Life . . . Reframed: Farewell to Edinburgh and Hello to Inverness

July 23

Last day in Edinburgh - we got a slow start to the day, and decided to hike up Arthur’s Seat one more time. We packed a picnic lunch, and took a different route up the hill and then hiked up the peak that we hadn’t hiked last time. While we were up there, a helicopter arrived at Holyrood to pick up the royals who were opening the Games in Glasgow that evening. At least, that’s what we assumed!

We decided to visit a local “gastro pub” for dinner and to watch the opening ceremonies of the Commonwealth Games. I still can’t get over the differences in pubs here and in Canada. People bring in their dogs and/or their kids. It’s really quite nice to have the pets in there. I think kids need to be out by a certain time, although I’m not sure about the rules and regs on that.

Kids toy section in the pub where Tara works

A little dog in the pub where we watched the opening ceremonies
of the Commonwealth Games.

The ceremonies were well done, although the parade of athletes does get a bit tiresome after awhile. We didn’t see it all the way through as it was 10:30 and way past our bedtime.

July 24

Left Edinburgh today for Inverness. We took the long, scenic route around Loch Ness past places with fun names like Kilmahog, Loch Lubnaig, Falls of Dochie, Killin, Loch Lubhair, Crianlarich, the Bridge of Oich and the fabulous Great Glen Cattle Ranch. There were actually a number of Great Glen somethings or Glen this and Glen that. When we passed a place called Milton (Glen’s middle name), I started looking for Carroll just to ice the cake. Didn’t happen.

Skeleton keys are common here in Britain. This was
one of the sets of house keys we had.

Home for the past week in Edinburgh. We were on the second floor
apartment - you can see the windows here. Our room was the
window around the bend on the right hand side.

We passed these horses near a town called Falkirk - I happened to snap
a picture as we were driving by. Turns out they are not horses but Kelpies.
(mystical water-borne equine creatures) Thanks to my pal Brenda
Bowie for that piece of info!

Glen was getting a bit of a swelled head on this leg of the trip. Great
Glen this, that and the other!

Here's a link to the Kelpies if you're interested in more info: http://www.thekelpies.co.uk/story

It was a long day of driving, so we made a few stops along the way to break up the sitting. One thing that they do here in England and Scotland is give out awards for just about everything. Best Bakery 2014. Best Butcher 2012. Best Kept Small Town 2013. Best Independent Retailer 2013. Best Locally Sourced Food Restaurant. And so on. There are little signs in windows, and bigger signs at the entrance to towns. At a little town called Callander where we stopped today, I couldn’t contain myself when I saw this sign:

Yup, this was in a public washroom. Hilarious.

At the town of Killin in the Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park, we stopped to visit the Falls of Dochart which also happens to be the ancient burial ground of the McNab clan. Their battle cry was (translated) Dread Nought . . . which would explain the name of the hotel that we had seen earlier on the road. These little falls were quite beautiful, and there were a number of circular holes drilled into the rock by the action of water & stones over the years. The bridge in the picture dates back to 1760 - it’s a single-lane bridge, so drivers take turns going over it.

The Dreadnought Hotel in Callandar. Funny name that caught
my eye and was explained at a later stop.

Little old cottages in Callandar. So typical of what we see here.

Entrance to the burial grounds of Clan McNab

The Falls of Dochart. Beautiful place to spend the day playing in the water

The single lane bridge

Glen's shadow taking pictures of the circular holes in the rocks at the falls

Shortly after that, we saw a sign welcoming us to The Highlands. They are truly beautiful - wide open in places, big mountains with lots of trees in other places. I find myself not wanting to forget anything, so the camera on my phone is pretty much in constant use. I know I’m playing with fire, but I keep sticking my phone out the window to take pictures as we’re driving. If we stopped every time I wanted a picture of something, we’d still be on the road two days later!

Entering the Highlands - didn't get the name of this old volcano

Highland flowers

Beautiful vistas

We stopped here to have a picnic . . . but the ground was so
boggy we wound up eating in the car.

Taken from my window as we were driving down the highway.

Church in Ballachulish. What a great name!

Cottages on the side of the road. Our "girlfriend" the GPS in the foreground
of the windshield :-)

And then . . . the famous Loch Ness! We stopped at Fort William at the southern entrance to the loch. There is a set of locks there called Neptune’s Ladder on the canal that flows into the lake. This is a huge lock - boaters actually get out and pull their boats into the lock (it can accommodate 5 - 6 boats) and the lock is operated by a lock-keeper. So we went into the appropriately-named Lock Inn, grabbed a beer and took it back outside across the street to watch the boating action. Yes, you can do that in Scotland. They just put it in a take-out cup instead of a glass tumbler. It was a great show - we spoke with some Danish people, some people who had just arrived from New York, and some German travellers. Quite the melting pot. We decided to have a late lunch/early dinner while we were here, and then carried on the road that follows Loch Ness to Inverness. Nessie must have been napping - there was no sign of her.

The locks at Fort William. Glen is studying carefully.

The Lock Inn across from the locks. Picture is taken from the patio
of picnic tables where everyone takes their drinks from the pub so
they can watch the action at the lock!

Looking out from the pub to the patio and the lock

Almost at Inbhir Nis . . . I mean Inverness!

The road signs here are all in Gaelic first, and then English. Kind of fun to mentally try and pronounce the Gaelic words. We arrived at our AirBnB around 7 pm - it was a bit tricky to find as it’s in a wee village (there I go sounding Scottish!) called Inverarnie, and then half a mile up a dirt road. Right out in the country - beautifully silent - and it has a Conservatory! Yippee!