Scotland: Fort William
We spent three days in Fort William enjoying several outdoor activities, including hiking and boat cruising on a lake. We also took a day trip by train and ferry to the Isle of Skye.
We spent three days in Fort William enjoying several outdoor activities, including hiking and boat cruising on a lake. We also took a day trip by train and ferry to the Isle of Skye.
Lauren and I are now in Scotland for 10 days, taking a mother / daughter trip to enjoy the country’s scenery and history the old fashioned way – by train.
We are now in Stirling, which is one of the most historical spots in Scotland. The strategic location of the city, between Southern Scotland and highlands to the north led to many famous battles fought between the Scottish and English in the late 1200’s / early 1300’s.
Lauren and I are now in Fort William, on the western side of Scotland and a major gateway to the highlands. We spent three days here enjoying the scenery while dodging rain storms.
It is Saturday morning and we are preparing to leave Edinburgh, our last stop in Scotland. We arrived here early Thursday afternoon after our last train pass journey from Fort William, via a change in Glasgow.
Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, was our last stop on our train journey. We spent time here visiting many historic sights as well as several museums.
When we first began discussing our 4 1/2 month around the world trip with our family in 1999, we wanted to get away from everyday life, experience the world, be with our daughters (12 and 10 at the time) and learn something in the process. However, planning it and actually making it happen were anything but that.
Yesterday, I received the latest (April 2009) edition of National Geographic Traveler. On page 76 a story caught my eye entitled Ecuador: Avenue of the Volcanoes. Two of the haciendas mentioned, San Agustin de Callo and Cusin, are the same ones we stayed in during our trip in November 2008.
Since we last wrote, we left the hacienda north of Quito on Wednesday and made our way to Cotopaxi National Park about 50 miles south of Quito. We hired a driver to take us between the two destinations, which included a stop at the equator itself, about 15 miles north of Quito.
As I write this, Sandy and I are making our return trip upstream on the Rio Napo (Napo River) from the Sacha Lodge back to Coca, Ecuador – a distance of approximately 50 miles. We stayed at Sacha for the last four days.
