Honeymoon part 3 St. Andrews and driving

After our adventure in Edinburgh, the next day Jay and I hopped on a bus to St. Andrews.  When I was in Scotland the last time, mom, Claire and I all headed to St. Andrews...unfortunately after a long night of drinking with Claire!  Let's just say, it was an uncomfortable bus ride.

This time, so much better!  We had a pretty nice (for Scotland) day and it only rained for half the drive. :) I love St. Andrews, its a beautiful town and has so much to see and do.  I was hoping Jay liked it as well... and he did!

We walked over to the cathedral ruins and cemetery first.  We really like old cemeteries...

After that we walked out on a long pier into the ocean and looked back at St. Andrews. Truly, pretty!

We then walked over to the castle ruins and wandered around there.  Even having been there before, its so cool to see!

inside the siege tunnels under the castle!

After the castle, Jay insisted we walk over to the world famous St. Andrews golf course.  He LOVED it!!!

We headed back to Glasgow in the late afternoon - traffic and weather made us pretty late getting back into the city, but we weren't in any hurry!  The only thing we had planned to do that night was head out for a really nice dinner. 


When Jay and I were first dating, we used to have a date night in the middle of the week.  He'd come over to my apartment, we'd have dinner and usually just snuggle down on the couch and relax and watch tv.  One of the things we loved to watch was a show on the Cooking Channel, called "Two Fat Ladies".  If you ever get a chance, watch one of their shows.  They cook British food with lots of butter.  Their accents make it so much more fun to listen to and they travel around the UK cooking in random places. Anyway.... in our research of things to do in Scotland, I stumbled across the fact that there is a Two Fat Ladies restaurant!!!  We aren't totally sure if its affiliated with the cooking show, but we didn't care.  It was on our to-do list!


So after a long day in St. Andrews we had dinner at the Two Fat Ladies restaurant... and it was FABULOUS!

The next day, we packed up all our stuff and hoofed it to the car rental place.  We had decided to rent a car and drive through the rest of our trip around Scotland. 


I cannot express how terrified I was in the first 10 minutes in the car.  Jay is a wonderful driver. He's comfortable with manual transmission.  But. BUT... being on the other side of the car, on the other side of the road, shifting with the left hand.... was a bit much. We had 10 minutes of me being scared out of my mind...but after that it was fine!! My brain didn't understand why I was sitting in the "drivers" seat with no steering wheel or pedals, but it was all ok. We were off on our next part of the adventure!

the last few months of 2014

Since we've returned from our honeymoon - I feel as though the rest of 2014 just slipped away.  Thanksgiving?  Christmas? When did those happen? How are we in 2015?

Anyway - here is a quick recap of what happened since our return...

I've gone hiking all of once with the girls.

Jay and I took off the black countertops in the kitchen, revealing less ugly counters underneath.  We then put up a back splash behind the sink and the stove and painted one of the walls yellow!

I've been working a second job at a restaurant downtown, which has been tough, but awesome, it allows me to see downtown Denver all lit up!

Dancing has been on a bit of a standstill, but I was still able to get up to Georgetown and dance with the pipeband! I always love doing that show.

All in all, it hasn't been too busy, although its felt that way.  Our new year and first of January was a bit more exciting, but thats for another post!

Honeymoon part 2 Scotland- Glasgow and Edinburgh

Tuesday morning, we got up incredibly early to go back to the airport.  It was snowing as we left, which meant that our plane was delayed leaving for Glasgow.  Luckily we weren't set in a schedule and were not horribly stressed about it.  Annoyed? Slightly. Stressed? Not at all.

We landed in Glasgow and I navigated our way to the hotel. Yes, I navigated! Even after being gone from that awesome city for 10 years, I still remembered most of it! The hotel was very Scottish style and lovely.  We wandered around the city for the rest of the day, stopping in a pub for a warm, Scottish lunch and beers.  I showed Jay the area around the University of Glasgow, where I spent a wonderful semester abroad and a couple other sites around the city.

Sauchihall Street just after a rain storm

neighborhood by our hotel

view of the University through the trees

the old dorm buildings from my overseas adventure!

Jay and I in Glasgow city centre

The next day we hopped on a train and headed to Edinburgh for the day.  We toured the castle, walked along the Royal Mile and checked out a few really cool (and really old) cemeteries.  We even walked to the top of Calton Hill for a view over the whole city!

Edinburgh Castle

Jay and I at top of the castle

a crowd gathering for the 1 o'clock gun

Jay got to play with a really big sword

the castle at night!

very cool graveyard

view from the top of Calton Hill