Travel to relax, eat and shop ......: Scotland (Jun '10)

Had a short trip to Scotland from 02 Jun (Wed) to 06 Jun (Sun) with my two colleagues. Scotland (苏格兰) is a country part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (大不列颠及北爱尔兰联合王国), occupying the northern part of the island of Great Britain. Besides it's rich history, the beautiful natural sceneries is another factor that attracted us to visit this country. From the distinctive national dress, drink, bagpipe music, and folklore, Scotland has shaped an identity easily recognizable.

Historically, the Kingdom of Scotland emerged as an independent sovereign state in the Early Middle Ages and continued to exist until 1603 with the succession of James VI of Scotland to the English and Irish thrones. In 1707, Scotland entered into an incorporating political union with England to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain resulted from the Treaty of Union.

Leisure trip at a glance

Country: Scotland – The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Period: 02 Jun to 06 Jun 2010
Flight timings:
02 Jun: LX 358, GVA–LHR, ETD 2035 ETA 2115
06 Jun: LX 349, LHR–GVA, ETD 1715 ETA 1955
Air tickets: Return tickets at SGD 305.97 per person (inclusive of airport taxes)
Accommodations:
Apollo Hotel – Birmingham (02 Jun)
Northfield House Hotel – Edinburgh (03 Jun)
Hawthorn Lodge Guest House – Inverness (04 Jun)
Home from Home Guest House – Cumbria (05 Jun)
Currency exchange rate: GBP £ 1.00 = SGD 2.07 (Jun '10 period)

There is time difference of one hour between Switzerland (Central Europe time) and United Kingdom (Western Europe time). Total damage was about SGD 750 including flight tickets, airport taxes, transport, food and hotel, excluding personal expenses.

Here's the overview of the trip itinerary:

Day 1 – Evening flight LX 358 from Geneva International Airport (Switzerland) to London Heathrow Airport (UK). Took the complimentary shuttle van to Sixt for car rental. After which drove to London Stansted Airport (UK) to pickup another colleague, and we continued to Birmingham. Checked in Apollo Hotel and had a good rest.

Day 2 – From Birmingham, we drove up to Edinburgh. At Edinburgh, we visited Edinburgh Castle, and walked along Royal Mile. Had dinner at one of the eateries along the Royal Mile. We then explored the Edinburgh city where we visited Greyfriars Bobby, The Elephant House, Scott Monument, and lastly Hard Rock Café to get some souvenirs. Checked in at Northfield House Hotel for the night.

Day 3 – Explored other parts of Edinburgh, including Rosslyn Chapel, Palace of Holyroodhouse, Scottish Parliament Building, and Calton Hill. Next, we drove up to Stirling. Along the way we bought sandwiches for lunch from one of the petrol stations. At Stirling, we visited Stirling Castle and Wallace Monument. After which we headed to Inverness, and checked in Hawthorn Lodge Guest House. Bought Chinese take-away and had it inside our guest house.

Day 4 – Walked around Inverness town and then visited Chanonry Point, Loch Ness Exhibition Centre and Urquhart Castle. Had sandwiches for lunch from one of the petrol stations again. Drove to Fort William and bought our Chinese takeaways for dinner. Had our meal at a golf course carpark after we took some photos of Ben Nevis. This was followed by driving pass A82 highway to Cumbria to check in Home from Home Guest House.

Day 5 – Drove down towards London and had breakfast at EDC along the highway. After dropping off our colleague at Stansted Airport, we then drove towards Heathrow Airport to return the car at Sixt. After which took the complementary shuttle to Heathrow Airport. Shopped at the transit area of the airport before boarded flight LX 349 back to Geneva Airport.

London Heathrow Airport

London Heathrow Airport (IATA code: LHR) is located in London Borough of Hillingdon. This airport is the busiest in the United Kingdom and fourth in the world (based on statistic tabulated in 2011). Heathrow has a total of 5 terminals utilized by over 90 airlines which connect to about 170 destinations worldwide. Our flight Swiss Airlines uses Terminal 1 which servers mainly members of Star Alliance. Heathrow together with other 6 airports, namely Biggin Hill, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, Southend and City, all served the air-traffic for London.

Over 70 shops (left photo below) are located inside the Departure Lounge of Terminal 1, including the famous brands like HMV, WHSmith, Hugo Boss, Longchamp and of course Harrods (right photo below). This was one of the outlets where I took a photo with Harrods's gigantic mascot.

Transportation

Car Rental

From the experiences of other colleagues that it is easy to self drive in UK, we decided to do the same when in Scotland. However after checking the price of internal flight from London to Scotland, and comparing the price of the rental car, we opted for the choice of doing a self-drive from London to Scotland. One main reason for choosing London as a starting point was because our other colleague was flying in from Austria and we were getting in from Switzerland. London is most accessible by most international flight, and thus we decided to meet at London to start off our journey.

My colleague went through several car rental services in UK and finally selected Sixt. Known to be one of the largest car rental companies in Europe, Sixt has more than 3500 service centre worldwide. Complementary shuttle service is available at Heathrow Airport to their service center (left photo below). We just need to follow the signs of 'Off Airport Car Rental Bus stops' and the shuttle van took less than 5-mins to pick us up.

The car rented to us was a brand-new Ford Focus. The car's interior was equipped with standard features (right photo below) and the car's exterior was spotless too (bottom photos). One important device which my colleagues brought to this trip was the GPS.

The car rental rate was based on per day, and in total we rented for 4 days (96-hours). Including all the taxes like local tax, 3rd party insurance, road tax etc, the total cost we paid was £ 217.35.

Self Driving in UK

Do note that Singapore driving license is recognized in UK and can be used as international driving permit. All cars in UK are left-hand drive and the highways (or motorways) in UK are generally smooth with adequate lightings and signages. All distances are measured in miles and speed limits are 30 – 40 mph (50 - 65 km/h) in built up areas but can exceed up to 70 mph (110 km/h) on motorways. Just like Singapore, wearing safety belts is compulsory and it is illegal to drive while using a hand-held mobile phone. And of course there are severe penalties for drinking and driving.

Driving can be a little tricky when the weather turned hazy (left photo below). Luckily this bad weather encountered was only on our way back to London. One joke that my colleague made was he couldn't understand why there were many "F09" signs flashing (right photo below) along the motorways, until we told him that it meant "Fog".

Public Transport in Edinburgh

While traveling in Edinburgh, I saw a dozens of coach tours available offering half and full-days tours, such as this Vintage open top bus (left photo below). Public transport in Edinburgh is extensive and efficient, and buses are operated by two main companies, namely Lothian (right photo below) and First Edinburgh. There is an unlimited day bus ticket for £ 3.20, while each single flat fare per trip cost £ 1.30 per adult.

Accommodation

Apollo Hotel

Booked this hotel via the internet only 1 week in advance for a standard triple room at SGD 91.50 per night without breakfast. Apollo Hotel (left photo below) is located at 243 Hagley Road, Edgbaston at Birmingham. There is free parking in this hotel and free wifi.

Our room (right photo below) is clean and has an attached bathroom. However one drawback was the room is located on the 3rd floor and there was not direct access from the lift. It took us some effort to walk up with the heavy luggage.

Breakfast was not included in the hotel package, but we paid additional £ 5 per person. The café was large and has sufficient seats (left photo below), and the selection was typical of English Breakfast (right photo below).

Northfield House Hotel

Booked by my colleague, we paid £60 per twin room with additional bed per night, with breakfast. Northfield House Hotel (left photo below) is located at 115 Lasswade Road at Edinburgh.

The room design (right photo below) was my favorite among the 4 hotels we stayed. The dinning room (bottom left photo) was spacious styled with pine furniture. Like all standard B&B (Bed and Breakfast) in UK, breakfast is often prepared by the owner. We had toasted bread for a start (bottom right photo).

And followed by self-service cornflakes (left photo below) from the cereal counter, and lastly the mushroom sausage breakfast (right photo below) made by the owner himself.

Hawthorn Lodge Guest House

Located at 15 Fairfield Road at Inverness Highland, Hawthorn Lodge Guest House (left photo below) is a family run guest house. We paid £ 75 for family room with 1 double bed (right photo below) and a single bed with a private bathroom.

Breakfast was at the dinning room (left photo below) located at ground floor, and the menu for the day was beacons ham and eggs (right photo below).

Home from Home Guest House

Booked this Guest House only two days before our official check-in during our trip in Scotland. Home from Home (left photo below) is located at 6 English Street, Longtown at Carlile Cumbria. Cumbria is northest county in England just south of Scotland. Our room consisted of 3 single beds (right photo below) which was nicely decorated with dried flowers (bottom left photo). Although breakfast was included, we didn't take it at this cozy dinning area (bottom right photo) as we had to leave very early the next day in order for us to reach the airport on time.

Interesting Observations

Guess Singapore isn't that far from the two commercial billboards I saw during this trip. Time of 'Singapour' (French spelling) and other Asian countries was displayed on a poster at Geneva Airport (left photo below), while the skyline of Singapore (right photo below) was used as a backdrop for a commercial advertisement at Heathrow Airport.
Icons of UK: the Red Telephone Booth (left photo below) and Pillar Mailbox (right photo below) can be seen along Royal Mile in Edinburgh.
Is there a design flaw? Bus stops at Edinburgh are protected with transparent sheets at 3 sides while the opening is back-facing the road (left photo below). This makes passengers boarding / alighting difficult. However on a second thought, it's more logical based on the rationale that the transparent sheets are to protect passengers from strong cold winds caused by rushing vehicles, especially during winter period.

On the contrary, I still can’t think of good reasons why there are two separate taps for hot and cold water (right photo below).
If you think that the currency notes in Hong Kong are confusing, then it's even more complicated in Scotland. There are 3 Scottish Banks authorized to issue bank notes, namely Royal Bank of Scotland, Bank of Scotland and Clydesdale Bank. In addition, bank notes issued by Bank of England can also be used throughout Scotland (photos below). So that makes four designs of same value currency notes circulating in Scotland at the same time.
To make full use of money, there are Pound Stretcher (left photo below) and Poundland (right photo below) in UK for smart consumer. This is very similar to the Daiso store in Singapore. Interestingly I didn't get to see these shops when I was in London.
Running out of ideas for Scotland souvenirs? Here's what my two colleagues bought in Edinburgh (left photo below). Perhaps a Scottish Kilt may make a good collection which is sold in almost every souvenir shops (right photo below).
Probably the most iconic of Scottish culture is the Scottish Bagpipers. How can a trip to Scotland be complete without taking a photo with these bagpipers? There are dummy ones (left photo below) displayed in most castle museums and real artists (right photo below) playing along the streets.