From the moment we landed in Ireland we had to deal with the rain. It ended up lasting through the entire trip. Apparently the UK was experiencing above normal rainfalls for the month of August. Maybe we were to blame because it seemed to follow us everywhere we went.

When we got off the plane in Dublin, Ireland we noticed there was a light drizzle. We didn’t have enough Euros for a cab to the hotel so Lennie went to ask the guys at the information desk where the closest ATM was. They informed him that he didn’t need to take a cab that there was in fact a bus parked outside that would drop us off at the hotel. When we got out to the curb we noticed it wasn’t a hotel shuttle but a city bus. We boarded anyway because the guys inside said it went right by the hotel.

We rode for what seemed like an hour. I was worried that maybe the drive had forgotten about us. Finally he stopped and turned to say that this was our stop. I looked and didn’t see a hotel of any sort along the street. When we asked where the hotel was he pointed up a side street and said, “It’s about a quarter of a mile up that street.”

By this point it was raining harder and the wind had picked up but we didn’t’ have any choice…we had to walk. So up the street we went in the pouring rain with me wheeling my luggage behind me. Lennie turned to me laughing and said, “Welcome to your honeymoon!”

The rain from that point on seemed to stalk us. We would watch the weather reports and it would say that the sun was shining in Skye. We would drive to Skye and as soon as we stopped and found a place to crash for the night, the dark clouds would appear and the rain would start to fall. The morning we got up to leave the sun would come out. If we even talked about staying on an extra day somewhere because the sun was shining the clouds would roll back in. The sun always seemed to be shining in whatever part of Scotland we were not in. If we were in the East the sun would be shining in the West. If we went west the clear skies moved east. On occasion the sun would come out and we would get hopeful, but an hour later the rain would be back 

In the end when you are walking through the Highlands surrounded by green grass, purple heather and waterfalls everywhere you turn, the fact that it is raining starts to not matter so much. I honestly can’t describe how beautiful it was. I wish I could have bolted a camera to the car so you could see the drive along the A9 through the mountains. It was breathtaking. I joked with Lennie that if I had been driving we wouldn’t have made it far because I would have been stopping every 10 minutes to take pictures.

Trust me I took tons of pictures and I almost have then ready to upload. I am working on a webpage so that you all can see them and my goal is to get that done tonight. Keeping my fingers crossed.

There were several places we visited, like Rosslyn Chapel, where I couldn’t take pictures I will try to talk about them in my blog because they were fascinating places to visit.

Well I better get back to uploading the pictures. Stay tuned for the next installment from the Land of Kilts and Haggis.