Trip to the Highlands

I just realized that I never put up a post from my trip to the Scottish Highlands, so here's some pictures from it. I went up with the same group I did the Berlin-Geneva-Milan trip, but this time we went with a group of about 14 other people in a small bus.

The whole trip was 3 days (Saturday morning to Monday night). We drove up to the highlands on the first day, stopping in a few places like the site of a battle feature William Wallace of Braveheart fame. We stayed at a house on a loch near the Isle of Skye where we could play games and eat food after our long days of siteseeing and hiking. It was February, so it was a 'wee' bit cold, though that didn't stop the Australian guy in our group from taking a late night dip in the loch (I rejected his proposal to join...though I did entertain the idea). Ok...on to pictures.

Here's a picture of me feeding one of the "hairy coos"... as they are called in Scotland

The ground of Isle of Skye was a bit wet. Sadly, my feet didn't fit the rain boots they provided, so my feet got quite soaked. Here's a picture of our first hike up to Saucy Mary's Castle, as I'm realizing I may be a bit damp for the rest of the day, as well as a picture of our group at Saucy Mary's Castle:


Next stop was a famous river of the Isle. Apparently, a woman who looked to be around 40 used to live near there. Every week, she made the trek into town to get supplies. After a few weeks, the townspeople hadn't seen her. Later, they found out she had died of old age, and was 90-something...not 40. Her secret to looking young? dunking her head in the freezing water of the river. I thought I'd give it a try


Then came the hike up to the Old Man of Storr. It's a big vertical column of rock up on a big mountain. Here's the hike up and the view from the top


Here's the four of us at Loch Ness!


And here we are back in Edinburgh! This is a picture in front of the bridge that I pass over on the way to St. Andrews