I have traveled to the U.K. quite a few times-and I think of the islands and the Highlands as being remote areas. However, they actually do a roaring tourist trade; August being the peak of the peak time to go. Added to that fact were reports that tourism in Scotland reported a record breaking year. Oh yes, and the Edinburgh Fringe festival was happening as well.
So- booking accommodations and routing out a road trip from Cookie and Steve's place near Chester was a bit of a challenge.
Zok also got to experience his first serious dose of bed and breakfast style lodgings. We actually got an interesting mix. None, were the "everyone eats together with their host" style of my early twenties in America. They seem to be places that are mostly remodeled larger dwellings; halls, boarding houses, farmsteads or they are modernized pub stays.
Therefore, you eat in what was the pub or large dining hall- nearby but not on the same table as the other guests. The staff is usually small, or a family.
We had the range from a converted pub that dated back to the 1500s-, complete with wonky loud plumbing and lurid wall paper to a brewery that was tastefully remodeled in light colored tartan, with aspirations to be a boutique hotel.
The scenery on the drives were as stunning as expected, and some one lane tracks complete with mist rolling by and deer on the road felt as remote as I wished for. But there were also stretches that had two tour buses, and maybe six cars all pulled over, so that a small horde of people could take photos of a highland cow near a fence. Waiting time for the Taliska distillery was an hour. Of course those details will fade into memory.
But if I went back I would pick a place to rent for a week. A lot of places only rented from Saturday to Saturday, usually something to do with ferry or train schedules. Otherwise I would really book ahead of time, or go on the edge of the high season- May or early September. So many areas are lovely, I would have a hard time choosing, but I think I would do more of the islands (we only went to Isle of Skye) and then more time near Royal Deeside to spend time in the Cairngorms park.
But then there is also the Edinburgh Fringe festival! We did actually go to one comedy show at the fringe. I would really like to go just for a week of the fringe. The festival is really well organized. We listened to BBC Scotland and were able to hear a lot of the comedians during different talk shows. There were a lot of authors I would have enjoyed seeing, as well as a Philip Glass, Patti Smith event. There were burlesque, aerial performances, plays, operas, music, comedy, author readings and talks, shows for children, events tied in with the museums- and more. The comedy show we went to was free- the comedians pass a bucket that you can give donations to if you feel the show was worth it! I picked partly by time slot and partly by the title. I think a lot of the jokes about Australia were lost on the small audience but Zok and I laughed quite a bit. Me- a bit more as much had to do with the perceptions of Australia and living both within Australia and leaving outside of Australia.
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