Are you sick of my, "I'm sooooo busy" excuse for not writing yet? I am, but school is really kicking my butt this year. It always does during the first few weeks of a new year, but the change in grade and room (I can't find anything) have made it more challenging than usual. Just to get something down on "paper", I wanted to share some more pictures from my Scotland trip. There's not much writing to go with it, but it's better than nothing I guess. Enjoy! I sure did. :)
When we booked our two week trip, everything we had heard said that when visiting Scotland, the Isle of Skye was a must see. That wasn't so close to Edinburgh and we just weren't sure about the time it would take to get there. Then we found a 3-day round trip small coach trip tour that would pick us up and drop us off in Edinburgh. I am not really a tour bus kind of traveler because I don't like the drive by, seeing things through the window, stopping only for a few moments for a photo op kind of tour. But our options were limited so we signed up. The trip was definitely a drive by type tour, but once I got over that we actually had a nice trip. We saw A LOT of sights on our way to and from Skye, which considering it was only 3 days, was impressive.
Day 1 - This was our drive to Skye...
Only got to see this hairy cow, but at least I saw one.
Loch Lubnaig
There were so many little waterfalls just trickling down the mountains during so much of our trip.
Just before the bridge to Skye is the village of Dornie and the Eilean Donan Island and Castle. Currently used for special events and tour visits, the castle's origins start in the 1200s. It was all but demolished in early 1900s and then refurbished in 1914 to mostly what it is today. The entertainment industry uses it for movie and TV.
The castle actually sits in the water where three sea Lochs meet - Loch Duich, Loch Long, and Lock Alsh.
You can see the Isle of Skye from here. We drove over the bridge to the island shortly after our visit here. More pictures to come...
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I must go there!
ReplyDeleteYou must!
DeleteScotland has always been on my bucket list. After this post, that still hasn't changed!
ReplyDeleteGood! Keep it there. :)
DeleteWell.... I WAS just wondering over the weekend when we'd get more photos, but hated to nag! ;)
ReplyDeleteThose bus tours can certainly serve their purpose and I've done my share of them. This sounds like one of those good times for one. I love seeing the castle (a weakness of mine!) and the hairy cattle always make me laugh. They're so different from what I normally see!
I won't harp on it since I know you're under a lot of stress at school, but I really am looking forward to more photos! (whenever you find time)
I know, the hairy cows make me chuckle too. Quite different.
DeleteThis was a good one for a bus tour. It was a small coach. There were only 16 of us, but it was a full boat. Our driver was great and knowledgeable and did pull over a lot for us (me) to take pictures. However, I like the exploring bit when I travel and that is SO limited on trips like this. You barely have time to sight see AND have lunch in one stop, so exploring is out of the question!
I will try to get some more up this weekend!
I've found the bus idea to be useful too. And it can be very very useful if you want to return to cities or places that are hard to get a flavour even now, perhaps especially now since we can be inundated with data.
ReplyDeleteDid you know it was a perfidious Dutchman that gave a rutter to James (him of the KJV) in Edinburgh that allowed the Scottish crown to take control of the Western Isles. Before the Dutchman the navy sailed on the Atlantic side of Skye (the isle of fogs) usually split up and either wrecked or taken by that combo of Irish/Scot/Viking/Norse. But the ritter showed the way, and the where of the Kyle of Lochalsh.
There were a few places on the trip where our little coach could not fit on the road with another approaching car. I can't imagine if we had been on one of those huge buses on the island. I LOVED visiting Skye...just loved it. The little villages and winding roads, all with the gorgeous view of the ocean.
DeleteThere was a advertisement looking for a teacher in one of the villages there and there was only ONE student. Ha ha ha! Sign me up!
The Scottish history was hit and miss for me. I didn't go in with a lot of knowledge, and as I mentioned didn't have the wherewithal to research a lot before hand. It was interesting to me how the same surnames kept coming up over and over throughout the years. We have a family friend who is a MacDonald...holy cow! That name was EVERYWHERE! :)
Skye is very like Connemara and Donegal. Only more so. :-)
DeleteYeah, they are often looking for teachers up there. I was almost tempted three or four years back. But the darkness and the distances in winter would do me in. Remember it's not just almost on the circle, but rain clouds sit halfway down the mountains for much of the Autumn Winter and Spring smothering whatever light there is. It's no wonder the Scots took to the Carolinas and Georgia like they did.
It's funny, as I mentioned when I returned was that I had assumed I could compare it to Ireland as far as landscape goes but was mostly wrong on that. I didn't find a lot of commonalities beyond things being green - but to me it was a different green. Anyhow, my point is that I think I might have enjoyed Skye most because it seemed to have more in common with Ireland as far landscape goes and what I had been expecting. Scotland was very pretty but I'm probably partial to Ireland. :)
DeleteLove these photos! Sometimes the bus tour serves a good ipurpose and there's certainly something to be said for being driven rather than driving, especially for the hard-to-get-to places. And sometimes, especially if there have been days of walking and exploring, seeing things out a window isn't so bad.
ReplyDeleteYes! You are right about the not having to drive part. Neither of us were terribly interested in driving (the opposite side of the car/road made us both a little nervous). And after the trip was over we laughed over the narrow roads (we would have killed ourselves I'm sure of it) as well as the fact that neither of us missed anything having to stay focused on the road. On road trips, the driver often misses the sights. So we didn't have to worry about that.
DeleteI was curious about that one with the stream coming down the mountain. And as tiny as the file is there is quite of good detail in it with a tiny bit of editing. I can' t add it here blogger won't allow it I believe. But you really can move the exposure nearer to what you saw.
ReplyDeleteI struggle so much with editing the foggy/white sky photos because I feel like they get so blown out color-wise if I move the exposure to get rid of the fog.
DeleteThe way is to lower the Highlights, and raise the Shadows. Then move the Whites until you blow a bit out then pull back until you have no clipping. Then lower the Blacks.
DeleteAll the editing programmes out now will have a version of this process. You see, assuming you haven't blown the shit out of it, or that it's almost black you should only move the Exposure if things are real bad. And none of these are, they are simply lacking a bit of pop. But that pop is in the images.
If you want to Dropbox a few to me and I'll do a bit of an edit with my programmes here.
ReplyDeleteOh, thank you so much! I'm sorry I haven't replied to your post above...I just work and sleep (and sometimes fall asleep when I'm working). Trying to get around to blogs this morning. I would love to send you some to see what you can do. I have a few others from later in the trip (when the weather got worse). I'll get some more posted soon - hopefully.
DeleteMy name(first and last lowercase) 2 at gmail. That's the link to the dropbox. If you made RAW files that's great, but if not, I'll draw some details in the larger jpegs too.
ReplyDelete