Scotland will always be a special place for me. I spent many holidays and Christmases in and around Edinburgh, visiting grandparents and family and I still visit every couple of years. It holds a great amount of nostalgia for me and I still see the city as a unique and beautiful place to visit.

Where else in the world can you step out of a Primark to be overlooked by a Medieval castle atop a 700million year old volcanic plug shaped by  the glacial flow of the ice age? Princes Street also sets the scene for one of my all time favourite movies, Trainspotting:

Cockburn street is one of my favourites along the Royal Mile and not just for it’s name. I love the way it curves downhill.

Musselburgh is just a few miles outside of Edinburgh. It is home to a famous horse racing track and one of the first ever golf courses. It is also home to S.Luca Ice Cream Parlour.  This is without exaggeration the best ice cream in the world. Its flavours are subtle and milky and bring back fond memories of my youth in the area. The quality of the ice cream was also affirmed by the Dutch contingent I travelled with. There is without fail, always a 10 man strong queue outside this ice cream shop.

We headed across the Firth of Forth to the small village of Dollar. This place is truly beautiful. I remember visiting Dollar Glen with my uncle and family many years ago and I have returned several times since. By crossing the water, we were able to avoid a sea ‘haar’ that had engulfed Edinburgh.

After a half an hour hike, you are faced with Castle Campbell, that you can enter and climb to the top of for stunning views of the surrounding countryside.

From the bright summery colours of Dollar we headed back to gloomy, misty Edinburgh and the Dean Village area, which reminded me so much of one of my favourite places in Germany; Monschau. 

The following day we headed to one of my favourite places on the east coast of Scotland; Gullane near North Berwick. Unfortunately the haar was struggling to shift from the east coast…

So we headed west. My dad, being a Glaswegian would always argue that the west coast is better than the east and that Glasgow is the better more cultured of Scotland’s major cities. Unfortunately I am just not as familiar with Glasgow… but we did head over to Loch Lomond along with most of Scotland. It was beautiful weather and the natives had doffed their string vests and Celtic shirts to get the ultimate tan sunburn. It was really busy but beautiful nonetheless.

The mist had lifted from the East coast and we headed back to Gullane, simple because it is such a beautiful, clean beach and I felt it should be shown off to Nadine’s parents.