Highland Tour-Jill Peters

I am writing today from the city of Glasgow. We arrived here yesterday about 5:00 pm. We have not had much of a chance to explore and get to know the city, but we have taken a city bus tour and visited a museum, which someone else will be telling you about. So far, I like Glasgow. It has a very different feeling then Edinburgh and I am excited to spend the next ten days here getting to know the city and all it has to offer. One cool thing that is very near our rooms is a huge movie theatre. It has around ten stories and I am excited to go see Eclipse there this weekend. Anyway, today I am going to tell you about our tour through the Highlands of Scotland.
We left Edinburgh Friday morning to head out on a three-day tour through the Highlands. A very nice young man, named Liam, picked us up at St. Colms and we were off. The Highland tour is my favorite thing we have done on this trip so far. The Highlands have some of the most beautiful countryside I have ever seen. As we were leaving Edinburgh, we saw two very famous bridges in Scotland. The names escape me at the moment, but I have seen them all over post-cards in the shops around town. We then headed up into the countryside.
We stopped in a small village, saw a beautiful old church by a picturesque lake, and took beautiful pictures under a tree filled with pink flowers. We also stopped at a great cheese shop where some of the girls got wonderful slices of cheese, and Dr. Long got an amazing sandwich. I also took a picture of a great shop called Going Pottie and then laughed hysterically because sometimes I act like I am 12. The store did have some very nice pottery though and I can always appreciate a clever name.
We then took a walk through a nice forest and ended up at a river with a great view. There was a pretty waterfall and great nature scenes all around us. I do not appreciate the beauty in nature enough sometimes, and it is nice to be reminded that there is beauty all around us. We were even able to see a few salmon try to jump over some rocks to continue their swim up river. They were not successful in their attempts, but it was still fun to watch.
One of my favorite stops along the tour was the beach. We stopped at the coast and got out of the bus to a beautiful white sandy beach. The view was breathtaking and it was so amazing to go from the awesome mountains to a beach in only about 30 minutes. It was a bit cold, but that did not stop us from enjoying our time there. We picked up seashells, wrote messages in the sand, took some great pictures, and Dr. Long was even brave enough to put her feet in the cold water.
Another breathtaking view we were lucky to experience was the three sisters, which are three mountains that are right next to each other in an area called Glencoe. We have talked a lot about the importance of this area in class and it was nice to see it in person. Anyways, back to the amazing view. There was a cloud of mist and fog around the top of the mountains, and since it was raining, there were numerous waterfalls cascading down the mountains. It might have been the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. It was so pretty it could bring a person to tears. I got a couple great shots of the three sisters.
There is also a lot of important history that took place in the highlands. There was a massacre at Glencoe, where the MacDonald clan was slaughtered, and the battle at Culloden where the Jacobite armies were defeated by the English. These are the historical events we discussed in class, and as I mentioned above, it was nice to be able to see where they took place. It makes history come alive for me when I get to see the actual ground the soldiers and other highlanders walked on.
I have loved almost every minute of our trip here in Scotland, but I have to say the Highlands have been my favorite. There was so much beauty all around us that it was hard not to fall in love with Scotland all over again. I am excited to see what Glasgow has to offer and the adventures we will go on while we are here.