This has been a pretty big year for us: new city, new house, new jobs...and while we have weathered lots of storms (mostly the meteorological kind) in the last 7 years, I have known so much love and happiness with this husband of mine.
Isle of Skye was just plain gorgeous. We somehow managed to have some pretty spectacular luck in that it rained pretty consistently while we were driving, but once we got somewhere we wanted to walk and take in the sights, the sun came out.
We were staying outside of Isle of Skye in Kyleakin so we had a short drive to get to Portree. On the way, we somehow spotted some signage for a yarn store. Given all of the sheep we had seen on our trip, I was surprised at how few yarn stores there were -- this was the first that we saw. While I jokingly mentioned it to Jamie, he immediately turned into the driveway and we had a chance to take advantage of a pretty awesome find.
I left with two big skeins of yarn from Scottish sheep (which had just been dyed the day before). From those two skeins I made: (colors are a bit off in the pictures, but they were a light green and cream color)
And this cat toy that is already pretty well-loved.
All-in-all, a pretty fortunate find! We then continued our drive to Portree for lunch and some window-shopping. A lovely little town!
Then we began some of our walking excursions. Our first stop was Faerie Glen. Which, if you ever find yourself in the Isle of Skye, I highly recommend. It was pretty spectacular; Jamie proclaimed it the perfect "fairy tale" spot. It kind of was:
Basically, it was a bunch of rolling hills that you could wander through using the paths that the sheep carved out. There wasn't much to stop you from going wherever you wanted.
After Faerie Glen, we continued our drive north to Uig and the Quiriang.
Rather than climb the Quiriang (we were short on time and stamina), we hiked up Bioda Buidhe which offered us some pretty great views of Quiriang.
(For the record, Jamie is actually a lot higher up than it looks in these pictures, those tiny white specks are sheep )
And, finally as we made our way back south on the eastern side of the Isle of Skye, we stopped at Kilt Rock (you can see the kilts on the rocks in the distance -- past the falls).
We started our morning with a great Scottish breakfast...one of my favorite new breakfast items coming out of this trip is baked tomato. Yum!
We had a big day of driving ahead of us because we wanted to get to the Isle of Skye. It was striking how different the landscape was on the north west side of the country versus what we saw on our drive north from Inverness. Coming south from Durness we got to drive through the geopark on the west side of Scotland. It was pretty spectacular and highly recommended if you ever find yourself with the opportunity to see it. It is home to the oldest rocks in Europe.
One our stops included a quick climb up mountain along sometimes narrow cliffside paths. There were a couple interesting art sculptures scattered around too.
I chickened out towards the end because the path kept getting narrower and narrower as we got towards the top. If you know me, you know I'm super-clumsy, and that combined with narrow, cliffside-y paths is not a good thing. In the moment, it looked like this to me:
In reality, it was actually like this...
...so no sheer cliffs, rain, or fighting mountain giants raining down boulders. But, in my defense, upon his return Jamie reported that the path did get narrower, steeper, and rockier.
After a great lunch in Ullapool we ventured to Eilean Donan Castle for our daily castle fix.
Finally, a note about the driving. While I fully intended to assist with the driving, Jamie mastered the driving on the right side of the car on the left side of the road thing pretty quickly. After Wick, the roads pretty much turned into single lane roads and required some pretty tight maneuvering whenever we encountered a car coming the opposite direction. I think we were all pretty good with Jamie doing the driving the whole trip. He's a man of many talents.
The last stop on our drive was at Smoo Cave. Since it was late, Jamie and I were the only ones there and had the cave to explore on our own.
We ended up in Durness at a lovely little B&B. Right across from where we were staying the "theater" had set up shop for the night in the parking lot. While I didn't get the chance to check it out, Jamie popped inside and said it was a real theater with "red seats". Pretty neat!
I learned quite a bit on this trip, including: 1) Scotland has some pretty fantastic landscapes and 2) after a day of driving/hiking/walking/etc. it is pretty hard to find time to update a blog. With regard to number one, I tried to take pictures of these landscapes to share. And for number two, I opted to just wait until we got back to the States.
As shown in the pictures in the last post, we had a great time in Edinburgh. Since we were only there for a day and a half, there was much left unexplored. Still, I felt like we got to know the city pretty well just by walking through the town and visiting those key spots that all tourists hit their first time to Edinburgh: Edinburgh Castle, the Royal Mile, the National Museum. We took a stroll through Greyfriar's Kirkyard, and through the Meadows. Ate good food and spent some time working on our Scottish accents.
We also got to try the "national"soda of Scotland: Irn Bru. We were left a can to sample by the gracious host of the apartment we rented in Edinburgh and Jamie was the first guinea pig...despite the questionable warnings on the label.
Despite it's bright orange color, it tasted exactly like Inca Kola. Apparently, "national" sodas need to taste like bubble gum.
We said goodbye to Edinburgh on Tuesday morning and started on our journey north. We piled into our rented Vauxhall and Jamie's expert driving (on the right-side of the car, on the left-side of the road) took us to our first stop in Auchtermuchty.
While it was definitely off the beaten track, it was a must for us because it gave a chance to learn more about Jamie's roots. We stopped at the burgh's cemetery and found a few of his ancestors and visited the town square. It was lovely.
We also learned a little bit about the how scheduling a medical procedure works in a town of 1500 people (or so). Not sure if they use the word "surgery" the same way we do, but for the purpose of this picture, I'd like to think so...
Continuing our drive up towards Inverness, we stopped at the Highland Folk Museum which is highly recommended. It's free, educational, and on a beautiful day it's hard to top.
Our next stop was Urquhart Castle, which I totally loved. I was literally running around, snapping photos of the ruins and of Loch Ness, and chattering about how much I loved it to anyone who would listen. You should read about its history -- it's fascinating!
We ended our drive in Inverness, got some good food, and walked along the River Ness. All in all, a busy, but pretty much perfect day.
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