SKYE!!!

Originally published 11 March, 2012

Portree waterfront, Isle of Skye

​We started our day in Portree. We rose early and had a good breakfast at the B and B we were staying at. The place was full of Germans who were on holiday in Scotland. Germans seem like a nice bunch when they're not invading Poland. We took a quick look around Portree and took pictures of the waterfront.
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This is where they filmed the movie Local Hero, which really spiked my interest in Scotland....and today we visited the place it was filmed! We took off across the center of the island towards Neist Point, and the lighthouse. And while Glasgow and Edinburgh had plenty of people, Skye has plenty of sheep! They roam free and a lot of the roads are single track roads....you have to beep the car horn to get them to move out of the road!

The walk down to Neist Point, Isle of Skye

​We arrived at Neist Point finally and it was typical Scotland day.....misty, windy, and brisk. REALLY brisk. We donned our raincoats and descended over the cliff to the lighthouse...and it was a bit of a walk. We shared the trip with a few hundred sheep. The wind was blowing hard and the mist was quite heavy.....very Scottish!

Stone fences, hundreds of years old

​You are supposed to be able to see seals and whales from Neist Point, but we saw none today. And at times we couldn't even see the top of the bluff where we parked. It truly does get misty here! After checking out the lighthouse and the area around it we started our hike back up the cliffs. We had to wait a bit as the sheep had decided to head up the cliff as well and seemed to prefer the steps to going up the side of the hill.

Neist Point Lighthouse, Isle of Skye

​We reached the summit where we had parked and headed towards Talisker Distillery. Laurie fed me a lunch of crackers with cheese and peanut butter as well as fresh fruit while we traveled. Our rolling picnic ended when we reached Talisker and Laurie was quite excited! We ran into our friend Neal from Alaska again as he was finishing his tour when we arrived.

Sheep ascending

I was surprised with the operation. After touring Jack Daniels in Tennessee, the Talisker Distillery was in comparison quite small. The process was quite interesting though as whisky is made differently than Tennessee whisky or bourbon.

Laurie enjoys a "wee dram" at  Talisker

Unlike the states, when you finish your tour...you get a taste! As with everywhere here the people were wonderful! After our tour completed, we headed towards the bridge off of Skye and our long journey towards Pitlochry.

We are staying tonight in Pitlochry at a real mom and pop hotel...and mom and pop were working the desk and bar when we came in! The restaurant was closed already and we got fish and chips take away and brought it back to the hotel. They were very nice and set us up with real plates and silverware in the bar so we could eat our dinner properly! We will poke around town tomorrow for a while, probably go to another distillery, then we head to the Edinburgh airport for our flight to Amsterdam. I am going to miss Scotland and it's people.

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