Bee in my Bonnet

Up at 4 A.M. to catch our flight from Ireland over the Irish Sea and on to the capital of Scotland, Edinburgh. Be sure to pronounce correctly… sort of like EdinBraw. YouRube it if you really are curious to know the correct way to pronounce.

Although we landed at the airport outside of Edinburgh our first stop was not the city. We headed on up the coast to ‘The’ golf course, St. Andrews, where golf began. St. Andrews sits right on the coast and looks out over the ocean. Th course was a hub of activity.

The town of St. Andrews is old and charming. Golf shops were everywhere.

Next stop, Glamis Castle, dating from the 14th century but mostly from the 17th century. It was the childhood home of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (mother of the current Queen Elizabeth).

Glamis is pronounced Glams, just leave out the letter ‘i’. The current Queen likes visiting here. The tour took us through the rooms that are used by the family. It was wonderful how the castle felt so comfortable and almost homey. The rooms were surprisingly small and intimate. This castle was the inspiration for Shakespeare’s Macbeth. There are several legends, tales of ghosts, and history for Glamis Castle.

The castle’s original kitchen with its large ovens is now a quaint place to get a cup of tea, hot chocolate, a scone, or some other light fare.

We were running late to get back to our home base of Edinburgh but managed to have a picture stop for Stirling Castle.

It was beautiful around the castle with rolling hills of fields, sheep, and even some Scottish flowers such as the thistle.

We spent hours on the bus since all these sites were quite far apart. But all the places were quite wonderful to see and experience.