Journey into the Highlands
- Elena Sieverding
- Apr 28, 2019
- 4 min read
Hello readers! Another week, another blog post. I know I told you guys that my trips were done, but I sort of forgot about my last day trip to Loch Ness and Inverness. Yes, yesterday I traveled back up into the Highlands to try to find the infamous "Loch Ness Monster"...needless to say, I did not see her. Our main destinations were Loch Ness and Inverness, but our tour guide had a couple of surprise stops along the way!
We first stopped at Loch Lomond for some quick coffee and a snack. The last time I saw Loch Lomond was on my journey to the Harry Potter Bridge when it was covered with snow. It was nice to see the scenery without covered in snow this time. Luckily the ever-so unpredictable Scotland weather cooperated with us yesterday by only raining when we were driving on the bus. Other than the spontaneous downpours, it was an overall sunny day! Our next stop along the way to Loch Ness was Loch Tulla. There's nothing really significant about this Loch other than being right next to one of the last standings forests in the highlands. We have also seen this stop before, but instead covered in snow. I'll be posting pictures of the snowless scenery at the end of the post and you guys can compare it to the pictures I took on the way to the Harry Potter Bridge. Next was the Three Sisters in Glen Coe. These are a set of mountain ranges that are considered to be "sisters" (they are so big you can't get all three of them in one picture, at least not from our viewpoint). Again, it was really cool to see how these mountains looked not covered in snow. It really does create a whole different vibe to the Highlands. We also made a quick stop at a Highland waterfall. There are tons of waterfalls in the Highlands with the amount of rain Scotland gets and all the mountains! It was really cool to see one---you can guess---not covered in snow!
Next we arrived in at Fort Augustus where you can see Loch Ness! The little town of Fort Augustus is super cute and has a ton of souvenir shops and restaurants. It's FOR SURE a tourist destination. Our tour guide did inform us that there are people who still 100% believe that the Loch Ness Monster is real and have dedicated their lives to try to find her. It's safe to say I did not spot Nessie while looking upon the eerie waters of Loch Ness. Props to the giant monster being able to evade watching eyes for many years though. It's almost like it's too improbable to be real..? But what do I know, I'm no Loch Ness Monster expert.
After Loch Ness, we visited the ruins of Urquhart Castle. The ruins are dated from the 13th century to the 16th centuries, built on the site of an early medieval fortification. We didn't go through the ruins, but instead found a good viewpoint from the road overlooking the castle. We also found sheep along the road in the ditches, which was pretty cool. Our last stop of the day was in the capital of the Highlands, Inverness. Before arriving in Inverness, I was expecting a little rinky-dinky small town, but after seeing a Primark and McDonald's I knew it was a legit city. For those of you who don't know what Primark is, it's basically a cheap clothing store that is located every ten blocks everywhere. Basically it's a requirement in the U.K that a legit city has to have a Primark and McDonald's. We saw the Inverness Castle, which was probably the most modern castle I've seen since being in Scotland. We then wandered around a little bit, checking out some souvenir shops and little cafes. We left Inverness around 5pm and got back to Glasgow around 8pm. The Highlands were super fun and cool to see, even if we had seen some of the stops before.
It's hard to believe that I only have about 15 days left in Glasgow--then I'm off to Iceland with my family. Rachel leaves on Wednesday, so I will have the next week and a half to myself. I'm predicting at lot of movie nights. Speaking of movies, have y'all seen Avengers End Game yet? Don't worry, I'm not going to be posting any spoilers! I would definitely recommend the movie to everyone, even if you aren't a huge fan of the Marvel franchise. If you have seen it, message me because I need to vent all my theories I've been creating for characters since I saw the movie on Friday! This movie definitely signifies an end to an era for Marvel. I'm not spoiling anything by saying that---it's what they've been advertising and I'm simply saying it's true! I honestly am just so thankful that I could experience the highs and lows of this franchise in theaters. Watching Iron Man, I would have never had guessed that the Marvel Universe would develop into what it is now. I've never been so invested into a series, not even Harry Potter (my parents can contest to me not being able to stop crying after Infinity War, even as we were eating dinner--after we saw the movie!). I've laughed, I've cried, and I've done my fair share of over analyzing and creating crazy theories. These movies taught me valuable life lessons---like good intentions don't always lead to your desired outcome, or the battle is never over. There's always going to be another hurdle, another battle, and you're going to have to continue to grow and change.
Thank you to everyone who has followed my journey here in Scotland! Your comments and interaction with these posts have been SO encouraging! I have included pictures from my day trip to Loch Ness and Inverness below!
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