Alright everyone, brace yourself for another long post, but I will add lots of pictures to make it worth your while.
So after Jacob and I flew back into Glasgow we gave ourselves a day of rest before we went to pick up the car we had rented for a week of driving up the west coast and through the highlands of Scotland. This was a trip we had been planning since the beginning and we were both very excited that it was finally here.
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| Our car and me attempting to look like the girls in those car magazines =) |
The first little bit of driving was full of quite a bit of tension as Jacob was trying to get used to the drivers seat being on the opposite side of the car and therefore needing to shift with the opposite hand and also driving on the opposite side of road. We had also never driven in Glasgow before and the streets were quite confusing. We ended up breaking down and using data to find our way back to flat and then out of the city. Once we were out of Glasgow, it was still a little strange, but we could breath a little easier.
Our first stop was Loch Lomond for lunch. This Loch is rather close to Glasgow and is know for its beauty. The gorgeous weather only added to its beauty. We found a nice little spot where we could walk right down to the water and where many other families had set up picnic lunches. It was a perfect first stop.
After we had eaten our fill of peanut butter and banana sandwiches and carrots we got back in the car and continued on our way. Our goal was to reach Oban and spend the night there. It wasn't going to be difficult because Oban was only about an hour and a half from Glasgow, but we were taking it slow and wanted to make sure we saw everything there was to see. We did take a little detour to hit the tip of the Mull of Kintyre and take a picture of the sign. We listened to the song almost all the way there =).
We did reach Oban before dinner time, filled up the tank (we had only used a quarter tank but it was less painful to fill it up then instead of waiting until it was emptier to fill it up; gas is really expensive here) and went to get some fish and chips for dinner. From Oban we were planning on taking the ferry over to the island of Mull and from there visit the Isle of Iona which has the famous monastery started by St. Columba in the 6th century. So we looked at times for ferries and buses over dinner, walked around town, and then went to bed.
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| Oban harbor at twilight |
We woke up to catch the 9:30 ferry to Mull which we thought was the fist one of the day. When we got to Mull, however, we learned that we had now switched to the summer schedule and there was a ferry at around 7. This was the ferry that we would have needed to take if we wanted to make a day trip to Iona like we had planned. Because in Mull we had to take an hour and a half long bus ride to get to the port that would get us to Iona. Since the island was so small this bus didn't run very often and we would have been able to spend less then an hour on Iona before we needed to get back to Mull to make the last bus.
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| Jacob's first time on a ferry, he was very excited |
Jacob and I talked for quite a while about our options. We could just spend the day on Mull and skip Iona; we could rush through seeing some things on Iona and just spend what little time we could there; or we could spend the night on Iona and come back in the morning. In the end we decided that Iona was something that we really wanted to see badly enough to stay the night there, even though it threw off some of our other plans. But once this was decided we felt a little better. We were able to wait for the bus in peace.
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| Jacob building a rock fort while we waited for the bus. |
The bus ride was nice. Our driver was very friendly and we were able to see a lot of pretty views from the bus windows.
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| Single track roads, kind of scary |
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| Those white things are seals |
After the bus we took another, much smaller ferry to Iona. A brochure I had read on the bus talked about white sandy beaches and turquoise waters, but the words don't really do it justice. And I'm sure these pictures will fail to capture how beautiful it was as well.
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| On the ferry to Iona! |
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| The beach! |
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| Pretty wild flowers |
We had a little bit of trouble finding a place to stay. We had called a hostel while we were on Mull. Their answering machine said that they had spots and we left a message but they never got back to us. It didn't help that my phone was out of minutes (for some unknown reason because I hardly ever use it and there is no way I had used 200 minutes already, but whatever). But when we went over to the hostel the owners weren't home and the desk person didn't know anything (I don't know what he gets paid for if he can't help customers, but I'm not bitter). We finally got a room at a bed and breakfast. It was a little more expensive than we were hoping, but at least we had a bed for the night.
Before the day was done we were able to see the monastery. The buildings weren't from the original monastery that was found in the 6th century but rather 15th century buildings, but still spectacular.
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| A view of the monastery from the ferry |
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| A High Cross |
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| A tiny door to a tiny room. It's purpose; unknown |
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| Window depicting the founder St. Columba |
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| The Cloisters |
The next morning dawned just as beautiful as the two before it. It was sunny and promised to be warm. Jacob and I decided to go for a walk around the island before making the long trek back over two ferries and the long bus ride on Mull. We walked around the southern tip of the island (which is only a mile wide and three miles long, by the way). We found and trudged through some nice bog-land. Our feet got really wet and Jacob stepped right into a nice wet cow pie. But despite all this grossness, Jacob was fascinated to experience bog-land which is such a huge part of Scottish and Irish culture, and we had a really nice time on our walk. We met some sheep, played in some more sand, climbed some hills and got some amazing views.
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| Jacob playing with seaweed |
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| Queen of the World! |
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| King of the World! |
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| King and Queen together |
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| Baby lambs are so cute |
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| Run to your mamma baby lamb! |
We caught the last bus of the day and were back on the main land again by evening. To get back on schedule we hopped back in the car and headed for our next destination, Fort William. The next day, we saw the old fort, more old buildings, and the west highland museum.
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| Firing a cannon at the old fort site |
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| Just an old church |
The best thing we found in Fort William, however, was a sign that told us about a Haggis festival that was happening that day in the next town over. We grabbed a map and got back in the car to see this festival.
It was as fantastic as you'd imagine. It turns out it was the very special inaugural Highland Haggis Festival. We saw some cooking demonstrations where we got to try a haggis walnut loaf with goat cheese and apples, haggis bon-bons, a haggis empanada, haggis lamb meatballs, and a haggis scotch-egg. Jacob sampled some haggis ale, haggis flavored crisps, and bought us some haggis soup. To top it all off we got a picture with the Hamish the Haggis! Could the day have been any better? I don't think so.
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| Cooking demonstration |
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| om nom haggis soup |
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| I'm star-struck! |
Our next stop was Inverness, one of Scotland's seven cities, but more notably the city that sits at the top of Loch Ness. The city itself with kind of boring, too much like Glasgow for a holiday visit, but seeing Loch Ness was cool.
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| Inverness castle |
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| The river Ness |
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| Jacob and Nessie are buds |
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| Lunch on the Loch |
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| Nessie? no definitely just a log. |
While in Inverness, we decided to change our plans a little. We had wanted to drive down to Aberdeen on the east coast then down to Perth and Stirling so we could see all seven cities. After Inverness though, I was kind of disenchanted by this idea. I didn't want to see more cities. I really wanted to see more scenery and natural beauty. So we decided to drive over to the Isle of Skye, another Hebridean island that is known for it rock formations, ancient landmarks, and general beauty.
When we got to Skye, however, the weather took a turn for the worse. It became cloudy, windy, and cold again. And it rained almost the whole second day. We didn't get to hike like we had hoped, partly because of the weather and partly because hiking trails were really badly marked along the road so we missed most of them. But we did get to see some pretty spectacular sights nonetheless.
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| Kilt Rock |
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| The Old Man of Storr |
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| Castle in Ruins |
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| Decorated rock |
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| Highland Cow finally! |
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| Jacob wanted to brave the rain and wind to see this ruined church |
While Skye brought us spectacular views, it also brought us some misfortune.
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| Our car in a ditch |
Jacob tried to make a u-turn on a single track road and over-estimated how much room he had. We were really lucky though because the second and third car that passed us both stopped to help. One man went back to his house to get some rope and pulled us out. Luckier still there was no damage to car!
We left Skye behind and took a long drive down to Perth and Stirling. We spent a short time walking around in Perth and saw their cathedral. It was the oldest building standing in Perth, but it had been modernized in the inside quite a few times since it was built in the 15th century.
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| St. John's Kirk |
We stopped in Stirling next. It had been our original plan to stay in Stirling our last night and drive into Glasgow in the morning to return the car. But we decided that we were tired of sleeping in the car and anxious to get home. We were close enough to Glasgow to make it worth just driving straight on there. But we saw a few things in Stirling first.
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| Wallace Monument |
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| Old Bridge, the sight of a famous battle between William Wallace and the English |
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| We made friends with a snail that Jacob saved from being crushed on the sidewalk |
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| The view of the city from Gowan Hill. |
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| Also on Gowan Hill an old beheading stone. |
By the end of the day we were home again. For dinner we went through a KFC drive-thru and were very disappointed. The chicken was fine, but they didn't have biscuits, mashed potatoes, or green beans! Those were really the things we wanted other than the chicken. Instead of biscuits they had french fries, and for the potatoes they had baked beans, and instead of green beans they had corn on the cob. They clearly don't know how to KFC up here. They need to get their act together. But it was better than cooking since we didn't have anything in the house to cook.
The last of our adventures was returning the car in the morning. When they were checking it out they said that the back passenger door was "quite badly scratched." Quite badly scratched my butt; she showed us and I could hardly see it. They took part of our security deposit and we didn't have to pay anything else, so I guess it's not as bad as it could be. And I think they severely overcharged us for the "scratch" that was there. It cost us over half of our 250 pound deposit and you know what they are probably going to do about it, nothing, but I'm not bitter about it at all. Whatever, the car is back and we had a good time, so I guess that's what really matters. Considering Jacob's doofusness in making u-turns, it could have been a lot worse. ;)
Anyway, pip pip and cheerio and all that,
Jessie and Jacob
