11:48am, stopped in traffic on A82 north of Fort William due to accident.
Listening to BBC Radio 1 on the radio, stopped for a good 20 minutes so far… Woke up ahead of the 7:15am alarm due to house noise. Tried to book a hotel for Edinburgh online, but the site wouldn't take my US credit card, despite repeated tries. Had breakfast at 7:45am, same menu as yesterday. Tried calling the hotel to book a reservation, but ran out of prepaid minutes on the phone. Looked into other hotel options, some in the city, and researched park and ride options. But couldn't find a good solution. It would be £10 to top-up the card (a lot to make 1 phone call). We had found a hotel, but had no way to reserve. I asked the B&B hostess if we could use their phone (and pay if necessary). She let us use it, and the hotel operator said they couldn't book a room with the US credit card either, and we'd just have to show up in person. He said the hotel was half booked, so sounded like we'd have no issues showing up later in the day. We started our drive south with a stop at the lighthouse to see if any dolphins were active. No sightings after a few minutes, so we drove south through Inverness, and along Loch Ness. The scenery was reminiscent of the Finger Lakes in upstate NY. We stopped at the Uruquist Castle exhibit, just hoping to get a nice view, but the whole area was shielded off unless you paid for entry. Boo. We continued the drive.
A couple looks across Loch Ness (Uruquist Castle in the 2nd pic)...
Speed limit was 60mph for most of the time, but traffic was 40-45mph. Then came the stand still due to the accident ahead. An ambulance came buy, but doesn't look like anything serious.
1:13am, Travelodge Cameron Toll, Edinburgh Long day… So after a 30 minute delay for the accident to clean up, we arrived in Fort William, and drove up Glen Nevis for a short hike to Steall Falls. On the way, I reminisced about the time my family stopped to walk up a small mound, and my dad fell over on the 3rd step.
The trail was mostly gravel, with no mud, despite the water running down parts of the trail. It climbed up along a chasm with water gushing below, and into a meadow with a 300' waterfall ahead. Just as I was setting up the tripod for a pic, the rain started. Rain! The forecast was for sunny skies today, but just can't seem to escape rain showers in Scotland…
Scenes from the trail...
Steall Falls! Turns out a scene in Harry Potter IV was filmed here (battle with the dragon during the Tri-Wizards Tournament)...
14er cards made an appearance before we headed back...
After the hike, we stopped at the local supermarket, and Wendy bought a sandwich/salad for lunch. I just ate snacks we had in the car (choc and peanut butter mostly). Then we drove south. Fort William was bustling with activity today. A week and a half ago this town was dead quiet when we had dinner Sunday night (very foggy and rainy too).
We drove past Glen Coe's mammoth mountains, again with a rain shower here and there. Meanwhile, Wendy was looking up other hotels in Edinburgh that were closer to the main highway, but we had no phone to contact them. I filled up on some gas, trying to calculate just enough for the rest of the trip (need to return it empty).
The Three Sisters of Glen Coe...
I had always wanted to hike up to the Lost Valley (1st pic) after visiting here 8 years ago, but didn't fit it in on this trip...
Lots of rainbow action on the drive to Edinburgh...
We drove past Stirling, and arrived on the outskirts of Edinburgh, where we spent 25 minutes waiting to merge onto a local highway. Yup, this was 5:30pm on a Friday, probably bad timing. Once on the local roads, we drove to a Holiday Inn near the zoo, and learned they were completely booked. Then we drove to a Best Western, and found they had rooms that were $50 more than the Travelodge. So we opted to drive though town, with Wendy navigating me turn by turn down a maze of streets for 15 minutes, before we arrived at our destination (the Travelodge).
When we came to the counter, I asked for a room, and they said they were fully booked! I explained I had tried to book online and over the phone earlier, but they couldn't take my US credit card, and told me to show up. She seemed to find some compassion, and found us a room (handicapped accessible). Whew! With our lodging set, we bought bus passes, and took a ride towards town, stopping outside of city center for a place to eat. Our top choice was fully booked, but Wendy found another well reviewed place a couple of bus stops further. She ordered a Gamon Steak, which to our surprised turned out to be a ham steak. I ordered an onion & cumin tart, along with a haggis fritter (gotta get my haggis fix in). For dessert Wendy had some ginger, lemon curd, and toffee flavored ice creams. I had a toffee sponge cake with butterscotch and vanilla ice cream. Very good!
1st pic: Looking across the street from the Bistro. 2nd pic: Haggis Fritter and a Onion & Cumin Tart...
Dessert...
Then we took a bus into the city center walked around Princes St and High St, admiring views of the city at night, and checking out stores to visit tomorrow.
Another look at the Castle and skyline...
Some views along High Street at night...
More pics on High Street...
There's lots of kilt shops on High Street, and a store with canned haggis...
After a good bit of walking, we finally tracked down the right bus stop, but then found out we were on the wrong bus! We got off a wee bit away from our desired destination, which amounted to an extra .3 miles of walking at 11pm.
At the hotel, we researched stuff to do tomorrow from the hotel's lounge (no wifi in the rooms). Wendy made reservations for lunch and dinner. Just need to figure out how to fit in our activities between the meals. Late night. One last full day in Scotland to go…