A Freezing Apartment and Driving North to Oban

Thursday, October 20, 2016 ~ by Amy

Last night I was pretty sure things could only get better.  The apartment was really chilly when we arrived so I searched the house for a heat system.  There were old-fashioned radiators in each room but they radiated no heat, and turning dials on them produced not a degree of warmth.  Finally, exhausted, we pulled on wool socks and sweatshirts and crawled into our matching twin beds.  We somehow slept and in the morning when I awoke one second before my alarm sounded, I saw that it was 54 degrees in the room.  I did some more searching and, in a upper kitchen cabinet, found a white appliance with dials, gauges and a timer.  The back four pages of the apartment information book were filled with technical instructions for this appliance.  Unfortunately, they were written for the installer.  I called the service number and got a friendly gent who made an effort to troubleshoot it over the phone but to no avail.  He promised to send maintenance out. Meanwhile, I fiddled with things until I figured out how to turn the hot water on so Alyssa could take a shower.  They had a very firm 10 am checkout.  I made several other calls, including an insistence that checkout be extended until noon.  They agreed.  A woman finally came who knew about the "boiler".  As she came through the door, the fire alarm decided to shriek for no reason.  She grabbed the soaked mop that was standing in a kitchen corner and jabbed at it with the handle to silence it. That done, she checked out the boiler and stated that it had the gentleman's advice to turn it to the "sun" symbol was incorrect.  It should have been turned to the snowflake.  Who knew?

With the heat finally on, I took a quick shower and at 11:50 we were trying to finish packing up when someone pounded on the door and then using their own key, they just burst through the door.  It was a couple of cleaning ladies.  They rudely told me that they "had things to do" and that we needed to be out.  I decided that it was a waste of time to explain anything and we just threw our stuff in our bags and headed out.

#35 East King Street

We headed northeast toward the town of Luss, where Alyssa had located a promising restaurant.  After multiple turnarounds in the very busy streets, we finally figured that restaurant had gone out of business and got ham and cheese sandwiches in a cozy little cafe.  I paid an extra 50p for an amazing bowl of mushroom soup.  

Happy to have some food.

Ham, cheese and chutney panini with salad, coleslaw and crisps

Though the town was quaint and picturesque with beautiful stone buildings and a harbor spiked with hundreds of masts, we didn't dare explore it as we had much driving to do still.  The four hour drive to the town Oban, mid way up the west coast of Scotland, was on well marked highways.  It skirted Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park.  But though I occasionally caught a glimpse of water, the narrow roads and heavy traffic kept my eyes on the road.  I had Alyssa take pictures for me so I could admire them later.

No rain but the hillside seemed to "weep", leaving puddles.  A glimpse of  Loch Lomond through the trees.

Heavy traffic most of the way

Most of the narrow roads are bordered by either a wall or small curb.  Making the transition to driving on the left skillfully, takes time.  With so many fast vehicles in the oncoming lane, I had a habit of driving a little too close to the left edge.  I never actually hit a wall but hit the little curb numerous times so now the Mercedes' wheels are all scraped up.  Once, meeting a truck that was traveling well over the centerline, I had to pull so far left that the inside of the tire raked the back side of the curb.  I really couldn't have done anything different but it really shook me up.  Alyssa suggested that I keep an eye on the center line in my side mirror so that I can see if I have room to move over.  It helped a lot but sometimes there really wasn't room.  Occasionally signs gave warning of the narrow spot ahead so traffic could slow way down and pull over.

Tight squeeze

When there was open road in front and behind, the scenery was really beautiful.  Some of the evergreen trees had turned a rusty red but didn't seem to be dying.

Open road.  What a beautiful sight!

Autumn color

One of many stone cottages along the way

Lake reflection

One of the things that has drawn Alyssa to Scotland is highland cattle.  She finally got her first glimpse of them in a pasture bordering the road.  No one was behind me so we slowed down for a look at the shaggy beasts.

Shaggy Highland cattle

Our lodging for the next couple of nights was on the Isle of Kerrera, off the coast of Scotland.  There was a ferry running to the island every other, odd hour.  But winter hours had it available to the public only at 9 am and 5 pm.  The island has no services, so we were to call and let the ferry know we wanted on, then go and buy any needed groceries, park our car and haul our luggage about 1/2 mile to the ferry dock.  As we we pulled into Oban, a bustling harbor town, we called to reserve a spot on the ferry.  We were brusquely told by an elderly gentleman that there is no ferry.  When I told him that we had been instructed to call, he dismissed me with a, "I don't know who you've been talking to, but there is no 5 pm ferry!".  

City of Oban, Scotland at dusk

I called our hostess but her phone was having issues so I couldn't get through.  We drove through the busy town until we found a wifi signal while we were illegally parked in front of a Subway.  Through the Airbnb app we were able to reach her.  After a lot of back and forth, reparking and finding groceries at some discount mart, we were told that they finally located a friend's boat and agreed to come and pick us up.  One of our temporary parking spots was along the harbor.  We couldn't leave the car there as the max time allowed was one hour but I did get out and take a few pictures.

Oban harbor in the Kerrera Sound

Sun setting over the Island of Kerrera

They met us at the Subway and we followed their cargo van at ridiculous speeds through the city to a parking spot along the water.  They'd brought along extended family so we had help getting our luggage down to the small pontoon boat.  The seats were full so we just leaned against stuff as we sped across the darkened water toward the island.  The ride wasn't long, which was good because despite heavy coats, gloves and hats, it was quite chilly.  We pulled into a slip in a dark cove and everyone began to traipse up a long muddy hill.  We had help with most our luggage but still ended up carrying things so were huffing and puffing.  No one seemed to need light so we just walked in the pitch dark.  Our hosts, Isla and Loui, asked about our previous night.  We mentioned being freezing cold.  That was when they told us that their entire heat system was down.  They had an individual heater set in each bedroom though and one in the parlor.  When we arrived, Loui started a fire in the cozy coal burning fireplace.