Hello! It really must look like all I do is go on holiday this year… every time I come to write anything here it ends up being about some weekend jaunt I’ve been on, and this time is no exception. Catherine and I used up our remaining holiday days from work to go on a wee winter break in Edinburgh, Scotland at the very start of December, in search of mountains, drink and Hairy Coos…
We crammed in a surprising amount in our four days, including shopping, drinking, graveyard wandering, and a couple of underground ghost hunts with Mercat Tours and Auld Reekie Tours. Both tours were as good as when I last visited Edinburgh about five years ago, even if Catherine got a little bit strangled with her scarf in one of the vaults… :weird:
The best thing we did by far had to be our highland coach tour with The Hairy Coo. If you are ever, ever in Edinburgh and have a day to spare, you would be wise to spend it on a Hairy Coo tour. We woke up super early on the Sunday to find that it was snowing, and very slippy underfoot. Never mind, we had The Don to guide us through the highlands in this rather beautiful little coach, Irene…
You can kinda see the ice… I have never loved grippy Dr Marten soles so much in my life. This was taken by the Forth Rail Bridge. My Goth it was cold! Laurel was very glad of her Eurotrash helmet and teacupfaery knit cardigan!
Laurel did a lot of tourist photo demonstration on our trip… this is the National Wallace Monument at Stirling. I wish I’d got some better pictures, because it’s absolutely stunning close up. The views over Stirling are fabulous too. :heart:
We visited Doune Castle, of Monty Python fame… yes, we ran at it clattering coconut shells together. Laurel erm… didn’t get it so much.
We visited Loch Katrine… the pictures speak for themselves, I think.
Everything we saw was just… magical. Literally breathtakingly beautiful, and not just because of the bitter cold! Scenery aside, do you want to know what the coolest thing was?
Yes! That’s Catherine feeding a baby Hairy Coo. Words cannot express the level of “OMG CUTE SQUEEEEE!” that was going on there. Here’s a peep at our tour guide, The Don…
Dude was wearing a kilt in the ice and snow! Now there’s a real man for you! :love: He is without a doubt one of the most knowledgeable, funny, dedicated men I have ever met. Don absolutely made our day, it was perfect from start to finish. Even driving back to Edinburgh, he made sure we had time to take in more of the beautiful Scottish winter…
And as I seem to be enjoying them lately, here’s a Flickr slideshow with heaps more Hairy Coo action, and some terrible photos of me and Catherine enjoying ourselves far too much. Oh I wish I were back there now! ;__;
On a dolly note, I am (still) terribly behind with A Doll A Day 2011. I intend to catch up this week, as I am off work until the new year now, woop! :hero: