Chasing Shiny Pennies

Today (8th) was a travel day. We drove from Inverness to Glendale on the Isle of Skye. Google maps said it’s a 3 hour trip so I figured 4 1/2 or 5 would do it. For a couple reasons. First, that’s been our performance history thus far, and second, we had time to kill. Check out time was 10am and check in isn’t until 4 pm. So we were in no rush.

I haven’t said anything about driving here in Scotland because we’ve spent most of our time in Inverness (population about 47,000) and around the area. I figured that we hadn’t seen enough of the rural area to make a call. After the trip to the Isle, I’ve decided that roads in Scotland are generally easier to drive for the inexperienced than those in Ireland. For the most part they’re wider (not a lot, but some) and they don’t use stone walls and hedgerows for shoulders here. There are similarities though. A good portion of our route to Glendale (once we were on the Isle of Skye) was on roads varying from 1 lane to 1 1/2 lanes. It tends to slow one down. There are more turnouts here though.

The speed limit is 60 mph. I never approached that. What with blind hills, blind turns, drop-offs with no guard rail, and sheep herds meandering along or crossing the road, I just never felt that adventurous.

Along the way we stopped to take pictures, visit a whiskey distillery, and eat at the Oyster Shack. Liz had scallops. She loves scallops. I asked how they were…she shrugged her shoulders and said, “If someone came here and had scallops for the first time, they’d never eat them again.”. Yum.

Today (9th). We drove to Neist Point. Liz was going to walk. I told her I wasn’t….I knew there was a lot of walking once we got there, she was disappointed (I think), but got in the car and we set out.

We had an excellent time. The views are stupendous. The hike was only 2 1/2 miles but in that span (according to Liz’s watch) you climb 31 flights of stairs. You also go down 31 flights of stairs, and that’s a whole different ball of wax with fairly recent knees.

The pictures don’t do it justice. The stairs down (at the beginning and up at the end [both are required…because, Newton], the rest is a path) were surely at a 45* angle. It is a windswept expanse that reminds you of your place in the universe. If I lived here, I’d do that hike weekly. It is inspiring.

Today (10th). We drove to Portree. On the way we stopped at Dunvegan Castle. It’s closed this time of year but we thought maybe we could wander around the grounds, see it from the outside. You can’t. Then we drove to Portree Harbour and had lunch.

Tomorrow we need to do laundry. No one has a dryer here. I’m not sure what they do. It’s not like it’s sunshiny and warm all the time. The last place had a drying rack. It takes a while.