Scotland

I know some of you were wondering why I hadn't posted in a while and it was because we have been in Scotland. We had a great time in Scotland. This was our family get together vacation and Jason's family flew over from the States and we all met in Scotland.

The House: We rented a large house so that we could all stay together. I couldn't get a picture to capture the size of the house but here it is from the front. The house was perfect since it had two living rooms (one for the kids and one for adults), 7 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms, a large dining room and a large kitchen. We had plenty of space to spread out and with 6 kids running around plus a baby we made use of all the space. The yard was nice too. There was area for the kids to play and jump on the trampoline as well as woods to walk through and lochs to look at (We could have fished but the weather wasn't great and I really had no interest) . The kids enjoyed looking for little lizards and frogs. The house was really a terrific gathering place. The house caretaker is also a trained chef and cooked for us on some nights and on other nights someone would cook dinner for the family. The kids got to eat at the kids table in the kitchen. I remember being relegated to the kids table when I was little and it was so much fun and it didn't seem like things have changed since the kids seemed to have a blast having dinner. We fed the kids around 6pm so that by 8pm we were ready for our adult meal. It was great fun to gather around the dining room table. We don't get to be together as one group very often so when we do everyone has fun laughing, joking and telling stories. It was also nice to know on the nights we had Simon (the caretaker/chef) to make dinner we didn't have to do any dishes after the meal.

Hikes: There are plenty of hills to hike around in Scotland and they are all full of magnificent beauty as well as a LOT of sheep. I have never seen so many sheep in my life. Jason and I took turns hiking with Sofia since we didn't feel Ali was quite up to climbing up the big hills. The first hill we climbed was quite high and with all the heather it was not easy. Add in some steepness and poop avoidance it was a tiring walk. Sofia did amazing. She would have made it all the way to the top but since we were slower than everyone else they were coming back down again before we got to the top. Sofia asked to continue to the top but since everyone said it was very windy up top and I didn't want to press my luck I decided it would be better for us to head back down. Sofia was happy though to just be with her cousins so we started back down. It made me laugh at different times when Sofia would stop and say, "Isn't it beautiful mommy?". It was so precious and I am thrilled that she can see the beauty around her. Of course, she also noticed all the sheep poop around (since the sheep just roam the hills) and proceeded to take a picture of it. It was quite amusing. Jason took Sofia on her second hike. She again did a great job. She had fun watching her cousins run after the sheep on the mountain while they hiked.

Out and About: Our first day was spent at the house and grocery shopping. At the cheese shop the owner told us about a fish festival being held in Arbroath over the weekend. There was apparently a famous fish called the Arbroath Smokie which is a smoked haddock. It sounded interesting so we decided to head there the next day. The festival wasn't quite what I would think of as a fish festival but the Arbroath Smokie was very good. The kids loved playing in the grass and dancing around with their cousins. It was also just nice to be on the water. That thick salty air is just so nice and yes I am serious. It was interesting to watch the water over the time we were there b/c the sea was definitely picking up and by the time we left there was water splashing over the break wall. It would be interesting to see the water during a real storm. After leaving the festival we decided to go to Glamis Castle. It was an interesting castle and is the first place that we have gone to where the tour guide has told us the ghost stories and legends about the castle. It is fun to think about secret rooms and ghosts. There is an extra window on the outside of the castle that can't be accounted for on the inside and there is a legend that goes along with it about there being a secret room behind the wall. I couldn't help but think, if I were the owner of the castle the first thing I would do would be to drill a hole in the wall to see what is there. In any event it was a fun tour. We had great plans to go to Glasgow, Edinburgh, Stirling and Inverness. The only one we made was Inverness. I really wanted to see the Highlands of Scotland so on the day we were going to go to Stirling we decided to skip that castle and head to the highlands. We had lunch in Inverness but decided we wanted to take the scenic route back through the mountains. It was a beautiful ride but 5 hours in the car for one day made us cancel plans to drive the 2 hours to Glasgow or the 2 hours to Edinburgh or the 2 hours to Stirling so the rest of the time we either spent at the house doing hikes and playing in the woods or exploring smaller towns close to our house. The ride up to Inverness was nice but we took the major highway (a two lane road) and so it wasn't as scenic or pleasant since we were driving at highway speed. Don't get me wrong we still ooowwwwed and ahhhhhed all the way up the highway. After having lunch in Inverness we decided to head for a castle. On the way to the castle we got side-tracked by a sign for Fort George. Jason was interested in it and it was going to be on the water so we headed that way. When we arrived we realized they wanted $26 per person to enter and it just wasn't worth that to us so we decided to continue home. Having navigated to Fort George though the TOMTOM gave us a new route to get home which sent us via Nairn. Nairn is right on the coast. When I am near an ocean I just need to touch it so when we saw the sign for the harbour we followed it and found a beach. Sofia and I rolled up our pants and took off our socks and shoes and went into the Moray Firth. It was a little chilly since the water temp is somewhere around 15 degrees (59 F) and it was windy and rainy when we went in but it was still fun. After that we headed home through the mountains which were absolutely stunning. We also went to Blair Castle. the girls enjoyed this castle and pretended it was theirs. This was the only castle we have been to that we weren't required to be on a tour. This is ideal for us with kids b/c we just want to walk through and the kids don't want to hear some long winded explanation. They had a lot of fun telling us that this was their bed and this is where they have tea with their friends and that this bed was their prince's bed etc etc. It was very cute. This is a picture of the girls standing in "their garden" at Blair Castle.

The Animals: I couldn't leave this post without adding some of the pictures of the animals we saw this past week. The sheep were so cute but I think my favorite is the Highland Cow.




The Car: This was the first time that Jason and I have ever driven on the "other" side if the road. It was very different but once you get use to it then it is fine. The only unnerving thing is that the roads are so narrow. Many roads are single track, windy, hilly roads and people drive fast or at least it seems fast when there is barely enough space to pass even when it is a two lane road. The nice thing is that there are spaces to pull over periodically so we utilized those spaces to stop to take pictures of sheeps, highland cows, and the beautiful countryside.

Now we are back in Prague and hoping that we will have some nice weather to finish out the summer. We will have the pictures from Scotland posted soon.