Scotland: Edinburgh Part II

Our first full day in Scotland, we decided to do a day tour to Loch Ness. We both have always wanted to see the famous and mysterious loch and try to get a glimpse of the infamous Loch Ness Monster! We also wanted to see the Highlands because of our Outlander obsession. We booked the tour through Heart of Scotland Tours, and we had the best time! The only downside to the day was that it was raining, which made the Highlands super foggy, gloomy and windy.

We woke up super early and made our way back down towards the train station. It was dark, but there was already a good amount of people out walking around. We found the bus stop and there was the most adorable little red bus waiting for us (they call it "the wee red bus"). Once everyone arrived we started the tour! Our tour guide was so sweet, and she knew so much about the history of Scotland.

Image from Heart of Scotland website

Our first stop was to The Deanston Distillery. We were only able to take a very quick tour of it (like less than 5 minutes), and then we were able to get something to eat. We got another hot chocolate then hopped back on the bus and headed into the Highlands. We made a few stops along the way as our guide continued to tell us about the history of the areas we were in. Even though it was foggy and rainy it was absolutely beautiful, so I can only imagine how it would look on a sunny day in the summer!

When finally made it to Loch Ness, we had to pay for the boat ride ticket separate from our tour ticket, but our guide collected the money and got the tickets for us while we went to get lunch. The town we were in, Fort Augustus, was very small, there weren't a lot of options for us to choose from. There were also ducks everywhere! Afterwards, we went to get on the boat for the tour. It was the most surreal experience. I couldn't believe that we were actually in Scotland on this body of water that was so famous! Unfortunately, we didn't see Nessie, but they spent a lot of the tour explaining how that mysterious legend began, which was so interesting!

Once the tour was over, we all loaded back onto the bus to make our way back. It would take about 4 hours to get back to Edinburgh, and on the way we fell asleep a couple of times. I was still trying to recover from my jet lag! We made one last stop to buy some souvenirs and use the bathroom. The entire ride back our tour guide was telling us about Scottish legends and playing folk music, it was a lot of fun! After we got back to Edinburgh we bought some food to bring back to our apartment where we watched some more I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! and then went to bed.

The next day, we planned to do a double decker bus tour of the city. It definitely helped us get acclimated with our surroundings and how to navigate where everything was located. We hopped off at Edinburgh Castle and did an audio tour there for a few hours. It was interesting because it wasn't like being in Buckingham Palace or Dublin Castle, it was all stone and felt very medieval. We got amazing 360 degree views of the city from up there too!

After we finished the tour we walked around the area and ate lunch at Deacon Brodies's Tavern. Once we were inside we learned that Deacon Brodie was actually the inspiration for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde! He apparently was a very prominent and well liked member of society, but had a dark and troubled personal life that not many knew about. Once we finished lunch we bought some more souvenirs for our family and headed back to pack up our stuff.

We were nervous about going to Edinburgh during the winter, but besides the one rainy day, the other two were beautiful! The only hard part to adjust to was that it got dark so early, so we had to squeeze all our sightseeing into a small window. We're so thankful we got to have the experience of traveling here together, we absolutely want to go back again, hopefully when it's a little warmer!