Exploring the Highlands Part II

The radio station selections being rather meager in the highlands (two classical stations, an all gaelic station, and a lot of talk shows) drove Deek to purchase a cd to play in the car. 'The Great Wee Tartan album' of 20 favorite classic Scottish tunes. Cool, but explain to us how the Titantic Theme is a classic Scottish tune??...

We ended up spending the day at the Rothiemurchus estate. The estate is one of the oldest and best known in the highlands. It has been passed down through 18 generations of Grants for over 400 years. It encompasses part of the ancient Caledonian Forest. The estate offers all the traditional outdoors activities that one expects of Scotland. No longer just for lairds - you can fish the lochs for trout, salmon, haddock or pike, hike, stalk deer, go dog sledding, take adventure tours by land rover, quad, or highland pony, go clay shooting, or dine on delicious organic foods that come from the land. We stopped in for lunch and I had the traditional soup Cullen Skink which is haddock, potatoes, and leeks. 

A view of the Cairngorms. This range has five of the six highest mountains in Scotland.

This is Loch Morlich, or in gaelic - Loch Mhùrlaig. A highlander once told me that Scots don't know how to swim because the lakes are so cold that they never go in - intentionally.

Our hike today was focused on walking the entire way around Loch Eilean, which features a little island with a partially submerged castle. It was roughly 4 miles. The scenery was absolutely beautiful.

Tomorrow - fishing, going on the reindeer adventure to track the herd up into the mountains, and pony trekking? Can I get Deek on a highland pony? We shall see.

Exploring the Highlands Part I

We intended to visit the memorial today for Bonnie Prince Charlie at Loch Sheil, but 15 miles or so into the 60+ mile round trip the windy curvy narrow 'two way highway' which was barely big enough for one car was freaking us both out, so we bailed and just visited the town of Kingussie instead. Kingussie was another one of the filming spots for the BBC series The Monarch of the Glen, and we found the bar used in the show. 

We had a nice drive though with spectacular scenery. This photo of the Cairngorms doesn't do the mountain range justice. It is sunny but cool today as the winds are blowing right over those mountains and you can feel the snow in the air. This area is in the sub-arctic, and there are reindeer herds wandering about. We also saw a number of wild pheasants again today, quite beautiful birds. The Cairngorms are rumored to have their own yeti, called the Grey Man in these parts. Hopefully he will stay in the mountains and not come down into town.

Deek is napping (he had a wee dram last night and was spotted drinking a SheepShagger beer! LOL) but I'm going to wake him soon as we're going to use the sunny day to visit the Rothimurchus estate and do some hiking around the loch.  

Living the Legend, Sailing the Loch

She will rise from the deep
She will pass by the shore
'Neath the summer sun, autumn moon
So hazy
And the people will come
With their boats and their guns
But they'll never find our
Lady of the Loch.

- Steve McDonald, "Lady of the Loch"

After a good Scottish breakfast of smoked kippers and black pudding, today we lived the legend and sailed on the loch, Loch Ness! It was cold and windy. In true Scottish style the weather changed every 15 minutes from rainy, sunny, to snowy. We wore 2 coats each, a heavy winter coat underneath and a good LL Bean raincoat over top, and we were probably the warmest people on the water. The boat came equipped with sonar so you could see what was happening underneath it in the water, just incase the monster swims by. Most people these days believe the monster is a leftover plesiosaur family that survived the ice age. This could be possible as the loch itself is left over from a melted ice age glacier, and there are many other lochs in the highlands besides Ness that also claim  to have a similar beastie. Ness btw, is a norse word for headland.

While we didn't see the monster, here we are drinking down 'Nessie' beers on the tour ship the Highland Warrior. 

Afterwards we stopped to visit the town of Inverness. Deek bought a new furry sporran to wear to the wedding reception. We popped into this place for lunch, which never arrived although we ordered it twice. 

Then we went over to Culloden to visit the famous battle site from 1746 where the Jacobites were massacred by the redcoats. This is still a sore subject with many Scots. 

And here I am trying out my new kilt! Got it off the rack, not sure which tartan this is. But I thought it would look good around the holidays. 

This is the Cairn Hotel in Aviemore. Inside it has tartan covered walls, deer antlers, and is decked out to look like a traditional castle interior. They also serve the traditional highlander fare of venison, highland 'coo', haggis, and fish. This place gets five stars in our book.

The handsome husband posing with armor in the Cairn. Note the raincoat. Good call on that! The forecast calls for 8 days of rain. No matter, we're going to have fun anyway! BTW before I forget, the highlands are chock full of wildlife. We've seen several wild pheasants which are quite beautiful, a coyote and a reindeer.

Jumping the Broom

The ceremony was absolutely perfect and we want to thank the officiating couple Doc and Marcia, Heather the highland dancer, the quarter callers Eileen, Melissa, Rowen, Valentine, the smudger Laurie, our flower hippie Tes, our two swordsmen Rowen and Valentine, and our music coordinator Cameron. Also thanks to Eileen, Heather, and Josh for the photography and video, Aero for directing traffic, my mom for making my fabulous dress, transporting the flowers and making the cake, and the cake and champagne servers. This was the most perfect Beltaine/May Day ever for many reasons, and the most perfect wedding we could ever have. Dietrich was a very dashing groom in his full on highland kilt and I was stunning in my green velvet dress with celtic embroidery (and its been promised that I will look 5lbs thinner and 10 yrs younger in all the photos). Thanks again to everyone and now it's honeymoon time!