Thursday was our last full day in Scotland. We left Roy Bridge ~8:30am and made our way through the Grampian Highlands, which is the home to many famous whisky and scotch distilleries.
We stopped at the Dalwhinnie Distillery to check it out.
And then we made our way to Edinburgh and visited the Edinburgh Castle.
I love that this castle is still as it was hundreds of years ago, but sits atop a bustling city.
The drawbridge, the mote, the massive doors, the cannons, etc.
And then we walked up and down The Royal Mile bopping into shops and stocking up on souvenirs for our kids.
And then we made our way to The Elephant House, which is a cafe just a couple blocks of The Royal Mile. It has an excellent view of the Edinburgh Castle sitting up on the hill. It was in this cafe that J.K. Rowling sat, sipping her coffee, looking up at the castle and wrote the first few Harry Potter books.
We went inside and had lunch right where J.K. Rowling sat and looked out at the view that she had while writing her books. It was very cool.
You can see how looking at this old castle would spark the imagination of a wizard world.
And then we went to the Balmoral Hotel. This was actually a bonus. We went here because it was in my 1000 Places to See Before you Die book. It's in the book because of its history as an old railway hotel, built in 1902. It's known as the city's most elegant landmark, with kilted doormen at the entrance.
BUT, after going inside to see the lobby and such and talking to a couple employees, one of them told us about the J.K. Rowling Suite. We asked what that was and he said that, after she had written a few books and was doing better financially and her celebrity status made it difficult to continue writing in a public coffee shop, she then moved here and stayed in Room 552 and wrote her last couple novels in the HP series here in this room. They have since painted the door purple, added an owl knocker and renamed it the "J.K. Rowling Suite." We were told the entire inside is decked out all things HP, while keeping it a luxury suite. They also said they would show it to us if nobody was using the suite, but sadly the room was occupied, so going up and checking it out from the outside had to suffice.
But seriously, what a great find! We visited all the places she wrote all her books!
Balmoral Hotel
And then we wrapped up our final day by going to Arthur's Seat and hiking to the very top.
Looking out over Prestonfield Golf Club.
Great views of the entire city of Edinburgh from the top!
Great trip with great friends. Such an incredible opportunity that Kat provided us to see so much of this beautiful country. I'm not sure when else I would ever have been able to do it? I'm sure I would have eventually made it to Edinburgh, because visiting cities is easy. But, considering all of the highlands were driving a car with the steering wheel on the opposite side and driving on the opposite side and all the streets were single lane streets having to pull over constantly to let people pass going the opposite direction, etc., it was so nice being able to do that with someone who had lived there for a couple years and was comfortable doing all of that.
It was such a scenery-filled, laughter-filled, friend-filled, experience-filled adventure. Thank you to my dear friends who experienced it with me and to my rock-star husband and in-laws who held down the fort at home to make this possible.
Cheers!
