Tourist of Life

Day 4 continued…

In the afternoon, after we said farewell to the bagpiper and left Glencoe we followed the western coast of Scotland down to Oban.  By the time we arrived the skies had cleared and we enjoyed blue skies with billowy clouds the rest of the day.

The first thing we noticed when we got near the coast was the extreme low tide.  I researched it later and found out that the latitude (distance from the earth’s equator) of Oban is very similar to that of Ketchican, Alaska where we had seen tidal extremes as well.  On the day we were in Oban, there was a difference of 10 feet between high and low tide.  Here’s a little evidence.

One of our stops in town was the Oban Whisky Distillery which has been in business since 1794.  We wanted to take a tour, but we got there too late and the tickets were all sold out.  We were able to browse in their gift shop and picked up a few souvenirs.  We also picked up this cool Whisky Map that shows the various Scottish whiskies according to location and type of flavors (light, smoky, rich or delicate).  Click to enlarge and see if you can find one that’s familiar to you.

We strolled down the main street toward the edge of town, and hiding behind construction scaffolding, we discovered the gorgeous St. Columba’s Roman Catholic Cathedral.  As you can see from the photo, it was built with generous amounts of blue granite.  To give you an idea of the scale of the room, notice that Kevin is sitting on the right side of the aisle near the front.  In the next post I’ll share a little more about the cathedral as well as some tasty food discoveries that we made in Oban.

TRAVEL TIP TODAY:  Be adventurous.  You may find some hidden gems.  We had no idea that this lovely cathedral was in Oban, but we noticed an entrance among the scaffolding and decided to check it out.  We were so glad we did!  You never know what you might find around an unexpected corner, so don’t be afraid to explore a bit when you’re in a new place.