scottish splendor 2

Reached Inverness after a relatively short bus ride (4 hours) and we met up with Eugene's cousin Moh Heng who is working in Aberdeen. Amazingly her housemate is no other than Scott Neyedli, the winner of Ironman UK 2007 and 1st British finisher at Kona!

What a small world indeed. For a non-triathlete, Moh Heng sure knew lots about the sport, undoubtedly due to Scott's influence! And so we spent the night talking away just about every single facet of triathlon and the Ironman, something which I never thought I would do, at least while on vacation! What a pleasant surprise indeed to have someone understand your passion. =)

Next day we rose pretty early in anticipation of our Great Nessie Hunt. Caught the Jacobite tour bus which brought us to the tip of Loch Ness, and there we transferred onto a boat for a 25min cruise down Loch Ness to Urquhart Castle, or rather, the ruins of Urquhart Castle. Once a medieval stronghold in the past, what's left of it still stands rather splendidly on a headland overlooking Loch Ness. Also, the sun was out again for a second consecutive day and so it was great to be out.

Loch Ness is neither the largest lake (Loch Lomond) nor the deepest (Loch Morar), but it is certainly the most well known due to whatever lies within: The Loch Ness Monster aka Nessie!

nessie (she's a little bashful you see.. =P)

Nessie was apparently spotted as early as 565AD by the Scottish, and there are still repeated sightings of the beast year after year. However, it chose not to surface on the day we went (perhaps it was because it was a Sunday) , and so our day at the lake passed by rather normally. I wanted to investigate the existence of Nessie, but the prospect of missing the last bus and spending the night out in the cold dampened my spirits, so we settled for more mundane stuff like sightseeing and taking photos. Hee. =P

first views of Loch Ness

three of us on the boat

Urquhart castle

from another angle

at the top of the tower

the pot ness monster

parting shot

Ended off the day with some pub grub washed down with booze. I love pub grub!!! It is (relatively) cheap and reliable. Where else can you get this in Europe? =D Hmm.. Lazing about after our meal, I could only think of the phrase "we were tired but happy" which I used all so often during primary school. Perfect ending to our short (and almost perfect cos we could not spot Nessie) stay here at Inverness! =)

sunday roast

saying goodbye to Inverness