Bunnahabhain is a fun name, but Bruichladdich is better.

What a day! We enjoyed a lovely breakfast here at the B&B, full Scottish country breakfast with eggs, potato cake, beans, bacon and sausage, coffee, tea, OJ and toast. Kept us fueled for our morning of exploration.
We drive to the wildlife sanctuary and saw the thousands of Barnacle Geese who have come down from Iceland. Never have seen that many birds at once. Was quite the experience to hear them and see them take off when startled...there is a Golden Eagle that likes to dive into them and Jeff and James saw him startle he geese a few times but I didn't catch it. We walked out to a hide closer to the Loch they were all on, and the hide overlooked a cow pasture and the cows came straight up to the windows of the hide. It was super fun and relaxing. Beautiful skies and weather again! Drove through the countryside, seeing the other side of the Island, toward the Atlantic. Gorgeous blue ocean, ended up near a sandy beach! Grabbed some lunch from a distillery's cafe and picnicked beside the water. Gorgeous. Then I got a chance to drive so the guys could enjoy their Scotch freely. Easier on the small one lane roads, eased into it before we made into some bigger towns, but it is really quite easy on this island. Never-ending stunning views ... Learning a lot about the scotch whiskies, finding several new favorites. At Bruichladdich Distillery, Jeff decided on a type of Scotch to get, and he got to fill his own bottle straight from the cask! So exciting. Then we stopped by the Islay Woolen Mill, the smallest textile mill in all of Britain. We met the owner, and he showed us around, from his old spinning machines, to the weavers. He makes all the wool tartans for the distilleries on the island (they each have their own) and has made wool items for 17 movies, including Braveheart. I found my wool blanket! He grabbed it from upstairs and stuck a label on just for us. Now enjoying our last evening on Islay, before our 4 hour ferry journey to Oban and drive up to Isle of Skye tomorrow. I left out details of some of the other distilleries we have gone to, because we officially hit all 8 on the island in these 2 days! Big check off Jeff's bucket list.

Bunnahabhain and other fun things

We are officially in the hills of Scotland. After an early call this morning, and a confusing boarding (backing onto) of the ferry, we arrived on the Isle of Islay. Drove around and saw lots of sheep, some new birds and some fun small small teeny tiny villages, we ended up at our first distillery, which happened to be Bowemore, the first distillery on the island! We enjoyed generous complimentary tasters, except for James who was our DD for most of the day. We enjoyed the accents and listened to Gaelic radio without understanding a word of the DJ. Next stop, Laguvulin, and we got an amazing tour from Marjorie. Got to see and smell the varying stages of the whisky distilling process, and learn how they smoke the malt with peat from the island. We can see the peat bogs as we drive along, and smell it burning in the distilleries and some homes use it in their fireplaces too.
Next stop Laphroig, Jeff's favorite. We tasted some, and got to hike out to "his" plot of land as he is a "Friend of Laphroig" and they mark out his 1x1 square foot plot, then we got to wear boots and go tromp through the peat bog to place a little mini American flag. Jeff was skipping with excitement through this, as he had been waiting to do this for 3 years. Stopped in quickly at Ardbeg and did a small tasting, then went back to Bowemore as it had our favorite scotch from today that we aren't able to get in the States.
Today's weather was unusually beautiful, all the locals are telling us how strange it is to see blue sky and sunshine. We have certainly enjoyed it, as the drives through the fields and along the water have been amazing.
Staying at a cute little cottage B&B, and about to head to dinner where our B&B owner phoned his friend to get us a reservation!
Dinner was amazing! The only dinner place nearby that is worth it, at another hotel. They have a restaurant and bar, and this tiny place has over 250 malt whiskies available. Adorable and full of character, we enjoyed some local scallops and lamb and venison. Chatted with an older couple from England and they told us about the flock of 30,000 geese that came down on the North wind from Iceland last week, and we will go look for them on the nature preserve at the north end of the island tomorrow, find some more distilleries, hop over to the Isle of Jura with 150 people and 5000 deer. :)
Oh, and this eve James and Jeff were sheepdogs and herded the famililys sheep towards me in their field so I got to see them hysterically running and bleating and jumping all over the place. I got my sheep pictures!

Bruises, castles and Lochs

I have 9 bruises on my legs and counting. Each one larger than a quarter. And one larger than ... A piece of toast? I fell up the stairs in Bordeaux. I'm only sharing this because all of the bruises are showing up now and hurting! HA! Too much bumping around on trains and planes and with luggage.
We had an absolutely gorgeous drive through the Scottish countryside today. Mountains, rolling hills, fields, sheep, fuzzy cows, clouds, blue sky, lochs shimmering in the sun... Lovely. Jeff is getting the hang of driving over here so todays drive was even a little relaxing! Made it to the castle, Stonefield Castle, just in time to hike around their small island before sundown. Saw jellyfish, tons of shells and beautiful sunset on the water as we hiked. Had an incredible meal in the restaurant. We splurged on a fancy meal here, and so worth it! Tried some new scotch of course in the "lounge" before dinner. Up early tomorrow to catch the ferry to the Isle of Islay (pronounced Isla) and excited to stay in one place for a couple days. :)

We have places to sleep!

We have officially booked each night of our trip! Or, in one case, decided not to book something. Yes, we plan to stay up all night, and/or sleep in the airport during our final layover in Reykjavik, Iceland. Wow. This is happening!

Jeff and I have started a list of things we want to do in each city/area ... any suggestions?
We'll be in:
Berlin, Munich, Fussen, Germany
Lauterbrunnen & Gimmewald, Murren, Switzerland
Bordeaux region, Paris, France
Edinburgh, Western Coast, Isle of Islay and Isle of Skye, Scotland

Now, on to the packing... since we're traveling budget airlines, we have to pack lightly!

Sneak Peek

Here's a quick peek at our itinerary...

Flying from Seattle to Reykjavik, Iceland - from Reykjavik to Frankfurt, Germany. From Frankfurt, we take a train to Berlin, Germany.
From Berlin, train to Munich - OKTOBERFEST!
From Munich, we split up - J&A will head to family in SW France, and we will head to Switzerland.
We will meet up in Bordeaux, France - then head up to Paris and the Normandy Coast.
Then we fly from Paris to Edinburgh, travel to the west coast of Scotland, and spend time on the islands.
Fly out of Inverness to London, then London to Reykjavik again - this time, with a layover, and then we'll be headed home.

Whew. I'm tired already! 3 weeks will go by fast!