Scotland, UK
30th October - 3rd November 2007Off to Loch Ness in Scotland, UK.
I met a bloke called Simon while working in Texas on a Deloitte assignment. Simon works in the Glasgow office for Deloitte. Ashika and I get along really well with Simon and hos girlfriend, Adele. So we decided to go see them in Glasgow and take a road trip north. Adele knew of a cabin along Loch Ness that is really nice so that was our plan.
Day 1
Friday - 6.30am flight from Gatwick airport meant we were up at 3.30am with a 1 hour cab ride (there was no way we were going to spend an hour on public transport at that time of the morning). Arriving at Glasgow airport, I had organised a hire car and had an upgrade voucher hoping they would look after me. Picking up the keys and they said they had upgraded us from a Ford Mondeo to a Vauxhall (GM Holden's equivalent in Europe) Vectra. Not thinking much about it, we went to the car - 15 min walk in freezing weather. It was a wagon (or estate as they call it here) and was an auto!!! Having heard about the great windy roads we would encounter en route to Loch Ness, you could imagine my disappointment. BUT, there was no way I was walking back to the airport in the freezing weather, so we put up with it. Later we realised it wasn't such a bad thing as Simon's car was a 2 seater.
We spent some time in Glasgow city centre and then met Simon and Adele for lunch. They had to attend someone's farewell so Ashika and I had to go on our own with Simon and Adele would come on the next day, Saturday. The drive was awesome on the Scottish B roads, generally single laned twistys where you would have to pull over to let on coming cars by you. Ashika got a little scared as it was really dark on these country roads, but I was thoroughly enjoying it, I could only imagine what it would be like if I had my Skyline on these roads. Our cabin was in a town called Foyers Bay, midway on the eastern edge of Loch Ness.
Had dinner at a a quaint country pub about 10 miles from our cabin.
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| It rains a lot in Scotland, despite what the locals will tell you | There are 3 main streets in Glasgow - that's it! |
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Day 2
Saturday - Ashika and I slept in and walked around the forest and down to the Loch. Waited for Simon and Adele and went to Inverness, about 30 miles north of our cabin. We walked around and had dinner at an American pub.
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| View from our bedroom | |
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| Our cabin | The infamous Vectra auto estate |
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| Loch Ness | |
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| Waterfalls within 5 mins walk of the cabin | |
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| Ashika's modeling shot | Very arty!! |
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| Loch Ness from a mountainous path | |
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| We didn't see the monster though there was some dark shadows under the water |
Day 3
Sunday - Relaxed for much of the day and decided to go to Urquhart Castle in the afternoon. Dinner was a nice roast in the cabin with food we'd bought in Inverness the day before. A lot of the time spent in the cabin by Simon and I can be described with one word - Wii. I took ours up, knowing there was not much to do there. Forward thinking if you ask me =)
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| Ice skate rink in the centre of Inverness | Simon and Adele |
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| Playing the Wii in the cabin - Simon defending while I punch him in boxing | |
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| Look at the right hook I just landed | I think we were playing Excite Trucks at this stage |
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| View en route to Urquhart Castle | |
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| The Urquhard Castle ruins | More ruins with Loch Ness in the background |
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| Ashika | Ashika and Adele |
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| The whole group well, all 4 of us | |
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| Views of Loch Ness from Urquhart Castle ruins | |
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| Arty shot of Ashika | and of Adele |
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| and that's Simon | |
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| Relaxing after the drive to Urquhart Castle |
Day 4
Monday - After waking up and cleaning the cabin, we left around midday for the drive to Glasgow. Had lunch at a roadside pub and arrived for a 4pm flight back to Gatwick.
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| Snow on the mountain peaks as viewed from our cabin |