Fort William/Skye

The last 2 days have been spent on trains, buses, ferries and in plenty of pubs. We arrived in Ft William around 4pm and headed straight to the Hostel. Ben Nevis (UK's tallest mountain) is only a 5 minute drive from here so it is full of back packers eager to climb it... that doesn't include us : )

Went to a pub for tea where they had possibly the slowest service I have ever come across. Must say though the dinner was goooood. I had a traditional Scottish chicken tikka masala with chips and Jane went for a steak pie. Hit another pub on the way back to the hostel after going for a walk down by the Loch. The scenery here is really nice, hills everywhere and the loch is really peaceful. A little boring if you want to be out partying but it's a nice change of pace from Edinburgh. We popped into another local ale house for one last beer before we hit the hay.

Next morning it was off to the Isle of Skye. It's about a 90 min bus ride plus 40 minute ferry ride from Ft William. Here there is a lit of tiny country towns, castles, awesome views and not much else. Struggled to find anywhere to eat other than a tine cafe near where the ferry docked. Certainly no pubs so we walked, and walked and walked.

We did learn about the origins of the McDonald clan and how they started McDonald restaurants to help fund their community's defences against the attacking Spanish. Because the Spanish were so strong and would have crushed them had they known they were building up such wealth they opened the first one under the name of Ray Kroc (or Crock in Scotland). As this was a dummy name this is where the term Crock of Shite comes from. Needles to say they made a heap of money and crushed the Spaniards... true story, I promise. By the time we got back to Ft William it was 5:00 and all the stores are closing by then so all there is to do it hit a pub or two and have a curry for tea. Tomorrow we head to Greenock just in time to see the mighty Morton play against St Mirren in the Renfrewshire cup final then it's hanging around the family for 4 days. Will report more at the end of that.