On the road again
Sunday morning had us checking our of our quaint little Ferry Inn, leaving the key in the room as there was no way into the bar to check out since it was locked up tight at this hour in the morning. After a quick stop at intu Braehead mall to grab a coffee we headed out on the open road, heading north this time to Fort William.
Beautiful mall!
The first Starbucks in Europe, or maybe ever, to spell my name
right without me giving directions. I belong here! lol
Lanes for pedestrians in the mall parking lot :o
Our first point of interest today was Oban. But my oh my, trying to get here was quite the experience. As we travelled north, our roads became single lane highways, then single lane highways with no shoulders, then highways where you were REALLY glad you were a little Fiat as the narrowness of the lanes was a little hair raising. And the road to Oban.....Wow! From tree covered, windy as windy could be, drop off shoulders at some points, flooded in a few areas, and curving up then down the sides of hills and mountains, let's just say a few new gray hairs sprouted along that route. And I wasn't even the one driving! Just the one closing my eyes when we met lorries along the way or dipped into a nice pothole. Super glad for my sister's mad driving skills though as she navigated that road like nobody's business.
Entering Loch Lomond area
BEAUTIFUL countryside!
A mountain?!?! :O
One of the many Lochs along the way
The Oban "fun" road - adorned with while knuckles ;)
One of MANY waterfalls cutting through the earth
Really felt like home at this point.
Pass #2 for Whitney ;)
Single lane on the bridge. Thankful for lights at this point.
LOVE the views while driving this route. Breathtaking!
Just outside of Oban we saw a sign for Dunstaffnage Castle and decided to stop here. Castle #1 on our Scotland adventures (Stirling really didn't count since we only saw it from the road. If that was the case during the entire trip we would have added many more to our list). Little did we know this castle would be elusive to find. We parked and started walking in the direction of the castle, only to come to a fork in the road 7 min later - with no castle in sight and no further signage. Confused, we popped back in the car, retraced our steps, chose a tine and drove a little further. Low and behold, behind buildings and a large clump of trees, we found it. Walking up to the castle was quite idyllic, minus the small children around doing an Easter egg roll game on the hillside. It was a small castle, which we only walked the perimeter of but were still able to grasp an understanding of how these castles were built in superb areas in order to have good views of waterways, and to maintain control of these areas.
Only one car at a time here
Lost! Confused. Which tine?
View from the castle walkway
Dunstaffnage Castle
Two princesses out for a walk ;) lol
Back in the car we proceeded on to Glencoe. The roads were a little better on this drive, but still lacked shoulders and continued in full Scottish fashion to be narrow and windy. Once we reached Glencoe, tired and a little stressed from the driving experience, we decided to just continue on to Fort William which was our destination for the night.
Passed this bridge and thought we wouldn't have to take it.
Joke was on us as our route changed, and here we went!
Another castle. Solitary by the sea.
Would have loved to take a closer look at this one.
Fun bridge #2
Fort William was a sleepy little town, and I'd only thought to stop here as a couple of colleagues had said it was a beautiful place. Also, apparently this is quite a known stop for hikers and mountain climbers alike. Fort William is known as the Outdoor Capital of the UK, and it's where many come to climb the infamous Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the UK. Huh! Who would have thought. Actually, confession time. I knew that Scotland had highlands, but up until today I did not know that they had mountains. No, I did not connect highlands to mountains, however upon our drive today when snow capped mountains all of a sudden loomed up in front of us, panic setting in as to "Oh my, how high up will we have to drive?", old pre misconceptions were shed. And it was beautiful to see creeks of water cutting down the sides of the mountains and hills along the drive, flowing liquid snow into the rivers and oceans below.
Previous to coming to Scotland, I'd never really thought much about why people would come to visit here other than to drive and see the beautiful countryside, explore castles and the history of the country, and to see the city sights. However, throughout our trip we discovered that the northern parts of Scotland are where many people go for a nature holiday. There were tons of hiking trails, biking areas, boating trips, etc. for people to partake in. And I can see why they would as the scenery is absolutely breathtaking!
Back to Fort William. We found our guesthouse, Ben Nevis Guest House, on the edge of the town and got settled in before taking a short walk into the centre. At this point it started raining, and we were a little famished as we missed lunch, so we popped into The Tavern for dinner. It was a lively place and one where we decided to partake in the ultimate Scottish experience: eating haggis! Yup! We were going to do it. So, on a tapas platter along with neeps and tatties, turnips and mashed potatoes (foods after my own heart), it came out, staring us directly in the eye and almost gleefully taunting us. I've got just one phrase for it..... not bad! And it really wasn't! Whitney wasn't a huge fan so after a morsel she stuck with the two sides, but I devoured that haggis, enjoying the spices incorporated in it and trying not to think about what was really in it and how it was made. But, delish. We did follow it up with other main dishes, brought to us by a witty waiter who proceeded to start singing "Oh Canada" when we left lol.
Loving the twin bed thing
Interesting signs. Concerned for there citizens one could say.
Downtown Fort William
Neeps, haggis and tatties
Arriving back at the guesthouse, slightly drenched, we slipped into bed knowing we had another big driving day ahead of us. And oh boy, were there going to be many more new adventures for us in that department. ;)
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