Ramada Encore Inverness City C

... up was the stunning autumn colours abundant in the trees all the way up the Highlands, beautiful...<br><br> <br><br>When I got to Inverness there was still a good hour and a bit of daylight left - and the sun even made a brief appearance, so I thought what-the-hey ...

... king - who told her that if she put her face in the enchanted river for 7 seconds, her beauty would be restored forver and peace would return. Which she did - and which we did too! Yup! threw our faces, in the middle of the rain, on cold slippery rocks! (hopefully i'll be able to upload photos at the next hostel!). <br><br>Phew - what a day! and what an entry! Tonight at the hostel is the Tartan Yoga party, so i had better go and see what outfit Josh has created. <br><br>Till next time! <br>

... is sadly known for being voted the city with the ugliest people in Scotland! Not the best of awards to win. Had a quick look around and Josh even managed to squeeze in a quick haircut! <br><br>Then to the local distillery, a quick tour and some samples - i had a quick taste, but i'm truly not a whiskey person - josh said the Penderyn one in Wales was better. <br><br>Onwards to Loch Ness which is the best known of the 4 Lochs in the Scottish Highlands ...

... that you could show other noblefolk your area. The local Duke went one step further and even hired a crazy old man Hermit to live in his land, so that he had something extra special to brag about! We stopped at Ossians hut, which sat just over a waterfall and watched the salmon try to jump upstream to their spawning areas. <br><br>Back on the bus - a quick lunch at the Tipsy Laird, which for those who watched Monarch of the Glen (a BBC show a few years back) was ...

... was making my journey all the more luxurious due to its descriptions of the decrepit trains of Eastern Europe. Additionally, it made me very glad to have a cabin to myself, and so there was no chance of coming across Mr. Theroux. He seemed to interrogate every poor soul he sat beside during his journey (which took him halfway around the world &#8211; that&#8217;s a great deal of interrogation, and a great many souls), somehow extracting from them all the grotty details of their homes ...

... later. <br><br>Next morning had to get up sort of early-ish to grab out breakfast in the castle. It was really nice sitting in the dinning room with all these portraits of the owners hanging on the wall, felt like I was a Lord or something. Breakky done time to hit the road and we soon arrive at the Queen's estate which you might know by the name of Balmoral. We had a great time wondering the grounds and exploring some of the castle (the bit we were allowed to go ...

... saw some owls; a Falcon (no not the Ford motor car Jeanne - a bird) a Barn Yard Owl - like the one in Harry Potter and the larger Owls too. We spent about 30 mins just checking this out. I quickly got on the internet down the road at the Post office to check out my emails - couldn't post and update my blog because I couldn't get round the password to load up my USB - the cashier of course didn't know it - bugger. I also quickly checked the Herald Sun ...

... Devil wears Prada'. The B&amp;B had a dvd library guests could borrow from and we hadn't seen either of the movies mentioned above. Monday (today), after another filling (but very good) breakfast we left Inverness and heading a short distance to Cawdor Castle. Cawdor Castle was really interesting to explore. Inside the castle which is still used as a homestead between November - April, there were lots of information points that showed someone had a sense of humour as ...

... much in love with each other, which was lovely and very cute. Too soon, it was time to head off. I decided to take the inner B roads back to town and was rewarded by some lovely scenic views driving along another loch and over some hills with my first glimpse of a live rabbit crossing the road. Being the tourist that I am, I was really excited! It was lucky I was driving pretty slowly or it would have been one dead rabbit unlucky ...

... 8211; we&#8217;d surely have died of exposure. <br><br>Through Dundee and Perth we then turned northwards and threaded between the Monadhliath and Cairngrom mountains. We kept an eye on the car&#8217;s outside temperature gauge with great interest as it dipped below 20 degrees Fahrenheit, eventually bottoming out at 13 degrees. At -10.5 degrees Celsius this was easily the lowest temperatures either Ali or I had faced, and we so quickly pulled ...