day 5.

"heilo" from Edinburgh, Scotland!

we went on a 12 hour tour of the Scottish Highlands today! oh. my. gosh.

it had snowed, so half of the highlands were covered in white...probably the most amazing thing i've ever seen...

we also visited Loch Ness (yes, like the Loch Ness monster), but there was no sign of Nessie :(

i took a lot of panoramics so you'd get a better feel of everything..

we also met our first American! he was a man from NC, and was on the tour with us. how lovely :)

i learned LOADS today, so if you're not interested in Scotland - stop reading! these are in no particular order...

1. i saw about 7 castles today.. (from a distance)

2. highland cows is pronounced “heiland coos” (and they look a bit different than normal cows)

3. televisions, telephones, and steam engines were invented in Scotland

4. we passed over a river today that at one time was so filled with dead bodies that you could walk across it without getting your feet wet (basically, there are LOADS of battle sites..)

5. William Wallace is a big deal. (duh)

6. Robert the Bruce is ALSO a big deal.

7. a man’s sword was the length from the ground to under his chin. William Wallace’s sword was 5’7”. (he was 6’5”)

8. according to our amazing tour guide, Angela, the passion for country that was shown by the men in Braveheart was “spot on”

9. the movie was wrong...Wallace and King Edward never met, and Edward died a year or 2 after Wallace (not at the same time, as shown in the movie)

10. Scotland is know for having 4 seasons in one day..ha. (sound familiar, Savannah?)

11. the road signs are written in English and Gaelic

12. in the Highlands, you can’t see where the mountains stop and the sky starts..

13. there’s more water in Loch Ness that all the waters in Scotland combined

14. there are 50 unidentified creatures in the world, and about 20 are in Scotland

15. there’s a lot of green moss in the trees...it made me happy.

16. the Highlands were used for tons of movies...battle scenes, in particular.

17. random important fact: the woman who worked at the desk of our tour company was a body double for Jessica Lange in the movie Rob Roy, and got to lay in bed with Liam Neeson (haha...the women overhere LOVE him..)

we are headed back to London after lunch tomorrow...i finally get to sleep a bit later than usual!

tomorrow i have to say farewell to Scotland :/

here's some photos from the Highlands..