Todays trip takes us up the Great Glen. 2 lochs split Scotland diagonally from Fort William to Inverness. Another beautiful day. First stop is the Urquhart Castle ruin on the side of Loch Ness. Massive visitor center here now. Large museum and theatre display the long history. Site dates back to 12th century with the current building starting in the 13th. After being destroyed by retreating Government forces in the late 1700's the castle was left in ruins. We are off to the Culloden Battlefield maintained as a war cemetery. 4 or 5 hours to properly view all of the presentations and museum artifacts. It takes a lot of reading to understand the root causes of this confilct. It was a lot more than just a group trying to put a King (James) back on the ... read more

Day 5 Scone Palace & Pitlochry We leave Edinburgh and head north towards the highlands. Crossing the Forth Bridge we head for Perth. First stop is Scone Palace (pronounced “skoon”) Why skoon you ask??? I did ask. Not very good answers. It would appear that early in history the names were passed on phonetically and not written down. Most people could not read. This is why there are so many weird pronunciations. We actually did have a scone at Scone Palace. Scone Palace has a multitude of stories but 2 are most prominent. 1- The Crowning place of most of Scotland’s Kings. It started out as the home of an Abbey which covered a huge portion of the property. The palace today started out as the Abbot’s Palace and remained after the main portion was destroyed ... read more

Day 2 Rosslyn Chapel & Edinburgh Today is essentially a travel day. We are having issues getting the cell phone to data roam (live maps), the GPS in the car is difficult (being polite) voltage converter failed. So, getting a live map and / or using google maps directions are making things challenging. Thankfully we have been here before so we are both referring to land marks. First stop is Rosslyn Chapel was built as the St. Clair family place of worship in the 1400’s. Construction was started and stopped multiple times depending on the health of the head of the family. During this period of time in southern Scotland there were not many places of worship so Rosslyn became very popular and the Catholic Church turned it into a teaching church (kirk in Scot’s). Then ... read more

We are 8 days away from another journey to the HIGHLANDS!! Ah yes the heather, haggis and whiskey! Let me know if you want to unsubscribe. Just testing to make sure all the emails are right.... read more

Another early start by loading the bus for a 2 hour driver to Mayan ruins north west of Cost Maya. Thankfully this was a half decent newer bus with great air conditioning and a smooth ride. The tour guide Letti gave us an abundance of info as we drove along about the Mayan culture and language. I really should start to record these guides, I can’t remember a lot of the info that they pass along. Spectacular ruins at Kohunlich. Actual Mayan name has been lost but when the archaeologist came to the area he named it Kohun ridge. The locals couldn’t pronounce the “R” in ridge so it became known as Kohunlich. While the Aztecs were known for their astrology the Mayans not so much but they did find 2 of the temples lined up ... read more