The Highlands

St. Andrews to the Highlands - Inverness
Thursday, June 26th

We got a bit of a late start the next morning since it took quite a bit of time to pack up the van. Traveling with 2 sets of golf clubs, 4 sets of luggage and 4 people isn’t easy. Needless to say, the back seats were very crowded.

We headed out of St. Andrews and programmed the talking lady. We thought she would take us through Dundee, but she did have a mind of her own. We got to see some nice countryside and some very narrow roads. Our first stop was at The Hermitage (http://www.nts.org.uk/Property/57/ ) another Charlotte suggestion. We parked in the upper parking lot and hiked down. There was a snack van in the lower parking lot. We took the hike along the water (about a mile) to the hall. There is a trick to getting the doors to open, but I can’t remember what it was. Once inside you can see over the falls. What was really fascinating was watching the salmon jumping up the falls. Hard to believe they can make it all the way up. Lovely walk through a peaceful woods. And hardly any bugs! Not a midge in sight.

We stopped next at the Fish ladder in Pitlochry but that was a bust. Lunch was at The Dowally Craft Centre where they serve a nice meal upstairs. The ladies there were nice and the weather showered the earth while were dining. Once back outside, the sun was again shining. We also visited Scotland’s smallest distillery, Edradour. (http://www.edradour.co.uk/ ), where we took a tour and see how Scotland’s national drink is made. It’s just on the outskirts of the town and easy to find. Its output sounds a lot - 240,000 bottles per year - but the average large Speyside distillery churns that out in a week. The small scale is part of Edradour’s charm. Unfortunately, they weren’t producing that week, so we didn’t really get the total “tour”. Mike enjoyed driving on the one lane roads…windy with a place to pass now and then and was only disappointed he didn’t meet up with any of the large tour busses from the distillery. We continued up A9 which meanders though the Cairngorm Mountains and finally found our way to Inverness.

Inverness hotel: The Best Western Inverness Palace Hotel & Spa; 8 Ness Walk; rooms 35 and 37, both our rooms were overlooking the river and castle

Nice location on the river overlooking the castle and easy walk to most of the town. Did have a swimming pool, but we never got to visit.

Dinner: Castle Tavern, across the bridge, rt at the first street beyond the castle and you run right into it. Dinner and drinks for 4 £41.10---but with many mix ups; 2 tuna cheese Panini (except they forgot the tuna) Mike ordered the pork tenderloin special…which turned out to actually be lamb (he said it was good), Kristin had the salmon mousse, Ken had soup and the non-tuna tuna Panini and we had several pints of ale and maybe a glass of wine (should have stuck to the ale).

Friday, June 27th

Before leaving the US I had contacted Tour guide Bill Gordon of Moray Tours http://www.moraytours.com/. Got his name from the Trip Advisor board. I wanted someone to drive us around so we could all sight see and someone that would know the area and history of the area. Bill was a nice guy, and took us to some lovely places. Unfortunately he wasn’t big on the history aspect, but did know all about the area golf courses and distilleries. One of the places we stopped was Shin Falls, west of Bonar Bridge near Invershin. We hiked down to the Falls (no jumping salmon) and then had a lovely lunch at the nice restaurant owned by Mohammed Al Fayed, owner of Harrods and father of the guy who Diana was with when she died. Ken and I both had a baked potato stuffed with tuna, Mike had venison stew and I forget what Kristin and Bill had. Nice, if expensive, gift shop.

We also stopped by Dornoch golf course, most northerly first class golf course in the world, ranked 11th in the world according to Rough Guide to Britain. Dornach was where Madonna got married…and how ironic that as we were looking at the chapel, word on the street is they are getting divorced.

Next stop was Dunrobin Castle – owned by the Sutherlands one of the principal driving forces behind the Highland clearances. We visited the outside, but didn’t have enough time to do the tour. Too bad, it looked fascinating.

We had been trying to find a Highland cow, with not much success. Saw three on the A9 while we were heading towards Inverness, but none since, at least none close enough to photograph…even with an 18x optical zoom.

Back to Inverness for a little shopping and dinner. We ate at Johnny Foxes; 26 Bank St. Nice Pub. Broccoli pasta (huge amount) , sea stew; catch of the day; melon & prawn cocktail; Foxes club sandwich plus 3 pints…£2.75 each (total £45.60).


Photos to and around Inverness


July 27th

Today we are headed back to Edinburgh with a slight detour to Dornie to See the Eilean Donan Castle. It was the gloomiest day so far. First stop was a pull off by Loch Ness. Saw a pretty nifty snail, but no monsters. Next we stopped by Urquhart Castle Another time we were able to use our Explorer Pass. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urquhart_Castle )
Pretty setting on the banks of the Loch. Nice restaurant and gift shop. Good views …if only it had been a bit sunnier! Had a snack then off to Dornie.

Nice, if long, road with good views. Lots of small waterfalls coming down from the mountains and even though it was the end of June, there were still some patches of snow. I can see why the Eilean Donan Castle (http://www.eileandonancastle.com/ ) gets a lot of play. It really is beautifully situated on the water with the mountains in the background. Too bad it was so ugly out. Mike did manage to get some good photos. We had a very nice lunch and I have to say, their gift shop had a great selection of items, much more reasonably prices, so we did a little shopping. On the road again…and I have to say, our son, Mike did an excellent job of driving.

Back down A87 to A82 which we followed for quite some time. Past Glen Coe and around Loch Lomand. We were headed for Stirling. Mike really wanted to see the Wallace National Monument since he is a big fan of Braveheart. (http://www.nationalwallacemonument.com/ ) Unfortunately, it closes at 6 and even though we got there 25 mins before, they wouldn’t sell us tickets. Mike and Kristin did walk all the way up the VERY LONG hill to get to where the monument was and said the view was quite nice, but they wouldn’t let him in to see the sword…not even for 5 minutes.
We also miss out on seeing Stirling Castle. It was getting late, so we just headed back to our next hotel…The Marriott Dalmahoy.

The kids were just staying overnight and Ken and I had one more day. Dinner that night was at the Long Weekend restaurant. Time for an almost sunset walk then off to bed. The kids left early the next morning and Ken and I spent the day relaxing. It was a nice way to end the trip.

Photos from Inverness to Edinburgh

June 30th
The trip home. Sometimes when you use points for your tickets you pay the price. We had a non-stop flight over to Scotland, but the trip back wasn’t quite as easy. Off to the airport for a 9am Air France flight…to Paris…then a 5 hr layover. Not enough time to actually go into the city. Fortunately the airport wasn’t crowded. Ken found a nice waiting area with lounge chairs…all the way at the end of the terminal (2E I think), so for a while we relaxed and read. Then we discovered a bank of Internet computers. Put 3 euros in the slot for 30 mins time and then found out our computer already had time…so we check for e-mails, Yankee scores, etc. Since I still had our slip with the 30 mins of time, I gave it to a woman who was going to by one. She wanted to pay me…I told her just do something nice for someone else. She said she liked the karma thing and said we would have good karma. An hr later her prediction came true when we were upgraded to Business Class. I have to say…if you have a 7 hr flight to NYC this is the way to go. You couldn’t even reach the seats in front with your feet. There were more buttons…including one that worked the massage rollers in the seat back. Champagne (or juice) and hot cloths before we even took off, then dinner, starting with Hors-d’oeuvres: I had Terrine de foie gras de canard, chutney d’abricots et de figues, country style walnut bread, baby spinach, Ken had salmon simmered with olive oil and lemon, vegetable brunoise and caper vinaigrette…and this was just the first course.

Main Course: pan seared Filet of beef, sautéed potatoes, sautéed vegetables with Chinese artichokes.

Desserts---you could have several if you wished
Chocolate almond cake with crème de caramel; chocolate raspberry cookie, sorbets et petits four secs, choice of fresh fruit.

And all the wine, beer etc. you wanted.
Our movie screens worked so I watched several movies. The seats almost fully recline. Really really nice. We didn’t even mind that our flight was delayed from taking off. A few hours later they showed up with Chicken and apricot brochette, smoked breast of duck, fennel salad, comte’ cheese and walnut bread, yogurt and fresh fruit.

Sort of the perfect way to end the perfect trip!

So Long…until the next time….
Kathy