To Wales

Rental car secured we navigated the insanity that is the London airport and headed for the hills – literally. We had planned a stop at Windsor Castle, but this being the day after the Queen’s funeral, it was not open nor would it be while we were still in the country. We’ll have to try again next time. So, we made a bee-line for Wales, instantly feeling the stress of the city melt away, which wasn’t even that bad, to begin with. We didn’t make any stops in England and stayed topped up on petrol thanks to our handy dandy hybrid car. I feel like I’m further investigating the hybrid option at home – it saved us a ton of money as fuel is sky high in Europe right now. We’ve been looking at electric but where we live wouldn’t support it very well. Hybrid may be the better option for us for now. Anyway…

We didn’t make any touristy stops as we drove through the English countryside. I think we were just tired and wanted to get to our next hotel to make a plan for the next day. Jason had to teach a class this night, so we were worried about getting to the hotel in time for him to get all the workings of the internet figured out as it’s often quite spotty once you leave the city. This is the thing about mid-semester travels – the semester continues. So, Jason was Zoom teaching as well as attending a conference while we were in the UK and a slave to a good internet connection. Just another layer of adventure. I’m sure when I inquire about the internet quality when making reservations, the hotel managers think we’re ridiculous for not being able to unplug. We live life a little differently and need to be able to do our jobs from anywhere at any time. We travel with our own hotspot as well, just in case, but we mostly use Travel Wifi for our phones while away from other wifi connections. It’s much cheaper than an international phone plan.

Parkway Hotel & Spa

We made it to Parkway Hotel & Spa (no, I didn’t make it in time to go to the spa, sad) near
Cwmbran, Wales. We made a dash for the lounge for afternoon tea (obviously). Have I mentioned this is my favorite part of the UK? Haha. Tea turned into late lunch with tea when we decided we were hungry. Afterward, we wandered the grounds of the hotel for a tiny bit hoping to stretch our legs but the grounds were quite small, it maybe took 10 minutes. So, we unloaded the bags, made some tea, then made a mess of the room getting Jason ready for class, and I set up in the corner to be quiet for a bit. I made Reels for our Instagram accounts with headphones in while Jason animatedly taught his class. In the end, it was a fairly normal day for us, just in a different country. We went back down for dinner once his class was over and I had the most amazing honey cajon salmon salad of my life. I swear I’ll remember it forever. I can’t even tell you what Jason had (a club sandwich he says), I was THAT excited about this salad. Completely stuffed from eating twice within a few hours (I even said no to a brownie – it was serious), we called it a night.

In the morning, after a breakfast spread of the best Wales had to offer in carbs and protein, we hit the road again. The plan for today was to drive to the next hotel and go hiking in spots on the way. Again, we ended up going straight to the next hotel, but this time it was because it took two hours longer than we thought it would and we were so tired of being on the road. By the time we actually found the mountains we were ready to be done, so we settled for a few photos and staring at them. The thing we’re finding out about the UK is Google Maps is always about 2 hours short. More on that later.

Penmaenuchaf Hall Hotel

We pulled into Penmaenuchaf Hall Hotel along the Afon Mawddach estuary in the middle of Snowdonia National Park and were immediately blown away. You’ve heard us rave about Ardanaiseig Hotel in Scotland, well, we’ve found the Welsh equivalent. An uphill drive through thick woods with a sheer drop-off to one side lead us to a long lane lined with hydrangeas. My jaw literally dropped – I LOVE hydrangeas and it was completely stuffed with them!

Around the corner, the property opened up onto the gorgeous gardens and lawn and then, the Victorian mansion house. Holy smokes it’s perfect! All the things dreams are made of. We parked, got out, and just stared for a few minutes.

We were quite early for check-in, so we expected to have to entertain ourselves for a bit in the gardens, but we were soon whisked inside, and set up with a tea tray. Yessss. This gave us an opportunity to catch up on emails, take a couple of calls and drink entirely too much tea. We were soon taken up to our huge room and Jason went down to get our bags while I made this lovely video for you all before we destroyed the room. We had a great view of the kitchen garden where I collected ideas for my own garden.

Things deposited in and around the room, we now went for a walk about the grounds and put the drone up for a few shots above the trees to see where we really were. It was stunning, very overcast, but gorgeous. Below the hill lies an estuary that empties into Bae Ceredigion on the Irish Sea.

We wandered the gardens for hours taking photos and taking in the views. It was so relaxing. Then it was time to change and go down for dinner. Smart casual – no jeans – we love that places like this still dress for dinner. It just feels so fancy and otherworldly. The dining staff was phenomenal. I’ve mentioned before that the best way to knock my socks off in a restaurant is to ask about food allergies. These guys were top-notch. They did not let me touch a single dairy item and made it look like it was no problem for them at all, even though I know it was. We both had fish because that’s what you do when you’re close to the sea – always. So good. We bypassed everyone sitting in the lounge for drinks after dinner and headed up to our room. We were really tired and hoped to get a good start the next morning to ACTUALLY get some hiking in.

A Soggy Hike

Rain. No worries, we came prepared for this. After stuffing ourselves at breakfast we headed out for the day. We had about 2 hours before the rain was supposed to roll in, so we took advantage of it. I had tried to find us a trail that didn’t involve too much, if any, driving to save time and was successful. Just to double-check where we were headed, we checked with the hotel staff, and they had no idea what the trail was I had found on my All Trails app. Hahaha! So we took a chance. It left out of the wooded garden walk at the hotel and then down the hill to meet up with a flat trail along the estuary. We had to do some trail hunting in the woods, but we soon found our way down to the Bryn Abergwynant Circular Trail. It was a beautiful day and we met many cyclists on the trail. We came to a point where the trail split off from the flat and wound back inland and up the hill. We decided to put the drone up for a bit and flew it into the estuary before heading into the woods. I love having the drone, it gives you such a neat perspective on where you are, even if you’re not getting great footage due to the weather (which, for the record, is fully licensed in the UK). My cousin lives in Ireland, just on the other side of the Irish Sea where the estuary empties, so we gave them a wave while we were close by and could see them with the drone (ok not really, but it’s fun to imagine).

It was really starting to cloud up when we decided to head into the woods. We were hoping we wouldn’t get so wet with the trees as cover. Since we were down on the flat along the estuary, the trail immediately went UP. But, what goes up must come back down and soon enough we were back rejoining the flat part of the trail, in the pouring down rain on our way back to the hotel. This part turned out to be a bit of an adventure. We THOUGHT the road up to the hotel was just around the corner (rather than going back through the woods as we did on the way down), so we took off walking down the side of the road. It was not. I bet we walked about a mile before we finally found it, along a busy highway with multiple blind corners. Don’t tell our mothers. Once we finally found it, after much doubt that it existed, there was a very uphill hike through the gardens back to the hotel – we were sweating profusely; it was pouring down rain, we were pulling off layers, and were just soaked. It was amazing. Best day ever.

We made a trip up to our room to change and dry off after telling the staff we planned to come down for tea. Then the power went out – in the entire valley. We still wandered downstairs again to check on the possibility of our tea time and were pleased when they told us the power outage did not affect their hot water. Woo! We had hot tea in front of their first official rolling fire of the season, and it was perfect. The power came back on about an hour later and they brought us little sandwiches, scones, and cakes. Heaven.

The rain continued on, so we got a few work things done and then it was time for Jason’s class again. I spent this class time in the giant tub in our bathroom soaking off the final cold chills before we went down for a late dinner. Fish again, obviously. The staff took very good care of us, again. We talked to an older gentleman on his way out of the restaurant who was asking how it was possible that we were in the middle of Wales “with all us old retired folk” in the middle of the week in the Autumn. Careful planning and flexible work environments my friend. We’re thoughtfully building the life we want to live and trying to throw off the work restraints of previous generations. We don’t have it fully figured out yet, but it’s a work in progress. Tomorrow is not promised and we want to enjoy the time we have.

Back to London

We had to leave in the morning and I’m still sad about it. We truly enjoyed our time at Penmaenuchaf and definitely should have stayed longer. After breakfast and packing, we went for one more stroll through the gardens before heading back to London. The hotel had a wedding that day and the guests were starting to arrive and needed the parking space, so off we went. What should have been a four-hour drive turned into seven and a half hours. Lordy. We wound our way East out of Wales, which was perfectly pleasant and picturesque. As soon as we crossed into England the traffic was insane. We picked up the A5 outside of Shrewsbury and followed it to the M6 at Birmingham. Since we were only 20 minutes away from Oxford once we got through Birmingham, we decided to detour through the University town to see the historic campus and admire the buildings. I loved it! We didn’t have time to get out and explore, but we drove through some of the oldest parts – it’s so quaint. We’ll have to explore it further another time.

By the time we were back on the motorway and headed into London we had been in the car at least 6 hours and had an hour left to get to the airport. Finally, in the outskirts of London, we stopped at the airport Hilton to drop off our bags and then returned the car. We had to wait a while for the shuttle to take us back to the airport so we could walk back to the hotel. We were assured this was only a 10-minute walk, and it was in the end, but we had a heck of a time figuring out how to avoid all the traffic and get back to the hotel in one piece. We finally found someone to ask and lo and behold…there was a skywalk from the airport to the airport hotels and you didn’t have to navigate the sketchy underworld. Glory.

Finally back at the hotel, we grabbed dinner (next to an extremely animated bunch of media folks) and went to bed. Our flight left at 8 am but luckily we were staying at the airport and didn’t need to be there more than a couple of hours before, so we had time to get breakfast in the United lounge before heading to our gate. You can read about how we used the benefits from our United Mileage Plus Infinite card in this post – we used enough benefits to almost pay for our entire annual fee on just the return trip from London! Everything we use now until its renewal is free! We did check bags on this return flight so we didn’t have to haul everything through the airports. At this point, I’m less worried about losing our bags since we’re headed home. We just pack the essentials in our backpacks and call it good enough. Hopefully we’ll find our bags again on the other end. We boarded the first plane headed to Newark, then Chicago, and finally home to Springfield. Living in the middle of the country makes for a lot of layovers and a really long travel day any time we hop the pond.

This trip felt like a whirlwind, and honestly, we were so nervous to be in London during the Queen’s funeral. While it was an amazing time to see history in the making, we were afraid of the congestion, potential security risks, and lack of businesses being open. While some of that proved to be true, we can honestly say we felt very safe, people were very kind, the congestion felt like normal city congestion and while there were some things closed that we had hoped to experience, there were still plenty of others open. I believe we can say we accomplished our mission (attended a conference and did the research for future student trips) and even had a couple of days of downtime to just enjoy not being at home. We hope to be back soon to explore more of both countries in the future.

The post A Journey into the Highlands of Wales first appeared on The DeBode Way.

That brings us to the second reaction: what do you do in [insert country here] for that long? More often than not, when we’re traveling, we’re doing so in conjunction with Jason’s job, either a class he’s currently teaching or one he’s preparing to teach. We also travel to various cities in the US to attend market to buy inventory for the women’s boutique we own. The main exception to this is when we venture across the pond to Scotland, but there’s still work involved to research and prep for bringing students over. So then, what does Jason do, exactly? Great question, read on for more.

For those who don’t know, Jason is a professor. Technically, as of the writing of this post, I’m an associate professor of strategic management and entrepreneurship. One of the neat things about my job is that I get to travel. Sometimes those travels are with students (like a trip to Scotland a few years ago), sometimes it’s to present at conferences (like an upcoming trip to London), sometimes it’s to teach at our sister campus (when he goes to China), and sometimes it’s to work for other universities. Our recent time in Spain falls into this last category.

I did my PhD at Auburn University (WAR EAGLE!!), and my advisor at Auburn has since become a program director for Auburn’s Global Programs, specifically the program in Rome and Madrid. In a nutshell, Auburn students can earn a minor in business in conjunction with this program. The students take a series of business classes over the summer term, all in Europe, spending the first half of the program in Rome and the second half in Madrid. They also have a week break in between locations to travel on their own. In my case, I taught a Fundamentals of Management class in Madrid over the span of 10 class days.

A typical day meant being out the door by 7:15 am or so and heading to the metro station in Puerta de Sol. Along the way, I’d stop at a little 24-hour store for a bottle of water and the nearby Starbucks for a coffee. Ordinarily, we encourage folks to eat locally as much as they can while abroad, and for all kinds of reasons. Unfortunately, when it comes to coffee in Europe almost all of it is espresso-based. In other words, if you order a ‘regular’ cup of coffee, what you’ll get is an Americano: a shot of espresso diluted with hot water. Seasoned coffee drinkers will know these aren’t the same things. Even when looking for iced coffees in Madrid (it was usually in the 80s on the way into the office), you’re likely to find iced espresso-based drinks. Fortunately, I discovered that Starbucks’ iced coffee was more like iced coffees back in the US and was more what I was looking for. So, water (always stay hydrated, especially in hot, dry climates!) and coffee in-hand, I’d head over to the metro station.

The metro makes life in Madrid much easier than it otherwise would be. Or, at least moving around is easier. There are multiple metro lines running all under Madrid, with each having a multitude of stops. Some stations are transfer stations, meaning it’s a place where two or more lines intersect. That makes it even easier to get to pretty much anywhere you need to go, as you can leave one line and hop on another to get to even more places. It’s also fairly inexpensive to jump on the metro and go. As of the writing of this post, we were able to get a 10-journey card for a little over €10. The other thing to keep in mind about the metro is each station usually has 4 entrances/exits. Most often, a metro station is under a street intersection at ground level, and there’s an entrance to the station on each corner (roughly) of the intersection. That can make it even more efficient to get around because if you get out at the right exit you don’t have to cross the street or wait for traffic. Of course, if you leave the wrong exit…

Anyway, back to the routine. So, jumping on the metro at Sol meant I had 4 stops before getting off at the Delicias station. From there it was a roughly 10-minute walk, mostly shaded, to the Talent Garden building. I’d usually arrive right around 8:15 am and head up to his classroom on the 2^nd floor to get things ready. Class was scheduled from 9:00 am – 12:30 pm, but most days I’d let the students out around noon so they had time to work on their group projects. After answering questions and chatting with a few students, it was time to reverse the route to head back to the apartment: walk back to the Delicias station, hop on the metro and continue the 4 stops back to Sol, and from there a 5-minute walk back to the apartment at Plaza Mayor. Most days I was back at the apartment by 1 pm or so.

After getting back, I’d take a break for an hour or two to visit with Tasha and see what was happening in the world. Then, usually around 3 pm, I’d start working on the next day’s class. I wrote my lectures before heading to Madrid, but there were still notes to add, examples to fine-tune, e-mails to answer, and so on. That usually went until 5 pm or 6 pm, at which point it was time to start thinking about dinner. Keep in mind most restaurants don’t open for dinner in Madrid until 7:30 pm or so. That means you’re usually back home by 9:30 pm or 10 pm, which gives you just enough time to hit the shower before turning in for the night. There were also nights when we had program dinners or other events. Those are fun, but usually meant we’d get back to the apartment considerably later than 9:30 or 10 pm, even though the 6:30 am wake-up call never seemed to change. Oh well.

And that was life, every day, for all 10 days I was teaching. Not every trip with students is this intense, but they all involve more than a vacation from everyday life. No complaints, though: not everyone gets to do what they like, and even fewer get to do it all over the world. But trust me, it’s not a vacation.

The post It’s Not Much of a Vacation – Working Abroad first appeared on The DeBode Way.

We spent our 3 weeks in a cute little Air BnB apartment on the backside of Plaza Mayor. It was tiny, but it had everything we needed – including a little AC. We loved the little balcony for fresh air and a peek at the world. I loved the ambiance with the fabulous chandeliers, expansive book collection, ancient door and next door neighbor that gave music lessons. It was on the third floor of a very old building and had all sorts of quirks from centuries of remodels. It was pretty great, but no lie, I was super jealous of the view from our friend’s apartment next to the palace and gardens. But, we were very centrally located, could walk everywhere we needed to go within 15 minutes and I never had to get on the metro. We even had a little grocery store right across the street. I don’t think I made it farther than a 15 minute radius the entire time we were there. So weird.

Laundry. It was over 100 degrees the ENTIRE time we were in Madrid. The first two weeks we were in the city I did laundry almost every day in our tiny apartment washing machine so it had time to dry (very few dryers in Europe) before we needed clean clothes again. I was washing by the third day we were there. Between clothes and sheets and towels I was completely overwhelmed. I don’t know how they keep up! Maybe they care less about the summer stink or just generally have way more tolerance for the heat than we do. Luckily, I had come along and could conquer this task so Jason could focus on his class. He worked and was in class constantly. We had packed about a week’s worth of clothes, so by the end of the second week, I quit washing clothes and planned to just haul them home dirty to wash one load in my giant washer. So much faster. Funny enough, I hang most of our clothes to dry at home these days anyway, so the lack of a dryer wasn’t that big of a deal to us. The biggest challenge was finding a place to hang sheets to dry quickly. I got creative and opened the doors to our wardrobe and draped them across the top. Victory. It was after this I saw they would replace our sheets and towels for €25 per set – this was one of those character-building opportunities and just another load of laundry. Not a big deal.

By the end of the third day in the country, I knew something was wrong. I’m typically puffy after flying and have a constant sore throat from Missouri allergies, so I thought nothing of both following me to Spain. By the end of day three though, my voice started to go, that almost never happens – Jason will tell you he never gets a break from me gabbing. We were at a program dinner that night when my eyes started watering profusely, like I was full-on crying, and wouldn’t stop! I dabbed my eyes all night and cracked jokes about how terribly sad I was, but we blamed all the smoke and wind in the outdoor bar and thought the earlier rainstorm had maybe stirred something up. Other than these weird things, we felt totally fine. By the next morning, I was a wreck. I managed to peel myself out of bed, do some yoga, throw a load of ever-present laundry in, sweep the floor, and then I crashed hard and basically didn’t move for 5 days while I cycled through fever, a drowning amount of phlegm, and a horrible cough. Jason was lucky and was only down for about 2 days over the weekend, so his class wasn’t affected. He always bounces back from an illness so much faster than I do. A week and a half later I still had congestion, a throbbing headache (I’m blaming the headache on the constant heat and dehydration), and generally dizziness, but was starting to be able to function again. I know what you’re thinking – oh my gosh, they got Covid. It very well could have been, we’d been traveling, flying, and living in countries that no longer have restrictions other than masking here and there. We did the best we could in our situation and tried to be responsible by laying low until our symptoms went away. This was longer for me, but that’s how it goes with me and wasn’t a big deal since I’d planned to work from the apartment most days anyway. I’d like to say I got a ton of work done while I only saw the inside walls of our apartment, but I was too busy watching the insides of my eyelids.

Meanwhile, Jason is having time of his life, living the European dream! Ok not really, he’s working really hard and I’m seeing the concern he has for his students as they struggle through tests every other day and their own issues with living in a country that is not their own. They’re college students in Europe, what could go wrong (oh the stories!)? Prior to this, Jason had not lectured in a classroom setting in almost 3 years (due to Covid and his stint as department head), and a 3.5-hour class every day will really knock the wind out of you! His class was finished every day at 12:30, then after running errands or scrouging up lunch we (I) partook in the great “siesta,” generally while Jason was catching up on grading and prepping his next class. Siesta is my favorite thing about Spain. To avoid the heat of the day, most places close down in the afternoon, and using this time for a nap is perfectly acceptable. I’ve decided this is how they have the energy to stay up all night to enjoy the cooler temperatures. Unfortunately, our American work schedule and the time difference prevented us from enjoying many late nights out. So, the siesta ended up being some catch-up rest from late nights working, early mornings to work on Spanish time, and heat exhaustion. It was a bit brutal!

We did have time for a couple of fun things during our stay. On one Sunday, we strolled a couple of blocks from our apartment to the biggest outdoor flea market in the world (so they say). El Rostro happens every Sunday and public holiday in Madrid. It was a conglomeration of all things imaginable for sale, but my favorite was all the different types of music from different cultures. Stalls lined the streets as far as you could see and the businesses behind them were open as well. We didn’t end up buying anything and cut our trip a bit short due to the heat but we’re here to say, it certainly was large! Had I been in the mood, I could have found all sorts of “treasures” to haul home.

A friend and I had an entire day of fun as well. We headed off to shop early on in our stay along Calle Gran Via (remember: the double-l in Spanish is pronounced as a y, so Calle is pronounced Cay-yay – it means street), a popular shopping location in Madrid. We ducked in and out of tons of stores, finding a few things, and enjoyed the wide pedestrian streets that are closed to cars, except for delivery vehicles. There is very little traffic in central Madrid due to their push to move cars out and turn the streets into walkways. They only allow only electric scooters, bikes, and taxis in the city center to cut down on noise and pollution. The metro system running under it all gets the bulk of people around when it’s too far to walk, but honestly, I didn’t get on the metro the entire time we were there since we were so centrally located! We just walked everywhere. After our long walk and shopping trip, we got lunch at what turned out to be my favorite restaurant, La Rollerie. Jason and I went back multiple times after for brunch. Since my friend was only here for a short time before her husband started teaching and was staying in a hotel, we took advantage of their pool after lunch. This was short-lived as a freak rainstorm blew in and sent us scrambling for cover. We felt so bad for the pool staff running around trying to pull cushions, tables, and lamps under cover so they wouldn’t be soaked later in the day. They were completely drenched, got hailed on, and had to be absolutely freezing standing in the AC afterward! We quickly saw an entirely new group of staff come in; we’re thinking the others were sent home. Once the storm blew over, we convinced the husbands to join us for a pre-dinner drink before meeting the big group for dinner. It was a great time, and probably the busiest day I had on the entire trip.

We also had a rather entertaining evening on a colleague’s roof next to the Royal Palace of Madrid. We spotted a spectacular sunset out the windows of his apartment where we had gathered for drinks and tapas, so four of us piled into the tiny glass elevator to head to the roof for a better view. Except, the elevator got stuck about two feet from the top floor and the doors WOULDN’T OPEN! After about 15-20 minutes of sweating to death (because of course it was over 100 degrees in a building with no AC), frantically calling the Air BnB host, pressing the emergency button where we were greeted with rapid-fire Spanish that we were having trouble deciphering in our panicked state, and sinking to the ground in despair, someone found a catch for the doors, they opened and we all frantically climbed up out of the elevator. I’ve never been so relieved in my life. I would like to say that someone would have eventually come to help us, but after spending 3 hours on the roof, no one had come, and the elevator was still stuck where we left it. Obviously, we took the stairs back down. We missed the actual sunset but the view was still spectacular, the company was entertaining and I got some fun photos and videos of the palace at night.

As I’ve said, the heat was oppressive. However, we were not dealing with the humidity with it that we get in Missouri, so we were so kindly allowed to breathe. Instead, this was the type of heat that sneaks up on you, you don’t realize you’re too hot until it’s too late. We typically did not venture out in the afternoon once Jason was back from class, dripping sweat from his 10-minute walk from the metro station. Instead, we waited until the restaurants opened around 8 PM (everything happens so late here) to venture out for tapas (small plates of food), grab take-out from the fabulous sushi place next door or call in some Uber-Eats (no lie, this is the first time I’ve ever done that! They don’t deliver in rural MO!). We had paella (pronounced pie-yay-uh) aplenty, Chinese tapas, pizza, a glorious burger, croquettes, sushi, calamari, and an overwhelming array of various other tapas during our stay. The food is fabulous, although, I think, extremely heavy for the climate. I was constantly in search of fruit or a salad for nutrients and hydration and I never did find ice cream I could actually eat. Gosh, that still sounds good. Madrid, help a dairy allergy gal out and bring in some vegan ice cream!

We had an interesting time trying to figure out the trash and recycling situation in Madrid. I don’t come from a big city, so maybe this is normal, but they only put the trash cans out after 8 PM. We couldn’t figure this out for almost a week and finally asked the Air BnB host. I could see him shaking his head at the other end of my message as he explained you are not allowed to take the trash out during the day in Madrid. I must say though, this kept the streets less cluttered and smelly, so in the end, it’s great. We collected recycling for weeks too before we located a collection center. This part was expected for us as we collect our recycling at home in bins in our garage before we take truckloads to town to the recycling center. So no real change there. Chasing down trash cans was a new one though.

As we were rounding the corner on our last week in Madrid, things got even more interesting. Just as we were starting to feel pretty good after our illness, I got food poisoning. Really bad food poisoning. It was way worse than the maybe Covid, putting me in bed with a fever for an entire day while stomach pains had me nearly in tears. I should have stayed there the following day as well, but we needed to pack up to head home. So, I had to pull myself together long enough to get my suitcase packed so we could move closer to the airport where we were staying for the night (so we thought). It took some serious kumbaya in the taxi to hold myself together, but we made it to the hotel, and I promptly crashed again after trying to eat for the first time in two days. Terrible idea, I spent the night in agony.

Our wake-up call the following morning came at 4 am when we learned our first flight had been canceled. Some mad scrambling (and a few thankyous to all the gods from me) had us rebooked for an entirely new flight itinerary the NEXT day – after 5 hours on the phone. We almost made it out without any extra charges on our phone plan. So close. It was then we learned another professor had his flight canceled as well, so Jason encouraged him to come to stay at our hotel so they could commiserate (over beers, obviously) while I continued to try to sleep off the food poisoning in the dark cool of our room. The new itinerary meant a 3 am wake-up call the following day (which was just completely brutal), so we headed to bed by 8 pm only to not be able to sleep at all because it was so light outside! We had blackout curtains, but the entire bathroom was frosted glass and mirrors with no curtains, not helpful! We finally fell asleep sometime around midnight only to be jolted awake again at 3 am.

We made the airport by 4:15 the next morning and everything went smoothly. The bag check line was separate from the check-in line (which we had done online), so we quickly dropped our bags off and headed for security. Security was a breeze (why is it such mass screaming chaos in the US!?) and we were to our gate almost 2 hours before our flight. We could have slept longer, darn it, but had we waited there would have been some issue and we’d have missed our flight. No doubt. Our Lufthansa plane was parked at the gate for the night and mercifully left on time getting us to Munich in plenty of time to get through the very orderly German Border Control (which was at least 3 different passport checks) and to our crowded gate. This flight was delayed. I think we ended up leaving an hour later than we were supposed to just due to issues at the gate. We lost our fancy United Premium Plus seats when our itinerary changed but they were able to at least put us in an exit row for our 11.5-hour flight in some relatively comfortable seats. That is currently the longest I have ever been on a plane and it was tolerable. I was just extremely bored. I am also happy to report that my food poisoning issues took most of the day off. I got to Houston on Pedialyte and rice, where a banana nearly killed me, and I had to repeat the kumbaya for the final flight into Springfield. No joke, I wanted to kiss the ground. Jason says this is not recommended in airports.

Our wonderful neighbor picked us up (and had dropped us off three weeks earlier) at the airport and whisked us away home to hug the doggos. Esma and Zara quickly forgave us for our prolonged absence, but Jack is still mad at us. That dog can hold a grudge like none I’ve ever known. The cat also made her protests known the next morning, but I think she’s forgiven us as well. She’s spent a lot of time with me begging for pets.

All of this is to say, I hope you go to Spain! It’s a wonderful country that unfortunately does not agree with me. This was my second trip to Spain with Jason while he teaches and the second trip where I have been very sick. I don’t do well in the heat, so I think that has a lot to do with exacerbating my symptoms. I love the colors, the vibe, and the friendliness of Spain but I will admit I was in dire need of some green – which I was NOT greeted with when we got home. Missouri is currently in a drought, and everything here has dried up as well. There were definitely some fun highlights, but we didn’t get to do any sightseeing on this trip. I’m thinking next year we may stay in Germany longer before or after classes and I’ll just send Jason to Spain on his own and I’ll head home to man the fort myself at home while he teaches. We’ll see what the year brings. It’s always an adventure.

The post Living in Spain – The Unexpected first appeared on The DeBode Way.

Welcome to Ardanaiseig Hotel on the banks of Loch Awe. We have stayed in this area every time we’ve been to Scotland and can honestly say we look forward to the calm, the wandering, the amazing food, and the fantastic staff! We’ve even brought University students here to recover from their jet lag before setting them to work on projects.

To find this hidden gem, you turn off the busy A85 at Taynuilt and head down the single-track B845 until you reach Kilchrenan. Hang a left at the Inn and go past it down another, even more narrow single-track road. And yes, you could meet a lorry at any time since there is a fishery down this road as well, so keep alert, and watch for stags and other wildlife. You just never know what you might see in this wild, gorgeous landscape. About 20 minutes since you left the busy road you’ll come upon the old gatekeeper’s cottage, Rose Cottage. Keep going, pass through the gate, and onto Ardanaiseig’s grounds.

Need a visual? Watch the video. Sorry about the dirty windshield, we’re not exactly video experts. Perhaps there’s a GoPro in our future. It may take a few minutes to load.

Once you pull up to the (19^th century!) manor house, the staff will diligently descend upon you, help you with your things and get you checked in. You’ll be in your room before you’ve even had a chance to marvel at the entryway, so come back and marvel later at the grandeur and intricate detail.

There are three different options for your stay here. The first is in the manor house itself. There are 16 rooms and suites of various sizes and views on two different levels, and all are named for a location or feature in the local landscape. On this trip, we stayed in the house, on the second floor, in the Kilchurn Suite (Kilchurn is the local castle ruins on Loch Awe). It’s blue and purple, boasts a SUPER king four-poster bed (glorious!), has a view of the loch, and is right above the kitchen, so you have amazing smells wafting your way morning and night. There is ample space in this room, a huge wardrobe, desk, bench, two sitting areas, and a TV that we never touched. Why would you!? The bathroom has a huge soaking tub with shower, a massive window (and shade), and a complete novelty in Scotland – tons of counter space! Typically, we don’t spend much time in our room on a trip, but this one had us finding excuses to work a little, make tea, take a nap, stare out the windows and sleep in a bit each morning. It was lovely.

Your second option is the boathouse, which is a short walk or drive to the manor house from closer to the loch. We’ve stayed here, too, and can confirm it has an amazing view of the loch and mountains to the South and East which you can take in from anywhere in the house via the loch-facing wall that’s all glass (remember this if you aren’t a fan of being fully clothed) or on the deck. Its location away from the main house keeps it super quiet and secluded. It has a kitchenette, dining area, sitting area, and lofted king bedroom that gets the first glimpses of the sunrise over the mountains each morning – a completely different vibe from the house, much more modern.

On our first stay, we were at Rose Cottage – the gatekeeper’s cottage at the top of the drive and your third option at Ardanaiseig. This was when we renewed our vows on the grounds, so it was nice to have a space completely to ourselves. This was also the time our luggage was lost for our entire two-week trip (except for my dress in my carryon – whew!), and as this is the only room with a washer/dryer, we finally got to wash our clothes properly after a week. Rose Cottage is a complete house with separate rooms: full kitchen/dining, living room, bathroom/laundry, and mud room on the first floor, plus two bedrooms upstairs. It is a bit of a hike down to the main house if you want to visit or eat at the restaurant, but it’s a beautiful walk, especially in the Spring when all the rhododendrons and azaleas are in bloom. Be sure to wave hello to the deer on your walk down to breakfast. We walked down many times in the rain, even then it was beautiful.

All this goes to say, you have lots of options and the owners and staff go above and beyond to make sure you enjoy yourself no matter where you stay.

Keep in mind this is a 19^th century manner house, meaning the main house is well over 100 years old. That said, the house has been well maintained, so many of the things we often expect in hotels are there. Still, don’t walk in here expecting a pristine, brand new, modern hotel. It’s so much better than that! The house was built in 1834 by James Archibald Campbell (yes, those Campbells of Inverary Castle) and was originally known as New Inverawe. Once the Campbells sold the house and grounds in 1880, the deed required the name to be changed as it passed to a new owner, and Ardanaiseig was born, first as a private home and later converted to a hotel opening in 1980. It has tons of eclectic charm, creaks and moans, history, beautiful floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the loch, intricately carved fireplaces, and is full of antiques furnished by the present owner, an antiques dealer. All that’s to say, expect a unique view around every corner and you won’t be disappointed. Many of the antiques have fun stories that you can read about or ask the staff about. Be sure to ask about the giant painting in the Restaurant – the story is interesting. There are four main public rooms: the ballroom/drawing-room, the library/bar, the entry, and the restaurant. On this trip we spent a couple of afternoons in the drawing-room writing and editing with a tea tray, staring out the huge windows at the loch. It was so nice! I didn’t even mind getting a little work done.

We spent much of our time wandering the grounds on this trip. We had three full days to relax, so we struck out to discover all the new paths that had been uncovered in the gardens and parkland. Their gardener has done extensive clearing work in the past two years and has uncovered and created so many things to discover! We seriously lost track of the number of new paths that had been created and uncovered. Each one felt like you were stumbling upon something old and forgotten. New to us was the dry dock, old rail lines (that they think were used to move building supplies from the loch to the house location), a swamp of invasive Skunk Cabbage, the clay shooting grounds, two dilapidated docks along the shores of the loch, a wedding venue, and what felt like miles of pathways. I was very excited to find the first of the flowering rhododendrons for the season that had been planted beginning in 1916, admired the daffodils popping up everywhere, and had fun finding all the newly created wooden statues, bridges, arches, and games throughout.

Other things to find are the old tennis court, the graveyard, the chicken house, a walled garden, a forest of tall mossy trees, an amphitheater, a tree stand, and when you think you’ve found it all, you haven’t. I just couldn’t believe how much it had changed and how much work they have done to uncover the neglected past since our last visit. Outstanding! The gardens are a true marvel.

You have a couple of options when it comes to meals here. For your evening meal, you can eat in their fabulous, award-winning restaurant. Take it from us, their food is second to none and you won’t be disappointed. But, if you need a change of scenery and have a car, you can pop down to the local pub for a bite at Kilchrenan Inn (remember where you made that left turn on the way in?). They have fabulous food and a much lighter atmosphere. Parking can be a bit tricky if they’re busy, but there is also space behind, at the school and at the village hall. Be sure to call ahead and reserve a table so you don’t go hungry. You can go even farther away to Taynuilt or nearby Loch Awe if you wish. We met our friends, the managers of Ardanaiseig, and their kids for dinner at Ben Cruachan Inn one night in Loch Awe and it is also fabulous. Seriously, I don’t know how anyone could go wrong with the food around there. It’s amazing!

Breakfast at Ardanaiseig is so, so good. I think we’ve had nearly everything on the hot menu at one point or another. As with many other hotels in Scotland, they have cold breakfast options (your starters): fruit, yogurt, pastries, cereals, juices, etc. In addition to this, you can order a hot breakfast (your main) with anything from a full Scottish to salmon and eggs – our favorites. Our advice is to fill up on breakfast and forget about lunch so you can see more on your visit and have a long, relaxing meal at the end of the day.

They don’t typically serve lunch as most folks are out and about and away from the hotel during the day. However, we have worked with them ahead of time in the past when we traveled with Jason’s students. The chef prepared sack lunches for us each day with sandwiches, fruit, and chips. Perfect for our on-the-go itinerary.

Another place I’m excited to try on our next trip is Brander Lodge. Our friends had newly acquired management of that hotel, so it wasn’t open yet, but it has since been reopened and I’ve been hearing wonderful things about the new chef and the Bistro. That would be another great lunch or dinner option just outside of Taynuilt. The Lodge will be a more casual stay, has great grounds full of gardens located on River Awe, has fishing rights for the river, and even a burial site from a battle in the time of Robert the Bruce. The same gardener that transformed Ardanaiseig was busy at work when we had our tour – it will be tip-top in no time. I’m excited to hear how this completely opposite hotel does for the area. We’ll tell you next year. Wink.

So now that you’ve checked in, wandered the grounds, and had dinner, it’s time for a nightcap don’t you think? The bar in the library has an extensive collection of Scotch and on this visit, we were blessed with the local whisky expert doing the pouring. Jason got some great tips and a list of new whiskies to try. Has anyone had Springbank? It’s apparently hard to come by and we couldn’t find anyone with it due to a shortage in its production. It sounds like it’s amazing, they know it and just make it whenever they feel like it. Too funny. And frustrating. I don’t imagine we’ll be finding that one at home, ever.

After three days of some serious relaxation, we had to hit the road again to catch our flight home. On the way back to Edinburgh we stopped at the National Wallace Monument, built in honor of the famous William Wallace (FREEEEEDOOOOOMMMMMM!!!! Yes, that guy). We decided it was high time to check it out since we’ve driven past it numerous times and never stopped. After a very vertical, winding walk-up Abbey Craig to the base of the monument, we climbed the 246 steps to the top. The narrow spiral staircase made three stops on the way up, one for each floor of the Monument. The first was for the Hall of Arms exhibit containing the Wallace sword, next was the Hall of Heroes containing the busts of important Scottish figures in history, then the Royal Chamber detailing the Battle of Stirling Bridge, and finally we reached The Crown with the spectacular view of Stirling and the countryside. It was worth all the huffing and puffing. After a quick glimpse around the gift shop, it was back into the car and off to drop off our trusty Mercedes A series at Enterprise in the city center.

Now car-less, we loaded up and trudged the literal mile uphill to our hotel – Hilton Carlton. Had we been smarter, we would have dropped our luggage off at the hotel first, but the currently one-way, one-lane street is under construction, and we would have been blocking traffic while someone dashed inside to ask the desk to hold our bags. So, we hoofed it and sweated, a lot. We call this character building, right? It was unpleasant. After checking into our free and upgraded room, we grabbed a snack at the hotel’s executive lounge (yay for status and points!), then did a quick poke around the high street shops before they closed and grabbed dinner at a nearby Indian restaurant. Completely stuffed, we walked a bit more, then called it a night.

The following day we had a mountain of wish-list items to fulfill for friends and family at home, so we spent the day wandering the shops on the Royal Mile to find their goodies and ended up buying another bag because we found a great deal on wool blankets for ourselves that we hadn’t planned for (one drawback of only traveling with carry-on bags). We said no souvenirs – oops. Shipping, checking a bag, and buying a bag were all about the same price, so we just couldn’t win, but I ended up with a really cute Harris Tweed weekender. Yay me! We called it an early night when my hip started acting up from pounding the pavement, got some tea at the hotel for a break, and dinner a little later at Byron’s Gourmet Burgers right next to our hotel. We go there every trip and highly recommend it.

A 5 am wake-up call the following morning had us meeting our cab at 6 and to the airport by 6:30 to start our uneventful flight home. It has only been about a month and a half since we landed back in Missouri and we already have plans on the books for a return trip next May, this time with University students. You just can’t keep us out of Scotland!

Thanks for coming along with us! We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. Haste ye back!

The post You’ll Be Begging To Go: Our Stunning Wee Hidden Gem On Loch Awe first appeared on The DeBode Way.

Langass Lodge was a bit of a tricky bugger to find, so many things in that area are called Langass (Langais). It’s not Langass Wood, or Barpa Langass, in fact, you must turn in at the Scottish Salmon Company, finally catch a chance to squint at a sign for Langass Lodge, and continue to the end of the road. Victory! We were shown to our room in the newer addition of the old hunting lodge, complete with a patio, by a very helpful staff member. She referred us to the bar and let us bump up our dinner reservation since we were starving from our long-ago breakfast – I failed this day and had only had avocado toast. So up to our room to unpack a bit, change into something more appropriate for dinner and wander down for drinks and dinner. Our dinner companions the first evening were – loud. But, the curry for me and the fish and chips for Jason were phenomenal. We wandered back to our room and called it an early night. It had been a really long day.

The next morning, we were the first down for breakfast – if you know me, you know this is very odd. I’m not a morning person, but the total reset from jumping time zones helps a bit and I see a lot more sunrises. Having our very own server was a bit awkward and we were a bit relieved when others started to filter in. We loaded up on a hearty breakfast and learned we were the only ones not checking out that morning. Neat. We had the whole place to ourselves for a few hours, so naturally, we decided to go for a long hike – unintentionally. Remember that server? It was his first week and his recommended hour-long hike was nearly 3 hours. It was great but I had a real hard time dragging myself back in at the end. I was unprepared and paved paths are not my friend.

We took off out our patio door to the back of the lodge for our hike, through the garden that was just starting to green up, through the massive metal gate at the ground’s edge (I’m assuming it was to keep the deer out), and nearly down to the loch. We took a left just before the path to the loch and went up the mountain. It was a small mountain, no worries. Our original destination was Pobull Fhinn, a stone circle that our loud dinner companions from the previous night had sworn was the only real stone circle on the island. The rest are supposedly tourist trap fakes. The stones were about halfway up the mountain where a plateau had been dug out to accommodate the circle. It was actually quite difficult to see the entire thing as some of the weathered stones had fallen and were half-buried and blended into the braken, but the view! Wow! Jason put the drone up for a better view and shot a couple of short videos. I didn’t get any really great photos of the stones, I was too mesmerized by the whole view! It was after this we found the actual gravel path and continued up and around the mountain. That was a bit easier than trudging through the braken. Whoops.

Through another large gate and into Langass Woods we went. A sign informed us if we kept on going we would encounter “the bear.” I wasn’t entirely sure what this was referring to, so we made a lot of noise (remember the large gate – yikes). That’s what you do in bear country, right? We put the drone up again and flew it in front of us for some fun forest footage. I may have let Jason go on ahead with this while I darted off the path periodically and found little treasures. Apparently, a school class had been by recently and added tons of little faeries doors and villages just off the path. They were pretty cute. And then we encountered “the bear.” It was a statue and a grave. Whew. Hercules the bear, however, was in fact at one time a real bear. He was a film star and at one time escaped and went missing on the island for 24 days in 1980, nearly starving himself to death because he didn’t like to eat raw meat, he had been cooked for his entire life. He died of old age in 2001 and I’m assuming was buried on the island considering we stumbled upon a grave. We found a few more fun things along the path carved out of fallen tree trunks – mushrooms, a gnome, small huts – and tried to fly the drone between the trees. Its sensors did NOT like that! We only ran it into one tiny branch and didn’t crash, so I would say that was a victory. Dodging fallen trees from the recent wind and rain storm, we finally found the way out, into a car park and were immediately confused as to where we were supposed to go. Down to the road, the map said. Ok. We ended up walking along the road for a mile and a half – not quite what we had in mind for hiking. We passed Barpa Langass, a chambered burial cairn (aka, huge pile of rocks) but didn’t hike up the hill to look closer. My energy was quickly being zapped by the pavement.

We finally made it back to the Lodge, collapsed in the bar, and begged for tea and scones. We were rewarded. That restored enough energy to wander back down to the loch to fly the drone again and check out the landscape from the water level. We played at the water’s edge until it was almost time for dinner. This night we had the restaurant to ourselves. It was so quiet while we watched the light disappear behind the lodge and cast some fabulous light features on the landscape. Before heading back up to our room we checked out at the front desk. Why you might ask? We needed to leave the lodge before 6am the next day and no one would be there to check us out. Small hotels often do not have overnight staff, only an emergency number. Plan ahead!

We miraculously made it out the door before 6am, dropped our keys off at the desk, and drove to town to catch the ferry in the dark and rain. It took forever to load, I got a nap in. It turned out to be a good day for travel and not much doing – it rained ALL day. Our ferry journey back to Uig on Skye only took a short two hours. We got some breakfast on board and were ready to hit the road once we drove off. We waved our final goodbye to our Uig hotel from our first night in Scotland and view of the bay before we headed towards the mainland. We made a quick stop at Talisker Distillery – home of Jason’s favorite Scotch – to grab a couple of bottles of the dark, peaty, smokey Scotch (it smells sooo good!) that we can’t get at home. Let’s be real, the entire reason Jason agrees to go to Scotland with me so often is to restock his Scotch supply. Back in the car, over the bridge at the Kyle of Lochalsh, and we were back on Mainland Scotland. We stopped quickly at Eilean Donan Castle to use the restroom, snap some photos of the moody day and peruse the gift shop. We’ve been inside the castle before, so we didn’t go in this time. It was only a 3-hour drive to our next hotel, so we took lots of roadside stops to appreciate the views and stand in the mist and rain. There’s just something magical about the rain in Scotland. I don’t mind it at all and it almost feels…healing. If we lived there full time I may change my mind but for now, it’s magical.

We arrived at Invergarry Hotel too early to check-in, so we grabbed some tea and drove down the road a bit farther to a distillery in Fort William – Ben Nevis Distillery. Super friendly folks, a free tasting from the exhausted barkeep (he had a massive tour bus group in the bar and I think he felt bad that we were stuck with them), average whisky – not my favorite. We didn’t do the tour as they were sold out for the day, but we’ve done so many of them we know the drill. Luckily their history was written on some wall placards, so we got the scoop, tasted some whisky, and headed back to the hotel.

Once checked in to our delightful little roadside hotel, we decided to go for a walk along the river just on the other side of the road before dinner. Invergarry had also fallen victim to the recent windstorms and excessive rain so there were fallen trees in our path everywhere. I’ve always found trees a bit spooky (there’s a story here – ask me sometime) and this was no exception. These massive trees that had been standing for decades, if not centuries along the pathway had been uprooted and thrown down the hill towards the river like they were twigs. Part of an ancient stone bridge was washed away as a result of high water and trees smashing into it, so we didn’t venture to the path on the other side. We finally had to turn around as the fallen trees were too thick to continue, which in the end was good because I suddenly got really dizzy on the way back and needed to sit for a while before I was able to be convinced to go eat dinner. We grabbed highland burgers and apple rhubarb crisp for dinner in the hotel bistro. Both were phenomenal. We called it an early night because I still didn’t feel right, my head was still reeling and my stomach was giving me grief.

A good night of sleep kicked most of whatever happened to me the night before and we were off in the morning towards Oban. We stopped at the Glen Coe Visitor’s Centre (we’ve also been here before) for a quick walk along the trail and an exhibit about Munro bagging (mountain climbing over 3000 feet – there are 282 peaks to bag in Scotland) and rock climbing. I’m not sure we officially have any Munros in our bag, but we’ve climbed LOTS of smaller mountains in Scotland. They had also recently finished an example of a peat house inside the grounds. I loved the design in the way the peat walls were laid. We wanted to spend more time in Glen Coe since we’d only just driven through before and send the drone up for some footage of the amazing landscape, but my stomach was not allowing any adventures far from civilization that day. Major bummer. Next time.

Not only is Glen Coe absolutely breathtaking, it’s the home of Fingal the great Celtic leader who defeated the Vikings and his poet son Ossian who took inspiration from its beauty. You know that opening scene from Outlander where they’re riding horses through a vast landscape – yep, Glen Coe. It was later home of the MacDougall Clan until they sided against Robert the Bruce – it was then awarded to the MacDonalds upon Bruce’s victory as King of Scotland. The MacDonalds met conflict from the ever reaching Campbell Clan in disputes over land and stolen cattle. This came to a head in a misunderstanding over a delayed pledge of allegiance to the new English King William III over the Scotland’s deposed King James II (King James VII of Scotland) by the MacDonald Clan Chief in 1692. This delayed pledge was rejected by officers in Edinburgh and lead to Campbell soldiers massacring 38 the MacDonald Clan in their sleep after the soldiers had peacefully quartered with them for 10 days. To break to rules of hospitality and commit “murder under trust” is a most grievous act. This lead to the glen being known to this day as the “Glen of Weeping” despite its dramatic beauty. Yay history!

We headed into Oban, grabbed the final bottle of Scotch that would fit in Jason’s bag at the Oban Distillery, an SD card for the drone (we were woefully unprepared for the file size that thing creates!), and packed back in the car to head to our destination for the day– Ardanaiseig Hotel. Of which I will tell you about, next time. It’s one of our favorite places in Scotland – seriously.

See you out there!

The post Spectacular Snowcapped Highlands to Boggy Lowland Islands and Back first appeared on The DeBode Way.

Ferry from Uig, Skye

We arrived in Tarbert via the ferry from Uig on the Isle of Skye just before noon. Our car was located on one of the raised decks of the ferry, so we had to wait until the very end of the unloading process for them to lower the lifted deck once the cars under it were gone, to get in and drive away. Once off the ferry and blinking into the sun, you’re immediately met with huge, rocky mountains and a sweeping sea coast of cliffs diving into brilliantly blue water. Spectacular. We hit the road and headed towards Stornoway – the only large town on the island. Obviously, we had to stop for some photos along the way. Every bend of the road yielded a drastically different landscape. The sweeping mountains soon gave way to a brown, rocky moor as we neared Stornoway.

Stornoway

We didn’t stay long in Stornoway. We found a station to put diesel in the car (our mileage is amazing despite the high prices – 55-60 mpg!), drove down to the port and past the Harris Tweed museum, which was closed. Bummer. Stornoway is great place to get any snacks you may need, water, pop into a few shops, find some Harris Tweed, and get cash for tips at the only bank on the island. Once properly provisioned we headed Northwest across the island, which continued as a brown, rocky moor to Barvas where we took a right on the A857 towards the Port of Ness at the northernmost tip of the island. I’d like to say this is the northernmost tip of Scotland, but it’s not, not by a long shot (Shetland Islands here we come), but it is nearly the tip of the Outer Hebrides. The Butt of Lewis Lighthouse is at the tippy top but we didn’t venture to it. I snapped some photos quick and we headed back south. We had a mission to complete as this was the only day (Saturday) our stops were going to be open while we were on the island.

Norse Mill & Kiln

First up in our stops along the road to our B&B (which I can’t wait to tell you about in a bit!) was the Norse Mill & Kiln. Honestly, most people would probably pass this by but we needed a walk at this point. I’m glad we stopped, it was so fascinating. It’s a little bit of a hike from the car park (maybe ¼ mile), but there is a path of flagstones and gravel that was fairly dry and easy to traverse. We met an older couple along the way complete with walking sticks (the fancy kind, not hiking poles), top hat and long trench coats – just made me smile. It was like they were on their first walk since Victorian times. We walked out to the low coastline and encountered two rebuilt round stone buildings with thatch roofs. One was a kiln with a raised stone area with a basin inside to stoke a fire. Grain would have been laid on a platform nearby and dried to be ground in the mill. The mill next door was quite interesting. My usual encounter with a water driven mill has had a vertical water wheel on the outside of the building used to turn the mill stones to grind the grain. This mill had a horizontal paddle wheel located under the building – I was so confused until I finally walked (climbed) around the building, trying not to fall in the stream and looked under. Water had been diverted from a nearby burn along a ditch and then down a steep wooden channel under the building to turn the wheel. The water then spilled out the other side, rejoined the stream and flowed out into the bay. The turning paddle wheel turned the millstone to grind the grain funneled into a hole at the center of the stone from a hopper at the top. The resulting ground flour was forced out from under the mill stone as the bits became smaller and onto the surrounding stone to be gathered up for use. It was a very well done reconstruction, and the entire site was easily self-interpreted as there was no guide and not much information about. Satisfied with our discovery and understanding, we strolled back to the car and headed down the road to the next destination on our list.

Gearannan Blackhouse Village

Confession: we had a rather difficult time finding this place. There are sooo many blackhouse ruins, those rebuilt as museums and refurbishments, and those that people actually live in – so cool. I think we tried two or three different places before we asked for some help from our handy dandy travel wifi. Signal shockingly acquired, we managed to get an actual address and find it. Victory! Typically, it’s actually quite difficult to get lost on the island but finding specific things is another matter. We usually head a general direction and find what we are after with a sign or two and some directional “feeling” – it’s just a gift I possess. Shrug – we’ll chalk that up to being a Midwest farm kid, I’m not really sure what it is. Finally located, we walked down from the car park and into another time.

A blackhouse is a low stone rectangular building (roughly 4-5 feet tall and of varying length and width) with a timber and thatch roof. The stone walls are very thick to provide insulation against the wild island wind and weather in the Hebrides. This particular blackhouse village was inhabited until 1974 when the last few remaining residents were relocated to new houses with far less maintenance in the village. The residents continued to work their crofts from their new homes but the old blackhouses themselves were saved for conservation and have since been restored as a museum and holiday lodging. You can actually stay in a refurbished blackhouse! I wish I had known this – how fun. Next time.

One of the houses is set up as a museum with painted wood panel lined walls, a single dividing wall splitting the house in two, and a fire at each end. It was quite cozy. We were told the wood paneling was added in the renovations for a more modern look and were not typical prior to the 1970s. Most stone walls were just painted to keep out the damp along with a roaring peat fire, as wood was very hard to come by on the windswept islands. The other end of this blackhouse was set up as a byre (barn) where animals would have been housed in the deep cold and many implements were kept. Today, instead of animals in this byre, a huge metal loom with a weaver making Harris Tweed was set up (Harris Tweed is made by independent weavers all over the island, not a factory) – what a complicated process. We watched a video on setting up the loom to weave. It takes ages to thread the width of the cloth (nevermind the spinning process to make the lengths of thread) before the weaving back and forth across the threads for a length of cloth can begin, constantly changing the shuttle for the intricate patterns. It takes a few days of clacking away on a very loud, heavy machine to produce a whole length of cloth ready to be sold. We watched the weaver in the museum for awhile, pumping away at the foot pedals that drive the machine to raise and lower every other thread while the shuttle flew back and forth to create the weave. My head was ringing after just a few minutes of that in the stone building. After days of it you had to be nearly deaf. We wandered through the village of holiday-lets and a hostel to the edge of the village on a cliff. A path leads down to the village’s beach with sparkling blue/clear water and the long skinny croft lands running up behind it. What a way to live! No wonder they didn’t want to leave. But we had to, the sun was starting to threaten to go down and we have another stop yet before check-in.

Callanish Stones

A little farther down the road lie the Callanish Stones. Callanish is the name of the area’s village and there are actually 11 stone circles and 9 single standing stones nearby. We went to the biggest and most famous of the circles first. We just barely squeaked into the visitor’s centre as they were closing before heading up the hill to see the stones. The site is absolutely massive and commands a fabulous view of the surrounding area! Callanish #1 is arranged in a circle with a center burial cairn. From the circle of stones, a cross formation goes out to the four points of the map. I think it actually looks like a Celtic cross from above. As with most stone circles, we don’t really know what they were used for, despite excavations. Ritual? Burial? Ceremony? All of the above? I personally just think they’re an amazing feat of human ingenuity in a time when tools were so primitive and lives were so bent to mere survival. The fact that many are still standing (lots have also been uncovered from the peat, up righted, and cemented into the ground, now) and here for us to see is amazing. We managed to get the drone up for some footage from above between other visitors and rain drops. That footage will make the Instagram page eventually.

We visited two other stone circle sites a different day (because we were late to check-in at this point, whoops!), but I’ll tell you about them now. Just a tiny bit down the road (you could actually walk) lie Callanish #2 and #3. These stone circles are located in some seriously boggy pasture on their own little hills, it was an interesting trek out to see them. We nearly lost Jason in the bog at one point when he slipped on a wet plank at the edge of a dilapidated walkway but he managed to stay upright without any pulled muscles and with his hands still in his pockets (I’m told I look like a windmill when I use my arms to hike and create forward motion, I tell him he works too hard with his hands in his pockets all the time-marriage). Whew!

SEAcroft

And finally, onto our destination for the day. We booked in for 3 nights at SEAcroft in Aird Uig in a little pod overlooking a sea cliff. I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect here honestly, and I was beginning to have doubts the closer we got. It was so remote we were beginning to wonder if we took a wrong turn (not that there were many options), but I don’t even have words for how amazing our view was. The moment we pulled up to our pod after checking in at the main house, a rainbow appeared over the cliff and crashing waves right off our front porch, plunging into the ocean. Just breathtaking. We knew we made a good choice *pat on back*.

Our hostess, Sarah, was wonderful and answered all our questions about everything from what to do in the area off the beaten path, where the fish on the menu came from and how to avoid the dairy offerings, to my questions about farming vs. crofting and how they ever found the place and came to live there from London in the first place (the wheels are turning!). Their family operates the main B&B, pods and a longhouse but they also operate the croft on which the main house sits in amongst just a couple other crofts in the glen plus a separate croft 8 miles away. Jason was one of two American professors there on sabbatical (clearly they all need a break far, far away from campus). The other professor was actually working on the croft with the sheep, as they were about to lamb, in exchange for room and board – genius. No lie, I wanted to get out there with her and the sheep. I miss that part of my life, but I refrained, reminded myself I’m on vacation and my plane companions probably won’t appreciate me smelling like sheep. So, I went hiking instead, which interestingly enough did not prevent me from smelling like a sheep. Some things you just can’t quite take out of a farm girl. Shrug.

Quickly about crofting vs. farming. I grew up on a large, family owned and operated Iowa Century farm, so I had lots of questions for Sarah. The simplest way she explained the difference to me was that crofting is smaller than farming and is unique to Scotland. Sounds right up my alley. It was created in the 1700s as a way to support a local landowner’s rising estate costs by dividing their land amongst paying tenants and by fencing the once common lands off to raise sheep, but let’s focus on now. Today crofting is small scale tenant farming with a focus on the local economy. To keep your tenure you have to live on your croft, contribute to the local area, support yourself, prove that you are improving upon the land each year and you can will your croft to someone else if the commission agrees – there are lots of rules. Crofters do not own their land (but they can – bit confusing) but have the rights to use it, build on it and improve upon it – again all with planning approval. Crofting is very much tied to the land and about the land and local support and less-so about the physical farm buildings and wider market process. See why it’s so confusing? Even so, I’m ready to move to Scotland and be a crofter. I’ll get to keep my chickens and garden, add some sheep and be a happy camper in a climate that is far more appealing to me.

Our cute little pod was definitely a cozy little home. You could hear the wind howling down the cliffs outside but we didn’t feel it at all in our glass faced little den with our infrared heating panel (fascinating – I’m looking into this for our basement). We had to laugh though at the ratchet straps thrown over top and attached to anchors deep in the ground. The wind was serious business and you could feel the pod shudder every once in awhile.

Our first night and morning here we took the opportunity to do some sink laundry since there were two sinks – one in the bathroom and one in the kitchen. This gave the clothes plenty of time to dry on the heated towel rack and hooked outside on our porch in the wind before it needed to be packed up again. Our clothes hung all over was the only reason the pod ever felt small. Otherwise it was a great place to get a little work done, record a live video for our boutique and just sit with a cup of tea gazing out over the horizon. We really liked the pod.

Each morning and evening we walked down the hill to the main house for breakfast and dinner. We were booked in at the same time as another couple from England that we loved chatting with at every opportunity. They were as fascinated by us as we were by them. Loads of questions, travel stories and life stories were traded at each meal. And the meals! We may have been in a remote location but you never would have guessed from the amazing variety food. We had fresh caught seafood and vegetables plucked from the croft at every meal. There was even an instance of someone meeting their lobster (not us) before it went in the pot. The chef – bless him – recreated a number of dishes on the menu for me to omit dairy. I never got to meet him but Sarah said he was always so nervous about what I would think. He did brilliantly! On our last night we had dinner almost entirely alone and Jason decided he would give the langoustines a try. Luckily, this came complete with a lesson on how to eat them and he tortured me with their legs and beady little eyes while I worked on my halibut and veggies. Shudder. Full Scottish breakfasts every day for Jason and salmon and eggs or avocado toast for Tasha. Mmm toast.

COMS Tower

One of the suggestions made to us from fellow guests at SEAcroft and from Sarah was to turn off the road from Aird Uig, open and go through a gate and up the drive to the area’s communication’s tower for the view. We were assured we could drive up the road, walk up the 92 steps to the bottom of the towers and hike up the hill without bothering anyone. This would have had all sorts of trespassing issues at home but Scotland has this “right to roam” law that allows recreational access by foot to most lands. It’s a little complicated but basically if you use common sense, act responsibly, respect other’s privacy and do not harm the environment you have an amazing amount of access to explore the country. This is a relatively new law (2003) that gave a nod to ancient traveling traditions. As a traveler, I think it’s amazing, but it would be interesting to hear what land owners think.

But back to it though, sure enough, once we were to the top of the hill we were treated to a spectacular view. We sent the drone up for some fun footage of the 360˚ view that extended from mountains and valley to sea. We could even see our tiny pod perched on the sea cliff way off in the distance. We spent some time planning our next adventures to the interesting features we could see from our perch. Perfect.

Reef Beach

So, onto our next adventure. The following day, which was the same day as the Coms tower, we took off on a little drive that had us backtracking a little but not much. We drove back out to the main road at Timsgearraidh, hung a left and then another left off the B8011 at Miavaig and took the circular loop drive to Reef Beach. This was truly when we started to wonder where we were, no way this is still Scotland. Reef Beach is spectacular. Green mountains at each end, a miles long stretch of white, sandy beach meeting the clear blue water and sand dunes covered in reeds up behind that look like something straight out of the Caribbean. We took a long walk along the beach, in hiking boots, not something I can say I’ve ever done. We didn’t see any bare feet but saw lots of Wellies, apparently this is how you do the beach in Scotland. We were thankful for the waterproof boots when we came to a freezing stream flowing from the mountains and across the sand to the ocean. We were greeted by an overly friendly dog who left a massive scratch on my leg (I’m fine) when he ran over to greet us from the beach picnic he was attending. It took some convincing for him to go sit back down and not continue on with us down the beach. We turned around before we reached the end because we encountered another, much deeper stream with quick sand. I wasn’t in the mood for wet feet, so we headed back down the beach, across the first stream (which had grown!) and back to the car.

Drive to the Edge of the World

We finished the drive of the loop road (complete with highland coo sighting) and headed right, back onto the B8011 going South. Sarah told us you could drive to the “edge of the world” on this road. Challenge accepted. We scooted along through a couple of small villages (with for sale signs, which I was later told were probably inaccurate because places sell so fast out there), tons of sheep, a few cows and were rewarded with dramatic sea cliffs, huge mountains and yes, the end of the road. We got out and did quite a bit of hiking and scrambling up rocks for views. It was just magical. Jason sent the drone up again and I wandered off to take photos off the edge of the cliff. I just love the round sea rocks and clear blue water at the bottom!

On the way back from the edge of the world, we stopped at what we had marked as a strange area we didn’t understand from the top of the hill at the coms tower. Turns out, it was a giant flat beach! At low tide, Uig Sands is one of the largest beaches in Scotland. The completely flat, sandy landscape is something straight out of the Caribbean, again! We walked from one end to the other, flew the drone and decided we better scramble back up the steep dunes and head for the pod before they gave away our dinner reservation time.

Gallan Head & Navy Base & Cliff Walk

After our trip to the edge of the world we headed back to the pod for dinner and called it a day but there were still adventures to be had the following day. We decided to give the car a break and spent the day wandering Aird Uig and Gallan Head. Aird Uig is a unique, small village that popped up in 1825 when its first settlers were evicted from nearby Carnish. The croft land was remote and particularly difficult to work, and they hoped they would be left alone. Along comes the Royal Air Force in 1954 to set up a RADAR site just at the top of the village at Gallan Head to keep an eye on those pesky Russian submarines during the Cold War. They and NATO operated here until 2010. The abandoned military base site has become a combination of deserted buildings and concrete footings, some of which have been transformed into homes. Sarah told us the council is trying to decide what to do with the larger deserted buildings. There have been talks of things from a hotel (which no one seems particularly excited about) to a gallery and whale watching/listening area. As was the case when Aird Uig was created, they just want to go about their lives in peace in their remote location.

After breakfast we walked down the cliff to the rocky beach. When I say rocky beach I mean there were meters and meters of sea rounded rocks that have been pushed in by the waves and piled so high the water does not flow into the valley. We scrambled across the rocks and seaweed and decided to fly the drone up the cliff for a shot of our pod from the bottom and along the valley – the sheep didn’t seem to mind. Then we packed the drone up and hiked up the other side of the cliff. It was nearly vertical in places and quite the wet, slippery scramble. We had thought about climbing to the top of the ridge, but we encountered a fence and didn’t want to go over it too bad, so back down we went. This time, instead of taking the nice path that lead diagonally up the cliff back to the B&B we decided to go straight up the cliff to our pod. Talk about some huffing and puffing! I think we made it about 10 feet at a time before we had to stop to breathe, it was intense. And then, the gate was locked at the top so we had to climb over, dang near just fell over the thing at that point. Quick breather at our pod and then we headed up to Gallan Head.

The top of the cliff where our pod was located is the old Navy and NATO base. We took a trek up to the top to see what there was to see and wow, there was something to see! We spent hours walking all over the soggy cliff in the whipping wind. I made Jason a bit nervous walking out to cliff edges to admire the blue water crashing on the rocks below, but I promise I still had plenty of distance to the edge, he just couldn’t see it from his location. We even found a geo-cashing box. After we had thoroughly wind burned ourselves it was time to head down for our last fresh from the sea dinner – Halibut for me, Langoustines for Jason.

Harris Tweed Exhibit

Much to our dismay, we packed up and left our pod and amazing view after three days and headed for the ferry in Leverburgh at the tip of Harris. On the way we stopped at Callanish again for our tromp through the bog and then drove on through the rocky moonscape of Harris. We made two quick stops. The first was a completely unplanned sighting for a Harris Tweed Exhibit, so off we went down a single-track road. Why not? Two and a half miles and 10 minutes later we arrived at a building with no obvious signage and no one milling about, so we snuck around the side looking for some indication we were in the right place and finally spotted a wee sign next to a door. Store closed but exhibit open. Good enough, in we went. It was actually a really good exhibit highlighting not only how the tweed is made but some designers who have used it over the years. Included were some examples of their products on display. There was everything from tweed ballgowns to hunting gear, three-piece suits, handbags, and shoes. Some people are just so creative. We left a donation for the box and out the door and back down to the main road again.

Luskentyre Beach

Our last stop on our journey to the ferry was at Luskentyre Beach. We have been hearing about this beach since before we were even on the island, so we decided to stop. Down another long single-track road we went, behind the dunes that hid the beach from us most of the way. We finally pulled into a car park at a cemetery (I imagine the beach dunes are the only place something can be buried in that rocky landscape) and headed down to the beach. Alright fine, it was gorgeous. This beach was even bigger than the one we saw from our perch on the coms tower hill. It stretched on, flat and sandy, probably for miles before it sunk into the crystal blue waters, surrounded by rocky mountains climbing out of the sea. There were many walkers and happy dogs running along the beach, but we didn’t stay long, we had a ferry to catch. I imagine this beach is quite the slice of heaven during a long, cold, windy winter on a northern island. We admired the waves for a bit and then were on our way again.

Ferry to Uig – Leverburgh to Berneray

And finally, on to our much smaller ferry for the trip to North Uist. We had anticipated there being a café to grab a bite, like on the last ferry, but no. We sat our grumbling tummies in seats and watched Uist grow closer in front of us while the ferry scraped along the shallow sea bed and dodged dozens of little islands while trying to follow the channel buoys. I can’t imagine that happening for long before the ship needs repairs. Yikes. Once safely in Berneray on North Uist, we set off again to find our next destination: Langass Lodge. See ya there!

The post Lewis & Harris: Journey to the Edge of the World first appeared on The DeBode Way.

Edinburgh to Skye – Get the Car

On our most recent trip to Scotland we started with a bit of a wild itinerary. The plan was to fly into Edinburgh and drive to Skye the same day. We don’t necessarily recommend this unless you’ve been in country before, know what to expect and can handle having not slept for 24 hours. We live on the edge a bit so, off we went.

We couldn’t find a rental car at the airport when we reserved one two months ago. It’s not high season, so I’m assuming this was due to the lack of cars available as fleets were sold off during the pandemic and new cars have been hard to come by due to the chip shortage. So, we had to take a cab into the city to pick up our car. But! This also meant that we got a better deal on our car than renting from the convenient airport – like $500 less type of deal! We also could have taken a tram and then a train and then walked to the agency, but in the interest of time and not wanting to drag our bags too far, we spent a bit extra and grabbed a cab to drop us off at the door of Enterprise (who it turns out, will not pick you up). After a mix-up about our credit card rental insurance (just FYI – it would be good to know the list of cars your insurance WON’T cover and to relay that to the rental company ahead of time in hopes you won’t get stuck paying for an additional insurance policy, because undoubtably they will save you the ONE car your insurance won’t cover and that’s all they have – sigh) we set off, from the middle of the city, on the left side of the road and driving from the right side of the car for our 5-turned-6 hour drive to Uig in the North of the Trotternish Peninsula on the Isle of Skye. There were lots of silly conversations, road-side photo op stops, and windows rolled down to let in the cold air and snow to keep us both awake, but wow was it gorgeous! It was our first time skirting the Cairngorms and their snowy peaks did not disappoint. We’ve decided the Cairngorms, North Coast 500 and Orkney Islands (Shetland too if we’re lucky) will be the next trip…always planning the next trip.

Now, hopefully you arrived in Skye with a greater control of your faculties than we did and are ready for adventure right away. If not, grab some dinner and call it an early night. It will be there in the morning. Our first real meal in Scotland was fish and chips for Jason and a Highland burger for Tasha. So, so good!

Uig

We called the Uig Hotel in Uig, Skye home for 2 days. We chose Uig because it is where we need to get on the ferry a few days later, early in the morning, to head to the western most Outer Hebrides. It’s a small village with a number of hotels and B&Bs, a grocery, a petrol station, walking paths, castle ruins and a Norman tower overlooking the water. Once recovered the next morning, we had a hearty breakfast to hold us until dinner, took a walk around town and little woods to settle and then set off on a drive. One of our favorite things about Scottish hotels and B&Bs is the hearty sendoff they give you in the morning. You’re not stuck with the cold, crummy breakfast bar that most chain hotels are famous for. Oh no, you can choose from the extensive cold breakfast bar for a starter but then they come along and ask what you want for hot breakfast and heap your plate with enough food to set you for the day, typically included in your nightly rate. I tend to favor the smoked salmon and eggs and occasionally some French toast, pancakes or waffles (because I can actually eat bread there since it’s not fortified – woo!) and Jason loves a tour of a full Scottish breakfast at every place we stay – mmmm haggis. We typically only eat 2 meals per day in Scotland – huge breakfast and dinner (supper). It helps a lot with budgeting for food and we don’t have to worry about finding places to eat along the way.

The Fairy Glen

Our first stop was actually just up the hill behind the hotel. We scooted along a little single-track road, through a sheep farm and into the Fairy Glen. How to describe the Fairy Glen? It is such a unique area of winding paths, little cone-shaped peaks, valleys and waterfalls created by landslides and glaciers, but the fun story is that it was created by the fairies as a place live and hide in its unique miniature landscape. The entire area seems like a shrunken version of a larger-scale geological formation. It was just so fun. We spent hours here climbing each little peak, dodging the sheep poo (because yes, it’s in the middle of a working pasture) and waiting for breaks in the people traffic and rain so we could put the drone up for some photos and video of the unique landscape. It was a great introduction to the uniqueness of Scotland and a reminder of why we love it so much.

Once we’d finished traipsing among the fairies, we headed back to the main road, along the coast up the A855 and after a switchback, took off down an unnamed single-track road for 6 miles. This was a bit of an adventure, as single-track roads through the mountains tend to be. Our first encounter on this tiny road was a lorry (a semi truck) and the only pullover area barely fit our tiny A-class Mercedes . We held our breath and crossed our fingers as he blew past and we somehow remained on the mountain unscathed. Whew. If you know me, you know I don’t have a fondness for trucks and this was a terrifying experience, nevermind the cliff. Whew. Onwards.

The Quiraing

Just as we were about to come upon the Quiraing range, a full blown blizzard came out of nowhere. We opted not to stop for the scenery and walk since we couldn’t see it anyway and walking through a blizzard in the mountains probably isn’t the best idea. If you encounter this in fairer weather, do get out and take a walk through the active landslip and its strange formations that are slowly sliding down towards the sea. I’m sure it a spectacular sight to behold. Instead, we switch-backed down the mountain encountering all sorts of people who didn’t know how single-track roads or their opposite sided cars work. Lord have mercy, when did we become the people who know what they’re doing here? We literally had to guide one car from the middle of the road (can’t park there buddy), into the passing area and keep forcing them over so we could pass. They didn’t believe us that they had FEET of space to pull into (before a potential tumble off the cliff) and we had millimeters of space to inch past them. Ultimately, we both made it, in a blizzard, unscathed again. Onward.

Kilt Rock

Once off the mountain, the sky suddenly turned a brilliant blue, the sun came out and it looked like a proper Spring day. Ahhh. You know, they say in Missouri, if you don’t like the weather, wait until tomorrow. Well, in Scotland, don’t like the weather?…give it 5 minutes. Wild. At Staffin we got back on the A855 that had come around from the tip of the island and drove on to Kilt Rock. This remarkable cliff face also comes complete with the Mealt Falls Viewpoint which is a spectacular waterfall into the sea. Kilt Rock is a cliff face that gets its name from the fact that the basalt columns from which it is made look like the pleats at the back of a kilt. Those clever Scots. Not much of a walk here, so back in the car after some photos and a long stare at the waterfall tumbling into the ocean. Breathtaking.

An Let-Allt

We drove on to the car park at Lealt Falls, which we didn’t actually go see up close. We opted for the trek up the hill to the cliff face again and walked out to An Let-Allt Viewpoint, another spectacular view of the ocean. From here we could look back at the waterfall and hear it, but, at the bottom of this cliff are an Old Diatomite factory and the ruins of a salmon bothy. Diatomite is a white, chalky clay that was once harvested from the coastline to be used in matches, toothpaste, paint, as a polish, filler and insulator, but became much too expensive to produce and transport to the port at Uig from there after the 1950s (undoubtable along that skinny mountain road). The factory was closed and the workers had to move on to different trades or make the decision to emigrate. Not much of a walk here either, so back down the hill to the car and onward.

The Old Man of Storr

We almost drove past The Old Man of Storr (Bodach an Stòir) but decided to get out and have a look. I’m really glad we did. The Old Man is a basalt rock formation that was once part of the cliffs directly behind it. It broke away thousands of years ago and has been slowly moving down the mountains towards the sea, just a few millimeters each year. It really looks like a proud little man breaking away from the front of a crowd with his chest puffed out. We decided to take a closer look. The map at the bottom of the mountain said it would take about 2 hours to hike to the Old Man and back. We figured that was doable for my crappy lungs and set off up the trail, taking a left when it branched off because we’re in the UK, you go left, not right. This turned out to be the loong way! Each bend in the trail had us wondering if we would ever reach the top, but each bend also gave us the opportunity to catch our breath. Boy did I need it – I’ve never regained lung capacity after pneumonia! Finally, at the top of another cliff after what must have been at least an hour, we realized that the Old Man was still quite a way off and the trail suddenly got very steep. We were hungry, thirsty and getting wind burned so we snapped some semi-triumphant photos and met up with the trail that had gone right when we went left at the beginning and headed back down. I have never been so happy to have chosen the left over the right path in my life. It may have been the long way, but the right path was darn near vertical on the way down! Funny enough, this was the trail most folks had chosen to go up because it looked shorter. Well, it is shorter to go straight up the mountain instead of switchback! We passed many weary, winded looks on our way down after seeing only one other person and their dog on our way up and fielded many questions about how much farther they had to go to see the Old Man.

Finally to the bottom on wobbly knees, we encountered our first “pay to potty” of the trip, in which I totally set off the alarm because the card reader was giving me grief and I really had to go, so I jumped the gate! So much beeping. Oops, sorry. I did pay, it just wouldn’t open! Luckily I had the place to myself so I didn’t have to explain to anyone what happened, other than Jason who was laughing when I opened the door to come back out because there was so much beeping! Whoops. Of course he was able to just walk into the men’s room without paying. So not fair. Back on the road again.

Portree

We drove through Portree but decided not to stop since we had been there before on a previous trip. Portree is a great port village, probably the biggest on Skye. There are tons of restaurants, shops and places to walk around. We met back up with the A87 and headed North again back to Uig in time for dinner and bed. Venison for Jason, pork belly for Tasha and we split some haggis – so good! We’re to catch the ferry in the morning to Tarbert on the Isle of Lewis and Harris to really set off on this adventure. We need to pack up and figure out the rest of the journey’s plan.

Ferry to Tarbert

In April, the morning ferry to Lewis & Harris (Tarbert) from Skye (Uig) leaves around 9:50 and you have to be checked in 45 minutes before departure. Then you have to sit in line and wait for them to begin to load the ferry after it unloads from its early morning run from the islands, which could take 30 minutes. It’s a bit of a process. Now, coming from the landlocked mid-west USA our experience with ferries is very minimal. In fact, I think this is only about the third time I’ve been on one. But, it’s easy. You drive off the pier (gasp), onto the boat and wiggle your way into the impossibly small lanes where workers help you maneuver as close to other vehicles as possible. Pull your emergency brake and get out of your car (which is nearly impossible as you’ve wiggled in so close) and head up the stairs to the passenger deck to take in the view out the windows, get something to eat or drink or in our case, get some work done on the two hour ferry ride on the way to your next adventure. See you there!

The post Scotland Travels: An Extraordinary Journey to the Incredible Skye first appeared on The DeBode Way.