Scotland, the land of highlands and lowlands. Beautiful nature and stunning scenery. Old towns and castles. How beautiful would it be to go there in autumn, when the leaves fall from the trees and the colours are orange, red and yellow. We would love to see that! So we went to Scotland this autumn.

The journey started in Edinburg. The airport was very conveniently located, so it was only a short tram ride to down town Edinburgh. As soon as you leave the aitport, you see the beautiful mountains, that are so characteristic for Scotland. Edinbugh is a small city, everything is very walkable. The city is divided in an old and new part. Although the new town is still contructed somewhere in the 18th and 19th century, so you could imagine how old the old part is.

When we arrived in Edinburgh, we noticed the quiet vibe. It is a very relaxed town. The Scottish accent was something to get used to, it was quite difficult to understand. So we immediately felt like being somewhere different, a feeling I like a lot.

We started in Edinburg with a visit to the famous castle. The castle is on a hill, so for the rest of our trip the song ‘ Castle on the Hill’  by Ed Sheeran was stuck in my head. The castle is very well maintained and quite unbroken. It was a pleasure walking around. Funny thing was the dog cemetery. They also had a canon, which they still fire every day. The sun was quite low, so the sun shining through the stained glass window was phenomenal.

The view from the castle was just great! You could see a big part of Edinburgh. When we left, the sun was setting.

We finished the day with a walk through the royal mile, wich is the name given to a succession of streets forming the main thoroughfare of the Old Town of Edinburgh. It was beginning to get cold, so we were happy to find a nice old coffee shop.

Next day we started with a walk to the neighbourhood ‘Stockbridge’. First we walked past big and majestic buildings and after that there were very small houses. The neighbourhood itself was kind of a vintage neighbourhood with a lot of second hand shops and coffeeshops. Edinburgh has a lot of good coffeeshops everywhere around!

In the afternoon we took a 7 hour long train ride. The train went to Glasgow, from where we had a stop over to Fort William. In Glasgow the beautiful stretch of the journey began. The views were just stunning! There was a stretch where there was only a train track, no car or bike lanes. One station was only reachable by train or walking. The views were so unspoilt and beautiful, with only rough nature.

Very characteristic of the nature are the lakes, called ‘loch’, accompanied by mountains. The blue colours of the lake match perfectly with the autumn colours of the mountains. We were so lucky that the sky was clear, so the lakes and mountains were accompanied by blue skies with white clouds. It was all very different from nature we have seen anywhere in the world.

Fort William is a very small and touristy town. It is situated in the Scottish Highlands, at the Loch Linnhe and in the shadows of Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the British Isles. we did not see or clim Ben Nevis though, because of the weather you could only see a shade of the mountain. In Fort William we enjoyed ourselves with walking on a foggy morning.

We also did a so called cruise on the loch. Although my imagination of a cruise is a ship with a deck, coktails and a lot of sun, on this cruise we had to protect ourselves from wind, cold and a little bit of rain. There was an option to sit inside in a heated area, but when you have views like this, I want to be outside and make photo’s!

We also walked a bit around downtown Fort William, which is like one street. We went into a church, to find this cleaning lady, enjoying here music on a big headphone. I don’t think she liked the silence of the church.

The Scottish kitchen is not something very appealing to vegetarians. A lot of special dishes are meat oriented. We always like to try the local kitchen, so we were very happy to find a vegetarian variation of the Scottish pie.

After two days in Fort William we went back to Edinburgh. For the way back we took the bus, because the train was not running that often on a sunday, and it is also nice to take another route. The first part of the busroute had some nice views!:) The second part mainly had traffic jams.

In the evening Edinbugh had a celebration of ‘Diwali’, the indian festival of lights. The music was a mix of Scottish folk and an indian singer! And there were fireworks! The fireworks where quite special, because they were next to the Edinburgh castle.

The last hours in Edinburgh we enjoyed ourselves walking around the old town.

In Scotland there is something strange with clothing. Some people dress themselves like it is summer, with shorts, while it is very cold! While other people dress like it is winter, with cap and scarf. This makes strange combinations of people.

We learned about the story of a dog: ‘Greyfriars Bobby’. This dog is famous, because he guarded the grave of his owner for 14 years. He is a symbol of loyalty and know has his own grave in Edinburgh.

I tried to make a very creepy photo of Rob in a telephone booth.

And the travel companions had fun with the fallen leaves.

Our trip to Scotland came to an end. It was only a short flight, we left Edinburgh in the afternoon and the same evening we were already at home. So close to our home we discovered this special country, very different from our own. With beautiful countryside and pretty cities. Very much recommended to go there!