CIAO from Napoli...: Scotland...finally!

So I may be just about the laziest blogger on the planet, especially since I don't have much to do anyways!! But here it is, without further ado...our trip to Scotland during Memorial Day weekend! Andrew and Matt planned out a fun filled, five day road trip through Scotland...and boy did we cover some ground! I think if I had to do it over again, I maybe wouldn't have tried to make so many stops (we spent A LOT of time in the car), but then again I guess if you want to see everything, you have to drive and drive and drive!

Here's basically the route we took...obviously we couldn't take straight shots like this, but you get the idea!

We arrived on Wednesday afternoon in Edinburgh, picked up our rental car, and headed out to see Stirling Castle since it was only a few minutes away. For all you Braveheart fans, William Wallace's famous bloody battle was fought just down the hill from the castle, so the boys were totally excited about that!

After the castle, we figured it wouldn't be right if we didn't try to find a proper Scottish pub and mingle with the locals. It was starting to rain pretty good too so it was a good time to head inside. We chose a pub at random and we couldn't have made a better choice!

These characters were unbelievable! Andy, who to me seemed like the local rich guy who cuts out from work early to get drunk every day at this pub, and Frankie (a bit of a loon) who everyone said was the best jazz musician in Scotland. These guys found out we were American and played every American song they could find on the jukebox (ie Neil Diamond's "Coming to America," multiple Beach Boys tracks, the band America...you get it). In the end I think we were a big hit because they bought us all a round! YES!

This pretty much ended out first day in Scotland, as we had to head back to our hotel since dinner was part of our room rate. Did I mention said hotel was a castle? (Airth Castle to be exact)

After spending the night in Edinburgh, we took off bright and early and headed north to our next stop in Fort Williams. There was some amazing scenery on the way, and we ran into this guy just playing on one of the roadside turnoffs. I like to think it was an homage to my Glendora Tartans!!!

With a quick stop in Fort Williams for lunch, we continued on our scenic drive and stopped at Eilean Donan Castle, which may have been the coldest place that my body has ever experienced! Fa-reezing! We actually didn't even go in because we were already a bit castle-d out, but it made for a great photo op nonetheless!

Here's a castle fact for ya...this one has been in a bunch of movies, a couple of which were Highlander and James Bond - The World is not Enough. But other than that, just another castle!

Our final leg of the drive for Thursday was to head even farther north to the Isle of Skye where we would be staying in the little town of Portree. This was a cute little port village, where lucky for us, they were holding the Annual Accordian and Fiddle festival right in our hotel! Okay so we actually never went to it since we chose to stay and play at a local pub instead. And because we were so far north we almost missed dinner at ANY restaurant because of the tricky sun! We figured since the sun was still out that we had plenty of time to get something to eat, but I guess we didn't pay attention to the fact that the sun stays out up there until almost midnight when most kitchens are closed...oops!