Friday, August 25th we had another fun day planned.
Before heading up the mountain for our Loch Ness Tour we stopped by a little bakery that ended up being our absolute favorite of our whole trip!
I bought a fruit scone (on the L) a donut and a raspberry tart.
The fruit in the scone was raisins and not my favorite. The donut was a bit better but it seemed a bit more sweet than the donuts we have back home. The raspberry tart on the other hand was the best! Oh my goodness! I should have bought a box. They were both Kory and my favorite.
While waiting for our Loch Ness Tour boat to arrive we were told a folk tale about this big boulder sitting in the water.
The story goes that two mighty witches living on the same mountain thought that they were the best witch. There was a constant battle between the two of who was the greatest. Finally one day their heated argument turned a bit physical, then they started throwing rocks at each other. Then a boulder was picked up and thrown and one of the witches were never seen again....
Finally our tour boat arrived!
I love the stories about the Loch Ness Monster, Nellie. This was one of the highlights of our trip for me. I searched and searched hoping I would see her but I never did!
Our tour boat took us out to the Urquhart Castle
You can barely see the Castle in the middle but on the bottom.
It was raining when we got there.
This castle is extremely old. It has really really old parts that were first built back around 500 AD and then the rest of the castle is just really old.
A picture with his Majesty!
Some of the building were in better shape than others.
The jail!
Kory found the urinal. Hahaha.
We walked up to the visitor center so we were above the castle.
From the other side. Always so green.
The rain stopped for a moment so I was able to pull out my camera instead of using my phone.
This particular castle is one of the largest castles in Scotland. The castle was controlled back and forth between the Scots and the English during their wars of Independence. Finally during the Jacobite rising as the last troops left they blew it up so that the English wouldn't want it anymore. How sad!
This is the trebuchet (stone throwing machine).
Waiting for our boat to come pick us up we were able to see lots and lots of ducks.
Our boat tour is about over. Headed back to our cars!
What an awesome morning!
On our drive to Fort George we stopped for lunch. I had the best Chicken Satay Kebabs ever!!
This little sign was in front of the resteraunt.
I guess it's good to know where we need to go if there is a fire?
Fort George we were told was the "mightiest fortification" in great Britain.
It replaced the "old" Fort George in the 18th century.
It is still used today as army barracks.
It is almost completely surrounded by water.
Thank you google for an ariel picture!
Love the warning! Stay away from the edges.... you might fall off!
The walls and fencing are centuries old. What an interesting entrance.
Look at those wooden pegs!
On the R was a little building that we paid our fees in and a little gift shop. Next we got to walk over the bridge. The main walls are made from stone. Everything was built "under ground" so the roofs of all the buildings are covered in grass. It was a great way of "hiding" for the troops. These valleys could be filled with water for added protection.
This is the door at the entrance of the little tunnel we walked through.
After walking through the bridge we decided to begin our tour from the very top and work our way down.
All of these guns are sitting on top of buildings.
From the bridge you could hardly see the massive guns that were basically pointing right at you. They are well hidden behind the stone walls.
What a cool way to hide your military!
When we were done wandering up top we headed down the path to see what we had been walking on above.
There were over 50 buildings open to the public that we could walk through.
One of the first ones we saw was the general headquarters.
Another room was showing what the barracks use to be like.
We found a building that was used as kind of a jail for the soldiers that had done wrong.
Inside and on the wall was this inscription dated back to 1831. There were others also but this was the most visible and readable of them all.
We came across a few museums were able to walk through.
Military clothes, yep they wore kilts!
Cool smoking pipe.
Dinning room table.
Look at all those guns!
Leather shoes.
This is a real sheep's head used as a container.
One of the buildings were hands on for kids. It reminded me of Angry Birds. We could build walls and then shoot little balls at it to knock them the wall down.
This building was the stalls for the horses.
As we were walking down each street to see the different building we could go into we passed this.
Wow!
Real soldiers, real guns just laying there. We walked by fast and moved on to the next little street!
My favorite building was the church.
This is a very rare and very old window stained glass window.
What makes this window so special is that the angels are wearing kilts!
There is only 1-2 other windows on display in the world that have angels wearing kilts.
Hard chairs in the chapel.
Every chair or pew has a Holy Bible and song book.
What a great fun filled day!
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