Real Journeys

The photo above is probably the most interesting place I visited during my 1 1/2 days in Inverness. It may look like there’s nothing there. But read on to find out why it was the highlight of my time in this part of Scotland.

Today I took a tour to various highlights on the Isle of Skye. You can see all the photos I took. You can also listen to a wonderful story told by our guide and driver, Bill. It’s in the album.

Today I took a boat trip to the Isle of Rona. I had high expectations about how beautiful Scotland would be. So far my expectations have been met or exceeded. Today they were exceeded yet again.

For my first full day on the Isle of Skye, I decided to take a trip to Dunvegan Castle & Gardens. I’m staying in Portree, which is the largest town on Skye, and the capital. (I don’t know what it means to be the capital of an island, but it is.) I’m staying four nights…

Fort William is the second largest settlement in the whole of the Scottish Highlands. It’s kind of the unofficial capital of the West Highlands, since it is the terminus of the West Highland Way, a 96-mile hiking trail that starts just north of Glasgow. It’s also very close to some of the tallest mountains in…

I spent the last three nights in Oban, which I used as a base to explore several islands of the Inner Hebrides. Now I’m on the train heading to my next destination. I previously wrote about my adventure getting to Oban. I will try to avoid any such adventures going forward.

Here is the story of my journey from Balloch to Oban on ScotRail. It has not gone as planned. If it had, I would have arrived in Oban about two hours ago. Instead, I will get there about three hours from now.

Today was the sixth day of my Scotland adventure, and my first completely free day. It was also the first sunny day of my trip. I was happy to spend the day enjoying Balloch and hiking in the hills outside the village.

After my four days in Glasgow where I was so jammed with activities that I couldn’t keep up with the blogging, it’s going to be a lot easier now that I’m on the bonnie bonnie banks of Loch Lomond. There are still stories and history to share, but a lot less. Today I took a…

I’m starting this post on the morning of my last day in Glasgow. Later this afternoon I will move on to my next destination on my month-long Scotland adventure. I will finish this post when I get there. I still have much to cram into my day today before I take the train to Balloch,…

Today I had a private guide who walked around with me and talked about the history and architecture of Glasgow. There was some overlap with the Rick Steves self-guided walk I did yesterday, but not enough to make sure I remember everything. Eamon was so full of knowledge that I couldn’t possibly assimilate everything he…

Yesterday I wrote about my two-day trek from Mexico to Scotland and my arrival in Glasgow. I got here around noon, and as I was looking through my guidebooks (I have Rick Steves’ Scotland and Fodor’s Essential Scotland, because they provide two very different and equally useful perspectives), I found two Glasgow walking tours. Yesterday…