Scotland day 3

Up and out by 8:30 today. breakfast was more full european compared to hot Scottish or Irish.  Makes sense since the owners of the artist cottage are from the netherlands.  We took off and headed to inverness to pick up the camera from the resturant.  Stopped and got gas at tesco. much like a walmart.  gas and camera in hand we headed back to tesco to do a little shopping.

picked up some chocolate, fruit, chocolate and fruit.  we then headed downtown inverness.  found a park house and went a walking. stopped at the church of Scotland and chatted with some folks there.  the Church was unique in that the pews were curved and not done at right angles.  that had to cost a pretty penny to make. also they kept up technology as they big screen tvs on the walls for all the folks to see the sermon being read. we didn't stay for any services but the folks really friendly.

walked around to the train station - have soft spot for those as being the son of a railroader.  always enjoy the trains.  Ben gets his love of trains honestly.

Next we headed out culloden battlefield.  this is where the scots and brits fought - brits defeated the scots there. the walking path was  miles around the loop. weather was iffy and we were wanting to hit tomatin distillery when they opened at noon. had some coffee and tea, visited the gift shop and went about our way.

next stop we head up A9 to tomatin. we did the tour with a very knowledgeable tour guide - nicole.  there were only three of us on the tour - deb, me and fellow from California.  little longer and more detailed than the tour from dulwinny yesterday. they had casks there that were dated from 1967 that they plan to sell off - it would bring between 5000 - 10000 pounds for a 70 ml bottle.  we found a 1990 and 1976 casks sitting there in there.

after this we took to the road and headed to Kyle of Lochaish - to our b&b.  drive was an A road but there were times when it dropped down to single lane with passing pull-offs.  winds, rain and blinding sun were all part of the drive.  stopped a couple times to take some pictures but no sights as such.  the snow on the mountains was pretty cool to see. we didn't really want to drive the loch ness route as i it was mostly single lane and being sunday, figured it would be busy.  and have seen enough of nessie growing up to know what nessie is / isn't.

got into b&b around 5:00 or so.  coming into kyle, i initially too the wrong road (was the first road i found on the left come from kyle) but was really the third.   turned around and then took the second road - lucky me - came in the back way!  carolyn, the owner, said i was quite smart in figuring out the way here.  i did follow the directions on the voucher and had a pretty good idea of where to go.  unloaded the bags and headed into town for dinner.  did get to meet the dogs (4 pecks and 1 lab).

stopped at hectors bothy but the sit down was closed - only the to-go was opened. went up the road to the kyle hotel bar and had some dinner there. deb had mac / cheese with chips and i had haddock and chips (fish and chips).  sat around with the locals watching the liverpool and manchester city soccer match (tied 1:1).

back to the room

weather tomorrow is windy and some rain. - colder too.  we are off to the isle of skye tomorrow - deb sent email to the weavers and told them we should be there around 1 pm or so.