Homeward Bound and Numbers

It’s over, and time to go home, and in this final blog entry, I get to talk numbers, and I do love numbers!!! Our day began on a slightly sour note.  The front desk at the Courtyard Marriott Glasgow Airport neglected to give us our wake-up call.  Fortunately, my internal clock must have been turned…

Nothing Lasts Forever

Well, it is Tuesday September 25th, and with mixed emotions we began our last day in Scotland with one final Scottish breakfast at the Village Inn in Arrochar.  The side table was laid out with breakfast rolls and fruit and we discreetly helped ourselves to a few of those “for later”. There were two things…

A Dam Good Day

After that glorious sunset last night, the nice weather carried over to this morning, and our view out onto Lake Etive was like looking at a painting. After an excellent breakfast and a brief chat with our hosts at the Ronebhal Guest House (Sally and John), we set out on what was our second last day…

Happy Anniversary

Today (September 23rd) is the main reason we embarked on a Scottish adventure  – a special trip to help us celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary, and over breakfast at the Clan McDuff Hotel in Fort William, Scotland, we reminisced about September 23rd, 1978. I had spent the previous night at Duffy’s Motor Inn in Amherstburg,…

Movie Sites and Jacobites

If you’ve been following my daily entries, it was apparent that we had pushed the pace a bit hard in the last week, so starting yesterday, we’d begun to dial things back a bit.  Our plan was to continue that reduced pace today, and it was nice to awaken to a beautiful sunny morning. I…

Rainbows in the Skye

Its Friday September 21st, and including today, we only have five more days left in our Scottish adventure. After the better part of a week where the weather was as much a part of the adventure as anything else, it was with a sigh of relief that we awoke to patches of blue sky this…

Here Comes The Rain Again.

It seems somehow appropriate to use this song title from Scottish-born Annie Lennox, given that we awoke to whipping rain and howling winds. We had survived the night, and at no point did I awake to hear Mary shouting “Auntie Em, Auntie Em”, although it was almost windy enough to lift the Ben Loyal Hotel…

The Storm is Upon Us

We awoke this morning (Wednesday September 19th) to overcast skies and an eerie calm.  We’ve been waiting for Storm Ali to arrive in the Scottish Highlands and according to the news today’s the day.  But as we stepped outside to cross the courtyard for breakfast, there was no wind, no rain, just grey-black sky.  We…

North Coast 500 Adventure Begins

Today (Tuesday September 18th) is the day that we will really begin to experience the North Coast 500, the “tourism route” I wrote about yesterday.  We’re hoping that the grey skies, steady rain and low cloud ceiling will not detract from our journey, and we are prepared for just about anything as the storm alerts…

I Like Haggis

I bet you never expected to see a blog entitled “I like haggis”, or even encounter someone who claims to like haggis, but this morning I dared to try it for the first time. I guess if you’re going to lose your “haggis virginity”, Scotland is the place to do it. And, I really did…

“Whiskey is Liquid Sunshine”

With an appropriate nod to George Bernard Shaw, I thought that the title of today’s blog needed to make some reference to whiskey, since this is the day we are heading into the Speyside region of Scotland, home to more than half the distilleries in Scotland. Truth be told, I am not a Whiskey drinker,…

Fun? Let Me Count (Dracula) The Ways

Okay, okay.  I know I am known for my bad puns, and Mary says its a “Grandpa thing”, but what else could the title of today’s blog be?  I mean, we’re paying a visit to the castle that helped inspire Bram Stoker to write his Gothic Horror novel, Dracula.  Come on. Our day (Saturday September…