Dreaming the Highlands

By train from Bologna to Edimburgh, then drive to the Highlands with a Clio in four. From Inverness to the island of Skye, from Mull to Iona, from Oban to Inverery, from Stirling to Glasgow, Scotland, classic, one of the castles and lakes, and Scotland of untouched nature and rough, the seal of Scotland, the sheep and huge jellyfish.

 

University exams, the military, lack of money, too many problems we were forced to house for a couple of years, but in July of 1995 we decide it is time to leave. By train, because we had not yet discovered what we like to fly, left for London, although our final destination is Edinburgh. Thirty hours on three different trains us up to the English capital. We are destroyed, are the eight in the evening, but there is now a train for Scotland, and we do not escape.

We arrive in Edinburgh around midnight, and there begins our odyssey. No one has a room for us, that we are tired and cold. The girls complain, they sleep and hunger. Police ask for help and taxi drivers, but no one can help. Will Italian pizza maker makes a living in the area, that before we make a pizza (not free) and then there is housing (not even one free ...).
The next day we wake up more rested and fresh, with a great desire to visit the city. And we do it until the evening. But the real adventure shoot the next day.

The day after install on another train and travel to Inverness, where to start the Highlands. We expect the rain, wind chill and the clear feeling of having discovered a mythical country: Scotland. Our b & b is beautiful, all wood, has switched the heating and electric blankets. We're fine, because the city is nice and cozy despite the weather. And then from there you arrive quickly at Loch Ness, where we see the monster, but we drink the water: black, sa iron.
After two days in Inverness take a rental car and leave for the north.

From Inverness we climb towards the Hebrides islands. On the way lakes and castles, especially Enian Donan Castle, where they shot the Highlander. In a couple of days we get to Kyle of Lochalsh, where the ferry to reach the island of Skye. One of the most beautiful in the world, where nature is impervious to say beyond, where the waterfalls, cliffs, the black earth, the lakes, the sheep and the seals are the master. We are well on Skye, eating with the fishermen in the pubs of Portree, and it does not matter to anyone if it rains a lot. Stops raining when we go away, due south, towards Mull. Another island, another story.

Mull is not as beautiful as Skye, but nothing is as beautiful as Skye. Mull is flat, and strange, and the vegetation is published. But you come to Mull Iona and Iona is beautiful. A Iona will come with a small ferry, there are machines, there is very little people. But there is a beautiful abbey, with a Celtic cemetery in the green, the moss, among the trees. Iona is magical, and is surrounded by a blue sea that even Sardinia. And the sand is white. But does a cold pork, and there are giant jellyfish, really huge.
After other Mull ferry and then the ground up to Inverary, where there is a beautiful lake, a castle great and generally is a place where we go, every so often to see what it means to live in a quiet place.
From Inverary we go to Fort Williams, then Inverness, where we leave the car.

At Inverness we leave the car, by train and come back south. Perth is a city after all useless, but Stirling is wonderful. The castle is huge and imposing, and in the past, the royal seat of Scotland, has seen all the colors. Even our b & b is legendary as is large and well-appointed. It costs very little.
A Stirling is hot, hot, and also in Glasgow, where we especially like the university.
Our holiday in Scotland is about to end, you depart for England.

Return all at once up to the trip there seemed too much, so on the way back we give a few days in Cambridge, where there are many, but especially many college students. We are good, in Cambridge, and there could be long. But we are not all academics, and workers must return, sooner or later. And so we start, leaving behind an unforgettable journey.