The Ultimate Scottish Experience

Last week Craig’s boss, Dave, and his wife, Veronica, invited us to stay with them in their cute home up in Northern Scotland. Their house is in the Highlands. The Highlands are very famous in Scotland for their beauty. Their house was about ten minutes away from the big Loch Ness, where Nessie lives! Their home was in a cute town called Inverness. Dave and Veronica used to run a bed a breakfast and she is a gourmet chef so we were treated very well. We had so much fun staying with them for a week! It is absolutely gorgeous up there and we feel like we got the real local Scottish experience. We went to Loch Ness at night and saw this gorgeous castle all lit up.

The castle we visited on Loch Ness

We drove along the coast to a beautiful old lighthouse in a little fishing town. I wish I had taken more pictures but unfortunately I only took one of Craig with Dave and Veronica and the rest of the pictures I got on line…there better than anything I could have taken. It was just so gorgeous, especially with all the fall leaves!

The cute town of Inverness

The leaves were incredible up in the Highlands, I love the fall.

A gorgeous church we visited in Inverness

     

After spending the week up in Inverness we were happy to get back to our little home in Edinburgh. We just LOVE this city. We feel so comfortable here and at home. We spent the weekend eating at our favorite restaurants, walking around the city, saw a movie, and we went and saw the broad way Spamelot at the Edinburgh playhouse! It is based off of the movie Monty Python and the Hold Grail, it was hilarious!

                               

We are loving our crazy little life here in Scotland but are definitely getting a little homesick for our friends and family back in America. We will always look back on this time in our life as some of our best memories but nothing beats the good ol’ USA and being around good friends and our family. We are off to Amsterdam for the weekend! Happy Halloween everyone!

Walking Down Memory Lane in Belgium!

This past weekend we went to Belgium! It was so much fun to travel back to this beautiful country where I lived for 3 years when I was younger. We were lucky enough to meet up with Craig’s brother in-law Mark, who was in Belgium on business. On Friday Mark, Craig, and I drove down to Luxembourg to visit a gorgeous castle! My parents used to take us there when we lived in Belgium. It was always one of my favorite places to visit because of how magical it feels there. After walking around the castle we went to a great World War II museum. On the drive back to Belgium we drove through Bastogne and the Ardennes forest. That night I showed Mark and Craig downtown Brussels. We went to the Grand Place and we ate dinner at our families all time favorite Greek restaurant, Mykonos. We walked to see the famous Mannequin Piss statue, of the little boy peeing, and we were lucky enough to see him dressed up haha! We even found the statue of the little girl peeing that was created because of women feeling it was unfair that there was a boy statue and not a girl…strange. At the end of the night of course we had to get a delicious Belgian waffle. We were so happy that we could spend this day with Mark. It was so nice to finally see a familiar face from home and to be with family again.

The Next day we took a trip down memory lane. I showed Craig my old little town that I used to live in. We walked around the Saturday market and were surrounded by fresh flowers, bread, fruit, cheese, and crepes. We walked around my old neighborhood and found my old house! We knocked on the door to see if we could walk through it but there was no one home. But the house looked very cute and just how I remembered it. I showed Craig the parks around my house and the cute little stores down the street. It was so much fun to visit my past and share it with Craig! That night we went to the Atomium where my family and I used to go on the weekends for dinner and a movie. We had a great day.

This trip was incredible! I loved revisiting some of my most cherished memories and showing all of my favorite spots with Craig. I cannot tell you how grateful I am for those 3 years that I lived in Belgium. This time that we have Europe right now is so special for Craig and I and we are cherishing every moment.

I had to show how light Craig and I have been traveling on our weekend trips. Only one small backpack for the whole weekend! This is a huge step for me and my packing issues. haha.

About to leave to Belgium!

The gorgeous castle in Luxembourg

So happy that we got to see Mark.

World War II Museum

The Grand Place in Brussels

You have to touch it for good luck

Mykonos!!!

My favorite pita...

My brother's favorite pita....Craig prefers mine guys ;)

The Mannequin Piss... haha

oh jeez... the little girl peeing...thanks women's rights

The Belgian Waffle. yum.

In my old town!

Standing at my bus stop on our street!

Outside our house!

At the Atomium!

A Wee Bit Of Fun In Scotland!

For the past two weeks Craig and I have been settling back into our little routine. Craig is busy at work and school is taking over my life. But we are staying happy and busy. After work and school each day we try and do something fun on the way home. Here are some pictures of some fun things we found in Edinburgh.

We found the little café where J.K. Rowling wrote all of the Harry Potter books! The café is called the Elephant House and it is only two doors down from the library I study at. It is so cute and has newspapers and articles up all about J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter. Very Cool.

Since we are living at the Marriott we are lucky enough to learn tons of cool stuff about the hotel. This past week all the top chefs from the Marriott’s from all over Europe came to the Edinburgh Marriott for a cooking seminar. Since Craig is such an incredible cook and loves to learn about culinary skills we got to go sit in on a few of the cooking sessions. It was incredible. We felt like we were watching a live cooking show. Craig got to wear the whole chef outfit! We saw a whole cow get butchered…. Kind of crazy.

We also went to a museum in town about the city of Edinburgh. Edinburgh has a very dark past. We learned all about the witch trials and the under ground dungeons. There is so much history in this city.

We love every minute of our time over here! We are off to Belgium and Luxembourg tomorrow to meet up with Mark Blake and visit my old home! We miss all of our family and friends and are excited to see a familiar face!

This is the actually cafe where J.K. Rowling wrote the Harry Potter books!

Emily came and visited us! Just kidding, we wish. This girl looked identical to Em from behind, we got so excited. Miss you Emmers.

Craig in his cute chef outfit!

My 21st Birthday in Paris!

I feel like the luckiest girl in the world. Last weekend was my 21^st birthday, and Craig gave me an unforgettable birthday celebration in Paris. On Friday morning we went down to the hotel restaurant to eat breakfast and Craig had told the hotel concierge worker to come in and tell me that I had to quickly go up to our room because there was an urgent video message on my computer that the house keeper didn’t know what to do with…. surprised and confused I ran upstairs with Craig and on my computer Craig had pre recorded a video of himself dressed up singing about Paris and holding croissants and telling me we were about to go to Paris for the weekend for my 21^st birthday!

Paris was incredible. We stayed at the Marriott hotel on the Champs Elysees, in the heart of all the busy city of beautiful Paris. Craig and I discovered Paris for the next 2 days. We ate at local French restaurants, went to the Eiffel Tower, The Louvre to see the Mona Lisa, The Notre Dome, ate crepes in the park, and even got to see the Moulin Rouge. The Moulin Rouge was very exciting; I don’t think Craig will ever forget that J. Paris is the most romantic and beautiful city I Have ever been. Craig planned the most beautiful trip and made everything so special and thoughtful. He surprised me with little gifts and treats throughout the whole weekend. I truly fell more in love with Craig in Paris and feel so blessed to have in my life. I cannot believe that I was able to spend my 21^st birthday in Paris. I will never forget this birthday. I have the best husband in the world.