Our first stop was the ruins of Urquhart Castle, on the banks of the Loch Ness. At one time it was the largest castle in Scotland.
It was pretty amazing. As we stood up on the top looking at this sight, Ben said, "if someone showed me pictures of this I would think it was fake." But no! Real.
Here's the Loch Ness. Scotland is not immune to cheesiness, because there were tourist stops all along the road offering "Nessie Boat Tours" and similar.
After that we got back in the car and headed west. As we got closer to the coast, the terrain got more and more rugged and the weather got worse and worse. We heard lots of people dismissively say things like, "Oh, it always rains on Skye," which didn't sound promising given that most non-Scottish people think it always rains in Scotland.
We stopped for a photo op of Eilean Donan Castle, right on the coast before crossing the bridge to Skye. It is supposedly the most photographed spot in Scotland. Most of it was re-created in the 20th century, though, so we didn't bother to go inside.
A nice German lady came along to take our picture. It was sprinkling and really windy - and would continue to be really windy for most of the rest of our trip. I think it's pretty much always windy in northern Scotland.
We finally made it to Skye around midday, and drove to Portree, the biggest town on the island (population: 2491). The weather was atrocious at this point, super windy and rainy. The town was small enough, though, that it was easy to find the main drag and locate the tourist office. A woman there gave us directions to Cafe Arriba, a restaurant the Lonely Planet book recommended as having the best vegetarian food on the island. It was very small, but cozy and friendly and the food was excellent. I got some nice lentil soup and mac & cheese, and Ben went for some fancy blue cheese risotto cakes.
After lunch we located a B&B, whose name I have forgotten. The view from our room overlooked the adorable harbor below:
But the room itself was not great. However, we were tired, most of the other B&Bs along that stretch of road were full, and when it comes down to it we aren't really that picky.
Plus, now I can say that I've showered in a bedroom. The real drawback was the toilet being down the hall. We learned after this that en suite facilities were a necessity.
You weren't supposed to take pictures inside, but I took this one of the view through the window so I feel like it's okay.
It stopped raining while we were there, so we got the chance to explore the gardens as well, which were extensive. We found it really surprising how lush everything was, given the extreme weather. Winters are described in the guidebook as "grim", and even the summer it seems like they get quite a bit of chilly sideways rain.
They even had a big patch of cabbage and kale! You know the vegan in me was excited about that.
After the castle we had some time to kill before the end of the day, so I pulled out the Lonely Planet book and discovered that there was a hike to something called Coral Beach that started a couple of miles down the tiny road just beyond the castle. We had previously joked about driving down that road as if it were something only a lunatic would do, but apparently the Scots consider it an actual road. So off we went, and had a nice walk along the coast of the Isle of Skye.
After returning to Portree, we walked down to the harbor to find a place to eat. That's our B&B up there on the hill - the white one near the center.
Except for the place we'd already eaten lunch, Portree's vegetarian options were slim, and we ended up eating fish & chips at a pub on the water. I ate fish! Weirdly, I didn't even feel guilty about it, I think because it's a traditional thing and the fish was local, so I knew I wasn't supporting the Big Evil Meat Industry or anything. Still, we knew it would be a one time thing and went back to being vegetarians after the one time.
The pub was really charming and packed with people when we got there, including one couple I'm pretty sure was from Raleigh. We'd noticed the guide book at Dunvegan had been signed by some people from Raleigh right before us, and the ones in the restaurant had a very familiar North Carolina accent. Too bad we're the keep-to-ourselves sort of travelers, otherwise we might have said hello!
We went to bed intending to visit Portree's tourist office in the morning to get ferry times to the Isles of Harris & Lewis, even further out into the ocean!
No comments:
Post a Comment