The Highlands

The time is flying by! We can hardly believe we will be headed back to the states in a week. I both feel like I could do this forever, and miss home. Kids are likewise missing cats, birds, and their friends.

Our time in the Scottish Highlands was wonderful. My favorite for outdoor beauty yet! Although it was a lot of driving, we saw some amazing countryside in the time we were there. From Edinburgh, we drove north to Boat on Garten near the Cairngorms. A national park, it features the highest mountains on the isle. While nothing like we have in the states, they are still impressive. Rising up 2500-3000 feet in a short distance, they have their own weather. We went for a hike on one of them, witnessed how sheep dogs are trained, and got to hold 10 day old puppies. Very impressive and adorable respectively!

40 mph winds and an amazing veiw from Cairngorm

These dogs are incredible!

 Lily helping sheer a sheep

10 days old!

From there we visited Loch Ness and Inverness. A beautiful lake, but sadly no sightings of Nessie! We then stayed in a 450 year old lodge northwest of there, and were able to drive to the coast. Torridon Loch is surrounding by some of the starkest scenery in Scotland, and worth the drive. 

Overlooking Loch Ness

 Torridon Loch

Our first stag sighting!

The next leg was very long, from Garve to Skye to Kinloch hourn. Skye had lots of tourists, but we still enjoyed its coastal scenery.





Kinloch hourn was more remote than I realized, 20 miles downa single land road, and totally gorgeous! Stag hung out with the horses next to the old farm house, now lodge.

Kinloch




Victorian era benches along the trail

Our Highlands time ended with a couple days in Glasgow. We were too tired to do much sight-seeing, and just enjoyed a Hop-on Hop-off bus tour and our beautiful hotel.

 The Grand Central Hotel

 The view from our room's window into the train station.

 Wu Willie statues were all around Edinburgh & Glasgow.

Museum, but closed due to flooding.

Next stop Dublin!!!



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dublin & Wicklow

Image
Ireland is getting the least time on our trip, and we are trying to enjoy every bit! First stop, Dublin and a pretty cramped little apartment.  View out our bedroom window! Our front door! Dublin, though, is a beautiful city and we were in a great neighborhood. We were able to see the Book of Kells (an 8th century illuminated manuscript of the gospels), other sights, as well as a family-friendly music pub crawl. Cover of book by Bernard Meehan, photos not allowed. Old Library at Trinity College  Lively Celtic music. We visited with a friend of a friend, who used to live in San Pedro, learned some Dublin history, and saw Christ Church cathedral. That evening we saw Riverdance. Amazing!  Christ Church Cathedral Mary Icon  Baptistry - includes pieces of all the marbles found in Ireland.    Gaity Theater - Riverdance! We headed for Wicklow in southeast Ireland yesterday, visiting the Powerscourt Gar...
Read more

Our First Week!

Image
Our first week has been a whirlwind, with more than a few adventures! We began with a couple days in New York visiting friends. Enjoying some nice weather, we walked around their neighborhood near NYU, including Washington Square and the Stonewall memorial, had some delicious treats from Sweet Corner Bake Shop - sweetcornernyc.com, as well as dinner out with my niece who lives there.  The next day we spent some time at Trinity Wall Street, and saw some famous graves of our nation's founders who fought in the revolution. We then headed to Brooklyn to visit our friends' daughter, who just had her second child. Cuteness overload! Arriving in London late on the 11th, we had a bit of a drama finding our hotel. Not fun after so much time traveling, but it worked out. We found our flat near Hyde Park the next day, and have been hitting all the historic sites we can the first couple days. We all loved the river cruise and the Tower of London, the girls a...
Read more