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Published: August 6th 2008
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Glasgow
St.George's Square Time is now counting down until I leave the UK and head off on the next big adventure and what trip would be complete without visiting Scotland. Our family has it's origins in Scotland from around the highlands near Inverness and Loch Ness, but more on that later.
We embarked on our journey very early on a Monday morning, flying into Glasgow due to cheap flights from Ryan Air and after a few hours of looking around and enjoyin the sun in St.George's Square it was time to bus it to Inverness. Well, what a bus ride! The scenery was beautiful (for the bits I actually stayed awake for!) and the guy behind us decided to drink and talk to himself or anyone who would listen for the next 4 hours. I drowned it out with iPod and sleep. when we finally arrived in Inverness we dropped our bags at the hostel and checke dout the town with a stop at the castle and a look through the multitude of kilt and gift shops.
After a much earned rest we left bright and early (9.30) for Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle. Urquhart Castle was ruled by our family for
Urquhart Castle
The ruins overlooking Loch Ness. over 4 centuries before they decided to blow it up and leave as they were sick defending it and didn't want it to fall into enemy hands. There is a bit more to it but I don't have all day. Loch Ness is stunning and after much looking Nessie was nowhere to be seen. As the weather was magic we walked 2 miles back to a small town called Drumnadrochit only to find we still had 2 hours until the next bus back to Inverness. we decided to check out the Loch Ness Muesum (or what ever it was) and I thought it was a pointless and boring exercise, it answered no questions, gave you no information and was just shit really.
Feeling ripped off there was only one thing left to do, drink some fine Scottish ale. We found a small pub and tasted some local brew, unfortunatley the kitchen was closed so my haggis tasting had to wait. We finally caught the bus back to Inverness and quickly found the only thing to do there in the evening in drink. We went to a ncie little pub opposite the castle and tried more ales.
The next
day we had plenty of time until we had to leave for Edinburgh so as we planned our activities poorly we could only stay in Inverness and take a walk down the River Ness to the Ness Islands, it was a nice walk and there were plenty of big houses to look at on the river bank. the river itself is only 1/2 a foot deep so there was no chance of seeing Nessie here. When lunch time finally arrived it was off to try some haggis. We found the local diner with very out dated decor from the 70's andit was time. the haggis was actually quiet good although it looked like it had been pre made and had been sitting in a warmer for a while. All the locals seemed to enjoy eating mac and cheese with chips and peas, can't say it looked very appertising!
Finally it was on to Edinburgh, and what a city it is! One thing you soon learn on these short trips is you can't waste anytime and really need to plan ahead what you are going to do, I'm not that organised. We took a free walking tour of the city
Loch Ness
Some guy at Grant Tower over looking Loch Ness. on Thursday. It was pretty good and we got to see alot of the city and hear about it's past and all the little quirky and not so savory aspects of Edinburghs past. When the tour was over we headed up the Salisbury crags and onto Arthur's Seat. While I was waiting for emily to catch up and little dog came up to me and started to sniff my leg so I went to pat it, it went psycho and bit me! I felt like kicking it off the cliff, little mongrel!
The views of Edinburgh were awesome and once breath was caught it was time to head back for dinner. That night we planned to do a ghost tour at 9.30. When eating dinner a pool comp at the hostel started with free beer so naturally I joined in, this was then to turn into the free pubcrawl, unfortunatley this coincided with the ghost tour. We took the ghost tour and I decided to meet up with the pub crawl later. The ghost tour was ok, but not scary at all, we learnt about the violent past of Edinburgh in the years gone by and well, yeah that
Loch Ness
The national flower, Scottish Thistle and a bee. was it. I couldn't find the pub crawlers when the tour finished so my night ended there.
On our last day we went on a whisky tour, it was great as it started with whisky tasting and a free whisky glass. The tour was good and it had a cart ride that took you through the history of whisky, well worth the 6 pounds for doing it pre-midday. It was then on to the castle, the enterance was all prepared for the Tattoo that started the following week. After a good look around it was onto lunch and more haggis, this time a little more upmarket and bloody nice! We still had some time to kill so we looked around a bit more an chilled in the gardens before getting a coffee at the cafe Harry Potter was written in and then headed back to London.
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North Bridge
You will find that is the North Bridge