I like to travel. Whether for a day, weekend or a longer vacation, near or far, by car, train or plain, I’m in ‘travelmood’ from the moment I shut the frontdoor behind me. Together with my family I’ve spent wonderful days and vacations in various European countries and we’ve seen all kinds of interesting and beautiful sites. We loved especially Italy, France and Greece, but Belgium, Germany and Luxemburg made us happy as well. For years I also dreamed of travelling around in Norway or Sweden, but hubby’s health required a warmer climate. Scotland though was never on my wishlist, so how did I end up there?! Well, a TV show and a series of books is responsible for that!
Late November 2014, on a rainy and cold Saturday, hubby and I decided to watch the 8 episodes of a series called Outlander. I got hooked from the moment I heard the openingsong “Sing me a song of a lass that is gone”. It gave me goosebumps the same way I had when I heard the first notes of the music from Lord of the Rings in 2001. We bingewatched the 8 episodes and were left with frustration when the last one ended with one of the main characters sitting in a windowsill holding a gun …. WHAT THE ….???? This was the end??? I found out after searching the internet that there was more to come, although not sooner than in April 2015!
Since Outlander is based on a series of books written by Diana Gabaldon I decided to read them until the return on TV in April. Somehow I had heard of the books years before. I’m an avid reader and have been a member of a bookclub where you had to order at least one book every 3 months, and seemed to remember having seen (one of) the books in the catalogue. The reason I didn’t buy it must have been that it wasn’t the first book but one of the later books and that, since the bookclub only had recent books in the collection, the previous ones weren’t available. Later I found out that it takes Diana 3-4 years to write one book. It explained why previous books weren’t available in the bookclub. Searching for books wasn’t as easy as nowadays so I let it be. But now we have internet and Google! Long story short: I found the books, downloaded them on my e-reader and managed to read the 8 existing books before Outlander season 1 part 2 returned to TV in April! All 8995 pages!
Besides the human characters, Scotland plays a huge part in the books, especially the Highlands. So, when I joined social media in order to find out more about Outlander on TV and everything involved, that included Scotland. I found out that there was, and still is, an enormous fanbase on social media, and it didn’t take long before I met a group of likeminded women with whom there was a ’click’. Outlander was the main subject, but the filmlocations and Scotland became important too, and after a few months we, 7 women from 3 different countries, planned a trip to Scotland. We talked about it daily in our private group and when we finally met in person at the beginning of our roadtrip it was as if we had already met before.
Our trip was a real roadtrip, travelling by ferry, train and car. In Scotland Steve McLeish from Outlandish Journeys was our guide during a 4 day tour. By car he drove us from Edinburgh, into the Highlands to Inverness, showing us Outlander filmlocations and historical places and sites during this journey, with the Jacobite Risings as a guideline. This wasn’t just an Outlanderbased tour, it was a journey into Scotland’s history as well, and Steve, being a historian, was the perfect guide. Needless to say it was a trip of a lifetime, leaving all of us with a desire to come back to this beautiful country as soon as possible. It took me 3 years….
Take a walk! 
And this is how I found you!!! Thankful for our friendship.
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