Scottish Ambulance in Inverness.

Scottish Ambulance in Inverness.

I thought maybe Herker and Dad would get a kick out of a quick shot of what their emergency vehicles look like. This is a pretty typical color scheme.

-Ryan

Inbhir Nis on Abhainn Nis (Inverness on the River Ness)

We went up to Inverness by train today.

This video was taken from the foot bridge over the River Ness near the City Centre. The river runs between Loch Ness / Caledonian Canal and the Moray Firth.


Interesting side note- when we picked up a city map at the information center it was not in English. Inverness is a bit of a Gaelic stronghold (hence the title of this entry). Obviously we managed, but it was interesting.

Info on Gaelic in Inverness: http://www.invernessgaelic.org/

Info on the "Free Church of Scotland" http://www.freechurch.org/about.htm

So far we have seen a Free Church of Scotland in Kingussie, Ft. William and Inverness.

The First World War, the Great War and the War to End All Wars.

This is the WW1 monument in Kingussie. For such a small town, it has a LOT of names on it.

It is a sobering reminder that over 800 thousand UK troops died in the first World War, and it is about half a block from our BnB.

-Ryan

Ft. William

We made the trip to Ft. William today, they have an interesting city centre and as you can see below a nice central square. We also got to enjoy some bagpipe music while in Ft. William.

We also did a little road trip up the wrong road for about 20 miles, but on the plus side we got to see some great highland views and the Southern tip of Loch Ness.

-Ryan

Kingussie Fire Station

I had to find the Fire Station, it took a little looking, but here it is. (Not pictured is the city's ambulance, they park it out on the street as, I assume, they have no room to park it in the station.)

-Ryan

Some Great pics

Meg and I at Edinbrugh Castle (yes it is raining).

Edinbrugh Castle from 31 July 2009. Amazing castle, hard to believe men built this without modern equipment.

Highland View

A GREAT view we got of the highlands when we pulled onto a layby between Ft. William and the South end of Loch Ness.

-Ryan

Farmer leaving farm as we pull into a layby

Thought a few of the folks back home would enjoy seeing a Scottish farmer at work.

-Ryan

Ft. William, Scotland

One side note: the white statue in the background, near the center of the lawn is another WW1 monument.

UK Car

Here is a quick video of our rental car.

-Ryan

Beautiful view from an A82 latby

This video is one I shot while Meg was getting regular pictures, it is the view from a layby on the A82 between Ft. William and Loch Ness.

-Ryan

Scottish Roads

This is a quick clip of us driving down a Scottish Road between Kingussie and Ft. William. While it is very pretty, most Americans will notice how narrow it is too...... (Not to mention driving on the left side of the road takes a totally different eye to guage)

-Ryan

Swing Bridge on A82

B & B

Our BnB is Great, we are in the Johnstone Clan room (see attached picture of their tartan).

This morning we had a GREAT Scottish breakfast of:

Toast

Coffee

Tea

Orange Juice

Fried Eggs

Bacon

Sausage

Black Pudding

Haggis

Boiled (?) Tomato

Mushrooms

Potato Scone

Coming soon will be video of today's trip to Ft. William and the South end of Loch Ness (oops).

Main Street Kingussie!

This is a quick shot of the main street in Kingussie, Scotland.

Meg is running the camera.

FYI - "right" is South and "left" is North.

Train Ride!

First Post by Ryan

Hi, doing my first post ever on a blog now. Don't have much to say other then I am excited to go and excited to have a couple of weeks off of work.

We are taking the Amtrak train to the windy city bright and early on Thursday to catch our plane, should be fun.