We took a holiday to the United Kingdom with Binal, Anjani and Kevin. We arrived into Gatwick and pre booked a taxi for 73 GBP to Kevin’s parents home in Wembley. That night we arrived home late so ended up eating dinner at Blue Ginger near Kevin’s house where we had an amazing Indian meal. The next day we bought day passes on the underground tube to tour the city. We visited Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Tower bridge and Oxford street. We ate lunch at Rock and Soile Place fish and chips bar in Coven Garden which was delicious! We tried to go to the Sky Garden bar however you need to reserve it ahead of time online for free passes. The next day lunch was at Kababish on Ealing Road in Wembley, then we headed to Coulston and ate at Spice and Ice (very tasty Indo-Chinese food) We took a taxi for 100 GBP, note to reader: take the train, way faster and cheaper.
The next morning we had an early flight to Glasgow where we were visiting my cousin Jugal who is studying at the University of Glasgow. We took Easy Jet airlines which had cheap fares, but they are very strict on baggage allowance, check the fine print and get there on time! Once landed we took a 25 GBP taxi ride to the Marriot on Argyle Street. Overall the hotel location, price and service was great but the rooms were older and had minor issues. If I had the choice, I would stay again if we got the same rate otherwise I would look for another option. Jugal met us and gave us a nice walking your around the city center after having lunch at Nando’s that first day. Dinner that night was at Mother India; reservations are needed and definitely recommend it.
That night Jugal booked our train tickets to Edinburgh on scotrail.co.uk for our day trip the next morning. We took the 9:38 am train and arrived at 11am. The return ticket was for 6:40pm, but you can take any train after that time which was pretty convenient. Note: if you travel between 4pm-6:30pm the prices vary due to peak traveling hours. We got off at the Waverly station and found the hop on hop off bus tours to take for the day. It was a great way to see a lot in a short period of time and only 15 GBP per adult. The tour runs from about 9am to 6pm and the ticket is valid for 24 hours. We stopped for lunch at Pizza Express before heading to our first stop, the Edinburg Castle. Tickets were bought ahead of time to avoid lines online. Edinburgh is a beautiful and historic city, in retrospect it would’ve been nice to spend 1-2 nights in this city. We did a scotch tasting at the Scotch Whiskey Experience which was fun. Dinner was at Jamie Oliver’s Italian restaurant which was decent enough before our trip back to Glasgow.
The next day we hung out in Glasgow again visiting the university grounds and having tea at Cup Tea Lounge on Reinfeld St. We suggest you do a brunch tea time on an empty stomach because they give a lot of food. We opted out of the 22 GBP per person tea menu because we were really still full from lunch. We ate lunch at Where the Monkey Sleeps which was very close to our hotel and delicious! After a day of walking we had pints at Brel on Ashton Lane which was a quirky area close to the Univwrsity. Dinner was at Ketchup burger restaurant across the street which was okay, the best part was the vanilla milkshake with Nutella.
For our last day in Scotland we rented a van from Enterprise on Oswald St to visit Fort Williams. We opted to return it at the airport the next day before our flights which worked out conveniently, we did have to pay to park at the hotel overnight however. Kevin braved driving for our countryside excursion and did a great job, we did get a GPS system through Enterprise which I highly recommend even if you have cell phone capabilities. We drove to the city center of Fort Williams and had lunch before driving to the Glennfinan Monument. Our biggest reason to go there was to see the Jacobite Train go over the Glennfinnan viaduct. This is the same train used in Harry Potter as the Hogwarts Express. The train passes around 15:20, we made it just in time. There are two trains that pass twice a day during the season. We were also told the scenery behind the Glenfinnan Monument is where they superimposed the Hogwarts School. This definitely was a highlight of the trip and if you are a Harry Potter fan I totally recommend either riding the train or watching it pass over the viaduct. Before heading back to Glasgow we hit up the Ben Nevis scotch distillery for a quick tasting in Fort William. We ended our trip with dinner at Opium a very good Asian restaurant in the city center.
We had a fantastic time in the United Kingdom, a special thanks to Kevin and Binal for touring us around London and giving us a place to stay! Another big thank you to our cousin Jugal for showing us around Glasgow, we are proud of you! Cheerio till our next trip.
Kommander K's Travels 