Scotland, place of my ancestry, the place I feel most at home when I hear the dulcet tones of the bagpipes as I rise from Waverley Station in Edinburgh.  I've been getting itchy feet of late, the ones that tell me it's time to pack a bag, grab my dog and get on a train, I think the promise of spring is almost too enticing and I know that it won't be long before I am planning a whole new season of travel.

With that in mind, here's some photos and my 7 reasons you should make one of the 7 Scottish cities your next short break or holiday destination this year.

1. Visit the National Wallace Monument in Stirling and find out about William Wallace, pretend you are Braveheart and more importantly see the amazing views as you climb to the very top, when we were walking down last year we even saw a fawn in the woodlands only a few foot from us, it was rather shocked when it turned around and saw us!
   
   
   
   
2. Search for the Nessie whilst you cruise Loch Ness on a Jacobite Cruise I did the 3 hour Reflection Cruise which sails from Tomnahurich bridge in Inverness, it then sails up the Caledonian canal and out into Loch Ness where it passes beautiful historic Urquhart Castle, it's the most relaxing reflective 3 hours I think I've ever had to myself, last year of course I didn't have Holly the beagle but looking at their website I see that they are dog friendly so guess where I'll be taking my favourite little beagle this year, I'm sure she'd love to find Nessie!
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Get with your science and other amazing museums in Glasgow, so OK, the Science museum is the only one you actually have to pay for and the other 13 are all completely free which I think is pretty staggering, if you are short of finances but want to be big on fun with the kids then why not go to Glasgow and visit some of it's fantastic museums.  My children's favourite is the Glasgow science centre and I want to go back this year to actually go up the Glasgow tower which has been broken on every single visit so far!  Hopefully this year I might finally be able to enjoy those amazing views of Glasgow though I have to say that they're pretty impressive from the huge windows in the Glasgow Science Centre 
   
   
   
   
4. Rev up your physical activity levels, there's nowhere quite like Scotland if you love the outdoors, you can walk and walk and walk, we did that just last year when we visited pretty wee city Perth, we spent the entire day there just walking, Looby and I enjoyed it so much and they have one of the best parks for children that I've ever been complete with trampolines!
   
   
   
   
5. Adorn yourself in tartan from head to toe, a visit to Edinburgh means you'll never be short of shopping experiences and with just about every single shop on the royal mile selling tartan you'll find everything from hats to scarves to shoes and ever underwear in pretty much every tartan you can imagine. You can even buy earmuffs with Highland Coos on them.
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. Find out about Scott of The Antarctic - yes, I know it's not your first thought about a visit to Scotland but if you visit Discovery Point in Dundee, you can do exactly that, also don't forget to take a trip up to the Dundee Law and admire the Tay bridge, a thing of great beauty, especially from up high. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. Marvel at the architecture, Scotland has it all when it comes to historical architecture and there's nowhere quite like the Scottish city of Aberdeen, I've been to a lot of cities and Aberdeen was just completely different to any other city, it has a beach, it has a teeny quaint Scottish fishing village, it has one of the oldest Churches in the country,  The Cathedral Church of St Machar and it has of course got a massive oil industry, take a walk and admire the diverse architecture Aberdeen has to offer. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

So with all of that and more that Scotland's 7 cities have to offer you really should make one of them your destination for your next short break holiday, quite simply, Visit Scotland.

Dundee, City 11/69 in the UK Cityscapes Project

On Tuesday I boarded a train from Sterling with my daughter and travel companion for this part of the trip Looby.  We were travelling to Dundee, City 11/69 in the UK Cityscapes Project we were excited at the prospect of seeing another historic Scottish city, one of Loobys school topics about bridges meant she was curious to see the Tay Bridge and the remains of the old bridge, we never did find the new memorial from the Tay Bridge disaster

It cost around £18 for the return ticket from Sterling to Dundee and it's a lovely hours journey through rolling green mountainous hillsides. Travel in Scotland is pleasurable mainly because of the beautiful views and I've noticed that there are more windows in Scotrail trains, the whole experience seems lighter and brighter, it's just a shame that when I asked the lady on the refreshment trolley for sparkling water that she informed me I was only allowed still water, the sparkling was only for first class, this makes absolutely no sense to me, I did tweet Scotrail about it but so far they have failed to comment.

When you arrive in Dundee you wonder if it's even finished yet, they are going through a massive redevelopment which is due to be completed in 2017, it's somewhat like a huge building site in areas.

The following things happened in Dundee, the bus driver failed to tell us which stop we needed even though we asked and informed us when I asked if we'd missed our stop that yes we should have got off the stop before.

A bike rider went past and swore loudly at me in front of Looby because I hadn't heard his bike bell.

A representative of a church with great views flatly refused us access unless we came back at 2.30 on Sunday

A man told us off because we went the wrong way even though we were in strange city.

Dundee just isn't a friendly place and that is such a shame but you can't help thinking there's an atmosphere when you are there, there are of course some lovely people, the tourist officer was fantastic and helped us get to the Dundee Law where I took many of the images and we had a lovely lunch at Henrys Coffee and left a suspended coffee for someone who needs it in the future.

Shall we see some photos?

The train journey passes through Iverurie, so very pretty

I really loved this square, you can see Henry's Coffee house on the left hand side

we did find a unicorn in Dundee so it wasn't all bad!

The walk up to Dundee Law, the highest point in Dundee, get the number 4 bus which is the Minnie the Minx Route and it stops just in front of the hill you'll need to climb, this is the bus we should have got on the way up but only found out about it on the way back down.

The climb to the top is absolutely worth it, the views are just incredible

That's me, proving I did actually do it!

Dundee, home of Desperate Dan and Minnie the Minx

and a Dragon

and captain Scotts ship

and penguins, not real ones, they live outside of Discovery Cove, a museum all about Captain Scott of the Antarctic and also a great place for a cuppa, Looby had an awesome waffle and I had a brilliant cream tea, it's really just as well we climbed that hill and walked for miles so we could see the Tay bridge up close.

and that was her reward for all the walking, sadly not a patch on the park in Perth

That's the Cathedral and the Science centre, by the time we found it, it was closed and to be honest we just wanted to go back to beautiful Stirling!

Even though our visit to Dundee was marred by some unfriendly unhelpful people I still believe there's beauty there if you find it.

There are only 7 days left to jump on board with the UK Cityscapes project so go order a book and enjoy the adventure, its only then you can claim that it wouldn't have happened without you.