In the Highlands….

So here comes a little recap of my trip to Scotland.

I landed Thursday the 2nd at Prestwick Airport around 8pm i think and my Aunt came to pick me up so that we could go to the B&B she had booked for us. We were going to spend the night there as it was still a 3 hours drive up to Spean Bridge (near Fort William) and she said we would miss all the scenery if we drove at night. Waking up the next morning we had a full Scottish breakfast (which to me was like an English breakfast actually) and let me tell ya, i just love them english breakfast sausages and the baked beans too. So after that we set off for our trip that took us through some truly breathtaking scenery… And after 3 hours we finally arrived at my Aunts’ partners’ house in Spean Bridge. It’s a really nice house, formerly a Bed and Breakfast, very old-fashioned inside but with a lovely garden and very well kept i thought.

By the time we got there it must have been about 3pm, so we watched a bit of Golf on tv and then headed off to the local Golfclub to hit a few balls… Let me tell you my golf had been bad lately, the kind of where you stand aiming at target and your ball just goes flying off the face in the complete wrong direction, so i lost about 12 or even 15 balls there but Gerald was nice enough to let me have a few of his…….

On the second day we hunted down the Harry Potter steamtrain from Fort William to Mallaig. This consisted of my aunt speeding in her car and us stopping at various viewpoints to get THE perfect shot of it, good fun actually!

This is my best shot of the train  because i like the small smokeclouds and you can actually see a tiny bit of blue sky in the background.

In Mallaig we stopped for some lunch and postcards. I had a non-WW compatible fish and chips which was delicious by the way, i really don’t have fish and chips that often, so that was a real treat! Looking at the datestamp on my pictures i just noticed we made a stop in Arisaig before that and had a walk on the beach and saw the Traigh Golf Course, a very tricky Links course and on that particular day it was just über-windy so i was happy i wasn’t standing on one of those tees to be honest. And we went to Glenfinnan, the Jacobite Monument that was dedicated to the Clansmen who followed Prince Charles Edward in the ‘45 rising for the Stuart Cause. Here’s a shot of the Monument which i’m really proud of .

Then, on Sunday, came my personal highlight of the trip. We drove all the way over to St Andrews to go and watch the Women’s British Open (in golf of course). That was amaaaaazing and i was truly honoured to be able to set foot on the “home of golf”, infact i had goosebumps the whole day (mind you it could have been because of the cold though ). It was great to see the Big Girls play, and let me tell you they are fabulous… I found that they looked much more impressive on TV, well sizewise that is, but when i saw them they looked tiny to me. We followed the 2 last flights, one with Annika Sorenstam in it and the last one with the leader Lorena Ochoa. She won in the end with a score of -7, that was amazing considering the weather conditions over the 4 tournament days. I was really bummed that i didn’t bring my camera, i left it in the car because i thought they were going to check people at the entrances and take them away. But nobody checked us and so it happened that i didn’t have my camera to shoot a picture at the ceremony Never mind, i will always remember that day!!! On our way to St Andrews we stopped at The House of Bruar, it’s apparently Scotland’s most famous Country Store, a kind of big, posh shopping mall where you can find local products and fashion. That’s where i bought my dazzling Wellington Boots with red dots on them, i love them but am wondering when i will ever wear them… After a long day on the course and another 3 hour drive back to Spean Bridge we arrived at home very late and had a sleep in the next day. We didn’t do much that day, just went over to Fort William for a look around in the shops (where i managed to still spend some money despite there not being much to buy really!) and then after lunch Gerald and i went for a quick round of golf at his club.

Then we drove to Fort Augustus to see Loch Ness and possibly have a boat tour on it, but as my aunt gets seasick and we were to drive back tomorrow it was better to not take the boat trip. There i had a huge Fish and Chips again with two yummy pieces of fish in crispy batter (how i love batter ). We did go to the Loch Ness Visitor Centre though, in desperate search of a Nessie head cover for my driver but they didn’t have any unfortunately so i got a few postcards and a mini Nessie and we left. We drove past Uruqhart Castle too to take a picture, we didn’t take the tour either as it was a total rip off… But i did manage to get a good picture of it

On our way back to Geralds’ we stopped at the Commando Memorial too to take some pictures and have a look, here’s what it looks like  with me infront of it looking very cold.

 Then came my last day…. We went for a quick game of Tennis outside seeing as the sun was shining then (typical, just when i’m leaving the weather gets good). I hadn’t had a racket in my hand for 8 years until then, i forgot how tiring Tennis is I thought i was doing terrible but after a while i got a little used to it and it came back little by little. After packing all my stuff we got into the car to go back to Prestwick Airport and that was the trip to Scotland.

I had a great time thanks to my Aunt and Gerald and i’d like to thank them for having me over for a week. It was great and i will definitely go back there some time. The weather could have been better, but hey! it wouldn’t be Scotland if it was sunny I had way too much food there, even though we did walk alot and everything i did put on about 500gr but i was on Holidays and there were so many things that i wanted to eat there (i did not have Haggis though).

(PS: this entry took me a week to write… tsssss terrible)