- 1. 8/25 Arriving in Edinburgh
- 2. 8/26 Edinburgh
- 3. 8/27 Scotland – West Highland Lochs & Castles
- 4. 8/28 Edinburgh Castle
- 5. 8/29 North England – Holy Island, Bamburgh & Alnwick Castle
- 6. 8/30 Edinburgh – Palace of Holyroodhouse
- 7. 8/31 Scotland – Loch Ness, Glencoe & Highlands
- 8. 9/1 Edinburgh – National Museum of Scotland
- 9. 9/2-9/7 Family Visit in Dawlish
- 10. 9/8 London
- 11. 9/9 The Tower of London
- 12. 9/10 London – Westminster Abbey
- 13. 9/11 London – Buckingham Palace
- 14. 9/12 London Museums
Today we took a 12-hour tour of Loch Ness, Glencoe & Highlands. We learned two more Scottish words. Glen means steep valley, and ben means mountain. The tour was all about Ben and Glens. We travelled through half of Scottland, with the North most point at the town of Fort Augustus on Loch Ness. Loch Ness is one of three lochs (with funny names) connected by canals–Loch Lochy, Loch Oich, and Loch Ness. Near Loch Ness stands Ben Nevis, the highest (≈4000 ft) mountain in UK.
We also took a boat cruise on Loch Ness, and the view looked very much like that of Canadian lakes. This was interesting, because many highland Scots were driven out to Canada a long time ago. As a result, one of Canada’s provinces is called Nova Scotia, meaning New Scotland. The boat trip was optional. In hind sight, it wasn’t worth the extra price, and our time could have been better spent looking around Fort Augustus instead.
I missed many interesting pictures, including Ben Nevis, the Kelpies, and the Loch Ness view, because I was either in the bus or on the boat. Hope Stephen has caught some of those and can fill in the gap.
We passed the town of Pitlochry (the pronunciation sounded like French to me) on the way back.
By the time we arrived in Edinburgh downtown, the streets were blocked for fireworks because it was the last day of the summer festival in Edinburgh. But we were too tired to look for dinner, so we walked back to our hotel and each had a Scotch pie.
I must look and see what I’ve got.
Ben Nevis, BTW, is at the south west end, near Fort William rather than Loch Ness. Or at least, it was when I climbed it as a kid!
Kelpies! Please understand that one does what one can through the bus window….
More Kelpies!
Ben Nevis (again from the bus). Note that Ben Nevis is not the peak you can see in the middle. It’s the peak you can’t see, hidden in the white cloud to the right. (But if you look closely you can make out the outline of the left flank rising up into invisibility.) All this assuming I’m not confused….
Loch Ness. As you can see, it is made of water.
I thought you were going to show a picture demonstrating how Loch Ness looked like Canada.
I think I may not have taken a picture of Loch Ness looking like Canada, because I thought, enh, that looks like Canada, eh?
Actually, more relevantly, it looked like a tree farm, where most of the other angles looked either unspoiled or historical.