It's my birthday! I do like to go to new places on my birthday, and today, it will be all new scenery.
We got up at 6. I found that my flowers had liked the water bottle I put them in yesterday. They were blooming quite nicely. My husband K gave me cards from our daughters and himself, as well as a nice necklace he'd brought along.
The bags had to be out at 7, and that is also what time breakfast started. It was pretty much the same fare as yesterday. Brian from Nova Scotia, our seat buddy, came over to give me a gift his wife had made. On a previous trip, someone on their tour had a homemade gift for everyone and they really liked the idea. They didn't have enough for everyone in our group, but he wanted me to have the angel she'd made that had the Nova Scotia plaid. How kind! As soon as I saw Brenda Lee, I made sure to quietly thank her. Seriously cool!
When I climbed onboard the bus carrying my water bottle of flowers, Roseanne, our guide was there and commented on a what a lucky lady I was to receive flowers. I told her it was my birthday and she was doubly impressed. When everyone was on board, she announced that it was my birthday and that K had gotten me flowers, which put the pressure on the other men. She then led everyone in singing "Happy Birthday" to me. It was really quite nice.
We left Broadford at 8:15 and made our way down the lower peninsula of the Isle of Skye on the A851. We arrived at 8:40 at Armadale Castle, Gardens, and Museum of the Isles. Our visit would be relatively short, because we had to catch the ferry to Mallaig. The scenery was quite beautiful.
Roseanne got us maps and sent us off to explore. The museum wasn't open yet, so she recommended we go see the house first. The path/road led through the woods and it was wonderful to be surrounded by such tall trees and beauty. This Western Red Cedar from USA/Canada was planted in 1895.
Armadale is now the ruins of a castle that was built in 1790 and looks more like a mansion than a castle. It was built by the Clan Donald, also known as MacDonald, to be a more comfortable place than the castle they'd had up on the Trotternish Peninsula. At one time, the clan was the most powerful in the Highlands and Hebrides. This place is now known as the "spiritual home" of the clan, especially since clan chiefs have had a residence here since the 17th century. The 1790 mansion was extended in 1815 in Georgian castle style. After a fire destroyed much of the original mansion in 1855, a mock-Gothic wing was used to fill in the gap. The castle fell into disrepair and was structurally unsafe by the 1930s. It had to be partially demolished in the 1980s. Now, it is a photogenic, atmospheric ruin. The group took lots of selfies, photos of the castle, and photos of the sea view. We, however, failed to take a selfie!
On our way to the museum, our path led us through lovely gardens and beautiful woods. I just love flowers and what a great place to be on my birthday! Here are some flowers for you to enjoy, as well as a magnificent Sitka Spruce, that was planted in 1839. The variety originated in Alaska, but evidently is well-known in Scotland.
The Museum of the Isles has a lot of information about Clan Donald. It was interesting to walk through, but I didn't spend a lot of time reading, because it was so much about one clan. There was an interesting exhibit on the emigration ships after the Clearances. As was true of so many emigrant groups, families had little room or privacy onboard.
As I neared the end of the museum, I came upon the children's section. There was a book there that took me totally by surprise. Even though I quickly realized that it definitely belonged with this clan, it had never occurred to me before that it had any Scottish ties.
I checked out the gift shop before we left the building. K and I chose different paths through the gardens to get to the gatehouse. Mine took me over bridges over streams in the gardens and past fountains with lily pads and water lilies. A giant tree had fallen sometime in the past and they'd just cut out the part over the path. Lovely flowers now grew next to another fallen tree. What joy it gave me to see all the flowers! I did, however, wish that there had been signs telling me what kinds of flowers I was seeing.
I got a couple of things at the gatehouse gift shop, before we boarded the bus at 9:54. Four minutes later, Alistair started up the bus to go to the ferry line. We were in line at 10:05 and sat there in the bus for a while. I took the opportunity to do some needlework. The bus rolled onto the ferry at 10:34.
We were given the option to stay on the bus or get out to climb up to photograph the crossing to the mainland. I decided it would be easier to stay put and do needlework that needed to get done, while K got off to photograph. We set sail at 10:40.
By 10:53, there were alarms going off and Alistair came back to the bus to tell those of who'd stayed on board to get off to go see the whale. Whale! Brian later said it was a minke. They see them quite often near their home, which sits on the ocean in Nova Scotia. I did not climb up to see it, but found a spot at a window and did catch glimpses. K, on the other hand, got some great shots and even some video. His are the breaching photos. How seriously cool!
We docked at the mainland at 11:20 and the bus rolled off just four minutes later. Our next stop was just 45 minutes down the A830- Glenfinnan. This stop is a two-for-one. It was here on Loch Shiel that Bonnie Prince Charlie waited to see if the Scottish clans would rally round him, when he set foot on his ancestral homeland for the first time. They did, of course. Thus began the Jacobite rebellion known as "The '45", as in 1745. At the loch is the Glenfinnan Monument with the statue of the Unknown Highlander standing at the top. The other item of interest here is the Glenfinnan Viaduct, a 416-yard-long curved railway viaduct on 21 arches. It is famous for being in several Harry Potter films.
The stop is popular with tour buses, of course. So, our guide Roseanne called ahead to tell them we were coming and to be sure to have enough food in the small café, as this was also our lunch stop. We were advised to eat first. K got in the food line, while I got in the restroom line. When I came out, I stopped in the small gift shop for postcards. When I joined him, he was still in line, so he sent me to snag two of the few available seats. He got me a coronation chicken sandwich and himself a salmon sandwich. As a cake for my birthday, he got a Banoffee Square, which was rather good. Diet Coke and a coffee rounded out his purchase, which came to Ł 17.50.
While we had a bit of a view of the loch and the viaduct from the parking lot, we knew the better look was up on the overlook. I knew my knees wouldn't like it, but I would hate myself later, if I didn't go up. The climb was often steep, with various switchbacks and tall "steps" of rock. There was water in places due to an earlier rain. It was crowded going up and there were people going down, as well. When I reached the top, I was sore and out of breath. However, the view! Oh. My. Gosh. The loch was stunning. We had the good fortune to see a train going over the viaduct. It was not the Jacobite Steam Train, but that was okay. The clouds obscuring the tops of the mountains behind it really added to the scene. We took photos and a woman volunteered to take our photo with the viaduct behind us.
The climb back down was quite miserable as my knees strained to deal with the descent. They made sure I knew how unhappy they were. Climbing back up onto the bus wasn't fun. We left two minutes late, at 1:02.
We traveled down the A861 along Loch Eil to Loch Linnhe. We stopped around 1:30 to be able to take photos across the loch of the Ben Nevis Range, the highest point in Scotland. Such a beautiful view, even with the clouds! We were back on the road in five minutes.
The road soon cut inland and I soon dozed off. At 2:50, Alistair pulled the bus into the Lochaline Ferry line. We got off to use the restrooms, such as they were, and to get a snack. I'd had cake at lunch, now it was time for ice cream. I got a Magnum ice cream on a stick. It was great as always.
We got back on the bus and at 3:15, the ferry headed out. It took only 21 minutes to reach Fishnish on the Isle of Mull.
As we headed up the A848, we could see sheep outside the bus again.
At 4:10, we arrived at the parking lot near the Tobermory Distillery at more or less the south end of the High Street and near a dock and the aquarium. Beautiful flowers greeted us there, as well as a great view of the colorful town. It was terribly photogenic and most of us went to the edge of the seawall by the dock to get great photos.
I convinced K to go visit the Tobermory Distillery, while I went down to the High Street to visit the shops. It was warmer and sunny and made for a pleasant stroll. It was tough, but I managed to find 2 postcards for 70 pence. It's such a lovely place, I don't know why I couldn't find more. I bought a couple of gifts, but mainly enjoyed checking out the various establishments. I even went up an alley to peer into a pottery shop. I got excited over one shop that had model railroad items in the window, but it turned out to be more of a hardware store and the railroad items they had were tracks and such. I ran into K a couple of times, as he didn't stay long in the distillery, because he didn't feel like paying for a tasting at that time.
On my way back to the parking lot, I stopped at the bridge, where the stream that ran down the hillside poured into the bay. It made quite a loud sound, as there was a lot of water rushing down over the rocks behind me, but here the water had space to spread out.
Back at the bus, I lamented that I hadn't found a restroom. Roseanne said that there was one at the aquarium further along the dock. I felt funny about going there, when I wasn't going to visit the aquarium. She said, "Nonsense!" and borrowed coins from one of the other travelers. We had a nice chat on this mini excursion and she told me that fisherman would be able to stop in there to shower and such. The restrooms were quite nice and clean. As soon as I get change, I'll repay her.
We were on the road at 5:15. At home, we'd be getting ready for dinner, but it is always so much later here.We drove back down the east coast of Mull to Craignure. We reached our hotel there, Isle of Mull Hotel, at 5:50. Once again, Roseanne asked for a ground floor room for me and a couple of others with knee issues, since there was no elevator.
The entrance opened onto a large seating area, with a bar to the left. The place looked older, but not out of date. We were given room 4, which was down the corridor to the right. The room was clean and neat, with a large window that started a chest height and overlooking the water. I was appalled to find that there were no outlets near the bed. That was going to cause problems for the CPAP setup.
K went off to the front desk to borrow and extension cord, but no luck. While there, he saw some pins for charity that he thought I'd like and bought one for me. (I went back later and got another.)
Dinner was at 7 and the staff was quite insistent that we sit at only the tables assigned to us. There appeared to be just enough seats for us at them and no more. (We'd passed people eating in the lobby. No idea why.) We found ourselves sitting with John and Sue from Manitoba, who were quite pleasant company.
K ordered a local brew called Hart and Sole Lager, while I went for white wine. We both had tomato and basil soup for our appetizer and it was so unremarkable, that I failed to photograph it. I did take a picture of the delicious bread, though. I had the delicious Argyll Chicken Supreme, chosen mainly because we knew we were in the Duke of Argyll's territory, having seen a video about him before the trip. K had the cod fillet and said he liked it. Because I've never had it before, I had to try the mulled wine poached pear for dessert. It was a beautiful color and delicious. K had citrus creme caramel, which was similar to a flan and tasty.
After dinner, we went back to the room. But, we decided to see if we could take a walk down to the water.When we headed out at 8:45, we found drummers and bagpipers in the lobby. Evidently, they were preparing for a competition. Looking over the railing to the lower lobby, I could see a meeting room, where they were practicing. We listened a bit, before making the painful descent of the stairs.
Out side, we discovered that the hotel stretched far longer than we thought. Then, we found a path that begged to be followed.
There were some small flowers here and there. Eventually, it opened up to a long stretch of grass that ran between the hedge and the rocks at the water's edge. We sort of roamed off on our own paths, as I was in need of some seashells to take home. We saw the mother and her two adult children from Texas as they headed back. This was definitely not a swimming beach. The water was more like a lake than anything else, even though it is the Sound of Mull. It felt rather cool to the touch. The mountains on the mainland looked like they had been painted on the sky. (See 4th picture.)Off in the distance, there was a castle-of course. But, in the distance behind it, there was a touch of the modern in the power-producing windmills. We could see the ferry down the coast. Much like the beaches at home, there was a random crab claw, but this one was up on the grass!
When we went back to the hotel at 9:35 (still light, of course), we passed Simon from the Texas family heading back to the beach again. He said he wanted to find shells, too.
The pipers and drummers were still at it and there was quite the crowd listening. I went to the room to rest my knees, but K stayed for a while to listen.
The phone says that I walked 3 miles in 9, 117 steps and climbed 3 floors. I feel like Glenfinnan should count for a lot more than that!
Still, it was a wonderful birthday!
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