Scotland: Edinburgh and the Highlands

I've gone a bit off the back in terms of blog updates, so it's time for a little catch-up.  After masters track world championships concluded, I hung around Manchester for a couple days, and then hopped onto the train to Scotland.

It wound up being a two-part journey, with a change of trains in York.  Last year, I visited York and spent a couple days there.  This time, I had about 20 minutes, but was able to make my way to the train station entrance and snap a quick picture.

The York train station felt familiar after my visit last year.  The station exit still welcomes visitors to the city.

The 2nd leg of the train journey took me into Edinburgh, where the station is still under construction.  This year, though, it was mid-afternoon when I arrived, so I was able to navigate to the hostel in the daylight.  Interestingly, the hostel where I was staying had a theme for each room and a theme-related name for each bed.  My assignment was the Riddler bed in the Gotham City room.  I astounded the front desk clerks when I opened my pack and withdrew my Batman logo towel.  I fit right in at that place.

The next day, I headed to the Scottish highlands to check out Loch Ness and hopefully encounter some interesting aquatic wildlife.  On the bus drive north, we saw lots of highland terrain, but only a little bit of weather (which is a good thing, wind and rain are not what I was looking for during my off-season vacation).

This almost looks like it could be in Colorado.

The tour bus stopped a couple times at scenic locations where we could get out, stretch our legs, buy snacks, visit the restrooms, and take pictures of the local terrain.  It's interesting to think that the top of the mountain in the above picture is at considerably lower elevation than where I live in Colorado.  However, they had already had snow in mid-October.  We were treated to some of the nicest weather of the year as Scotland goes.

Green and gold grass with a loch in the background.

The tour guide claimed that back in the Roman times, more than 95% of the land in what is now the Scottish highlands was covered in forest.  Since then, the logging industry has created lots of open range, but there are efforts underway to replant trees in large tracts of land.

This is the smallest lighthouse in the UK.

Around lunch time, we arrived at Loch Ness, home of the UK's most famous aquatic wildlife.  I saw some less-famous wildlife, in the form of a game of swans, being coaxed out of a canal lock by a worker armed with bread crusts.  While I missed out on seeing Nessie, the famous creature allegedly inhabiting the loch, I did not miss out on eating a Scotland delicacy: haggis!  Yummy.

On the way back to Edinburgh, we stopped at the commando memorial.  During World War II, the British commando soldiers trained in the Scottish highlands.  The memorial is dedicated to those original British commandos.  Since then, many tributes have been left at a nearby garden of remembrance for commandos killed in more recent conflicts such as the military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The commando statues keep an eye on the Commando Training Depot.

On the way back to Edinburgh, we stopped in a small town for late-afternoon snacks.  I had a Chieftains Choice pie from The Wee Pie Company.  Who would've thought cold meat could be so tasty?