Griswold road trip- Scotland

After months of careful planning John, Chich and I managed a birthday surprise for Sloane. They flew into London and met Sloane (who was so surprised he shut the door on them) at our flat, and then we all flew up to Inverness Scotland. We spent the night at a beautiful B&B in Inverness called the Bluebell before setting out the next day to St. Andrews.




On our way to St. Andrews we stopped at Loch Ness to try our luck at spotting the monster. You'd never know by the views that it was freezing cold and raining for most of the ride, but in the brief glimpses of sunlight the views of the countryside and of Urquhart castle were amazing.















On the highland road from Inverness to St. Andrews we saw some of the most amazing views. I really wanted to see a few of the fuzzy highland cattle but all we saw was sheep. Sloane and I both tried the haggis when we stopped for lunch (or I tried it and Sloane consented to have a bite), while I can't say I'd go out of my way to order it again I didn't find it all that bad.
















We stopped at the Blair Athol Distillery to sample the local sample the spirits. While the tasting rooms were closed the store was open and John and Sloane made sure not to leave empty handed.


We arrived in St. Andrews in time for dinner. We ate dinner at our hotel (The Inn on North Street) and John, Sloane and I went for drinks at the Rusacks Hotel (where John's father used to stay when he visted St. Andews). The next day we tried to get into the R&A Golf Club as John had a guest membership. I went to prostest the fact that I heard they still don't let women in, but as it turns out it didn't really matter because they wouldn't even let Sloane in with John. The three of us left cursing the exclusitivy of the golf world.














In addition to the golfing, St. Andrews also has beautiful coastal views and a historic abbey.









From St. Andrew's we headed south toward Edinburgh, stopping in Dunfermline where Sloane's Scotish ancestors lived. The abbey in Dunfermline is one of the most important abbey's in Scotland and is the burial site of Robert the Bruce as well as many other Scotish royalty.


We arrived in Edinburgh just in time to have the best dinner of the trip. We ate at a restaurant called the North Bridge Brasserie which is in the old Scotsman building. Both the ambiance and food were fantastic.

We finished ended the trip with a tour of Edinburgh castle and a whiskey tasting where Chich and my gags were met with a mixture of laughs (from the women) and scornful looks (from the men).



Scotland was beautiful and the people so friendly! On our Griswold family vacation (which I forgot to mention came complete with the rental station wagon) we managed to avoid any majorly catastrophic situations and arrived back in London just in time for Sloane's birthday (steak dinner obviously).