We spent our day driving around the Isle of Skye. One of our many stops was to see the Dunvegan castle. Dunvegan castle is the oldest inhabited castle in Scotland. They had the inside fixed up but you aren’t allowed to take pictures. I enjoyed walking around the many gardens they had. We were pretty lucky that it rained some while we visited inside, and then there was a break in the weather when we walked around the gardens.
We left Oban today to go to the Isle of Skye. Our checkin time was pretty limited to between 4:30 and 6:00 so we wanted to make sure we stayed on track as it was a 3 hour drive. I didn’t realize how long drives are in Scotland but since most of the roads are just country roads, things go a little slower. The speed limit is 60 mph on these very windy bumpy roads.
We stopped at one of Scotland’s ski mountains. I’m sure they don’t have many but we took the gondola up to the base of the mountain where skiers would have to then catch another chair lift up. You can see there wasn’t snow left. In fact, we had rain. They do have one of the more difficult mountain biking trails and they just recently had a competition here. Didn’t really look like a trail I would want to walk down yet alone ride.
We made it back down a little wetter than when we started but it was nice to see the nice green hills. I think they said the tallest mountain in Britain is 5,000 feet high. We then had an extra hour before our checkin so we stopped at a castle along the way. It was used for a 007 Bond movie in 1999. They remodeled the castle in the 1930’s, and it is now owned by a family. You are still allowed to visit the castle and see how it used to look.
From Oban, we took a day tour to the Isle of Iona. It started by taking a 45 minute ferry ride from Oban to the Isle of Mull. Then we had an hour and fifteen minute bus ride to the other side of Mull to catch a 15 minute ferry to the Isle of Iona. There wasn’t much on Mull with the exception of one scary bus ride. There was only a single lane road and the traffic flies up and down the road. Our bus driver hit the brakes hard a number of times.
Many people make the journey to the Isle of Iona because it is believed that either the Book of Kells was written here or started here. We spent our two hours walking around. It was very windy but still warm enough to not need a jacket. I was surprised how nice and blue the water was. I never thought it would look that nice in the north.
Only residents are allowed to have cars on the island. There are places for people to stay but you have to leave your car on Oban or Mull. The island is a very cute place to walk around and relax. I didn’t take any of the free eggs but people were curious.
We made it to the west coast town of Oban. It was a charming town right on the Atlantic ocean. We stayed at a cute Victorian house and my parents had a nice view of the ocean. I had a nice view of a ton of wallpaper. Even my duvet cover matched the wallpaper. Since we had nice weather when we arrived, we had a nice sunset. Not often do we get to watch the sun set on the Atlantic.
We left Glasgow for Oban which is located on the west coast. We made a couple of stops along the way. We stopped at a loch first and walked around for a bit. The public toilet was very fancy as you pushed a button to enter and then you went in and followed the instructions. Once you finished and exited, the door shut and cleaned the entire place. The next person had to wait 2 minutes before they could enter.
We saw some locks with some very big boats that went through. Guess you need to have more than one person on your boat as you had to open and close the locks on your own. After the locks, we were driving when my dad pointed out people on top of a hill. So I turned around and headed back to the hill. I decided to climb to the top to see the view.
The last stop we made was at an old church which had carved tombstones from the 1600’s. As you can see it was a beautiful day for Scotland. I think we have been very lucky with our weather so far. Hope it stays that way.
There was a park near our B&B that many people go to from around the world. Most of them are going there to see a famous art collection, but I’m happy just walking around the park. The park is larger than we anticipated so we ended up walking a couple of hours in the park. We were too late to see the Clydesdale horses but an employee was very nice (everybody in Scotland has been extremely friendly) and opened up the barn so we could see the horses. Not only did we get to see the horses but we got to feed them sugar tablets. I was pretty shocked at how gentle they were when they would eat them out of your hands. We did come back to the park Thursday morning to see the horses in the field.
(I know I should have picked one horse photo as I have picked too many. Too hard for me to pick since I’m blogging after midnight so bear with me.)
Not sure where to start. We did and saw so much that it is hard to remember everything. We got there pretty late on Tuesday. We walked to a nearby hotel and had dinner. It was a beautiful hotel up on a hill. We started Wednesday pretty early by taking the train into the city and hopping on a hop-on-hop off bus tour. It was our first sight of the Scottish rain that everyone keeps telling us about, but I was determined to sit on the top part of the bus in the rain. The 2014 Commonwealth Games are in Glasgow and they start next week. This made the city pretty busy with a lot more traffic. It took us almost an hour just to get half way on the tour. We decided to get off and see Europe’s top museum in 2013. It had everything you ever wanted to see about transportation. There was a boat located outside that you could walk around. I think it is pretty interesting to know that one of its first voyages was to Portland, Oregon in 1896.
After visiting the museum we caught a very full bus and we were stuck standing for awhile. We headed back to the main square and grabbed some lunch before heading up to the Necropolis. The Necropolis is a Victorian garden cemetery with huge monuments and sculptures. It also offered a nice view of the city.
We ended the night by walking to a park near our bed & breakfast. Glasgow is a large city but you are able to escape the city life into their wonderful parks. I have never seen so many runners in my life out exercising. I’m not sure if it was the nice evening weather or if they exercise rain or shine. At one point, one running group of at least 50 people went by us.
We woke up to beautiful “English” weather. I’m talking about sun and blue sky. It was perfect weather to take a walking tour of the city. They offer free walking tours for 2 hours. The lady was very informative and gave an interesting tour. There is evidence that Mesolithic people settled in York between 8,000 and 7,000 BC. The city was founded by the Romans around 71 AD.
There was still plenty of decorations left around the city from the Tour de France (which started here this year). There were yellow bikes and flags everywhere. I think one highlight of the city was seeing the ruins of an abbey. They ended up taking it down to use the stone on other buildings around as they already had another minster. A man decided that the remains should be saved and bought the land so nobody could ruin where a beautiful abby once stood.
It was a nice tour of the city but we didn’t have much time. We had another 4 hour drive to Glasgow so it was back on the road for us.
We made it to York, England last night. My parents arrived around noon and it took us until 2:00 to get going. The car rental process isn’t the fastest when you really want an automatic. The drive took around 4 hours, and I was pretty shocked at how much traffic there was the entire drive.
Since we didn’t get to our hotel until a little after 6, we headed straight out to the town to find some dinner. The bed & breakfast is a cute little place a little outside the center of town. It was built around the 1880’s so it has a lot of old charm. We basically picked the first pub we saw since it was after 7 when we got into the center of town. The place was called Hole in the Wall and seemed like a pretty traditional English pub inside. We sat on little stools, and you placed your order at the bar.
By the time dinner was done it was after 8. Since we were all tired, we didn’t walk around long, but it does stay light longer. I took a couple of pictures but expect to have more after I walk around the city in the morning. It is different from the rest of the European cities I have visited since everything is brick here.
I expect some pretty long days since I woke up at 4:20 this morning because it was light outside and the owls were very chatty.
My suitcase is packed again and the plane is departing tomorrow for London. My parents will follow suit the next day. I need the extra day to get a good night sleep before our first long drive. Most of the trip will be in Scotland but the first couple of days there will be long drives through the English countryside. As long as I remember you drive on the left side of the road and on the right side of the car, I think we should manage to make our way north. There will plenty to see and lots of towns to visit to. Below is an overview of the journey that awaits. I’m leaving the hot weather behind me in Portland and heading to nice 70 degree weather. Perfect for touring around.
Fletch Travels 