Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Wednesday, July 16th

Wednesday morning we woke up and headed out for our Loch Ness tour, but first, to lock our luggage in the train station, so we didn't have to lug it all around all day! Now, in fear of being too late, we probably over-compensated, but as it turned out, it was fine because when the taxi driver let us off at the cruise place, he told us about this hotel/restaurant directly across the street where we could have breakfast. We had a very nice breakfast - I tried marmite, I'd heard about it before but wondered what it was, (sort of like I've heard of the Austrailian's veggie-mite) and I do not recommend it - BLAH!

When we left breakfast to cross the street and get to the boat, it had started raining. This was the only down side, in my book, to our not getting to go on Tuesday's cruise, the weather would have been fine on Tuesday... but we were told that the weather today was more "authentic" so... And the rain didn't last, it was very breezy, although some or all of that may have been our speed in moving on the water, I don't know. On Facebook, you can see the pic of my hair standing totally up on end, due to the wind. We did not see Nessie, she may have been sleeping in, or even on vacation.. who knows!? She might be in the Pacific Northwest looking for Bigfoot! But we did see some fantastic scenery, and a castle or two, the mountains.. I'm incapable of finding the words for the beautiful scenery we've seen on this trip.

The trip took us down the Ness Canal, to the Loch, and lasted about 1:45, and they then let a lot of people off the boat because they were going to tour the castle and then bus it back to town, so we were able to nab decent seats (all the good ones having already been nabbed when we first got on), for the return trip. For the return, the rain had stopped and the sun was beginning to contemplate eeking out. It was a lovely ride back. It was even nice enough that at one point, Holly and Tom upstairs to ride on the upper deck.

After disembarking, we caught the bus back to town and had a nice lunch at, you guessed it... another pub!, before catching our train south to Edinburgh. That's where I am at the moment, I've been taking advantage of the free wifi to catch up on the blog. Watching the guy in the seat catty-cornered from me downing four (count them, 4) huge beers in about an hour and a half, then when he got off the train, the slug left all of his empties! Holly and Tom have been playing musical chairs and when I'm not typing, I'm looking out the window at the scenery. The sun, by the way, decided to come south with us and the skies are painfully blue with lots of fluffy clouds.

This may be the last "on the road" blog as the wifi may be iffy between now and Saturday. But here's the plan: We'll be arriving at Edinburgh about 7:30pm. We'll get a taxi to our dorm - we'll be staying in the same place, or thereabouts, as we stayed the last time when we were stuck in Scotland post my appendectomy - and then investigate the dinner options. Tomorrow will be our only day in Edinburgh and there is the Castle and the Holyrood Palace which are two musts.. there may be a hop on/off bus tour, don't know, but that would be nice, as you get commentary during the trip so you know what you're driving past. Either that or Holly is well acquainted with the bus system here and we may just get an all-day pass (3 pounds 20) and motor around that way.

Friday, we'll be getting up and taxiing it to the airport for our flight back to Indianapolis. The flight leaves around noon, if I recall correctly, and we'll be landing about 11pm in Indy. We'll probably be mostly dead, so we'll pass out at Chez Burns and in the morning, I'll head home... hitting a McDonald's first, for some ICED TEA!!!

Thanks to all who have enjoyed our journey with us. I'm sorry I couldn't include photos in the blog, hopefully you've been able to follow along with the pics posted on Facebook.

Until next time,... :)

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