Cars & Trams & Trains - oh my!

Today started our travel back south towards London in preparation for our flight home tomorrow. We left our hotel early this morning so we could hit a few more sightseeing stops along the drive back to Edinburgh to make the day more fun. The first of those stops was the Fairy Pools where Mother Nature once again was scheming against us and started raining during our walk along a pretty river that formed several small pools and waterfalls. Due to having taken my camera with me on the walk I had to turn back once I realized the rain was picking up. I still got several pretty pictures though and wish we had more time to spend there.

Next, we got back in the car and headed to Eileen Donan Castle which we passed by on our drive onto the island. Entering the castle was a ticketed attraction so we chose to stretch our legs and take a few photos from shore before getting back on the road. Was very cool looking castle on its own little island connected to land by a bridge.

After that, it was a pretty drive back to Edinburgh. The scenery around here while driving is absolutely gorgous. It felt like every corner came around we’d be saying “wow that’s so pretty!”. A picture doesn’t really capture it, but here’s a few that attempt to show some of the beautiful scenery.

Another thing that kept us entertained during the drive was some of the road signs. Some were extra polite, such as when leaving a town there’d be a sign thanking you for driving carefully. Also the digital signs that show what speed you’re going, they say Thank You when going the correct speed. I managed to grab a picture of one of those while going through a school area. Another one that I’ve never seen before, and sadly wasn’t fast enough to ever grab my own picture, was an “Elderly People” sign. I included a picture below from google to show what it looked like.

Very polite when going the right speed. Says “Slow Down!” if you’re going too fast.

Saw a few of these on Isle of Skye and in smaller towns throughout Scotland

Once we turned in the rental car in Edinburgh, we hopped on the tram to take us back to the city center to catch our train back to London. Smooth train ride back minus some anxiety waiting for them to finally announce what platform our train was leaving from. It only got announced 8 mins before it was scheduled to leave. As soon as the platform number popped up for that train a whole mob of people instantly started rushing to that platform to get to the train, find their carriage, stow their luggage, and find their seat. Despite all that the train still left only 1 minute late. There were some very pretty views as the route this train took hugged the east coast for a while and I specifically booked seats on that side of the train per suggestions I saw online.

The taller, fancy looking buildings in the back caught my eye as we went by. Checking on Google Maps to see what they were I found out the town is named Durham and it is Durham Castle on the left and Durham Cathedral on the right.

Tomorrow morning we plan on getting breakfast, doing some final packing, and then heading over to the airport around 11am for our 9 hour flight. Probably won’t have many photos tomorrow, but planning on killing some time at the airport putting together one final post with some final thoughts and fun stats about our trip!