Superb Scotland! August 11th-22st, 2025

So what to say about “Bonnie Old Scotland” except for the fact that we (well) spent 11 wonderful days in that country of mighty fine whiskies, castles, amazing concerts, military parades and last (but NEVER least) very outgoing and happy-go-lucky people!

We left from Rome’s Ciampino airport on August 11^th, 2025 and came back on August 22^nd.  We left with a temperatures hovering around 40 degrees Celsius.  Prior to leaving we checked out the weather in Scotland, which was (supposed) to be cooler, so we packed a few sweaters and long pants. 

It was instead quite the shocker when we arrived at Edinburgh’s airport only to be faced with practically the very same temperatures that 3 hours before we had left on the tarmac at Ciampino (talk about Python’s famous phrase, “It’s hot enough to boil a monkey’s bum”)!

We spent four days in Edinburgh because from Rome we had booked online their spectacular and simply superb “Military Tattoo”, an event which is 90 minutes long.  This year’s show was special because it was the 75^th anniversary of the Tattoo and guest bands included the Ukrainians, the Swiss, the Poles, Highland dancers and also the Americans.   An idea of that special and unforgettable evening can be seen in the pics and in this magnificent BBC video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZ7iFuNGipY

The city itself was awash with tourists from all over the world as they also had up and running their “Fringe Festival”, which runs from August 1^st-25^th.  Quite the selection of some pretty whacky theatre, music and also street events at the city’s famous “Royal Mile”.   And VERY impressive their free “National Museum of Scotland” which just happens to also host eleven original 12^th century pieces of the famous “Lewis Chessmen” (they’re carved from walrus ivory). 

Very nice also their "Royal Botanic Garden" which with one (rather long) bus ride took us directly there.

Our Holiday Inn Express hotel was conveniently located close to the tram and also to the Royal Yacht Britannia (it dates back to 1953).  The impressive yacht, which for decades was owned by Queen Elizabeth II and her Royal Family, is anchored at the Port of Leith.  For about 40 pounds (for two tickets) we spent close to 3 hours visiting the yacht that had been for many reasons also a second home to the Royal Family, as you can see by the pics.  It had hosted a myriad of VIPs, including old Blue Eyes himself, Frank Sinatra.  But under former Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair the Royal Family had to, due to rather high maintenance costs (ie, for the British taxpayers), “abandon ship”, sadly, and forever.

 

A pleasant surprise while we were there as Edinburgh’s “temple” of rugby, the Murrayfield stadium, was also hosting the first of three concerts by that great Manchester band, Oasis.  We didn’t try to get tickets but we took instead the VERY convenient city tram (it takes you all the way to the airport) and sat outside the stadium to listen to some of their great old songs (albeit the acoustics weren’t all that great). 

And some scenes of downtown Edinburgh.

Off then with a rented car to some other famous (and not-so-famous towns), starting with St. Andrew’s where not only was golf invented (back in the 15^th  century) but where, they say, a young Kate met her Prince William at the city’s famous university.  That was just a pit stop for a few hours as we then proceeded to Dundee.  

Our hotel in Dundee was conveniently located right in front of their wonderful (and free) VA Museum, which was right next to the old RRS Discovery ship, the very same one which Robert Falcon Scott explored the Antarctic, and which also turned out to be quite tragic for his crew.  We stayed there for just one night even though in the long run it would have been better had we stayed for two nights.

 

From Dundee, which is also famous for its two soccer clubs (their stadiums, or should I say “stadia”, are located very close to each other, like only 183 meters), we drove to two very small towns which can be for the average person rather insignificant, but NOT for many diehard AC/DC fans, like yours truly: Forfar (population: 13,150 people) and Kirriemuir (population: 6,000 people).  So what’s so special about these two small Scottish towns?  Forfar is where the late, great Bon Scott was born and who became the lead singer of that great band.  Kirriemuir instead is where he grew up, which just happens to also be the birthplace of Peter Pan and the man who created him, James Barrie.  

And there in Kirriemuir is the wonderful statue in honor of Bon and with bagpipes too (Bon plays them in their inspiring song, “It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock’n’ Roll”).  Silly as it may sound it was quite the moving moment for me as I’ve been following AC/DC since 1974ish as just four years later I got to see them live for the very first time, of the ten times that I’ve so far seen the band, with Bon at the old Winnipeg Arena (and that evening as Angus was playing his guitar while riding on Bon’s shoulders they both came running right past me as I was standing on the floor seats of the Arena!).  

 

To further honor Bon I brought along a small bottle of Scottish whiskey and poured a few drops on his mouth, raised the bottle and said, “Have a drink on me”!, in clear reference to another great old AC/DC’s song with Brian Johnson on vocals. 

 

Nice to also see that the statue/area hosts the yearly “Bonfest”.  A friend of mine has his name engraved on the commemorative plaque at Bon’s feet.  He, along with other diehard fans from around the world, raised the necessary funds (more than 50,000 £ from their own pockets) to get the Bon’s “shrine” up and running.  So God bless Chris and his mates for giving us that stupendous statue!

 

So here was a fully grown man of 66 years of age somewhat sad to have left Bon, and to a great degree also a very dear friend who had always been there when the times got tough (at least for me when I was a teeny-bopper) during the rather short time he had spent with AC/DC.

 

We bid adieu to Kirriemuir and drove to see other castles, starting with one called Glamis (it dates back to 1372).  Glamis had been the childhood home of HM Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, and also the birthplace of Princess Margaret, Elizabeth’s younger sister. The grounds are simply amazing, ditto for the Italian garden.  A funny coincidence as the castle had inspired William Shakespeare’s play, “The Tragedy of Macbeth”, more commonly known to many as “Macbeth” (Macbeth had been a courageous Scottish general who had killed King Duncan).  I made friends with Andy, the local bagpipe player who was there to greet the many tourists who were visiting the castle.  I also told Andy just how much I LOVE bagpipe music 

 

On the road again (to paraphrase old Willie Nelson) after our Glamis tour and to the (very) small town of Dinnet.  We stayed in their charming hotel for two nights as we weren’t too far from some other very interesting castles, including Balmoral (where Queen Elizabeth died), Kildrummy, Braemmar (where we also got to play chess on a large garden chessboard) and the Ballater Royal Station area.  As far as Balmoral is concerned it was a pity as just a few days before they had closed it to the public.  We did though manage to see one of the venues where the famous Highland Games take place across Scotland. 

 

In between our visits and (trying) to safely drive a car on the so-called “other side of the road” (some Highland roads were rather narrow, a tough thing to handle when in the one and only opposite lane a massive “Discovery” Range Rover about the size of a tank would be coming at you!) we had a few delicious Scottish beer pit stops.

And so how do the Scots drive?  I hardly saw anyone driving while talking on their cell phones and on their motorways, ditto for their city and country roads, they DON’T drive up to your rear bumper, as they do in Italy (it drives me NUTS when they do that), suggesting that you either speed up or get the hell out of their way.  No, they keep to a certain distance and they patiently wait for you to move out of the way.  Admittedly, Italy’s highways though are perhaps better because we have to go through tollbooths and those costs go towards, hopefully, the upkeep of our highways (I didn’t per se see any tollbooths while driving around Scotland).

 

At this point of our grand tour of Scotland as we were going to make our way to Perth (no, not the one in Australia) we kept on coming across truly wonderful Scots, always ready to give you a hand with information, including their local police officers who resolved a parking conundrum for me in Perth.  I guess that when I’m travelling around Great Britain (we had been to Scotland about 30 years ago) many take me for an American.  With a touch of pride I tell them that I was actually born in Canada and I seem to get even MORE respect, not only because it’s a Commonwealth country but many Scots emigrated to that other great country (on the outskirts of Winnipeg lies the town of Selkirk, named presumably in honor of a Scotsman by the name of Lord Selkirk, the founder of three colonies in Canada which had hosted Scottish farmers who had lost their lands back home).   

 

Perth: a nice town but after 5 pm, do I dare say, a wee bit depressing because all the town’s shops close for the day.  It appeared to resemble a ghost town.  This was because, as the locals explained to us, of online shopping that was slowly killing the traditional stores. The town which is on the river Tay has its interesting points, like its splendid park (where we also played chess on one of their many picnic tables) and their free “Perth Museum and Art Gallery” which is also home to the historic “Stone Of Destiny”.  It’s basically an ancient symbol of Scottish monarchy and kingdom and is 1,000 years old.  This iconic artifact is still used today to crown king and queens of the United Kingdom, including the coronation of King Charles in May, 2023 (his thrown was actually sitting on top of the Stone).

 

With that said, we took advantage one day of driving for about 6-7 hours around the area to visit a few more castles/sites, such as Drummond, Elcho and the very large and impressive Scone Palace where some live owls, peacocks and falcons were on display.  Again, the folks running these places were simply exceptionally helpful and warm, things that one won’t easily forget!

 

Thursday, August 21^st brought us back to wonderful Edinburgh (and it was still hot!).  We managed to hand in our rented car on time and had covered in nearly 7 days 468 miles, or 753 kms, and without a single scratch on the car either.  Trust me, it’s NOT an easy thing to do when you come from a country where they drive on the OTHER side of the road!

 

Our hotel, for just one evening as we would be heading back to Rome on August 22^nd, was made for either midgets or pigmies (and no offence to both groups): the tv screen was pretty large and was placed on the wall directly in front of the bed, which was like a few cms from the bed itself.  If you were somewhat overweight, or a Sumo wrestler, there was NO way you’d be able to get by to get into your side of the bed.   Also, the toilet bowl/can was THE lowest I’ve seen so far in any hotel, again, made for midgets or pigmies?  

 

But the best was yet to come as we made our way once again to the Murrayfield stadium, this time for AC/DC’s very last concert of their European tour!  I think Bon was again at work from high above in the rock and roll heaven as the city center was awash with folks, and quite a lot of over 50s and 60s, who were proudly wearing their t-shirts and were heading to the show.  Again, thanks to a very nice Scottish lassie in our hotel we found out that for 105 pounds (each) there were still tickets available.   I was very tempted but Dani didn’t feel like going and I didn’t want to leave her by herself roaming around Edinburgh.   And no doubt we would have had again problems, as we did this year in Amsterdam with the Van Gogh museum, trying to get those bloody tickets using our cell phone (we’re both rather hopeless when it comes to those online things)!

But, as Sir Mick says, “You can’t always get what you want”, so we again opted to sit on the stairs, as we did with the Oasis concert, and to hear a few tunes, starting with my 2^nd all-time favorite song in the world (after “Hey Jude”), “Highway To Hell”!   We also caught “Thunderstruck”, “Shoot To Thrill and about seven-eight other songs.   We would have wanted to stay until the end to also take in the fireworks display but we had the following morning a 9 am flight (some jerk came into his hotel room at like 3 am and made noise…and we had the alarm set for 5:20 am as the tram ride was 45 minutes to the airport, so we barely slept) and there would have been a MAD rush to the tram to take folks to the city center…and beyond.

 

Even though I wasn’t inside the stadium (a fellow who lived 10 minutes away had been inside the stadium looking for his brother and told us that the acoustics were BETTER sitting outside of the stadium) I was after all happy that I got to say hi to Bon in Kirriemuir and that I was surrounded by the band’s thousands of adoring fans.  One lady, who was well over 60, got on the tram while being pushed on a wheelchair (and wearing their t-shirt) whereas another woman who ended up on YouTube had had shortly before the show a stroke…and there she was ready to enter the stadium proudly donning her AC/DC t-shirt.  Talk about indestructible AC/DC fans!

 

After this great trip to Bonnie Old Scotland we can hardly wait to go back to visit the rest of the country one day, including Loch Ness (but I doubt that Nessie will be there to greet us), Inverness and some of the 700 islands and 30,000 lakes that grace that truly wonderful country (all pics taken with the Canon PowerShot AX60 HS and the Nikon Coolpix P50).