Latest / Travel Mug Podcast / Jenn's Scotland Trip Report - Edinburgh, Inverness, Isle of Skye, Fort William & Glasgow

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Jenn's Scotland Trip Report - Edinburgh, Inverness, Isle of Skye, Fort William & Glasgow · Travel Mug Podcast

• 0:00
  Meggan: Hey, everyone.
• 0:00
  Meggan: Welcome back to the travel mug podcast.
• 0:03
  Meggan: I feel like it's been so long since we've recorded, but we are both back from our trips from Europe.
• 0:10
  Meggan: Yay! Well kind of sad too, I guess.
• 0:12
  Meggan: It's yay.
• 0:12
  Jenn: It's yay that we went sad that we're home.
• 0:16
  Meggan: sad that it's over.
• 0:17
  Meggan: Yes, indeed.
• 0:18
  Meggan: But we are super excited to tell you about it.
• 0:20
  Meggan: We're gonna do a couple of episodes.
• 0:22
  Meggan: Just sort of covering our We were just actually talking about the fact that I might still be a little bit jet lag.
• 0:26
  Meggan: So luckily, today we get to hear all about Jen's trip to Scotland, all the things you sort of did, all the things they saw, what she thought about it.
• 0:35
  Meggan: I've never been, so I'm super excited to learn about her trip as well.
• 0:39
  Meggan: So Jennifer let's let's hear about it.
• 0:42
  Jenn: Hi.
• 0:43
  Jenn: Oh, so excited to finally do like this type of episode, cuz we haven't done this before and we've been doing this podcast for two years and yeah, I'm very excited.
• 0:55
  Jenn: So I am back from my longest trip ever.
• 0:59
  Jenn: So
• 1:00
  Meggan: was it really?
• 1:00
  Jenn: Yeah.
• 1:01
  Jenn: 15 days.
• 1:02
  Jenn: So I think,
• 1:03
  Meggan: oh wow.
• 1:03
  Meggan: Good for you.
• 1:04
  Jenn: Honeymoon was technically like 14 days and this one was 15.
• 1:07
  Jenn: So I would say overall Scotland was even more magical than I thought it was going to be.
• 1:14
  Jenn: And I think it helped that I didn't have Scotland on my bucket list.
• 1:21
  Jenn: Like very high.
• 1:22
  Meggan: Yep.
• 1:22
  Jenn: But we were going because of my best friend's wedding.
• 1:24
  Jenn: So I didn't necessarily have a lot of expectations and I didn't have a lot of build up in my mind for like,
• 1:32
  Meggan: I think it's really good for people like me and you, because I think we sort of.
• 1:37
  Meggan: Once we've got our site set on something we're both kind of like locked in.
• 1:40
  Meggan: Let's learn like everything.
• 1:42
  Meggan: This is what we've dreamed of.
• 1:43
  Meggan: So that's kind of an interesting take on sort of not having it on your list and the exceeding expectations.
• 1:51
  Jenn: Yeah.
• 1:52
  Jenn: Like, and I would definitely go back so
• 1:55
  Meggan: right.
• 1:55
  Jenn: There's definitely things that we didn't get to do that I would love to do.
• 1:59
  Jenn: So yeah, I've just kinda gotta go through what we did and what we thought of it.
• 2:03
  Jenn: So
• 2:04
  Meggan: I'd love to hear it.
• 2:05
  Meggan: Let's talk about the fun flight over.
• 2:07
  Meggan: Come on now.
• 2:08
  Jenn: Fun flight over.
• 2:08
  Jenn: I will say we had a very good flying experience and I have been reading in so many like Facebook groups about the nightmarish situation.
• 2:20
  Meggan: Just the news in general.
• 2:22
  Meggan: People are not having a good time.
• 2:24
  Jenn: Bad.
• 2:24
  Jenn: We had a direct flight from Halifax to Glasgow.
• 2:29
  Jenn: The only problem we had was not sleeping on the plane.
• 2:31
  So our flight was like uh, 10: 40 PM, I think, or something like that.
• 2:37
  So our flight was like uh, 10: Leaving Halifax when we arrived at eight ish in the morning, right in Glasgow.
• 2:43
  So our flight was like uh, 10: I forgot how horrible overnight flights.
• 2:45
  Meggan: Oh, it's the worst.
• 2:47
  Meggan: I, I, yeah.
• 2:47
  Meggan: Okay.
• 2:48
  Meggan: There are worse things, but it's pretty bad.
• 2:50
  Jenn: It's pretty bad.
• 2:50
  Jenn: Yeah.
• 2:51
  Jenn: So we arrived in Glasgow.
• 2:53
  Jenn: We immediately took the train to Edinburgh, which was totally fine.
• 2:57
  Jenn: We had to take a bus from the glasgow airport into Glasgow and then get on a train.
• 3:03
  Meggan: Was that hard to decipher?
• 3:04
  Meggan: Had you bought your tickets ahead of time?
• 3:06
  Meggan: Like talk us through that piece?
• 3:08
  Jenn: I hadn't bought any tickets because I was worried about getting delayed.
• 3:12
  Meggan: Right.
• 3:13
  Jenn: So I didn't want any timed tickets.
• 3:15
  Jenn: But I knew what we were gonna do.
• 3:17
  Jenn: I knew exactly like how it was gonna work.
• 3:20
  Jenn: And it did work pretty well, except that we went to the wrong train station in Glasgow.
• 3:25
  Jenn: First there's two train stations like Glasgow central and Glasgow queen street.
• 3:30
  Jenn: Glasgow central more is around Glasgow.
• 3:32
  Jenn: I think.
• 3:33
  Jenn: And queen street seems to be more like destinations going outside.
• 3:37
  Jenn: I'm not sure we got to Glasgow central and they're like, no, go to queen street, which was a five minute walk.
• 3:43
  Jenn: So it was not a big,
• 3:44
  Meggan: oh, that's not bad then.
• 3:45
  Jenn: No, it was just that we were tired and had all of our luggage and it just wanted to get to where we were going.
• 3:51
  Meggan: Yeah.
• 3:51
  Jenn: So we got to Edinburgh of course you couldn't check into our hotel.
• 3:54
  Jenn: Right away, but stored our luggage.
• 3:57
  Jenn: And once we got into our hotel in the afternoon, we did get a little cat nap in and survived the first
• 4:04
  Meggan: cat napped, look, oh,
• 4:07
  Jenn: I for an hour.
• 4:09
  Jenn: Yeah.
• 4:09
  Jenn: And then we like showered and stuff and like went out and had dinner and walked around.
• 4:15
  Jenn: And I think we went to bed at seven 30 or eight o'clock, but like, I was like, we need to push it so that we're like,
• 4:21
  Meggan: yeah,
• 4:22
  Jenn: not sleeping the whole time, but I'm gonna go through some of our highlights in Edinburgh.
• 4:28
  Jenn: I will say that this is probably my favorite city that we visited.
• 4:32
  Meggan: Okay.
• 4:33
  Jenn: Um, So the Royal mile is like a street that spans from Edinburgh castle to the Palace of Holyroodh ouse.
• 4:40
  Jenn: So it's actually longer than a mile.
• 4:43
  Jenn: It's a Scottish mile.
• 4:46
  Meggan: Oh, like a Baker's dozen, but instead of Scottish mile.
• 4:51
  Jenn: Sure.
• 4:51
  Jenn: It's sort of like tourist central.
• 4:54
  Jenn: But like for good reason, I mean, most people are gonna wanna go to Edinburgh castle.
• 4:59
  Jenn: Definitely lots of like tartan and Tweed shops where you can buy kilts and tartan things and all of that stuff.
• 5:06
  Jenn: Some Christmas shops, which I always love stopping into lots of eating all of those types of things.
• 5:13
  Jenn: And then lots of little like side streets off of it.
• 5:17
  Jenn: Um, Too
• 5:17
  Meggan: Love a European side street.
• 5:19
  Jenn: I do too.
• 5:20
  Jenn: All these little they're called closes.
• 5:23
  Jenn: So they're like alleyways and some of them are like very inviting alleyways and some of them are like, don't go down there.
• 5:30
  Meggan: we don't invite you down this alley.
• 5:35
  Meggan: So don't come.
• 5:37
  Meggan: Jenn: Yeah.
• 5:37
  Meggan: So Edinburgh castle, I loved, loved, loved love visiting.
• 5:41
  Meggan: Um, We were actually lucky, lucky, and we were there during the Queen's platinum Jubilee.
• 5:48
  Meggan: Yeah.
• 5:48
  Jenn: So I'm sure that brought a lot of tourists to the area because it was like a four day weekend, I think which probably made it a little bit busier.
• 5:56
  Jenn: But anyway, they did have like a ceremony and a 21 gun salute for the queen.
• 6:01
  Jenn: All of that stuff.
• 6:02
  Meggan: Nice.
• 6:03
  Jenn: All of the regular stuff at the castle.
• 6:05
  Jenn: So that was really nice.
• 6:06
  Jenn: It was,
• 6:06
  Meggan: was it a bit festive-y because of that?
• 6:08
  Meggan: Like, could you feel a little bit different energy because it was the queen Jubilee or not really,
• 6:12
  Jenn: I guess not, not like in the castle, but kind of like in the town.
• 6:16
  Jenn: And I guess of course, when we first get there, we don't realize that like, Maybe it's decorated because we'd never been there before.
• 6:23
  Jenn: Right,
• 6:24
  Meggan: right.
• 6:24
  Meggan: I suppose.
• 6:25
  Jenn: So.
• 6:25
  Jenn: Yeah.
• 6:25
  Jenn: There were like a, definitely a few like union Jack type of things, like hanging around that afterwards of like, oh, maybe these come down but
• 6:33
  Meggan: right, right.
• 6:33
  Meggan: Maybe these aren't always here,
• 6:35
  Jenn: always here.
• 6:36
  Jenn: But yes, the castle was really good and we were there for probably three and a half to close, maybe close to four hours.
• 6:44
  Jenn: Like we left, we didn't do everything.
• 6:46
  Jenn: Cause we had other stuff that we wanted to do that day.
• 6:48
  Jenn: So.
• 6:48
  Jenn: It was very fun and I would recommend definitely visiting and buying your tickets in advance.
• 6:54
  Jenn: I have.
• 6:54
  Meggan: So you did advance?
• 6:55
  Jenn: Yes.
• 6:55
  Jenn: So they have timed tickets.
• 6:57
  Jenn: So when you buy 'em in advance, like we had to show up between 10 and 10 30.
• 7:00
  Jenn: I don't know what happens if you show up outside of that, maybe they don't let you in.
• 7:03
  Jenn: I don't know, but okay.
• 7:04
  Jenn: The lines to like buy tickets are very long and also they may not just straight up may not be available.
• 7:10
  Meggan: Right.
• 7:11
  Meggan: No good tip.
• 7:12
  Jenn: So the other end of the Royal mile palace of Holyroodhouse is where the Royals actually like live when they come to Scotland.
• 7:20
  Jenn: Um, So it was really fun to see like how it was used in the past and how it is still currently used.
• 7:28
  Jenn: Like the dining room you see is the dining room that they eat in when, when they're there.
• 7:33
  Jenn: And so
• 7:34
  Meggan: I picture them being out in the scottish, like Highlands.
• 7:36
  Meggan: I don't picture them being in edinburgh.
• 7:38
  Jenn: Well, that's where they are.
• 7:40
  Jenn: I don't know.
• 7:41
  Jenn: Maybe they've got a secret palace.
• 7:43
  Jenn: Up in the Highlands too, I suppose.
• 7:46
  Jenn: , Meggan: I mean, I wouldn't be surprised.
• 7:47
  Jenn: I wouldn't be either um, down by the palace of Holyroodhouse is Arthur's seat.
• 7:54
  Jenn: So it is a hike to get really great views of the city.
• 7:58
  Jenn: I would say it was a bit challenging, probably harder than Franey which is like our baseline of,
• 8:04
  Meggan: oh my God.
• 8:06
  Jenn: It was like longer, I think.
• 8:10
  Jenn: I don't know,
• 8:11
  Meggan: was it as much just upward?
• 8:13
  Jenn: It was all up.
• 8:13
  Jenn: You're like hiking up the whole time is up.
• 8:16
  Jenn: There's like,
• 8:17
  Meggan: that's where I, oh,
• 8:18
  Jenn: I know.
• 8:19
  Jenn: I had to take some breaks, but there were people like trail running up this Fri, I was like, oh my God, this
• 8:26
  Meggan: Show offs.
• 8:27
  Jenn: And it was hot.
• 8:28
  Jenn: I will say we had really great weather.
• 8:30
  Jenn: Like our first week it was hot and sunny.
• 8:33
  Meggan: Nice.
• 8:34
  Jenn: It was like Scottish.
• 8:34
  Jenn: We got, we got the one week of Scottish summer, I think.
• 8:37
  Jenn: But museums are free or most museums are free things like the Edinburgh castle and the palace of Holyroodhouse are not free.
• 8:45
  Jenn: But we went to the writer's museum, the Scottish national gallery and the museum of Edinburgh, which are all free or suggested donation of five pounds each, but free.
• 8:56
  Meggan: Right.
• 8:57
  Jenn: All good.
• 8:57
  Jenn: Very very informational and like a good way.
• 9:01
  Jenn: If, if you were there in the weather, wasn't good.
• 9:03
  Jenn: Definitely a good way to spend time.
• 9:05
  Meggan: right.
• 9:06
  Jenn: And I'm a big Harry Potter fan, although not a fan of the author.
• 9:11
  Jenn: So
• 9:12
  Meggan: unfortunately I'm the same.
• 9:14
  Jenn: So I personally don't do anything official that would support the author.
• 9:21
  Jenn: But we did wander through, so there's uh, gray fire.
• 9:23
  Jenn: Greyfriars Kirkyard which is a graveyard and that's where she took a lot of like name inspiration.
• 9:32
  Meggan: Okay.
• 9:32
  Jenn: For a lot of the characters like Potter McGonagal there's a Tom Riddel.
• 9:37
  Jenn: So like,
• 9:39
  Meggan: Right.
• 9:39
  Jenn: So it was, it was kind of neat.
• 9:41
  Jenn: Victoria street just around the corner from that is the inspiration of supposed inspiration for Diagon alley.
• 9:48
  Meggan: Right.
• 9:49
  Jenn: It's really neat.
• 9:50
  Jenn: And the elephant cafe is kind of, no, they call themselves like the birthplace of Harry potters, where she sat and wrote a lot of the books.
• 9:59
  Jenn: It is unfortunately closed due to a fire.
• 10:02
  Meggan: Oh,
• 10:03
  Jenn: so yeah, I took a picture of the outside, but couldn't, couldn't go in, but you'll have to show that on the socials.
• 10:09
  Jenn: I will, I will.
• 10:10
  Jenn: So that was, that's what we did in Edinburgh we had just two nights there, but we
• 10:14
  Meggan: sounds delightful.
• 10:15
  Meggan: And then what did you do?
• 10:17
  Meggan: I, I wanna hear where you traversed next.
• 10:19
  Jenn: Next we took the train from Edinburgh to Inverness.
• 10:24
  Jenn: We'll talk about car rentals later, but we decided to do the train which took about four hours and it was very scenic, which was nice.
• 10:32
  Jenn: It was just,
• 10:33
  Meggan: and did you book that in advance as well?
• 10:35
  Jenn: Yes, that, that I had booked in advance.
• 10:37
  Jenn: I had booked a specific time, but I had also paid like a couple of pounds extra for a flexible ticket, like at any, any time ticket, but okay.
• 10:47
  Jenn: The Scottish rail.
• 10:50
  Jenn: Was threatening to strike while we were there.
• 10:52
  Jenn: They, they went on strike after we left, which was very nice of them to wait until.
• 10:56
  Jenn: Meggan: Thank you.
• 10:57
  Jenn: sirs and ma'ams But the service was cut back a bit.
• 11:01
  Jenn: So we did have to double check the times, but everything worked out totally fine.
• 11:05
  Meggan: Good.
• 11:06
  Jenn: Inverness is a much smaller city.
• 11:09
  Jenn: Definitely fun to wander around and very walkable.
• 11:12
  Jenn: Not.
• 11:14
  Jenn: A whole lot to do, however, cuz it is okay.
• 11:17
  Jenn: Kind of same touristy shops that you find in all of the touristy towns with all of the same touristy junk, right?
• 11:26
  Meggan: right.
• 11:27
  Jenn: Yeah.
• 11:27
  Jenn: We only had one day in Inverness.
• 11:29
  Jenn: I think it was like, or one night, I guess in Inverness.
• 11:31
  Jenn: It was probably enough.
• 11:33
  Jenn: The Inverness castle is closed until 2025.
• 11:36
  Jenn: So I, yeah, they're, they're doing some work.
• 11:38
  Jenn: I'm sad.
• 11:39
  Jenn: It looked kind of cool from the outside.
• 11:41
  Jenn: We went to Leakey's bookshop, which was the, just the most cute, adorable jam packed full of books.
• 11:48
  Jenn: It's all secondhand books, but it's an old church, so it has stained glass windows.
• 11:52
  Jenn: And like it's painted like pastel inside.
• 11:55
  Jenn: I'll I might have posted a picture on our stories while I was there, but I will definitely posted on our socials as well.
• 12:00
  Jenn: We walked around and I will say we had really good food at the white house.
• 12:04
  Jenn: And my husband, we like booked in advance for the food, the reservation, and he gets the text that your table at the white house is confirmed.
• 12:15
  Jenn: So he is like, oh, I should save this text.
• 12:18
  Meggan: screenshot it at least.
• 12:19
  Meggan: Yeah.
• 12:21
  Meggan: Oh gosh.
• 12:22
  Meggan: That's awesome.
• 12:23
  Jenn: Yeah.
• 12:23
  Jenn: So the next day is our fateful car rental day.
• 12:28
  Jenn: And I.
• 12:29
  Jenn: Was like a texting Meggan during this day, because I don't know if we've had a worst travel day and it was just totally things like outside of our control.
• 12:39
  Meggan: So, and is this in Inverness?
• 12:41
  Meggan: So is this where you were picking the car up?
• 12:42
  Jenn: Yeah, so we had to, we had to take a cab to the Inverness airport to go get our car because that's where we could get a rental car from there wasn't really anything in like right in the town.
• 12:54
  Jenn: The airport's only.
• 12:55
  Jenn: Maybe a 15, 20 minute drive outside of like the downtown area.
• 13:00
  Jenn: We had reserved a car with Avis through Expedia.
• 13:04
  Jenn: Um, This was not Expedia's fault.
• 13:06
  Jenn: so right.
• 13:07
  Jenn: We were supposed to pick up the car at 10:00 AM at the airport.
• 13:11
  Jenn: Unfortunately Avis and budgets, computer system nationwide went down completely.
• 13:19
  Jenn: They couldn't.
• 13:20
  Jenn: Do like anything.
• 13:22
  Meggan: Oh,
• 13:23
  Jenn: so we stood in line for three hours while they tried to figure out a workaround or what to do.
• 13:31
  Jenn: And eventually we had to sign up for our preferred membership.
• 13:35
  Jenn: On the Avis website, which was free to like rent a new, like, create a new reservation.
• 13:43
  Meggan: Okay.
• 13:43
  Jenn: Because I guess the preferred membership thing was a different computer system.
• 13:48
  Jenn: Maybe I'm not sure.
• 13:49
  Jenn: Anyway,
• 13:50
  Meggan: fancy people get their own system.
• 13:52
  Jenn: I don't know.
• 13:53
  Jenn: Anyway we finally got a car and then it's the stress of getting in a different car than you're used to driving on the other side of the road.
• 14:04
  Jenn: It was.
• 14:05
  Jenn: It was a very stressful day.
• 14:07
  Jenn: We did drive, we went to Urquhart castle, which is like castle ruins.
• 14:12
  Jenn: It's not really like a castle castle but it, and it's right on Loch Ness so we didn't do, there's like a ton of like boat tours that you can do.
• 14:20
  Jenn: And like that sort of thing, which we didn't do we just like,"yep, there there is Loch Ness.
• 14:25
  Jenn: I don't see Nessy let's move on with our day."
• 14:28
  Meggan: Right.
• 14:30
  Jenn: we visited the Colloden battlefield, which I was really excited for, but the visitor center was closed by the time we got there, cuz we were very late, late in our day.
• 14:39
  Jenn: But we were able to kind of walk the, the battlefield and that sort of
• 14:42
  Meggan: awesome.
• 14:43
  Jenn: And as an Outlander fan, we visited the Clava Clairns which was the supposed inspiration for the standing stones.
• 14:54
  Meggan: Oh yes.
• 14:54
  Meggan: Yes.
• 14:54
  Meggan: It
• 14:54
  . Jenn: So, yes it was a good day, but it was we did everything that we wanted to do except for the visitors center, but it felt very much like going through the motions because.
• 15:06
  Meggan: Right.
• 15:07
  Jenn: He was just like, well, we, we gotta do this.
• 15:08
  Jenn: We gotta do this.
• 15:09
  Jenn: So driving on the other side of the road, I didn't, I didn't do any driving while we were there.
• 15:13
  Jenn: Ryan did.
• 15:14
  Meggan: Right.
• 15:14
  Jenn: And he.
• 15:16
  Jenn: He found it a little bit challenging, but he definitely got used to it cuz he did end up driving later in the trip.
• 15:21
  Jenn: There are so many roundabouts, so if you're not sure roundabouts
• 15:25
  Meggan: Ireland was the same, so that's not shocking.
• 15:27
  Jenn: Yeah.
• 15:28
  Jenn: I think it's a little bit, maybe more challenging for American.
• 15:31
  Jenn: I don't know if America has as many like roundabout situations.
• 15:36
  Meggan: I mean, not the places I've been, so maybe
• 15:38
  Jenn: no, I think like, cuz we have, I mean, I don't have any in my tiny, small town where I live now, but like Halifax has some that like I'm used to like you going through them, but you're going through the, the other way.
• 15:50
  Jenn: So that's a little bit of a brain yes.
• 15:53
  Jenn: Yeah.
• 15:53
  Jenn: So then we went to return the car, so we were only renting the car for literally that one day, like we had the car by the time we brought it back, I think we had it for like five and a half hours.
• 16:04
  Jenn: Like we just wanted to do these things that were not close to any other spot.
• 16:10
  Jenn: So we go back it's after hours, it's a Sunday.
• 16:14
  Jenn: They had given us the code to get back into the parking lot.
• 16:17
  Jenn: The code doesn't work we're.
• 16:19
  Meggan: Of course it doesn't
• 16:21
  Jenn: why doesn't this work?
• 16:22
  Jenn: So we hit the button, we wait like five minutes.
• 16:25
  Jenn: Eventually they let us in and all of the parking spaces that say returns are full we're like, of course they are.
• 16:33
  Jenn: So we're like parked like maybe four or five spaces away from.
• 16:37
  Jenn: The spaces that say returns and we put the keys in the return box and I'm like, you know, we're like, if you hit the button,
• 16:45
  Meggan: you'll hear it.
• 16:46
  Jenn: You're gonna find the car.
• 16:47
  Jenn: And also like, don't, they have like some sort of tracking device on like anti theft tracking device on these cars.
• 16:54
  Jenn: Anyway, three days later we get like an email that our rental is overdue and I'm like, No, it's at the Inverness airport.
• 17:02
  Jenn: Like , what are you doing?
• 17:04
  Meggan: Click the button and go about your day people
• 17:07
  Jenn: anyway.
• 17:07
  Jenn: And so we had also my husband cut his finger on the parking brake in the inside of the car, because it was like one of those push buttony, like.
• 17:16
  Jenn: It's like a window thing, you know, like,
• 17:18
  Meggan: okay.
• 17:18
  Jenn: So he hooked his finger and pulled up on it to engage the parking brake.
• 17:22
  Jenn: And the metal part was like turned up and he sliced his finger open.
• 17:26
  Jenn: Anyway, it was just like the cherry on top of a car rental snafu.
• 17:31
  Meggan: Right.
• 17:32
  Jenn: So Ryan had already emailed Avis to be like, listen, we had this horrible experience.
• 17:37
  Jenn: They did give us two free car rental days in Canada or the US, so maybe we'll have a better experience later.
• 17:46
  Meggan: that just sounds horrible.
• 17:47
  Jenn: It was horrible.
• 17:49
  Meggan: And all the things you wanted to see, I'm glad you got to see them, but then you're rushed through doing them.
• 17:54
  Jenn: Yeah.
• 17:55
  Jenn: And we were like, you know, just a little grumpy and like stressed out about the whole thing.
• 17:59
  Jenn: So that day that was our, we just kept calling it a really bad day.
• 18:03
  Meggan: right, right.
• 18:06
  Jenn: Moving on.
• 18:06
  Meggan: Let's move on from the bad and talk about what was next.
• 18:10
  Jenn: Next, next, next, we met up with my best friend and her fiance at that time, and they picked us up at Inverness and we all went over to the Isle of Skye and met up with her parents there.
• 18:24
  Jenn: The Isle of Skye was probably the, the highlight of the whole trip.
• 18:28
  Jenn: We had a cottage with my best friend's parents, just outside of Portree which is the biggest town on the Isle of Skye.
• 18:35
  Jenn: It had the best views like it,
• 18:38
  Meggan: those pictures were beautiful,
• 18:39
  Jenn: the best views.
• 18:40
  Jenn: It was just so relaxing.
• 18:43
  Jenn: The Isle of Skye for me is a must-do.
• 18:44
  Jenn: Like if you're going to Scotland, Prioritize it, in my opinion, and Portree is a great like home base just because it is sort of central.
• 18:54
  Jenn: Um, And just like the biggest town where you're gonna have the most access to food
• 19:00
  Meggan: right.
• 19:01
  Jenn: That sort of thing.
• 19:02
  Jenn: Other highlights.
• 19:03
  Jenn: The Old Man of Storr was a hike.
• 19:05
  Jenn: It was a bit challenging, not, not as challenging as Arthur seat, not as challenging as Franey um, Anybody who hasn't hiked Franey and is listening to us is like, what is with these people that.
• 19:17
  Meggan: Just do it and you'll understand.
• 19:19
  Meggan: Well, then it's still a comparison point.
• 19:21
  Jenn: it is! Um, It had really great views and it's very like, I mean, it, that rock formation is in like a lot of movies and like that sort of thing.
• 19:30
  Jenn: Fairy pools is where my best friend got married.
• 19:34
  Meggan: Mm-hmm
• 19:34
  Jenn: so there's sort of like fairy pools.
• 19:37
  Jenn: The, the tourist fairy pools, and then there's like the smaller ones, if you keep driving down.
• 19:44
  Jenn: And so we were kind of at the smaller ones, just because we wanted a little bit more privacy
• 19:50
  Meggan: mm-hmm
• 19:50
  Jenn: there were still people kind of coming from like up and behind and hiking by.
• 19:55
  Jenn: Some of them took pictures, which I thought was really weird of like a wedding ceremony happening when you like don't know the people,
• 20:01
  Meggan: but maybe just looked magical.
• 20:04
  Jenn: We looked magical.
• 20:05
  Jenn: Other things we did Dunvegan and gardens is definitely worth a visit.
• 20:09
  Jenn: It is home to the McLeod clan and it is still, they still live there.
• 20:15
  Meggan: Wow.
• 20:15
  Jenn: Which is really, really cool.
• 20:17
  Jenn: And the gardens are beautiful.
• 20:19
  Jenn: And I nest or neist point lighthouse it's N E I S T I calling
• 20:24
  Meggan: maybe it's Neist who knows?
• 20:26
  Jenn: Who knows?
• 20:27
  Jenn: I don't know.
• 20:27
  Jenn: I can't do a Scottish accent.
• 20:29
  Jenn: I would um, ,, it's another hike kind of out to the most westerly point of the island of sky.
• 20:38
  Jenn: Um, Great views.
• 20:40
  Jenn: Very cool.
• 20:41
  Jenn: Really enjoyed it.
• 20:42
  Jenn: Yeah, we had five, five days on the Isle of Skye, one whole day was the wedding.
• 20:47
  Jenn: But it was very beautiful, definitely.
• 20:51
  Jenn: And I, that's kind of true for everywhere we went, but you need to make dinner reservations in advance and it doesn't have to be- in the cities, we made dinner reservations, like the day of, but in Portree you had to make them in advance like the day before, or like, cuz it's a very popular tourist destination and it, there's not that many restaurants and they're not that big.
• 21:16
  Jenn: Uh, So we got there the first day and the first day we got, there was Sunday and most things weren't open or they were full for reservations.
• 21:28
  Jenn: So that was interesting.
• 21:31
  Jenn: We ended up having to cook.
• 21:32
  Jenn: We had a, a kitchen at our cottage,
• 21:35
  Meggan: right.
• 21:35
  Jenn: We were okay.
• 21:36
  Jenn: But we ended up having to go get groceries and cook for ourselves just because we hadn't planned
• 21:41
  Meggan: rude.
• 21:42
  Meggan: I'm on vacation.
• 21:43
  Jenn: I know.
• 21:43
  Jenn: I don't wanna, I mean, I think we made like grilled cheeses, so like, Meggan: wasn't too gormet it was not fancy.
• 21:54
  Jenn: But after the Isle of Skye, we drove to Fort William, we took a ferry.
• 22:00
  Jenn: So you can get on the Isle of Skye there's like a bridge like a PEI to, to new Brunswick type of situation.
• 22:07
  Meggan: Okay.
• 22:07
  Jenn: But you can also take a ferry from different points on the island as well.
• 22:11
  Meggan: Okay.
• 22:12
  Jenn: So we took the ferry off because that was the most direct route to to Fort William.
• 22:18
  Jenn: So we literally drove to Fort William and then Ryan and I got back on a train because we were doing the Jacobite train, which AKA the Hogwarts express that goes from Fort William to Mallaig, and back.
• 22:31
  Jenn: So this is like a tourist train.
• 22:34
  Jenn: It's not a commuter train.
• 22:35
  Jenn: It is a
• 22:36
  Meggan: okay
• 22:36
  Jenn: steam engine.
• 22:38
  Jenn: It's very Harry Potter themed.
• 22:41
  Jenn: Like you can buy stuff on the train.
• 22:43
  Jenn: That's like Hogwarts express, platform nine and three quarters like that sort of thing.
• 22:48
  Jenn: Okay.
• 22:49
  Jenn: So we left Fort William at like 1245, I think.
• 22:54
  Jenn: And then we.
• 22:55
  Jenn: Went on our way to Mallaig it stops in somewhere that I don't remember the name of, you literally get off and you have.
• 23:03
  Jenn: 20 minutes to kind of like walk around the train station and like they have an ice cream stand where you can get ice cream.
• 23:10
  Jenn: The highlight is going over the Glenfinnan Viaduct, which is what you see in the movies that big, like swooping brick,
• 23:17
  Meggan: yes.
• 23:18
  Jenn: Type of thing.
• 23:19
  Jenn: So that's kind of like the highlight.
• 23:21
  Jenn: We met new friends on the train, because of course like the train you're, you're seated at a table.
• 23:28
  Jenn: And so like you're a couple sitting across like couple facing you.
• 23:32
  Jenn: So Mason and Sarah, Mason wrote down the name of the podcast, so I hope he's listening.
• 23:37
  Jenn: And if he is, he should message us on social media to let us know he actually is listening because we literally talked to them.
• 23:44
  Jenn: We were on the train for four hours.
• 23:46
  Jenn: We talked to them for the whole four hours.
• 23:48
  Meggan: And where were they from?
• 23:49
  Jenn: They're from California.
• 23:51
  Meggan: Love that for them.
• 23:52
  Jenn: Yeah.
• 23:52
  Jenn: Yeah.
• 23:53
  Jenn: Yeah.
• 23:53
  Jenn: So
• 23:54
  Meggan: Hi Mason and Sarah
• 23:55
  Jenn: that was like probably made that experience so much better.
• 24:00
  Jenn: And I know we talked about this in our travel tip Tuesday episode about like meeting new people.
• 24:05
  Jenn: Right?
• 24:05
  Jenn: Like it really made that experience.
• 24:07
  Jenn: So much fun.
• 24:09
  Jenn: So
• 24:09
  Meggan: it makes a big difference.
• 24:10
  Meggan: I love that.
• 24:11
  Meggan: That's awesome.
• 24:11
  Jenn: Yeah.
• 24:12
  Jenn: So I would say overall, the Jacobite train is expensive.
• 24:16
  Meggan: Like what do we call expensive?
• 24:17
  Meggan: If you don't mind sharing?
• 24:19
  Jenn: I, it was like a couple hundred dollars.
• 24:21
  Jenn: Okay.
• 24:21
  Jenn: The town that you go to, Mallaig like you get a couple of hours there.
• 24:26
  Jenn: It kind of reminded me of like a Digby, that's small.
• 24:31
  Jenn: It's a fishing town.
• 24:32
  Jenn: There's some restaurants, there's some shops.
• 24:34
  Jenn: There's like a boat fishing type of boat tour, like ocean tour type of thing that you can do.
• 24:39
  Jenn: But it's it's eh, like that town is just kind of, eh,
• 24:44
  Meggan: did you need as much time there as you had?
• 24:47
  Jenn: No.
• 24:48
  Meggan: Hmm.
• 24:49
  Meggan: Yeah.
• 24:49
  Meggan: See, that's the thing, the only thing I don't like about stuff like that is you're like, okay, let's go.
• 24:54
  Jenn: Yeah.
• 24:54
  Jenn: I mean, we didn't have like a lot of extra time and we just did like a little cafe.
• 24:59
  Jenn: Um, For dinner.
• 25:00
  Jenn: So if you were eating in like a proper sit down type of
• 25:05
  Meggan: right
• 25:06
  Jenn: meal, that would've taken up more time, but like,
• 25:09
  Meggan: and then did you come back same day?
• 25:11
  Jenn: Yeah.
• 25:11
  Jenn: So like, yeah, the train, like it give you a couple of hours and then you get back on the train, it takes you back to Fort William.
• 25:16
  Jenn: What's really nice is they switch you sides of the train.
• 25:21
  Jenn: So you know, going there, we were on the opposite side of the train for the Glenfinnan Viaduct so we didn't see that really when we were going, but when we were coming back because they switched sides of the train, we got to that's nice.
• 25:36
  Jenn: See it.
• 25:36
  Jenn: So that, that part is nice.
• 25:38
  Jenn: Cuz you don't have to worry if you didn't see it one way or what you saw on one side, you won't see coming back.
• 25:43
  Jenn: So that, that part is nice.
• 25:44
  Jenn: But overall, if you're a Harry Potter fan, it's cool.
• 25:49
  Jenn: It's not, it's not a must do.
• 25:51
  Meggan: Sure.
• 25:52
  Jenn: I'll put it that way,
• 25:52
  Meggan: but it's, you've got your memories.
• 25:54
  Meggan: You met Mason and Sarah.
• 25:55
  Meggan: It's all good.
• 25:55
  Jenn: Yes.
• 25:56
  Jenn: Yeah.
• 25:58
  Jenn: So Fort William is a cute small town.
• 26:00
  Jenn: It's known as the outdoor capital of the UK.
• 26:02
  Jenn: So if that's your jam, there's a lot of hiking around, including Ben Nevis which is the highest peak in the UK.
• 26:10
  Jenn: Ben Nevis was on our plans.
• 26:13
  Meggan: Mm-hmm
• 26:13
  Jenn: but our plans changed.
• 26:15
  Jenn: Weather was not great the day that we were gonna do it.
• 26:19
  Jenn: And the health of, one of the people in our group was was a concern.
• 26:23
  Jenn: So we changed our plans and we hiked Steall Falls in the Nevis Gorge, it was a shorter length and I can't remember, we were there.
• 26:33
  Jenn: A couple of hours, but we spent a lot of time at the end where the waterfall is.
• 26:36
  Jenn: It wasn't too challenging.
• 26:38
  Jenn: There was definitely like a few places that were like the footing was challenging, but as far as like uphill, it wasn't.
• 26:46
  Jenn: It was a bit uphill, but it wasn't that bad.
• 26:48
  Jenn: It poured at part of it.
• 26:51
  Jenn: We got absolutely soaked like back, because
• 26:53
  Meggan: I remember seeing pictures from that day.
• 26:55
  Jenn: Yeah.
• 26:55
  Jenn: My, like my underwear were wet when we got back to the cottage.
• 26:58
  Jenn: Cause we were soaked through like, it was.
• 27:01
  Meggan: Right.
• 27:02
  Meggan: You're you're you spent time in Scotland for sure.
• 27:05
  Jenn: Yeah.
• 27:05
  Jenn: Also fun fact.
• 27:06
  Jenn: It's featured in the background in five of the Harry Potter movies.
• 27:10
  Meggan: Oh, wow.
• 27:11
  Jenn: The location of like the Quidditch pitch.
• 27:13
  Meggan: Yeah.
• 27:13
  Jenn: So obviously the pitch isn't there, but you know, the waterfall is.
• 27:19
  Meggan: Well in Ireland when I saw scenes, like where game of Thrones was filmed.
• 27:24
  Meggan: I mean, it's still just cool to see.
• 27:26
  Meggan: Yeah.
• 27:26
  Meggan: So I totally get it.
• 27:28
  Meggan: Yeah.
• 27:28
  Meggan: Nobody was riding a horseback with furs on, but like, I couldn't picture it.
• 27:33
  Jenn: Yeah.
• 27:34
  Jenn: and I don't know if anybody saw my stories but there was like a steel cable Bri bridge.
• 27:41
  Jenn: If you wanna call it that, to get to the bottom of the waterfall.
• 27:45
  Jenn: So it was like one steel cable and then two that you held onto.
• 27:49
  Jenn: I did not do it.
• 27:51
  Meggan: No, no, no, no, no,
• 27:53
  Jenn: no, no.
• 27:54
  Jenn: It was not
• 27:54
  Meggan: Peter.
• 27:54
  Meggan: Would've done it.
• 27:55
  Meggan: He'd have been there with Ryan and we'd have been like, whatever, but yeah,
• 27:59
  Jenn: no Ryan and my best friend, Sarah and And her mom did it.
• 28:03
  Jenn: Well, her mom didn't do that.
• 28:04
  Jenn: She actually just decided to walk through the water, which wasn't that deep and got soaked.
• 28:09
  Jenn: But then we got rained on anyway, coming back.
• 28:11
  Jenn: So I guess it didn't matter.
• 28:13
  Jenn: Yeah, we've done it.
• 28:14
  Jenn: But anyway, I was fine.
• 28:16
  Jenn: Ryan took the pictures close up.
• 28:17
  Jenn: So I have, I know what it looks like.
• 28:21
  Meggan: Right.
• 28:21
  Jenn: So we spent two nights in Fort William, and then we headed.
• 28:25
  Jenn: We took the train to Glasgow to finish our trip.
• 28:31
  Meggan: Right.
• 28:31
  Jenn: That train ride was also four hours, but because you go like up and around, like a loch and come back down.
• 28:38
  Jenn: So that train ride felt long.
• 28:43
  Jenn: I don't know if it was cuz it was near the end of our trip or what, but it, that, that day felt long cuz we were, we got left Fort William, I think our train left at like 11, but of course we had to be out of our Airbnb by like 10 and it was just like, we, it was a lot of sitting around that day.
• 29:04
  Meggan: Right.
• 29:05
  Jenn: But anyway, Glasgow, Glasgow slogan is people make Glasgow and I just, I can see why, cuz it there's a lot of tourists obviously, but it just feels like a city that people actually live in.
• 29:19
  Meggan: Right.
• 29:19
  Jenn: Whereas Edinburgh, the, the, the.
• 29:23
  Jenn: Spots in Edinburgh where we were just felt like everybody was a tourist.
• 29:27
  Meggan: Right, right, right.
• 29:28
  Jenn: But Glasgow, definitely the people that were around were a lot younger.
• 29:32
  Jenn: I, I would guess that it's more of a party city based on the fact that we were there our first night, there was a Saturday night and there was karaoke going on outside of our hotel until like three 30 in the morning.
• 29:48
  Meggan: Oh, so there's bless their hearts
• 29:50
  Jenn: yeah, no, we were like, I'm sleeping.
• 29:52
  Jenn: Like no.
• 29:54
  Meggan: Oh, sorry for you.
• 29:55
  Meggan: But I gotta go to sleep.
• 29:56
  Jenn: Some highlights in Glasgow murals, there's a lot of street artists and there's a great map online that you can do like a self-guided tour.
• 30:04
  Jenn: Nice that in the show notes um, We didn't check out all of them there's a lot, but that was really cool.
• 30:10
  Jenn: The people's palace is a museum it's free.
• 30:14
  Jenn: And it was a great way to learn about the history of like common people in Glasgow, because I mean, so many of these museums that you go to are like the, the Royals
• 30:24
  Meggan: sure
• 30:24
  Jenn: like their history.
• 30:26
  Jenn: But it was really nice to learn about how normal people actually lived there.
• 30:31
  Jenn: We did a hop on hop off tour and I'm
• 30:34
  Meggan: oh, good.
• 30:34
  Jenn: Pretty sure.
• 30:35
  Jenn: This is my first time actually doing one.
• 30:38
  Meggan: Right.
• 30:38
  Meggan: I think we've talked about that before.
• 30:39
  Meggan: That's awesome.
• 30:40
  Meggan: It's really a great way to see things.
• 30:43
  Jenn: It was and the.
• 30:45
  Jenn: The first one that we got on had a live guide instead of the recording.
• 30:51
  Jenn: So that was really cool too, to have a person who lives there talk about it.
• 30:56
  Jenn: The Kelvingrove art gallery, I love wandering through art galleries that was also free, lots of different art.
• 31:04
  Jenn: It was really funny because we saw some Van Gogh art, which, and Meggan and I had just gone to the what was it called?
• 31:10
  Jenn: Van Gogh live type of thing in Halifax.
• 31:13
  Jenn: So that was kinda neat.
• 31:15
  Jenn: So like see the actual painting.
• 31:17
  Meggan: Right.
• 31:18
  Meggan: I love that.
• 31:19
  Jenn: And the Glasgow, cathedral and necropolis, the cathedral is beautiful.
• 31:24
  Jenn: And then the necropolis is massive.
• 31:27
  Jenn: There's so big.
• 31:28
  Jenn: So we wandered through that and it also kind of, it was up on a hill.
• 31:31
  Jenn: So it gave you really good views, right?
• 31:35
  Jenn: So that's it.
• 31:36
  Jenn: I mean, that's what we did in two weeks.
• 31:39
  Meggan: It was so talk to me then about like your itinerary before you went, how you did with that, because we've talked a lot about your over planning and how did that actually work out?
• 31:52
  Jenn: It worked out very well.
• 31:56
  Jenn: I did it.
• 31:56
  Meggan: Congratulations.
• 31:58
  Jenn: So like a couple days before we left, my husband looked at our itinerary and was like, this looks very reasonable, like good job.
• 32:06
  Jenn: And right.
• 32:06
  Jenn: I was like, thank you.
• 32:11
  Meggan: I was like, that's well and good, but let's see how it played,
• 32:13
  Jenn: how it actually works.
• 32:15
  Jenn: There were some days that we were gone.
• 32:17
  Jenn: All day, like the day in Edinburgh, where we did we did Edinburgh, castle and Palace of Holyroodhouse all in one day.
• 32:26
  Jenn: Like we did the whole Royal mile in one day, that day was busy, but it was our second day there.
• 32:32
  Jenn: And we definitely had a lot of down days.
• 32:34
  Jenn: There was a couple of days where we didn't leave our accommodations until noon.
• 32:38
  Jenn: And that was most.
• 32:40
  Jenn: That was definitely when we were with.
• 32:43
  Jenn: A group like with my best friend and her parents.
• 32:46
  Jenn: That gave me a little bit of stress and anxiety, there was one day we were kind of waiting for everybody to get ready and I'm like, oh my God, it's like noon.
• 32:53
  Jenn: We have, we're not, nobody's like ready to leave.
• 32:56
  Jenn: And Ryan's like "relax" like it's going to be.
• 32:59
  Jenn: It's gonna be fine.
• 33:01
  Jenn: And I think probably we can talk about in the future, maybe doing an episode about group travel because it is like a totally different like kettle of fish
• 33:08
  Meggan: hundred percent,
• 33:09
  Jenn: hundred percent different.
• 33:11
  Jenn: But yeah, I definitely, I want to go back to Scotland and it was magical and.
• 33:17
  Jenn: Yeah, it was just a really, really good soul filling trip.
• 33:22
  Meggan: awesome.
• 33:22
  Meggan: Well, that's so great.
• 33:23
  Meggan: I'm so glad everything worked out.
• 33:25
  Meggan: You have your own travel fail now to tell wasn't your fault, but still a story that's your bad day.
• 33:32
  Meggan: So we all have to have them, I suppose, I suppose.
• 33:35
  Meggan: Awesome.
• 33:35
  Meggan: Well, thank you so much for sharing that.
• 33:37
  Meggan: I, I.
• 33:38
  Meggan: Obviously, I've never been to Scotland.
• 33:40
  Meggan: I, I look forward to going someday and it sounds lovely.
• 33:43
  Jenn: Yes.
• 33:43
  Jenn: Yeah.
• 33:44
  Jenn: So make sure you're following us on social media.
• 33:46
  Jenn: I'll be sharing lots of photos of, of our trip over the next couple of weeks.
• 33:51
  Jenn: And you can find us also on our website, travel mug podcast.com.
• 33:56
  Jenn: You can support the show on buy me a coffee and share the show with a travel loving pal, someone who's going to Scotland maybe, and they need some ideas.
• 34:05
  Jenn: Exactly.
• 34:07
  Jenn: All right.
• 34:07
  Jenn: Next episode might get to hear all about Megan's trip
• 34:11
  Meggan: traverses, and until then.
• 34:13
  Meggan: Bye everybody.
• 34:14
  Jenn: Bye.