Scotland Pictures: Part 2

As we drove from Fort William (where we canyoned) to Inverness, we had great views Loch Lochy…

and the Well of the Seven Heads. Click here for explanation.

We stopped at post offices frequently to buy stamps and mail postcards to family. Lots of them were little counters inside convenience stores.

Here’s Urquhart (IRK-urt) Castle, on the shores of Loch Ness.

It was so cool to be able to walk around inside castle ruins.

Here I am on Loch Ness, on a cruise on the Nessie Hunter. Hey, what’s that black spot in the water?

I know this is ecologically-unfriendly, but I had to bring home a couple of rocks from Loch Ness.

Millionaire shortbread – shortbread, caramel, chocolate. Need I say more?

Scotland’s Secret Bunker. Disguised as a country farmhouse for decades…

well, if you don’t count the tanks and barbed wire (which I assume are new additions).

The farmhouse was really an entry to a below-ground tunnel. During the cold war, it was a lookout point for missiles coming into Scotland.

After the cold war ended, it morphed into a bunker for Scotland’s government in case of nuclear war. In 1995, I think, it was decommissioned and opened to the public.

After a fantastic Italian meal in this little town, I had affogato di amaretto. Yum.

On to Edinburgh, where we loved St. Giles Cathedral. That’s where Montrose is buried, the pix and poem I posted for Poetry Friday from Scotland.

A piper outside the cathedral.

Gorgeous stained glass all over.

At Edinburgh Castle, they fire this big gun at 1 p.m. every day–a longstanding tradition interrupted only by the two world wars. The guy comes out, checks his timepiece, loads a charge and…

boom! It’s loud! This is a modern weapon that can (and has) fire 2-pound balls. All the rest of the cannons/guns at the castle are authentic/old.

After a day at the castle, we relax on a bench in the Princes Street Gardens.

Here’s the view of the castle from below.

We went on The Dungeons tour. Funny and creepy!

Diet Irn-Bru. My new favorite soda. Like cream soda with some orange…but not like orange soda. I need to find a U.S. supplier for this.

We went on the Literary Pub Tour, which was fantastic. Walk through streets, watch our two guides argue and perform, stop at pub. Repeat.

Here I am in a Waterstone’s bookstore. I could’ve spent the day checking out the British selection.

Randy in the Sir Walter Scott Monument.

We went to The Writers Museum, where the Robert Louis Stevenson stuff was especially fascinating.

Before catching the train to Glasgow, we ate at a Burger Kind in the station, which had Royales, Angry Onions, and…

this Sausage Butty. Uh, no thanks.

The Glasgow Cathedral was nifty. I love the gothic architecture and the…

interesting ceiling decoration.

Here I am on the Bridge of Sighs (representing crossing over River Styx) on our way into…

the Necropolis. Around 5,000 monuments in this giant graveyard, where more than 100,000 are actually buried.