Spring Visitors and Loch Ness Adventures

Now that the dark and drizzly days of winter are being overcome with the light and drizzly days of spring, loads of visitors are heading up north and across the pond to adventure Caledonia with us. The festivities began just this last weekend when Matt's mate from the ol' mission flew all the way out to stay in our wee flat on William Street in hopes we would show him a good time in these parts. I prepped for his arrival by buying some authentic flavours for him to enjoy which included hot cross buns, scones and clotted cream, Tunnock's Teacakes and a couple of Kinder Eggs. Luckily Chase has a sense of humour and no agenda because he quickly forgave Matt and I for having eaten nearly all of the scones, hot cross buns and clotted cream before he even got here! Thank goodness we had the self control to leave some Teacakes and Kinder eggs for him. That said, I think his week adventuring with us was still full of some good tastes of Scotland.

Some highlights of the week, at least for me, were walking about Holyrood Park and getting loads of new views that I swear I had never seen before. That place will always be a wonder. It has so much to offer.

We all worked up a pretty good appetite for some "chipy" when we finished. The Fish n Chips place on the Royal Mile was recommended by a couple of people at work so we stopped there. It was perfect. Served up by a frowning Scottish tween then eaten in a plaza with an distressing number of pigeons, we got all kinds of authentic local flavour from our lunch stop.

That afternoon, we packed up and headed over to Waverly bridge to catch our train to Inverness. What does Inverness have to offer you ask?

Any guesses? Can you see a slithering creature swimming about in this pic?

Indeed, it is just a hop, skip and a swim through a canal from the famous Loch Ness. So after resting our wary legs at the Inverness Student Hostel, and getting an earful from a chatty but tactless Englishman about "what Americans are like", we made our way over to our "Jacobite Tour" of Loch Ness. The weather was somewhat unforgiving (though how could I expect anything different than overcast and chilly/fresh Scottish weather?) and the pre-recorded tour narration was stale and hard to follow but no complaints on the views. It was that austere kind of gloomy beautiful that this place has to offer. I loved it.

Though, I found our wee trip down the canal somewhat upsetting as this random local fellow took it upon himself to wait around on the banks until our boat left and then road alongside us the whole way. For some reason it stressed me out beyond words. Maybe because it was he made it difficult to take a picture that didn't include him or perhaps because he kept looking over at us to make sure he was "on pace" with us. Would you believe he waited for us for the hour+ we were on the loch and was there back on the bank of the canal to ride alongside us back?! If you ever make your way up that far north and take the Jacobite tour, you will have to tell me if you encounter this guy.

Inverness is a lovely town to explore on foot and easy to keep your barrings. We took a leisurely walk along the canal after our lunch of sandwiches and scones. It had some really idyllic sites to offer.

The rest of the week has blurred past since we got the midnight train home and I have worked the last couple of days. Still, amid all the stresses of applying for jobs around the country, papers and finals, work and church callings, it was so so lovely to have an excuse to take a wee holiday just north of us. I think I am learning the art of being a Brit in their right to a proper holiday for good mental health. Many more adventures are awaiting us too as my dear friend Mary is coming in tomorrow afternoon and those dear Oklahoma Sweeney parents next weekend. I have already booked our "Tea for 4" at the Caledonian next weekend with them and set aside my holiday earned from the "Royal Wedding" next week to go towards a trip to our first trip to the continent. Much to love in a Scottish Springtime it seems....