This transcript was generated automatically from the episode audio, so expect the odd misheard word. Click any timestamp to play from that moment; times marked ≈ are estimated to within a minute or so.
Yes, the fourth Anglotopia podcast. We took a break from talking about our Anglotopia's Green Adventure to do a Christmas-themed episode, and now it's time to get back to the final leg of our trip that we took last September, and that's the Scotland part. I'm really excited about talking about Scotland.
Okay, show note here, we can't drink tea at the same time. We both have a lovely mug of tea, and we both took a sip at the same time. Sorry, I interrupted you. Okay, what were you going to say?
It's 4 o'clock in the afternoon and we're flagging. I don't know where I was. So, we'd never been to Scotland before. The furthest north that we had been together was the Midlands. The furthest north I had been was the Lake District. So, Scotland was completely uncharted territory. There's lots of reasons why. We haven't been to Scotland yet, mostly just because it's up there and it's hard to get to.
Yeah, there's not a direct flight from Chicago, although I think United now flies direct to Edinburgh.
That and the time of year where we're usually there, like northern Scotland is not super accessible.
We travel a lot in the winter and the bumper months to avoid the tourist season, And those aren't the best times to go to Scotland because their weather is more like a U.S. midwestern winter than anywhere else in Britain. So the weather's inclement. So a lot more reasons. And we just haven't had a chance to go there. So in our 15 years of travel, we finally got to go to Scotland. And that's the thing I was looking forward to most on the trip was going to Scotland for the first time. It's, you know, we grew up watching Braveheart and all the movies that take place in Scotland. Local Heroes is one of my favorite movies. So it's just nice to finally get a chance to go. So do you have any thoughts about going to Scotland?
I have lots of thoughts about going to Scotland. But I think one of the things that, like my initial impressions of Scotland was, it's going to sound really simple and slightly daft maybe even. I knew that Scotland had its own culture and that it's uniquely Scottish. But what surprised me, or I guess caught me off guard, is how distinctly Scottish Scotland is. I felt like there was a clear distinction between England and Scotland. And I thought that was really cool. I felt in a lot of ways like we weren't just experiencing far, far, far northern England, but we were experiencing a whole other culture that we've never really had the chance to dip our toes into. And I think that the Scottish people as a whole were just so warm and welcoming and just lovely people.
Yeah, to pick up on that, I would say that Scotland is, they won't like to hear this, but Scotland is, it's recognizably British. Like the rest, because we've been to England and Wales, and there's lots of things that are the same. But there's also a lot of differences.
And so Scotland is like, it's Britain with a twist. And there's their own unique things up there. my favorite thing is the unique accent like when we were at our restaurant the first night and we were surrounded by these beautiful scottish accents people talking and i'm like this is great well and
the accent changed the further north we went like it got more distinct i think one of the things that like i knew again i knew to i had expectations but the beauty of the landscape in scotland is like nowhere I've ever been. Like, I've seen a lot of the continental US by car. Like, the western half of the country I've been over the Rockies. I've actually been over the Appalachians. Like, I've seen mountains. I've seen sea or ocean. Like, I've seen it. And it's beautiful, but there is something so rustic and remote and just the beauty is I mean, I'm not doing a good job because this is a podcast, but it really is undescribable.
it is I've never been anywhere as beautiful yeah I would say this is that Scotland's wide open spaces are are amazing like the rest of England I love the English landscape and the way it's shaped and the way it looks and the way it feels Scotland feels completely different and England while England is bigger is bigger than Scotland England is very compact and it's very crowded scotland only has i think it's like five or six million people whereas inclin has like 45 million people so there's a lot less people in scotland so as a consequence there's a wide open empty landscapes and vistas with with no people in them with nothing in them it's it's it's britain at its wildest and and as we drove and we'll get to this but as we drove through the roads up through central scotland through the carngore national park and everything It's like there's just nothing.
And the only thing there is the road and occasionally somewhere to stop for a cup of tea.
Like if you keep a bucket list, like the Karen Gord National Park needs to be on it. I think it, like I said, decently well traveled. I think by far that was one of the most beautiful places on the face of the planet I have ever been. and one of the things that I loved about driving through that part of the country is you'd come around Ben and there'd be another Vista and then oh wait here's another one and oh my gosh how did it get more beautiful than the last Vista I mean it just it's a feast for the
eyes yeah and it's funny when we crossed the border and we stopped and did pictures of the border and everything um yeah we were those people well we weren't the only people doing it but yeah it's funny like on the scottish side of the road there's big salt hairs blowing in the wind and a big sign on the english side of the road there's just a little cross the saint george flag and a little welcome to england sign that was funny it is funny um but as we drove because we drove along
the coast road to the border and then we drove along the east coast road east coast road along
the border through the border and then kind of drove through the Scottish lowlands and the Scottish borders I think they're called and I was surprised they were beautiful but I was like it looks a lot
like England so nice here we're gonna get letters but it didn't really start looking like Scotland
and doing air quotes they didn't really look like Scotland until we left Edinburgh and started driving through the highlands and and seeing Scottish landscapes so um so why don't we start with edinburgh yeah um we didn't spend long at edinburgh and that that was a consequence of
our schedule just too tight so the first so the first caveat here is we need to go back to edinburgh because yes we did it a disservice we didn't we didn't we didn't see much there simply because
we didn't have time and we were exhausted so and i think what we had been on the road for a solid
week by this point right and and at the end of the day when we arrived at edinburgh we'd been on the
road all day so yeah we had done Eckergill or no we no we didn't we had to pass it we had done
um we had left york done durham yeah did uh we went to annick that thank you and then after annick we were just like it's like three o'clock we're exhausted so and we knew we were gonna
and when we came into edinburgh like we came in on a saturday late afternoon and the traffic was like we're used to traffic especially like london traffic i will tell you the traffic we sat in coming into central edinburgh would give london traffic a run for its money so we now let's talk
about the hotel we booked um it's called i'm gonna write this in the show notes um it's called the
wine bar and it was uh i found it on one of the hotel websites um and we'll put a link in the show notes yeah we'll put a link in the show notes it's it's a boutique hotel that has four rooms and it's a and it's called the wine bar and it's from the 1800s but it's been recently renovated
and it's a very the rooms are very modern very nice very all mod cons that's a british super posh
and and then downstairs there's a wine bar that has fancy wines and drinks and stuff this hotel
was made for me folks i just want that's why we picked it because she loves wine so like that's
picked it and it we thought it was relatively essentially located but it turns out it really wasn't um it was kind of on uh on i wouldn't say the wrong side of edinburgh but it wasn't in central edinburgh where we thought it was and where it was there was a ton of construction and like it was really hard to navigate the roads over there and it took us forever to find somewhere to
park yeah the i think that's the only hotel that we stayed at that didn't have a dedicated car park
Right. And so imagine you're like on the streets of central Edinburgh in this giant Land Rover that is extremely, it's not a vehicle that I was super comfortable like leaving out on the streets. And side note here, I'm not like saying anything bad about Edinburgh. Like I wouldn't be happy parking that vehicle on any street. Like that is a garage kept vehicle.
And one thing we learned quickly about Edinburgh is that the roads are flat. So we had to park downhill several blocks away from the hotel, which was fun with our luggage.
It wasn't that expensive, although I think it was the most expensive hotel we stayed at the entire trip.
It was worth it, but with a caveat that don't expect breakfast, even though it's concluded in the grade.
Don't expect a traditional breakfast. I had probably one of my most favorite breakfasts of the trip, but we'll get to that.
We had a drink before dinner, and then we, thinking about what we wanted to do for dinner, and looking at Google Maps to see what was around us. we were tired and there were a lot of restaurants around us and there was a Nando's across the street
okay so I like wine I think that I know enough about wine to make an informed choice when choosing something what I loved about the wine bar and so even if you aren't going to stay in the hotel you can go to the wine bar downstairs which is great so many wines by the glass that it intimidated me. So I asked the bartender slash sommelier, this is what I like, this is what I normally drink, what would you recommend? And so just kind of put my trust in his hands and he brought me a wine variety or wine grape that I've never had in my life and I wish I would have wrote it down. it was an italian white wine i'm not a huge white wine drinker i'm normally a red wine drinker but it was so good and the best part of the whole thing was we ordered just a really small like tray of olives and cheeses and stuff like that for nibbles before dinner well because we were staying in the hotel and we had been staying in hotels for a week like we'd get in to our whatever city we were going to be in we'd do an early dinner then business um you know back up in the room or a meeting or that kind of thing and then usually bath or you know by like 9 30 we'd be like we'd be hungry again so i asked the sommelier or the bartender who i'm not quite sure what his title was if he would mind taking our leftover um you know we our leftovers that we hadn't ate and put them up in the room and he did and that was so cool so the like each room comes with a mini fridge and there's a little bottle of champagne in the mini fridge which is totally complimentary and delicious so like we went out and did our thing and then we went to nando's for
dinner and that was that was interesting because it was interesting people watching wise because we
got yeah that was an experience it was a it was a saturday night out in edinburgh so like the
locals were out for their saturday night and the young kids were out and there was a there was a movie there was a a play theater next door but there was a show on yeah so like people were out and about it was interesting to get a little bit of local color that way um yeah and then after
that after we had nando's we went to bed yummy nando's went to bed so the next day uh we got
up and did breakfast now it was okay most hotels in Britain when you have breakfast included in your room you can get a full English or a variation of that okay because the wine house has four rooms they offered basically would you call it a cheese board or well it was like she was like cheeses and sausages
Yeah, like there wasn't an egg to be had or like toast. Like you couldn't get eggs and toast. But I was in heaven.
And the coffee. The coffee was so good. Good Italian coffee. Big hunk of cheese. Like, oh, I'm good. I'm good.
So we wanted to explore Edinburgh in the morning, but looking at how far we had to go that day, we were like, there's not enough time.
And then we're like, we're not going to give it justice by just popping into one thing. So we decided to just drive around Edinburgh to get kind of a feel for what's there and what it looks like and get our bearings so that when we go back, kind of know where everything is. So our first stop for the day is we went to the HMY Britannia. For those unfamiliar with that, that was the Queen's private yacht. And it sailed all over the world on the royal tours back when they still used the boat. She considered it one of her favorite palaces or homes. because on the yacht, they could really let their hair down and be themselves because they were away from the press and the public eye. If you've watched The Crown on Netflix, a lot of The Crown...
Yeah, the 50s and the 60s era takes place on the Britannia because they were on a lot. So we really wanted to see that because it's considered one of the top tourist attractions in all of Great Britain. So we got in the car. After we drove through Edinburgh, we got in the car and drove over to the dock area where the H&Y is moored. And it's kind of moored next to a mall.
Yeah, like you have to walk through a shopping mall. It was like, are we in the right spot?
Yeah, so we parked and walked through the mall, which was convenient because if you needed to pick up something,
But there's also plenty of places to eat if you didn't want to eat on the ship.
There's a Wagamama in there. I would just like to declare my love for Wagamama.
And we, we didn't have to wait to get on. Um, and we were early cause we, our strategies usually show up to these places as soon as they open.
Well, and so you go through like a little exhibit before you actually board the boat,
Like, it never leaves the dock. But, which is great because it kind of explains, like, what it was and what it meant to the royal family.
And so, it's a great primer. Like, stop and take the time. It gives a timeline of the yacht. So, stop and take the time to look through and do that part.
And then they let you on board. And you start at the top of the ship on the decks. And then, you know, there's a lot to see there.
I mean, it's a whole yacht. And, like, when you think of a yacht, not like a small, like, not like the boat from Captain Rom. I mean, like, this boat is massive.
Well, it's a yacht that was literally owned by the Queen of England. Yeah, I mean, it's a big ship.
I don't have the stats on how big it is, but it's, I mean, there's at least more than half a dozen decks.
I mean, it was several hundred feet long. It's a big ship. So there's a lot to see. And you're basically taken on a tour through the royal family's history with the boat. It's decorated as it was when it was decommissioned.
And all of the royal family, for that matter, that was on the boat at one point or another.
And it started to get a little more crowded by this point. So, I mean, you kind of had to shuffle your way through.
Yeah, I mean, keep in mind that, you know, you are on a yacht and, like, it's not meant to, like, push 200 people through. It's meant for, like, the Queen.
Yes, because it was not quite lunchtime, but we were still, and you were starving from breakfast.
Yeah, I was starving from breakfast, so we had tea and cake. So that was nice.
Well, like, there were linen tablecloths, and it felt very posh, even though it didn't have a super posh price tag.
Yeah, because, yeah, where it's located, it's in the dock area of Edinburgh, so it's right on the sea on the Firth that goes out to the ocean, and you can see the big bridge, the Queen's Ferry Bridge, the bridges and the fourth bridge like you can see all that it's cool um yeah and so then you then you start at the top and then you work your way down and then um if you suffer from claustrophobia and or don't like confined spaces that's when it gets uncomfortable because the
further down you go in the ship the more cramped it gets to the point where when you're down in the
crew quarters the poor crew oh my god it's um it's like single file and you get trapped very easily yeah like we skipped the last deck because i just i couldn't handle it and we skipped the last two
decks actually i mean i don't know there was just something like it was uncomfortable so yeah there's a lot oh and prince albert's racing yeah is right is parked right outside or is i should say it's like dry docked um and it's a sailing thank you thank you i knew that was wrong when i said it Sorry, folks. Yeah, his racing yacht is, like, dry docked out there. And as a sailing enthusiast and a beginning sailor, like, I was all about it. But they had it cordoned off. Like, you couldn't go up to it or really see it. And I was, like, kind of craning to see it. Like, not in a disrespectful manner or anything like that. And a member of staff was like, would you like to see it? And, like, they didn't know who we, you know, they didn't know that we were with Inglotopia or anything. And they were so kind. And there was a very nice gentleman who asked to not be named, kind of removed the cordon and let me go take a look. And I kept a respectful distance and didn't touch anything. Snapped a quick photo of me standing in front of it. Gorgeous, just gorgeous little racing boat. that would be like I would love to take that out
we should we should kind of amend that though if you do one thing outside of central Edinburgh
there's a lot of history there and I believe the queen cried when they took it away from her
Yeah, we needed to get to Inverness. And then, which is about a two-and-a-half to three-hour drive from Edinburgh. So we...
Yeah, that's where we went through. You go through the edge of the Cairngorings National Park. And here's a... I recommend this map of Scotland from International Travel Maps, which we'll link in the show notes. It has all the roads and everything. but we were, you're going to want to look this up on Google Maps, we were on the A9, which is the main spine road that runs from Edinburgh north through the highlands to Inverness. And it's pretty much a straight shot. And it's one of the most beautiful drives I've ever done in my life. I mean, there's mountains and glens and peat bogs and rivers.
Yeah, it's stunning. I think we saw three distinct rainbows in a row throughout the day because it rained and the sun would come out and it rained again.
Sorry, Ireland. Yeah, the rainbows were beautiful. And we, now, side note, the A9 has average speed cameras the entire length of the road. okay for those who aren't familiar with average speed cameras because they're completely foreign concept here the average speed camera it checks your speed when you enter the zone and it checks your speed when you leave the zone so that if you if you got there if you went through it too fast it would know and then you would get a speeding ticket so this stretch of 100 miles of road though the entire stretch has average speed cameras. And I heard after the fact it's for safety on that stretch of road because it's so beautiful and also so wild and remote that if they don't have the steep limit set like that, like it's dangerous. I can see that. I can see that. It wasn't dangerous the day we were driving through there, but traffic just moves so slow through there. But again, it's the most beautiful landscape we've ever been in, so I guess it wasn't that bad. but it was still frustrating that you couldn't go any faster because nobody can speak. Everybody's being clocked as they enter and exit, and it was slow going, but it was the slowest, most beautiful drive I've ever taken.
Crazy puppy. I swear he makes an appearance at some point during the podcast, one way or another.
His hair's up. He sees something. anyway anyway back to the point back to the drive so we we stopped about halfway through i forget the name of the place but it was like it's little cafe literally in the middle of nowhere
yeah when he says the middle of nowhere i mean he means the middle of nowhere there were no towns nearby can i just say that's one of the things i love most about great britain is that you actually get a proper cafe for like tea and coffee and people will sit and have a tea and or coffee
like in the middle of nowhere yeah so and then we moved on and um we didn't make any other stops
that day did we no i think i mean this was like what day eight at this point which day eight or day nine like we were just like i feel like we did though no we didn't we were so bone tired and although that drive was only supposed to be a couple of hours we knew that they were also British miles. So we did not because we were going to stop at Loch Ness on the way
north. We decided to do that the next day. Right. We had to push it to the next
I forgot to mention Nerd Alert here. We got to cross the new Queensferry Bridge which was incredible. The bridge is stunning. It's six lanes and it literally just opened this year. That was really cool. We got to see the famous Firth of Forth Iron Bridge. So, yeah, that was cool. So then we made it to Inverness. We did not stay in Inverness, actually, though. We crossed the bridge and stayed in North Kessock at the North Kessock Hotel, which has a view of Inverness. I would say this is the hotel we liked the least the entire trip.
But it would be nice for families if you were traveling with your kids or something. It was clean, which was the most important thing. But it was very clean but basic.
Yeah, it was pretty basic. I'm hesitant to say anything bad about it because it was fine.
- From the front are amazing. 'Cause you see the bridge and the Firth and... So yeah.
- Like if it would have been considerably less and it would have been like, hey babe, we're just staying here for one night. included dinner in the price yeah dinner but no drinks like that kind of thing yeah but i mean i
think i think it was 185 pounds i was like that was that was like the first time of the trip i was like really yeah but that's really i mean that's on us for not researching more places to stay it was mostly necessity just finding a place in between ardenborough and well and okay so not
necessarily saying something bad but breakfast that the next morning really left a lot to be desired like um i ordered porridge so which is like oatmeal basically and like scottish oatmeal is supposed to be like world famous and granted yeah probably not the place to order it but um yeah my breakfast was like I was like you the day before I was just like not about it so that really that was a bummer but the view like from the breakfast room stunning like I could have sat there and just drank a pot
of tea so after that um we we weren't we could have driven straight through to John O'Groats but But then we would have had to come straight back to Inverness. So the plan was to drive to Ackergill Castle.
So we had to end the day at Ackergill Castle, which is not far from John O'Groats. So there was a couple of things we wanted to see in between. So we wanted to see Loch Ness. And then we wanted to go to the castle. name escapes me um it's owned by the duke of sultan that was my probably my favorite thing you saw in scotland
so loch ness is absolutely gorgeous we did not see nessie she had not had her she had not had her tea yet for the morning we were there very early again like with all of these things go early we went and saw another
castle that was on the lock as well yeah the we went to urquhart castle which is the like the thing to see on lock nest because the view it gives you views of the entire lock um but we got
there early so there was nobody there it was very cold the morning we were there like we're talking probably like what 40s like and neither of us had brought a coat i had bought a like kind of like a cotton um with cotton coat down in cornwall that had like a wax covering but like so it's like 40 degrees and it was a little slick and a little icy and so that's not the time to go see urquhart castle unless you're properly attired which we weren't so we did a very very brisk walk through going
this is beautiful and i'm freezing so after loch ness we we didn't really stop anywhere else in Loch Ness because it was very clear that it was tourist trap-topia yeah there were very there was ample Loch Ness nasty gift shops and visitor centers and experiences and the tour buses had started to arrive and unload like we were just like this is not us so and no offense to anybody
who like that's really your thing that's super cool but it just was not our thing yeah so we
we went on for the day so the mystery castle it's Dunrobin Castle oh that's right and it was about an hour away from where we were and it's a I guess I would describe it as it looks like Hogwarts or rather Hogwarts looks like Dunrobin
it's not a real castle right well castle it's a it's a stately home that was rebuilt in the victorian era it'll look like a scottish fairy tale castle so it's gorgeous but it was i mean we had to drive along the coast to get there and we had to cross three beautiful bridges to get there and like it was just amazing and it's like perched on a cliff right above the sea so when you're inside the castle you can see the sea and when you're outside the castle in the gardens you can hear the sea and it's very much I hate to use the word Downton Abbey-esque because we're probably going to use it again later but it was very aristocratic and stately because it's still a privately owned stately home it's still the seat of the Dukes of Sutherland but it's open to the public every day and it's beautiful I highly recommend visiting there it's not a large stately home so you can it's not taxing to walk around it
definitely won't be able to go down into the gardens. Well, there's a large ramp that you can take, but I don't know. There's still a lot of stairs going down into the garden.
I highly recommend going down the stairs into the garden because it's beautiful. I actually shot an Anglophiles in a video, which I will link to in the show notes of the gardens because it was just peaceful and beautiful and the castle perched above you. It was just amazing.
I had lunch in the caf while he did that because as beautiful as it was and I would have loved to have seen it, I was cold. Like, they have this massive fireplace going when you come in, like, with just a huge log fire. Like, that was my jam. Like, I sat there and just kind of warmed up for the first time because our hotel in North Kessock was chilly. I mean, we weren't kidding. Like, we were cold for, like, I don't know, 18 hours. And that's our own fault because we just were not properly attired. So, yeah.
So, yeah. So, highly recommend visiting Dunrobin Castle. I would love to go there again.
A lot of these stately homes, like, you can visit them once and you've done it. You don't really need to go back. I think this is one of the few where I'm like, I really want to go back there. I really liked it.
Yeah, the gardens are incredible because you can walk down to the edge of the garden and there's the sea.
So after that, we drove up the coast road, which was, again, the A9 basically follows the coast all the way up until it turns into the A99 to go through Wick. And, like, when you look at it on the map, you're like, oh, it's just a straight line along the coast on the map. But, I mean, it's not a straight line.
There's huge steep gradients. Like, there's actually places where trucks can roll off if their brakes give out. I mean, it's like driving through the mountains in Appalachia. It's just, it's beautiful.
Like, when we did the drive again, coming back the next day, I just soaked it all as much as I could. And hopefully in the next few weeks, we'll make the driving video, a piece of the driving video, so you can actually see some of the driving we did along the coast. And it was just amazing.
Yeah, as you drive further north, I mean, it gets more raw. rule more rule there's less people less settlements remote it's very remote um and you lay down buddy and you there's a lot of abandoned crops crops are scottish for small farms and a lot of them were cleared during the the highland clearances so there's a lot of abandoned cottages or people left them because they weren't economically viable and you know there's the people who make make make their lives up here are very hardy people and um but as we were driving along the coast we we spotted an abandoned cottage that was right like perched right over the sea and it had like a green carpet down to the cliff edge and it was like the perfect size for as a
Immediately we began to fantasize about our future Scottish holiday cottage on the coast because it's, I mean, it's like the perfect place to just get away from it all.
Yeah, like sit in there, like have a cotto, deliver your groceries or something.
And just kind of hold up in your little cottage. Gotta have good internet though.
Yeah, but it was just, I think, and actually after we got home, I did some research. I found the name of the property that's abandoned, so one day we're going to find out who owns it. And this is, it's a fantasy, but I mean, one day we'll...
Well, it's more likely to happen than our dreams of a cottage in the Dorset countryside, because property, we learned when we did the property search later, property in this part of Scotland in Cateness is really cheap.
I mean, you can find cottages for around 100,000 to 150,000 pounds, which is for Britain is very inexpensive. So we'll see. Maybe one day.
Yeah. I can, like, park my sailboat out front. I love this idea. I love this idea, folks.
Yeah, I needed another micro SD card for the camera. And there was an Argos. And you may have read about my love for Argos on Anglotopia. But, like, Argos is the most amazing place. Like, you go in, and for Americans, do you remember service merchandise? Well, in Britain, it lives on.
It's a place called Argos. Oh, my gosh. Folks, you better send help. He's starting to talk about Argos. Here we go.
And you go into Argos, and there's, like, consoles, a gigantic 2,000-page catalog, and they've upgraded the computers. And there's a computer, and you type in what you're looking for, you order it, and it comes out on a conveyor belt. And, like, it's amazing. I used it when I was in the Lake District. I got a suitcase, and I needed a flash card.
Yeah, two years ago, I needed a chair for a concert, an outdoor concert I was going to do. So I went and bought a seven pound chair from Argos. It was great. I love Argos. If you're looking for something and you can't find a store nearby,
if you can find an Argos, you'll find it. Check the high street first, folks. Like independent business.
So yeah, I love Argos. So that was in Wick. And then after that, we went to Akergo Castle, which as she said was a castle.
I mean, it's like every room is different. It's a tower perched right on the sea that's got higgledy, piggledy rooms. It's topsy-turvy. And we had to climb a spiral staircase and hold on to the rope.
And I will say, great going up when you check in. Like, they'll bring your bags up for you. Fine. After a boozy dinner, wearing a set of heels, not so great. More of an adventure.
But, yeah, it's just, it was an amazing place. And after you, there's a restaurant on site, and it's in the Great Hall of the Stately Home. And it's like a.
So, lay down, okay, buddy? This is Winston, by the way. He's our young puppy who doesn't know when we're recording a podcast.
You may remember the pictures of him when he was this big. Well, now he's this big.
So, um, but it's a, it's, I would say it's a fancy restaurant. It has a set menu and you have to like, and then there's, it's a dinner service where
But like they, well, when we checked in too, like they give you like a, a really brief um tour and they're like drinks are at this time before dinner like so it felt like we were in donton abbey like every like dress and then go down for drinks but drinks weren't a social thing either which was actually kind of cool um uh so just kind of a weird thing that happened and something that i noticed throughout the trip so we ran into some fellow americans as we came drinks that evening and it's a posh hotel but it still feels very much like a home and so we we walked into the sitting room to have drinks um and again it wasn't a super social thing we could sit by our ourselves um anyway the other americans in the room like felt the need to like pick up everything and examine everything and touch everything and it just like it really bothered me
like don't touch it doesn't belong to you so yeah but it was the cool thing about this is like it's a stately home and you get to act like you live there like you get access to all the sitting rooms and reception rooms and you can wander around and look around and poke your head around and well not
And you can basically explore the stately home. And it was just so cool. And you got beautiful views of the sea. Yeah, so then we had dinner in the restaurant. And it was fantastic.
And they lit candles. Like, that was just regular dinner service. But for us, it was super romantic. And just a really cool thing happened. We were sitting and having drinks. and like a party had come in from hunting and somebody got a stag and like like they had come in and they had told the staff oh like we got a stag and i'm like not saying like i'm pro hunting or anything like that um but like it was like a big deal so it felt like you were almost part of a country house party like it felt like something out of downton abbey yeah there's that phrase
again sorry yeah so our room was lovely it was the former lady of the house's room yes we love the wallpaper we took a picture of the wallpaper because it's like whimsical and beautiful i guess she really loved bugs we didn't have a sea view which was unfortunate they really tried to give us a sea view but they were fully booked and but we still had great views from the third story of
the tower. I mean, it was great. Yes. Yeah. And I liked that, um, the bathroom was a little shabby. Like, it had, it looks like maybe like 1930s shower tiles in there. There was no bath, which sucked. Yeah, that's, that was, that was kind of a, I really wanted a bath. Yeah, I really wanted a bathtub. But, um, it, there was something really kind of neat about it. And just like you said, like, Higgledy-piddledy. And kind of changing gears. But dinner that night was, like, by far favorite dinner experience of the whole trip. It was a set menu. A lot of game and fowl and fish. And, like, not normally stuff that we would eat. So we both kind of pushed outside of our comfort zones and had the set menu. And it was absolutely delicious.
it was delicious so uh the next day breakfast was great there's a pub on site too but that's only open on on certain days of the week which wasn't open we were there and then there's also self catering units right so if you don't want to stay in the castle you can stay in self catering
and yeah yeah breakfast was like breakfast was great yeah made to order kind of thing it's not in the castle it's in a separate building it's in the pub you mentioned i should note for av geeks
that this place is very popular yes with people who with uh the general aviation pilots who fly transatlantically because it's one of the first airports uh in mainland britain after you leave iceland so like uh it's a huge stopover point for a lot of those those pilots um there was actually
people there who are getting ready to leave yeah they were like getting their flight path okay by whatever body does that yeah they're getting ready to fly across the Atlantic I was like that's so
cool so the wiki airport is very popular for that um yeah so then after that this this was the day
we drive to John O'Groats uh the Queen Mun though that was after oh okay sorry I've done it again I apologize.
And, yeah, so we did the touristy thing, took a picture at the sign, and I'm hitting the table that's driving Jackie crazy.
I know. I apologize. That noise is John beating his fists on the table, and it makes me nuts when I edit.
So, yeah, we did John O'Groats. and Land's End at the beginning was a tourist trap. John O'Groats was still kind of a tourist trap.
But yeah, there weren't like attractions. There were gift shops and there was a Starbucks.
What were we looking for? Oh, I think I wanted like a Land's End and a John O'Groats t-shirt.
Yeah, and there wasn't. We couldn't find one. One that was nice enough to buy.
Right. I was like, we should make our own. And so we had a, we did the design.
And we, yeah, we made, we saw other people, we got there like right after it opened and there was nobody there. It was great. But people were arriving and they had bottles of champagne with them. We're like, why didn't we think of that? And we went to, we went into the cafe to go buy a bottle of champagne. And he's like, well, our license only lost to sell liquor after a certain time.
I totally felt like a lush. I'm like, here, I'll take this bottle of champagne. And he was just like, I'm sorry, ma'am, I can't sell that to you. It's too early. Very embarrassed. You know, like, I guess I'll go put that back. Oops. Yeah.
So then that was the end of the John O'Groats Drive. But we weren't done yet.
So while we were up there, we wanted to make sure we saw, which is basically the only tourist attraction up there, the Castle of May. For those unfamiliar with the Castle of May, it was the home of the late Queen Mother. It was her beloved Scottish bolt hole. And after she died, it was turned over to her trust, and it's run as a tourist attraction. And so we decided to visit that. It was lovely.
It was raining and they wouldn't let her stand inside. But once we got inside, we were going to just, why?
Okay, it wasn't raining. It was sleeting. I didn't have a coat on. Which, again, I take full responsibility for not having a coat. But, yeah. I knocked on the door politely and asked if I could just stand just inside the vestibule. And the gentleman was very curt and said no. And basically shut the door in my face while I stood there in the sleet like a, you know, poor, soggy puppy or something. I was not pleased. You were not abused.
for showing up to the Queen Mum's house looking like, you know, makeup running down with me. It's just horrible. So I'll write more about the Castle of May later on,
and it really gives you an insight into the kind of person the Queen Mother was because it was her private space. As a consequence, we were not allowed to take pictures inside, which I hate that, but I understand. And you can only go through on a guided tour. Our tour guide was fantastic.
Yeah, she was great. She had lots of anecdotes. We got to see the whole place. And then afterwards we had tea and then we also had lunch and were introduced to the most wonderful lunch that we'd ever, that we'd never had before in all our travels, which was.
Yeah. It was really good. And now we bought things to bake them at home. Yeah.
So yeah, we did the Castle of May. After that, that was it. I mean, we had to get back to...
Yes, so we had to return the rental car in Inverness. So this was like itinerary foo.
We had to do a bunch of things because we needed to get rid of the rental car.
but we also had to catch a train that night but also meet somebody for dinner and so um we were taking the calonian sleeper which is the overnight train from inverness to london it also goes from edinburgh and glasgow and fort william but don't quote me on that and um it's something we've always wanted to do because we don't really we don't really have sleeper trains
here i mean like you do you'll go on like a big trip to do it here but it's not like a it's not
city to city usually but we before that we had to return a rental car at the airport at inverness which is not in central inverness so we had to so i dropped jackie at the train station and uh
she met up with the person we were supposed to be meeting i did um because you got delayed so we
were running late so i drove the car back to the rest airport and had a hell of a time finding where to return it like airports clearly delineate where you're to stick your rental car well
and we had like bag apocalypse too as john so like the plan was i was like john drop me at the train station you go take the car i'll check the bags in the temporary locker so we can go have our business meeting and then we'll just come back and get on the train literally as like john pulls up in the car park which we weren't supposed to like really park but like we were unloading like a like 11 days worth of luggage which was still only two carry-ons but two carry-ons and a duffel bag at this point literally the duffel bag literally split in half yeah like um basically like knickers are like sitting in the parking lot and I'm like judges looked at me with like this look of panic because here we have a meeting we still have the car now we've got knickers all over the parking lot and I'm like dude just go I've got this so luckily um there was a uh like a sporting goods hiking store like literally around the corner like I managed to check our exploded luggage like into a locker like shoving it into the locker to the point where a lady from the train station came over and she's like ma'am are you okay and i'm like yep just shoving niggers into this locker and i went around the corner and bought a bag and like the people were so helpful like at the store and i'm like yeah my bag just totally exploded they're like it's okay girl we got you like
so anyway weird funny anecdote so while she met up with the person we were meeting i drove the car to the airport and got some traffic and then you had a funny time getting back though i couldn't find the return the car and i finally did turn the car it was funny as they were all excited that they had a land rover discovery he's like we don't get many of those up here okay we'll enjoy looking the rental car I mean it's a nice car well and so I so I'm sorry so I returned the car and I had to wait for the bus to take me to the airport terminal so I could get a taxi to back to Inverness and while when I returned it um a group of Scandinavians also returned their rental car so then I got stuck in the bus with them and then um I had to go wait at the area where you wait for a taxi where there were no taxis and then i had to call a number to find a taxi to have a taxi come and then the scandinavians walked up and they're like we're going to central inverness where are you going i'm like i'm going to the train station and they're like we're going to the train station too why don't we share and i'm like i this is how the
movie taken starts let's just be clear i have social anxiety and i you know i don't like to
be around people and i work from home and i almost never leave it so like this was this was an adventure beyond what i was expecting so so here i am in a taxi on the way back into inverness with
a group of scandinavians who i didn't know who were lovely though who were very friendly and
they were very nice and um so the taxi driver was just like whatever and so but we split the journey four ways so it's only like five pounds so i'm like all right bonus so um went back to the train station um jackie had already met the gentleman we were meeting and i should probably plug him his name's humphrey and he um he's he's the owner slash creator of the company that makes the great british adventure map which you may remember we talked about in the first episode was kind of the inspiration for the trip and he also happened to be in scotland at the same time and so he wanted
to meet up with us it's weird that we like because he's not from there either no but he was he was
he spent like a week in the wilderness and like we all like obviously we're not from there either
but we all seem to meet up in Inverness. Of all the places in England to meet up. Because Inverness is way north. It's definitely not on the beaten path.
I love their maps. We sell them in our online store, so I'll put links to the store.
Yeah, the music map is great. The adventure map is probably my favorite map. And then they just released a new fold-out map of all the funniest place names in Britain. So we're going to have that soon, I promise. They're awesome. If you're a map nerd, you'll love their maps. So I'll be sure to link in the show notes so you can check them out. Yeah, so after that, time to go to the train station.
It feels like you're getting on the train to Hogwarts a little bit. I won't lie.
Like, they wheel out a podium. And they're like, are you on the list? And we're like, yes, we are.
We booked the tickets like a year in advance. So we had a sleeping cabin, a double berth. You took the top bunk.
Bunk. And I've actually written about this on the website where I'll link to. um i don't really like the cat owning sleeper mostly because um i have ibs and the i was having a flare-up and the swaying of the train and the constant motion like i was having a miserable night
you slept fine didn't you well yes and no because like you have to get used to moving so it's a lot like sleeping on a sailboat it's actually actually like as i said it like just clicked it's a lot like sleeping on a sailboat um you got that rocking back and forth but what was really um kind of jarring is like we would stop and then we'd get going and like i would like roll backwards and be like what what's going on and then and not at a fault of your own you were up a lot in the night and then yeah um because you were up our door was unlocked and at one point somebody walked in the room like it was another woman um just mistook our cabin for hers and was very you know polite and super embarrassed about it as i would have been as well but i was just like um okay like that did not just happen yeah so i mean it's cramped it's it's functional let's be honest it's
functional and i found out afterwards that the all the cars are being refurbished in the next year it needs it yeah so we had like the old cars that are going out of service so it you know i i it the one thing i would use to describe it though is that it was magic we got on the train in verness and we woke up in london yes like it was magical and um it goes fast and but it like you you know it goes down the the west coast main line of britain on the train so like it's a very long journey and then you arrive on time in london you wake up and like it's magic um yeah the only thing
um that was a real hiccup for us is there was no reliable internet yeah that was that was my
biggest complaint besides the physical discomfort is i actually it was a tuesday and i needed to do the Anglotopia weekly newsletter.
I thought, oh, I'll just do it. Sign up if you don't already get it. It's so good.
I'll just do it on the train. And while the train had Wi-Fi, I don't think it had Wi-Fi.
but we were moving so fast and in remote places. It didn't happen, and I was so frustrated because I had to do it.
But I couldn't do it, and so that's why it came out on Wednesday. So, yeah, don't count on being cut off from the world and count on...
Which is kind of nice if you know that going in. It's kind of like an airplane.
But if you want to see Edinburgh and don't want to fly, and you want to save a night on a hotel, because it's basically your hotel for the night, take the Caledonian sleeper, because you can take it from London to Scotland as well.
Here's the thing, though. If you are going to do that, while it is super cool and it is magic like a magic time saver keep in mind like your room is like maybe or your cabin is maybe like two airplane bathrooms so whatever luggage you have has to go
in your room with you so like you have to travel like because there's nowhere to put your luggage
well and we had two carry-ons and now a new duffel um a large duffel but not like insane not like backpacker style and i will tell you it was tight in there like we expected it but at the same time like if you travel heavy this is not the way to go or maybe like do a first class cabin or something we did a standard cabin i'd be interested to do a first class cabin so to see if it's a different
traveling experience so we woke up in london and this was our last day of the trip because we had a whole day in London so yeah we're running out of time on the battery so let's go through this really quickly yep we stayed at Hazlitt's which is our London hotel of choice I love Hazlitt's
I love you but we got into London at 8 a.m. and we couldn't check into the hotel till the afternoon
but they knew that and so we went to the hotel and they took our bags for us and they were very accommodating they and they tried to get us into our room as early as possible but it still was
too early. It's like coming home every time I walk in the door. Yeah, we love Hazlitt's.
It's a little bit pricey, but it's a great location, and it's got character. It's this little Georgian building. We've written about it many times. We love it. I could
are huge, which is great after not having a bathtub for like three or four nights. Yeah, and you get off the train
a little grody. There's nowhere to really freshen up. But we had plans for the day.
Might have been actually my favorite breakfast. I take it back. Wine bar, sorry.
Yeah. So after that, and then we were like, okay, we have a day in London. What are we going to do? And we were still exhausted, though.
Oh, that is an understatement, because we really didn't sleep well the night before.
We're going to make the most of it. We'd done enough, like, work. Yeah. So we were kind of like, well, why don't we just enjoy the day as the London Files? Like, if we were in London for one day, what were the things that we would do? So we walked over to the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. Went to the National Gallery. Saw the Turners and the Constables.
By far. Like, can I just say that the National Gallery, like, that is my happy place. Yeah.
The art there is just amazing. So we went to Trafalgar Square. we, uh, where did we walk to after that? We went to Selfridges.
Yeah. We walked over to Hatcher's. Yeah. Hatcher's is my favorite bookstore. It's like the oldest bookstore in London. It was founded in 1797. So it's a lovely, lovely bookstore and I can buy books and they'll ship them home. So I wanted to go there. You went to Fortnum and Mason.
Love Fortnum and Mason. Like seriously, if you go to london and you do not take the time to go through the fortnam and mason in central london you are missing out like go like over the harrods food hall go so we did that um after that
we walked over to selfridges it actually quite a bit of a walk but it was nice it felt good to walk
just walk in london like because we'd been in a car and on a train and so the walk felt nice i went
to we walked around selfridges i bought a few things at muji which is my favorite store they
It's kind of a weird thing, but they have the best pens. We go to Selfridge's really just to kind of browse, not so much to shop. We're not really buyers.
There's just cool stuff there. It's like what going to Marshall Fields used to be like.
It's more like an emporium. You can legitimately buy things there, but it's definitely a high-end apartment store, so for us it's fun to go look at the fashion and that kind of stuff.
It's kind of like what Harrods used to be like before they got bought out by the Qataris.
Well, like a couple of years ago, I bought some shoes from L.K. Bennett there. Excellent shoe department.
So we did Selfridges, and then we were like, I wanted lunch. You wanted a bath.
Took a nap. Glorious, glorious bath in a Hazlitt's tub. And then that big old-fashioned bed.
And the reason she went to nap is the evening we had planned, we had a playbooked. And we kind of actually kind of planned the trip around this. Ian McKellen did King Lear at the Duke of York's Theater. And it's pretty much the last time he's going to do Shakespeare because he's like 80 years old now. And his stamina needed for stage work is just, I mean, he's old.
So we're like, we've got to do that. We can see him, like to see him on a play on London stage, like that's a treat. So we had booked that. So we went to dinner at Burger and Lobster, which is our favorite London chain.
So, like, you literally sit there and, I'll have a lobster, please, and a glass of champagne. Like, it's so funny, but it's, like, it sounds outrageously expensive, but it's not.
I mean, like, as landlocked Chicago people, like, it's a good lobster. I'm telling you. Like, go to Burger and Lobster. Although not every Burger and Lobster is the same. Like, it's a chain. Like, we have one in Soho that we really like. The food's always really good. It's super busy, but Burger and Lobster.
So, we went to the play. Ian McKellen was fantastic. But let me say, I'm not the biggest fan of Shakespeare's plays. I'm not a bad Anglophile.
I'll be sending the forging up to her email address. I'm not a huge Shakespeare fan, and I've talked about this before, why I'm not. But I wanted to see Ian McKellen, and we made it to the interval. But we were just exhausted, and Shakespeare takes all your intellectual capability.
You really have to pay attention. And we were just kind of done at the interval.
MacKellan was fantastic. He was amazing. He was transcendent on stage. But we went back to the hotel at the Interval.
In the West End Now. What's really funny is, although Shake Shack's an American thing, we've never had Shake Shack here in the States. But it makes the best after theater. Like a cheese fry and a beer. Yeah. Do it.
So we went to bed. That was it. And we woke up the next day at like 6 because our flight was at like 10.
Anglotopia's Great Adventure that was I'm going to write more about it in the coming weeks
we're going to do it again let's do it like John and Groats down the west side it was great it was
it was fantastic it was a great adventure it was great to I think Hemingway quoted that life is too short to go on adventures how does that go you should somebody you love and that makes the adventure worth it or something i'll i'll find the quote but it's it's uh it's a fun thing to do with the love of your life thanks babe um and there's plenty to see and do if you're not much of an anglophile like you if you're i call myself a reluctant anglophile there's plenty to see if you are an anglophile i mean it's it's an adventure with lots of elements for both. It's definitely
an adventure in all the best ways and I feel so lucky and fortunate to have experienced Scotland for the first time. I loved Britain kind of at first by proxy and then just through experience. But Scotland oh my gosh.
spend some time there so i don't know when we're gonna do that we're gonna do the islands we're
gonna do the islands um we we're not we're not traveling in 2019 to britain for lots of reasons except on the guided tours that we're trying to fill yeah because the tours will pay for our
presence um but we're gonna take a little bit of a hiatus we did a lot of travel last year the
tours aren't blocked unless there's a lot of people that go we'll put the links to the tours in the show notes. Yeah, we should put the links to the tours in the tour. So you can experience a little bit of Great Britain yourself.
So, yeah, we're doing two tours. The first one is the Mayflower 400 tour, which is a tour geared around seeing all the sites and places important to the pilgrims before they left Britain. It's really cool.
Yeah, a lot of playing has been put into this by Reformation Tours, our tour partner who's put it all together. And there's been a couple bookings, So if there's enough bookings, we'll be going.
You get us in the package, which is why the tour is paying us to be there. And then this is not public information yet, but we can give you a sneak because there's not a lot of people to listen to this yet.
But Reformation Tours is also putting together a Downton Abbey-themed tour.
Yeah. Don't tell anybody. But we'll have details of that in the coming weeks. But those are not, like I said, we're taking the year off of travel other than those because
We had already committed to those, and the tours are paying for our presence. So even though Anglotopia has kind of had a rough couple of months, we don't have to to worry about that as the pain for that as the year goes on because it's paid for um but yeah so uh so maybe in 2020 we'd like to maybe do a couple weeks in scotland
yes like hold up in a cottage somewhere where i can see the sea yeah maybe i can finish my book
there so me too so yeah so that was Anglotopia's grand adventure um the next podcast will be not
British TV or I'll have to look what's next on the schedule. It might be money. Might be Brexit. I don't know. I don't know. We'll see. Stay tuned. You'll have to tune in to find
for listening to the first four podcasts about our trip and we hope you come back for the cool stuff we have coming
