revised honeymoon plans

[winterbadger]

After a fair amount of discussion, Herself and I have decided not to do a "if this is Tuesday, it must be Belgium" sort of trip (i.e., one where you spend each night in a different place), but to pick a couple of locations (maybe two, maybe three) and take day trips from there. We're trying to decide which two or three places to choose. Current opinion is for St Andrews and Aberdeen, with Perth and Stirling as possible alternate contenders. What do you, the readers suggest? We're looking to maximise the following attributes: an interesting and agreeable place to stay (we'll be looking for B&Bs--I've converted Neta to the B&B lifestyle vice hotels and motels), historic sites, cultural attractions, scenery for viewing/walking, restaurants.

[Poll #1099787]

I've shied away from the West Coast only because I know it (fairly) well, and I thought it would be fun to go somewhere new together...

Comments

[silme.livejournal.com]

Stirling Castle is gorgeous. I hear they've finished their share of the re-woven unicorn tapestries (the ones in the Met -- they've been re-making them, using period methods, dyes, etc.) and they're hanging now. When we were last year, only one was done and we could watch them creating the next one.

If you're that way, you might want to look around at Pictish stones. We once drove from Edzel to Edinburgh doing so -- ones out in the open and also in the Meigle Museum, near Glamis (another nice castle.)

[winterbadger]

The one time I was at Stirling they had just about finished one of the tapestries and had only just finished refurbishing the Great Hall, I think. It will be terrifically cool to see a lot of the tapestries done.

Glamis--NJS really wants to see that (she's developed an interest in the late Queen Mum), but I fear it will have to wait for another trip. They're closed in January and February. :-( Sadly, the Meigle Museum and St Vigeans are *also* closed. :-( (Well, OK, we _are_ talking January here. I'm glad the whole country isn't closed--you know, sing hanging on the air terminal doors saying 'Scotland is closed until 1 March; please come again!' :-)

[wolfette]

From Inverness you can cover a fair bit of country - DO visit Moniack Castle, which is a short way out of the city and has a lovely winery making "country wines" and mead.

The drive along the lochside is ... interesting. The locals don't give the steep drop, the bends, the trees, etc, a second thought - and consider the speed limits to be a little on the slow side.

[winterbadger]

DO visit Moniack Castle, which is a short way out of the city and has a lovely winery making "country wines" and mead

Oooh! Good tip! Herself *loves* going to wineries. Thank you!

I remember driving up the A82; it didn't seem *too* bad after some of the one-track-road experiences I'd had up to then. There was, I recall, one moment of serious wincing when we stopped at a truly dire and twee tea shop, I think near Lochend or Lairgmore...

[kmusser]

I'll just comment that the castle at Stirling was the most interesting we saw, so if you were only going to do one in the castle dept. that's the one I'd recommend.

[winterbadger]

I saw it a good many years ago (2002?) and would love to go there again! It features in a lot of Dorothy Dunnett's work, and it's such a crucial part of Scotland, historically...

[curiousangel.livejournal.com]

We did the "honeymoon in Scotland" thing back in 1999, and had the advantage of meeting a local friend in Dundee while we were there. He drove us to St. Andrews, and we enjoyed wandering about the town. We also went to Stirling, and saw the castle, which was amazing; however, we were pretty fried by that time, and only had about one day, so we didn't do much besides see the castle, stop in for food somewhere that I don't recall, and sleep. I do remember that we ate at a Czech restaurant in Dundee where we actually got to try REAL Budweiser, not that nasty horsepiss they try to pass off here in the US, and it's a damn fine beer.

We did go to Kirkwall up in the Orkneys, which was the high point of the entire trip. I totally recommend it, though I'm not sure that January or February would be a good time to go (and I'd damn sure stay off the ferry at that time of year). We saw Maes Howe, Skara Brae, the Ring of Brodgar, the Highland Park distillery, thought about going to Scapa Flow but gave it a pass, and wandered all around Kirkwall proper. We also hired a local guide, which was the best way to actually get to know how some of the locals lived; she told us about how she went to a boarding school as a child because there just wasn't a large enough population of schoolchildren to make a school feasible where she lived, and we also had an interesting time discussing how different religious traditions worked -- she had never heard of Unitarians, and we'd never heard of "Wee Frees" outside of a Terry Pratchett book. We stayed in a local B&B, which was run by a very nice woman who had such an accent that we found her almost unintelligible, even though she was amazingly friendly; given my own Tennessee drawl, she probably found me just as unintelligible.

[winterbadger]

I would LOVE to go to the Orkneys (and the Shetlands). In fact, before I met N and was thinking of a summer trip by myself, both were high on my list for this year's vacation.