2015.07.22 – Belfast (North Ireland) – Glasgow (Scotland)

This morning we needed to catch the 11:30am ferry to Carnryan (Scotland). After wrapping up our guesthouse breakfast, we took the taxi to the Stena Line ferry dock in Belfast. We were relieved to learn that we could buy a package ferry/bus/train from Belfast to Glasgow for 30 GBP / person. The ferry was almost deserted compared to those encountered last year in the Greek islands. From the dock in Carnryan, we boarded a bus, also mostly empty, to Ayr. The scenery along the coast was beautiful. We also noticed several golf courses – a sure sign this was where the sport was born. Arriving at the Central train station in Glasgow, we walked over to a nearby subway station to get our Albion Hotel in the West end of town. Our hotel room, on the third floor, was comfortable and had a large bathroom. Each time we walked into a hotel room, we would immediately think about our options to hang our clothes wash. Glasgow was the first town on our trip that we planned to spend three nights. We had supper at a nearby Italian restaurant. Before returning to our hotel, we stopped at a Tesco for snacks and a bottle of red wine. After some extensive researching on the Internet, we realized that finding accommodation on the Isle of Skye was next to impossible even though we had more or less confirmed the feasibility of commuting to the island. Our last hope to visit Skye was to join an organized tour from Inverness.

2015.07.23 – Glasgow (Scotland)

This morning we had no alarms to wake up. We crawled out of bed around 10:30am. Before heading out for the day, we looked up hotels in Inverness on Booking.com and started to panic as the accommodation prices were so expensive. We finally managed to book a room at a Travelodge for three nights at a reasonable price. We also purchased online our train tickets to Inverness. As breakfast was not included with our hotel room, we headed out on a walk for our morning staple food. The plan for today was to visit the West side of Glasgow. We stopped at the G Avenue Cafe on Byres Road for a lazy breakfast. Afterwards, we registered at Mackintosh House for a 1:00pm free tour. In the mean time, we visited the Hunterian Art museum. After our Mackintosh House tour, we had a very informative guided tour of the Glasgow University. We finished our afternoon at the nearby Kelvingroove art museum. After the museum, we took a well deserved rest at a nearby cafe. We took the subway to the city center to continue our exploration. We picked up our train tickets for Inverness at the Central train station. Jenny and Victoria visited yet again another H&M. We had supper in the downtown area at the popular “The Chippy Doon The Lane” restaurant. Victoria and I had the fish and chip while Jenny savored a Thai curry with prawns. As the town center seemed to get fairly quiet after 8:00pm, we headed back to our hotel. We were disappointed to see that our room had not been serviced.

2015.07.24 – Glasgow (Scotland)

Again we had no alarms to wake up this morning. We dropped by the nearby Bay Tree Cafe for breakfast. We purchased an all-day subway pass and headed towards the city center to visit the Glasgow Cathedral and the St-Mungo museum. Afterwards, we wandered the street and tried to find a ferry boat service which was advertised on our tourist map. We gave up locating it and opted to take the subway to the far west end to visit the free Riverside museum. We really enjoyed the museum as we spent over one hour before it closed at 5:00pm. One cycle touring display from Mark Beaumont captivated me. From the museum, we took a short ferry ride across the river and took the subway to a few stations away. We tried to stop at a Mexican restaurant for supper but we were refused as we had no reservation. We finally opted to stop at The Crafty Brew Pub near our hotel. Jenny was enticed by the ribs offering – unfortunately these were not particularly tasty. Nonetheless, the live band made up for an entertaining supper time. Back at the hotel, we prepared for our next morning departure.

2015.07.25 – Glasgow – Inverness (Scotland)

We woke up by 8am this morning and headed to the subway to catch our 10:30am train to Inverness. We made sure we waited for our train at the correct railway station: the Glasgow Queens Street station as opposed to the Glasgow Central. Jenny was eager to board an earlier train but once she realized that our reserved seats were not valid on the train, we barely made it off the train and waited for our scheduled train. We had to change trains in Perth. Upon our arrival in Inverness, we headed to the Tourist Office to inquiry about our options to visit the Isle of Skye. We opted to buy a one-day package tour for the next day which was Sunday. Given that our Travelodge hotel was two miles away, we took a taxi to reach it. The area was fairly remote but there was a large shopping complex near by. Given our remoteness, we had supper at a Pizza Hut at the shopping complex. The restaurant was very busy but the food and atmosphere left us disappointed. We decided to catch a movie to finish off the evening. Jenny misread the time on her watch hence we ended up waiting for an hour. During that time, we visited a large Tesco Extra to buy some snacks and sandwiches for tomorrow’s all-day tour. The movie “Ted 2” made us all laugh throughout the show. Back at the hotel, we prepared for an early hotel departure to catch our tour group departing by 9:15am. We booked our hotel accommodation for Edinburgh.

2015.07.26 – Inverness (Scotland)

We left our hotel by 8:30am with a taxi to the city center. We had breakfast at a McDonald’s beside our tour departure location. We were the last three folks to board the mini-bus for our day tour. Our bus driver/tour guide, Michael, offered great commentaries throughout our journey. We had a few ad-hoc stops for photo opportunities. We visited Castle Eilean Donan along the way and had lunch just after crossing the local controversial Skye Bridge. As our guide reminded us, it was impossible to truly experience the Isle of Skye in a single day. Unfortunately, our attempt to have an overnight stay on the Isle failed as we were not able to secure any accommodation. We were back in Inverness shortly after 7pm. We opted for a Chinese buffet for supper. After our big meal, we stopped by the train station to buy our tickets to our next destination – Edinburgh. We finally walked the two miles back to our hotel while confirming our route a few times along the way.

2015.07.27 – Inverness (Scotland)

We woke up to more rain this morning. We took a taxi into the city center. We had breakfast at our first Wetherspoons Pub chain establishment where we learned to order at the bar. Under the rain, we headed to the bus station to buy all-day tickets in order to visit the Urquhart Castle and the Loch Ness Interpretation Center. At the Urquhart Castle, Victoria and I visited the outdoor site under the rain while Jenny opted to stay inside the visitor’s center. After our Castle visit, we waited 15-20mins for the bus to bring us to the nearby town. We enjoyed our visit of the very informative Loch Ness Interpretation center which discouraged us from taking a cruise on the Loch(lake). As it finally stopped raining as we came out of the Interpretation center, we promptly boarded the bus back to town. Upon our arrival, Jenny and Victoria enjoyed more shopping at the Primark store while I explored the restaurant offering in the area. After the shopping urge was satisfied, we had supper at Bella Italia – a nice restaurant chain. We again took the taxi back to our hotel. We made a hotel reservation for our upcoming London stay as the availability was quickly disappearing.

2015.07.28 – Inverness – Edinburgh (Scotland)

It was raining again this morning. We took a taxi to the city center and had another breakfast at McDonald’s. We walked to the train station under the rain. The train ride to Edinburgh was fairly enjoyable with free, but very slow, internet access. At the Edinburgh train station, we made our way to the nearby central Travelodge. After settling into our room, we looked at our restaurant options in the area. We also booked ourselves on a Scary Walking Tour with “City of the Dead Tour” for 8pm that evening. We headed out on a walk to explore part of the town. We stopped at the free Edinburgh museum for an hour or so visit – until it closed at 5:00pm. We continued our walk to a Mexican restaurant which we had earlier identified on TripAdvisor. The food and atmosphere were nice. We resumed our walk after the restaurant and stopped at a Starbucks for coffee while waiting for our Scary Walking Tour. The tour departed under some light rain. The group was quite large at about 40 persons. Although we visited the underground and a cemetery, there were little to be scared about. Back at the hotel, we had a well deserved night rest. We realized that this Travelodge was very well located and well maintained – unfortunately we needed to move hotel tomorrow as due to room availability we had been forced to make a split reservation between Travelodge and Ibis hotels.

2015.07.29 – Edinburgh (Scotland)

In the morning we opted to have the hotel buffet breakfast at 15 GBP (free for Victoria), it was a great deal. We left our luggage at the hotel’s front desk and headed out for our visit of the Edinburgh Castle. As we had purchased on-line, earlier in the morning, our tickets for the Castle visit, we avoided spending time in a long ticket queue. At the castle, the crowd was quite large. We took a 30 mins. free guided tour of the castle. We spent several hours visiting the various nooks and crannies of the large castle. Along the way we ended up queuing to sample some Whiskey, we left the castle boutique unsure whether we had to pay or not for our 5ml Whiskey tasting. Shortly after leaving the castle, it started to rain. We took refuge at a Starbucks for an hour or so. We decided to pick up our luggage at the Travelodge and headed to our Ibis Budget hotel further out from the city center. After walking back and beyond the train station, we purchased an all-day pass for 8.5 GBP to hop on the tram for 10 or so stations. Guided only by our saved Google pdf map, we exited the tram too early. We had to walk a long distance to discover that we had gotten off two tram stations away. We quickly realized that our hotel was among the most remote hotel to-date on this trip. We were confronted to a very tiny room but it was well designed. After settling in, we headed back towards the city center (Haymarket) for some Thai food. The tram ride seemed quite slow with its frequent stops. It took us a few attempts to find the restaurant but when we did find it, we were surprised by how small the place was. Our restaurant experience was very disappointing which prompted us to write one of first TripAdvisor review. Back at our remote Ibis Budget hotel, we settled in for the night in our tiny room.

2015.07.30 – Edinburgh (Scotland)

This morning we bought again an all-day family tram pass and headed into the city center. We struggled a bit to find a place offering breakfast after 11am. We finally stopped at a tiny cafe for our breakfast. We continued our exploration with a brief visit of the Scotland Government building. Jenny failed in her attempt to join a guided tour. Afterword, Jenny and Victoria visited the Queen’s official residence in Scotland, Palace Holyroodhouse while I hiked the mountain hosting Arthur’s seat. I enjoyed the walk up the mountain and took a few pictures from the top. Jenny and Victoria also enjoyed their visit of the Palace. We decided for an impromptu visit of the chapel highlighted in the Da Vinci Code book. Our all-day tram tickets allowed us to hop on the city bus to Rosslyn, a nearby village. Jenny truly enjoyed the ride on the bus’ second level. We arrived at the chapel at 5:00pm thinking that it would be closed but we were relieved when we found out that it only closed at 6:00pm. The place was almost deserted. We eavesdropped on a guided tour. We were fascinated by the popularity of Dan Brown’s book which boosted the number of visitors from 26,000 in 2002 to 5 times that number in 2003 after the book’s release. Back in Edinburgh, we stopped for supper at a Chinese restaurant. We took full advantage of our tram ticket today as we headed back to our hotel.