Christy & Rich's Excellent Adventure

Hello again.

For those unfamiliar with Tesco, it's the UK's version of Safeway.  And we visit there everyday.  In fact when we arrive in a new city, our first order of business is finding the nearest Tesco.  And now Christy officially hates ready-made sandwiches.  I can't imagine why.

From Edinburgh, which had a very laid back student atmosphere, we travelled to Inverness in the north.  We we're greated by a small picturesque town with little to do but enjoy the scenery, which was impressive. So the trip was worth it.  We made two day trips to nearby castles, Cawdor (which was the fabled castle in MacBeth) and Urquart (spelling unknown).  Urquart was a site to see, with a very curious history.  It's on Loch Ness and was the constant target of raids by the formidable MacDonald clan, lead by Donald MacDonald - aka D-Mac.  And because of this they blew up their own castle.  Well, not really, but that's how we remember it.

On our way back to town from Urquart we saw the Ogopogo breading with Nessie.  We believe the Scots are trying to bread a super monster of sorts.

We went out one night (too expensive in Inverness for more than that) and met a group of Canadians from Red Deer.  We had the usual banter with them but later met a couple of local lads.  One of them, Ed, offered a guided tour of Loch Ness the next day but failed to show up at the agreed upon time.  This was a good thing because after sleeping on it, both Christy and I feared for our safety on such a trip, especially after we recalled Ed pointing at us and slurring something like "I'm going to murder you and rape you." I was hoping to be the one murdered.  It didn't matter though that he didn't show, we had already concocted a plan to cancel the trip so that we could travel to the Loch by ourselves and stay alive.

Also of note, Canada has twice been in the BBC headline news over the last couple of days, once about the massive "Ice Island" that has broken away from the Canadian arctic, and the other about the destructive nature of the oil sands. Not great international publicity.

We're now in Glasgow and so far I've learned two things: 1) decline drunken offers of car rides into the remote wilderness, and 2) don't steal toast from Germans, they don't like it. It is poor Bed & Breakfast etiquette.

Love to all,
Rich & Chris

PS Pictures will come once we get them to CD
PPS Go SENS!