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.