Sunday 18 November 2012

Day 5, Stirling to West Scotland


William Wallace memorial in Stirling
This morning we started out on our journey taking us from Stirling and the lowlands to the highlands of Scotland. The weather started out with light drizzle and heavy fog, but after a short while we only had overcast weather.The aim for the day was the B&B at Balmacara Mains, close to the Isle of Skye. The route led us through the Loch Lomond National park, which was more or less a lot of trees ;0). From there the landscape changed dramatically from the lowlands to the highlands. The weather had lifted a bit so we could see the summits of most of the mountains. The ground was orange and brown due to the autumn. All very beautifull! Especially the route down to Glencoe was to my liking, with large mountains shaped by glaciers through thousand of years. Even though the weather was a bit rainy, it did not matter.

Our way led us to Fort Williams, not the most pretty town in Scotland, but the largest mountian in the UK, Ben Nevis is here and we got a clear and good view of it. We decided to wait a bit with eating lunch. Instead we drove to the Glenfinnan viaduct to see the old bridge used in amoungst the Harry Potter movies. The place was closed down for the season, so we did not get the overview which we (I) wanted. Therefore we hasted back to Fort Williams for an afternoon tea lunch with scones and all the other things belonging to this...

Scottish highlands, - Scottish weather
 
From Fort Williams we drove to the castle of Eilean Donan, probably the most photographed castle in Scotland, at least by me ;0) The road to Eilean Donan was quite long and parts of it was in the hours of darkness. On the way we met several Red Deer, just standing in the middle of the road and numerous eagles. Eilean Donan was closed when we arrived, but this did not matter as we were going there the next morning. Instead we got a good look at the castle in darkness, lit by flood-lights.

Anna close to Glencoe
Me close to Glencoe
Our B&B was only 10 min drive from the castle. When we arrived, the whole place looked a bit dead lying down by the coast surrounded by forest. We knocked on the door and entered and then piano music flowed towards us...suddenly an old man came and looked a bit confused. In a Scottish accent he said "you know it´s november? not many people come to these parts of Scotland this time a year", but he was very friendly and showed us our beautifull room and gave us advice on dinner places. We decided to drive 15 min over the "mountain" to Plockton for dinner at the Plockton Hotel. The staff was very cozy, the food delicious and the prices low.

All together we drove 350 km today.




Highlands


Anna at a lake in Loch Lomond National park

Anna and a viaduct


Fort Williams and Ben Nevis
 


Todays route

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