Loch Ness

Yesterday Travalon and I got going early to catch the train from Aberdeen to Inverness, a very cute town on the Ness River. We went to the tourist office and managed to grab the last two tickets for the Loch Ness tour that day. Our bus driver was a woman named Sue who had an outrageous Highland brogue. She told us about "heeland coos," fuzzy brown creatures we call Highland cows, and also about Nessie the famous monster that allegedly lives in Loch Ness. Apparently the first recorded sighting of Nessie was when she (Sue always referred to the monster in the feminine) appeared to one of St. Columba's followers who was swimming across the lake and scared the living bejeebers out of him, so St. Columba told the monster to get lost. There were a bunch of sightings in the 1920's and 30's, when some photos were taken that I'm pretty sure were all later discovered to be fakes. You don't hear so much about Nessie these days, but they sure play the legend up in Inverness, which means "the mouth of the Ness," since it's good for tourism.

Sue dropped us off at the docks and we got onto a boat and cruised Loch Ness, a very beautiful, long loch (Sue says, "Don't call it a lake!") with high, craggy hills all around it. We had a gorgeous, sunny day, and Travalon and I stood at the front of the boat enjoying the sights, which did not include the monster, I'm sad to say. The boat stopped at Urquhart Castle, a Medieval ruin that overlooks the lake, and we climbed all over it. Travalon took lots of great photos, but of course I cannot take any because my camera is dead - I can't see anything in the view screen. It's not entirely clear that my previous photos are gone, or even that I cannot take photos now - I just can't see what I'm doing. And of course I will not know if my photos survived until returning to Wisconsin, when I can try to upload them to Rich's computer Aquinas. The question is this: is it worth repairing such a cheap little camera?

After Travalon and I returned to Aberdeen, we had dinner at Jamie Oliver's restaurant. (He is apparently some celebrity chef.) I was starting to get a cold, so they made me a hot toddy, and that really seemed to help. Today we had another uneventful flight back to Dublin, then we explored some free museums here, like the Natural History Museum (aka the Dead Zoo) and the Archaeology Museum, which had displays of the remains of some people found in the bogs, so it was kind of a creepy day. One guy had perfect fingernails, and in the notes it said this shows he was of high status. They all met violent ends.

I was feeling much worse today and wanted another hot toddy, but the first pub we went to couldn't make them so we set off down the street. We happened to pass a place called Toddy's and wondered if the name was any indication of their familiarity with the drink (so far as I know, it's just hot water, whiskey, honey, and lemon), and indeed they could make one for us. Travalon had one too because he's been suffering with a cold since before our trip started, and it waxes and wanes, but today it is waxing badly. So we're both sniffly and miserable, but the hot toddies and seafood chowder at Toddy's really helped. How lucky to have found them!

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