I am currently on a 5 week adventure, with the first three weeks and final 3 days being in Scotland. I just wanted to pop in and out with a few little bits of reporting. :) My first week I spent with 3 friends, in Edinburgh and near Aberfeldy. I am now off on my own and sitting in my delightful BnB in Tobermory on Mull.
Edinburgh: just a quick mention of the really nice little BnB we stayed in - 53 Frederick Street (bet you can’t guess the address). Up a couple flights of stairs with no elevator, but a really good location and wonderful hosts. Breakfast, which you have the option of adding or not, was at a next door basement restaurant, with a lot of menu choices.
Aberfeldy: We actually stayed in the tiny town of Camserny, population 20 (or 24 after we got there, as our host said). Aberfeldy was about 5 miles away and was the location for a grocery store, restaurants, and gas station - plus some beautiful hiking, a gorgeous old bridge, and miniature golf.
We booked through booking.com at The Green House - an entire 2 bedroom house with a sauna out front that our host fired up for us whenever we wanted. Again, the couple who own the house (and who live next door) cannot be beat for Scottish hospitality. And the views from the living room are gorgeous.
Close by was the Scottish Crannog Center, Loch Tay (and boat rides, kayaks, and paddle boards for rent), a garden, and Castle Menzies, as well as the Kirks of Aberfeldy for not very difficult hiking.
After hiking up to the waterfall in the Kirks, I met a guy walking his dogs and he mentioned he had worked in the tourism industry - so of course I asked for his generalizations on tourists from different countries! He had actually worked as a tour guide at the Aberfeldy Distillery - and after he mentioned a few typical generalities (French are the most particular, followed by French Canadians, with Japanese and Chinese being very interested in the actual process and knowing their stuff, and Germans just wanting the samples), he mentioned that a lot of Rick Steves tours came through and were hilarious. Mind you, I had said NOTHING about RS or his tours, etc. Lol! So I also didn’t ask what “hilarious” was - but for any of you who have been on this tour, here is your inside scoop. You may have been hilarious. There are worse things. :)
Yesterday, I took the Staffa Tours trip to Staffa and Lunga to see Fingall’s Cave and the puffins. Because I was already in Tobermory and not staying in Oban, this was the only tour I had as an option (missing Iona). But it was great!
However, too often I see people planning this trip who want to do one of these tours and trying to schedule a set day. That may work but may often not. Weather, which has not been great so far this year till this week, may prevent the boat from going. Or as with my tour yesterday, we got halfway to Staffa and one engine sucked some plastic in, making it inoperable. So we had to turn around, go back, and get a different boat. This didn’t affect me at all - I was giving the tour my whole day and staying on the island - but some people had to get off the boat and leave after getting so close, because we were going to be back so late they were going to miss the last bus back to catch the ferry to Oban. A really sad choice, but they had no flexibility in their scheduling. Pay attention to flexibility for weather, etc., when coming to the islands of Scotland!
However, the funny story that goes with this…. a nice gentleman, whom I had not seen nor been around till that minute, came up as the group was walking to the second boat and asked, “Where are you from?” Trying to be a good non-presumptious resident of Texas, I replied “From the U.S.” - to which his response was, “Well, I know THAT. But where in the U.S.?” I just had to chuckle at being instantly spotted as American.