Exploring the Isle of Arran

 After some amazing vegan banana pancakes at the Dell-Mar B&B in Moffat, 

we bid our hostess, Susan, farewell

and set our sights for Ardrossan, to take the ferry to Brodick on the Isle of Arran.

I had prebooked several weeks ago, and made certain to leave quite a bit of time to allow for any issues with traffic.  The information at hand showed the time of the last calling (2:50 PM) , and what time the ship departed, (3:20 PM), but nowhere did it say when we should begin to queue up.   

We figured that we had a couple of hours to explore, so we parked the car and decided to take a stroll around the village of Ardrossan.  I was impressed with some of the unusual architecture of the buildings in the main part of town.

and was thoroughly surprised when we turned the corner and looked in the distance. 

The houses stand in a crescent, making the scene a bit more dramatic from this vantage point.  Of course, there was the standard life saving device....just in case someone needed it.

a war memorial, which is typical of most villages

and interesting houses lining the crescent.

Walking back towards town, the scene is equally beautiful. 

and I found the ship on top of the church's steeple to be entertaining. 

Once again, we were blessed with amazing weather upon which to enjoy all of this beauty. 

Here you can see the Isle of Arran in the distance.

We passed this unique building on our way to the ferry, but had no idea what it was. It certainly did stand out in the distance from atop a hill that we had climbed.

The Castle Ardrossan was atop the hill, with views of the sea as well as the land.  As you can see, it is only ruins at this point in time, having been destroyed by Oliver Cromwell.

And an obelisk stood upon the hill as well, although I can't tell you why it is there.

By now, we figured it would be in our best interest to head back down to the ferry.

As I mentioned previously, we had no idea exactly what time we should get in line for the ferry, so I looked at the time line for departures, and although one was scheduled to depart shortly, I had presumed that the cut off time would be half an hour before departure, similar to our schedule. 

So, we went to the booth to hand in our tickets, and the woman in charge looked at our tickets and said, "Darlin', we can put you on this one that is sailing earlier."   So there we had it.  Not only was I "Darlin'", which I found to be quite endearing, but we were on a ferry scheduled to arrive an hour and a half earlier than planned!

That was certainly a pleasant surprise. 

And, before we knew it, we were checked into our hotel,

admiring this lovely view from the room.

as well as this picturesque view from the front.

We decided that since we had extra time on our hands, that we should get out and explore, so we headed out the door, and began walking up the street. 

Once again, there were amazing houses situated along the road, each having an amazing view of Holy Island in the distance.

And, much to our surprise, we stumbled upon some sea life that was unique, and somewhat amusing.

This fella gave us quite a chuckle as he rocked back and forth after finally managing to maneuver his way onto that raft. 

These creatures are in the area known as the Lamlash Bay No Take Zone, where it is prohibited to do any type of fishing at all.   But, lucky for Marty, a short distance from the zone is a perfectly acceptable section for attempting to cast a line into the sea.   And he might just try his hand at that tomorrow morning. 

In the meantime, we enjoyed a lovely dinner in the hotel, in a cozy spot by the window.

And once again, I ordered dessert.

Cranachan Cheesecake.  Don't judge me....I shared with Marty.  

Plus....I'm on holiday.  Calories don't count....right?  

Well, I certainly do hope that's the case, because you should have seen the welcome treats awaiting us in our room when we arrived!   Little packages of Scottish Tablet, all tied up with a pretty bow.

Certainly a welcome surprise!