Whisky, waves and more wind.....!

Hello everyone

Another great breakfast to start the day and a good bit of banter with the other guests in the house. There are only 3 rooms here (I think I've mentioned this before) so there are 6 of us at breakfast. Three of the 6 are teachers, one owns a grocery business and then there's us two. Grocer and one teacher are from Yorkshire and the 2 other teachers are from Northern Ireland - all really nice people.

We set off to visit the Talisker distillery which is about 20 miles from here. It was another decent day - mostly sunny but with some big threatening clouds lurking around. The distillery is at a tiny village called Carbost - very pretty. There were loads of people in the visitor centre, drinking their free samples of Talisker and waiting for their tour of the distillery. We joined the 12.30pm tour with another dozen or so people. To be honest we've done loads of tours round distilleries (it must be the lure of the free taster samples!) and have a fairly in depth knowledge now of how whisky is made but it was still a really enjoyable way to spend another hour. Martin managed to spend £50 on a special bottle of the spirit before we left the distillery - he's really expensive to keep!
We then strolled to the local pub and had venison burgers for lunch - very tasty!

The sun was still out so we drove further north and joined a tiny singletrack road north of Dunvegan Castle where we'd been yesterday. We'd heard that there was a beautiful beach along this road so we headed onwards. The road seemed to go on for miles but, eventually, we saw a few more parked cars. When we reached them there were actually lots of cars including lots of Dutch, German and numerous hire cars - this was looking promising! We found a parking space on a bit of grass and set off to follow the path towards the promised "Coral Beach". It was, once again, VERY windy but still sunny - I feel weatherbeaten rather than sunburned!
We walked for 20 minutes or so - over rolling hills and through shallow streams. Eventually we came over the brow of a hill to catch sight of Coral Beach - big flippin' deal!!! It was (to me) a big disappointment, to say the least. Admittedly, it stood out as a slightly unusual sight - white(ish) sand and green(ish) sea but, as we got closer, the sand turned out to be rough and gravelly and was full of seaweed and cow poo (cows were grazing right up to the edge of the beach but they clearly made it on to the sand occasionally!!!). And it was bloomin' windy - again!
I was fairly dis-chuffed with the whole experience but Martin found it all highly amusing (he really needs to get out more...). Perhaps we've been spoiled by our trips to Crosby Beach/Formby Point because Coral Beach didn't strike me as being much of an attraction but there were a good number of visitors who seemed to be enjoying themselves so who am I to argue? Anyway, a couple of photos later (see attached) and we set off back to the car. It was a nice walk, I guess, but that's the most positive thing I can say about it. I don't think I'll be returning to Coral Beach any time soon...!

Back at the guesthouse by 6pm and I need a nap. Still full of venison burger we'd decided to try the local fish (with chips) this evening so we wandered down to the town at 8pm-ish. The fish was fairly good (cooked in beef dripping!) and the chips were ok but we didn't finish it all. We went off for a last walk around Portree which, to be honest, doesn't take very long but then decided we fancied a coffee. 10 minutes later we found ourselves in an Italian coffee bar eating home-made cakes and being "encouraged" to join in a line dancing class! Line dancing didn't strike us as being a particularly Italian activity but people make their own entertainment around these parts! The place was obviously well known to the Italian tourists in the area as we were the only non-Italian diners/drinkers in the place. The line dancers were mainly locals and were clearly regulars as they were very good! We managed to avoid having to join in the dancing (phew!) but it was a close thing and I think Martin secretly fancied having a go....maybe next time, eh?!

We're back at our room now and are ready for our last night's sleep here. We'll be setting off about 10am tomorrow so should be back home around 7pm - it's a long drive! We've enjoyed our visit to Skye - it's been interesting and entertaining - but I don't think we'll be heading back here in the near future. Skye is wild (and windy!) and is definitely a place to come to for complete escape from the rat race but perhaps Martin and me just aren't ready (or don't want) to escape to such an extent too often!

Our next planned trip is in September when we're off to California (LA, San Fran, Las Vegas and several bits inbetween) so we may experience a complete overload of experiences this time - very different to Skye. But they do say variety is the spice of life...!

Hope you get chance to look in on this blog in September.
See you then

D&M
xx

PS: Thanks to our cat-sitters! We couldn't get away for these trips without your help - thanks very much!

Blimey....it's windy here!

Hello everyone

Blimey but it's windy here in Skye!
Got up after a good night's sleep and headed downstairs for breakfast. Lots of lovely fresh fruit with cereal followed by bacon and eggs, toast and tea...yummy! It started the day off very nicely and we set off to explore the northern part of the island.
We drove anti-clockwise round the island, stopping at any point that looked interesting (or had more than a couple of tourists already parked up!). We found some spectacular views over various bits of water (lochs? the sea? we weren't sure - but it was all beautiful) and even managed to start our sightseeing in fairly dry and warm weather....until we reached Duntulm Castle! We had parked up with lots of other visitors and headed off along a footpath to see the remains of a historic castle perched on the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea. It was still dry but was VERY windy and, as we made our way further out on the cliff, it got windier still! We saw another visitor standing face-on into the wind and he could lean forward at 45 degrees without falling over! The wind was really strong and blowing people all over the place but it was also warm and, to be honest, most people seemed to be enjoying the experience! However, it was also blowing some rain towards us - we could actually see the rain getting closer! We headed off back towards the car but didn't head off quick enough and the rain got us! Blimey - it was good fun but we were bloomin' wet!
We set off again with all the car blowers on full belt - we weren't going to let a bit of wind and rain stop us enjoying ourselves!

We visited a number of stops including the port at Uig and then drove to Dunvegan Castle which is the ancestral seat of the McLeod clan. It was very interesting and had beautiful gardens too and the sun shone on us and the hundreds of foreign tourists at the castle. There are a lot of people here for a "homecoming" event where (we think) people from around the world are coming to Scotland this year to meet their clansmen. Lots of Canadians, Americans, New Zealanders, as well as Spaniards, French, Germans and lots of Scandanavians - really interesting.

The rain has held off for most of the day and we're hopeful for another day sightseeing in the more southern bits of Skye tomorrow....including the Talisker whisky distillery! (looks like I'll be driving tomorrow after Martin hits the free sample table!)

We are off soon to find a place for our evening meal. Hope we find somewhere a bit better than yesterdays place - a very average pub with slightly below average food at significantly above average price (£40+ for a basic pub meal...). Keep your fingers crossed - I'm starving!

More news tomorrow if you're still reading!

Bye

D&M
xx

A sweltering time in old London Town.

Hello Everybody

Well, we're here in London for a couple of days to attend a concert.
I'm cheating a bit with this blog entry - we arrived in London on Monday afternoon and now its Wednesday afternoon and we're on our way home! However, its been a very busy few days so I'll get you up to speed with what we've been doing.

Monday
We drove down to London - quite a boring journey really, motorway for most of the trip with a little bit of major ring road action towards the end. We were staying at the old Hilton in Wembley as we were in London to see Spinal Tap in concert at Wembley Arena. Found the hotel ok - we had been given a "Plaza" room which was on the 9th floor and came complete with freebies - wine, fruit, bottled water, chocolates, etc. - very nice.
Have I mentioned it was quite a boring drive - well, it was. But during our boring journey we had discussed the possibility of us getting to Wimbledon to see some of the tennis. We aren't huge tennis fans - it would be just for the experience really - so, once we'd freshened up a bit we set off in 30+ degree temperatures to find the tube and headed for SW19. We got to the Wimbledon station after a couple of tube changes and walked along with the masses to join the queue for tickets. We queued for almost 2 hours (we had to join a queue to get into another queue - its a good job we're British!) but we eventually made it in to the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club - known as Wimbledon to the rest of the world. What a great venue! We had to scramble up a small hill to see anything at all but we eventually got a decent view of the big screen showing Andy Murray's game on Centre Court. The tickets for Centre Court would have been around £90 (face value) even if there had been any available (which there weren't) but we had bought general admission tickets which would let you on any of the 19 courts except the main Centre Court and Courts 1 and 2.
We watched the game for a while, had strawberries and cream (and pizza!) and headed back for the tube home before the hoardes came out. I've attached a couple of pics - we were tired, hot and sweaty but we had a great time and it's another experience we can tick off our list.

Tuesday
We had planned to take the guided tour around Wembley Stadium today but Take That scuppered our plans! The stadium was literally at the end of our road and we headed there after breakfast. However, the tours had been suspended due to preparations for a series of Take That concerts. We had to make do with some photos of us outside the stadium (attached) and then headed back to the tube for some stereotypical touristy sightseeing in London. We visited Trafalgar Square, the Embankment (by the river) and just mooched about trying to find bits of shade and air conditioned comfort. The TV reported temperatures around 32 degrees in the city centre - we can confirm this!
Once back at the hotel we took advantage of their very nice pool and spa facilities - a lovely way to cool off. We had an afternoon nap (well...we're getting on a bit you know!) and then headed out for some food and then to the concert.
Wembley Arena is a great venue - not as big as some but there was a great atmosphere in the building. Spinal Tap were great! They did a full set of their best known stuff complete with dancing druid dwarves and an inflatable Stonehenge - and the drummer managed to stay intact throughout! (if you're not sure what I'm talking about then you need to watch the film "This is Spinal Tap"!) The concert goers were in party mode after the concert and the venue has a great plaza in front with fountains, lights and speakers. Lots of us hung around for something to eat and to watch the exhibitionists amongst us dance in the fountains. Most kept some of their clothes on but you always get some extremes in any crowd....!

Wednesday
A lazy morning - breakfast was served until 10am so we took advantage of this and stuffed ourselves on full English breakfast (and a good selection of the Continental breakfast too!). We were out of the hotel and round the North Circular to join the M1 northbound by 11.30am and we're now halfway home.

I hope you've enjoyed this potted version of our adventures in London.
Our next trip is to Skye at the end of July...hope you're still reading us then!

Take care

D&M
xx