Thursday, December 29, 1988

On to Inverness ...

Woke up early and took a bath in preparation for our biggest "adventure" yet. J.P. and I gave the Grantham family a gift of appreciation (chocolate ginger) for letting two American college students invade their lovely home for two nights, then headed for Kingsknowe. There we caught the 10.55 a.m. train to Edinburgh, and there we caught the 11.35 train bound for Inverness (picture #1), the furthest north I've ever been.

It was a beautiful journey through the Scottish highlands. When we arrived in the town of Inverness a little past 4 p.m., J.P. and I made our way through town. We stowed our gear in a locker at the train station, and then began our search for a reasonably priced bed and breakfast. We came across a tourist center, where we were able to make a reservation at a place just 10 minutes walk away.

So we gathered our gear, crossed the Suspended Walking Bridge (picture #2) across the Swift River Ness, and eventually arrived at the home of Mrs. E. Mactaggart (picture #3 is her business card). It was a comfortable place, and we got a room with coffee, tea and biscuits in the morning for only £8.50 each.

We unloaded and rested, then went into town for some dinner. We found a Pizzaland restaurant, where we had a ham and pepperoni pizza (forgetting that here, "pepperoni" is actually "peppers"), which was good. We then walked around town a bit, but there wasn't much to see because it had long since been dark in town. The one thing we could see was the castle in town (picture #4, on the hill in the background), which was beautifully lit.

With nothing much to do, we returned to our room in the bed and breakfast and sat talking and reading for awhile, drinking a bottle of wine that J.P. had purchased. At 9 p.m. we went downstairs to watch TV. We opted to watch "Gremlins" over "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" because J.P. had never seen it. During the movie we started playing a partial game of Monopoly, but stopped midway through because J.P. just wanted to watch the movie. So we did until 11.45, when we went back up to the room. I read a chapter, then went to sleep.