Travel time, stops and spiritual planes

Sunday morning and we are on the road again. We left the Isle of Skye and headed to Oban, a charming city on the western coast of Scotland. This is going to be a long day of bus travel with stops along the way.

Instead of traveling over the bridge like normal folk, we took a ferry to the mainland. It’s really a very cool way to cut out a LOT of drive time. It took about 30-40 minutes to get across the water. The ferry includes great seating and coffee shops on board. Weather was not too cooperative, still rainy and windy and COLD! But hey, we’re getting used to it! We have figured out we will have heat strokes when we land in Little Rock on Thursday. (We’ve been watching the weather forecasts on the internet!)

We stopped in the small town of Fort Williams for a quick lunch. Not much there to see, but the lunch soup was great! A really hardy vegetable soup with bread! Yum!

About an hour after lunch we came to the mountain of the highest peak in Scotland, Ben Nevis with an altitude of 4,409 ft. Not the Rocky Mountains, but big considering the rest of the land. Clouds were hanging so low that we couldn’t see the top. But they were still very impressive. We are told it is very popular with the hiking set! www.nevisrange.co.uk

We then traveled to the Kilt Rock, so named because of its resemblance to a Scotmans’ kilt. This 200 foot tall sea cliff had vertical lava columns that resemble pleats, sitting on top of horizontal sedimentary rock. The wind and rain were blowing so hard, the metal railing was singing in the wind! www.scotland-flavour.co.uk/kilt-rock.html

As we continued to travel, we came to the Glenfinnan Viaduct. To most this doesn’t mean much, but to Harry Potter fans, this is the railway trestle that is used for the Hogwarts train scenes. It was raining and ‘blowy’, but we climbed up to a mountain viewpoint so we could get pictures. Nasty dirt trail, but glad to report no falls, trips or broken bones this time! www.road-to-the-isles.org.uk/glenfinnan.html

Our route took us to Glencoe which is a beautiful valley formed by glacier activity thousands of years ago. It is under the care of the government organization similar to our National Park program. The valley is an awesome place. We were told that (again a Harry Potter moment) Hagrid’s house was built and all scenes involving his house filmed in this valley. www.glencoemountain.com

We arrived in Oban www.oban.org.uk and after a brief orientation of this small town we were left to our own free time. After getting settled in our hotel, which is a restored early Victorian home, we had to do the laundry bit. Bathroom looked like a laundry facility with all the clothes hanging from the shower rod, the towel bars and on hangers in the window! LOL! But at least they are clean! We then wandered around looking for some place to eat. We decided on CHINESE!!! We asked for directions from a chap who apparently had spent the last couple of hours at the pub..LOL! But he gave us directions to what he thought was the best place in town! It was soooooo good!

We walked back to our hotel and after showers, decided to go to bed before midnight. Have we told you how light it stays here!! OMG! 11:00 at night is comparable to our 7:00 pm at home! A sleep mask would be handy!!

Well, we are playing catch up with the blog! Scotland is a very rural, rugged and wild country. It takes a lot of travel time to go between sites and activities. By the time we get back to the hotel, eat and shower, we are exhausted. Then we start all over..so please forgive us!

It is now Monday, so we hope everyone had a great Memorial Day holiday! It is a bank holiday here also so not many shops or stores are open. But we did not have time today to walk through town. Let’s start with our adventures today….

We woke to ….of course….rain and wind. We headed out for a day trip to the Island of Iona. So we had to hop two ferries and a local tour bus to get to the island. By the time we got to the island, the sun was out and the weather improved 100%. Iona is famous as the birthplace of Christianity in Scotland. Back in 563 AD, St. Columba left Ireland. The island of Iona was the first land he saw when he sailed from Ireland. Once he landed, he established an abbey. His monastic community became the center of Celtic Christianity. The current population is about 100 people living on the island. The Iona Community is a gathering of people who seek new ways of living the Gospel in today’s world, with a focus on worship, peace and justice issues and reconciliation. The island has the abbey, nunnery ruins and small shops and restaurants. Some say that Iona possesses the thin layer of being between the spiritual plane and real world……Very interesting thought! (But we didn’t see Elvis there!) www.isle-of-iona.com

We did not get back to Oban until 5:45 pm. As we walked across town from the ferry terminal, we saw yet another Chinese restaurant. Got Chinese Take Away (Scottish for “To Go”). Walked a little further down the street and found a winehouse. They had single glasses of wine to go! We picked up a couple of those and came back to the hotel. We had a picnic dinner in our room and watched CSI….Seems every night on USA channel, they run back to back CSI reruns. Only 8 channels broadcasts here. The other night ‘Titanic’ was on three channels at different parts! LOL!!

Tomorrow is another heavy travel day. We head back to Edinburgh for our last night on the tour. Til then….Good Night all!