from the west...: November 2014

i had a conference in glasgow in august and pete decided he would come along and make a vacation of it. we had five days together before i had to go to my conference and then we had a day at the end of the trip before we flew home. neither of us had an extensive "travel goals" list...in fact, there was really only one - go to the highland games.

we crossed our lone travel goal off the list on day two. we went to the perth highland games, which included many pipe bands, dancing, cycling, running, and games of strength. throwing a caber in the rain looked hard! we listened to so many pipe bands that the sound of bagpipes and snare drums was ringing in my ears for hours after we left.

dancers' kilts

lone bagpiper

pipe band playing for the judges

caber toss

from perth we headed northwest along the lyon river, around loch tay, through glen coe, and ultimately to spean bridge. the following morning we backtracked a bit to hike to a place called glen nevis. friends had told us about this spot - the highlight was the cable bridge. it is so fun to see what sorts of things other countries allow that would never happen in the u.s. there was a sign at the start of the trail warning that death was possible...

the lovely town of fortingall

and the 5,000 year old yew tree

magical glen lyon (there should be a hobbit on that bridge!)

vista south of loch tay

majestic pete in glen coe

beautiful glen coe

the hike from glen nevis to steall falls had a few water hazards

and it was rainy (and no, we don't usually match)

which made the cable crossing a little more interesting...

trying really hard not to fall into the river

we spent the next few days touring around on the isle of skye. what a lovely place! it was definitely the highlight of my trip...and a place that i could spend many more days.

eilene donan castle and fishing pots

the remains of duntulm castle - what a spectacular view these people had!

the basalt pillars and cliffs of the quiraing

pete enjoying the view

another basalt feature - old man storr

the lovely church just down the road from our b&b

intertidal at elgol with a glimpse of the cuillin hills in the distance

scottish algae! :)

intertidal sheep on our way to elgol

my conference was in glasgow. unbeknownst to me until i got there, the world pipe band championships were happening that weekend. i may have missed a few talks in favor or seeing the world champion pipers from belfast. who knew that bagpipes could sound so good?! while i was working, pete continued north into the highlands enjoying the beautiful scenery, castles, and scotch. ok, he didn't enjoy the scotch, but he said the tour was really interesting. we met back up in edinburgh at the end of the trip. it was august so the fringe festival was in full swing. we got tickets to a couple of shows, but pete scored the ultimate prize and got us tickets to the royal edinburgh military tatoo. neither of us had any idea what that was other than a show that sells out six months in advance. as it turns out, it is a showcase of military bands from former british colonies and takes place on the promenade of the edinburgh castle. it was spectacular!