Scotland!

12/05/2009

O what a beautiful morning! O what a beautiful day! You know the rest of the song! We woke up at 7h00 this morning, and the sun was already shining. We still have no idea what time it get’s dark since we fell asleep at 23h00 and it was still dawnish outside!! We both saw Nessie today, but not at the same time and was too stunned to take any pictures, but we will try again tonight. Once again the view from the room is spectacular!

After breakfast we’re off to do our first official castle tour! Surrounded on 3 sides by water Urquhart Castle must be one of the most beautiful ruins in Scotland despite its bloody history. Walking through the enchanting castle you can’t help but wonder about the lifestyles of the Scottish clans of ages ago.

From the castle we’re off too Inverness. Inverness Castle was at one stage held by the Gordon Clan (Leon’s ancestors) before it was conquered by Mary Queen of Scott’s, who then hanged the Gordon that refused her entry to the Castle. Inverness-shire stole Melinda’s heart. The River Ness running through town has clean

Urquhart Castle

A truly amazing view over the Loch Ness

blue water and because it’s spring time the banks of the river and all around the old city the walkways were covered with pink blossoms. The fresh breeze was wonderfully crisp and Melinda decided that one of her dreams will be to run a little boutique hotel near the river banks.

We visited St Andrew’s Cathedral and since this is not a real tourist attraction had to knock on the doors, the priest then unlocked the doors and requested we switch our mobiles off and respect the Holiness of the place while we looked around. This is by far the most beautiful Cathedral we have ever seen, and it had a different feel to it than any of the others. You can’t help but respect the people for their dedication to their religion.

After our walk around the town it was time for lunch, Melinda’s food is not even worth mentioning since Leon did the daring thing and had traditional Haggis. Haggis is eaten with Tatties (mashed potatoes) and Neeps (turnip or swede). Haggis is a traditional Scottish dish. There are many recipes, most of which have in common the following ingredients: sheep's 'pluck' (heart, liver and lungs),

Leon at Urquhart Castle

minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally boiled in the animal's stomach for approximately three hours. Nice isn’t it? Well according to Leon and most other people is actually nice and has a similar taste to biltong.

We visited the Loch Ness Centre that is quite informative and has got lots of details on how the rumors started and all the searches that were conducted to find the monster. We would not recommend it to visitors that will only be in Scotland for a short time.

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