Blogs from Inverness, Inverness-shire, Scotland, United Kingdom, Europe

We got up early as we wanted to be ready as soon as the boat docked. We had an all day private tour scheduled. As soon as we got the “you could go to shore signal”, we left. Our driver was outside the gate with a sign with my name of it. The car was a van and was very spacious and our guide was great. He drove us from Invergordon, where our ship docked through small villages and our first stop was to see the long hair cows common in the area. These 2 where named after Outlander characters. Our next stop was Beauly Priory where Claire, from Outlander, picked herbs. Unfortunately, it was under renovation to shore up the structure and that won’t be completed until June. We then walked around the town square ... read more

Today I said goodbye to Edinburgh and took the train up to Inverness. When I looked at the train schedule, I saw I could get on at Haymarket but I thought it would be better to walk up to Waverly to ensure a window seat. Luckily the rain stopped and held off for my walk! There was a break in the clouds and the sun was shining on the castle as I walked along Princes Street. Waverly is a fairly large train station with plenty of signage to help you find your way. The ticket counter lady was very helpful and I was able to buy a return ticket as I will be passing through here again on Friday. Buying a return and then another ticket to my next destination worked out to be cheaper than ... read more

On August 20 we left Edinburgh for Dundee and points beyond. The largest draw for Dundee was the new Victoria & Albert Museum, an extension of the one in London. It is an amazing piece of architecture, two upside down pyramids of horizontal bands that spiral up and join together. It is on the waterfront next to the ship Discovery, a barque-rigged auxiliary steamship built for Antarctic research. Launched in 1901, she was the last traditional wooden three-masted ship to be built in the United Kingdom. Our next stop was Scone (pronounced scoon) Palace, near the city of Perth. It is an historic house by the village of Scone. Built in red sandstone with a castellated roof, it is an example of the Gothic Revival style in Scotland. The interior part that we were allowed to ... read more

After breakfast, again at the Isle of Skye Baking Co., we headed back to the mainland on our way to Loch Ness. Rain and heavy traffic slowed us down and we arrived at Urquhart Castle after 11:30, so we decided to come back to it after our cruise on Loch Ness. It turned out we could upgrade our cruise tickets to include a stop at the castle for less than the price we would have had to pay to see the castle. It drizzled a bit as we began our cruise, but cleared shortly after getting underway. We even enjoyed seeing a rainbow as we neared the castle. The castle dates back to 1509 and is now just ruins, but still picturesque. Loch Ness is beautiful. Nessie, however, did not show. After cruising back to our ... read more

What a day of contrasts! Our hotel in Glasgow, right next to the railway station has such good wifi! We wandered downstairs and found that the brasserie for breakfast that I’d researched is part of our hotel! After a lovely hot buffet breakfast we packed up and headed to the station to catch our train for our 3 1/2 hour trip to Inverness. The train was just a local train with people alighting and joining all along the way. There were some men on their way to Inverness to watch a soccer game - they started on their ales and drank and chatted (getting louder and louder) all along the way. We were chatting to a man who works for Wendy Wu. Wendy Wu tours started in Sydney but HQ is now London. The scenery along ... read more