Inverness

Happy Birthday Dad! Hope you had a wonderful birthday and we will celebrate yours and Mom's Birthday probably the Sunday after we get back (August 3).


Our day started off with the usual loud and annoying noises as the ship docked in Invergordon, Scotland. The noises were not as bad as usual since we docked on the other side of the ship today. We are now use to them plus we wanted to get up early to try and see Loch Ness so I guess it worked out okay.


After our usual breakfast outside (beautiful sunny day today although still chilly in the morning), we went to shore to try and take a train to Inverness. Once in Inverness, we were planning on somehow getting to Loch Ness. (It is probably another 20 minute drive to Loch Ness from there). Remember we have a NCL photo excursion at 12:45 pm so we need to be back on the ship by 12:30pm. Well the train into Inverness left at 8:04am (we got there at 8:20am) and next on was not until 9:45am. This would get us to Inverness around 10:35. We checked for a return train. The only train that would make it back in time left Inverness at 10:37. It looks like we would have to stay on the same train with only 2 minutes in Inverness! So taking a train was not going to work.


I read online that the buses here take forever (1-2 hours) to get back from Inverness. It usually takes 30-45 minutes to get there. I did not want to chance missing our excursion therefore taking a bus into the city was not an option either.


The only option we had was to hire a personal driver to take us to Loch Ness and have us back in time for our excursion. It cost 30 pounds per hour (Scotland uses Pound as does Northern Ireland and of course Britain). By the time we figured out that a train was not going to work and decided we did really want to go to Loch Ness, it was 9:00am. Plan was for a personal driver for 3 hours (it was 30 pounds per hour for up to 4 people). So we got one.


Our driver, Andy, was wonderful. We were a bit nervous about having a driver. We kept thinking of all the what-ifs that could go wrong (he doesn't get us back in time, he leaves us somewhere, he does not speak English; you know all the worst case scenarios that one can think of) but it worked out great. He told us about Scotland during the ride to Loch Ness (we learned many things, for example 78% of their gas prices are taxes). He stopped at a local gift shop for us. So Melissa, I have a Loch Ness shot glass for you so now you have to pick us up at the airport! The picture is the proof. We had 45 minutes at Urquhart Castle (it overlooks Loch Ness) to take pictures. Then he even drove us around downtown Inverness just to see it.


It was a beautiful day. Unseasonably warm from what people were saying. It was probably in the 70's with bright sunny skies. Besides Paris, this is the only day that was not partly cloudy or better. We are so grateful for the weather. We were so glad we went to Loch Ness.


Then to our next excursion a photo expedition in the Scottish highlands. Like a said before it was a sunny day so it was great to take pictures. I would not have liked this at all if it was pouring down rain. We went up into the hills on farms and took many beautiful pictures. Melissa, cows even came up behind us on one of the paths. We had to chase them off so we could return on that same path. We have some pictures of cows, sheep, and farm houses. The only problem was there were so many flies on the farm. We had to keep swatting them away (like annoying). Melissa-we now have a better appreciation for your fly problem. :)


Tonight we were supposed to go to a mystery dinner on the ship. We did not get back from our excursion till 5:20pm and by the time we went through the line to get back on the ship it was 5:40pm. The mystery dinner started at 5:00pm for some crazy reason. We do not leave this port till 6:00pm so why they picked 5:00pm for the dinner, I am not sure but whatever. We decided to just take a nice shower and will have dinner on our own.


Tomorrow we will be in Edinburgh and planning on taking The DaVinci Code tour.