Inverness

Arriving at the Inverness railway station.  With all the train rides we have taken on this trip we are blessing the train clerk in Windsor who advised us to buy a Senior's Rail card. 

Our B and B in Inverness.  Small room but very nice folks and lovely shower.  One starts to appreciate a good shower when mostly confronted with big old bathtubs.

Looking across the River Ness.  Apparently the Loch Ness Monster is not far away!

Inverness castle (now used for offices)

We had a lovely walk down one side of the river on a paved path called Ladies Walk.  Since we saw lots of folks of both genders we are not sure why it is called Ladies Walk.

We wandered along the river walk until we came to the little islands in the middle of the river.  By crossing one bridge you can get onto the first island, walk along the length of that island, cross over another bridge joining those two islands then along the length of that one to the last island and bridge over to the far side of the river.  Back to the downtown along the other side of the river.  Very neat and beautiful with the emerging fall colors.

     

We checked out sporrans in a wonderful kilt shop selling everything Scottish. 

 

And then found this great used book store.  It had 2 floors of old books, prints and maps and a big wood burning stove in the middle of it.  You can see logs piled behind the prints table in front of Marion.  It smelled old and dusty and we felt like we were stepping back in time.

We really liked Inverness.  It has a wonderful "feel" to it.  Comfortable.  We popped in and out of various stores, Marks and Spencer's being my favorite. I have never stayed over in Inverness before but I have been through it a number of times on the train on other trips I have made to Scotland.  While waiting for my next train I used to go to M & S and buy a picnic lunch in their wonderful "food to go" section.  

That evening on our way over to a local pub for dinner (another dinner not worth mentioning, although the wine was good) we heard bagpipes.  It was after 7pm, dark and wet and the draw of the music outdoors too enticing to resist.  We passed by the pub and carried on down to the river banks, about 3 blocks away.  Across the river on the road we could see a pipe band followed by maybe 100 folks carrying torches.  Tried to take a picture but it's not good as you can see below.  But just imagine how neat it was.  We would have followed them except by the time we got to the bridge to cross over to where they were they would be long gone.  We found out the next morning from our taxi driver on the way to the airport that the parade marked the beginning of the week long Mod Festival. It is an annual event held in a different part of Scotland each year celebrating everything Gaelic, music, theatre etc.  

After a week in Scotland we flew south to Gatwick with Easy Jet.  We were both apprehensive flying on this budget airline because of the luggage rules.  They look at all luggage carefully including carry on with very strict weight and size limits.  Only tap water is free and available on board, everything else including tea and coffee costs.  We managed to jump all the hurdles and an hour and 20 minutes later we were landing back in England at Gatwick.