First, I feel I should explain where I am located. I am going off the assumption that not to many of my readers are familiar with a map of Scotland (refraining from making a snarky comment). The city of Edinburgh is not only the capitol of Scotland but also the second largest city in the country. The largest city in Scotland is Glasgow, which is about forty-five minutes away by bus. If you were to look at Scotland the country looks like an hourglass with a belt wrapped around the middle. Edinburgh is located on the eastern part of the belt so it is technically in southeast Scotland.
Heading north from Edinburgh we pass the imposing walls of Stirling Castle. I wish had been able to actually go in the castle and check everything out but was not . However, I did go by the Monty Python castle from Holy Grail. Continuing north, the tour guide informed us of the true history of William Wallace… Mel Gibson is an idiot. Braveheart actually refers to Robert Bruce the King of the Scots. Then we passed the skirt of the Trossachs (Rob Roy country) it was breathtaking and brings me to a story.
One night after shooting the movie Rob Roy, Liam Neeson was driving back down to Glasgow and hit a cat in a small town. He stops the car and sees a cat lying in the road deeply breathing. Clearly, it is hurt and Liam simply wants to put the animal out of its misery. He goes into the trunk of his car and gets out a flashlight that he kills the cat with. Liam is very upset about the whole ordeal and makes to put the flashlight back in trunk. An old woman comes out and starts to argue with Liam saying you just killed my cat by beating it to death for no good reason. He explains that he simply wanted to put it out of misery. They cause such a commotion that a cop comes by and tries to sort things out. The cop goes to the front bumper and sees a mark clearly indicating that Liam had indeed hit a cat but as he walks around, the cop sees that the cat is still under the car. Liam did indeed kill two cats that day.
From the Trossachs we crossed the wilds of Rannoch Moor and onto dramatic Glencoe, site of the massacre of the McDonald clan in 1692. The tour was able to walk around in the gorgeous Glencoe on a rare sunny and beautiful day. WARNING: If you have the last name Campbell you are not welcomed in this area.
The tour continued past Fort William and Britain's highest mountain, the mighty Ben Nevis before following the Great Glen and stopping in the village of Fort Augustus by the shores of mysterious Loch Ness. After a bit of lunch, I took a short boat trip on Loch Ness and went hunting for Nessie. Nessie was shy and did not feel the need to make an appearance. Too bad…
The return journey passes south along Loch Laggan stopping at one of the Highland villages along the way where I had amazing fish and chips. After one last sight of the spectacular Forth Bridges, the bus arrived back in Edinburgh.
If you are in Scotland and enjoy history or just want to see the country, take a tour bus but do one of the longer trips. The three to five day trips sound amazing. It is so worth it.
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