After listening to rain pelt the roof all night at the Luib House, I woke with low expectations for our dream day on the Isle of Skye. Our goal: to drive the Trotternish Loop and see all the stunning natural wonders and have lunch at Skye Pie cafe.
We're from Oregon. We know how weather works. Yesterday we had some luck with lining up sun breaks with our getting out of the car. Just because it's raining at one moment doesn't mean it will rain all day. Right?
Wrong.
It rained all day. Sometimes it was raining hard, like when we hiked part way up to the Old Man of Storr. Other times it was barely misting, like when we climbed the fence to look around the ruins of the Duntulm Castle.
Jonah and Isaac sat in the car for almost everything today. Isaac read Harry Potter almost non stop and Jonah took a lot of naps.
We drove by Skye Pie Cafe too early. Rick Steves says they open at 11. Also, it's too early for lunch before 11 anyway, so we did a loop of the western most part of the Trotternish Loop, a part of the island with the utterly asinine invention: the one lane road.
Here's how it works. You drive as fast as you possibly can down this curvy, pot hole-ridden, bumpy road that fits only one car. Every so often there will be a turn out for you should you come upon a car approaching you from the other direction. The goal is to be close to one of these turnouts before getting plowed into.
Oh, and just for fun, we'll throw in random sheep in the road.
Let's just say my stress level from driving is back up to heart attack. But without the side of stroke. So that's something, I suppose.
Spoiler Alert: we didn't die on the one lane road, and the Skye Pie cafe was closed for the season. So we headed to Portree for lunch. It was fine.
After lunch we walked around Portree a very little bit. No one in my family cares to browse bookstores as much as I do. One of us likes to browse candy stores. Another could look at replica swords and knives all day and the other prefers looking at maps. So we were definitely out of sync when it comes to looking around. I wandered down to the harbor that is known for it's row of pastel houses to get a few pictures, but evidently I take too many pictures and I was fussed about it until we did what? What?? What did they want to do?
Go back and sit in the car.
We loaded up on shortbread and other treats from a bakery and drove to the ferry terminal to sail to Raasay. The journey was 20 minutes and our accommodations here are quite impressive. Odd, but impressive. I'm not sure what to make of this renovated old estate that started out as the estate of Clan Macleods after the original home was burned down after Culloden in 1746.
The best part of this place has to be the stately library with a wood burning stove, lots of leather chairs and couches, and a stunning view out to the water. I got to sit there for about 30 glorious seconds before someone came in and suggested we take the car out on one lane Scottish roads again.
I'm going to call it a day.
2 comments:
Take as many pictures as you want, as long as there are people in them. 😄
Excellent! I am so glad that you like the apartment. I teared up when I thought about Robert meeting up with someone he taught on his mission, just like the sons of Mosiah in my mind.
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