Stratford-Upon-Avon

We're back in England, and the bay windows of our Airbnb glimpse back in time to Tudor England - the 1500s. The town is full of uneven buildings that date back to that time - or are made to look like that. The river Avon runs alongside the town, and in 1800, the canal was completed to connect Stratford to Birmingham. We've had a lovely few days to explore and see living history here. 

High street

Shakespeare's birthplace

A glimpse behind the whitewashing at the wattle and daub construction. Maintained, it's actually really strong, quite fireproof, and attractive.

A lock along the canal. 

Me biking along the toe path beside the canal. 

Wouldn't it be cool to take the canals to York or Liverpool or London? 

There are tons of Mute Swans along the river and canal. 

And an amazing bumblebee!

And cute cafes for morning coffee and scones. 

One day when I was out biking, I ended up next to the Stratford racecourse, established in 1755. The back of the track runs right next to the bike trail - I took this picture with my lousy 3x zoom. 

And tonight Wendy and mom went to the Royal Shakespeare Theater to see Midsummer Nights Dream. 

Isle of Skye

Scots, along with the rest of the world, seem puzzled with our obsession with Shetland. But all of them seem to have been to the Isle of Skye. It's certainly nice - but it also feels like a tourist destination. A nice one, but even now, in winter, the place is crawling with tourists. 

The main town of Portree's main harbor is down and to the left of the pink building. It's very cute. We are staying on the other side of the "Lump" - the hill/peninsula behind those buildings. 

See the blue sailboat in the foreground? Follow it's mast up - it's pointing to our cottage. It's right ON the water on the other bay, which is called the "Lovely Muck". At high tide, it's a gorgeous bay. At low tide, it's full of rooks, jackdaws, gulls, and other birds. We love it. 

I climbed up the Lump this morning to watch the sunrise from Apothecary’s tower at the top of the lump. 

Here's the view I got. 

Along with this one. 

And here's a view of the trail that goes around the lump. 

But we have explored outside Portree. We took some very narrow and pothole filled roads to get to the upscale Talisker distillery. They had amazing non-gendered bathrooms. Apparently some pretty good whisky too. 

Always sheep - but this time, very clean, very pretty sheep - with horns!

Then we went to the Fairy Pools. The winding thing you see is the path along the creek, with one waterfall and pool after another. 

Here's one of the waterfalls. 

This waterfall falls right off the cliff into the ocean. Amazing. 

And what is the highlands without a highland cow? 

Northlink and Loch Ness

One of the best parts of going to Shetland is the overnight ferry. It's such a fun experience to board the large and fancy (to me) ship, settle in our cabin, and eat dinner. The crossing was supposed to be pretty calm - but in the end, it was pretty exciting - up, down, side to side. 

A picture I took of the ferry at night before our crossing. 

The reception desk displays real shields from Up Helly Aa festivals gone by.

Wendy out on the back deck.

The cafe seating. The chairs are tethered to the floor, the tables have a lip to keep things on them, and they'd laid out grippy shelf liner to keep things in place. Such is winter in the North Sea. 

Arriving in Aberdeen in the morning. 

We then drove west, across Scotland, stopping in the small town of Elgin for the Walker Shortbread factory store. My favorite is the stem ginger cookies - I'm hoping to make such a thing once I get home. 

And then we got to the fabled Loch Ness. I'm not sure what I expected, but it's just a wide and very long inland loch, or lake, with hills rising on both sides. 

We walked down to the loch and of course I had to wade!

Several more hours of winding roads, mountain passes, castles, and a bridge, and we got to the Isle of Skye and then Portree, where all the signs are in Gaelic as well as English.