The day only got better from there. Next was Dunvegan castle.
The gardens at Dunvegan castle were amazing, but I am limiting my pics or this would get ridiculous. Next on the bucket list was the Old man of Storr.
Started today with better than expected weather. And the rainy weather we had, was short and came with a whisky shots from locals. (More on those nice Scots later).
George woke up at 3:15 because the light was shining in the window and we both wondered,when does the sun rise (maybe it never really sets in Scotland on the summer solstice). I fought through the sunlight and managed to sleep again till 830. We had more eggs and local salmon/ lox for breakfast. After bfast we wandered through town and started day three of the cycling tour around 10:30.
At this point in our trip, I needed to pee and ventured off to look at the bridge and find a nice quiet spot while George and Tim (our riding companion) went ahead.
I turned on the turbo to catch up. But Tim was waiting for me in the road and said we were taking a pit stop for the rain. Wherein the 90 year old Scottish local not only gave us shelter from the rain, but also whisky.
The rain subsided and we ventured towards kingussie for lunch stopping at the ruthven barracks and pics of more highland coos.
Mostly a travel day, but we did get a great first rainy ride in. The train ride was about 3 hours through the Scottish Highlands. We arrived a we bit early, but grabbed a pint got some lunch and went for a beautiful ride.
After check in we got outfitted for a ride and took one. Look at this beautiful scenery (in the rain no less).
It was a rocky start to a weekend trip. Our 8pm Thursday night on frontier was delayed until it was cancelled after 11pm. After standing in line with angry passengers (with little hope of rebooking), we gave up and decided to go home. We back tracked the airport, shuttle, car and then drove back to Jenna’s for a brief sleep with little hope of returning…until we decided our sunk cost was lost and we might as well try to get an experience.
We got the 430 pm flight on Delta. We were hopeful about a 2 pm possibility until two platinum skymiles members bumped us. Then, our plane had mechanical problems and more mechanical problems and some weather. After a deplane experience, I began to think we shouldn’t go and was on hold with Delta about a refund when they let us reboard.
Woke up today and got busy making memories on Phoenix.
I’m going to share some pictures to prove it.
Sisters with too much sun and wind.
We left papago and went to South mountain park and preserve and hiked the pima canyon trailhead.
Then we picked up Alaska and went to a folk music festival and had dinner before going to a sunset. We didn’t see cocaine bear… Maybe next time Fiona?
This section of the blue ridge parkway is quite beautiful. You either have rolling hills in Virginia or you ride the ridgeline with mountains and valleys on either side. There is a road closure around Roanoke for 30 minutes, but we wanted to run into town anyway so it wasn’t a big deal.
We asked the ranger for a recommendation at peaks of otter and wow, was this a fabulous hike. Sharp top mountain (which we promptly started calling shart stop mountain). We added on buzzard Rock which was well worth the extra 600 feet.
Stone work at shart stop.
We had a great day. Started our day with the botanical gardens then a picnic in the park. The gardens were great and perfect reprieve for little rainy spurts.
We continued the Austin walking tour through the University which was quite beautiful.
Then through the mural district which made us very thirsty.
We wandered by an Italian restaurant that was super busy (Sugo) and had the foresight to put out name on the list while we finished the mural walk. So glad we did. It was delicious!
Sad it’s ending, but we had a great time.
Started the day on Loch Lommand and saw Dumbarton castle which has had the longest stronghold in Scotland. It was also free because they are fixing the masonry so we didn’t get to go to the top of the volcanic plug.
Next we headed to Glasgow. Since we had extra time (because of the shortened castle tour) , we stopped at a Scotch whisky distillery named Auchentoshan. We couldn’t get a tour but we (primarily me since George was driving) got a sample and made it to the pie, a pint and a play on time.
The play was about Mary (queen of scots) kinda outlanderish( with time travel and humor). After the play we checked into our last air bnb and finally dropped off the rental car and got another double decker bus back to Glasgow. We found an Irish pub that had music and we closed out our night there.
Long day of driving (2 hours) from Fort William to Balloch on Loch Lommand. We took a pit stop at the highlands soap factory and at the Ben Nevis distillery, but I forgot to take any pictures of us sniffing either soap or scotch. It rained the whole way here, but we did stop in GlenCoe for a short hike. It also rained on Balloch today so we found a castle and a brewery.
Another great day in Scotland. We went from Ft. William to Glencoe. Just a bunch of Monroes (that’s what the Scots call a mountain over 3000 feet) #beautiful #scotland and waterfalls. Two major hikes, one right out the visitor center where it was raining in one valley and the sun was shining in the other.
Next hike, we went to the lost valley. The girls were a little traumatized by our 2 mile hike that turned out to be 5 miles, but their legal representation contacted our lawyers and we negotiated another round of fish and chips as compensation for an additional 4 mile walk.
Left isle of Skye today. It was raining, so it made it easier to say goodbye. It was a pretty drive all the way to the viaduct (where that train. Flying car scene from Harry Potter was filmed) but it rained the whole way there. BUT at the viaduct we got the sun. (Thank you Scotland)
Next we got to Fort William, we made dinner at the house and took a walk. We got a double rainbow and a castle. The castle was so random. We were just walking. They have so many castle ruins, they just don’t know what to do with them.
Today was rainy and we slept in until 8:30. We pretty much geared up after breakfast to walk to the fish market for dinner, but George noticed the mobile seafood van was right in front of our house. We stocked up for lunch and dinner. After a stroll about town, we convinced the girls to go with us to brother’s point.
At brothers point, we were the only people there. The rain stopped for our hike so I felt like it would be best to pay our respects in the pub that was once a church… We went to the pub and I had a wee pint and listened to the band.
Today we left in the 9’oclock hour (9:58, not counting when I went back in to get the charger)… We went to the Quiraing and mostly avoided a down pour.
After the Quiraing we went to the Fairy Glen, which is notorious because they filmed the Teletubbies here. The Fairy Glen was pretty cool, but after this morning the pictures bar is set so high.
After dinner we walked around Portree and it’s a beautiful little town.
Uhm, I’m so late today, but it was an amazing day and I was too tired to post yesterday. We started off the morning with a run through Inverness before we picked up our rental car. We got to ride a double decker to the airport
After picking up the rental car, we drove past loch Ness. We did get a great shot of the monster, but I’m not going to share it because it will ruin the mystery for you. George drove us to the ilse of sky. We stopped at Eilean Doran, a beautiful castle where 3 lochs meet, then we went straight to the fairy pools.
We started heading home and the day just got more and more beautiful. T we stopped at Sligachan old Bridge and took a short walk up the John Muir trail.
We started our day with a quick jaunt up to loch Morlich with Tim. I saw a reindeer as well, but it was not the one that ran over grandma on Christmas Eve (at least as far as I know).
After the biking trip and a quick shower we let Scotrail take us to Inverness
After dropping out bags we got pizza at Black Isle brewery.
spending all my money in all the best ways
Roll On
Roll On
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