Monday Afternoon, September 26

After finishing our mini walking tour of Glasgow we checked our maps, programmed the GPS unit & set out for Oban.

The GPS indicated that it would take us about 2 hours to drive from Glasgow to Oban. We started out on a 4 lane divided highway & the roads got progressively narrower.

We were about 3/4 of the way to Oban when the GPS “told” us to take a sharp left turn off the main road. Catherine thought that we were headed in the wrong direction but I was confident that the GPS was taking us the right way. It wasn’t too long before the road narrowed to a single lane & we were in the middle of steep rolling hills farm country & I was proven wrong (again) 😡

We debated turning around but the GPS showed this road on the map & “said” that we only had a few miles to go. Plus the scenery was stunning.

We stopped along the way to ask a local for directions but it was obvious that he had never been to Oban. Either that or he didn’t want to say too much to us because Catherine was reluctant to put the car window all the way down.

We finally made it to Oban & checked in to our hotel – a classic building on the front street and a room with a view of the harbour.

The locals in the town are also very friendly & quite happy to make a picturesque pose in exchange for a treat. This guy was parked on our hotel room windowsill. Obviously this was a good place to panhandle & I too rewarded him for his patience.

To my pleasant surprise the Oban Distillery was only a 5 minute walk from the hotel. How could I come to Oban & not tour this world renowned facility?

Catherine decided to check out the multitude of interesting shops on the main street while I took a tour of the distillery. We had a great host for the tour & even had a few samples to savour along the way.

Next on the agenda was dinner. The hotel restaurant has a special feature meal they called “Scottish Tapas” that included samples of a variety of popular & traditional Scottish food. Among the delicacies was s sampling of haggis. I approached this portion of my meal with some trepidation but was very pleasantly surprised at how delicious the haggis was!

Tomorrow we visit a castle!

Sliante!