Inverness and Loch Ness

First, I added a lot of pictures to the shutterfly site from this trip. I know they look repetitive, but I just couldn’t bring myself to delete any of them.
My day started out extremely early considering that I’m not used to having to be ready for anything before 11AM, which is my earliest class. Today, however, I needed to be to the bus stop by 7:45AM to catch the bus to downtown and make the 8:20 train. We (I went with 3 other people from the Scotland Program) made it with plenty of time to spare, which was good since you cannot count on a train leaving late. Of all the stops we made along the way, the train never left late. The trip took 3 hours to get to Inverness and even though the it was so early I couldn’t manage to get to sleep. I wasn’t really tired and I didn’t want all of the scenery going by to go to waste. I thought I would do a little reading for my English class, so started reading “The Grass Is Singing,” but I ended up looking out of the window more than into the pages. There’s something about the view that couldn’t be captured by my camera. I tried but it just didn’t look the same.
Inverness seemed liked a very touristy little town, or at least the part I was in anyway. There was a lot of eye-catching scenery and shops to stop in and look around. We got into a tour that included a very informative bus ride to the loch, a short cruise on the loch itself, an hour at Urquhart Castle, and a trip to the Loch Ness Monster Exhibit. Our bus driver, Kenny, gave us the entire history of the area in the 20-25 minute ride to Loch Ness. He was literally talking from the moment we left Inverness to the moment we stopped at the loch. He was going so fast, I’m not even 100% sure he stopped to take a breath. He was a very good guide.
Loch Ness has very dark water, it really looks black. This is because of the peat from the surrounding area is washed into the water. The whole area gives off a very mysterious feel, and not just because of the supposed monster living there either. The Loch is contained in a valley. Large hills and mountains surround the water and the tops of some of them were covered by misty clouds. Loch Ness is also the biggest body of fresh water on the British Isles, and has areas deeper than the North Sea. Between the foggy atmosphere, black water, and deep depths it’s easy to see how the lore of Nessie can survive after 1500 years. (the first monster sighting was around 500A.D.!) The mysterious atmosphere also gave Loch Ness its beauty. Even though it was cold, the sun trying to come through the clouds and its reflection on the water made for a very picturesque view. And no, I did not see Nessie. L
Urquhart Castle was actually the ruins of the castle that once used to be there. During the Jakobite Wars, the owners of the castle blew it up themselves, out of fear of it being captured. Plenty of the castle still remained. The hour we were giving to walk around was barely enough. One tower was still almost completely intact, and you were able to climb the spiral staircase to the top which gave you one of the best views of the loch. I took pictures of almost every wall and room left standing there.
From the Castle we headed over to the Loch Ness Monster Exhibit. I actually left here upset. The thirty minute exhibit pretty much said the monster couldn’t logically exist and disproved many of the famous eyewitness accounts and photographs. Then at the end they had the tenacity to say it just might be possible she exist anyway! I was a little confused why they would spend so much time disproving her existence than try to pretend she was out there somewhere. I’ve decided to just forget that part of my day though. So, besides the exhibit the day was perfect and Loch Ness was even more than I expected it to be.