last year

A year ago I was in the British Isles. We spent almost four weeks driving around and seeing sights. I was looking through my pictures (thousands of them) and picked out a few to post here.

Every country was beautiful in it's own way. I liked the Highlands in Scotland for their barren beauty. Mountains always intrigue me. The good news is that the place was full of them :)

I'd like to go back someday for a longer stay, maybe someplace farther off the road. With a camera of course.

We only spent two days in the Highlands. One day passing by Loch Ness, Eilean Donan castle and Isle of Skye. We stayed overnight in Ullapool and drove up the coast and back down the middle during the next day. Most of our time was spent in the car. I'd like to change that next time. I remember the roads being narrow with passing places every 200m or so. The scenery looked better live than on film, but I did my best to capture it.

This is the Skye Bridge, connecting the island with the mainland. My sister had booked a Clydesdale-horse ride on Skye, so while she rode, we explored the town and a little waterfall. The mountains were rather awesome.

On our way back home, we spent an afternoon walking along Hadrian's Wall in northern England. It was built by the Romans long, long ago as some kind of barrier between their empire and the wild people of the north. It was nice. Interesting to think it's been there for nearly two millenia already. My mom was thrilled. She loves history. I suppose I like it too, but maybe in a different way.

I have two days off work now. After Sunday, I will be done with my job. It has served me well-I now have a laptop of my own. I still don't know whether Maxwell has accepted me or not. I hope they'll let me know soon because there are some arrangements still to be made. I got a tetanus shot a week ago. It swelled up and hurt for a long time. Now it's only a little bump though. Finally. The first few nights I couldn't even sleep on that arm because it hurt so much.

I finished the book The Da Vinci Code yesterday. I liked the idea of a secret society and a treasure hunt, but otherwise I didn't think much of it. I guessed the bad guy soon after he appeared so the rest of the book went by without too much excitement. In Deception Point and Angels and Demons the ending was more surprising and I think the overall experience was better. But now at least I've read the books and know what they're about. Dan Brown is a good author, I will say that much.

Happy August everyone!