So far, seeing England has been interesting. We’ve managed to avoid most of the heavy tourist spots, except for Hadrian’s Wall and Stratford-upon-Avon, and we’ve seen some fascinating glimpses of English history. But we didn’t come to the United Kingdom to just see England. There are still other countries to investigate and learn more about.…

So far in our trip, we’ve seen a number of castles and manors. It’s intriguing how many there are, and how many are open to the public even though some are still private residences. Some of the people who live in them are descendants of the families that had them built. But the historical significance,…

After taking some time to explore the stone circles, we decided it was time to see more of the natural beauty of Scotland, preferably somewhere far off the beaten path. We both enjoy hiking, so taking a hike in the mountains of Scotland seemed to be a good way to spend some of our vacation,…

Cairn Lochan wasn’t all we saw, though that hike was long enough that it took an entire day by itself. But we had more than one day to spend in Scotland, and we wanted to do more hiking, both for the exercise and health benefits and to see what other natural sites and scenes exist…

During our hiking days, we also made a point of hiking Ben Macdui, as well as Cairn Gorm itself. Both of these mountains are also part of Cairngorm National Park, and are among the tallest mountains in the United Kingdom. This was the most challenging hike of our trip, because the elevations were so high…

After spending a few days in the Cairngorm Mountains, we left Scotland, and the main island of Britain, to see the Republic of Ireland, the last planned part of our trip. Ireland isn’t actually part of the United Kingdom, having declared independence from the UK in 1922. That led to the formation of a separate…