Hebridean trip report (concluded)
Aug. 22nd, 2005 04:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lizwilliamsThursday: took the ferry back to Skye this morning and found the guest house shut, so we wandered about in the rain for a bit and then went back into Portree for lunch at the nice pub. On the way back, discovered a horrendous accident involving 2 cars and a motorbike, plus police and fire engines etc – looked like a head-on collision.
Friday: drove down from Skye to Carlisle. On the way, we visited Eilean Donan, which rewarded closer inspection – it’s a most impressive castle on a small island in a loch. Featured in HIGHLANDER, and one can see why. J is a fan of the TV series and I am not, but only because I’ve never watched it – it was put on over here at weird times of the day and night, and never consistently, so I couldn’t get an idea of when it was on except by scouring the TV guide like some arcane tome. I may try to get it on DVD: J recommends it. The loch was beautiful and calm.
We also stopped off at a whisky distillery, in which I was forced to turn down free Scotch: this really hurt, but J does not drink and I was driving. We visited the folk museum in Glencoe, and had lunch at yet another nice pub, then hit the road for England. Takes a long time to get to Carlisle, which is, as T says, a solid, regal city, with a red brick castle and a big city gate. We had dinner in a somewhat haphazard Mexican restaurant: no, there was no bar, but we could have drinks in the hotel next door and they would fetch us. In the hotel, we were served by a customer, and 5 minutes later someone from the restaurants appeared and told us that we could take our drinks into dinner, from the hotel. It was good, but according to J bore no relation to actual Mexican food. T, when told, said “But – Carlisle is the Mexican restaurant capital of the North!!!” Yes, dear.
Saturday: drove to N Wales, passing a traffic jam from Lancaster to Preston as a result of a jackknifed lorry – happily, on the opposite side of the motorway. We were so impressed by the Manchester ringroad in pissing rain that we went round it twice, and I would again like to apologise to J for missing the little sign that replaced the normal huge blue one. By the time we hit Chester, the sun had come out, and then, thank God, we were heading through Snowdonia.
Friday: drove down from Skye to Carlisle. On the way, we visited Eilean Donan, which rewarded closer inspection – it’s a most impressive castle on a small island in a loch. Featured in HIGHLANDER, and one can see why. J is a fan of the TV series and I am not, but only because I’ve never watched it – it was put on over here at weird times of the day and night, and never consistently, so I couldn’t get an idea of when it was on except by scouring the TV guide like some arcane tome. I may try to get it on DVD: J recommends it. The loch was beautiful and calm.
We also stopped off at a whisky distillery, in which I was forced to turn down free Scotch: this really hurt, but J does not drink and I was driving. We visited the folk museum in Glencoe, and had lunch at yet another nice pub, then hit the road for England. Takes a long time to get to Carlisle, which is, as T says, a solid, regal city, with a red brick castle and a big city gate. We had dinner in a somewhat haphazard Mexican restaurant: no, there was no bar, but we could have drinks in the hotel next door and they would fetch us. In the hotel, we were served by a customer, and 5 minutes later someone from the restaurants appeared and told us that we could take our drinks into dinner, from the hotel. It was good, but according to J bore no relation to actual Mexican food. T, when told, said “But – Carlisle is the Mexican restaurant capital of the North!!!” Yes, dear.
Saturday: drove to N Wales, passing a traffic jam from Lancaster to Preston as a result of a jackknifed lorry – happily, on the opposite side of the motorway. We were so impressed by the Manchester ringroad in pissing rain that we went round it twice, and I would again like to apologise to J for missing the little sign that replaced the normal huge blue one. By the time we hit Chester, the sun had come out, and then, thank God, we were heading through Snowdonia.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-08-22 03:07 pm (UTC)Shoot, I missed it, too. And when you realized we'd missed it, I didn't even know which direction we were going. Nothing like having the entire earth do a 180 beneath one.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-23 01:42 am (UTC)I hate orbital ringroads.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-23 06:01 am (UTC)"WE'RE GOING NORTH! WHY ARE WE GOING NORTH?? WE WERE GOING SOUTH A MOMENT AGO!!!"
It was a faerie ring. It was a faerie ring that caused us to change direction. Good thing we didn't eat or drink anything in Manchester, or we'd still be there, running around and around that ring, singing "The Man Who Never Returned."
no subject
Date: 2005-08-24 02:50 am (UTC)Theyr're sneaky, these faeries. They've obviously decided that loft-living and clubbing in MCR is more appealing than hanging out in some dank windswept glen.
It would explain a lot. I used to live in Manchester.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-24 03:44 am (UTC)What confused me was that it happened in Manchester, one of the least romantic cities in Britain, and not, say, in the Faerie Glen or somewhere.
That just goes to show the perverse nature of some of the wee folk. We might have liked to be trapped in a windswept glen. Can't have that.