You've Un-Loched My Heart [Scotland 2017]

We'd originally added Scotland to our itinerary to check another country off our list and to unwind after days galavanting through England and France.  A couple of laid back days in Europe before heading back to our real lives in the States. Scotland ended up surprising the heck out of us.

We signed up for a day tour to the Scottish highlands. Holy. Freakin'. Cow. It was gorgeous. It was a little bit foggy and a little bit rainy the entire time, which just screamed Scotland. I even listened to Scotland The Brave (aka, the one bagpipe song that everyone would recognize multiple times. 

Everything was so GREEN. I felt like it was perpetually St. Patricks Day.

The whole point of the Scottish Highlands tour was actually to go to Loch Ness and do a tour in hopes of seeing Nessie. We stopped in the town of Fort Augustus, where we boarded a boat that took us out onto the lake. A little piece of trivia-- 'loch' actually means lake, so it's literally called Lake Ness.

The tour was incredibly informative and the tour guide was very entertaining. We looked at sonar to see the differences in depths of the lake, learned fun facts about the surrounding villages, and kept our eyes peeled for Nessie. Another piece of trivia-- Loch Ness is actually very, very deep. There's more water in Loch Ness than in all of the lakes and rivers in both England and Wales combined. It's also very dark with low visibility due to a high concentration of peat in the water. 

Unfortunately, Nessie was ever elusive and we were unable to catch a glimpse of her this time. We boarded the bus back to Edinburgh where we wandered around the cobblestone streets, grabbed some dinner, and did a little shopping. Including a super soft Scottish blanket and Scottish gloves that I'm obsessed with.

We didn't have any plans for the follow day except "see Edinburgh". We bought tickets to tour Edinburgh Castle and, as most historical tours, some parts were amazing and informative and I could have stayed all day and others parts were a bit forgettable. The views though? They were definitely NOT forgettable. 

The view of the city from Edinburgh Castle

After touring the castle, we continued our self-led walking tour. Mostly to shops where I could buy pictures of the Scottish Highland cows (they're just SO adorable!), to somewhere we were could eat, and to The Elephant House which is where JK Rowling wrote sat to write some of the Harry Potter books. There wasn't any Harry Potter memorabilia or anything, we'd seen all that in London, but it was still a quirky little stop. 

We rounded out our Edinburgh tour by talking the long, windy walk up to Calton Hill for some more castle views. We got in a bit of exercise before our long flights home and had more amazing views of the city-- a city that I never expected to love.

You're What The French Call Les Incompetents [France 2017]

Paris has always been one of those cities that I knew I would go to, but didn't know when. And honestly, since I knew that I would end up there eventually, I never really actively planned a trip there. Thank goodness for Caitlin, because she loves Paris and insisted that we stop there. And it was awesome. 

We still had some time for sightseeing when we arrived in Paris, so after checking in to our hotel, we headed to the Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel freakin' Tower, folks. It was as breathtaking and as high and as windy as I imagined. We arrived in the late afternoon and were at the top level of the Eiffel Tower to watch the sun set over Paris. And it was in that moment that I fell in love with Paris.

Or maybe I fell in love with seeing cities from above because I also love Rio from the top of the Sugarloaf and London from the London Eye. Honestly, it might be that.

Once the sun had set, we took an incredibly expensive bike ride to the Arc de Triomphe where I stood (almost) in traffic for the perfect Instagram pic. Basic girls gotta be basic, even in Paris. And continuing on our quest to be basic, we meandered down Champs Élysées and didn't buy anything because, even in Paris, we're still poor teachers. 

The following day we headed back to the Eiffel Tower, so that I could get my daytime Tower pics before taking the train to Versailles, which was the royal French residence in the 1600's. I had never been there, so I toured the inside of the palace while Caitlin walked around the garden. Holy freakin' cow, I have never seen a place as ornate and intricate as the Palace of Versailles. I think I walked around the entire time with my eyes as wide as saucers. As amazed as I was by the palace, I was more excited to see the gardens. Apparently old, expensive stuff isn't my jam, but flowers are?

The gardens were also HUGE. We're talking 800 acres, 50 fountains huge. After walking across, what felt like, all 800 acres, we ate ice cream and macarons. Again, carrying on with our basic-ness.

Our last full day in Paris was spent sightseeing all of the famous Parisian locations-- the Louvre, Notre Dame, love lock bridge, and lots of little cafes. Macarons were eaten in abundance and hot chocolate from Angelina's was drank. Although I could have done with exponentially more macarons and less hot chocolate. 

After only two and a half days in Paris, we were off to Edinburgh, our last stop in our Eurotrip. We bid au revior to France with once last trip at Laduree for some more macarons at the airport for jetting off to Scotland.