Yo, Hadrien!

Don’t blame me for the bad joke, I promised a certain special someone that I’d name this post after this most awful play on words.

Anyway, don’t let the bad humor dissuade you from reading on, or at least glancing at the pictures, because our road trip across England and Scotland is a tale worth telling.

Driving on the “wrong” side of the road- terrifying!

As the saying goes, you can take the girl out of America but you can’t take the American out of the girl, and my absolute love for road trips is a testament to that. For my birthday, I decided to rent a car and drive up to Edinburgh, one of my favorite cities in the UK. I’ve blogged about my adventures in Edinburgh twice, here and here, but didn’t quite do the journey justice either time, so I set out this time with the express goal of making sure I conveyed how amazing the city is to all my readers!

Our classy car for the weekend- can you believe it, a BMW?!

It turns out, getting to Edinburgh and back was almost as much of a trip as walking around the city. Driving on the left side of the road takes some getting used to! Luckily, once I was on the highway, it was quite smooth sailing. Or so I say. My passenger may have another take on that claim.

We booked it up to Edinburgh since the weather was clear, warm and sunny, so we could spend a bit of the afternoon wandering the city- or, to be more specific, so I could spend the afternoon playing tour guide.

A view of the Royal Mile and Edinburgh Castle from Princes Street.

 I was worried that I’d be bored of the city after so many trips there, but so much has changed! The biggest change definitely has to be the new trams they’re testing- the last time I was in the city, the streets were torn up putting down rail.

 I led HBL from our hotel in Haymarket up Princes Street to the Royal Mile, where we took a gander at St. Giles. After grabbing some food, we watched the sunset at Greyfriar’s Kirkyard, which is the graveyard where JK Rowling found inspiration for many of the characters’ names in Harry Potter.

 The next day was cold and rainy, a true Scottish day, but it didn’t make sightseeing any less magical. I think it all comes down to the company, don’t you?

Another view from Princes Street.

Holyrood Park

 Luckily, the weather for our drive home was much better our final day. We bid Edinburgh adieu with a final snap of my favorite cathedral, St Marys…

Then we hopped in the car with some traditional beverages and decided to meander back to London as slowly as possible.

To buy some time in the car, we decided that we’d visit Hadrien’s Wall, since we’d seen a sign for it outside of Durham on the way to Edinburgh and were joking that every crumbling stone wall we saw must have been it. On the way, we passed through several really quaint little Scottish towns. I’d love to live in one some day!

And also took in the absolutely beautiful countryside. It reminds me of New Mexico with its wide open spaces, except greener!

 We even caught glimpses of native wildlife- i.e., loads of birds.

 We took a slight detour to a William Wallace statue in Scotland, because what trip to Scotland wouldn’t be complete without a WW sighting in the middle of nowhere?!

 And finally got to the wall in the late afternoon…

 Only a small part of the original wall (above) stands, the rest is a recreation to give visitors an idea of where the wall stood. It was so cool to think about all the generations that have seen this wall- maybe even some of my ancestors!

We finally made it back to London very late and very cranky. Driving on the left hither, tither and yon can really take it out of you if you aren’t used to it!