After driving around and around the streets of Inverness looking for a parking spot so we could board the tour bus to Isle of Skye, we were finally able, with the help of the tour guide, find a parking garage three blocks from the bus! I was glad we’d had the time to get coffee and breakfast before that hurried hike. We were the last ones on the bus, and I daresay if Trisha hadn’t asked the driver where we should park, he would have taken off without these “two crazy Americans!” She’d asked him not to leave without us!

Side note: it was important that we find a proper place to park since the night before we had parked in a “disabled only” spot and received a fifty-pound ticket!

The bus was full, with sixteen people from all over everywhere. Trisha and I had to sit in the back on a long seat with a mother and daughter whose English was difficult to understand. Our first stop was a place where the Jacobite Loch Ness Cruises launch (we would be there again the next day), and next to the cafe and gift shop was a field containing Highland cows!

Our tour guide parked the bus in the carpark (their word for parking lot) and let us out to see the cows. I was thrilled! My first encounter with the Scottish hairy coo. Here’s my slightly altered version of “The Purple Cow” rhyme:

“I’ve never seen a hairy coo, but I really hope to see one. And now I can honestly tell you. it would be lovely to own one!” (I’m not a poet and I know it.)

We bid our goodbyes to the indifferent bovines and headed up the hilly, curvy, windy narrow road to a carpark overlooking Urquhart Castle. We didn’t have time to hike down and explore the ruins of the castle, situated on a point over Loch Ness. The castle was an important stronghold during the Wars of Scottish Independence, and also for Clan Grant before being destroyed to keep it out of the hands of the Jacobites.

Our next stop was Eilean Donan Castle, where we were given time to tour the castle and explore the gift shop and cafe. It was drizzly and cool, my favorite kind of weather! As you may know, I can’t go anywhere without taking some type of fall, and this time it was in the castle. Trisha and I were in a bedroom and there was a window with a sitting area overlooking the lake. I wanted to see the view, but I didn’t notice there was a step up. I blame that on my progressive lenses. Bang, my right knee hit the ancient stone. Trisha helped me up and we were able to continue, with some pain, but–I was in Scotland! I had to keep going! And I didn’t even tear my new joggers.

We stopped for lunch in Portree, a beautiful little town on the coast. We were on our own for an hour so Trisha and I looked for restaurants. The first one we tried had a line out the door that wasn’t moving, and the people ahead of us–not Americans!–were badmouthing our President, so we left. The second one we entered and no one greeted us, although a server saw us. We finally stopped in at the Highland Cow Shop, a combo souvenir shop and cafe where we managed to find a seat at the window and dined on hot cappucinos and grilled ham and cheese toasties (sandwiches).

Our last stop was the famous Fairy Pools on the Isle of Skye. When we arrived it was raining hard and windy, and our guide told us the walk was steep down and back, and if we didn’t want to or were unable to do the walk, there was a small building with chairs where we could wait. I told Trisha I had better not do the trail since I had already taken a fall. But she is braver than I (or maybe not, since I was driving a car!) and she headed down, confident her waterproof joggers, hiking shoes, and raincoat would keep her dry.

I was proud of her when she returned, but she was miserably soaked to the skin and cold. The water had run down her pants and into her socks. Everyone who had gone on the trail to the pools was soaked. I was very happy I decided to stay behind, although when I saw Trisha’s pictures, I wished I had seen the waterfalls in person. Maybe another time…

It was a long, and for many, cold ride back to Inverness. I’ll save the tale of our return for the next time, so stay tuned for the golden eagle, the rude teenager, the parking garage exit, and Tesco!

Let me know what you think of our travels, aye? And…haste ye back!

XOXO