Throwback Scotland/London Pt 3

Alright this is the last and final post on my London/Scotland trip (FYI this is a throwback post from a trip I did a year ago, but forgot to post it...meh). This post is about our adventures in London and Edinburgh. So from Scotland we took a sleeper mega bus to London. It was my first time ever taking a sleeper bus. I will say it was an interesting experience. I was able to sleep some, but the overnight travel was definitely the way to go if you have limited time. We arrived in London extremely early and we dropped off our bags at the hotel (to hold until check in time). Most places weren't open yet so went to Starbucks and planned our adventure and charge our phones.

The map of London with all the tube stations!

Lovely pastry shop we stopped for breakfast when we first arrived London called Patisserie Valerie.

 

Buckingham Palace, of course was a must see. We didn't get to see the changing of the guards, but I hope when we go in June we are able to.

Queen Victoria Memorial

It was so hard to get this picture with everyone taking pictures around, but we did it!!

Gorgeous gardens in the Palace

Roaming around Piccadilly Circus

William Shakespeare's statue in Leicester Square, London.

The famous Tower Bridge! Apparently you can do a Tower Bridge Exhibition. I am wondering if we might have time to do that on our next trip!

LUBS her!

 House of Parliament and Big Ben with its gorgeous architecture.

The London Eye, the popular giant Ferris wheel. It looked busy when we went by it and we wanted to make the most of our time. I have heard mixed reviews about actually getting on the Ferris wheel. However, maybe on our next visit we will be able to do it. I think it would be a cool way to see London.

Of course we had to go see a Broadway show while visiting. We chose The Lion King and boy it did not disappoint! The person who played Rafiki was fantastic. The overall cast was brilliant, but Rafiki was amazing! I also loved the elephant costumes they had!!

HARRY Freaking POTTER lol! I was pretty excited to go to King's Cross where Platform 9 3/4 is located. Yes, I am a Harry Potter fan..how can you not be!! The line was pretty long to get a picture, but we waited (again tons of HP fans). When you finally get up there you chose your scarf...GO Gryffindor! We got some solo pictures. Then Court and I took an action shot, which turned out great! Courtney did an awesome job jumping backwards when I did my stupefy spell (lol yes I know super nerd)

This was our action shot that I was talking about above. It was pretty great! We had to buy this picture at the HP Platform 9 3/4 shop and I feel like it was well worth it!

Yummy breakfast at The Breakfast Club! They have several locations in London, but we visited this one.

I love cafe art. Yummy mocha  ♥ ♥

Laduree Tea Room was somewhere I really wanted to go to get macaroons! It was located in Harrods, which is a large department store. We had trouble finding where it was located in this massive department store, but the searching was well worth it. The colorful macaroons are so pretty and delicious too.

It was hard to choose, but here is my colorful array of macaroons!

We strolled through Notting Hill and looked at all the colorful houses! I want to live in a pink or teal house! We wanted to go to Portobello Market, but we didn't make it in time for the market. Maybe on our next visit we can experience the market.

Flowers in St. James Park. Unfortunately it was starting to get a little dark at this point, but it was still fun to walk around the park!

She is just a dime! This photo taken on the bridge in St. James Park.

This is a picture of the London Eye from St. James Park. The park is a really lovely park to walk through. You can see the London Eye and Buckingham Palace from a different view.

Buckingham Palace

 -----------------------------Edinburgh

This was my last day here. I love Edinburgh so we got to spend some time here after London. I love the architecture in Edinburgh. It is such a lovely city.

I have been to the Elephant House, but when we went last time it was super busy. This time we actually got experience the Elephant House and have some coffee. I definitely adore this place because I love elephants, coffee and Harry Potter. This place is known as the birthplace of Harry Potter! This is where J.K. Rowling spent time writing her first Harry Potter novel.

Greyfriars Kirkyard is an eerie graveyard in Edinburgh. There is grave with the name Tom Riddell and apparently many Harry Potter fans believe that it inspired Tom Riddle/Voldemort in her books. So here is another Harry Potter reference.

Tom Riddell's grave

This place was definitely creepy, but cool!

Scotland Summer Trip and Previous Scotland Trip

I am so stoked that my parents and I finally booked our flight to London and Scotland! We are going to Scotland this summer to visit my sister and Donny. This will be my third time going. Our trip will be 10 days long and we are starting off in London, but going to Scotland for the majority of the time. My sister and Donny are so cute and have already made little itineraries for us.

Last time I went to visit I surprised my sister for her birthday last April. I just realized I never posted pictures of that trip on my blog! Goodness that is some serious lacking on my end and I can't believe I didn't post anything. I guess better late than never. So here is a little throwback of my trip to Scotland and London in honor of our upcoming trip. For my previous trip my sister and Donny did a fabulous job planning the trip. I was there for 10 days and we saw a lot of Scotland and then spent one night/2 full days in London. In Scotland we visited Isle of Skye, Glencoe, Wick, Sutherland, and St. Andrews. I have tons of pictures of this trip so I am going to split up the post.

------------------------------Glencoe

When I arrived to Scotland, of course I was exhausted from the long flight. I quickly perked up on the drive when we arrived to Glencoe. The views of the mountains were amazing.

Absolutely stunning views in Glencoe.

This is cool picture with the cave in the mountain

So pretty

 There are so many great things about Scotland, but one thing I absolutely ♥  is the CASTLES CASTLES and yep more CASTLES....Eilean Donan Castle is located in highlands Scotland. We passed it on our way to Isle of Skye. Unfortunately, in April it starts to get dark at around 3pm in Scotland. So daylight hours are limited. It was hard to get really great pictures of the castle in the dark, but it still shows some of the eerie magical beauty.

-------------------------------------Isle of Skye

 I can't wait to go back to Isle of Skye. When we first arrived we were greeted with such a lovely sunset! I felt like I was in a dream world.

 So many sheep in Scotland. You have to watch out for them because they roam all in the roads.

 Quiraing is a must see. The views and landscapes are breathtaking. Even on a rainy day (which it will most likely be). The place is unreal it is like something out of Lord of Rings.

 My sister and I aren't we so cute. Love this girl and can't wait to see her soon.

 Quiraing (in Gaelic, Cuith-Raing)

 The next pictures are from Fairy Glen (Glen Conon), which is full of lovely rippled conical hills. Great place to hike and enjoy the eerie, but beautiful scenery. Pictures just don't do Isle of Skye justice and it is so hard to capture the magical beauty of this place.  

Little lamb at Fairy Glen. The sheep started getting a little protective when we tried to get too close for pictures.

 Coral beach is a nice hike with a stunning views located Claigan. Coral beach is gorgeous and the beach is actually crushed seaweed (not coral as you might think due to the name). The blue and turquoise water makes for great photos.

Such amazing views, but so cold. I am not use to going to a beach and not being able to get in the water. I had to enjoy the crystal water in my hunter boots!

We saw this pretty horse on the way back from the Coral Beach. We think it is a Clydesdale horse, but not positive.

Group shot before my sister's birthday dinner. This was taken at the lovely B&B that we stayed in.

I adore this picture!

Kilt Rock is another natural beauty located in Skye. The view of the cliff and waterfall is stunning. All the previous places I posted required a bit of walking to get to or to explore, however at this gem you just park and walk a couple of steps and there is the magical scenic view. Don't get me wrong I love hiking and walking to see wonderful beautiful places, but we already accomplished a lot of adventurous walking in the rain so it was nice to see this quickly.

 This is the pretty town of Portree, which is the main town on Isle of Skye.

 Portee's habor

 Here is where our main adventure on Isle of Skye comes into play. So the main reason why I was so excited for Isle of Skye was to go to the Fairy Pools (<<<check out people photos on trip advisor with the link). On our last day in Skye we planned to go to the Fairy Pools. Well of course it is Scotland and well it rains a lot. Well on this particular day it was really raining, but we still decided to go. The Fairy Pools were more like rapids than pools of water. We pretty much risked our life to hike up to see the "pools". We crossed a rapid flowing river where the water was past our knees. Donny helped us get across it safely. It was pretty thrilling crossing the river. The water was absolutely freezing and I barely could feel my body. It started pouring rain at times so I only managed to take a couple of pictures. I didn't want to damage my DSLR camera which was just chilling in the pocket of my anorak rain jacket. After we were done with the hike we had a long drive and we had already checked out of the B&B so we had to stop a little cafe to change out of our freezing soaking wet clothes. We were a mess haha. Even though I was disappointment I didn't get to see the glorious turquoise and iridescent colors in the pools it was still a crazy fun adventure.

When we go back this summer we are definitely going back to the Fairy Pools and hopefully I will have some great beautiful pictures of it!! We will have longer days to explore too.

Tomorrow I am planning on posting more on my previous Scotland and London adventure. I might have to split it up more than just two parts!