Scotland - Our Honeymoon

For our honeymoon, we decided to spend a week travelling around Scotland.  I had been before, and fallen in love with the beautiful countryside there.  My great grandmother was Scottish and I wanted to share that part of my heritage with Nico too.  He also has a little whisky hobby so he was happy to travel there with me and visit Oban distillery.  

Also, I sponsored a penguin at Edinburgh zoo as my wedding present to Nico so it was a great chance to go and visit the little guy!

At the start of the week in Edinburgh

Edinburgh Castle

The view over Edinburgh city centre

Taking in the view

Edinburgh city centre

The penguin walk at Edinburgh zoo

Awesome penguins!

Wedding present

A wide awake panda!

Roselyn chapel (from the DaVinci Code)

On the road to Helensburgh

The front at Helensburgh

The view from Helensburgh pier

On Helensburgh pier

On our woodland walk

On our woodland walk

Love this country view

The Firth of Clyde

Loch Lomond

Writing postcards

Loch Lomond

Honeymoon magic

A journey with a view - the start of the highlands

Oban

Fish and chips on the front

The view from our Oban B&B

The park at Oban

Lighthouse from the ferry to Mull

At Duart Castle on the Isle of Mull

Duart Castle

Duart Castle from the ferry back to Oban

Island from the ferry to Oban

Something new - scallops!

Doune Castle - set of Monty Python

Rained out!

As you can see, we had an amazing week and generally, we were lucky with the weather.  We are excited to go back at some point and next time, directly to the highlands which were our favourite part. 

Scotland here we come!

Loch Lomond source

It's booked!  Well, the flights and some of the accommodation are booked, we still have some small details to iron out but the fact is - we are going to Scotland on honeymoon!  I am so excited.  We are spending two nights in Edinburgh, two near Loch Lomond and two in Oban.  I've visited all three before but it will be a first for Mrs Baden (and Mr Baden for that matter) and we're very excited.

Edinburgh source

Oban source

The Angels' Share

source

Lately Nico has been getting into all things whisk(e)y and recently this little gem of a film was recommended on German television.  It's a Scottish film set in Glasgow about a group of people doing community service, who get into whisk(e)y.  I don't want to spoil it for those who haven't seen it, so I'll just say that it was interesting in itself (i.e. non-whisk(e)y lovers like me can enjoy it too) and showed Scotland's amazing scenery too.  I'd never heard of the film before but it just came out this year and is available on Amazon.  It was referred to as the new Trainspotting but I don't think it really compares - except that it is set in Scotland.  It's funny and has some familiar faces from British television.

Scotland - Edinburgh

While we're on the topic of Scotland this week, I thought I'd also fill you in on my other trip there which was to the capital, also with family, for my Dad's 50th birthday.  While I loved the countryside in Scotland on my first trip there, I also loved this city based trip.  I'm a sucker for capital cities anyway but Edinburgh has something really magical in the tiny old streets, the castle, the medieval feel of the place.  I really loved it.

It was easy to reach on the train (so no problems with parking or city driving), we found a nice hotel and ate in nice restaurants.  We walked all those extra calories off, especially as Edinburgh is so hilly, and so all the sights we wanted to - the Castle, the parliament, Princes Street...  It was a brilliant weekend and I'd love to go back with Nico some day.