Low to High Lands

Bring rain gear and be prepared for "stronger than Oklahoma" winds.

To sum up the trip to the highlands, it was very anti-climatic. We stayed at the Premier Inn in Fort Williams for a night before going back to Edinburgh. We were unable to do the Loch Ness cruise due to bad rain and wind. It seemed like everyone on the bus was happy (me included) that we didn't do it.

We visited:

• 3 Sister Mountains, Glencoe, Scotland: our tour driver said the three names were "Hope, Faith & Charity" but Google found that to be the one in Canada. These mountains were used as a background for Harry Potter!

• Glenfinnan Viaduct - The Jacobite from Harry Potter: One of the members of our group played the Harry Potter themed song as we hiked up the 5 minute trail to see the view of the train used in Harry Potter!

• Callendar: This cute little town was used as a stopping place for lunch. We had about an hour here so we ate and did some shopping. We spoke to some locals and they were very jealous we were from America.

• The Kelpies: The Kelpies are shape-shifting aquatic spirit that take the shape of horses. They would haunt rivers and to children they would seem very tame. However, they certainly weren't and they would drag children into the water to eat them. Definitely not your average pony.

• The Clava Cairns: This was probably the most confusing monument to most of the group because we weren't really explained about what it was. The clava cairns are a group of 3 monuments/ruins of ancient burial grounds that date back to 4,000 years ago. At 2000 BC there were 3 large cairns that were built. Some thousand years after, the burial was reused and built "new" smaller cairns. One of the ruins used to be a medieval chapel.

• Dundane Castle: It is a very anti-climatic castle and took us about 15 minutes to go through it. It is famous for starring in Outlander and Monty Python and the Holy grail. For those of us who finished early, we went to a nearby river and I actually got in it. Are we surprised? Not really. The castle was also under construction so we couldn't go through all of it.

• Outside of Stirling Castle: We didn't have enough time to go through it so we used it for scenery. It was real pretty though! Here's our proof that we were there.