The Netherlands -- Amsterdam

After the Highlands trip, I went to The Netherlands for a few days to visit my friend Dasha with some girls from my Marketing class.  Here are the highlights from Amsterdam!

 The train station in Amsterdam

 

 Canal

 Dasha & Cerise

 

 Cool, leaning houses

 This is for Meredith and Megan... a little sneak peek

of Robert Pattenson in Amsterdam! :)

Highlands -- Random pics

Here are some random pictures from the rest of the trip!

 Inverlochy Castle -- just ruins

 Pit-stop pic!

 Cool door at Fort George

 Fort George

 A castle that I can't remember the name of...

we just stopped for a bathroom break -- access denied!

The gates of Balmoral -- the Queen's private estate

She wouldn't let us in... :(

 

Detail on the gates... the other one has a GR for

King George V and his wife Mary

(little nerd fact for you)

Highlands -- video

This spot was probably the most beautiful place I have ever seen.  I seriously wanted to stick a 'Maureen' flag in the ground and claim that land as my own.  Sadly, a castle had already claimed that spot.  But I promise that my house won't take up too much room!  My address will be 'Behind Dunstaffnage Castle, By the water, Somewhere in Scotland'.  So you can send my mail to that address from here on out.

The video doesn't do it justice... but I think that you get the picture.   :)

Higlands -- Inverness

The last stop on our Highlands trip was Inverness.  It was a really cute city with lots of shopping!  It was nice to walk around and just see the sights, and walk along the river.  Lovely!  That was the last night of our trip.  :(  But it was oh so fun!

 View of one side of the River Ness

The other side of the River Ness

 Inverness Castle in the background

 

Inverness Castle

Statue at the castle

Flora MacDonald -- maybe a Rariden relative (?)...  who knows!

 Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness

 

 Urquhart Castle

Highlands -- It's Nessie!

When Midwessie met Nessie...

I found her!

And she's purple.  Nice!  

We are now BFFs and text each other at least 5 times a day. 

Highlands -- the drive!

To continue on the Highlands adventure, we headed up to Inverness... yes, the home of Nessie!  :)  Along the way we stopped where we could and took pictures.  Seriously, it was so beautiful and amazing that you literally lose your breath.  It sounds completely cheesy, but it's true.  If you want to see the craziest, most beautiful nature scenes... come to the Highlands of Scotland.  Here are some pictures from the road.  The pictures don't really do it justice... 

 A loch and snow-capped mountains...

 Dunstaffnage Castle

(there are so many castles! we passed about 10 of them on the drive)

 Loch & mountains behind the castle

 another view behind the castle...

 waves

 I love nature!!!

 backside of the castle

 Dunstaffnage Chapel

you guessed it... more lochs & mountains :)

Highland trip -- Oban

I actually rented a car and drove in the UK, if you can believe it!  It's not hard driving on the opposite side of the road, or on the opposite side of the car... the hard part is driving down narrow, tiny lanes which would sometimes turn into a 'one car only' road.  So needless to say, it was very interesting when you ran across another person on these roads.  I was white-knuckling it the whole way... but I survived!  :)  I can safely say that I will not be renting a car for here for a LONG time.

We started out by driving up to Oban, which is on the west coast.  So pretty!  I wish that I could have taken pictures, but I was driving. I'll have to steal some from my friends.  Here are some pictures that I did manage to take from Oban.

The city of Oban... I'm not sure what that structure is

up there, but it looks cool!

 The 'horseshoe bay' at Oban

 More bay pics...

Oban

Dodgy looking hotel (we did not stay there)

This may not seem exciting, but I haven't been to an actual

supermarket in forever!  It was so big and beautiful!  It made my day.

The main reason for going to Oban was to go to the whisky distillery there.  Well, we didn't get to Oban until 6pm on Friday, and the distillery closed at 4pm.  Nice!  We didn't plan the trip out very well, but we still had fun.  Basically we had some dinner, went to a pub, went to bed, and then headed out early the next day for our next adventure.  To be continued...