Thursday, May 3, Inverness

After departing Newtonmore, we boarded the train en route to Inverness. 

After a beautiful train ride north; the beauty of the highlands is absolutely indescribable ... The rolling green hills, the pastures full of sheep and Spring lambs .. Mom and I were discussing how much we love Scotland.  It's difficult to describe, how can I feel so 'at home' in someplace I have never been before.  Makes the heart of this Scots lass sing.

On the way to Inverness, we knew that we would have a few hours between arrival and check in at our B&B, so we decided that we should seek out the tourist office and arrange for a tour to Loch Ness. 

Once we de-trained (it's a word, I looked it up ...), we went looking for the Visit Scotland Tourist Office.  Turns out, the tourist office in Inverness is located in the city square.  After we navigated a crowd that assembled in the square, we found the tourist office and booked a tour that would take us to Loch Ness .. but we were on the clock.  We had 30 minutes to stow our luggage and catch our tour, scheduled to depart from the bus station, which, as luck would have it is adjacent to the train station, the location of the storage locker for our luggage.

After trekking back to the train station and storing our stuff ... we attempted to find our tour bus.  I can only imagine what this comedy of errors would have looked like had I only had a birds eye view on the chaos that ensued. 

The directions that we received from the agent at Visit Scotland indicated the tour left from the bus station .. when we arrived at the bus station .. we were directed to Bank Street.  According to the conflicting directions we received to find Bank Street .. it's either North or South .. or maybe East.  Note to future Inverness travelers .. Bank Street runs adjacent to the River Ness ... the great, big River Ness.  Upon arrival (finally!) at Bank Street .. we were re-directed to the bus station. 

GAH!!

Long story short .. after participating in the Inverness Fun Run .. we ran out of time and missed our tour.  So it's back to the tourist office for us as we now need to get our money back on the tour.  When we talk to the (other...) agent, we learn that we were given poor directions by the first agent for the pick up location.   

The moral of the story ... we are the only Americans to visit Inverness Scotland who DIDN'T see Loch Ness. 

Inverness, wasn't a total loss.  We did get to see Inverness Castle.