Scotland Day 3

Saturday, 13 July 2024

We all had a good sleep in our top floor room of the quirky little hostel we were staying in.  Hostels have changed a lot since our youth - you no longer bring your own bedding, they are more expensive (but you don't have to do chores), and they seem to be a lot quieter than they used to be - but perhaps that's just the two we've stayed at so far. We've got a few more ahead of us this trip so we'll know for sure by the end.

Our first stop  of the day was just across the bridge at the Eilean Donan Castle.  This looked spectacular but we chose not to get any closer than this photo due to the parking and castle entry fees ($60 each) - and we figured we should save our castle money for Urquhart Castle on Lock Ness a bit later in the day.

This turned out to be a bit of a mistake though, as when we pulled into the Urquhart Castle the parking attendants sent us away as we weren't booked for a time slot, and the next one wasn't until the afternoon. We barely got a glimpse of it from the road so it was a bit of a shame.  Loch Ness itself wasn't particularly spectacular - a long narrow lake that reminded me a lot of the Mjosa from my time in Norway.

We drowned our sorrows with some expensive pastries in Inverness before continuing onto a little town near the Cairngorm Mountains where there was a lovely little walk by the river with nice views of the range:

Afterwards we had lunch in a random little park by a car park where we observed lots of people leaving for more significant hikes than ours had been. Then it was onwards to Edinburgh.  We drove straight to the airport, returned our too-small car, then Ubered to our little Airbnb apartment which is really cute but unfortunately doesn't have a washing machine as we were all looking forward to washing Jett's clothes!

While I schlepped to the local laundromat, Jett and Jon ran up and around Arthurs Seat then went to the supermarket.  While I waited for the washing (13 pounds!!) I did a walk around the local area and I couldn't help noticing that Edinburgh seemed a lot more run down than it was the last time I was here - it could just be our area, but there were a lot of boarded up shops, downtrodden looking pedestrians and street sleepers.

By the time we all got home from our chores it was well after 8 and had been another big day so it was great to have dinner (stir fry by Jon) and get to bed.