Trains, islands, haggis and a castle

Our next destination in the Highlands was Inverness, which was a very nice city... but before I get to that, I'll tell you what happened on our way there. We had a fantastic breakfast at our B&B on the Isle of Skye. We had the whole dining room to ourselves, giving us the opportunity to be our usual crazy selves. After we filled up on all the wonderful breakfast delights we headed off to the train station.

We arrived at the train station and unpacked the car, locked it and then Marty ran off to the car hire office to drop the keys into the locked letterbox (it was a small hiring company, and hence closed early on Sunday mornings). While Marty took the keys back, the rest of us walked down to the platform to begin the task of packing our bags into the train luggage racks. Kate turned around to look at the car one last time and noticed we had left the Sat Nav stuck in its nice little spot on the windscreen. And since Marty had left to drop the keys off, we couldn't get it out! Hhrmmm... I dropped my bag and ran to catch up with Marty. As I rounded the corner and had the car hire place in sight, Marty was walking towards me with empty hands. I was about 5 seconds too late! Luckily for us, we had given ourselves plenty of time before the train left - Marty called the guy from the hire place who came and got the keys out so we could retrieve our trusty navigation system. Phew! I think we woke the poor guy up though to come and sort out our mess... Oops :P

We arrived in Inverness after another great train trip and headed to our hotel. There, we were greeted by an extremely friendly host who, in no time at all, made us feel completely welcome. She told us about some great places to go in Inverness, one of which was Ness Islands. Before we went to the islands, we stopped in at Tesco to get some trusty sandwiches for our walk along the River Ness. It was nice to just watch the water whoosh by. It started to rain a little bit but we kept on going since we had gotten used to the random spats of rain during the days (we knew enough to be prepared with umbrellas). Through the pitter patter of the rain we could make out a sound of drumming in the distance. We decided to follow the sounds to see if we could catch a glimpse of the source hoping that it was a grand Scottish parade with bagpipes and all but instead we saw some young army cadets practising their rhythm. Apparently it wasn't raining enough to stop them practising. A little disappointed with the lack of parade, we carried on our way to the Ness Islands.

After walking for what felt like hours, we arrived at a bridge that took us over to these mysterious little islands. The islands were really beautiful. There were paths weaving under giant shady trees and the sound of the River Ness going by made the place seem so relaxing. There were even lights hanging on the trees which would make it look magical after dark. It would have been the perfect place to set up a picnic or sit in a quiet spot and read a book. It seemed like it was an off leash area for dogs too, as there were plenty of furry critters running around. We did a fair bit of Westie spotting that day!

After exploring the islands we headed back to our hotel and settled in for a relaxing night. Travelling can really make you tired so it was nice to just have a sit down with some good food and company. Some nights when we just wanted to relax, we would all pile into one of the rooms and watch some trashy TV and drink the free hot chocolate from the hotel. Some of our favourite shows were probably the trashiest ones... "Big Brother" and "My Super Sweet 16" to name some. Oh so bad.. but oh so entertaining!

The next morning, we had to catch a train bright and early to Edinburgh but, since our host was so nice, she prepared our breakfast bright and early for us. There were cereals galore, a large array of fruit, croissants and plenty of tea and coffee. We felt super spoilt to have all of this arranged for us at such an ungodly hour of the morning. We caught a taxi to the train station and soon after we were off on another train ride - back to Edinburgh.

Since we only had one more night in Edinburgh, we had to make the most of our afternoon there. We wasted no time in hailing a taxi and heading straight up to Edinburgh Castle. Back when we were organising our holiday, we had all agreed that if we were to see a castle, it would definitely have to be Edinburgh Castle. (We didn't want to see too many castles on the trip because once you've seen a castle, you've pretty much seen all the castles... unless you're a really keen castle lover in which case maybe you would actually appreciate each and every castle as an individual!) Anyway...before we headed into the castle, we stopped at a nearby cafe for some lunch. This is where we encountered our first case of Haggis. Marty ordered a baked potato with Haggis... *shudder* When it came out of the kitchen, we all stared at it with wonder. It looked like someone had scraped blood and guts off the floor and mixed some spice into it and dumped it on a spud (okay, maybe that's my crazy vegetarian brain over-exaggerating). It didn't look that bad... After our feed of "tattie's" (Scottish slang for potatoes), we walked up to the castle entrance and lined up to get our admission tickets. The main entrance of the castle was being set up for the Edinburgh Military Tattoo. It was funny being there because what we'd seen on TV of the tattoo made the arena look huge but actually seeing the arena, we wondered how on earth they fit everything into such a small area.

After a looong wait for our tickets, we were finally able to go in and explore the giant fortress. We found a tour group and tacked onto the end so we could listen to the animated tour guide tell us about the history of the castle. It was amusing to hear his strong Scottish accent talk about Scottish history and William Wallace.

The view of Edinburgh from the castle

In the Royal Apartments... where Mary Queen of Scots gave birth to James VI... who became King of Scotland at 13 months old... and later became King of England and Ireland... which then became "The United Kingdom"!! more info on him

After we learnt about the old codgers that lived in the Castle and governed Scotland we went underground to the vaults that used to house Prisoners of War. There was a great exhibit with artefacts from when there were prisoners from various wars throughout history.

As you walk into the start of the exhibit you can see a wooden frame with hammocks and various other things where the prisoners slept. To add to the atmosphere they set up a speaker system which played peoples voices and whistling to make it sound like there were people in the hammocks. It was actually quite well done. It wasn't too tacky as one would expect from something like that.

Some of the higher security chambers.

After exiting the exhibit into the big, bright world outside we discovered a statue of a Scottish man (kilt and all) with bagpipes that was just too good to pass up a photo opportunity.

And I couldn't resist a look up his kilt!

The Isle of Skye

After a pleasant ferry trip from the mainland of Scotland to the majestic Isle of Skye we were greeted by a rather nice lady who was giving us the keys to our hire car. The weather was a little dreary so Roy's Mum, Kate and I sat in the car while Roy and his Dad hopped into a mysterious black van to finalise the paperwork for the hire car. They were in the van for quite a while so I had all these visions of Roy and his Dad having their organs removed for selling on the black market. Luckily for us, they eventually emerged from the black van and jumped into the car. We were soon on our merry way to our B&B. We weren't sure what to expect from this little island, but we were pleasantly surprised to find that it boasted some of the most beautiful views of our trip! We arrived at our charming B&B - which was also the local post office - were a little unsure of which door we were supposed to go into. We straddled a giant, hairy dog to get inside which we then found out was the back door. We introduced ourselves to our hospitable host who then showed us to our rooms and helped us settle in to our new surroundings. The B&B was a rather small but beautiful B&B with only three rooms, so we were very lucky to have it all to ourselves!

The view from our bedroom window.

Our cute little room.

It might look a bit gloomy in the photos, but it was magical. It just wouldn't be right to have sunny weather in the north of Scotland - especially on what used to be known as the Eilean a' Cheò, or "isle of the mist"! After we settled into our rooms and freshened up, we headed downstairs to ask our host for some local knowledge of where to go. She told us a driving route to take that would allow us to see all the best parts of the island, and about the local pubs with good food. We headed to the car and started the delicate operation of squeezing in. All of a sudden we heard Roy's Dad yelling, followed by his Mum yelling even louder. Roy's Dad had used the door frame to help himself sit down into the car and Roy's Mum closed the door on top of his fingers. OUCH! Luckily nothing was broken, they were just a bit red and sore. Nothing a bit of ice couldn't fix! After everyone had settled down, we set off on our tour of the island.

We drove around the island clockwise stopping in at a town on the west called Dunvegan. We found a little cafe/bar where we stopped in for a drink. It was a rather strange little bar that was in the same building as a hostel (the mysterious sounding "Misty Isle Hotel") which we later discovered had a pub out the back full of rowdy locals. When we were leaving, Roy's Mum spotted some cute souvenir plates and asked the lady how much they were. She didn't know, so she went and got a guy who was missing a few teeth and asked him how much they were. He gave us a funny look, shrugged his shoulders and said "....1 pound?". Roy's Mum was a little surprised and promptly replied with an "I'll take one, thanks". We all glanced at each other, amazed at how cheap they were. The guy grabbed one of the plates out of the display cabinet and began packing it into a box - he was having a little trouble putting it in so Roy's Mum offered a hand with it. He looked up and smiled at Roy's Dad and said "Ah good...Women know better, aye?". We all shared a polite chuckle and left.

We continued on our whirlwind tour of the island, driving through the capital called Portree. By this time we were all just a bit too hungry to stop in for a look so we continued driving back down the island to Isleornsay - which apparently, we were told by our host, had a good pub for dinner. We parked the car near the pub, walked in and realised that it was a fairly busy night and that we might be in for a long wait for a table for five.

After a bit of exploring, we discovered a restaurant in a hotel that was in the same building as the pub. They welcomed us in and showed us to the sitting room where we were to wait for our table. After having eaten only pub meals and supermarket food for the last few weeks, we were a little surprised that we had to sit in a sitting room before our meal. This sitting room wasn't just any waiting room, it had puffy, cushioned seats, fancy lamps, a fire place and plenty of art hanging on the walls. It felt a little too posh for our daggy appearance - although we did our best to pretend that we were posh enough to be there...

Roy trying to "blend in"

After a while, the waiter - who reminded us of Dracula - came and took our orders. We exchanged glances at one another, each of us wondering why he was taking our order when we weren't sitting at our table. Obligingly, we gave him our order and politely declined the wine list since the food was going to cost quite a bit. Instead of ordering wine, we asked the waiter for some water to which he responded with a grimace on his face "...still or sparkling, madame?". By this time, we'd realised we had come to the wrong place. After Dracula had left with our orders, we erupted in laughter at how awkward the whole situation was. We felt totally out of place and the posh waiter wasn't making us feel any more welcome by the faces he was pulling at us as we stumbled with our order - us being unaccustomed to the whole posh dinner experience. So with that, there was more waiting to be done. By this time, we started to realise that we probably would have done better if we had have just waited in the pub for a table. But we waited... and waited... and made jokes about how ill-suited we were to our situation and waited some more.

Some time later, another waiter came (we wondered if we had scared Dracula off) and ushered us to our table where we sat, placed our napkins on our laps (like all good dinner guests do) and tried to remember our table manners and which fork was used for what course. Shortly after we sat, our meals came out. My immediate impression was "where's all the food?". My meal was about 7cm in diameter with a few tomatoes and garnishes to finish it. It was, to my delight, very delicious.. but extremely small. I was mumbling under my breath about how I wanted to go to the pub next door for some chips. After paying the huge bill for our tiny portions, we did just that. We walked out of the restaurant and straight into the pub next door, found a table and began ordering pints and chips. Whilst sitting and waiting for our second dinner, we caught a glimpse of our 'friend' Dracula. We watched him and wondered what he was doing in the pub surrounded by the common people. He was clearing tables! And still wearing his immaculately pressed suit! We quickly sussed out the menu in the pub and realised that the soup that Kate had ordered in the restaurant was also being served in the pub - but just under a different name and for 2 pounds cheaper!

Our chips were ready in record time and were delivered to us by the same waitress who served us our meals in the restaurant next door. Much to our amusement, she recognised us too. With plenty of room in our belly's, we gobbled down the chips and had MANY laughs about our very strange dinner experience. Of course, we finished the night with a pint.

The view off the jetty near the pub at Isleornsay.

Harry Potter Adventure part 2

One of the reasons I wanted to do a rail journey in Scotland was because of the Jacobite Steam train. While I'm told it wasn't the actual train that was used in the Harry Potter films, it was pretty damn close to it. Close enough for me anyway! Once at the train station, we found our carriage, dumped our luggage into the luggage racks and jumped back off the train to go and admire the engine. It seems there were lots of other Harry Potter fans or perhaps just train enthusiasts as it was hard to get a view of the magnificent engine without seeing someone posing in front of it.

The train had a carriage at the back which was pretty special (unfortunately too special for the passengers) and was reserved for the train staff. It was a carriage that was just like the ones in the Harry Potter movies! The beautiful old timber framed doors and puffy, cushioned seats were just too good to ignore so we went in for a sit down and an obligatory photo. I was trying to imagine what it would be like to go to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Once we'd finished posing in the carriage, we walked back to our carriage and sat down ready for the train to depart. We were sharing our table with a fellow Harry Potter nerd who was rather jealous that we had thought of buying chocolate frogs to eat on the train - just like Ron and Harry did in the movie. Feeling sorry for him, we offered him one of ours so he could feel a part of the magic too.

Me trying to catch my frog before it jumped out the window - okay yes, I am a nerd!

After a short ride we came to a place that I'd been looking forward to the most! The Glenfinnan Viaduct! This great beauty was actually used in the Harry Potter series. Here's a link to a youtube clip of the trailer for The Chamber of Secrets which shows the use of the viaduct in the film.

It all went a little too quickly for my liking. The train sped over the viaduct as everyone scrambled to capture a photo of it and in no time it was gone. It was rather exciting though!

The train then came to a stop for a break at the Glenfinnan station where everyone hopped off for some fresh air. Steam trains can get a bit stuffy after a while with the windows closed. You can open the windows a tiny bit, but the ash from the engine flies in onto the table! At the station, there was a young guy who was busking to raise money to send himself to university. As you might have guessed, he was playing the bagpipes! I'm a bit of a fan of these crazy instruments so I paid him some coins and listened to him blow his tunes.

The train man blew his whistle to signal to everyone that they had to hop back on the train. After everyone was seated we were off and quickly chugging our way along the West Highland railway onward to the town of Mallaig. Roy and I enjoyed walking up to the end of the carriage and poking our heads out of the window to get a better glimpse of the train. We had to pull our heads in quickly when we whooshed past trees and when the soot and rain got a little too much for our faces.

Once we arrived in Mallaig, we dragged our luggage to the nearby port, where we waited for our Ferry to take us over to the Isle of Skye. It was a bit cold and dreary and we were hungry so we headed to the local cafe to have a bit of warm tucker before the ferry came to take us to Skye.

We didn't get to see Harry, Ron or Hermione, but we did have a great time "Choo choo-ing" through the rolling hills of the West Highlands!