June 15th-17th blog

Stonehenge is beautiful! Most of my pictures were taken from the protection of my umbrella, which kept getting blown inside out, but it was still worth it. I wish I had taken more photos of the countryside around it, but it was a bit difficult.


We listened to audio guides about how the henge was built, what materials were most likely used, etc. Its amazing some of the things that were built with so little technology.

Saturday we decided to go to Scotland for the remainder of our weekend. We left our hotel at 5 in the morning so we could sleep during the five and half hour train ride. We expected the weather to be much like London, perhaps slightly cooler. I should’ve been clued in when I saw the fog so think on the fields that it was a cold morning, but I just thought it was always that way. We definitely weren’t prepared to be so cold we could see our breath, and watch frozen mist blow around the walls of the castle.

The castle was imposing on the sheer cliffs of Edinburgh (of which we tried to climb on a muddy trail, but that’s another story). One thing I did notice, even though we were only there for a short time, is that the castles in Scotland look older than the ones in England of the same age. Perhaps it is because they use a darker stone in most of their buildings, and they seem to have less windows, making the interior dimmer.
After Edinburgh castle we were too cold and tired to do much, so we went to dinner and then back to our hostel to sleep. The next morning we got up bright and early to catch the train to Prestwick and Culzeen castle, but partially thanks to our hotel concierge we were a little behind schedule. Because we were late getting into Prestwick we would’ve only had half an hour tops to go through the castle and grounds, and for 9 pounds (18 U.S. dollars) we weren’t sure if we’d get our money’s worth, so instead we decided to go to the beach in Prestwick.

Luckily it was the first sunny day they’d had in almost a month, and wading in the water was surprisingly pleasant. I felt like a little kid collecting so many rocks, shells and sea glass off the beach, but it was nice to have a bit of time to relax. I had to put one cheesy “beach running” picture on.

We then headed home, which took almost an hour longer than it was supposed to because of delays on the tracks, but luckily we were able to see some amazing scenery while our train was stalled. Although it wasn’t quite the weekend I expected, Scotland was beautiful and worth the hassle.