I've tried to travel to Scotland 3 times in my life, but apparently it had to be attempted a 4th time to actually go through. For the first time in quite a long time I was able to enjoy a holiday that wasn't filled with either being an artist or working after all. With that I could celebrate the birthdays of my husband and I while visiting the past of a country that has been on my list for a looooong time.


With earlier attempts of me trying to travel to Scotland alone, something always happened. One journey I had to cancel because of really bad weather and two others had to be cancelled due to holiday time being cancelled by a workplace in very sudden need of me being present. So I had actually kind of given up on me ever traveling to Scotland in this lifetime to be honest, it was too much connected to having to cancel.

This year however, I felt that we could allow ourselves for a bit of a journey. Fredrik and I haven't had a holiday ever since we got together and I do not count traveling to the Netherlands as a holiday perse as it often involves logistics - no sightseeing or hotel breakfasts. So my last holiday was in 2018 to Santorini and that wasn't particularly with a good aftertaste. Ever since opening Siren in 2025 I have been working more than ever, but also allowed myself to enjoy my work more than ever. 2026 was due for a bit of a pat on the back and thus I ordered tickets to Scotland regardless of what was going to happen. Did I slightly ignore the economic times? Absolutely. Did I take this into consideration when I ordered tickets and a hotel? Absolutely not.

And thus we visited Edinburgh, Dunfermline, Perth and Stirling in the course of 5 days. I am, despite the huge inaccuracies, forever a weakling for Braveheart, so I wanted to visit at least Stirling - and boy will we go back there! Edinburgh was - a capital - and there was also a rugby match going on between Scotland and France so the city was flooded. We visited Edinburgh Castle, witnessed the one o'clock shot (which made me realise I'm very glad we don't experience cannon shots anymore than a display for the tourists), Calton Hill and basically wandered a bit about. Some nifty witchy shops that inspired me immensely to up my game in my own salon.


We visited Dunfermline Abbey, where Robert de Bruce is buried, visited the ruins beside and wandered further into Pittencrieff Park right before we had a wonderful lunch at Dhoom (a fantastic Indian street food restaurant. Absolute recommendation both in service and food-wise). Pittencrieff Park is really cool, there's a well, almost hidden if you do not wander down to that side. Old bridges covered in moss and ferns, gnarling and curling trees, branches, vines of which so many covered in ivy. Compared to Edinburgh, Dunfermline was very quiet. It is maybe 20/30 minutes by train from Edinburgh Waverly station. Having our hotel there as well, was actually a really good thing. Both Fredrik and I got very overwhelmed in the city - we're just not used to that anymore and we're getting old :-P. We're closer towards 40 more than ever - which is a weird realisation, yet it is what it is.

Perth had the Balhousie Black Watch Castle Museum - which is exactly what it is - a museum in a castle about the Black Watch - the Royal Regiment of Scotland. It was created in 1881 and known as the Black Watch / Royal Highlanders to 1931. It was further known as the Royal Highland Regiment from 1931 to 2006. The origins of the regiment's name is uncertain. In 1725, following the Jacobite rebellion of 1715, there was a wish to form 6 "watch" companies to patrol the Highlands of Scotland. The Clans Campbell, Fraser, Lovat, Munro and Grant were all part of this. The watches were to be "employed in disarming the Highlanders, preventing depredations, bringing criminals to justice and hindering rebels and attainted persons from inhabiting that part of the kingdom. The force was known in gaelic as Am Freiceadan Dubh, "the dark" or "black watch".

The history was absolutely fascinating and also once again a reminder that warfare has been around forever, locally as well as globally. Seeing and even hearing the accounts as we wandered through the museum made a huge impression. The regiments were all over the world, in South Africa during the Second Boer War in 1899 all the way up to today where they're still an active part of the Army Troops.

There was a kilt, still with mud from Somme, from one of the men who fell in battle and so many more displays of loss, hurt and damage throughout all those years of people fighting for the people in power who will never be on the battlefield themselves. Children even, as young as 8, signed up to be part of whatever they thought they'd be part of. So much has changed cognitively for us as humans and yet we still have wars, we still fight and it almost seems impossible for humans to co-exist without this imminent urge to divide and conquer.

We traveled to Stirling after Perth and spend the remainder of our day there.



In Stirling we visited Stirling Castle and although we wanted to visit the Wallace Monument as well, 246 stairs to climb didn't feel very tempting by the time we arrived at the train station. The Castle was fantastic though and with the battle at Stirling Bridge and the continuous struggles, upgrades and changes in history throughout the year - yet not the same amount of people as there was in Edinburgh - we could actually enjoy the castle at our own pace and without too many visitors present.

We really would like to go back to Stirling one day, climb the monument and head further into the Highlands. I had this spontaneous hunch of taking the train from Perth to Inverness instead, but realised that this would require a bit more planning. So we'll travel there next time!

Coming back and reflecting a bit back on the journey I noticed a couple of things: I really love where I live. When I was younger I wanted to be out and about and away the whole time. When living in the Netherlands I could never really "land" and would always feel incredibly restless. When I moved to Norway in 2017 there were more than enough reasons for me to think that maybe Norway wasn't really the place for me either ( despite having had the hunch to move here since I was 10/11), but when I traveled here for the first time in 2012 something clicked and I knew I had to return. I had to dig deeper and find what it was that called me here.

I also get way more fritzed than I used to when visiting the city. Despite growing up right beneath Amsterdam, going to school and going out there - I find it too much these days. Is this what it is when growing older? Hehe.
I prefer parks, woods, forests, ruins and places of silence and contemplation - BUT! I do LOVE me some places that serve good food. It can be loud, noisy and I probably would like to return either home or to the hotel pretty soon after - but when the food is good? YES!
Scotland also made me realise that I became much more careful after becoming a mama the second time. I was very young with my first, but with my second everything fell into place and life kind of started anew. Traveling alone the way I did before absolutely meant I was careful ofcourse, but having to watch over your youngins makes it so that I'm on an even higher alert. After traveling all day I was physically and emotionally TIRED. Coming home also meant I could lower my shoulders a little bit and realise that despite being very aware of everyone and everything - I really did enjoy traveling and we should all have the possibility to do so. Yes, despite the economy.

Fredrik and I will definitely return back to Scotland to visit higher up, maybe even the Isles of Man, Skye and maybe even Orkney (where some of my family lines go back to!). But for now it's good to be home and land a little bit.

Good morning from misty Norway!

Lene
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