Castles, Palaces, and Coastal Walks

On Thursday David and I started off the day by picking up some souvenirs and gifts, and then walked down to the beach to do the dreaded pier walk. It’s an old tradition to walk along the top part of the pier instead of the safer, wider part. We both started to experience vertigo with the water moving below us and the clouds above us, but we made it safe and sound to the end. We climbed down an old rusty ladder to the safe part of the pier, and then walked along the beach before heading back to the house for lunch.

Near the end of the pier   

After lunch, we left for Falkland Palace. The Renaissance palace was a hunting lodge for the Stuart kings. Also, the oldest tennis court in the world was built there in 1539 for King James V and it’s still in use today.

 Falkland Palace

1539 Tennis Court

We took our time walking through the orchards and the gardens. I climbed a tree. David took pictures. Then a pigeon pooped on my arm, but I got that pigeon back by having his friend for dinner later that night! Muahahaha! 

Laura wanted to take us on a walk through the town and surrounding woods…. and through more woods… and more woods. Little did we know this walk would be a 2 mile trek. Somehow Amy and Jeff got the memo and wore tennis shoes. It was a fun walk though. We enjoyed the beautiful scenery including the old bridges and waterfalls. At one point we came to a dark tunnel. Jeff refused to walk through and climbed over the top instead. Amy waited inside to scare the rest of us, but David terrified us the most by performing his Sméagol impression.

After a foot massage from my sweet (but weird) husband back home, everyone got dressed up for dinner at The Seafood Restaurant, a swanky restaurant overlooking the bay and the famous rock. I am not the biggest fan of seafood, so as I mentioned above, I had pigeon. It was my first time eating pigeon and it was actually really delicious. It tasted like a really tender steak. It was served over a watermelon steak with lemon and goat cheese. All of the guys, including David, made fun of me. For the rest of the trip, every time we saw a dirty pigeon eating scraps off the ground, they had to remind me that I had one of those in my belly. My pigeon was raised on a Scottish farm, though, so I think his diet was much healthier than trashed sandwiches and half-eaten candy bars.

After dinner we went to a nightclub called the Lizard to dance to Euro-techno music. We would’ve totally fit in with some glow sticks…. I’m just kidding! After a while, they started playing normal music like Keisha and even some Journey!

Hanging out at The Lizard

Friday morning, we went on a 4-mile coastal hike around East Neuk, which is a string of pretty fishing villages along the eastern coast of Scotland near St. Andrews. We started off at a lighthouse in Elie. Our next stop along the trail was Lady Janet’s tower. A wealthy woman built the tower and a swimming grotto for her private use. Next was Ardross Castle, built in 1370 and now basically a pile of stones. We ended in St. Monans at Newark Castle. Newark is not a protected structure, so we were free to wander around inside. It was amazing to us how these castles are just there. Some of them are on farmland or campgrounds. Others are literally in the backyards of houses. Everything is so new in America. Even our oldest structures are still only a few hundred years old. David and I couldn’t imagine waking up every morning and looking out over a castle or church or other ancient building.

Laura on the trail in front of Newark Castle

We were pretty exhausted after our hike so we stopped in Anstruther at an award-winning fish n chips restaurant for lunch and then headed home to relax with the family. Later that night… that’s right, we watched the World Cup.

Our flight home from Europe left from Edinburgh so we spent Saturday there before heading out on Sunday. The first thing we did when we arrived in the city was to hike up the royal mile to see Edinburgh Castle.  The castle is a huge fortress that sits on top of an extinct volcano. We took an audio guided tour which showed us the crown jewels, the royal apartments where King James I was born to Mary, Queen of Scots, and St. Margaret’s chapel, the oldest building in Edinburgh. We also explored the dungeons, which later became home to prisoners of war during the American Revolution. There is a great War Memorial in the middle of the castle. At 1:00 each day a musician entertains the crowd with his bagpipes and then a member of the Scottish military fires off a cannon. 

 In front of the War Memorial

David posing next to the giant Mons Meg cannon

After the cannon was fired, we left the castle and headed down the street to the Scotch Whiskey Experience.  The whiskey museum reminded us a lot of the Heineken Experience, except instead of walking through the simulation, you get to ride in a whiskey barrel!  

On the whiskey barrel ride

At the end of the tour, you get a sample of scotch whiskey and you can take home your special glass, too. To decide on which samples we wanted, we watched a video on the different regions of Scotland. Each region has a unique whiskey flavor associated with it. David chose the smoky whiskey while I chose the fruity. But even the fruity tasted like rubbing alcohol to me, so David had both samples for himself. Then we saw the largest collection of scotch in the world. This room is filled with thousands of unopened bottles collected by a Brazilian millionaire.

That's a lot of Scotch Whiskey, and it's just one wall of the room!

We also ate lunch at the museum’s restaurant, Amber. This was in my guide book as an up-and-coming café acclaimed by both locals and tourists. It was soooo good! David and I both had Scotland’s version of French onion soup. Then David had a steak with a whiskey glaze and I had lamb. For dessert, I had my first-ever sticky toffee pudding. David couldn’t believe that after all the times I had been to the UK, I had never had sticky toffee pudding. I love rich food, but it was almost too rich even for me!

David and I had to walk off the 3,000 calories we had just consumed for dessert, so we headed back down the royal mile to Holyrood Palace. This is the official summer residence of the Queen of England when she visits Scotland and it is closed for tours while she’s there. Fortunately for us, she hadn’t arrived yet for her big garden party the first week of July. Much of the grounds were already covered in big white tents, though, in preparation for the festivities. We picked the perfect time to tour the palace. The entry gates close at 5:00 and all visitors must leave by 6:00. We arrived at 4:30 and the tour took exactly 90 minutes. So for much of the tour, we were the only ones there (which made for some GREAT pictures).

In the palace gardens outside Holyrood Abbey

That night… yes, you guessed it! We watched the World Cup. I guess the Scots don’t like Americans very much because EVERYONE at the pub was rooting for Ghana. Unfortunately for us, Ghana won the game and we were forced to leave in shame.

The US defeat, quickly followed by England’s defeat on our flight home Sunday, did nothing to dampen our spirits. The whole trip was amazing! We had so much fun visiting family and discovering Scotland together! Congratulations, Laura! We’ll see you again very, very soon!