Days 21-25:
Scotland Minibreak:
I headed off on my mini-break adventure on Thursday
morning. A fire in Edinburgh delayed my
departure a bit because it backed up traffic so much that our taxi couldn’t
make it through the middle of town to get to the train station and the rental
car office. Finally, I arrived at the
rental car office and began the driving portion of my trip…on the “wrong” side
of the road! I had ordered a GPS for the
car and bought an atlas, so I was doubly covered in case I got lost!!
Driving on the opposite side of the road really wasn’t as
unnerving as I expected it to be. I
upgraded to the automatic transmission (even though I can drive a manual
transmission), so I didn’t have to deal with shifting gears with my left hand. I made a few stops on the way across the country
for food and to take pictures.
Once I got to Arisaig/Morar, I had to stop and ask for
directions because my GPS said I had arrived, but I couldn’t find the bed and
breakfast. Eventually, I did find it,
got checked in, and had a cup of tea and some shortbread. I got settled in and took a brief nap before
I headed out to Mallaig (a nearby town) for dinner. My eyes were much larger than my stomach
when I saw all the delicious options on the menu! I ordered mussels, a tomato and mozzarella
salad, and Cullen skink (smoked fish, potato, and leek) stew. All of it was absolutely delicious, but it
made me glad that I hadn’t really had much lunch!
Mussels (top) and Cullen Skink Stew (bottom) |
On the way back to my B&B, I decided to make an
impromptu stop at the beach I had passed on the way in. I couldn’t pass up a chance to put my toes in
the sand! It was only 18*C (64.4*F), so
the sand was pretty cold. The cold
didn’t deter me from even testing out the water in the loch (which was even
colder!).
Nothing better than my toes in the sand!! |
Loch Morar beach |
* * *
The next day I headed off to the Isle of Skye, which meant
another ferry ride. I decided to drive
for a while before I went to the Clan Donald Skye Center, so I headed up the
coast toward Broadmoor and back. During part of my drive, you could actually
see the fog rolling in over the mountain.
It was really beautiful!
View from ferry, looking back at Mallaig |
Statue on the dock at Mallaig |
While on
this little journey, I realized that I should probably get gas if I was going
to drive around since gas stations aren’t as prevalent in the UK as they are in
the US. I found one and pulled in, at
which point I realized that I didn’t know which side the tank was on. Thank goodness for a random conversation I
had at the beach this year with my parents and my sister-in-law’s parents about
most cars having an indicator on the dashboard that tells you where to find the
gas tank. I looked, and there it was a
little triangle on the left side of the tank symbol! Eureka!
The Clan Donald Skye Center has a museum, library, gardens,
castle, gift shops, and a restaurant.
There is also an area where you can participate in Highland games, but
that part was closed the day I was there (too bad, I was really hoping to see
how I did on some of those activities!!).
The museum has exhibits about clan and local history. Although most of the items are specifically
related to the family history of the McDonalds, there are some things that are
more general in nature and would apply to general life in Scotland or the Isle
of Skye at particular times in history.
The library has 7,000 books, mostly about history: family, clan, local, naval, military,
biography; although there are other books about geography and other subjects,
too. They also have maps, clan lists,
genealogies, etc. They have not
digitized much, if any, of their collection; but they have some items on
microfilm/microfiche.
My dining companion for lunch |
The center includes ruins of a laundry building and the
Armadale castle, which is where the McDonald clan lived long ago. Neither building currently has a roof, but
the walls are still standing and the buildings are still beautiful. I spent a little time wandering around the
outside of the castle and taking pictures.
Front of Armadale Castle (former home of Clan Donald) |
It's tall!! |
View through the ruin of Armadale Castle |
View from Armadale Castle (basically the front yard) |
Back of Armadale Castle |
The gardens are tranquil and full of ponds and flowers. They are a perfect place to sit and ponder
the meaning of life or just sit and daydream for a while.
Pond at Clan Donald Skye Gardens |
At the end of my time on Skye, I took the ferry back to the
mainland and wondered once again why ferries are always cold…no matter what the
weather is on land! I browsed through a
shop or two in Mallaig before heading to a local inn for dinner.
Driving is becoming easier and easier. Parking…not so much! For some reason, I am having difficulty
parking from the opposite direction (which is strange, since I pull into
parking spots on both sides in the US).
Who knew that parallel parking would ever be easier than parking in a
traditional parking space?!
* * *
The next day, I decided to explore the mainland a bit. I drove and drove and drove. I found beaches and lochs and coves and
bays. I made friends with sheep and
lovely old Scottish gentlemen who talked my ears off about fishing and family
and golf and Virginia. I was being
attacked by midgies (black flies), so he rooted around in his tackle box and
gave me his extra bottle of “midgie cream” that he swore by…it was Avon
Skin-So-Soft! I’m not sure it really
worked, because I still have bites but maybe they came from before. He was such a sweet man, and I enjoyed
talking with him. Though, I did have
some trouble understanding some of what he was saying, and I felt awful
whenever I had to ask him to repeat himself.
Loch Morar |
I couldn't resist wading in a bit |
I continued driving around and finally got the picture of
the waterfall that I had been seeing each time I went into Mallaig. Then I headed into Mallaig for lunch and to
look at some of the shops that had been closed when I had stopped in
before.
Once again, I headed to Mallaig to get food. Before lunch, though, I decided to check out
the Mallaig Heritage Center, which is a museum and archive about the history of
the town. It only took about fifteen or
twenty minutes to look through, but it was interesting to see what they felt
represented their town’s history.
After lunch, I went to Fort William (which is about an hour
away) by way of Glenfinnan so I could try to see the viaduct made famous by the
Harry Potter Hogwart’s Express movie scenes.
Unfortunately, there really isn’t a good view from the road, but I got
the best picture that I could anyway.
Glenfinnan Viaduct |
Another viaduct at the Prince's Cairn, but a better picture |
I spent a little time in Fort William before heading back to
the coast. I decided to stop in Arisaig
for dinner on the way and then headed back to the B&B for the night.
* * *
On Sunday, I decided to relax and watch movies and read all
day. It was glorious! I hadn’t had one of these days in weeks, so I
enjoyed every bit of it! I finally
headed out into public for dinner and ended my Scotland trip with fish and chips. Because it was National Ice Cream Day in the
US, I also grabbed a Magnum bar at the Co-operative Grocery Store and ate it
while sitting on the rocks near the shore listening to the waves hit the rocks
below. All in all, it was a wonderful
end to my relaxing mini-break.
* * *
Monday morning, I woke up bright and early to get an early
start on my trip so I could easily catch my 2:30 train back to London. The trip from Morar to Edinburgh is only
supposed to take 3 hours and 45 minutes, but I didn’t want to take any chances
with traffic or getting lost. I dropped
off my rental car and got a cab to the train station to await my train back to
the city. My days of driving on the wrong
side of the road are all over for now!
The train trip back to London has been full of excitement
over the Royal Baby’s impending arrival, excitement over my first class seat
which gives me extra leg room and other
perks, and time and space to work on my blog! I used the free wi-fi to blog and to watch Netflix, while enjoying my reclining seat and the complimentary orange and chocolate biscuits (or cookies)!
The baby boy was born just before 4:30pm today, and he weighed in at 8 lb. 6 oz. Tonight was spent listening to the cheering and rejoicing in the streets and watching the BBC coverage on the television. My vote for a name is Alexander, but I might be a little biased since that is my nephew's name!!
No comments:
Post a Comment