Scotland: Isle of Skye, Loch Lomond and Glasgow - Libby's View

I've fallen behind a little bit due to poor internet connection. But, believe me when I tell you: I could live in Scotland. Easily.

Not only because of the beautiful countryside, or the fascinating history, or the delicious food. But, also because of the lovely people. Yes, they have a strong accent and it take a few seconds sometimes to parse what they're saying, but they are patient and helpful and the pace in most of Scotland is laid back and easy going. Except in their driving, but that's a different post too.

Loch Ness - we did not see Nessie

Driving to the Isle of Skye was breathtaking. At one point, I likened it to our time in New Zealand, "around every bend and over every little hill in the road, the landscape just keep getting more beautiful!" Isle of Skye was like this too, but in a different way. It wasn't all snow-capped mountains with beautiful lakes. It was also high-desert like, then large expanses of evergreens, then snow-capped mountains with beautiful lakes, back to high-desert like areas with very rugged terrain.




And like the rest of Scotland and England, we would somewhat regularly see a castle or the ruins of one. If we could live here for a year or two, we just might get to take it all in...but somehow, I doubt it could really be done even in that amount of time.

Loch Cluanie

We fulfilled another dream by visiting Scotland and unlike the usual fulfilling of a dream where it will wane a little and move on to the next one, I think the dream to see Scotland has taken root and isn't going to let go until we've returned and experienced even more of it.

Eilean Donan Castle

View from our B&B in Balmacara on Loch Alsh

Loch Hourn and Kyle Rhea waters meet

Ruins along Loch Hourn

When we left Isle of Skye, we drove to Glasgow by way of Loch Lomond. We have dear friends in Mundelein, IL who live in a community called Loch Lomond and if work had cooperated, we would have loved having them with us on this trip. So, we really wanted to see and get pics of Loch Lomond to share with them. We barely made it with any light to take pictures, but we did get some and even in low light, it didn't disappoint. It's an absolutely beautiful lake and I can understand why it's called by some, the most scenic in Scotland and is included in songs.

First view of Loch Lomond

Loch Lomond at dusk

Loch Lomond at dusk

Our arrival to Glasgow was a bit of a shocker. It's very much a modern city that's always busy. We were not upset that we didn't have time to sightsee here. We didn't want this modern-ness to mar the beautifully slow-paced vacation we're just ending. Our hotel was on the south side of Glasgow, so when we left the next morning, we weren't in the middle of the heavy traffic and the scenic drive was a lovely way to end our vacation in Scotland.

Even arriving back in the busy-ness of London wasn't bad, even though traffic was. It was a far cry different than the day we'd driven out of the city almost 2 weeks earlier! After returning our rental car, we settled in to the pace of the train station, had a hot meal that was quite tasty before boarding our train for Paris, France.

We may be saying goodbye to the U.K., but I hope it's only a temporary one. Something more like, "until next time" seems appropriate. We loved it there. It doesn't matter which road we take, high or low, as long as we can get back to the "bonny, bonny banks of Loch Lomond" or other lovely vistas.