Conic Hill

I wanted to write about a nice wee spot I discovered during Jeff’s visit in November. He wanted to see “scenery” and so we headed towards Loch Lomond. We stopped at the tourist centre in Balloch and asked the woman working there if there were any nice, easy spots to hike. She recommended we take the bus to Balmaha and hike Conic Hill.

Balmaha, like most towns along the Loch, is not very substantial and the start of the walk is a bit unassuming (it begins in a car park). We started through some lush forest for about 15 minutes before we started to really climb. And then we saw the first cow. These things are large and hairy and have huge horns. They aren’t fenced in and just stare at you as you walk by. It’s a bit alarming at first, but then you realize that they are probably used to it and then they become part of the scenery.

Once you crest the hill the views are fantastic. 45 minutes of uphill hiking and high-winds couldn’t ruin the view of Loch Lomond and its islands. We sat near the top and ate the lunch we had packed – a perfect and peaceful day in Scotland.

Scottish Stay-cation

We were lucky to have not one, but two groups of friends visit us last week from the states! We were so glad they decided to make Scotland part of their adventure and were determined to show them all the things that make this country great. While Glasgow has a lot to offer (especially in the alcohol department), there are so many great places that are easily accessible from the city. Our goal was to show our guests the sights, while still exploring places that were new to us. I think we succeeded!

Day 1 – Tarbet & Loch Lomond
 We took the train from Glasgow to Arrochar & Tarbet, which is a stop along the West Highland Line that ends in the coastal town of Oban. This rail journey is one of the most scenic in the UK, winding through the hills and glens on the way north. We had previously driven this route on our January trip to Arrochar, but taking the train gave us an entirely new (and beautiful) perspective!

After an hour and 15 minutes on the train we arrived in Tarbet and walked 10 minutes into “town” which sits right on the shores of Loch Lomond. We decided to take a 30 minute cruise across the Loch to Inversnaid (via Cruise Loch Lomond). The water was extremely calm and quiet, a peaceful way to see the Scottish hills. When we arrived at Inversnaid we walked to a small waterfall, where our friends got engaged! All of the excitement squashed any desire to hike, so we sat outside with a pint and toasted to the happy couple.

Day 2 – Edinburgh
We have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Edinburgh. Whenever we go, we do all the touristy things (which takes about 3 hours) then walk around aimlessly looking for a unique, non-touristy place to eat and drink. It seems that all of the pubs around the royal mile serve the same steak pie and lager for a hefty tourist price. Edinburgh is a beautiful place, but we need to keep doing research to make the £12.50 train journey worthwhile.

The great thing about Edinburgh is the beautiful history that is all within one mile (and free)! Since our visitors were split over the week, we made two trips in the week. We have a good route down: hike up Arthur’s Seat, walk up the mile to the castle, then eat/beer. It’s a pretty fool-proof plan 🙂

Day 3 – Glasgow
  I always wish we got to spend more time (to eat and drink) in Glasgow! It was one of our friends’ birthdays, so the girls went for a sparkling Afternoon Tea at the Corinthian Club. There is nothing more British than afternoon tea, especially when it comes with a bottle of Prosecco, and the Corinthian Club is such a beautiful building – perfect for a trip with the girls.

Don’t worry, we didn’t leave the guys hanging. Friday night we went to Craft Beer Rising, an awesome beer festival at our favorite brewery. This was the second year we were at the festival and it didn’t disappoint. We were also very happy to see our friends from Thistly Cross Cider, who are always a good time!

Also visited in Glasgow during the week: Charcoals Indian Grill, WEST, Drygate, BrewDog, Bar Soba, Blackfriars, Bar Home, Bar 91 and, of course, The Ark.

Day 4 – St Andrews
  I have a colleague who is from St Andrews and he is always raving about the place. Being the home of golf, we assumed it was going to be full of posh tourists who flew in on their private jets for a round. I was pleasantly surprised at how wrong we were! First of all, the course is public. People were so friendly (mostly older, American males) because they were all so excited to be at the course. We walked around the famous 1st and 18th holes before having lunch at the clubhouse.

St Andrews is on the east coast of Scotland and it is such a beautiful, quaint wee town! We walked along the coast, which was lined by cliffs and old ruins of castles and cathedrals. After our windy walk we ended at St Andrews Brewery in town. My only complaint about St Andrews is that there isn’t a train that connects to the city, so we took a 2.5 hour bus ride each way. But worth the travel time.

Day 5 – Edinburgh
(see day 2)

We’re ready for our next round of visitors! 🙂

Shelly Visits Scotland!

Oops. Guess it’s June now…I’m a very bad blogger.

It has been a pretty busy spring: a lot of work and a lot of play. We just got back from 2+ weeks at home and it was so amazing to be with family and friends. But now we’re ready to get back into the swing of things and really enjoy our first summer in Glasgow!

We had the opportunity to play tourist in April when Steve’s sister, Shelly, came to visit. It was so great to have another visitor and show her around our new city. We started off with, what else, our favorite breweries: DryGate, West and BrewDog. She managed to pick the loveliest spring weekend to visit and we had perfect weather to be outside. Since she was only here for a few days, we decided to do a highland bus tour. We were a little wary of the fact that a tour might be super cheesy, but if you’re short on time it’s the perfect way to see most of Scotland’s greatest scenery. We departed at 9AM with Rabbie’s Tours and spent the next 10 hours on a bus (with mostly other Americans) making the following stops:          

1. Rest and Be Thankful Viewpoint – the highest point on the A83, this old military road divides Glen Croe and Glen Kinglas and was used in the 1700s following the Jacobite rebellion
2. Inveraray – We had already been to this cute town when the Browns visited in January, but we were happy to come back again to enjoy a pint at the George Hotel!
3. Kilchurn Castle – one of the most photographed castles in Scotland, Kilchurn Castle was built in the mid-1400s by the Clan Campbell and is now a historical point at the head of Loch Awe.
4. Oban – we made a lunch stop in the seafood capital of Scotland and, of course, had fish & chips (some of the best we’ve had yet!)
5. Castle Stalker – this is a four story towerhouse on a small island in Loch Laich. Itis privately owned and most famous for it’s appearance in Monty Python and the Holy Grail!
6. Glencoe – we’ve been waiting for months to see Glencoe and had the perfect day to visit. Glencoe is one of Scotland’s most famous and scenic glens. It is the site of the historic Glencoe massacre and has been used in several movie/TV scenes (Harry Potter, Outlander, 007). It is definitely a must see in Scotland and totally worth the trip!
7. Luss (Loch Lomond) – we made a brief stop in Luss on our way back to Glasgow. Luss is a cute little town on the shores of Loch Lomond. It’s a picturesque little beach town that would make for a lovely summer day trip.

The next day we took the train to Edinburgh to do the usual castle scene. I will say that this is our third trip to Edinburgh and I have yet to be impressed. Maybe it’s because there are more tourists or the fact that we are more familiar with Glasgow, but Edinburgh just seems to be a bit overpriced and boring. We’re going to make a point to do more research on the city for our next visitors.

BUT we did go to Scotland’s only cat cafe. Yes, a cat cafe. You (and 15 other cat lovers) sit in a room to drink tea, eat cakes and pet cats. It was brilliant. Maison de Moggy has 10 cats, all with french names, who lay around and get doted on all day. Most of them hide from you and some don’t give a crap if you’re there are not. It was hilarious and weird and wonderful all at the same time, and I left wanting a cat (despite the fact that I’m allergic). If they opened a dog cafe I would be in heaven.

We ended Shelly’s visit with a sunny day in the West End: brunch at Hillhead Bookclub, a quick trip to Kelvingrove museum, successful vintage shopping and a few pints at BrewDog. Then we headed back to the city centre for Steve’s first Indian meal at Charcoals. He loved it (and we’ve been back since!).

Thank you for visiting, Shelly! We loved having you 🙂

H

xx

May Day in Troon

 We had the 4th of May off as a public holiday. Why? Don’t ask me. I only heard people to refer to it as “May Day” but I’m not sure it has much significance…other than, hey! It’s May! Let’s have a day off.

I bought a 5pm deal for a spa day at The Marine Hotel in the coastal town of Troon near South Ayrshire. For £80, we each received a 30 minute massage, a facial and had full access to the leisure facilities at the hotel. We could see the coast from the pool, and spent the day relaxing in the sauna and steam room before our treatments.

We also had a two-course meal at the Two Fat Ladies restaurant, which overlooked the golf course and the water. The restaurant has several locations in Glasgow, so we were excited to try it and weren’t disappointed: sea bass, scotch beef steak, creme brûlée and mid-afternoon wine! The UK knows how to do lunch.

Once we’d had enough of the spa, we walked along the beach – our first time to the ocean! It was a crisp, sunny day and there were plenty of families (and dogs!) out enjoying the sunshine. We weren’t ready to head back to the city just yet, so we sought out a beer garden to enjoy for a few hours. We ended up at McKay’s, a wee old man’s pub in town that had a large beer garden and friendly staff. We soaked up the sun until it was time to head back.

Overall, a lovely day on the West coast. Troon is only a 35-45 minute train ride from Glasgow (£18 for 2, open return tickets) and is easily walkable. We would definitely go back!

H

xx

Our Forest Holiday

Tomorrow we go back to work after nearly three weeks of holiday. Three weeks! We’ve been pretty spoiled on our first Christmas in Glasgow: lovely Christmas dinner just the two of us, New Years Eve (or Hogmanay) with new friends and not setting an alarm for 19 days in a row. But the best part was having that extra week to spend with my cousin and her husband, who made the trip from Michigan to spend time with us.

We started out in the city with the usual brewery tour (West, BrewDog and Drygate), followed by a day-trip to Edinburgh. The Edinburgh Christmas Market was still in full-swing, which added a festive element to our visit. We also went inside the iconic Edinburgh Castle for the first time. Even if you don’t like museums, the history and the views from inside the castle are pretty spectacular. One of our visitors had a particularly adventurous palate and inspired us to taste some traditional Scottish dishes such as Haggis and Black Pudding. And, of course, a visit to the UK wouldn’t be complete without Fish & Chips!

Our real adventure started on Monday when we traveled to Arrochar/Ardgarten, Argyll for a 4 night stay at Forest Holidays. To get there, we rented a car from just outside the city (to avoid highway traffic on the M8) and drove for about 30 minutes to Arrochar. The folks at the rental place must have thought we were trustworthy because we were upgraded to an Audi A6 (despite the fact that we were Americans who had never driven in the UK and going to the forest). Driving on the left side of the road (on the left side of the car) is pretty crazy at first, but Steve had it down and delivered us safely to our cabin.

I can’t say enough good things about our experience with Forest Holidays. Our 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom cabin had a full kitchen, heated floors and a hot tub on the patio (plus cable!) – but the views were what made this place amazing. The cabins are situated on the banks of Loch Long, nestled amongst the Arrochar Alps and under the view of Ben Arthur (aka the Cobbler). The retreat offered a small shop for food and over 100 miles of wooded and hilled trails. It was so nice to get out of the city for a few days and experience the beauty of Scotland.

Winters in Scotland are cold, windy and rainy, but we had fairly mild temperatures (low 40s) and a few spots of sunshine before a storm came in towards the end of the week (hail and winds up to 80mph). On our first day, we took the 2.5 mile walk along the lake into the village of Arrochar and ate at Ben Arthur’s Bothy, a traditional pub with a fantastic view. The next day it rained (all.day.) so we decided to brave the elements and take the very curvy and narrow road through Glen Croe up to the Rest and Be Thankful. We ended up in Inveraray after a pretty white-knuckle drive and warmed up with lunch in the cozy George Hotel. We had plans to travel up to Glencoe on our final day, but the weather deterred us from a day on the roads. Instead we took a sunny window in the morning to walk partway up the Cobbler for some amazing views. I couldn’t believe that this beautiful place is only a few hours from our flat in the city. It was the perfect getaway and I can’t wait to get back in warmer weather!

We ended the week with a feast at Viva Brazil and said goodbye to our visitors (after one last game of Euchre) at 3.30am on Saturday. Although seeing them go made me slightly homesick, it was so unbelievably great to have family in town and a chance to show off our new city. We’re getting pretty good at this hosting thing and look forward to our next round of visitors 🙂

Happy 2015!

H

xx

Edinburgh [The Self-Guided Tour]

I’m starting to grasp the greatness that is European travel: you can go a lot of places on short notice and with little semblance of a plan. But I’m a big planner by nature – I can’t help it, I just ALWAYS need a plan. So of course I turned Edinburgh into a huge weekend trip, complete with personalized Google maps that outlined where we were going to go and when. Turns out that staying overnight in Edinburgh is pretty expensive and sometimes throwing your plan out the window can be pretty darn fun (as long as you have a wee bit of a plan 🙂 ).

So Saturday morning we didn’t set any alarms and were on the 10:45am train to Edinburgh (50 minutes, £25 return for two people). We ate the lunch we packed on the train and arrived in an entirely different world. If Scotland is the Midwest and Glasgow is Detroit, then Edinburgh is Philadelphia – full of beautiful buildings and so much history.

The Royal Mile 

If you’re going to do Edinburgh in a day, the Royal Mile is a pretty good way to start. Stop #1 was Edinburgh Castle. We opted not to pay the £18/person to get in, but made our way to the top and got basically as far as we could without paying. Even though we didn’t go in, we were blown away by the Castle, which is situated on a cliff above the city and gave us some amazing views.

The majority of the Royal Mile is made up of shops and restaurants, all amongst some amazing churches and national museums. We also saw a lot of kilts, street performers and cute little pubs tucked in alleyways. The Royal Mile ends at the Scottish Parliament, the only building with a modern facade, and the Palace of Holyroodhouse. Holyrood (holly-rude) Palace is where her majesty resides when she is in Scotland (I keep forgetting we have a Queen!). She wasn’t there on Saturday, but we still didn’t pay the £13 ticket price to go in. Instead, we stuck our phones through the bars and snapped a few quick photos. There was, however, a large YES rally going on in front of Parliament and it was like the vote was happening all over again.

Arthur’s Seat

Overlooking the city is Arthur’s Seat, the highest of the city’s cluster of seven “hills” – this looked more like a cliff to me. Arthur’s Seat is a dormant volcano that sits 251m (825ft) above sea level and gives one heck of a view of the city. There is a narrow, gravel road that winds around it to the top and people with varying levels of ability and footwear were joining us in our trek. I can see how this could be a very dangerous past-time: the loose gravel slips beneath your feet, there are signs everywhere warning of falling rocks and there is nothing stopping you from tumbling down the side to the street below. The only time I was actually really nervous is when I saw a little boy sitting on the edge drinking an Irn Bru, his mother next to him waving a large Scottish flag.

We didn’t make it to the very top, but we got pretty darn close and going down is actually worse than going up. I couldn’t believe the people who were running down the steep slope. By the time we got to the bottom, we were exhausted and exhilarated. Time for beer.

Self-Guided Pub Crawl

There are two ways to approach a self-guided pub crawl: 1) Google “Top 10 pubs in Edinburgh” and go to those places, or 2) go into the first pub that looks decent, strike up a conversation with the bartender (or the locals) and get recommendations for places to go. Going with option 2, we popped into Monteith’s Kitchen & Cocktails on the Royal Mile. We were drawn by the twinkle lights and alley-way entry to this basement bar, but were disappointed to find that it was a bit more upscale than we were looking for. But the bartender made a mean mint julep and we met some nice guys who made some excellent pub suggestions.

Next up: The Hanging Bat. I was a little skeptical of the name, but their 6 casks, 14 keg lines and selection of smoked meats were pretty spot on. From there we attempted to go to another bartender suggestion, but got lost and ended up at BrewDog instead. Not a bad place to get lost. We headed back towards the train station to Thistle Street Bar, the kind of pub that I envision all Scottish pubs to be like: roaring fire, cozy atmosphere and friendly faces. It was there that we ran into the same guys from Monteith’s who originally gave us the suggestion to visit Thistle St.

Turns out Thistle Street is pretty hoppin’, so we opted for one last stop at Rose’s. I was asked for my ID about three times. The bartender even asked some random guy if he could see my ID before he would pour him a drink! That put a damper on the atmosphere, so we made our way back to the train station, hopped on the 8:30pm train back to Glasgow and were in bed by 10pm (#old).

Until next time, Edinburgh!

Lovely Loch Lomond

On Saturday we took our first train ride to the village of Balloch at Loch Lomond. We intended to “sleep in” but ended up on the 9:53am train – £16 and 45 minutes later we were at the lake.   

 

 

 

 

 

We “hiked” along the river, through the woods and up the shore to make our way to Balloch Castle. The trails were full of people: participants in a biathlon, kids on tricycles and owners of some of the most well-behaved dogs I’ve ever seen. Everyone was enjoying the beautiful (and dry) weather. Unfortunately, Balloch Castle was under construction but the views from the top of the hill were still pretty spectacular. 

View from Balloch Castle overlooking Loch Lomond

Lochtoberfest 

After we got the physical activity out of the way, we headed to Loch Lomond Shores for the 2014 Loch Lomond Food & Drink Festival – specifically Lochtoberfest, hosted by Loch Lomond Brewery. There were over 30 Scottish beers and ciders on tap. With free entry and a few hours to kill, we were able to taste about 12 (1/2 pints only £1.50!).

[A side note: the drinking age is 18 and, much to my horror, I’ve been carded almost every time I’ve entered a bar or purchased a beverage. Before I could get too offended, I noticed the signs everywhere that state if you even appear to be under 25 they will ask for ID.  Also, the best part about drinking in Scotland – no driving! (Moms!)]

Day drinking always calls for food and luckily we were surrounded by a  LOT. The hard part was choosing just one item try. Steve opted for a giant weiner (in lieu of a BBQ stand with the motto “Well Bred. Well Fed. Well Hung.”) and I tried chorizo chicken paella. Then I bought some fudge. 

 

Overall, it was a lovely first outing. It should also be known that after two epic naps, we stayed up to watch the ND vs. Michigan game at 12:30am. Steve was up until almost 5am – now that’s school spirit! GO IRISH!