It's been a great week. Just me and Diver Dude on the road, discovering a country from the comfort of his Dodge Ram. It's always an interesting combination with a big american truck and narrow british country roads. More than once I've seen oncoming drivers freak out and swerve when they see what's coming towards them. The power of gross tonnage almost always works to our advantage. Except when it comes to filling up the gas tank. Ouch!
Anyway, without further ado, here's our Scotland trip in pictures.
Our first castle was actually on the English side, right on the water. Bamburgh Castle - parts of it dates back to 547 AD
When we reached the scottish border we saw Hadrian's Wall - erected in 122 AD to defend the northern frontier of the Roman Empire.
Just in case we forgot where we were going :)
The capital of Scotland is Edinburgh - a beautiful city with gorgeous architecture, a river running through it, and lots of green parks.
A seagull blocking the view from Edinburgh Castle of the city.
Edinburgh Castle perched high on a hill in the city.
Bag pipers were everywhere. Love the haunting sound of it.
Candles in a church in Edinburgh. Every little flame burning for somebody special.
Streets of Edinburgh.
A small village in the mountains - Birnam - Beatrix Potter (author of Peter Rabbit) spent her childhood summers here and got inspiration for many of her children's books from the surrounding forests.
Playground in Birnam on a rainy and misty evening.
Our hotel in Birnam.
Blair Castle outside of Atholl (no, I don't have a lisp) - 13th century
Deer on Blair Castle grounds.
A train bridge on our way to Loch Ness.
Probably the most famous lake in Scotland - Loch Ness. No, we didn't even get a glimpse of Nessie :)
The Scottish Highlands - beautiful even in the rain
I love me some fuzzy Highland cows!
One of many distilleries - Ben Nevis
Another distillery - Auchentohsan
Loch Lomond at dusk
Loch Lomond at dawn
New Lanark - A cotton mill village founded in 1786 with the ground breaking concept of free housing, schooling, and medical for the workers.
Our last castle in Scotland - Drumlanrig Castle - a renaissance building commisioned in 1691 by William Douglas. It had an impressive collection of art and we found to our surprise an original Rembrandt.
The view from Drumlanrig Castle. I could have my morning coffee here. Decaf of course :)
It's good to be back home, but being explorers by nature I know it won't be long until we start talking about where to go next. Prague is on our list. So is Paris.
Tomorrow I have an "group orientation" at my OB/GYN clinic. Me in a group of normal fertiles. Actually having conceived without the help of a team of doctors. Weird. I'm afraid I'll feel like a poser and like I don't belong there. It's still all so surreal.
Pregnancy symptoms are mild. Nausea that can be compared to being slightly motion sick most of the day. Boobs are sore off and on. I'm hungry all the time and I know where all the restrooms are located along A1 going up to Scotland :)
I worry a lot.
A LOT.
But I try very hard to focus on being positive and believing in this miracle.
Oh wow, Scotland is just lovely! I envy you living over there and being able to do short trips fairly easily!
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your OB orientation, you ARE a regular pregnant lady! ;) Your pg symptoms sound just fine to me, I also had it fairly mild which I see now was a blessing, but I wished harder for more obvious symptoms in the beginning. Be positive, girlie, you deserve this miracle!
Beautiful pictures taking by a beautiful person at a beautiful point in her life. Enjoy your orientation and symptoms. :)
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness those pictures are beautiful!! What a wonderful way to celebrate the new little life inside of you with a road trip!!
ReplyDeleteIt's hard not to worry when you've been on the other side of things. I didn't have any pregnancy symptoms at all really. The ones I did have I basically imagined myself having I think. I wanted symptoms so badly. I worried throughout my pregnancy, and now that he's here I have a whole new set of worries. In the early months there was a lot of sheer terror moments where I was sure something had gone wrong, as time went on the worry morphed into a more gentle, but still present sensation. I'm sending you positive energy and hoping you're able to let the worry go a little at a time as your pregnancy progresses. :) ((HUGS))
Boohoooo and you don't have Dublin in the list of place to visit? boohhooo I want you HERE!!!
ReplyDeleteI soooo understand the worry my friend, it can't be helped. One day at the time that's the only thing. I have a new worry for which I have googled everything I could and it's....incompetent cervix...ahhhh what if I have it? I know I know....it's just to tell then when one worry is over, the next one comes along!
heheh I just saw you comment on my blog! Much better! And looking forward to seeing you here!!!
ReplyDeleteThose pictures are amazing! What a beautiful trip (and a great photographer)! Be positive and enjoy being chosen for a miracle. The heartbeat and the beta all point in the right direction. Your challenge was fertilization. Now you should be in the clear. Enjoy, mama! Focus on enjoying- lol!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful pictures! What a great road trip. I love the picture of the purple door.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you are focusing on staying positive. I am trying to do that too!
The pictures are amazing. My husband and I spent a few days in Glasgow, and it was gorgeous also. The staying positive is hard for all of us, at every point, sometimes, but hurray for trying! Will be following to make sure you do :)
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for sharing your pics! They are beautiful and I want to go to Scotland so badly now! Just, wow. Glad you have a good time :)
ReplyDeleteOMG Scottland is so green, so beautiful! I have always wanted to visit there and England to drive through places like you posted so green and hilly. Amazing pics and looks like an awesome trip! Your little one's pics is amazing, just beautiful! So excited for you and he/she truly is a miracle for real girl! xoxo
ReplyDeleteFabulous pictures - thanks for sharing!!! You will LOVE Prague! Good luck at your orientation - I'm sure that will be a weird experience...
ReplyDeleteHow lovely! Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteYoue photos are AMAZING!!! And the trip sounds great! Btw, you should have a photo soon :) and you are NOT a poser. So stop it!
ReplyDeleteI'm so stiking Jealous of you right now!! But oh how amazing to take off and drive to Scotland!!!... Oh man I think I'm going to be sick... I hate you and Love you all at the same time! I loved the pics they were all so beautiful! I esp loved the little comment about the candles. How every one burning was for somebody special. I never thought of it that way before and I have been burning candles in church for YEARS!! I was raised Catohlic. But anyway Loved them all all and I'm so glad you had a fabulous time!
ReplyDeleteGreat pictures - and I loved the candle one with your comment too. Looks like you had a wonderful trip, and packed a lot in. If you were at Bamburgh, you must have been near Alnwick as well, where a lot of scenes from the Harry Potter films were filmed - did you go there?
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your orientation - and just enjoy the feeling of being 'normal'... xx
Welcome back! Your pictures are lovely! I really enjoyed them. If you do eventually hit up Prague, Paris, and/or Dublin, you have to promise to share more pics. :) I've been to both Paris and Dublin (both with my sweetie) and it was easy for us to just get swallowed up and lost (in a good way!) there...
ReplyDeleteBeautiful pictures!!! I definitely hope to see Scotland some day!
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear pregnancy is all going well. Looks like a great adventure you guys had.
ReplyDelete