Our Trip to Beautiful Scotland!

We returned last week from a wonderful five nights in Scotland.  I am trying to do the blog about it right away, or I am afraid it will not happen!

Scotland was just wonderful.  We chose to tour around as much of the country as we could during our short trip.  My only regret is that we didn't get to spend a little more time in each place.

DAY 1 - Edinburgh
We flew into Edinburgh early Monday morning.  It was Dave's first time driving a British car and on the left side of the road.  Although most cars have a manual transmission, we opted for an automatic to make driving it a little easier.

The picture is from a few days into the trip on the Isle of Skye.

We spent the day wandering the city.  Edinburgh Castle was one of our stops.

The picture above is actually from visitscotland.com as I didn't have a picture of the castle from far away.

Since neither Dave nor I know that much about scotch whisky, we also visited the Scotch Whisky Experience to learn about how it is made and, of course, to have a little taste.  If I'm honest, I didn't really love the taste of the whisky I tried and may have poured out the rest after one taste...

It was still fun to learn about the process and give it a try though!  Shout out to Mr. Anderson at ISA too (7th grade science teacher) because Grace already knew and was able to explain what distillation was! (Chemistry geek in me was happy!).  Girls were offered Iron Bru, a soft drink, instead of whisky and we got to keep the glasses used for whisky tasting.

 Other Edinburgh pictures:

That night we stayed at an airbnb.  The host was very nice and helpful.  The apartment worked out well for us.  Here is the link if you are interested:  https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/2581486?eluid=1&euid=3f3ab9f7-29d5-b85e-a098-fecc02c032fe

DAY 2 - Castles and Loch Ness

In the morning, before leaving the area, we drove up toward the top of "Arthur's Seat" and took a little walk to take some pictures.  We didn't have time to do the full hike to the top, but the views were still great.

On our drive to Loch Ness, we visited three castles.  I'm a fan of the Outlander TV show.  The first two castles were used in the filming of the show.  Loved getting to see them.  The third castle we visited was Stirling Castle.

Blackness Castle (Ft. William in Outlander TV Show)

Doune Castle (Castle Leoch in Outlander TV Show)

Stirling Castle (first photo from wikipedia since I didn't have a far away shot)

We then headed to Balacladaich, our Bed & Breakfast on Loch Ness.   Fiona and her husband were wonderful hosts.  We all loved the place! It is right on Loch Ness with beach access.  The sunset was stunning.  If we had stayed longer, they had a fire pit by the beach I would have loved to use.  If anyone is traveling this way, we highly recommend they stay here!  The website is http://www.lochnessbedbreakfast.co.uk/.  We were about eight miles from Inverness (on a small road) so Fiona had recommended a place for dinner that was a mile away called the Dores Inn.  She had also recommended we get reservations well in advance and I am glad we did.  The Dores Inn was also right on the water and we enjoyed our dinner there.

No filter on the picture above!  Evening views at the B&B were just beautiful.

View from the backside of the restaurant (Dores Inn).

DAY 3 - Isle of Skye

In the morning we had breakfast (Dave and I had the Scottish breakfast option).  We had a beautiful view from our table too.

Closest to seeing "Nessie" that we had on the trip!

I tried the black pudding at a few different places and just tried not to think about what it was made from!

Before leaving the area, we took a two hour cruise on Loch Ness.  It was a little cool outside, but I loved the views.

Because we wanted to see as much of Scotland as possible, we drove every day at least three hours. The Highlands scenery was just incredible...pictures do it no justice and the time went quickly.  

 Passed through the city of Inverness on our way out of the area.

 We were stopped by construction many times on our trip!

We stayed on the western side of the Isle of Skye.  The roads became much smaller!  The one lane roads had frequent small passing spots.  We also had to watch for sheep and even cows along the road!

We stayed at another great Bed & Breakfast with more fantastic views.  We highly recommend this one as well, but be warned, there is nothing close to it other than sheep, beautiful scenery, and a few other homes!  The website is: http://www.sgarbhlodge.co.uk/ .  Our host, Mairi, suggested a restaurant for us that was about 25 minutes away by car.  She called a man that runs a taxi service to take us which was great.  The roads were tough enough to navigate in the daytime, we were happy to have someone that knew the roads to take us!  Mairi had recommended a restaurant called The Edinbane Inn because three nights a week, local musicians gather to play traditional music.  Again, advance reservations were important!  It was such a great choice for us.  Loved hearing the music!

Tried a local beer made from porridge oats!  Dave had the Skye Red.

Hope you are able to view the two very short video links I'm attaching below of the music.

The pictures below are of our Bed & Breakfast.  Amazing views...  

 Took this picture from our bedroom window!

View from the room in which breakfast was served.

Only five minutes away from where we stayed was Neist point.  It is a place with a lighthouse and more amazing views.  We didn't have time to hike to the lighthouse, but took a few pictures and enjoyed spending a few minutes there.

DAY 4 - Arisaig

We ended up leaving a little earlier than we had hoped the next morning due to the ferry schedule.  Luckily, we had looked up the schedule the night before and purchased tickets for the time we wanted.  This was the Armadale - Mallaig ferry taking us back to the mainland Scotland.

We then arrived in Arisaig.  The reason we chose this town was because it offered sea kayaking.  We had booked a half day sea kayaking tour with a guide.  We all LOVED this!  It was the thing the girls loved most on the trip.  A group didn't show up for their reservation so our group including us was just six people and two guides.  Our guides Rory and Paul were great and it was just so beautiful.  No boats or anything else close to us.  We saw common seals and a grey seal.  The common seals would go underwater when we were a little close but they were curious and would pop their heads up behind  our group and watch what we were doing.  Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of them!  So much fun.  http://arisaigseakayakcentre.co.uk/

DAY 5 - Women's British Open & Glasgow

We made a last minute decision in Arisaig and decided to drive to the Turnberry to see the Women's British Open.  It was a long drive but it was worth it!  It was also Amanda's 12th birthday!  The weather was just what you would expect for a British Open - blustery and rainy.  Oh well!  We enjoyed it anyway.  We followed a group of Americans including Mo Martin (winner of the 2014 British Open).  Mo's Aunt gave the girls pins to wear that said "Go Mo!".  The conditions were miserable that afternoon and unfortunately none of them made the cut.  Very cool to get to see Turnberry and watch the women play the course!

 Cold and wet for her 12th birthday!

We then drove back to Glasgow for our last night.  Unfortunately we didn't have time to see much in Glasgow due to going to the golf tournament.  The next morning we drove back to Edinburgh and flew home.  Loved our time in Scotland!!