Inverness, Scotland, UK - Aug 1



musical send-off, they looked FROZEN!!

huge leaves

Cawdor Castle

view from our window this morning

I’m not really sure what the high for today was but it was RAINY! It really wasn’t cold, but there was a lot of rain and quite a bit of wind. I am still In LOVE with Scotland.

The landscape is breathtaking. There is so much lush foliage I can’t believe we done get lost in it. Even when we travel where our guide describes as a bit more arid, I hardly notice. I don’t even care that as soon as we step foot off of the boat we are slammed with wind and rain – welcome to Inverness!!!.

Invergordon is the main port for the Inverness. We drive for about an hour while our guide describes this part of Scotland to us. Our first stop today of Cawdor Castle. The castle itself is a bit underwhelming. Maybe it’s our expectations. When we hear we are visiting a castle we expect stone wall and moats. This is that on the outside, but the inside is very much house-like.  However…it is the grounds that are jaw-dropping. There are 2 main points to see – the garden and the maze.  Consistent with the lushness that we saw yesterday, this is again stunningly beautiful. This is without a doubt the most lush.

After the visit to the castle we stop for lunch at a hotel and proceed to the afternoon visiting Loch Ness and Urquhart castle. Here is where we feel the rain. Between the guide and us we decide to cut our visit to the castle short and spend a bit of time in a town on the way back to the ship. This stop is about 30 minutes where we find a pub and have a pint before heading back to the ship.

I could easily spend a chunk of time here! I just have to convince Chris to get over the wet weather – I think the pubs could sway him.



Cawdor gardens

Urquhart Castle, can you see photographer's umbrella??