Where We Spend A Bit Too Much Time On The Bus Just To Have The Loch Ness Monster Be A No Show
Today’s outing was another mid-day excursion – from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. with no mention of food. This time, we brought bagels from the breakfast buffet.
Our excursion included Urquhart Castle (or what was left of it) on the shores of Loch Ness. We drove through Inverness, the largest city in the Highlands, and then through the rolling countryside.
As with many of the Viking excursions, the description wasn’t clear at all, though it mentioned an elevator at one point. It wasn’t clear until we got there.
The bus parking lot was at the street level, then we walked down to the car parking lot and the visitor center’s entrance. THEN there was an elevator down to the visitor center, where I was able to borrow a “buggy” – an electric scooter. It was adorable! The temptation to run into oblivious people ignoring my “EXCUSE ME” pleas was almost irresistible.
The buggy couldn’t take me everywhere – there were lots of steps to different sections of the castle sections. But it was good enough for me. Andy wandered over the entire site and took plentiful photos.
As with most things Scottish, it’s history is fraught with back-and-forth battles between the Scots and the English. In 1692, the English blew up the castle, so that it wouldn’t fall into Jacobite hands. Here is the link to the wikipedia page for more detailed info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urquhart_Castle
Unfortunately, but as expected, the Loch Ness Monster did not make an appearance. Loch Ness is a HUGE lake – anything could be hiding in there!
Here aer some photos of the castle:
Drove back to the ship a different way than the way we came. I noticed the driver didn’t bother with GPS – he knew exactly where he was at all times.
Another thing I noticed as we drove along, small towns and villages controlled traffic without traffic lights by using these tiny intersections where traffic briefly narrowed to one lane, forcing each direction to stop and wait until the other direction cleared.
The approach to our ship was across a narrow (and a bit harrowing) bridge:
Bridge to our ship’s pier – we were just a few feet over the water
Later in the afternoon we found out that our excursion for tomorrow in the Shetlands (a boat ride to watch for wildlife) was canceled due to a bad weather forecast. Sounds like our lucky streak of glorious weather is about done.
Our remaining choices were limited – we opted for the included “panoramic tour” (i.e. bus ride). There’s supposed to be a port shuttle that we can take into the town after we get back. However, we couldn’t seem to get an answer as to exactly where in the town the shuttle would drop us. The town is very small – not sure a shuttle is needed? I guess we’ll find out tomorrow.
Tomorrow: The Shetlands
Maryland Meshugas 