Blogs from Glencoe, The Highlands, Scotland, United Kingdom, Europe

This is a continuation of my previous post . Several months ago Adele, my travel buddy, and I hatched a plan to recreate last year's road trip around Iceland, but this time around the highlands of Scotland. Coming from Tucson, Adele is attracted to cool climates. In two months, she'll be spending the night on an Antarctic ice shelf (without me, thankfully). But there was another reason. After the war, Adele's father spent time in Inverness. He was so enchanted by it that he named his farm back home Inverness. It became a long-standing ambition for Adele to visit the place that inspired her father. (We did end up spending a few nights in Inverness. It had its charms, but in 2022 it's just another mid-size city filled with cars and kebob stands.) The day after ... read more

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Today we went on a 12 hour Loch Ness and the Highlands tour! The tour was set to be from 8am-8pm, the longest bus day tour in Europe, but we ended up arriving back in Edinburgh at 9:30pm. Among other places, we visited Ben Nevis, Glen Coe, Fort Augustus (where we hung out with the Loch Ness monster) and Fort William. We travelled 600km, but it didn’t feel like it because we had a hilarious tour guide (one thing I’ve noticed about Scottish people is they’ve all got the best sense of humour). Here’s a few things we learnt from him- 1- The kilt is called a kilt because the last person who called it a skirt was killed 2- it’s fine to put a bit of water in your whiskey, but under no circumstances should ... read more

The beautiful pictures of isle of skye, way out in outer hebrides were awesome. It is one of the most picturesque islands of Scotland. Scotland is called Switzerland without the Sun! When I got an invitation to spend Easter weekend with my cousin and his wife in Scotland, I did a high jump. I finished my work early and took the 6:30 pm train to Glasgow. London underground and train station was chocoblock. Most were young travellers who were going to Lake district for the long weekend and there were not enough unreserved seats. I observed how passengers read, knitted or stood silently lost in their own thoughts. Some listened to music. Others got cozy with their significant others. There was a black man with whom I chatted on the condition of British railways. They were ... read more

Many people have bucket lists of places or things you want to see or do before you die and we are no different. For Gretchen, the Isle of Iona has been up on her list for some time and we were sorry we didn’t make it to the tiny island 4 years ago. Like yesterday we had two options of roads to get to the ferry that takes you across from Fionnphort on a 5 minute ride. We could take the A849 which was the principal road that travelled back towards Loch Linnhe and then down the middle of Mull or we could take the more circuitous route around the western coastline from Tobermory. The second option was a skinny red road as marked on the atlas although that often didn’t mean it was any narrower ... read more