(no subject)
I'm back from Scotland! How did those two weeks fly by so fast?
First we had a fantastic trip to Mallaig - or actually we got off one stop earlier in Morar and went to the beach. (Then we waded in the sea, because the beach was gone on the stroll back.) Then we walked to Mallaig, where we took the Jacobite Steam Train back to Fort William. We didn't specifially book a Harry Potter compartment, but we ended up in one anyway, completely alone. It wasn't a hundred percent like in the movie(s), but it came very close. Up until the color and pattern of the upholstery!
Next came six days of hiking. I'm not sure how many kilometers we ended up doing, I'll have to look it up on geodistance or something. We had to take a long detour on day 1 and 2 since there was no accomodation at the end of the section. But we skipped some miles on the last day because we felt like we wouldn't have been able to do the full 29 kilometers - or more, starting from our hostel. That involved a bus ride and a rather adventurous trek through the woods to get back on the trail. I am still amazed that we didn't get horribly lost.
We met a couple of other people walking the same trail, most notably four English women (later three, as one had to give up halfway through), who, despite each being old enough to be our mother, regularly embarrassed us by being way faster than us. We almost didn't see them the last day but then met them in the pub close to the finish point in the evening, which was a pleasant surprise.
After that we had the two days on Lewis, where it was very windy. In fact, I've never experienced such a strong wind before. I had to hold onto a post to not get blown away once.
Driving the electric car was an experience. I'm not sure if I want to repeat it, probably not on an island, at least. Charging stations were few and far between, and despite being labelled "fast", they really were not. Not that we knew that, so we spent almost two hours of the first day stuck in the parking lot of a sporting center. And then still barely made it home and to the next charging station the next day. We switched off the radio and all air conditioning, and I drove like my own grandma to save some battery. Driving on the left side in a right-hand car was easier than the last time I did it, and it helped that it was an automatic.
We had roughly a day in Edinburgh, which was enough to check off some sights and go shopping before it was time to go home.
We were mostly lucky with the weather. While it rained every day, it was mostly short spells apart from the end of the first day, and the last day in Edinburgh. The best day we had was the one we spent on the "high route" on the hills over Loch Ness, so we had some great views.
This entry is crossposted to https://stellamira.dreamwidth.org/700029.html. You can comment there, too.
First we had a fantastic trip to Mallaig - or actually we got off one stop earlier in Morar and went to the beach. (Then we waded in the sea, because the beach was gone on the stroll back.) Then we walked to Mallaig, where we took the Jacobite Steam Train back to Fort William. We didn't specifially book a Harry Potter compartment, but we ended up in one anyway, completely alone. It wasn't a hundred percent like in the movie(s), but it came very close. Up until the color and pattern of the upholstery!
Next came six days of hiking. I'm not sure how many kilometers we ended up doing, I'll have to look it up on geodistance or something. We had to take a long detour on day 1 and 2 since there was no accomodation at the end of the section. But we skipped some miles on the last day because we felt like we wouldn't have been able to do the full 29 kilometers - or more, starting from our hostel. That involved a bus ride and a rather adventurous trek through the woods to get back on the trail. I am still amazed that we didn't get horribly lost.
We met a couple of other people walking the same trail, most notably four English women (later three, as one had to give up halfway through), who, despite each being old enough to be our mother, regularly embarrassed us by being way faster than us. We almost didn't see them the last day but then met them in the pub close to the finish point in the evening, which was a pleasant surprise.
After that we had the two days on Lewis, where it was very windy. In fact, I've never experienced such a strong wind before. I had to hold onto a post to not get blown away once.
Driving the electric car was an experience. I'm not sure if I want to repeat it, probably not on an island, at least. Charging stations were few and far between, and despite being labelled "fast", they really were not. Not that we knew that, so we spent almost two hours of the first day stuck in the parking lot of a sporting center. And then still barely made it home and to the next charging station the next day. We switched off the radio and all air conditioning, and I drove like my own grandma to save some battery. Driving on the left side in a right-hand car was easier than the last time I did it, and it helped that it was an automatic.
We had roughly a day in Edinburgh, which was enough to check off some sights and go shopping before it was time to go home.
We were mostly lucky with the weather. While it rained every day, it was mostly short spells apart from the end of the first day, and the last day in Edinburgh. The best day we had was the one we spent on the "high route" on the hills over Loch Ness, so we had some great views.
This entry is crossposted to https://stellamira.dreamwidth.org/700029.html. You can comment there, too.