Since arriving in Scotland we have heard only good things about the Scottish Highlands. As we rode the train north we could absolutely see why. I didn't know it was possible but as I stared out the window it just got greener and greener and the hills became spotted with sheep and waterfalls and rivers. It was honestly like a movie! We ended up sitting with a really funny Scottish couple on the train who took it upon themselves to be our personal tour guides. We heard all about the best places to visit and the easiest ways to get there. Every so often the man would say, "in just a minutes here a castle should pop up on your left" and without fail a castle would show up, usually on the wrong side but impressive still the same. Eventually they embarked on a journey of their own and Lindsay and I headed up to Inverness to a quaint little hostel that was converted from an old Victorian home.
Inverness was originally a pit stop that we had decided on to break up the trip to Isle if Skye but it ended up being well worth the stop! Our room overlooked the River Ness and when you looked down the street Inverness castle stood about 200m down the road! The evening we arrived we spent a few hours trying to book our accommodation and transportation for the rest of the trip but we are slow so it still wasn't finished by the time we went to bed. Because we only had one full day in Inverness we wanted to make the most of our stay so the next day we got up and walked down the river to a group of little islands called Ness Islands. They were connected by a series of bridges and it was a complete dog sanctuary because it was perfect for swimming in the river!
Our day took a turn while we were browsing through town looking for wool sweaters that we figured we needed. A man in a kilt stopped us and gave us a pamphlet for bike rentals and told us we could bike to Loch Ness for the day! We figured this was a great idea and got ourselves a couple bikes and set off on a "10 kilometer" bike trip to see Nessie. Now at this point we hadn't realized a few things. #1) 10 kilometers actually was 10 miles, #2) It was uphill the entire way there, and #3) Lindsay's back break was stuck on. Inevitably it didn't take us super-sleuths long to make these discoveries and our spontaneous adventure became a spontaneous work out. All this aside when Loch Ness appeared over the crest of the thousand mile hill it was a breathtaking sight and we were almost convinced that the trip was worth it. After a couple of hours of lazily dozing and having a picnic on the beach and watching a momma duck teach her tiny ducklings how to swim we were convinced that indeed our day had been well spent. When some clouds blew over the sun we retreated to an old inn overlooking the Loch Ness to enjoy a tea before embarking on a largely downhill journey back to. Inverness. We succeeded in falling more in love with the highlands but did fail to spot the Loch Ness monster despite our beginners luck at spotting the queen!