Scotland the Brave

I’m Back!

Well, that went by quickly! Twelve days (ok two for travel) to Scotland. Whilst there, it felt like I’d been gone forever, as it is so different from Canada there – to a point. I’ve been trying to maintain my mental connection but the attachment is slowly fading as my jetlag decreases.

Ah well.

I went to visit my daughter, who works as an au pair, a job she found via Great Au Pair an on-line nanny search.

I got to Scotland via Canadian Affair and EasyJet, which was easy and cheap. I could have got there less expensively too, had I known about MegaBus and had I flown to Glasgow or Edinburgh and bused it to Inverness…. Next time. I think I might have saved about $250 had I done it that way and I wouldn’t have had to spend 5 hours waiting at Gatwick Airport

Inverness is about 13 miles from Loch Ness, about 3.5 hours by bus to Edinburgh and about the same to Glasgow. Inverness is the newest city in the Highlands, an honour that was conferred in 2000 to commemorate the millennium.

We visited these places:
Fort William, Culloden, Clava Cairns, Port Agustus, Drumnadrochit, Inverlochy Castle, Urquhart Castle, Edinburgh, Clachnaharry, Ness Islands, Pringle Woolen Mills, Blackfriar’s Pub, Hootenany’s, The Gellions, and Abstract (a really high-end restaurant where we didn’t eat but where we did have lovely Martini cocktails and nasty coffee... sorry Barry).

Anyway, here are a bunch of photos and sorry for the formatting. Not sure if it’s me or Blogger but….

A medieval Bridge on the A82 on the way from Inverness to Fort William. Very pretty.

Gorse at Culloden. Grows everywhere. There's another related plant that people call Bush, which is a brilliant yellow-orange and grows everywhere in the Highlands - next to dafodils, which are also absolutely everywhere in springtime. My theory is that the dafodils are a natural representation of the many fallen clansmen and clanswomen who died protecting their birthright from English invasion.



Alex at Clava Cairns. These are the Stones called Craig na Dun from the Outlander series. Craig na Dun means Rock on the Hill I think.



Somewhere on the road to Inverness



Ben Nevis, the highest peak in the UK