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Published: July 31st 2008
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Pack! Pack!! Pack!!!
We're running out of clean clothes. 'Hope we can find a laundry soon. It should be feasible 'cos Inverness is near the sea.....apparently!!
We got a free bus ride 'cos the driver hadn't got any change from ₤10. What a nice man!
Once again, we took our pre-booked and pre-paid train from Aberdeen to Inverness. ₤7.50 for me and ₤3.75 for a child! Meanwhile, “The Small Young Gentleman” made himself comfortable by playing with Gordon and China, the two children nearby which was lucky as the train, which should have taken 2 hours, was 38 minutes late due to “signalling problems”. Ah well!
We arrived in Inverness and it was looking good. Its a picturesque little town and I was looking forward to being near water. Its an old town filled with lots of old steps, particularly the Brae Steps, which we had to navigate! I was totally worn out by the end of it and was looking forward to a cup of tea.
Alas!
It was not to be......
The B & B had been split into two separate houses so that our B & B which we booked at
Nr. 28 was now Nr. 36.
Our booking which I had made in November, could not be found..
I had been charged and paid twice. TWICE! For the same booking.
The Management had changed and there had been such a backlog of stuff that they couldn't find evidence of any of the above.
It wasn't really looking good! Jeez!!
Luckily, they were able to put us into a room en-suite while they tried to see what they could do. We're still on the double booking thus double payment thing. They promised to make a refund via my credit card by the end of the week. We'll see!
We're staying at The Highlander B & B which was 2 minutes from the centre and cost ₤45 a night. The good news was that they also had a hostel which was in another building right in the city centre. It had friendly young people, snooker, fooseball and board games. Plenty of things for the Small Young Gentleman to do!
Once we got ourselves sorted out, we went around the “town” to see the sights. Inverness is actually a city the status of which the Queen
had bestowed in 2001!
Inverness is in the Highlands and is known for its proud history, wonderful landscape, and vibrant culture. It is also one of the oldest towns in Scotland since records has it that it was on the old trade route in 565AD!
During the 6th century, Inverness was the capital of the Pictish Kingdom. The people were called “Picts” by the Romans, which means “painted people”. Since then, many battles have been fought for the control of Inverness by the Vikings, the Celtic Irish, the English and when there was nobody else to fight, the Scots themselves!!
We were very impressed by the city spanning from Inverness Castle to the old Gaelic Church and also of course, by the Loch Ness which I'll tell you about tomorrow!
According to our local map, if we walked towards Moray Firth Lake, we would find dolphins. So we did.
We took a long walk by the river shore of River Ness until we got to the great lake. We didn't find any dolphins but it was nevertheless, a lovely walk.
On the way home, we saw what can only be described as a weird
man, just outside the door of one of the B & B's. I was very concerned as he had collapsed and was lying in a strange position with his wallet, mobile phone, credit cards and cigarettes right beside him! I believed him to be drunk but I was anxious as I didn't want “ The Small Young Gentleman” to be exposed to such vices so I quickly reported this incident to the authorities concerned.
I am very happy to say that we saw this same man outside the same B & B the very next day, alive and well!!!
By the evening, I wanted to go on-line but we were still having difficulties in getting a WIFI connection. We had gone to a pub, the hostel and even McDonalds but no can do!
Ah well. Early to bed then.
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