2020 UK Trip Pt 3 - Isle of Skye

Despite the cold, rainy weather the night before had turned into, the following morning was bright and welcoming. We took off early and pushed into the furthest point of our trip: the Isle of Skye.

Our fun little rental (thankfully manual!) allowed us to venture a little off the larger M and A roads and explore via the smaller and tighter B roads that cut through Scotland.

The driving on this day was easily my favorite. The landscape, weather, and roads drastically changed every half hour or so. After driving through some properly twisty roads through forests, we briefly stopped for some breakfast at a little town called Ballater before heading off again.

Snow sports are snow sports and I’d happily spend all day on these slopes (especially given the current shutdowns) but driving by these runs makes me thankful I live so close to the Sierras.

This section was a little dicey, with a fairly long stretch of road narrowing down to a single lane and plenty of blind corners.

Eventually though we made it to the Skye Bridge, a simple but vital bridge that connects Skye to the rest of mainland UK. Despite taking longer routes, we still have plenty of time left in the day to explore the area, so we decided to drive around the island and see what Skye had to offer.

Turns out what it offered was probably the most surreal moments of our trip. Isolation is one thing, and the Scottish Highlands offers its flavor of beauty that I’ve never encountered anywhere else, but Skye had a touch of the familiar to me.

Maybe it was the more modern wooden architecture of this community space/cafe we found, but if someone were to explain to me that I were looking at an unmapped section of western America, I could believe them. I knew I hadn’t been to anywhere like this place before, but it didn’t feel alien to me. Or maybe I was just a sucker for the dramatic sky. Either way, after some delicious chocolate cake and coffee, we headed back towards our AirBnB to swing by a nearby attraction with hopes to catch it before it closed.

Of course it’s a castle! There are genuinely so many scattered around countryside that it’s kinda hard to not see one (this was the 2nd we saw today, the first being that white grain elevator looking structure in one of the earlier images). Not many of them look that amazing though, and so despite not being particularly rare in this area, this was still pretty fantasy-looking to us. The sunshine/rain weather that was slamming us helped make things look magical as well. Sadly it had closed up early probably because of the drop in tourist traffic with the COVID epidemic quickly approaching, but it looked great from the shores.

As this wasn’t really an area with many dine-out options and we were pretty tired from the all-day drive, we grabbed some microwavable dinners at the local market and headed to our tiny little AirBnB shed. It was clearly on the small side, but actually a pretty nice place to stay.

After our routine wipe down of all the surfaces, we settled in for an early sleep as tomorrow would be the longest leg of our entire trip. Next stop, Lake District!

2020 UK Trip Pt 2 - Dundee

Next leg of the trip was Dundee, just about an hour north of Edinburgh. The bulk of the drive was not too different than the drive to York; expressways across grassy hills. There were plenty of sheep, this one known statue, looming mountains in the distance, and some nice bridges, but otherwise pretty uneventful.

We arrived just after noon and immediately went off to grab some lunch. To our surprise, we stumbled on a Kiwi cafe which happened to have some of that Supreme coffee that we recognized from Tokyo. It’s like this brand has a thing for small islands around the world.

Afterwards we went to the McManus Gallery, a museum housing much of Scotland’s historical accomplishments as well as some of their older art. The best part was, like most museums in UK, the entry was free.

Fun fact; Lemmings and the original GTA video game came from here!

2020 UK Trip Pt 1 - York

Just before COVID really ramped up and the closures came in, Michelle and I managed to squeeze in a roadtrip across Northern UK. It was not a spur of the moment decision as it had been planned and booked the year before, nor was it something we expected would be as easy and typical as trips in the past.

Though the immediate affects we experienced were thankfully minimal, UK was clearly at the verge of a massive and serious event. The attitude and spirits of the citizens were beginning to be withdrawn, like taking shelter just as the sky begins to darken and winds begin picking up before a massive storm.

We kept our eyes and ears constantly on the news throughout the trip, waiting for that one alert that flights are canceling and borders are closing so we can cancel everything race straight to Heathrow to get home. Fortunately none of that happened, though it was largely by luck. Had the trip been a few days later, we would have been a much more drastic situation.

All that said though, we managed to complete the trip largely uninterrupted and so here are the pics! The plan was to land into Heathrow, grab a car and immediately drive to York. We spent 2 nights there, allowing us a full day in the city, before heading further north.

I have been lucky enough to have visited some pretty old cities, but never have I been to a place that had such close ties to the medieval period as York. The castle, walls, and towns feel more incorporated into the living city than many other places I’ve been to.

Of course I have to capture any forbidden European cars, such as this wonderful purple RS6 Avant.

2019 Northwest Trip Pt 2

While our trip was in both Seattle and Portland, I ended up only really taking pictures in Seattle as we knew we would be out late in Portland and I didn’t want to risk carrying my camera with me the whole day. Anywho, here’s the rest of the pics. We’ll be back soon though, as next time we come back up here we’ll be going even further north. ;)

2019 Northwest Trip Pt 1

First trip of the summer! This memorial day weekend we had a trip to Seattle and Portland. This was Michelle’s first time to Seattle so of course, we had to swing by all the normal tourist spots, but it has been a while since I went up there as well so I didn’t mind.

2019 UK / Ireland 2

Last day and last post of the UK trip, this time a whole day in Dublin. Being in Dublin, had to play tourist and visit the Guinness brewery. Also swung by Trinity Library and saw Brian Boru's harp which dates back to as far as 14th-15th century.

2019 UK / Ireland 1

As we wrap up our time in London, we traveled over to Dublin, Ireland for the last leg of our trip. While one of the less eventful days with the flight occurring in the middle of the day, we were at least able to end it on a high note with a dinner at O’Neills Pub. A very interesting building that felt like a cluster of rooms tied together, the buffet style Irish food was exactly what we needed that night.

2019 UK / London 2

Our second and only full day in London, we first traveled to our old stomping grounds around Shoreditch and Brick Lane. Later we went to Mercato Metropolitano to meet with Marcel and one of his owners while wrapping up the day at the nearby Tate Modern museum. Gonna try to cram everything in one post, so early apologies for the length of this one.

One thing I really appreciated about London was the popularity of traditional neon signage. I do wish they were more common here in the States, though some of the language that was used should probably stay in UK…

Some good ole guerilla marketing along with an amazing book store, will definitely need to remember it next time I go back.