Instead of going on and on about each place we visited in Scotland, I’ve decided to put together a series of anecdotes, cute or funny things that happened during our stay there.

First, though, here is a descriptive list of most of the places we visited, starting from Glasgow and ending in Edinburgh:

• We spent a day and a half in Glasgow. To be honest, and I hope I don’t offend those who live there, as far as I could tell, there isn’t much to see, from a tourist’s point of view, except for the cathedral, but it’s very good for shopping, and it’s a very lively city. We also photographed a couple of excellent murals (photos 1 and 2). And we were lucky enough to happen upon a band practicing traditional Scottish music in a park for some upcoming event…marching up and down, twirling mallets, and that was lovely. I have a couple of videos of that encounter. Lots of fun. Oh, and I shouldn’t forget to repeat (see my September 4th post) that we had tea in our first ever cat café in Glasgow, the Purple Cat Café. I noticed it as we were driving around trying to reach our hotel. The navigator gave us the wrong directions, so we ended up driving around in circles a couple of times. And at one point during these “circles,” I happened to notice the sign, “Purple Cat Café.” If it hadn’t been for that batty navigator, we would have missed the café. Sometimes things just…happen! For a good reason, I mean! 🙂 
• The Isle of Islay, which, in addition to some of the most important whisky distilleries in the UK, also has some very pretty villages and scenery (although nothing as dramatic as Skye). We spent three days there. It was here that I got quite high after a tour of one of the distilleries, and Stefano tried to make friends with what he thought was a hen but instead was a rather upset rooster. And we were also able to go have a look at the Kidalton Cross, see photo below, on the right, one of the finest and best preserved early Christian crosses, carved probably in the second half of the 8th century AD. 
• One of my favorite photos is the above one (on the left) of a phone booth that was in the middle of “nowhere” on the Isle of Islay, but standing tall and proud, a testimony to the fact that these booths were absolutely essential BEFORE the invention of cellphones.
• As we were walking down a path toward the 12th century, ruined Castle Sween (the day we left Islay…a stop we made on our way to the town of Oban), all of a sudden a doe jumped right in front of us (see September 4th post). We immediately froze, of course, so as not to scare her. We didn’t notice her two fawns until she’d disappeared into the vegetation to the right of us. We recovered enough to get some photos (in my case, blurry photos…I was too excited!) of the fawns, but I wish I’d been faster…
• We stayed a couple of days in Oban, mainly so we could go on a all-day boat and bus tour of Mull, Staffa and Iona, three small islands with different types of appeal. We also visited a nearby fantastic ruined 15^th century castle, Kilchurn Castle  (see photo on left), as well as a few other ruined castles (Dunollie, Dunstaffnage, and Stalker) in the area.
• Inverlochy/Fort William. We spent a few days here mainly to check out some of the Harry Potter movie locations, such as the famous Glenfinnan Viaduct. I have a Viaduct anecdote that I will tell you in another post. So, no photos till then.
• Eilean Donan Castle, see photo on left, one of the most famous and photographed castles in the UK. We stopped here on our way to Skye. Too many tourists…but still, it was worth the stop, for sure!
• We spent five days on the the Isle of Skye. Best part of our tour, IMO. Here we hunted, and FOUND!!!, dinosaur footprints on two separate beaches. So much fun. In the photo on the right, I used my foot to show how big the prints are. This was left probably by a meat-eating theropod 170 million years ago more or less. You can find this footprint, marked by small stones by some kind-hearted person, at the An Corran beach at Staffin. The best time to view dinosaur prints, by the way, is in the winter, when they aren’t covered by algae. Since it wasn’t winter (although it was cold enough, at times!), we didn’t find that many…
• We did find quite a number of prints belonging to plant-eating, long-necked, small-headed sauropods on another beach, the one located near another ruined castle (Duntulm Castle), see photo on left. The exciting part is that, following the prints, you can actually imagine these enormous creatures walking across the beach millions of years ago. Not easy to get down there (and then back up to the road, too), incidentally. Both the descent and the ascent are quite steep, I mean. I almost gave up, in fact…but I’m happy that I managed to climb down…
• The best part of Skye, in my opinion, is its breathtaking and ever-changing scenery. So many photo ops! And, even though it wasn’t on my bucket list, I got to feed a Highland cow under the supervision of its owner…more on that in my upcoming “anecdote” post. 
• Plockton, see panoramic photo on the right (taken with my cellphone), a very pretty little coastal village, up the coast from the Skye Bridge.
• Drumnadrochit (Loch Ness). To be honest, we could have skipped this area, even though we stayed in the loveliest Airbnb of our entire trip. Anyway, now we can say, “been there, done that,” plus we got to spend an entire day at a Highland Game in Drumnadrochit, which was heaps of fun, sort of like being at a HUGE family reunion (the Scots are so friendly!), with adorable young girls doing traditional dances in kilts (see photo), big strong guys in kilts throwing extremely heavy items up in the air, bagpipe marches and competitions (see photo), and a final kilt race (I tried to get Stefano to participate, but he refused, I wonder why…….)…Yes, lots of fun. Highland Games, highly recommended!
• Beauly Priory, a 13th century, roofless church.
• Another 13^th century ruin, but a much MUCH bigger and spectacular one: Elgin Cathedral. What can I say? Stefano and I prefer ruins to perfect (but at times a bit fake) restorations.
• Dunnottar Castle. Again, yes, a ruin…on the northeast coast of Scotland, with ghosts, apparently, although we didn’t see or feel any…and yes, I do sound disappointed. 😉
• Dundee, where we photographed the Desperate Dan (cartoon) statue, photo on the left.
• St. Andrews Castle and Cathedral. Ruins, you guessed it! 13th and 12th centuries, respectively.
• The village of Culross, of the (TV series) “Outlander” fame, also recommended by Rick Steves.
• Stirling Castle, which we both found very disappointing…The best part were its lovely gardens…definitely could have skipped! The crowds didn’t help at all…
• Edinburgh, for the final day and a half before returning to Florence…

I couldn’t help ending this long series of photos with one of a “Skye” goat that had just moved off the road so we could pass. He doesn’t look too pleased about it, does he?

That’s it for today! It has taken me a very long time to go through all my photos and get around to pulling together this first post…but I’ve had to deal with Peekaboo’s problems, too, in addition to other stuff, so that’s my “excuse.” Incidentally, Peekaboo is doing very well on cortisone. She’s walking almost normally now…I mean, she isn’t walking in pain (or in “prevention of pain”), that is, in slow motion, with her back end almost to the ground. No, she is walking slowly but surely now. She even jumped onto Stefano’s desk a few days ago!!!

I’m giving her cortisone AND curcumin. In the beginning, I was giving her just the cortisone, afraid that the curcumin might have a negative impact (you never know when you mix two things together…), but I found the opposite to be true. When I give her both (not at the same time, of course!), she walks much better and is clearly in no pain. I’ll be discussing this with the vet later on today…