Invernessing

Day 11 Edinburgh to Inverness

Thursday October 30th

The Last Stretch

Started the day with a Tesco gooseberry fool, t’was iconic. We packed up and ushered back to the car, miraculously, little blue was there, unscathed. God loves us. I swear, even after the parking ticket thing on Skye. We headed north out of the city with ease, with Caty back behind the wheel. Edinburgh was truly a lovely experience, a restful few days to recharge and soak everything up. I feel like we covered almost everything, a few more days more would’ve been ideal, but that goes for most all of the trip. In the future I’d return to Edinburgh for a longer stretch, a couple weeks and explore more outside the city, as I’m sure we barely scratched the surface.

Upon departure our first detour was Midhope Castle, a beautiful 16th century tower house, the exterior is open to the public (with a ticket of course) and was actually rather busy as it’s a location on the Outlander series, to which Caty is a super-fan. We had a healthy boo and carried on to Blackness Castle, known by the locals as “the ship that never sailed” due to its shoreline ship like layout. Much more fortress like. As this point it felt like castle-maxing overload as we headed across the bridge and north a couple hours to Castle Fraser. Magnificent grounds, and one of the most elaborate and largest tower houses in all of Scotland. We… unfortunately didn’t schedule in time to fully tour the castle (or the grounds) and kept to the exterior. Next time – a perfect day trip out of Edinburgh. We were still a few hours (3) out of Inverness and weren’t keen on driving lost in the dark.

It turns out we were set to be driving our final leg into Inverness in quite the storm. We descended into darkness – wipers on full speed – in quite a bit of traffic. At times gridlock merging chaos. Multilane roundabouts in total darkness, except for glaring brake lights and indicators flashing. Not lost, thanks to old Google Maps. But definitely taking google “shortcuts” that turn out to not actually be shortcuts and have you trying to turn onto a 4 lane highway across 2 busy lanes. We arrived just after 7, tired and hungry, with reservations to The Hootenanny – craving haggis – hard. We checked into the Columba Hotel, right on the river, found some pay parking at a church and hustled across the bridge. A 6 minute walk or a 5 minute drive. Simple to navigate, and highly walkable town, even in a thunderstorm.

We slipped into The Hootenanny, heartwarming live music, packed with patrons and hospitable to the ends. We ordered a chicken liver pâté w/ red onion chutney and oat cakes to start and a couple haggis w/ a dollop of neeps & tatties, enrobed in whisky sauce. A glass of merlot and we were set. We each facetimed our mothers a bit of the live music, the accordion playing duo from our first night in Inverness. It was pleasant beyond measure. The rain let up a touch for our walk back and we hopped into our beds by 10, watching my first episode of Outlander before dozing off.

Day 12 Inverness

Friday October 31st

Souvenirs & Scottish Death Metal

The storm had passed and we woke to clear skies and a perfect crisp fall day. We had sugar forward girl breakfast at The Original Milk Bar, a few doors down. Outside in the sun beside the river Ness, a hot chai and a blondie, before heading out to collect more souvenirs for the fam and costumes for the evening. Inverness actually really comitted to the bit with the costume shops, surprisingly festive. I went with a simple classy Nun outfit. Picked up the necessary fridge magnets, keychains, and spurtles.

Spurtle you say? A glorious 15th century traditional Scottish porridge stirring tool. A slender dowel, flat bottomed and carved at the top in the shape of a thistle – Scotlands national flower (use your imagination). Great for stirring porridge without causing any lumps. And super easy to pack. I actually use mine almost daily, as it turns out it’s the perfect tool for mixing sourdough starter. Love it to death.

We had a quiet day getting ourselves organized, finished up our postcards and applied stamps, Caty napped, packed a bit. Hit up a supermarket to grab some Scottish present treats. We couldn’t get enough haggis, so we reserved at The Hootenanny again, haggis, steak and ale pies, as well as a sticky toffee pudding to split.

We indulged in haggis often, but the way it is served at the Hootenanny was above board our favourite – hands down. In any presentation it’s simply delectable and I highly recommend anyone side eyeing the experience to give it an honest try. Haggis is primarily a traditional savoury Scottish “pudding”, which I’d simplify into calling a crumbly sausage. Made of sheep’s heart, liver and lungs, seasoned heavily with warming spices like nutmeg and coriander, cut with minced onion, suet and oats. Delicious. Some we sampled had a dry sausage texture, being served with a dollop of mash and gravy certainly elevates the dish to perfection. Death row meal you say? A lovely segue to our death metal evening of entertainment.

We zipped back to the hotel to get changed, had a lovely night at The Tooth & Claw watching Cage the Ox and company perform. It was a rather small intimate venue, it felt like the majority, if not all of other attendees were friends and/or acquaintances of the bands – and we were obvious outsiders. Which was fine, if not pleasantly humorous. We hit the hay relatively early, contented after an entirely wholesome last day.

Day 13 Homeward Bound

Saturday November 1st

Checking Out

Inverness truly was the prefect jumping off point for our Scottish adventure, equally seamless to depart from as well. The car drop off couldn’tve been easier, keys in the box – done, 10:15. Inverness airport only has a couple gates and security was very mild, 10:30am. Had some brunch in the terminal before flying out at 12:30pm. We both checked our bags, as Caty had stocked up on Scottish booze and in turn they offered to check mine free of charge, even with my bag literally bursting at the seams, easier Heathrow navigation though. We were in Heathrow from 2:30pm to 5:30pm and had a healthy early dinner, Yorkshire pudding burrito. Health. Our flight back to Vancouver was almost 10 hours and put us in at 8:30pm. I have no memories of said flight so it couldn’t have been bad. We stayed at the YVR Fairmont that night – ease – had a relaxing bubblebath before having a peaceful night before our 8am south terminal flight the next morning.

And that’s it folks!

Two dazzling weeks, roughly two thousand kilometres, 6 flights and so many laughs. I wouldn’t change a thing, we had so much fun and made memories for a lifetime.

Cheers darlings!