Loch Sheil
Tobermory

This week Jonathan and I are both off work, and as we hadn't planned to go abroad because we went away to Copenhagen in the Springtime we decided to take in some of the Scottish Countryside.  Jonathan's family are from Oban, so we stayed with them to take us a little further North.  We drove up on Sunday afternoon, so our first proper day was Monday. On our first day we took a drive to Glenfinnan, well known for being featured in the Harry Potter films.  We took in the views and got some photographs of the viaduct, and we went a wander through the woods.  We ate our picnic on a log on the banks of Loch Shiel, which was a pretty spectacular view.  Sometimes it's easy to take for granted how beautiful Scotland is.  There's a gift shop and coffee shop at Glenfinnan, originally filled with classic Scottish merchandise, there's now a section dedicated to Harry Potter - so of course I bought things.  I picked up a travel mug for my coffee (basically I take ages to drink a cup of coffee and it's always cold at the bottom unless it's in a closed cup);  I got me and Jonathan Slytherin and Ravenclaw coasters for the coffee table (I'm the Slytherin, he's the Ravenclaw); I got a Slytherin keyring; and finally a Snitch necklace, which is really cute!  So a few things to add to my rather sizeable Harry Potter collection.
On Tuesday we got the ferry over to the Isle of Mull as I'd never been before.  I haven't actually seen a lot of Scotland considering I was born here.  When we got off the ferry, we got the bus up to Tobermory, which is a famous little sea front village.  It's famous because all of the buildings on the sea front are painted bright colours; and it was the setting for a Scottish kids TV show years ago called Balamory.  It's pretty much what you'd expect of a small sea front village.  Cute cafes for a coffee and a bit of cake and shops filled with knick knacks for tourists - and of course, plenty of fresh sea food.  We were a bit luckier with the weather on Tuesday, and it actually stayed warm and sunny until the early evening.  We strolled in the sun with some ice-cream and I treated myself to some Heather bath salts from the Isle of Mull Soap Co. - they smell amazing.  They have a website if you're interested in looking at their products.  They do bath bombs, salts, soaps and candles.  It was a lovely day, apart from getting sea sick on the ferry home.
We came home on Wednesday, picked up the cat from my mums house as she was cat sitting and done some food shopping - back to reality.  We need to use this week to do things that we can't because Jonathan works Mon-Fri 9-5; so for the next couple of days we're going to be doing fun things like going to the bank.  It was a nice couple of relaxed days.