Isle of Skye, Inverness, Perth and Edinburgh!!

The Isle of Skye

From the hike at Ben Nevis, we were off up the highlands to the Isle of Skye. The road was treacherous, but the scenary was amazing! Rain off and on, and narrow, curvy roads made the trip interesting! We pulled in across the Skye bridge onto the island a little later in the evening. We were staying at the Saucy Mary's guesthouse, which was a decent place to stay.

The island is quite large and we didn't get much time to explore it. However the views and the walk along the beach we had in the evening made it worth the trip! Due to the hot day, the Fog rolled in off the ocean and provided an amazing view. We were mostly alone along the walk, which was a nice quiet time to enjoy our scotch! That night, we got treated to disco music until 3 am, and then drunk conversations to lull us to sleep until 3:45 right outside out window. Ahhhh

Ewa and Chad on the Loch Ness Cruise

After the cruise we continued up the road to Inverness. We were told that there was supposed to be a Scottish bagpipe and highland dancing parade through the town, but it was on the night before we got into the city - Missed it by one day! We ate supper at a fantastic restaurant and waited for 45 minutes to get into a local pub that was playing traditional Scottish music. After waiting, we found out that there was a £8 cover, and decided that we were too tired to last long enough to make it worth while. (With the exchange, that's about $14 each, just to get in). We headed back to the room, and relaxed there.

The next day, we were up early again for the long drive back down from the highlands to Perth. We stopped for the afternoon at the Palace of Scone, once home to the Stone of Destiny, where old Scottish Kings were crowned. We spent the day touring the palace and the gardens outside. There was also a Scottish game fair going on right outside the Palace, where traditional hunting methods (archery, clay pigeon shooting etc) was going on. We didn't have time to visit, but we could watch from a distance. Perth is a beautiful little city-center baised town that makes walking very easy! We spent the evening walking around the city, before settling down for a bite to eat at Paco's! Hahahaa.... first Mexican food on the trip! That evening, we took the owners of the B&B Kinnard house up on their offer to use the library. It also, I might add, have featured a complimentary decanter of Port and one of Scotch. It was a good night in reading and sipping on the digestives.

The next morning we were off to Edinburgh! Before we hit up Edinburgh, we stopped in at the Rossyln chappel. A highlight of the trip so far for Chad, because this chappel is steeped in mystery and symbology linking the Holy Grail, Knights Templar, Paganism, Christianity and so many other conspiracies throughout history. The chappel is under renovation, but it is open to the public. The carvings and intricate work done are breathtaking to see. It is hard to imagine the amount of work that was completed to build this chappel. We weren't allowed to take any pictures, but I would recommend googling it, the interior is amazing. There are so many depictions of Pagan characters along side of Christian symbols which is very rare in christian churches.

Rossyln Chappel

We'd like to thank Damian, Tricia, Jim & Gina for sponsoring us for the rental car! It really was great to be free to go where you want and we appreciate the wedding present!! After Rossyln we checked in, dropped the car off at the airport, got groceries and the night was almost over, or so we thought. After dinner and meeting some of the people at the hostel, we settled into the chill-out room for a quiet night and to watch a movie. After getting to know Patrick and Noelle from Germany a little, we decided to head off to the pub for a few drinks... which turned into quite a long night! We had a lot of fun getting to know them and hanging out in the pub! The oddest thing is that Patrick is almost a twin to Chad's good friend Bryan Colvin back in Calgary. Some of the pictures on our flickr account capture this, and others don't capture it as well, but in real life, after a beer or two, it's hard to tell the difference, especially because so many of their mannerisms are the same too!

Patrick and Noelle from Germany

Day two in Edinburgh saw us wandering the city, checking out the Camera Obscura and optical illusion museum and having a quiet night in. The third day we spent updating pictures, e-mailing and the blog. We ended our last night in the UK with a Ghost hunt on the 'Terror tour' going through the underground city of Edinburgh. The tour took us into the underground vaults which support the South Bridge and were constructed in 1785. By 1830 they were abandoned and remained empty. This eerie setting is home to dark, mysterious and often tragic apparitions whose ghostly presence leaves a lingering sense of immense sorrow and deprivation. Visitors have stumbled backwards in response to a malevolent lunge. Witnesses testify to the presence of the cobbler who labours industriously. A little boy, laughing playfully, has held visitors’ hands in his cold grasp as a brown dog with long, wiry hair runs between their legs. It was creepy going down under the city with a group of 8 of us and one guide who told us all about the history of the vaults and the various strang things that have happened on previous tours. When entering the Vault Ewa got a bit nauseous and generally just freaked out by the whole thing. But in the end we did not experience any strange phenomena, but it was definatley worth going.

written by  ECRadventure on July 8, 2009 from Edinburgh, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: ECRadventure's Travel Blog
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