Scotland and Our Outlander Adventure

This past June my husband and I took a 3 week vacation to Scotland.  While Scotland has always been a place I have longed to travel we never made it to the United Kingdom in our 4 years in Germany.  I, like so many others, fell in love with the idea of a Scottish vacation after reading the ever popular Outlander series written by Diana Gabaldon. I watched seasons 1 and 2 of the Outlander series on Starz and I was finally able to convince my husband to watch with when I began them again ahead of the season 3 release.  We binge watched and all the amazing scenery convinced him that maybe we should bump Scotland up on our list.

We originally looked at a 3 week vacation to England, Wales and Scotland but eventually the England and Wales portions were dropped for now.  We'll get there eventually since my maternal ancestors can be traced to Wales and I'm interested in visiting there.  However, Scotland was truly where I most wanted to visit and my husband was easily able to fill 3 weeks there.

We flew from Cincinnati to Philadelphia and then had a long delay there due to weather which pushed our arrival into Glasgow back about 3 hours.  Sitting on the tarmac was absolutely horrible especially when we had an international flight ahead of us but at least they kept the air on so we weren't suffering too much, we were just uncomfortable with the cramped space of the airplane.

The Famous Duke of Wellington statue with 2 cones that morning instead of the standard 1  

We arrived in Glasgow around 9, went easily through customs and took a shuttle bus to the George Square area.  We stayed at the Ibis Styles Centre George Square Hotel located there and they were kind enough to store our luggage for us until our room was ready in the afternoon.  George Square is a great place to stay with easy access to public transportation, restaurants, shopping and hotels.  We chose to tour the city using the City Sightseeing Glasgow Hop On/Hop Off (HOHO) bus.  This made getting around the city and seeing highlights easy since we only stayed in Glasgow for 1 night.  There are guides who point out things around the city and talk about the rich history.  These guys were entertaining and we learned quite a bit.  I totally recommend them, especially if you are limited on time.

The cloisters on the campus of the University of Glasgow

Our first stop was at the University of Glasgow to see the cloisters which stood in for Harvard in season 3 of Outlander.  Claire and Brianna are seen walking through here.  The campus is lovely and the cloisters are beautiful.  It was a quick visit but worth it if you're a fan of the show.

A few months before we departed the US my husband purchased annual passes to Historic Scotland and National Trust for Scotland  so we visited the Tenement House which is a charming look into a perfectly preserved apartment from 1929!  If we hadn't had passes and time to kill we most likely wouldn't have visited but the staff was very friendly and it was a quick, self guided tour.  We didn't take photos and at this point I cannot recall why so I'm going to assume it wasn't allowed.

Finally, and I say finally because jet lag was killing me and despite my excitement to be there I was exhausted, we went to the Glasgow Cathedral.  I love visiting these grand places so much and this one was not disappointing.   The interior of the cathedral stood in for L'hopital scenes in season 2.  Most notably, the scenes where Claire recovers after losing her baby.  The cathedral was free to visit but does accept donations and has a small gift shop as well.

I loved the interior of the cathedral

This is the location of Claire's bed during the "Faith" episode in season 2

After this we caught the HOHO back to the George Square area and checked in to the hotel to shower and take a nap before dinner.  We ate next at a pizza place next to the hotel and I cannot recall the name but it was a delicious way to end our day.  We happily went to bed early so we could be up to catch an early train to Edinburgh.