Geo: 57.2764, -5.51363July 8, 2010Portree, Isle of Skye, Scotland6:30-8:15 a.m.What a poor quality hotel! The walls and ceilings are super thin so anytime someone walked outside in the corridor or in the room above. Then about sometime in the middle night the fire alarm went off for a short 20 seconds waking all of us up. The beds are so hard! The only redeeming quality of this place was its food. When I came down to the lobby, once again the Canadians were first ones down followed by me. A single monotone alarm was still sounding in the lobby. A worker was vacuuming and ignored our question about the alarm (One man thought it was his hearing aide and started to fiddle with his ear until we told him it was the alarm). While sitting and ... read more

Geo: 57.2843, -5.71552As we were leaving the town and came around a bend in the road along the water of Loch Broom, a huge gust of wind blew us across the road a bit. It felt like a semi went past us. It startled everyone! We passed many hills and valleys, streams and heather (some finally coming into bloom!), and of course sheep. We went passed a reservoir that was very low. Scotland has had the driest winter since 1941, so many of the reservoirs and lochs are low. Also, since we are going out into the “boonies” the road that we are traveling on is mostly a one lane road. That means about every 1/10th of a mile, there is a turnout for us or the other vehicle coming the other way to pull off ... read more

Geo: 58.0265, -4.40151July 7, 2010Thurso, Scotland6:00-8:00 a.m.I must have slept really well last night because I missed the storm that everyone was talking about in the morning. I didn't hear a thing and I even had the bedroom window open. After breakfast of scrambled eggs and waffles (on the side this time), we boarded the bus to head to the Isle of Skye. We have to retrace our steps back for about 2 hours. So we will pass through the towns of Latheron, Dunbeath, Helmsdale, Brora, and Golspie onto our first stop in the town of Lairg.Lairg, ScotlandWe stopped here from 9:50 to 11:00 to rest, grab a bite to eat, and view the Shin Falls on the Shin River (very nice little fall, even saw a salmon jump up through the water on its way ... read more

Geo: 58.5926, -3.52461We took the ferry back to the mainland. The trip was a bit more choppy, but I focused on this blog to keep me from getting to queasy. We had abiout 30 minutes before dinner so I collected my laundry (nicely done, they even presses my undies!) and went to prepare for the morning. Since the hotel that we are staying at tomorrow has no lift or porters, we have to pack an overnight bag and have it ready in the morning. We had dinner tonight at 7:30 at the hotel's restaurant again. I had mainly sat with Barbara and Shirley (the Canadians) most of the day, so I went and sat by myself to see who I would get. I ended up sitting with the 3 sisters and a married couple (all from ... read more

Geo: 59.0391, -3.29933For lunch we headed to a hotel's restaurant by the Ring of Brodgan. It was a average sized restaurant with a limited choice on the menu. I tried the Orkney Fried Cheese (very good…fried cheese is not as popular here in GB than in the USA), a small salad, and a side of chips. Along with the glass of Coke the bill came to £ 11.50. We then headed to the Ring of Brogan and the standing stones. Most of the people took the long walk up to the top of the ring. I went half way, and then had to make a dash back to the bus to use the restroom. We didn't stop to look at the standing stones, but since they were so large and close to the road, we got ... read more