Tag: scotland

We had a nice breakfast at our B&B this morning and then packed and had our host take a picture of us with the mountains in the background.  The bill for the night came to £50.

We then went for a short stroll on a walking path in Kingraig.  We went to an old church and graveyard, along Lock Insh, and down a farmers driveway.  His cows were quite interested in us.

Next, we went to the Highland Wildlife Park.  For £16, we were able to drive around and walk around a lot of native Scottish wildlife in nearly natural habitats. We saw European bison, elk (moose), sheep), wild horses, deer, otter, lynx, wild cats, pole cats, owls, and (my favorite) wolves. We took lots of pictures. The gift shop had wildlife t-shirts from The Mountain, a t-shirt shop in Keene, NH, where we work.

After a drive the country (B roads or less), we ended up at Inverdruie/Rothiemurchus for lunch.  I had a venison burger while Sarah had a sandwich she loved and some soup.  After lunch, we took a 3 mile walk through the woods and countryside.  The highlights of the walk were watching two highland cattle butting heads in a field and the ruins of a castle on a small island in the loch.

Throughout the day, the same weather pattern continued: sunny for a while and then rainy for a while.  But it rarely poured.

On the way up to Inverness, we stopped to see the old stone bridge from the 1600 or 1700s in Carrbridge.  Later I stopped to photograph a railroad bridge near Tomatin crossing the Findhorn Rriver.  Just as we got to Inverness, we saw the most intense rainbow I have seen in a long time.

Then the frustration started!  While Inverness is much smaller than Edinburgh, it’s still a city.  I have never been one for driving in any city – let alone a city where they drive on the other side of the road and I don’t have a good map of it.  After much effort trying to find a particular B&B, we ended up near a Travelodge hotel/motel. I think there are only two in the entire Highlands. A room much like an American motel cost £60.

We had a little trouble finding our way back into town for dinner – and much trouble finding a place to eat.  There were several choices but few that seemed right.  There was even a McDonald’s.  We ended up at an Indian restaurant for a curry.  We easily found her way back to the motel – much to my surprise.

September 28, 2005

The flight to London took 5 ½ hours at 6:15 PM our time to 4:45 AM London time.  We tried to sleep but neither of us got much.  I watched Sahara and Sarah watched The Interpreter.

Getting between terminals and through security again at Heathrow took quite a while.  We think we went through customs there but we’re not sure.  We then had another 1½ hour flight up to Edinburgh. We got in around 8:30 Monday morning.  Everyone who began their flight in a non-EU country picked up their baggage on a separate carousel than everyone else.  But no one was there to check it or ask us if we had anything can claim.  There was a sign next to a phone on the wall that said if you have anything to claim it up this phone.  Sarah picked it up to ask a question about my corsage that she had with her but no one answered it.

We picked up our rental car – a subcompact Mercedes.  My first experience driving on the left was out of the parking lot into a roundabout in Monday morning rush hour traffic!  I rubbed the wheels against the curb because I kept misjudging how much of the car was to the left of me. We planned to drive straight into the city to a car park near Edinburgh Castle.  However, that’s not quite what happened.  It was Monday morning rush hour traffic.  I got in a turn-only lane and there was too much traffic to change my mind.  We thought we’d swing around the block and be fine.

An hour and ½ later, we found ourselves at a park and ride outside the city – practically back at the airport.  For £2.30 each, we got all day bus passes.  Unfortunately we left the camera in the car.

We toured Edinburgh Castle and walked the Royal Mile.  We stopped in some of the shops along the way.  We also took a short detour to go to Greyfrair’s cemetery to see the statue of Greyfrair’s Bobby.  That’s a dog whose master was buried in the cemetery.  The dog sat by his master’s grave every day for years until he died. We both dozed on the bus ride back to the car.  The drive to the Inchview Hotel was about 20 stressful minutes in on and off rain.  The weather during the day had been pretty good.  But it was very windy on the Royal Mile.

Sarah’s brother called ahead to arrange for us to have dinner in the hotel restaurant.  That was great because we were so tired and tired of driving!  We were both nearly falling asleep at the table at 8:00 PM.  We went to sleep early and got up around 7:30.

It was sunny but 20 minutes later it was raining.  That’s how most of the day went. We had breakfast at the hotel and then headed north.  When we got to Pitlochry, we checked out the Pitlochry Festival Theatre and then visited a fish ladder and had a light lunch.  We found a nice walking path along the river.  There were a few historic sites including where someone famous had been killed and the Soldier’s Leap where an English soldier jumped 20 feet or so across the river while running from Scottish Jacobites.

Tonight we are staying at the Homewood House B&B in Kingussie.  After checking in, we drove past some of the sites used in the Monarch of the Glen TV series including the manor house.  Sarah drove for the first time.  She did OK but was quite stressed.  I’m starting to get comfortable driving. We had dinner at the Tipsy Laird pub and are having another early night.  As I write this, Sarah is reading tour books for ideas for tomorrow.