The Highlands, Scotland

We loved the Highlands.  As much as we enjoyed Edinburgh, I really wish we could have spent more time up here.  It is breathtakingly beautiful.  There is something about the peacefulness of northern Scotland that I just love.  The downside of not having a car however, is that you can't get to a lot of the remote places (which is where you definitely want to go when you're in the Highlands) so we opted for a three day tour with "Haggis Tours".  There are pros and cons to signing up for a guided tour like this.  The pros being it is all planned out for you, they load you up with tons of history and stories that we otherwise wouldn't have heard (our tour guides were also hilarious), and you make new friends with others on the tour.  The cons being you are on "their" schedule (we became so used to doing whatever we pleased during our summer travels) and somehow the "peacefulness" isn't so peaceful anymore when there's 40 of you filing off a bus to take photos of the same view.  But nonetheless, we were very pleased with Haggis Tours.  It was a fairly young crowd (a lot of new teachers like Zack, because it was half term break) and our guides were native to Scotland which made the experience that much better.  The trip departed out of Edinburgh and we drove a big yellow bus (that read "Young, Wild, and Sexy") up through to the Isle of Skye.  We all stayed at a hostel in Fort Augustus (situated at the bottom point of Loch Ness) where we joined in on an intense pub quiz the first night and heard some live music the second night.  The pub quiz was a particular favourite night of ours and we found ourselves dressed in Scottish Tartan while enjoying some good ales.  Zack seems to have an abundance of random general knowledge so even though our team came in third place, I thought we did quite well.  We met some great people on the tour, and in a total of just three days we saw castles, mountains, lochs (lakes), tasted Scottish whiskey, and even went on a few short hikes.  I think the photos really speak for themselves....

The Forth Bridge running over top of the Firth of Forth.  

This was a small town we passed through on our way up.

We stopped in at a Whiskey Distillery where we learned about the process of making whiskey and even tasted their whiskey.  It's fair to say we both really don't like the taste of whiskey.

Can you find Zack way up there?

The last morning in Fort Augustus, we woke up early to take a walk down by Loch Ness.  

This is the hostel we stayed at.  

Loch Ness.  227 metres deep.  Loch Ness Monster.... are you in there?

The Commando Memorial.  Remembering the British Commando forces who fought in WWII.

Hiking through Glen Coe.  

Song that tells the story of the Massacre of Glencoe

The William Wallace Monument (above).  The photo below looks over the town of Sterling, where the Battle of Sterling Bridge took place (this battle is reinacted in the movie Braveheart.  We watched Braveheart that night before bed. I've watched that movie before but it means so much more when you've just visited the site of battle!)