Day 1- Highland Tour

Mon.,  Aug. 1, 2011

Day 1 of Highland Tour

We arrived at the Highland tour office at 8:15 and started loading the vans at 8:30.  Our tour guide/ driver is Steve, a jolly Scotsman.  We got off to a slow start as one of the tour members was in Glasgow instead of Edinburgh, so we had to drive to Glasgow before starting on our journey.  We drove past the Edinburgh Castle and then on to Glasgow.  From there we went through the center of Scotland.  Our first stop was for lunch at Dunkeld, where we walked by the River Tay and had a picnic, then on to the Highlands to Culloden battlefield.  Since I have read the Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series, I was looking for the Fraser clan stone and found it.  I know it is a fictitious series, but it has given me some background in Scotland’s history.

We traveled to the Loch Ness Exhibit @ Drumnadrochit. We went out on Loch Ness- (darn we didn’t see Nessie!) and motored past the Urquhart Castle.  It is in ruins now.  The lake and surrounding area was beautiful, with farms dotting the hillside.  It is here we had some time to get to know others on the tour.  We are a varied group from- USA, Canada, Spain, Australia, Romania, Switzerland, South Korea, and Sweden.

We got in late to our hotels.  Steve left us off about 7:00 after showing us the Durmnadrochit area and making suggestions about places to eat.  Unfortunately, our hotel room was very dinky and not too clean.  We are still having trouble getting the electrical outlets and lights to work.  We had to turn power on to get the shower to run with hot water.  I slept in my sweats, as I didn’t want to get under the bed covers.  Needless to say- we didn’t get much sleep.  The second glitch we couldn’t get into the restaurant Steve recommended.  We ended up at a café and had an OK meal.  We are discovering Mark is a picky eater and isn’t enjoying the UK cuisine.  He misses American sodas and sweets- big surprise.