Glasgow to Portree

We took the 7:30 AM flight out of Milan and landed at Glasgow airport by mid-morning. It was cloudy—typical Scotland weather. We picked up our rental car and embarked on what would be a 6-7 hour scenic drive to Portree, the town we would stay in for 5 nights while we explored the Isle of Skye. The first part of the drive was pretty narrow, but overall the drive was not bad since it wasn't mountainous. It was strange navigating from the passenger seat on the left side of the car though. Every time we right turned I thought for a panicked moment that we were driving into oncoming traffic.

Scotland, the land of fleeting rainbows, misty rain, and irregularly shaped lakes (or should I say lochs!). The sunlight peeped out of the clouds periodically during the drive, and it was all the more exciting because it was so short-lived. Props to our driver, Ting, with his fast braking reflexes every time we wanted to pull over to the side of the road to take our pictures. 

I don't think I've ever seen so many brightly saturated, full double rainbows in such a short time span. But they weren't easy to capture. The rainbows were constantly changing in intensity and we couldn't always pull over to the side of the road when we spotted one. 

Forgot the name of this waterfall, but this was one of the few marked attractions along the road. 

We stopped at Fort William for a late lunch. It's the halfway point of the drive from Glasgow to Portree and a popular stopping point. There is one street with a ton of food choices, from restaurants to fish and chip shops, as well as 2 grocery stores. Below is our first taste of Scotland food at The Great Glen.

After lunch, we were back on the road to Portree. A combination of cloudy skies, more northern latitudes, and early sunset gave us beautiful light the whole way. 

The excitement of photographers and good lighting

The only planned stop on our Glasgow to Portree drive was Eilean Donan castle. We barely made it for sunset (although it was too cloudy to get much of one). 

When I looked photos of this castle up online, the yellow grassy area in the foreground is completely submerged...which explains why it was super difficult to walk on. It was a dangerously slippery walk over wet, seaweed-covered rock to get closer to the castle for the second photo.