Living the retirement dream

This is our third and last stop in the Cairngorms National Park and The Snow Road. The driving has been absolutely exhilarating for Jim and somewhat terrifying for Sandy but the scenery and views have been spectacular. And that wraps up the Cairngorms National Park. We highly recommend a visit here if you ever go…

Sandy insisted that she was not leaving Scotland without a visit to Balmoral Castle and promised Jim there would only be one more after it which would be Holyrood Castle when we return to Edinburg. When he heard we could not go in the Castle but could only walk the grounds he reluctantly consented. We…

Ballater is known as a gateway to the Cairngorms National Park even though we used Grantown-on-Spey as our gateway. It has strong ties to the monarchy as Balmoral Castle is only a few miles away. We are here to eat, drink, rest and hike. We would highly recommend a visit to Ballater and a stay…

We are getting off of The Orkney Islands just in time as storm Amy is predicted to bring very high winds to Scotland over the next two days which will definitely disrupt the ferry services. We only spent one night in Dornoch but it gave us a very memorable hike. We have been blessed with…

The history of Scotland and Orkney is so extensive, goes back so far and is intertwined with so many other countries and cultures. It is very easy to become overwhelmed by all that there is to see, explore and learn about. Even though we have five days here we are just barely scratching the surface.…

We continue with our first full day on Orkney as Sandy did so much research and loved getting into The Italian Chapel. We have now had two exhilarating days on Orkney which we would highly recommend to anyone for a visit.

As we have said, we went to the Isle of Islay for the whisky, Skye for its rugged landscapes, picturesque fishing villages and Medieval castles. We are going to the Orkney Islands because Jim liked the name and it is getting near to the farthest north one can go in Scotland. As is our usual…

We were in Inverness for one night in 2016 and Jim remembers it as his least favorite city of the whole trip. We are returning here for a number of reasons. Inverness serves as the most convenient jumping off point for the highlands and northern Scotland. We need to go through Inverness on our way…

We went to the Isle of Islay for the smokey, peaty scotch whisky and we are going to the Isle Of Skye for its rugged landscapes, picturesque fishing villages and Medieval castles. Skye is reachable by ferry and bridge. We are taking a ferry from Mallaig to the Sleat peninsula on Skye and then taking…

We spent two weeks in Scotland in June/July of 2016. The first five days were spent in Edinburgh with Peggy, Margaret, Tina, Dick and Andrew. The three women left us alone with the stalkers and returned home as they had been in London prior to joining us in Edinburgh. We spent another week driving to…