Scotland Day 14: Ewww Tourists

 We always joke semi-hypocritically that tourists are the absolute worst. Any time there's someone driving slow or being loud in a public setting we blame the "stupid tourists" and shake our fist at them. *note: today I accidentally cut a guy off in a roundabout because they roundabout in the wrong direction and I was in the wrong lane. I'm very aware I'm the tourist we yell at*

Which elegantly leads us to Eileen Donan Castle. It's the castle on all the postcards and everybody's Insta. We parked, took a pic and left because it was a zoo of "stupid tourists"

I don't recommend going there, there are plenty of prettier places here. Speaking of which, on the way to our next Airbnb we found a cool church called St. Mary and St. Finnan. I didn't get any great pics of the surroundings but this church very much had the best view in the area.

Weirdly, the parking in front of the church was closed for an event so we ended up parking down the hill in a big carpark with a visitor center. Turns out our little trip to a pretty church is next to a huge Potter-head (as in Harry) attraction. 

It's the Harry Potter train! Since we randomly came upon this place we missed the train by 10 minutes but that was probably good because a couple hundred stupid tourists were leaving as we arrived. It was still really pretty and an impressive bit of engineering.

We stopped in Oban (seafood capitol of Scotland) for dinner. There's a few places right by the harbor, we got there as they were unloading some boats:

For a reasonable price we got the seafood platter for two which included huge crab claws, a whole lobster, more mussels than we could eat, cubed crab, langoustines, various shrimp, a fillet of smoked fish, pickled herring, calamari, and a few things to dip it all in. It was amazing and way too much to eat!

We ended the day at our Airbnb with a soak in a hot tub. The listing said it was 'available for a small fee' which I figured meant we could just pay a few pounds and use it for our whole stay. It turns out it was an hourly rental thing and you had to message the host every time to set it up, and it was also just a cheap inflatable tub with not jets. Big disappointment, but still relaxing for an hour.

Scotland Day 13: Skye Hard with a Vengeance

 After having a pretty lazy day yesterday we were ready to live and let Skye (I would also allow 'Skye Another Day' but I don't know if anyone remembers that movie). We woke up early and totally non-grumpily headed to the Fairy Glen.

It was a pretty short walk to an alien landscape where everything is green, bumpy, and they seem to have no rules about terraforming. There was a wedding just starting as we got there so we got to listen to some Scottish screeching pipes of wind while meandering around the peaceful fairy metropolis. Once we had our fill of pixie-stomping we headed to the Quirang for a hike. *side note: on Skye they label every thing as fairy-bridge, fairy-pools, fairy-glen, fairy-carpark, fairy-ferry, fairy-WC, etc.*

The Quirang is probably the prettiest place ever in all of history forever. Surprise...it rained! It was a pretty sloppy hike right along a steep drop-off but it was well worth it.

We were very glad we got there early because the carpark was overflowing by the time we got back. We couldn't do the entire loop due to a huge cloud parked on the ridge of the mountain that the second half of the hike follows, so we just made it to the halfway point and turned around. I'm just going to drop a few pics here that show a small fraction of the awesome (I'm a mathematician and conclusively found that this is exactly 113/355 of the awesome, which incidentally is the reciprocal of a good approximation for pi).

It was a pretty intense hike along some scary paths (if you're afraid of heights) so we got back pretty exhausted. However, this is the sequel to yesterday which meant it was a Good Day to Skye Hard so we weren't done yet (there's surprisingly few movies with 'die' in the title). 

Cris had to work so I dropped her off at home which means it's fishing time. It has been difficult to find anybody online that does guided fishing anywhere on the ocean in Scotland, but I finally found a random guy on a seafishing forum that kinda guides as a hobby. He has a 14 foot aluminum boat with a 20 hp motor on the back that he takes out onto the ocean. The trolling motor is mounted on a sheet of plywood which is then attached to the bow by a complex set of knotted ropes. It's awesome and would be a bit scary if I didn't pick the perfect time to go. The weather just cleared up as I pulled into the harbor and we quickly got into some pollack and coalies.

It was also cool because yesterday we were planning to go to kilt rock and falls and didn't, but now I was fishing right next to them.

(kilt rock because it looks like a kilt, waterfall towards the left of the pic)

Lastly, Cris doesn't care much about dinosaurs but I got to go see the dinosaur footprints cuz they were right next to the harbor. They're not marked or anything, you just wander the beach and hope you get there at the right tide to see the footprints. 

*last sidenote: this footprint doesn't quite look like the picture they had at the carpark, so if it's actually just a hole in the ground and you know better than me just don't tell me. It took like 20 minutes to find.*

Scotland Day 11 & 12: The Magic Mists (& Rain) of the Isle of Skye

Day 11

The Full Scottish Breakfast at our airbnb was very delicious. We both tried blood pudding and it was very tasty. We ate with the other guests: a French couple and an English guy. It was nice to chat to other travelers, so I'm glad we did this once on our trip (however, my introverted-self is fine with just doing this once...).

After breakfast, it was off to the magical Isle of Skye for a few days. After researching for our Scotland trip, we read plenty of accounts about how beautiful Skye is, but we also read that it's known to be very very rainy there. So we booked a place in Skye for 3 nights in the hopes that by staying there for multiple days, we would get lucky and get some good weather at least once.

The drive to the Isle of Skye (there is a bridge to the island, which I'm sure the Skye residents regret building since now their island is super busy with tourists during the summer) was beautiful....and rainy. Through the thick and low clouds, we could still tell that this place is stunning. 

(This is not the main bridge to Skye but it is a bridge and it is on Skye and it is cute)

Our first stop was a place called the Fairy Pools. I had scratched it off the list because reviews said it was always busy with tourists. But Paul was insistent that we go, and I'm glad we went because it was beautiful. It's basically a waterfall-filled stream through a beautiful valley. The farther you walk on the path, the less tourists you see (because they are lazy), so I enjoyed the views as we got farther from the crowds. 

After that, we headed for Talisker Beach, which is supposed to be very pretty. However, when we arrived at the place to park our car and walk, there were TONS of signs by locals about 'no parking' and 'don't trespass' and it was very clear that locals are quite disgruntled with all of the people walking around their homes to get to the beach. We found an alternate place to park farther up the road, but I felt bad for the locals and their privacy (and it was starting to rain again) so we decided to respect the locals and left. Hopefully in the future, locals can figure out a good compromise so that folks can enjoy the beach without too much bother.

Next, we headed to Dun Beag Broch, ruins of an Iron Age stone tower built 2,500-ish years ago. There were beautiful views of the area from the tower ruins, and I always love some old ruins that you can reverently touch and adore.

Finally, we went to Dunvegan Castle & Gardens. The castle was the ancestral home for the chiefs of the MacLeod clan. It was beautiful, and you could see where the original medieval tower was and all of the additions they made throughout time. We toured the castle and saw many MacLeod artifacts, including the drinking horn that the chiefs had to drink from without stopping to prove that they were worthy to be chief and also the remnants of their magical good-luck flag, rumored to be given to them by a Fairy, of course.

Then...we walked the gardens. And Paul had to listen to me 'ooh' and 'ahh' and talk nonstop about all of the incredible gardens and plants. It was one of the most amazing gardens I have ever toured. I could live the rest of my life in those gardens (as I told Paul repeatedly). Every plant in all of the gardens was labelled! So I now have a long list of new plants to research to see if I can plant them at home. These gardens are my version of heaven. Sigh....if you love plants, you should visit the Dunvegan gardens. 

After that, we grabbed some groceries so that we could cook dinner at our place instead of eating out. Our next place was a trailer that reminded us of the rv-trailer we lived in for a few years when we first moved to South Carolina. We had a kitchen and TWO bathrooms (foreshadowing: this comes in handy on Day 12...). 

It was super nice to have some privacy and space again. We ate home-cooked lamb (delicious) and decided to eat an old bag of freezer veggies & rice that had been in our cooler for a few days. It tasted a bit tangy, but what could possibly go wrong?!?

Day 12: FOOD POISONING!

It turns out that it's not a good idea to eat old veggies/rice. We spent the morning in agony with food poisoning. Fortunately, it was raining hard all day, so it was the best day on the trip to be unwell.

At 4pm, we started feeling slightly better and forced ourselves to go out and try to see some things (it's hard being sick on vacation in another country because you feel guilty about resting/stopping).

We went to Skyeskyns, a tannery, to do a tour of them making things out of wool, but sadly, we missed the last tour of the day. So we strolled their shop and sipped some coffee at their Yurt and then left for Neist Lighthouse. 

Neist Lighthouse is constantly brought up in suggestions for things to do on Skye, but all of the reviews stated it was super busy, so we weren't really planning on going. BUT since it was pouring sheets of rain and super windy and past 6pm, we really hoped it would be deserted. Nope, still busy!

And the one road to it is steep and one lane, full of pot-holes, along the edge of a cliff in parts, and has very few passing places. It was our least favorite drive and I cannot believe that crazy tourist buses and caravans go all the way up there. The path to the Lighthouse was pretty steep and 5 minutes out of the car had us soaked through (even while wearing our raincoats), so we just admired the area from the parking lot and left. 

We went home, passed out, and we were ready to try our Skye adventures again the next day. Sometimes, little hiccups happen in vacation, but it's important to not let them get you down. We remained in high spirits and enjoyed each other's company (as always).  😍

Scotland Day 10: Beinn Eighe & Bealach na Ba (gezunt heit!)

We woke up early and headed out for what was supposed to be mainly a scenic driving day. Sadly, the weather was absolutely miserable, so most of our scenic driving was cancelled. 

The main attraction for the day was a hike to the top of Beinn Eighe. We took a wrong route (obviously, we were supposed to go to the Beinn Eighe car park, and NOT the other car park labelled Beinn Eighe car park. Duh!). The wrong car park was closed for a "special event", so we thought that it meant we couldn't do the hike at all. There was no internet, so we had to backtrack to the visitor center to figure things out. Once we figured out the correct car park, it was later than we had planned, plus it was pouring rain and super duper windy.

We were determined to do some hiking here, though, so we simply alternated our plans: instead of doing the whole hike, we would do the half of the hike that was supposed to be slightly easier (aka less scrambling up sheer and rain-slick granite cliffs).

Half of the time, it was a beautiful hike. The sun would shine and the views were outstanding. The other half of the time, it was rainy and windy. It would be nice for 5 minutes and then awful for 5 minutes. Plus, there was no warning between wind/rain and sun. It was very weird. 

At some point in the very steep climb, I ran out of steam. I am absolutely terrified of heights and start suffering some vertigo-type symptoms. So I stopped when I was getting dizzy and Paul went on for another 30 minutes before the wind was too strong for him. Then he turned back and we walked down together. 

It was a lovely hike, despite the weather. And Paul loved all the info I shared from the pamphlet that I grabbed from the visitor center. Laugh.

After that, we got delicious food (Paul was in love with his Squatties, which are a mini-lobster type shrimp thing and I had delicious tender venison steak) and we then decided, despite the worsening weather conditions, to try the touristy scenic road drive called the Bealach na Ba. 

It's a one-lane mountain road, with no railings, that is super steep and curvy and goes to an isolated village called Applecross. We decided that we would do half of the drive and then turn around and go to our next airbnb. 

We hoped that no one else would be on the road since it was past 6pm and it was rainy and yucky outside. There were a few cars on the road, but not many. Unfortunately, it got a bit too scary even for us.

We got to a part where super-dark clouds completely covered the road (see picture above), and Paul pulled over in the last good spot for turning around and declared that it wasn't worth the stress. I agreed and so we headed for yet another lame airbnb where we are in a bedroom and sharing a bathroom with other guests (UGH). 

Hopefully the "full Scottish breakfast" we are getting in the morning makes it worth it. Stay tuned!

Scotland Day 8 & 9: Lewis Island

When we went to Ireland a few years back, we went to Arran Islands and we were kinda disappointed in them. So we were a bit hesitant about doing some island trips while visiting Scotland. BUT we decided to add Lewis Island to our list (sidenote: we also added the Islay Island later on in this trip, but that's mainly a whisky thing, which can not possibly be a disappointment).

Overall, visiting Lewis Island was nice. It was still WAY better than Arran Islands, but there's just something about islands...I think it's the fact that ferry rides take a good portion of time and you feel pressured to get things done. 

Lewis Island and Harris Island are connected, but we were only here for one night, so we could only do things on Lewis Island. I think if we had stayed here two nights, we would have liked things more. 

Anywho, we started with a 3 hour ferry ride, which actually went pretty well for me. I was pleasantly surprised, since I am awful on the ocean. Granted, I could still tell the milli-second we went from the bay to the actual ocean, and I still had to take super-drowsy Dramamine and stare straight ahead and do absolutely nothing (except sleep), but overall, this was my most successful time on the ocean so far. The ferry was quite big, so I think that was part of the reason why I didn't have as bad of sea-sickness.

The first thing we did was head for the Island of Great Bernera, which is connected to Lewis Island. We went to a nice beach there with some Iron Age ruins that were pretty neat looking (they recreated one of the huts near the beach so we could see what it looks like. It's the mound near the center in the above picture). The main reason, however, that we went here was for some Standing Stones, and we couldn't find them. It was pretty disappointing (this is my third standing stone situation on Scotland where we couldn't find them!), but the beach and ruins were really nice.

Next up, we headed to the Callanish Standing Stones. There are three different Standing Stones locations all within a mile of each other for some reason. Apparently, 5,000 years ago, people on this island had WAY too much time on their hands and also lots of large stones to drag around and perfectly line up with astronomy and whatnot. 

We started with Callanish Standing Stones #3. They were my favorite. I think I liked them the most because they were quite large but still had a very...magical/sacred feeling. 

Next up, we went to Standing Stones #2, where Paul and I were all alone and got some pretty awesome pictures. Not as many of these stones still stand, but it was still very amazing. 

Finally, we ended with the most popular touristy ones, #1. They were HUGE and the biggest Standing Stones that I have been to so far. Since people march all over around them, they didn't make my skin tingle like the others, but they were still impressive and totally worth seeing.

I don't know what it is about Standing Stones, but they just resonate with me deeply. There is such a solemn magical feeling when I am around them. My skin gets all tingly and I always cry. I feel like maybe they were the Original Churches for God. I just adore them, and the less touristy, the better. So I am very glad that I went to this island so that I could weep and touch such sacred stones. I know, I know...I'm such a sap.

Then we headed for the Butt of Lewis, the lighthouse on pretty cliffs on the very north bit of the island. It's crazy to think how close we were to the Iceland and the other super north stuff up there. Our traditional globes/maps just don't accurately do justice to how north Scotland really is.

That night, we stayed in a lame airbnb where we were just staying in a bedroom on their top floor and were sharing a bathroom with 5 people. Lame. But we only crashed there for the night and slipped out ASAP in the morning, so it wasn't too big of a deal. These remote Scottish places seem to be really into the whole renting a bedroom thing w/o any privacy. We could NOT find anything normal on the entire island.

The next morning, we headed out to do a bunch of things before we had to leave for the ferry at noon-ish. First up, we went to Dun Carloway, a 2000 year old stone tower that was used for Clan meetings once upon a time. Sadly, it was under construction, so it wasn't as interesting as usual.

We then headed for a Norse Mill and Kiln, which was neat (although they needed signs with info on them). They basically made an authentic mill for grinding grain and a kiln from the past. The buildings had Thatch roofs and everything. It was cool to see how things worked back then.

Then we headed for Dalmore Beach, which is a really pretty beach. Paul attempted to go fishing, but sadly caught zero fish. Next, we went for some local pastries and coffee and then ended with Arnol Blackhouse, which were 3 different old houses to look at: a traditional Blackhouse with a peat fire, a Blackhouse ruin, and the next level of housing they used after Blackhouses. 

The Blackhouses were fascinating to see. Just like the Mill and Kiln, they had peat and thatch roofs. The animal stable was part of the house, and they were called blackhouses because the peat fires (which were never supposed to go out) made the walls black. I understand now why so many people back then ended up with tuberculosis. They lived in blackhouses well into the 1800s, which is just crazy to think about.

After that, we went back to the ferry terminal to head back to the mainland. Unfortunately, the winds were bonkers-strong, so the way back was not as nice as the first ferry ride we took. I still managed NOT to barf, so it was still a successful ocean trip, in my opinion. 

We then drove another hour-ish to a shed in someone's backyard that was big enough to hold a bed. We had to go inside their house for the bathroom (Note: if anyone needs a retirement business plan, please consider moving to Northern Scotland and opening a normal Airbnb where people can have their own place with their own bathroom. I promise that you'll always have business during tourist season).

(P.S.) The animals continue to perfectly pose for Paul as he practices becoming a Professional Photographer. Here's a REAL picture he took of a lamb near Callanish Standing Stones #3. I know it looks photo-shopped, but it's real! 

Scotland Day 7: The one with the fishing

 This place is ridiculous. About 100 crofters (small farmers) got together, raised money, and bought 21,000 acres of land in the Assynt region of Scotland. They now farm it, manage deer population, and stock tons of trout/salmon in the rivers and lochs. So, for fifteen pounds anyone can spend a day just wandering across their land and fishing wherever they like. And I like. 

I went to the hardware store and got my permit, the guy was super helpful and pointed me toward a few lochs that were fishing well lately. Then we just walked. It's miles of peaty, heathery beauty and you just go wherever you want. We followed either a sheep or fisherman path to the first small loch and quickly got my first tiny trout. 

*note: the above outfit is the peak of fashion in Scotland. I'm very hip*

Cris was in the mood to draw, read, and write so she sat in one of the lochside boats (10 pounds extra to rent those, they just leave them half-filled with rainwater on the shore) while I moved on to the next loch. This one was over several hills following a fencerow for about a mile. Each step was a bit wobbly due to the lumps of grass and soft peat but I got there in one piece with only one muddy foot. At first it made me a bit anxious: there was not a single human within a mile of me and it was perfectly quiet. But then I settled into the peaceful focus of fishing. This loch had far more fish and about every 5th cast I got a bite. 

Of course I missed the monster fish and several bigguns came off near the shore, but I ended up with 8 pretty little browns by the end of the afternoon. I worked hard casting to every corner of the loch, walking through thick underbrush, and climbing hill after hill, but honestly I could have just sat in this one spot the entire day and been a happy man.

I was extremely exhausted by the time I got back to Cris, but we still managed to hike past a few more lochs and catch one more trout before dinner. I got langoustine which I guess are 'Norway lobster' but were basically just small lobsters that take forever to peel for tiny morsels of meat. Though this was basically just a fishing day I felt like we got to see the real, rugged Scotland that many tourists don't experience. I highly recommend just picking a direction and walking.

Scotland Day 6: North Coast 500 time!

We got up earlier than normal so we could figure out our flat tire issue ASAP. In theory, we needed to be out of our airbnb by 10am, but the hosts were really understanding of our situation and told us there was 'no rush'. We didn't really know what to do about a flat tire (the joys of travelling in a different country), so the first thing Paul did was call the rental company when they opened at 8am. They were super duper helpful and polite and handled everything for us very efficiently.

I feel like if this happened in America, there would be a lot of: waiting on the phone, talking to multiple people, calling a tow truck, sitting around in a mechanic shop all day long, etc. But here? One call to the rental company, and they found a local mechanic who came out to US instead of having us pay for a tow truck. He took the tire off of our car, put it in his truck, and told us he was going to work as fast as possible to get us back on the road. One hour later, he was pulling back in the driveway and putting on a new tire for us. And that was it. Just one hour, and we were sitting on a comfy couch drinking our morning coffee for that whole time. We were impressed!

So we were barely behind schedule and off on our North Coast 500 scenic drive. It was incredibly beautiful. There is only so much 'oohs' and 'ahhs' you can do before it's almost like it's "too beautiful" and your eyes and brain get tired from all the beauty. If that makes sense. We highly recommend doing the North Coast 500 scenic drive in Scotland. But please don't do that in a caravan/camper, because the road is one narrow lane and everyone gets annoyed letting those large vehicles squeeze by. They really slow things down.

The first half of the drive was amazing and with clear weather, and we were really enjoying it all. We stopped at Smoo Cave for a walk into the cave and then a long walk to the coast for more incredible views. Depending on the weather, you can tour the inside of the cave, and you do part of the tour in a boat IN the cave, but sadly, it started raining, so no tours were happening for the afternoon.

Speaking of rain, this was the first time it was pouring pretty hard instead of just drizzling, and that was kinda a bummer. The clouds were super low and were covering up the mountains all around us. We could tell that it was super beautiful under the rain and clouds, but it wasn't as easy to enjoy the views anymore. 

We stopped at Balnakeil Beach, another of Scotland's stunningly beautiful white beaches, and walked a bit of it in the rain. It was still lovely, despite the weather.

Then it was off to our airbnb, which has amazing views out the front door of mountains and a beautiful loch. After we ate dinner (yummy steak and haggis pies...SOOOO good!) at our airbnb, the rain finally stopped, so we decided to walk 1.5 miles away to some castle ruins and manor ruins which are right next to each other.

The Calda House, a mansion built in the 1700s, almost instantly bankrupted the folks who built it, and the locals didn't want a rival clan to buy it, so the locals looted and burned the mansion to the ground. And Ardvreck Castle was built around 1490 and was pretty small. However, a rival clan still wanted it, despite the small size, and it was attacked and ruined in the late 1600s. 

So apparently there's lots of rival-clan-history going on up here, and it would have been fun to learn if they still think in terms of clans or not. I didn't want to bother the locals with that sort of sensitive subject, of course.

On our walk to the ruins, we saw a bajillion deer. They are everywhere up here. And they like to pose for the perfect photos, which was too tempting to Paul and he got some amazing pictures with them. After letting Paul pretend he was a professional nature photographer for a while, we walked back to our place and crashed. 

This whole area (the Assynt area) of Scotland is very wild and beautiful, and Paul and I already wish we were staying here for another week (or forever!). This was the wilds we were looking for! It's incredible. 

Scotland Day 5: Quaffing, puffin, and houses falling down

Every good day starts with scotch eggs and gin (not mixed, though that gives me an idea). Also, scotch eggs do not have scotch in them (which also gives me an idea).  The only available tour at Dunnet Head Distillery was at 11AM so we slept in a bit, ate a delicious scotch egg, and had a G&T for brunch. The distillery was super cool: they just have two small stills that infuse botanicals into the gin and they get the botanicals either from their garden or foraged nearby. 

The whole tour felt like it was just a family showing us their cool home moonshine setup with a garden to support it. They had dozens of jars of experiments that they rated using a complicated smiley/frowny-face system. After a few tastings we went down to the beach for a rainy lunch. The entire coast of Scotland so far has alternated between steep cliffs and white, sandy beaches.

Speaking of cliffs, we went down to Brig o Stack which is a series of 'stacks' of stones sticking out into the ocean. Here's me standing on one that looks a bit more scary than it is (but there's no railings in most Scottish places like this). 

We actually walked right by this cool photo op and walked an extra 2 miles looking for it. Sheep pastures go up to about 4 feet of the cliffs so the whole hike is barbed-wire fence on one side and the steep cliff on the other. All day there were only a couple people around so we really got to experience the wildness of the north of Scotland. Unfortunately, that wildness can also cause trouble (this is better foreshadowing than Han Solo's bad feelings). 

I wanted to fish tonight, unfortunately in the UK that means tracking down whichever podunk towny manages the loch you want to fish in. After much research and asking around we found that Hagarth and Sons gun shop supposedly had fishing permits. Upon entering we were met by a wonderfully helpful older man who told us he had fishing permits! He quickly pulled out a pad of permits and circled the correct date, so I was on my way to fishing... after 50 minutes of stories (if you've seen Derry Girls this was Uncle Colm, otherwise think of Grandpa Simpson's stories at half speed). Anyway, he was truly a lovely fella and I ended up with a permit and his best fly so I was happy. 

Before fishing we drove over to Castle Sinclair which was once a huge castle perched atop an outcropping similar to the above cliff. The castle is now in ruins but was still cool to see.

There were informational plaques with diagrams of all the rooms of the castle, it took up every square foot of the rock island. 

Now I was off to fishing!!! But this is where the foreshadowing catches up to us: a watery pothole in the road lead to a flat tire :(  It shouldn't be that big of a deal to get fixed tomorrow but it does mean that I'm still fishless a full 5 days into a vacation which is totally unacceptable. 

Tomorrow we fix a tire and head west along the north coast. Here's a bonus pic of what all of the coast looks like up here, I love it.

P.S. I came up with the title of the blog halfway through today when I found out puffins are nesting near where I was fishing. Sadly, flat tires mean no puffins and no fishing.

Scotland Day 4: Falcons and Fish

Today was a longer driving day, as we were going from central Scotland ALLLLL the way to the northern bits by the John O'Groats area.

In order to give us some breaks along the way, we timed out some stops. The first stop was just going to Tesco, their version of a Walmart, for food and random things we needed for the trip. It's crazy how they eat compared to us. I mean, we bought smoked salmon for $4.00 and ate that for lunch. Yum. They had lots of tinned fish options and cheeses, breads, meats, etc. So I guess Tesco is a fancier version of our Walmarts, since I wouldn't buy lunch meat from Walmart unless it was the End Times.

Our next stop was at Dunrobin Castle. It was beautiful. You could tell that people actually really lived in this castle, as the rooms were more practical and less ornate. We got to tour a whole bunch of the rooms, and it was an interesting floor plan. One of the two wings had burned down at some point and they rebuilt it, so there was a lot of twisting halls and such connecting the two wings. I was very confused where we were on the inside most of the time.

The castle also had absolutely beautiful gardens, just like Blair Castle from the day earlier. It was another amazing walled garden, SIGH, I keep asking Paul to make me a walled garden and he thinks I'm joking....

This castle garden was more French in design (Blair Castle's was more practical with herbs and orchards), which was pretty, but I preferred the Blair Castle plants overall. In the gardens, there was a scheduled Falconry event, which Paul was super excited about.

I'm glad we went because it was really interesting. The falcon-guy talked about the difference between how to use hawks and falcons for hunting and did demonstrations with both. I would LOVE to hunt with birds. It sounds like fun. With falcons, humans are merely the servants (as the Falcon guy explained), and the falcon signals from the sky when it's time to release the dogs to chase out the grouse for the falcon to attack. I love the idea of training a falcon and a hunting dog to work with me in a grouse hunt. What a cool hobby. I'm going to add it to my very-long-list of future hobbies to try out in the future.

Then we were back in the car for another final hour of driving. Next up, we went to Whaligoe Steps, which was a bunch of steep stone steps from olden times that the fishing wives walked down into a cliff to pick up their fishermen/hubby's baskets of fish. I cannot imagine constantly walking up and down those steep steps, especially with heavy loads of fish. 

The cliff-bay was absolutely beautiful, so we spent a good amount of time enjoying the views before starting back up the steep steps again.

After that loveliness, we found our airbnb for the next two nights...except that it was weirder/creepier than described online. Turns out the owner guy was going to be staying there, too, and in the bedroom next to us and we would be sharing a bathroom. That creeped us right out, I mean, I haven't shared one bathroom with more than just Paul since college.

Fortunately, we found another nearby airbnb that would allow us to go there right away, even though it was past 6pm. Thank goodness. It was a much nicer cabin all to ourselves, and our comfort/stress levels went back to normal. We ended with a splash of whiskey in the backyard, overlooking a beautiful pasture with sheep.