When we were planning a trip to Ireland (you can read about it here) we decided that we needed to visit Scotland – not only because we were in the vicinity but also because we wanted to make sure we visit all the ‘lands’ – Greenland and Swaziland are next on the list:)

And I am glad that we did – we absolutely LOVED it!  We flew from Shannon airport in Ireland to Edinburg and from there rented a cart and headed to the Scottish Highlands.  We stopped at the very picturesque town of Stirling, where we checked out pretty scenery and accidentally tried haggis for lunch.

We drove through the stunning scenery of Highlands, which reminded us a lot of Iceland:

Our first night was spent in the tiny village of Kingussie in a B&B called Arden House.  It was charming and quaint and came with two very gracious Scottish hosts.  After listening to them speak I had to excuse myself from the conversation because I realized I had a very hard time understanding what they were saying – they probably felt the same way about me!

The next day after a yummy breakfast of what I thought was ‘wet toast’, which turned out to be ‘white’ toast, we were on our way to Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle.  Before we left NJ Mia asked us to take a picture of Nessie – she was nowhere to be found but we did bring home a few pebbles from the Loch Ness which made our girls very happy.

On the way to Isle of Skye we passed the most stunning castle we saw in all of Scotland – Eilean Donal Castle – which looked a lot more stunning in person than in guide books.

Isle of Skye is just across the bridge from mainland Scotland, but it had even a more remote feel to it – it was absolutely spectacular:

The whole reason we went to Isle of Skye was because of the world renowned Three Chimneys restaurant – I made a dinner reservations there 4 months in advance!  I was definitely glad that I did because the multi course tasting menu was absolutely amazing!  And even though I tried to make a reservation for a room at the inn 4 months in advance, all rooms were sold out so we ended up staying at the Hillstone Lodge.  If you are looking for cool place to stay – you gotta stay there – it only has 3 rooms but vis ery cool and modern, the breakfast was delicious and the hosts were super nice!

The next day we headed back to the mainland stopping by Fairy Pools on our way out:

Our last night in the Highlands was spent in Inverlochy Castle – it felt great being treated like royalty – even if it was for just one night:)

After a delicious breakfast (that did include some haggis) we started on our journey to Edinburg – through the stunning scenery of Glen Coe.  If you are a James Bond fan you might recognize some of these places – some scenes from Skyfall were shot there (under gloomier weather)!

We arrived in Edinburg just in time to barely make it to a photoshoot I booked for us with Kim Brand.  You know that we do a family photo session each year and this year we did it while on vacation in Venice.  Victor and I, however, had not had a photoshoot with just the two of us since our engagement photo session – over 13 years ago!  So to say that we were overdue for ‘just us’ pictures is an understatement:)  Not knowing much about Edinburg I asked Kim a recommendation on a place to do our photoshoot and she recommended Stockbridge.  It was just perfect – reminded me of Greenwich Village – my favorite place in NYC.  We had a blast exploring Edinburg with Kim and having our pictures taken in the process!

And then we had a couple of days exploring Edinburg which we absolutely LOVED.  We are definitely planning to come back there one day.

I cannot believe it took us THIS long to make it to Scotland – I feel this beautiful place is under the radar for a lot of people.  If you are looking for a place to visit in Europe I cannot recommend Scotland enough – it has got everything: stunning scenery, nice people (although if you are like me Scottish accent takes some getting used to), beautiful architecture, quaint towns, castles galore and delicious food  – haggis and all!