More of Edinbugh + the Higlands

We took a tour of Edinburgh Castle. 

Walking up to the castle gates

Looking down onto the New Town from inside the castle

Quacker Jack and I couldn't believe how big this fire place is!

Another HUGE fireplace

This is a cannon that was used to protect the castle.

Quacker Jack sits on the replica cannon balls.

Saint Columba-we learned about him in Ireland.

There was a very cool exhibit that featured prison doors from the castle.  This gives information about American graffiti found on one of the doors.  The graffiti below is from a Spanish prisoner.

One final picture looking up at the castle before we headed out

J just liked the looks of this door.

This is the Royal Mile, a road that runs from the castle to the country estate of Holyrood House.

Another sneaky close

The castle as we moseyed through the New Town

J ordered haggis with neaps and tatties at a pub for lunch.  He swore it was comfort food.  It looked like a jello mold of meat to me.

The city walls in New Town.

The castle

The next day, we took a day trip to tour the Highlands.  Here are some photos of our 400 mile (round trip) journey:

Hamish, this Highland Cow.

The weather was surprisingly nice for the morning stops. 

Our driver told us this scenery is in the James Bond movie, Skyfall.  Daniel Craig drove his Aston Martin along this road driving to his house, Skyfall. 

Quacker Jack taking in the Scottish Highlands

One of the many lochs (lakes) we saw on our tour

Loch Ness and the castle there in the background along with Quacker Jack

You can see the clouds in the background-the weather is changeable here.

We hung out in the castle ruins at the beginning of the rainstorm.

That's ye olden toilet in the guardhouse of the castle.  Sick.

Then, the storm really got to coming down

Quacker Jack met some of his relatives on the banks of Loch Ness.

This frame was supposed to hold both our big heads?

After about 30 minutes, the weather cleared up nicely. 

We left Loch Ness and started to head back toward Edinburgh.

We drove through the area of Scotland many scotch distilleries, but we didn't stop at any of them.  Looks like we will have to make a trip back.

We returned to Edinburgh, had a nice warming dinner at a pub and turned in for the night.  We had an early train to Cork, England the next morning.