Scotland - Edinburgh — The MacBell Clan

One of my favourite places to visit is Edinburgh, Scotland. I’ve been there a few times now for vacation and family history, since my paternal side is Scottish. Joe and I decided to visit the first year we were dating (nothing like testing out a relationship by traveling together!) and we had a blast exploring the old and new of the city. Edinburgh is really small, it has one central castle called Edinburgh Castle, that sits on a large hill in the center of the city. They preserve the castle and old buildings surrounding it but they build new buildings all around it. It’s a city that perfectly displays old and new in one place, there really is no other place like it.

Joe and I went to learn about our family history - I’ve probably mentioned this in previous posts but our family histories are pretty neat! We both come from large Scottish Clans that were big rivals, the history even continues today (though isn’t too bad) in the northern region. The Campbell Clan (my ancestry) and the MacDonald Clan (his ancestry) are so large they frequently had ‘spin off’ clans. A good example are the different type of Campbell clans called Campbells of Argyle or Campbells of something something. There are a few, I’m not even sure where my family comes from. But our clans fought in the north in an area called Glencoe. This hilly area attracts many hikers each year and apparently lots of people who are fans of the show Outlander. (Have you seen it? We haven’t yet…) But we went for the history, and specifically for the Battle of Glencoe. It makes the Campbell clan look terrible. To sum it up - the MacDonalds and Campbells were in the Glencoe, the MacDonalds took them in and gave them a place to eat/sleep for two weeks. In the night the Campbells killed all the MacDonalds in their sleep (GoT style! Also a little unfair, why not just fight during the day hmm?) and claimed it was all done in the name of the King. The entire clan was pardoned because the King was okay with the killings if it was in his name. Crazy right? We went up to the area and visited the battle grounds and had lunch, where we met a lovely lady hosting us and it turns out she was also a MacDonald. Her and Joe got along well!

This trip was for family history but I had to add in a little fan favourite stuff too. I am a very big fan of Harry Potter and if you drive a little further north you can get to the spots where the movies filmed. In specifics, you can see the Glencoe Viaduct and BenNevus. Glencoe Viaduct is also featured on the countries money, and is the bridge the Hogwarts Express goes across. It’s an actual train too, it passes along the bridge twice a day once at 10am and I believe the second is at 3pm. I’ve always caught it in the mornings. But below is a photo of the bridge and in the background you can see the lake that first year Hogwarts students sailed across on the Black Lake. They computer generated the Hogwarts castle into the right side of the lake. Another fancy thing, you can actually book a bed and breakfast on this lake, we tried to see if there was availability and there was none, it was booked up completely! I can see why! Such a peaceful place to stay.

Glencoe Viaduct and the Black Lake. — *Glencoe Viaduct* and the *Black Lake*.

I’m a very big fan of Harry Potter and the author of the series, JK Rowling, who started writing her book in two places in Edinburgh. The most famous of the two is The Elephant House, where it’s said she would sit in the back of the cafe and look out the window and see the boys school and Edinburgh Castle. (I can kind of see where the private school/Hogwarts Castle themes came in) It is also said this is the official place she began the series as she started writing the book on a napkin, or so I’ve been told. One morning we went to the Elephant House and had a traditional Scottish breakfast, with haggis (which is really good if you don’t think too much about what you’re eating), a coffee, ice cream, and pie. It was some of the most memorable food, it was very good but the place also had so much meaning. We were seated in the back of the cafe, and if you look in the bathrooms you can see all the HP quotes everyone writes on the walls. My all time favourite is “Always” ~ really clique as I’m sure it’s everyone’s favourite quote. But I did happen to see it on the wall, made my day. Or maybe made my life, it was surreal.

We were wandering around the city and the best place I could find some healthy food was found on Instagram. I found the Hula Juice Bar and we recovered from the cold with a great acai bowl. Pictured below (although acai bowls are also cold hmmm). Joe and I ordered two different types of bowls, I don’t recall all the flavours but the bowl on the top is the acai one and the one on the bottom is chocolate. Both really really good and also very picturesque.

Last but definitely not least, I had a blast with The Bearded Baker. Joe and I had a great time trying out their goods while also learning some very funny English slang. We swapped stories with one of the bakers and sat in this shop for an afternoon. What I also find amazing is European coffee and food. You really don’t need much of it to feel full (unlike North America??) and energized. We had small pastries and all of them were top notch, they are known for their donuts and we had some of those too. Their drip coffee or what they call a ‘long black’ is never burnt and always savoury. Again, Scotland is one of my all time favourite place to visit. The food, history, people, and coffee are all 10/10.