10 Days United Kingdom Itinerary: London, Scotland, Manchester (Part 3)
Part 3 of my travelogue in UK. If you haven't read Part 1 & 2, click on the below links to read up first!
Day 6 - Scotland (31 January)
Today, we went on another tour called "Stirling Castle and Whisky Small Group Day Tour" with Viator (S$66/pax) to see the castle and of course to have some whiskey at Glengoyne distillery. It was a scenic drive along the way but I think the tour we did the other day was better. It took us 1hour to get from Edinburgh to Stirling castle. The pickup location is quite centralized at a busstop down town, not difficult to find.
Fun fact: Locals pronounce Edinburgh as "edin-bvr-rah"
To note that that the entry ticket to Stirling Castle is paid separately, not included in the tour price. We paid £91.30 for 7 pax which works out to be S$13/pax. Once inside the castle, it was a free & easy tour around the place. Our guide/bus driver didn't follow us in, he dropped us outside and gave us the time to gather back again. We thought we were going to be lost sheep inside, but thankfully there was a tour guide from the Castle itself who gave us the tour.
& yes, it started raining when we were halfway through the tour.... gloomy UK indeed...
We were given about 1-2 hours at the castle which was plenty. After which, our driver drove us to our lunch location at a small town nearby. We were given 1- 1.5hrs to have lunch and explore the little town. He even told us a little spot up the hill which we could walk up (about 15min) to see hairy coos. My dad was really excited to see hairy coos and without hesitation, our family was walking up the hill at once.
Lo and behold, we spotted hairy coos grazing at the grasslands on top of the hills....
Had lunch at The Forth Inn, small humble cosy looking pub inn. We ordered cajun burger, risottos, haggis burger (my dad's fav food now), ribs, pork loin and 2 flights of beer for £82. Quite worth it considering it fed 7 pax very well! I'm actually loving haggis, it ain't that bad honestly!
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| Risotto. Super duper nice!!! |
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| Cajun Chicken Burger |
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| Haggis Burger |
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| my beer flights!!!! |
I must say the food portion in UK is quite generous. For my mum and i, we could order 1 person share and still be super full even though we shared the meal. So so so satisfied with the food there. If you're a fan of chinese food, i must say your options are pretty limited there.... I didn't come across ANY chinese food at all, except within Chinatown at London....
Next stop: Glengoyne Distillery!
Everyone was having food coma on the coach so we didn't really look out to see the scenery. hahaha! I bet the driver felt the same too, he was awfully quiet during the trip too. When we finally arrived, i was the first to get excited. We paid £60 entry ticket with a tour plus a drink (£10 x 2 pax for 2 drinks, £8 x 5 pax for 1 drink), except for my bro and i , we topped up extra to taste another whiskey. hehe.
I must say the guide was very knowledgeable on his whiskey. This distillery is the most popular choice among other whiskey distilleries as it was the easiest to access, not too far away. Hence there were more participants as compared to other distillery. After the tour and tasting ended, we shopped around the bottle shop and bought some bottles back as gifts/own consumption. The prices were super affordable! Plus, you can't even find some of these whiskey off the shelves in Singapore. Buy more! But do take note of the limit of alcohol that you can bring back in to Sg, meaning no more bottles for you at DFS.
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| Smaller vol. whiskey bottles |
I bought 2 bottles of 15 year , 1 bottle of 18 years, and a 9pcs whiskey stone set, cost me £62 in total. I didn't buy the full size bottle as they were too heavy, i got the slightly smaller bottle instead (as pictured above). So excited to drink my whiskey!
Anyway, once we were done with our purchase (we were the last to return back to the bus), we headed back to Edinburgh city. End of trip! Overall i would say it's a very relaxed trip, i think if you're renting a car by yourself, you could even drive on your own up to Stirling Castle and Glengoyne Distillery.
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| The route in RED was what we took on this tour. |
Journey from Glengoyne Distillery back to Edinburgh took 1.5hrs, of which im sure i slept throughout. Had our dinner at Greene King Restaurant Pub, costing us £52 for a Lamb shank Shepherd pie, bangers mash, gammon steak , fish n chips and 2 pale ales. I find that pub food are always super awesome in UK, so we constantly look out for nice cosy pubs to hide inside for dinner.
It was an early day for us as we were leaving Edinburgh today to head down to Manchester. We visited the Edinburgh Castle in the morning, ticket price cost us £115.50 for 7 adults (S$30/pax). Honestly, i can't remember much about castles or history, and almost every castle we've visited in London/Edinburgh looks kindaaaa similar to one another? Okay maybe there are distinctive differences but not too many either....
After Edinburgh castle, we rushed over to Oink for our pulled pork burger. We actually went there the day before, but it was sold out!!!!! It is reviewed as the best place in Edinburgh with pulled pork burger, so we had to try it no matter what. It's located at 34 Victoria St, Edinburgh EH1 2JW, UK , so get there early before it's all gone!!
We ordered 3 grunters and 4 oink burgers for the 7 of us, and it cost £35 (S$62). I had the oink burger and it was super filling.. Bear in mind, their portions are quite big.
Tummy checked, luggage checked, we headed to the train station to catch our train to Manchester. My bro is a huge fan of Manchester United, so we planned our journey to Manchester to coincide with an actual match day. We pre-booked all our train rides before coming to London, and some trains had transit while some is a direct train to our destination. You can choose your seats as well, if you prefer front/back facing, or if you like a power socket beside your seat etc.
The journey was quite long, and we had to change trains 3 times. Edinburgh Station - Preston, Preston - Deansgate, Deansgate - Manchester Piccadilly. We left at 1250pm and only arrived at 420pm. Even though our train wasn't first class cabin, it was comfortable. We did take a first class train cabin on our journey back to London. LOL. So anyway, upon reaching Manchester, we quickly checked in to hotel apartment, Le Reserve Aparthotel. This hotel apartment was right beside the Manchester Piccadilly train station, and it was more convenient for us 7 people as we had to drag our luggage along. After settling in to our rooms, we called an Uber to bring us over to Old Trafford!!!
Upon passing through the security check, we headed straight to the merchandise store. The security's quite strict, forbidding the use of selfie sticks, or any long object, perhaps fearing agitated soccer fans hurling it and hurting others. I did bring my gopro, together with the gopro stick. But before going through the bag check, i unscrewed the gopro separate from the stick, and i hid the stick at the bottom of my bag. i guess if they don't see you using it, they are fine with it.
Old Trafford was filled with people, everyone cheering for different teams. Our match that day was Manchester United vs Hull City. Along the way (before entering Old Trafford), you will see many people peddling goods relating to that match of the evening. There were scarves, jersey, random merchandise. My bro got a scarf from them to keep as a token of memoir. It had the match date, and teams written on it, so i guess it's something unique that we will always remember? The official merchandise shop doesn't sell that.
My advice is to go straight and buy your merchandise from the official store before entering the stadium. I bought a MU t-shirt, which cost me £18 (S$32).. It wasn't even the jersey, just a normal MU t-shirt. Can't believe how expensive the jersey cost.... T__T Once the game ends, everyone will rush out and the shop will be even more crowded. We bought some stuff inside and headed into the stadium. So, in order to watch a match there, you have to be a "Manchester fan". By that, i mean you have to register for the fanclub membership. Only after being a member, then you're allowed to purchase tickets for any match. you'll receive a membership card like below, and the match ticket on paper. On match day itself, you have to present the membership card and the ticket to scan through the automated gantry. I can't remember how much it cost exactly, but it's somewhere between S$50 - S$100. We sat at the top, one of the cheaper tickets, but the view was not too bad. It didn't seem too far away, and i could still see the player's names on their jersey (i have bad eyesight, especially at night)...
I'm not a big soccer fan, never watched soccer in my life, and this is definitely my FIRST ever live soccer watching event. Even though i don't enjoy watching soccer, i find it quite interesting and entertaining while watching it in action. The reaction from the crowd is unbelieveable! They're constantly standing up, cheering at every goal/near goal/good pass, and everyone was singing some songs or cheers for the club. Even my bro chanted along too....
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| yes, my bro and i look very alike! |
The game ended with a draw, and honestly i did enjoy watching the match. I don't think i'll ever enjoy it as much watching on tv. But the live atmosphere is completely different! For girls who don't like soccer but your other half loves it, try watching it live at the match itself, you'll feel different. :)
Stay tuned for Part 4!
xoxo,
Chye
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