At the Lynton Hotel in Belgravia
Not just a red but ... a red WEDDING bus!
The quintessential London taxi
Grenadier Guard on duty
Gates to Buckingham Palace
Gates to Green Park
Gardens surround Buckingham Palace
Victoria Monoument
Detail on Green Park gate
Canada Memorial, Green Park
Green Park
Wellington Arch
St. James Park
North along the Serpentine toward Buckingham Palace
South along the Serpentine toward the London Eye ...
Big Ben
Parliament Square
London Eye
Westminster Palace
Skyline north of the Thames, dome of St. Paul's on the left
St. Paul's Cathedral dome
Millenium Bridge & St. Paul's
Globe Theater
Old Westminster Palace ... really old!
Borough Market
Tower Bridge
London's City Hall
The Tower of London
Yeoman Guard, Tower of London
Scots Guards at the Tower
Egyptian exhibits at the British Museum
Sacred cat, perhaps representing the god Bastet
Some sarcophagi are really big
The carvings are incredibly intricate
This is Assyrian rather than Egyptian
Beautiful painted murals from an Egyptian tomb
This exhibit said the Egyptians even mummified their cats!
Brightly painted sarcophagus - one of many
Roof of the Great Hall, British Museum
Perikles (Roman this time!)
This pot is bronze rather than ceramic
Wannabe Grenadier Guards at the guards barracks across from St. james Park
Another gorgeous display of spring flowers in St. James Park, along Birdcage Walk
St. Mary's Church, Westminster Cathedral
Street protest against war, any war at all.
The London Eye from the north bank of the Thames
Cleopatra's Needle
Pillars from first RR bridge on the thems, designed by Brunel
Billingsgate Fish Market
Tower of London
Greenwich, former Naval College
Maritime Museum, Greenwich
Maritime Museum, panel from Estonian (?) tribute to trade
Greenwich Observatory
GMT clock
The 0 degree Meridian
Millenium Dome
Down the pub
Harrods!
Main Street, Milngavie
Here's the view I will likely see on most of the trail -- my three companions out ahead
Main Square, Milngavie
The sign for our hotel
Setting up the Wednesday Farmer's Market in Milngavie
The beginning of the Way
Is this broom? Nope - it's gorse!
Dandelions grow everywhere!
Probably the Milngavie course
Craigallian Loch
Daffodils grow amongst the weeds
and along the old drystone walls
The West Highland Way sign - a thistle flanked by two arrows
Pheasants!
And lots and lots of sheep of different kinds
Glengoyle Distillery, where we made a side trip for a tour and a wee dram
And on up the path - 6 more miles
The last three miles or so are on a narrow lane
Main Square, Drymen
The oldest pub in Scotland, just across the street.
Our gorse-lined path out of Drymen
Loch Lomond under cloudy skies
The Way leads though a conifer forest
And on to farm country once again
We came across several slugs on the path through the forest
And the deciduous trees are leafing out, some more than others
There's quite a bit of logging along the Way
Conic Hill -- and we're going to the top
Across the bridge and into the sheep pasture
At the top of Conic Hill
The Oak Tree Inn in Balmaha, where we stopped for pizza -- ate outside!
It won't rain 'til teatime, someone said
Note the black-spotted legs
A shaggy highlands cow (bull??)
Reflections on the loch
Our companions in silhouette. 2K to go to Rowardennen
Loch view from Rowardennen Hotel
Rowardennen Hotel -- under renovation
At the Ptarmigan trailhead
Back to the hotel
War Memorial
Looking up the Loch from behind the hotel
Terrace outside the "big bar"
Afternoon sun - playing with GND filters
Ben Lomond with the knob on top, Ptarmigan to its left
War Memorial, Friday evening
Ben Lomond with the knob on top, Ptarmigan to the left
View up the lake
Patches of green moss on the tree trunks
Excursion boats on the loch
Our trail in the morning
Violets!
The trail grows increasingly rocky
Waterfalls and streams everywhere
Lunch at Inversnaid Hotel on the terrace
Inversnaid Hotel - very upscale
After lunch there are more tree roots and many rocky ups and downs
The trail turns away from the lake and grows easier underfoot
Four intrepid hikers, with miles to go yet
The bothy, a temporary shelter
Looking back on the trail
Hurrah! The Drovers, our home for the night
Our (messy) four-poster bed at the Drover's Inn, Inverarnan
Scottish black-faced lamb
Following the River Falloch
Mosses growing on a downed log
The Way winds through pastureland
Gate across the road from where we stopped to eat our lunches
Mosses growing on the banks
Really old graveyard -- 700s? -- on Kirkton Farm
Ruins of St. Fillan's priory, 1300's
Ben Lui, overlooking another pastoral section of the way
A stop at the Green Welly in Tyndrum to buy a sandwich for lunch
Easy trail today, starting by the railway and highway
Then away from the road and on by the Allt Kinglass
More shaggy kine
Highway signs in Gaelic as well as English
Lunch near the Bridge of Orchy
after a stop for hot tea at the eponymous hotel above
The Bridge of Orchy
A first glimpse of Loch Tulla
Short side climb to cairn to view Loch Tulla
Inveroran Hotel with sheets flapping in the breeze
This little habitue at the Inveroran Hotel thought we might drop a crumb
Beautiful weather at the start of our hike
Telford ... seems a familiar name
Military transport. Both yesterday and today we also saw fighters.
Rannoch Moor
Mountains loom in the distance
... and the mist comes down
The view from our lunch spot, sitting against a rock in the heather
Rocky cobbles make the walking rough
Our abode for tonight
Buachaille Etive Mor from the Kingshouse Hotel Loungs
Buachaille Etive Mor
Down the valley toward Glencoe
The Way runs along the road
And here we turn uphill
Looking back from the Devil's Staircase
A small tarn, just over the top
And now down, down, down
Snowy peaks in the distance
Water from this lake used to make power
Just entering Kinlochleven, old aluminum mill in the background
Starting up - view of Loch Leven
Looking back on Kinlochleven
Over the ridge, we find blooming springs of heather
Our trail winds into the distance
Halfway
Up on the road, and starting down.
and down, and down, and down ...
Just across the street from the B&B
War memorials on the High Street
Crannoch, best seafood in Fort William, we're told
The 12:12 to Mallaig
Some beautiful scenery
Ferry leaves for Isle of Skye
On the mall, sun one way
On the return trip
As we near Fort William, the clouds gather and it turns colder
Castle Eilean Donan
On the A82 near Isle of Skye
Out our B&B lounge window
Isle of Skye
Duntulm Castle
Quiraing rock formations
Kilt Rock
Cuillan Hills, Black Range, from Elgol
The one-lane road from Broadford to Elgol
Isle of Skye bridge
Circular Garden, Dunvegan Castle
Even castles need maintenance!
Dunvegan Castle
View from the gun yard, Dunvegan Castle
In the gardens
On the Wester Ross Trail, on the way to Ullapool
Ullapool
The Caledonian Hotel
Leaving the harbor
Salmon farm
The lighthouse ... destination for today's hike
After Tuesday dinner, the guys discover a new cask ale
Calda House, built for Frances MacKenzie in 1726
Ardvreck Castle, first a Macleod, then a MacKenzie domain
Built in the latter half of the 15th century
Destroyed by lightning in 1795
On a ridge on the one-lane coast road
Dr. Who's place?
Smoo Cave, Durness
Furman nesting on the rocks
with a chick!
Dandelions are plaguing Scottish gardeners, the paper reports
... but the bees are happy!
In front of the Wild Orchid Guest House .. nice, eh?
The ghostly mariner -- the lights are lit at night
Away to the west from Wild Orchid
Farr Cross, Bettyshill
Bob finds the B&B cat
Tain High Street
View from our window at Morangie House
Glen Morangie Distillery
The swan-necked stills
The whiskey is aging
Dunrobin Castle
Hooded Harris Falcon
Falconer and red-tailed hawk (called a buzzard here)
An owl-hawk, a diurnal hunter
Formal gardens, Dunrobin Castle
Giant Rhubarb
Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness
Looking for Nessie -- she didn't show
Piper playing for the wedding held below
Still no Loch Ness monster!
Ben Nevis as we approach Ft. William from the north
Burntisland Railway Station
The oldest pub in Edinburgh
On the Royal Mile
St. Giles Cathedral
Looking down the Mile.
Adam Smith ... with pranked headgear
Holyrood Palace
Water flows in the fountain only when royalty is present
Palace Guard
On the skyline of the Old City
Warm day, you bet!
Castle silhouette on the horizon
Walter Scott memorial
On the skyline of the Old City, magnificent buildinngs
Rapeseed fields (canola) from the train
Walter Scott Monument above the trees from Princes Street Park
The HMS Britannia (decomissioned 1997)
Rolls Royce garage, latterly used as beer storage
It's good to be Queen
Sunroom
Officer's country bar
Officers' mess
See, even officers reuse their napkins!
State dining room
Royal sitting room
Royal Marines bar
Warrant & Petty Officers' bar
Edinburgh Castle from the tatoo courtyard
Scots Dragoon Guards
Edinburgh from the battlements
Heraldic designs in stained glass, Great Hall
View from outside St. Margaret's Chapel
St. Margaret
This chapel being the oldest structure, from the 12th century
Scottish War Memorial
The One O'Clock Gun
National Writer's Museium - tribute to RLS, Burns, & Scott
This guy, a cabinetmaker by day ...
and burglar by night is said to be the inspiration for Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
The castle from the roof garden of the National Museum
National Museum of Scotland
Castle viewed from bus stop outside Penrith Station
Stair landing at Acorn House
Keswick high street
Old metal kissing gate next to new wooden one
Suspension footbridge
Through the forest
Early rhododendrom blooms
Old German brewer on island in Derwentwater
Looking back on the way up Catbells
Atop the catbells
Atop the Catbells
No sheep like this in Scotland!
Newlands Church
Across the high pastures
Brave lamb - made us move off the path!
More rhododendron
The attitude at this outdoor store is unique!
Ticket office at the Keswick launch site on Derwentwater
The dappled path from Upper Brandelhow
Marvelous old tree at the Hawes End launch site
The hedges (hawthorn?) are blooming
Narrow road between two stone fences leads to Castlerigg
Castelrigg Stone Circle - older than Stonehenge
Tidy Tips ... or their English cousins
The Dog and Gun pub supports the local mountaiin rescue
Bath Abbey from the river path
A "narrow boat" can navigate the locks and canals
Cathedral Square
One half of the Royal Crescent
and the other half
The Circus
Original Georgian chandelier in the Assembly Rooms
Gallery in the "Tea Room"
Georgian Row houses near city center
The shops on Pulteney Bridge
Main Bathing Pool, Roman Baths
Hadrian
Julius Caesar
Old Roman Drain (red color is brickwork of a repair)
Modern replica of compression fitting used to lift blocks of stone
And then lifting the blocks with a relatively light line
The bathing pool
The source spring, also called the sacred spring
Inside the Abbey
Burials underfoot ...
And memorials on the walls
Fragment of the old Norman church
Bishop Oliver King's "signature" on the Abbey
Lots of people at Stonehenge
And yet you could still take pictures like this one
Three-part curved lintel
Round point on top would fit into a recess carved into the lintel stone
Note the deep ditch that ran all the way around
Sections of the lintel were joined by tongue-and-groove fittings
These birds actually looked more black than blue
Scarecrow Hunt day at Lacock Village
Harry Potter's parents house (the real parents)
Hogwarts! (Actually Lacock Abbey)
And back to Bath
Royal Victoria Park
Yep. Nice weather for ducks today.
Bath Abbey
Oops. Who through soap into the fountain?
Guildhall Market
Our home in Joburg
Bob and Max
At Mallaig, the sun is shining and it is almost warm
And clouds the other
