Blogs from Inverness-shire, Scotland, United Kingdom, Europe - page 46

The following is copied and pasted from my journal, written as soon as I got back from Glenfinnan last week: Wednesday October 3, 2007 10:48pm I’m jotting this down quickly before I forget. Left Tuesday 4:50pm for Glasgow. Switched trains (had an hour and a half layover) and got up to Ft. William about 10:00 Tuesday night. Checked into MacBackpackers hostel (bought t-shirt!), went to Grog and Gruel pub, came back to sleep. Got up early, caught 8:30 train to Glenfinnan. Middle of nowhere, but walked down to monument to Bonnie Prince Charlie and Viaduct to take pics. (train on the way there went by Hogwarts Castle sign-bearing red steam train!!! Alas, no pic of this) Saw small camera crew and small security crew on banks of Loch Schiell, assumed documentary was being filmed. Asked. Found ... read more

We are now in Scotland after a whirlwind few days in London. We visited a few old haunts and Pete reminisced about his time in London. He also spent a day with some friends (James and Colleen) and I spent the day with Tania. Our hotel was in an amazing location right in the middle of the West End. The hotel itself was nothing special but it was great as we could walk to Covent Garden, Leicester Square etc. We also did another walking tour there (we are addicted to them!) and it was great - really interesting even for Pete who had lived there before. We then flew to Edinburgh, collected our car and drove down to Culzean Castle on the south west coast. Wow!!!! It was absolutely amazing. We spent the night staying in ... read more

Well what a great couple of days we have had. Leaving Waterhouses on Thursday morning we had no wind at all, and a nice long downhill! It was very cold however and we find our toes freezing up on and of for the next few days. Making good progress we arrived in Macclesfield to find a place to have a coffee and on leaving we still hadn't - until we saw the golden arches and stopped for a coffee and bagel. I have NEVER ben happy to go into a McDonalds before this moment. Manchester was reached by 12pm and we navigated our way some how right through in no time, thanks largely to Gareth and his super direction skills. Following on from lunch we went through and even North of Preston (!) where we found ... read more

Well! Day 2 commenced at 9:00. I'd slept well the night before at the hostel (no one snoring in the room this time!) so I was ready to go. It was a little chilly, but then it's usually a little chilly up here, so I didn't think anything of it. The bus stopped to gas up, and then we were off. Our first stop was at the river Sligachan. The story goes that if you dunk your face under the water, you'll become eternally beautiful and youthful...until you have a drink of whisky. We all dipped our faces under, even me. Surprisingly, it wasn't that cold! Of course, our bus full of beautiful people was undermined that afternoon by the bottle of punch passed around, but still. It was nice while it lasted. ;) We stopped ... read more

We made a second visit to the Island of Skye, visiting numerous main roads of the island travelling over the bridge as well as over the ferry from Glenelg, travelling to Kylerhea for a performance, visiting a farm for quail eggs, and veg, travelling through Broadford, Portree, up to Uig and then around to the Castle of Dunvegan gardens, through the Cullin Hills over very very narrow steep roads and then back to Dornie. What an adventurous wonderful trip of seeing many animals, the long haired Highland cattle, and sheep. We still had time to eat and have coffee, making many stops during the day arriving back at the house very late.... read more