Fort Augustus

Although tempted to summit Ben Nevis, UK’s tallest mountain, we were robbed of sleep by some loud city folk during the night, and it was threatening to rain at any moment, so we instead wussed out and went to a café in Glen Coe for second breakfast.

Unless you’re a hobbit or a touring cyclist you’re probably not familiar with second breakfast. Second breakfast is fabulous. Any type of food is game, whether savory or sweet. Unlike brunch, second breakfast comes after you’ve already had breakfast but before lunch. It’s the meal between the meal. Since it’s been cool and wet since we arrived in Scotland, our second breakfast of choice has been tea and some kind of pastry or cake. This gives us courage to brave the rain for another day.

And brave the rain we did, along with plenty of backpackers walking the Great Glen Way. We passed them lumbering under oversized packs head to toe in dripping rain gear. They looked miserable, like cats in a bathtub. But I bet that’s the way we look to people as they cruise by in their motor vehicles. We’re all just a bunch of wet weirdos, enjoying the experience, even when it’s not entirely enjoyable.