Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Scotland Recap Part 3

I'm recapping my awesome trip to Scotland. Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here.

Day 4: Woke up in our cozy little room in Tobermory, had a delicious breakfast, and saw a brand new view out our window (much different than the one I posted in Part 2). The sunlight coming through below those heavy clouds was breathtaking.



We set out for a little place called the Mull Cheese Shop. It's the only cheese farm on the Isle of Mull, and they make some seriously tasty cheese using old/traditional methods. Their shop was unattended when we arrived, but the door was open and there was a sign posted that basically said, "Have a taste of our cheese and if you decide to buy some, put your money in this box. Change is in this other box." Talk about trust! We of course bought a wedge of cheese and paid for it and signed their little guest book.

I failed to get any photos inside the shop, but there were a couple other pretty sights on the property.

Lovely hydrangeas. There were other bushes with magenta ones, too!

Have I mentioned yet that Pauli looooves dogs? We greeted
many of them on this trip, all very friendly!

This one was pretty old and mellow, and clearly well loved.

More beautiful skies.


Oh, that reminds me. When we arrived at the shop, it was POURING rain. We decided to wait in the car for a few minutes to see if it would let up long enough for us to get inside without being drenched. Sure enough, within about three minutes the clouds parted and the sun came out. We got another few minutes of these blue, cloudy, rain-free skies after we left the shop, and then as we were walking back to the car, it started raining again! Oh, Scotland, how I love your fickle weather.

Found this one on my phone. This is us waiting
in the car for the rain to let up before we got out.


After the cheese shop, we took a leisurely drive around the northern part of Mull and saw some more picturesque scenery.

I think this was a place we stopped at because there was a giant
information placard about a nearby inactive volcano. I forget.

Windy!

More highland cattle! Ahhh I was so excited.

Beautiful creatures. Beautiful creation.

Why hello there, Norman. Won't you please look at the camera
for me? No? Fine. Be that way.

The famous shipwreck that everyone photographs when they
come to the Isle of Mull. No idea what the story is behind it;
I tried to find out, I swear!

Pretty (and possibly poisonous) berries!

For dinner we ended up at a tiny little pub called the MacDonald Arms. Joe made friends with a local while the rest of us chatted with a British family on vacation from London.


At some point in the day, this happened:

Rainbow!

I think it was before dinner, maybe? Man, I need to write these recaps quick before I forget everything! I also have a note in my travel log (which is the ONLY way I am remembering any of these details, let's be honest) that says we walked to town in the rain. I don't recall if that was after dinner, or if we did that after dinner just as a leisurely night-time walk. But I'm sure it was lovely, haha. Maybe the rainbow was after that walk? Would make sense since it stays light till like 9 PM.

Anyway, that was Day 4.

Day 5: This was mostly a travel day, but I have a bunch of pictures. I'll try to keep the commentary to a minimum so we can move on to possibly my favorite day of the trip -- Day 6!

First we said goodbye to Jenny, our awesome Tobermory host.


Then we hopped on a ferry to Kilchouan (apparently pronounced something like "Calhoun"). I liked this message on the side of a giant rock as we were leaving the dock.


After the first ferry ride, we had a long drive to Mallaig, where we boarded a second ferry to take us to Armadale on the Isle of Skye. I of course slept during the entire drive, so here are a million pictures from the two ferry rides.






Hmm...now that I think about it, THIS might be where we saw
the volcano information placard, which would mean this was taken
on the drive to Mallaig. Sure, let's go with that!

Ferry #2!




We had another hour-ish-long drive once we got onto Skye, and we landed in the Portree area, which Joe and I recognized from a big photo that his dad framed for us after their last trip to Scotland. Naturally, Pauli wanted to get a picture of Joe and me standing in front of the same background as proof that we were all there together at last! I didn't get that picture myself, but Pauli gave me a hard copy, so just picture us standing in the foreground here:



We finally checked in to our Skye B&B, Cruinn Bheinn, run by a very nice couple named Peter and Marina. This was the first place on our trip that Ben and Pauli hadn't already stayed at on a previous trip, so we weren't sure how it would go. (It went splendidly!) Anyway, we ended up at a place called Skeabost for dinner, at the recommendation of Peter, I think. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't our preferred pub scene. There was a pretty view out our window (maybe it's on a golf course?) and none of us hated our food. But Pauli ordered a cheese sandwich with a "red onion marmalade" or something, and it was literally two dry pieces of bread, some chunks of crumbly cheddar cheese, and RAW onion slices. She was not amused.

So that's Days 4 and 5. I am seriously starting to forget the details here, so look forward to a flurry of recap posts in the hope that I'll remember and record as much as possible before it all disappears!

2 comments:

  1. I loved reading part 3 (as well as part 2--I just forgot to tell you that). Keep the info coming!

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a beautiful trip of a lifetime your recap makes me feel like I was there. Love the cheese shop.

    ReplyDelete

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