In Sunny Scotland

A few months ago, I read an article about the Outer Hebrides in the New York Times Magazine.  I was captivated by the scenery and the activities one could do there: hiking, whisky tasting, and visiting Harris tweed weavers.  I said I wanted to go there and my husband went into action and booked everything.

We flew into Glasgow Airport, picked up our rental car and made our way to Port Appin to check into our little bit of luxury at the Pierhouse.   The drive to Port Appin was incredible - lakes everywhere.  We stopped at a roadside cafe which was a popular place for hikers.  We ordered the full Scottish breakfast which included black pudding and the much maligned haggis.

Scottish Breakfast

I enjoyed both but could only eat about half of the food on my plate.  Probably good for hikers, not someone who just flew from SFO.  The other interesting thing about this cafe was the fairly good selection of single malt whiskeys.  I knew that this was going to be a great trip.
Notice the sunshine and remember this is in Scotland.  Sunshine.  Scotland.

at the Pierhouse

 On my list of things to do (haggis eaten - check) was to eat langoustines which I last had on the trip to Iceland.  These were boiled and quite delicious.  The food at the Pierhouse was wonderful and the views were stunning.

langostines

The next day we traveled to Torridon, a small village in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland.   My husband has happy memories of hiking the hills back in the day and wanted to return for the walking and whisky drinking at the local inn.  At the time of making the arrangements for our trip, I was still sick from chronic fatigue (see posts dated May 17,  May 22,  May 23,  and June 21 ).  We decided that I might do the flat walks and rest on the days he wanted to climb the mountain.  However, my recovery was good enough for me to attempt the climb up my first Munro.  A Munro is a mountain in Scotland with a height over 3,000 ft. There are 282 Munros and serious hillwalkers try to "bag" all 282 Munros.   
We began our climb up Ben Alligin.

It was a tough climb for me.

But I saw beautiful bits of nature.

And then there were the views...

I made it to the top.    My body wasn't happy and my knees were screaming at me but I climbed my 1st Munro.   Only 281 left to go.

Again, note: sunshine.

We ended the day by eating at the Torridon Inn.  The food was lovely but I was most impressed by the whisky list.