Northumbria, Holy Island and Outlander

         Yesterday we went on a tour of the sites around Edinburgh. The tour guy jokingly said,we came to Scotland but ended up in England. Actually we started in Edinburgh and went through the Lowland as opposed to the Highlands. It’s a lot of farms and a-lot of sheep. We started at Alnwick castle and its amazing gardens. We spent three hours there and could have spent even more, easily! We had a quick bite to eat then went on to Holy Island. The castle, reminded me of the shack on the island that the Dursleys take Harry to, to get away from all the owls, only much bigger! Speaking of Harry Potter, Alnwick Castle was used in both Philosopher's stone and Chamber of secrets. The Outer Bailey is where the kids take their first flying lesson.  We were lucky the rain held off and we got took some great pictures.

  Alnwick Castle and Gardens

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Holy Island’s castle, the one that looked like the Dursley’s summer house, was fun to visit, but we had to hustle because it’s out on a point that quickly becomes surrounded in water.

 Holy Island

     That about sums up yesterday. Today was OUTLANDER day. If you are a fan of the show or the books this is the tour to be on. We set off for Lallybroch which is Jamie’s ancestral home. Really it is Midhope castle. Not really a castle in the way we might think of them. It was used in the show but really just the exterior and they created a fake door. This one dates back to the 1500’s you can imagine they don’t love it when Hollywood comes in and messes up their historical monuments! We learned that they took a cast of part of a wall and recreated the walls to look like the 1500 century walls. This is all done back at the set that they film most of the interior scenes for the show. 

Lallybroch aka Midhope Castle

Next it is on to Blackness Castle which is really more of a military fort. 

You may recognize this view as it is where Jamie is flogged by Black Jack Randall

 

.  The nick name for this castle is “The ship that Never Sailed” It looks like a ship from the water view, and from the air. 

Next stop was Castle Doune which was used as the Mackenzie castle. Dougual and crew were now where to be found but we did come to appreciate modern plumbing. Fifteenth century even for the Lairds was pretty gross! Last but not least was the little town of Culross in the Kingdom of Fife. It was much smaller than in the show. Seeing the post in the center of town where they nailed the kids ear was creepy no matter how tiny the town was.

Oh btw remember that comment about missing seattle sun? Yeah it poured here! 

Oh well it’s still Scotland!

On to Paris!

 

     

 

Heathrow to Edinburgh and our first night out.

We made it to Edinburgh! And it’s not raining.  Leaving Seattle when it’s over 70 degrees always leaves me feeling like I might blink and miss summer. Today left me with that feeling. My friend Alicia admonishes me all the time to stop looking ten days ahead on the weather apps, because as she correctly points out it usually changes. I have been stalking Scotlands daily temperature like a vampire looking for blood. We were pleasantly surprised, although not balmy, it was partially sunny and dry. Edinburgh welcomed  us with a beautiful sunset for our first night in town. Once we unpacked we quickly realized  we BOTH forgot the power adapters for charging electronics! Oh crap, total rookie move. We had the EU ones but no UK (lots of capital letters to remember). We washed up, did a quick Google search on our remaining 10% and went in search of dinner and a place to buy usb chargers or adapters. Our first stop, literally around the corner was a super touristy Plaid/Tartan store. Drawn in by the pretty colors and fun names: McDuff, McCoud and Frasier, we ducked in to look around. While perusing we stumbled on a rack of USB chargers and Malcom The Handsome, friendly cashier helped us purchase the best one. That accomplished we continued on to our dinner destination, Berties Proper Fish and Chip. Bertie’s was packed, especially for a Wednesday night. Greeted by Max The Dimpled  (there seems to be a theme forming)  he was a bit frazzled from all the business. He apologized for our wait and I assured him we were in not rush “take your time”. He grinned and thanked me again. It looked like it was going to be a 45 minute wait, he gestured and said hang on I think I can get you two seated. Two minutes later we were seated and giving Isla, (again a cutie) our order. Stuffed full of  haddock and fries we finished up and went on our merry way. As we wondered the streets of Old Edinburgh we saw St. Giles Cathedral, the National Library of Scotland and Scott Monument. We meandered back to our cute Air B&B in the shadow of the Edinburgh Castle  and tucked ourselves in for the night.

On to our next adventure,

K and J

PS all names were changed to protect the innocent and ridiculously handsome!

Ten days and we do it again.

     J (Jeri) and K (Kim) are getting ready to hop the pond, again. It's been a little over a year since our last MaDa adventure. Last year being the first trip post-pandemic, we didn't really adventure very far. Stayed in France, with the exception of the unintentional detour to Basal Switzerland. This time we are headed to Scotland for a few days and then on to Jeri's favorite, Paris and finishing up on the coast to pay our respects to those left behind in Normandy. I am most looking forward to Scotland, as I have never been and I am a huge Diana Gabaldon fan. We have booked a tour for a day of film sites for the show Outlander. With any luck I will run into  Sam Heughan. 

    This Paris trip I really wanted to focus on experiences. I started looking around for fun stuff to do early and made several reservations.  On the agenda are: a tour of a perfume museum and perfume making class, a tour of different chocolate chaud (hot chocolate) establishments, an immersive light and art experience and a bon bon (candy) making class. I really wanted to find a hot air balloon and float above Paris, but alas no luck.

Count down begins

Kim