Blogs from Inverness-shire, Scotland, United Kingdom, Europe - page 4

18th Jan 2022 From Kingussie to Mallaig I let Claire lie in until 7:30. She's a lucky girl. Today was a travelling day so of course we wanted to squeeze in as much as possible before we ensconced ourselves in our new accommodation. I let Claire have some breakfast and then we packed the car and drove about 200m to a car park. Well it would have been 200m if I hadn’t missed the huge sign, but that’s by the by. The car park had some clean loos and a map of all the walks in the area. I’d already decided on one last night that took us to a peak with a chance of seeing red squirrels so we headed out on that one. The route turned out to have many things that people go ... read more

After a veritable lie-in until 8am we breakfasted in our room before heading out into the clean Highlands air. Part of the reason for this trip was to try and photograph polar bears in the snow at the Highland Wildlife Park. When the sun is out all day and the temperature is a heady 6 degrees…..well that just ain’t gonna happen. A note from yesterday. When we last came up here, about 8 years ago, the A9 had a trial maximum speed limit in some parts for HGV of 50mph. That trial is still going on! And it’s dumb! That speed limit applies to single carriageways so everyone behind has to go at 50 as well… The roads are straight and smooth yet this eternal trial is slowing everyone down to 50. Okay dumbnuts, here’s the ... read more

Dear All Greetings from Loch Ness! Yay!! This is probably Scotland’s most famous lake, and also one of the most famous lakes in the world. This is actually my second time here, as it was also in Inverness a couple of days ago. I believe I mentioned in my first blog entry for this trip, that 20 years ago, I made one of my first backpacking trips to this part of the world for three nights, to get a feel for this business of travelling – and I liked it so much, I’ve pretty much spent the rest of my life doing it! These last few days have very much brought back memories for me, some very good memories of my first taste of travelling freedom, and this beautiful part of the world. I loved Inverness ... 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

Nach einer Woche Wandermodus gewöhnt sich der Körper langsam an den sehr anderen Touristenmodus. Erster Stop des Tages: Culloden Battlefield, wo 1746 Bonnie Prince Charlie den Krieg gegen die Britischen Regierungstruppen verlor. https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlacht_bei_Culloden Es gibt ein Visitor Centre, das auf gegenüberliegenden Wänden die Geschichte vor, während und nach der Schlacht aus beiden Perspektiven erzählt. Das ist eine tolle Idee! Zudem gibt es einen Videoraum, indem man die Schlacht erleben kann. Film läuft auf allen Wänden und man steht praktisch zwischen den Fronten. Auf dem Feld selbst gibt es Gedenksteine der unterschiedlichen Clans und die Truppenpositionen sind mit roten und blauen Farben markiert. Es ist erstaunlich, wie weit die Armeen zuerst auseinander standen und wie weit die halb verhungerten Jacobites nach einem Marsch in Regen und Kälte, der die ... read more