Fountains Abbey, Hadrian’s Wall, and Edinburgh!!!

On our way to Edinburgh we made some pretty neat stops! We headed to Fountains Abbey; monks who were kicked out of the region around Tintern Abbey started this abbey up North. They had a few different ideals and viewpoints; of course it was destroyed during Henry VIII’s reign, yet the ruins are still standing. This abbey is about 3x as big as Tintern! And it’s LOVELY!

Just a section of Fountains Abbey! It's huge! And gorgeous!

We then headed to Hadrian’s Wall at Housesteads Fort. This is a preserved Roman fort next to Hadrian’s Wall (the Roman barrier separating Scotland and England). It was so gorgeous!

Standing in England, over the wall is Scotland! Cool huh!

Scotland’s landscape was different than I pictured. True, there are rolling green hills, but there is also a fair amount of trees, an evergreen forest even. I loved being right on the border of Scotland and England and getting the chance to be in “two places at once”! I was really excited to be in Scotland because the Burnett surname originates from Scotland! While walking around the town I saw street names with my last name, and saw a lot of my family crest around the shops. It was neat J It was fun to see where my family perhaps lived, and to walk the streets that they might have walked themselves.

Finally arrived!!!

I'm in two places at once!

We arrived in Edinburgh in time for dinner and to walk around the city, and oriented ourselves.

Edinburgh got ready for the Olympics as well!

So this is a crappy picture... but everyone was in line and it's the only one I could get in front of The Elephant House! This is where J.K. Rowling started writing Harry Potter on a napkin! (It's sad that I include a HP reference in almost every blog post....but I'm obsessed.)

Cheers! I love Scotland!