Swallow Caledonian Hotel Ullapool

... local hangout for the cast and crew. They even pinched the 'Glenbogle' village sign when shooting ended.

Then up the road to the Culloden Battlefield, where the native Scots (led by Bonnie Prince Charlie) fought the Brits and were fairly well decimated. You can walk around the battlefield, and the two sides are represented by red (English) or blue (Scots) flags. There are also headstones where mass graves for the clans lie.

Back on the road ...

Up at 6:30 this morning so that I can get showered, have some breakfast and get on my way, I have a 70 mile drive and then a long bike ride (or so I thought!).

Today I am going to attempt the Applecross Peninsula, This route incorporates the highest mountain pass and one of the ultimate cycling challenges in the UK - the Bealach na Ba (Pass of the Cattle) - a climb that takes ...

... photos of mountains and I will have absolutely no idea where I took them. I stopped the car up in the mountains for a little lunch (Pot noodle, Bombay bad boy!), very healthy! I got out the stove and the camping kettle and tried to boil some water. This didn't work very well as there must have been 50 mile an hour winds blowing along the glen, so much so that I had to turn the car around to point the bike on the car roof into the wind as it was ...

... phoned ahead to make sure that there
is some availability and there is. Great, my first night back in
Scotland is a SYHA Carbisdale Castle, and what a hostel this is. I arrive at the castle at 7pm and
dinner is just being served so I treat myself to a cooked dinner after my 8.5 hour drive up, I think I deserve it.

Went to the highlands. Visited St Andrews (a famous gold course which you have to book 6 month in advance to play at) as well as Glenlivet (a whisky distillery) just went for a quick walk int eh rain through the area before having dinner of Tomatoe soup, chicken and cous cous and fruit salad. Was a very pretty area. But didn't do much around the town.

... miss."

Oh, and one of the friendly horses in the picture ate a corner of Krystal's jacket because she came too close. So...bonus points!

Getting off the island tomorrow, which is good because I had a nightmare about being stuck in a sheep pasture last night...

Day 9 Evidence: http://s672.photobucket.com/albums/vv82 /amj7348/Scotland%20Day%209/

Far ewell My Vikings, On to Ft. William!

-Ashley

... been able to get to all the places we went in the time we had without our own transport. Bill started out driving, but I soon discovered it was every bit as anxiety producing being a passenger, so I gritted my teeth and took the wheel the next day. Within 10 minutes, we came around a sharp curve going steeply uphill into the path of a full-sized bus. I almost gave it up right there, but I really didn’t want to go back to passenger status, so I took a few deep ...

... of stairs (yes, 3... again...) to my hotel room this evening and ran into him... he said "The sign says the rooms go up to 40, but i'm in room 50! It must be Harry Potter's old room"....!?! Wow. Struck quite a cord with me, nerd-wise. Also there is a big bear in a kilt on the dashboard of his bus. Brian, you are the mustard to my baloney. (eeeek! That's even too weird when I write it!)

Other ...

... islands and are in Ullapool, a cute little ferry town with the best fish and chips! We've been having a blast. there's 29 of us on the tour and it's been incredible. aussies. kiwis, canadians, and a couple americans...golden! So the first half of the trip has been jam packed, feels like we've been travelling for weeks! There's been a general disappointment at the lack of kilts, but we;ve got 4 more days to go, so there's still hope! Tomorrow we had to the isle of Skye...

(Originally published at http://www.troysgonewalkabout.com)
< br>A long day of driving beckoned, which we felt was necessary in order to get some appreciation of the rugged Scottish landscape. After scraping the ice off the car’s windscreen we crossed the Firth of Forth parallel to the iconic Forth Rail Bridge and across to St Andrews. Though we were again under a clear blue sky the idea of a round of golf at the Old Course didn’t seem ...