Scottish Isles and Glens-Vermont to Edinburgh to Glasgow

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Scotland, we've been there before, twice as a matter of fact, once in 2015 with Go Ahead Tours and Edinburgh in 2017, again with Go Ahead Tours as part of their Grand Tour of Great Britain.

We wanted to return to Scotland but didn't want a lot of overlap from our previous trips. We found a tour with CIE Tours. We booked the tour through Affordable Tours, our agent is Ambra and she's great!

We flew from Logan/Boston MA into Edinburgh Saturday night through Sunday Morning. 
We booked a room for Saturday through Monday and let the Leonardo Hotel Edinburgh City Centre know we would be arriving Sunday morning for check-in. Booking the extra night is so worth it. Your room is ready when you land and you have access to your room without having to wait around all day, exhausted from your flight, for a late afternoon check-in. Trust me, if you can afford it, book it!


We got to our room and slept some then went out for a walk around. We had an early dinner at The Hanging Bat. Jay got the classic Fish and Chips and I got the Vegetarian Fish and Chips (eggplant) both were delicious. And the beer on tap was GREAT.


Still jet lagged, we crashed early and slept really late. We grabbed breakfast (brekkie) at Peppers. It was freshly made paninis and wicked good coffee.
We checked out of the Leonardo, hopped into an UBER and headed to Glasgow to meet up with our other tour people.

We checked into the Novotel Glasgow Centre (lots of construction going on to expand the student housing for Glasgow Uni.). Our tour Guide Graham greeted us in the lobby, in a kilt (of course!).
Our group was meeting up at 2:30 so we had some time to explore. We hit a Costa for some beer and IRN BRU (Scotland's national soda and alleged hangover cure!) I'll try it sometime during our adventure.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day, not at all what we were expecting for Scotland.

Our tour will take us all around the Scottish mainland and to three islands: Bute, Skye and Orkney.




At 2:30 we all gathering in the lobby for a tour of Glasgow. There are 26 of us from the US and Canada. Our guide is Graham Bruce and our coach driver is Jim Reid.

We drive around Glasgow a bit then stop to visit St. Mungo Cathedral, the Glasgow Catherdral


We hiked up to the Necropolis and wander around the Victorian Garden Cemetery.

We drive over to the Clyde River but can't walk across the bridge as planned because the police have roped off the area-they were recovering a body from the Clyde (no further details were given to us).

But we did get to enjoy the gorgeous views along the Clyde even though the group's mood was somewhat somber.


We drive to see a few more neighborhoods then head back to the hotel to freshen up for our welcome cocktails and dinner.

Tomorrow we head to the Isle of Bute and a visit to the Mount Stuart House.

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