The Highland Adventure - Day 1
When Pedro and I first started internet exploring parts of Scotland, places that we might want to visit, the Isle of Skye was always at the top of the list. Since we don't have a car and there aren't trains or flights to the island, we decided on a bus tour. This turned out to be the best way to see some of the Highlands on the way there and back as well. It was a three day trip, starting in Glasgow, stopping at sights along the way up to Skye, then a drive around the isle, ending with stops on the way back down. The first bus that picked us up was actually a whisky tour that was set to bring us to the first point on the Skye tour.
The first stop for us was Stirling Castle, which wasn't really a scheduled tour stop, but a meet up point with the tour coming from Edinburgh and to switch buses. Still, not a bad place for pictures. The whisky tour guide told us it's one of the largest castles in Scotland with the most history. Whoever held Stirling Castle, controlled Scotland. The most famous is William Wallace, who defeated the English in battle at Stirling Bridge (Braveheart anyone?). Our tour guide was quick to point out the casting faults in movies like Rob Roy and Braveheart, but still said we should watch them.
Once we were on our proper bus for the Isle of Skye route, our tour guide was D. He went around asking where people were from; we had two couples from China, one couple from Singapore, a single guy from Hong Kong, and then us from The States. D quickly established we were to be the butt of a lot of jokes.
D: There are no stupid questions, so feel free to ask anything!
*looks at the Americans*
D: Just kidding, there are stupid questions.
It was all in good fun though. It seemed like Pedro and I, along with the guy, K, from Hong Kong were the only ones confident enough to go back and forth with the witty banter.
Our next stop was Callander. No relation to calendars, but famous for having the last woman convicted of witchcraft in 1944. She was having all these premonitions about the world wars, and when some of them were coming true, the town officials weren't afraid of her powers, but more afraid that she'd start a panic. They ended up throwing her in jail until the war was over, though frequently visited her for advice.
D suggested a snack at a local bakery called Mhor Bread, for some macaroni pie and tea. That was the best macaroni pie and peach tea we've ever had. Needless to say we learned to follow D for the best food after that. We had a nice little picnic by the river and watched the swan and ducks being fed by the locals.
Plenty of sheep nearby too!
The bus we were in had huge windows that allowed us to see and were clear enough to take pictures through on the go (shoutout to whoever cleaned those!).
This was the Callander & Oban Railway, which collapsed in 1965. While the Scottish were ahead of the Americans in railroads, they weren't ahead in Geology. All the vibrations from the railway led to a landslide and it was permanently closed.
Our next photo stop was the first official one in the Highlands, near Glen Coe. The difference to me was immediate with the appearance of snow.
D decided that the weather was too good to past up a stop at the most photographed mountain in Scotland. The way there was a built up because we could see the snow on the ground getting thicker and thicker.
This is when D learned that K had never seen snow. He has been living in London for School and hasn't seen any yet. It was suggested that we should have a snowball fight to christen him.
This is Buachaille Etive Mòr. I don't know what it looks like in the Summer, but covered in snow, it was beautiful. As two people that grew up in the tropics, Pedro and I were in awe by all the snow.
A snowball fight did indeed breakdown, the first ball thrown by D and was a direct hit on K's back. Everyone joined in and made sure K was covered.
Back on the bus, D started telling us the strange rules in Glen Coe. (I was still snapping pictures on the way) One was that if your surname is Campbell, hotels, bars, and restaurants will probably refuse you service. This is from a 330 year old grudge stemming from the Glen Coe Massacre.
It was during the Jacobite Rebellion when the English King was ordering the Highland chiefs to swear loyalty, refusing to acknowledge Scotland as a free nation. King William set a deadline that by the new year of 1692, all the clans must sign this "peace treaty" and arrive near Oban to take the oath. Clan MacDonald arrived 6 days after the new year. When King William sent a Captain Campbell to meet up with Clan MacDonald, the MacDonalds actually hosted Campbell for 10 days, providing food and shelter. Then the King gave the orders to kill any MacDonalds between the age 7 and 70. Many were slaughtered, but a few survived by the grace of guilty men who took pity on the clan that showed them hospitality. These last Clan MacDonald survivors escaped to the Three Sisters Mountains, where they took shelter with the little resources they had. Most died from exposure, and there were no recorded living members, though some believe they changed their name to keep hidden in Glen Coe. The Three Sisters Mountains were therefore nicknamed "The Weeping Mountains" and Glen Coe supermarkets don't even stock Campbell's soup. Talk about grudge!
These sisters are so massive I couldn't get all of them in one picture from where we stopped. I can see why it was a good place to take shelter, shielded by the mountains in the valley, they wouldn't be seen. There were also remnants of the trail to an old stone animal pen where they would have herded their animals on the path through the mountains.
The curve of the valley is so tight, the MacDonalds would be completely hidden in the valley.
Pedro and I kept finding stacks of rocks like these in various locations. It's a fun thing to contribute to from other travelers. We each added a rock to the stacks and stood back to admire our work, but it was really no match for the sisters behind it, oh well.
Once back on the bus, we were around the curve and could see the other side of the third sister. Near the top we could see a cave in the form of a vertical slit, called Ossian's Cave. It kind of made all of D's stories about giants even cooler.
Look - Sun!
We had lunch in Fort William, which was a pretty little town on Loch Linnhe. We found a pub and had some beer and fish & chips (when in Rome- er, Highlands?). Most places were closed for the winter, but we enjoyed the food and local beer. We ate with K from Hong Kong/London and found that this was his fist time in Scotland. We exchanged stories about what it felt like being expats, places we wanted to visit in the UK, and cultural differences we've experienced.
By the time we reached Lochaber, the sun was setting. The Commando Memorial was still covered in poppies from Remembrance Day.
K said he always wanted to stick his face in the snow to see if it left an impression - Pedro's response, "Let's do it". They were both so covered in snow that D didn't even need to throw any snowballs.
Back on the bus, our journey was getting darker and colder as we went further north. Our last stop of the day before the hotel was the Eilean Donan Castle.
The castle is on an island with a stone bridge reaching across the point where three lochs meet. It has a rich history of clan battles, Viking invasions, and Jacobite rebellions (though today it's mostly used for weddings).
After the castle, we were over the Skye bridge and onto the Isle of Skye. It was too dark to see much at this point, so we didn't bother stopping until we got to Portree, where we'd be staying both nights. Luckily we already had reservations for dinner, so after we checked in and changed for dinner, we got to explore the town a bit. D had already pointed out some nice restaurants (we picked the right one, yay!), so we went down to the water. Portree is the capital of the Isle of Skye, with a harbor big enough for ferries and even cruise ships. While we were there, it was just the same boats docked in various spots. I think Florida theme parks kind of ruined me here- anytime I see things in the same place for a long period of time, I start to question it's reality. Like at Disney where the boats in the harbor are just decorative to create the ambience of the whole place, just perfectly random enough to make it look convincing.
But Pedro assured me they must be real in a place like this, I'm sure this is the real stuff that's all based on!
