EIS – Loch Ness cruise (Day 09 - Afternoon)

EIS – Loch Ness cruise (Day 09 - Afternoon)

(8/26/2010) Yahoo, we get to cruise Loch Ness looking for the Loch Ness Monster. Can’t wait to get a picture of it, if not well I just might have to Photoshop one. About an hour after returning from our trip to Ullapool, we are back on our way to Drumnadrochit, (pronounced drum-na-dro-chit). While in the room waiting to leave, we can see a person, fly fishing in the river Ness. It didn’t look like he caught anything. Too bad, I would have liked to see the size of the fish he pulled in.

We get back on the bus and head out arriving at the Loch Ness Exhibition Centre where we get back on smaller vans which take us to our boat. Each van holds just enough people to fit on one of the boats. (Wait where is the life jacket drill, forget the drill, where are the life jackets?)

As we head out from the dock, the boat operator commences to tell us that he was one of the people who captured a photo of Nessy and it is available for £5. I looked at the photo and figured I could create a more believable picture in Photoshop, so I didn’t get one.

Anyway, we leave the docks and as he is giving us information motors on past Urquhart Castle. Of course, this is the classic view you usually see of the Castle and we now have an original. No Monster yet though.

We get out a little further out into the lake (which is about 24 miles long and 1 mile wide on average) as the boats sonar displays the depths. (No sonar contact of anything big.) The sonar presents a view similar to that of a bath tub. The sides of the lake go down at a sharp angle and then flatten out to a flat bottom. Mind you, the bottom is over 227 m deep and the dept starts almost immediately.

We get a little distance out into the water when we see a rain line coming towards us. I also expect to see Nessy coming along with the rain, but again to my disappointment, a no show.

It begins to rain a little, most everyone goes into the boat, but at the same time, the sun begins shinning on the Castle.

Well Carmen and I can’t go in now, so we take pictures, as the boat slowly gets closer to the lake shore.

Wait I see the monster. No, it’s only some ducks and I got excited for nothing.

We head back to the shore and when we are about 30 yards or so, the captain turns the boat and heads back the way we came, in front of the Castle. The sun is still on the castle and we are able to get some great pictures.

More pictures of the Castle, but no sign of Nessy.

As we get back to the Loch Ness Center for an interactive audio visual about the myth and legend.

However, after coming out I find the monster in a little pond nearby. Ha, gotcha.

We returned to the hotel and Carmen and I hiked to the Inverness Castle, actually used as administration offices. We ate at a little tavern called the Castle Tavern. The food was pretty good.



Until later, Bob and Carmen – EIS.

EIS – Ullapool and back to Inverness (Day 09)

EIS – Ullapool and back to Inverness (Day 09)

(8/26/2010) While in Inverness, we are here for two nights so we are still in this hotel for another night.  The hotel we are in overlooks the Ness River.  Here is the view across the street from the hotel looking across the river. 

Today we travel into the northern highlands with its moors and mountains finally ending up in the port city of Ullapool. From Ullapool we will return to Inverness by a different, more direct route.

We leave the hotel and begin our trip following route A9, then A99 heading to Wick. On our way to Wick and ultimately the Falls of Shin, we pass farm fields and heather filled fields.

We crossed the Moray River. The river was so still it was almost a mirror providing an image of the ground above it.

As we cross the river, and turn northward, we could see in the distance three off-shore well drilling rigs in various stages of completion. At least one of them is completed and might be in for maintenance. (Later when we returned in this direction, I think we came back by this same bridge, the rigs were no longer there.)

Prior to reaching the Falls of Shin, we stopped for a short photo break at Struie Hill, an overlook 660 feet above sea level. Looking straight behind Carmen, we are looking north.

We have passed many stone bridges; I finally was able to get a picture of one of the bridge. It was actually on our side of the coach and had enough of an angle to get a picture. You can see the stones that make up the bridge.

After turning onto a side road, we stopped at the Falls of Shin on the Shin River. Salmon run this river and supposedly jump the falls trying to get further upstream to spawn. Although when we watched, no salmon were trying to jump the falls, but the timing might not be right to see them.

We took a couple of pictures from both below the falls and above the falls.

Leaving the falls, we head towards Ullapool. The country side again has farm fields along acres of heather growing up the mountains. These fields are used primarily for grazing cattle and sheep.

We arrive around noon and before we ran around taking pictures of the town, we got some fish and chips and ate outside. The fish was very good and the fries tasted very much like the pier fries in Old Orchard Beach in Maine. The bar in the restaurant has a very wide variety of alcohol including 28 draft beers (some you cannot see in the picture) and untold numbers of liquor bottles, some upside down ready to deliver shots.

We walked around town and since it was low tide, some of the boats were “dry” docked, so to speak.

Some of the boats looked quite old and I would say questionable to even tread water when the tide comes in.

With shops lining the water front, the town had a quaint feel to it. We didn’t get in to the shops to look around; instead, we headed down the other end of the street first going to the pier.

We walked to the end of the pier and found a sea lion in the waters.

We also saw a commotion further out in the harbor and thought it was either another sea lion or a porpoise. We figured by the sea gulls attacking the waters that something was causing fish to swim to the surface so that whatever was chasing it could catch them. Later when our sea lion headed in that direction we figured it was another sea lion. Once at the location, we could no longer see them and we left.

Many of the houses on this end of the water front street were bed and breakfast houses or private cottages. It is easy to see why people would want to come to this location for awhile.

On our return to Inverness, we past many hills filled with heather. Much like the trip here, the views were quite impressive. We also past a hydro-electric dam.

There are many more pictures that we could post on the blog, but to conserve space, they are loaded into the album, just not on this page.



Until later, Bob and Carmen – EIS.

EIS – On to Inverness (Day 08)

EIS – On to Inverness (Day 08)


(8/25/2010) Today the plan, according to the itinerary, calls for us to go to St. Andrews, Braemar and finally ending the afternoon at our hotel in Inverness. There will be other stops along the way for regular breaks and lunch, we’ll just have to wait and see which route we take. Since today is a late departure, we leave the hotel around 8:30 in the morning. But, we didn’t get into the hotel last night from the Edinburgh Tattoo until 11:45, so Carmen and I, or I should say everyone on the coach, is a little tired. Carmen went to bed while I was still unloading our pictures to the laptop, I didn’t get to bed until 1:15 am. We’ll make the best of it today, maybe a short nap while we’re riding through the country side.

We left the hotel on time and proceeded across the Firth of Forth using the Forth Bridge, which we crossed on the 25th. That’s the river and bay around Edinburgh. (Sorry, got carried away with the forths and firths.) Moving onward, after crossing the river, we headed to St. Andrews and the golf course there using route A92. On our arrival, the bus dropped off at the first tee and 18th green; they are right next to each other. Knowing some of the golfers I play with, meaning ms, I’d be apprehensive while at the first tee box.

You can see the major hotel straight ahead of the first tee and green up to the hotel. Along the right side of the first hole and then the next several holes, the ocean waters and breezes come into play. Fortunately, today the wind has remained mild and it is not raining. I took pictures of the fairway and bought a hat (cheap compared to some of the other stores, well £10 which is about $18.00 US).

As we were leaving from the store and heading to the bus, I saw the stone bridge on the 18th tee which I often see pictures of St. Andrews. I had to run down to a spot I could take a picture. Mind you, the bus will leave soon. I ran down and back while Carmen started walking to the bus, I hope the pictures I took come out okay.

Along the first and a couple of the next holes where the coast line runs, the beach here is wide and flat (I think it was low tide). This is the beach used in the movie Chariots of Fire where the scene had the group of athletes running along the beach and surf. I could just hear the music now.

From St. Andrews, we traveled through Braemar, home of the Royal Highland Games for over 900 years. The Royal title for the games indicates the Queen and Royal Family preside over the games during the three days of the competition. The games begin in about 10 days and at the moment, we traveled through town there was not much activity. We also did not see the game field or stands. We did, a few miles later, drive by Balmoral Estate where the Royal family currently resides. There were no sightings of the Royal family, sorry.

The weather is very nice this morning, giving us a chance to take pictures of the country side. Speaking of country side, here the hills consist of moors and heather covered hills and glens.  There are also many rock fences/walls similar to this picture.  Some rock walls are fully intact while others have broken or collapsed sections.

We made a quick stop at an overlook of Corgarff Castle a 16th century tower house converted to barracks for government troops after the battle of Culloden. It was open, but we did not stop here, only at an overlook on the hill after we passed the castle did we stop to take pictures.

Next, we stopped in Tomintoul for a lunch break. Here is the Whisky Castle which boasts and offers over 500 malt whiskies and of course gifts and souvenirs. They did provide a taste of the Tomintoul Scotch, which I was glad to partake several times, after all, I’m not driving and Carmen does not drink Scotch. The scotch was good, but since I bought 8 small bottles in Edinburgh yesterday, I did not buy any more, besides their prices were a little high.

Unfortunately, nearby were the distilleries of Glenfiddich and Genlivet. I say unfortunate because we did not stop at either of these places. Oh the horror, as the saying goes: so close and yet so far away. We moved on.

The rest of our route ended up on back roads narrow for two cars let alone a large bus and car.

Here are a couple of picture of the country side. There is little evidence of people in the country side. We do find large estate houses in the distance and stone or ruined houses.

As you can see, we are taking pictures through the bus’ windows which are not always successful. We are getting lots of reflection from the seats on this and the other side of the coach.  The glare is worst when the sun is burning directly into the window.

Tomorrow we do not move to another hotel. Instead, we will drive through the country side to Ullapool and back again.



Until later, Bob and Carmen – EIS.

EIS – Edinburgh Tattoo (Day 07)

EIS – Edinburgh Tattoo (Day 07)

(8/24/2010 Evening) Tonight is the Military Tattoo at Edinburgh Castle. We arrived at the Tattoo location which is right in front of Edinburgh Castle. Our seats are in the closest section on right side (looking at the castle). They are good seats, but as you’ll see from the pictures, we were looking at the bands mostly from the side.  Now mind you I am holding the camera and taking a long timed exposure so some of the pictures might look blurry.

There are a number of bands and bag pipers from locations around the world, including the US.

The program started with pipers from many of the different bands.

Each individual band then performed, coming in to the parade ground from the castle gates and leaving at the far end around the grandstand. Bands played, marched displaying excellent skills and demonstrated marching patterns on the parade ground.

Some of the bands were small in size, yet still skills.

One performance came from a young group (the youngest 5 years old) of motorcycle performers, called the Imps Motorcycle Display Team, that did crossing maneuvers and a last sequence of jumping a motorcycle over a car.

The US band also had bagpipers in standard tartan dress.

The Citadel band came from Charleston, South Carolina in the United States which presented and inspiring musical display, if I do say so myself.

Other bands played throughout the evening.

During the performances, the castle lighting would change colors or display projected images on the front gates.

There was even a group of dancers that performed some traditional dances during the evening.

All in all the Tattoo was very enjoyable even though the seats were pretty narrow and the air a little cold.

The finale had the entire band members return to the tarmac for a couple more song performances.

With the entertainment completed, Carmen and I moved through the crowd as quickly as we could and returned to the bus where it was warmer.

I know there are a lot of pictures here and not much in the way of descriptions.  (If you need more information, go to Edinburgh_tattoo )


Until later, Bob and Carmen – EIS.