My First Road Trip in Europe: Scotland
I admitted it, I did not do a lot of road trips. Since I have been traveling frequently (after earning my own money), I can count my road trips by fingers and they are less than my ten fingers.
Cuba – sharing the road with the cows
All road trips are memorable due to some “unusual” challenges. When we drove around in Cuba, we shared the highways with the (wild) cows, we had to watch for them carefully as we could end up in jail by killing a cow. When we were in Cannes (France), our car broke down and we rented a car (with French car plate number) to return to the Netherlands. Then as we entered the Netherlands, several Dutch cars chased us (remember, we drove inside a French car) to offer marijuana! On the highway! Oh, come on!
Dante at Sioux Falls (South Dakota), our first road trip in the U.S. This dog can howl like a wolf.
The third memorable road trip experience was our trip to Poznan (Poland). We were trapped in a long traffic jam due to an accident. Then an ambulance got stuck next to our car and Dante, our dog, could not stand the ambulance’s sirens. He responded the sirens by howling like a lone wolf following the ambulance sirens. What a drama!
One thing that I remember about my road trip in Scotland was its beautiful scenery along the road. It was my first road trip in Europe but it’s not the case for Dutchie. Dutchie and I flew to Edinburgh and we rented a car to drive around Scotland. We shared the road with sheep (btw, those white dots on the right picture were actually sheep). The region was so pretty that I wish I could stop in every corner to take pictures. Our road trip’s map was like this:
It was possible to visit these places in 12 hours drive, but instead doing a fast travel, we spent a week to explore Scotland – in which I consider it was a fast trip already.
MONDAY
We started on Monday from Edinburgh. Our first destination was Braemar, a small Scotland’s highland village, where we stayed for a night. We went to the Hall of Braemer for the display of Scotland Highland Dance by the kids. It was a good start.
TUESDAY & WEDNESDAY
On the following day we checked out and we drove to the direction of Inverness to see the Loch Ness and Drumnadrochit to see the Urquhart Castle. Stunning view along the way.
Then we continued driving to Mallaig for our evening stay at a cute guest house. Anyway, we spent a day in Mallaig and Arisaig. We also saw the Harry Potter’s Hogwarts Express (The Jacobite Steam Train).
THURSDAY & FRIDAY
We left Mallaig on Thursday morning and continued our road trip to Fort William for lunch then drove to Glasgow. We stayed for a night in Glasgow and explore Glasgow on the following day before driving to Edinburgh. That moment staying in Glasgow’s hotel was the point when I realized that all water taps in Scotland were really separated between the super hot water tap and the freezing cold water tap, there was nothing in between! Just checking it out on the internet, and it actually is a typical water tap system in the United Kingdom – two water taps separately in their sinks!
SATURDAY & SUNDAY
We arrived in Edinburgh at dinner time on Friday and stayed over in Edinburgh. Edinburgh is a beautiful city. We visited its castle, hills and the monuments. We tried out the Scottish whiskey, visited its old town and of course, enjoying the taste of the Scottish meal, my favorite was its dessert, Cranachan. We did not try the haggis though 🙂
Have you done a road trip? What was your funny road trip moment?
indahs: dive, travel & photography 
I want to see Scotland again. I was there for a while as a little girl. I spent my childhood in London. English plumbing is a trip!
Sherry, happy to bring back your childhood memories 🙂 Scotland has amazing nature that will be a great subject for your photography! ❤
It sure would be great to take photos in Scotland./
Awwww…..LOVE Scotland. I use to go regularly with my dog when I lived in the north of England. Usually out to the islands. Mull is beautiful! Laughing my head off at your bit about the hot and cold taps. I’ve lived in other countries where there are two separate taps but it is hard to get such extremes in temperature.
Scotland has stunning landscape. I wish I visited its islands too – hopefully someday I will be able to return to see its islands 🙂
You’ve done some impressive travels Indah, and not sure if I could pick a favorite – great photos, especially of Dante at Sioux Falls 🙂 Scotland remains one of those places that continued to impress me the longer I stayed, and what is funny is I had the same amazement at the ‘2 taps’ 🙂 Wishing you a great weekend.
Thank you! The 2 taps was unforgettable! I thought it was only available in the houses since we stayed mostly in bed and breakfast…until we found out it was also in the hotels and restaurants 😀
looks splendid Indah! Still havent explored Scotland although I have been to Edinburgh and Glasgow, both of which I liked!
Both cities are impressive!! Thank you so much, Andy!
really funny about the taps!! so true!! Lovely article 🙂 I am aiming to get there someday for a roadtrip!
Thank you 🙂 Yes, it is totally recommended!