England and Scotland Trip *Updated 12/6*

What a great informative report! Thank you for posting it. We are leaving for Scotland next week and plan to spend most of our time in Edinburgh, but have purchased 3-day Highlands, Isle of Skye and Jacobite Train ride tour, plus 48-hour Hop-On, Hop-Off bus with entrance to castle, palace and royal yacht. Did you encounter any Midges in the Highlands? Everybody says they can be terrible.
 
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What a great informative report! Thank you for posting it. We are leaving for Scotland next week and plan to spend most of our time in Edinburgh, but have purchased 3-day Highlands, Isle of Skye and Jacobite Trian ride tour, plus 48-hour hop-on, hop-off bus with entrance to castle, palace and royal yacht. Did you encounter any Midges in the Highlands? Everybody says they can be terrible.
The midges can be brutal but the season for them, May - September, is really over. Sounds like you have a nice plan in place. If you are looking to get out of Edinburgh for the day, the East Neuk Fife is lovely or even a trip to one of the towns in the Scottish Borders.
 
What a great informative report! Thank you for posting it. We are leaving for Scotland next week and plan to spend most of our time in Edinburgh, but have purchased 3-day Highlands, Isle of Skye and Jacobite Trian ride tour, plus 48-hour hop-on, hop-off bus with entrance to castle, palace and royal yacht. Did you encounter any Midges in the Highlands? Everybody says they can be terrible.

The midges are pretty much gone by now, but it is very wet and about 55F here at the moment. Have a lovely trip.

@FSU Girl I live in Stirling, so it was really fun to see the area through your eyes. It looks like you had stunning weather, which it great.
 
Really interesting to see all this through your eyes. The border (at the moment , who know what will happen in the next few months) between Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland - UK is exactly the same as the border between Scotland and England. Technically though with the Scotland and England border you are not crossing country borders, just region borders, as both are part of Great Britain / United Kingdom. With the border between Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland - UK you are crossing into different countries, we have different currency, different laws etc.

The beach you visited would be very typical of beaches in Cork / Kerry / West of Ireland. Your photos of the beach are almost identical to the beach I used to visit as a child in Kerry with my family.
I know technically they are all one country, although some Scottish people we met wouldn't agree lol. It was still fun going from Scotland into England by walking. If I had more time in Ireland I would have visited Northern Ireland on the trip, but we'd need at least three more days to fit that in. That's really cool that the beaches are really similar. It was a really fun day at the beach :)
 


What a great informative report! Thank you for posting it. We are leaving for Scotland next week and plan to spend most of our time in Edinburgh, but have purchased 3-day Highlands, Isle of Skye and Jacobite Trian ride tour, plus 48-hour hop-on, hop-off bus with entrance to castle, palace and royal yacht. Did you encounter any Midges in the Highlands? Everybody says they can be terrible.
Thank you :) Have a great trip! I loved Edinburgh, I wish I had more time to spend in the actual city. Try and visit Holyrood Palace, I've heard it's really nice. We couldn't go since the queen was staying there at the same time as us. Who are you going with for the 3 day tour? I had looked into those, but opted for all the one day tours instead. I'd love to hear about your experience with that trip. I really wanted to do the Jacobite Train for Harry Potter lol.

So I have no idea what a midge is. I Googled it, looks like a bug of some sort? I didn't see any bugs my entire trip, maybe they were confused by all the wonderful weather we were having
 
The midges can be brutal but the season for them, May - September, is really over. Sounds like you have a nice plan in place. If you are looking to get out of Edinburgh for the day, the East Neuk Fife is lovely or even a trip to one of the towns in the Scottish Borders.
I had no clue what a midge was until just now, I didn't see any bugs when I was there. I swear Scotland was trying to trick me into wanting to live there, perfect weather and no bugs lol. I went to Fife it was a really cute town.
 
The midges are pretty much gone by now, but it is very wet and about 55F here at the moment. Have a lovely trip.

@FSU Girl I live in Stirling, so it was really fun to see the area through your eyes. It looks like you had stunning weather, which it great.
I loved Sitrling, I wish I had more time to explore the city. We really did have amazing weather. Everyday our tour guides kept telling us how unusual the weather was and it's not normally like this. I kept saying I brought the Florida sunshine with me.
 


I loved Sitrling, I wish I had more time to explore the city. We really did have amazing weather. Everyday our tour guides kept telling us how unusual the weather was and it's not normally like this. I kept saying I brought the Florida sunshine with me.

I think you must have brought it with you: this summer was definitely unusual for Scotland, so I’m thrilled that you had such good weather.

Midges are annoying, but they are nothing compared to the bugs that you get elsewhere.
 
Scottishclover and Tigger in a Kilt good to hear that the Midges should be done by the time we arrive. I saw a video about them and we actually thought about bringing head nets just in case. But I told DW that I doubted that the tour operator guide would be stopping in boggy areas if they were really bad.

Tigger in a Kilt thank you for the suggestion to take the one-day trip to the East Neuk Fife. We may do something like that if we have good weather since we'll be in Edinburgh 4 more days after our tour with Highland Explorer.

FSU Girl I will post info. here on our trip when we get back if you don't mind? Also, we flew into Cork, Ireland in 2014. If you're interested, I have a short trip report about it that I could place here also. We loved it there and like you in Scotland we had very good weather.
 
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Scottishclover and Tigger in a Kilt good to hear that the Midges should be done by the time we arrive. I saw a video about them and we actually thought about bringing head nets just in case. but I told DW that I doubted that the tour operator guide would be stopping in boggy areas if they were really bad.

Tigger in a Kilt thanks for the suggestion to take the one-day trip to the East Neuk Fife. We may do something like that if we have good weather since we'll be in Edinburgh 4 more days after our tour with Highland Explorer.

FSU Girl I will post info. here on our trip when we get back if you don't mind? Also, we flew into Cork, Ireland in 2014. If you're interested, I have a short trip report about it that I could place here also. We loved it there and like you in Scotland we had very good weather.

Even in the height of midge season you would not need a head net or even bug repellent. They are annoying but they are not like mosquitos or similar bugs elsewhere, such as in Orlando. The best midge-repellent is supposed to be Avon Skin So Soft, though I haven’t tried it personally.
 
I think you must have brought it with you: this summer was definitely unusual for Scotland, so I’m thrilled that you had such good weather.

Midges are annoying, but they are nothing compared to the bugs that you get elsewhere.
We definitely had the best week ever when we were there. Some of the things we did would have been difficult if it was raining the whole time.

FSU Girl I will post info. here on our trip when we get back if you don't mind? Also, we flew into Cork, Ireland in 2014. If you're interested, I have a short trip report about it that I could place here also. We loved it there and like you in Scotland we had very good weather.
I'd love to hear about your experiences! I don't know if I'm going to make it to Cork on my upcoming Ireland trip. Right now I have a day where we are traveling to a different city and I can either go to Blarney Castle or Rock of Cashel, but I think we are going to decide day of which way we are going to go. I'll have to go back.
 
Where Both Guinness and Cash Are King

Being half Irish, my DW had expressed a deep desire to visit the Green Isle many times over the past several years. I was a die-hard mountaineer for 30 years and resisted. I always opted for more mountainous venues, like Colorado, Wyoming, Alaska and Switzerland. Finally, after listening to several friends continue to rave about its friendly inhabitants and sociable pubs I surprised her with an "on-the-spur-of-the-moment" decision to travel there in the Fall of 2014.

We left O'Hare on October 8 on a KLM jet. We were surprised at how good the food was and that we were provided with free Heineken's beer. The jet delivered us to the impressive Amsterdam International Airport. Atlas, we had no time to explore it or appreciate its grandeur and had to rush to catch our scheduled short flight with Air Lingus to the smallish Cork International Airport. We arrived there precisely at noon and paid a princely sum at the Hertz booth for the zero deductible rental car insurance. Shortly thereafter, while still in the fog of jet lag, I found myself sitting on the right side of an almost new Audi diesel sedan struggling to decipher how to turn on its wipers and headlights.

My next task involved navigating four large roundabouts on the left and clockwise to exit the airport proper. Remembering to stay left wasn't as difficult as I had anticipated. But judging where my left tires were in relation to the curbed shoulder of the road and having to look up and to the left to utilize the rearview mirror was as alien to me as hiking downhill with no depth perception. Eventually I found myself relying on the side mirrors to monitor traffic behind us.

Then the Audi's engine died the first time we came to a full stop due to traffic -- at least I thought it had. We were both surprised to learn that the car's engine is engineered to turn off in order to economize on fuel when the vehicle isn't moving. It restarted as soon as I took my foot off of the brake pedal and I wondered just how long such a car's starter would last. The so-called gas saving feature was also a little irritating when we encountered Cork's bumper to bumper traffic.

After almost missing the turn onto National Highway N-37, I also almost missed the on-ramp for N-22 West, which would deliver us to our destination of Killarney. The four-lane Interstate-like road eventually led us away from the congested city's traffic, but then soon narrowed down to two lanes. I had been warned to be aware of changing speed limits as they change frequently. And cameras are placed along the highway to measure your speed and shoot a picture of your license plate as you pass by. I relied on DW to be my co-pilot and to spot the small circle signs outlined in red indicating the limit in kilometers per hour. It took both of us awhile to realize large, square white signs with the black lettering message "Traffic Calming" means the limit is about to decrease by 20 to 60 kilometers -- usually just around the next sharp bend in the road due to a narrow winding stretch without a center line, a very narrow and high curbed intersection, or just before coming to yet another roundabout.

We had reserved an apartment in Killarney for seven nights after learning the touristy town abuts Killarney National Park. The 25,000 acre park is the largest national park in the country and is primarily noted for its three sapphire blue lakes. It also encompasses the country's highest mountains -- the MacGillicuddy's Reeks and includes the famed "Gap of Dunloe" that dissects the purple colored peaks. Also one of Europe's most scenic coastal drives "the Ring of Kerry" winds around the edge of the Ivergh Peninsula and begins and ends at Killarney.

After traveling 65 stressful miles we entered Killarney only to miss the turn onto Main Street where our lodging at Park Place Apartments is located at its northern end. Realizing we were heading in the opposite direction and about to enter the national park boundary I pulled off at the local Holiday Inn to get directions. We then backtracked from there to our apartment complex without further incident and were both quite relieved to park the car in its secure underground parking garage.

We got settled in and then walked to a bank to exchange dollars to Euros. From there we found a fairly large grocery to shop for some needed provisions. After fixing and eating a light dinner we made our way to the Laurels Pub. While sitting at its exquisite bar we were
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joined by a local, older gentleman dressed in a traditional Irish tweed suit and matching hat. He immediately ordered a draft pint of Guinness and then asked us where we were from. After introductions he told us he had lived for a time in Canada, Australia, and South Africa but returned to Killarney where he was born, because he longed to be from somewhere. Over the next two hours he gave us tips on what to see and do in the area, queried us about America's "do-nothing" politics and commented on the state of the world. While sipping his second black, creamy-topped pint, he said, "In Ireland we argue much more than you American's, but then we do what's best for the country." On the Middle East, he opined that, "Bush should've never gotten into Iraq and Obama never should've gotten out!" DW and I both agreed!

In the morning we located another bank and changed several hundred more dollars. Like Guinness we knew cash is also king in Ireland. The use of plastic, where it's accepted, comes with a hidden transaction and conversion cost when you get home.

We spent the rest of that day adjusting to the six-hour time zone change and dodging the prevalent on and off showers. In the evening, after enjoying very good fish and chips at Quinlan's Seafood Bar, we visited Danny Mann's Pub. Folks from all over the world, including Irish tourists, congregate to socialize and be entertained by live music at the popular pub every night.

The next day we drove into Killarney National Park to visit the beautiful 19th-century Muckross House before driving onto the quaint town of Kenmare. It was what I call a "White Knuckle Drive" most of the way. Two-way traffic winds up and down through the mountains
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on N-71 at 40 to 80 Km/h. The road has no centerline and has a width of about the size of one of the allies where we live in Wisconsin. We actually folded in the side mirrors on the Audi and occasionally stopped to let oncoming traffic -- especially buses -- pass by. We had been forewarned that in an accident on Ireland's narrow roads the moving vehicle is automatically deemed at fault.

Focused on avoiding clipping or being clipped by the oncoming traffic I soon scrapped the left front tire's sidewall on a high curb. DW reminded me that the expensive insurance we purchased doesn't cover tires. From then on she nervously warned me whenever she saw me drifting too close to the road's left shoulder. Overhanging vegetation along the roadside is impossible to avoid at some of the tight squeeze locations, but it didn't seem to leave a mark on the Audi's gleaming black paint finish. We soon understood, however, why the rental car insurance is so expensive in Ireland. Many of the cars passing by us were scratched and/or dented.
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Neither one of us saw much of the magnificent scenery except when we were able to take advantage of a couple of small pull-offs. Larger parking areas are provided for the 10 minute stroll up to Torc Waterfall and for Ladies View, which was named after an 1861 visit by Queen Victoria when upon seeing the view her ladies-in-waiting were said to have been dumbfounded by its beauty.
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Intermittent sunshine turned to pouring rain soon after we entered the bustling town center of Kenmare. We angle parked the car on the main thoroughfare, donned our rain coats, grabbed umbrellas and sought out coffee. After getting our second caffeine fix for the day at the local "Jams" we browsed several shops before returning to Killarney. Upon our safe return we both agreed to leave the car parked beneath the apartment complex the next day.

When rain clouds the next morning gave way to brilliant sunshine that afternoon we decided to walk the 3-mile round trip to the restored 14th-century stronghold sited on Lake Leane known as Ross Castle. The fortified structure was the last place in the province of
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Munster to fall to Oliver Cromwell's British forces in 1652.

After returning to Killarney we paid a visit to the tourist information office (TI) to get recommendations on various touring outfits that offer day trips around the Ring of Kerry or to An Daingean (Dingle Town) and around Slea Head Loop. We were surprised that both tours with Deros Coach would only cost us 83 Euros or about $108 dollars total. Besides the 60 Euro per day charge for our modern two-bed, two-bath condo-like apartment, the two tours were the best deal and value of the entire trip. Instead of driving ourselves we both got to relax and enjoy the beautiful scenery. And both drivers of the mid-size, extra large-windowed buses amazed us with their driving ability. They also provided very informative and sometimes funny commentary along the entire routes.

The western coast, especially around Dingle is notorious for its heavy rainfall and impenetrable sea mists, but we were blessed with almost cloudless days for both tours. The Dingle Peninsula is especially stunning with its coastal scenery, pristine sandy beaches, rocky islands and iron-age ruins.
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On our last full day in Killarney we checked out the Gap of Dunloe, drove to the town of Killorglin and visited St. Mary's Cathedral on the way back to our apartment. That evening we spent some time in Sheehan's. It had become our favorite pub because it offered wonderful, traditional music every night.
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We spent most of the last two days of our trip in and around Cork, which is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland. We stayed at the Garnish House, where owner-manger Johanna Lucey met us at the B & B's door with tea and homemade baked goods before we even crossed the threshold. The first night while exploring the main shopping thoroughfare called the Panna, located just off of St. Patrick's Street, we stumbled onto Uncle Pete's where we enjoyed great pizza.


On our last day we made a dry run to the airport knowing we'd have to find our way there in the dark. Our flight to Amsterdam was scheduled to leave at 6 AM. From the Cork Airport we then continued driving south on N-37 to the picturesque port of Kinsale. After walking through the small town noted for it restaurants we visited the nearby 12-acre, cliff-top 17th-century British built Charles Fort. Back in Cork before heading to the Soho Pub for a bite to eat and a Guinness or two we strolled through the main quadrangle of the University Cork College campus to check out the Tudor-Gothic style architecture.
 
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My next task involved navigating four large roundabouts on the left and clockwise to exit the airport proper. Remembering to stay left wasn't as difficult as I had anticipated. But judging where my left tires were in relation to the curbed shoulder of the road and having to look up and to the left to utilize the rearview mirror was as alien to me as hiking downhill with no depth perception. Eventually I found myself relying on the side mirrors to monitor traffic behind us.
Then the Audi's engine died the first time we came to a full stop due to traffic -- at least I thought it had. We were both surprised to learn that the car's engine is engineered to turn off in order to economize on fuel when the vehicle isn't moving. It restarted as soon as I took my foot off of the brake pedal and I wondered just how long such a car's starter would last. The so-called gas saving feature was also a little irritating when we encountered Cork's bumper to bumper traffic.
I am nervous about driving on the left side of the road, but I am leaving all the driving to DH so hopefully he's got this lol. I drive a BMW and my car does the engine thing, I find it a bit annoying and there's a button to turn it off, not sure if that's an option in European cars. I could see how that would be terrifying if you didn't know to expect it.

It took both of us awhile to realize large, square white signs with the black lettering message "Traffic Calming" means the limit is about to decrease by 20 to 60 kilometers -- usually just around the next sharp bend in the road due to a narrow winding stretch without a center line, a very narrow and high curbed intersection, or just before coming to yet another roundabout.
Great to know! I learned about speed cameras from the UK and I don't want to get any tickets from the trip so we'll keep an eye on these signs.

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Gorgeous house!

This picture is so pretty!

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The western coast, especially around Dingle is notorious for its heavy rainfall and impenetrable sea mists, but we were blessed with almost cloudless days for both tours. The Dingle Peninsula is especially stunning with its coastal scenery, pristine sandy beaches, rocky islands and iron-age ruins.
Very nice, I wish we had more time to visit it. I had to make a choice between the Dingle Peninsula or Ring of Kerry and we decided to see the Ring of Kerry. But I got a tour guide for it so we don't have to drive it.

You seemed to have a fantastic trip! Thank you for sharing :)
 
I loved Sitrling, I wish I had more time to explore the city. We really did have amazing weather. Everyday our tour guides kept telling us how unusual the weather was and it's not normally like this. I kept saying I brought the Florida sunshine with me.

Every time I go to Scotland (with one exception) it seems I bring the sunshine with me...I guess it's a Floridian thing 😍 💙🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿:sunny:
 
Scotland Part 5

We've reached my last full day in Scotland. I would have liked to spend one more day, but my birthday was on Monday and I didn't want to spend the day traveling. It was our only true Scottish weather day with a lot of rain, wind and cold. I was actually happy to experience some real weather before leaving and it happened on the perfect tour day. We were doing another Rabbie's One Day Tour to St. Andrews and the Fishing Villages of Fife.

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This tour was the only one we had that was booked to full capacity, 16 people. I think it probably had something to do with it being a Saturday and closer to actual summer tourist time. There are three bridges that go over the River Forth. One is for trains (the bridge pictured above) one for cars that is the newest and the middle bridge that is apparently falling apart and being repaired that's reserved for tours and taxis, which we drove over. It was a little foggy out with the rain. We had a short stop in the little town of Anstruther, a little fishing village.

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Our bus stopped by the water and we ventured out on that stone pier.

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There were a lot of seagulls flying all over the place. The rain didn't seem to bother them at all. After we walked back to the bus we saw huge waves crash over these walls where we had been standing, really glad that didn't happen when we were out there.

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The seas were really rough out there that day. I was glad to be on land and not a boat this day.

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Looking back at our Rabbie's tour bus from the pier. They are really a great tour company, I had a fantastic trip through Scotland with them.

Continued next post...





 
Scotland Part 5, Continued

We drove through the rainy countryside to the city of St. Andrews. This city houses the family St. Andrews University where Prince William and Kate met and fell in love as well as where Golf was invented and has the oldest golf course. I'm not a big golfer, so we never had any intentions of playing on the course. I think my dad would love to play there, I got him a hat as a gift.

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Despite the weather the course was open and we say people playing. I suppose if you could only play on a sunny day the course wouldn't be open very much.

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One great thing about the weather was getting the chance to try out this fantastic restaurant. On our other days we didn't want to waste time eating at a long sit down meal. Our tour guide dropped us off near the golf course and gave us a time we would have to meet up a few hours later and two different pick up locations.

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This restaurant had a Michelin star and the food here was really great! On a nice day the views from here would be great since the walls are all glass and it sat over the sea.

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We had a corner window seat and watched the waves crashing against the shore and the sea gulls fly around.

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We started off with some fresh bread and butter.

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We started off with sharing an appetizer of mushroom risotto. I love this dish and make it at home all the time. It's always fun to see how it compares to the one I make. This one was very good.

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For my main course I decided to try the Monk fish. I'd never tried this before, always heard it was called the poor mans lobster. It tasted delicious!

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My husband had the Turbot. The first time we tried this was at Victoria and Albert's and this one was just as good.

After lunch we went and explored the golf course.

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Continued next post...​
 
Scotland Part 5, Continued

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If the weather had been better we would probably have explored this area a bit more. We decided to walk to the club house and explore the gift shop.


 
Scotland Part 5

Didn't mean to post that. Not sure what just happened was trying to paste a picture and I guess I hit the wrong button. Sorry about that!

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The rain was lightning up for a bit, but it was still really windy out.

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Inside the club house. To the left is the gift shop where I bought my dad a hat since he loves playing golf.

We decided to go explore more of the town and saw a dog on the golf course! I love how dog friendly Scotland is.

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The University was all around the city with school buildings scattered around.

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The sign in the window says Where Kate Met Will. I suppose this is where the royal couple's love bloomed.

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These flowers were so pretty and reminded me of the flowers from Alice in Wonderland.

Continued next post...​
 

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