Skye

After spending a few days in the busy city of Edinburgh, our time on the Isle of Skye was quite a change.  What a beautiful place!
Once on the island, we stopped for a lovely view of the Cuillin which is a mountain range. The Red Cuillin are on the left of the road and the Black Cuillin are on the right.  The Black Cuillin are higher and rockier than the Red.

 The light wasn't ideal, but you can see how dark the mountains on the right are compared to those on the left.

 Home for our time in Skye was the town of Portree.  Portree is the largest town on the island (at around 900 people).  With a small harbor and colorful shops and homes, it is a pretty little town.

The dark clouds and blue sky kind of followed us around during these days.  At least they gave the pictures some color.

This was the view a few steps from our hotel.  I kept finding my way to this spot every time I walked out of the room.

We spent two evenings in Portree.  Each morning we woke and met the driver/tour guide at the van and left the town for the day.
One of the highlights of our time on Skye was to visit the Neist Point Lighthouse which is at the westernmost point of the island.  It was a beautiful drive across the island (Portree is on the east side) and the weather mostly held up.  We stopped at a few photo ops along the way.

It was very green and there were a lot of sheep!  The weather was iffy on the drive.  Some rain, a lot of clouds, and some sun.  It seemed to change every few miles.
Once we arrived at Neist Point, the blue sky started to peak out.  We climbed out of the van, pulled on our jackets and headed off for a hike down to the point.

You can see the walkway hand railing in the left of this picture and then the path to the lighthouse towards the sea.  The wind kicked up a bit as we walk away from the van.  By the time we got to the walkway, it was whipping.  It was blowing so hard it literally pulled my jacket off of my body and my camera strap away from my neck.  As I had mentioned, I was still have a tough time with my allergies and was not able to breathe through my nose. The wind was blowing into my mouth, and I couldn't breathe.  I tried several times to keep going, but kept having to turn away from it.  I was never able to make it down to the bottom, which is my only regret on the trip.  Those who kept going said that once they got to the path and changed directions, the wind was much easier to take.  I was so afraid that it would be bad the whole way down and back up again and didn't want to risk having to move into the lighthouse if I wasn't able to get back up the hill.
I spent the time wandering around and taking pictures of the view.  Unfortunately, my time unsupervised found me involved in some shenanigans...which I will share in the next post.