there was sheep poop everywhere

on the isle of skye, walking up to the ruins of dunhulm castle.

there are ruins of castles and churches all around scotland.  one of the amazing things about the isle of skye, though, was that these ruins were just casually marked on the (amazing) map (that dad bought).  you pull off to the side of the single-track road, walk through a gate into a sheep pasture, and out to a falling down castle with a small sign identifying it as such.  at dunhulm, we were the only people there; an older couple was leaving as we arrived.  you poke around, look at the gorgeous view, and then walk back to your car and continue on your drive.  

the isle of skye was rural in a way that i've never experienced before.  it wasn't empty of residents - you were almost always in sight of a house and a pasture full of sheep or cows, but that's all there was: an occasional house or two.  five or ten houses plus a store?  that would be marked as a town on your map. i don't know how to explain it.  being in skye felt like being at the edge of the earth.

in the running for our christmas card picture

at neist point on the isle of skye:

looking out at the ocean after eating lunch and walking around for a while, mom saw a whale surface and then dive back under.  we all looked where she pointed and saw it happen again.  really cool.  this is one more whale than we saw on our two hour boatride the next day that was supposed to show us cool animals, but that's another story.

the day we drove out to neist point was probably the warmest day while we were in skye, and mom and becky took their sweaters off to take this picture.  so, yeah: it was sunny and clear and beautiful on this day, but in no way were we hot.  the sweaters went right back on after the picture had been taken.

the day after this it was chilly and rainy and in the 50s and i was cold with jeans, a long sleeved shirt, a sweater, and my rain jacket on.  in august.  we were driving and stopped to try to get a view of the old man of storr, but he was covered in clouds, and as we were walking back to the car we passed an older man with his dog.  we smiled* and said hi, and he said, upon hearing our american accents, "you come here for the summer?" after a two second pause, he continued: "that was yesterday."

oh, scottish humor.  old man with the dog: i enjoy you.  you and your isle of skye quasi summer.


*it was probably more of a grimace.  we were cold.

sailboats in the bay

portree, isle of skye:

sheep were EVERYWHERE

at the edge of the culloden battlefield, outside inverness:

actual question on the customs form when reentering the US: "are you bringing with you soil or have you visited a farm/ranch/pasture outside the united states?"

i checked "no" because i knew that's what i was supposed to check to ease my reentry.

artsy

calton hill and the firth of forth (best name for a waterway EVER) through a cannon window (i'm sure these have a real name, but i don't know what it is...) at edinburgh castle.

merit badges

mom and becky and i at holyroodhouse abbey, edinburgh.  photographer: dad.  as per usual on this trip.  he bought a new camera before we left and took some really gorgeous shots throughout our vacation.  this allowed me to be free to not take a single photo, since i knew he'd cover our trip well.  and he definitely did.  we gave out imaginary merit badges at the end of the trip - becky got the napping merit badge for her daily (she didn't skip a single one) naps, i got the map-reading merit badge, and dad got the driving-on-the-left-side-of-the-one-lane-road merit badge.  and the photography one, definitely.

lambs on the lam

this is the pretty little town we're staying in on the isle of skye: portree. it's right on the coast, and for a tiny town (2,100 residents) it has a lot of restaurants and cafes and things - because a lot of tourists stop here. according to my guidebook, edinburgh is the most visited place in scotland, followed by inverness and then the isle of skye. so basically our whole trip. but there's a reason for that! these are great places to visit! skye is gorgeous…we've done a bit of hiking around the area around portree, with a big walk planned tomorrow.

today we drove from portree to dunvegan castle (not nearly as cool as edinburgh castle) and then to neist lighthouse, in the northwest corner of the isle of skye. more photos of that soon, but the point of today's post is this: to get to neist lighthouse you drive 20 miles on a two lane road, and then turn down a one lane road (one lane! for both directions! there are "passing points" where you pull over to let other cars by) for 9 miles. neist lighthouse - and the view of the outer hebrides from there - was gorgeous, and totally worth the 9 miles on a one lane road, even though i had four mini heart attacks when cars would come flying at us from around a corner and we had to hope that a passing point would emerge in the next 3 seconds (and it always did). my life expectancy has been diminished by a considerable amount because of this drive. good thing dad is a BEAST at driving on tiny winding roads or we would be dead at this point. along this one lane road there were no fences and lots of sheep. LOTS OF SHEEP, i say. they were spraypainted different colors to indicate which farm they belonged to, we think. at several points the sheep were hanging out RIGHT NEXT TO the road, and at one or two points the sheep were in the road. here are some lambs on the lam. we had to stop and wait for them to finish their jaunt and get off the road before we could continue. this is also a good indication of how wide the road was, with a passing point on the righthand side here. you'll also see that all the road signs here are in both gaelic and english, just to confuse me a little more while i'm being the navigator.  (i think you can click on all pictures to enlarge them.)

at another point a farmer lady and her two kids stopped traffic to have their herd of 30 or so cows cross the road.

so basically: if you think you live in a rural area in the united states, you haven't been hanging out on the isle of skye. additionally: if you think you live in a pretty place in the united states, you probably do. but the isle of skye is very pretty, as well. (neist lighthouse, with the outer hebrides islands in the distance.)

(i took the photos of animals in the road...dad took the actual high-quality pictures of portree and neist point.)

bus ride of death

we've made it to portree on the isle of skye.  a 2.5 hour train ride from inverness (gorgeous - we saw highland cows and calves, lots of sheep, lakes, mountains, rain) that cost 11 pounds per person (about 17 dollars)...and then a one hour bus ride that cost 13 pounds per person.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  most expensive bus ride EVER.  i also thought i was going to die on this bus ride.  it was from kyle of lochalsh, right outside the isle of skye (the farthest place the trains go), up the coastline to portree, where we're staying until thursday.  (this map might help you visualize it...)  the bus driver PASSED CARS on this tiny two lane winding road.  oh yeah: and he passed a dumptruck.  A DUMPTRUCK.  winding roads, crazy driver, hot bus...i thought this was going to be the last day of my life, as i would either (a) die when the bus hit something or went off the side of the mountain, or (b) throw up and not want to go on living.

happily, we made it to portree (mostly) unscathed.  it's gorgeous, but CHILLY - 15 degrees celsuis (59 degrees fahrenheit) at 4:30pm.  glad i've got some sweaters...

arrivals

we've arrived in scotland!  i woke up very early (4:15am) on tuesday to get on the first flight of the day from london heathrow to edinburgh, and met mom/dad/becky very easily in baggage claim in the edinburgh airport.  they were much more tired than i was, seeing as they'd taken an overnight flight from new york and apparently didn't sleep very much at all.  a little nap was had in the afternoon, which improved things greatly.  since we've arrived the following things have occurred:

a bird pooped on becky's face.  she freaked out.  my antibacterial wipes came to the rescue.  i am the best sister ever.

i got to share the glory of marks & spencer's food hall with the rest of my family.  i think they were duly impressed.  i had my favorite sandwich - a falafel and hummus wrap - and was very happy.

we went on a tour of holyroodhouse abbey and palace - the abbey dates back to the 1100s and the woman who gave us a little tour was full of cool information.  the palace is the official residence of the queen of england when she visits scotland.  it was pretty cool, too.  this is the palace with the abbey attached on the right hand side (photo credit: someone in my family who isn't me).  the photo was taken from the top of arthur's seat...

we hiked from holyroodhouse to the top of arthur's seat (my lonely planet guidebook said it was a 45 minute hike.  45 minutes my ass.) - beautiful, with great views of the surrounding area.  this is arthur's seat from calton hill, another high point in the city.  holyroodhouse is the furthest building on the left that you can see.

we went to sandy bell's, a pub that has traditional scottish music every night, for some pints of beer and some GREAT music.  the musicians (a harmonica player, guitar player, fiddle player, and mandolin player) sat around a table right next to us and played for several hours.  no photos of that, as we were trying hard not to look like tourists, and taking photos in a pub is a surefire way to look like a tourist.  we were perhaps not succeeding in our efforts, but definitely trying.

so far, scotland is not disappointing us.