Two Americans and a Scot are eating Chinese food on a pier (next to some marigolds) in the middle-of-nowhere, Scotland, bitching about tourism.

That was how the day ended.

Today was the day we did our three isle excursion. We woke up early, grabbed a quick breakfast and tea and went for the ferry that would take us from Oban to the Isle of Mull (to the town of Craignure). We had to dress for the weather (for me included a long sleeve blouse, sweater, fake leather jacket, winter jacket, scarf, hat and gloves…yeah it was that cold). We made it to the ferry, which lasted about one hour:

We passed Castle Duart on our way. This is a really zoomed in photo, it wasn’t this close to the ferry.

Once we reached Craignure, we hopped on a bus that would take us to the other size of the Isle of Mull to an even smaller town called Fionnphort (Some of these pictures did not turn out as well as I had hoped. It was raining quite a lot which appeared on the windows of the bus):

Once we arrived in the extremely small village of Fionnphort, we hopped onto a little chug boat that would take us to our ultimate goal: Isle of Staffa.

Some of you may remember me mentioning going to “Fingal’s Cave.” The cave is one of three on this isle. It is famous because it was produced by solidified volcanic rocks in hexagonal formations. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert made the trek there a number of times. The composer Mendelssohn was inspired to write an overture with the name (you guessed it) Fingal’s Cave. The ride there was really rough. I took a video of the ride and I will try to post it so you get an idea. If not, I will try to show it to you sometime. There was one poor soul that spent the whole thirty minutes getting to the Isle in the bathroom, on the floor, arms wrapped around he toilet bowl. Most of the other people had their head in their hands or back against the wall or they brought their two year olds who spent the entire ride screaming (ugh). It was rough. Chris, Emma and I managed to pull through. Here are some pictures of us and the people inside our little boat:

We finally managed to make it there and it was a sight to behold:

Fingal’s Cave is the one on the right. Just like the Cliffs of Moher, this photo doesn’t quite do it justice because it is enormous! Just as I had hoped, they let us off the boat to wander the island for an hour. I took as many pictures as possible because this was just too cool!

Fingal’s Cave

The little stairs we had to climb to either climb the top of the Isle or wander to Fingal’s Cave.

Our little chug boat.

To get to Fingal’s Cave, we had to follow a narrow path and hold on to the handrail as you can see Emma is demonstrating (while Chris snapped photos on his amazing camera)

You can see Emma wandering into the mouth of the cave.

I had to add this cute little picture to show just how silly Chris is.

Once we finished with the Isle, we were taken to our third: Isle of Iona. This little patch of land is one mile a crossed and five miles long…..yeah, that tiny. Their only claim to fame is an abbey that was ransacked by the vikings in the 8th or 9th century. There are pictures of the abbey (it has been renovated and looks quite lovely). Anyway, here are pictures of the Isle and the ruins of a nunnery which is now a little garden:

You can see the abbey in the distance

Finally we made it to the abbey:

And of course, I had to add this last picture of Chris who decided to be a viking:

Once we finished we had to take a thirty minute ferry from the Isle of Iona to the Isle of Mull (Fionnphort), take the hour bus from Fionnphort to Craignure, take the hour ferry from Isle of Mull to the main land (Oban). It was there that the three of us decided to munch on some Chinese food while looking out at the ocean. Then we got back into Emma’s MINI, drove two and half hours from Oban to Glasgow, dropped me off at the train station where I’m currently on the hour ride back to Edinburgh. Long day.

Anyway, this is was one of the sights that I was excited to do. I’m glad I could check it off my list and that this time I had friends to do it with. I’m now back in Edinburgh where I will finish my last two days and then will be on the last leg of my trip: England!

Until tomorrow, folks.

besos,

MLT

Location:Scotrail, bound for Edinburgh, Scotland