Friday, July 31 - Urquhart Castle day trip

**I'm dreadfully behind on getting info and pictures posted. It takes a bit to get the pictures downloaded, organized and resized for uploading - then there's that wrangling the lappy away from the kids...oh yeah, and being so tired by the end of the day that I don't have the energy...!**

We were up at 5:30 for the 7:06 train from Queen’s station to Inverness, arriving at 10:30. The weather was clear and beautiful, and dare I say, even a little warm! I packed breakfast, lunch AND snacks, just to cut down on the Hunting and Gathering for half a day - many thanks to our very gracious host, Marietta, lending us her soft-sided cooler.

From there it's a short drive to Urquhart castle. Our brand new black Ford Focus was ready and waiting at the rental place when we arrived, thanks to Mike’s pre-booking the night before. During our walk-around the car to note any previous damage before we took it out on the road, the poor chap checking us out was saying they’ve had an increase in the number of accidents with the cars in the last two weeks (I won’t tell you what nationality, but it wasn’t Americans – I had to ask!). Once I told him we had already been driving in Ireland, he laughed and said he wasn’t worried anymore. NO kidding.

The way out of Inverness is easy, when you have a GPS. “Thank you baby Jesus!” that I insisted we get one before our trip, as I don’t know how we would’ve navigated the insane amount of roundabouts, not to mention back roads, without it. Unless you already know where you’re going, there is no way that your average driver would have enough time to actually read the signs to know which spoke of the wheel to exit, if British Jill wasn’t telling you to “Enter the roundabout and take the second exit to A82”.

Of course we all know that Mike is not your average driver, which is not a bad thing, except that he doesn’t like to backtrack and so cut off two different people going through some of the roundabouts today, once even eliciting a honk – unheard of! I just grip and close my eyes. Twice we also did a Griswald - that’s when you ride around the entire roundabout to get back where you started, just so that you can try taking the right exit without crashing, or worse, causing someone to honk.

The ride to Urquhart Castle is a rather short one, on a wider road, so less teeth gnashing on my part (a good thing, since my nubs would be down to gums…) The road takes you along the gentle shores of Loch Ness, sprinkled with pull-outs to steal a view of the castle from a distance as you approach.

The castle is a ruin, which is lovely in the sense that you get to climb in and amongst certain places that you wouldn't be able to were it not. The views from each vantage point are all spectacular! There could never be one perfect picture here.

After leaving the castle, we decided to find the Highlands Winery. The GPS would tell us right where we need to go, and when we headed up the first 45 degree hill, I thought twice about it! We found it and it was lovely - they give you a little aperitif glass and you help yourself! They made wines with local fruits and flowers, like elderberry, sloe berry, ginger and the like. I loved the ginger wine! I wish there were a way I could get it home. It was so yummy!

Deciding to squeeze in one more place into our day, we headed for Fort George. See next post for info and hopefully pictures!