Edinburgh to Oban - Day 4

Today we shoved off from lovely Edinburgh for Oban on the Western Coast. After a breakfast of coffee/tea and sausage rolls, we packed up and left. St. Giles Cathedral was open today (not a practicing church) so we popped in. Todd was a trooper and stayed outside with the bags!
 
Rick refers to St. Giles as Scotland's most important church (founded 1124). It's ornate spire of 1495 is the Scottish crown steeple. Inside there are 200 memorials honoring various Scots over the years. 
 
 

 
After our walk through we hoped the tram for the airport where we picked up our rental car, a Qashqa compact SUV (Euro Nissan brand). For the most part it's a nice SUV but VERY ANNOYING because of all the buzzing and warnings it sets off, often for no apparent reason. So much so Rachael dubbed it...
 
The Naggin' Wagon.
 
 
Along our drive to Oban, we made a few random pit stops. First was a lovely Loc with a nice beach and plenty of ducks. 
 

  

 

  
 
 
                                        Cheeky monster! 

 

If that wasn't fun enough, just down the road was another great stop in Loch Awe, St. Conan's Kirk. Designed by Walter Douglas Campbell, it was built 1881-1886, then extended 1906-1914. 

 



 The cloister beams were believed to have come from old battleships.  
 

The interior is a mish-mosh of different church styles (Roman to Norman) and is pretty eclectic. The whole place was very cool! 
 
 

Would anyone like a bit of the Bruce? I guess like the Italians, the Scots like to keep body parts laying around for show. 

 

Here's Todd examining the cooper patina on the outside. If you listened carefully, you could hear him mumble under his breath "I could buff that out with a fine shammy. Easy peasy."

 
Back on the road, we drove through the drizzle and finally arrived in the lovely coastal town of Oban. Our Airbnb was a cottage located next to an old, big Inn (below).

 
Here's a photo of our AirBnB cottage we took the following day from the ferry - It was really cute!

 
I think our cottage used to be the Inn Keeper's residence. Anyway it was spacious and likely recently remodeled. Great place near the water!  
 

Holly and I braved the elements and went to a local store for provisions. Breakfast supplies were fine, but the wine selection left much to be desired :(
 
For our first night, we had dinner at a local seafood place, EE-USK, and it was faaaaantastic. Odd, though, most of the staff were very young teens (obviously no picture of the staff as I didn't want to get arrested).
 


 Back to our cottage for some more wine a good chat. Weather should be sunny tomorrow!!

 

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