Inverness, Scotland, United Kingdom
Stayed the night at a bnb in Inverness. Had breakfast 8.30am along with another 11 guests. A very nice place, in fact we could have had a choice, the area was full of bnb's. mapped our day over breakfast and had the iPad with us so caught up on the harness racing debacle, what a disappointment - cheats.
10.30am we caught the on/off bus from the bus station, same station we left from yesterday so we were on familiar ground, still great weather. Actually, Inverness with a population of 70,000 is not a big city, we were also staying quite central and had been for a long walk the night before.
We boarded to the sounds of Mull of Kintyre, it immediately created an atmosphere of anticipation. Double decker (all on/offs are), we scored up top, front left. Suddenly the music changed “ you canna shove your granny off a bus, 'cause she's your mammy's mammy!" Churches, churches and more churches, everywhere. Old, New and unusual, one was now a funeral directors.
The driver drove like a maniac, I guess he had a timetable to keep to, but there was not time for pics or to reconcile yourself to the commentary, hence we decided to stay on and do another round.
The second time around, we both agreed, was much better, we knew the commentary and were accustomed to the speed!
In fact we were singing along to most of the songs in the end, as we had - as most of you would have, danced to them at the cabarets long ago. When you think of it, a lot of gay Gordon songs were Scottish.
G.O.L.F. Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden.
There was a man salmon fishing in the river, he had a large audience.
As we approached the end of our 2nd tour - after 2hours of strenuous exercise hanging on tight, we past the hospice shop. Said to Kevin we’ll go back for a browse - I do like nice wine glasses while we're away. Well, we did better than nice, 3 divine Edinburgh Crystal short stem goblets, £5 for the THREE!!! I also bought a silk scarf £2.
By now it was almost 1.30pm (19*, anotherand the next plan was to head for Whitehills but stop at Culloden Battle Fields on the way.
It was well worth the visit - this time our NZ Heritage cards came in handy. This was the battle where the Jacobites were defeated, the last battle (1745) ever on English soil.
For those of you history buffs who want to know more: https://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/outlander-a-timeline-of-the-battle-of-culloden-1-4081652 we spent 2.5hrs there, could have stayed much longer but knew we had an hour and a half to drive to Whitehills.
In the car driving out, I spotted a Morgan being parked, hopped out to take a pic, from a distance Peter, I almost thought it was YOU! As I turned to get back in the car I suddenly saw the other two parked up, all traveling together, there was another but it had gone back to the hotel.
It's similar to what happened to the Irish: https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofScotland/The-Highland-Clearances/
Arrived back at 6pm.
Jasha
2018-09-06
Great purchase. I do like the hop on hop off. They give great over view of the place. You certainly are seeing plenty and enjoying plenty. Fantastic!!!
Vicki
2018-09-07
You're certainly having a fantastic time guy's, and striking pretty great weather! Flange and I awaiting next season of Outlander so can enthuse your visit to Culloden, happy travels Xx