Of Kilts and Haggis (Part 3)

OK, now we've come to the part of the trip where I get to make you jealous.

Although I was on my own for the first week, Rebeca flew out for the second week I was there and joined me for a bit of touring afterwards.

One of the interesting places we checked out was Camera Obscura, a fantastic museum dedicated to optical illusions and other fun things. I took a ton of pictures here and really have trouble deciding on my favorites.

One day we hopped on a bus and went up to Loch Ness. No monster was sighted, except for this one.

By the way, we highly recommend NOT taking a guided bus to Loch Ness. It's a long, uncomfortable drive and you see very little along the way because you're in such a hurry. Take your time and rent a car.

Finally, to wrap things up, we did a bit of a "movie tour". The first stop: Alnwick Castle. This castle is famous for being used for most of the exterior shots of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies! It has also been used in numerous other movies such as Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.

Second stop: Douane Castle - famous for being used in Monty Python and the Holy Grail!

And finally, the Glenfinnan Viaduct. This is best known as the bridge the Hogwarts Express travels over on the way to Hogwarts!

There are a zillion other pictures, and some of them are even good.

More pictures from Camera Obscura can be found here.
More pictures from Alnwick and Douane castles can be found here.
More pictures from the Glenfinnan Viaduct can be found here.

Of Kilts and Haggis (Part 2)

Edinburgh and Glasgow are the two largest cities in Scotland. Edinburgh is the government and tourist center; Glasgow is the business and cultural center. It's a quick one-hour train ride between the two cities, so I popped over to Glasgow for the day to check it out and to see a concert.

Here's a neat bridge just outside of Edinburgh on the way to Glasgow called the Forth Bridge.

More photos of Glasgow can be found here, and a few more bridge photos can be found here.

Of Kilts and Haggis (Part 1)

In my previous post I mentioned how my work had sent me to Austin a few times over the previous months. Well, they wanted me to do another trip, and this one a bit more adventurous - setting up a new environment in our Linlithgow, Scotland office!

Linlithgow is a small town a little ways outside of Edinburgh in the southwest of Scotland. The only hotel in town was no longer open, so I stayed in downtown Edinburgh and took the train in every day. It was about three miles of walking to and from the train station each day, so I got in a fair bit of exercise too!

This is Loch Linlithgow with Linlithgow Palace in the background. I walked by here every day on the way to and from the office and the train station.

I was there almost three weeks total. Of course we didn't have to work weekends, so that allowed for a bit of fun...

This is a cemetery in the courtyard of The Parish Church of St. Cuthbert. Edinburgh Castle is in the background. The cemetery was about a quarter mile from my hotel.

St. John's Episcopal Church. I like the crescent moon that was out at the time!

Edinburgh Castle at night. Loaded with tourists during the day, and completely empty once its dark!

Castlehill Road - the main drag leading up to Edinburgh Castle. Tourist touts galore during the day.

More pictures from the first weekend can be found here!

And now a word from our sponsor.

I've been sent on a few work trips the last couple of months. Three of them were to Austin, Texas - which admittedly was a nice break from the middle of winter. I dragged my camera along to take a few pictures during my off-time.

Texas State Capitol Building

This is a shot I really enjoy for some reason. The harsh shadows from shooting directly toward the sun, the sepia-look from the clouds, and Old Glory (with hints of color) contrasting against it all.

I drove down to San Antonio one of the days and bummed around. This is a shot of the Riverwalk, with a water taxi passing by.

Austin downtown skyline.

A few more shots can be found here and here.