Scotland

The final part of our European vacation led us to Scotland. We joked that when we got off the train, we had done a planes, trains, and automobiles vacation.

The very first thing we did was go to the Scotch History Museum and Tour. Rob was like a little kid in a candy store. This was a collection of over 30,o00 rare scotches that was donated by some private really rich guy. His wife must have been much more understanding than I am. Or, he must have had way more money than we do. ;) Still....
Rob was impressed with the high quality stuff. Me? I just liked the pretty bottles and how they do special Scotches with unique blends for special occasions. Here are the scotches from Prince William and Prince Harry's birth. I have become such a "Royal Watcher" since my trip. Not really. It was fun while there, but I just don't have time for someone else's soap opera right now. I'm too busy starring in my own.
Here's my sweet Rob at the "candy counter". As part of the tour, he got to get some samples.
Could he BE any happier?
The next morning we were off to see the Holyrood Palace. It's where the royal family stays while in Scotland. Here is a photo of Rob doing an audio tour. We did Sooooo many audio tours! But, I loved them. What a great idea. Inside was pretty impressive but very old and stately. I couldn't help but wonder. What if Prince William marries a girl like me that just wants a little IKEA? Could they put that in the private apartments? Yeah, he probably wouldn't be allowed to marry a girl like me. Too bad for him. Just ask Rob, I'm a lot of fun. ;)
This is the church where John Knox, who led the protestant reform, preached.
He likely stood at this very pulpit. That's kinda cool.
Like most of the other churches we visited, there were massive monuments all over the place. I couldn't get photos previously since most of the churches did not allow photography. It was surprising to me that in actual working churches, these big tombs were so plentiful.
I found it a little intriguing and yet kinda creepy the detail in the memorials. Often times, the images were taken straight from the deceased death masks.
After our last church of our tour, we headed up to the most famous castle, Edinburgh Castle. The amount of history we learned here is unbelievable. Of course, we learned it via Audio Tour.
It's a spectacular site. I highly recommend it if you ever get the chance.
The landscape in Scotland was beautiful. It's a bit hazy, but you can kinda see the "T forest" in the distance. Wonder where it got its name?
Here is where they kept actual prisoners of war. I can't imagine the reality of this.
And of course, what's a visit to Scotland without the Scots Dragoon guards?
That's it. We had a great time and have returned to a sick little Andy bear. I guess I'll get caught up on my jet lag some other time. Oh well. Such is life. I wouldn't trade it though and I want to once again thank my many friends, especially Diana, who helped watch our kids so that we could do this wonderful trip together. We came home feeling very blessed and refreshed! My next posts will be back to normal Mommyhood....