Scotland

I recently returned from a trip to both Ireland and Scotland. I went to Ireland to meet up with my gal pal, Anne. I spent 3 days at her home in County Clare and then the 2 of us flew into Edinburgh for over a week of touring the country side of Scotland. I had a fabulous time!

I love Anne's house. She remodeled in 2004, adding a lot of space to her 80+ year old house. It has the traditional deep windows and peet fire place of the cottage it once was. She has a great kitchen and I love sitting there, sipping tea and talking.

Highlights of my time in Ireland include meeting Anne's beau, Michael (great guy), visiting with her mom and sister, Helen. A short visit to Ned, now in his late 80s, and dinner with Anne's daughter, Melissa. I also helped Anne and Michael move a small herd of her cattle from one field to another, down about a mile of roads. Thanks, Michael, for putting me BEHIND the cattle! I also enjoyed a 3-mile walk where I had my own epiphany about life and love.

I really didn't know what to expect in Scotland. We had no real set plan until we got there and sat in the rented car and said, "Now what?"

The first night we made it to right outside St. Andrews. For most of the trip we stayed in B&Bs, always trying to get one of the outskirts of a little town or village so that we could walk to a pub or restaurant for dinner. This really worked out well, although we should have stopped earlier a couple of times as it was difficult to find a good B&B as it got later in the day.

Truthfully, Scotland wasn't high on my list of places to visit, but I have completely changed my mind. It is a beautiful country with much diversity in its landscape. The roads are very easy to follow (if you can figure out the roundabouts!) and the sign posts are very frequent. Plus, the people are awesome.

We drove up the coastal highway towards Inverness. This isn't a "highway" by American standards. It is a well-marked, 2 lane road. We made several stops along the way. At one point we got off the highway and took a small road through 2 villages until we reached the sea. Both villages were charming. We walked along the road by the sea and watched a woman riding her horse on the beach. At the next village we went into a lovely antique store where I purchased an antique locket. More about the locket in another post. It was a delightful way to spend some time and a beautiful day - the sea was lovely.

Also, while on this road we had to stop as a farmer was moving his cows from the field to the barn. He had a working sheep dog helping him - in fact doing all of the work. I got a real kick out of this and stood outside the car so I could watch the dog at work. That dog was having a great time.

Every day we stopped for tea and, of course, a little something to go with it! Near the end of our trip I did find a place that made plain old coffee. Yipee! It is easy to find latte's and the like, but not basic coffee.

One of the most beautiful sights was the green fields against the setting of another crop that was in full bloom. The blooms were a bright yellow - just beautiful. I can't remember the name of the crop, but they use it to make oil that they use for cooking. The yellow against the green was something I will always remember.

We stayed in Inverness one night and then drove up a little further north to visit a castle. However, we got there just as it closed and back tracked, staying again near Inverness. We spend the next day shopping and looking around Inverness before heading down through the middle of the country.

We spent a couple of days traveling down the "loch highway." Now, I had heard of Loch Ness and the Loch Ness monster. I didn't realized (not really studying Scotland before I went) that the lochs run down basically the center of the country and are surrounded by mountains. Some of the mountains were high enough to have snow on the tops and a tree line. This made for more beautiful sightseeing.

We drove to the other side of Scotland to the port town of Oban. Unfortunately, it was pouring rain. After a nice lunch and a couple of quick stops, we drove on towards Stirling. Anne had agreed to tour the castle there with me. Let me point out that Anne really doesn't enjoy touring castles or old houses/buildings, which is something I just love.

We weren't able to find a B&B in Stirling so we drove north to another little village where we stayed in a lovely old house. Again, we walked into town for our evening meal. There we met a man who is married to an American. He was also thrilled and actually knew where Milwaukee was because he owns a Harley! He and his wife moved back to his hometown and opened a coffee shop. So, of course, the next morning we stopped in for a latte.

We returned to Stirling and toured the castle. By this time I had come down with a terrible cold, so even though I enjoyed myself, I was pretty miserable the whole day. When we were done we drove into Edinbourgh.

More to come . . . .