Glencoe
Slowly but surely I'm getting to this!
The Friday before I came home, I made a point to go on the Loch Ness tour. Hearing it would be a 12 hour round-trip at the start sounded a bit daunting, but as we stopped many times and just getting to see a small chunk of the countryside in Scotland, it actually did not seem like that long, in spite of being on a cramped bus. I made a friend, a girl (well, okay, woman) named Kimberly from California. We kept each other company and chatted through the day and she seemed pretty cool.
Picking us up at 8am, our coach driver Kenny seemed a bit stern to start with, driving home the rules of the bus, namely to not be on your cell while he was talking - giving us fun facts, and some historical context for the places we were seeing that day, as well as local info ("I don't like Inverness. It's a crappy town. The men are mean, and the sheep are afraid." Now read that in your head again with a Scottish accent!). He also stressed that we needed to be on time getting back to the bus whenever we stopped, that we were on a very tight schedule and he wanted us pulling up back at the Royal Mile by 8:05pm.
The Friday before I came home, I made a point to go on the Loch Ness tour. Hearing it would be a 12 hour round-trip at the start sounded a bit daunting, but as we stopped many times and just getting to see a small chunk of the countryside in Scotland, it actually did not seem like that long, in spite of being on a cramped bus. I made a friend, a girl (well, okay, woman) named Kimberly from California. We kept each other company and chatted through the day and she seemed pretty cool.
Picking us up at 8am, our coach driver Kenny seemed a bit stern to start with, driving home the rules of the bus, namely to not be on your cell while he was talking - giving us fun facts, and some historical context for the places we were seeing that day, as well as local info ("I don't like Inverness. It's a crappy town. The men are mean, and the sheep are afraid." Now read that in your head again with a Scottish accent!). He also stressed that we needed to be on time getting back to the bus whenever we stopped, that we were on a very tight schedule and he wanted us pulling up back at the Royal Mile by 8:05pm.
Pitlochry - Our first stop, and test, to see if we got back on the bus on time. We stopped here for ATMs, to grab lunches and coffee.
Kenny softened up a bit as soon as we loaded back on the bus - his stern lectures served their purpose, that was the most punctual bus tour I've EVER been on!
As we were so good about getting back on to the bus in a timely fashion, Kenny said that we could squeeze in a couple of more stops along the way. Our first extra stop was at Ruthven Barracks.
From there, after a very brief, but beautiful, stop, we rushed off through Inverness. Incidentally, "Inver" means "mouth of". So Inver-Ness means Mouth of the Ness. So... would Inverarity mean rare mouth? And very close to Inverness is Loch Ness.
There's Nessie! Found 'er!
Loch Ness is 56.4 square kilometres. Not that wide or long really (only about 36km long), but it is 1000 feet deep because as lies on a natural fault line. Kenny asked us how many of the 32 of us believed in Nessy. He was quite distraught to learn that only 2 passengers do/did. No, I was not one of them. But according to this article, she's been found! *Gasp!* I guess Kenny must have been right. Unbelievers will face judgement when the time comes.
Our view from the Loch Ness Cruise.
which more or less just took us from the hotel site over to Urquhart Castle. Total tourist trap, but the sun was shining (not that you can really tell from this picture) and Kenny mentioned that this was very odd. We had patches of sunlight for most of the trip, and I've decided that this is (obviously) because God loves me, and God clearly wants me to take pictures without damaging my camera.
Truthfully, the weather was unseasonably warm most of the time I was in Scotland. Kenny assured us that the Scotsman melts at 20 degrees, so I guess it's good it hovered around 17 most of the time!
Truthfully, the weather was unseasonably warm most of the time I was in Scotland. Kenny assured us that the Scotsman melts at 20 degrees, so I guess it's good it hovered around 17 most of the time!
After helping another passenger take a picture of him with his camera, he offered to take one of me with mine after I set the exposure. That's Urquhart Castle behind me!
Because we'd run into some construction on the road, we were unable to get many extra stops in, but our last stop, a scheduled one, was at Glencoe. The most... stupidly beautiful area on the trip, in spite, or perhaps because of being shrouded in mist, Glencoe is not terribly far from where scenes of Hagrid's property were filmed for Harry Potter and the latter part of "Skyfall" were shot.
The only issue with it was that, as it's pretty much IN the clouds most of the time. Kenny had mentioned they have three types of weather; Heavy Rain, Torrential Rain, and Heavy Torrential Rain. While it may not be evident from the photos, it was raining small and sideways when we dismounted the bus, more misting really, so I was just able to get out, get a couple of pictures and get back on the bus.
Our final stop, because it was getting dark, was to see the "Harry Coos." Which is to say, is Scotspeak, Hairy Cows. (Kimberly agreed with me, Harry Coo just sounded somewhat dirty).
Adorable aren't they? I wish I could have gotten a better angle/closer, but they were in a paddock and wouldn't come closer.
I actually purchased a postcard for family with a Hairy Cow, with a caption "The Highland Cow, ready to head-butt yet another photographer." So maybe it's just as well I didn't get to be any closer to them.
All in all, the Loch Ness tour, ripping through the Highland's narrow roads on a coach and seeing the sights was not super cheap, but it was well worth the time. Kenny played and relayed history lessons, where we learned about why Campbells are not well liked in the area, about William Wallace (or Braveheart, as you might know him, in spite of the fact the Braveheart nick-name should actually be attributed to Robert the Bruce who fought after William Wallace... and so long as we're getting persnickety, William Wallace was allegedly 6 foot 7 inches tall! That's tall by today's standards, never mind back then! How in the hell did little old Mel Gibson get to play him?!) and of Rob Roy, who as you would know, created Blackmail, in that he and his clansmen basically went around telling other farmers that they should pay them to protect their cattle. If the other farmers wanted to opt out of the program, Rob Roy McGregor and his brethren explained that they couldn't guarantee their cows' safety. Way to make a living hey?
So if you're in the neighbourhood, check out the Highland Experience Tours. Tell 'em Andrea sent you! Then give them your credit card, cause they won't know what you're talking about.
All in all, the Loch Ness tour, ripping through the Highland's narrow roads on a coach and seeing the sights was not super cheap, but it was well worth the time. Kenny played and relayed history lessons, where we learned about why Campbells are not well liked in the area, about William Wallace (or Braveheart, as you might know him, in spite of the fact the Braveheart nick-name should actually be attributed to Robert the Bruce who fought after William Wallace... and so long as we're getting persnickety, William Wallace was allegedly 6 foot 7 inches tall! That's tall by today's standards, never mind back then! How in the hell did little old Mel Gibson get to play him?!) and of Rob Roy, who as you would know, created Blackmail, in that he and his clansmen basically went around telling other farmers that they should pay them to protect their cattle. If the other farmers wanted to opt out of the program, Rob Roy McGregor and his brethren explained that they couldn't guarantee their cows' safety. Way to make a living hey?
So if you're in the neighbourhood, check out the Highland Experience Tours. Tell 'em Andrea sent you! Then give them your credit card, cause they won't know what you're talking about.
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