The Scottish Highlands

Assistant blogger Greg filling in again tonight. Here are the highlights from our tour today. We made it out the door with plenty of time and dropped by Starbucks for breakfast. The tour company was right across the street, so we waited until we saw the office doors open and a minibus show up outside. The minibus was fairly full, with a baker's dozen tourists and two guides. Normally, the guide is also the minibus driver, but our second guide today was training to learn this particular route. Most of us tourists were from the US, with one from Australia. there was another couple on the tour who were not around when the rest of us were talking about where "home" is. Both of our guides were from Scotland.

We headed out of the city towards the Highlands. We started on highway, but shortly afterwards switched to more rural roads. Our guides told us the population of Scotland is around 5 million, and of those, most live in the southern parts. We were headed north.

Our first stop of the day was for a rest stop at a gift shop. Sarah and I found some Scottish toys for our cats. We also had a chance to meet Hamish the Highland cow. His pasture borders the gift shop parking lot. Our tour guides assured us that despite being male, Hamish is referred to as a Highland cow, not a bull.

As we continued on, the roads became more twisty, and the mountains grew higher. We stopped several times on our way to Glencoe for photo opportunities and a chance to stretch our legs. The countryside seemed very empty of people. The road was the main sign of human presence, although our guides told us the land used to be forested. Over the years, the land has been cleared for timber to build ships, provide charcoal for use in the iron industry, and to clear the land for raising sheep. So despite looking empty, the signs of human impact were all around us.

Our guides were a wealth of information about Scottish history and culture. They also kept us entertained with traditional and modern music in the lulls between stories. Often the music mixed in with other world styles, including African and South American. One of our guides was quite the world traveler, even telling us a story about clearing airport security in South America with his bag pipes. They look quite curious in the X-ray, and further inspection is usually required. Often he ends up playing a song or two for security before they let him pass.

We were fortunate to have clear weather and were able to see the summit of Ben Nevis, the tallest mountain in the UK. Often the summit is hidden by clouds.

We continued on through the mountains to Glencoe, where we picked up the chain of lakes which include Loch Ness. A series of canals were built in the 1800s to connect the lakes and permit water travel through Scotland, rather than having to travel through the treacherous waters north of Scotland. Upon reaching the town of Fort Augustus, we stopped in a local store and grabbed a loaf of bread, some cheese, chips, and drinks at a store. With our lunch in hand, we boarded a boat for an hour cruise on Loch Ness. We left from right in front of the locks for the canal. Just in case there were no sightings of the real Loch Ness Monster, the boat provided this window sticker for photographs to remember our trip by.

On our way back to Edinburgh, we stopped at a Whiskey Center for free tastings of 3 different single malt whiskeys. We also stopped for tea and shortbread in the town of Pitlochry.

Upon returning to Edinburgh, it was getting late and we were feeling tired, so we decided to stay close for dinner. We returned to the pizza restaurant we had dinner at on Wednesday night.