Great Scot!

So, we seriously love Scotland. The other countries we visit are going to have some work to do to be as great as this place. We had such a great day today. We took a day trip to Loch Ness and the highlands, and basically got to see the whole country. The tour went like this:

We spent most of the day on a bus driving on winding roads through the mountains of the highlands. It got old after awhile, but the mountains and sky and everything was completely breathtaking. We took some really fantastic pictures. Here is your Scottish vocabulary lesson of the day:

Ben = mountain

Glen = valley (narrow and deep)

Strath = valley (wide and shallow)

Loch = lake

Got it? Good. Now you can decode our map!

The first stop on our journey was a rest stop with some shops inside. In the back of the store was a whisky (no "e"!) merchant where you could taste different types of scotches from all over Scotland. Rachael thought this would be a good opportunity to find a good bottle for her dad. The guy running the place had a big ‘ol white moustache that was stained yellow around his upper lip. So either this guy drank a whole lotta scotch or smoked a lot… or both. This guy really knew his stuff! So Marty and Elmo’s Friday night gang can expect a good glass of scotch to share when she gets back to town!

We then made our way into the highlands. There was snow everywhere which was a real treat for us Georgia peaches. As we made our way to Loch Ness, we stopped at several spots within the mountains for photo ops and to soak up the beautiful scenery. It was such a calm, beautiful day, several of the lakes we passed looked like mirrors for the mountains that loomed above them. You couldn’t tell where the mountains stopped and the lakes began.

We made it to Loch Ness and had about an hour for lunch. We got some food to go and went to a lookout point and had a picnic while keeping our eyes peeled for Nessie. We didn't see her, but there were several swans in the loch. We went to take a couple of pictures but one of them gave us an evil eye so we took that as our cue to leave. Katie’s swashbuckling swan-kickin’ skills just aren’t what they used to be. We hear it's like riding a bike, though. We got some pretty cool pictures of Loch Ness, and a few curiously inexplicable ones...

Us at Loch Ness

Nessie?

Nessie!

A swan or a Shapeshifter?!

After Loch Ness, we made our way back toward Edinburgh via the eastern part of the country. The weather was so amazing that we got really good views of the mountains. We got some great pictures of Ben Nevis, which is the tallest mountain in Scotland. According to our bus driver, you have about a 1 in 25 chance of actually seeing the top of the mountain because it's usually shrouded in fog because the weather is often so wet. It's really hard to describe how awesome it was...so hard, in fact, that we won't. We'll add more pictures later, but it takes really long and well, we're tired.

We got back to our hostel and found out that they were hosting a pub quiz night (one of the reasons we didn't blog yesterday, it ended late). It was 1 pound each to get in and the pot went to the winning team. The topics were music, Scottish history, food and general knowledge. Rachael's team came in last place (waah waaaah) and Katie's team came in second. One of Katie's teammates (the only German in the room, incidentally, who named their team "Quiz Nazis) really wanted to be on a winning team. When she realized that the possibility of winning first was becoming dim, the following conversation occurred:

German Girl: Aw, I really wanted to be on a winning team! (in a really great accent)

Katie: It's alright. We could still win!

German Girl: I'm so mad! If I were a shark, I'd kill everyone in this room!

The funny thing is that she didn't say tiger or bear or even "If I had a gun, I'd kill everyone in this room!". Nope, a shark. Why? Apparently sharks are en vogue. Rachael was fully aware of this fact since she was "Shark Week" for Halloween. Good times.

So, after pub quiz, we crashed. We had a lot to fit in before leaving for Brussels!

XOXO K&R