We left Orkney and started making our way back to Glasgow to fly out to Belfast the following night. We took a detour to Wick to check out a castle that I read about and is one of the favorites of all who visit and drive the North Coast highway and for good reason. Castle Sinclair Girnigoe are ruins perched on the high sea cliffs on the wild and empty North Coast. It is a perfect setting for such a fortress, virtually impregnable due to it’s location. We had the castle to ourselves at sunset, free to crawl around it’s treacherous and precarious remains that continue to crumble into the sea. The following day we made a few more stops in villages along the way, having a last farewell meal of Haggis, Neeps and Tatties and ... read more

So far up to this point Dennis had only had to drive on short stretches of single track roads, but headed up and around the Isle of Skye is predominantly all single track. On these types of roads it is a single lane but two ways of traffic must pass. You have to pull along the side in small turn offs to allow oncoming traffic to pass to avoid a head on collision. The trick is deciding who is the one that yields and sometimes you must even back up to go into the closest passing place, often with no guard rails and steep cliffs off both sides of the roadway and there is not a single straight stretch of road ANYWHERE in this country. Pretty much the entire west coast and the center of the ... read more

We sadly wrapped up our U.K. part of our trip and left for Iceland the following morning for our long layover that Icelandair allows you as an option during bookings anywhere from 1-7 days. It was interesting that most people who knew about our trip seemed more excited about Iceland than anywhere else we were going. I decided to surprise Mom and upgrade us to first class for this leg, a first for both of us and well worth it. Unfortunately I had to drive our rental car upon arrival after our 2 hr flight so I couldn’t fully take advantage of as many shots of the delicious Icelandic Rhubarb liquor they had as I would have liked. We arrived mid-afternoon, picked up our rental car, dropped our bags and drove for the Capital of Reykjavik, ... read more

We arrived early in the morning in Belfast, Northern Ireland (pronounced Norn Iron by the locals), a city with a turbulent past referred to by it’s people as “The Troubles.” The troubles were primarily from 1968-1998 when horrendous bombings and assassinations occurred between the Protestant “Loyalists” who were supportive of a British controlled Northern Ireland, and the Catholic IRA “Republicans” who were supportive of a free and unified Ireland. There has been religious conflict between the Protestants and Catholics well before this time, but this is the period when armed conflict was escalated and a wall was built to keep Nationalists and Loyalists apart known as the “peace wall.” These walls divided communities and peoples many believe exacerbated the problems. Our incredible BnB host Walter (favorite host and accommodation ever, and Mom’s crush even without the ... read more

We returned on the ferry in the morning from the Orkney Islands. I knew today was going to be a long driving day and we had a lot of miles to cover before reaching our next destination of Gairloch on the west coast. Our first stop along the way was at Smoo cave, a large sea cave that requires walking down a very steep staircase from the high cliffs off the roadway. The scenery along the north coast was absolutely stunning, and there were numerous white, wide sandy beaches with turquoise green water that looked more like it may have been along the Greek coast, most definitely not in Scotland. Had I not known better I would’ve thought the water was warm enough to just jump in. Well I suppose I could have, but when you ... read more