We made it to Scotland! Our holiday home this time (also an Airbnb find) is in Perth. It’s a bit of an older house that has been updated, and the rooms are lovely. I would have liked to stay a bit closer to Edinburgh, since we want to be there tomorrow, but we couldn’t find a house there that gave us each a bathroom. It was a lot of work finding houses with 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, but it was important to us!

Fun fact: Three years ago when we went to Scotland, my goal was to spend around $50 per night per person. This time it ended up being exactly that again. I guess inflation wasn’t too bad here, or else I just found some rare gems.

What we call counties in the U.S. are referred to as shires in England. We’ve been through Yorkshire, Lancashire, Gloucestershire, and several others. Yesterday one of my childhood dreams came true when we drove through Worcestershire. Ever since I knew that Worcestershire sauce was named after a place in England, I dreamt of what it might look like and how fun it would be to see it for myself.

We only stayed in Birmingham one night since Dad was running a half-marathon and Lanita a 10k in the countryside nearby. The run ended up being an hour away so we got up and headed out early. Once we got there, we didn’t have service, so the remaining four of us had quite the time figuring out what to do. The roads were narrow and full of bends so carsickness was setting in, but we finally got to to a little town in Derbyshire and find some hot drinks. We sat at a cafe and then did a little shopping. I found the eggs in one of the aisles of the co-op for 30 pence each.

It always intrigues me how the UK does far better than the U.S. about regulating ingredients in food, but then doesn’t worry about things like wearing gloves to handle food or refrigerating eggs.

When we got back to Carsington Water, Lanita had already finished her race, and we waited around an hour for Dad to come in. It was fun to watch people there. There were some little girls with homemade signs cheering for their mom which made my day. When Dad came in, the announcer made a big deal about him coming all the way from Ohio to run, and he got lots of cheers. Someone interviewed him for their YouTube channel. I thought it was a fun experience.

Around 12:30 we reluctantly got in the van for our 5.5 hour drive north. Andy is still being our faithful driver. He’s getting used to it I think, and doing pretty good although today he scraped a few curbs. We enjoyed some gorgeous scenery in Peak District National Park on our way out. Unfortunately we were just driving through so I couldn’t take pictures. I tried to memorize the view so I can enjoy it later, but I guess the rest of you will just have to come see for yourselves.

We stopped for a late lunch at Juniper Farm. It was the first time I ever heard of or experienced a carvery but it was such a fun concept. They had a standard menu you could order from as well, but for £10 or so, you could get a Carvery. You would go to the counter and choose your meats, which the carver would carve for you on the spot. They had turkey, beef, and gammon (ham). He would also pop a Yorkshire pudding on for you, then you’d go down the line and add everything else you wanted. There was a whole row of roasted vegetables in the most darling cast iron pots. Parsnips, potatoes, cabbage, carrots, peas, and broccoli were some of the options. After that, there were several gravies you could ladle on top. At the very end there were sauces you could add for dipping as well. Some of those were English mustard (very sharp), mint sauce, and cranberry sauce.

The rest of the drive we passed the time by listening to some of James Herriot’s All Creatures Great and Small.

We made it to Perth around 7:30 this evening. We are tired of driving, and the parents kept talking about how much they liked taking the train last time we took them to Europe. Thus we decided that tomorrow we will take a train to Edinburgh instead of driving. We plan to attend a Sunday service there and spend the day walking around the old parts of the city. We should get our first glimpse of the sea as well.

Love and goodnight!

x Ella