day two - three ferries and an island

it was a bit of an early start when we left glasgow, but we had to catch our ferry from ardrossan to the isle of arran. we were *extremely* excited; too excited to eat breakfast. it was quite chilly on the ferry, but a pretty short ride. we drove around arran for a few hours, had a bit of lunch and then made our way up to lochranzra to take our second ferry to clainoig. we barely made that ferry - although they do run every hour - but made it over in time to check out a 13th centry castle and some chapel ruins.

(the first glimpse of the isle of arran)

i still have trouble making myself believe that the buildings i was seeing and walking through were really that old. the castle was quite cool as there was only one other couple there who were braving the pouring rain. by the time we made it back to the car we were absolutely drenched. we drove to kennacraig to wait for our ferry to port ellen, islay and had our first dram of whisky to warm up.(walking on the isle of arran)

the ferry crossing to islay was even *more* exciting especially once we started seeing the distilleries on our approach: lagavulin, ardbeg and laphroaig. as soon as islay was in sight the weather started to clear and the sun came out before it started a very beautiful descent into the sea.

(the sun setting on islay)

our bed and breakfast was on the top of a little hill at the other end of the island, but it was perfectly situated with two brilliant hosts: ronnie and marie. but more on them later ;)