Day Four- Highlands, Loch Ness, Glencoe, and Lots of Little Towns

So, on my way back from our day long adventure today, I couldn't really think of a proper description to put on our experiences today to do it proper justice, other than saying that it was, beyond the shadow of a doubt, the most stunning landscape and magnificent country that I have ever beheld.

I also crafted a doozy of a post! Apologies again on the lack of pictures, as they are being held hostage on my camera till we get back to London where free wifi (and Queen Elizabeth) both reign supreme. So, if you want to see a "wee bit" of where we went today, google Scottish Highlands, Loch Ness, and Glencoe to get an idea. Just amazing!

The day started when we took the train to Edinburgh proper from our hotel in Newcraighall. Then we walked up to High Street on the Royal Mile to join our daylong tour. Completely by accident, I got to sit shotgun to our tour guide, Jaime. I had unwittingly picked the best seat in the house (on the opposite side of the car than normal, of course.) I had panoramic views the whole journey! His personality was so big and so gregarious that he probably deserves a blog post devoted entirely to him. 

Allow me to describe Him for you. He was a very Scottish, middle age guy born outside of Edinburgh, with bright red hair and, of course, a kilt from his clan, the Sinclairs. He was, quite possibly, the best tour guide a person could have when doing an 8 am to 8 pm tour across Scotland. I suppose he deserves that praise for many reasons: his hilarious commentary and expert narration of historical events, frequent stops for a bit of leg stretching in cute villages with awesome graveyards and bakeries, bits and pieces of lesser known Scottish culture. His information was so excellent and worth remembering that I filled up 6 pages, front and back, with all of this knowledge, all priceless and brilliantly described. So naturally, I will have a quickbit column devoted to both Jaime quotes and Scottish stuff. He also played bagpipe or traditional Scottish music when he wasn't talking (or, yapping away, as he called it.)

Also on our bus were 3 Italians, 2 Belgians, 2 from Adelaide, Austrailia, 2 from Southern Cal, and 3 from South Carolina. The Italians could barely speak any English and the rest seemed a tad bit snooty, so our interactions were chiefly with the Aussies, who were AWESOME! I never thought about it before, but it seems to me that Aussie's British accents, with their slight twang differentiating them from the regular Brits, can be compared with those with thick Southern Accents in the American south. 

Anyhow, we began our tour driving the back roads en route to our first stop, Callendal, a little village in the lowlands in Stiriling county. We hopped out and got coffee at an adorable little bakeshop. I also got some shortbread, Victoria a doughnut, Galen got.....a meat and haggis pie. Ahem.  Eventually I tried a bite. It was really not bad, just like a spicy sausage with some lamb-y flavor. I did get some stuck in my tooth and it was rather intestine like when I pulled it out. yum yum! We also got to take some shots of a tiny little graveyard before we boarded our bus again and began our ascent into the highlands.

But, before that here's all the semi famous places we saw from our window:

William Wallace's memorial (looks like something out of Gondor!)

Where Mary Queen of Scots was born

Queen Victoria's Holiday Palace

The places where notorious battles were fought during the uprising of the Jacobites

didn't see but drove by J.K. Rowling's house

Doune, the town that made a lot of the pistols used to fire the first shots in the fight for American Independence.

Blair Castle (gorgeous!)

Queen Margaret's grave

The place where Johnny Walker scotch gets some of the alcohol in it from

As I mentioned previously, some of Scotland (the lowlands) look a great deal like England's countryside, but once you hit the highlands, it changes dramatically. Huge, I mean HUGE mountains loom, rocky and craiggy, strewn with heather and wild thyme, roamed by a few sheep, "highland coos" (cows) and possibly a few hikers. Here and there we came upon lochs (lakes) filled with dark water, stained by the nearby peat when the rain rolls off the mountain into the loch. We stopped at Loch Lochey to take pictures and a few other glens here and there before we came to the real star, Glencoe. Do me a favor right now to save me some futile adjectives and google that real quick. See? Fabulous. We all took about a million photos before we jetted off to another wee town. 

It was about this time that Jaime gave us a dissertation on Faeries, Bogles, Kelpies, Selkies, Loch Ness, and The Big Grey Man of Ben Mac Duiy. I never realized before that there is a such a rich history in Scotland 

with legends, myths, and mythical creatures. It almost reminds me of the Norse and Icelandic mythology! First he told us about the Kelpies. Basically, it's like a giant water horse that comes on land to graze. It is irresistable when you see it and when you go to pet it it grabs you with it's mouth lined with teeth (and superglue) and plunges you to the depths of the loch where you are promptly eaten. He said that monster was basically invented to keep kids away from the dangerous depths of the lochs. Selkies are humans that are in the shape of seals. They remove their seal skin only on secluded beaches and dance round fires (naked of course, as pagans, what would you expect?) If you catch one they make good wives, apparently. Faeries are basically angels that fell from heaven at the same time lucifer did. Think scary elf-like creatures with wings, their portals being where trees grow through large rocks (a common sight.)  Bogles are just (just!) ghouls and The Big Grey Man of Ben Mac Duiy is basically a sasquatch-esque monster that roams the mists of a certain mountains in the highland. Loch Ness monster needs no explaining, other than at 800 feet deep, anything is possible in the lake she's named for. To conclude, Jaime mentioned they weren't unusual at all for having all this crazy mythology. In fact, he said:

"Well now, folks up on isle of Sky believe pretty much anything....unicorns, minotaurs, dragons, anything goes."

Next stop was a RUINED CASTLE built in late 1100. It was unbelievable! It was partially destroyed by Robert the Bruce in approx 1200. We got to explore for about 15 minutes! 

Then it was back on the bus before we stopped at Loch Ness itself. Beautiful place! We ended up grabbing a sandwich at a cute little deli and then taking it with us on our hour long cruise onto the loch itself. The lake is about 27 miles wide so we only rode on 1 /10 of it but it was lovely! One side looked rather like a lake back home but was a sheer cliff. The other had different foliage and heather all round the rock edge. Took lots of pictures! Didn't see Nessie but got a lesson on how the sonar worked that supposedly picked her up on it.

Got back on the bus, made a few more stops on our way back home, one, to take a picture of some highland cows and two in a little village wherein we bought some "tablet" (scottish fudge/toffee hybrid) and some scotch, of course, under the careful advisory of Jaime.

Finally got "home" (Edinburgh) around 8. We grabbed some quick food while waiting for our train to Newcraighill, and then got home and crashed.

Best for last, here's quotables and quickbits:

Quotes a la Jaime (please note, best enjoyed when read or imagined with a very thick Scottish brogue.)

"There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing."

"By the way, there are no real "scary big animals" like bears or wolves in Scotland, so what do we do? We invent monsters, of course!"

"Our other national sport besides football (PROPER football, I might add) is Shinty. It's basically like....hockey and violence. Yeah, and no gumguards either. Ya prolly got ten teeth "tween the whole lot of 'em."

"There are over 50 words in the Gaelic language for "love." It's sometimes called the "language of love." Of course, there's also 300 words for fighting and 400 words for drinking, so well? Maybe not the language of love after all."

"Me ma always told me that "Ginger hair is a sign of intelligence."

"Weddings in Scotland are so much fun to attend. They revolve around drinking though and often till the wee hours of the morn. Me brother got married in that selfsame castle. (pointing to Blair castle out the window.) He and I got into a wee bit of a scrape around 3 AM, when we decided to have a duel with the two Scottish broadswords we found in the hallway. Didn't turn out too well."

(on faeries and bogles and the nessie) "Me ma always said to me says she, "Absence of Evidence does not mean Evidence of Absence!"

"Yep, that was an Al-you-minium (aluminum) factory once upon a time."

"We had a TV show about Scots smuggling whisky. Ironic, eh? In the states everyone thinks "let's think up ways to steal money from the bank or Las Vegas!" and here, we're like "money? who cares 'bout that. Let's see what we can do to get a bottle of whisky!

Scottish tidbits

Ogle=view (i.e. "glenogle=glenview)

Dreadnaught=fear nothing

Don't ask for chips in a bag or you'll get a funny look. It's "Crisps" in all of Britain, so it seems.

Tons of sayings and words came from Scotland! 

"Armed to the teeth" came from a little town called Teith that due to excess violence, you couldn't bring weapons within the city limits.

Mail=money in gaelic, in 1200 there was a smuggling industry that used to deliver their "mail" in little "boxes"-hence the term mail boxes!

Bannock-crumble made with oats and berries topped with whisky sauce

Flat white=coffee with cream no sugar

Mel Gibson was sort of responsible for bringing Scottish history back to Scottish schools with his film "braveheart."

If you were back in the 1100's and wanted to join a clan, you just had to pledge your battle services for 60 days, then you were in!

The Scottish/French alliance has always been very strong.

I didn't have room for a few other little tidbits, but we are heading back to London tomorrow so I may get a chance to tell you them when I'm on the train.  :) Thanks for reading!