Scotland Roadtrip

 

Hello everyone! 

I've just come back from a two week roadtrip through Scotland and I can't wait to tell you all about it!

 This was roughly our route, the numbers and the red point indicating the places where we slept for two nights each. We started off in Edinburgh and spent two more or less rainy days there, then went to the Highlands to climb some mountains, then took a ferry to the Outer Hebrides Lewis & Harris, then Skye, then Glen Nevis valley and then Oban, a cute coastal town. 

"We" means Bente (my former teacher training colleague who I also went to Cornwall with last year), her colleague Lisa and Lisa's husband Andi (both of whom I didn't know before). Bente's husband was supposed to come but because of Corona, he hadn´t been able to work so much and with work slowly picking up again he didn't really want to leave now for a holiday which resulted in me taking his place and profiting from the already planned itinerary. 

Speaking about which - during Corona, why would you go on holiday in Scotland, you might ask? Well, the holiday was already planned long before Corona started and most of the bookings were non-refundable. For a long time, it looked like it wouldn't be possible, but then in mid-July, GB started opening its borders again and allowing citizens from some countries to enter without having to self-isolate for two weeks, Germany being amongst the exempt countries. When our flights were cancelled nevertheless, we doubted if we'd be actually able to 1) get into the country, and 2) also get out of it again. To be on the safe side, we opted for the overnight ferry Amsterdam-Newcastle, which proved to be a good alternative to international flights. It took us forever to actually get to Edinburgh, but is was quite an agreeable journey!

beach stop in a light drizzling rain with seabird rock in the distance

Corona itself isn't such a problem in Scotland. It was weird seeing how they deal with it quite differently than we do, as if they hadn't read all the recent research that the Germans knew about. They were still in the sanitizing-all-surfaces stage when we were all about aerosols and keeping masks on whenever inside and opening windows. Well - we followed both and I think we were on the safe side with this. We were mostly out in the open nature anyways, so we were even safer. 

avoiding surface contamination means also having more single-use packaging :(

Edinburgh

So! Now that you have all the background info, let's talk about the actual journey. After a mere 38 hours (my flight from Stuttgart to Hamburg, the car journey from there to Amsterdam, the ferry journey to Newcastle, another car ride to Edinburgh), we were finally in the Scottish capital. 

         

On the left, you can see Edinburgh castle. On the right you can see my vegetarian and Bente's normal haggis and Lisa's Mac and Cheese. Haggis is actually quite yummy! It sounds awful (sheep's intestines mixed with oatmeal and spices) but it's delicious, even for a flexitarian like me who is easily disgusted by meat. 

We walked around, had our first cream teas with blueberry scones, got wet, dried up, tried beers, walked to a harbour quarter (not so exciting) and got wet again when walking up Arthur's seat: 

Aviemore in the Highlands / Cairngorm mountains

Then we drove North into the Highlands which is where the mostly bare heather-covered hills and mountains lay that are so characteristic for Scotland. We had a holiday apartment there and went swimming in Loch Morlich (which has the only beach in the Highlands, was thus quite full, especially in good weather like we had) and on a hike in the mountains (very windy, on the mountaintop quite foggy, generally quite nice). 

Cairn Gorm mountain

We discovered that it's possible to buy all the ingredients for cream tea (scones, clotted cream and jam) at the supermarket and the foundations for scones picknicks everyday were laid. Aviemore itself is a ski-town in winter and it was built mostly for lodging the tourists that want to amble into the mountains. It was very busy and we didn't spend much time in the town itself but opted to cook mostly in our holiday apartment and continue our private beer tastings in the evenings. 

On the way to the ferry to Lewis and Harris (isles of the Outer Hebrides), we got up very early to be able to stop on the way at Loch Ness which resulted in a nice morning tea at the Loch: 

I'd like my morning tea like this from now on every morning, thank you.

Outer Hebrides: Lewis and Harris

I loooooooooooooooooooooooooooved Lewis and Harris! This was definitely my favorite part of the trip and I would go back in an instant. The landscape on the island and the beaches are unreal and the sheep walk around freely around the island and on its streets bleating very comfortingly. The streets are mostly single lane with lots of passing places and there's just generally a very relaxed and calming athmosphere on the island. 

Stones of Callanish, they can easily compare to Stonehenge and have much less fuss around them

our home for two nights on a so-called "Croft", a small farm

naked sheep time!

the beach just down the hill of our hut

So prettyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!

OMG 

Luskentyre Beach, regularly voted one of the most beautiful beaches in Europe

Kneep Peninsula

An old whaling station - jobs were always rare on the islands and still are

 

In the beginning, I didn't dare go into the water with the others who were tougher than me. But once you're inside and your body has gotten used to the biting cold water that is roughly 13°C warm in summer, it's pure bliss to float and dive around in the crystal clear, fresh water. I borrowed Bente's wetsuit  (many locals go swimming in wetsuits and they know why) and that made the swimming experience even nicer. 

We were generally so lucky with the weather, too - the majority of our full day on the island we spent lying around on the beach, going on strolls along the water, reading our books and eating yet more scones. In the evening, we sat around the campfire with a couple from Stornoway, the only city on the island, drank beer and chatted amiably. Interestingly, the guy had a bit of an accent, he said "yearsh" instead of "years", for example, turning the "s" sound into a "sch". Does that make the Hebridean people the Swabian people of the UK?

By now, we had had the pleasure to meet the other locals of Scotland that are not quite as widely loved as the other locals - the tiny mosquitoes that swarm around you especially in the mornings and evenings and give you tiny little bites everywhere. Lisa and me were lucky as Andi and Bente turned out to be more appealing to the mosquitoes than us and they mostly left us alone. Stopping for longer breaks in the mountains near water was out of the question, though, as they started to swarm around you whenever you stopped walking for longer than one minute.

tourists are mosquito food

Unfortunately we couldn't do many cultural things on the islands and in Scotland in general. Old houses, castles or museums and many distilleries were still closed because of Covid 19, so we ended up spending most of our time outdoors which was fine, too. 

Isle of Skye

We took another ferry to the Isle of Skye (seeing dolphins along the way!) and many people think Skye is breathtaking but for us, spoiled as we were coming from the Outer Hebrides, it wasn't quite as special and it felt more crowded. There are still great landscapes, though: Fairy Hills that look like they came from Hobbiton, misty mountains, long fjords (lochs), sheep everywhere - it's just not as rugged and special and empty and relaxed as the Outer Hebrides are. That's probably because Skye has a bridge to the mainland which makes travelling there easier. 

Fairy Glen (= valley)

near the Fairy Pools, with the typical blossoming heather

our home for two nights, felt like staying in a doll house with its thin walls 

Glen Nevis

The next two nights we stayed in a youth hostel in Glen Nevis (= Nevis valley) right opposite the start of the path up Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the UK with its 1300m. The first evening, we took a dip in the mountain stream that also ran right in front of our hostel and enjoyed its cooling, clear water and some beers by the stream. Until the mosquitoes came, that is. 

The next day, we hiked up Ben Nevis. If you know me you know that I ain't no mountain goat and therefore I struggled up the mountain behind the others until I told them to go on without me so they and I could walk up in our own pace which made things a lot easier for me. I listened to some news and health podcasts on the way up and only four hours later I joined the other three at the summit, quite surprised that I had actually made it. 

The way down is as tedious as the way up but without the summit to look forward to, but the thought of the feeling to be finally back down, jump in the stream again and then into the shower and clean clothes is something that keeps you going anyway. 

back on the mainland, fresh off the ferry

Golden Sands

Harry Potter Train!

On the way up Glen Nevis

Made it!

Oban

Phew, this is already such a long post with all its pictures but I just couldn't NOT share all of them with you! So, I'll try and make it short. 

The last nights were spent in Oban. On our way there, we drove by Castle Stalker and made a quick stop in Glencoe, which is also famous for its great nature. We visited the local museum (finally an open museum, yay!) and ate some cheese scones and soup. 

Once we got to Oban, we walked around the nice little fishing town, ate smoked salmon sandwiches (nothing special if you ask me), lay around on the beach some more, ate fish and chips, bought some books, and then it was already time to leave again!

the water is incredibly clear in many places

Oban beach 

Oban distillery

Oh yes, and we made a whisky tasting, of course. The Oban distillery was one of the only ones that already offers tastings again and we accidentally booked the big tasting with four instead of the small tasting with only one whisky. Well, no harm done. Even though I like whisky, I was a bit overwhelmed with the mass and different flavours AND all the information the guy told us so I couldn't really see a difference in aromas and everything between all the whiskys but that's ok, it was still fun!

The last morning, we started at 8am, dropped of Lisa and Andi in Edinburgh, went again to Newcastle, then Amsterdam, then Hamburg, then Stuttgart for me. At 11pm the next day I was home, happy to be again in my house and full of happy memories! It was such a great journey and I'm so grateful to have seen all these wonderful things! Scotland is incredibly beautiful and I would definitely go back again. Thanks again to my travel mates who made this fun and planned everything so wonderfully!

Byyyeeee!

TRAVEL TIPS

• Take all your outdoor clothes you have! Scotland is for going outdoors but the weather isn´t always perfect so you´ll be thanking yourself for that rainproof jacket, pants, and hiking boots. If you don´t have much in that way of clothing, I recommend buying clothes second hand (I got mine on Kleiderkreisel) since you won´t be wearing them so often and if you buy them new they´re usually super expensive.

• Even though we went in August, the water was still quite cold (13°C). For a better swimming experience, I recommend a wetsuit (long or short sleeved) which is what most locals also do.

• Don´t settle for the Isle of Skye, make sure you also move on to the Outer Hebrides. They're so special and wonderful, I can´t wait to go there again sometime. 

• Scotland is perfect for roadtripping. I absolutely loved our trip - by car and about two nights in each AirBnB worked good for us.

• Scotland also has the Lowlands and the Midlands. We crossed those briefly on our way to the Highlands and the Isles. They didn´t seem as special to me as the other parts, so you may want to think about just crossing them as well to get to the truly amazing landscape parts.