Highlights of London/Scotland/Ireland

We flew to the UK for our summer vacation this year. We were in London for 5 days, then took a train to Edinburgh (2 days), staying in Scotland 9 days in total, then we flew over to Dublin (2 days) and toured Ireland and Northern Ireland for 9 days. An amazing trip with too many experiences to mention but here are the highlights.

London
London is a great city but busy, busy, busy. We will visit again sometime. The shopping districts have the same stores repeat every other block and sometimes across from each other!

Oxford/Regent Street Shopping

 Tower of London/Westminister. City Sightseeing Tours Best way to see London.

The British Museum. Marble Bust of Alexander the Great.

Taking the Train South to Sunny Coastal Worthing

We Will Rock You at the Dominion Theatre

Edinburgh/Scotland
Edinburgh was by far our favourite city and the West Highlands of Scotland were magical and awe-inspiring. We would go back here again in a heartbeat.

Edinburgh & Edinburgh Castle

Scotch Whiskey Taste Experience. Largest collection of scotch whiskey in the world.

Glamis Castle

Isle of Skye and hiking ALL the way up to Old Man's Storr 

Midlands and West Highlands, specifically the Nairn and Glencoe areas. Spectacular!

Urqhart Castle at Loch Ness

Glasgow Shopping

Restored Great Hall at Stirling Castle

Rosslyn Chapel. A beautiful structure marred by scaffolding.

Ireland/Northern Ireland
The Trinity College Old Library/Book of Kells was ok but I would recommend Dublin's Chester Beatty Library instead.

Dublin. The Spire.

Guinness Storehouse

Powerscourt Estate Gardens

Miven Head

View from Road to Miven Head

Killarney National Park

Bunratty Castle Medieval Banquet

Cliffs of Moher

Giant's Causeway

Trim Castle

Newgrange

Did you know that an automatic car rental will cost you three times more than a manual rental in the UK? We had a friend give us lessons in driving standard/manual in order to save costs. So, not only did we have to drive on the wrong side of the road, we wrangled with changing gears with the gear shift on the opposite side we learnt on. Our trip was awesome when we weren't driving but those roundabouts drove us nuts!!! We navigated around using our iPad and Google Maps/Offmaps and drove 1350 km in Scotland and 1685 km in Ireland. Its not something I would suggest doing for the faint of heart. Our summer vacation was very memorable but I think I'm done with 3 week vacations where you are sleeping somewhere different almost every night.