Glasgow...meh

Glasgow isn't a place I would ever recommend you travel to...ever. There is nothing special here except an international airport. 

What we decided to do when leaving Fort William was split up our drive with a stop in Stirling and a trip to the castle.  I got some nice pictures on the drive. Jay and I had a running joke as we're driving. We would see something and say "wow, look at that, that's beautiful...no, not you, you're driving. Eyes on the road". The roads were so narrow and windy that really you had to pay attention to the road. 

It was about 2 hours to the castle. 

We had lunch at a pub beside the castle and then headed off to Glasgow to our hotel, just about a 40 minute drive. Once we arrived, since we only had the afternoon in Glasgow and we fly home tomorrow, we decided to do a hop on hop off bus tour. 

At hotel reception they recommended that if we were only going to get off at one stop that it should be #2, the cathedral and necropolis, which were really the only ones we had wanted to visit anyway. The nearest stop to us was #11, so we went there and waited for the big red City Sightseeing double decker open top "look at me I'm a silly tourist sitting on top of a bus in 10 degree weather when there is an enclosed heated bottom section" bus.  We saw the bus, which was running about 15 minutes behind schedule and stood up at the bus stop to catch it, but it looked like it wasn't going to stop!  So at the last minute I waved at the driver and she screeched to a halt, pulled over while yelling and waving..we got on and she said "we share the stops with the city buses, so if you want this bus you have to wave your arms big" (making big sweeping motions) ..ok, because I don't already feel like an idiot climbing onto this bus, but whatever.  So around the city we went and I took a few photos (which you can only really get the good ones by sitting in the open top!). 

The University. 

So we got around the loop to the last stop #24, then the bus would start the loop again at #1 and we would get off at #2 for the cathedral and necropolis...but no. This particular bus stopped at 24 for the day and said thank you very much, off the bus now. 

Well, thankfully stop 24 and stop 11 are not across the city from one another, but they certainly could have been!!  As luck would have it we were only about a 6 minute walk from the hotel. So we headed back, had showers, chilled out and waited to go out for dinner.  After dinner we facetimed with the girls. Mom had sent us this photo today of Sophie with the subject line "Happy Camper".  She cut her hair!!

I showed Jay and he said "who authorized that?"  So funny, Mom had said the other day that Sophie wanted her hair cut and she had trimmed it about an inch but she wanted more but Gram said she had to check with me first. I said to let her cut off as much as she wants. Then Jay said "Good for her! Now people wil be able to tell them apart at least".

Now we're just at the airport waiting to get on the airplane. We depart in about 40 minutes. This morning Jay said to me on the way here "if someone said to you now they would pay for you to stay on vacation for another week, would you?"  I said "would I have to stay in Glasgow?"  No.  "Absolutely, you can fly so cheap here - I'd fly somewhere else, maybe Ireland or Spain...for sure I would stay". Jay - no way, he's ready to come home. He misses home, which we both agree is our favourite place in the world...

Fort William..a difference of opinion..

So, I look at Fort William as our final stop before we go home, we have only one more night here (tonight) then we head to Glasgow tomorrow for our final day before we fly home the following morning (I don't count Glasgow because we just sleep there, get up and off to the airport). Jay looks at Fort William as the barrier between him and getting home - only 2 more sleeps to go. 

While we have totally different views on the end of vacation we have had an amazing time travelling and spending time together one on one, which we haven't done a lot of in the past. Really not since the honeymoon debacle of 2003 where we were in a Caribbean paradise to relax for 7 days and Jay's undiagnosed ADHD when into overdrive - our first and last vacation for 7 years just the two of us until a few years ago when we took 6 days and went to Nevada and Arizona. All other holidays since then we've had friends or family to act as a buffer.  So we are pleasantly surprised that there have been no fights or even major irritation! (Ask Jay, his opinion might be different - but that's my view!). I think it has to do with our amazing B&Bs to come back to relax to..

And our busy schedule!  No time to fuss!

This morning we decided to take the cable car up to the top of one of the mountains on the Nevis range, it was pretty unspectacular after Skye. We took the cable car up and then hiked up and a round to a lookout point where you had a 360 degree view. This is the only picture I took...not even at the lookout. 

Jay said "you got all the way up here and you're not going to take any pictures?"  I said "Some pictures are worth taking and others just take up your memory". The view was forgettable. 

From there we went into town and did a bit of shopping and had some lunch after which we headed the Glen Nevis gorge to hike to Steall Falls.  I finally found my Woolly Coo, or what I called a furry cow!

We entered the hike from the furthest car park and were greeted at the entrance by this sign..yikes!

Ok, so..let's go!  Doesn't look so bad..

At one point Jay said "if you're going to fall, fall left" (into the hill). 

After about 25 minutes we got our first full glimpse of Steall Falls. 

Here's Jay looking at me like 'seriously, you're taking another picture.'  I said to him "one day you'll thank me when all you have to remember me by are these pictures...of you.."  Now get out of the way so I can take a picture without you in it. 

To get to the base of the waterfall you have to traverse the river on this wire bridge.  Jay took a photo of me on the way back but his thumb is covering it...funny..I think he did it on purpose!

The waterfall itself is 120 meters high, but there is no real clear view, and the perspective doesn't do it justice. It was neat. 

From here we headed back to the car and back over the bridge. 

The drive back down the mountain Jay drove, so I got some more 'car window' shots.  The sunlight was amazing. 

From here we went back away from town about 20 minutes to try to get a photo of the famous Harry Potter viaduct that the train to Hogwarts travelled on..it was a lunch bag let down.  I wanted the angle that I'm sure you can only get by paying to get on the steam train.  This is the best we could get. 

When Jay and I pulled into the parking lot there was a guy kneeling on the ground on a patch of grass taking photos of mushrooms. Jay and I smirked at each other and were like "seriously?"  But, it was a REALLY cool mushroom..so I did the same thing!  Lol. Then as we were leaving another guy was doing it too!

I picture an elf sitting on it!

After that I let Jay come back to the B&B ;).  We chilled out for a little bit and then went out to dinner, we just got back, it's 8:30pm here and our day is done.  Tomorrow we head out to Glasgow, one of our longer drives at just under 3 hours. We'll (I'll) look now and see what we might be able to do between here and there to break up the drive. 

Last blog post tomorrow night...two more sleeps...

Bye Bye Skye

We cancelled our tour yesterday that was scheduled for today because there were a couple of things on the island we couldn't do yesterday because of the weather. The main thing was a 2 hour hike of the Quiraing about 45 minutes north east of our B&B. Given that we did the hike out to the lighthouse yesterday in less than half the time the guidebook mentioned, I asked Marie, the owner of the B&B, about the Quiraing hike. She said the initial hike was about 2.5 hours, but there was also a summit loop you could do adding Meall-Na-Suiramach to make it 4 hours.  As we looked at the map and the hikes we decided we would book the 4pm ferry off the island, and on the way to the Quiraing we would stop at a place called Faerie Glen where I wanted to take some pictures for the girls of where the Fairies in Scotland live. 

A very cool place, and the fairies stayed hidden very well. I had heard they were shy, and it was a little chilly and windy for their tiny wings, so we didn't get to meet any today. 

From Faerie Glen we drove to the Quiraing. Wow!  This is the view from the parking area. 

And it only gets more epic from there.  We still hadn't decided if we would do the 2 or 4 hour hike, it would all depend on how quickly we could get to the crossroads point, where we either had to turn back or climb. We had snacks and water and lots of layers just in case. 

So we started on our trek to the 3 features of this hike, the prison, the needle and the table. 

There is the prison, in the distance, center of the photo below. 

See that small line off the back of Jay's elbow?  That's the path :). The prison is off to the right center. Below is a photo of the needle, which is just beyond the prison. You can hike up here to the 3rd feature, the table by 'threading the needle'. But, we didn't realize that was the way and continued up the path until we got to the turnaround point. 

At this point, which should take about 2 hours we had only been hiking for an hour, so we decided to climb and do the 4 hour loop since the weather was cooperating and it was so beautiful.  This is a look backward to where we came from. 

So up, up, up we went to climb up to the ridge overlooking the Quiraing called Meall-Na-Suiramach. Remember this photo?

See the ridge on the far left?  So now we are beyond the prison and around a bend to the left.  We walked/climbed up to get along the edge of the ridge for a few Kms and then scrambled down the hill at the end to meet up with this path again near where we started!  Here are some photos from above.

This is what the path was like a lot, a wash out where you kept your footing.  

This is the 'table', feature from the top of the ridge, on the right through that gap you can see a little bit of the top of the 'needle'.  We're actually quite a bit higher here. 

This hill is what the last of our downward trek looked like back down to the parking area. In total the hike took us 2 hours and 10 minutes. I was very proud of myself!  I felt bad when Jay had to wait for me while I kept my breath, but still we did the hike in just a little over half the time, so it was really good!  (I love my sheep photos!)

Here I am near the bottom.   This is actually a huge hill!

After the Quiraing we headed down to the ferry, about an hour and forty minute drive. When we were about 20 minutes into our drive we picked up 2 hitch hikers from Switzerland on their way to Portree, which was on our way. Since we were dropping them off at the town center we decided to just grab lunch in Portree before heading down to catch the ferry. 

After lunch we were on our way again!  We got to the ferry with about 35 minutes to spare before it shoved off (25 mins until boarding) and so did a little shopping in the gift store and waited for our 30 minute crossing. 

The ferry ride was uneventful, the drive from there to Fort William was nice. The train bridge from Harry Potter is along that stretch of road but neither of us saw it!!  We got to the B&B and checked in, had showers, chilled out and then went and had Thai for dinner. I loved the Thai restaurant, but Jay wasn't a fan. Though he said this is the first not so great meal he's had here so that's pretty good!

Now we're back in the room. Hoping to FaceTime with the girls before we go to bed. It's 11:11pm here - 6:11pm there...we'll see. 

Oh, and today is our 10 year anniversary!