Welcome to our Rick Steves Tour! Day one of our Scotland tour didn’t start until 4:00pm, so we had a leisurely morning packing up and transferring to our hotel which is part of the tour. It was only about a 5 min walk away from our B&B so we had breakfast at the hotel and since we couldn’t check in until about 3:00pm, we went looking for a nice latte to start the day.
Jeff spent most of that time going back and forth with our eSIM data provider trying to sort out what he did wrong on his install. Good thing Ellen’s phone was working so he could share her mobile hotspot and chat with the eSIM techs. He got it sorted about the time we checked into our room back at the hotel. Glad that’s done!
We met our tour group and leaders in the hotel dining room and spent some time going over all the tour details, making introductions and picking some ‘buddies’ that will help the guides keep track of everyone. “Are your buddies on the bus?!” If it’s a yes, then everyone is accounted for. Pretty smart.
Our guides took us on a walk along the river Ness, from which the town gets its name. ‘Inver’ means ‘the mouth’ in Gaelic (pronounced gallic), so Inverness literally means mouth of the river Ness.
What a great idea, grow strawberries and share them with anyone walking by “help yourself”
We ended our walk at MacGregors Bar where we had a great Sunday Roast dinner of beef, potatoes, carrots, green beans and Yorkshire pudding.
All very good. We were then treated to some history, stories, singing and violin music by the owner, Bruce MacGregor with a guitar player for accompaniment. Both were wonderful. Inverness is in the center of the Scottish Hilands, rich with centuries of culture, clans and characters. Although, according to Bruce, today Inverness has taken on a bit of an acronym – It’s Never Very Exciting Really, Not Even Saturday or Sunday 🙂
He told the history of Scotland and its trials and tribulations, wars and its quest for independence from England, how it lost its identity and its ongoing battles to save its cultural heritage. The best was to hear a huge resurgence of their language, history, education, music and even the wearing of kilts. The battle cry is to continue to fight for their country, their freedoms and all that is good for Scotland and its people. “Despite them” and it has a familiar ring to it.
We’re off to Loch Ness tomorrow. Fingers crossed we see Nessie! 🙂 and get another good weather day!
