Blogs from Scotland, United Kingdom, Europe - page 6

Oh, we are having such easy pace days. With so many small villages along the roads less travelled to our destinations, we continually stop to explore which entails chatting to locals about all sorts of things, photographing the sites be they historical, current, funny, different or informative, having coffee and cake and wine(s) and food, walking the streets high and low, long and wide, hillside, beachside, streetside and even inside as locals can’t resist my charm! We spent time in the beautifully kept village of Dirleton because Marjorie Stewart, a very good friend of ours, spent her childhood there, as her father was the primary school principal. Jane phoned her from the village green. Berwick was another long stopover and a place we could have again spent a few extra days. Time, the bane of travelling. ... read more

Shetland is ideal for anyone wanting remote. At a steady pace we went remote again today. Photographing, walking, conversing with locals, oowwwing and aahhing at scenery and the cute lambs were common occurrences throughout the day culminating with a seafood lunch with the trimmings at Dan Haaf in Scalloway. Scalloway was also the scene for meeting the crew of a mussel boat as we watched it dock, fully laden with 28 tonnes of mussels. Shetland produces over 75% of the UK’s mussel production. The Shetland visit wouldn’t be complete without Jane purchasing puffin memorabilia. She did. I settled for an ice-cream. For three whole days our visit on Shetland has been a thoroughly enjoyable, fun-filled learning experience. We’ve upgraded to a cabin with ensuite so should sleep overnight on the 12 hour ferry journey to Aberdeen ... read more

Due to the efficient disembarking, we were on the road heading for the 100m high cliffs of Sumburgh Head 45kms from Lerwick, the southernmost section of mainland Shetland, on which stands the lighthouse and the famous breeding cliffs for puffins and numerous other birds. Jane was as ‘happy-as-Larry’ upon seeing the puffins. She spent ages photographing them. The scenery here and around every corner that we have travelled so far is sensational and ranks amongst the best I have seen on my travels. As we worked our way along both coastlines (they are not far apart) back towards Lerwick we began to feel pretty ‘bombed out’. Even though the ferry was soundless and the journey smooth, trying to sleep in a pod does take some getting used to. We found our accommodation at about 2pm, slept ... read more

The crunch of boot upon a gravel and stone track was all that could be heard when we had left the funicular to climb to the summit of the Cairngorm, the UK’s 6thhighest mountain at 1 245m in the National Park of the same name. Considering this is the windiest, coldest and wettest place in the UK, it was surprising that all we could hear was the boot crunch. The day was glorious. We had come prepared for mountain cold. The ascent from the 900m level was not strenuous (superbly fit!!) however, the descent needed care. The weather station at the summit sends out minute by minute data to the mountain weather site on the internet.... read more

We took the road least travelled for our trip to Boat of Garten, a small village in the Cairngorm National Park, south of Inverness. The day was forecast to be sunshine, however the first few hours the cloud hung low covering the mountains we were travelling through. Upon clearing it opened up a different vista. Even though the sun had not been shining we did 'get-out-of-the-car' and walk, with one outing being the trail into the Rogie Falls. It was the beauty of the forest and filtered light that caught our attention more so than the falls, not saying they weren't a thing of beauty too. We wandered the very small village of Carrbridge and took our first selfie on a stone bridge with a stone arch over the running stream. Our stay for the next ... read more