Photo Time

Sifting through all of the photos! This is going to take a while... so thankful for this amazing trip and amazing friends to have shared it with. We tried hard to write down as much as we could as we went, and to take as many pictures as possible, but it's so hard to capture everything we did. So many things packed into our 3 week trip. I'll keep posting for a while on here just so we can remember different parts of our trip, and to add some extra tips that we learned while we traveled. :) 

Us at the Old Man of Storr, on Isle of Skye

From Islay to Skye

Haven't written in a bit because we have been adventuring as usual! we took the 4 hour ferry from Isle of Islay to Oban, on the mainland of Scotland. It was a beautiful ride, super windy and felt like classic Scotland. Everyone has been telling us the nice weather we have had is rather unusual so it was nice to feel the "real" weather a little bit. We stopped in at Oban Distillery, of course, and then headed up the coast to Skye. We got in late-ish to our B&B and Peter greeted us saying "I thought I was expecting French people!" Because of our last name. :)
We are in the cutest little B&B on the harbor at Portree. Excellent full Scottish breakfasts every morning. Our hosts have been super helpful in suggestions for our day trips.
Yesterday we made it to Talisker Distillery, #10! We took in the gorgeous scenery, got a little lost in the hills, literally, and enjoyed walking through the town. We also did a short hike to the Fairy Pools (aka waterfalls) which were beautiful. The clearest water I have ever seen, in a series of waterfalls through a small valley, with sheep grazing at the foot of the mountain. :)
Today we went and hiked up to the Old Man of Storr, among the sheep! Some of those sheep were braver than me with how high they were climbing. Gorgeous hike, cant wait to share pictures! Got lost again trying to find another hike, found Kilt Rock, another waterfall this time shooting over a cliff into the sea. Had a picnic by another harbor town, found a brewery (more on their lackluster beer later) and then came back early to pack :(
Was up to the guys to figure out how to get all their Scotch in our bags for the trip home...
Tomorrow we drive to the Inverness airport, fly to London, then to Iceland for 17 hrs. Then from Iceland home. Probably wont have WiFi in between, but who knows. We get home Sunday eve!

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. :)

Mont St Michel

Today was a crazy day of travel on.the France train system. Finally here on.North coast.of.France, Mont St Michel. We woke up super early and James' uncle took us to the train station and helped us make reservations...except they booked us on later trains, and because the reservation counter didn't.open till.7 and.our train didn't leave till 706, we missed our first.train. long day, and we were supposed to.be picked up by the hostel guy at one train station and we ended up.changing our route and.arrival.time, but we ran into a nice Columbian couple who let us use their phone.to call the place, and they came and picked us up at a later time. Phew. The couple that runs this place is from Britain and they have an amazing 230 year old house they have turned into a B&B. They were so welcoming today, and we met a few other people staying here at the local English pub. This area has been heavily influenced by the British, and there are a lot of people from the UK here. Amazing night at the cute local pub meeting people here from France, and Germans hiking the coastal trail, a Brazilian staying at our B&B.
Pics later... Will have a few busy days with travels in between cities, so not sure.how much we will post but we had a great time with James' family and are enjoying our continued adventures! :)

when in Switzerland...

...do as the Swiss do. As epic as possible.
Woke up early this morning to catch a bus down to Trummelbach Falles. These are 10 separate falls INSIDE the mountains, which drain the Eiger, Jungfrau and Monch - this one spot drains them all. We took a lift halfway up, then climbed stairs the rest of the way. Absolutely astounding how much the water has carved away at the rock, and how it swirls inside the mountain. We were the first ones up today!
Next we conquered the Via Ferrata... A 4 hour cliff walk. I'll spare my mom the details but it was a life changing experience! Wow.
And after this, we took the cable car up to Schiltorn, the viewpoint for the Eiger, Jungfrau, Monch, and the rest of the Alps. We went through super thick clouds to arrive above them for crystal clear views. There are trails out in the mountains, so we were able to hike out a short ways to get even more amazing views of this gorgeous creation. A nice shop lady let us buy beers and drink them out on the deck 15 mins before closing. Mountain top experience!
Finished the day with delicious fondue made with local.cheese. a splurge for our last night here! Wish we could.stay longer! So much more we would love to do...

Swiss Alps

Today we woke up with the plan to go up to see the Jungfrau and other mountains, including the Eiger. We grabbed our (expensive) tickets for the trains up, and headed off! We were quickly swarmed by Asian tour groups, from the main Lauterbrunnen train station and up at the resort villages above the valley. Wow.
The trains took us up up up the sides of the mountains, and through cute little villages, and then THROUGh the mountain. Crazy! There were viewpoints along the way, the first was totally clouded in, but the second was crystal clear! Ahhh! We saw the blueish glaciers and jagged peaks jutting against the blue skies. Gorgeous. Up up up we went still, and ended up above the clouds! Words can't describe. So gorgeous. We stood in awe of the gorgeous mountains, snapped some pics, and toured the ice palace! We then found our way to get out onto.the glacier. And we were able to walk 1.5 km up to a mountain hut that had food. We earned our beer and meat/cheese, as well as met a lovely couple from the UK who gave us suggestions for that portion of our trip. It started snowing while we were there, so we hiked back down in the snow....what an experience!
Had a slow evening...walked up to the Staubach  waterfall and through town, still being serenaded by the church bells and cow bells. Love love love this town.
Tomorrow's a full day! Here are just a couple pics...camera is having trouble uploading, so these are from Jeff's phone. :)