melrose abbey

our monday on our grand u.k. trip had little planned but travel. 

sunday night we book some sweet rooms in a "castle"

ya dumpiest rooms we stayed in all trip,

and no breakfast to boot. 

i learned a valuable "read reviews" lesson on this baby. 

on a more positive note j.k. rowling stayed here once- 

or so we assumed because they had pictures of only a few famous people in one area of the hotel. 

she did not stay in the wing we stayed in. 

i would die of shock if anyone famous ever stayed in that wing. 

 this is the "castle hotel"

tricky tricky tricky..... looks grand doesn't it? 

think again.  

i did like this awkward sign they had in our dump wing though. 

almost made it worth staying there.

my mother had a desire to see melrose abbey.
when we told her how far out of the way it was going to be she succumbed to our concerns.
we had a family pow wow about making your dreams a reality on the trip and how this was my mom's dream trip so she should see whatever she wants.
and next thing we knew we were on our way- way out of the way- and a bit begrudgingly to melrose.
boy oh boy am i glad my mother wanted to see this.
it's ruins of the most beautiful kind.
let the pictures do the talking.

awww celings. 

awww massive windows. 

intricacy is beautiful.

supposedly robert the bruce's heart is buried here. 

we weren't even sure if this marker is supposed to be the resting place. 

it was the closest thing i could find. 

soo i took a picture for good measure.

i wonder how glorious it was in it's day.

** i love you dad**

my little sister the model.

this was one of my favorite places we saw all trip.
worth every second/mile of out of the way.
do go see it if you get the chance.
it's lovely in every way.