Our Scotland and England Adventure: Day Nine (25 August)

When Bob woke up this morning, he said it took him a second to remember where he was--fair enough, considering we were in Glasgow yesterday, the Lake District the day before yesterday, and were now in northeast Scotland. As silly as it sounds, I've found that the easiest way for me to gauge my disorientation is to watch a weather forecast on TV--when they show the UK map without place names, I try to guess where we are on the map. When we were in Burton, I always guessed too far north. In Penrith, I initially guessed too far south, and then just when I got it right, we left for Glasgow. In Glasgow, I couldn't believe we were that high up on the map, so once again I looked at the wrong indentation in the island (too far south) when I searched for Glasgow. And now, in Burghead, I simply cannot believe that we're way up there on the map! (When we next went to Edinburgh, I found myself looking wistfully back up at what I'll call Scotland's lower north coast, reporting the Burghead weather to Bob. Back in London in September, staring at BBC weather maps, now I can't believe that we're all the way down there.) I think part of this disorientation comes from the fact that all of our travels have seemed so quick and easy. I wasn't worried about our train journeys--trains are always great--but I must admit that the longer bus journeys had me a bit steeled for discomfort. Thankfully, I worried for nothing! I think those overnight bus trips we did from Toronto (when we lived there) to New York City have made me expect to be uncomfortable on buses (those trips were eight hours of having to remind ourselves how cheap the bus was compared with the one-hour flight), but our coach journeys in the UK have been great so far, so I should let those determine my UK expectations from now on, right? Anyway, today's adventures ensured that we would wake up tomorrow knowing we were in northern Scotland, as Anne and Jim took us on a full day's journey through basically all the areas we'd hoped to see (and even one that we never thought we'd get to see) during our four days up north--and we did it all in one day! We started the day by heading to Loch Ness; as I mentioned before I started posting photos from this trip, I did a report on the Loch Ness monster back when I was eight years old, and somehow Loch Ness was a place that I never, ever thought I'd see in person. And yet, here we were, and there it was, in all its beauty:

We were undecided as to whether we would actually pay to enter Urquhart Castle, but when we arrived, we figured we were here, so we would go and see this iconic Loch-Ness sight. Being locals, Jim and Anne weren't interested ("Paying to see a bunch of old rocks," was Jim's take on it) and they decided to wait while we wandered around. Anne was going to use the washroom, but we were shocked to learn that your £6.50 admission to the castle included use of the toilets! That's right, YOU COULDN'T PEE UNLESS YOU PAID. In order to underscore this slap in the face, the castle's information sign even noted that the next closest washroom was two miles away. We couldn't believe it. In the end, we bought our tickets, gave the stub to Anne, and she flashed the receipt at the cashiers, walked past them to the washroom, came out again, and gave us back our receipt. "The £6.50 pee," she kept calling it--we've witnessed a lot of blatant tourist ripoffs in our travels, but I'm sorry Scotland, this one is really rather galling. Expensive peeing aside, Urquhart has a stunning setting and we were glad we decided to have a look.

And for those of you who have been paying attention, no, I haven't forgotten my earlier boast about how we got Nessie on film (er, in jpeg). Bidding on our photo has been furious and we're holding out for the most cash. When you see how close we got to Nessie, you'll understand why all the news outlets have been fighting for reproduction rights. The detail! The character in Nessie's face! The texture of Nessie's skin! (No cardboard cutout or plastic model, this Nessie.) It's all worth waiting another day to see, right? Hopefully you think so, because that photo will be coming your way as part of tomorrow's post . . . :-) From Loch Ness, we drove toward the west coast, aiming for Kyle of Lochalsh. As with the bus ride from Glasgow to Inverness, I spent this part of the drive glued to the window. Here's why:

Just when we thought the land couldn't get any more scenic, Anne pulled in at Eilean Donan Castle, which completely took us by surprise:
A gorgeous castle in a perfect setting, neither of us had heard of Eilean Donan Castle until we found ourselves directly in front of it, marvelling at its beauty. It just goes to show you how much marketing goes into Castle Urquhart, with its crowds, packed parking lot, and £6.50 pee. I mean Urquhart was lovely, but Eilean Donan literally took our breath away. (Plus free peeing.) A young piper added to the mood,
and a cute dog took his place after he was done.

We always forget to get photos of ourselves when we're away, but Anne offered to take a photo for us, and so here we are!
Kyle of Lochalsh enjoys a scenic spot (what else would you expect of such beautiful country?) at one end of the Skye Bridge (in the background, at the left):

We continued on, across the Skye Bridge (from which the views were spectacular, if not camera-friendly, due to the bridge railings), onto the Isle of Skye. Filled with extraordinary scenery, Skye had us lavishing superlatives upon the sights that just kept appearing as we continued our drive.

We stopped at Portree, the largest town on Skye, for a snack.
Portree has an impossibly scenic harbour that seems custom-made for postcards:
Soon after we left Portree, we passed a campground that enjoyed another scenic locale:

I loved this thatched house, with the rocks hanging down all around:

On our way back toward Inverness, we stopped at Strathpeffer, the village where Anne and Jim used to live--in fact, I got them to stand in front of their old house:
We arrived back at Burghead close to 10:00 P.M., which meant that it was our second time arriving home in the dark--although it was light when we left this morning, we still didn't really have a sense of where we were, but we'd remedy that the day after tomorrow. For now, we were happy to be home, and couldn't believe all we had seen on one long drive (thanks to Anne, super-driver extraordinaire) through amazing landscapes that made us realise we could spend weeks, months, years in northern Scotland and not see all the beauty that filled the region.