Caldwell Clan (+Kayla)

Dun. Dun. Dun.

It was official the Caldwell Clan, plus Kayla, were now in Scotland. And that is exactly how our tour guide named us! The first day everyone was here we took a lovely tour to St. Andrew’s with The Hairy Coo company, named for the lovely Scottish Highland Cows. Donald, our fantastic driver and guide, took us to the Forth Bridge and up to St. Andrew’s and Loch Lomond where we saw the Old Course on the beaches, the University, and the Castle and Cathedral ruins. The weather was a little…meh…but I am just happy that I got to go, as I missed out when my friends went. We even got a small Highlands preview. Ah. I love the Highlands so much – I really wish we could’ve gone there too, so everyone could see how amazing Scotland really is.

The Old Course and St. Andrew's Castle

The Forth Bridge

Before Conor and Kayla left we made sure to complete our Nana-homework (and make them eat Haggis). Conor, my dad, and myself explored and took pictures of two important closes on the Royal Mile. I am almost positive that I have written about this wayyyy at the beginning of my trip but I’ll provide a little refresher. A “close”, pronounced CLOOS, is basically an alley, where for centuries, huge populations of Scots lived and worked in the cities. Anyway, my great great grandmother Mary Tague lived on both Old Assembly Close and North Gray’s Close. Pretty cool.

HAGGIS EATING

Conor and Kayla then left for home...sad face…but I still had another full week with my Mom and Dad. We ate TONS of delicious food: more Clarinda’s and Deacon Brodie’s cream tea, more MUMS, pies on pies on pies, Conan Doyle’s (near Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s birth place – the writer of Sherlock Holmes), and even a sparkly Harvey Nichols cupcake! In Edinburgh we went to the castle, Holyrood Palace and gardens, Greyfriar's Kirkyard AND haunted tour of the Mackensie Poltergeist, New Town and Princes Street Gardens, the People’s Museum, the Festival Center, the Heritage Center, etc. We took a nice day trip to Glasgow too! The weather was actually really nice so we were able to do a lot of exploring, which is great because if it had stayed as cold as it was with Conor and Kayla I would have probably broke in two.

Glagow Necropolis and St. Mungo's Cathedral

Super amazing Stone Henge bouncy house - FOR ADULTS, TOO!

We went on another outside tour, although unfortunately it was not with Donald and the Hairy Coo. Instead we had this awful man Steve who I don’t even want to write about - he was such a headache. On this tour we went to Melrose Abbey, Rosslyn Chapel (Holy Grail?!), and then south of the border to Alnwick Castle in North Umberland, England. Alnwick was really cool because it is the second largest live-in castle. In addition to its traditional decoration it had a lot of family photos and modern pieces (like flat screen TVs). It reminded me quite a lot of work at home and many of the Newport Mansions. The other pretty cool thing about Alnwick is that a lot of Hogwarts in the first and second Harry Potter movies were filmed there – which, without sign, was pretty easy to spot. If you ever find yourself there (surrrre) go to the Tree House restaurant – so cool.

Rosslyn Chapel

Melrose Abbey and Alnwick Castle

Hogwarts, anyone?!

At the risk of sounding like a total cheese ball, I am so happy that my family was able to visit me. It is unfortunate that I was in a weird mood for a lot of it – I think both the result of exhaustion and sadness about leaving Scotland so soon, but I really did have an amazing time while they were here. Annnd I think they did too. I mean, my parents even saw HUGH LAURIE on the Royal Mile! I still can’t believe I missed that one, Dr. House in Edinburgh!