To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive

Here's the second-to-last batch of June photos, these being from the Scotland/Northumbria trip. Go to the usual spot for Stirling, Loch Katrine, Edinburgh Revisited, and Alnwick Castle & Gardens. Those of you who've been waiting patiently for pictures of my Wild Hairy Haggis, check out the Edinburgh album.

I realized I never did any kind of write-up for this trip. I don't intend to do a full one now after a month has gone by, but here's a few things the pictures don't necessarily address:

- It was ridiculously cold for June. Like, highs in the low 50s. Disgusting.

- The steamer ship on Loch Katrine was actually a working steamer that I took a ride around the loch on. Talk about cold. 1.5 hours out on open water, and you're moving as well. Brrrrr. So pretty, though. Loch Katrine is located in the Trossachs National Park, which is sort of like the third point of an imaginary equilateral triangle connecting Edinburgh and Glasgow. It bills itself as a miniature version of the Highlands, and I'd say that's pretty correct. The mountains aren't as high as way up north, I'm sure, but they were spectacular enough for my purposes.

- Much love for Edinburgh tourist shops that took advantage of the 10:30 PM sunset to stay open well into the night, thus giving me something to do on both my nights in the city.

- The train ride down the eastern coast is even prettier in summer than in winter.

- Edinburgh Castle and Princes St. Gardens are also prettier in summer, although the desloation of winter does suit that gray mass of volcanic rock upon which the castle perches.

- The grounds at Alnwick look massive on the map, but are actually not as huge as they seem. They're packed with stuff, though, as the photos should attest. I'm so glad it was the height of rose season when I went there.

*sticks out tongue at EasyJet* Phooey. I had a schedule all planned out for June, and it depended on being able to fly from Bristol to Inverness, like EasyJet said they could. Of course, I go to make sure of that, and the flights don't start until July. ARGH! So I either need to spend £ 30 more on a single train trip to London and fly out of there, or rearrange my whole schedule to accomodate flying from Exeter to either Edinburgh or Glasgow, then taking a train. Bah.

Spekaing of the Highlands, some questions for people who've been there. Okay, so I've heard good things about the Isle of Skye. Are they true? How difficult is it to get there via public transportation if I base myself in Inverness for a couple of days? Would some kind of tour be a better option? Also, as far as prettiness goes, would Loch Ness or Loch Lomond be the better option? Should I do both, even though I have, like, five days, two of which will be taken up with getting to and from Scotland?

Any info about the Lake District that anyone can provide would be nice, too.

*looks at 2500 words of memoir* And to think I'd meant to have all 5000 written by tonight. *sigh* Although I was working on other stuff today; I'm writing a paper on You've Got Mail and its reworking of the story in The Shop Around the Corner, so of course I had to watch YGM today, regardless of the fact that I've memorized large parts of that movie... ;)