After checking in to the top floor room of our beautiful hotel (also a great workout to take the stairs!), we spent the afternoon and evening walking around the west end of the city. We walked through the gorgeous Kelvingrove Park near our hotel then through Glasgow University campus. The main building bears a striking resemblance to Hogwarts! We even walked to Ashton Lane, a cute little cobblestone street with nice restaurants for a quick drink and a snack. We finished our afternoon stroll at Oran Mór, a beautiful old church that has been converted to a funky pub. Jo and I took a little nap (one of the little gems with travelling!) before heading out for dinner. After a few attempts, we ended up at a fun spot for dinner. The Scottish accent with some people is wicked strong, and in a loud restaurant it can make for a challenge, but it's also super fun to listen to! Also, we noticed that there seemed to be more men than women... Maybe it was a bar in Glasgow thing!
For our last day on Saturday, we had our tour of Outlander filming locations. The weather was absolutely perfect for our last day in Scotland, with a gorgeous bright sun shining all day. We spent the day visiting Doune Castle, site of Castle Leoch (and Winterfell from Game of thrones), which was narrated for the historical part by Terry Jones, who starred in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. There were a few parts that were narrated by Sam Heughan who plays Jamie Fraser. He talked about the scenes filmed at the castle and some of the behind the scenes stuff, which was super cool. We then made our way to Blackness Castle, the site of Fort William. It was pretty cool but also creepy to walk through the courtyard where Jamie was flogged in Season 1. The castle itself is a fortress built in the 15th century which looks like a ship. We had amazing views over the Firth of Forth Bay. From there we visited Medhope Castle, used did Lallybroch. We weren't able to go inside but it was easy to imagine the scenes that were filmed there. From there we visited Culross, an amazingly cute village that was the setting for Crainesmuir. We had lunch at a super cute pub then saw the house that was used for Geillis Duncan's house along with the Mercat Cross, where a boy's ear was pinned to the pillory. We finished our day in Falkland, which was the set for Inverness at the beginning of the series. The driver of the tour bus did an amazing job of mixing in Outlander info (while playing music from the series) and Scottish history for a full appreciation of the country.
We walked to our hotel from George Square for a quick dinner before going back to pack and get ready for our flights home. Finishing the trip in Scotland with Jo was an amazing way to end it. We had such a wonderful trip visiting different parts of the world and reconnecting with familiar faces! We are so grateful to our generous hosts in Spain and Germany, and for our friends and colleagues for making this trip possible!
Some photos of our last days:
In front of Lallybroch (Medhope Castle):
Fort William (Blackness Castle):
Cranesmuir (Culross):
Inverness (Falkland)-Jo recreating the scene where a man who looks like Jamie looks through the window at Claire):
We even saw Catriona Balfe in the cafe!! (Jo found a mask):
View from inside "Mrs. Baird's" guesthouse
Glasgow University (which definitely looks like Hogwarts!):
The view from one of the windows in Doune castle:
Outside Doune Castle:
(in case you're wondering, I rewatched Season 1 episode 2 on the plane back and it was awesome to watch the scenes that were shot at the locations that we visited yesterday!)