Saturday 18th April 2009

Today we were heading to the Scottish highland country so had prepared for colder weather by having our “long johns” and other thermals ready to wear this morning.
We did the usual morning preparation, breakfast, etc. and on the bus by 8.00am to leave Edinburgh. It was very grey, but no sign of rain, and fortunately, no wind. We were heading for St Andrews first, and passed over the Forth Road bridge as we left Edinburgh. The countryside was quite beautiful, and we reached St Andrews around 10.00am Being Saturday, there was nothing open, but we wandered down to the waterside to see the North Sea, and take photos of the area. The famous golf course didn’t look much different to other golf courses, and there were a few people hitting off at the first tee.
We left St. Andrews and passed through Braemar, the scenery starting to change to that of the highlands. The hills became more mountainous, and there were lots of sheep with their new lambs in the fields. Before long the sun was shining, and we found the temperature actually reached double figures by the afternoon (14°C) it was great to see blue skies replacing the dreary grey sky that we had for the past few days.
As we drove along Ian, our tour director, spent quite a lot of time telling us about the history of the Jacobean War, and “Bonny Prince Charlie” and the Hanoverian victory over the Scottish clans. This was in preparation to our visit to the Culloden Visitor Centre later in the afternoon.
We stopped at Balmoral Castle for lunch – had a walk around the grounds, had a look at the display in the Ballroom, and sat in the sunshine and warmed up. From Balmoral we took the scenic route through the heather covered Grampian Mountains. There was some evidence of snow at the tops of some, but not a great deal. Apparently, there is less and less snow appearing on the mountains, just as in other areas being affected by global warming.
We reached the Culloden Centre around 4.00pm, and had a look at the display, but found it a bit boring. We wandered through the gift shop, and then went back on the bus to drive the final 15 minutes to Inverness where we spend the night at a hotel which backs onto the river Inver.
Deb and I had a dip in the indoor pool and a warm up in the dry sauna before dinner, then went for a quick walk around the block to at least have a brief look at the city of Inverness.