Day 7 - Bus Tour to Loch Ness

The previous day, we purchased tickets for a day trip to the Highlands, and specifically, to Loch Ness. We woke up at 6:30 and popped into a small cafe for breakfast and coffee on our way to the travel place. We left in this awesome bus with our tour guide, Greg:


When we left it was still dark and we were exhausted, so we both napped a bit. We stopped at a few scenic overlooks and took some (in my humble opinion) great pictures:

This is my favorite picture and I actually took it from inside the bus!

It was a wee bit chilly up here:)

Jason at our first stop where we used the restroom and got snacks


Love the clouds in the background of this one!

This picture was taken in McDonald country (the "enemy" of the Campbell clan of which Jason hails)

Greg had this picture and I couldn't resist taking my own of it. It says "No Hawkers or Campbells"

Now that I've mentioned the Campbell/McDonald feud, I suppose I should explain...Greg told us the tale of how this feud came to be. According to Highland laws/traditions, whenever neighboring clans were going through a different territory, the clan that lived there was obliged to take them in and treat them as guests.  There was an edict from a particular king (I can't recall right now) that all the clans were told to sign by a certain date. The Campbells were known to side with the king during this time. Apparently, the head of the McDonald clan had not yet signed this  document, so the Campbells were told to "take care of them." So they rolled into McDonald country, were accepted as guests (so much so, that the McDonalds gave up their own beds and rooms to them) for about two weeks. At the end of their stay, the Campbells woke in the middle of the night and slaughtered the McDonalds! CRAZY! (Now I should also mention that Greg was of the McDonald clan:)


This is a tribute to Scottish Commandos that we stopped at

Once we arrived at Loch Ness, we grabbed a quick pint and then hopped aboard this little vessel:


We cruised around the Loch for about 45 minutes and heard lots of great information about it and about Nessie!  

Grossest beer EVER but I couldn't resist

Nessie and her baby:)

It was freezing on top of the boat, but we couldn't resist because of views like this one!

After the cruise around the Loch, we got back on the bus and headed back to Edinburgh, making one quick stop. We headed to the Three Sister's Pub (just down the street from our hotel) and at dinner, then walked around the Grassmarket district for a bit. We also got some gelato! We were back to the hotel over 12 hours after we left and were thrilled to be there. Here's a picture of the outside of the hotel:

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

NC Girls' Weekend

Bath Time Fun