Slice of Life March 4

The sun was shining, the sky was blue with clouds in the distance and the views around Oban were outstanding.

We discovered at breakfast time that our B&B was really just a ”B” so we walked into town and found a great little spot serving different kinds of breakfast scones, coffee and tea, all that was needed to start another day in Scotland. Jean hadn’t slept very well and was up at midnight texting her husband and thinking about how we might spend our day today. She had a great plan and since I knew it was going to be a great day for pictures and walking around town, I was eager to go along with her ideas.

After breakfast we walked around the little traffic circle, poking our heads into some of the shops. Jean found a great painting to send back home and I found some smaller cards I might like to frame. There was a shop full of all kinds of wool and woolens and a sewing and yarn shop. But the yarn wasn’t anything special so I wasn’t tempted.

After visiting the post office, we walked around the curve of the bay towards Dunollie Castle. The castle wasn’t open but we saw Fingal’s Dogstone on the way and read the legend about how a giant tied his dog up to the stone and the circling dog chiseled away the bottom of the stone.

Fingal’s Dogstone, Dunollie castle in background

On the way back towards town we were looking at a little stone stairway headed up the hillside and these 3 ladies walking past encouraged us to head up it. Just take it slow they said, it will come back down on the other side and the views are lovely. So we did! The grove of trees on the way up cast great shadows and looked wonderful against the sky. There was a little rope swing on the far side and we each took a swing hoping it wouldn’t break beneath our weight!

cant figure out how to rotate on this ipad

Next stop was a bottle of water and a hike up to McCaig’s tower – a folly built by some rich guy that is extremely picturesque and offers great views of the whole town.

Lunch of soup and bread, tour of Oban whiskey distillery, small break back at our B and we were ready for dinner. 15,000 steps before 5 pm. There were a group of those traveling on this retreat gathering at EE Usk, a famous fish restaurant, and we joined them enjoying our dinner and meeting some of the women we had only seen on Zoom so far.

A little sliver of the moon showed up tonight. Tomorrow we take the ferry we saw earlier today.

And the last member of our retreat group made it to Oban today after her plane got cancelled twice and she had to begin again in Seattle. Poor woman!

It is so bazarre to be on this trip at a time when the rest of the world is going nuts but if nature and being outside is a remedy for craziness than I am getting a great dose of it.