Redetotry wrote:DH says he is going to Scotland one more time and I told him he should fly first class. We have so many accumulated miles I would think would help with the cost and if it doesn't just pay the difference!
Ahhhh. Scotland . . .
When I was a young woman, my (ex) husband was attending a conference in Brighton, England. I wanted in the very worst way to go to Loch Ness. My ex's only interest was in hob-nobbing with his buds, before, during, and after conference hours. He couldn't imagine anything more boring than a long train ride to a place he had absolutely no interest in visiting.
To make a long story short . . . I somehow figured out (at the very last minute, on the very last day I would be able to go before we would fly back to the U.S.) that there was an overnight train from Brighton to Inverness (Scotland). I had no time to make any kind of additional arrangements, I just ran for this train.
I woke up the next morning in Inverness about 8:00 a.m., having absolutely no idea how to get where I wanted to go.
By some strange magic (and this entire trip was magical) there was a kind of travel kiosk at the train station, I walked over and booked a bus to Drumnadrochit (I still remember this name so many years later because it did - and does! - sound so strange!). An hour or two later (I forget) I found myself in Drumnadrochit, again having no idea what to do next.
I asked around - in those days, in that place, a woman travelling alone was very unusual. I asked around the bus station - was very kindly and gently chided, with quite a bit of humor - "Aye! Ye wanna sae air wee menster, then?" - one older woman (who was probably the age that I am now) said that I could rent a bicycle, or that another bus would be going in about twenty minutes.
I was told the bus would pass along the shores of the loch - "Ye bae careful auld Nessie dinna getcha!" - with a brief stop near Urquhart castle. I was told I could get off the bus there and walk to the castle.
I had never before in my life heard of Urquhart castle.I was only on the bus about ten minutes when it sighed to a stop at what looked like to me a wide spot on a narrow road that was bound by low hills all around, of the greenest green I have ever seen.
As the bus moved off, I whirled around, and didn't see
anything - no loch, no castle,
nothing!!. I had gotten off a bus right in the middle of no-where!! Spooked me, for sure. After my panic died down, I noticed a narrow dirt track on the other side of the road from where I stood. The path leading downwards, so decided to follow the path to see where it led over the lip of the hill - it was either that or just stand there until the bus returned several hours later.
And there it was.
Magnificent Urquhart castle, her glowing beige stones shrouded in mist, the blue loch lapping at her feet, as though thrust from a dream. I could hardly believe my eyes.
The path down the hill wasn't too long. I spent several hours exploring the ruined castle. It was almost totally silent, even in the battlements one could hear the water of the loch, lapping at the castle's foundation stones, far below. There were only four or five other people in the whole place. I was almost alone.
Scotland, Urquhart castle, and Loch Ness was, and remains,
the most beautiful place I have ever been.
I could not stay long, I had only those few hours on that particular impromptu day to spend there. I sat in the grass below the castle walls and promised myself, and promised the castle, that I would return one day. I never have, and likely never will. It makes me weep to think of it.
About four years ago my daughter and her husband visited Scotland, and Urquhart castle, at my suggestion, and because of my stories of it. Although the castle itself was mostly unchanged, there is now a large paved parking lot, a modern visitor's center, a gift shop, and a small movie theatre showing a short film of the history of the castle, and of the loch. They found Scotland so lovely (as I had) their goal is to move there one day, if only for a little while.
The windswept solitude of Urquhart castle is no more.
I only wish that they could have seen it, as I had, standing majestic above the lapping waves, alone and shrouded in mist, at the end of a narrow, winding, grass-bordered path.
Nearly fifty years ago.
Anne
by IrishIroamed » Tue Apr 23, 2019 8:26 am 
help yourself to some bagels & coffee. 
Will try straight vinegar on them this time. 
Will feel better to have it real short once I get out to the desert! Will be a lot easier to take care of too. 
Cheryl, hope you find some pretty waterfalls. 
Judy, glad you got a hotel room paid for. I imagine the airline will get an earful from a lot of others too.