Wednesday 14 January 2015

The Hairy Coo "Free" Tour || Scotland | Travel Diary


On our first full day in Edinburgh, we took a tour with The Hairy Coo Tour company. This was a "free" tour, in that we put our own value on our experience and pay at the end accordingly. Allowing anyone on any budget to get a great experience.

At 8:45am the sun was just rising and we jumped onto the bright orange mini bus, designed to look like a Highlands hairy coo (a.k.a cow said with a Scottish accent). Our tour guide and driver was Donal, the founder of the company and a proud Scotsman.

Our first destination was the Firth of Forth bridges, all three of them. Quite a confusing tile for a newbie to the region, but to clarify: there are three bridges over the estuary or "firth" of Scotland's River Forth. To add another alliteration to the mix, they all cross from Edinburgh to Fife.
Each bridge was built in a different century and in a very different style, this was to accommodate for the previous bridges "short comings".

So you have the Firth of Forth bridges leading to Fife. Phew...I reckon they might as well add another bridge into the mix just to make it more difficult.

The two bridges from the 19th and 20th century are easily visible in the picture below, and if you look closely over on the far left side you can see the 21st century bridge starting to take shape.

Firth of Forth Bridge, Edinburgh, Scotland, Forth river, Firth of Forth, Three centuries of bridges, Hairy Coo Tour

Wednesday 7 January 2015

Edinburgh Hogmanay Torchlight Procession || Scotland | Travel Diary

As part of the annual opening celebrations to Edinburgh's Hogmanay festival, there is a Torchlight procession on the 30th December. We decided to be a part of the tradition, and carry a torch ourselves, along with 8,000 other participants!

Hogmanay, Torchlight Procession, Edinburgh, Scotland, Things to do, Must do, Travel New Years