Liverpool is about 20 miles from me I'm sad you didn't make it to Snowdonia, I'm in that direction and it's absolutely epic countryside - although Scotland's not short of that either as I'm sure you'll have seen. I have family in Edinburgh, great city.

Liverpool Summary

Liverpool was initially meant to be a bit like Bristol for us, with a couple of day trips. As mentioned, once we saw our location, what there was to do, and had the tour bus pass, we changed up that plan, and I think it was a good change for us.

Things we did:

Beatles & City Tours - We had no intention of doing this, but decided not to turn down our host's offer of free tickets, and were very glad we did it. I think the normal price is 16 Euros, which is probably worth it if you're a Beatles fan - gets you access to the two tours for 48 hours. However, the city tour isn't really guided - just has pre-recorded information, whereas the Beatles Tour has a good host.
Liverpool Cathedral - Quite the sight, and it's free!
The Phil - See above.
Mathew Street (Cavern Club) - Worth seeing if you're a Beatles fan; only cost is the small cover to go into the club.
Liverpool Waterfront - Plenty to see, and once again the price is right.

Things I'd do again:

I feel we did pretty well covering the things we saw, and if (when!) we come back I don't know if I'll feel inclined to do any of them again. Not that they weren't enjoyable, but I'd want to spend most of my time doing new things.

Things I know we missed:

Snowdonia & North Wales - Originally on the schedule; definitely on the list for a return visit.
The Beatles Story - Had every intention of hitting this museum, but ran out of time.
World Museum - Literally right outside our front window, yet we never made it.
Liverpool War Museum
Museum of Liverpool
Magical Mystery Tour - I've heard this one was good as well, so rather than do the same one again, I'd consider doing this if we return.

Getting around:

Lots of buses around, but we never needed them. Found that we could walk to pretty much everything we wanted to see, and the bus tours also helped.

Our accommodations:

Great location - I think this was critical to our enjoyment of the city. When most things you plan to see are within walking distance of one another, getting inside that range makes things so much easier. Even better than using a great transit system is not needing one at all. The downside was that it was a little noisy being in the thick of things, but really not that bad.

The food:

Some mid-sized grocery stores nearby as well as a few dining options, which became more and more numerous as we headed towards the waterfront.

Big hits or misses:

The location was a big hit, and I'd say the Beatles Tour was as well. Nothing I'd really classify as a miss on this stop.

Me too! However, being where we are, we see a lot of beautiful (and in some cases similar) scenery, so I don't feel I've missed out as much as a lifetime city-dweller might. But it's definitely on my list of things to see in the future.

Sigh. Nothing like starting a post and then coming back to it later and finishing, then getting an error because I've since logged in again, or some such nonsense. Extra annoying because I had actually just thought to highlight everything and hit Ctrl-C as it was processing my preview request, but I guess I hit the button a split-second too late.

Advanced posting tip (that I knew but forgot to do until too late): If you ever start on a post and then come back to it a day or two later, always copy it in case you get a time out, token error, or some other nasty thing.

I'll be back at it later today.

Bump! Did you end up visiting Andorra?

Sigh! I was enjoying reading this thread - didn't notice the bump until the end- then it suddenly stopped.

I was looking forward to Edinburgh and York as two cities I know well. I can appreciate it must have been time consuming to create though.

What kind of an ******* does this - twice? Two abandoned Travel forum threads; sorry everyone.

You know, I really would still like to finish this. I won't promise to do it as that never works out, but I will try my best to do so over the next several weeks. Would be nice to stroll back down memory lane now and dream of when we can start doing this kind of thing again (2022?).

And yes, we did get to Andorra.

FMP.

All right, before I disappeared, I had left us on the way from Liverpool to Edinburgh, in a rented van. I have all of one picture from the transit day:



The next day (Day 14 of the trip), we walked over to Edinburgh Castle - about a 30 minute walk from our AirBnb.

Not all that impressive looking from the South side:



Bit of a hike up; this is a sign in the wall of the roadway:



The road leads to a plaza, and from there we see the castle entrance:



Being an ignorant North American, when I hear "castle" my imagination was sort of limited to a single large building. Or maybe a tight formation with a neat courtyard in the middle. Not the case at all here.







The Royal Palace - it seems I only got a shot from the side. In addition to the former royal apartments, you'll also find the Crown Room here (the date on the building signifies when this was added), which houses the Honours of Scotland - the crown, the sceptre, the sword of state, and the Stone of Scone.



When we went, there was a line up out the building to see the Crown Room, which then snakes through some displays like this once you're inside.



Alas, they don't allow any photographs in the Crown Room, so I had to steal someone else's picture of what's inside:



The Great Hall (people, people everywhere):





Very nice views of Edinburgh and the Firth of Forth from up there:









After leaving the castle, my wife and I ditched the family to go see some of the city and celebrate our 24th anniversary.

The Royal Mile leads from Edinburgh Castle to the Palace of Holyrood House, and leads right through the Old Town. We walked a little bit of it this day, and came back to it later in our stay.



St. Giles' Cathedral



Lots of these cool passageways (courts or closes) between/through/under buildings on the Royal Mile.



"Old Town" is separated from "New Town" by a bit of a...I'm not sure if ravine is an apt description, but that's what I'll go with. Parks and gardens in the ravine/valley, as well as the Waverley train station.

Looks like the Scots were practicing their social distancing a couple of years early. (Walter) Scott Monument on the left.



Scott Momument close up:



Old Town as seen from Princes Street at the edge of New Town:



And some more of Old Town, with the Royal Scottish Academy and the Scottish National Gallery in the foreground on the right. Very pretty area.



Definitely Edinburgh Castle's better side.

Day 15 had us out driving to see some castles. We started with Blackness Castle, built in the 1440s by Sir George Crichton. While there's not as much to see as somewhere like Edinburgh Castle, the nice thing is you can see pretty much explore to your heart's content - you're more limited at Edinburgh or Stirling Castles. And Blackness was so much less crowded!











Next stop was Linlithgow Palace - birthplace of Mary, Queen of Scots, and home of other royalty in the 15th and 16th centuries. Also fairly open to explore as one sees fit. Although most of the stone/brick is intact, this is classified as a ruin since a fire in 1746 destroyed all but two pieces of wood.













On the way to Stirling, we stopped to see a small sculpture. The Kelpies are steel, 30 metres tall, and apparently 300 tonnes each.





Last stop - Stirling Castle. It dates back to at least the early 12th century, but most of the buildings there now are from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

Some of the natives were getting restless at this point; apparently a 4th castle in two days may have been a bit much.





















You can see the National Wallace Monument from Stirling. While I'm aware that Braveheart isn't a documentary, he still intrigues me enough that I would have checked it out - had it not been closed. Ah, well - next time!

Thanks for the update - it's appreciated.
Scottish castles aren't the fairy tale type of central Europe, they're more built for purpose.
Looks like you were blessed with the weather as well.

Thanks for the update - it's appreciated.
Scottish castles aren't the fairy tale type of central Europe, they're more built for purpose.
Looks like you were blessed with the weather as well.

A very impressive batch of pictures!