Final Scotland Adventure

Well this post has been a long time coming – was so busy enjoying my last adventure in Scotland that I didn’t write anything as I went so here is the somewhat abridged version of Yli’s final Scotland Adventure.*

Trampy arrived back on the Thursday before the Scottish Ceroc Champs so I was able to head to Glasgow the next day to farewell Lemoncake for her 4 month sojourn in Australia

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The next morning Pretzelmeister & I head up to Edinburgh for the Scottish Ceroc Championships. Which was a great day!!! I got very lucky in the Lucky Dip and drew Jammie for it – and although we danced brilliantly in our heat and made it to the semi-final – in the semi-final – a combination of extremely blah music and both of having our heads not quite there we danced no were near as well as in the heat *shrug* these things happen and we had fun

I also competed in Advanced with Sheepman and given how much practice we had had I was very please with how we danced – we didn’t make it beyond the semi-final (there were no heats) and this produced a lovely commend from one friend – that we had been robbed and should have been in the final if not placed – nice to hear – even it I didn’t see it that way.

Once the competition was over the real fun began – Freestyle dancing over 2 rooms until late.

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The next day was day one of the trip proper – this trip was with Mum & Dad and we started with a day in Edinburgh – a day I not nearly enough time to see anything in Edinburgh so we kept it simple – starting with Mary Kings Close – which was very interesting – the streets were so narrow that I could touch both walls at once with out stretching!

From Mary Kings Close it was up the hill to Edinburgh Castle – for which a day is barely enough – my favourite place here was probably the war memorial which is the newest addition to the castle.

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Then it was time to head for the highlands – stopping off at a random small town and coming across the Beatrice Potter Garden on the way -which is not nearly as delightful as sounds - some of the sculptures were rather creepy

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Monday saw us heading off on a Whiskey & Heather tour – with Heavenly Highlands Tours. This was the high light of the trip for me the landscape was breath taking, the guide Paul was informative and we went off road to place you could never get to on your own, add in lunch, whiskey tasting & hills of heather *Sigh* it was heavenly, wandering though heather, deer spotting, ospery spotted and the so very cute sheep.

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Tuesday saw us with another early start and heading off to Loch Ness – we decided to pass on the visitors centre and headed to Urquart Castle – a fabulous ruin with breath taking views of the Loch. On our way to URquart Castle we stopped at a viewing point and were able to go down to the shores of the loch & watch the mist moving over the hills surrounding it.

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From Urquart Castle we headed to the battlefield of Cullodeon which was kinda weird – you look out over this field – which has been restored to it’s natural state and it’s hard to imagine that so many men died here and the repercussions that had for the Scottish people…

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After Cullodeon it was off to Clavia Cairn – which a number of burial cairns and from there is was time to head off on a long drive north to Wills ready for early morning ferry ride to Orkney.

If you ever get to Wills – be sure to visit the local hotel – they do a fabulous 3 course fixed seasonally menu – which was divine!!

Orkney was amazing and our first tourist stop was on our way to our B&B at the Italian Chapel – which was built by Italian Prisoners of War during WW2 – from there we headed into Kirkwell for a wander around a look at Magnus Cathedral, some delicious Orkney IceCream before heading to our B&B and once settled there head out to a jewellery gallery and workshop & chair makers workshop before having dinner at local pub.

The next day saw us heading off to Maes Howe, Ring of Brognar, Steness Standing Stones and leisurely meandering around the Island. Then Friday came and it was time to return to the mainland but not before another stop at the Jewellery gallery for a purchase and then onto a weavers gallery and a knitting shop before jumping on the ferry back to Wills.

From Wills we headed towards Inverness taking a detour around Inverness and heading down the side of the Lochs and enjoying the scenic route back towards Glasgow – we didn’t make it all the way to Glasgow on Friday got as far as Fort George where we after we found a place to stay we wandered into town for dinner and then walked back along the river/loch.

Saturday our mission was to get me to Southport for the JiveAddiction Ceroc Weekender and saw us heading over the mountains through beautiful terrain with mist covering the mountains and the sunshine breaking through – tried taking some photos but they just endup blah

Made it to Southport in good time and I was on the floor dancing by 4.15pm - but more about that in my next post


* you will be pleased to know that I didn’t make the same Mistake during my Turkish adventures which will be coming soon