edinburgh, we went to the castle — a must for any first-time visitor to the capital city.  Since I’d been here several times before, I only took a few pictures (and I didn’t get a good one of the whole castle, so I stole this first picture from a post a few years ago ;-P ).

After the castle, we grabbed a wonderful Sunday lunch — as the menu said, traditional Sunday Roast — in New Town.   And from there, we went to visit my good buddy Pam.  For me, no visit to Edinburgh is complete without popping in to see Pam and she was so sweet to take time out for us — she had a houseful of children as they were all leaving the next day for a family trip to Crieff.  Lucky me though — I got to see my favorite non-biological grandchildren, and I got to meet her adorable newest grandbaby — YAY!!!

After our visit with Pam (or maybe this happened the next day?  my days have run together LOL), I took Bonnie to visit Bobby.  I love this sweet little story about the dog who spent 14 years guarding the grave of his owner.  The grave is in Grayfiar’s Kirk, so we walked around the graveyard.  If you’re a Harry Potter fan, this cemetery has lots of links to names in the Harry Potter books.

On our second day in Edinburgh, Bonnie cheerfully indulged me and we took a bus to see Craigmillar Castle, since I’d never been there before.  It’s a beautiful castle ruin that I’d read about and, although it’s completely surrounded by city, the estate is so big, you feel like you’re out in the country.  I loved poking around the castle ruins, but it was disappointing that we weren’t able to see the Great Hall, as there was a wedding in progress.

This is the view from the castle to Arthur’s seat.  After we left the castle, we hiked two miles to the east side of the hill.  We climbed up the hill a little way and then followed a road around to the west side.  From there, Bonnie and I split up — she headed toward Holyrood Palace and I continued to climb up Arthur’s Seat.  This was my fifth visit to Edinburgh and I’ve always wanted to climb to the top of the hill but there had never been time — finally, it happened!

The view from the top and looking out over the top of Salisbury Crags toward Edinburgh — Edinburgh Castle is the mass just to the left of the center of the photo.

By the time I hiked down from the hill, it was late afternoon, so I made my way up The Royal Mile and back to our hotel to meet Bonnie again. We walked over to New Town for dinner (and somewhere in here we made a trip to Cath Kidston!) and just like that, our time in Edinburgh came to an end.  The next morning we took a train to Aberdeen to begin our Shetland adventure … but more on that later.  Thanks for sticking with someone else’s boring travel pictures this far LOL!

XOXO,
Anna