Nine Days in Bonnie Scotland!

Aye, I've been to Bonnie Scotland, just returned late last night (or more accurately, 4AM today Glasgow time).  And, actually, eight days is more accurate.  Nine days were planned, but as fate had it, the employees of IcelandAir decided that the day we were to fly to Glasgow from Iceland was a perfect day for a work action, so we spent most of Friday, May 16, in the airport in Kevlavik, Iceland.  We arrived at our first destination, Balloch, at nearly 11:00PM that day instead of the planned time of about 1PM.  Ah, well.  We did get to see a tiny bit of Iceland, enough to whet my appetite to come back some day for a longer stay.

So, what did we do in Scotland?  Well, we toured a number of castles, drove through the Highlands and stopped at four places, tasted a wee dram of whiskey, took some boat rides on lochs, enjoyed delicious breakfasts at B&B's, saw historic sites and beautiful scenery, had afternoon tea (and evening ales), and enjoyed the hospitality of the friendly Scottish people.  Oh, and of course, I managed to shoe-horn in a hike or two, and a number of walks as well.  Next time, I hope to do more of that.  Time just ran out.  But, stay tuned - more posts to come about my eight days in this fantastic and lovely place!

Here is the approximate route of our nine night trip, arriving at Glasgow and traveling clockwise, stopping at each of the four purple stars: Balloch on Loch Lohmann, Isle of Skye, Loch Ness, and Stirling.  We did side trips to Cullodan east of Inverness and to Edinburgh.  It is a large country - Scotland is about the size of Maine - and so we only covered a small part of this wonderful country.  There is plenty left to see and do on future trips.