Little did we know that phrase was not only an airport slogan, but a phrase commonly used in Glasgow, Scotland to describe something extraordinarily special. Hence the title of this post and the perfect way to describe my two week holiday to Scotland, Belgium and Germany. My very good friend Kelcey and her friend from college, Ashley flew into London the weekend of June 12th. We had no plan of where we were going, but we knew we wanted to travel to a few places that would be relatively cheap to get to and back from. So we found an internet cafe, in which most of our beginning days of our trip were spent. We began looking for cheap airline tickets via Ryanair, then hostels, bus and train transportation to and from each stop. The internet is a beautiful thing by the way, and after many hours of stress and "just book it" decisions, we set out for Glasgow, Scotland. We then took a train to Edinburgh, flew to Brussels, Belgium and rode a bus for six hours to Frankfurt, Germany. A final plane trip brought us back to London, Stansted. Our trip started and ended in London, where there were far more of us in the pictures than by the end of the journey.
Here we are in the Tower of London where the crown jewels can be seen.
All of the places were unique in their own way, especially Brussels! (We stayed in the ghetto of Brussels.) Of course the best part of any trip is trying out new things, and boy did we indulge in what there was to offer!
Glasgow didn't have much, but the architecture itself was enough to keep us satisfied. Edinburgh had indescribable views and a haunted past. We didn't try the Haggis (sheep's heart, liver and lungs) but we found a new love for kebabs and a quaint little cafe, The Elephant House. It's the birthplace of Harry Potter by J.K.Rowling, you may have heard of him. We also toured Edinburgh Castle and a wool factory during the day and at night we took a Ghost Tour into the vaults and underground to find out some of the town's dark past.
Then on to Brussels, oh Brussels. We stayed mostly in the town center and were in our room before dark if that tells you anything of where our hostel was located. Despite the creepy men trying to pick us up on every corner, we kept busy during the day eating Belgian waffles, taste testing the best chocolate in the world, and trying out some of their flavored beers -Framboise, which taste more like sparkling fruit juice(below).
I also had an amazing mussels dish, which they are also known for.
We really enjoyed Frankfurt, mostly because it was a lot cleaner than Brussels, and there was a mixture of the old and new. We could communicate a lot more with people there, unlike Brussels. French was hard to understand and few people spoke english very well. We ended our time there with a cruise on the Rhine River where we were able to see the beautiful vineyards on the hillsides and several castles unfortunately made into hotels. We learned about delicious Eiswein or Ice Wine. The grapes are picked when frozen, which makes for a much sweeter and more concentrated wine. Frankfurt also had enormous soft pretzels, tasty grapefruit Hefeweizen and of course sausages and brats. We had a hard time finding a brat with sauerkraut on a bun, but I guess that's the American way of eating them.
This is Frankfurt AM Main, some of the older buildings that have been renovated.
The food definitely didn't disappoint us at any location and if it wasn't for all the walking, we would have surely gained 20 pounds instead of 10, lol! oh, I can't forget to mention, Frankfurt was the one place that had an elevator! We needed that by the end of the trip, that's for sure. We also were able to be there when Germany won a World Cup match, so we didn't sleep for at least 2 hours with all the horn honking taking place outside our window!
So many stories to tell that I just can't begin to describe without the girls chiming in. Overall a pure dead brilliant trip!
This is one we took our last night together in front of the London Eye, Patrick not pictured. :)
Darren and I celebrated 9 years of wedded bliss-haha- July 7....we went to Wimbledon to celebrate!!! Although we didn't see Serena play, we were there when she won and got a glimpse at Martina Navratilova trying to enjoy her lunch, lol! We sat in Court 1 and were 3 rows up from the action. This is a picture at one of the surrounding courts in Wimbledon Stadium.
And me trying to get some shade, it was extremely hot that day!
Household goods come tomorrow, WHOO! Jack and Roxanne will be visiting next Friday, lots to do before then!
