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The events described happened on May 23, 2009.

On my second day in Scotland, Tom and I started our three day tour of the Scottish Highlands and Isle of Skye. We left Edinburgh early Saturday morning and headed up through the Highlands to Portree, the main town on Skye.

After checking out of our hotel (each of us leaving a large bag behind), we caught a cab to the Rabbie’s office on High Street in Edinburgh. After our driver mistook us for Irish (how our ridiculously American accents could be mistaken for Irish accents is beyond me…), we checked in and quickly boarded our coach for the tour.

There were fifteen of us on this tour, in addition to our driver, Eric, who wore a kilt and was entertaining throughout the trip. In addition to Tom and me, there was an American couple, a pair of American girls, an Indian couple, and an Indian family of five (consisting of four guys in their 20s and what I’m guessing was their mother). (There must have been two others as well, but I don’t remember any details about them.)

We headed out through the streets of Edinburgh before finding the open road towards the Highlands. Our first stop was at Doune Castle, where we briefly got out to take some pictures and wander the grounds. We were quickly back on the road, only to stop again in an hour or so at Callander for morning refreshments. By this time, it had started to rain, although just a light mist. Unfortunately, this was to be the theme of our tour.

After meeting Hamish, the Highland cow at Callander, we actually crossed into the Highlands proper. We drove through Glencoe, where we took pictures near the Three Sisters and heard about the 1692 massacre of Clan Macdonald. Glencoe was beautiful and we enjoyed stretching our legs, despite the continuing light rain.

We took a brief detour to visit the Falls of Dochart, at the lovely wee village of Killin. It was pretty neat, especially since the water was a bit high due to the rains.

Our next stop was in Fort William, on Loch Linnhe. Tom and I had lunch at a pub at the far end of the main pedestrianized zone, where I enjoyed my first haddock and chips, along with a pint of Guinness. Not wanting to be late, we rushed back to where we parked, coming in just a few moments after our designated time, only to find that, other than Eric, we were the first ones back. While we waited, we took some pictures of the loch from the parking lot. Most of our group were only a couple minutes behind us, but the family of five were about fifteen minutes late.

As we left Fort William, we should have had great views of Britain’s highest peak, Ben Nevis. Unfortunately, due to the weather, visibility was practically nil. We continued into the Great Glen, stopping just past Eilean Donan Castle, where we took some pictures of the castle. We were scheduled to tour the castle and its grounds at this time, but, due to the weather (but I repeat myself…), we postponed this until Day Three.

Shortly after this stop, we crossed the bridge to Skye. By this time, we were in a very remote area, and the roads were windy and narrow. There were larger coaches around, but I was glad to be on our mini-coach as it was occasionally a bit harrowing.

After about an hour on the island, we arrived in Portree. We had a wee tour of the city of about 2,000 before being dropped at our accomodations. Due to a music festival being held in town, most of the B&Bs were booked, so Tom and I were forced to stay in a small hotel. While this was a bit more expensive, it turned out to be quite convenient, as we had separate (very small, but en suite) rooms, and were located right in the middle of town.

We checked in, tested out the plumbing, and then headed out to dinner. By this time, the weather was cooperative, although still a bit grey. We found a pub and ordered dinner; I had the cajun salmon with spaghetti, which was interesting although decent. We also tried some local brew in the Red Cuillen ale. Since pub in which we ate didn’t have much atmosphere, we decided to continue on, and found another that was quite enjoyable. We listened to an accordian and drums band while drinking pints of Guinness. Eventually, we decided to find yet a third pub, which was great. This one featured a guitarist and violinist (the latter of which was quite cute) and, as always, delicious Guinness along with a few local ales.

By about 10:45 p.m., it was starting to get dark, and I was getting tired, so we decided to make our way back to the hotel, where we turned in for the night. On Day Two of our tour, we would explore the Isle of Skye.