Sunday, April 05, 2015

5 Days Winter Solo Travel in Scotland (United Kingdom)

Loch Ness - Cairngorm - Glasgow - Edinburgh tour, maximizing the UK multiple visa
December 05 to December 13, 2014

"Whatever you think you can do or believe you can do, begin it. Action has magic, power and grace" - W.H. Murray

My 3rd visit to the United Kingdom (1st visit was last June 2014 and 2nd visit was last Oct. 2014), 38th solo backpacking trip, 39 countries visited so far and of course, usual budget do-it-yourself itinerary from arrival to departure.

Scotland is a beautiful country well-known for its dramatic scenery of mountains and valleys, rolling hills, green fields and forests, and rugged coastline. While everyone knows Highlands for this, Scotland is beautiful in the Lowlands, islands and the flat lands of the North-East as well. Scotland has lively and friendly cities, often of great architectural significance, and a rich history and heritage dating back thousands of years with many ancient and historic sites. A person from Scotland is called a Scot, or described as Scottish. The word "Scotch" applies only to things - for example, whisky, Scotch eggs, Scotch beef and Scotch Corner (a road junction leading to Scotland). Do not to refer Scottish as English - it is very likely to cause annoyance.
http://wikitravel.org/en/Scotland

5 Days Winter Solo Travel in Scotland (overlooking Cairngorm National Park)

immigration stamps in London Heathrow and Gatwick Airport

side trip to London (Winter Wonderland)

This another race against time, very short backpacking researched in somehow detailed manner has a compressed itinerary designed as follows; 

December 05 Friday: London City (Heathrow) Arrival, night bus to Edinburgh
December 06 Saturday: Loch Ness and Inverness walk trip
December 07 Sunday: Cairngorm Hill Hiking & Glasgow at Night
December 08 Monday: Edinburgh City Tour 1st part

December 09 Tuesday: Edinburgh City tour last part

TOTAL BUDGET : USD820 = PHP36,900 (27% went to plane ticket)

timezone - +0000H UTC;   capital - Edinburgh;   language - English
currency - Pound 1 GBP = 73 PHP = 1.63 USD 
visa - Filipinos need to apply 1st before travel (how to apply tourist visa in UK?)

5 Days Winter Solo Travel in Scotland (United Kingdom)

5 Days Winter Solo Travel in Scotland (United Kingdom)

5 Days Winter Solo Travel in Scotland (United Kingdom)

5 Days Winter Solo Travel in Scotland (United Kingdom)

Interesting Facts about Scotland: 
1. Scotland was an independent country until 1603. Then the king of Scotland became king of England (not the other way round), but the two country didn't merge their governments until 1707, to form the Kingdom of Great Britain.
2. The Bank of Scotland, founded in 1695, is the oldest surviving bank in the UK. It was also the first bank in Europe to print its own banknotes, a function it still performs today.
3. Edinburgh was the first city in the world with its own fire brigade, in 1824.
4. Scotland is reputed for its whiskey, known outside Scotland as Scotch Whisky. What few people know is that whiskey was invented in China, and was first distilled by monks in Ireland in the early 15th century before reaching Scotland 100 years later.
5. Scottish dishes are well-known for their weird names, like Forfar Bridie (a meat pastry), Cock-a-leekie (soup), Collops (escalope).
6. Notable Scottish inventions include the method of logarithms (1614), tarmac (1820), the waterproof raincoat (1823), the hot blast furnace (1828), and the pneumatic tyre (1887).
7. Glasgow Tower, completed in 2001, is the tallest tower in the world (127 m / 417 ft) in which the whole structure is capable of rotating 360 degrees.
8. Scotland has a comparable land area as the Czech Republic, the United Arab Emirates, Panama, the US state of Maine, or the Japanese island of Hokkaido. The latter (Hokkaido) has the most comparable climate and population density. 


5 Days Winter Solo Travel in Scotland (United Kingdom)

5 Days Winter Solo Travel in Scotland (United Kingdom)

5 Days Winter Solo Travel in Scotland (United Kingdom)

Arriving from London Heathrow International Airport; 
Kuwait Airways flight arrived almost exactly as per schedule. I arrived 1730H and immediately walked fast to immigration lane. London Heathrow airport (LHR) immigration officer I encountered was somehow perform his routine questions on a non-typical tourist like me. I handed-over my passport and asked usual questions like "What will you do in UK?, How long you gonna spend it?, Where will you stay?, What did you do during your last two visits?, When will be your flight departure?".  After around less than 5 minutes, I was in full smile going outside and looking for the "underground" to Covent Garden station under Piccadilly line. By the way, there is now 4 hours maximum free wifi in Heathrow Airport on daily usage basis compared to last visit of 45mins only.

Anyways, I divided this wonderful journey into different set of posts to be more specific on its content;

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