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 
Oooooooooooo! Nice! I so need to talk to you about this and will be sending you an email soon 🙂
Hi Teri, I will check email soomn today! I am curious 🙂 Scotland is a stunning region to visit – it feels like a different country than the main U.K. – lol Write to you soon!!
Thanks, Indah 🙂
Great pictures as always Indah
Big hug
bapak john
Thank you so much Bapak John!
Great photos Indah! I had no idea the sinks there always have two taps! Why?
Thank you so much, John! About the separate taps, to be honest, I am not sure either. I think it has something to do with water management in the UK before the WW 2 that somehow proudly continued until at present 😀
Road trips are fun. I’ve had quite a few road trips, mostly National Parks and beaches in the US. I’d love to explore Europe, and particularly Scotland and Ireland. Thankfully, I haven’t had the wild things happen that you have Indah!
The US has amazing National Parks that certainly impressive to treasure them by car. I think I will do more road trips here in the US. It’s calmer compared to the European ones 😀
I’m very grateful for those two summers of exploring our National Parks.
Excellent sharing of your journey. I recall one of my trips in the U.S. trying to find the old Route 66 in the midwest. I was looking for the signage to determine where it was located and actually found myself on it by accident. That was intriguing – especially when I travel through a small town and ate at the restaurant where the “Cars” movie had its origination. After eating and traveling about a mile I happened upon some of the old vehicles that inspired some of the vehicles in the movie – like Tow Mater and Doc. I need to go back and gather my images and write about Route 66 travels. Thanks for reminding me.
Thank you so much for your comment, Ron! My apology for replying late. We just returned from our road trip and we did drive through few parts of the historical Route 66. I will follow your blog soon and be looking forward to reading your Route 66 travels..
That’s great Indah. I’ll welcome your thoughts on the various locations as I’m sure you had some excellent experiences.
Indah! Love this post! Wife Geri & I toured UK from England to Wales to Scotland & back to London in 2012. We especially loved Edinburgh! The bagpipes & Haggas on top the great history & the great people & minds from all intellectual disciplines associated with Scotland !!!! Good job here! Phil
Hi Phil, me too 😀 I really like Edinburgh – the food, the atmosphere, the people 🙂 Happy to hear it brings back great travel memory of yours. My apology for replying late. I just returned from another road trip in the US. Your country is so beautiful! I will visit your blog soon!!
Thank you for the tour via your beautiful photos! 🙂
Thank you so much, Amy!
And why wouldn’t a sink have 2 taps?! We do have a kitchen sink with just the one, but I don’t like it. I much prefer to know what temperature to expect, rather than have 10 minutes of fiddling to get it right 😉! Seriously though, Scotland is incredibly beautiful, especially the North West and Skye.
😀 I guess two taps make it easy to make tea – gosh, the hot water one was super hot! Indeed, Scotland is truly beautiful region. I hope I will be able to return and visit more places in Scotland. I don’t mind to return to Glasgow and Edinburgh!