Mainland Scotland

Oh bloody hell, I am going to post chronologically backwards tonight to see if anybody is out there, is there anybody out there other than Tracy?

Alright, we are in, can you guess? Forres in Morayshire, why the hell are we in Forres, well, I didn’t want to stay in Inverness and something must be going on in Nairn (did you know gg grandmother Spence is from Nairn?) because every damn place was booked, and the Scots are so apologetic when they have to tell you they are booked, they just floor me.

Anyway, John and I are starting to get a complex, you see, every place we eat out in, we are the only customers, wtf? Okay on Lewis, well, nobody is there. So tonight in Forres (a beautiful town, as is Nairn, these old Scottish towns are so gorgeous with their stone buildings, we walk down the street gasping as we go) the place we wanted to dine at was closed, the next one was fully booked, so I checked TripAdvisor and read about this Italian place in Forres with a wonderful chef. But what is going on in Forres, Guy Fawkes bonfire and fireworks, Guy Fawkes made an attempt to blow the shit out of the parliament buildings in London many years ago, he did not succeed as we can see. They also had fireworks in Siabost last night on Lewis but we went to the Don Black concert instead.

So we walk downtown and walk into this little Italian place and we are the only patrons, of course, because we met the masses of Forresians heading to the fireworks. The chef is quite the guy, so we order an aubergine (eggplant) dish to start, one each. But we get olives and bread first. And, no whisky report tonight because we drank way too much wine. Then I get duck breast and John gets steak and they both come in wonderful sauces. Then, wow, a table of four locals come in, I thought they were all Scots, they are so polite.

John and I are gluttons and finish everything on our plates, order more wine and desert as well. Then the chef brings us grappa, this is Italian rocket fuel. Then he asks how on earth Canadians have heard of his restaurant and I tell him, TripAdvisor. The table of Scots overhear this and ask why on earth we are on holiday in Scotland in November. I comment because there are no tourists and the chef pipes up and says because it is warmer here. Then one Scot woman says so are you visiting England, and I say no, we will not visit England! Why would we visit England when there is Scotland!! She says yes, then sorry to one of the men at their table, who, of course, is English, they really are everywhere.

Okay, before driving to Forres we visited Fort George. Fort George kind of made me hurl because it was built after Culloden to ensure a major fortification existed in the Highlands and while the Highlanders suffered and starved, the massive Fort George was built. It is an impressive fort, but we walked around making terribly snide comments about damn near everything. I dunno, after looking at ancient standing stones and iron age structures, Fort George was dull and the Regimental Museum, which I was most interested in, was closed on weekends, duh.

Prior to that, we stopped in Inverness to buy some kind of travel bag to hold the Uig Chessmen set John laid down the cash for. We ended up in some discount sporting goods store and bought a wheeled suitcase as it was the only thing big enough and cheap enough to hold the chess set. Also, we happened into a market on the street so we stopped at the free range egg stall to talk chicken, omfg, they have 40,000 free range hens and want to add 20,000 more as the egg business is the best farming business. When we drove to Fort George there was a tonne of hens free ranging in a field near the road and it may have been them. Of interest to us, they do not refrigerate the eggs in stores here, they are half-dozen cartons always on the shelves and never in the coolers.

Okay, before Inverness we drove from the ferry terminal at Ullapool to Inverness, it was a sunny day all day - so beautiful. We stopped at Corrieshalloch gorge, which in Gaelic, translates as ugly hollow, but it is a major tourist stop.

It is way cooler here in Morayshire than it was on the west coast, we are wusses now, so used to that warm (albeit wet) west coast air.

And before the drive to Inverness from Ullapool, we were on the early ferry from Stornoway. The person running the tea counter asked me where in Canada I was from before I said a word about anything. She has relatives in Vancouver and is planning a trip over there next year.

The ferry trip was great, sunny and calm water. Mainland Scotland is beautiful, it has trees which were seriously lacking, no, non-existent, on Orkney and Lewis.

Sunrise from Ferry

Corrieshalloch Gorge

Wedding in Inverness - Guests piped in

Fort George