Photos from October trip to Oban (finally)

Below are some photos, as well as a link to the full album, from our trip to Oban. After uploading all the photos from Venice to Blogger, I realized that Google+ (formerly Picasa) was a much better way to do this. Oban is a beautiful, small port city on the West coast of Scotland, about a hundred miles north of Glasgow. It's the ferry connection to the Isle of Mull and a variety of other islands off Argyll. We did go to the Isle of Mull, but it was, other than the scenery, one of the less successful days of our trip. The weather was good, and we saw lighthouses, rainbows, and so on, but we were there on a Sunday, when there were few transport options and we had no plan in advance. The CalMac ferry rides were fun and the scenery, as throughout the trip, was incredible. We didn't even go to the really scenic places, and the photos from the train don't do the landscape justice. The vista photos from Oban are taken from Pulpit Hill and McCaig's Tower, both of which are easy 15 minute walks from downtown Oban. We spent time at the library, lots and lots of time in our holiday rental flat, perhaps a bit too much time at the Atlantis Leisure Center in Oban, but all in all it was a very worthwhile trip.

https://plus.google.com/photos/103247747429321225220/albums/5679335395073642881

Hardly working...

And finally, a few photos that at least hint that some work was done, though a lot of it was done over drinks at restaurants... and while taking photos...

Venice walkabout 5

This set finishes with a few shots of one of the University of Venice facilities, located right on the waterfront. Oh, and a couple shots of Lynn traversing one of the VERY narrow walkways...

Venice walkabout 4

In a way, Venice is a Hoofers' paradise. Water everywhere. Presumably sailing nearly all year; though we saw surprisingly few sailing boats in the Lagoon, and of course none in the canals. But consider: - It's perfectly normal to begin drinking at, or before, lunchtime, and to continue imbibing lightly throughout the day - It's an island. Riddled with canals. There's water everywhere. - If you manage to injure yourself, say because you've been drinking all day and there's water everywhere, the paramedics will pick you up in a BOAT.

Venice walkabout 3

Our fantastic dinner Friday night at Al Nono Risorto must remain undocumented as we took no pictures. We found the restaurant at 7.45pm, initially rejected an offer for an 8.45pm table, walked for 10 minutes without finding something else that looked as good, went back to request the reservation, drank a glass of wine in a more modern wine bar with hard rock music playing far too loud, then claimed our table. The dinner was relatively simple but fantastic, including the red table wine at 9 Euro a bottle.