Scottish Highlands

 We were supposed to take the train from Fort William back to Glasgow, but the tracks were still flooded out and closed. Too bad - the train route is different from the road and I would have liked to see that scenery. Instead, we waited at the Morrisons for the bus. We didn't realize that the bus route started way up in the Isle of Skye - so most of the seats were taken. But we found some, and still got some great views of the highlands:

Loch Lomand:

The puddle jumper from Glascow back to Dublin:

And some spectacular photos of Greenland!

Mallaig - Isle of Skye

 After watching the Jacobite steam train, we were ready to take the journey ourselves. For a mere 30£ each, Wendy, Mom and I got tickets on Scotrail - the regular train - compared to around 100£ each on the Jacobite. Same four seats around a table, just not as iconic. Actually, the regular train also has better emissions than the steam train, which fills the air with those billows of smoky steam. 

It was a rainy day, so our views (and pictures) out the window were a bit murky. But we did get to see the famous viaduct. 

And passed Glenfinnan:

Mallaig

Mallaig is a cute little coastal town with a big port. 

We watched them loading huge bags onto boats - later finding out that the bags contained salmon pellet food, so they were destined for offshore salmon farms. 

Finally it was time to board our ferry for the short trip north to the Isle of Skye:

We landed at Armadale with only a few hours and no car, so we walked down the road to Armadale Castle (we just went to the visitor center) and then found a lovely nature trail. The island wasn't all that exciting - we kind of wondered what all the fuss was about. 

Visitor center, where we bought some quite nice gifts to bring home. 

Nature trail:

Our return ferry was smaller and we sat outside. 

This poodle was absolutely adorable - he entertained everyone around for much of the crossing. 

We stopped for a late lunch, wandered around the cute town with a Diagon Alley, and headed back on the train.

One of the best parts of the trip was meeting a lovely young woman on the train back. We chatted almost all the way back. 

Fort William

We took the bus from Oban to Fort William, a scenic 1 1/2 hour trip along Loch Linnhe. Fort William is located at the southern end of the Great Glen. The continuous set of lochs, the Caledonian Canal, connect Fort William to Inverness on the eastern side of Scotland and was completed in 1822. 

While there's a quaint downtown, we stayed out on the North Road. It wasn't a scenic, but we were near the trailhead to Ben Nevis to the south and Neptune's staircase and Old Inverlochy castle to the north. 

Old Inverlochy castle is a ruined, 13th-century castle:

One of the best parts of this location was watching the Jacobite train steam its way out of Fort William to Mallaig. It's described as one of the great train journeys of the world, and the old "Harry Potter" train is iconic. It's also expensive, so later we took the regular train on the same route. But we loved wandering over to see the steam train. 

Meg took a couple hikes around Fort William - part way up Ben Nevis and another lovely hike overlooking the town:

Oban

 Oban is often seen as just a jumping off point for the Inner and Outer Hebrides. But we found it to be, all on its own, a charming town. We were here for three days, but would have been happy for much longer. I have spent hours watching the harbor, running down three flights of stairs and along the harbor to see large ships arrive or depart. There are ferries coming and going to multiple destinations every day - it's a delight to watch. I'm SO glad we are right on the water. Here's the view out my window:

Meg and Adam watching the Clansman load up. 

This is a very active harbor, but that doesn't always mean it's a good place to buy raw fish. Meg and I looked for hours in advance to try to find a store selling fish. But it turns out there's a lovely fishmonger right next to the docks for the big boats. We bought fresh fish and scallops, along with samphire, which we turn out to love. 

Dunollie Castle

Looming over the town is Dunollie Castle, dating back to the 6th century AD. It was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Lorn from which four kings ruled an area which stretched from the west of Mull, east to Tyndrum, south to Crinan, and north to Appin. 

Personally, it just loomed above the town, begging me to climb up and see the sights - and we did!

Kerrera Island

Across the bay is the tiny island of Kerrera. We took a little ferry across, then walked the circuit around the island. It was delightful, with sheep and highland cattle and pretty meadows. Until it wasn't delightful anymore. We were late for our ferry, and the only way back was through big fields of stinging nettles. I was wearing capris. There are no pictures of the nettles - we were too busy!

More Scenery of Oban

We took lots of walks and lots of pictures. 

Carlisle to Oban

We planned this to be a train trip, and we did have some train. But heavy rains and flooding closed a number of lines - including the route from Glascow to Oban. We were able to rebook on a bus. It's not our favorite - but it worked. We still got to take the first part of the trip by train. 

After an easy hour on the train, we got back to Glascow, this time with Adam too. The rain makes for a nice shine in the pictures, but made for uncomfortable walking from the train station to the bus station. 

We never did figure out how they did this trick to appear levitated. 

The drive to Oban took around 5 hours. At first it was quick, but then we were on pretty small roads that meandered along loch after loch. Plus the traffic jam - we were stopped so long that we got out and walked down to see what was holding things up.

But at long last, and only a little queasy, we pulled into Oban. It was only a short walk to our Airbnb. It's up on the 3rd floor, but it overlooks the harbor. Amazing!