Skye Is The Limit (at least for us on this trip)

The weather had turned quite a bit cooler today, so we had made a wise decision in moving our trip to the Isle of Skye from yesterday to today.

 At Mallaig harbor, on our way to the ferry, Grandad showed us his boat. In the row of four, it's the second one from the right. 

 I asked Sophie to pose in front of our ferry...

 ...the she asked me to pose in front of this bus. 

 Leaving Mallaig. It was about a half hour ferry ride to Armadale - enough time to walk the entire ship once, via the cafe and the souvenir shop. 

 Between the Red and the Black Cuillins. We ordered some tea and scones in a restaurant at the crossroads just before a busload of French tourists arrived.

 Debra and I

 We drove past Talisker Whisky Distillery, erroneously thinking that it was closed for construction, on our way to Dunvegan Castle. I was impressed to find a castle like this in so remote a spot. 

 And such elaborate gardens!

We wanted to have an "inbetween" lunch/dinner in Portree (the main town on Skye), but found out after walking the entire "downtown", that every restaurant was closing between lunch and dinner. We thought we were cutting it a little close for the last ferry to the mainland, only to find out that the ferry was delayed coming in.

Ben could spot his home from the railing.

Sophie's Favorite Day of the Vacation

When we asked Sophie at the end of our vacation what was her favorite part of our trip, she said it was the day at the beach. I can see why. I will let the overload of pictures in this post speak for themselves.

This is the view to which we woke up in the morning.

As the weather forecast was better for a beach day today, we decided to postpone our trip to Skye to the next day and headed to the local beach after breakfast.

Sophie started out in her full outfit of clothes.

I quickly took off her skirt when I saw that she was actually venturing into the water.

The beach used for the movie "Local Hero."

Taking off another layer. Ben, the dog, was enjoying the beach too.

And another layer gone. Looking for shells.

Just looking at this, it could almost be Hawaii, except that we had the beach almost to ourselves.

We just rescued a fish who had got stuck on the rocks.

There was a local agricultural fair behind the beach today. We hiked over the dunes to have a look.

There were girls doing some stunt horseback riding.

Sophie was clearly enthralled.

Yet another face painting.

The Highland cow.

It was like the movie "Babe."

After we had fueled up on ice cream, drinks and snacks, we returned to the beach to slowly stroll back to the car.

This really is Scotland.

Later we cleaned up from the beach and dressed for our very fancy dinner at Arisaig House. This was the view from the back terrace where we had our drinks.

There were only about six tables in the entire restaurant.

My dessert: lavender-scented panna cotta with home-made peach vodka. 

It was terrible!

On our drive home.

Mallaig harbor

Scotland showed itself from its best side. Truly a memorable day.

Castle and Afternoon Tea

More sightseeing today; another city to explore.

 Unfortunately a lot of construction in the city due to a stalling tram line construction project, not very much in favor with the locals.

 Edinburgh Castle

We walked past some lovely shops on our way up there.

 It was a cold day, especially up by the castle. We were happy to take a break inside the cafe at the castle to finally have some afternoon tea.

 Deep in thought about that scone.

 St. Margaret's Chapel, the oldest building in the castle still standing from the 12th century.

 Views from the top. We also saw the One O'Clock Gun, but I must have been too busy holding or lifting Sophie to take a picture, but it was exactly like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjwkOW1HL40

In fact I even think it was the same woman doing it.

After a long day of walking and shopping, Karen and Chris cooked us a lovely dinner of haggis and tatties. Preceded by scallops and followed by whisky. 

Thank you for letting us stay in your nice place, Karen and Chris!

London to Edinburgh

It was time today to say goodbye to Auntie Sandra. It had been a wonderful and fun week with her (as usual), but now we were headed north to Scotland for the next leg of our tour of Britain. We boarded the train to Edinburgh at Kings Cross.

 Our first class tickets were a deal: for just a little bit more, we had lots of room and free food and drinks for the entire ride. Keep the tea coming. And much less stressful than flying. 

 Granddad picked us up at the station. He and Debra (and Ben, the dog) had driven down from the Highlands to meet us at Auntie Karen's and Uncle Chris' house in Edinburgh. We were all looking forward to stretch our legs a little (yes there was some rain), so Granddad took us on a short walk over to the Museum of Modern Art to show Sophie the giant sculpture of a baby. Sophie was mesmerized. 

 I just hope she does not have any nightmares.

 So no sunshine?

 For dinner, Karen drove us to the Sheep Heid Inn in Duddingston for some good Scottish food. Delicious.

On the drive home we enjoyed some magnificent views of the city from Arthur's Seat in Holyrood Park. 

First impression of Scotland - very nice.