T̶w̶o̶ One p̶e̶r̶p̶e̶t̶u̶a̶l̶ ̶e̶x̶p̶a̶t̶s̶ immigrant settling into home country number five.
This is our very first December in Edinburgh, and we’ve been looking forward to it all year. It’s always fun to experience the holidays in a new culture. Locals have been talking up the Christmas markets (usually followed by an expectation-managing “But I’m sure it’s nothing like what you had in Germany.”). Christmas goodies started appearing on shop shelves as early as October, making us wonder what new and exciting things we’d get to eat this season. Figgy pudding, perhaps?
Eating: it’s one of our main forms of entertainment whenever we visit London. Here are some of our favorite restaurants from our most recent trip.
Most of our recent exploration of the Highlands have been by car (have I mentioned that we now own a car, after 8 years without one?), which has its advantages and disadvantages. One distinct disadvantage is that the driver has to pay attention to the road rather than enjoying the abundant scenery; another is that we have to put in the time and effort to plan our route ourselves.
Read moreA day in Scotland: Stirling Castle, Loch Lomond, and Glengoyne Distillery
Our recent trip to London was scheduled around Book of Mormon tickets. We’d been desperate to see it since it first opened in New York, but tickets were hard to come by during our visits. Luckily we were able to get tickets to see it in London just a couple months in advance. Yay!
One of the nice things about living in Edinburgh is how easy it is to get to London from here. The train takes just over four hours, departing from the middle of Edinburgh and depositing you at King’s Cross. There are plenty of flights, as well, but once you deal with getting yourself to and from airports, it’s taken you just as long door-to-door (and you’ve had to surrender your liquids).
Back in April I posted about how we were getting all settled into Edinburgh, how life here was starting to feel normal. The whole settling-in business was quite violently interrupted by Scott’s cancer diagnosis, which made us feel like ‘normal’ was a thing of the past. But here we are again, back on track.
Read moreEdinburgh: notes from the pub and other bits of daily life
After following the northern coast of eastern Scotland, our route turned inland towards Loch Kinord, where we stayed for a night. This area is known as Royal Deeside, due to its proximity to the River Dee and to Balmoral Castle, the queen’s famed vacation home.
From Banff we spent an afternoon driving along Scotland’s northeastern coast, enjoying the views and popping in and out of a string of tiny fishing villages.
Read moreEastern Scotland: lighthouses and small coastal towns
One of my favorite parts of driving around the Scottish Highlands is hairy coo spotting. As you drive along, you’ll catch sight of a couple cows grazing in a pasture far up the road.
We hadn’t specifically set out to visit any distilleries on this last trip to the Highlands, but somehow we managed to find ourselves driving the Malt Whisky Trail through Speyside one afternoon. Clearly we were meant to tour a distillery right then. We were spoiled for choice with such a large cluster of distilleries at our feet; not knowing which to choose, we trusted our guidebook’s recommendation of Glenfiddich.