The British Open and Edinburgh Castle in Scotland

We began a whirlwind trip two weeks ago packed with a lot of activities, family, friends and fun! It went by way too quickly, but that's probably because we saw and did so much. To give a brief recap on our trip, first, we went to Scotland with Aaron's parents where we visited Edinburgh and went to the British Open. Then we flew on Tuesday (also Aaron's birthday!) from Edinburgh-London-Seattle. We were only in Seattle for five days, but we saw lots of friends and family, and also went to a wedding. Or should I say that Aaron performed a wedding and I attended : ) We arrived back in London last Monday and are slowly adjusting back to real life after two back-to-back eventful and amazing trips.

So first, I'll start with Scotland...
Aaron's parents arrived from Elk on Thursday afternoon. They spent Friday exploring with Aaron and met me at my work for lunch. Then that evening we had dinner at our favorite Italian restaurant in Fulham before heading off to the train station.

As we were trying to figure out logistics for our trip, we decided to take the Caldonian sleeper train up to Scotland on Friday night. We were having difficulty finding a place to stay in Edinburgh / St. Andrews area for that Friday, so thought, why not!? On Saturday morning, all we could say is they should not call that a "sleeper" train. The lounge car was great, the beds were comfy, rooms were cosy but actually a decent size... however, the train is not a smooth, peaceful ride so you're constantly being jerked around and hearing squeaks and rail noises all night. It was probably the worst night of sleep that we've all ever had, but certainly a memorable experience!

We arrived into Edinburgh at 7am (-1 night of sleep) and immediately picked up our rental car. From there, we drove to St. Andrews, which is where the British Open was being played. We had heard on the radio that there was so much wind on the course that they had delayed play for the time being. What we didn't expect was that wind would delay play practically all day and we wouldn't see a single golf club swung! So instead, we walked around the course (trying not to get blown away... it was pretty windy!) and then had lunch in St. Andrews. At 3pm, we decided to call it a day. So unfortunately, we didn't see any golf on Saturday, but we all were very sleep deprived at this point: a nap was more important!

We rented an old barn that was recently converted to a house just outside of Perth. It was very secluded with lots of trees and wild life, and from the review comments on the site, everyone loved it- apart from the road that you drive up to get there. Well, we got to experience what they were talking about first hand. A mile long, winding, gravel road that has cliff edges to one side and boulders/trees to the other. Each time we drove up and down it, we thought we were going to die. The barn was really peaceful, cosy and beautiful. We ended up taking a quick nap and then drove into Perth for dinner that night.

Sunday we headed back into Edinburgh. We toured the Edinburgh Castle, which sits overlooking the entire city on Castle Rock. There has been a castle there since the 12th century, but evidence has been found that the area has been occupied since 2nd century AD. The castle used to be a royal residence for the monarchs, fortress and prison. It now houses museums, a Scottish National War Museum, and the Royal crown, sceptre and Stone of Scone, a stone where Scottish monarchs sat when they were crowned. Every day at 1pm, a huge gun is fired from the castle. It was originally used as a time signal for ships in the harbor, but is now a tourist attraction.

The city itself is very Gothic looking. We had lunch and then wandered around for a bit before it started to rain, so we ran to the car. Typical summer weather in Scotland : )

On Monday, Paul went fishing, so we dropped him off to meet his guide and then Gail, Aaron and I drove to Scone Palace. You may remember the Stone of Scone? Well, this was it's original home. Scone Palace (pronounced Scoon) originally began as Scone abbey in the 12th century. The palace has now been home to the Earls of Mansfield for 400 years plus, but it was the site where the early Kings of Scotland were crowned. Queen Victoria stayed in the palace in 1842. The palace also has gifts from Marie Antoinette and was the first place of introduction of the Douglas fir to Britain. We toured around inside the Palace and then had scones and tea in the cafe. There is a star-shaped maze on the grounds, so we went to check this out afterwards, and naturally, we turned it into a competition: get to the center of the maze before everyone else. Gail won, I came in second, and Aaron... well... Aaron took a while : )

After touring Scone Palace, we headed back to the British Open. Because of the wind delay on Saturday, they had pushed the rounds back by one day, so the final was on Monday. They were offering £10 tickets and we thought we would have better luck! There were so many less spectators than the weekend, so we got very close to the players! We saw the winner, Zach Johnson, tee off at the 10th hole, and Jordan Spieth hit onto the green on the 3rd hole. We watched for a few hours and then the rain kicked in, so we headed back to Perth to watch the final few holes from a pub inside.

Amateur Paul Dunne and Jordan Spieth

Watching the last few holes of the British Open from this pub, was one of my favorite experiences from the trip. It was a total locals place in the downstairs of an Inn. Paul met us there, so it was the four of us, the bartender and two men with thick Scottish accents. They were very nice but kept trying to talk to us and we could barely understand what they were saying! So we laughed, nodded and smiled, and kept drinking our pints pretending we knew what they were talking about.

Once the British open was finished, we drove to a place that was recommended by the bartender for Aaron's birthday dinner. We tried Haggis, which is a beloved Scottish dish that consists of many things you would not want to know that you are eating. It is illegal to import it into the US, so we figured as long as we were in Scotland, we should give it a go... and it was actually delicious! But I will spare you all the gross details of what it's made from. There's a thing called Google for a reason.

The next morning, Aaron and I dropped Gail and Paul off in Edinburgh (they were staying for an extra day) and we departed on our 1.5 hour + 9.5 hour flights... destination: Seattle!