enveloped in edinburgh

Wow, wow, wow....Edinburgh was so lovely. We truly enjoyed our time there and I hope to go back one day. I love greenery and it was everywhere you turned in Scotland. Plus, let's get real, people were speaking ENGLISH & that was sure a nice change! Plus they were very nice! On a side note, I figured out how to make the pictures bigger on the blog so hopefully it is easier to see the pictures now :)

On Friday, Nick & I headed to the airport and our flight was delayed (shocking!) We got to Edinburgh and went to check in at the AirB&B we were staying at. The girl was incredibly nice & waited for us even though our flight was delayed. We asked about local eateries so we could skip some of the crowd and she told us about a street where locals usual ate instead of tourists. We were very glad for this and headed to a burger place called "Burger Meats Bun." The place was awesome. We got fried haggis balls for an appetizer and they were quite interesting! Nick of course loved them and me not so much. We went around to a local bar for awhile then headed back to the apartment since it was going to be an early morning on Saturday!

checking out edinburgh from the plane!

On Saturday, Nick woke up at 4:30AM to grab some pictures of the sunrise before we headed to the British Open. You can see a picture below that is absolutely gorgeous! Afterwards, we headed to the British Open. We got there early (around 8AM) and we were pretty excited since the second round had been postponed and we could see A LOT of golf that day. However, unfortunately, play was suspended due to the heavy wind and play kept getting pushed back continuously all day :( So we decided to head back to Edinburgh and do some other activities we were supposed to do on Sunday.... more details below on that & some pictures of us getting to the British Open!

an absolutely beautiful picture that Nick took during the sunrise on Saturday morning of Edinburgh

trying to see the British Open on Saturday morning

headed back to Edinburgh on the train since we could not see golf :(

After we got back to Edinburgh we decided to go to the Edinburgh Castle. It was SO gorgeous!! We took a free tour and learned all about the historical aspects of the castle and how it integrates into Edinburgh history. The crown jewels are located at this castle and the seat where kings/queens get coronated on is also at this castle. It will be moved back to England when the next king/queen gets coronated. So it is pretty cool to say we were that close to that piece of history! At 1PM everyday a gun goes off to "set the time" for the sailers in Edinburgh. This is something that has been going on for years and they still honor the tradition today. I've included a picture Nick took below of the gun! After we wrapped up our time at the castle we checked again on the British Open but unfortunately play was STILL suspended so we decided to do the free walking tour of Edinburgh. We got to see a ton of sites. We went by the school that Hogwarts was designed after as well as the actual gravesites that some of the Harry Potter characters were modeled after (like Tom Riddle!) See all the pictures below! It was so awesome. When the tour was ending we realized that play was back on at Royal Saint Andrews. So we headed back up and watched all the last groups play on the 18th hole! We saw Tiger Woods, Jason Day, Jordan Spieth & Dustin Johnson. It was awesome to be so close to these famous golfers and I truly appreciated the time spent on this lovely course. Please see the absolutely gorgeous photos of the course. It is honestly breathe-taking.

beautiful panoramic of Edinburgh from the top of the castle

picture of the gun that goes off everyday at 1pm!

selfie in front of the Castle!

cute little shops!

school that Hogwarts was designed after!

Tom Riddle!!

gorgeous 18th hole at British Open

Jason Day & Tiger Woods!

Tiger Woods!!!

Jason Day!

Jordan Spieth & Dustin Johnson :)

Spieth!! 

On Sunday, we woke up to do the hike up to Arthur's Seat before heading back to the British Open. Scotland is so incredibly green it blew my mind. Even though the weather was quite unpredictable (raining on & off; sunny one minute and windy the next) it was a gorgeous hike. The first picture below is a panoramic I took before we started the hike...the green goes on forever.  Although this hike was minuscule compared to what we will do in Interlaken, I'm hoping it is good prep for it :) When we got to the top we took a lot of pictures and the sun came out slightly on the way back down so I got to capture some pictures of the sun on the beautiful greenery. For iPhone pictures, I'm shocked at how nicely they came out! After the hike, we headed back up to Royal Saint Andrews and saw so much amazing golf. Dunne (an amateur) had an amazing day. We got to see the GT amateur Oliver and Phil Mickelson as well as a ton of other players on the 18th hole to wrap up their day.

before we started our hike up Arthur's Seat 

gotta take some selfies from Arthur's Seat

beautiful view from ABOVE!

360 view from above Edinburgh!!! 

panoramic view of Edinburgh! 

superrrrr narrow walkway we had to take up the mountain

Just good ol' Phil & a ladies head :)

Phil mid-swing on the 17th tee!

Phil teeing off at the famous 17th tee at Royal Saint Andrews 

Dustin Johnson teeing off before his epic downfall .... 

Final Scoreboard!! 

All in all, we had a fabulous weekend. Edinburgh was so lovely and I hope to get to go back there someday. I would absolutely tell any & everyone to go there! We are headed to Paris this weekend to see the end of Tour de France and the beautiful sites. Then we will be in Hamburg for awhile before my sister comes and visits. We are sooooo excited and ready to host her in Hamburg. We will be traveling to Zurich, Interlaken and Milan as well so she can have a taste of Europe! Cannot wait :) Until next time.... tschüss!