Travelogue Scotland
Well, I figured I might as well put the travelogue on my LJ. A fair warning: I am not gonna mention every castle we drove by/ visited and you will read the word beautiful quite often.
Edinburgh was as beautiful as always but you wouldn’t believe the amount of people who were in the capital for the fringe. Sadly, we didn’t manage to see any of the shows but then again, we had tickets for the Military Tattoo. It was interesting and fun, apart from the constant reminders of the „heroes“ - it spoiled the whole thing at least for me. No, I do not want to see the faces of brave soldiers and grateful, saved Afghanistan people projected on to the castle; and combining this with worshipful phrases and dramatic music does not exactly help. I left feeling faintly sick, despite the great performances of the various groups. (Poland was fun and New Zeland rocked and Lybia had the shiniest uniforms. )
After Edinburgh we went to Aberdeen and I was glad to find my flat was still there and hasn‘t burnt down. Abdn was fun but not very eventful, those who managed to visit me know the places I draged my parents along to. After a one day castle&distillery trip, we finally started our journey for real.
First stop was Inverness, stopping by countless castles on the way - and some distilleries. Inverness is nice, it reminded me a bit of Salzburg, with the bridge and the river…
We traveled on, crossing the Black Isle, all the way to Scrapster, where we took the ferry to Stromness (Orkney Islands). The Orkney Islands are simply beautiful. Plus, you really shouldn‘t let me loose on an island claiming to be famous for pottery and knitting wear… But after visiting some craft shops, I decided to leave the island without the mug I wanted to buy… 150 GBP for a ceramic pot, I beg your pardon. After the Orkney Islands we headed in the direction of the Isle of Skye.
We had a quick look at the smoo caves. Too quick for me, I would have loved to spent some more time there and do the boat trip to the second cave, but we wanted to visit the Handa Island so we had no choice. We managed to get the last boat to get to the island. Despite the fact that we didn’t see any dolphins/sharks/whales/seals (and most of the seabirds had already left anyways), it was a beautiful walk - plus, we saw thousands of rabbits.
We spent the night in Ullapool, which is, despite the fact that Kokoschka spent some years there, not a very exciting place; then drove on to the Isle of Skye on the next morning.
The Isle of Skye is very very beautiful and Portree one of the nicest little villages we have visited so far. My new goal is one if the wooly, colorful sweaters they knit, but the prices make me a bit wobbly - again -.-
Being in Scotland, of course we also had to went and see Loch Ness. No monster in sight but a very relaxing stay in Fort Augustus, which is a very cute little village. Our B&B was decorated with elves, also, there is a fantastic little shop there called Over the rainbow - now guess which song I had stuck in my head all week before Fort Augustus? I really really wanted to buy something but yet again... I need to find a rich and generous husband a.s.a.p…
We drove on to Loch Lomond, staying in a B&B in Alexandria, which really is not very pretty but the pub there serves the best Sticky Toffee Pudding ever made by mankind- it was sticky perfection on a plate.
Our last stop on the way to Perth - which was the last B&B before Aberdeen - was Loch Katrine (go figure).
