UK trip day 5
And why the jeebus is lj cut and I not working together, grrrr. This is getting annoying.
Again with the cooked breakfast which I swear has doubled my cholesterol, and then packing to jam everything in the trunk of the car to be off on our way. The Innkeeper was nice to us, the cook/maid was sweet even though she didn't speak much English, and overall it was a good place despite the world's smallest bathroom ever and all those spiders Smoo had to kill for me.
I guess it was both Matt's and my fault for not fully looking at maps.google before setting off to Comrie to pick up mom from Jennifer's caravan (where the two of them have been staying). So apparently there are two Comrie's... and yes both spelled the same. One is about 25 minutes outside Edinburgh, the other is out in the country a little over an hour away. So Matt and I stopped in the closer one first to ask a shop keeper to find out that there are two Comrie's and we were probably looking for the other one which happens to be farther away.
We finally arrived at the correct Comrie, cute little village right next to Glen Eagle (the PGA golf course) and visited Jennifer's caravan (camper/trailer). It's cute for a weekend get-away (which is why they have it). After Jennifer telling us all about the places we should stop on our drive to Inverness (about a 30 minute conversation) we were finally on our way... for 3 loooooong hours with mom in the back seat telling us all about her 3 days with Jennifer, all the shops they went to, everything they saw, everything they didn't see, and so on and so on. About halfway to Urquhart Castle mom finally fell asleep! And I was getting motion sick so I fell asleep for a spell as well to calm my stomach. All those h ills and windy roads were doing havoc on my stomach. Along the way we stopped for gas, and of course we coudln't get the card machine to work so Matt needed to pay inside. I used the toilet and when I came out Matt and mom were still inside (weird) so I went inside to investigate, turns out mom was talking to the lady about our trip to Inverness and to the games tomorrow (which was really in a couple days but she can't count) Mom likes to talk to everyone, and everyone is friendly in Scotlant (outside of Edinburgh) so it makes for slow progress everywhere we stop.
By now it has been raining off and on and driving me crazy and I wasn't driving! And we continued to drive through hills, farm land, and of course sheep and cows and more sheep and repeat.
When we reached Urquhart Castle the rain had stopped and the sun was trying to come out. Urquhart lies in ruin and is right on Lock Ness... I found Nessie! Just kidding but I was looking. Urquhart was like most other castles, added onto over the course of hundreds of years, had battles, and eventually was abandoned when repairing was too much to deal with. We were still able to climb up to probably what used to be the top floor of the inner castle, which was neat and still amazes me how this has been standing for so long weathered by the elements. Of course the staircase was very narrow (no room for a handrail so there was a rope) and again I was thankful I was not that tall. Overall I liked this castle but Tantallon is still my favorite as it was most susceptible to attack.
Back in the car to continue the drive to Inverness, thank jeebus it was only a half hour away! Found a car park, of course narrow spots for the small cars, and Smoo didn't hit anything again! We were all starving so stopped in for supper at the first place that wasn't Indian (6 places before we found non-Indian). Ended up at "The Room" and had fresh mozz/tomato for an appetizer, of course. I decided on a burger (my first in the UK) and the cheese was real cheese, yay, not sliced, but a chunk cut from a block... sweet. It was nice not being in Edinburgh, the prices for dinner were so much cheaper! After dinner we walked around town, it's a cute city (yes an actual city, not village) that the river Ness cuts through; and they have some old bridges. Smoo and I were jumping up and down on the pedestrian bridge getting it to vibrate, mom called us childish... whatever, we were just "testing" it.
We were all getting tired after the long journeyed day so we headed up the hill to the B&B, by this time it was already dark so I missed it on the first pass by. The Eiland View B&B is adorable, it's surrounded by sheep pastures! And then on the other side of the pastures is the house farm with HUGE houses that I assume are all very new based on the pics we had seen of the B&B. The inn is a regular house, the guest rooms (3) are in one half seperated by the main hall from the owner's private residence. She has 3 kids, mom found 2 of them and totally got acquainted with the youngest one, a toe-head of about 3 or 4 years of age.
the rooms were really big compared with what we have seen and all have private bathrooms. The heaters in the room weren't that great but it did cut down on the chill. The bed was big and comfy and we fell asleep pretty quickly since it was a very long day.