Isle of Skye, Harry Potter and the Loch Ness Monster

We have been staying at the Gaskmore Hotel in Laggan.  Which would not be considered any kind of a town.  Mountainous farming area.  The hotel has now been bought by Trafalgar because they use it all the time.  It is a small place.  Our group is the only group here.

front of the hotel

view from the front

I tried a panoramic view in front of the hotel

Today was a long drive through gorgeous scenery that we could not stop to take pictures.  Every time we rounded a curve it was more gorgeous than the last.  I had not realized how mountainous and pastoral that area is.  How few people there are.  Lachs and streams and bens,glens and moors.  Most of my pictures from the moving bus were really not very good.

our bus driver, Allister in the kilt.  He is a great driver

First stop

Harry Potter train went by

bell heather

gorgeous scenery but hard to catch in a moving vehicle

Ferry to the Isle of Skye 

 We drove to Mallaig to where were caught a ferry to the Ardvasar on the Isle of Skye.  Interesting because a lot of these islands around are all Donald Clan or MacDonald. Clan (that is me).  

Continued the drive. This time we crossed a bridge to get back to the mainland.  

We stopped briefly at the Eilean Donan Castle.  We only had 5 minutes.  Nathan still managed to find a way to get closer. 

We then drove on to Loch Ness

Nessie

Loch Ness

Then we had the long drive back to the hotel.  

They put on a movie about the lochness monster and trying to prove or disprove its existence.  Back to the hotel just in time for a very nice dinner.

potato leek soup

pork  loin and potatoes

fudge cake and ice cream

We shared a bottle of Shiraz. 

dogs and sheep - July 28 Tuesday

This is a clip of the blind dog with the sheep. 

St Andrews, Pitlochry, Loggan

We had an early start today.  Drove to St Andrews.  We had a quick stop in St Andrews.

First to see a ruins then to see the famous golf course.  I guess this is the birth place of golf. On the way we passed a sign "Where Kate met Wills"  We drove by to quickly to get a picture.We had about an hour to wander around St Andrews. We went down to the beach.

These are lugworm castings. They were all over the beach.

Then we drove on to Pitlochry.  We found a deli where we could buy sandwiches to go and then we walked down to the salmon ladder.

a good sandwich shop

We fund a hallway at the fish ladder.  This the only place under cover.

No salmon today.  This would have been more fun if it had not been raining.  I had a cheese and apple chutney sandwich and carrot and coriander soup.  3rd day with carrot soup.  All 3 so different.  I liked this one the best.

Then at 1:30 pm we went on to Blair Castle.  Quite an impressive building but frustrating because we were not allowed to take pictures inside.  After a quick spin through the house, I went outside to walk the grounds. they were beautiful.

Again it would have been more enjoyable if it had not been raining.  Then at 3:30 pm we left to go on to our hotel.  This place has a lot of character.  Much more comfortable than our last place but I think we are finding that the wifi is spotty.  It is way out in the boonies.  After checking in some of us went to a sheep farm to see how the sheep farmer sheers the sheep and how trained his dogs are.  Very impressive dogs.  fun time.  cute dogs.

He had some 30 dogs.  Each had a different whistle

He showed us how the dogs could bring the sheep in and make them go left or right.  Which dogs would do what just by this whistle or call.  He had one old blind dog that worked by hearing.

Brought the sheep in very close

He showed us how to sheer the sheep.  This one was so relaxed.  

Nathan got to try his hand at this

Then he brought out the puppies.  He had 2 different age puppies.  They sure were cute

Then back to the hotel for a delicious dinner.  I ordered all the things with Scottish in their name.

Scotch Egg

Scottish Salmon - It was ok but I liked Nathan's mushroom stroganoff better so we switched

Scottish Clanachan - a berry mousse

The sun came out after dinner.  We went for a nice walk.

a few random picture

Nathan gave me permission to include a few of his pictures from North Berwick.  Things I just did not get. 

Biplane doing it's s tunts

Those specks in the sky are the Red Arrows

Great shot of the dolphins

We have a list of tipping suggestions for our various guides.  But on the other hand they handle all of our luggage.  We are supposed to have our suitcases outside of our hotel room and they collect them. We have assigned seats on the bus and then each day we rotate so we get to meet different people across from us   

This is the door knob on the inside of the bathroom (which is different from the room with the toilet)  It is very difficult to pull shut.  You have to pinch it to pull it shut.