Charlene’s trip home on Monday was uneventful but very long. Unfortunately mine was a bit of an adventure with my first flight being cancelled by United just as we arrived at the airport. The new routing and a mechanical problem delay had me dashing through immigration, to the inter-terminal train, through security and sprinting to the finish line which resulted in me being the last passenger on the flight from Newark to Ottawa. My Nexus card, and having just carry-on luggage made it possible and the snafu actually got me in to Ottawa earlier than my original flight, so all good.

I’ve had time to catch up on some sleep, get some movement (besides walking) back into my body through a physio appointment and a yoga class, and go through all my posts and pictures and to contemplate the trip a little. And what a great trip it was!

First of all, having my sister, Charlene, experience the Gaelic Explorer with me was so fabulous. She’s a great traveller and despite getting a cold part way through, she was a trooper and wouldn’t waste a minute of the time we had by resting to try to shake it. We have similar interests and getting to do the hikes on the Isles of Man and Mull together was a special opportunity. And of course, the day on Skye when we were able to get a picture of the McKinnon Clan castle was very special and so grateful to share that with Charlene.

One of the main impressions I’m left with is the kindness and friendliness of the people of Ireland, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man and Scotland. People were willing to help or just chat wherever we travelled. Another take away was the Norse influence in the region. I had no idea how long the Vikings had stayed in the places to which they had travelled and how much influence they had on the English language. This was especially apparent in Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands, but also in the Isle of Man.

Our weather was amazing, cool but with sunshine for most of our days- perfect for touring and all the walking we did. (We averaged 12,000 steps per day) The one day we did have rain, wind and really cool temperatures was in the Orkney Islands, where it seemed to add to the experience rather than take away from it. When it counted, we had really usable weather, even if that meant layering up with fleece and rain jackets for breaking the wind. And a couple of days were downright warm and I almost put on a sleeveless shirt one day.

We had amazing guides along the way and the excursions put together by Windstar were terrific. We missed out on a couple of experiences because we left it til too late to book, but I think in both cases, it worked out that the ones that we chose as back ups were great if not better. Windstar did its amazing job of service and food. We had one little hitch on board. Our travel agent didn’t specify that we wanted separate beds and we were in a cabin where the beds were not easily separated. Housekeeping managed to make it work, and in the end, Charlene got a wonderful little window seat because the bed was pushed up against the window.

I have added some of my favourite pics from the trip to this final blog on our Gaelic Explorer. Thanks for your kind comments about the blog and thanks for coming along on the adventure.

It’s our last day in Edinburgh and we wanted to make the most of it so we decided to do a historical walking tour of the old town. We had walked the Royal Mile up and down a couple of times on our way to Tea and the Castle tour yesterday and doing a bit of looking in the shops the previous day but wanted to do it with a guide who could fill us in on some of the rich history of this amazing city.

As directed, we met up with our guide Georgia at a coffee shop on a side street off the Royal Mile just east of North Bridge. As more and more people arrived it appeared we were to be a very large group but turns out there were two guides and so we ended up in a very nimble group of about 15. The sea of humanity along the Royal Mile got denser and denser as the day progressed and as we got nearer the Castle. Georgia took us through closes into courtyards and around the back of buildings such as St. Giles Church along the way so that we could get away from the crowds and we could hear her. She mentioned that next month it will be even more crowded as the Festivals and the Tattoo attract even more visitors to the city.

(I will take this opportunity to remind readers that my interpretation of things said by guides may be wrong and, as I’m sure you can believe, some of the stories have been embellished somewhat to make them more interesting. I’m not an expert in this area and am only conveying stories that were told to us by the various guides throughout our trip as I remember them.)

I’ll also take this opportunity to apologize for the length of this and some of the other blogs on this trip. Just so much to talk about!

Our first stop was outside the oldest house on the Royal Mile, built in approximately 1400, that became the house of John Knox. Knox led the Protestant reform movement in 1550 and who, in 1559, declared himself the high minister of St Giles. Queen Elizabeth I was not keen on Knox because among other things he made no secret of his dislike for female monarchs.

In the 1600s, there were active witch trials in Edinburgh and women were very careful not to exhibit any signs that they might be a witch. Just outside the John Knox house was one of the few remaining (and capped) stone cisterns that showed wear on the left where women would put their left knee as they used their right hand to gather the water. One of the beliefs at the time was that witches were left handed. There were over 300 women burned at the stake in the Old Town and Georgia explained why there may have been so many. If they wouldn’t admit to being a witch, suspected witches were placed in a barrel into which nails had been hammered and then they were rolled down a hill until they pleaded guilty!

Throughout our travels with Georgia she pointed out that in the 1600 and 1700s, Edinburgh was not such a great place to live but that hundreds has flocked to the city because the countryside was even worse. Edinburgh was crowded and polluted and was a rough place. She showed us areas where public hangings took place and other forms of punishment were dished out. In a square in front of St. Giles Church what is now a stone monument was originally made from wood, and anyone convicted of theft would be nailed through the hand using large iron pegs and left there for 24 – 48 hours. They could try and get free from the peg, causing even more damage to the hand or stay to endure the additional humiliation of townspeople coming by to spit, or through rotten food or excrement at them until they were released.

In this same area there is a heart formed by the stone work on the ground which is where the door to the jail was located. As townspeople went by the jail they spat on the ground at the entrance to the jail to show their disgust for the crimes committed by those jailed there. The tradition of spitting on that spot has continued and even to this day, our guide said people sometimes do participate in the tradition more for the shock value than anything else.

We stopped in a courtyard named Makar’s Court, where Georgia described for us what it was like to live in the 1600’s in Edinburgh. Then 16,000 people were already living in this area, in buildings that were 4 -5 stories on the front side and 8 – 10 on the back. The poor lived at ground level, with the middle class living on the floors in the middle and upper classes on the top floors. Of course there was no sewage system back on the 1600s, and chamber pots from the upper floors were dumped out the window in the evening after dark, falling on the ground outside the windows of those on the lower level. The good news for them is that because of being built on the hill, the sewage ran off, aided by the frequent overnight rains. There was smoke in the air from the many fireplaces and industries making the air sometimes unbearable.

There seem to be lots of stories of the dark side of Edinburgh and even “haunted” tours and nighttime tours with stories of witches and covens and body snatchers in the earlier centuries. In the 1800s, the City built over 120 underground vaults and roads under the surface roads in the west side of the city near South Bridge with the notion that they would be rented out to shop keepers and it would become an underground shopping area. However, they didn’t build them with any water proofing and the vaults got flooded out. The city sealed up the vaults in 1865, but there are still some passages into them under businesses in the area, known to the local guides and people who work there.

As we walked along the Royal Mile, we came across a statue of Adam Smith, and Georgia used the opportunity to speak about the period of Scottish Enlightenment in the 18th century, early 19th century of which Adam Smith was a part. The period’s culture was based on the gathering of deep thinkers in Edinburgh, in the Societies and Clubs there and around the 5 universities. Voltaire called Edinburgh the home of civilization in referring to this period. Adam Smith (1723-1790) was one of those deep thinkers, a philosopher, and economist who some called the Father of Economics or Capitalism. Our guide remarked that the pigeons seemed to enjoy sitting on Adam Smith’s head and the streaks of guano on his head made one wonder if not everyone, or at least not the seagulls thought his ideas were sound.

Also at the same location on the Royal Mile is a statue of David Hume, part of the Scottish Enlightenment movement who was a philosopher and critic of the church and who looked at economics and medicine through a scientific lens. I don’t know how it started or the significance of it, but apparently rubbing the bronze foot of the David Hume statue will bring the person doing the rubbing good luck. Lots of people must believe it because Hume’s foot has the patina rubbed off. And apparently putting construction cones on his head is a “thing” as well.

Literary writers and other artists such as Sir Walter Scott and Robert Burns established the city as a center for literary excellence. Also part of the Enlightenment period, James Watt, a mechanical engineer improved on the original design of the steam engine which was fundamental to the success of the Industrial Revolution. James Braidwood, whose statue is also in this area was the innovator who came up with the concept of putting all the fire equipment in one location and dispatching from there. Up until then, fire trucks in different locations would be engaged by different people and a fire might be right next to the location of the fire truck but the truck would not attend that fire since they were not engaged to do so. Theories of geology also progressed and became a modern science during this time primarily through the work of James Hutton, an Edinburgh geologist.

We stopped to look at the courtyard and the city council building just off of the Royal Mile and Georgia used it as an example of the fact that because the “High Street” (Royal Mile) ran along the back of a ridge between Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood House and the land sloped away on both sides, the buildings were like ice bergs. We could see the top 4 stories of the City Hall, but it was actually 14 stories with 10 of them going down the side of the hill.

Georgia told us stories of some of the people for whom pubs have been named such as the Deacon Brodie Tavern. Brodie was a deacon in the church, a city councillor, a cabinet maker and locksmith, who turned to robbing the very people he made cabinets for to be able to finance his mistresses and his lifestyle. He did such a good job of his double life that Council appointed him to be in charge of the investigation into the robberies which he had committed. When he was finally caught and hanged there were 40,000 people there to see the hanging. It is thought that the dichotomy of Deacon’s personalities fascinated Robert Louis Stevenson and he based the book the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde about it.

And jumping ahead just a bit, after the tour we ate lunch on a patio in the Grassmarket area called the Maggie Dickson Pub. The Reader’s Digest version of the story goes that Maggie was abandoned by her husband and so went out to work as a bar maid. She fell in love with the bar owner’s son, and got pregnant by the son which she hid for the duration of the pregnancy. She abandoned the baby which got traced back to her and so she was sentenced to be hanged. She was hanged in the public square but scared the pants off the hearse driver who removed her body by sitting up in the back of his hearse. Because she had technically been hanged, just not killed, they let her off the hook, the husband came back and they lived happily ever after.

Georgia led us down what she called the most Instagrammable street in Edinburgh, Victoria Street in the Grassmarket area. It should not be difficult to figure out where the area got its name. Not only was feed for cows and horses sold here, but also the cows and horses. There is a street just down from Victoria called CowsGate, yup, where the cows were driven into the area. We had visited this area yesterday, and yes, you’ll notice pictures of it in my post.

Our last stop was around the corner from Grassmarket in the Greyfriars Cemetery. This cemetery is famous for two things. The first of which is that JK Rowling did much of her writing of the Harry Potter books in a nearby pub, and some of the names of characters in the books came from the gravestones in the cemetery. When she had writers block, she would also walk through the graveyard to clear her head or look for inspiration.

The second reason for our visit to the graveyard is to see the grave of a Skye Terrior named Greyfriers Bobby. The story goes that after his master John’s death, Bobby stayed by his grave every day for 14 years until his own death in 1872. It’s said that at 1 pm every day, when the 1 o’clock gun was fired he left for a short time to get his lunch which was provided by the neighbours and friends of John who were moved by the dog’s loyalty. A Disney movie and novel have been written about this story, and it even has its own conspiracy theory that it was actually 4 different dogs who were trained to stay by the grave over the 14 years and not just one. Who knows, but makes for a nice story. There is also a statue of Bobby on the main street near the cemetery whose nose has been replaced 4 times because so many people stop to rub its nose.

Although we toured only the Old Town portion today, we have driven through the New Town, just to the north of our hotel on our Hop on Hop off bus trip. We talked about the New Town area with the guide because someone asked about a partly finished monument on Calton Hill that can be seen from high spots in Old Town and which looks rather like a Greek monument. The monument started in 1826 apparently was part of a move during the Enlightenment to spruce up Edinburgh and live up to its nickname, Athens of the North which it received because of its deep thinkers. In the 18th century New Town was planned and laid out to reflect the shape of the Union Flag, but was too intricate to work. The new design included wider streets to allow for horse and carriages to turn around, open squares and Grecian-style buildings.

Fun Fact’s:

⁃ Edinburgh had a knick name of Old Reekie back in the day and our guide explained that it was because of the dense population and lack of sanitation that it got that name. Gardens were planted in the courtyards of by many of the people who lived there.

⁃ We heard the song we typically only hear at New Years, Auld Lang Syn, played by pipers throughout our visit to Edinburgh. It is based on a folk sound and poem written by Robert Burns and the current version comes from 1799.

⁃ the national animal of Scotland is the Unicorn, a demonstration of how much the Scots and the English didn’t get along. A Unicorn was chosen because it’s the only animal that can best a lion, the national animal of England.

– oh yes, and on the Royal Mile there is another institution, the Starbucks.

At the end of the day we were bushed, but after a short rest we walked east on Princes Street looking for both our tram stop that we need to take tomorrow to the airport and maybe something to eat. Instead we found a huge festival parade happening. The following are some not very good pictures of it. We feel really lame eating dinner at our hotel again rather than finding a cool place to eat, but we were just so tired with all the walking this week that we couldn’t talk ourselves into walking more today. Instead we got packed and enjoyed a light dinner at our hotel. Not a fireworks way to end the vacation but that’s all that we have left in the tank after a very busy and satisfying week.

From the time I started planning my trip to Scotland, I have been dreaming about this day. High tea at Edinburgh Castle. I didn’t even give Charlene an option. But I’ve started half way through the day so let me back up.

After yesterday’s sunshine we were a little disappointed in the light rain today, but it really wasn’t more than a bit of a mist, kind of like Vancouver rain. And it had stopped by the time we were at the Edinburgh Castle end of the Royal Mile.

We started out just after 10 – having let ourselves have a wee lay-in this morning – and slowly made our way along the Royal Mile. There were already crowds along the streets and sidewalks, people wearing all manner of rain wear, or not, or dangerously carrying umbrellas.

This young lad wasn’t the best bagpiper we have encountered but he certainly looked the part! I love the sound of the pipes and have really enjoyed hearing them pretty much everywhere we’ve gone. There was one young girl playing the fiddle further along the street but it was too crowded with people to get a picture.

We wandered in and out of some shops, and of course found some samples of our McKinnon Tartan. We both bemoaned the fact that with only carry on luggage, shopping to any extent is quite out of the picture. So frig magnets it is. As we wandered we poked our heads down various “closes” running off of the Royal Mile. They are so intriguing pathways through the buildings lining the roadway, some leading to courtyards and some heading down what looks like endless stairs. We have been intrigued as well by the multi levels of the city. It seems quite confusing but I guess you get to know what close or road takes you to the right place.

We wondered down a side road off the Royal Mile and found a lookout over a lively street below. It was Victoria Street in the GrassMarket area. We went down the staircase to the street level and walked down this vividly coloured street full of restaurants and shops. I’m not particularly into Harry Potter but if you were, there are lots of spots to check out. The pub where JK Rowling wrote most of the books was lost to a fire a few years ago, but there is still a store of Harry Potter themed things and some other references to places that inspired the books.

Then it was time to head up to the castle for our 1 pm entry time. You pretty much have to pre-order timed tickets for entry into the castle, for guided tours, or for tea at the Tea Rooms and I got our tickets ages ago. Today, the castle entrance was sold out long before noon.

This large area before the castle entrance is used for various concerts and the famous Edinburgh Tattoo which happens in August. It rather takes away from the entrance to the castle but I can imagine it provides a great venue.

Despite getting a map and directions from the info desk as to how to find the Tea Room, we had to ask another staff member once we were further along into the castle. It is huge, with winding pathways and many levels. We were lots early, so stopped to see some of the buildings along the way.

The Scottish National War Memorial building was one of my favourites but no photography is allowed inside so don’t have pictures. It has various panels for various different wars in which the Scots have participated. It’s beautifully done. One in five Scots who enlisted during the First World War never came home.

Then it was time to head to the Tea Room in the Queen Anne Building across the courtyard. The interior of the building was modern in start contrast to the rest of the castle we’d seen so far. It was a large room, and not even half full, so guess High Tea isn’t everyone’s “thing”. But my goodness did I enjoy it. Every last morsel on the stand was so tasty and presented in such an artist manner.

Among my favourites were the Cranley Farm coronation chicken finger with cucumber ribbon, Black Crowdie and leek quiche topped with Katy Roger’s cream (whoever she is) (the wee round on on the middle shelf didn’t look like much but was so full of flavours it was amazing), Sticky Toffee, and the orange macaroon which was a sunny burst of flavour in my mouth. The scones and clotted cream and preserves were delightful as one would expect. The Empress Hotel in Victoria comes close to this experience, but Edinburgh Castle might be just a tad cooler location.

After our tea, we waddled out and made sure to see the Scottish Crown Jewels, called “The Honours”. There was a queue but it moved quickly. In an area with thick vault doors on either side, and displayed behind thick glass were the oldest Crown Jewels in Britain: the Crown, Sceptre and Sword of State used in the coronation of Mary Queen of Scots, in 1543. The Crown Jewels were removed from the castle to keep them from Oliver Cromwell’s army and in 1707 they were locked in a chest and sealed away only to be discovered by Sir Walter Scott. Again, no photography was allowed.

The tour then went through the Royal Apartments and the Birthplace of King James VI, son of Mary Queen of Scots. The room where King James VI was born was tiny and because of the way the walls were set, they had mirrors to show you around the corner, but I couldn’t see much, if anything, in the room.

This fireplace in the living area of the living quarters was outstanding. It is hard to get perspective but it was the full height of a room that had unusually high ceilings.

We wandered around the various outside walls and fortified areas and stopped to have our picture taken at this particular canon, because it was aimed almost right at our hotel!

One thing that struck me wandering through the castle was how well they have presented the castle grounds. There are grass patches and flowers where available and greenery where it can be used. The front of the National War Memorial is a good example. We also talked today about how clean Edinburgh and really all the places we’ve travelled on this trip have been. Especially for such a windy place.

We had originally thought we might be able to climb up Arthur’s Seat, but by the end of the trip we decided the increase in elevation just required too much time and energy and we’d have to give up seeing something else.

Different parts of the Castle were added at different times. The Great Hall was completed in 1511 for King James IV. It has beautiful beams in the ceiling and a wooden roof. In the picture of the Great Hall you can see a black square to the right of the fireplace and half way up the wall. This was a window from the King’s apartment so he could keep an eye on what was happening in the Hall. The room was adorned with all sorts of armour and swords, guns and pistols. The King, however, died in battle in 1513 so he didn’t have long to enjoy this Hall.

St Margaret’s Chapel is a lovely, very wee Chapel, and the oldest building in Edinburgh (1130). They still hold weddings and Christenings here.

The firing of the One O’clock gun dates back to 1861 and there was a huge crowd to witness its firing today while we were on our way up to tea. This gun is obviously not from 1861. In 2001 this gun was installed.

Our legs done in for the day, we wandered a different route back to our hotel where we collapsed and rested long enough to be rejuvenated enough to enjoy a very nice Edinburgh Gin and tonic in the lounge of our hotel where we also had a light dinner. (After our huge High Tea lunch!)

After a great week that started in Dublin we came to the end of our fabulous cruise adventure this morning. It was hard to say goodbye to the luxury and service of this great ship and cruise line. The good news is two fold. One, I’ve already got my next cruise with them booked and two, we still have 3 nights in Edinburgh to enjoy so it’s not the end of our adventure.

Upon exit from the cruise terminal on the harbour of the Firth of Forth there were several volunteers who were helping people make disembarking arrangements. Many were waiting for taxis, but we opted to take the newish tram into the city with helpful advice from a volunteer. It was fast, efficient, cheap and an adventure. Our hotel was about a 3 minute walk from the tram station and we found it no problem. The hotel is an older one, but comfortable enough and more reasonable than many others I researched. It was too early to check in so we dumped our suitcases off at the hotel and went exploring. Once again we chose a hop-on, hop-off bus to give us an overview of the city and allow us to get oriented. We first did a tour of the Old Town area where the live guide gave us a pile of great info, little of which I remember.

I do remember a story of Sir Walter Scott, to whom one of the most iconic landmarks in Edinburgh is dedicated and stands directly across the street from our hotel. In addition to being the poet and author that he’s known for, it is said that he was knighted for neither of those, but for the fact he located “the Honours”, the crown of the King of Scotland after they had been hidden to keep them from Oliver Cromwell’s army.

After doing one loop of the Red Line we hopped off and walked to the Royal Mile to find tea and a scone. By now the early clouds had burned off and the sun had broken out and it was a glorious blue sky day. Still it wasn’t too crowded on the Royal Mile and we found a great little spot where the scones were excellent.

I didn’t take too many pictures today and I have to say that to this point, Edinburgh was a bit overwhelming. I couldn’t decide what to aim the camera at so I didn’t aim it at anything and just took the experience all in. So much to see, so many stories to hear, so much fabulous architecture, so many levels to the city, and so many scones to eat.

Fun Facts about Edinburgh:

– Edinburgh Castle, which is an overwhelmingly dominant feature of the city is perched atop Castle Rock, which is an extinct volcano. At one p.m. every day, the “One O’Clock Gun” fires a shot from the castle.

– The Royal Mile is actually 1 mile, and 107 yards long.

– Edinburgh is supposedly the most green city in the UK, with more trees per person than any other city.

– Edinburgh was JK Rowlings inspiration for the Harry Potter books and she wrote much of them in this city.

– they spell whiskey, “whisky” here.

– Sir Sean Connery was born in Edinburgh (1930) as was Robert Louis Stevenson, the novelist, essayist and poet (1850)

– when driving over the cobblestones of Edinburgh, the buses tend to shake and rattle a bit and that’s called being “shuggled”.

Next it was on to the HOHO Bus again and this time to the Blue Line which went a little further afield than the Old Town. It headed north toward the Firth of Forth through interesting neighbourhoods along the way. We decided it was such a beautiful day that a walk in the Royal Botanic Garden would be nice. And it was. We have missed the rhododendron and azalea blooms as it’s too late in the season, but the woodland forest trails, and the rock garden were beautifully done. We spent about an hour wandering the trails and then were off again to the next destination.

The bus headed toward and along the Firth and past the New Haven Harbour and we arrived at the Royal Britannia exhibit, back at the cruise ship terminal area where we landed on the Star Legend this morning.

The tour of the Britannia was really interesting. They are still working on the infrastructure for the exhibit and it will be a really great experience when they’re finished. We got to see pretty much all areas of the ship from the Commander’s post to the medical centre.

We took the Blue Line bus back to the start and headed on foot to our hotel beat after nearly 13,000 steps and 8 km of walking today. Luckily the hotel has a really comfortable lounge and dining room as we didn’t feel very adventurous and certainly didn’t feel like hoofing it anywhere this evening. We were tucked in pretty early but anxious to get exploring in the morning.

Thursday, July 11 – Invergordon

We have sailed south through the North Sea, and in to Cromarty Firth (an estuary or narrow inlet) and we are now anchored in the busy deep water port harbour at Invergordon, Scotland. This port was a naval base during the 1st and 2nd world wars and now is a transportation hub and servicing hub for the North Sea Oil Rigs.

We left the dock very early this morning for our excursion because the ship will be leaving port early afternoon to make the long haul to Leith (Edinburgh) for tomorrow morning. Our route took us through some gorgeous scenery of the highlands and through Inverness, 24 miles to the south, the capital of the Highlands. Inverness has a population of 80,000 and has a strong economy based on Life Sciences companies and tourism.

The area around Inverness is rich in history, and the Jacobite uprisings to restore the House of Stuart to the British throne. The Battle of Culloden is nearby, where the Jacobites were outnumbered and out powered by the British and they were weak from fatigue and hunger fighting for Bonnie Prince Charlie. There are stories of Flora MacDonald and how she was able to help him escape to the Isle of Skye after the battle of Culloden in 1746. Prince Charlie was dressed as “Betty Burke”, Flora’s Irish maidservant, and they escaped to Skye just moments before the British militia landed nearby.

Our guide gave us some information regarding the Highlands as we travelled the country side. I have to admit that I’m getting pretty brain dead and just enjoyed the ride for most of today without taking notes or really listening at times.

Fun Facts about the Highlands:

– a population of 240,000 are spread throughout a huge territory, producing a density of only 12 people per square mile, some of the lowest in all of Europe.

-Whisky is “The water of life” in Gaelic.

– 1.3 million bottles of whisky per year are produced in the Highlands, and shipped to many countries – top 3 France, India, and the US.

– the main industries are Forestry (farmed), Farming, tourism

-43% of highlanders are employed in the tourism industry.

– difference in rainfall from east to west of the Highlands ( Isle of Mull has 240 days of rain whereas the East has only 150)

-Highland cows or coos are the oldest bred of cattle in the world. They have shaggy coats (which keep them warm in the brutal Highland winters) and horns and are raised mostly for the meat. They can live for 20 years.

After an hour or so we arrived at the Loch Ness Boat mooring, on the Caledonian canal (designed by Thomas Telford, a very prolific engineer and designer of infrastructure throughout Scotland). The Canal joins 4 lochs and allows boats to navigate the 65 miles from Inverness to Fort William.

Fisher in the middle of the river, only up to his hips. Great salmon fishing apparently. The Scots pronounce the “l” in salmon.

The first Loch the Caledonian Canal empties into is our destination for today, Loch Ness. It is 23 miles in length and up to 230 metres deep, the largest body of water in Britain by volume and the 3rd deepest lake of Europe.

You will all have heard about the legend of the Loch Ness Monster, Nessie. A surgeon, Robert Kenneth Wilson’s photo of 1934 which supposedly showed the head and neck of the monster, has been considered a hoax since 1994 and the photographer has admitted to it being a doctored picture. But that hasn’t stopped the world-wide interest in hunting for Nessie, including sonar explorations and DNA surveys. There is a fellow who lives on the Loch who has sold all his worldly belongings and lives in a travel trailer and spends every waking moment on the lookout for Nessie. We didn’t see her.

We did however see Urquhart Castle ruins and we left our boat to take more passengers on the return trip so that we could tour the ruins.

Urquhart Castle was built in the 13th century and was once one of Scotland’s largest castles. Control of the castle passed back and forth between the Scots and the English and the last British soldiers garrisoned here during the Jacobite Rising blew up the castle when they left. The north tower is the only element of the castle still somewhat intact.

As you can see, a lot of local tourism has sprouted up around the Nessie legend. There are themes parks, hotels, playgrounds etc all dedicated to the search for Nessie.

We made our way back to the ship and sadly spent some time this afternoon packing to leave the ship in Edinburgh tomorrow. There was a farewell event in the lounge for the Captain of the ship to introduce the officers and as many of the crew as could abandon their posts. They are the hardest working team, and yet they seem to have some fun along the way. Windstar does some things good, and some things great. And their onboard staff make them great.

Sadly we leave the ship, but happily we have 3 nights in Edinburgh before heading home.