Goodbye London

Russell Square Park

Floury Bap

Dunvegan, Isle of Skye

Sunday we rise early to use the last couple of hours of our 24-hour bus pass.  As we drive through central London again we see the royal guards on horseback on their way to Buckingham Palace.   
We get off in  Marlyebone, the area of London where Paul McCartney married Linda.   Ariana had found a farmers market on Baker Street there that works with our schedule.  It's raining lightly, 

Hillsong London

Platform 9 3/4 

but not as bad as Saturday.  We walk through the market then go to get cash at a nearby grocery store.   They don't open until 11:00 and it's about 10:45, so we have coffee at Patisserie Valerie.  They have gorgeous pastries including tiny marzipan animals, but we stick to coffee.  There is an amazing gourmet shop on the street with so many unique items.  They have a very imposing, separate cheese room with three guys in it (cheese sommeliers?), a bit too serious!   The farmers market has gorgeous fresh baked goods, vegetables, homemade cheeses and one stall with amazing hot dishes, including pork in an Armanac sauce!  We sample lots of delicious items, but have to stick to baked goods that will not spoil, so get two loaves of bread and head to Hillsong London for Sunday service.  It's a little over a mile walk through very nice shopping areas and we have plenty of time since they have 5 services. We intended to go to the 11:00, but don't want to hurry, so will do 1:00 instead.  We browse a chain called Aldo and each get a pair of sunglasses, despite the weather.  We're starving at this point (aren't we always!), so once we find the Dominion Theatre where church is held, we double back to a cute little place called Wasabi and have sushi and sashimi.  Fresh, tasty and inexpensive.  We go to queue up for church and find that the line wraps all the way around the back of the theatre!  I'm worried we won't get in, but they say the line isn't really that long.  Shortly after we line up, they let us in and we have a good choice of seats.  The venue is beautiful. Christine Caine is there and I wonder for a minute if we've come half way 'round the world to hear her speak (she lives in Newport and runs A12, an organization that rescues women from human trafficking around the world).  Christine makes some announcements but Sheila Walsh speaks and is very good.  After church, we head back to the hotel to pick up our luggage - we have a train at 5:15.  We stop in Russell Square Park near the hotel to have a snack at a little cafe there.  I have a piece of focaccia and wine and Ariana has a bruschetta.  There are dogs playing all over the park - we're in heaven watching the little buggers chasing balls and one another.   There are gorgeous flowers all over as well.  Now that we're readying to leave, the sun comes out and it's gorgeous!  We go to King's Cross Station to catch the train back to Edinburgh. We pose for photos at the '9 3/4' platform from Harry Potter while waiting. The train is nice, we have a little table for two.   We pass through lovely little English villages, past so many beautiful fields of yellow canola flowers and see lots of flooding in fields along the tracks.  We bought first class tickets, so get dinner (sandwiches, crisps [chips] and cookies) and plenty of coffee and water.  They come around with food twice during the 5 hour trip, so we are happy campers.  It's blowing and raining back in the 'burgh. Ariana calls a taxi so we don't have to walk the ten minutes home.   

King's Cross St Pancras

Monday we get up early and take the bus to the airport to pick up our rental car.  We eat breakfast, scrambled eggs and toast, at Kilimanjaro Coffee in Edinburgh - so delicious!  A good start to the day. We're going to the Isle of Skye off the west cost of Scotland.  It's about 300 miles from Edinburgh.  We have been offered lodging in Skye by the parents of Danny Macaskill who I met when he stayed in Newport.  Danny has some extremely popular videos on YouTube (20 and 30 million views!) showcasing his amazing talent as a street cyclist - at least I think that's what it's called.  I call it defying gravity and physics.  Did I say amazing?!?  Anyway, we pick up the little VW Polo and I try my hand at driving a stick shift on the wrong side of the road.  This is so weird!!!   I can't explain the sensation of having to tell your mind and body not to do what its been doing for about 40 years.  It's so hard.  I do okay on the main roads (after almost getting T-boned in the first roundabout) and figure I'll get better as I get more comfortable.  We go first to Inverness, which is lovely, tiny and has a nice castle. We eat at a tavern at the foot of the castle. I have fish and chips (my fav, can you tell?) and Ariana has a burger on a "floury bap,"  a bap being a yeast roll.  Both are yummy.  We walk a bit, take a few pix at the castle and head to see nearby Loch Ness.  Loch Ness feels more like a river than a lake, it's very long (23 miles) and winds along a very narrow road.  Ariana is really not happy about how close I am to the curb on her side.  They do not have big wide shoulders on the side of the road here and I am not doing a very good job keeping the car between the lines.   We pull off quite a few times to check out the Loch and some castles along the way - Urquhart Castle, which is mostly ruins, and Eileen Dornan, like a real life fairy tale.  So gorgeous!  I cannot imagine what it felt like to live back when these castles were built - the only structures anywhere around, so majestic and regal.  And more green!  Beautiful landscapes.  One must pay to go into these castles, so we just walk around and take photos.   As we approach Skye, Ariana is barely speaking to me because of the quibbling about the driving.  I am so stressed - for the first time in my life I doubt my driving skills - I've always been an excellent driver.  I feel old and stupid for not being able to adjust, which doesn't put me in a very buoyant mood.  Now on the Isle of Skye, the roads are even narrower and windier, so we are not talking at all - just gasps from her side and groans from mine and we pass buses and tractor trailers on the narrow two-lane roads.  On the upside, Skye is magnificent. I have never been anywhere more beautiful.  Pastoral green fields and rolling hills dotted with sheep and lambs in one area, craggy mountains in others, Mediterranean-type harbors with colorful houses in the next.  It's like a trip around the world all in one place.  Some areas remind us of Utah, Colorado, then Arizona.  Just as I think how much like another planet the landscape is, Ariana speaks it. It's hard to even absorb the magnificence of all we see.  Our destination is Dunvegan, a tiny village along the coast and we arrive there a bit ahead of schedule around 6:30.  We find the Macaskills house easily, it's next to the Giant Angus Macaskill Museum run by Danny's dad, Peter.  He and Anne welcome us to the house.  She makes a delicious meal of lamb stew, neeps & tatties (turnips and potatoes) and cabbage, followed by a wonderful Apple Crumble (pudding) with ice cream for dessert.  We sip wine and yak like we've known one another for ages.  We sleep like babies and wake early Tuesday morning anxious to explore Skye.