August 17 - Ullapool, Scotland

Yesterday, the 16th of August, we tendered ashore in Oban, Scotland.  I was just there a couple of months ago and had been there before that. Therefore I decided to stay on the ship.  It was also drizzling in the morning and that helped to convince me.  I did consider going into town for lunch because I ate at a great seafood restaurant last time, but my brain told me I didn’t really need to eat that much.

Today we anchored off Ullapool in Loch Broom in the Scottish counties of Ross and Cromarty.  We were unable to sail in here earlier this year, so I did go ashore with one of my friends.  Ullapool is a village with around 1600 residents. Loch Broom on whose shore the village lies is a deep-sea loch and so it is a significant ferry port for traffic to some of the Outer Hebrides islands and their towns like Stornoway. A few years ago Ullapool was named one of the 20 most beautiful villages in the British Isles by Condé Nast Traveler magazine.  I can see why.

As we got off the tender at the top of the ramp we met a delightful lady named Allison who is a local volunteer greeter to the village. She was a font of information. My friend Claudia wanted to find a yarn shop and I was looking for a bookstore.  (I love to browse in old-fashioned bookstores in these little places.  They are so much more interesting than our big stores like Barnes and Noble.) Both of us were interested in a good place for fish and chips.  We could see a couple of fancy looking places from the dock, nut Allison clued us in to one around the corner and a few doors away from those.  That’s where we went and wow, was it good!

That's Allison from Ullapool in the middle. Ignore the person on the left.

The place was called Deli-Ca-Sea Fish & Chips Café. There were perhaps six tables covered with blue and white vinyl tablecloths. They had Cullen Skink soup on the menu. That’s the soup I discovered back in the spring and absolutely loved.  It’s a creamy fish chowder made with smoked haddock and it’s divine despite its strange name.  Claudia ordered fish and chips and I ordered the soup and we shared because the servings were enormous.  The food was so good!  After lunch we walked up the little hill and found a yarn shop and a shop selling local arts and crafts.  Another friend of ours is celebrating her birthday in a few days and I found a nice little hand-made bag for her. Claudia said the wool was coarser than what she likes to knit usually so she didn’t get anything.  Next we found the bookshop which had that wonderful smell of paper and print that old bookstores have.  There was a large section of books about Scotland, both fiction and non-fiction, and I found a book that sounded interesting.  One section had only books written in Gaelic and I wished I could read that because they looked interesting.

After wandering around a little more down on Shore Street next to the Loch we headed back to the tender dock.  Allison was still there so we thanked her for the lunch recommendation.

We made it back in time for trivia.  We didn’t win, but we also didn’t come in last. I met three friends, all of us widows, for cocktails before dinner and then we ate in the alternative restaurant.  I think we were the next to the last table to leave; we were having so much fun and laughing so much.  One of the ladies, a new Aussie friend and I adjourned to the Club where we danced a little and enjoyed the bands.  How lucky I am to be able to meet so many people from all over the world and enjoy seeing all these lovely places! Life is good!