About three weeks ago Kat and I left Milton Keynes to head north, to Scotland. We stayed three nights in its capital, Edinburgh. Kat had been there before, but I had not, and since it was so close to Christmas we thought we’d stay in the country and avoid airports. We could have taken a short flight, but as I have documented before, I hate flying. We also wanted to see a little more of the country we’re living in, so we decided to take the train.

This was the same weekend the Eurostar trains got stuck and all hell broke loose. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: This country does not understand winter. The snow tire is non-existent. Snow exists, but any counter-measure against it seemingly does not. I have seen exactly one snowplow, and that was on a tiny back road in the middle of the Scottish Highlands (which I’ll get to later). The day before we left for Edinburgh there was maybe a half-inch of snow on the ground in the morning (and that had fallen the night before) and Kat’s school closed for the day. For the better part of last week, our road was essentially a sheet of ice, but did they salt or sand it? Nope. I just don’t get it; they have had winter before here, right?

Winter rant aside, we experienced slight delays on our train journey, but thankfully nothing major. The first leg of our journey took us from Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire to Crewe, Cheshire. The trip was uneventful, and after a short delay we got our second train, from Crewe, to Carlisle, Cumbria.

The journey from Milton Keynes to Edinburgh, with stops in Crewe and Carlisle.

On this train we were led to believe that at Carlisle the train would separate; four coaches would head for Glasgow, and four would head for Edinburgh. So the train stopped and we waited, since we were in one of the Edinburgh-bound coaches. The train didn’t move, and a man started coming through saying that if we were going to Glasgow, we needed to move to another coach. We said we were going to Edinburgh, and were sadly informed that the back half of the train wasn’t going anywhere. We had to get off.

We had a bit of a wait in Carlisle, about an hour. It seems most trains were destined to be delayed for some amount of time this weekend. So we just got a hot chocolate, found a bench on our platform, and waited.

I didn’t find it too cold, but Kat seemed to be a little chilly.

Finally our train came and we piled on. It was pretty packed so we couldn’t get two seats together. About and hour and a half later, we were in Edinburgh.

We got there later than expected, so the first night we didn’t do very much. We checked into our hostel, wandered through the Christmas market near Princes Street, got a pub supper, had some drinks, and then hit the sack.

The next morning I decided to go for broke and try some haggis. It was actually delicious: creamy and a little spicy. I was kind of disappointed to learn the next day that modern haggis is not generally organ meat.

After breakfast we headed for the home of the Crown Jewels: Edinburgh Castle.

It’s an impressive structure. It stands high up on a cliff, the city sprawling around it in all directions. It’s an odd feeling to be standing next to something so old and impressive and with such history, then turning your head and seeing completely modern office buildings not too far off in the distance. We decided not to go in the castle — there’s a fairly hefty entrance fee, and Kat had been inside a couple of years earlier.

We descended the Royal Mile and came across an interesting sight:

This guy was just hanging out, posing for pictures and collecting donations for leukaemia research. It may have been utterly tourist-like of me, but I couldn’t resist. He had a claymore for shit’s sake!

We then decided to head for the renowned Edinburgh Zoo to see the daily penguin march. Unfortunately this was another victim of the country’s utter lack of winter preparedness: they were closed. Apparently the paths were “a little icy.” Fortunately the zoo was only a short bus ride from the city centre, so it wasn’t too far out of our way.

When we got back I decided to go skating. The Christmas market had an ice rink set up and you could rent skates. So I decided to give it a shot. I hadn’t skated in probably about 10 years or more, since I had to give up playing hockey in Grade 8. Kat decided to stay on dry land and document the occasion.

I was on figure skates, which took some getting used to, but it was a lot of fun and it came back to me pretty quick.

After some mulled wine and dessert at a café we retired to the hostel for the night. We had to be up early the next day for our tour of the Scottish Highlands.

Upon boarding the tour bus the next morning, our guide reminded us that we had chosen to take a tour of Scotland on the shortest day of the year. Not exactly good planning on our part. Regardless, we set out. The tour was supposed to take us in a circle, eventually ending up back in Edinburgh. Unfortunately, Old Man Winter struck again, and the road we were to have taken was closed due to snow. We took an alternate route instead, and came back on the same road. This ended up cutting out a significant portion of the tour, unfortunately. But what we did get to see was pretty damn cool:

The mountains were absolutely breathtaking. I’ve never seen so many in one place before, and I doubt I ever will again.

The tour stopped for a couple of hours in Fort Augustus, where we hopped on a boat to take a cruise around Loch Ness. It was a little snowy so visibility was kind of low. We did see one thing though:

Nessie then did a backflip out of the water, landed on the boat, and shredded on a guitar. Saw it with my own eyes.

It was starting to get dark as we left Fort Augustus. It was still snowing, and we had a good four or five hours of driving ahead of us. So there was no more sightseeing, but our guide, Chris, was a complete pro. He kept us entertained by talking about Scotland, Scottish life, Scottish history, and even Scottish politics. This was at the same time he was driving the bus skilfully through fairly intimidating weather. Eventually we arrived back in Edinburgh in one piece.

We were going to hang around Edinburgh a little more the next day, but since the weather was playing havoc with transportation across the country we decided to leave much earlier. One cancelled train later, we hopped on one that took us as far as Birmingham, where we got one home.

I really enjoyed Scotland. We’ll probably go back later in the year when we can see more of it without the threat of snow putting a damper on things. Our next long break is in February (starting on my birthday!), and it looks as though we’ll be heading for Rome. We’re also looking at doing an all-inclusive trip in April to either Turkey, Greece, or Egypt. We’ll see what happens.