Inver-nessie
Trip Start
Nov 16, 2005
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Trip End
Nov 25, 2005
Inverness, United Kingdom
Sunday, November 20, 2005
The train ride to Inverness was four hours long, but with amazing "winter-wonderland-postcard" scenery. At some point we crossed through the Grampian and Cairngorm mountain ranges, and the sky got appropriately gloomy. The train service by the way has been great. We sat at a table across from three fisherman who got on at one of the smaller stops and shortly drank their way through two bottles of champagne. We saw lots of "eeland coos" (that's a hairy Cow) and sheep as well. Beautiful countryside!
Once in Inverness, which is delightful mountain village (though city is more accurate I'm sure) we booked our bus/boat/castle tour for the afternoon. The bus takes you down to a boat where you get to cruise Loch Ness. It's not as cheesy as it sounds, really! The loch actually had three foot swells, but no sign of the monster. We landed at Urquhart Castle, strategically placed on the cliffs right over the Loch. Historic Scotland has done a great job of restoring this castle, which is mostly in ruins. But they've added discreet staircases and handrails so that you can climb the battlements and look for Nessie. Still no sign of her...
The Castle is visually impressive, especially after learning of all the battles that took place here over the centuries. Surprisingly, the last occupants blew it up rather than allow the invaders to enjoy their spoils of war.
After an hour at the castle and taking lots of photos (more on that in a second), we boarded our bus and headed back to the train station by driving along Loch Ness. Unfortunately our train ride back was at night so the view was, well, um, dark...
Off to bed, and off to Stirling tomorrow!
And about those photos...we haven't figured out a way to upload them yet, but we're working on it!!
