St Andrews basically consists of 2 main roads which plenty of shops and restaurants. It seems like the University owns most of the buildings in this town. We walked around the town and the castle remains after spending some time at the golf course. I was also surprised how many people were swimming in the ocean. St Andrews is about 1,000 miles north of NY and is on the same parallel as Kodiak, Alaska. We really are having nice weather here. I’m not sure I ever thought I would come home from Scotland with a tan. I didn’t bring shorts here but the weather has been very nice.

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We took an interesting tour of the Old Course, St Andrews this morning. It was supposed to be 50 minutes long but the guy talked for closer to 1 hour 45 minutes. If you were here on a Sunday, you could do a 3 hour tour and walk the whole 18 holes which is 4 miles long.

I did learn that all property in Scotland belongs to the “people” meaning there is no private land which includes the golf courses. So you can walk across the golf course and there are even roads that go through the middle of the course and fairways. Golf is not allowed on Sundays at the Old Course and you will see people using it as a park instead of golf. You can belong to private golf clubs but that basically just gets you into a building not a golf course.

The open will be held here next year (it is here every 5 years). I can only imagine how busy it is here when they have a major tournament. If one is lucky enough to win the lottery to get to play on the Old Course, it will cost you 160 gbp and 45 gbp for a caddie.

Our tour basically was around the 18th hole. They build grandstands around the 18th hole when they have the Open so it looks different today than it will on tv next summer.

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We left Inverness and headed towards St. Andrews.  If we drove directly there it would have taken over 2 hours but we decided to make a detour and head toward the northeast coast to the city of Peterhead.  This made the drive over 5 hours but was worth to see the city that my mom’s grandpa left from to come to America.  This is not a tourist town but a major fishing port for Scotland.  We did talk to the Register’s office, and if we call them back with more information on my great grandpa, they will help do some research on figuring out exactly where he came from and the names of his parents.  The town isn’t very picturesque, and I’m pretty sure I’m the only one that had a camera out.

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We have been driving around in an automatic Citröen C4. Of course when we landed in London, they tried giving me a manual even though I reserved an automatic a long time ago. They said they gave a lot of automatics out in the morning and would have to search for one. I really didn’t need to drive a manual since I’m already unfamiliar with driving on the right side of the car and left side of the road.  The back passenger windows don’t roll down and I can’t get the left mirror to move.

We did a day trip from Inverness to the Black Isle today. It actually isn’t black or an island but a peninsula. Dolphins are frequently seen in the waters around the Isle so we drove to an area where people usually see them. We weren’t really there at a good time for the tides but the beach was lovely so we walked the beach for an hour to another town. The weather was perfect. Not sure I have ever had such nice weather at a beach in Oregon. A golf course and a campground were right next to the beach so I just hoped that nobody hits a golf ball like me. We ate lunch at the town we walked to and then walked back along the path along the golf course. I did see a dolphin on our walk back but it was very brief.

We later took a very fancy 4 car ferry. I was the last car on. I couldn’t figure out how the two cars on my right were facing the right way to get off. It was a funny ferry because you just drive down to the sand and up on the boat. Once we arrived on the other side, the two cars facing the right way got off and then I went to back off thinking I was next. They operator told me to stop. The car in front of me was on a turn table that turns cars around to face the correct way so once he turned that car around, I could pull forward and they turn our car around for us. Made it so much easier then me backing up the beach.

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We have been staying at a bed & breakfast about 10 minutes from the center of the city in Inverness. Inverness sits at the mouth of the River Ness which comes from the Loch Ness. It is a lot bigger city than I was expecting as it has around 70,000 people. We spent the first night walking around the town and finding a good restaurant to eat at called The Mustard Seed. The food portions here are very large, and I always leave a place feeling stuffed. I was happy to see they had a lite early menu from 5:30 to 7:00. I don’t know what was so lite about it because I still left very full. I’m usually full from the moment I sit down at breakfast to the moment I go in bed. This morning, the host told me I was having a small breakfast. I had cornflakes, fried egg and fried toast. I never had fried toast and he said it was Scottish so I tried it. He couldn’t believe I only wanted 1 fried egg. I’m going to have a lot of running to do when I get back…

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We drove from the Isle of Skye to Inverness on Monday and made a stop at Loch Ness to look for Nessie. Loch (lake) Ness is a deep, freshwater lake that is over 23 miles long and mostly a mile wide at every point. It contains more freshwater than all the lakes in England and Wales combined. It is 755 feet deep and is completely flat on the bottom. You can take your boat right up to the shore almost and still not hit ground. You don’t see a lot of boats on the lake because private boats are not allowed to fish. You have to fish from the side of the banks. The water is completely black due to all the peat in the water.

We heard from the locals that Nessie goes on holiday with the rest of Europeans in July and August so all we had was a pleasant boat ride for an hour. We had perfect weather to be the lake. The water can get pretty choppy and they even have a coast guard boat for the lake.

After the boat tour, we grabbed some lunch and then walked along the locks that go into Loch Ness since we couldn’t check in to your bed & breakfast until 4.

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Our one full day went fast on the Isle of Skye. We stopped at a distillery (tour times were already over an hour away), then on to a castle, to a tannery and then by a local yarn shop where they dye their yarn with their plants in their yard. After that we headed to the scenic part of the island. There aren’t many towns at all on the island so you can go a good hour before seeing anywhere you can stop for a restroom, food or gas.

We had a nice view from our B&B window. My favorite part about the place was how remote it was. You drive through a cattle guard that says “beware of bull” and then on to the house. You can hear the goats when you sleep and there are a ton of bunnies running around. The Isle of Skye was a first for me ordering fish & chips. I don’t have anything to compare it to, but I didn’t really think I could tell the difference between the fish or the chip. The majority of the road around the island was a one lane road with passing areas. It was usually OK but I didn’t like some of the blind corners or summits. Also, sheep and cattle are allowed to walk around freely so you had to watch for that in the road.

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The Isle of Skye is a beautiful green island. I don’t think I have ever seen so much green in one day. It was great weather most of the time. My automatic windshield wipes haven’t came on many times which has been very surprising. The locals actually say how great their weather has been. Usually July and August are their worst months for rain. Last summer, some of the isle’s ran out of water and had to import enough water for drinking.

We drove a good route around the island. It took us all day to get around. Here are some of my favorite green pictures from the day. I have one too many favorites, but I just like how green everything is.

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There are plenty of hikes to do on the Isle of Skye but I don’t think I picked the right one at the right time. I didn’t know what kind of walk it was so we started up this muddy trail. Once we realized that it was steep and rocky, I kept going on my own. We thought it was just a short walk up a hill. I’m not sure how long I hiked, but I don’t think I ever saw what I was supposed to. I hiked until I was in the fog and rain before turning around. Besides it was just me and a bunch of goats up there.

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