Skye, Fort William, Glen Coe, Loch Lomond, Glasgow: Tuesday 19 July

I had a wonderful nine hour sleep last night. I'd discovered that my feet and ankles were incredibly swollen (probably sitting for so long on the bus yesterday), so was anxious about how they'd be today. They were down a bit, but still not great. I've never had this issue before.

We had the usual breakfast, and I headed out to grab a photo of the beautiful view across the water from the hotel. The water was like a mirror and we had a sunny, warm day ahead of around 23C (and actually 29C as we got closer to Glasgow).

As it was such a glorious day (without yesterday's rain and mist) we had a second, but brief photo-stop at Eilean Donan castle, for shots from the opposite side of this iconic castle. But first a photo-stop when we got a great photo of Michelle. And she took one of some of us!

Then on to the Commando Memorial, with great views of Ben Nevis (apparently unusual to be able to see it in the more typical weather, but luckily a fine clear day for us). We drove through the town of Fort William (Outlander memories, but I saw no sign of a fort).

The highland areas then grew particularly rugged - rocky, but with bright splashes of emerald green grass too - and there was a somber stop in the Glen Coe Valley as we heard about the slaughter there of the MacDonalds by the Campbells in the 17th century (my grandmother was a Campbell). 

   

We had an excellent lunch stop at a place called Tyndrum, and ate at the Green Welly cafe. They had a fantastic setup to quickly cater for bus loads of tourists. There were heaps of GF choices, including sandwiches, bread rolls, and toasties. I enjoyed a big bowl of Cullen Skink soup (I SO love that soup!) with a roll. I also bought a lovely Heatherbell necklace; interesting jewellery made from heather that has been crushed under great pressure.

The scenery changed dramatically as we drove around the beautiful Loch Lomond, eventually stopping at a lovely area where Kevin (our driver) and Michelle set up a Scottish picnic for us. There was shortbread (GF for me) cakes that looked like mallowpuffs, raspberries, strawberries, a soft drink called Irn-Bru (iron brew, that outsells Coca Cola in Scotland), whisky and drambuie. I passed up on the drinks - I didn't like the look of the ingredients of the soft drink with quinine and (I think) ferrous caltrate - and the others were not GF.

Then we were back in the lowland areas of Scotland and getting closer to Glasgow. Traffic into Glasgow was slow, and we had a brief tour around some of the (few) city sights - George Square (named after George III but with no statue of him), and St Mungo's Cathedral (founder and patron saint of Glasgow).

After a short break at the hotel (Hallmark Glasgow) 28 of the group were taken to dinner at the Red Onion. Here I had my best meal of the trip thus far. Michelle very kindly approached me before we left, and said she'd been aware that I was only getting fruit salad or icecream for dessert everywhere, while the others had lovely desserts, and she said she'd asked this chef if he could do better and 'lift the bar'. I was very grateful. As it turned out, there was no need, and you will see a copy of the GF menu and what I ate on Facebook. My meal was absolutely amazing, but also shows how easy it really should be to simply make a meal GF.

  

Inverness, Loch Ness, Eilean Donan Castle (Loch Duich), Broadford (Isle of Skye): Monday 18 July

Heading out of Inverness at 8:30am, we made our way to Loch Ness, where we had tickets for the 9am cruise along the lake towards the ruins of Urquhart Castle and back. There was a good, clear commentary about the history of the lake, the supposed viewings of Nessie (hoaxes), and the different castles and sights along the shores. It was a wet, bleak morning and I found it interesting to imagine Bonnie Prince Charlie fleeing along our route to the Isle of Skye after the battle at Culloden - we had the luxury of a road and warm bus! We had a coffee stop after the 1 hour cruise (and a nice GF brownie for me), before continuing our journey.

The rain got more steady the further west we went, but there was no wind and it wasn't cold. Scotch mist swirled around the hilltops. There were waterfalls forming. Some areas were beautiful green farmland or trees (sometimes forests), and others were more barren rocky areas, with heather starting to flower in a pinky purple colour.

We stopped for lunch at a very busy cafeteria beside Eilean Donan Castle. The weather was very wet by now. I had a nice GF lunch of 'Huntsman's chicken', potatoes and cabbage - it was basically a chicken breast wrapped in bacon, and cooked in a tomato sauce. Then we headed outside and David held an umbrella over me while I took some photos of the castle. It was very picturesque, even in the rain.

Onwards we went, and it wasn't long before we were crossing the bridge to the Isle of Skye - I was surprised at how high the bridge was. 'Nek minute', we were in Broadford, at the Dunollie Hotel. No more than 20 minutes after arrival, we were on our way again, on the bus with a private guide, for a three hour tour of Skye.

The guide was excellent, very informative, and he basically talked to us constantly as we drove along (literally a running commentary). The views were very stark, and there was a bleak beauty in the rain and mist. We stopped at one point to look over a cliff top at the kilt rock formations of the area - so named because they seem to fold like the pleats of a kilt (Michelle presenting us with chocolates as we re-boarded the bus from the cold wind and rain - she'd very kindly kept aside two GF ones for me). Then we headed back to the hotel along the same road, stopping in the largest town of Skye - the town of Portree. I was glad to have stayed on the bus because moments after people disembarked, it was pouring again! Another 40 minutes, and at 6pm we were back at our hotel - flaked out, and wishing dinner was earlier than 7pm!

Dinner was in a dining room with a nice view out over the water. I had soup and GF bread. The main course was from the buffet and for once (first time this trip?) I was able to have gravy or a sauce on my meat, instead of it being dry and flavourless. I had roast beef, but had to drool over everyone else's Yorkshire pudding. Fruit salad for dessert again. I wouldn't mind, except that I am paying the same price as everyone else and know how easy it should be to simply make most things GF.

After the meal we went up to the lounge to get the wifi to do this blog post (no wifi in the guest rooms at this hotel) and there was some great accordion playing of traditional music happening.