Here is photographic evidence that Scotland has nice weather on occasion. This particular photo was taken looking down Bridget's street toward the sea.
A view of St. Andrews from the beach. We went walking along the beach on a nice (um... not rainy) afternoon. There were loads of washed-up dead jellyfish. I did not take pictures of those because they are gross and the view of St. Andrews is pretty. So there.
This is "The Old Course," and grown men who are devotees of the game called "golf" have been known to weep in its presence.
The day after I arrived in Scotland, we rented a very small car and set off on a whirlwind driving tour of the country. The little Ford KA served us well, from Loch Lommond, to Oban, to Inverness and Dalwhinnie.
Here is Loch Lommond, a very nice loch indeed.
This is me, driving. On the left side of the road, seated on the left side of the car, shifting gears with my left hand. It took a little getting used to, but I'm pleased to report I did not kill us or frighten any natives. I did, however, have a run-in with a surly motorcyclist who expected me to drive half in the other lane so he could get by me on the right. Instead, I simply changed lanes a short time after he came screaming up behind me, and he treated me to some colorful language yelled through my window whilst driving at high speeds on the A9.
Here is the view of the harbor in Oban, a really beautiful town on the west coast of Scotland.
We drove all day long the first day and elected to stay in Oban that night. We had a nice dinner and some local beers, and since it was still light out at about 9:30pm, we elected to take a walk towards the outskirts of town. We came upon a ruined castle that was apparently on private property, though we found a gate standing ajar and scrambled up a hill to get a closer look.
This is the wall below the castle, where we found the "no castle access" sign. Suckers.
Here's the castle from up close.
A pretty stone cross.
The pretty stone cross made me blurry.
A picture of we two scofflaws, upon breaching the castle wall and walking around inside. Bridget would be the tan one. I'm so pale, I can be seen from space.
The castle from the road below.
Here's our hostel, which had a lovely view of the water. It was my first dormitory hostel experience. We slept on slabs of concrete and listened to a woman snoring like a diesel engine.
On the second day of our power tour of Scotland, we had absolutely breathtaking weather. There really is nothing like Scotland on a sunny day. This is a view of the Great Glen taken from from the Commando Memorial.
Here's a picture of some of the many wild rhodedendron bushes growing along the road.
Our first stop that day was Eileen Donan Castle, which you may remember from such films as Entrapment.
It was quite the twisty, turny road out to the castle. Here's Bridget at a tiny gas station where we stopped to mail postcards.
Eileen Donan Castle. We felt very naughty indeed because we simply stopped to take pictures and skipped the exhorbidant cost of going inside and looking at furniture recreated to make the place look like the castle would have been back in the day.
Then, we were off to Loch Ness.
....and Urqhart Castle.
Somewhere along the way, we stopped for tea and oatcakes with a fine selection of Scottish cheeses. Mmm. Cheese.
Then, from Loch Ness, we pressed on north to the battlefield at Culloden, outside of the city of Inverness. In case you were curious, Inverness has an extremely stressful number of big roundabouts, and they should consider paring down a bit.
Sadly, the battlefield was in the middle of some lawnmowing and general sprucing-up, so we couldn't get over to the Clan Headstones to have a look. But, this cottage was there the day that marks the end of the Clan system and the Jacobite rebellion.
The battlefield.
A flag that shows where the Jacobites were... or was it the English? Well, we couldn't really walk up close enough to tell.
From Culloden, we took a short jaunt down the road to the Clava Cairns. A really old and pretty pile of rocks put in order by some people who lived a very very long time ago.
This is the road leading to the Cairns. It was frighteningly narrow. On our way back to the main motorway, we were nearly flattened by a "lorry" carrying a bunch of wrecked cars. That was fun.
From Inverness, we were back on the road to St. Andrews. The drive through that southernmost bit of the Highlands was breathtaking.
This picture was taken on a really long highway exit leading to Dalwhinne, which we're pretty sure isn't even a one-horse town. They have the eponymous distillery and that's about it.
All in all, Scotland from a Ford KA is pretty awesome. Sadly, we had to return our little friend, and our trip to Aberdeen to visit Bridget's friend Claire was facillitated by public transport.
It rained like the dickens in Aberdeen, and we spent much of the time in Claire's gorgeous home outside of the city, but I did take some photos of the Gray City from the safety of the art museum's entrance.
Once back in St. Andrews, we managed to rustle up some decent weather for a day trip to Crail, a ridiculously picturesque fishing village a short bus ride away.
Later, on a walk around town, I could not resist the siren song of a touristy phonebooth picture. You'll notice some young hoodlum has scrawled "Gays" on the window. Ah well.
This is the ruined cathedral just down the street from Bridget's apartment.
Butts Wynd. Ha ha. Butts...
This is the ginormous Toyota Landcruiser that my parents rented when they arrived for graduation week. I piloted this vehicle on Scotland's winding roads with the help of a Hertz NeverLost navagatrix.
We went to Falkland Castle...
Where people use musical instruments as planters...
...and then to the famous Anstruther Fish Bar, where they make the UK's best fish 'n' chips. The chips were a bit on the soggy side, but the fish was truly amazing. As was the line to the register.
We concluded the trip in Edinburgh, where all four members of my nuclear family (Hayley remained in NH to hold down the fort while the chipmunks relaunched their offensive on the house) stayed in one hotel room. It was not a particularly large hotel room.
This is the enormous monument to Sir Walter Scott.
Downtown Ediburgh near the train station.
I guess I sorta burned out on the photos towards the end of the trip, but rest assured I'll post a few more gems soon (no, really, Josh. I'm turning over a new leaf on this, I swear). It was a fantastic trip, aside from getting very ill on the flight to Boston from New Jersey. Then there was the shock of returning to actual summer weather, as opposed to the 45 degrees we were enduring in Scotland.
Now I'm back to working my tail off behind the bar, and generally avoiding being parked in front of a computer for long stretches.
