May 17, Fort William

Sunday, May 17 - Day 103 - Fort William

It is cold and wet when Dick gets up and goes for coffee. It snowed quite heavily in the mountains during the night and the snow line is very far down. It is still raining off and on so we will see what the day brings.

He returns to the room about 9AM to check on Carolyn who still hasn’t moved. So, he opens the curtains. Breakfast is served until 10AM, but he is hungry. We get to breakfast about 9:30. It is the standard Scottish fare. Dick has eggs and salmon, Carolyn has her usual poached eggs and toast.

By 10:30 AM it looks like it might clear, well it is not raining at the moment, so we decide to start a circle route that will take us up toward Mallaig, where the ferry leaves the mainland for the Isle of Skye. We stop at the Glenfinnan Monument and the railway viaduct of Harry Potter fame. We get there in time to see the train crossing, but it is not the steam engine today.

Then we drive on up to Arisarig, a quaint little harbor town. The sun finally comes out and we have a pretty day so we decide to continue on to our loop around the Sound of Arisaig and down to Loch Stunart on a more or less one track road to Corran Ferry across Loch Linnhe. It is a pretty drive through some remote country...no houses and few cars.

It is Sunday and we haven’t had lunch. When we get to the ferry about 2PM, we decide once across the Loch we will drive toward Oban in search of a late lunch/early dinner of seafood. The weather is going south at a steady pace, but we are hungry! Oban turns out to be a interesting, active harbor town. Several large ferries sail from here to the outer islands. We see a seafood restaurant right at the harbor, but when we get out we find it is closed. Fortunately for us we spot another place with a good sounding menu posted and go in. The hostess seats us telling us we are just in time to enjoy the carvery that will be closing at 4PM...it is 3:45! They are not serving from the menu today. This is the same set up we had our first night off the ship in northern England...roast lamb, beef, pork, chicken and grilled salmon with salads, veggies and desert for 13 pounds. We get our salads and load our plates from the meats and veggies. The food is very good and we have warm chocolate cake with ice cream and fudge sauce for dessert. Lesson learned, most restaurants are not open on Sunday evening and pubs don’t open until 6PM.

Well fed, we head for the car...it is raining now, but Carolyn takes a few pictures as we drive around. Heading out of town we stop at Dunstaffnage Castle, but it is closing so we just take some pictures and move on. Up the road we also stop for pictures of Stalker Castle which, in the misty rain, looks rather forbidding!

By the time we get back to the hotel we are tired, cold and ready for a HOT shower and a warm bed. It is raining hard in town, snowing on the mountains and the wind is blowing; in other words thoroughly miserable!