Bens and Glens

First, I have to apologize. The Internet here at the Hilton won't seem to allow me to upload many of my photos to my blog which is so frustrating. I have all the places where the photos should go, but not all the photos! Grrrr! This is so frustrating!! So, I will try again in the morning before we leave, but if not, these photos will get uploaded from Iceland. If you've already read this blog, check back again in 24 hours for the photos.

We left Inverness this morning after a good Tesco breakfast of juice, fruit, and pastries. Tesco is a big chain grocery store here, and Hubby made a trip there while I showered. We were totally unimpressed with the Inverness Marriott and their breakfast was overpriced and not very good. Turned out though that breakfast was included in the price of the room but we thought we’d paid £30 for it yesterday, so we figured that a Tesco breakfast would be cheaper and better. Oh well, but it was a better breakfast!

We left the hotel and drove through Inverness, over the bridge and then out into the countryside. On the way, we saw hikers with backpacks, hiking boots, but wearing kilts! You’d never see that at home! We traveled along Loch Ness, and although we didn’t see the Loch Ness Monster, we did see some beautiful views. We stopped at Urquhart Castle, a castle ruins on the Loch which was built in the 1200’s. We saw the 8 minute video about it’s history which was really so well done. The theater of the new visitor’s center had long drapes behind the screen, and when the video was finished, the curtains opened to windows with a view of the castle. Very, very cool!!! We spent at least an hour walking through the ruins and really enjoyed the history here. We also enjoyed the young Italian couple whose photo we took for them. They were having such a good time and we were happy to help with their memories. Here are the photos from Urquhart Castle:

The Visitors Center....see the bow window on the right? That's the theater.

From there we traveled south to Fort William, all along Loch Ness with its commanding views. This part of the post is for Brad and Allison who spent time here in April of 2005 while here for Charlotte and Robbie’s wedding. They had an awesome time and saw all these sights long before we did, but we couldn’t help but think of them today, knowing they had already seen all this before us. At Fort William, we headed east to the Glen Nevis visitors center. Here you can see Ben Nevis, the tallest mountain in all of the U.K. We had a picnic lunch and then walked a bit of the trail. But time being restricted, we didn’t have time to climb the mountain. (secretly, I was quite happy about that!). We met a lovely old couple along the way who told us about our drive ahead, and the fact that 25,000 people had invaded Fort William yesterday for a bike race in the rain. We were glad we were hunting dead ancestors in Invergordon in the rain instead! Today was a gorgeous day, sunny and pretty warm and one of the days when the top of Ben Nevis is actually visible. Nine days out of ten, it is shrouded in clouds. Here are some gorgeous photos of the Ben Nevis area:

We stopped in Fort William to buy a duffle bag because our suitcases were at the weight limit when flying here. We’ve packed the duffle with all our heavy stuff like books and dirty laundry. Heaven help the TSA if they decide to open that bag for inspection!! Dirty undies everywhere! We parked in a “Pay and Display” car park while shopping and you find these all over the place here. You must park, then go to the pay meter to pay your parking fee, then display your ticket on the dashboard. You even find these car parks at the grocery store. Imagine having to pay for parking at the grocery store!!!

From Fort William we again headed south toward Glasgow, and drove through the Grampian Mountains. Photos:

We continued along Loch Lomond. This is the largest body of water in all of the U.K. The views were gorgeous but Hubby didn’t see many of them because he was driving. The roads along the Loch are so narrow and although the speed limit is posted at 60 mph, and the locals seems to be able to do that, we poked along at around 40 mph. Normally I'd be frustrated with Hubby for driving so slow, but honestly, I would have been frightened to go any faster. Because the road was so narrow and so harrowing to drive, we never did get any good photos of Loch Lomond, but oh well….think of Lake Winnipesaukee but smaller. Remember the song:

“You take the high road and I’ll take the low road,
And I’ll be in Scotland before ye.
For me and my true love will never meet again
On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond.”

This song was written by a Jacobite supporter, thinking that he would not live to come home to Scotland. Hence, the low road, or death, was his fate. Rather sad.

Things to blog about: there have been Americans everywhere. We have tried hard to blend in with the locals and not stand out like obnoxious Americans. Believe me, you can see them coming a mile away!! Some Americans are so loud, so obvious, and so horrible.

We've bought some nice English candy for snacks on our journey. One of my favorites every time we come here is "Jelly Babies". The candy is a jelly but not like gummy bears. It's softer and coated with a fine confectioner's sugar. They are really nice. Also we had Cadbury "Shots", like big fat M&M's.

We are staying at the Glasgow Hilton tonight and this is the first place I've ever stayed where the bathroom had a bidet!

Here the locals will ask you “Where do you stay at?”. What they mean is “Where do you live?”. The first reaction is to tell them what hotel you’re staying at!

We have seen a lot of Highland cows here. There look a lot more like yaks than like cows, all shaggy. So funny to see them along the side of the road. In one case, we saw a sign that said, “Beware, Bull loose”.

Interesting place names:

Brackletter
Happy Valley (dedicated to Brad and Allison!)
Oinch
Bridge at Oinch

Today’s interesting sign: “Oncoming traffic in the middle of the road”…telling us about the narrowness of the roads and the fact that trucks would be in the middle of the road as we came around a bend!!!

We also came upon a “spin bridge” at Laggan where the road was closed so that the bridge could “turn” to allow boats to flow through the passage way. Instead of a draw bridge where the road lifts up on each side, the road just turned on a pivot while we watched the boats go through.

I'm sure there will be some of you who'll wonder what we had to eat today! So, after the Tesco breakfast, we snacked for lunch on bananas, cinnamon rolls, and pistascios. Is that eclectic, or what? Tonight, unable to face another big expensive dinner, we went to the grocery store next door to the hotel and bought cheese and crackers, shrimp with a spicy sauce, a bottle of pinot noir and fruit, OJ, and scones for breakfast in the morning. Because we don't have a fridge in this room, our food is out on the window sill, ala college days! It's keeping quite cool out there. Hahahaha!

I’m cutting this post short because it’s late and we have to be up early in the morning to catch our flight. Internet from here on will be spotty in Iceland. Hopefully I’ll get to keep posting because this will be a very interesting part of our trip.

More tomorrow hopefully, and please check back for the photos from today....