There are a few different ferries from Scotland to the Orkneys; we took the hour-long one from Gills Bay to South Ronaldsay. From there it was a short drive across the Churchill Barriers to our B&B on Mainland.
Julie
Exploring Scotland: Dunrobin Castle
We had some excellent Scotland adventures in April. I spent a week in Gardenstown at a workshop led by a very talented Scottish artist, and then Scott came to join me and we headed further north. On our way to the ferry to the Orkney Islands, we stopped for a couple hours to check out Dunrobin Castle.
Isle of Skye: the Old Man of Storr
The Isle of Skye is a wonderful place for hiking, if you’re lucky enough to have cooperative weather. We spent an afternoon exploring the Trotternish Peninsula, topped off with a hike up the Storr to visit its old man.
The perfect Italian city day in Treviso
When visiting an Italian city, there’s a certain progression to the day that we aim for. It goes more or less like this:
9am coffee & pastry
10am coffee
11am coffee
1pm lunch
Eclipse over Edinburgh
This morning the Faroe Islands got to experience a total solar eclipse. (Well, they did in theory. In practice it was cloudy and they saw nothing.) Here in Scotland, we got around 93% of said eclipse.
Italy: Wandering around Padova
We have some good friends who live in Padua (Padova), so we like to stop by every time we’re in the area (“the area” basically referring to the Veneto, the region of Italy around Venice). It’s a gorgeous city, full of narrow porticoed streets, cathedrals, bustling squares, and humiliated graduates.
Italy: the tiny Dolomite towns
On our recent trip to the Dolomites, we mainly kept close to the adorable cabin where we were staying, but we did venture out to explore some neighboring towns in Veneto on a couple of occasions.
Snow, food, wine, Italy
We absolutely love living in Edinburgh, but this city seems to have two major flaws: 1) it doesn’t get enough snow and 2) Italy is no longer within a reasonable driving distance. We were starting to feel it was time to address the deficits of snow and Italy in our lives.
Edinburgh’s Hogmanay: the street party
Edinburgh turns its city center into one gigantic party for New Year’s Eve, a day known in Scots as Hogmanay (pretty much tied with the German Silvester for most adorable thing to call New Year’s Eve).
Edinburgh’s Hogmanay: the torchlight procession
After a very expat Christmas in the US, we came back to Edinburgh to experience the glory that is Hogmanay for the first time.