Day One: The Journey to Islay

Day one was, in my defense, a really long day. It began around noon EST on Monday and we didn't make it to Islay until 3pm Scottish time on Tuesday. So, I promise, there will not be several separate posts for every day of our trip. I'm not that devoted of a navel gazer.

By this point in our journey, I was involuntarily falling asleep about every five minutes. All credit to E for staying awake enough to actually drive - had I been behind the wheel, we doubtless would be dead at the bottom of an extremely picturesque loch. Our destination was the ferry at Kennacraig, which would take us on a magical two hour journey to Islay. Most of these pictures are credited to E, since I spent most of the time waiting for the ferry pretending to read and secretly catnapping when he wasn't looking.

This was our transport - rather a solid sort of boat. 

The ferry itself was huge and well appointed. It was also carrying more than just tourists and Peugeots.

The most important cargo of all! 

View from Kennacraig. We were headed to some of the shadowy lumps out there in the distance.

 My main memories of the ferry ride over were cold and try not to fall asleep. E was a bit more proactive about going outside, making friends and generally exploring the ferry itself. The views were so uniformly amazing that they almost became normal after an hour or two.

It was chilly on deck, so I spent most of my time inside. Overall, the trip took about two hours, and our drive from the port to Bowmore, where we were spending the first night, was about half an hour more. The hotel where we spent the first night had been described by one of E's friends as "quaint". It had what I required - a shower, bed and door that locked - but was missing out on such general hotel amenities as a garbage can in the room, closet, or toilet that flushed (the last, I was to learn, is a more widespread problem in Scotland than I had ever imagined).

After a shower and a restorative chocolate chip granola bar, we decided to explore the Bowmore area. Although we were hungry, it was only about 4:30 at this point, and none of the eateries in the Bowmore region opened for dinner until 6.