Highland Apartments - Inverness, Scotland

 Today we do a Nessie watching cruise.  This is a day fraught with danger!  We are taking a Jacobite Cruise to find the Loch Ness Monster.  The cruise leaves from a rural location in the Scottish Highlands. We did get off at the right stop…phew!  We didn’t find the monster…phew!  

It would be impossible to spend more than thirty seconds in the Highlands without hearing about the Jacobites. The Jacobites were supporters of the exiled Catholic Stuart King James VII of Scotland.  We don’t know if they were the good guys or the bad guys.  “It’s complicated.”  But every time we see a castle ruin, it turns out that the Jacobites had something to do with it being blown up!

After raining in the morning, the sun came out and we walked along the Caledonian Canal and the River Ness back to Inverness.  Dinner was Bangers and Mash in a Scottish Pub with a guitar and violin playing Scottish tunes!

Highland Apartments - Inverness, Scotland

 Laundry Day.  We have a wee little washing machine and a wee little drying rack.  She has done several loads and there are clothes drying everywhere.  So it’s time to do some exploring.  Inverness is not very large but it has a great vibe.  Plenty of pedestrian only streets, a Victorian Era covered Market and plenty of gritty pubs where you  can buy a pint and listen to some local musicians. Lunch was bangers and mash and a McClucken.

Dinner was Indian, the food was excellent, but we were the only ones there.  Awkward! (Or maybe romantic?)

Kings Corner

Tomorrow, a cruise boat on Loch Ness.  I guess it’s going to be sort of like a whale watching cruise.  Who knows, we might get lucky!

*When we lost our dominos we bought some Chinese manufactured playing cards.  The blurb with the cards was clearly a direct translation from Chinese but I was stuck with “Its feel and quality is obviously larruping” Larruping is an obsolete old west cowboy term for “excellent”.   Go Thesaurus!

Highland Apartments - Inverness, Scotland

 

View of River Ness from our apartment

We have made it to the most northern point of our trip.  An easy travel day with no problems.  We were sent a code via email for access to the building and to the apartment that would activate at exactly 4:00.  We arrived in Inverness about half an hour early so we stopped at a tavern and watched the end of a soccer game until it was time.

Okay, there was one small problem.  On the first floor of our apartment there are two restaurants, one a Scottish pub and the other a pizza style Italian restaurant…best of both worlds?…a pizza with haggis, blood pudding and mozzarella cheese toppings.  Well, ya gotta try everything, at least once!  And probably, once is enough!

Tomorrow is laundry, and a little exploring.

Royal Atheneum Suites - Aberdeen, Scotland

 

We try to stay a full day at each stop so we can kinda get an idea of what each place is like.  So Aberdeen, today is your day.  This is clearly on of those four seasons day, warm and sunny in the morning, cloudy and windy in the afternoon with showers later on.  

Aberdeen is primarily a seaport.  In the beginnings it was all about fishing, and then shipbuilding and trade and now North Sea Oil.  The city started to flourish in the 1800’s.  The Royal Anthenium, where we are staying was the social hub of the elite.  As the use of granite became more refined there was an apparent war of one up-man-ship in this area of the city, leading to some fairly outlandish buildings.

We were about fifteen minutes too early for the lunch places, so we ducked into the free Maritime Museum for a bit.  Had skink for lunch.  It was too early for our afternoon beverage, so we ducked into the free Maritime Museum for a bit. (We accidentally left our travel domino set in Dundee, so we played Kings Corners)  Dinner was haggis and shepherds pie.  

Tomorrow, after some more skink, we’re heading for Inverness.

Royal Atheneum Suites - Aberdeen, Scotland

All is normal, as we start the day: two pastries, a latte and a mocha.  A walk through the largest indoor downtown mall in Dundee (that seems a little too specific).  Oh yeah, we don’t really like shopping.  Okay? A walk down some random street that led to a park which led to the river path back to the hotel. Then lunch.

So ScotRail lets you buy a ticket that’s good for the whole day, but you buy it for a specific train (I guess that means that they guarantee a seat on that train).  We have tickets for the 1:00 train to Aberdeen, but opt for the 2:00 train, so we could have a leisurely lunch. What? The 2:00 train just got cancelled! We rush to get the 1:00 train with minutes to spare. What? The 1:00 train just got cancelled.

V&A Museum

 We wait two hours for the 3:00 train, it’s now on track 1 instead of track 4, then, guess what! It’s suddenly cancelled.  Deb has called “Uncle!” We are taking the bus, but the bus station is a half mile away and we have about 10 minutes to catch it.  As we are running out the station Deb says, why don’t we take that fancy bus over there, in front of the train station…the one that says “Aberdeen.”  WOW, this gorgeous all electric brand new intercity bus, sure, why not!.  And the kicker!  It was a half mile walk from the train station in Aberdeen to the hotel…the bus stop was across the street from the hotel.

This place is sort of a condo hotel, it’s a suite with a mini kitchen, so after dinner, we bought a couple of bottles of wine and wound down some TV shows.  Tomorrow, we explore Aberdeen.

Four Seasons - Dundee, Scotland

 

RRS Discovery

Today was an explore Dundee, and we Dundat.  Our first stop was the Victoria and Albert Museum.  For the decade or so that I have been blogging, I have tried to stay positive.  I was having trouble with the architecture of the V&A Museum, so I asked chatGPT for help in how to say I think it’s ugly. “I haven’t yet learned to appreciate its uncompromising sculptural qualities.”  I guess it’s suppose to represent the cliffs of Scotland?!?  It’s a huge building with very few exhibits, but the coffee was good.

On to the Discovery Museum.  The RRS Discovery was a three masted tall ship with steam power, and was the first ship built from the keel up as a research ship.  The mission was to explore Antarctica.  As you walk from one exhibit room to the next you start to realize how difficult this trip was going to be.  

The exhibit culminates with the ship itself.  By this time you know so much about everything you are looking at.  Absolutely excellent.  We were so engrossed we didn’t realize it was after 1:00…we almost missed lunch - Italian.  

After a one-one tie in Dominos we did an African-Caribbean dinner. BBQ ribs, Jimaca coleslaw, and of course, French fries.

Tomorrow off to Aberdeen.

V&A Museum

Four Seasons - Dundee, Scotland

“We are not the Americans who raised your petrol prices by 50%. We are from Boston where you fellow Scots drained all our beer kegs during FIFA!”  This is our battle cry!  There were four women hikers who have been ignoring us for four days (they say they didn’t notice us).  Deb got them to open up a little and exchange a few pleasantries.

McManus Museum

We caught the bus to St Andrew’s and then on to Dundee with no problem.  Dropped our bags off at the Malmaison Hotel.  Found the McManus Museum.  All about the history of Dundee.  An interesting part was about the arch that Queen Victoria had built to celebrate her visit.  After  a while it was deemed “unloved” and taken down and reused.  Dundee has always been a gritty industrial city.  The major industry is Michelin Tyres.  A decade or so ago, they decided to become the “coolest” city in Scotland.   An interesting challenge.

Strawberry lime cider

We were having lunch at the Barrelman when we got a call from the hotel.  The Malmaison Hotel is a refurbished old building with a quirky vibe. I thought it would be fun to stay there.  Unfortunately, there was a torrential flood last night and they temporarily lost seven rooms. They had called to tell us the good news that they were able to get us a room at the Marriott Four Seasons across the street.  This is the hotel where quirky went to die!  At least the Four Season has a bar;  I beat Deb two more time in Dominos.  Deb said it was time for dinner, and put the domino set in her purse (they may be gone forever). Dinner was lamb kabobs at Milah’s Turkish Kitchen.