Well here we are in the country of Scotland with a population of 5.3 million people. The capital is Edinburgh, and the official languages are English and Scottish Gaelic. It is described as small in size, but crammed with treasures of big skies, lonely landscapes, spectacular wildlife great seafood, and really nice people. Scotland is home to golden and sea eagles, otters, dolphins, seals, whales, and basking sharks all eating on mackerel. They boast having the freshest seafood, beef, pen-raised venison, and single malt whiskey. A personal favorite for one of us has to be Macallan's.
Scotland has more than 1000 castles which once served as fortified homes for aristocracy in the 12th to 14th centuries. These days, the castles are owned by the rich and famous. It is also known for the Loch Ness Monster, legendary of course. Or is it? The world's oldest golf course is St. Andrew's, and Edinburgh is famous for their Festival and Fringe, which occurs in August. Kilts, bagpipes, and Scottish fold cattle also come to mind.
What do the Scots like to eat? How about haggis and turnips with potatoes. In case you have not heard of haggis, it is a type of meat loaf that has everything in it such as offal of any animal. Seasoned right, it tastes close to liverwurst. So if you like that, you will love haggis. Ceremonies in the past were created around this traditional dish.
What do they like to drink? A dram of single malt whiskey or their local beers are popular. One of the big names is Talisker whisky which is described as brooding, heavily-peated nose balanced by a satisfying sweetness. Worth a try. Just in case one had too much of the whiskey or brew, something called Bari's Irn-Bru, a bubble-gum scented radioactive orange-colored soft drink is guaranteed to cure a hangover. Common words you might hear are blootered, hammered, plastered or pished, which all mean "drunk".
So our first port of call in Scotland was Portree, Isle of Skye. According to our reading material, the Isle of Skye takes top prize. Craggy peaks, strange pinnacles, and dramatic sea cliffs present photo ops at every turn. It also said to watch for the red deer or the golden eagles, but we saw none today. We did see many gulls, crows or ravens, a few cormorants, and one blue heron.
There were some excursions here like a Dunvegan Castle and scenic Skye for $130 for 3 ½ hours or iconic Eilean Donan Castle and West Highlands for $120 for 4 ¼ hours. There was a Northern Skye scenic drive for $110 for 3 ½ hours or a tour to the Talisker Distillery and Northwest Skye for $160 for 4 hours. Finally, there was Torvaig and Ben Chracaig hike for $60 for 2 ¼ hours, where you can see the Clan MacNicel Monument, the Chief of the Clan who led his people to Southern Australia in 1830. This is what we did on our own in 2019, and will attempt to do today as long as it isn't too muddy.
Upon arrival before 7am, rain was falling. Not only cloudy, it was foggy and cold with temps in the 40's. We did have breakfast a bit late today, since we slept in again. One of the waiters that we do not know happened to be walking with a box that resembled a pizza take-away box. Jokingly, we said oh great- pizza for breakfast. He did laugh, but then took out a Delft platter with the ship's design on it, something like the plates we get as our final present on a world cruise. He claimed this plate was designated as a gift from a maiden city for this ship, and he was the one that was going to do the printing on this plate. He indicated it would be hung with all of the other plaques for maiden voyages. All of us suggested he place his signature or initials on the back of the plate, and he thought that was a fine idea. Why not?
Bundled up, we left the ship around 10:30am, which must have been about the time open tenders were announced. The tender boat filled quickly, and we were on our way to the shore. This is the second time we have been here, so we sort of knew our way around. You can either take the stairs up to the town, or walk the narrow and steep street to the same spot. Either way, it made it difficult for folks with walkers or scooters to access the town, and we do think we heard it announced so people knew in advance it would be challenging. Not only that, with the early morning rain, everything was wet and slippery.
We made a quick walk through the small grid of town passing by several small shops, businesses, pubs, and restaurants. The busiest place had to be the local bakery, and once they sold out their treats, they would be closed for the day. We headed back to the tourist information center to pick up whatever maps we could find as well as brochures of the local sights to take in. The info fellow was so friendly and helpful when we asked about the walking trails. He pulled every map we might need to do the trails. One of these maps was an old one, but had some very amusing comments on it. In listing the basic services such as emergency room, police station, hospital, or fire station, it said "Things I Needed or was glad I didn't". A location of a senior's home was printed as Old Folks Home. We have heard that before, like from Barb? How about a bay called The Lovely Muck? Or referring to oil storage containers as "Hell of a place to store oil"……right near the tender boat landing. Most of the printing on this map was microscopic, and a magnifying glass was needed to read the words. The most chilling warning was on a high ridge of the mountain range we were soon to hike. One area was listed as extreme danger of slides, with the top of the cliffs saying "People die hiking this ridge and not in the nicest way". Enough said, we will stay on the designated trails.
Since we were close to the first trail, we walked through the gate and hiked to The Lump as it is called here. It s a wooded plateau above The Lovely Muck and sea below. Buried in the trees is a turret that was once used for a lookout for ships. It was later used as an apothecary for distributing medicines. Odd, but true. A lower trail went around this peninsula, but one of us waited on the top taking in the views. The field of this Lump is used for the annual Highland Games. Then we continued on.
So armed with the maps, we walked the high road that took us past some hotels and the Money Puzzle Poodle Palm, which is a relative of the bunya-bunya tree. Since it is the only tree like this here, we figured it was planted for a reason and given a funny name. It also happened to be planted in a very dangerous turn in the narrow road above the cliffs. This led to a more residential area with nice homes with lovely gardens. There was a creek going under the road too. Built on the hillside was the very nice restaurant at a hotel we dined at back in 2019. The name was Cuillen Hills Hotel, and we would come back here after our hike.
We came upon a wooden gate on the narrow trail that was the beginning of the Scorrybreac Circuit, a 3 km hike around Ben Chracaig. It was wet, but not slippery. This hike led us around the Black Rock , the very tip of this rock can be reached at low tide. From there we had a good view of the big fish corrals in the bay or fish farms. Not sure what type of fish is farmed there. Passing the wishing well, which also served as a fresh source of water for the clan, we continued on towards the end of the designated path to get a spectacular view of our ship. There were a few convenient benches along the way.
The last time we were here, we continued walking after the trail ended which led us through a pasture full of boulders on the hillside and to a rocked fence and private property. This solid fence went up the hill to a farmhouse and had a pasture full of grazing sheep. Eventually it led to a road where we hiked back to the Cuillen Hotel. Today it was way too wet, and one of us was not willing to risk injury attempting it.
So we turned around at this point, and backtracked to the hotel for lunch. On our way, we came across a local couple that were out walking their dog. They were quite friendly and asked where we were from. That led to a conversation about the weather here. Jokingly, the couple said there were two seasons in Portree. One was winter, and the other was the month of June. In other words, everything blooms in the warmth of June, then it is downhill after the month ends when winter returns. We could tell they were looking forward to the arrival of June.
Finally reaching the hotel on the side of the hill, we were seated in their dining room that overlooked the town and bay below. Our most friendly young waiter told us that one week ago, they had sun for 5 days, then heavy rain for the next two days. That brought us to today, where it was cloudy and cold, but way better than raining. There was only one other couple having lunch when we arrived, but within a few minutes, the place about filled up. Among the guests were Greg, Heo, Ginni and Rich who we spotted outside our window table. Their group was seated in the adjacent dining room. This was just too funny and made our day running into them as we have in several ports now.
Our lunch consisted of two pints of Tennent's draft beer and one chicken, lettuce, tomato sandwich and one ham and cheese sandwich with homemade potato chips. We added one sticky toffee pudding with a scoop of ice cream, which was really a treat. But the biggest treat was taking in that view while relaxing for an hour. Heavenly, actually.
We strolled back to the town and got on the next tender back to the ship. All aboard was 5:30pm, but according to Captain Frank, everyone was back by 5pm. Expecting to leave the bay by 6pm, it appeared they were having difficulty with the anchor, but we're only guessing. Perhaps the tender boat loading was presenting problems. Anyway, we were supposed to have a scenic sail away commentary from Ian, but that did not happen. We enjoyed our own sail away from the comfort of our veranda as we passed many uninhabited islands, most with sheep grazing the pastures. The sun actually peeked out briefly at 5pm. Figures…..
We did have one job to do from 4 to 5pm, which was returning our passports to the mid-ship elevator landing for screening in Ireland. Maybe this will be the final time we have to do this.
Dinner for us was in the Pinnacle Grill where we both enjoyed a wedge salad with the warm and fresh bread. Do not know why the bread served at dinner is not as fresh as this is here. As many times as we have all asked, the rolls are like hockey pucks most nights. Our mains were one filet mignon and lamb chops that were under cooked. We shared the French fries, which were not the skinny type. Guess they ran out. Dessert was a slice of Key lime pie….very sweet but very good.
Tomorrow we shall be anchored off of Oban, a new port for a lot of us.
Bill & Mary Ann
