Oban

We have checked in to our AirBNB here in Oban. The host left us a lovely anniversary card, balloon & bubbly with champagne glasses to celebrate. It was very sweet! This condo has been recently renovated and it looks fantastic! I think we'll enjoy our couple of days here.

The main entrance and family room

The kitchen. For some reason, houses in Great Britain have the washer & dryer in the kitchen.

We ventured north about 1.5 hours to visit the Glenfinnan Viaduct, built in 1897-1899 and opened in 1901. The bridge itself is made of concrete. Made famous by appearing in 4 of the Harry Potter movies.

As seen from the walking trail

We arrived in time to see the steam train. We were only mildly disappointed that we didn't see the Hogwarts Express.

After a quick nap at the AirBNB we walked over to McCaig's Tower. It was about a 20 minute walk from our condo...mostly uphill. The Tower was built in 1897 by a local banker, John McCaig, to give work to local stoneworkers during the winter months and as a memorial to the McCaig family (specifically himself, parents and siblings). Construction ceased upon his death in 1902 and the Tower remains unfinished. Interesting fact - he left in his will a desire to gift 1,000 Pounds per year for maintenance but his heirs successfully sued to have that provision removed.

Oban as seen from McCaig's Tower

Good evening from Oban, Scotland! We had a nice dinner at a local restaurant and met a couple from PA who are also spending several weeks in Scotland...though they are already retired (we're a little jealous!). After dinner we walked to the ferry terminal to see where we need to catch our ferry at 7am tomorrow to tour the islands of Mull, Iona, and Staffa. Fortunately, the ferry terminal is only about a 20 minute walk from our condo. The picture was taken at the ferry terminal looking at the city. You can see McCaig's Tower towering over the city.

Good morning from sunny Oban, Scotland! Today we will be taking a 10-hour tour of 3 nearby islands: Mull, Iona, and Staffa. We'll be visiting an Abbey and, on Staffa, see Fingal's Cave and hopefully see nesting puffins!

Here are just a few pictures, and a short video, of some puffins we saw on Staffa Island. The island is protected and no humans live there. We had to step into a soapy mat to clean the bottoms of our shoes, both upon arriving and upon leaving, to help slow the spread of avian flu.

Meet Patrick the Puffin

Meet Penny the Puffin

Here are Paul and Peter

Here's Patty the Puffin getting ready to take flight

Also on Staffa Island is Fingal's Cave. This island is made of hexagonal basalt. One can also see stones with 5 or 7 sides.

Gina being very scared getting to the cave

Fingal's Cave

Next we traveled to the Isle of Iona where we walked through the remains of a nunnery that was founded in 1200 and functioned for more than 350 years.

While standing in line waiting to get on the ferry from Iona back to Mull an 83-year-old woman from Stirling struck up a conversation with us. She was very entertaining and has visited (according to her) everywhere but Australia. She loves the U.S. and gave us her opinions on the current and past 2 presidents, and then proceeded to tell us her opinions about some of Great Britain's leaders as well. She said before she got on the ferry she wanted to stick her feet in the water. I don't know if she did, but she was feisty enough to try it! Jeff and I agreed that we'd love to be invited to any dinner party she would attend as I'm sure she has a lot of stories to tell.