Day 9: Kinloch Rannoch

Day 9     7/4/17

We got up to a rainy morning. After we had breakfast, we got on the bus and headed north towards Inverness.

We had a break at Fort Augustus, looked around, (the rain had stopped and the sun was trying to come out) and then continued to Loch Ness

We stopped for a photo op at Castle Urquhart, which is on Loch Ness. After the picture, we continued on the bus, stopping at the Loch Ness exhibition center. It gave a nice presentation about the history of the Loch Ness monster sightings as well as the history of Loch Ness.

Castle Urquhart on Loch Ness
We went from station to station as scientific explanations were handed out to explain what the causes of the sightings could be. At the end, it asked "you be the judge". I suspect they want tourist to be asking the question for quite awhile.


Do you see something?


We left the exhibition and headed for Inverness. A half hour later, we arrived and walked into Old Town. The weather was still cooperating with us. We had a couple of hours to eat and look around the Highlands. It was nice and quaint, complete with bagpipes in the air and a singer busking with her voice. I thought it was delightful.

Inverness Castle


We headed back home via the site of the Battle of Culloden. To make a long story short, The English battled Bonnie Prince Charlie's army and won. this further gave the English power in the Scottish Highlands and there were able to insert more influence.

While we were looking at the memorial, a fellow played bagpipes in respect to the battle. It turned out he was a Scot who had been living in Australia that came back to visit and play.

We arrived home forty five minutes before our 7:30 p.m. supper.

The kids hiked a little afterwards before everyone settled down to get ready for tomorrow.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 6: Dublin, Ireland to Wales to Birmingham, England

Image
Day 6       7/1/17 We got up extra early so that we could arrive at the ferry an hour or so before loading. There was a minor snafu when our boxed breakfast was accidentally eaten by another group also leaving early. We got on the Stena car ferry and left on time for approximately three hours on our trip to Holyhead, Wales. the group grabbed a spot and we alternated between sleeping and exploring around the ferry. We arrived, got out, and grabbed our stuff from the carousel. No problems with customs and so we got on our bus. Our bus driver, Alan, is from Scotland and was with us until we fly to London. Our first stop was not far from the ferry. It's the village that has the longest name in the world. The picture demonstrates the name. We exchanged money as well as bought gifts and looked around. The town with the longest name in the world as well as what it translates to. We got on the bus again and went through Wales, stopping at sites for pictures at walled cities
Read more

Day 8: Gretna Green to Kinloch Rannoch

Image
Day 8     7/3/17 We got on the bus after going over to the welcome center to get breakfast. It was the beginning of the long trip north. Our first stop was at a small village called Luss. We got out and looked around. It was on one of the lochs. After about a half hour, we continued on. Around 1:30 to 2:00, we stopped to eat at the Green Welly (a welly is a type of boot), which is a bus stop for refueling.  I had scotch broth, which was pretty good soup with beans and pasta. We continued north, stopping at Loch Lomond. All the scenery we had were lochs and/or mountains. the weather cooperated spectacularly, staying around 60 degrees and not raining. The Miles family with outstanding Scottish scenery We also stopped at Fort Williams and looked at some of the ruins of the old fort. It was built by the British to help keep the Scottish clans in line. We stopped at Glencoe and heard the story about how the English King gave all the Scottish lords a deadline to swear loyal
Read more

Days 1 and 2: Home to Killarney, Ireland

Image
Days 1 and 2        6/27/17 - 6/28/17 We met at noon at the Jr/Sr. High School and took two vehicles to the Detroit airport. The members of the club going to Explorica's Best of the British Isles tour: Mike Weeks Shari Weeks Derek Jorgensen Kaiden DeBoer Jill DeBoer Jennifer Anderson Vicki Warner Robert Simpson Thomas Miles Steve Miles We arrived at the airport with a little time to spare despite the road construction. We had no snafus at Metro and moved through security pretty easily. We got to Chicago (ORD) on time and made it to our gate in time for boarding. The plane was pretty full and we took off on time. We arrived in Shannon, Ireland 50  minutes early!! It was a breeze going through customs and all of our luggage made it also. Our tour director and bus driver were not even at the airport!! We met the other groups while we waited at the airport. Hymie had a group of adults from the Ann Arbor area. Lisa had seven students from Little Rock, Arkansas
Read more