Scotland 2016

Dear all
  I am starting the blog with one of my favorite travel memories. English is my 2nd language so please excuse my grammatical and spelling errors.

Scotland is one of my favorite countries. I researched and read so much about Scotland and its history before I nagged my husband to book a trip to Scotland. My husband, Arun, loves history and castles too. I showed him some google images and we researched about lot of castles, family friendly attractions and hotels. By far, Edinburgh is the #1 family friendly city I have visited so far. The experiences we had were so amazing that we want to go back!

We planned and visited a part of Scotland and Northern England for 8 days. For those with Indian passport, you need to get a UK Visa. With that Visa, you can travel anywhere within UK - that is, England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

I am meticulous in making a plan as where to go, what to see and where to eat and my assistant, aka, my husband notes down every single thing on an excel sheet. If I am able to write this blog, its all because of his excel spreadsheets with all our travel details. So make an itinerary but be flexible to last minute changes.

Camera gear I carried during our Scotland trip:

Nikon D750
Nikkor 14-24mm
Nikkor 24-70mm
Nikkor 55-300mm
2 batteries + 1 remote + 1 travel tripod

Day 1: Edinburgh

We reached late in the evening. We took a cab from airport to the hotel. The black cab was an exciting trip for my little one. We just unpacked, had dinner and slept.

Day 2: Edinburgh

First of all, be prepared for a wet day. Pack your backpack with all weather jackets, a small umbrella, snacks, camera gears + water. Download google maps on your phone and if possible get a free map from the hotel.

I don't have enough words to express about Edinburgh. It's a very beautiful, very well planned and a very friendly city for travelers. First day, we had some jet lag and with my 5 year old son, we decided to take it easy. We made sure to travel with a stroller so that he can rest while we walked everywhere.

We stayed at the Fountain Court Apartments Royal Garden. The penthouse had a kitchen and a lovely view. The hotel's staff was amazing. The first thing we learnt about UK travel is that, most hotels don't have elevators or would have limited elevator access. The penthouse room that we stayed at did not have an elevator and we had 3 huge luggages to carry. Why 3? Because my son has food allergies, I carry a mini kitchen in my suitcase and some basic dry groceries if we are traveling for more than say, 3 days. The kitchen was super helpful as I quickly cooked food, we ate and left for attractions or packed food so that we don't stop in between during our road trips. We not only saved time but also money. I carried a Brita filter and we drank filtered tap water. The water in Edinburgh was really sweet. We shopped for basic groceries at Salisbury. Whenever we woke up late, we ate cereal in our hotel room in the morning and left for attractions.

View from the hotel room

The hotel is in the heart of all attractions. All major tourist attractions are in walking distances from this hotel and for some attractions you can either take a cab or tram. If you are taking a tram, make sure to buy the ticket before you get into the tram. The prices are 3 times more if you buy the ticket inside the tram from the conductor. We took a walk to the nearest tram station and it was just 1 stop to Princes Street. Princes Street is the main street for shopping and restaurants. It also has many historical attractions. We walked to Edinburgh Castle from the tram station. Edinburgh Castle is very kids friendly - most of the castles in Scotland are very kids friendly and interactive. They have games or scavenger hunts for kids in castles and it keep them occupied. We got our son a toy shield, a sword and a helmet and he pretended to be a Knight in shining armor. We went around and enjoyed the castle for a couple of hours. At 1pm sharp, the cannon goes off. Why 1pm and not Noon? Because, its cheaper to blow away just 1 cannon ball instead of 12, right? :) Smart!

Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Castle

                     Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Castle

After the castle, we took a walk on the Royal Mile. The Royal mile is simply awesome! Very colorful and buzzing with energy. There are many historic attractions on the Royal mile too, including a lot of Cathedrals and 'Closes'. My son fell asleep in the stroller so my husband and I enjoyed a slow walk. We took it easy and stopped by to watch the various street performers. We visited small local businesses and got a few souvenirs. We ate hot vegetarian street food (whatever was available). We did not go overboard buying wool or such, but just a couple of magnets and a kid's Bagpiper for our son.

Street performer on Royal Mile

Royal Mile

Street performer on Royal Mile

We headed back to our hotel room by walk after enjoying a wonderful day in downtown Edinburgh. On the way back, we grabbed dinner at a near by restaurant.

Highlights: 

1. Edinburgh Castle
2. Princes Street
3. Royal Mile

Day 3: Inveraray, Loch Lomond & Trossachs National Park

The best part about traveling to UK for my family is that my husband can drive on the opposite side of the road! We took a rental car and drove to Inveraray. Inveraray castle (Clan Campbell) is just about 2-3hrs drive from Edinburgh. The drive to Inveraray is fantastic. The route is through Loch Lamond & Trossachs National Park. We enjoyed the beautiful drive, stopped at a quaint tea room, took a break at a lovely old bridge and I shot some photos. We also took a small break at Loch Lomond.

Trossachs National Park

Inveraray Castle

Trossachs National Park

Inveraray Castle

I cooked & packed food for our road trip. We made a pit stop for lunch. Inveraray castle is a small, cute castle. We took a self tour and went around the castle. They had a small scavenger hunt for kids. We saw some highlands cows in the castle ground that got us really excited.

Highlands cattle

After seeing the castle, we headed to Stirling. Unfortunately we left a bit late from Inveraray so the admissions to the Stirling castle was closed. I want to mention that the castles are open only for few hours every day and they usually close by 4pm. We stopped at the entrance of Stirling castle, took some photos and enjoyed the beautiful view. We also drove around Wallace Monument which was also closed for the day. 

View from Stirling Castle

Wallace Monument

A performer getting ready for a wedding party 

Scotland has many awesome restaurants and we really enjoyed at Indian restaurants. Some of them are authentic Punjabi food while the other that have Indian names are usually Bangladeshi restaurants. I would recommend you to highly check before you go. We had our dinner at Green Gates Restaurant. Food was just fantastic. We wrapped up our day after dinner and went back to Edinburgh. The hotel does not have parking available on site but they gave us nearby locations where we can park our car overnight. It was just 5 mins walk from the hotel. With new memories and full tummy, we went to the hotel room and crashed for the day!

Highlights: 

1. Loch Lomond & Trossachs National Park
2. Inveraray Castle
3. Stirling Castle
4. Wallace Monument 

Day 4: Glamis Castle, Perth & Loch Leven Castle 

On Day 4, we headed out early and had our breakfast at Papil Cafe near our hotel. The breakfast there was fantastic. Everyone in Scotland were very careful when it came to preparing food for a child with nut allergies. We also packed a sandwiches from Papil cafe for the road trip and headed out to Glamis Castle. Glamis is just 1:30 mins drive from Edinburgh. The drive was very pretty. The only way to see Glamis castle is by guided tour. My son got a bit bored during the guided tour, but, fortunately the tour ended within a hour. The castle was basically used as a hunting lodge so you will see lot of animal heads hanging on the walls (I was a bit uncomfortable in the castle but it was just a one time viewing experience for us).  However I really enjoyed the palace grounds. 

Drive to Glamis Castle

Glamis Castle

From Glamis Castle, we headed back south to Perth. Perth is a small, quaint town. We took a walk around the town, stopped at a park and had a picnic. 

Perth

After Perth, we drove to Loch Leven Castle. Its a small ruin castle where Mary Queen of Scot was imprisoned. The Loch/Lake was very pretty but filled with bugs. We all were attacked by the flies (despite of bug spray) and many tourists left the spot due to the flies. We too headed back to the hotel. End of Day 4. 

Loch Leven

Loch Leven Castle

Highlights:

1. Glamis Castle
2. Perth
3. Loch Leven & Castle

Day 5: Edinburgh 

Day 5 we were actually in Northern England but I am not going to include that here. Instead I have added the info abt Northern England in a separate topic.

On Day 5, we spent the whole day in Edinburgh. We walked a lot and visited many places but first we dedicated that day for our son's activities. I kept aside my camera bag at the hotel's safety box and used only my iphone to capture our personal memories. We visited Dynamic Earth Museum. It was a very informative and entertaining museum for kids and adults. We spent 4-5 hrs and the museum had nut free vegetarian food. We had our lunch and walked to Palace of Holyrood House. On the way, we saw some unique structures, especially, the Scottish Parliament. Holyrood House is still visited by the current royal family. Do not take the guided tour or headphones for kids below age 8 or 10. The gory details about Mary Queen of Scots and history of Holyrood is not for young ears. We finished the tour very quickly and headed back to Royal Mile. It was raining a lot that day so we took shot breaks, shopped a bit and saw many closes and historic buildings. On Royal mile, we bumped into seasonal children's fun setup (trampoline and bouncy house). My little one had a blast there. We headed back home exhausted. I quickly cooked dinner, we ate and crashed.

Highlights: 

1. Dynamic Earth
2. Palace of Holyrood
3. Scottish Parliment
4. Royal Mile & Shopping

Day 6: Edinburgh 

We started early on Day 6 by having home cooked breakfast. We took the tram to Princes Street and attend Veteran's or Armed Forces Day. The parade was very musical with many bands. They had many kids activities at the gardens. We later stopped at Kasturi Restaurant for lunch. Food was very good. We then went to the awesome Camera Obsecura. Its a MUST visit place for kids and adults. We had lot of fun there and I learnt a lot about cameras, lights and illusions. Its definitely in our top favorite places to see in Edinburgh. We walked all the way back to the hotel enjoying the buzz and activities of the downtown. We made several stops to see St. Gile's Cathedral, the Balmoral & The Scot Monument. 

The Balmoral

Scot's Monument

Highlights: 

1. Princes Street Gardens
2. Seasonal Parade/events at Princes Street Gardens
3. Camera Obscura 
4. Check out beautiful structures such as Scot's monument, Balmoral, Cathedrals etc.

Day 7: Northern England - Alnwick, Bamburgh and Scottish Borders

I am making a separate topic for England. Pls see the details later. 

Day 8: Edinburgh

We took it easy on Day 8 since we were heading back home next day. We started the day by visiting Scottish Portrait gallery which was right opposite to the hotel. It was my favorite kinda place to visit as I saw tons of portraits, sculptures and learnt a lot about art. After that, we quickly visited Dean Village. It was very pretty and quaint. 

Dean Village

 After Dean Village, we took a cab to Carlton Hill. We were too tired to visit Arthur's seat. If you have time, don't miss Arthur's Seat. The view from Carlton Hill was very nice. We enjoyed seeing the sunset. monuments and the view.

National Monument of Scotland

Dugald Stewart Monument

 Highlights:

1. Scottish Portrait gallery
2. Dean Village
3. Carlton Hill

We enjoyed so much that it was very sad that our Scotland trip came to and end. We missed out on many things as my son had severe jet lag for the first few days and we couldn't see many places that we wanted to see. We are hoping to visit Scotland again another time to make new memories. Hope you all enjoyed reading our Scotland travel experiences and tips. 

We are the Foodie Travelers

Hello Everyone,
  I am Shubha Tirumale and welcome to my family blog. Like many others, we love food and travel. So what makes us unique? I am a photographer, a mom with a child that has food allergies & my husband loves to travel as much as I do. As a family, we are very particular about where we eat and where we stay! We enjoy seeing new places, we explore on our own and we eat nut free, vegetarian food only! My son loves to enjoy with us and see different places but we as parents make sure he is entertained well during all of our domestic and international trips. My husband and I traveled to many different places within the USA for the first 9 years of our marriage. After our son turned 2, we started our international travels. We have not travelled to many countries yet, but thats of course, our criteria now .. to travel to as many countries as possible, as much economically as possible and to enjoy every single experience.

My husband and I are from Bengaluru, India & we are based in beautiful Seattle. Many years ago I had a food/travel blog but deleted it after sometime because I got hooked on to Orkut. Now I am back.. with more experiences and more images!

In this blog, I am going to share about many travel tips, the places/hotels we stayed at, the attractions to visit, the restaurants and food we enjoyed and also the camera gears I use. I love cooking so now and then I will also share a couple of my recipes ;). I hope you will all help and support me in this journey! Thank you and looking forward to sharing my adventures with you all!