Scotland in Autumn

It's finally time to talk about Scotland.

My husband took me to Scotland in October as a birthday gift for my 30th birthday. It was by far the best birthday gift that anyone has ever given me. I had been less than subtle about wanting him to take me away on a trip for my birthday and I ended up planning most of it myself, but still, I love him for indulging me.

I first came to Scotland in the spring of 2011 when I took Jochem to Edinburgh for his birthday (how I love the symmatry of this). I had never been very interested in visiting Scotland, but Jochem was born there and I wanted to please him (it was his birthday, after all).

Of course I bought a guidebook and I was pleasantly surprised to read about the many things to see and do there. When I actually set foot in the city, I instantly and quite unexpectedly immediately became infatuated with it. I have been back in Edinburgh every year since then. I think that it will be difficult to keep that up in 2014 and the thought of not having been in Edinburgh at all this year makes me sad.

Edinburgh is my favorite city in the whole world. When I dream about leaving everything behind to live abroad (probably more often than most people), I do not dream about the metropolises of the world - I do not imagine a life in London, Paris, Brussels, Geneva, Buenos Aires, Hong Kong or even New York, which is where I spent most of my imaginary twenties and five actual weeks during the summer of 2008. No, I dream of Edinburgh. And sometimes I dream of Rome. Rome has a better climate and its cuisine is surely more vegetarian-friendly, but still. I prefer Edinburgh.

Why I forsake all others over Edinburgh is difficult to explain. I just feel so at home there. Sometimes I'm actually homesick for the place. I like the fact that the city is not too big. I like the wildness in the city's green spaces - what other capital has a volcanic ridge within walking distance of the city center? I like the warm, down-to-earth and happy people. I love the fact that, while the city has countless monumental sights, I will always think of it as a place where people enjoy the small things in life, like a rare sunny afternoon or a good meal.

The city makes me think of that famous Michaelangelo quote, where he states that every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it. For me, Edinburgh feels just like that - like a city perfectly cut from the volcanic rock of the Scottish outdoors by a master craftsman. Edinburgh sure seems like a wonderful place to live.

So, when we decided to spend a week in Scotland for my birthday, I could not skip Edinburgh, which would be the same as not visiting your grandmother when you are in town because you are too busy. That's right - you just don't do that. It would be wrong not to visit. And so we started our trip in Edinburgh at the same B&B that we always stay at when we are in town, Ardmor House. This place is my home-away-from-home in my home-away-from-hometown in the lively neighborhood of Leith and comes with a charming host, a mouthwatering breakfast and pet schnoodle called Vera (a schnauzer/poodle mix, which is exactly as cute as it sounds).

Since we had already worked our way through all of the sights the first time we came to Edinburgh, we were now able to spend our time at leisure. We hiked to Arthur's Seat in Holyrood Park, went to the Royal Botanic Garden twice and kept coming back to Urban Angel in New Town for their eggs benedict with vegetarian haggis. The mere memory of this breakfast can still make me drool.

Arthur's Seat, Holyrood Park

Princes Street Gardens

Royal Botanic Garden

Urban Angel, New Town

After a long weekend in the city, we packed our rental car to go on a little road trip. Or so we thought.

Our destination was the Isle of Skye, an island off the west coast of the Scottish Highlands. We bought a road map, studied it for a while, picked a route through the Trossachs National Park along Loch Lomond and figured we would be driving for six hours. Tops.

It turns out, however, that freeways in Scotland are not as fast as they are at home, since they wind themselves around the many hills, mountains and lakes in the countryside. This is part of the country's appeal, mind, it just takes a bit more planning than our laissez-faire attitude. We made it to the Isle of Skye at dusk after almost twelve hours on the road, but what a drive it had been.

Eilean Donan Castle

The Isle of Skye is every superlative adjective in the English language on one magical island. We mainly drove around it and hiked over it. The weather was typically Scottish with lots of rain and wind, but we didn't care.

Our home during those days was the Hillstone Lodge in Dunvegan, in the north west corner of the island. This wonderful B&B is relatively modern, but still fits perfectly into its surroundings. It only has three rooms that are extremely comfortable and tastefully decorated. The couple who runs the place made us a vegetarian breakfast every day from a Yotam Ottolenghi cookbook and gave us a homemade brochure every morning with that day's weather forecast.

What I also loved is that the Isle of Skye has villages that are so small, that there are no street names; hence, 12 Colbost simply means that this is the 12th house in the town of Colbost. I hope to be able to return to this B&B sometime soon, if only to have another Red Cuillin, which is the best beer that I have ever had and of which we did not bring a sixpack back to the mainland. Regrets have since been expressed.

Portree

Fairy Glen

The Old School Restaurant, Dunvegan

After our time on the Isle of Skye we made it back to the mainland of Scotland, drove past Loch Ness and then made our way into the Highlands to visit Cairngorm National Park, where feeding semi-wild reindeer from your hand is only one of many cool things to do. The Cairngorms is a heavily visited region of Scotland, mainly by the Scots themselves, it seems, but no wonder with such amazing flora and fauna just a couple of hours from Edinburgh. The weather had turned pleasantly sunny and so we hiked a lot in the area. 

Cairngorms National Park

The Cairngorm Reindeer Centre, Aviemore

Glenmore Forest Park

Then it was time to make our way back to Edinburgh to catch our flight to Amsterdam, but not before we went back to the Royal Botanic Garden for the third (!) time. I really liked it there.

Royal Botanic Garden

On November 13, 2011 Molly Wizenberg, my favorite food blogger, wrote on her blog Orangette: "I think I could live in Edinburgh. Next lifetime, maybe."

I hope I'll make it this lifetime.