Life With The Carneys

The Fun & Exciting Things We’ve Been Up To!

Happy Friday, friends! What fun plans do you have for the weekend?!

If you’re new to Life With the Carneys, click HERE to read the first one before you get started! If you’ve already been wonderful enough to follow along with the Life with the Carneys series fun, welcome back!

Here’s a look at what we’ve been up to the last couple of weeks:

As I’m sure you saw on Facebook or Instagram, we had a big trip to Europe!! We left at the end of June and spent 10 days visiting Scotland, London, and France. It was a great experience and the kids blew us away with how well they traveled and how interested they were in everything. I was afraid we’d put too many boring adult things to keep them interested. 😂 We tried not to jam-pack the schedule too much, but it turned out to be that way anyway. We definitely learned a lot of things to do differently next time and we’re already looking forward to our next adventure!! Here’s a look at all the places we visited in each country!

Scotland

This was, hands down, my favorite location from the trip. This wasn’t originally on the trip itinerary but when we changed things up and added it, I was so so excited! We spent the longest time here too, five days worth of these beautiful views. I’m ready to go back!! We flew into Glasgow for our first night where we stayed at the Voco Grand Central Hotel. After checking in we walked to see some of the sites in town before we headed up into the Highlands the next day.

George Square

Alms House

Glasgow Cathedral

The view from our room at the Voco Grand Central Hotel

Day 2 we began our journey into the Highlands! After breakfast in Grand Central Station, we headed north to find Finnich Glen and the Devil’s Pulpit. This first hike should have been our first indication that we should have included more time in our day to visit them. It took us a good hour or so just to find the right entrance to get down into the Devil’s Pulpit. And once we did find it, it was definitely a workout to see it!! I’m still amazed that we all survived those stairs because, of course, it was raining. 😂 Jackson and Harper both say this is their favorite thing we did in Scotland!

Finnich Glen

Devil’s Pulpit

After hours spent at the Devil’s Pulpit, it was time for a big lunch! We ate at a restaurant on Loch Lomond before heading out to see more!!

Rest and Be Thankful Viewpoint

Inveraray Castle

Kilchurn Castle

Port city of Oban

Castle Stalker

Glencoe Mountain Viewpoint

The Meeting of Three Waters

Three Sisters Viewpoint

Day 3 we started by visiting Braveheart Village before making our way to the remote Isle of Skye. So many beautiful views to see along the way, we stopped often to take photos of all the lochs!

Braveheart Village

Lower Falls, Fort William

Eilean Donan Lookout

Old Man of Storr – This was the one stop I wish I’d researched more, the hike was BRUTAL and we didn’t even make it all the way to the top 😂 When we decided to turn around we were rewarded with a double rainbow though, so I wasn’t mad about it!

Dinner in Portree Harbour

Day 4 began back on the Isle of Skye. We started the morning hiking for a couple of hours at the Fairy Pools and then we were on the hunt for all the castles and Loch Ness!

Fairy Pools

Eilean Donan Castle

Urquhart Castle Viewpoint

Loch Ness – Jackson was determined to find Nessie!

Culloden Battlefield

Day 5 was our last day in Scotland. We started at the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, the birthplace of golf! This was one of Jon’s bucket list items on the trip!! After this we went back into the countryside to stroll through one more castle before hopping on our train from Edinburgh to London.

Kellie Castle

First train ride!

Day 6 – After a long overnight train ride (we were delayed over an hour for an “incident” on the tracks 😳) we got some sleep before walking around London for the day. We walked almost 4 1/2 miles to see all that was on our list before driving a couple of hours south to Portsmouth, UK to catch our ferry to France.

Tower Bridge

Tower of London

St. Paul’s Cathedral

Somerset House

Big Ben

Royal Opera House

Everyone’s first ferry ride, off to France we go!

We woke up on Day 7 as the ferry arrived in the coastal city of Saint-Malo, France. We took the day to just relax in Saint-Malo and enjoy the city, enjoying the beach and walking along the city wall!

The Grand Bé – the walkway to visit the Grand Bé is only available during certain times of the day. Saint-Malo has a 40-foot sea level difference between tides so if you don’t pay attention you can get stuck on there! And all the signs posted say they will not send someone to come get you. 😂

Tons of success hunting for sea shells!

After a late breakfast, we headed out towards Normandie. Our first stop was the stunning Mont Saint-Michel. The abbey was the inspiration for the castle in Tangled! After we walked around here we drove out to see Omaha Beach, another bucket list stop on Jon’s list!!

Omaha Beach

Our final day of the trip was in Paris! The #1 thing the kids wanted to see on this trip was the Eiffel Tower so Paris was always going to be a stop for us!! After we had breakfast in Paris and saw the Eiffel Tower, we ended the trip doing something we knew 100% they’d love – Disneyland Paris!