Invergordon

If it’s Scotland there must be castles.  Today marked our last tour stop in Scotland.  Tony, our tour guide, mixed history and humor into the tour.  Our Cruise Critic friends joined us in the van for a trip up to Loch Ness.  Loch refers to a body of water with specific characteristics and Ness is the river it dumps into.  It’s not always a lake, but in this case it is. 

No monsters.  Possibly very large portions of caviar.

Looking over the Urquhart Castle taught us about the struggles for control of Scotland.  Then Tony took us through the legend of Nessie.  His conclusion, after studying evidence and interviewing people who claimed to see the creature is twofold.  Most of the sightings were fabricated and all of the pictures are fakes.  That leaves a small number of sightings that could hold credence.  After careful study Tony’s believes that there is a large sturgeon in the Loch Ness.  In another part of the world a fisherman landed a 27 foot long sturgeon.  Can you imagine the size of the caviar? 

Like the rest of Scotland this part is very picturesque with quaint villages and rolling green hills, usually populated with sheep and cattle.  There are also Neolithic sites, probably used for burial rituals.  Considering the age of these sites it is remarkable that no one took the stones to use for construction of their homes.

We also saw some Victorian era engineering.  The picture shows you a viaduct that now carries trains across a ravine.  The construction is remarkable.

Tomorrow is our third and final sea day as we make our way to France.