Back Home!

 We got up early, packed our stuff and drove to the airport.  Our flight left late but got in early and our son, Brian, picked us up.  Overall, it was a great trip and I'd love to come back to Bonny Scotland again!

Back to Edinburgh

We woke up just after 7 am, dressed, and went down for breakfast in the hotel, where we had delicious scrambled eggs with lox and sauteed spinach. 

We were out of the place and in the car by 8:20 and on the road again.  Everywhere we looked there was spectacular scenery.  We even got to see the ferrry pull out to the Isle of Raasay this morning.  

Ferry to Raasay

We drove about 2 hours till we arrived at the town of Fort William.  This is a much larger town than we thought it would be.  We drove around looking for some points of interest and we found the Neptune Staircase which is a series of eight locks that boats travel on through a canal. We were interested to see it because we went through a similar lock staircase in France. 

This is one of 8 locks here, empty right now

There are three boats in this lock, the sailboat, a motor yacht and a fishing boat in front

After we watched that for a while we got back in the car and drove to see the Inverlochy Castle.  Apparently now it is the Inverlochy Castle Hotel, so we got to drive up and see it but that was about it. 

Inverlochy Castle Hotel

Then back toward Fort William hoping to find a restaurant for lunch. It took us a while to even find the center of town and then to find parking. We finally found The Croft restaurant and had a nice meal. We left the town of Fort William and started driving back toward Edinburgh. I was slightly annoyed at myself for not finding out exactly which of the local mountains was Ben Nevis, which is the highest mountain in the entire UK, because it was right nearby. 

Dave's chicken pie

a tee shirt I saw

Center of town in Ft. William

As we drove on, we came to the Village of Glencoe which I had heard of but we couldn't really find the center of town. It seemed very small so we kept going.  We stopped several times to take pictures of the magnificent mountains on either side of the road.  It's just breathtaking everywhere you look!  My pictures just don't begin to do it justice!  

In Glencoe

As we continue our travels back towards Edinburgh we found ourselves back in the village of Doune where we had the car accident last week, and in fact we passed right by the very spot where it happened.  Fortunately our trip by there today was uneventful.

Back in Doune

We found our airbnb for tonight, located conveniently near the airport.  It's a horse farm with a gated courtyard.  We have a one bedroom apartment inside this courtyard.  The owners were nice enough to provide instant coffee, cereal, toast with butter and jelly, so we have breakfast covered.  

Our car in front of our door

The courtyard of our airbnb

"kitchen"

living room

bedroom

bathroom

The owner of the airbnb recommended The Bridge Inn for dinner.  It was just a few miles away, so we went, hoping to get a table.  I was pleasantly surprised to find it was a Michelin rated restaurant from 2019!  We had a wonderful meal and when we were leaving, the host asked if we had a way to get home.  We explained that we had a rental car and he told us that they have a driver if people walked or took a taxi.  Nice!

Are you sensing a pattern here?

Cullen skink soup (delicious fish chowder)

Sauteed mushrooms with pine nuts and garlic (so good!!)

My sea bass with sweet potato puree, on chorizo, scallops and sweet potato chunks (Yes please!)

Sticky toffee pudding with vanilla ice cream and salted caramel sauce

I will need to go on a diet after this!

Heading to Skye

The alarm went off at 6:30 in the morning and we quickly got ourselves dressed, packed and out the door by 7:35 heading towards the Isle of Skye.  The scenery as we drove was just breakthtaking!  We even saw a few rainbows!  We stopped several times to take pictures.

It was not as dark as this picture seems.

Just before we got to Skye we stopped to take a tour through Eilean Donan Castle.  The Castle was beautiful and the setting surrounding it was even more spectacular!  

Eilean Donan Castle

We stopped at a gin and whisky distributor and David bought some of both. 

Then we headed north, passing right by the hotel we're going to check in to later and also passing through the very small town of Portree which is a small town but it's the biggest town here on Skye. We went all the way to the Northern end to view Kilt Rock and Mealt Falls, and then stopping off at Leant Falls.  On the way there we passed by the "Old Man of Storr" in both directions. 

In the northern part of Skye (and next picture)

Near Mealt Falls

Mealt Falls (I was afraid to hold my phone way out). Kilt Rock is the section of rock by the horizon that kind of looks like a kilt

Kilt Rock

Looking south by Mealt Falls

Lealt Falls (in the crack in the land)

These people went out on the cliff edge to take pictures.  There's a sheer edge and a huge drop behind them

Old Man of Storr - no idea why it's called that

Sheep and cows everywhere.

We then headed back down to Portree where we had a chance to sit and have some lunch.  

This is haggis, neeps and tatties (haggis, turnips and mashed potatoes).  Actually quite delicious!!

After lunch, back in the car and west to Dunvegan Castle and Gardens. The castle was lovely.  It had beautiful furnishings inside and all kinds of historical artifacts. Outside there were multiple, beautiful gardens.  There was the Round Garden and the Walled Garden and many other different garden areas that we wandered through for a while. We enjoyed the beauty and peace of the place.

Dunvegan Castle

Inside Dunvegan Castle (this and next two pictures)

This is "Bonny Prince Charlie" (right) and Flora MacDonald (who helped him escape)

Dunvegan Gardens (this and next two pictures)

Next on our agenda were the Fairy Pools.  We drove on a very narrow one lane, two way road up through the mountains, winding back and forth.  Beautiful scenery but a little scary driving! We finally arrived at the Fairy Pools.  We could see a long line of people hiking downhill from the parking lot to where the Pools were.  I had read a post about someone who had come here and realized it was too far for them to walk.  At this point, it was really too far for us as well.  The post had said that if you continue about a mile further up the road there's a hostel and right across from it there are other fairy pools right near the road. So we decided to try and do that.  It turned out it was more like 2 miles up the road.  We were about to give up and turn around when the hostel came into sight.  We parked right by the hostel and immediately across the road was a beautiful waterfall and a beautiful blue pool at the bottom of it!  Plus, we were the only ones there and we didn't have to hike down and up miles of mountainous land! So we took our pictures and then headed back to check into our hotel for the evening.

We went to the Hotel Sligachan and got our room.  Then we went to the bar, cause we're in Scotland.  Across from our hotel is a beautiful aqueduct and a rocky stream.  It's just beautiful here, and there is absolutely nothing around but this hotel!

This is directly across from our hotel

After showering and changing, we drove back to Portree and found our restaurant in the Rosedale Hotel.  We had a table near the window overlooking the Portree Harbor.  Food was delicious!

Portree Harbor area (and next picture)

Cocktails!

Fish cake appetizer

Fish Chowder appetizer

David's lamb shank

My monkfish with scallop sauce (to DIE for!!)